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Aggregator Overload - Good Stuff - Some Explored - Some Not
Tuesday, June 10, 2003Thumbs Up: ActiveWords Support
I recently purchased ActiveWords. License activation caused a problem that quickly had me seeing red. ActiveWords support staff resolved the matter to my satisfaction quickly and professionally. Thumbs up. See what others have said about this product. I heard about ActiveWords via Ernie The Attorney and John Udell. Try a 60-day evaluation copy. Recommended.
Sunday, June 08, 2003PhotoStack 1.1 is out.
PhotoStack 1.1 is out... great application. If you're interested in having a cool, super easy to use photo gallery, download PhotoStack and then say thanks to Noel.
[inluminent/weblog]Getting the most out of Google.
Fantastic article here about getting more than you're used to out of Google. Examples like:
Using the * with a pipe and quotes:
"Google has * my life" | "Google * my life"
Quick read too. [via JD]
Congrats ActiveWords.
Congrats ActiveWords
Buzz from ActiveWords just got some great press:
While GuruNet is built around the art of the click, ActiveWords is all about eschewing the mouse. The idea is to create a series of customizable keystrokes or shortcuts to launch programs, transport you to Web addresses or initiate some other computing action.
You might type "xl" to bring up the Excel spreadsheet, "calc" to launch the calculator or "nem" to prepare a new e-mail. You can even dedicate a single letter, like "q" for starting up Quicken. And you can use ActiveWords to automatically type in a longer string of characters; I use "ecb" to spell out Edward C. Baig.
Very good going. Nice to get national coverage from USA Today. Something for Feedster to aspire to.
[The FuzzyBlog!]
HyperActiveWords.
Buzz Bruggeman is a happy man. Dig what Bill Machrone just wrote about ActiveWords.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]How to make DVDs.
PC Magazine guide to making your own DVDs, with primers on video capture and compression, editing and authoring software, and, of course, DVD burners.
Read
Hard Drive Searching: A New Version of Scopeware is Available. Personal Information ManagementHard Drive Searching: A New Version of Scopeware is AvailableAbout a month ago I mentioned a personal search tool called Scopeware Vision that allows you to keyword search html web pages, many document file types (including Word, PowerPoint, Adobe Acrobat), Outlook e-mail boxes, and other material on your hard drive. [ResourceShelf]
Time Lapse Photography. The Playing With Time web site has a huge collection of time lapse images, in the form of Quicktime videos. Watching a woman transform during nine months of pregnancy is pretty amazing. This time-lapse animation was created from a series of still photos. The woman stood in a set position before each picture was taken. The pictures were digitized, transferred to PhotoCD, and aligned with a computer graphics program. The images transform gradually through the use of a process called morphing. ...[MORE] [The J-Walk Blog]
HONDA ENGINEERING. My friend Mike Snell passes on this link to a truly remarkable Honda ad that Mike describes as "Rube Goldberg meets Mr. Potts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." Check it out, but take Mike's viewing advice: "If you have a... [Dynamist Blog]
Webcam Accessory.
Webcam Accessory
Ok I know that webcams have traditionally been the foray of late night adventuring in the digital world. Still they really do have a role in a business contexta and I can actually see that this:
could well make it better. Positioning a web cam just plain sucks. And when you finally get it right then a fat cat just comes over and knocks it over. Cool product, small company, nice people (we met through Chris Pirillo's Brain Trust ).
[The FuzzyBlog!]Scary Signs. More good stuff from Worth 1000. This time the topic is Scary Signs -- signs that you don't want to see. Permalink Created Wed, 04 Jun 2003 14:56 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
Ripping from Vinyl, Simplified [Slashdot]
Make way for the contender to Google's crown. Turbo10 really is that good [The Register]
TiVo Hacks.
TiVo is notoriously cool about people hacking their digital video recorders, so it's unlikely that they're going to sue the author of TiVo Hacks, a new book which teaches you how to add extra recording time, change the titles of TV shows, and check your email with your TiVo.
Read Amazon - TiVo Hacks
History of the Paper Clip. The paper clip was patented in 1867. Read more about this history of this item (lots of illustrations). This is just one part of the Early Office Museum, which has many other exhibits. (via The Presurfer) Permalink Created Sat, 31 May 2003 15:54 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
1971 Sears Catalog. Scanned pages from the 1971 Sears catalog. Don't laugh... In 30 years, photos from the 2003 Search catalog will look just as ridiculous. Permalink Created Wed, 28 May 2003 14:57 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
Swartz on Tufte on Powerpoint.
PowerPoint Remix. Edward R. Tufte’s “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint” Presented in the Form of a PowerPoint Presentation Overview PowerPoint is standard.….. [Aaron Swartz: The Weblog]
A funny and accurate summary of Tufte's most recent rant against powerpoint. It's well worth getting your hands on your own copy of Tufte's essay.
