Cabanova

This is a review of a free web site provider. All such providers of course don't mind if you upgrade to paid services but even if you don't, they can put ads on your free site to turn a profit.

Cabanova takes you straight into building then later asks if you want what you've built for free. If you're into Flash, this is for you.

http://xl.cabanova.com/

The Second Great Depression II

As if to underscore that it is now the first or the famous Great Depression of history this Squidoo lens calls itself Second (Great Depression) II.

It is still building. I am told that it will double or triple in size. But it is already large for those interested in studying the fall of America under Bush and now Obama.

If you still have the means (and haven't pawned your internet access) go visit
The Second Great Depression II at --

http://www.squidoo.com/SecondGreatDepression

Infiltrator: The Cameron Annals

Okay, I watched the cancelled TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It had problems such as too much violence and being moved around to progressively worse schedules. Its premise was depressing because it mirrored the real world to some degree: automation, World War Three, nuclear holocaust, biological warfare, Apocalyptic End Times Biblical references, crime, insanity, et cetera.

Fans of the show want it back. Some fans write fan fiction. This site takes the process two steps further. It is about fan fiction that hasn't even been written yet. I actually have known about this site for months but dismissed bothering to review it because it seemed too inconsequential. It still is a small site (not like some mammoth Sarah Connor Chronicles fan sites, one of which the webmistress for this site also maintains) but you have to admire the moxie in putting out there for public discussion, thoughts that go through a writer's head that are still marinating and ruminating. As a writer myself, I serve few thoughts until I have them fairly well thought out.

Or not. You've read this blog. I leave that judgment up to you. And speaking of Judgment Day, this lens wants to avoid all that nasty business of doomsday and find something better.

Infiltrator: The Cameron Annals

http://www.squidoo.com/Infiltrator-The_Cameron_Annals

Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo! Pipes is gooey. Not as in delicious or other bookmarks, but as in GUI. Graphical User Interface.

Yahoo! Pipes is a web application from Yahoo! that provides a graphical user interface for building data mashups that aggregate web feeds, web pages, and other services, creating Web-based apps from various sources, and publishing those apps. The application works by enabling users "pipe" information from different sources and then set up rules for how that content should be modified (for example, filtering). A typical example is New York Times through Flickr,[1] a pipe which takes The New York Times RSS feed and adds a photo from Flickr based on the keywords of each item. The site is currently in beta. [direct quote from Wikipedia]

Quoting from the site in question: "Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.
Like Unix pipes, simple commands can be combined together to create output that meets your needs:
combine many feeds into one, then sort, filter and translate it.
geocode your favorite feeds and browse the items on an interactive map.
power widgets/badges on your web site.
grab the output of any Pipes as RSS, JSON, KML, and other formats."

"Powerful" is corporate speak for buy it or ours is better than yours. You judge.

Yahoo! Pipes --

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Drupal

That's Drupal not RuPaul.

Drupal is an open source content management platform. Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations are using Drupal to power scores of different web sites. It enables features such as Electronic commerce, Blogs, Collaborative authoring environments, Forums, Peer-to-peer networking, Newsletters, Podcasting, Picture galleries andFile uploads and downloads.

To give the reader some idea of how far I wander off whatever is the beaten path, this is for system developers and programmers. This review blog is supposed to be for the general web cruiser not the specialist. But then I am dipping a toe into high finance sites so why not computer engineering sites?

I only heard about it because I am seeking alternatives to widgets and modules in the simple webmaster work I do (obviously I am no expert).

If interested in dowloading Drupal or learning more, go here --

http://www.drupal.com/

Twine

Twine is social bookmarking and recommendations. Different visual look from StumbleUpon and similar sites but the idea is the same. I wonder if it fills up my email box like those others with recommendations? I am not willing to find out. I don't bookmark either.

For people who do bookmark and who do want recommendations from friends, the combination and visual appeal might be what the doctor ordered. If that is the case with you, don't mind my sour attitude on the subject.

Why bookmark? So you don't have your screen cluttered with wall-to-wall icons. I have seen people like that and I have to wonder if they are not constantly hitting an icon by mistake and disrupting their work. Icons and bookmarks are both hyperlinks so bookmarking may may sense for those who like a blank (or at least uncluttered) screen.

Recommends are a matter of whether you are seeking a non-medical second opinion. Perhaps you want to hear the pros and cons of a given matter before you make up your mind. Then you want a recommend site.

This is both.

Twine --

http://www.twine.com/

Instant Re-review:

After writing the above sour notes and observations, I went back and explored Twine a little. Squidoo it's not (I think there is a more severe limit to customization) but you can fiddle with it a little. Emphasis on little. On second look, the site could reflect your interest and link you to similar thing. On third look, it is all links and appears more and more an empty matrix of synapses and switches (depending on whether you want comparison to a human brain or an electronic brain). This is doubtless what they had in mind because you can see it reflected in the Twine logo.

According to Wikipedia: Twine combines features of forums, wikis, online databases and newsgroups[2] and employs intelligent software to automatically mine and store data relationships[3] expressed using RDF statements. Twine services information storage, authoring and discovery through its website and browser-based tools.

Forums can have echoes when they are inactive and lonely. Wikis are reference tools that I use. Online database? Not like Lexis or Nexis. I have never been in or used a Usenet Newsgroup. If one matched my interest, I'd look over newsgroups. We all know what browsers are. I still stand by my original review. Useful but no big whoop.

Engadget

I am not into gadgets but for the gadget freaks out there, this site tells you about the latest gizmos and consumer electronics. All you need is Bill Gates' bank account and you will always get what you want. This site is considered the ultimate gadget site. If you disagree, then send me a nasty message telling me why I am mistaken and what site I should be reviewing instead.

Engadget --

http://www.engadget.com/