Pretty funny what people come up with on the web. Take a look at this site, it’s called MizPee.

It’s purpose — to find you the closest and cleanest public restrooms in your area.

So the next time you find yourself needing a bathroom badly, just use your mobile phone browser to key in your City, State, Street Address and it’ll crank out the nearest ones which you can go to or avoid (with bathroom ratings).

It’s a good idea but there are 2 main drawbacks:

1) it seems to depend on individual recommendations to add bathroom reviews to its database and there seems to be a huge lack of it at the moment

I keyed in my street address and the nearest clean bathroom was in Cincinnati about 4 hours away. Being well known/ big cities, I did expect Cleveland or Columbus to be in there.

2) it is only limited to 13 states

Also check out the Looism trivia page to catch up on your toilet trivia… useful for breaking the ice the next time you meet someone new.

Being a Web 2.0 user generated website, they may have to spread the word more and maybe tie it in with companies like Mapquest and Google Maps where location/ directional data is more easily accessible. Until then, you can be sure that I won’t be driving 4 hours to go to a highly rated bathroom.

With Elfster, using pen & paper to exchange Secret Santa names is now a thing of the past.

Using it is as easy as 1-2-3 …

1) Create a Secret Santa group
2) Invite the Friends, Family or Colleagues to join the group
3) Elfster will then pick and choose names at random, sending everyone their assigned Secret Santa

Creating a Secret Santa group allows you to specify a deadline when everyone needs to sign up and offers reminder services to those who have yet to accept the invite (see pic below). There is also an integrated facebook invitation option.

Once the group is created, a main page displays all your information and those invited.

When getting the invite, the person has the option to accept or decline the invitation. Once accepted, he will be given an individual page with the options to include his wishlist items. People who accept invitations become “Santas” with a Santa cap icon by their name. Those who decline are labeled “Scrooges” getting a lump of coal by theirs. Funny!

The wishlist area allows you to add a “wish list” and a “do not want wishlist”. That saves you from getting unwanted items or items you already have.

The beauty about Elfster is that you are not limited to creating one exchange, multiple exchanges can be made with the ability to interchange/ share contact information. Other features include search options (from Amazon) for that particular item you want and a random browse option for those who don’t know what they want.

Online equivalents include SecretSanta.com, amgoinginvisible.com, TopsecretSanta.com and Drawnames.com - none of which matches up to the features included here.

When it comes to fun, organizing and simplifying an exchange, you shouldn’t look any further than Elfster. Using this tool will definitely save time and better yet, the dread of pestering people to hand in their wish list for the exchange. It’s a pity I found out about this so late… nevertheless, I look forward to using it with the family next year.

Wantz.it is a simple app yet mighty useful. It’s a tool that makes the creation of wish lists easy and fun - living online proof that less is always more.

The idea comes from the fact that everyone needs a wish list, but there isn’t a simple way to create and compile the links from different websites into a single list. Amazon has a good wish list capability, so does Thinkgeek but those sites only cater to their own products. No one has actually thought of creating something to easily combine all of it together — until now that is. Wantz.it takes the concept of combined wish lists and brings it to another level, piggy backing off Del.icio.us.

You’ll need a Del.icio.us account first before signing up with Wantz.it. From then on, when you are saving a link to Del.icio.us, tag it with the word “dowant”.

Your item will then automatically appear in a personalized page that’s assigned to you when you first signed up. Take a look at my wish list page here.

Here’s another good feature, someone who is potentially going to buy the item on your list can “reserve” it. That essentially marks the item on the list as a purchased item (to avoid anyone else trying to buy it). In order to “reserve” that item, Wantz.it will prompt the user with a personalized question about the wish list owner.

I love the simplicity and the fact that I already use Del.icio.us for all my bookmarking needs is a plus. Being able to put all that I want in one place is a good thing as it could be distributed and shared real easily.

So the next time J or my relatives asks me to give them a wish list, I’ll just point them to this site… no second guessing what to buy me and I can sneak in the occasional “hey, if you don’t know what to get for me, here’s my wishlist”.

