Feature: ShopWiki

One of the amazing things about the internet is the so-called wiki. It is a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it. It was Ward Cunningham who applied the word for web use to connote something quick. He got the idea from a Hawaiian bus shuttle named Wiki Wiki. Wiki in the Hawaiian language simply means fast.

At the moment, one of the best-known wikis is the Wikipedia. Others are the Wikinvest and the Wikidot. But here is an emerging kind of wiki site - the ShopWiki. It is basically a shopping search engine designed to help consumers find specific products on the Internet. It has buying guides serving as the wiki site where one can contribute any knowledge about the featured products and moderate the contents for accuracy.

When buying, a customer is not really interested with the specific product but with the product category. This is because the customer needs to gather lots of information or options first before deciding to buy something. ShopWiki provides a central place for relevant information that a customer needs. One can search for personal audio and video products, home theater systems and cameras and photography items. The good thing about the site is its accuracy and its comprehensive coverage when searching for products. Unlike other search engines that provide biased results since they only show the retailers who paid, ShopWiki presents even an unknown retailer with the premise that it has the best price.

For more information, visit the site and check a brilliant story behind it on how everything started with a red British telephone booth.

Digital Frames

A while ago, I came across a site that features and sells lcd digital picture frames. As I learn more about the product, I can't help but be fascinated with it.

Basically, the digital photo frame creates slide shows of photos. A memory card can be plugged into it since it has a standard five-in-one card reader and a USB 2.0 connection. It also has a built-in stereo speakers, 1/8" headphone out, and an infrared remote control.

The frame is quite user-friendly in terms of transition of pictures. And the good thing about it is its compatibility with various formats like JPEG, MP4, DivX, AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, MP3, WMA, WAV. This means that you can play, aside from music, an entire movie in an avi format assuming that you have a 2GB memory card.

In that case, you may perhaps go one better than someone with a Zenith or Coby DVD player. Or you may even be on a par with someone who has an iPod video.

Mailboxes

The motion picture The Lake House has one item, aside from the lakehouse itself, that is significant to the lovers - the mailbox. It is their portal in communicating with each one. But more than being the conduit to make possible the exchange of letters to communicate, with it, they are able to transcend time so that in the end, an unsual love story falls into place.

With today's phenomenon when phones have become the dominant way of communicating, it is quite unconventional for a mailbox to serve as a means to be in touch, more so, a means to manipulate time. Nevertherless, we take a look at how it brings us convenience.

Mailboxes, be it residential mailboxes or commercial mailboxes, can be of benefit to the letter's recipient in two ways. First, if the person is doing some house chores, he'll never have to be bothered, except when a break is needed, by the postman when a missive or a parcel arrives. Second, if the person is out to the office or perhaps to the market or mall, he'll never have to worry about missing his letter.

Mailboxes can be beneficial to the postman as well. Because mailboxes are present, the postman will never have to worry about not delivering the letters just because the recipients are not around. He will never have to wait for the recipient taking time to get interrupted from a house chore.

From a certain perspective, it can be said that the internet has adopted this kind of concept. When a person emails another, he'll never have to go through the hassle of waiting for the receipient to go online. He can send emails anytime even if the recipient is not around. Same with the recipient. He can receive emails through his inbox, which is the mailbox of the internet, anytime without waiting for the other person to go online.

Mailboxes then have introduced us to a convenient way of communicating. And perhaps they actually have introduced us to a way of transcending time as well. With them, the recipient will never have to waste time getting interrupted. And the postman will never have to wait for the preoccupied recipient.

On the Haptic Clock and Lazy People

I've come to the conclusion today that there are always business opportunities when lazy people are around. I shall be telling more about this later. But here's a perfect example.

The Haptic Clock.








According to Future Feeder, it is a clock program for Java powered mobile phones that conveys time through a sequence of vibrations. Perfect for meetings, dates and lazy people. Wrist watches may not be worn again and mobile phones may never be pulled out to check time.

But here's the thing about it in relation to having business opportunities, lucky for the lazy people - it is free.