Cool Sites: Search Results

Answering A Simple Question - When Will It Be Released On DVD (or BluRay)

17 Feb 2010

If, like me, you love film, then you will probably find VideoETA to be incredibly useful.

No. It is not a beautiful website, but boy is it functional.

VideoETA's only purpose is to give you, the viewer, information on DVD and BluRay release dates.

While the dates it uses are US only it's still incredibly useful.

With more and more titles being released at almost the same time on both sides of the Atlantic and a growing number of studios offering "region free" BluRay discs, this sort of service is useful.

Personally I'm an addict!

So, for example, if you loved Avatar and want to know when it's going to be available to own, then VideoETA will be able to tell you that it is currently scheduled for a June release.

Their blog is also a pretty good source of film news, though it may not be on a par with some of the big movie news sites.

Outvesting - Supporting Business Development

13 Oct 2009

One of the problems that startups have is getting funds.

So a few people came up with the idea of "outvesting", which they describe as:

"The act of committing money to a business while expecting to get nothing in return, other than the satisfaction of giving a leg up to Irish entrepreneurs."

The idea is pretty simple - pledging €50 each towards startups. €50 isn't much, but when you multiply it by 40, 50 or 100 it becomes a "nice chunk of cash".

Further details on the site

Tours of Dublin in Spanish

23 May 2009

All too often English speakers forget that they are not the only people on the face of the planet. It's all too easy to forget that there are other language groups out there and that they too have money to spend!

So when I came across Dublin en Español I was very impressed! This is the kind of service that we should see more of. Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world and providing services to Spanish speakers in their native tongue makes sense.

The company offers a variety of tours of Dublin city in Spanish (thence the name!)

More details on their site

KidareStreet - Bringing Access To Government A Step Further

23 Apr 2009

Leinster House, home of the Ireland's parliame...

Image via Wikipedia

Successive Irish governments have talked about "initiatives" to encourage "egovernment". Some of the work they've done has been pretty good, but a lot of it wasn't exactly stellar.

So it's great to see that a totally independent, citizen volunteer project like Kildare Street has not only managed to give us, the people, access to Dail (parliament) transcripts, but also allows to pass comments, get alerts and so much more.

Kildare Street is the brainchild of John Handelaar and is based on similar project in the UK.

John's announcement explains it all:

Since 20th January 2004, the Dáil has been in session for 493 days (including today).

Up until this morning TDs made 249,489 speeches, and asked 160,503 questions which received written responses.

On average, TDs are producing 507 speeches and 326 written answers per sitting day.

And Handelaar's site has now made all of that content accessible and searchable.

Now that is cool!

MacHeist Combines Great Software With Philanthropy

5 Apr 2009

As a Mac user you get to hear about "cool software" for the Mac all the time. However not all software is as cool or as accessible as others.

What the guys at MacHeist have managed to do, however, is to combine software package deals with a philanthropy to make for a winning combination.

MacHeist run an offer a couple of times a year where you can get several hundred dollars worth of software for less than $50 (the latest bundle is $39).

What makes the deal even more interesting is that 25% of all sales revenue goes to a number of charities

The latest "heist" has so far sold over 43 thousand bundles and raised over $403 thousand for charity!

If you're a Mac user or know someone who is then this makes for a wonderful gift

IGOPeople Putting A Slightly Different Spin On Social Networks

18 Jan 2009

I'm more than a little jaded by the plethora of "social" sites and services that have been springing up over the last couple of years.

Do we really need another one?

What can site X offer that isn't already available via sites A, B or C?

That was my state of mind when I first heard about IGO people.

I'll be honest. I didn't want to signup and I couldn't see any benefit in having "yet another bloody login".

However a good friend asked me to give it a try, so I did.

IGO People is a slightly different concept:

I - individuals
G - groups
O - organisations

And the entire site is structured around these three types of user (admittedly there is an overlap...)

I grabbed a quick screenshot of the homepage a few minutes ago:

It's a nice way to interact and discuss organisations (companies etc.,) groups and individuals. What makes it a small bit different is that a lot of the content isn't behind a "wall" (unlike so many of the social network sites)

It's still in beta and they are adding new features, but it could become a very useful platform for companies and their clients who seek a medium to interact. While facebook has its "groups" and "pages" the IGO platform would appear to be more open and flexible and hopefully will remain less cluttered (ie. no annoying apps )

One to watch!

