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Online Replacements for Desktop Apps?
Jon_Aquino asks: "I'd like to share this Google Groups thread of free online replacements for desktop apps. Some of the gems are: an online UML diagrammer, an online Paintbrush app, online Post-It notes, an incredibly realistic text-to-speech converter, and an online spreadsheet. What are other cool online desktop-app replacements?"
I saw an online Minesweeper replacement somewhere. Only worked with Mozilla, though.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
This isn't specific to online apps, but rather one that was posted (computer TTS). Something I found interesting were different voice synths for different languages or accents.
How to make the MS "Merlin" agent more annoying? Give him a French accent!
Right is wrong when left is right.
i dont know about you guys but i dont think i would use those apps... if you dont have access to excel/mspaint, i would always rather have a flashdrive with them or variations on there rather then relying on third party web page being online to get something halfway useful done...
Sheesh.
The more you know, the less you understand.
you just spent 5 minutes making the online text to speech tool say dumb stuff like 'all your base are belong to us'.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I want an online replacement for my web browser. Even Firefox takes too much memory on my PC.
Have you read my blog lately?
One of the reasons Microsoft fought so hard in the browser wars was because it was felt that the *real* platform could well become the browser, which you could then access applications via, not the underlying OS.
Looks like they won...
MUCH easier to have the unlimited supply the internet offers instead of keeping an old, stale, boring collection on your HD.
Plus, keep your cache/history clear and your S.O. can't ever prove you look at the stuff. Which I don't, of course.
Does a browser count as a desktop app?
If it does, then Simpy is definitely a superior online replacement for bookmarks (really more than bookmarks, but let's keep it at that). Here is a demo and some screen shots.
Simpy
What is the Internet coming to? It's like saying "Hotmail" is "Internet Mail" and "The WWW" is "The Internet".
Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
they probably used the same thing on this site
http://www.angusdiet.com/
I once saw an online operating system project that would run in a browser a few years ago. I never heard much from it thou.
you demonstrated the greatest flaw of online apps: ;-/
They depend on a running server. These just died.
The Google Calculator
Perhaps not an desktop app as much an Enterprise ap; but they're much nicer than other sales software that ran on desktops that I've used.
Those online apps are very useful. Really who is going to use paint to make a picture. Or that online spreadsheat program when you can just install the program on your hardrive and use it their where it's faster and more fully featured. Pluss if you are a secure network then you couldn't use them anyways. I just don't really see the point.
BaseCamp is probably the best project manager I've seen, and it's online. I don't get it, why can't desktop apps be this cute and easy to use? Just go look at the screenshots!
:-) (This is one benefit of regular desktop software)
Of course, I don't have a paid up BaseCamp membership since I think it's overpriced, but there you go
Theres even a web messenger from msn. its an elegantly written app. doesnot use that many fancy DHTML stuff. doesnt use java applets either. works well on
Firefox.
heres the link. its still a beta
webmessenger.msn.com
- Ramrajprabu
( www.thispointer.com )
you are a very easy person to please. Its not really a replacement for anything.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Java quake (Shutdown)
Java commodore 64 emulator
java mame.
That text-to-speech proggy could come in handy for making up your own custom wacky answering machine messages. You never know, Slashdotters -- callers might actually believe you've got a live-in girlfriend!
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
I looked at the sample / demo area of the post it notes thing.. there was some really weird stuff in there!
I guess that kinda thing is handy if you dont have your own hosting or something?
The "incredibly realistic text-to-speech converter" isn't so much of a online desktop-app replacement but a demonstration of the AT&T Natural Voices extension for desktop software like ReadPlease and TextAloudMP3. Highly recommendable though.
I thought the much-hyped application server revolution never happened, because people just don't want to share personal or proprietary information or need the guaranteed availablility of a locally-installed app. The only real popular web apps I can think of are the search engines of various types (web, real estate, personal ads, etc.) and, perhaps, those on-line tax services (you give them your information at a store front, too). Otherwise, the WWW is still mostly just a place to share information, mail-order stuff, and post flamebait to forums like this one.
-- "Makes Little Debbie look like a pile of puke!" - Moe Szyslak
There are online sex partner simulators all over the innurnet. They're not too realistic though, as the feedback device feels very much like a squeezing hand...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Very incredible text-to-error-message converter, not so incredible text to speech converter. "Error An error has occurred in the TTS service. Please go back and try your request again. If the problem persists, please contact help@naturalvoices.com Invalid State (-2147221492)" hmmph.
Wait, wait, wait.
Did I read this right?
FREE software?
Like, you mean, it's free for two weeks then I have to buy it? Or you mean that it's not free, but you found a place to pirate it?
Or...no. It... it's not possible. Are you seriously coming here, to Slashdot, and telling us that there are software packages that we don't have to pay for, and can still legally use?
