Online Replacements for Desktop Apps? 335
Jon_Aquino asks: "I'd like to share this Google Groups thread of free online replacements for desktop apps. Some of the gems are: an online UML diagrammer, an online Paintbrush app, online Post-It notes, an incredibly realistic text-to-speech converter, and an online spreadsheet. What are other cool online desktop-app replacements?"
Minesweeper, etc. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Minesweeper, etc. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Minesweeper, etc. (Score:4, Informative)
That'll be Xulmine, available from games.mozdev.org [mozdev.org].
Re:Minesweeper, etc. (Score:4, Informative)
http://binertia.com/lightswitch.html [binertia.com]
press such combination that all squares are
yellow at the same time. It has been done.
and this works in IE5+/NS5+/Moz/FireFox/Opera
enjoy
--
/apz, simple puzzle games are the best
Re:Minesweeper, etc. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Minesweeper, etc. (Score:2)
Castlevania, StreetFighter and more.... (Score:4, Informative)
some use an emulator plugin, but alot just use shockwave/flash.
Tm
Re:Minesweeper, etc. (Score:2)
(Note: I am hideously biased. [rahga.com])
Re:Minesweeper, etc. (Score:2, Funny)
Computer Voice TTS (Score:3, Funny)
How to make the MS "Merlin" agent more annoying? Give him a French accent!
secure...? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:secure...? (Score:4, Funny)
KFG
Re:secure...? (Score:2)
Well, that UML diagrammer [gskinner.com] linked in the story post exports the diagrams as XML which you save and then import later. So it looks like that paradigm is shifting right beneath your mouse. (It's really a pretty neat little flash app.)
Its Usenet not google groups. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Its Usenet not google groups. (Score:5, Funny)
Google Groups is an online replacement for your desktop newsreader app, see...
Re:Its Usenet not google groups. (Score:3, Interesting)
No, no... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Its Usenet not google groups. (Score:2, Insightful)
Sheesh to that!
Re:Its Usenet not google groups. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Its Usenet not google groups. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Its Usenet not google groups. (Score:4, Funny)
*Enter old hacker*
I remember when we didn't have these fancy-assed weeeeeeeeb browsers. All we had was telnet and FTP, and we LIKED it. And sometimes the server you wanted to use didn't have anonymous-FTP, so you had to crack the box - but that was easy then since everyone's root password was 'root' anyways.
Oy! We were real men then.
*Exit old hacker*
Hey you kids! (Score:3, Funny)
Crap. Usually when you read these "I remember when" rants they are funny because they are so over the top that you realize
Re:Its Usenet not google groups. (Score:2)
Practically, is there anywhere else?
I sure as hell don't have the diskspace to save all of usenet...
Raise your hands if... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Raise your hands if... (Score:2)
Re:Raise your hands if... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Raise your hands if... (Score:2)
Re:Raise your hands if... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Raise your hands if... (Score:2)
think of. It failed "homoousios" for instance.
Re:Raise your hands if... (Score:2)
voicemail (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Raise your hands if... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Raise your hands if... (Score:2)
Browser (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Browser (Score:2, Funny)
You may have to click through to the replies, that's where the greatest concentration of bullshit is generated...
That's a GREAT idea! (Score:2)
too much bandwidth. Where can I get a
T3 for $9.95 a minth?
Re:Browser (Score:2)
Lots of people have thought of this (Score:5, Insightful)
Looks like they won...
Re:Lots of people have thought of this (Score:2)
Someone forgot to tell me to stop using them!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Simpy.com for bookmarks (Score:5, Interesting)
If it does, then Simpy [simpy.com] is definitely a superior online replacement for bookmarks (really more than bookmarks, but let's keep it at that). Here is a demo [simpy.com] and some screen shots [simpy.com].
Re:Simpy.com for bookmarks (Score:3, Funny)
Nah ... better use this [google.com]
del.icio.us (Score:2)
Re:Simpy.com for bookmarks (Score:2)
If only Yahoo would make a version for Mozilla or Opera.
Re:Simpy.com for bookmarks (Score:2)
It's Usenet, not Google Groups (Score:5, Interesting)
By posting this to /. (Score:5, Funny)
They depend on a running server. These just died.
Re:By posting this to /. (Score:2)
If you don't think something like this could be very useful, try JDiskReport. [jgoodies.com]
The best one... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:The best one... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Google calculator sucks (Score:2)
SalesForce.com (Score:3, Interesting)
Nice but what's the point (Score:3, Insightful)
Basecamp project management (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, I don't have a paid up BaseCamp membership since I think it's overpriced, but there you go
Re:Basecamp project management (Score:2)
If that 'spreadsheet' is a gem (Score:3, Insightful)
My geek b0yfriend's n0t h0me right n0w... (Score:5, Funny)
Application Servers? (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought the much-hyped application server revolution never happened, because people just don't want to share personal or proprietary information or need the guaranteed availablility of a locally-installed app. The only real popular web apps I can think of are the search engines of various types (web, real estate, personal ads, etc.) and, perhaps, those on-line tax services (you give them your information at a store front, too). Otherwise, the WWW is still mostly just a place to share information, mail-order stuff, and post flamebait to forums like this one.
