CyberNet News

CyberNet Status Update

Ryan Wagner — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:56:55 +0000

Howdy! You may or may not have noticed that we haven’t posted here in a couple of months, and wanted to give everyone some idea of why the posts suddenly stopped. A lot of things have changed over the last few years so lets rewind back to 2011 so that you get an idea of the events that lead up to today.

2011

This was a good year for CyberNet. In 2011 we hit traffic records with our best month bringing in around 550,000 pageviews. Late that year Google made some changes to their search algorithm that negatively affected us quite a bit, but we decided to keep on going anyway.

At this point Ashley had been a teacher at a private local middle school for several years, and really enjoyed working with the kids. Before the 2011 school year began she tried to get approval for taking a few weeks off in December 2011 for jaw surgery that she had scheduled to correct a misalignment that could later lead to arthritis in her jaw. After the surgery she would have her mouth banded shut for weeks, which as you can imagine would make teaching difficult. The principal of the school wouldn’t provide the approval, and instead of trying to push harder for the time off I just told her to take the year off and look for a new teaching job the following year. That way she’d have plenty of time to recover.

During her time off she was looking for something to do, and she wanted to start her own recipe site since she enjoyed cooking. We spent time working out the details and developing the site, and in December 2011 (about a week before her surgery) we launched CenterCutCook.com.

2012

By the end 2012 CyberNet’s traffic had leveled off to around 200,000 pageviews per month, which is quite a bit less than what we had just a year prior to that. We weren’t really all that disappointed though because we had a really good run with CyberNet, and in just one year Ashley’s CenterCutCook.com really started to take off. She ended 2012 with about 1.2 million pageviews over the course of her first year, and was already bringing in about 175,000 pageviews per month. So after a year she stood about equal in traffic to CyberNet which had been around 7 years.

The dilemma we ran into was that I was doing all of the development for her site, and we had so many ideas for features on CenterCutCook that we couldn’t get everything done that we wanted to. Since I already have a full time job, I needed to figure out where I wanted to focus my weekend efforts, so in December I decided to direct my attention at CenterCutCook. That’s when the articles stopped on CyberNet.

2013

And here we are in the present. It’s been over a year since Ashley had her surgery, and she got a little cosmetic dental work done as a reward for everything she has been through. The results actually turned out so remarkable that the company behind the veneers wanted to use her in their ads. They flew a team from Los Angeles to Chicago (where we live) to do a professional photo shoot. It’s only been 6 weeks since the photo shoot and they already have her in several national magazines, and more to come. This is what the ad looks like for those of you curious:

GOING FORWARD

So where do we go from here? That’s something we’re still trying to figure out. We’ve learned a lot of lessons with CyberNet that we are determined not to repeat with Ashley’s CenterCutCook. One problem we noticed over the years with CyberNet was that it had a major flaw… much of its content was so time sensitive that it takes a lot of upkeep to keep it going. For the most part almost all of our content on CyberNet becomes useless after a year or less. News becomes irrelevant, and software changes making any guides or reviews inaccurate. So we wanted something that would be more lasting, and recipes seemed like a great market to enter into.

It’s obviously a crowded market with the thousands of other food blogs out there, but we have an added advantage that most other recipe/cooking blogs don’t have: we’ve already built one blog from nothing to having served tens of millions of visitors. Both Ashley and I have learned a lot over the years, and we both believe CenterCutCook’s success will be several times that of CyberNet. Heck, CenterCutCook has already seen days equivalent to those where CyberNet was fortunate enough to grace the front page of sites like Slashdot (example).

One thing I also learned is that people loved the CyberNet WrapUp posts. This summary of news, tips, and updated software really piqued the interest of many of our readers. You may not have expected that since it never showed up in our most visited articles found in the sidebar, but that’s because the WrapUp articles were always our most viewed items in the RSS feed. We always liked doing the WrapUp posts because they pushed traffic to other sites, and we’ve seen upwards of 1,000 clicks to other sites from a single post… which doesn’t even count the clicks from people through our RSS feed (we don’t do click tracking in RSS so we aren’t sure how many outgoing clicks there were).

