Radar Networks, is releasing a free Web-based tool, called Twine, that it hopes will change the way people organize their information.

Twine website is a place where you can share any kind of information and knowledge such emails, bookmarks, documents, RSS feeds, contacts, photos, videos, product info, data records, and collaborate around common interests, activities and goals with friends, colleagues etc.

Once Twine has some information, it starts to analyze it and automatically sort it into categories that include the people involved, concepts discussed, and places, organizations, and companies.

Twine uses the Semantic Web, natural language processing, and machine learning to make your information and relationships smarter.

It still look unclear how Twine could make a real difference about organizing and sharing information but apparently a public beta version of the site may emerge soon.

Another question, Twine will be able to compete with what Techcrunch calls "the Google lethal social weapon", the project Maka-Maka.

Twine register form is available here.

More about Twine: Technology Review,  Read/Write web.

Searching the web, I found several online photo editors, and among there some which provide the possibility to upload your photos directly to your favorite site where you can share them.

It was not a surprise to discover that sites such Flickr and Facebook are the most integrated with these online photo editors, closely followed by Picasa and Photobucket. If all online photo editors propose basic editing tools such resize, crop, color balance, etc.. it's difficult to find one which propose all available options. Some tried to be as close as possible from Photoshop, proposing layer tools or distortion tool.

Fine tuning and precise corrections are difficult to obtain but at the opposite these tools, specially when you can edit an already published photo, give you the possibility to adjust your photos from any computer without having to purchase/install software on computers.

My 3 preferred ones are:

• Splashup (formerly Fausto) which is certainly the most complete one. Photoshop looks alike, so you feel comfortable with only if you have some knowledge about Adobe products. Loading a photo may be very slow from time to time (my ISP fault or are they victim of their success ?)

• PicNik which proposes an user friendly interface and does not require Photoshop knowledge. Advanced editing tools, touch-up tool, frames etc.. are only available with the Premium version which cost 25 USD/year. This editor seems to be the easiest and fastest editor available.
• Phixr is a simple one but fast and well integrated too with most usual image sharing sites but not providing preview of the photo you want to edit is a real problem if you do not have title on your photos.
• Some other solutions to may want to give a try : Cellsea, Pixer.us, Snipspot, Fotoflexer, Pikfix, Fanstudio, Online Phototool,  Flauntr, Fotocrib, etc..

  Soon, Adobe will also release an online version of its flagship software "Photoshop". Adobe Photoshop Senior Product Manager John Nack published on his blog earlier last month few lines about "Photoshop Express".

My 1st post about Flickr tools is here

I will start to compile some informations about tools that make Flickr even better. This first post is about scripts that add useful tools and improve rendering of Flickr pages.

Next posts related to Flickr will be about photo online editors, Flickr 3rd party applications, etc.. Greasemonkey is a Firefox add-on (works also on Flock) which allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.

Hundreds of scripts, for a wide variety of popular sites, are already available at Userscripts.org.

Martin Gommel's listed the 10 most useful scripts for Flickr and published it on the Digital Photography School blog.

1. Flickr Auto Page This is definitely one of the most useful scripts for Flickr. It allows you to scroll though a stream without clicking the “next page” - button. Older images are loaded automatically.
2. Flickr New Contact More Links This script displays more useful information in you Flickr-inbox about the user when they add you as a new contact.
3. Flickr Multi Group Sender This one gives you the ability to post an image to multiple Flickr groups at the one time. Warning : If an image is posted in too many groups you reduce the probability of your image being explored ! I recommend adding images to a maximum of 5 groups.
4. Flickr Move Comment Form Up This makes commenting on images a lot easier. This script always displays the comment box underneath you selected image - regardless of how many other comments have already been written.
5. Flickr Photo Rank Photo Rank will show you a photo’s rank if it is in the top 1000 most interesting images of the day. After installation you can find it under “Additional Information” on the photo’s page.
6. FlickrPM FlickrPM allows you to get important information about another user in a short amount of time by blending in different buttons next to the username on their stream (like icons for mail, profile, favorites, Scout and interestingness). Useful: With FlickrPM you can send the user a Flickrmail without leaving the selected page.
7. Buddy Icon Reply This is another time saver scripts for Flickr. With it you will never have to copy&paste user names you want to reply to on your or other images. With one click you will get a little icon of the user you want to answer in your comment box. Nice !
8. Flickr Background Color This script is all about aesthetics and is an easy to use tool that changes the background color on a photo page. It displays several shades of gray through to black. So if an image has a “dark feeling” the white standard Flickr background won’t disturb it.
9. Flickr Follow Comments This useful script helps you to view images that you have commented on - but only those that interest you. If you are writing lots of comments every day you know how hard it is not to get distracted by the overload of images when you click “Comments You’ve made”. With this userscript you have 4 different options to see only certain types of comments.
10. FlickrMailManager This MailManager is the one of those scripts I will always value, because it makes handling your flickr-inbox much easier. For instance you can “mark all as read”, “delete group invites” and “nuke mailbox”. The processing time depends on the size of your inbox - so I use it very often

What are your preferred GM scripts ?

Source: Digital Photography School

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Tags: flickr, tools, script, greasemonkey, photo, sharing,