Liae Blog

I’m a soccer fanatic. I’ve played FIFA 2002, 08, 09 and now 10. I loved 2002, it wasn’t the best graphic but it was good back then. I’m old. You are new. Don’t compare those two sentences.

Fifa 08 was good. Required less computer resources. So did FIFA 09. Now here we go FIFA 10.  I wasn’t planning on buying FIFA 10, but when they said, oh you are going to get a free SOCCER magazine for one year, I thought Oh my god. So I pre-ordered it, didn’t sleep one night waiting for that download manager (a software developed by EA for its Down loadable games) to show me the link so I could download. Pre-release didn’t really start until after a day. I thought it would happen at 12:00. No way. When I got it. The very first thing I did was tried to signup for the soccer magazine. I gave up after repeated try with that promo code which redirected me to a page full of Ads. Was this a technique by the magazine to create money from google ads, I have no clue and I have given up. If it works now, I won’t care, for it has give me headache.

FIFA 10 is good, sure, you will need a pretty fancy computer. I mean by hardware standard here. Don’t have a graphic card ? or enough RAM, its better to play old games. FIFA 2002 will be just fine. If you do have top-notch pc, then FIFA 10 is for you. The download version doesn’t require CD so it’s no hassle to play. I’ve been playing on my budget HP laptop. Everything is pretty much okay except I don’t get to enjoy the graphics. Not even the 3D grass.

If you are here for help on how to make FIFA 10 run so you have a smooth game play, turn off these:

• High Resolutions such as 1280 by 780, (try 800×600)
• Turn off 3D grass. Believe me, why the heck do you need it anyways if you want your players to move like ghosts ?
• Turn off the lines men. Punch them !!!! Oh yeah!
• In the camera setting, zoom to the MAX. Believe me. If you try to zoom out, FIFA 10 starts working harder to show you every players movement, hence it starts slowing things down.
• I read somewhere that turning off the Radar also helps improve game play. But if you have a camera zoomed all the way, how the heck are you going to know who is where ? Use the RADAR for heavens sake! Don’t listen to anyone else.
• Minimize the systems, and camera’s zoom level until you see a smooth game play. Try this in practice session instead of the Kickoff. I think FIFA isn’t that smart in knowing what you are trying to do was only to see which settings would get you the smooth game play.
• When you are online, try playing with someone who is nearer or has a good IP response. This is shown to you. If you have on DSL and the other player is on a Dial-up, you are probably ready for some slow play. I mean really really slow play.
• Playing with a game pad won’t improve the visual part. But you won’t have fun in a game such as SOCCER where you can’t even dribble a ball. So get yourself a game pad, I recommend Logitech dual Action gamepad (costs around $19 or so) Official site is here

Sad part about FIFA 10 ? It’s like our operating system DOS which now has become Windows 7 ? Such a revolutionized game still lacks International teams ? I couldn’t find Nepal there. Oh yea, sure, the coutry is there but you need to import players, or probably they will include a package called “Buy Nepal league!” Same goes for many others which you need to buy individually. FIFA 10 is another offering from EA games that only wants you to buy more to enjoy it. More RAM, Graphic Card with more Memory and now more bucks for more Leagues.

Although FIFA 10 has its share of cons, it does have pretty cool pros too.

• Goal Keeper is smarter. Not like the FIFA 09 or earlier version where He would make silly mistakes such as even toughing a ball that doesn’t need to be touched only to give a corner to the other team.
• I couldn’t find any different when playing in World Class vs Legendary, perhaps there is something I am missing. Perhaps Legendary is something that freaks everyone out. Try for yourself, if you have been playing for long, you don’t notice much difference except the goal keeper is much more SUPERB in this setting.
• Man Marking. Why do you have to wait for this feature for so long ? I love this one. Just before you are about to take on, it gives you a simple guide about the other team and how they play. This is a great screen which can help you create your strategy to play and hopefully win the game. Try using man marking when you know who the real striker is.
• Create a player who looks like you ? — Simply by uploading your photo. This is something FIFA had been lacking for long and wonder why ? Is it because the technology wasn’t there ? Give me a break!
• Create your own formation;  Basically to infinite level, really!
• Manager mode is more user friendly then before. The interface is cool.
• More Achievements have been added so you don’t get bored. You don’t really need to practice a lot to get into the action.
• Be a pro – is now much more of what you want rather than what FIFA 09 offered; limited.
• All in all, FIFA 10 for PC is a great game. If you love soccer, you will be hooked for sure.

What may be annoying to you in FIFA 10?

• How many times you hear, HAND BALL ?  Way too many times. During a 12 minutes game. I have had 12 freaking Hand Balls.
• Your PC’s minimum requirement makes your players look fuzzy or even Ghosts.
• Way too many outs. When you are trying to attack near the lines, balls always go out. Throw. Throw. Throw.
• When your wife YELLS at you to sleep, but you still want to play! LOL !!