Holy crap, man.
Calculator/numerical-conversion tools. HTML proofreaders. Dictionaries/telephone directories/reference books. Yes, that's right, I have, or had, a dictory on a pc, but it's hardwired in my brain to go to www.[my favorite dictionary site].com so I didn't even bother to install it the last time I reinstalled my OS. I'm sure most of us who spend 24x7 online can come up with our own list.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
These guys have great webmail(Imp) ; nice web based file managers (Gollem); a nice CVS viewer.
From their FAQ
I dont have the link handy, but the Indiana state government launched such a beast earlier this year.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Wasn't there a time ago when all the rage was a thin-client and online software rentals? It seemed these were the visions of both the ol' dot-net strategy as well as one of SUN's pushes for Java-based apps.
:)
Everything was going online, they said, and we would rent software instead of purchasing (leasing) them. We'd subscribe to Microsoft Word or Excel, and they'd hold our files for us so we can access them anywhere. We'd have cheap console machines that run little more than Virtual Machines which would hook onto the real apps online. Kinda like the LTSP now.
It seemed like a strange enough idea, but had its advantages. Less maintenance, but serious privacy issues...especially when people like MS hadn't marketed "Trustworth Computing" yet.
I really should've used the online "dictory" before making that post. Grr......
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
...he's talking about Google Groups. I've seen Usenet before. It's full of binaries, not this stuff.
Breakfast served all day!
In the mid late 90's when everyone was going to use the netscape web browser and Sun's java to run all their applications from applets on thin-client sun terminals. Oh, and all your news would come from "Push" technology like Pointcast.
I've never been one to rely too heavily on online apps.
Something about trusting my data (confidential or not) to some unknown, faceless entity, for lack of a better term, has always kept me away from such services.
Not that I'm a paranoid guy or anything ("even paranoid people have enemies!"), but who knows who's really seeing what your data, and who knows what they might do with that knowledge. Whether it's initially (mis)used or not, the danger is there. And if it's archived anywhere along the way, the potential for misuse is even greater, as now anyone down the road can come along and find/sell/misuse it.
"See this killer app that everyone's talking about? That was my idea! But no sooner had I began sketching out my flow on gmodeler then 'Boom!' it was patented and being marketed everywhere. That shoulda been me...." (Not that GModel would ever do this, but it's a good example of my point).
Not to mention the confidentiality issue... I work for a financial services company, and a few years ago, we were looking at ways to quickly re-purpose a bunch of PDF documents to HTML, and one proposed solution was a web service that offered online conversion of such documents for free. Clearly though the privacy issues, not to mention potential for misuse of the data made us choose a different avenue!
Plus there's always the fear of relying on the online apps. If I become dependant upon it, either for my work, or for the convenience it offers, what am I to do if suddenly the site goes under, becomes a pay site, or simply changes URLs due to a provider going down.
Not that there aren't any valuable services out there, there are! It's just that I feel safer relying on local software, and homegrown solutions. Am I alone with this perception?
http://www.pixelsight.com/ is my favorite, it's been around for 6 or 7 years. It's an online interface to some guys NeXT graphics rendering software. Slicker than snot for making quickie graphics.
I'm the cheapest person I know and I actually pay for this.
(Requires JavaScript)
Need Mercedes parts ?
This would be great for language learning. You could just cut and paste in a foreign language text, choose a voice appropriate to that language, and hear approximately how a native speaker would pronounce it. I wish there was a Mandarin version.
A comprehensive directory of web applications can be found here (link mentioned in the usenet thread).
I've been following this lately, it seems that the Open Office folks are working with the XDesktop movement- api: Interface XDesktop. It all makes sense, why install software that you rarely use? I'd much rather have it on a central server, think about lic costs, think about the easy of patching said software once, instead of hundreds of places...
CBG
free ipod and free gmail!
Java web start allows you to have any java app "online" while retaining the ability to write to local files.
try many apps available : e.g. a file compressor : http://pkt.sf.net/pkt.jnlp
That is all.
Check out their UK English accents, quality...
Loading...
Unfortunately I have to keep a windows machine around at our warehouse just because UPS's shipping tool only runs on windows. Strange since this appears to be written in Java I do not know why they don't port a copy to Linux.
Also USPS shipping programs such as stamps.com and endicia.com have annoying poorly design window clients for a function that would be better suited as web-based client.
Oh well I will have to wait.
Yes, there is even a whole (Mini-)Desktop available online, also it's rather a tech demo. Only works with Mozilla/FF (Gecko based browsers in general), the desktop can be found here
haha! Your note was taken down!!!!
How about networked apps that I can use from my Treo600 screen, or some other (higher rez) networked PalmOS/browser phone?
--
make install -not war
Well, not really. But if the site goes down, or your net connection does, your apps might as well be blue-screened...
