If you write website reviews occassionaly or happen to need a screenshot of a website that you are going to feature in a blog or online article, MyThumbshot.com is the solution for you.

The website is FREE to use and allows you to automatically generate thumbnails of websites automatically like the one above by using a string of URL.

How To Use?

http://www.mythumbshot.com/get?url=[url]&size=[size]

You need to replace [url] with the page you need a screenshot of and [size] with one of the following params to show the sizes:

xs = 120×90
s = 160×120
m = 320×240
l = 640×480
xl = 1024×768

Demonstration

Please look at a few size variations of the results:

Extra Small (XS)

Small (S)

Medium (M)

In A Nutshell

I am not sure how this website sustains itself by having just Google Adsense but if you use it, you have to take on the risk of your website having invalid image links if it ever go bust. I am using it and have faith that this website will be around for a while.

Another cool website I discovered. Well, a bit later than about a million others but what the heck!

Try this thing out from Imagini.net. It asks you a series of questions with the answer options given in pictures. This will in return used to formulate your personality test results that you can have in a page to share with your friends. Click here to see mine as a demo.

Here is a screen shot of my profile page which I will be customizing shortly.

Below is a widget which you may generate after you have created your account. You can use this to blog and add it on your social network sites like Myspace or Friendster.

Read my VisualDNAâ„¢ Get your own VisualDNAâ„¢

There is also another widget, which is generated from another series of questions similar to the above but is about wishes.

In a nutshell, I believe this site has huge potential and is a cool tool. They better come up with more fun stuff to do on their site moving forward or their popularity might die off. It will no longer have its stickiness factor. We will see about that.

Cheers!

Ever dreamt about publishing your own book but never knew how? Well, dream no further with Lulu.com which is Web 2.0 answer to self publishing.

Similar to some other sites that allow you to personalize your items for sale, Lulu.com allows you to create books for sale in both downloadable versions and physical prints. They do not print the copies directly but stores them digitally and set them to the printers whenever there is an order. This is very smart as there is Zero Inventory.

Lulu.com offers three types of membership which is FREE (Free is good, that’s the account I am on), Publish by You (Limited to certain countries) & Publish by Lulu (The only paid option for most of us, $99.00). There are pros and cons to each I guess but will not comment as I am not that in the publishing industry.

To create your book, there is a wizard like tool that guides you through steps in putting your book together. You may specify the cover type, designs and almost everything to customize your creation. There is also a calculator that shows how much the associated publishing costs would be. Here you can state the ideal amount you would like to earn and they will sum it all up as the price of your creation.

Each author will get their store like mine at http://stores.lulu.com/bennyong. It will list all the books available and you can conveniently link to it to sell your creation.

They pay commissions through Paypal ($5.00 Minimum Payout) or Check ($20.00).

Besides being a site to self publish your work, you may socialize with other budding authors and also browse the market place for exclusive book titles.

In a nutshell, Lulu.com is a good website that I would recommend to all budding authors. It costs you almost nothing (I added time as a factor already) to use this platform to showcase your work. You don’t even need to handle any back end admin to get your payment and printing to be done and yet get your book promoted to billions on the internet. A no brainer I would say.

If you are serious about publishing, Lulu.com offers a whole other range of services to kick start your career.

The reason that inspire me to write this blog post is because I made a mere $4.99 profit from a book that I created to test the functions and features of Lulu.com. I can now officially call myself an author as my book was purchased from Lulu.com. You never know, I might be signing copies in a book store near you someday.

Cheers,

Deep down inside I always knew I look like a celebrity. (Yet another shameless self acclaimed) Well, Myheritage.com will be a testimony to the statement this time around.

I discovered Myheritage.com from stalking a peers blog like where I usually find interesting websites to immortalize my presence on the internet. =P

The Israel based company was started by a team who was passionate about Genealogy. The website has a full service ranging from free web generators to family tree products.

Although it requires registration to use the site, it pays off as there are a few cool face recognition tools to mess around in Myheritage.com which includes a comparison of a celebrity look a like and Morph which slowly transform your face to the celebrity that you apparently look most a alike to.

