SUMo: Keep your PC programs up-to-date

If you’re like us, you like to keep on top of the latest software updates, OS updates, and so on. However, it gets a bit unruly having to open each piece of software you have on your PC and running the “check for updates” option for each one.

Recently released SUMo 1.4 (stands for Software Update Monitor) will save you the work. SUMo automatically scans your PC for installed programs and searches for updates.

We had a little trouble downloading the SUMo program from the primary download site, and eventually had to end up using the secondary FTP site. Once downloaded and installed, however, it was simple as pie.

The first time you run SUMo, it will prompt you to scan your PC for installed programs. If you agree, SUMo will find all the installed programs and load them into the interface, where you can check for updates with one click.

If you don’t want SUMo to locate all of your programs, you can manually select which programs to scan for updates by choosing the “add” button at the bottom of the page or by dragging and dropping the executable onto the SUMo interface.

If an update is available, choose the Get Update option, and SUMo loads a helpful web page with various download locations (yes, there are ads on the page as well; remember, if it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense).
SUMo is free software, and Windows only.

Process Lasso helps you rope in unruly Windows applications

If you’re tired of having Windows applications eat up all of your system resources and lock up or crash your computer it might be time to get a new computer, or at least some more RAM. But if you don’t fancy spending the cash, you might want to check out Process Lasso, a free tool to help you keep runaway programs under control.

Process Lasso does a couple of things. It can sit in your system tray and do nothing at all until an application meets certain conditions, like eating up more than 35% of your CPU cycles. Then Process Lasso goes and lowers that proces’s priority. But you can also set it to do a bunch of other things including:

• Limit applications so that they only use one CPU on multi-core systems
• Set an application to run at a certain priority every time they run
• Configure the programs that launch on startup
• Kill currently running processes
• Log all executed processes

You can achieve some of the same results with Process Tamer, an application we looked at a couple of years ago. But Process Lasso is far more customizable than Process Tamer.

[via Lifehacker]

Vacation rentals

Hutz.com is a vacation rental search site built on Rails.

Is Ruby on Rails the next Java? Benchmark Capital thinks so. It just invested $3.5 million in Engine Yard, taking its entire series A round. Ruby on Rails is an increasingly popular Web application programming environment because it is dead-simple, open-source and very fast to develop on. The downside is that it is not always as robust as more mature frameworks such as Java.

Sign Of The Times: Web 2.0 Outsourcing Humor

Something that you don’t often see a lot written about in new media is the strong trend by startups to outsource a lot of their work. Digg for example was originally designed by Kevin Rose outsourcing the job on elance, and sites such as Slideshare, illumobile.com have gone down a similar path.

Naturally it’s a cost thing. I spoke to one startup CEO last year who hired five programmers in India who had PhD level qualifications for $45,000 a year each, and the company he used to hire these guys came with a long list of US, English and Australian based startups currently using their services. I’ve even heard that some VC’s now look for outsourcing strategies in business plans and even recommend startups go down that path to save money, particularly when they’re starting out.

Doubtsourcing is written by Sandeep Sood, who handles outsourced IT work from Berkeley for clients including Microsoft, Wells Fargo, and Cisco. The actual illustration is outsourced to an American student who is currently studying Mandarin in China. The site has just gone live but I’ve seen some of the cartoons yet to go up, some nice fun on a topical area. His explanation of Outsourcing 2.0 below:

From: TechCrunch

New Ciara Song feat. J. Hood – “Ahh”

It looks like Ciara will be releasing a lot of music in 2008. Last week she realeased “That’s Right” and now another song leadked “Ahh”. The beat is really cool, check it out for yourselves!

Listen to “Ahh”

Link

100 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies

Business 2.0’s rankings show another banner year for the leaders of the tech revival.