The only negative - it only works with Del.icio.us. I think more people will use it if it had the capability to *read* from other social bookmarking sites as well.

Wantz.it is created by Christian Verschaeren. It’s still in the beta development stage (isn’t everything nowadays) with Facebook apps and blog widgets in the works.

I have been using this useful online reminder service lately, it’s called IWantSandy.

Named after Tim O’Reilly’s real life administrative assistant, IWantSandy is a virtual assistant that allows you to schedule and create lists by email. All you have to do is email *Sandy* and she’ll create/ remind you of your appointments when it is due. Once you register online, you will be given a unique email address that you can send instructions to *Sandy* in the form of xxx@xxx.iwantsandy.com.

For example, if I want a reminder to get milk at the grocery store, I would send Sandy a simple email saying “Remind me to get milk tomorrow at 9am”, “Remind me to get milk on Nov 12 2006 at 9am” or “Remind me to get milk tomorrow at 9 am @weekly” (which sets a recurring timed schedule). She’ll then send you an email reminder at the beginning of the day or a certain time period before the appointment as determined in your settings e.g. 60 minutes before. There is also a useful alarm clock style snooze feature where you can reply to her email and say that you want to be reminded again in say 30 minutes or so.

Advanced features include

- the ability to add tags (or group categories) to your to do or reminders list
With the tagging feature, you can essentially use it to store information like short notes, someone’s birthday, a web address/ bookmark, a telephone number, flight numbers, contact details etc. and search them easily.

- automatically adding appointments, reminders, and to-dos to your Outlook 2007 and iCal calendar.

- RSS functionality allowing you to send your appointments, to-dos, contacts, etc. to your RSS reader.

- sending reminders to multiple recipients
This one I really like. It has the ability to send reminders to more than one person at the same time. By Cc’ing a person when you email Sandy to schedule something, that tells her that the appointment reminder should be sent to the other email address (in addition) to you. I have already used this on a number of occasions when I wanted J to be reminded of something too.

- integration with twitter

Security

For security sake, Sandy will only accept instructions from a particular email address pertaining to your registered account. There is the ability to add a secondary email of your choice if needed. Although not completely foolproof, sending an email from a registered email address and to the specified unique email address provided creates a pretty efficient two way check. In the event that someone finds out your unique email address, it is easy enough to change it at will. The uniqueness of email address also makes it hard for spammers/ spam bots to guess it.

When I first saw it, I thought it would take a little adjustment and getting use to how it works. However, was surprised at how fast it caught on and valuable it actually became. I did tell J about how tedious it would be to use but have since taken back all the negativity I’ve said about it.

How does it differ from another to do list or the list feature in Outlook?

For starters, every instruction you send Sandy, is accessible online. That essentially allows you to look at your list anywhere and at anytime from any computer. Your instructions can also be modified by logging into your registered account. All instructions are archived so that you can refer back to a certain date and time easily by searching your tags. The ability to send out reminders to different recipients at the same time is a one of a kind feature not found in any other service (that I have come across so far).

In a nutshell, IWantSandy

* Kicks off your morning knowing what’s on for the day.
* Keeps your day moving forward with reminders right when you need them.
* Remembers the books to read, people to call, your cousin’s birthday etc.
* Keeps your staying organized with everyone in your life.

All without leaving your email inbox.

IWantSandy is a product of Values of n, Inc using the same reminder service technology as their flagship product Stikkit.

Those liking the Sims will like this one — 3D Mailbox. It’s a software that brings your email system to life by converting it into an interactive environment. You can interact and explore the surroundings while reading and writing emails. It even has an integrated IM chat system that lets you talk with your friends while reading/ writing emails.

There are two different environments to choose from, the initial Miami Beach environment and LAX Airport. The free software version includes the Miami Beach environment but it’ll cost you a one time fee of $29.95 to access LAX Airport.