At this point I’m not quite sure what will happen to CyberNet. I’ll probably post here periodically if I come across anything that I’m really excited about (like with XBMC last year). Other than that it may stay a bit quiet, or I may open it up to guest authors that want to contribute. We have some options, but there probably won’t be the same posting schedule that we had previously.

Thanks to everyone for the support over the years! You’ve all been awesome! If you get hungry though, feel free to jump over to CenterCutCook.com and peruse the nearly 200 recipes Ashley has posted.

View Weather in the Mac Menu Bar

Ryan Wagner — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:38:17 +0000

Keeping up with the changing weather conditions can be quite a chore, but if you’re using a Mac you can have the current conditions as well as a 9-day forecast just a click away. Meteorologist is a free Mac app that provides a compact weather display from the Mac Menu Bar.

As you can see in the screenshot above the app tries to use a menu structure for navigating the weather conditions. Out-of-the-box it is actually even more compact than that since it tucks away both the current conditions and forecast in separate menus. As you can see in the screenshot you can disable having each of those things hidden away in a submenu.

The people who will love this will be those of you that keep track of the weather in multiple locations. This app will display a menu for each location you want to track. I’m not a huge fan of the menu structure for navigating weather conditions, but if you wanted to watch three or four different cities I’d say that using the menus makes things a bit more organized and convenient than some of the other methods I’ve seen.

If you do decide to give this a shot don’t forget to checkout the Alerts tab when configuring the app. There you’ll be able to set whether you want to be notified of weather alerts through a popup message, audio alert, or email.

Meteorologist Homepage (Mac only; Freeware)

Bulk File Renamer for Windows

Ryan Wagner — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 11:02:58 +0000

We’ve covered numerous file renaming utilities here on the site, and many of them have their own strengths and weaknesses. What I’ve found with a lot of them is that most tend to be difficult to use, but I found one called Rename Master that is both easy and powerful.

Rename Master provides a simplistic interface for doing things like replacing/adding/removing text in filenames/folders as well as many other common operations. If you jump over to the “Case & Wildcards” tab there is also an option you can enable for full regular expression support in any of the find/replace operations. That’s something I know a lot of power users want in an app like this.

Here’s a look at some of the things Rename Master has to offer:

Intelligent number sorting
File and folder renaming
Custom filelist columns
Auto-Preview
Subfolder Scanning to rename files in multiple folder
Renaming Variables for JPEG/MP3 tags, file properties, counters, and more
“Scripts” to save commonly used renaming options
[*] and [?] command prompt style wildcards, or full Regular Expression support
Optional Explorer integration for right-clicking on files/folders or using “Send To”
Case Changing and Textfile importing

This program has been getting developed for over 7-years so it should come as no surprise that this is as good as it is. The download comes with both portable and installable versions depending on which you prefer.

Rename Master Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Create and Edit Windows 8 Libraries

Ryan Wagner — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 10:18:03 +0000

Starting in Windows 7 Microsoft introduced a new feature they called libraries. The libraries are designed to give multiple folders a single unified view that can be used to manage your media and documents. This is especially useful for anyone with files spread out across multiple hard drives and network locations because it will all appear as a single folder on your machine.

The downside to this awesome feature is that Microsoft never provided a great way for managing the libraries, but third-party developers stepped in to fill the gap. The same goes for Windows 8. An app called Librarian supports creating, updating, and removing libraries on both Windows 7 and also on Windows 8.

As you can see in the screenshot above this particular app gives you full control over how the libraries behave. One thing I really like is that it lets you choose the default location to save files, which I know is something I’ve had many people ask me about before. If you don’t use an app like this to change the default save location Windows will decide where it should put files when you do things like save files to the library. Now you’ll be able to choose where you want the files to go.

If you’re looking for a way to simplify folder management on your computer this app may be the key to doing that.

Librarian Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

Map SFTP to a Drive Letter

Ryan Wagner — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 09:56:07 +0000

A few years ago we wrote an article that offered up a solution for quickly accessing an FTP site from Windows Explorer, but things got a lot more complicated if you were trying to work with an SSH/SFTP site. A couple of weeks ago a commenter, Shawn, mentioned a new application that recently came to fruition which lets you assign a SFTP connection to a drive letter in Windows Explorer.

