E-Utilities
Meetin.gs
This is a cloud application to schedule and manage meetings with ease. Users can invite colleagues and clients to meetings and get confirmation of their attendance too. No downloads, nothing to install. Just login through your Facebook account and add setup@meetin.gs to your meeting guest list on either the Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook.
This creates a centrally accessible area for the meeting participants. The application, on its own, emails the login links to all the participants you’ve chosen, rightaway. And, whenever participants make changes or updates to a meeting schedule, you get to know of it, immediately. Posting of agenda well ahead of the meeting can be of great help as it can be edited by participants, if need be.
The Sharing of notes is a very useful feature too as it is more effective than volleying across scores of emails. The other advantages include Meetin.gs works on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, supports Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar. The disadvantage part – insistence on using personal Facebook account to login, some would be reluctant to do so. Meetin.gs, its alternatives include Doodle, MeetingWave, can be checked out at http://meetin.gs
Maxthon
Maxthon, a multi-page browser based on the Internet Explorer core, has come a long way since we presented it in this column, two years ago. Maxthon can open multiple Web pages in a single window, and its developers claim that it consumes a minimum of systems resources.
The application supports special plug-ins and IE extensions, and its features include autoscrolling, form autofilling, external tools, plug-in support, a newsgroup-browsing mode, mouse gestures, customisable skins, and an Autohide panel. Then, use mouse gestures. It's all up to you.
The application also includes skinning, a built-in RSS reader sidebar, selecting and dragging keywords to a current webpage, and more. Its privacy protection feature can help erase browsing history, cookies, and cache with either a click, or by configuring the browser to clear them out automatically when it closes. The 17 MB Download, 65 MB installed, Maxthon (updated on 24th June 2011), v.3.1.2.1000, for Windows XP/Vista/7 can be downloaded at http://dl.maxthon.com/ mx3/mx3.1.2.1000.exe.
Otomata
If you love playing around with musical sounds, you would find Otomata great. Created by Batuhan Bozkurt, a sound artist and computer programmer, living in Istanbul, Otomata is an online generative sequencer that produces "sound events" through the movement of cells.
Each live cell has 4 states: Up, right, down, left. The cells move themselves in the direction of their internal states. Experiment by adding cells, moving them in different ways to create a range of sounds and textures. This version is compatible with all operating systems, can be downloaded at www.earslap.com. Beware, Otomata can become quite addictive!