Everything in the environment has a function related to either the email or chat system. For example, within the Miami Beach environment, your emails are represented by people on a beach, every email (person) that comes into your inbox (represented by a pool) will be checked by a spam filter (represented by a bouncer). When you are ready to check your inbox, just dive into the pool and interact with the people in there (i.e. your emails). When you swim in the pool, you’re basically browsing the emails (or people) you have available. They’ll remain in the pool until you move them into folders (represented by Cabanas) or delete them (by sending them to the alley). To get rid of the unwanted spam that might have come into your pool (or inbox), just feed them to the sharks (spam killers).

3D Mailbox is a pretty innovative and creative concept that’s the first of its kind. However, this is probably one of those apps that you’ll use once and then not use it anymore. It’s meant to be more game like and cool than functional and convenient. When I was testing it to see what it was all about, it started getting annoying real fast when I wanted to access a feature quickly. It was also pretty repetitive and the novelty of the Sims like interaction started wearing off the more I used it. They do promise to keep you interested by introducing new environments in the future.

Seeing the scantily clad women also makes this an R-rated software that’s definitely not suitable for young kids. I’m not surprise if Second Life introduces something like that within their virtual environment soon.

Here are two trailers for the different environments. A little cheezy but it gets the point across.

3D Mailbox is created by Robert Savage. He is the founder and President of World Market Watch, Inc., best known for VisitorVille®, the popular 3-dimensional website tracking software.

Sad but true

Posting my Lifestream, confirms what I already know but didn’t want to hear - that I spend WAY too much time on the web and my computer (even though it’s part of my daily work routine). Sad but true.

Facebook buzz

The buzz yesterday was Microsoft buying a piece of Facebook - a $240 million stake and the rights to have exclusive third party advertisement rights possibly paving the way for a Microsoft Live Facebook search engine too. There are also reports that they may have secured another $500 million from two New York investors.

Although being only 3 years old, the company is already valued at $15 billion and is currently the 5th most valuable US internet company (via Techcrunch) behind the likes of Google, Ebay, Amazon and Yahoo. Facebook currently has about 47 million users/ members, records 15 billion page views a month and registers about 150,000 new users a day.

Mark Zuckerberg has really done well for himself, especially for a 23 year old that initially started Facebook in his Harvard dorm to keep in touch with his old friends. Mark has since held off selling off the company, apparently turning down a $750 million buyout offer. Good for him to keep his baby close to his heart, taking the extra risk and having business savvy.

No one really knows for sure what the revenue of Facebook is but Techcrunch reports that it may bring in an estimated revenue of about $1.5 million a week. I personally think it’s a good move to hold out on a sale as Facebook has not even matured as a company yet and its potential is tremendous.

I just love to hear about success stories like Mark Zuckerburg and Kevin Rose (of the Digg fame). It gives us hope and the proof that if you put your mind to something, dreams can be achieved.

Cryptology is not for kids

Came across a site called Cryptokids. It’s designed by the governmental branch NSA (National Security Agency) and tailored to teaching kids Cryptology in a fun and amusing way. While I love Cryptology, I do think introducing it to young kids isn’t entirely appropriate. Teaching and encouraging the use of Cryptology at that young an age opens up the possibilities of kids using it negatively and illegally for their own amusement e.g hacking. The majority of kids out there just aren’t mature enough to appreciate it.

Last.fm rocks!

Recently joined the free music site Last.fm after hearing rave reviews about it. I’ve not regretted my decision! It is a great site to find and listen to the music you like, listen to music recommendations and network with those who have the same taste in the music.

Using a unique music recommendation system known as “Audioscrobbler”, Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user’s musical taste by recording details of all the songs the user listens to, either on the streamed radio stations or on the user’s computer or portable music device. This information is transferred to Last.fm’s database (”Scrobbled”) via a plugin installed into the user’s music player. The profile data is displayed on a personal web page.

Users can create custom radio stations and playlists from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm’s music library, but are not able to listen to individual tracks on demand, or to download tracks unless the rightsholder has previously authorized it. Registration is required to acquire a profile but is not necessary to view any part of the site or to listen to radio stations.
(Via Wikipedia)

Since I’ve downloaded their software, I’ve used it as an internet radio. All I have to do is put a singer or type of music of my choice into the software, and it will then stream music indefinitely until you stop it (advertisement free). You can see the songs I’ve listen to so far in my Lifestream or going to my Last.fm profile. I happen to like Indie, India Pop and Alternative music and my song list reflects that.

