10 Minute Mail

I use this constantly when some site I'll probably never use again demands my email address.

From the site:

10 Minute Mail: "By clicking on the link below, you will be given a temporary e-mail address. Any e-mails sent to that address will show up automatically on the web page. You can read them, click on links, and even reply to them. The e-mail address will expire after 10 minutes.

Why would you use this? Maybe you want to sign up for a site which requires that you provide an e-mail address to send a validation e-mail to. And maybe you don't want to give up your real e-mail address and end up on a bunch of spam lists. This is nice and disposable. And it's free. Enjoy!

Get my 10 Minute Mail e-mail address."

DocMazy - The Future of Document Search

I've used this and I'm not sure about the magic involved, but it's saved me countless hours on research. The website is pretty plain kinda like Google, but it does one thing and does it well.

From the site:

DocMazy - The Future of Document Search: "What is unique about DocMazy?

DocMazy was created so users could search the internet for documentation files such as word files or powerpoint presentations. This is helpful because many of those pages are lost on the internet. DocMazy allows users to search these 'lost' files directly and generate a preview of them straight in the browser. Many users will find this useful so that they can uncover more information on a subject, that might otherwise be hidden deep in search engines. DocMazy makes use of several public API's, and useful tools to allow you to preview all documents within your browse. The use of Ajax tabbing allows for a seamless experience.

Simply put, DocMazy is a document search engine, so it only searches for only PDFs, Docs, Excel, and Txt files. It quickly finds these files, which are normally stuck deep within search engines. This thing is especially useful for people looking for quick research sources, but has many other uses as well. Try out our search for yourself!"

Free online OCR

I've used this and the results were remarkable. I rarely need to use such a service, but when I do, this is my go-to.

From the site:

Welcome to Free OCR

Free-OCR.com is a free online OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tool. You can use this service to extract text from any image you supply.
This service is free, no registration necessary. We also do not need your email address.
Just upload your image files. Free-OCR takes either a JPG, GIF, TIFF BMP or PDF (only first page).
The only restriction is that the images must not be larger than 2MB, no wider or higher than 5000 pixels and there is a limit of 10 image uploads per hour.

Free-OCR can handle images with multi-column text and also supports more languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese."

Claws Mail - the email client that bites!

I have to say I really like this email client. It offers a TON of features is completely configurable and works great with my google apps accounts. It's simple, yet super powerful. I cannot believe more people don't use this. I'm hooked anyway.

From the main page:

Claws Mail - the email client that bites!: "Claws Mail is an email client (and news reader), based on GTK , featuring
Quick response
Graceful, and sophisticated interface
Easy configuration, intuitive operation
Abundant features
Extensibility
Robustness and stability

The appearance and interface are designed to be familiar to new users coming from other popular email clients, as well as experienced users. Almost all commands are accessible with the keyboard.
The messages are managed in the standard MH format, which features fast access and data security. You'll be able to import your emails from almost any other email client, and export them just as easily.

Lots of extra functionality, like an RSS aggregator, calendar, or laptop LED handling, are provided by extra plugins.

Claws Mail is distributed under the GPL."

Blinksale – the easiest way to send invoices online

My two cents are this. 1) It is quite easy to use and has a ton of features but 2) There is a cost involved. I think there are comparable invoicing systems available which are less expensive and some of the best are even totally free. You decide:

Copied directly from the FAQ's:

Blinksale – the easiest way to send invoices online: "Who should use Blinksale?
Blinksale is perfect for anyone who needs to invoice clients for services or products sold. Blinksale is an excellent choice for attorneys, accountants, designers, IT professionals, software developers, journalists, contractors, engineers, architects, videographers, and more. Basically, if you need to send invoices, Blinksale can work for you

What do I need?
Blinksale is an elegantly-designed web-application, and can be used with any modern web browser that supports web-standards. We recommend Mozilla Firefox, Apple’s Safari, or Internet Explorer 7. We cannot guarantee Blinksale will work on other web browsers."

3Dsee - Home

3Dsee - Home: "By uploading a set of images to our server we will automatically reconstruct a photo-realistic 3D model for you, returning it as a greyscale bump-map.

This website provides an example of an application currently under construction. Please contact us should you wish to find out more information about this software."

Update on Updates or lack thereof

Sorry folks.  I started this blog for two reasons. 1) To remember all the cool online tools I find because my bookmarks are way too full; and 2) Share with my friends what I find.  Little did I know I had a tiny pea sized tumor growing in my belly that needed removed - which I did and I'm all(mostly) better now after months of recoup.  So, with that said, I'll get going again and begin the posting.  Sorry for the delay, but it's obviously something I had no control over. I am glad it IS over though. Thanks for reading. ~ Marko (Polo)