But alas, they forgot to give you a new identity! There’s no way you could give your REAL identity now would you?

Worry no more, use this handy Fake Name Generator to generate a quick alter ego for yourself.

Fake Name Generator does not only generate random names for you, it gives you a new gender, nationality, country based address, mother’s maiden name, phone number, and a master card or visa number. Passport not included though. You can also use the bulk order feature to generate up to 40,000 fake identities!

The Fake Name Generator is a fun, yet very useful and much sought utilities by many people, because, well, everyone needs an alter ego sometimes, right? Whether it’s for publishing books, forums (come on, don’t tell me you use your real name in forums?), a private email account, or even when you buy that ultra-realistic, Japan-made, life sized dolls (you know EXACTLY what I mean). Anyway, give it a try today, and you’ll soon have a black book full of your alter ego identities.

If you wonder why on earth this generator is created and why it received so much traffic (PR5, 57K Alexa traffic rank), the website actually suggests some areas where this could be useful:

• Many websites, such message boards, are poorly designed, making it difficult for visitors from foreign countries to sign up for accounts. Using fake information, you can easily fill out the sign up forms and log in to the site.
• Use fake information when filling out forms to avoid giving out personal information.
• Generate a false identity to use as your pseudonym on the internet. This allows you to keep your real life and your internet life separate.

By the way, I’m Tenyuu Nagasawa from 78 Boobialla St, NSW, Australia. Good to meet ya, mate!

As of yet no application has successfully bridged the gap between power and performance and connectivity and synchronization. Office Live makes some attempt at this but I personally find it far too slow and buggy to use. The biggest downside for Office Live is that most end users simply don’t need the high end features that it provides. I love the new Office Interface, but when will I ever use mail merge or functions like it?

For many of us we just need simple tools, and I’ll show you the best online services currently available which you can use in conjunction with, or as a replacement for Microsoft Office.

1. Google Docs

   Word Processor | Presentations | Spreadsheets

   

   I think Google Docs is an amazing service, I love the fact that in many ways it really isn’t an Office alternative and doesn’t try to be. You’ll see the other services here are trying to provide a complete Office replacement in terms of features and power but Google has just created a service which just provides the features most users will need and makes it incredibly simple to share and collaborate with other users.

   In fact in many cases I just Docs it as a glorified note-taker, but who cares? It’s free, fast and perfect for working on documents with someone else. It also supports Office file formats as well as Open Documents and can import and export to the desktop.

   You’ll need a Gmail account, an Open ID (includes Yahoo ID) in order to use Google Docs, but since most people should have either a Gmail account or Yahoo address already this shouldn’t be a problem. If not, you’ll just have to register for one, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right?

   Features are added regularly based upon user feedback. I have found myself using it more and more lately as I move between places like work, home and university and need to quickly keep documents accessible from all locations.

   If you worry about not being able to access your files when not connected to the Internet then you can use Google Gears to access Docs from the desktop when you are offline. The official Gear site supports Firefox and Internet Explorer, but you will need to go here to get a modified plugin for Flock.

   Daniel did a great article recently where he shows how you can use CSS to style your documents, Google Docs doesn’t have many formatting options so it might be worthwhile to give this a go.

2. Zoho

   Word Processor | Presentations | Spreadsheets | Collaboration | Financial | Management | Recruiting | Wiki | Web Applications

   

   Zoho has just about every office application you’ll ever need (over a dozen), and along with Google Docs has become one of the most popular online office suites. In fact recently the decision was made to allow anyone with a Google account to access Zoho. It may seem a strange decision considering the two could be competitors but as I said before, the two have somewhat different focuses. Zoho as a Office replacement, Google Docs can be used in conjunction.

   Most of the services are free, but some features such as the Zoho Payments and the CRM, payment is required after a certain number of projects have been completed.

3. Acrobat.com

   Word Processor | PDF creator| Collaboration | File Manager

   

   Adobe has its own set of free web applications at Acrobat.com which provide some very useful tools for office productivity. The tools include Buzzword, a word processor, ConnectNow for collaboration, Create PDF, Share Files and My Files, the document manager.

   Essentially Acrobat.com isn’t actually a complete office suite as it doesn’t have a presentation or spreadsheet programs, however if you would like a well designed, fully featured online word processor and PDF creator then Adobe Buzzword is absolutely perfect.

4. ThinkFree Online

   Word Processor | Presentations | Spreadsheets

   

   I hate one thing about Thinkfree. It has a sidebar of ads extending down the right hand side of the page. It may seem like no biggie considering we are constantly bombarded by advertising every day we step out of bed, but to me some things shouldn’t be intruded upon and I hate to see advertising right up there alongside my documents.