The most ubiquitous of all (Score:5, Funny)
This...could be...the REVOLUTION. (Score:4, Funny)
Did I read this right?
FREE software?
Like, you mean, it's free for two weeks then I have to buy it? Or you mean that it's not free, but you found a place to pirate it?
Or...no. It... it's not possible. Are you seriously coming here, to Slashdot, and telling us that there are software packages that we don't have to pay for, and can still legally use?
Holy crap, man.
The Horde Projects. (Score:3, Informative)
These guys have great webmail(Imp) ; nice web based file managers (Gollem); a nice CVS viewer.
From their FAQ [horde.org]
Office application suite (Score:2)
reminds me of (Score:4, Interesting)
In the mid late 90's when everyone was going to use the netscape web browser and Sun's java to run all their applications from applets on thin-client sun terminals. Oh, and all your news would come from "Push" technology like Pointcast.
Is it me? (Score:5, Insightful)
Something about trusting my data (confidential or not) to some unknown, faceless entity, for lack of a better term, has always kept me away from such services.
Not that I'm a paranoid guy or anything ("even paranoid people have enemies!"), but who knows who's really seeing what your data, and who knows what they might do with that knowledge. Whether it's initially (mis)used or not, the danger is there. And if it's archived anywhere along the way, the potential for misuse is even greater, as now anyone down the road can come along and find/sell/misuse it.
"See this killer app that everyone's talking about? That was my idea! But no sooner had I began sketching out my flow on gmodeler [gskinner.com] then 'Boom!' it was patented and being marketed everywhere. That shoulda been me...." (Not that GModel would ever do this, but it's a good example of my point).
Not to mention the confidentiality issue... I work for a financial services company, and a few years ago, we were looking at ways to quickly re-purpose a bunch of PDF documents to HTML, and one proposed solution was a web service that offered online conversion of such documents for free. Clearly though the privacy issues, not to mention potential for misuse of the data made us choose a different avenue!
Plus there's always the fear of relying on the online apps. If I become dependant upon it, either for my work, or for the convenience it offers, what am I to do if suddenly the site goes under, becomes a pay site, or simply changes URLs due to a provider going down.
Not that there aren't any valuable services out there, there are! It's just that I feel safer relying on local software, and homegrown solutions. Am I alone with this perception?
Re:Is it me? (Score:2)
Re:Is it me? (Score:3, Interesting)
Additionally, that's one of the reasons I provide an RSS feed. You can easily save a local backup of your notes.
Tony
not just you (Score:2)
Ouiki Glogs:Rationale for attribution-free online communities [wearcam.org] ~ [steve mann, wearcam.org]
pixelsight (Score:2)
I'm the cheapest person I know and I actually pay for this.
(Requires JavaScript)
Text to Speech (Score:2, Interesting)
Webware directory (Score:5, Informative)
Check out XDesktop for Open office (Score:3, Interesting)
CBG
Re:Check out XDesktop for Open office (Score:2, Insightful)
As for "why install software you rarely use:" because hard drive space is cheap and nearly limitless. Net connections are expensive and limited. You can still patch everything from a central se
Worldship (Score:2)
Also USPS shipping programs such as stamps.com and endicia.com have annoying poorly design window clients for a function that would be better suited as web-based client.
Oh well I will have to wait.
mobility? (Score:2)
Online virtual Blue Screen Of Death (Score:2)
Online apps brings new responsibility to servers (Score:2)
But I have a dreadful fear of an app I use all the time - along with my data - vanishing forever.
I think if I could dwonload and also host the code for an online app, that would help. Also I think it imperitive that every online app like these that holds data you care about provide a means to download you data from the site in one easy-to-read chunk, that could be re-uploaded to the service if it had a failure and lost data, or simply parsed through to pu
Newsgroups instead of Newspapers (Score:2)
Or this [mailto] instead of snail mail!
killer app (Score:3, Funny)
Text-to-speech demo (Score:2)
The Old Days (Score:2)
Online apps == al Qaeda target (Score:2)
What's the big deal? (Score:2)
Couldn't I just *store* my documents online, instead of having to move all my applications there as well?
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:2)
How about storing your documents locally and just loading your applications from an online source?
Re:What's the big deal? (Score:2)
Call me unclear on the concept, but it seems to me that the days when the user couldn't afford processing power and memory space are long gone. Why does it seem that just as the common man gets adequate computing power, the elite comes along to take away their CPUs and RAM?