How to win ?
Some players are really good with keyboard and mouse, but
I think the most fun is when you have a gamepad. Here is one I’m using. I bought this one after knowing it’s good rating at amazon.com.

a few of my tips…. but you are probably the #1 player out there!

• Practice a lot. Learn to do some tricks with the second  stick.
• Stick with one team and see how it plays.
• Play online with other players who have similar rankings as you. Also, at times, don’t be afraid to play with top guys and see how they are winning. Challenge yourself, that’s the key to winning!
• Try defending when you are down by a goal or two. Change your mental status. In such case, it’s possible for the other team to attack with all the players near your goal keeper. If that’s the case, get the ball and go run…………. you might make a score. You can switch the team mentality at any time. I have no idea if it works good when you have the ball or not.
• Don’t over do – (WTF?) Don’t make your players run all the time. When you are first playing, put the players status bar on even though if your system doesn’t give you smooth game play. After you have practiced, remove the player’s status, try to play as if you are on the ground. Would you want all of your players to run for so long and not make a single goal? Would they have the stamina to play for the next half of the game ? RUN only when you need to.
• If the other team is attacking, get the ball ASAP to the other side. A long pass to the Forwards could result in a goal. Get the ball and run.
• Learn to make longer passes instead of shorter ones. Long and high passes can bring you closer to the other side. But long passes require practice. So do it!
• Squads can be updated on real  time. If you are playing online, FIFA 10 can be as real as it gets. I love playing picking BRAZIL as my team, but out of the blue a player was gone. Would you believe it ? It’s like you are out there in the real world.
• FIFA 10 lets you create a player. All you have to do is register, then create a player by uploading your photo. Tips on how to get your face look right is can be found here. Its fun playing this way, because you really are in the GAME!!
• When shooting, see how far you are from the goal keeper and know how much pressure you need to keep on the game pad’s key.  Too much ? You will blow the ball! ….  just joking there !
• There seems be an easy way to get a free kick, at least it was in FIFA 09 and it continues. When you are near the goal keeper’s zone, stop the ball or move it slightly your way, attacker could make a mistake and you have the opportunity to score. When you play with the computer, this is EXACTLY what computer does often to get a free kick, and often on that last minute and you are tied! Because the PC is going to make a perfect free kick.  When shooting free kicks, it’s all about angle and the pressure you apply on the shooting key (3). Often tapping for less than a second is enough, but I could be wrong or is it all about luck. Don’t assume one of your player won’t run if the ball bounces back. So be alert even when you are making a free kick. When you get a free kick, tell yourself, “this is a goal”, and make it!
• Remember, in World Class, Goal Keepers are extremely hard to beat. If you are one to one with goal keeper, keep an eye to see if he is moving towards you, if so, make a chip shot, that should do it! Try shooting from the center if you can. From center to left or right angle should do. But FIFA 10 has made goal keepers HERO. Watch out for them !
• Those are my tips. I would love to know yours.

Useful resources:

• FIFA 10 PC Game Download EA STORE
• Official site of the FIFA 10
• Compare Game Pads by Logitech
• Soccer ain’t much popular in the United States. Go figure UK here… …http://www.easportsfootball.co.uk/
• Not the game but REAL one, let’s go to AFRICA… GO FIFA.. http://www.fifa.com/

FIFA 10 Advertisement on youtube. Video Here.

Let’s FIFA 10!

Notepad Sucks and so does Word Pad. We all know. If you hate openoffice.org for its writer because it’s too bulcky when all you want is to write something and print or program, then you will love these editors. Which one am I using ? the answer is at the last.

Enjoy these, all, free. And if you have that extra cash, you can always support the developers. Donate button can be found on most the site of most publishers.

Simple enough is what i look for in a program. And for programmers, which I am assuming you are, finding the one that highlights syntax, offers UNICODE support, and loads faster, remembers last worked on files and perhaps offers advance find and replace feature for bath files and allows you to work on multiple pages… and not to forget.. a program that shows line numbers are very important. Don’t you agree ? These do. Go grab one.

For Hardcore Programmers :

• Pspad - among the several free ones I’ve tried. This one has stayed longer on my system for it supports UNICODE directly on the page. WOW. Once I lost it but it was my mistake cause I forgot to select UNICODE at the settings for saving files. Works great and supports what others do, syntax highlight and what not and everything.

• Jedit - Simple and does what it’s designed to do, allow you to edit. You will love it as much as you would the other one.
• HTML Kit or Chami you have heard it enough. I have it on my system and editing HTML files is very easy. Has loads of plugin you can download. Hey, SPELL CHECK. I love it.
• Notepad ++ – I had a few issues but it could just be me. Try it, how simple and elegant this is and hey, you might love what I like.