Rank	Company	Sector	Revenue growth % (3-yr annualized)	Stock return 2006 (%)
1	Akamai Technologies	Business Services	35.7	167
2	iMergent	Business Services	137.4	334
3	Palomar Medical Technologies	Medical	49.7	45
4	InterDigital Communications	Software	53.2	83
5	CyberSource	Business Services	33.6	67
6	Perficient	Business Services	74.5	84
7	Lam Research	Electronics	35.5	42
8	Ceradyne	Manufacturing, Military	90.3	29
9	F5 Networks	Electronics	51.3	30
10	Armor Holdings	Manufacturing, Military	84.8	29
11	InVentiv Health	Medical	53.3	50
12	Apple	Electronics	48.3	18
13	ValueClick	Business Services	80.6	30
14	Varian Semiconductor	Electronics	24.6	55
15	LifeCell	Medical	50.0	27
16	Cognizant Technology Solutions	Business Services	56.3	53
17	Itron	Electronics	30.0	29
18	Digital River	Business Services	45.6	88
19	Hologic	Medical	30.4	25
20	Cymer	Electronics	21.1	24
21	MKS Instruments	Electronics	25.2	26
22	Ansoft	Software	18.1	63
23	Rochester Medical	Medical	13.4	136
24	American Science & Engineering	Electronics	35.3	-5
25	Nvidia	Electronics	16.2	102
26	Digene	Medical	32.5	64
27	Tibco Software	Software	24.7	26
28	Concur Technologies	Software	20.9	24
29	Gilead Sciences	Medical	52.5	24
30	Mikron Infrared	Electronics	15.4	84
31	Roper Industries	Electronics, Manufacturing	37.9	28
32	Intuitive Surgical	Medical	58.5	-18
33	Juniper Networks	Telecom	54.5	-15
34	NetScout Systems	Software	13.4	52
35	Trimble Navigation	Software	19.1	43
36	Red Hat	Software	44.7	-16
37	Komag	Electronics	28.9	9
38	Network Appliance	Electronics	33.4	45
39	Diodes	Electronics	31.4	14
40	Priceline.com	Retail	6.4	95
41	J2 Global Communications	Telecom	38.4	28
42	USEC	Manufacturing	13.7	6
43	Netflix	Retail	59.1	-4
44	ArthroCare	Medical	32.2	-5
45	ManTech International	Business Services, Military	19.1	32
46	Yahoo	Retail	65.8	-35
47	aQuantive	Business Services	29.9	-2
48	CoStar Group	Business Services	19.0	24
49	Celgene	Medical	47.5	78
50	Garmin	Electronics	40.2	69
51	Cohu	Electronics	27.2	-11
52	Lifecore Biomedical	Medical	14.2	10
53	Amphenol	Military, Electronics	24.1	41
54	Epicor Software	Software	35.2	-4
55	Kyphon	Medical	48.2	-1
56	Sirona Dental Systems	Medical	86.9	18
57	Business Objects	Software	31.2	-2
58	CalAmp	Electronics	29.1	-20
59	Rofin-Sinar Technologies	Manufacturing	17.3	39
60	Avaya	Telecom	7.4	31
61	ViaSat	Military, Telecom	27.8	12
62	Integral Systems	Electronics, Military	13.0	24
63	Relm Wireless	Telecom	24.1	-18
64	Applied Materials	Electronics	19.5	4
65	Polycom	Electronics	16.5	102
66	Comtech Telecommunications	Military, Telecom	29.0	25
67	Cholestech	Medical	10.1	86
68	Zimmer Holdings	Medical	25.6	16
69	Computer Task Group	Business Services	9.4	20
70	Orbital Sciences	Military, Telecom	9.7	44
71	Genentech	Medical	39.9	-12
72	L-3 Communications Holdings	Electronics, Military	34.9	11
73	Supertex	Electronics	20.6	-11
74	Zygo	Manufacturing	19.0	12
75	Micron Technology	Electronics	17.7	5
76	Ixys	Electronics	19.5	-24
77	Microsemi	Electronics	22.6	-29
78	Quality Systems	Medical	29.7	-3
79	Advanced Micro Devices	Electronics	22.8	-33
80	AVX	Electronics	11.1	3
81	Argon ST	Electronics, Military	85.3	-30
82	Perot Systems	Business Services	16.1	16
83	OmniVision Technologies	Electronics	38.1	-32
84	Lockheed Martin	Manufacturing, Military	8.2	47
85	Micros Systems	Software	18.9	9
86	ATMI	Manufacturing	13.1	9
87	DRS Technologies	Electronics, Military	40.0	3
88	Meridian Bioscience	Medical	18.4	24
89	Boeing	Manufacturing, Military	4.7	28
90	Sina	Retail	29.6	19
91	Daktronics	Electronics	23.8	150
92	eBay	Retail	42.5	-30
93	Rogers	Manufacturing	20.5	51
94	Western Digital	Electronics	18.2	10
95	Covansys	Business Services	6.6	69
96	American Technical Ceramics	Electronics	20.3	80
97	Alliance Data Systems	Business Services	23.6	75
98	Abaxis	Medical	23.3	17
99	Biogen Idec	Medical	61.8	9
100	Harris	Electronics, Military	18.2	8

 LINK

Xobni: The Super Plugin For Outlook

Anyone who depends on email to work, knows how surprisingly bad Outlook is when you get beyond about ten contacts; conversations easily become jumbled, and keeping contacts up to date can be a pain. Xobni’s Outlook plug-in solves these problems with a sidebar that automatically tracks contacts and organizes emails into fully searchable threaded conversations linked back to those people. They were a TechCrunch40 startup – see our coverage here.

Being the only guy with Outlook in the office, it’s been a personal favorite of mine. Xobni’s sidebar has improved Outlook for me by offering faster search, and automatic organization of my email and contacts. Their search function alone has saved me time by just being faster and more comprehensive than Outlook’s native search. Emails can be searched as independent threads or viewed in the context of a contact’s profile (pictured right). The profile shows basic contact info (automatically updated) and a full history of threaded conversations, files, and people they’re connected to (the email “social graph”).

Today Xobni is greatly expanding their closed beta by adding everyone on the waiting list (14,000 people). They will also be giving each registered user 5 invites to give to their friends. However, 200 TechCrunch readers can download the program by entering a special invite code , ‘techcrunch’, here as well.

