Stock.xchng
June 24, 2005 in 5 out of 5 stars, A website, Design, FreeStock.xchng: Free online stock photo site. It's awesome. Stock.xchng makes it, everyone contributes. This site has great photography, contributed by anyone/everyone. There's excellent quality control so just about every photo is professional quality. And the price is right - free! Think p2p meets Getty. The most any photographer will ever ask of you is that you credit them (and not all of them ask that, plus it's all voluntary). Some of the search results could be more relevant. That's a pretty small quibble though. All images are free Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
LAUNCHcast (Yahoo Music)
June 24, 2005 in 5 out of 5 stars, Fun, Hosted softwareLAUNCHcast (Yahoo Music): Every deskmonkey needs good tunes. Launch is an online radio (of sorts) where you tailor the kind of music you listen to based on how you rate music. It learns what you like, then delivers it to you. It works extremely well. It's not "on demand," it's more like the radio, where you take what you get, but they give you what you want. Yahoo bought them a few years back. High quality music, massive music selection, runs in your browser (nothing to download or install), exposes you to all sorts of new stuff you'd never find otherwise.
Ideally I'd like it to be on-demand, but realize for the price that this can't be beat. Free for medium quality music w/ads. $36/yr for no ads, high quality music. Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
I listen to Launch 8+ hrs every day. I've gotten more return on this money than any money I've ever spent.What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
TypePad
June 24, 2005 in 5 out of 5 stars, Blogging, Hosted software, ProductivityTypePad: Hosted blogging software. Six Apart The smarty pants behind the legendary Moveable Type created this hosted blogging software package. I built my own blogging software. It was awesome. I used it for 3 months then subscribed for a trial account of TypePad and switched everything over after using TypePad for about 3 hours. It's awesome, inexpensive and takes all the technical maintenance issues out of your hair so you can concentrate on creating content.
I have a short list, but they are constantly evolving features and I suspect most of them will be implemented in time. My biggest beef is that I'd like a link from the email I get whenever I get a comment so I can at once delete the comment and ban the commenter. Note that 6a are implementing (and have implemented) all sorts of excellent anti-comment spam solutions. I get very little. $5/mo to $15/mo (a bargain!) Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
At the Pro level you have complete control over look and configuration, if you prefer not to use the excellent point-and-click wizard tool that anyone can use, for setting up your blog.
Note: I use it for this blog here, as well as my personal blog and I recommend them to clients all the time. What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
Basecamp
June 24, 2005 in 4 out of 5 stars, Hosted software, Productivity, Project managementBasecamp: An online project management tool. 37 Signals 37Signals took the malarkey out of hosted applications and did this one right. It's super easy to use, setup and understand. Pricing is set according to how many projects you have, not how many users (like competitors). It's the only project management tool I've kept using after a week (been using it for over a year now). It is somewhat sparse on features, (with an eye toward making each feature near flawless) it could use a few more features. So of this writing they are working on Basecamp 2.0. From free to $99/mo Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?
Safety Bar
June 23, 2005 in 5 out of 5 stars, A piece of software, Spam/SpywareSafety Bar: A plugin software module for Outlook and Outlook Express. Cloudmark Because it stops easily 99%+ of my spam. I get over 100 spam messages/day. Cloudmark catches all but maybe 1 every 2 weeks. I never see them. It's amazing. They also gear it to block fraud-oriented spam (phishing and whatnot). Bottom line, this is the solution to spam and it's a total bargain. Easier whitelisting. Plus a blacklist of my own that doesn't pertain to the whole community would be nice. $4/mo or $40/yr -- per desktop. Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
What could be improved?
How much does it cost?
Rating?