OpenZap Collecting Links From Twitter

11 Jan 2009

Apart from chatter, one of the things you see a lot of on social networks like Twitter are links to other sites.

OpenZap collects a lot of these links and allows people to vote on them, a bit like Digg.

It's an interesting idea, though how useful is actually is remains to be seen

Quality Stock Images At Low Prices

3 Jan 2009

Using images in a website or blog can make a huge difference. A visualisation of a metaphor can be a lot more powerful than any words.

Unfortunately stock images can be very expensive, so a lot of people end up abusing other people's images and breach copyright, which isn't a very good idea!

IStockPhoto, however is an excellent solution to the problem.

With images priced from as low as $1 you can easily find a photo or graphic that fits your requirements and thus avoid painful legal battles.

I've been using their services for the last couple of years to help illustrate company websites and blogs and I'm always impressed with the quality of the images that they have to offer and at such a great price.

Zyb Looks After Your Phonebook For You

21 Dec 2008

Once upon a time I used to have an address book. It was a physical book with people's names, addresses and numbers in it.

These days, like so many people, I tend to rely on my mobile phone's addressbook and my email inbox.

But what would happen if my phone broke or got stolen? I'd hate to think!

Enter ZYB.com

The service allows you to easily backup all your phone contacts remotely. It supports pretty much all the commonly used handsets and works by sending you an sms with the sync configuration details. Save the SMS and then sync your phone using the new profile (this process may vary depending on your phone, but as I'm using a Nokia it's how it works for me)

You can also sync your calendar entries and your SMS, though personally I'm a lot more interested in my contact data than I am in anything else.

It's a nice, simple service which "just works" and doesn't cost anything (at the moment).

Know Your Rights and Entitlements

7 Dec 2008

I really hate all the media talk about egovernment and how governments across Europe are working hard to bring information to us, their citizens.

However, one project that is truly useful is the one run by the Irish Citizens Information Board.

The site is not particularly visual or anything like that, but it is literally crammed with useful information for people living and working in Ireland (or planning on doing so).

If you want to know what your rights or entitlements are then this is the site for you.

Boards.ie Ireland's Biggest Forum

24 Nov 2008

You may love it, you may hate it, but you cannot deny that Boards.ie is one of the busiest and most popular sites in Ireland.

With over 400 separate forums covering every imaginable topic the site attracts thousands of visitors every day and clocks up several million page impressions per month.

The site has been running since 1998 and has one just about every award going.

Change.gov

17 Nov 2008

Barrack Obama's recent presidential campaign was very much online, so it's only natural that his transition site would attract quite a bit of interest

If you'd like to find out about who is going to be involved in running the US for the next 4 years, then head on over to Change.gov (great domain!)

Online Gifts With 4Gifts Direct

9 Nov 2008

One of the companies that won an award at this year's IIA Net Visionaries was 4GiftsDirect.

I ended up using them last year for a couple of hampers as they were still delivering to Irish addresses during Christmas week. Most of the other sites offering hampers etc., had stopped taking Christmas orders several days earlier.

So what makes them special?

Their service "just works".

You find what you're looking for. Pay for it. Provide delivery details and that's it.

No messing about.

It's the way ecommerce is meant to be.

One of the handy features the site offers is the ability to choose gifts based on the type of recipient, so if you're looking for a gift to cheer up your girlfriend, for example, they offer a nice range of ideas for that special someone

Daft.ie Making Househunting Easy

1 Nov 2008

If you're looking for a house to buy in Ireland these days you've probably spent some time on Daft. If you haven't, then you really should.

Over the last few months I've been researching house prices. While I tried as many of the online property sites as I could I kept finding that Daft was more useful.

Why is that?

I don't think there is a concrete and clear answer, but I guess it's more down to the way the site is run.

The guys behind Daft, which has won numerous awards, seem to really care about how people use their site. So when I mentioned a frustration with their site's search options they not only took the feedback on board, but actually contacted me to let me know that they'd implemented a change.

Now that is cool!

So I'd list Daft.ie as being both cool and incredibly useful (the guys running it are also really cool, but that's another story!)

Pastebin Is Just Plain Useful

29 Oct 2008

Pastebin.com is one of those sites that is just plain useful.