I use it all the time as a quick text editor with spell checking. Mostly so I don't embarrass myself with misspellings in online posts (like right now).
I would use some online apps like online stickies.
But I have a dreadful fear of an app I use all the time - along with my data - vanishing forever.
I think if I could dwonload and also host the code for an online app, that would help. Also I think it imperitive that every online app like these that holds data you care about provide a means to download you data from the site in one easy-to-read chunk, that could be re-uploaded to the service if it had a failure and lost data, or simply parsed through to pull out data if the service vanished.
So any online app that could potentially hold important data has some resonibilies to live up to before I would use them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Like this place. ;-)
Or this instead of snail mail!
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
Oh my God, they totally forgot the killer app!
Find free books.
1. Go to the URL in the article for the text to speech (http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.htm l)
2. Type "Those who are tardy do not get fruit cup"
3. Select "Klara....German" for the voice.
4. Click "Speak"
5. Dribble milk out of your nose
Why do you troll so much, troll?
I think this poster was right. We've slipped into a time warp and it's 1998 all over again.
I found this app yesterday while looking for a ultra simple note taker / todo list that hides in the system tray. It makes remembering who phoned and what I need to do a little easier to remember.
:)
I highly recomend it.
You can get it here:
http://www.wekasoft.com/etodo/index.htm
Better yet it is free
Browser Java Apps don't count! :)
del.icio.us is a pretty cool replacement/complement to bookmarks as it allows you to share and categorize interesting links and also gives you an rss feed in return. Along with that, there's a slight soical networking aspect.
[shameless plug] myself and a group of guys at my school have been working on a syntax hilighting php editor. It's a long way from complete, but its coming along nicely [/shameless plug]
WU'BO - A word with absolutely no meaning of any kind.
That thing sounds great, but it is a tech demo, not an app. If there is a way to make it speak an arbitrary text file and send it to me as an MP3, let me know. Otherwise it is pretty useless.
I've seen those at mi locals isp web site,c om.ar/mel/
some flash app acts as a sticky note app, it also lets you use alarms, and share stickyes.
there is also an audio player, you can hack it into playing any online mp3.
it's got potential.
www.cotemax.com.ar/stk/
www.cotemax.
Yahoo has some great online services related to productivity. Check it out at http://calendar.yahoo.com
This is what they did back in the old days. You dial in to use a professional application. Interesting how when bandwidth starts to outperform processing power we find ourselves in the same position again.
Those apps are pretty cool (particularly the UML one), but none can eat productivity like Gridlock!
There is credible evidence that an "online desktop" advocate known only as "Jon_Aquino" is threatening to make the country less secure by encouraging already stupid computer users to abandon the safety and security of software that does not require an Internet connection. Remember, if you use online desktop applications then the terrorists have already won.
Laws are for people with no friends.
What's the big deal about trying to replace everything on the desktop with an online app? For some applications it makes sense. But everything? It's almost like people want my desktop to be nothing more than a thin client running a browser connected to beefy servers. Did Wyse dump something in the water supply?
Couldn't I just *store* my documents online, instead of having to move all my applications there as well?
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Although it is an obvious answer, I love web mail clients and I have used some that are just as functional as Outlook.
<shameless plug> hostedLABS is building a tools along these lines</shameless plug>
And I have played Flash Pacman and javascript Battleship.
I hear that the website over at http://slashdot.org is a great online replacement for actual work.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
1 foot in meters
Hop along to http://wiredx.net/ for a browser based (Java) X server...very cool.
John
Slashdot - online replacment for the old fashion nuke programs.
What about an online browser?
I don't see this working for the most part where everyone connects to one location, like Microsoft. It's just not practical and it takes control away from the user.
For example, imagine you're a system admin who's running version x and then the main server decides to upgrade to version y which just happens to be incompatible with something you're doing.
Now, I could see this working for system admins who want to install it locally for their department or business since then they would still have central control. In fact, it's already done a lot (project management software, for example).
The SSH client is widely available from various sources, particularly universities. Just Google for "mindterm ssh" to find a location near you.
One caveat: I've only used this using Internet Explorer (since that is always on a public Windows machine), but the SSH client is also supposed to work with Netscape.
...is NeoSpeech. It's not free but the humanistic quality is MUCH better than the AT&T demo.
GET FREE APPLE STUFF!
Try egroupware http://www.egroupware.org/. It is my favorite replacement for Outlook. I especially like the daily comics feature.
I believe the personality and compatibility tests at eharmony and Match.com qualify as online apps.
Thing is eHarmony relies solely on this method to match you up and match.com relies more on pictures - guess where the ugly but cool people go? Guess where the pretty but clueless people go?