On the Home Front

On the home front, Miles (my cat) keeps following me around the house. Doesn’t he know he is a cat? Only dogs follow.

I keep killing fruitflies but they just keep coming back. At first we thought it may come from the pumpkins and apples we had but the apples are now gone and the pumpkin is outside. There are also no food lying about or in the trash. Weird and annoying! J has a home remedy of soap, vinegar and water which seems to attract and kill them — know any other ways?

Google owns and operates an AJAX-like experimental search engine called SearchMash.

There is no mention of Google accept in the Terms of Service. It would seem that this is an experimental playpan for current development, one similar to AllTheWeb (an experimental site for Yahoo). Visiting the site at random intervals allows you to experience Google’s experimental features.

SearchMash lets you search the internet in new ways. It is constantly evolving as we come up with ideas and figure out what works and what doesn’t. Check back here from time to time to see what has changed, and also to tell us which ones are useful to you. Please bear with us when the site is unavailable as we are limiting its use.

There are some neat features in it:

- There is a menu of options by each result allowing you to open the result in another browser window

- You can reorder search results by grabbing and dragging the number next to them

- There is the ability to hide and expand details of a of each search results

- The introduction of sub menus that allows you to see other types of results, such as images and blogs.

- The introduction of instant videos related to the search results
You can watch a video by clicking on its thumbnail. Click on the video that’s playing to pause it.

- Clicking for more results loads them in the current page and scrolls it down (in an Ajax-like fashion).

Here is a response from Google to why SearchMash was created:

* SearchMash is an experimental search site operated by Google. The goal of SearchMash is to test innovative user interfaces in order to continually improve the overall search experience for our users.

* The site does not include Google branding to help us gather more objective data about user response to new interfaces.

* There is no guarantee that the features tested on SearchMash will be seen on Google search. As with all of our experiments, one of the main factors we will consider is user response to the feature and how well it addresses their needs.

* This site is only a test and has traffic limitations so may be unavailable at times.

The Domain registration details state that it was registered by MarkMonitor back in September of 2006. MarkMonitor is a security company that specializes in making end to end solutions safer and creating/protecting corporate identities on the Internet. It would be a fair assumption to say that Google is also experimenting on new security and anti-fraud technologies for search users and new ways to deal with it.

I love the simplicity of Searchmash and it seems promising with its AJAX demeanor. One example of its simplicity is the lack of a “Search” button when you are typing in your search words, you will need to hit the “Enter” button on your keyboard instead. It would be interesting to see whether some of its features makes it to Google’s real search engine.

Seems like there are more and more click to call companies offering cheap national/ international calls. I read about it months ago but didn’t really pay attention until USA Today and Techcrunch reported on it today.

Here’s how it works:

1. You go their website, create an account
2. Using their dialup interface, you put in your telephone number
2. You then put in the telephone number of who you want to call
3. Both phones will then ring at the same time
4. Pick your phone up and talk like normal

If and when you are register, the companies will also give you a local number that will be linked to that national/ international number. This will give you a unique local toll number for repeated calling to that person.

So who offers it? Think triple J and a T - Jangl, Jaxtr, Jajah and Talkplus. (What’s with the J names?)

International and national rates are significantly cheaper than landline rates as it leverages the VoIP (Voice Over IP) technology. It’s a great alternative to individuals and small businesses than using the traditional VoIP providers and the popular peer to peer provider Skype. With VoIP providers like Vonage in trouble and SunRocket shutting down unexpectedly, this might be a good route to go without the monthly contract and still being able to keep your phone number.

Another useful feature provided by these companies is a button or widget to put on your website. Your friend or customer can use that widget to initiate the two way calling facility easily. Calling can be initiated from any landline or cell phone. You just have to remember that when using your cell phone, you will be eating up your cell phone minutes.

