Brown Thoughts

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales will be launching an open source search engine on January 7, 2008. The search engine will differ from Google and Yahoo in that users will be able to see how search results are arrived at.
So far, the Wikia Search Project has a working search application, a web crawler, and a search […]

If you’ve ever been frustrated with the voting trend on Digg, you’ve probably wished that you could set up your own. Here’s the good news. Drupal developer Tony Mobily has created a module for Drupal that allows users to promote stories based on votes.
To see how it works, take a look at Drigg.org. You’ll notice […]

Google has added translator bots to its instant messaging service. As Jonas Lindberg mentioned on the Google Talkabout blog, you can use the bots as interpreters for your chat sessions or as pocket translators for the GTalk client for Blackberry.
To use a translator, just choose from any of the 29 available bots and add it […]

After letting a few beta test the early version, Microsoft has announced that they’re making the latest service pack for Windows XP available for everyone to download.
A company spokeswoman stated that the release candidate would be found at the Microsoft Download Center later tonight. Windows XP Service Pack 3’s release candidate will be a 580 […]

After over five years of development, the next incarnation of the popular free message board has been released. phpBB 3 Gold boasts better security, enhanced collaboration features, new administration options, and optimization for search engines and mobiles.
phpbb 3 Olympus comes with a long list of improved and added features, some of which include unlimited subforums, […]

Some of you may have been thinking about creating a newsletter for your site but have been too lazy to implement it. If you’re looking for an easy way, take a look.
Nourish turns your RSS feed into an automated email newsletter that your visitors can subscribe to. Users can create multiple campaigns for different newsletters […]

The updated Google toolbar for Internet Explorer now includes support for Google Gadgets, Autofill, the ability to save your settings online, clip and collect content as you browse, and Google Notebook.
Adding Google Gadgets means adding customizable buttons, one of which, lets users browse through a list of featured YouTube Videos.
Here’s a video of the updated […]

Yahoo! has just announced that a preview release for Yahoo Messenger for Vista is now available for download. This version of the instant messaging client was built from the ground up specifically for Vista.
This version is pre-beta which means that there are features that still haven’t been included. Sending messages to mobiles, chat rooms, webcams, […]