Just plain text editing please but not the lousy notepad:

• Docpad - I call it wordpad plus notepad combined. It’s pretty cool. Try it for yourself.
• I am fan of nonags, are you ? Their listing is pretty cool. Check it out, Freeware Text Editors

Peace out !

– ruben

p.s. let me know if you can’t find one. LOL !!

tuesday May 26, 299: 4:50 Still waiting,

image is here

google-news-is-down

guys, let me know when it’s up.

I will be lonely without google news.

Also, i will try to post here at the same post, if this happens again in another time.

For similar stories, search here:

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=google+news+down&btnG=Search+Blogs

My Avira AntiVir failed to update with the following message:
No way !

I started panicking since a beautiful program can’t just stop working like that. It’s impossible for Avira; for this is the software that really makes me feel like YES THERE IS SUCH THING AS FREE LUNCH.

Furiously, I spent about 3 hours on the Internet.  Holy C!

All those forum threads with DNS hijack, virus, malware and you name it… they only started to heighten my fear. I even ran the Hijack this thing.

And I got to thinking..( Why on earth does it have to be for me, and yet again ? I know a month ago I had spent a week trying to remove some nasty malware)

What the heck is wrong, i’m thinking… Is it

• My windows firewall ?
• The Avira site itself (thinking it could be overloaded, after all it can happen; it’s so popular, right ?)
• Or has the April fool virus gone mad only on my PC ?

Then, I thought, would IE do it ? would IE be the one that is blocking my Internet connection ?

A month ago, after removing malware, and some suggestion from the Internet, I broke IE’s knee with this setting :

The port 125 could be anything except 80 which is used by the Apache.
I  disabled the Proxy settings and HURRAY Avira’s update worked.

It’s always easy to blame someone.  I did.

I don’t know about you,
but I’m hooked with Firefox and Google Chrome,
I won’t be using IE unless it gives me some sort of peace of mind.

It makes sense to write a note to self:

“IE is sleeping dude ! Wake up for a software update ”

You might ask me, don’t other applications also fail ?

Yes, here is one that also failed to update, but it’s fine after I make IE active.

Again : Note to Self IE is sleeping.

A screen shot from just another surfer.

Look at the Google Ad on this search, one in particular has a CROSS from AVG web shield.

I know, it’s not a big deal.

But who is to blame for this ? AVG, Google or the site.

Just makes me wonder.

[Arg_NullReferenceException]
Arguments:
Debugging resource strings are unavailable. Often the key and arguments provide sufficient information to diagnose the problem. See http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=106663&Version=2.0.31005.0&File=mscorlib.dll&Key=Arg_NullReferenceException   at System.Windows.Controls.ToolTipService.CloseAutomaticToolTip(Object sender, EventArgs e)

Can anyone tell me what that is ?

Sorry, But I kind a like errors when it’s not on my sites… LOL.. Jokes a side and you gotta try this gift from Microsoft. I believe the error is because that part of the site is getting 10000000000000000000 hits or the program is in BETA mode. I am now able to see it all.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/44.president/inauguration/themoment/

As of this date of writing CNN says’ it has more than 12 thousand photos that make up the 3D image as you can see on the above link. Navigation tool of Photosynth needs some help. If you are new like me, Learn about the clickable menu on the right which looks like a flatten leaf… pardon me about my broken english.
Ok, so you can find edges of a photo and join with another to create some how a 3D looking photos.

How about revolution for ZOOM ???

Any idea?

Zooming isn’t that pleasureful, but thanks to all those who took the time and share their photos. Thank you. I will never ever forget this Historical day. Thank you all.
(1) Download Microsoft Silverlight: Light Up the Web

(2) http://photosynth.net/about.aspx  This one’s making me love MSN well, not as much as I love MSNBC.com, but the concept seems to be one of a kind. Go there and findout all about it you all.

Is Silverlight just another another competitor of Flash  or is completely different ?

Well, See ya guys.

When it comes to finding a free open source PHP script shopping cart, you simply can’t ignore osCommerce.

Reason number 1, you don’t need to install another content management system like joomla or mambo for their version of FREE virtuemart – which, for many, remains a popular choice. But wait a minute. For a shopping cart to work, I thought I only needed the cart. Right ? But I was wrong. You really needed everything. You needed the firstpage, last page, products, categories and a whole lot more, oh yes, including the taxes and allowing customers to login. I guess, you can’t run a store without the buildings. Same goes for scripts.
osCommerce is itself a CMS for online store. You can use it for FREE to run online store and in fact be one of the richest dude on the block. The only thing that’s lacking is, you and i doing nothing! LOL !!
Reason number 2, there are a lot of good reputable online shopping sites which are older than others that run under this script. So, for me, it gave me confidence in terms of security and usage. What works for me, may not work for you and what works for you may not work for me.
Without talking too much, let me give you the links you have been waiting for. I have only tested a few of these, but changing yourself manually seems to be even fun. So find a few of my know-hows at the end.