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
http://www.myproactive.com/ - think Outlook+Exchange online
It appears the ol' Slash has shown why one shouldn't be dependant on web based applications. Hopefully it'll clear up soon so the rest of us can check them out.
-]Phreak Out[-
Nice chord generator and chord namer. Map out any scale, display tab files with chord diagrams alongside.
AFAIK, the AT&T Natural Voices app isn't freeware. Their little demo might be free to use, but does that mean we should count all demoware as freeware?
If anyone else has a link to some FREE (and high-quality - none of this "SAM" or Dr. Sbaitso quality stuff!) text-to-speech converters, I'll all ears. Ha. Get it? All ears... hehehe...
That web note one lets you enter arbitrary HTML and JavaScript. So you can steal peoples cookies if that site sets any. Sweet...
Dammit... when will /. start letting us edit our posts? Freakin' typos...
AT&T would like to thank slashdot for load testing their new TTS system. Which i must say held out pretty well during its 15 minute bombardment of "fuck me hard" (audrey) "last time on star trek voyager" (claire) and "essen mein sheizer. oh yah. dass ist gut!" (both of the germans). And thus, we learn the reason why we dont use online replacements for desktop apps: we all have our own computing power, a website cant handle all of us.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I've used the Color Schemer Online to come up with some cool color schemes for web pages. Sometimes it doesn't seem to turn out right, but I seem to avoid coming up with ... *ahem* ... wonderful color schemes that Slashdot has (I'm looking at you IT and Games section).
Forget the whales - save the babies.
I found a couple of these, but they take
too much bandwidth. Where can I get a
T3 for $9.95 a minth?
and AWSEOME set of 100% ad-free multiplayer java apps that play using popular browsers.
:
t ci ty/rules.htm
:
e .h tm
Lost Cities card game, Shotten-Totten, and a third Q-Beta
All are at www.FlexGames.com
Jsut go to www.flexgames.com then click on the desired box art to join the game area for the type of game desired.
no ads, no email reg, no popups, nothing to download other than using browswer to run a java applet and its community chat area to select player to compete against.
Its fun and addicting, several people have played it hundreds of times.
As far as i know no other multiplayer game site exist like this that also lack ads, registration or popups. Its basically as free as a site can be.
The best site showing full "Lost Cities" rules can be seen on this site
http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.lawson/rk/los
Its a simple game to learn but very exciting in the last few cards played and relies a lot on strategy.
The person who designed the basic game of Lost Cities (Reiner Knizia) has published 99 actual board games commercially. The full list of 99 Reiner Knizia games (old list as of 2002) is
http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.lawson/rk/dat
As seen, the game Lost Cities is a game designed by the worlds most successful game designer. Even better, its his best game, and better still the Java implementation has lots of special enhancements. Its a well written java applet game that faithfully implements the classic 2 player card game with full GUI and the site has statistics pages, community chat, local chat, irc observer feeds, and chess-like rankings.
It works on Macintosh OS X browsers and MS Windows browsers so long a a recent Java JVM is installed.
Please give the game(s) at www.flexgames.com a try a lot of work went into making them flawless and fun. "Lost Cities" is perhaps the best two player card game ever designed and that web site does it justice.
Does anyone remember this? It was so kick ass for the day... It was the late 90's wasn't it?
I remember downloading a tarball, throwing it onto an apache server and viola! I pointed a browser at it and up came a nice MS Word clone, all in Java. It was beatiful. It came, it went, and poof, 5 years later people are looking for it.
forgive the A.C. nic but everytime i try to register,i get denied,sighhhh.
Mozilla Browser
Eprompter
Group Mail Free
Webkey
Quick Shutdown
Ad-Aware
Registry Cleaner
Ad-Free
Start up Monitor
Winkey
Enewsbar
MyCorkboard
LINK CHECKER
this is what i now have installed and in use everyday. as with all freeware,you must update it before you run after installing.
MOZILLA:
finest web browser anywhere! reccomended by the U.S. Goverment for our goverment agencies.comes with pop-up blocker. can also be configured to use pop3 e-mail.
http://www.mozilla.org
download the latest build.
EPROMPTER:
ePrompter automatically and simultaneously checks and retrieves your email messages from up to sixteen password protected email accounts such as AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, Earthlink, Email.com, iName, Juno, Lycos, Mail.com, Mindspring, MSN, Netscape, POP3, OneBox, Rediffmail, SBC Yahoo, Switchboard, USA.net and hundreds of other email domains.