Why?
Outlook.. (Score:2)
<shameless plug> hostedLABS [hostedlabs.com] is building a tools along these lines</shameless plug>
And I have played Flash Pacman and javascript Battleship.
slashdot . org (Score:5, Funny)
Online Java-based SSH Client (Score:3, Informative)
The SSH client is widely available from various sources, particularly universities. Just Google for "mindterm ssh" [google.com] to find a location near you.
One caveat: I've only used this using Internet Explorer (since that is always on a public Windows machine), but the SSH client is also supposed to work with Netscape.
Re:Online Java-based SSH Client (Score:3, Informative)
I wish it was, but no... Thanks to the security restrictions of Java, it can be a real PITA.
Basically, if it's on the same server you want to connect to, then you're okay with basic SSH... But in my experience, companies don't keep their SSH server on the same site as their webserver, so that's not much of an option.
Now then, to connect
Personality/Compatibility Tests (Score:2)
Thing is eHarmony relies solely on this method to match you up and match.com relies more on pictures - guess where the ugly but cool people go? Guess where the pretty but clueless people go?
Slashdot 1, Servers 0 (Score:2)
Realistic, and expensive, text-to-speech converter (Score:2)
If anyone else has a link to some FREE (and high-quality - none of this "SAM" or Dr. Sbaitso quality stuff!) text-to-speech converters, I'll all ears. Ha. Get it? All ears... hehehe...
Great work guys (Score:3, Insightful)
Color Schemer Online (Score:2)
I've used the Color Schemer Online [colorschemer.com] to come up with some cool color schemes for web pages. Sometimes it doesn't seem to turn out right, but I seem to avoid coming up with ... *ahem* ... wonderful color schemes that Slashdot has (I'm looking at you IT and Games section).
Best free online TTS around (Score:2, Informative)
Bloglines (Score:2)
The best way... (Score:3, Insightful)
Puh-leez. I'd like to boot to BIOS so that I can load DOS so that I can run Windows so that I can use IE so that I can set up a VM so that I can sandbox an application so that I can use a buggy Java editor to write a self-worship web page?
As an exercise in emulating those Russian dolls that keep getting smaller and smaller, sure. As a real-world computing solution? I'll know we're in hell if this ever achieves wide-spread adoption. The current deluge of web-based Java apps is already turning my hair grey with bugs, security exploits, extremely nasty functionality, and spontaneous page refreshes which cause my recent changes to be replaced with the 5 minute old information that the server has.
New SourceForge project (Score:3, Interesting)
Plug warning: I'm the project admin
Go check out the Sydney [sourceforge.net] project. There's an example at http://sydney.sourceforge.net/sydney_example.html [sourceforge.net].
Sydney is an all-Javascript/CSS/DOM project intended to create applications that run in your browser but look like desktop apps. It's already in use in a real project, but I'm not sure how much I can say about it, what with it being proprietary and all.... Anyway, Sydney is (to be) released under the LGPL. (The "to be" part is 'cause I'm just finishing up exams, and I haven't figured out the file release tools on SourceForge yet. Everything's in CVS, though.) It provides a fairly rich class hierarchy of widgets, including normal stuff like buttons, labels, and checkboxes, plus some more complex stuff like trees and tables. It runs in both Mozilla and IE, and it's intended to be cross-browser, so now that it's open source, it may start to work in $YOUR_FAVOURITE_NON_TTY_BROWSER. Let me know what you think.
Ian
And for weblogs... (Score:3, Informative)
Taking the weblog example to the extreme, you could use TypePad [typepad.com] to write a weblog entry; Flickr [flickr.com] to store your photos; store some mp3s (for an mp3 blog) on your ISP-hosted shell account; your events calendar on Upcoming [upcoming.org]; use iCal to update your personal calendar (which is then stored on your
transform/aggregate/filter it all, and publish it to your Web space; and you manage all this on the Web at each individual Web site or with a Watson-ish [karelia.com] desktop client.
There not 'online apps' (Score:3, Insightful)
Instead they are just regular application embeded in a web page, woopie, I can do that with anything Java.
I was expecting the kind of thin client that I would be able to access from a mobile device, or run on a pritated copy of Crippled Windows (TM) that's been imported from Asia.
Re:Text to Speech App (Score:5, Interesting)
The English output still sounds like a robot. The Spanish one is almost humanlike.
For those who don't know, Spanish has a nearly perfect spelling system: by the spelling you know how to pronounce the word exactly. Of course, regional dialects change the pronunciation, but it's always consistent.
The other way around is not true, though. Two words with the same pronunciation may have different spellings, specially because of the V-B, S-C-Z, CC-X, C-K.