Free oScommerce Templates .

• http://addons.oscommerce.com/category/Templates_and_Themes – why would you look somewhere else ?
• http://www.onixsoft.com/FREE-OSC-templates.htm has a list of some intersting and free templates
• http://www.freetemplatesonline.com/templates/Pets-Store-175.html – 1 Pets Store 175 (osCommerce old version)
• http://www.templatemonster.com/sampleDownload.php?id=27 1 template for new version
• http://www.webmaster-tool.co.uk/webpage-templates/free/osCommerce-template.htm 1 Business Template
• http://wvw.downarchive.com/2008/06/24/10-premium-oscommerce-templates.html – 10
• http://www.7dana.com/download/pafiledb.php?action=category&id=4 – 4 7dana templates for oscommerce.
• http://darylwtlau.googlepages.com/jewellery_green.rar - google pages, one jewellery template
• http://myersleisure.com/ – 1 template. click to download.
• http://info.template-help.com/sample_templates.html – 4 templates old/new look for word oscommerce there..
• http://www.badeziner.com/2008/07/12/gg9-free-lightbox-oscommerce-template/ - gg9 template
• http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=71985&package_id=119333 – old version
• i
• will type some from my bookmark tomorrow.
• thanks guys.

How to modify default or any template for this matter. While the script does have a way for you to manually change contents of many files such as index.php, you might find it your-way to change them using text editors then FTP to server.

Knowing these Five Files will save you a lot of trouble. View them and you should be able to make your own DESIGN. Cheers!!

Files under

includes\header.php    footer.php   left_column.php   right_column.php    and

stylesheet.css on the default folder. There is a wonderful post on this and many, don’t forget to read it.

oscommerce.com : forum : Template Design
(1) remove osCommerce logo/text at  the footer. Let’s face it. Who is going to buy stuff from yoursite if you show your users that you don’t even hire programmers ?? A flashy color and design and those 10000s of products you are listing should show your users that you own the script. Right? Wrong ! and what the heck, I could be wrong and you could be right.

Showing that you care about others should make your users feel good rather than hiding the facts. Users today are smarter than we think. They will probably land on our web page going through lots of websites. I personally would leave the link and all and I would add “Proudly Powered by” to show that you REALLY care about other people. Those who want to remove, just edit the footer.php located under includes folder.

(2)  The first thing anyone want to do with a script is to change what it shows on the front page although everything the programmer wrote is perfectly fine to use. Ready to get a call from a customer who says, “i just bought it did you not get it… ?” ha? what? well you know what i mean. locate the file includes\languages\english\index.php (or any other language file you are using) then change everything in between ” of define(‘TEXT_MAIN’,'what you want to say goes here’);

For me, that define TXT_MAIN has to be the most scary function to edit. How abou you? Having seen how powerful it is, it makes you think that what is not possible to put in a variable ? Earth??? I did get problems with that since I rush a lot. May be you won’t. Just a note, be sure to leave the two string characters ” <---- e.g.

Could many of us be searching for help, only because we hate manuals ? I seem to be doing just that and I mean it.
Here is one heck of a wonderful post you ought to read. http://forums.oscommerce.com/index.php?showtopic=274968

See ya.

if you liked what i gave, can you at least say thank you. <— who put this here…. please help ! LOL !!

7 months of using Iphone isn’t a very long time to write something of this magnitude, but if every single day is your day to visit news website at least (1 hour daily), then perhaps there could be something to share. So here I am to share with you and see how you will find it.

Among the features of iPhone, you sure like the the Internet browser (Safari) don’t you? If you don’t like it you are probably busy with it’s great feature Youtube or IMS (Instant messaging system). No? then you are probably indulged with the built in mail program that lets you access your web mail account such as gmail.com

Iphone’s Safari brings me the entire World Wide Web in my palm. My favorite sites are news websites and blogs, Google portal, some joke sites when I need a laugh, and some political blogs like politico.com and others at the blogspot.com

Browse news sites on your cellphone, a bit of photos and videos along with the news are  something we all would want to appreciate but not all of them do it. Also, why would anyone be looking for mobile content on Iphone? Why not just visit the regular site.

Well, if you don’t have WIFI, i.e. visiting the main site will be like slow.

I have noticed that buildings which use A/C have more reception bars than those that don’t have A/C. Wonder why ? Call me silly if you like, because we all know that the Phone’s Reception bars can drop to zero inside a building if there are no airs coming in, and reception bars can change even with an inch of a movement from one side to another!

A friend of mine, sticks his phone outside the window!