I originally came across it on IRC as it was a handy tool for people wanting to share snippets of code ie. hardcore geek stuff, however it's also incredibly useful if you just want to share some text. It doesn't matter what kind of text - you just copy and paste - problem solved!

Of course a pastebin per se isn't exactly an original idea - you'll find loads of sites offering the same functionalilty, but I always end up on pastebin.com since it's so easy to remember the domain name.

Recycle Your Mobile Phone

26 Oct 2008

Since I got my first mobile phone over ten years ago I've probably had a new handset every 18 months or so on average.

So what do you do with the old handsets?

While some of them get replaced because they're broken a lot of them get replaced simply because the mobile operator gives you a new one for free (or close to it) as an upgrade.

So you end up with a house or office full of perfectly good phones, but no use for them.

Envirofone isn't the only company that offers a phone recycling service, but it's one of the few that I know of, which is why I mention them

Envirofone not only recycle old mobile phones, but they also give you money for it. While some of the lower end phones may only fetch a couple of euros, a higher end model could give you over €100, which is more than you'd get if you left it gathering dust.

You're also doing your bit for the environment, so it's a win win situation!

UPDATE: Just realised I can't spell - post title fixed!

Make Tuxedo Rental A Thing of The Past

25 Oct 2008

If I was a bit more confident that my waist size wouldn't change I would definitely stop renting tuxedos.

I'm not sure what the going price for renting a tux is, but I know that it can easily hit the €75 mark.

So surely it would make more sense to own a tux?

The people behind DickyBow.ie seem to think there is a market in online tuxedo sales and I'd have to agree with them

Basic maths - full tuxedo from Dickybow.ie from €150 (delivered) vs. €75 for one night

They're even offering a printable measuring tape on the site! Nice touch.

Comment on Images Easily With Finetuna

14 Oct 2008

Being able to upload an image from your computer and add notes to it can save a lot of time and hassle.

Images are easier to understand than words!

Finetuna is a pretty cool service which allow you to do just that.

You can grab an image off your hard drive. Upload it and add comments and notes. Once you're ready you can pass the link to it to someone else and they can continue the work and so and so on.

It's a really nice idea and best of all it's free!

And did I mention it was Irish?

I guess I should have done.

Finetuna is from the guys in SpoiltChild (they've done a lot of work for me over the years, so I may be a wee bit biased)

IMDB The Ultimate Movie and TV Database

13 Oct 2008

I think I first accessed IMDB sometime during my first year at university. At the time, 1994, the site was still in its infancy, even though it held a lot of information.

Skip forward 14 years and The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has to be ranked as one of the most useful sites on the web if you're anyway interested in film or tv. The site is packed with information on films, actors, directors and upcoming releases.

Unfortunately you cannot get local movie times unless you're in the UK or US, but even so the wealth of information that the site provides is amazing.

Louder Voice Reviews

12 Oct 2008

People buy goods and services based on recommendations from other people. You can advertise to your heart's content, but other people's recommendations make all the difference.

LouderVoice, which is Irish by the way, allows people to share their reviews of products, services, books, films, etc., etc. very easily. You can either post your review directly on their website or interact with them using a range of other methods, such as SMS or "tags" on your blog or twitter.

While the service always struck me as being "cool" and all that I couldn't see how they were going to make any money out of it. However they have since unveiled their business solutions which do have a proper revenue stream.

Their new business service allows business owners to easily collect reviews and testimonials from their customers (one company is encourages customers to post reviews by putting stuff on the bottles they sell!)

It's a really nice idea and hopefully the business side of it will prove successful.

Results tagged “useful”

Answering A Simple Question - When Will It Be Released On DVD (or BluRay)

Outvesting - Supporting Business Development

Tours of Dublin in Spanish

KidareStreet - Bringing Access To Government A Step Further

MacHeist Combines Great Software With Philanthropy

IGOPeople Putting A Slightly Different Spin On Social Networks

OpenZap Collecting Links From Twitter

Quality Stock Images At Low Prices

Zyb Looks After Your Phonebook For You

Know Your Rights and Entitlements

Boards.ie Ireland's Biggest Forum

Change.gov

Online Gifts With 4Gifts Direct

Daft.ie Making Househunting Easy

Pastebin Is Just Plain Useful

Recycle Your Mobile Phone

Make Tuxedo Rental A Thing of The Past

Comment on Images Easily With Finetuna

IMDB The Ultimate Movie and TV Database

Louder Voice Reviews

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