Here are some collage that I generated from the above mentioned tools.

Celebrity Look A Like

It is a bit of a concern that I look more like a chick. I was expecting Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves and David Beckham to show up but it turned out otherwise. I do not whether this is indicating that I have more feminine look which usually is the characteristics of the now popular Metrosexuals.

MORPH

I should have used a picture with me wearing a baseball cap to make the morphing effect more convincing. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one.

In a nutshell, this is another cool website and if you have nothing to do on a lazy weekend, head on to the site and have fun. Do let me know you turn out to be like.

Cheers!

Another discovery of a personalized flash content for self worshipers like me. This time, it is no longer a mere animated flash video but a game. You heard me right, an interactive game that you can share with your blog visitors.

I would like to present to you all Pictogame.com. This free to use website requires registration to store your created masterpiece.

The website is very straight forward to use with a step by step wizard like guide. I created the games below in less than 5 minutes and 3 simple steps. There were tons of games to choose from but I produced the ones below as examples.

Dancing Game

Sniper Game

Once you have created your game, you are given three options:

1) Direct Link to a page on their website where your game is hosted

2) An Embedded Code for your Profile Pages or like the above blog posts. – This is uber cool as you can specify the size you want it to fit your desired content pages

3) A Thumbnail description with link to your game as following:

In a nutshell, this site is another amazing free personalized content creation tool. This are good blog fillers on the days when you have writer’s block.

Be creative and use celebrity pictures instead. Browse through the top created games to be inspired.

Well, enjoy the games above and head on down to Pictogame.com to start creating your own personalized games. =)

Being termed Banana all my life (Yellow on the outside and white on the inside), I always wished that I learned Chinese while I was growing up. I can get away with the basic mandarin but when it is time to carry out a full conversation or put it on paper; I can’t go any further than my name in Chinese characters.

I have come across non native speakers of the language and am always embarrass about the fact that I don’t even speak my mother tongue properly. Well, things are about to change with my discovery of Nciku.com! As an added bonus, the site has just recently been revamped with pioneering features in the age of Web 2.0 sites.

Nciku.com is a free online Chinese dictionary with a variety of features as follow:

1. Smart Dictionary Search

It works just like any regular search tool, set your learning language to Chinese and let Nciku do all the hard work of finding the equivalent word. If you type in “Apple�, all the relevant Chinese words will appear in the result.

2. Hand Writing Recognition

This is a very handy tool with a great accuracy and success rate after my personal testing. It allows users to search for the meaning of the characters that they scribble on screen. The drawing area now looks just like those notebooks for learning Chinese characters we are all used to. Also, putting your mouse over the character suggestions you selected triggers a pop up menu for simple identification.

3. Text To Speech

This is a totally new feature to Nciku.com. You no longer have to worry about pronouncing something wrong, all examples and conversations can be heard in proper pronunciation. Just click on the speaker button, and you can see and hear the pronunciation. Make a conversation and hear it come to life!

4. Keep Notes with Vocab Lists

Study notes were upgraded and renamed to vocab lists. No need to click to save a word now, as all words you view in the dictionary are automatically saved to your nciku page. You can move the words to other lists or edit them however much you want. Also, improve your language skills with memorization tests and more print options so you can study on the go!

5. Useful Conversations

Learn how to do everything, from opening an account at the bank to buying tickets for the movies, with nciku’s newest main section. Browse conversations by place and topic, or search for words you want to know how to use, then grab any ones you know you will need and they are saved to your personal nciku. Check them out again before you leave home so you’ll never be at a loss for words again.

6. Tons of Other Cool Features

There are heaps of other cool learning aids to accelerate your learning to achieve mastery like a Q&A page, Theme Words and the handy Nciku mini. What are you waiting for! Start visiting the website now to learn more!

In a nutshell, Nciku.com has redefined online learning with the level of sophistication and tools provided. It is like having a learning companion that is always available.

I would like to take the chance to wish the whole team behind Nciku.com well done on their effort and keep up the excellent work!

I will frequent the site to buck up on my Chinese!!!!