Although things might change in the future; such as specialized antenna in buildings that  receive not only digital signals for our TVs and Internet but also for our mobile devices.

For the purpose of “download speed comparison”, testing was done at home where I can get 4 to 5 bars – very god reception that is. But again not always do I get those bars. So on this day when I am testing, I have 4 bars for all these sites, it’s a lucky day!

We all know that search engines and news sites dominate most of the Internet traffic – they also do well in delivering content formatted to user’s device; be it for mobile or desktop using all kinds of Internet Browsers.

iPhone has become so famous, news web sites are taking the advantage and so are the portals like Google and Yahoo. They are delivery specially Formatted content only designed for iPhone, making the content more user-friendly, easy to navigate, and get the content faster. They push only the contents enough for user’s to use. Unlike the regular website which could be so attractive with flashy designs and tons of graphics, these so called formatted contents are rich in text and low in graphics, the idea is simple – reduce what’s not needed for users, but enough content and graphics that even a small mobile device can handle. And as for iPhone, there is no need to reduce graphics or etc. You can actually enjoy viewing the regular website instead of the mobile version. But mobile version will be much faster since there aren’t WIFI’s everywhere even in this land of superpower.

So most users are using the regular Unlimited Internet package from AT&T (in the United States). It’s not that slow nor its fast. It’s in the middle.
News websites to a die-hard fans like me who use Iphone to browse news, are looking for everything. Graphics, Videos, Texts, and all, as well as the menus, options and links to click and follow reading another news. Reading news and enjoying it and loving it. They could be looking for design. And they could be asking tons of questions… and here are mine I wanted to drop it here before I do the comparison of the sites.

• When I tilt my screen, will the font remain the same ?
• When I am half way reading a news and decide to lock the phone, then come back and read, will I be at the exact paragraph where I left off ?
• Will I get some news photos to watch and can I see them in big. I mean big enough to believe ?
• Will I have a link to an external resource from where the story is being heavily written ?
• Will it take forever or a news video to play? It does!
• Can I sign up for breaking news so I will know in advance so I can tease my friends? Buddy, did you hear about that news?, I can rely with 100% confidence “I know, I already know! U R Dumb!”
• Well the questions can go on and on…. Will my Iphone actually have a feature that will read the news content so I can look else where ? Can some lady please read my news, while I do something else ?

Enough about talks. Lets get to the point now.
COMPARISON:

In this post, let’s explore, and compare news sites that are formatted for Iphone. I’m not going to compare to show you which is best or worse, rather I’m just going to explore. I will write, and you decide and share you knowledge as well. Also do know there are many other probably even better sites that I don’t know.
Updated on September 7, 2008 . P.S. This post is subjected to update in the future with another post. Bookmark if you like. All download tests were done 8:37PM, with AT&T’s service provider, inside my home with reception being 4 bars. No WIFI access, just the regular Internet package. And My Iphone was among the first Iphones Apple had released. Here we go…

CNN NEWS

Main News Site : http://www.cnn.com/
Mobile address as shown on the iPhone: http://m.cnn.com/

Description :

The fastest of all but there is a reason – because the content is not fully formatted for Iphone. To me, it appears that the contents are formatted for all devices. Home screen consists of links to news stories and other resources with a small picture on top and a brief headline linking to the latest news. It seems to me that CNN has yet to format content for iPhone. Why is CNN not formatting its news for Iphone? Is Bill Gates telling CNN to wait ?

I haven’t tried accessing the address from another mobile device, but it looks as if this is it, for all mobile devices.

Could there be a reason why CNN is doing this. But I am happy because I can actually increase the font size unlike those that are formatted for Iphone, I haven’t been able to increase font so reading is troublesome at times.
It’s the most updated I have found.  So, if you are like me, wanting to know what’s happening not only in the U.S. but around the world and want regular updates, this site does better and this might be yours too. When a story breaks, you can read the breaking news on top with a brief caption surrounded by a yellow box. Guess what makes you angry. No links to read further. Come on, a link please so we know a little more about the breaking eyes. Is the baby chicken out of the egg shelf, half-way? or is it dancing already on the floor ? Just a yellow bar won’t work. Sorry. You are telling me this: Three is a terrible news broken. Now what. Just stay where you are and not know about it further. For news readers like me, I wanna go deep and findout a little bit more than just breaking news. Go break it more and show.
Here, You can check weather; enter zipcode and you are done to read 5 days forecast for your region. You might not like that feature since you already have the push content from Yahoo – The “Weather Icon” as part of the iPhone ’s feature which can be found on your iPhone’s Home Screen. See Weather icon there. But, I like the Vote on the Question of the Day. It’s just fun. But it could go further rather than just a click to see the result, it could actually pull more content and display below the poll data, so t has much better use.

