Zamzar.com - Free file conversion

Date: August 31, 2007
Time: at 10:10 am
Posted in: in internet, software, web development
Comments: Comments (1)


I’ve known about Zamzar.com for a few months at this point, but it has taken awhile for me to really see the true convenience of it.

Zamzar.com, for those of you who don’t know, is a 100% free online file converter. Seriously, you can convert files, virtually any type of media or document up to 100MB, on the fly. All you need to do is simply upload the file and provide an email address where the link for the converted file can be sent. No emails addresses are harvested, you’re not put on any spam lists, and no software is required to be downloaded to use the service.

I find myself using Zamzar.com every day for something or another. All I’m hoping for is a bit more file support for other things besides media or documents, such as address book archives (vCard, LDIV to CSV, etc). Developer and producers file conversion would also be useful, such as DSLR Camera RAW or even things like PSD (Photoshop) conversion.

If you need any type of media file or document conversion, you owe it to yourself to check out Zamzar.com

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for online file format converters? Leave a comment.

The Email Client

Date: August 22, 2007
Time: at 11:12 pm
Posted in: in email, microsoft, windows
Comments: Comments (0)


For the past two weeks, I’ve been using Windows Live Mail exclusively for my email client. I was giving it a try to see if it was a viable (and productive) option to move permanently to it, away from my regular usage of Mozilla Tunderbir

While I was using it, I found a good number of things I liked about it: how it was so simple and straightforward, yet got the job done brilliantly. On the other hand, I did find a few annoyances as well.

However, in the end, it seems the good significantly outweighs the bad. Windows Live Mail is a solid product. It has a clean and sleek design, and its features offer everything I need for desktop email and more

Congratulations Windows Live Mail, you’ve won this geek over.

An Apple OS X Experience

Date: August 21, 2007
Time: at 2:54 pm
Posted in: in apple, hardware, itunes, microsoft, operating systems, software, technology
Comments: Comments (2)


At this point in time, I’m exclusively a Windows user, with Vista as my primary operating system. Over the last few months, I have actually thought about becoming a “switcher” at least temporarily. I’m considering getting a 20″ iMac so I can experience Apple OS X firsthand, something which I’ve only been able to do at work, or at the Apple store. I really do want to learn more about Apple OS X and become as productive with it as I am in a Windows environment.

That being said, I took a trip to Orlando yesterday to do some shopping. While I was at one of the malls, I decided to take a trip into the Apple store to see the new iMac (which, in my opinion, is actually the first good looking iMac design). I stood in front of a 20″ iMac for about 30 minutes or so. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about the experience, but even more annoyances. Below is the list of what I found particularly annoying just from that 30 minutes.

  1. Maybe I just didn’t find it, but where exactly can I find out how much memory or CPU is being used in real time? That’s annoying.
  2. When I click the close button on a window in OS X, I expect the application to close. Period.
  3. Why, exactly, can I only resize a window by using the handle on the bottom right-hand corner? What if I have the bottom of the window already positioned exactly where I want it?
  4. Please, please, do not allow the desktop to display when Photoshop or Final Cut Pro or any other application like it is open. It confuses me what application is active and I really don’t want to have to look at the Apple bar to tell. OS X really needs to have this changed.
  5. Put a real scroll wheel on a mouse like everyone else. I kept launching Dashboard when trying to left click.
  6. And please allow me to secondary click a Dashboard widget to change its properties.
  7. In iTunes, which I launch a video, why can I only resize the window proportionally? And can we please merge the library and play window into one? Reasons like this are why I stay away from Apple iTunes or Winamp for Windows. Windows Media Player is annoying as heck sometimes, but it’s certainly better than dealing with that
  8. Apple’s Safari is a horrible user experience. Period. I was surprised that it was worse on OS X than it was on Windows.
  9. OS X’s Wireless network switching is annoying. Seriously, if I have 2 wireless devices, what then?
  10. Secondary/right click is a godsend. OS X better start supporting it fully like everyone else.
  11. OS X Mail looks more like a to-do list than an email client. The iPhone’s SMS system is actually pretty nice. Can’t you make Mail look similar (leaving out the conversation dialog balloons)?
  12. This is not so much as an OS X issue, but more of the overall experience. Most of my primary phone calling is done through Skype. It’s utter trash on OS X. Even Chris Pirillo thinks so, and he’s leaning towards switching to a Mac way more than I am.
  13. Mr. Steve Jobs, stop saying iPhoto ‘08 is Web 2.0 compatible. I tried it firsthand, and it is not anywhere close to being this arbitrary “Web 2.0.”
  14. Slot-loading DVD/CD drives are evil. What if I have a miniDVD that I recorded on my camcorder? I don’t care if it doesn’t look “cool,” please go back to a tray.
  15. Apple’s .Mac is a total waste of money and you’re developers time. Either fix it to what it should/could be, or drop it entirely.
  16. And why in the name of the Holy Steve Jobs do I have to pay that much for an Apple brand computer? This is the 21st century!