The latest version is the product of three more months of work, which includes speeding up the algorithms, usability improvements, and the beginning of web integration. No, it’s not the anticipated webmail version of the tool, yet. Xobni’s first step is to search the web (via Yahoo) while you search your email in an effort to find more information about what your query and provide a possible revenue source through referrals.

From: TechCrunch

Social.im: The Instant Messaging Service For Facebook Junkies

If you don’t mind installing one more instant messaging client on your computer, and you happen to be a heavy Facebook user, check out social.im. This isn’t yet another instant messaging application that resides on Facebook; rather, it’s a normal IM client that grabs all of your Facebook friends via the Facebook API and brings them into Social.im.

It’s only available for Windows machines now, with a Mac version promised soon. We actually know next to nothing about the company, other than Hank Barry is an investor – he sent out a Facebook message this evening announcing it. The site itself has almost no information (and, yeah, you’re sharing your Facebook credentials with them to use it).

I’ve tested it on a Windows machine, but without any friends who’ve also downloaded the client it isn’t much use. If you’re one of my Facebook friends, try installing it and I’ll see if you pop up. For now, friends are listed but now showing online. And if you aren’t a friend yet, please add me.

The client also shows other basic information about facebook – new wall posts, messages, pokes, friend requests and photos tagged with your name.

The application is also a little unstable. It crashed a few minutes after opening. But hey, testing alpha software is always a little dangerous. That’s just how I roll – on the edge.

 Techcrunch Link

ClipSyndicate Videos Now On Truveo, Bebo, Magnify, and Lingospot

Video clips from local TV news affiliates are making their way onto the Web through a service called ClipSyndicate that’s been in beta for more than a year. The service, which is owned by New York City startup Critical Media, has more than 200,000 archived news clips and adds about 1,000 a day from about 200 local affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox, along with video from Bloomberg TV, the AP, UPI, and the New York Times. About 350 niche Websites are participating in the beta—including Military.com, Construction.com, and PetHealthFocus.com—and they collectively serve up two million ClipSyndicate videos a month.Now ClipSyndicate is spreading its API to video search sites like AOL’s Truveo and other services like Magnify (which we reported earlier) and Lingospot. For instance, ClipSyndicate videos come up in regular video searches in Truveo and play in an embedded ClipSyndicate player. On this Magnify page for Barack Obama, the “Obama News” videos come from ClipSyndicate. And Lingospot, which creates an in-text search bubble when you mouse over a linked term (see left), can show ClipSyndicate videos in its bubbles. You can even find ClipSyndicate videos on Bebo, although you have to look hard and there is no official deal yet with the social networking site.

To get a sense of the entertainment value of some of this stuff, here is a news clip from a local Oregon station about a man with blue skin who is moving to California in search of more tolerant neighbors:

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

ClipSyndicate serves ads with the videos and splits the proceeds as follows: 30 percent to the content producer (i.e., the local TV station), 20 percent to the API partner or Website where the video is seen, and 50 percent for itself. (Although the beta and APIs are available by invite only, the company plans to open up participation to all comers by the end of the first quarter). Critical Media CEO Sean Morgan tells me that he is getting $50 CPMs on the video ads sold through his salesforce compared to $8 to $12 CPMs from backfill video ad networks because the videos tend to appear on extremely targeted sites. Think Yummy Chummy ads on PetsHealthFocus. His sweet spots are mortgage, pets and animals, and health sites. He also claims that he is seeing close to three percent click-throughs on his graphical banner ads compared to quarter-point click-throughs on run-of-network ads.

What he is excited about, though, is marrying the brand advertising of video with the specificity of search. Truveo, for instance, passes the search terms through the API, so that can inform what types of ads are shown, in addition to the actual content of the video. As ClipSyndicate’s business model develops, we’ll see if it is actually possible to make money from the long tail of video (although note that this is still professional-quality video, and much higher up the curve than most of the audience-generated video on the Web).

Typeroom Simplifies Web Page Editing Online

Los Gatos, CA based Typeroom is developing a web based content management system that enables on the fly editing of existing sites.The idea is simple. Typeroom users specify the URL of the page they wish to edit. Typeroom then creates a copy of that page on their servers for editing. The editing itself is WYSIWIG based and covers areas such a text editing and image placement. Once a user is finished making their edits they can download the edited page directly to their computer, or (presuming its their site) update it via ftp directly from Typeroom itself.

There are a number of companies operating in this space, but most are focused on creating websites from scratch, and sometimes don’t support existing websites, at least not from typing in the URL of the page and allow users to edit the page then and there.

Typeroom went into closed beta testing this week and is aiming for a full launch later in the year. It’s a good idea that in use works well (I tested it), and may find a willing audience when it eventually launches. Sure, many reading this might prefer to install their own CMS or edit pages via html, but for those not wanting that level of interactivity, Typeroom provides a web based alternative to desktop design packages that even those not design literate could use.

Demo video as follows:

from TechCrunch