The Personal Blog of Benny Ong – bennyong.com » Technology
Oct 08
Greetings All,
In my casual browsing over the weekend, I discovered Joost. Joost is a system for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa). Apparently the Tycoon Li Ka Shing has a stake in the company as well.
I installed the application and have been watching some short comedies so far. The streaming quality is quite good despite my streamyx connection with the speedtest.net results as below:
The application is ad supported and have a very Web 2.0 feel to it. Navigation takes a while to get used to but once you get a hang on it, everything is simple. I can imagine this application running on all TVs one day.
In the world of Web 2.0, I believe this website is one of the best and as always free is good.
Well, if you do not intend to install anything on your machine, there are tons of video and movie sites out there such as CoolStreaming.us below.
That’s all for now!
Oct 02
Well, I just got home earlier today after a quick trip back to my sweet hometown, Penang. Driving along the highway, I recall the earlier days when I started getting my hands deep down and dirty in web designing. I was mesmerizing the days when a new html code or dhtml scripts that I just learned would keep me happy for hours. There was also website that I was obsessed with when I first found out about it. It is called flamingtext.com which allows you to generate flaming effects with any text that you specify.
Besides the resident flaming effect, there are a whole lot of other fonts available and cool features that you may add to them such as a stained glass effect.
There are glowing and shadow effects. I know that you can get this done easily in Photoshop or Fireworks but it is a cool web based generator application powered by CGI. On the plus side, you may access this website from any PC and a logo or fancy text generated for your use anywhere without having to install an application. Although the website has not changed much since I visited it ages ago (I swear it is about more than 5 years since), the good thing is that they are still providing it for free!
Well, that’s all for now and I will retire to bed early today in preparation of braving through my inbox after not being at work for the past two days.
C’ ya!
Sep 17
The arrival of Web 2.0 have foster a new generation of inter communication between websites. I myself have always welcome this change and are looking forward at what areas that the internet is stretching itself to. Besides the duplication of content that Google and major search engines are trying to cut down on, there are a few cool applications that works well with social networking sites such as Friendster.com and my new craze Facebook.com.
I stumbled upon RockYou.com and made an assumption that it is just another Slide.com which is a web based image slide show generation tool like what has been created below. All you need to do is allow it to communicate with your web based photo hosting page and it will automatically syndicate content from there.
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RockYou.com had a special feature that kind of encourage me to try it as you may already know that I am a self worshipper. It is a create your own Avatar tool. All you need is a full face photo of yourself and you can follow the on screen instructions. (You will need to create an account for this, registration only requires your e-mail address and a password of choice)
Well, look at what I have come up with and I used the text to speech converter as my mic did not seem to be working after several rounds of recording. (Which explain’s my Manly voice)
Rockyou.com features does not end there as they have a wider range of other tools that you can mess with and jazz up your blog or pages of your sites.
That’s all for now and let me end this with a one line summary: Rockyou.com Rocks!
Sep 16
Greetings Bunch,
Look what I have come up with in the past hour. A Reflex Tester Application. As per the screen shot below, the application test’s your reflex by requiring yourself to react to the change of the background colour. You start the game by pressing the button and you have to quickly click on the stop button whenever you realize the colour in the box has changed.
My fastest record is 0.316 Seconds. Tell me what are your results?
Being true to the applications I have compile, they will not need to be installed and can execute instantly. Keep it in your thumbdrive and have a go at it whenever you are bored. 
Download the application and have a go at it.
Enjoy what is left of your weekend.
P/S: Two other applications that I have compiled, Pong Game and Zodiac Calculator
UPDATE: This is the first software that I am distributing through other freeware website:
5 Stars Awarded on Best Freeware Download
Sep 09
I have discovered something new today while doing my Sunday routine web browsing. The page is called StageGold.com which is something similar to Slide.com but for your videos. Practically any flv video that you have hosted somewhere on the web. It allows you to have a customize player from a selection of roughly 30 skins.
See a demo below of a video that I uploaded on Youtube to test this tool. The video is of the puppy that the office that my sister is working in has adopted. It was abandoned at their front door without an aparent reason. Well, have a look at the video and see how freakin cute that puppy is. We are just taking care of it for a day as it is meant to be back with its adoptive parents which are out of town. Enjoy!
You do not need to register to use the tool as it is free but registration is optional if you want to have a record of the customizations you have made. It will also allow you to create a playlist or videos you have as below:
Enjoy having fun with the tool and whats left of your weekend.