I’m torn at this point as to whether or not I should get an iMac. Windows Vista has a ton of annoyances, and I really wouldn’t mind switching to another platform such as OS X as there are, at this point, just as many “popular” applications that will run on OS X as Windows, and for the rest I can run Apple Mac Parallels or VMWare Fusion. But OS X has just as many annoyances, if not more, that really need to be fixed before I’ll ever consider switching entirely. Who knows … maybe in the future I will. I’m definitely more tolerant of Macs that I was 3 years ago.

What is my computer?

Date: August 21, 2007
Time: at 2:25 am
Posted in: in general, hardware
Comments: Comments (5)


Several people have asked me on what computer I’m running Windows Vista. I’m actually running Vista on 2 of my own machines, both my laptop and my desktop; but my desktop has become my primary machine.

One particular person asked which type of computer I use. For my laptop, I have a Toshiba Satellite P105-S6084:

Intel Core Duo T2300 @ 1.66Ghz
2GB DDR2 800 RAM
160GB HDD

My desktop, however, is a custom built machine with the following specs:

ASUS Striker Extreme Motherboard
Intel Core 2 E6300 @ 1.86Ghz
2GB Crucial DDR2 800 RAM
Foxconn nVIDIA 8800GTS 640MB GPU
Creative SB Audigy 4 7.1 Surround Card
2×500GB Western Digital SATA 3.0Gb/s
1×250GB Maxtor ATA HDD
ASUS SATA DVD+-/RW Drive

UPDATE:

I recently upgraded my desktop quite extensively thanks to a bundled Intel package I got through working at Best Buy for a ridiculously low price (ie, 75% off). My new system specs are as follows:

ASUS Striker Extreme Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 @ 2.66Ghz Each core
4GB Crucial DDR2 1066 RAM
2x BFG Tech nVIDIA 8800GT 512MB GPUs in SLi
Creative SB Audigy 4 7.1 Surround Card
2×500GB Western Digital SATA 3.0Gb/s
1×250GB Maxtor SATA 3.0Gb/s
ASUS SATA DVD+-/RW Drive
Windows Vista Home Premium x64 (64-bit)

And if you’re really interested, here’s a photo of the inners of my desktop:
(Click here to enlarge) - 4.52MB @ 10.1MP

This is my actual workspace. Pardon the photo being out of focus, my camera’s lens wasn’t behaving:
(Click here to enlarge) - 3.87MB @ 10.1MP

I converted my old components to a dedicated server with the following specs:

Intel DG33TL Motherboard
Intel Core 2 E6300 CPU @ 1.86 Ghz Each core
4GB Crucial DDR2 800 RAM
Foxconn nVIDIA 8800GTS 640MB GPU
2x 250GB Western Digital SATA 3.0Gb/s running in RAID 1
Pioneer DVD+-/RW Drive
Windows Server 2008 Standard RC1 x64 (64-bit)

Top 10 Annoyances in Windows Live Mail

Date: August 20, 2007
Time: at 11:52 pm
Posted in: in email, microsoft, software
Comments: Comments (2)


For those who may not have read my previous blog posts, over the past 12 days I have been using Windows Live Mail exclusively for my desktop email client needs. I normally use Mozilla Thunderbird. So far, the experience has been pleasant, but it isn’t without its annoyances. I’ve already posted my Top 10 Annoyances in Mozilla Thudnerbird. Here is my top 10 for Live Mail:

