Friedbeef’s Tech

I don’t subscribe to cable news at home.

Instead I now rely on the Internet for almost all my news since I’ve basically also stopped reading the papers as well.  Having said that, I’ll admit that watching the news on TV, is a lot easier than reading RSS feeds - So yes, I do miss it. 

Livestation is a free Internet service dedicated to serving up live news stations like BBC, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera and many other internationally flavored news channels. 

The technology Livestation currently uses, is a peer-to-peer streaming model just like Joost.  In fact, Livestation works and looks a lot like Joost, but as its name suggests - operates LIVE rather than the on-demand model offered by Joost so the news broadcasts you get are live, not an older archived video.

So, in essence, what you get is full screen, smooth and hight quality stuff.  All free, and all legal.  Now, I know there are a LOT of news streaming sites, but none come even close in terms of looking as good as this.  Furthermore this being an open beta, there’s also a fair amount of constant development going on like Twitter integration (where you can twitter your Internet TV watching activities to your friends directly from the player), and an ever growing channel collection (>450 at the time of writing for this post).

You know what? I don’t subscribe to cable news…. and the rate technology is progressing -  I don’t think I’ll need it anytime soon :)

Visit: Livestation

What’s your favorite online news site? let us know in the comments!

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Digg is currently the most popular social media website (Yahoo Buzz doesn’t qualify because it is not open to smaller blogs), and over 60 stories are promoted to the front page and receive massive amounts of traffic. The users who submit such popular posts, are revered and are fondly called "power users". If you are aspiring to be a power user, a semi-active Digger or simply browse Digg for stories, you need the right tools for the job.

Below, you will find 6 useful tools. Note that most of them are aimed towards avid submitters, but even non-submitting users can make use of these tools. This is not a giant list of all the Digg tools available, but a selection of the best ones out there. You’d probably be overloaded and overwhelmed by all the tools out there!

1. Find site mirrors with DuggBack

Many of the websites and blogs (usually on shared hosting) that hit Digg usually go down because of the massive amounts of traffic. This is fondly named as the Digg effect. DuggBack uses a variety of methods to retrieve and serve the page, which can be useful when the site goes down. Visit DuggBack

2. Analyze your digging trends with TINC

TINC is a minimalist and light-weight tool that shows you your last few submissions, who diggs your submissions frequently, and whom you digg frequently. A useful tool to analyze digging patterns and who liked your submissions (so that you could, for example, befriend them). Visit TINC

3. Get customized RSS feed with PiggFeed

PiggFeed provides a handy alternative to the RSS feed that Digg provides. You can trim and tune the feed to your liking. Features include links directly to the article (as opposed to the Digg page, when subscribed to Digg RSS feed), the domain of the article as the author, link to the digg page with the current number of comments, links to DuggMirror, DotCache, Coral Cache, and Google Cache (useful if the page goes down) and lots more. You can choose the category, topics, number of items etc. and get the final feed by clicking the large RSS button at the end of the configuration page. Visit PiggFeed

4. DiggAlerter: Find who’s digging/commenting on your submissions

DiggAlerter monitors submissions of the username chosen by you and reports the title, topic, diggs, comments and number of hours since submission. The username could even be someone other than you, so if you are not an active Digger, you can monitor submissions of a popular user (for example, MrBabyMan). Visit DiggAlerter

5. Speed up submissions with Digg Firefox Extension

 Requires Firefox browser to be installed. I started using Digg Firefox extension when Smart Digg extension (my favorite until recently) became incompatible with Firefox 3, but I have never had to look back. DFE has an array of impressive features, like submitting the page you are on, recently popular, recently submitted, top, hottest stories etc., viewing friends’ activities, all from a neat menu tucked into the menubar on Firefox. Get Digg Firefox Extension

Hopefully, you have learned a few tricks tools of the trade now. Remember that the content and sources you submit still matters more, and these extensions and tools can only supplement your efforts. Happy digging!

This post was written by Sumesh & edited by James Yeang.  Sumesh is the owner of TechZilo, a weblog that focuses on software (reviews and tips), productivity, web applications and services.

What other Digg tools do you use?  Tell us in the comments!