Like all news sites, sign up to get text messages of breaking news is here. I haven’t used this feature. But if you have limited Internet plans, but you do have sufficient text messaging plan, this Mobile Breaking News Alert might be a pretty cool feature to use.
Conclusion : Fast, Frequent Updates, Lack of Multimedia, No User preferences recognized and/or saved, Read Paginated Articles or Full Articles, Content fits your screen, Content can be enlarged, so good aim towards accessibility for those who have trouble with small fonts.

MSNBC.msn.com

Main news site : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
Mobile address as shown on iPhone: same as above.
Description: I love this site like all here, it’s wonderful. It’s fast as the CNN.com. What you gonna like is that the MAIN story is alreayd displayed so no need to wait for heated news to be shown only after clicking on a link, its there for you to read – just scroll down and you have the latest stuff right infront of your news. You can increase the font size etc. So it is similar to CNN.com (not yet fully formatted for Iphone) [About being able to increase the font and pictures; this is true for all regular sites as well as contents that aren't formatted for Iphone or for mobile. Most people who have Iphone would be lucky to get WIFI so they don't really need to visit mobile sites, but some might for the sake of speed and for fun.]
After you read the top news, there are bunches of links under the topic More Headlines: They seem to categorize news improperly, at least I think so, I could be wrong. So you might spend a little bit of time searching to find what you want to click to read here. Politics? I want you to Go down and click on the Menu Item 6. It’s about getting used to it. But this is by far no worse or better than the others listed here, that’s my view after regular use.
Video Coverage:   The best of all is the “Video Coverage”, you gonna love this if you are a news video fan. Foxnews which is listed below and CBSnews do better in delivery videos faster than the rest listed here. After all, what’s Iphone for ?

Conclusion : Fast, simple, a bit could be done to categorized news articles, length of video  could be made a bit longer. Hey, it has something that none has “Edito’s picked Video?” Wow.  But often, I find it really worthless, useless. So my advice, browse and pick the video yourself. Editors do well in newspapers not on video picking. Take youtube editor’s picking videos selected as “Featured” and just ask how many people agree that how many of the featured videos are good enough to watch.
FOXNEWS

Main news site : http://www.foxnews.com/
Mobile address as shown on iPhone: http://iPhone.foxnews.com/

Description :
Very well formatted content, it fits perfectly on the screen.
It includes a search option on top, so you search easily (just click on the magnifying glass with a handle). I find it fast like others listed below. What you will love most? Videos are thumbs up! Almost every news article offers a small Icon related to the article, and below the icon is a button called Tap. Just tap it and you have a beautiful slide-show to view news pictures, and when you are done, just click the link “Return to the Story” which will take you back where you left off. “Tap” – simple and very useful feature which is rarely found in other news sites mentioned on this post. Tap, Tap, after all Iphone is just that. and this Tap feature is one of my best part here.

Conclusion : Slide-show (Tap) is a cool feature you will love, news videos you can watch easily, browsing is fun here too. Love to see contents truly formatted for iPhone? You will love this news site and the one listed below. No user preferences are saved and/or recognized.

CBS NEWS

Main News site : http://www.cbsnews.com/
Mobile address as shown on iPhone: http://iPhone.cbsnews.com/

Once, this site used to look a lot like the content formattted by foxnews.com. It was much faster than what it looks today, but by no means it’s slower than the others in relative to the content it carries on the first page.  Ever since this corporation bought CNET.com and it’s associated sites, it looks very Tech savvy, attractive and offers news and rich multimedia. If you love Rich Media, this is your news site. But just reading news from one site, wouldn’t fill your thrust for news. Would it ?
You can sign up (i.e. Enter your phone) to get breaking news alert, watch videos, browse through news fully categorized just like the Foxnews.com’s content. When it comes to speed, it’s a bit slower than Fox News and Times.

Conclusion: iPhone isn’t just for plain texts and boring links. It’s for rich multimedia, and CBS takes it to that level. You will love the way it shows Sections fully categorized from US to Evening News. Just click the Plus sign and a list of links pop up, no waiting for links to news to arrive; they are already loaded when you visit the site. Paginated articles or Read all in one page. Log in and personalize the content. Of all the sites, CBS News’s content formattted for Iphone looks more futuristic and that’s something every user will appreciate.

Time

Main news site : http://www.time.com/
Mobile address as seen on iPhone : http://mobile.time.com/

Description:

Content is fully formatted for iPhone. Sliding effect is cool as you can see when you click on the link and as you browse the mobile site. Wanna see photos capturing moments, news, or even views? Then, Time’s Photo Essay is worth more than the full page of article. It also carries news, articles, views and opinions on broader topics which I classify as “Keeping an Eye on The World”.
Conclusion:  Major news stories of the world, followed by neatly organized categories and blogs are here. For the lack of Multimedia contents, it points to you to use CNN’s main site. That’s not a surprise since Time and CNN are news partners. Paginated articles but No “View All in one page” available. Shows related articles so you don’t have to search to find the article you could be interested in. 10 Questions, Time Lists, Quotes of the Day can make your Every Day worth the while at mobile section of time.com.