  1. UI inconsistency - When I go into Options or open a dialog/properties box, I’m expecting it to have the same clean look the regular interface has. But for some reason it reminds me of Windows 95. And when I add a new contact, why does the color scheme suddenly change?
  2. For the love of God, don’t make me have to go into the message properties just to view the full headers. And when I get there, I don’t want to have to use the horizontal scrollbar in order to read it. Can I please just Right Click -> View Sorce?
  3. As a part of the Windows Live services, Microsoft also offers Windows Live Writer, which allows you to post content to Wordpress, Movable Type, Live Spaces, Blogger, etc, all in one desktop client. But in their Windows Live Mail, why does the “Blog” option only allow you to use Live Spaces? That’s hypocritical–change it.
  4. Why isn’t there a “Print” label next to the button? Even though it’s obvious, it’s inconsistent.
  5. The searching options, while simple, aren’t customizable enough. I can’t search just in subjects or just in the body.
  6. I really don’t get the point of the “Storage folders” section being present by default. If I want to store something other than in the standard drafts, I’ll create my own folder for that purpose.
  7. When I right click the title bar, the standard menu bar shows up. But when I click off of the secondary click dropdown, the menu bar disappears. Is this a bug, or is it a feature that’s not working properly? I’d prefer it not to show up at all…
  8. I doubt there’s legal issues involved, so why can’t I import email/settings from a Thunderbird profile? Here I am thinking about switching, and I wouldn’t even have the option to import.
  9. There’s a big difference between email security, and junk email. Just because an advertisement comes in, it doesn’t mean it’s a fraud or trying to send you a virus. Please give Junk Email it’s own option in the Tools menu.

In a few days, I’ll make my final decision as to whether I’ll be staying with Windows Live Mail or going back to Thunderbird. I’m still kind of torn between the two.

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, please leave a comment, or Ask Me!

Update: It seems in posting this the code got screwed up and I lost one of my points. What’s odd is I can’t remember what it was, so sorry for there only being 9 … but there were originally 10, I promise.

Top 10 Annoyances in Mozilla Thunderbird

Date: August 20, 2007
Time: at 12:39 pm
Posted in: in email, software
Comments: Comments (4)


Don’t get me wrong, I love Mozilla Thunderbird as a desktop email client. In my opinion, it’s better than Microsoft’s Outlook in terms of ease of use, stability, and simplicity. Also, configuring account settings is much more intuitive and actually more powerful. It’s also certainly better than Microsoft’s Outlook Express. But regardless, I’ve had my fair share of annoyances with the client. Here I’ll point out a few of them:

  1. The UI is poorly designed. Don’t get me wrong, the UI is workable and allows you to configure lots of things, but quite simply, it’s ugly to look at. No matter what theme you install, the basic design is still there, and it’s not easily navigable.
  2. The message rules dialog box is too bloated. You have to click way too many times and customize way too many things in order for you to get it to do exactly what it is you want it to do. I hate to say it, but Outlook (and Windows Live Mail) have much better message rule controls.
  3. When I’m deleting emails one-by-one starting from the bottom and going up, if I click to skip over an email, the next one in line when deleted is the one below. This on many occasions has caused me to delete the very email I wanted to skip. Definitely a “bug.”
  4. Thunderbird is literally in lockdown mode while downloading new messages. One of my email accounts I can get anywhere up to 400-700 messages per day (mostly spam). I have plenty of CPU utilization and RAM left, but when I’m downloading all these messages, why does the entire application slow to a crawl? I want to read some of that email as it’s coming in, dangit!
  5. Junk mail - this is a big one. When I first started using Thunderbird, I was impressed with how acurate the junk mail filters were and how quickly it learned. But after junking out probably close to 50,000 emails, why exactly do I still get the exact same email over and over again? Why hasn’t it learned? I was impressed that Windows Live Mail actually caught those silly USNMA messages right off the bat.
  6. The address book is horrible. I can’t describe how terribly it’s designed. Now I realize why I’ve never used address book features in mail clients…
  7. And why the heck is the address book button in the tob bar? That’s a freaking control bar, not an “access the secondary features” bar. Everything else up there controls the email or emails in general. It should not be there.
  8. All of a sudden, my mail filters stopped working at some point. This was almost a year ago, and I still haven’t fixed them for the sole purpose of I had way too many and it would take up way too much of my time. Why, exactly did these just suddenly stop working?
  9. When Thunderbird goes to import mail from Outlook Express or Outlook, can it please at least warn the user that some things may not be copied correctly (ie, message filters?). And why can’t I import News/Blogs, Mail, and settings all at the same time?
  10. What the heck is the purpose of the “Go” menu option sitting on its own? It’s pointless. If it must be present, please combine it with the View menu like in every other email client…

So there you have it. I’m doing this in combination with my previous blog about how I was seriously considering switching permanently to Windows Live Mail for my desktop email needs. To be fair, my next entry will be The Top 10 Annoyances in Windows Live Mail.

