I created a community for TAP (That Amazing Person) at MyBlogLog around a month ago and its just starting to take off.  MyBlogLog allows you to connect with other blogs and bloggers and I am discovering great blogs everyday.  You can join this blogs community at http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/amazing

In other news, TAP’s podcast - TapCast is also taking off. The Podcast discusses web2.0 and internet related news and broadcast live.  You can find out more at ITunes or at www.tapcast.net

I will be going away over the Christmas period for around 6 weeks and Im not sure how often I will be able to blog (of course if Telstra’s NextG Network were to sponsor my holiday I could blog everyday lol).  So I there are any bloggers out there who would be interested in Guest Blogging please comment!

And just a reminder we have setup a redirect domain www.go2tap.com to save you having to remember our long domain name (www.thatamazingperson.com)

To compete with Youtube, new video hosting and sharing sites are taking on new strategies.  One of these is WeWin.com.  Currently there are a number of websites that will pay the owner of the video but WeWin.com does the opposite in rewarding the viewers.

Using the website is fun but I am not sure on what my chances are of actually winning anything.  The site claims that over the last 24 hours 2 prizes have been awarded.  In terms of prizes they all seem to be $10 Amazing vouchers which is cool!

It would be interesting to chat with the people behind WeWin.com and see how they think the site will compete with YouTube.

Take a look at www.wewin.com

Technorati Tags: wewin, video sharing, video hosting, prizes

RSS? I see it everwhere but im not quite sure what it is? Is this you?

Here is my guide on how to RSS.  To start with I will begin by explaining what RSS is whats it is used for. 

What is RSS
RSS is used by websites to syndicate there content.  In other words a website like this one will publish an RSS feed that other websites and software can view.  So with RSS I can aggregate a whole range of content from different sources on the one page.

Why Use RSS
There are hundreds of different uses for RSS but this one might suit you.  Do you visit a number of news websites and blogs everyday?  Wouldn’t it be great if you could have all of this content in the one place. 

How to Use RSS
There are a number of different applications available to help you read RSS feeds.  If you are using IE7 there is a built in RSS feed reader.  This button will become active when an RSS feed is available on the current website.  This screenshot shows the button.

There are also plugins available for our favorite browser Firefox which will allow you to do the same thing. You may also have noticed a number of buttons on our sidebar (Google, Yahoo, Newsgator, Netvibes).  These allow you to add the TAP feed to your Google Reader etc. To use these buttons just register at your favortie feed reader service and then click the corresponding button.  I reccomend either Google Reader of Newsgator but AOL and Yahoo also offer similar services. You will find many of the major news websites and blogs will use these buttons.

There are many websites that will read RSS feeds for you.  These sites may ask you for the .xml URL and if so just find the orange rss button on the website, click it, and then copy the URL given.

Instant Alerts
If you visit a blog more then once a day to check for new content you can now instead, recieve instant sms, instant messages or emails when new content is availavle.  There are couple of sites that offer this service but none as simple as ZapTxt. ZapTxt allows you to specefy which websites and blogs you wish to monitor and what content you would like to notified about and best of all its free!

Startpages
There are many startpage apps online that will allow you to integrate RSS feeds.  Netvibes, one of my favorites, is quick and easy to use.  Google also has its own custom startpage which feeds can be added to.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to RSS but hopefully this article will make RSS a little more friendly. Do you use other services for reading RSS? Let me know.

Billster is another finance and expense tracking app.  It has a nice inteface but most importantly it’s Free!  Billster will help you not only organise your personal expenses but your shared ones as well. 

Here is what billster can do:

• Record and report personal and group expenses
• Save reoccuring expenses
• Send Reminders
• Email summaries

Although I havn’t given the app a full run through I would be interested in hearing others opinions on apps such as this.

Check it out at www.billster.net

Technorati Tags: billster, finance, tracking web2.0

The webOS scene is new and there are only a handfull of products out there.  New web0S platform is Orca however caught my eye and could make its mark in the web2.0 world.

Orca describes is software as:

ORCA is an online system designed to resemble any standard PC desktop while making it accessible from anywhere in the world. It is designed to reduce costs, improve productivity, and enable users to work mobility-centric. 