The project, Win-SSHFS, does have some pre-requisites that it needs installed, but it will take care of those automatically during the installation process. After you get through the installation you can go ahead and open up the included Sshfs Manager app. As you can see in the screenshot above all you need to do is enter in the connection information, specify an available drive letter, and hit the Mount button. Give it a little bit to make the connection, and then it should appear in Windows Explorer.

You can use the Sshfs Manager to add as many connections as you want… assuming you have enough drive letters available. For each one you can specify whether you want it mounted when you start your computer, or you can just go into the app and mount them as needed.

I should also point out that you have the choice of using a password with the account, or you can also use a private key for authentication. Some users are given private key files to use instead of a password, and it’s nice that those will work with the app just as well as a password does.

Win-SSHFS Homepage (Windows only; Freeware)

WrapUp: Google Apps No Longer Free, T-Mobile Getting the iPhone, and More

Ryan Wagner — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:05:07 +0000

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

Google Apps is No Longer Free
Sadly, Google will no longer offer a free version of Google Apps for small businesses. If you already have a free account you can continue using it, but new customers will need to pay a minimum of $50/year for each user.

YouTube’s Gets a New Interface
If you haven’t stopped by YouTube in a little while it’s worth checking out the new interface that was recently rolled out.

T-Mobile Gets the iPhone, and Will Eliminate Phone Subsidies
Last week was a big one for T-Mobile with the announcement that they will get the iPhone in 2013. They also announced that they will stop subsidizing the price of phones, and will instead push users to their Value Plans. Customers will still be able to have their phone financed though.

Apple Bringing Mac Production to the USA
People started noticing that new iMacs were being assembled in the United States, and according to Tim Cook the company plans to invest over $100 million to bring more production to the US in 2013.

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

Snapseed for Android Released
Awhile back Google acquired the company behind the popular Snapseed app on iOS, and just last week the first version for Android was released.

Gmail App Hits 2.0 on iOS
Google released a huge refresh of the Gmail app on iOS, and aside from the redesign they also added support for multiple accounts.

–Downloads–

Bullzip PDF Printer 9.3.0.1516 [Homepage] [Mirror]
Dropbox 1.6.3 [Homepage] [Mirror]
Evernote 4.6.0.7670 [Homepage] [Mirror]
Firefox 18.0 ^{Beta 3} [Homepage] [Mirror]
Foxit Reader 5.4.4.1128 [Homepage] [Mirror]
Google Chrome 25.0.1349.2 ^Dev [Homepage] [Mirror]
LibreOffice 3.6.4 ^{RC 3} [Homepage] [Mirror]
LibreOffice for Windows 3.6.4 [Homepage] [Mirror]
TeamViewer 8.0.16447 [Homepage] [Mirror]

PinDroid: Pinboard for Android

Ryan Wagner — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 10:21:08 +0000

I’m a pretty big fan of the Pinboard bookmarking service, and even though it is a one-time fee of about $10 I’d say it’s well worth it. I originally jumped over to Pinboard after being unhappy with the privacy settings in Delicious about two years ago, and haven’t looked back since. There isn’t an official Pinboard app for Android, but the free PinDroid does just about everything I could ask for.

This is a rather full-featured bookmark management solution for Pinboard. You can do all of the stuff you’d expect like add, edit, view, and delete bookmarks. You can even search your bookmarks in case you are looking for something specific. Plus it includes a widget that provides quick access to the different areas of the app, such as searching or adding a bookmark.

My favorite part of the app is that it integrates with Android’s global sharing menu. That means you can bookmark tweets in your favorite Twitter app, URLs from the browser, and articles from your feed reader… all of which get passed to this Pinboard app. In iOS I always had to look for apps that specifically had Pinboard integration, and since each app had its own implementation the interfaces always ended up being different. Thanks to Android’s global sharing paired up with Pindroid I get universal access and a unified experience across all my apps.

