Emil Hunefalk » Travel http://emil.hunefalk.com Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:32:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Languages and Learning the web http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/09/04/languages-and-learning-the-web/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/09/04/languages-and-learning-the-web/#comments Tue, 04 Sep 2007 11:40:20 +0000 EH ajaxapiapischinesedappergooglelanguagemashupopenkapowpipesspanishtravelweb http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/09/04/languages-and-learning-the-web/

Lately, I’ve been thinking about improving my Spanish, so when I stumbled upon the site SpanishSense, which contains lessons with voice dialogs, podcasts and help material I became pretty excited. One thing I really like about the site is how they allow you to embed lessons in your own site, to spread the word and build a community where everyone can help eachother in the learning process. According to the site, they also have Chinese lessons, but I’ll wait with looking into that for now – after all, it’s easy getting those new languages confused with the five I already know (six if you count beginner spanish that I didn’t practice for 2-3 years). You can try one of the SpanishSense lessons (introductions) by using the player I put in this post…

Another thing I did to find ways of improving my Spanish was to add a tab called Spanish to my iGoogle page – which of course gave quite a few widgets to use, including a dictionary, Babelfish and news in Spanish.

In other news, I’m looking around at a lot of Web 2.0 sites lately, getting some invites here and there (often found through Mashable), getting updated on new web API:s through ProgrammableWeb while in the process of starting one new site and one new blog. Meanwhile I’ve learned more about Google maps API (including the AJAX version), tiny mce (there must be ways of doing it better, but since it’s popular I guess they’re on to something), Community Server (I’m not very impressed), Dapper, Yahoo! pipes, Google trends and some add-ons for Firefox and Thunderbird. Next is to learn some more about the Google Mashup Editor and perhaps OpenKapow for the site I’m creating. Together with Dapper and Yahoo! Pipes I believe those tools can make wonders…

]]> http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/09/04/languages-and-learning-the-web/feed/ 0 Photography and imaging http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/07/15/photography-and-imaging/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/07/15/photography-and-imaging/#comments Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:55:54 +0000 EH http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/07/15/photography-and-imaging/ A few months back I bought my first digital camera, and have already taken about 2000 pictures with it, probably throwing at least half of them away soon afterwards. You can see some of my photos on Picasa, and others on Flickr, mixed with other types of images. Actually, I started writing this post after returning from another photowalk in Copenhagen, where I covered ’søerne’ (’the lakes’) and adjacent areas. On some of my photowalks I can’t believe how many of the old buildings still stand, especially after the Germans invading. The photowalk consisted of 4-5 hours of photography with a few breaks for beer or coke.

– another photowalk I’d recommend for the Copenhagen visitor is the ‘CowParade’, consisting of a number of cows spread around Copenhagen in interesting locations, and if you walk there you will certainly find other places as well ….

Of course, I used Picasa on some of the photos, working miracles instead of making me throw them away. Another tool I was considering is Picnic, allowing me to edit online so I don’t have to keep track of which computer I started with (I consistently switch between three computers with different OS) and instead let me take a break and then continue on another computer seamlessly…

For the apprentice photographer like myself, I would recommend PhotonHead, and especially the camera review. But of course, you can also learn much from for example 10 ways and many other sites which can tell you about the arts of light, composition, posture and stance….

]]> http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/07/15/photography-and-imaging/feed/ 0 Web 2.0 sites http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/06/26/web-20-sites/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/06/26/web-20-sites/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:23:24 +0000 EH ajaxcreativitydigital-trendflickrnew-technologiesuser-experienceweb 2.0 http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/06/26/web-20-sites/ Since this topic is quite popular at the moment, I had a look at different solutions. For anyone curious to explore more, you can look at sites such as AjaxProjects for a comprehensive list, Digital Trend for the best a year ago (according to them at least) or maybe you should simple start stumbling upon them? Looking at Stumbleupon, I start wondering what actually should define Web 2.0, since I used that site about 5 years ago before going tired of so many stumbled spam sites…

Some say that Web 2.0 is about mashing it up, creating sites like del.icio.us and digg, or maybe collecting the most popular sites to one, and showing feeds from the mentioned sites and others, also including media sites such as Flickr and ifilm…

Before uploading your photo to Flickr, you can edit online with tools such as picnik, and the videos can be fixed at sites like eyespot before putting them on for example youtube or Revver….

If you feel like being passive for the day, you can instead use services such as Songbird for streaming from a multitude of online radio channels, or go to Travelistic to see travel videos…

When you look at all the sites and what they have in common it can be difficult at a first glance, but then you start to think of words and terms like ‘user experience’, ‘creativity’ and ’simplicity’ – which are very important parts of the new web taking shape for the future. For example, you don’t always need AJAX or other new technologies to make it ‘Web 2.0′ – but you need to make it worth the time spent to visit the site…

By the way, is anyone else tired of hearing terms such as ‘Web 2.0′, ‘AJAX’ and similar? The technology and thoughts have been around for ages…

Googling for the term ‘Web 2.0′ gives results showing people aren’t tired of it, and actually it’s one of the most hyped terms our there at the moment. Sites like All Things Web 2.0, WebWare and Web 2.0 Magazine try to list as many as possible in categories, while some show the contenct from multiple sites, for example the before mentioned popurls or the iGoogle portal.

]]> http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/06/26/web-20-sites/feed/ 0 Travel, or simply phone the world http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/06/21/travel-or-simply-phone-the-world/#utm_source=feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/06/21/travel-or-simply-phone-the-world/#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:16:04 +0000 EH http://emil.hunefalk.com/2007/06/21/travel-or-simply-phone-the-world/ Something I’m thinking about now is how to set up a good travel section for this site. While working with development for a travel search engine where I’m now adding search for other travel related items to accompany the flight search already available, my interest for traveling has increased even further compared to before, also leading to insight in accommodation sites and finding out a little about what’s happening behind the scenes. Of course, I can’t share any of this knowledge here because of contracts and NDA’s, but can at least recommend what I come across and am impressed by. For example, I’d like to recommend having a look at Hip Hotels for some nice views before a trip, or if you feel like backpacking there’s usually some hostel with available beds through HostelBookers – or maybe you want to do some lifechanging travel, for example by volunteering in a third world country?

While on the road I usually bring the laptop, and there’s often available net either at or close to the hotel so I can use Skype which is of course connected as my home phone with SkypeIn and SkypeOut. This is actually what I also use at home, instead of getting a regular phone after moving to Denmark I simply decided to go with Skype, and can have a phone number in any country no matter where in the world I am at the moment. Now there’s even software to help if you want a temporary number – where Numbr sends any calls to the temporary number onward to your normal phone.

[Some of the links in this post are affiliate links where I earn a small percentage on sales - if you're curious about the products but don't want to support my blogging, the url's are www.Skype.com, www.HostelBookers.com and www.i-to-i.com]

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