http://www.eprompter.com/
GROUP MAIL FREE;
http://www.infacta.com/download.asp?a=nav#F ree
WebKey2000 Version 1.2:
WebKey2000 allows you to visit your favorite websites at the touch of a keyboard button. With one-touch access, you can also launch your default email client using an email template, execute any applications (even with shortcuts), open any registered documents, and a whole lot more. With the new features added to version 1.2, WebKey2000 can be an extremely useful utility. Now you can do things such as hide or show a series of active windows on your desktop, execute an action command from the clipboard buffer, and open a default browser with an url using the existing opened window. WebKey2000 has a very nice GUI interface to let you define a hotkey and the action associated with it. Using modifiers like Ctrl, Alt and Shift, you can specify a variety of hotkeys and duplicate entries will be detected. The program runs as a convenient icon in the system-tray area of the windows taskbar and can automatically run at windows startup. A context menu can easily be accessed from this tray-icon to allow you to enable or disable all the hotkeys quickly. This simple freeware program is easy to use and could be a great time-saver if you have a handful of websites that you frequently visit, program or files that you constantly open, or even friends that you often send emails to.
http://www.geocities.com/viperucla/webkey.htm l
Quick ShutDown(TM) v.2.6 (freeware): - fast Windows shutdown tool allowing to shutdown or reboot Windows with the one mouse click. When Quick ShutDown is running, an accurate miniature icon appears on the taskbar on the end opposite the "Start" button. Quick ShutDown allows you to define your own icon to be displayed. When you click the icon with the left mouse button, it shutdowns or reboots your computer. You can set a keyboard shortcut for any action - shutdown, reboot, hibernate, standby, lock, logoff and media eject. Also, Quick ShutDown can automatically terminate applications if they are not responding and can be used to schedule shutdown or reboot using standard Windows.
http://www.winutility.com/?from=prog_qsd
AD-AWARE:
spyware remover,
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaw are/
Old RegCleaner:
[I USE THIS AS STATED AS WELL AS TO CONTROL WHAT STARTS UP WITH WINDOWS-SEE STARTUP TAB]
You've found that your favourite program is an older version, and you want to download the latest whiz-bang version. The program, however, doesn't provide any uninstall utility, so you simply destroy its files and cross your fingers. But, as fate would have it, when you try to install the latest version, you see a dialog box such as this: "Please uninstall the old version of this program before attempting to run this installation." Great, now what?Hang on; you simply remove the old program's registry entries with RegClean! Now you can continue installing the newer program version t
Here is a google groups link to a discussion about it. It was kick ass.
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=corel+office+
I wanted to convert 2 hours into microfortnights, and it couldn't even do that.
Everyone knows that there are 2976.19 microfortnights to an hour.
http://actor.loquendo.com The best-sounding TTS program I ever heard, for any language I speak. Outputs mp3's up to 30 seconds in length, and even longer wav's. It's down right now... Slashdotted?
Why the hell would someone want these kind of tools online! :|
Aren't these already working fine in offline environments?
This will just result in more data gathering for "targeted" advertisement.
Doesn't Mozilla have some sort of functionality with this? XUL and all of that? Why don't we see more apps posted like that?
Have basically a thin client browser that's a flash container, and a proxy server that deals with all the heavyweight, and incompatiable (IE vs NS) stuff(1).
(1) For the incredibley sharp out there. Proxy servers can be a good way to correct a lot of incompatiablities and expectations, NOW, while cruising the web.
Stop fucking my message up!
This website allows anyone to manage their POP3/IMAP account for free.
http://www.myemail.com
Wyatt
very simple topbar bookmark app www.stealthrevolution.com
MikMik Baby Organics Mikkaworks
We keep going in the wrong direction, we gotta stop letting ourselves get narrowed into a tiny pathway. we had computers that we had to program entirely ourselves, we had to connect the right wires. then we had punchcards - which were just helpful, easier ways to manage the computer than wires. it did add some needless fluff, though. then we got a monitor, keyboard, terminals, these things were excellent, but included a little fluff. but when the GUI came, the most useless of all tools, we had the ability to superfluously move and manipulate data we wouldn't have cared about, data that primarily involves the act of displaying itself. Visual Basic is a language that got quite big, people learned it, companies depended on it, but it SUCKED. IT SUCKED. IT WAS A TERRIBLE LANGUAGE. VISUAL BASIC WAS A POOR IMPLEMENTATION OF BASIC, WHICH WAS NO GOOD ANYWAY!!! people got stuck into this GUI world, VB world, wasting resources constantly. now, wtf.. web based? now all the noobs, the 12 year old fools who want to be cool and show off, use tables and flash to prove their worth. who cares if it's cross-platform, write a cross-platform OS, or develop cross-platform programs, but the WWW is meant for sharing Text. HyperText Markup Language. Think people, it's not about drawing pictures. it can, i know, but it doesn't matter now and it never has. it wastes cycles, it goes through the internet, through the specific web browsers, through the way the browsers handle the protocols, the GUI format that's handling the browser and the web elements partially, the OS it's running on, the underlying interpreters, it's terribly wasteful... but i know it's inevitable. i just don't like it.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, but Bloglines is one of my favorite web applications. It's an online RSS/Atom aggregator in a simple, ad-free interface.
