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Have you ever thought about starting a blog about a subject that interests you? A lot of people like the idea in theory, but writing posts regularly is not easy to keep up. What if instead you could write the occasional opinion piece and simply add related articles from other sites and blogs to your site as you go? That, in a nutshell, is what Scoop.it allows you to do.

Scoop.it is a cross between a blogging platform and a web clipping application. It is a powerful tool that allows you to create a site consisting of selected articles on any subject, in the same way that you might curate a group show of paintings where only some (or none) of the works are your own. The free version, moreover, is ad-free.

First off let’s get one thing straight about Scoop.it: we are NOT talking about plagiarizing content. While the illustrative thumbnail and excerpt may be copied verbatim, Scoop.it will link and send readers to the actual article or blog, such that content creators will be grateful for the publicity. (It was that, in fact, which lead me to discover this service in the first place, as some users where linking to Freewaregenius articles).

To test this service I created my own Scoop.It site; you can check it out here (warning: political content).

PROS: 6 things I like about this service:

1. So easy to add content: via the use of a bookmarklet placed on your browser toolbar, you can be reading or browsing an article and quickly add it to your site in a single click (see screenshot below).

There’s even an iPhone app that you can use to add articles on the go.

2. So easy to edit your site: and is in fact performed straight on the site itself, not in an admin/dashboard/backend section. If you’re logged in you can change the text, the thumbnail, tags, location on page, etc. straight away via drag and drop.

The screenshot below, for example, shows how changing the size and location of the thumbnail image is done, completely via pointing and clicking. The buttons towards the bottom enable you to perform various other editing functions.

3. No ads in the free version: at least not at the time this review is being written. Their monetization strategy seems to involve charging for ‘premium’ subscriptions, more advanced analytics, and the ability to add your own brand and/or custom URL to the site (see differences between free and paid plans here).

4. Users can suggest content: that they feel might fit with your site, which you as the ‘curator’ can choose to accept or not.

5. Broadcastable: via RSS (find the tiny green RSS icon to the right of your site’s slogan), or via widgets that you could add to other sites.

6. It looks pretty darn good: and in fact is customizable to a good extent, although less so in the free version than the paid versions.

Wish list: two features that would make the FREE version of this service even better:

1. A better looking URL address: as things are, Scoop.It provides a URL that looks like this (scoop.it/t/site-name-here). It would be better if (scoop.it/site-name) was possible, or a subdomain such as (site-name.scoop.it). I know that part of the attraction of paid plans is control over the URL, but I would consider paying a one time fee to get a scoop.it subdomain. In the meanwhile, TinyURL allows you to get a redirectable URL that looks like this (Tinyurl.com/site-name) provided it is available, and that might be easier to distribute and for people to memorize.

2. The ability to restrict access via a password: such that your site might serve as a private space for you or a tight knit group of people, without being broadcast to the world at large.

The verdict: an excellent service. So polished and well constructed, so easy to start, and thereafter easy to maintain and keep going. It has an addictive quality to it and for those who are interested in any topic, can be an extremely useful tool.

Go here to sign p.

Berta is a great, open source web building application, also called a CMS (Content Management System). It costs nothing, is loaded with features and options, and is very user friendly. The pages you build with Berta can be used on pretty much any domain, and unlike some other ‘free’ CMS apps, they do not require you to sign up for hosting or domain services through them (although it does offer these services as options).

Berta is noteworthy in that designing and editing is largely based on dragging and dropping and clicking elements to edit them. Moreover, it is CMS without the need to run a database; all data is stored in files .

There’s a ton of decent programs out there for building and managing websites, but Berta manages to make a run for the winner’s circle by offering simplicity, power, and customization. All of this, and at no cost, makes Berta  a great choice for both experienced and beginner website builders. When you first go to the Berta site, you’ll be offered the choice of either signing up to create your site online, or to download the Berta application and create your site locally on your computer, for use on your own domain. Both of these options have their pros and cons, but for the sake of this article, I went with the sign up option.

The big difference between the two options is what you intend to do with your site once it is built. If you do not own a domain name and/or you are not familiar with manually setting up websites on specific domains, you may want to go with the sign up option. The download option is recommended (both by Berta and myself) for those who are more experienced with the whole process of building a site, maintaining it, etc. Both options will have you up and running, creating your new site in minutes (although, if you’re anything like me, you’ll need at least a day or two to fiddle with options and customization) and be ready to have it published to the net. If you chose the download option, publishing is up to you. If you chose the sign up option, your site will be published as a Beta test site, with full functionality, and will stay up in that manner for 30 days. During that period, you can explore all the different ways that Berta offers to make creation and maintenance of your site easy and fast. Once that period is over, you can publish the saved site on your own if you like or you can choose to sign up for hosting and domain services, or even turn your page into an online store, through Berta. These services have a cost, but they are not required to use Berta for creation and maintenance. They are a great way to help new site owners and builders get things going quickly and easily.

Once you’ve decided which way you plan to go with your site, you can jump in and start creating, editing, tweaking and customizing you site to your heart’s content. Berta is not only a CMS but it is also, in a way, a tutorial (they call it a tour) in and of itself, as it leads you step by step through the process of creation. Unlike other CMS programs, Berta offers you the option to align your content on a grid, which will make everything nice and neat with squared-off edges and corners, or you can just place anything haphazardly anywhere you like on the page and keep it there. This is an ideal feature for artists and those who want to build a site showcasing their portfolios and talents. You can move anything on any page anywhere any time. This kind of freedom is less than common in most CMS programs I have used so I was personally impressed with the concept as well as how easy it was to actually use. Also, Berta does not require SQL or any other database program because all the data it needs is stored dynamically in the files it uses to build and publish the site.