What is Web 2.0?

Date: August 20, 2007
Time: at 3:23 am
Posted in: in internet, standards, web development
Comments: Comments (2)


If you’re at all a common browser on the internet, you probably have come across a website mentioning this thing called “Web 2.0.” What is this exactly, and how does it work? There has been much confusion going on surrounding Web 2.0, a lot of fallacies, and a lot of debate among website designers as to its true definition. Hopefully I’ll clear some of these up.

Firstly, let me tell you what Web 2.0 certainly is not. As the name would imply, Web 2.0 is supposedly the successor of Web 1.0. In some ways this is true. However, it definitely does not mean there is some brand new version of the “internet” coming out or that you’ll need to “download” a Web 2.0 browser or anything. We’re still dealing with the same exact internet. Don’t let the so-called version number fool you.

Web 2.0, as I personally as a web designer and technology advocate would define it, is redefining how we look at the way websites work. For example, for the past 15 or so years, the World Wide Web has been nothing but static pages with text, maybe a few pictures, and within the last few years, possibly some Adobe Flash animations or interactive navigations. Still though, for the most part, every website you browse is simply for the display of information, page by page, site by site, everything works by itself and for itself.

Web 2.0, on the other hand, is redefining static web design concept. For example, instead of coding a website to simply display information, how about updating this information in real-time without requiring any Flash, Java, or the user manually refreshing the page? Even moreso, how about allowing users to instantly add information or make changes? Ultimately, Web 2.0 is defining the convergence of internet technology and websites on a global, standard, and non-proprietary level. Everything just works together. Every website isn’t just its own anymore, it’s able to interact with others as well.

I found it very interesting that Steve Jobs recently announced at an Apple conference when presenting iLife ‘08 that iPhoto was “officially Web 2.0 compatible.” I seriously had to laugh at this. Not only did he miss the mark completely, he has a completely warped idea of what Web 2.0 is really trying to accomplish. What Jobs supposedly meant by saying this was that you are now able to upload your photos directly to your .Mac account. Keyword, there. .Mac. Nothing else. You have to use Apple’s services. For iPhoto to truely be able to take advantage of Web 2.0 technologies, it would have to be able to work with (or work with after installing a simple addon or putting in an API key) other online photos services such as Flickr, or Sony’s PhotoStation, and many others at the mercy of the API’s developers.

The whole point of Web 2.0 is making every website work together and connect with each other seamlessly. It’s not just flashy AJAX programming, live updating, or cool rounded edges. It’s about the convergence of all internet technology into one collective memory. Microsoft gets it (with things such as Microsoft Windows Surface and Microsoft Research’s Photosynth), the open-source community gets it. The mainstream and “talented” web designers get it, but apparently Apple doesn’t. Going off in a slight tangent, Apple will seriously be hurting in the next 5-10 years if they don’t back off of their proprietary mindset and realize everything is going online to the collective memory.

What’s even funnier is people are starting to talk about Web 3.0 when 90% of people don’t even know or give a wooden nickle about what truely is Web 2.0.

Windows Live Mail - The Exclusive Trial

Date: August 8, 2007
Time: at 5:34 pm
Posted in: in email, internet, microsoft, windows vista
Comments: Comments (1)


For the past few years, mid 2003 or so, I have used Mozilla Thunderbird for my desktop email needs. At the time I had various @hotmail.com and @msn.com email addresses, so I used the webbased client for these. So you could say I used Thunderbird almost exclusively for my email ever since version 0.1. Previously, the only viable basic desktop email option previous to Thunderbird was Microsoft’s Outlook Express, or the full Outlook if you had Microsoft Office. However, I didn’t need the address books. I didn’t need the calendar. All I needed was a desktop application to control my mail. So ever since I Windows 98, I ran Outlook Express.

Very recently, along with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft announced that Hotmail and MSN email would be incorporated with their Windows Live services. In May of 2007, Windows Live Hotmail went live, sporting a brand new AJAX interface and new options.

Now, Microsoft in currently in development for the replacement for Outlook Express (for XP) and Windows Mail (for Vista), which is simply called Windows Live Mail. I was introduced to it a few weeks ago and thought I’d download and try it out. So far, I’m impressed with it’s performance and simplicity, and also the UI is massively improved from either Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

I have decided to give Windows Live Mail a two week exclusive trial. I wanted something that’s simple and effective, but that had a nice UI. Unfortunately, Thunderbird covered the simple and effective part, but the UI is in desperate need of improvement. I won’t even open Thunderbird once to check my email during this period. No matter what frustrations I encounter, I’ll only use Windows Live Mail.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for email clients for Windows?