The product doesn’t really work yet but I can see that it has huge potential.  Check it out at http://orcadesktop.com/

Technorati Tags: orca, web0S, Desktop

If you like the look of a Mac but don’t want to fork out the dollars for a shiny new mac then you can get the same look and feel completely free of charge.  Thats right Free. No Shareware, Adware or Spyware!

 From This To:

This “Mac Look” can be acheived using free software, themes and icons and I transformed my look in around 10 minutes. 

Windows Theme Patch - WindowsXP doesn’t allow you to use unsigned third party themes so you will need to patch a file before changing to an OSX theme. Don’t worry this is a very user friendly step! Just download the installer, unzip it and run.  Thats it!  Make sure you create a restore point before running the installer just in case.  Although I have never heard of any problems.

Download Patcher (80kb)

The Theme - There are a number of OSx themes available online.  StudioTwentyEight has a great range of tiger and panther themes. 

The Desktop - If you don’t want to install a theme but just want that shiny blue desktop you can download it below

Download Tiger Desktop
Download Panther Desktop

The Object Dock - For those unfamiliar with the mac interface, the object dock is the group of icons at the bottom of the screen.  There are a few PC equivilant but my favorite is RK Launcher.  Unlike other similar products its free, stable and has all the features you need! 

Visit the RK Launcher Download Page

Widgets - Desktop widgets are not only great fun they are also extremely useful.  Take a look at there various widget options. For my transformation I used Yahoo Widgets.

Visit Yahoo Widgets

iChat - For a windows version of iChat simply grab Trillian and add this iChat skin.

Download Trillian
Download iChat Skin for Trillian

Icons - Just like styles and themes there are thousands of icons avialable.  However this website has a good range

There are many more good resources to give you that mac look and this is just a start.  Please suggest your own tips.  Look out for more ways to transform your PC into a MAC coming soon

There has recently been a bit of buzz about Google OS.  The fact is a Google Operating system doesn’t exist but many people believe Google OS would be a good idea.

If you take a look at current products offered by Google you could easily suggest that Goolge is an OS already!  But wouldn’t it be great to see Google release a web based OS that served as a hub for all their current products (or should I say features?).

I believe Google will release a central online storage feature sometime in the future. A central online storage feature? Whats that?  Well, currently they offer seperate storage for email, web pages (google site creator), Google Docs etc and the next logical step would be to create an online sotrage feature.  Take a look at ZDNets coverage on Google online storage (Gdrive) Here.

Following on from GDrive, Google might look at creating a hub for there features and this could be considered as an OS. Will they ever release a Linux distribution?  I doubt it.  Let me know what you think. 

Read/WriteWeb have put together a Poll on Google OS.  Check it out here

Modoshi is a new online shopping community where uses can discuss and rate online deals and even get paid. 

At this stage I am not sure if a concept like this will work as any site that pays for your opinion, content or post seems to attract scams and fraud.  What do you think?

I will sign up to service and give it a test run over the following weeks and let you know if I get paid at all.  If anyone else uses Modoshi let me know as it would be great to hear from you.

Visit www.modoshi.com

We have just finished hosting another edition of TapCast.  TapCast is a live talk show that allows anyone to call in and chat with us.

This latest episode talks about my top blogging tips to create a better blog.

Download This Episode (right click and save target as)

Take a look at www.tapcast.net for more information on our  Podcast.

TAP is growing!  We have expanded into offering a live Web2.0 talkshow, hosting gigs of downloads and more features are on there way. 

If you enjoy reading our content, listening to our podcasts or downloading our files then please consider joining in on our fundraising drive.  Our bandwidth costs keep rising and the drive will help go towards these costs. You can donate any amount and payments are handled through PayPal. 

We are planning on rolling out a series of exclusive features for donators including:

• Special Invites to the nets latest Private Beta sites
• Exclusive content
• Free advertising
• Members only discussion forum
• Exclusive Interviews

These features will be rolled out over the coming weeks and all donators will get access.

Donate Today - Support TAP