In comparing the 4 providers, Jajah seems to offer the best features for businesses like conference calling as well as useful desktop plugins for Outlook and Firefox. Talkplus offers the best call pricing e.g. a US to United Kingdom call costs about 1.1 cents per minute to a landline and 1.8 cents per minute to cell phones. Jangl and Jaxtr looks like it’s tailored towards personal users and offers voicemail capability. Jangl is currently offering free calling while they are in their beta stage. I may have to seriously consider using this to call my family internationally.

Read more about what everyone has to say about the companies below:

jaxtrjajahjangltalkplus

Trendio is a stock exchange of a different kind. It lists current events, news and popular word (tags) as stocks where the value is calculated according to their presence in the media.

Therefore, the more talked about it is, the higher it the “price” would be on the stock exchange. It is a fun way to visualize trends in the media, predict its price and learn about how real stocks are traded. For example, all the talk about Mike Tyson and his potential 4 year jail sentence raised his stock price 103.7% to T15.62 (T being the general currency being traded). Stocks are grouped into 6 sections to include news, politics, business, technology, entertainment and sport.

Designed by a 21 year old of Swedish and French nationality, it originally started as a side project but word got around and popularity rose. It has been around for almost a year but it has come along way since then, with upgraded features and playability like community contests, portfolio ranking and more. The developer states it simply … “I wanted to design Trendio as a funny and addictive game, but also as a futuristic news site concept and as a (cynical and provocative, but also significant) metaphor of the media.”

Since it is free and no real money currencies are exchanged, the risk factor is taken out of the equation and you can participate without fear of losing anything (except your pride). Believe me, it’s addictive! It has already gained quite a following and has been reported in Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal.

GameAlmighty.com is a new online community for the video gaming world. Think of it as a game-centric version of your favorite social networking site and your favorite online video source all wrapped in a Web 2.0-driven package. Its objective is to offer gaming reviews, previews, latest industry news, videos, podcasts and other creative content within a comic book like entertaining format.

“Our goal is to completely change how digital entertainment is covered,” said Christian Allebest, senior editor of GameAlmighty.com. “For the first time ever, publishers and developers can write rebuttals to game reviews they feel are unjust, giving them a second chance to defend their products. We also invite gamers and members of the industry to publish their own articles, reviews and opinions alongside our professional journalists.”

I must say that without even reading it, my first impressions of the site was a definite “Wow!”. It certainly shows that they have put a lot of work into bringing the user experience to the next level with a graphic novel and comic book feel. Navigating around the site immerses you in another world with uneven bold fonts, bright colors and even those dialog balloons that makes comics unique and appealing. In fact, I was just waiting for something to pop up on my monitor with the words “Kapow!” or “Kaboosh!” (like in the Batman & Robins cartoons of old) showing me innovative pop up advertisements.

This site places gamers, developers and publishers on an even level playing field i.e. anyone can submit content to it and comment on reviews, features and editorials. Each article comes with a unique rating system that helps gamers evaluate specific game elements like design, graphics, sound and value. Thus, giving more value to the next reader that comes around.

Gamers can create their own virtual social networking hub to share and communicate with others of the same interests with handy video upload functions. The forums also allow readers, publishers and developers to gain that valuable piece of insider information about current and future games.

GameAlmighty caters to gamers of all product genres from PC to mobile handhelds. It also reviews and previews the new/next generation gaming peripherals. In short, it is a fair assumption to say that you would probably find anything and everything about the gaming world from this one site.

What differentiates this site from others is not only the enticing visual experience. The site caters not only to hardcore gamers but to gamers of all levels. Its goal is to do reach out and relate to today’s video gaming and movie going audiences in a knowledgeable, humorous yet sophisticated way — without the communication barriers and pedestals. That is something they have been able to do very well so far. In terms of demographics, this site definitely appeals to a wide range of male, females that are young and old.

To top it off, they are wholly owned and run by Super Heroes. Real crime-fighting, super-human super heroes. Watch out, GameAlmighty is here to save the world from all the other gaming site pretenders and it looks like they’ll be around for a long time to come.