Google’s News Search

Main news site : http://news.google.com/
Mobile site as seen on iPhone : http://news.google.com/
Google is leaving everyone behind. If you are looking for top news, world news and you want the news to read from various sources, there is no other better place than this. But it does acts silly at times, perhaps has unimaginable visitors. A few days back I clicked the link “Most Popular”, I didn’t get any error. the screen was blank. Could it now be gaining more visitors than CNN.com ? We all love to find news not just from one source but various and to me, nobody does this better than google’s news search. It’s extremely fast and also you can search for a particular news here.

Conclusion: I have a feeling that, one day, Google might news crews on the ground and beat CNN.com. I don’t see a reason why they should simply spider news sites and be so popular and not have any crews on the ground. Isn’t that amazing. Try this and you will love it, promise you. Yes, you will love it like all the sites listed here.

LA Times

Main news site : http://www.latimes.com/
Mobile site as seen on iPhone : http://mobile.latimes.com/

Description:
Conclusion : Blazing fast mobile site. I have noticed that sites powered by Crisp Mobile Inc, delivers content faster even the content of the first page is bigger. It is also fast because the first page basically with links to news resources.
I will try to add more news sites. For now, enjoy them and if I have missed any, please let me know. I am a news hungry guy and I love news sites more than anything else. Every site has something you like and something you don’t like. It’s nearly impossible for one to judge only based one factor for example the quality of a video or content or accessibility.Browse these news sites and see for yourself.

Challenges for These and Many Other News Sites are

• Detect User’s Location and Deliver First News Article Relevant to the Location
• Save and Use User Preferences such as Paginated Articles, View Articles On A Page. If I like reading articles on a single page, remember my choice the next time I visit your site.
• Pod casting. Not all of us want to drain our iPhone batteries watching videos. An alternative option on every article page ? “Hear this news” This would also add “accessibility”; delivering news to blind persons.
• Customizable News, Videos, Articles and what not and everything – allow users to customize the content. I hope the news sites will learn something from igoogle.com

and You ?

It’s almost been more than one year and I am going for two.

I love the site not just because it has high traffic; bunches of users, but it has great features that makes it easy to make friends, show your work, get feedbacks to improve works, but also you can watch great contents from partners who create great videos often making me think that TV someday might be less watched.

Based on my experience is what I thin youtube is.

