1. Desktop and application sharing: not novel but …

Last week, a.Tien wanted to give me some instructions on his computer. We first thought about using NetMeeting, the antique MS built-Unyte control screenin Windows conferencing app, which you can easily bring it out by typing conf in the Windows command-line or Run dialog. NetMeeting is quite popular in the company environment using Windows and with Intranet, and recently even integrated with Windows Messenger.

However, we want to try some new tools, and since we usually use Skype for voice communication, I came across with a Skype plugin (or Extras) called Unyte. It’s can be used as a standalone as well (share via email) if downloaded from its owner Webdialogs. Luckily it’s has a good reputation among the desktop sharing/realtime collaboration ones . You can call the Unyte control panel (left pic) from inside Skype window (Do More -> Unyte Application Sharing), select which screen to share, a link will be sent to the remote guy, by clicking that link he can view your real-time shared screen on his browser screen.

It is user-friendly (more than NetMeeting), lightweight (though it seems to make your browser a little bit slower), and (more important) working with NAT, i.e: wherever you can use Skype (no matter you are behind a local firewall or proxy). The data is SSL-secured, which is good for business. Other features are: remote control, record & playback, Salesforce.com integration,… but (hm!) just for paid version. The free one, otherwise, just supports 1 viewer (1:1 sharing). Anyway, check the free one here.

We then may look forward to another good candidate from someone’s recommendation?

2. Scribd.com – They invite you to share your “real” documents with Flash

I didn’t look for this intentionally, but bumped into using it (well, similar way to many Internet discoveries recently) with another friend’s shared link.

Brief: everybody can upload his own documents there, share it to others, and others can view it directly there on an embeded Adobe Flash viewer. The Flash screen gives nice and clear view with full screen mode for better reading. They even have optional file download: PDF, text, and MP3 (audio reading? I haven’t tried).

The first remark: its idea seems analogous to the established YouTube one: enable all to upload and share their own stuffs for others to view, based on Flash, creating a community. The difference is the document in this case, which makes the interest much lower than the video, IMO.
Truly, I have no big impression yet, but let’s see, its user-base is going up anyway. There are some private stuff like HR interview reports, funny job-quit letters; but there are some copyrighted books being shared as well.

And wait …, just found out, that site is a start-up using a new platform from Adobe: called Macromedia FlashPaper (a Flash’s sister) providing quick loading and rendering functionalities, worth to know anyhow?

3. Yubnub – surfing with your finger-tips

Last but most, this wittily-named tool (or website, or web service, or whatever 2.0 term) really interests me. The name comes from a StarWar movie, but what I mean is its functionality. I heard about it before on a.Tien’s blog but just got a first touch last days.

- First, it’s a command-line for web, that means you can type a command on its dialog to open a webpage, instead of a sequence of type-wait-click-wait-skim-click-.. to get to a desired page result. Those commands work like shortcuts or aliases (especially for technical guys familiar with using keyboard, e.g, for Linux, Unix). Then you can step-by-step forget some bookmarks and search plugins by using this productive commands. The sent command will be first processed by Yubnub server to resolve the real address then redirect to the intended page. Hence, Yubnub is also listed as a web service for its machine-to-machine interface.

- Second, it’s called a social (network) command-line, that means anyone can join and create a command himself, or use the ones created already by others. In the end, of course, there’s a big set of commands, but only some being used the most will make sense for its growing community, but individuals still can use their own creations. Command is helpful when there’s a parameter (e.g: when you want to google something), then the parameter (something) will be replaced into the mask in the URL query structure. (This method is already popular with some other Firefox add-on, but Yubnub is way much more powerful)

Apart from popular commands (as exemplified in a.Tien post), here are other attractive ones which prove my praises:

  • Some helpful Unix-like commands:
    • ls : list all commands (ls <keyword> will search all commands related to keyword) –> good to find an available command you need.
    • man <command> : will explain about a command (manual) –> good to recall a command or check if exisiting
    • url <command> : will show the original URL of the command
  • The command structure supports some basic programming functions (ifthen…) for pipelining and URL string manipulation, enabling some mighty commands like:
    • split <URL1> <URL2> …: open multi-frame with those URL pages.
    • 2g : create 2 parallel Google search pages
    • l>> A;B : first search for a site you don’t remember URL but its context A, then search B inside that site (using Google). E.g: l>> connek;venture
  • I first tried to create a command: connektoday : to shows today posts in Connek forum. (That forum doesn’t support much URL query manipulation, so I cannot do more)
  • I looked for some Vietnam related commands: not any yet (seemingly not many in VN using Yubnub ?).

Then I created a simple one for an VN online dictionary I’ve heard of:
vdict <word-to-check> : the URL query is: http://vdict.com/%s,0,0.html with word-to-check will be substituted into %s.

I am using a Yubnub command line add-on for my Firefox here: it supports command history.