Yahoo! launched its Messenger version 8 today, Yahoo which now also supports MSN contacts in one of its special version. The all new messenger has many amazing features including over 180 plugins. Apart from the usual messenger features it has Make Calls From Your PC, PC-to-Phone Calls, Phone-to-PC Calls, Photo Sharing, LAUNCHcast Radio, Yahoo! Games, IMVironments, Search, File Transfer, skins and a lot more.
Gpoker shows what you can do with the google web toolkit. It is a cool multiplayer no-limit Texas Hold’Em implementation with real-time chat. The front end is written with Java which the google web toolkit compiles to javascript. This is an impressive task that GWT does and so far, even though the toolkit is beta, seems seamless. The front end talks to a java servlet on the backend through an RPC layer on top of XMLHttpRequest. The server sends
events back to the clients through the same RPC mechanism so that the players at the table always have an updated rendering.
The layout which comes with a ajax chat, is pretty neat and easy to understand on the first look. Google Web toolkit blog talks about Ryan’s work here
SaneBull provides you with live RSS feeds from MSN, Yahoo, and The Street; to give you the upper hand in the stock markets. The interface of the live stock markets and market updates provides a showcase of what is possible using AJAX frameworks. Which, besides giving the site its appearance; facilitates in minimizing, maximizing, and closing un-needed windows. The homepage flaunts live RSS feeds from MSN, Yahoo &The Street. They have also incorporated builder modules in multiple places to provide browser interoperability; they proudly claim to support all of them!
It’s a custom implementation of an Ajax solution with a Java powered back end. SaneBull is powered by well known javascript frameworks. using dtree, prototype, prototype windows, script.aculo.us
Software to be formally introduced later this year will link the Ruby programming language and the open-source Ruby on Rails Web framework to Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2005 application development platform.
Developers involved in the Sapphire in Steel project are building the software product, which will be called Ruby in Steel and sold by a soon-to-be-formed company named SapphireSteel Software. Ruby in Steel will plug into Visual Studio to blend the benefits of Microsoft’s development environment with Ruby technologies, said Huw Collingbourne, who is involved in documenting Ruby in Steel in the U.K.
Already available in a beta format, the product is intended to enable developers to use Ruby technologies without having to toggle back and forth from Visual Studio to another tool such as a database manager, Collingbourne said. “The point is, once you’re in Steel, you don’t leave Visual Studio,” he said.
FeedBurner (http://www.feedburner.com), the market-leading Internet feed management provider, has acquired Blogbeat (http://www.blogbeat.net), a Raleigh-Durham-based provider of blog analytics.Blogbeat functionality will be integrated into FeedBurner’s existing suite of free Internet feed management services. Blogbeat founder, Jeff Turner, has joined the FeedBurner team as Lead Engineer, Web Analytics. He will remain an integral member of the development of feed-driven statistics services. Additional information about the Blogbeat acquisition is available on the FeedBurner Web site at http://www.feedburner.com/blogbeat.
DaVinci-code is a simple cream coloured wordpress theme, the layout is meant to create a old age effect. The theme was studied for few days in Internet Explorer 6, Firefox 1.5.0.4 and Opera 9 where it seems to be working fine. It’s sort of in Beta stage, so you can expect a upgraded version soon :)
Notes:
Download : DaVinci-code v1.0 Wordpress Theme (Mirror)
Nuvvo helps you learn all kinds of great courses online. You can either sign up as Instructor to teach on Nuvvo or simply as student to learn different courses.
When users sign up they get a learner’s portal which can be customized by building engaging courses for themselves and if they wish to teach they can enroll students into a course also keep track on how they are doing. Users can publish their course to the Courses Market, which is basically a page of the most popular courses searched for. This helps people to find what they want with relative ease. You can also customize Nuvvo with Unique URLs, custom logos, and variable color schemes for every Nuvvo Portal and more features.
Itzle is web gadget that allows you to walk around websites as if they were physical locations. Itzle allows you to browse websites while having a chat with your friend. You can browse any website with itzle, just save the bookmarklet, you will be shown a minimizable Itzle toolbar with chatbox, URL, friends list, Connection etc. You can choose to talk with any of your friends or review the current website. Currently it’s in Beta Stage and supports only Firefox. Itzle along with bookmarklet also provides status indicators for Blogs / Websites .
Itzle makes it easy to explore photo albums and other expansive sites with your friends. When you click on a hyperlink while Itzling, your friend will see you walk over to it and fade away. Then a small message bubble will appear in your place to tell him where you’ve gone, and give him the option of following you to your new location.
Normally, in order to communicate about a certain web page friends have to either leave static messages (in the form of comments or forum posts) for their each other to read later, or switch back and forth between their browsers and IM clients. Neither method allows a seamless shared-browsing experience. With Itzle, group surfing is not only easy, it’s fun.