In addition to the features mentioned already, Berta also offers pretty much all the same ‘standard’ options and features of a decent CMS like being able to use multiple fonts per page, having many different templates and pre-made styles available, as well as a fairly robust help system in case you get stuck or need help. When I had a question that I wasn’t able to find an answer for in the help pages, I got an email response in less than 4 hours to my question, which answered it quite well and politely. This kind of ‘customer service’ is also less than common with most freeware programs, and really shows the dedication of the developers and support staff to making this a great program. Combine all of this with the fact that Berta is an open-source program, which means that the savvy coder can make his or her own changes to the actual ‘source code’ (basic programming) of Berta, and this is one of the most powerful CMS programs I have seen with a zero price tag.

It’s worth noting as well, that the online version of Berta, which allows you to create and host the 30 day ‘beta’ or ‘test’ version of your site will run on nearly any browser. The downloadable version, however, has some limitations on what it will run on. According to their website: “BERTA is a free content management system (CMS) created for anybody who wants to show their work online. BERTA is perfectly suited for portfolios of visual content (images and videos). The public part of BERTA works in all major browsers and does not require flash. The private part, where the content editing takes place, should be used with Safari 3+ or Mozilla Firefox 3+, as it hasn’t been tested in other browsers. A flash player 9+ ir necessary for advanced file uploading features. Server requirements: PHP 5 with GD (for image resizing) and multibyte (unicode strings) support Preferably Apache webserver, but any other will do BERTA does NOT require a database. All data are stored in files on the server.”

You will notice from the screenshots here that the interface for Berta is smooth and clean, without a lot of fancy un-needed graphics and menu bars to add flashiness to it. This is a great thing, in my opinion as it allows you to concentrate on the design of your site itself, rather than being distracted or confused by the interface. In conclusion, I found Berta to be a great, free content management system as well as a good place to start for beginners who want to build their own site. Until next time, my friends!

[Thanks to reader Panzer for the tip about this software]

Check out Berta here. (We’ve noticed the site behaving strangely lately, and perhaps more strangely outside of the US; hopefully things have been sorted out as you read this).

Neverball is a simple free game that puts you in the driver’s seat of a large sphere, with the aim of getting it into a bull’s-eye target. But there’s a twist — instead of having control of your sphere, you actually control the environment. By tilting the world one way or another, you’ll roll your Neverball around, collecting coins and hitting targets to progress, and learning advanced techniques for things like jumping and banking.

Remember the old labyrinth games where you had a tiny ball bearing in a plastic maze and you had to tilt the maze this way and that in your hands to get the ball to roll through the maze to some ambiguous target? Well, like all good things from play time in our childhoods, that has been digitized as well. Loosely based on the underground hit “Monkey Ball,” Neverball brings you that same type of game, but on your PC and in the form of freeware. Neverball is a very small program to install, and takes up hardly any resources while it is running so it’s an excellent choice for budget gamers both because of the zero price tag and the low gpu requirements. I tested it on a midrange office laptop and had no trouble getting a solid 30-40 frames per second in the highest resolutions.

The aim of Neverball is simple, and so are the controls, but what you can do with them is far more impressive. As you progress through the seemingly endless list of levels, you’ll eventually begin to learn advanced techniques like jumping the sphere over small areas or more sophisticated banking methods to gain greater speed. Each level will present a unique challenge in the form of obstacles you will need to roll over, around, through, and under to reach your eventual goal. While rolling around, you’ll pick up coins by touching them and you can use those coins later in the game to unlock new levels and other goodies.

There is also a level editor available for Neverball, which will let you design and compile your own levels but it can be an involved and time consuming process so don’t plan on making a new world overnight. For those with the dedication and desire, however, the editor and the community of creators will offer even more in the way of longevity enjoying this game. I thought, at first, that it might be nice to see a multiplayer mode, but the developers have pointed out that they haven’t been able to work out how to do so, with two people controlling the floor it would be stalemate or chaos every time. One wonders if they have seen Futurama’s solution to this issue (one player controls the x axis and the other the y axis) but even with this small disappointment, Neverball is a superb freeware game and will offer you many wasted hours of your life rolling that thing around.

Neverputt

Packaged as a bonus with Neverball is Neverputt. This is a simple mini golf game based on the code for Neverball. Instead of tilting the floor, however, you’re in direct control of an invisible putter, controlled by the mouse. This bonus game seemed less than exciting at first but after playing two holes I was hooked. Neverball and Neverputt do not allow you any real camera control, so the added challenge of being forced into one view makes the game more exciting than it should be. This decision was a bit gutsy on the part of the developers, as it could have turned out to just be a frustration, but it is implemented well enough that it adds to the challenge and enjoyment, rather than being a hindrance. What would a mini golf game be without multiplayer? Not much. Fortunately, Neverputt has a hot seat multiplayer option so you can play with up to three friends. Hot seat multiplayer games are a great way to interact with those real life friends that come over to take your last soda from the fridge without asking.

Casual games like Neverball are becoming all the rage among PC gamers, and are quickly gaining a major following in the world of Freeware in general. Personally, I feel that games like this can really have an impact in making sure that, rather than dying, PC gaming evolves and becomes something new and better than it was before. I have said again and again that you don’t have to spend a dime to have a good time playing a game on your PC and Neverball along with Neverputt are perfect examples of why I am right. So, I recommend you try Neverball, but I also recommend you bring some Dramamine. I haven’t been this dizzy from a game since Mirror’s Edge.

Until next time, my friends!

Compatibility: Linux, Win2K/XP, FreeBSD, and Mac OSX. Hardware accelerated OpenGL is required. A 500MHz processor is recommended.

Get Neverball and Neverputt here.