   That aside the service itself is great, and really pushes the boundaries of what a web based service can be expected to do. In fact look at the screen-shot alone you would be surprised to know this is in fact entirely a web based application.

   Built upon Ajax and mimicking the Office user interface, ThinkFree provides the capabilities of group editing and collaboration and the publishing of documents directly to webpages and blogs. However, unless you upgrade to the premium version, you cannot access documents offline although you can still use the import and export features.

   The premium version also provides synchronization functions, removes the advertising, and increases the 1 gigabyte storage allowance.

There you are. The four most famous and widely used online office suites. Which one do you think is the best, or is your favorite?

In addition to a chance to be part of the excitement, Firefox 3 will also improve your browsing experience with many new features:

• Smart Location Bar - Besides letting you type in a web site, as always, the location bar in Firefox 3 will also dynamically search your browsing history and provide you with a list of sites that match what you’ve currently typed. Both URLs and page titles from your history are searched, making for a very intuitive interface.
• Enhanced Security - In coordination with Google, Firefox 3 will warn you if you are about to visit a site which is know to supply malware and viruses.
• Faster and More Efficient - A key focus of this release has been increasing the speed at which you see your web pages, and decreasing the memory footprint of the browser. In a browser face-off, run by builder.au, Firefox 3 came out on top for efficiency.
• Easier Add-On Management - The new add-ons interface includes a search and browse system, directly inside the add-ons tab, instead of requiring the you to navigate to an external site.

If you’re really eager, you can download release candidates of Firefox today. The release candidate site has the latest downloads for various languages and operating systems. Before you migrate completely, check out the current known issues, to make sure you won’t be hit by any of them.

However, if you’re nervous and unsure about this upgrade, you can download the stand-alone version of Firefox 3 from PortableApps.com. They bundle up Firefox and it’s suitable for installation on a flash drive, but it can be installed on your hard-drive as well. The nice thing about this route is that it doesn’t touch your existing Firefox installation, you can install it, test it out, and delete the directory entirely if you aren’t happy with it.

For those of you who’ve never even tried Firefox, this is a great time to make a switch. Check out this face-off article for some reasons. They conclude that Internet Explorer 7 is the worst performing browser of those tested. Firefox 3 comes in near the top of the pack, beat only by Safari and Opera which both exhibit occasional compatibility problems on different sites.

Remember, Firefox 3 Download Day, June 17th… be part of record-breaking history!

However I’ve only been using Plurk for a couple of days and I’m completely converted, in fact over the last week or so (in between bitching about Twitter) a number of people have started moving over, Darren Rowse (Problogger.net) being a notable example.

Plurk is a shiny new startup which although about 3 months old, just gained exposure through a featuring on TechCrunch and from there a number of other large tech blogs. In fact take a look at the not-so-exponential growth of users via the Plurk blog.

Many of these early adopters are simply checking the service out from curiosity and using it as some kind of threat (”Any more Twitter downtime and I’m leaving!”). However I have confidence Plurk is a lot more then just a hype, and I wanted to share what it is that I think makes this service stand out.

What is Plurk?

Plurk is the latest in a whole string of life-streaming and micro-blogging services. It’s going up against Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Tumblr and Friend Feed, but is it simply Twitter-with-more-features? If so then that sure hasn’t work for Jaiku, and even Pownce isn’t getting the kind of Digg success story founder Kevin Rose hoped for.

So why would Plurk be any different?

Well I think Plurk has a whole new innovative take on social networking. If you’re still hesitant about the idea of trying yet another service then here are some of the things you can expect from Plurk.

A Sense of Humour

It’s hard to believe, but Plurk really is a company with a genuinely funny sense of humour. Just take the name for a start, it sounds kind of… blurghh… but the Plurk team has good reason which the outline in a recent blog post entitled ‘Plurk’? An etymological deconstruction of the word you love to hate:

• Plurk as stalkerati central: People + Lurk = Plurk
• Plurk as an amalgam of Play + Work: Play-Work. Plurk is what scientists do. It is the enthusiastic, energetic application of oneself to the task at hand as a child excitedly plays; it is the intense arduous, meticulous work of an artist on their life-long masterpiece; it is joyful work. (credit)
• Plurk as acronym: Peace, Love, Unity, Respect, Karma
  Verb potential: “Oh I googled this –> Oh I plurked it” Easy enough to wrap around in any form. Plurked, plurking, plurkers, plurks. Little p, big P, it’s catchy, snippy and sweet.

• These are some pretty good justifications if you ask me. But seriously, the company is open, communicative and honest. Twitter seems to be trying to do something like this but unfortunately, maybe too late.

These are some pretty good justifications if you ask me. But seriously, the company is open, communicative and honest. Twitter seems to be trying to do something like this but unfortunately, maybe too late.