Aug 26
I have finally got myself back into messing with scripts. I tested dozens today and thought it was about time I hosted a useful tool.
I spent a good half of Sunday on customizing this. I am planning to add a few functionality and features whereby interested users can brand the page.
This web based tool allows you to download streaming videos into your desktop. It currently works with 8 major sites including YouTube, Ifilm, Blip.tv, MySpace and Google Video. The captured videos are in .flv format and you would require a compatible player for it.
Please share your feedback with me on how you thought about the tool.
Although it is not 100% ready, it was too good for me to put it aside. Have fun playing with it!
Feb 08
Greetings everyone,
Apologies once again for the lack of recent updates. Well, this morning I was sent an invitation to join a flickr group whereby during my random surf, I stumbled upon a site called dumpr.net. What it does is that it allows you to mess around with the pictures you have in flickr.
There is roughly about 6-8 tools that ranges from effects of aging your picture, changing it to sketch and placing it in a gallery like below. Don’t you come and tell me that this can all be done in Photoshop or some fancy picture editing tool. The reason that I am mentioning it is because it is online based and it automatically extracts your flickr collection.
Everyone is looking
By the way, if you do not know what flickr is, it is basically a place where you can upload and share your photos.
Give it a visit and a go…. I would try the other features later….
Have fun!
Benny Ong
Dec 14
Just got back from Crowne Plaza Mutiara hotel in KL after visiting my dad. If you are curious on what I have been up to lately, I have decided to design my own WordPress template for this website and might be distributing it for free when I am done. As this is my first time undertaking such things on my free time, I believe the template should be ready latest by February next year. You might say that it is too long of a time to get it done but I believe that it is reasonable with the spare time that I have got.
First and foremost I just installed Xampp to get an Apache server with PHP and MySQL running on my Windows machine. This will allow me to work locally without consuming bandwidth from my hostonfire.com servers. The above mentioned program is handy whenever you which to test PHP scripts on your local machine.
After the installation of the server was completed, I proceed to install the latest version WordPress which I am planning to upgrade my blog into.
Well, that’s all for the moment, I hope I have manage to share some valuable tools that you can mess around with. I am planning to come up with a list of recommended free tools in the next upgrade of my blog maybe in mid 2007. We will see how it goes, till then, take care.
Benny Ong XXX
Sep 28
Greetings bunch,
I discovered this nifty tool while trying to edit some pictures on my work laptop that has restriction on installing applications. I believe it will be useful for some that require to do some basic editing (obviously better than Microsoft Paint!) but it can’t match a full fledged image editor (obviously nothing like Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks). However, this is a start of what are to come and can expect from the future. Picture yourself starting all applications from a web site. Cool isn’t it, most probably all will be free as well, even better!
Well, Phixr do have it’s weaknesses but I believe that it will improve over time. You may use it by generating a temporary account that requires no registration but I advise you to register if you are going to use it frequently.
Here are some other cool links to other image editing tools that exists.
1. Flickr Toys
2. List of Image Tools
3. E-Cover Maker
That’s all for now!
Benny Ong XXX
Sep 06
I am currently attending a course called Dynamic Presentation Skills and learned a cool trick today regarding functions in Microsoft Powerpoint. Yup, all you slaves of Microsoft pay close attention and I will guarantee you that your presentation will never be the same again.
First and foremost is turning the slides into a completely blank black or white screen without turning your machine off. This is necessary for various reasons such as you want the audience to pay attention on the presenter instead of the slides or to pause for some other activities. It can be done by a single click of the “B? key for a black screen or “W? for white while your presentation is running in full screen. Simply click any key to bring your presentation back to life.
The other cool trick is to hide your cursor or mouse pointer. Just click on “A? or “=? to hide it and to bring it back. You can also turn it into a pen where you can scribble on your presentation slides and then erase it. This trick will be good for speakers to emphasize on a point or highlight something important. Just click on the CTRL key and P at the same time to get the pen. Click on your mouse and drag to start drawing and scribble on your slides. Click E to erase what you have added on screen or just proceed to the next slide. Please note that no change will be done to your existing slides. Key in CTRL + A to bring back the mouse cursor.
You may also schedule your slides to run on a preset time. This will require more reading and configuration on your part for it. There are simple keys available for you to rehearse your presentation.
For other cool tricks for Microsoft Powerpoint, click F1 and a small window will pop up above your presentation indicating the keys and functions available.
Please do share your tips on other cool tricks in other common applications.
Here is to a better and cooler presentation for everyone!
Benny Ong