I happen to like Fastbuzz (http://www.fastbuzz.com) as my RSS reader of choice. It's nice because when I go from work to home or to another computer, I don't have to reread the same news each time.
"Is this not a rare fellow, my lord? He's as good at any thing, and yet a fool." -from "As You Like It", Act 5,
You're forgetting that since the 'local' software has to phone home anyway (to prevent piracy), it's actually more of a hassle than online apps.
I predict all softwear will be web-based by 2008 (mmm webby bikinis...)
Ouiki Glogs:Rationale for attribution-free online communities ~ [steve mann, wearcam.org]
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
I went to http://www.apriori.net/paz/spreadsheet1.html as directed, but there was no spreadsheet there. Just a few brief notes on how a spreadsheet might work had it been there...
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Pretty lame: the down arrow generates a '6', and the up arrow an icelandic 'ð'. Real intuitive.
Slashdot entertains. Windows pays the mortgage.
Well, if you want apps that are easy to produce and based online, and you have a bit of programming experience, try out Rebol. It's very small, very fast, and the version with the Gui utilities built in is only 550K big! It's got a lot of really nifty data types (money, dates, tags) and it's fast. There are some issues with it presently (mainly dealing with the multi-line text box) that keep me from catagorizing it as perfect, but its damn cool if you have some time to kill. Rebol also has a decent online community with lots of example scripts, and also a good developers website. It's VERY network friendly. Anyone wanting something that they can keep on a website but run locally with no installation should definitely check it out.
*slight crashing sound*
Here, Knock your self out.
here
I use it in classes rather than using stats packages that most students will never buy.
ski, ba bop, ba dopp bop;
ba bop, ba dopp bop;
sk, ba bop, ba dopp bop.
ba bop, bah dah bah dah bah dah bah dah
works surprisingly well with some of the voices
BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
ScheduleWorld is a replacement for Outlook.
We provide a freely available Exchange-like calendar service too.
All operations are asynchronous so it works offline. The advantages online are that tasks that that take time (like creating an event over the Internet) appear to happen in zero time and don't slow you down for a microsecond.
All of your working set (your data, and all other data you need) is cached locally. Everything is kept in sync via async background threads passing compressed diffs when necessary.
Your account can be active on several PCs at once. All of them kept in sync.
You can sync your data (Windows, OS/X, Linux, Solaris) to your cell phone via SyncML. You can sync your Palm, PPC, Outlook, Exchange, etc. hardware/software devices via SyncML too.
Worried about security? Here are two interesting facts:
1. ScheduleWorld runs in a Sandbox and can't snoop your keystrokes, read your hard drive or install spyware. Here's something new: you don't have to trust the application you are running with respect to spyware/viruses and other such nonsense because it simply _can't_ do any of those things.
2. All of your data is encrypted. The ScheduleWorld admins can't read it. For those wearing tinfoil hats: the FBI could subpoena your calendar/contacts but they can't read them either unless you give them your private keys.
ScheduleWorld raises the bar for Interent applications to a whole new level. It's the way software should be done.
I will debate logical arguments and answer any reasonable questions about any security/performance related issues.
Schedule your world with ScheduleWorld.com http://www.ScheduleWorld.com/ (Java Web Startable)
I'm suspicious of Perelman's claim that someone patented Kirchoff's law. His cite points to a book and doesn't mention the patent number. Any clues?
Attempts to paraphrase a patent's claims are often inaccurate.
Without a doubt, the most handy web-based app I've run across is the MindTerm Java SSH client. Exceedingly handy for logging into my machines when I'm on the road and only have access to someone else's computer. It's commercial, but good old Duke has a copy up on their web pages for all to use.
How about a Complete Online Productivity Suite?
However. How about a Japanese live demo? ScanSoft SpeechWorks Speechify product demos.
Todd
-- !todd erases a red dot! I steal music on the internet.
...to turn your top-of-the line PC into a 286 era performer.
Puh-leez. I'd like to boot to BIOS so that I can load DOS so that I can run Windows so that I can use IE so that I can set up a VM so that I can sandbox an application so that I can use a buggy Java editor to write a self-worship web page?
As an exercise in emulating those Russian dolls that keep getting smaller and smaller, sure. As a real-world computing solution? I'll know we're in hell if this ever achieves wide-spread adoption. The current deluge of web-based Java apps is already turning my hair grey with bugs, security exploits, extremely nasty functionality, and spontaneous page refreshes which cause my recent changes to be replaced with the 5 minute old information that the server has.
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
... when I said the applet was not dead.
After 8 years and seeing these, I say...
Damnit, they're still right.
"It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it."
i used it to create my voicemail message. some people think i have a british secretary now.