User Interface

Plurk differs from just about every other social network, microblogging and life streaming service on the planet by having a horizontal scrolling timeline. I love it.

The colour scheme is vaguely similar to the WordPress 2.5 dashboard and much more attractive and intuitive then Twitter.

The Plurk team has this to say on the subject:

…behind every corner, you’ll find shiny new goodies which will only make your Plurk experience that much more enjoyable but we want to ensure that the basic premise of the application is something that ANY user, whether they’re 13 or 99 years old, will get within mere seconds of visiting and using the site.

I couldn’t agree more. It’ll take you all of three seconds to figure out how to use Plurk, yet the more you use it the more you’ll find these great little features you never saw before.

Here is a screen-shot of the Plurk profile homepage dashboard you can expect to see.

It’s broken down into three main sections, Stats, Friends and Fans.

The key element of your stats is what your ‘Karma’ level is. Karma is an indication of how active a ‘plurker’ you are and in some ways how interesting your conversations are. The more people you invite, the more friends you have, the more people responding to your plurks and the higher your Karma status will grow.

There are rewards for increasing your karma beyond certain levels. For example you gain the exciting ability to rename your profile page once you get over a karma level of 10, exclusive smilies at 25 and so on. It’s quite a fun concept.

When you invite friends you can even get these fancy stars to put on your profile.

Like twitter, you can follow anyone immediately, but to add them as a friend you will have to wait for their approval. The same goes for people who add you as their friend, you can either approve, cancel or have them added as just a follower.

How do Plurks work?

You can choose one of 16 ‘descriptors’ (eg: “says”, “likes”, “thinks”, “is”) for each plurk. You can also insert emoticons, video and images and can send them either as private messages, only to your contacts or as a public plurk.

Here we can how a plurk from MakeUseOf’s Jason Mayoff looks like:

As you can see each plurk displays the user’s avatar, their descriptor and part of their message, long plurks extend with a mouse over. The number on the right is the number of responses made to that particular message.

Click it and the conversation folds out to display responses. And as you can also see Jason has retracted his statement:

I even discovered today from Eureka Tips that you can format your plurks by using the following characters in plurk:

*use asterisks* = italics
**use double asterisks** = bold
__use double underscore__ = underscore

I would suggest this is one website well worth you checking out. I never really got into Twitter and barely use it, but a couple of days and I’m loving Plurk already. Even signing up is incredibly easy, you won’t even have to accept a confirmation email.

Give it a shot.

Other than showing your video on Ustream itself, you can embed it on blogs, websites, and social-networking profiles. Let me show you how…

Firstly, sign up at Ustream.tv, it’s absolutely free and fast. Once that’s done, login and click on My Shows. Next, type in a name for your show and click on the “Broadcast Now” button. After a short while, you will be asked to grant permission to Ustream.tv to access the camera and microphone. Of course, grant the permission by clicking on the “Allow” button.

A window pops up. Click on “Start Broadcast” to start what else but the broadcasting! Check out my broadcast screenshot below… well that’s a Transformer imitation I am showing!

To share the live video,… or you simply want to amaze other bloggers reading your blog… You can use one of the many codes on your bog. Just copy and paste! You can embed the video directly into most major social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, LiveJournal, iGoogle, Friendster, Xanga, and many more. It’s so much fun!

This is really great, isn’t it? Especially true for those who carry a camera around with them all the time. Don’t use your webcam with your friends only, make full use of your webcam, show us your live video of yourself… show us what you are doing - blogging, reading, watching TV, sleeping, eating, in the bathroom,…

Best is, the website is completely free to use… and it’s very intuitive too! Let’s try to search for “sexy eyes” and see if it returns some eyes that can shock us!

The result it returned was pretty impressive. Lots of pretty eyes… 169 pairs of pretty eyes to be exact. All of them are sourced from Flickr, and the result screen provides some quick but helpful information about those photos, i.e. the license type, the photo’s resolution, and user’s rating for the photo.

The photo details page offers a lot of information about the photo; such as the photographer, tags, license type, a feature to report copyright infringement, and best of all other photos from the same photographer.

Most of the photos indexed by this site are free to use, even commercially. Everystockphoto.com is certainly becoming my source for photos when I need them in my blogs… well, next to Google’s very own images search.

If you took a moment to sign up membership with Everystockphoto, you can do much more… rate, tag, collect and comment on the photos. It’s fun dragging photos onto your photo collection, and removing them by dragging them onto the dustbin. Make sure you check out this website today!

Well, the other day Kitkat wrote a post on viewing The Incredibles in ASCII format. Now you can watch Star Wars 4 in ASCII / text mode format too. It’s not as elaborated as The Incredibles, but the text representations of the characters are funny.