And I want to give kudos to the developer. I had a minor issue with adding a bookmark via the sharing feature in another app, and he corrected my issue pretty fast.

PinDroid on Google Play

Awesome Online Markdown Editor

Ryan Wagner — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:47:38 +0000

It took a little while for me to get into using Markdown text editors, but once I did I really started to like them. For me it combines the simplicity of Notepad with the formatting options offered by rich text editors. Markdown syntax definitely won’t be for everyone, but for some situations that’s my go-to method for jotting things down.

We’ve covered some other Markdown editors on the site before, but if you are looking for a web-based solution Dillinger is definitely one of my favorites. It has a slick interface that you can customize using one of the 24 themes they provide. And like most other Markdown editors you are given a window to type in along the left side of the screen while the right side shows a real-time preview of what the formatted version will look like.

You don’t need an account to use Dillinger (nor do they offer accounts), but that doesn’t mean if your browser crashes you should worry about what happened to your note. Dillinger is utilizing some HTML5 technologies to make sure the content of your note is automatically saved on your machine. You can even test it out by going to the site, typing something, and refreshing the page. All your changes will still be there.

When you’re done with your document you have a couple of options. You can export it as a Markdown or HTML file, but they also offer the ability to tie it to your Dropbox account. That’s the method that I’d recommend because you’ll then be able to open and save from your Dropbox, which makes the whole process a lot more seamless.

Dillinger Homepage

Twitter Extension for Chrome

Ryan Wagner — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 11:46:46 +0000

If you use Twitter a lot you probably already have a repertoire of apps at your disposal for accessing and managing your tweets. Chrome users have another one that they can add to the list called Silver Bird, which simply installs as an extension in the browser.

I wouldn’t say that this is one of the prettiest extensions I’ve ever used, but when it comes to twitter clients I’d say that it’s nearly as full-featured as many of the desktop apps. You can even do things like hover over shortened URLs to see the real URL you’ll be taken to, and you can take advantage of the unified timeline that rolls up tweets across multiple timelines into one single view.

Here’s a longer list of things Silver Bird is capable of:

Check trending topics
Support for real time timeline updates
Expand the original tweet replies are referring to
Follow / Unfollow users by using the inline user actions menu
Browse tweets from a specific user directly inside the extension
Add and remove timeline tabs “on the fly” using the new right-click context menu
Create custom search queries that will update automatically
Preview image links by hovering them
See all your tweets in an unified timeline
Follow your timelines (including @mentions, lists, DMs and favorites) and navigate through your tweets
Compose, reply, RT, share, favorite and delete tweets
Create short URLs within the extension
Preview shortened URLs before clicking them
Track read / unread tweets
Notify user whenever new tweets arrive

This is definitely something that is worth taking a look at for all of the Twitter addicts out there. You’ll also find a large number of options you can configure to change the appearance and .

Silver Bird Chrome Extension

Simple Drag and Drop File Sharing

Ryan Wagner — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:16:02 +0000

There is no shortage of services that want to help you store and share files, and many of them all have the same clunky feel. When I came across Droplr, however, it immediately felt a lot more polished than other services I’ve used.

You can use Droplr in a couple of ways. For starters you can choose whether to sign up for an account or just use the service unregistered. If you sign up you’ll get the benefits of being able to refer to files you’ve uploaded in the past and you can delete files you’ve shared, but you’ll also be limited to 1GB of storage. If you choose not to register you won’t have the storage limit, but after the file has been uploaded the control is really out of your hands.

After you decide whether or not you want to have an account you’ll then be able to move on to using the service. Registered users get access to a slick web-based file manager as well as the ability to use the Mac and Windows desktop apps. Unregistered users, on the other hand, will need to upload files using the drag-and-drop web interface you see pictured in the screenshot above.

If you fall in love with the service you’ll be able to pay $3/month to get 100GB of storage and the ability to upload files up to 1GB in size (up from 25MB for free accounts). This isn’t something I’ll be using a ton since I use Dropbox for a lot of my sharing needs, but I will recommend it to friends looking to share files with me since they won’t have to hassle with signing up for an account.

Droplr Homepage