I tried to go to the link for the paintbrush app. It started to load and I could see it had some java apps loading and it suddenly crashed. This is running on gentoo. Anyone getting the same error?
Xnotepad (coming soon) - place to jot down some notes, quickly. plain html. export functionality. (SOON!)
The only application listed that I think should be classified as an online application is the text to speech converter. The other applications are scripts/java/flash. These programs are run locally with the possibility of saving state data to a server.
Just because an application appears in a web browser does not make it an online app.
For some applications, such as the Lemmings Clone, or the calculator, or a number of others, there's no real reason to save what one had created with the program, as the output is only immediately important. The application is used a few times, and the outputs are used immediately, or within a few hours.
For other online applications, such as online office applications, or the like, the need to save a document (or other work) is manifestly important. Currently, documents can be saved on the computer on which one works, but then one still requires a storage medium to cart around in order to keep the document with the person during travel. Which means that the online office application is a good way to save money, or to be able to create office documents on a computer without office applications (word processors, spreadsheets, etc.), but a person will likely use a word processor which is located on the computer if one is present.
However, with remote storage, online applications could begin to take off as the primary application, replacing their installed counterparts: the same document could be edited in the same word processor on two (or fifteen) different computers, reducing the number of people who need to use and carry laptops. In addition, if and when online office applications appear in great numbers for mobile devices, e.g. the Palm or the Zaurus, an online office application will make even more sense in terms of storage management, as no local application is needed, and the document can be stored off the palmtop somewhere else, and be edited from a desktop at work or home, as well as the palmtop on the road.
This sig space intentionally left blank.
some use an emulator plugin, but alot just use shockwave/flash.
Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
It's a syntax hilighting PHP (any other language is easy enough to add) editor written entirely in javascript (well a little python to build symbol tables). It runs entirely in the web browser.
Try it out -- then mod me to death.
WU'BO - A word with absolutely no meaning of any kind.
Plug warning: I'm the project admin
Go check out the Sydney project. There's an example at http://sydney.sourceforge.net/sydney_example.html.
Sydney is an all-Javascript/CSS/DOM project intended to create applications that run in your browser but look like desktop apps. It's already in use in a real project, but I'm not sure how much I can say about it, what with it being proprietary and all.... Anyway, Sydney is (to be) released under the LGPL. (The "to be" part is 'cause I'm just finishing up exams, and I haven't figured out the file release tools on SourceForge yet. Everything's in CVS, though.) It provides a fairly rich class hierarchy of widgets, including normal stuff like buttons, labels, and checkboxes, plus some more complex stuff like trees and tables. It runs in both Mozilla and IE, and it's intended to be cross-browser, so now that it's open source, it may start to work in $YOUR_FAVOURITE_NON_TTY_BROWSER. Let me know what you think.
Ian
An online timesink
Surprised to see this on slashdot, because just today I wanted to play around with some parameters for a function to generate a curve. Trig is a very fuzzy memory for me, so I wanted to try some things out on a graphing calculator.
I tried VersionTracker, and I googled for a graphing calculator. Google won, this has a nice applet that works great: http://gcalc.net/
You drank my drink, you drunk!
The only app I want to see, and have wanted to see, is WinMX for Linux. I'd never use windows again.
Quickmath is a web-interface to Mathematica for certain types of problems. I use it to solve systems of equations every now and then.
I use this ROT13 web app for online encryption. My personal data is safe!
Any basic OS comes with these tools already. Why do I need an online version? So I can't access my important programs and data unless I'm online? That's not really the "advantage" I'm looking for in an application.
.sig: Open Source, Open Mind
Notice how the thing won't say "clit", instead spelling it out. At least it will say clitoris.
Online apps suck.
Did you take a look at JWChat? It's a web based jabber client. ;-)
O.K. it's written by me, so I have to say that it is definately coool
There's a very interesting post on kottke.org that discusses online applications in relation to weblogs. I quote:
.Mac account); use GMail for email; use TypeKey or Flickr's authentication system to handle identity; outsource your storage/backups to Google or Akamai; you let Feedburner "listen" for new content from all those sources,
Taking the weblog example to the extreme, you could use TypePad to write a weblog entry; Flickr to store your photos; store some mp3s (for an mp3 blog) on your ISP-hosted shell account; your events calendar on Upcoming; use iCal to update your personal calendar (which is then stored on your
transform/aggregate/filter it all, and publish it to your Web space; and you manage all this on the Web at each individual Web site or with a Watson-ish desktop client.
---- scrm
bloglines.com is an excellent replacement for your desktop RSS newsfeed aggregator. Once I started using it, I was hooked. Those desktop aggregators waste RAM, network bandwidth, and constantly bug you when there are new feed items to read. the online replacement is a definite improvement. they also have a notifier popup window via web or downloadable app for your OS if you simply must be informed of new items.