• It’s a video sharing sites among many others.
• You can upload your work.
• You can’t please everybody
• You will never ever know which video you make will be the most watched
• Comments often are short and don’t related to the contents; good work, nice video, five stars are often the most comments although the video creator would love to get constructive comments that would further help him or her learn and more better videos
• Allows you to do video responses, so you don’t need to think about a story. someone already made a video with a storyline, you just copy it and make your own.
• Not all video responses seem like a response at all.
• Spammers are still on youtube
• Less and Less Vulgar has  gone from the site
• Many youtubers use their profile image as a tool to get clicks; i.e. provide a picture of something strange, perhaps pics of partial n-u-d-i-t-y
• Getting featured on youtube is nothing more than a LUCK. It’s Luck. It’s Luck. Period.
• Not all featured videos are worth watching.
• Funny, Crazy, Strange, Daring, Dangerous, Courageous videos seem to be watched more.
• Its easy to win honors even with a few comments on videos under the category pets and animals and “Travel and Events”
• Parters have “auto play” feature while others don’t. It could be that youtube would like all of its users to become partners are share revenue. After all, running the #1 site on earth costs money, Just imagine how much they would be paying for bandwidth ?
• One of your video could bring you the LUCK – getting bunches of subscribers.
• As youtubers become famous, they hide (i.e. Make it private) their old videos (the learning videos I would say) – That’s kind of sad, don’t you think so ? I believe one should keep their videos as a history, it would show to your viewers from where you came from; a tiny useless video to a good now now…
• More Video collaborations occur with so called “Big” guys or famous youtubers.
• Some youtubers just watch rather than creating videos. They just love it and don’t bother creating any videos at all. It seems to be their choice, and for some, they don’t have time.
• When making videos about “Religion” you can expect to lose some of your subscribers simply because you have no way of knowing whether they believe in God or which religion they follow. Your religious video could turn them away.
• Videos made by yourself, with your own ideas live longer than those copied from TVs of Films
• Youtube is highly addictive. You knew it… didn’t you ?
• You can easily disclose your personal information such as phone and address, which isn’t bad unless you know the person. So it’s worth reading the “Safety Guide” line posted on the youtube site. Once you have constant email back and forth with person, person becomes like a next door neighbor. I once had a friend who wanted my phone number. I told her to be safe on youtube and never ever give-out personal information.
• You need time. Equipments. Story. To create something watch-able and perhaps get tons of subscribers, you need a plan and not all of us have that. Those who are fully dedicated to their entire time for making videos do better; yeap, they got the time.
• There are two types of subscribers (active) and inactive. Some subscribers will just subscribe to you and will watch or not watch your work but will never rate/comment on your work thus you won’t be getting any feedbacks. There are others who actively give you feedback so you can improve your work.
• Watching videos from around the world, gets you more exposure than just watching videos from one region. So try watching videos from other countries such as Australia, India, UK, Ireland and so on. One way to do this is to simply add the country name when you are searching for a video with a keyword. E.g. “Kitties Australia”
• You can get views by watching other’s work. You watch theirs, they might (just might) come back to your channel and even leave you a comment on your work. There is no guarantee but you can request, perhaps send a message
• Being polite helps gain trust, build a good network. Be polite. I don’t mean to say, be a down-to-earth person, but at least, show some respect for people’s work. Don’t write rude words like 4 letter words etc. They will ban you, and things can get ugly.
• If somone call you by bad name say A W, don’t get mad. Go to his or her channel and write a nice comment such as “Thank you so much for watching my work and I wish you and your channel the very best” Kill people with kindness and it works, believe me.
• There are many duplicate videos on youtube. So what you are seeing might have been recorded, or downloaded then uploaded by another user. How you can tell this? Read description and find-out when that video was added. If that video was added later, it’s a duplicate. Or I could be wrong. You decide. There is nothing wrong watching a duplicate video and leaving comment either.
• You can make lots of friends on youtube. Remember this : A friend is just a friend. Don’t get toooooooooo personal, asking about details  like age, where do you leave? Oh, I miss you talking you so much… etc etc…. Think of friends as “youtubers” on a universe with a purpose – watch each other’s work. I like to call videos or films as work. In many ways, they are – We go out with our camera, spend time and what could it be ? It’s our work. We have spend our time, perhaps some of have spend more for this WORK.
• Many youtubers think that becoming a partner is very hard. But it is not. There are loads of info on the youtube on what youtube wants from you. Follow them and you can apply. But don’t expect immediate money coming at you next month nor do you show-off your partner “crown” to your friends with words like “Hey, I am better than you!” On youtube, everyone’s just the same – and I call it “Just another youtuber”, Partners aren’t different than the rest in any way.
• Lots of people have subscribers – the number of subscribers not necessarily means that channel is the best or will live long – in fact, there is no way to tell you just how long a channel will live on youtube.
• Read youtube blog. Specially those who write blogs, you can’t afford to read something out of the team.
• Watching videos sent by your friends can help you get views of your work. You watch theirs and they will watch yours.
• Use bulletin board wisely. Don’t use it toooooooooo often. Imagine somone having just one friend had has a bulletin board on his channel. You could be filling-up the his entire bulletin board and to him or her you would look like nothing more than a SPAMMER. Believe me. He or she might leave your channel, quit your friendship.
• Watch new videos (I have always said this time and again) New videos need more attention on youtube than those featured in fact. It’s just a matter of days or months how the front page of youtube might change (who knows, may be featured won’t be there anymore rather, just new videos on the main screen. Take the step that youtube hasn’t – encourage new youtubers. Watch their work, leave comment and rate based on the video content. Also be sure to read the description which many of us don’t even read. Do watch the video, but also read description for links or more information on the video.
• Youtube needs to increase video size from 320×240 to 640×360 or other formats.  Size is too small. Also it needs to tell us more than the size, a bit details on video encoding. Web design ? I should fill-up the space on left and right. (just like CNN does, yahoo does) Right now, It’s wasting the space on the screen and making users scroll down. But then again, not all of us have the big screen, do we ? So I guess youtube = Accessibility. But then again, yes, again ? Youtube seems to ignore blind people in its commenting system (there is no such thing as click here to listen to the words in that CAPTACH, makes me sad that youtube thinks there aren’t keyboard designed for blind-people. Is youtube for people with eyes? No way! )
• It’s nice to watch videos, but create your own videos too. Once you start creating one, you will be on your way to creating two, three and so on. Then you will be in love with youtube more than ever – hooked for life!! ha ha!! Then you will start watching more and more of youtube, doing less and less of your other stuff like watching the real TV.

Did I miss anything here?
I would love to hear from anyone who have used youtube for sometime.

[It’s late now, 3:02, didn’t do proof reading, sorry guys. Gotta goto work early tomorrow. I am guessing 3 hours sleep tonight and I still got to watch a few youtube videos. Would you believe it. That’s youtube love!
C U ALL
RUBEN