Neat new tool on the block:
An online word processor, it allows uploading of word files, exporting created files as Word, and they claim to be working towards its use as a blog tool. Neat on-the-road word processor, and the basic features are free. I’ve tested a few files, and they’ve worked out well.
After a truly trying week, I’m back at work and trying to pick up various pieces of things that fell through cracks while gone for 9 days.
Hopefully, all will return to normal soon, and I’ll be blogging regularly. For now, I’m beat. Pithy comments and neat technology will be heading your way soon.
I’d like to thank those that sent condolences, and for the few random readers who might not know, and might care…my mother-in-law, Beverly Sandlin, passed away this past weekend. Betsy and I have spent this week with her family, and while it’s been a terrible time, the support of friends and family have gotten us through this initial grieving.
Thanks to everyone, and I hope to be back online soon and back into a routine.
Griffin has gone off the deep end if they think that they can get away with this one:
iFill streams mp3 files from thousands of free radio stations directly to your iPod. You can choose several stations at once and select from many different genres. And since iFill goes directly to your iPod, it won’t clutter up your hard drive with extra files.
iFill is a great fit for your active lifestyle. With iFill, you can go to bed while charging your iPod, and wake up to an iPod full of new music, ready to go jogging with you, and without having to search through your record collection, browse the iTunes Store, or rip any CDs
Ok…looking over the page, I’m not completely following their logic here. It looks as if they are saying that it doesn’t actually put anything on your hard drive…that it throws the FM directly onto the iPod. That would mean that it could ONLY “record” radio while the iPod is attached, and defeat a large portion of the purpose of time-shifting. For instance, if I want to listen to a specific talk radio show that’s only on from 3pm-4pm, I’ll have my iPod with me, and not connected to my computer.
I’m going to give the week trial a shot, and see how this thing actually works. More after the testing.
So…I’ve decided to try out Google AdWords. You can see them in the left hand column, and I hope that they are not particularly intrusive. This is literally just an experiment, to see if people actually click them, especially on a blog with as low traffic as mine. If they become an issue…off they go!
Plus, if you just want to throw some support my way…click away! đŸ™‚
EDIT: Justin left a comment, but I’m interested in hearing from anyone…what do you think about adwords on blogs? Is advertising the devil? Are there different levels of hell depending on how it’s done? I’m curious what people think/feel about ads on a private (that is, non-directly-commercial) site.
Want to waste a few minutes, and see 14 good movies?
You need Angry Alien Productions, and their bunnies.
No, really. Bunnies.
Here’s my favorite: Highlander in 30 seconds. With bunnies.
Here’s a really cool flash tool that you can use to create your own comic strips. Here’s my first try…and yes, it’s a joke, people. I love my time at the reference desk, and I love helping my patrons.
I’ve already crowed about this application to a number of people, but the more I play with it the more impressed I am.
I have trouble describing it, but…think of it like a personal information support system. It’s a web based system that allows you to interact with your information wherever you are…and provides you with basic tools to do so: word processor, calculator, notepad, phone directory, calendar. These all exist as widgets inside the browser, and act just like local tools.
I’m terrifically impressed. The best thing? It’s not a host-only system…you download and you install. It only requires PHP to run…no database, nothing. It’s all flat files and XML and javascript and it took me maybe 3 minutes to get it running. This thing is brilliant. It’s also GPL. Hack away!
Wow! Huge news today from Yahoo and the Internet Archive, among others:
The Open Content Alliance, a project that Yahoo is backing with several other partners, plans to provide digital versions of books, academic papers, video and audio. Much of the material will consist of copyrighted material voluntarily submitted by publishers and authors, said David Mandelbrot, Yahoo’s vice president of search content.
So Yahoo et al are going the opt in route, rather than opt out, which was Google’s plan. There is a lot of support for the idea that Google’s plan is completely within the bounds of copyright law, screaming from the various interest groups notwithstanding. It’s very interesting to see Brewster sign up to work with Yahoo on this…I’m curious to see where it goes.
Short review of the new Joss Whedon film Serenity:
It rocked my face right off. Seriously. I’m looking around for my face right now. Has anyone seen it?
Go see this movie right now so that Joss may make many more of these.