:)
I could keep raving about why it's better, but you should just try it
"What thou shalt not, I shalt did!" -Bart Simpson
There is a nice Jabber client done in flash, called gush.You can find it here ;)
But I must say, it isn't realy online, it starts from your hard drive.Oh, well
I've just tried a few of those 'online' apps, they ate loads of memory and one crashed firefox, hardly the things I would expect from an 'online' app.
Instead they are just regular application embeded in a web page, woopie, I can do that with anything Java.
I was expecting the kind of thin client that I would be able to access from a mobile device, or run on a pritated copy of Crippled Windows (TM) that's been imported from Asia.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
All of these and more could actually run in your desktop with apple's upcoming dashboard... (in a non-annoying way that gets out of your way)
--------------------------------- Born Again Bourne Again Believer: New Life, GNU/Linux Be Free!
Are these web applications really free? For example if the site you currently use stops offering the service can anyone take the source code and run the same application from a different site? Or are they locked-in proprietary apps where the site owner can turn off the service at any time and you just have to live with it?
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Crap. Usually when you read these "I remember when" rants they are funny because they are so over the top that you realize nobody could really think like that.
I found myself agreeing with this one. Dammit.
Gotta go chase some kids off my lawn...
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
And nitpick what other people write.
Oh, it shouldn't be called "mail-order" if you use the internet to order it, fucktard!
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I for one would use such tools, but there are other options than flash... Call it a "thin-client" and such things as Java Web Start and applets come to mind.
Web paintbursh and whatnot may be cool, but they're just eye candy really. What we DO need is some useful web connection tunneling tools. For example, if I want to ssh to my home server from a free internet tent which allows only web access, I should be able to go to a site with a neato-cool java app that will tunnel my connection through their web server and out to my home server.
Of course, it won't happen because of potential for abuse, but it would be cool.
-Dave
6th Street Radio @ddombrowsky
The problem here is how can any of us trust our data to an online application, especially if it's not open souce, after the bad behavior we've seen with so many supposedly "free" programs that turn out to be spyware?
-All that is gold does not glitter - Tolkien
www.ra
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Can it convert units of length to units of time so I can finally understand why the Millennium Falcon making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs is an indication of its speed?
That's chatzy.com
My wife's firm tightly controls what's running on their desktops, and appear to be blocking some of the IM ports.
Chatzy is free, allows you to be fairly anonymous, and works in javascript, you can run it as long as you're not using a really stripped down browser.
Also, I think it's really cool that the conversation text continues to be visible, well apparently forever. Unless you choose to clear it. And that includes the stuff that's said when you're not in the chat room. In other words, I can use it to leave messages for my wife.
It's be great for us, so I heartily recommend it. Of course, no one will see this post, but I thought I'd put out the good word.
Check out my blog: My Galaxy is Milky Way Adjacent
10110
01110
11100
11011
00011
1 means that you click the square once, 0 means that you don't. Of course this pattern can be rotated and mirrored as well.
I must not be as smart as the rest of ya (some AC already posted a solution hours ago), but it took me a couple of hours to actually work out a solution. I had it solved within a few minutes but for the life of me couldn't remember how I got there. It's funny, because the page source says
:)
(Duda says he proved its solvable under 25 moves, but still cannot figure moves out)
Well, it's solvable (several ways) in 15 moves. The trick with a puzzle like this is that the ORDER of your clicks is irrelevant. The AC solution is also 15 long, here's mine (a bit more symmetrical and therefore asthetically pleasing IMHO
00011
11011
11100
01110
10110
1 means you click the square, 0 means you don't. Again, the order doesn't matter.
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
This is pretty cool:
changemypage.com
However, our solution IS symmetrical around a diagonal line:In fact it would be easier to just write down the number of 1's i each (diagonal) row:
1,0,3,4,3,0,1,2,1
Just pad with 0's to the left and right of the 1's.
At roughly the same time this thread was created here @./, jkottke posted this on his blog. Kottke goes beyond "replacing desktop software", flirting with the idea of "the web as a plattform". I think this is worth thinking about.
I mean some of the apps are direly off-putting to use. .. can't remember the link. ...
A combination of client/server side scripting without plugins - could make it more interesting.
It's tempting to write an Excel clone - much like what they've done with Outlook which is entirely web-based.
The SQL Server enterprise manager web-app which seems to have been abandoned - is another example.
Cool are those HTML formatting text-editor - there is one that is truly cross-platform (well *almost*)
I just find Javascript much better and lighter - cleaner
And that combined with serve-side could make it into a web that is quite comfortable/intuitive to use.
Why do you need replacements for desktop apps when you can have online desktop apps?
Take a look at http://computadora.de and create an account. You will have email, instant messages, chat and also integrated online Abiword and Gnumeric.
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