FunTastic Links - Cool, Fun and Useful WebSite Links Showcase

Showing posts with label tool. Show all posts

Become the handy man (or woman) you always dreamed, FixIt Club

This website deserves a review, and a very positive one. Basically, there you can find info on how to fix just about anything we have at home. Most of the problems we have in our house appliances and furniture are always the same and can be easily repaired, without spending a buck on tools or professional technicians, sometimes we just don't know how. The guides are very practical and accompanied by some useful pictures, and range from a television repair to a garage door reapir, a faucet repair, or even a small engine repair... Pretty much everything.

No registration required

[Go FixIt]

Quick free and fancy flash charts - Rich Chart Live

This tool is probably not something you will use often, but is always a good idea to keep it under your tool belt. The idea of creating fancy flash charts with astonishing effects is to have them embedded somewhere like on a website, a multimedia presentation or work report among others. The charts are created in just a couple of steps, and the data is inserted directly on the generator app, after that, you have the option to download the chart as a offline flash application, publish it to powerpoint or embed it in a blog or website using the html code provided. You can even save it in their servers for later reuse or rework. Another great example of the web 2.0 power...

No registration required

[go create a chart]

And since I had no better ideas for an example, here's a chart showing the number of comments and ratings of the latest ten posts in this blog at the time of this writing, being number one the last one. Roll your mouse over the chart to view the post title or click the bars to go directly to the post.

What about an online library? I mean, a real library with virtual books... Scribd

Imagine youtube, but for books... Scribd works just like that, users upload books, which stay available for other users to read. Just like that. Thing is, only original writings should be submited, truth is (and this is a small secret) pretty much everything is available for online reading there, from a recipe book to the latest "something for dummies", or the hottest novel of the moment. Registered users can download the books in pdf or plain text, and documents can be uploaded using almost any printable format like Word docs, PDF files or powerpoints. My guess is that if and when this website becomes publicly noticed, there will be some kind of censorship, like it happened with youtube, but for now is free and up for everyone. Have fun putting your readings up to date...

No registration required
Registered users can upload and download documents

[Go on and read a book]

Review your projects, work in a collaborative environment

First of all a confession. When I started this blog, I wasn't expecting to find some many cool and useful websites. I already have a very long website list to review and post about. This one is other of the awesome pearls I've found. In ReviewBasics, you can post your latest project whether is a website, a powerpoint presentation or a new banner ad, anything that could go digital. Then you simply invite people to review your material, and they can post comments, draw small signs with comments on your website screenshot for example, and many other things. As an example, suppose you were reviewing this blog and you don't like the scrat toon, you can make an arrow pointing to it, saying something like "I don't like the creepy look in his face". You can also use it as a project management tool, where two or more persons will work on the same project simultaneously. Really really nice...

Registration required

[ReviewBasics]

If you would like to review this blog, as an experiment, just post your email in a comment and I'll be glad to invite you to review it.

From the beggining to the end. Build your timeline or map...

This is an awesome tool, you can build timelines, embeding images, videos, links, a description, etc, and then show it up as a timeline, a list, a flipbook, or even a map, if you provide locations within the events. I can see a huge list of probable uses for this tool, including to use as a navigation aid in websites. Check my exemple bellow, I created a funtastic timeline, and I'm presenting it as a flipbook, then you can navigate by all the posts, and click on a link to go directly to the post. You can create a private timeline with the growth of your son, with fotos and videos, and show it to your family, or your wedding, or your career in some sport... Imagination is the limit. Enjoy.

Registration required
Aditional features available uppon a subscription

[build up your timelines]

Here's the funtastic timeline

Hernani C. on Dipity.

Put your ideias in map. In a MindMeister mind map.

Are you aware of the concept of a mind map? wasn't until I've found MindMeister. Here's the wikipedia definition for a mind map:

"A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing."

I won't argue with whoever wrote the definition, and it even looks logical, but I guess it takes some practice to use mind maps, and maybe a motive, something I don't have right now. Either way, it's pretty cool to play with it for a while, and will reside on my favorites because I may need it someday, who knows?

Registration required
Paid extras
Collaborative, multiple users can work in the same mind map

[Go map your mind]

Here's a funtastic map:

A search engine or a Geek portal? Wolfram Alpha

Have you ever wished your favorite search engine would directly answer your question? This appears to be the idea of WolfRam. You make a question in plain English, just don't use slang, and possibilities are that you get an answer. As an example, I tried asking What was the weather in New York when Michael Jackson born?, and true is that I didn't got what I was looking for, but just because there is no weather records for that particular date, August 29 of 1958... But the question was clearly understood by Wolfram, and it provided me with some related information, like the birth date of MJ and a graphic with historical temperatures for August 29. Cool uh?

No registration
Plugins available for major browsers

[Go make a question]

or

[check the answer to my other ultra difficult question]

Toondo. Want to make some comic strips?

When I was a child I used to dream about becoming a comic strips artist, and I really mean it. My life took other paths but I still like to make some drawings. Toondo allows you to create and publish your own comic strips. You can also take a look at other people strips, and vote them and all that usual stuff. It's a really cool online application, you can mix and match some premade drawings, or create your own. There's even a very easy way to create really cool characters. I've now found a new addiction....

Registration required

[Go make your strips]

Here's my very own comic strips book, I'm so happy:-D

a day in the life of a geek by hrcerqueira | Make Your Own At www.toondoo.com

Become a skilled computer graphic artist - Splashup, online graphical suite

Photoshop is expensive and not very friendly. The Gimp is free, but it really annoys me with all that floating panes over my desktop. But now you have Splashup. Yes, finally I can finally stop my restless sleeping nights... Or maybe I'm exaggerating. Anyway, splashup is an online flash application with advanced graphical editing capabilities, ans is also surprisingly very easy to use. Maybe the adobe guys should learn something with splashup fellows...

Optional registration, but not required

[Go splashup]

I've made my own Andy Warhol type picture using Uncle Bill's photo.