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Welcome to BarCampMalaysia coverage day 2.  Noticeably fewer people today, but because the sessions were slightly smaller, I found that it really made for more personable, more interactive and less hectic talks.  I also learnt my lesson about picking sessions in barcamp yesterday, as I found out the hard way that technical sessions in barcamp are VERY technical.  So here’s something to remember all you future Barcamp and unconference attendees…

Before you attend a session, ask (preferably the speaker) if it’s going to be a technical one.  Because if you are not a code monkey, and you attend the wrong session, you’ll get lost - easily. 

So without further ado, here are some quick takeouts of the sessions attended for day 2:

11am: Journey of a Startup (Silicon Valley Style)

Meet Vyasa.  In 2000 he founded Sires Labs in an effort to become Malaysia’s first Microchip company.  By 2003, he was flying high with a bright future.  In 2007, his business went under.  In BarCampMalaysia, he shares some excellent experiences about his start, his ups and his downs and how we can avoid making the same mistakes. 

Quick takeouts: 

If you’re pitching to investors:

1. Keep things simple.  You’ve got to have an elevator pitch because by and large, investors won’t understand the technical elements of your proposition.  They’re mainly interested in the money.
2. Persevere.  Vyasa took 2 years to get proper funding for his idea and was chasing every trade event and networking session in town to pitch to investors (during which he got a lot of feedback from investors how to improve his proposition)
3. You’ve got to have a minimum target return to investment of at least 5x - 10x over a 3-5 year period.  Ideally, your plan should target a 10x - 20x return.  This is because most startups will fail, and investors need to have confidence that it would be a worthy investment.
4. Ideas are brilliant, but experience is essential.  If you don’t have the experience, make sure you rope in someone who does.  A strong team is one of the key things investors look for.
5. Your startup team will run on passion, and very little money.  Your vision of what the company will be and exciting your team to reach that goal is completely essential during the initial lean times of a startup.
6. Image is half the battle.  Look sharp when meeting investors.  Yes you are a web 2.0 programmer who hates ties.  No, your investor is NOT a web 2.0 programmer who hates ties.  Just because you dress up, doesn’t mean you’re compromising yourself.  It just means you’re respecting the other party.

12pm: Social Media Optimization (SMO) for online publishers

This is Anthony.  He’s a Social Media Analyst based in Malaysia who gave us a talk on Social Media, and how people have used it to optimize their web presence. 

Quick takeouts: 

1. Ping.FM (still in private beta) visit Anthony’s site and drop him a line if you want an invite.  This is a web 2.0 mass notifier.  Hook your social networks up to it (eg. Facebook, Gtalk, Twitter etc.) and when you update Ping.FM, it will update all your networks at once, thus building activity and in turn - community presence - without extra effort. 
2. All-in-one-SEO.  A free Wordpress plugin package which just eases up the typical SEO process.
3. Friendfeedspy & popURLs are 2 great sources to get updated on the latest interesting news - fast.

2pm: Leverage Facebook Now!

Tzu Chjeh Wu presented a session on Facebook marketing, and app development.  A good mix of both tech and non-tech aspects of the subject matter.   He’s also talking from experience as he’s a Facebook app developer as well.

Quick takeouts:

1. It is possible to obtain a full set of user information via a Facebook API
2. Malaysians sell contact details and demographics wantonly in the open (!!!!)  
3. Facebook ads are not effective in terms of contextual relevance to the user
4. Groups and Product pages are simple was of getting the word out on your product
5. The investment is so low, you really have nothing to lose by investing a bit of effort in Facebook
6. If you want to develop a Facebook app - FBML is the easiest language to do it in, but the least efficient in terms of load
7. Make sure your developed Facebook app adds value

…and that’s a wrap of the final day of this excellent unconference.  Do check out Cheryl Goh’s website as well as barcamp.my for all the coverage as well as materials presented during barcamp.  Don’t fret if you missed out - due to this event’s unqualified success (packed rooms with all the pre-walk in tickets snapped up in 4 days), you will expect to see future barcamps in Malaysia. 

If you are from another country, check out the official barcamp.org website for details of a barcamp happening in your area.  If there are no barcamps happening where you live - do what these guys did…Just start one!

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