Protopage is just one of the online applications developed using Ajax.
Ajax and Web 2.0 are the new buzz words in the Internet world these days.

Ajax, shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications… This is meant to increase the webpages interactivity, speed, and usability. There are some really practical projects going on using Ajax techniques to create online applications and this is just one.

What that translates to, is the existance of more and more web-based interactive tools, some of which are reviewed in this blog.But back to what protopage is all about. It allows you to create your own custom dynamic webpage full of fresh content, your own pictures, notes, links, RSS newsfeeds, etc. All of which can be moved around on the page and resized as you see fit. It’s fun and extremely easy. What makes it even better is that you can access this page (pages actually) from any computer and everything is exactly how you left it. You can even create public pages with stuff you want other’s to see while protecting pages that you don’t want people to see.

It’s very time saving to have all your bookmarks, newsfeeds,weather, notes, widgets etc easily available on one highly customizable and easy to use page or pages. That’s one of the best things i like about it when compared to other similar services, you never run out of space because you can use more than one page.

You can check it out here to get your own free page!

Okay this is a Mac only program, but it’s really good so I have to bring it to your attention. If I had to describe it it would be that it’s a sort of offline blogging program. It sorts entries into “journals” and “entries” where a journal is like a book and and entry is like a chapter. The entries are date stamped automatically, but you can also add your own titles.

Miranda Instant Messenger is a multi-protocal Instant messenger for Windows. A lot of people like to use one program for all their instant messaging needs rather than have each different one running at once.

It supports ICQ, AIM, MSN, YAHOO, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), Jabber, Gaddu-Gaddu, Netsend, Tlen, and more. (Whatever those last ones are, yeah i dunno either). The difference with Miranda is that it’s very customizable indeed. You can change almost everything about it. There’s lots of skins available and also you can change the sounds, background images, icons, emoticons, skins, themes, and splash screens. So for anyone who likes to customize, they’re gonna have fun with this.

There’s also a plentiful supply of plug-ins available. It’s smaller and faster than similiar software such as trillian. It’s also open-source, in other words, free and always being developed!

So if all this sounds good to you, you can check out more info from the homepage right here!

Just about everyone has at least one email address in these days of internet access available in virtually any part of the world. But there’s nothing too exciting about email these days. It seems it’s all been done, with todays accounts holding gigabytes worth of email in some cases.

What was once a high tech novelty is now as commonplace as having a phone number. Well it seems someone has thought of one more thing!
How about the longest email address in the world? Even though it won’t be believed by some people and wont be accepted by some internet forms! It’ll still be one that catches attention for sure!

http://www.abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijk.com

Yes its real! Click it for more info.

Nowadays many people work on the go, logging into different computers at different times, such as the office computer and your PC at home, or cyber cafes. It’s not always easy to use someone else’s computer. For instance, if they’re logged on then you’ll need to use their browser and you’ll leave a browsing trail, personal information and you never know what they have installed on their machine. One way to get around this is to use online services such as webmail, that can be checked from anywhere.

Another way is by using a USB drive, which nowadays are very affordable and have come down in price and up in storage size. Many of the ones available today allow you to carry one or two gigabytes worth of data around with you on your key chain for immediate access from any computer you plug it into!

Portable Apps Suite is a selection of useful programs that can be run directly from your USB drive. It includes a browser (Firefox portable), graphics editing (GIMP portable),email (Thunderbird portable), media player (VLC portable) Instant messaging (Gaim portable and Miranda portable) office suite (OpenOffice.org portable) and much more!

They’re all included with an integrated menu,all preconfigured to work ‘out of the box’. You simply need to drag and drop the suite on to your USB device/key and you’re ready to go!

As it uses all open-source software, it’s completely free to download from here. A worthwhile addition to any USB memory owner who works on-the-go!

If you have been having issues with downloading on the web then you are going to love this software. Free Download Manager. With this free download manager and accelerator, you will download files and complete web sites easily and quickly.

One of the things I really love about this software is the fact that it can resume broken downloads. So you don’t have to start the downloading process afresh every time there is an interruption of some sorts. You can resume unfinished download from the moment when it was interrupted.

You also get warnings from Free Download Manager if resuming isn’t supported by the servers. It allows you to make a decision about the downloading. So with FDM you save your time and money.

If the file contains spyware or adware you are alerted by FDM even before the download is started as the software checks pending downloads thoroughly.

Want to try it? CHECK IT OUT!

Google Pack is a suite of software, some original software and some bundled third party software, all of it designed to enhance your productivity. Google Desktop is billed as a desktop companion, but basically what it is a search facility for all your “stuff”, emails, files on your computer, your web history etc. Oh and by far the best gadget, if you’ll pardon the pun, you also get the facility to add Google Gadgets to customize your desktop and the Google Sidebar. Gadgets are a bit like Widgets on the Mac, and are little programs which do one job that are easy to access from the desktop.

Also as part of the package you get Picasa, Google’s Photo organiser and editor, Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer (for those of us who don’t have Firefox), plus you get the Google pack photo screensaver. For your fix of Google Gadgets, go here for all the details.

Yes it’s true you can get Skype on a mobile phone. In the UK, on the 3 network, you can run a copy of Skype for mobile on your phone and make free calls to other Skype users. You can’t as yet do SkypeIn or SkypeOut calls, but then what phone network in its right mind would let you do that?

As I say it works through the 3 network in the UK, but while the Skype software and calls are free, the network and the phone are not. You have to be on a pay monthly scheme, and paying probably up to £30 a month. Oh yeah and the only phone it works on at the moment is the Nokia N73. But still, be happy; it’s real Skype on a mobile phone and that has got to be a good thing. More phones, more networks and more Skype facilities are obviously going to be rolling out in 2007 so watch this space. For more details and downloads of the software, see the Skype web site.

SpywareGuard works similar to the realtime protection feature on many anti-virus programs, except it guards against spyware. It works in the background, scanning any EXE and CAB files on access ( these are file types that spyware often come as) and alerting you if known spyware is detected.

If this is the case, it initially blocks access to the file and then allows the user to select an action. It provides a fast scanning engine, signature-based scanning, heuristic/generic scanning, a control panel, and an online update utility for downloading of up-to-date definition updates. It also detects with signature-based scanning for known spyware and heuristic/generic detection capabilities to catch new or mutated spyware.

This is brought to us by JavaCool Software, the same people who make SpywareBlaster, which i reviewed previously here.

Both programs work fine running together and offer decent protection for spyware/adware prevention and detection.

It’s essential these days to have some kind of anti-spyware defense, and this program is a good defensive measure to have guarding your computer.

You can check out more information and get this totally free program here.

TrueDownloader is a free and open-source download manager/accelerator. It allows you to pause and resume downloads, (something that’s normally impossible if you use Internet Explorer), so next time you’re downloading a huge file and it disconnects, there’s no need to restart it all over again.

It integrates into Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Mozilla, using it’s extension capability. It also allows simultaneous downloads and segmented downloads,which helps it to download stuff faster. As well as supporting HTTP, it also supports FTP. It also allows the use of proxies and zip file previewing is included too.

It’s totally free software and totally spyware and adware free, unlike some similar software!

You can check out more info and download it totally free by going here.