As always, if you have a question, be sure to Ask Me.

The “Ask Me” Questions

Date: August 5, 2007
Time: at 10:09 pm
Posted in: in blogging, general
Comments: Comments (0)


As many of you know, I have an avenue on my site which allows you to submit questions to me, pertaining to technology, and have them answered. I have gotten quite a few, and answered almost all of them.

But some of the ones I get are either downright annoying and stupid, or outright hilarious. Heck, most of them relate to phpBB questions (which I don’t answer under any circumstances).

So here’s just a few of the questions I’ve received, starting with the most recent:

Titled “geography”

Where is india located?

Titled “haha”

ur funny and I haha’d

What the…???

Titled “phpBB”

OMG HELP ME IM BEING HACKED HE GOT MY PASSWRD

Hey, you, with the stuck caps lock button: I’m in ur base stealing ur IQ.

This guy thought I could help him with his physics questions:

Titled “physics”

Hey can you help me with my physics?

A baseball (m=0.15kg) is thrown with a speed of 30 meters per second at angle of 32 degrees above the horizontal. Neglect air resistance.

1) What is its momentum at the maximum height?
2) What is its momentum just before it strikes the ground?

wuts the answer?? Please its due tomorrow

What do I look like? A physics major? Well, I kind of am as a Computer/Electrical Engineering major, but regardless, I actually laughed at that one.

What is it about technology questions that people don’t understand? Hey, I’m all for the intellectual question that doesn’t relate to technology every now and then, and I’d be glad to deviate from technology, but why can’t they be real about it?

We’ll never know…

AdamReyher.com Redesigned

Date: August 3, 2007
Time: at 9:24 pm
Posted in: in blogging, general
Comments: Comments (0)


Welcome to the new http://www.adamreyher.com. I got tired of dealing with my old CMS and migrated the site to Wordpress 2.2, and in the process, redesigned the site from scratch.

I hope it’s a bit easier to navigate and find content. And remember, if you have a question relating to technology, be sure to Ask Me! and I’ll be sure to answer … it may even become an article post.

Of course, any comments or suggestions pertaining to the new site are always welcomed.

Ask Me

Date: August 3, 2007
Time: at 12:59 am
Posted in: in testing
Comments: Comments (0)


A lot of Adam’s new content comes from either suggestions or questions from his readers. If you have a question you’d like answered relating to technology, just ask it here! Adam will answer it, and he might even create an article about it.

Name:

Subject:

E-Mail Address:

Your Message:

  

About

Date: August 3, 2007
Time: at 12:11 am
Posted in: in testing
Comments: Comments (0)


Adam Reyher is a college student residing in Tampa, Florida. He is majoring in Computer Science with a specialization in Network Administration. For the past several years, Adam has indulged himself fully into the world of technology. If it’s technology, he has an interest. This is the purpose of this website.

Adam began on the Web back in 1995 at a young age, and ever since it has interested him. He designed his first website in 1999 that’s purpose was to, in irony, teach others the ins and outs of the HTML web language. While this site in itself was not “successful,” it was a simple start. Now, Adam is a major advocate for web standards in the area of web markup languages, proper browser handling, in order for everyone to experience the internet in the same way and to prevent web developers from having to design their site with “multiple browsers” in mind. He also is a supporter of OSS.

His introduction to the open source sphere came in late 2002 when he began using phpBB as a bulletin board solution on one of his websites. At the time, he has absolutely no experience with web languages outside of HTML 4.0. At this time, it was also Adam’s introduction to the open-source PHP programming language. In early 2004, Adam returned to phpBB.com and began assisting voluntarily in the support forms, helping users with issues ranging from installing the software, to modifying the code itself to their likes.

Because of his contribution, in September of 2004, Adam was recognized by the phpBB Group, and invited to join the official Support Team. He is also a member of the Documentation Team and Incident Investigation Team. For almost 3 years, he has served in this capacity as a volunteer to the project as a whole.

In regards to technology, Adam is extremely opinionated. He has something to say about anything and everything, as you quickly find out from reading AdamReyher.com.