You can watch it here

OR

Type “telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl” (without the quotes) into your RUN prompt.

The first link will take you to an http website (would probably save you on bandwidth) and the second command line will connect your computer to telnet and open the text mode movie in your Command box.

Some sample images from the movie :

20th Century Text

R2D2 and C3PO

Luke Skywalker received his lightsaber from ObiWan Kenobi

Luke Skywalker practicing his lightsaber skills with ObiWan Kenobi

The movie will run until the scene where Luke rescues Lea from her cell or room or whatever. Now if only I have the patient to watch / read through all the scenes till it finishes. One tip though, the http one has rewind and forward controls that you can use to make the video goes faster, well useful in case you got bored. As you might have guess by now, the Command box does not allow you to fast forward or rewind.

I know it’s not in the same episode, but how I wish to see Jabba the Hut in text mode!

So if you are all ready to watch Star Wars in ASCII or text mode, sit back and enjoy the movie!

Media-Convert is a website that helps you to convert your file to another file type; in my case, from an .odt document to a .doc document. It’s a real breezy process too.

1. You just browse for the document that you want to convert.
2. Select the type of the original document (or you can leave it at automatic detection).

3. Then select your choice of output file type.
4. And then click OK.
5. Click Continue on the File Info page.

6. After successful conversion, choose either to download the file in converted file or a zip file.

You can even try to convert movie file types from one type to another, although I suspect that’s gonna take a long time for the whole process. You’ve got to upload it, then they will convert it and then you will need to download it again. It’s probably alright to convert sound or audio files, images, and also text files because of the file size.

Other than doing a file conversion, you can also use Media-Convert capture Website Screenshots and also use it to convert files directly from a given URL. You can also host files with Media-Convert for file sizes up to 150MB.

Another service that you can use is the Send File to Mobile function. You can just upload a file onto the website’s server and then it will return an address for you (or the intended recipients) to download the file via WAP or GPRS on their phones.

I’ve tried converting an .odt file to a .doc file and also a .pdf file to an .rft file. No more worries about getting the right software and the right plug ins or extensions anymore! It’s probably useful if you are stuck in the compute labs or the cyber cafe and you can’t view your files. And if you are, go to Media-Convert now to view your files!

So just how hard can this game be?

I hate this game. I truly do. I’ve spent 25 minutes trying to get across to the other end, but I can’t. It looked simple but it’s not. It’s probably a prank, I don’t know how you can ever get across to the other end when the blue balls are moving in synch with one another. This is a trap!

You don’t believe me? Try playing the game. LOL! You will be in for a surprise.

If anyone knows how to actually avoid the blue balls and get across to the other end, I beg you, tell me! LOL! And I don’t see no yellow beacons either!

Just a note, my friend got to Level 10. I have absolutely no idea how he did that!

The Internet is always full of ways to make money online. So it’s no wonder why a lot of people call the Internet a gold mine. Yes, you have the PPC, the Affiliate programs, the E-commerce, the gaming, and others that I’ve probably never heard of.

There is one that I heard of just recently. A friend introduced this ‘Earn While You Search’ program to me because I am on the Internet almost 14 hours a day, doing researches. I don’t usually think highly of these programs but I figured, why not? I’ll just have to search with a search box on my browser instead of going directly to Google. So I signed up with MySearchFunds.

Basically, MySearchFunds is a program that pays you for searching with them. While they are not a search engine, all they need you to do is search through them with Google, Yahoo, and other search engines. It’s a shame you can’t control where your search results come from though. But fortunately for me, up till now all my results were returned from Google, my favorite search engine.

To use the service, you will need to sign up (to keep track of your searches and your earnings) and install the MySearchFunds search box. I’m using Firefox so the search box is on the top right corner of my browser. The service is completely free of charge and the earnings will be paid via PayPal, unless of course if you are in the United Kingdom, then you can request to be paid via your bank account. And all accounts will be paid in 45 days after each month ends. Like the example give on the website, for searches done in January, you will be paid in mid-March. I just started a couple of days ago, so I figured I will be paid in July then.

I have searched scams and horror stories in regards to MySearchFunds and they do have their fair share of horror stories. On the plus side, there are also good stories about them too and I also found threads in forums where there were people who provide proofs for their payout. And since I don’t have to pay to use this service, I don’t really see any reasons to not sign up and earn a little extra in my PayPal. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing. The image below shows my earnings in 3 days. I always forgot I have to use the search box on my browser.

This program is okay for me as long as I remember to use the search box. Well, if you have used MySearchFunds before or know of anything that is similar to this, do leave us a comment and share your opinions with us.