Have a question you’d like to ask Adam? Submit one to the Ask Me section, and he just might create a blog entry about it.

In his spare time, Adam enjoys Cross Country, photography, and making fun of Apple fanboys!

New page links when following web standards

Date: August 2, 2007
Time: at 3:12 pm
Posted in: in standards, web development
Comments: Comments (2)


This question was brought up awhile back when I wrote my Standards of Web Design article. The question comes from Greenweaver

Anyhow, get your own off site links to use a (target=”_blank”) and open any links in a new browser window instead of people having to leave your site, DOh!!

The answer to this, while in technical terms is simple, turns out to be a bit complicated at this point in time. As Greenweaver correctly points out, in order to open up a hyperlink as a new window instead of in the same window, traditionally you would use similar code to the following:

<a href=”http://www.google.com” target=”_blank”>link</a>

In this code example, the target attribute tells the browser where the new link should be opened, whether it be the same window (default if left out entirely), a new window (_blank), or even another frame on the same page. However, in XHTML 1.0 Strict, the target attribute has been removed completely from the standards. So how exactly do we get a new window to open up when clicking a link?

The answer, in short, is two parted. While a new standard hasn’t been put in place yet (which I would very much like to see), the rel attribute has been added in XHTML 1.0 Strict. This is the relationship attribute and describes what this object is or how it should behave in relationship to everything around it. The accepted standard at this point is to use rel=”external” in order to create a link relationship that will cause the page to open in a new window. However, by itself, this will not happen. This just describes the relationship.

In order for the new window to actually open, JavaScript must be used. This is where things get somewhat complicated. In the past, JavaScript use on pages was strictly prohibited, mainly because back in 2000/2001, a majority of browsers barely supported it, let alone few users actually had it turned on for security reasons. Times have changed. Not only do all major browsers thoroughly support JavaScript, an extreme minority of users switch it off purposely. So in effect, JavaScript is perfectly acceptable to use in small quantities.

However, the complications arise mainly with popup blockers. Built in blockers, such as those in Firefox, IE7, Opera, or Safari, do a perfectly fine job at being able to understand when a link was physically clicked by the user and to allow that popup. Other third-party vendors are a different story. Sometimes they won’t allow any form of a popup to show. The good news is these are few at this point, so again, I wouldn’t worry too much about those users.

Anyway, the JavaScript code to grab the rel=”external” attribute and open it in a new window should look similar to this:

function externalLinks() {
if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName(”a”);
for (var i=0; i < anchors.length; i++) {
var anchor = anchors[i];
if (anchor.getAttribute(”href”) &&
anchor.getAttribute(”rel”) == “external”)
anchor.target = “_blank”;
}
}
window.onload = externalLinks;

Put this code in a file and name it something like rel_external.js

In order to load this, put the following code in your head section.

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”/rel_external.js”>
</script>

All in all though, the question arises, why should the web designer dictate how a hyperlink to an entirely different page opens? With modern browsers which have tabbed interfaces, it should be up to the user how the new window opens. I would very much advocate not using this method and having all external hyperlinks open in the same window if even if they have to navigate away from the site. And indeed, on this site, you’ll notice no links open in a new window.

Why? Those are the standards without having to resort to JavaScript, and ultimately, it’s the user’s decision, not mine.

The New Wireless - The Year 2009

Date: August 2, 2007
Time: at 2:41 pm
Posted in: in google, internet, wireless
Comments: Comments (0)


While this news story is a few weeks old, it’s just about the greatest one of the year for the internet (at least in the US): New rules could rock wireless world.

For those of you who may not know, as of February 2009, all over-the-air broadcast NTSC TV will be gone. Basically this means everything will have either shifted to HDTV, or all over-the-air broadcasts will be digital television from cable companies. In technical terms, this opens up the 700Mhz frequency range which is currently reserved for these broadcasts.

So the question is … what do we do with it? Well, the FCC has just decided that some type of information will be broadcast over those frequencies, and as of now, this most likely will be internet access and services. The question then becomes, who controls it?

Many large corporations are fighting for the rights to it including AT&T and others. But if Google has their way, it’ll be an entirely open system which anyone can use. The good news is what while the FCC hasn’t given it to Google, they’ve decided that it will for sure be an open system.

Just think of it this way: by late 2009, you could, in theory, have free wireless internet access from anywhere broadcast TV previously reached, at full broadband speeds upwards of 2Mbps.

This could possibly become the best announcement ever.