[McGee's Musings]Old Ads and Photos. If you like looking at old things, you'll find lots of eye candy at paperdoll.com. Lots of old printed material for sale (and on display). Permalink Created Wed, 28 May 2003 09:14 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
QuickMath. Now why didn't they have a web site like QuickMath when I was in school? What is it? QuickMath is an automated service for answering common math problems over the internet. Think of it as an online calculator that solves equations and does all sorts of algebra and calculus problems - instantly and automatically! When you submit a question to QuickMath, it is processed by Mathematica, the largest and most powerful computer algebra package available today. The answer is then sent back to you an...[MORE] [The J-Walk Blog]
A View From Mt. Everest. A 360-degree panoramic view from the top of Mount Everest, taken by Roderick Mackenzie. Why did he climb it? "I have a theory that people climb for the smell of it. Air at very high altitude smells completely different to lower altitudes. People become addicted to this smell and need more and more to get less and less of it. This is what makes them get higher." Permalink Created Wed, 28 May 2003 09:09 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
Your rights as a photographer. Attorney Bert Krages has compiled a helpful guide of a person's rights as a photographer: The right to take photographs is now under assault more than ever. People are being stopped, harassed, and even intimidated into handing over their personal property simply because they were taking photographs of subjects that made other people uncomfortable. Recent examples include photographing industrial ... [kottke.org]
Legal TiVo hacking... er, upgrades.
TiVo has been notoriously cool about people hacking their digital video recorders to add extra hard drive space, but for anyone who wants to, say, bump up their TiVo box to 240 hours without actually busting it open and doing the upgrade themselves, there's a new authorized service center that'll do it for you. (There are also few other "less authorized" companies, like WeaKnees, that have been offering TiVo upgrades for a while.)
Read
Top Network Security Tools.
insecure.org - Top 100 Network Security Tools.
In May of 2003, I conducted a survey of Nmap users from the nmap-hackers mailing list to determine their favorite security tools. Each respondent could list up to 8. This was a followup to the highly successful June 2000 Top 50 list. An astounding 1854 people responded in '03, and their recommendations were so impressive that I have expanded the list to 75 tools! Anyone in the security field would be well advised to go over the list and investigate tools they are unfamiliar with. I discovered several powerful new tools this way. I also plan to point newbies to this page whenever they write me saying "I do not know where to start".
Respondents were allowed to list open source or commercial tools on any platform. Commercial tools are noted as such in the list below. Many of the descriptions were taken from the application home page or the Debian or Freshmeat package descriptions. I removed marketing fluff like "revolutionary" and "next generation". No votes for the Nmap Security Scanner were counted because the survey was taken on an Nmap mailing list. This audience also means that the list is slightly biased toward "attack" tools rather than defensive ones.
Resources to be aware of. BTW, Nmap is the tool Trinity uses in The Matrix Reloaded.
[McGee's Musings]The Geekout: "Chris Pirillo emailed me about my comic." Good comic strip, done online.
[The Scobleizer Weblog]Vibe looks like a cool way to share your photos with your friends.
[The Scobleizer Weblog]O'Reilly TiVo Hacks!. O'Reilly has announced its "TiVo Hacks" book, written by my pal, Raffi -- I love the idea of distilling all the little tricks and tips for the TiVo into one inch-thick brick of paper. Link Discuss (Thanks, Rael!) [Boing Boing Blog]
My New Favorite Comic. Forget Fox Trot. Forget Dilbert. Forget User Friendly. The Little Things is it. The site's mantra is "for geeks, by geeks" - need I say more? Each strip is witty, well-drawn, and full of Hanvey-style humor. Sure, the author doesn't have an RSS feed yet, but... give him time. What won me over? Well, that'd have to be last week's creation. I was just really excited - and still am. Thanks, Brandon!... [C:PIRILLO.EXE]
WHO WAS,WHOIS, AND WHO WILL BE: Domain Name Ownership Research Tools. Professional Reading ShelfWHOISSource: Online"WHO WAS, WHOIS, AND WHO WILL BE: Domain Name Ownership Research Tools"Mark Goldstein takes a comprehensive look at fee and free services to search WHOIS databases. One tool that Mark doesn't mention in his article is a free software app called Sam Spade. [ResourceShelf]
The Mood Among Campus File-Swappers. A Stanford student has written an opinion piece for News.com explaining why the music industry is making a huge mistake by antagonizing their customers, rather than embracing the technology they want to use. He makes the point that these people are still their customers - and there is a large group of them that use file sharing to discover new artists, who they then spend money on. If the RIAA embraced file-sharing and targeted those groups with promotions, they could increase their market. Instead, they're pissing off their own customers who are increasingly looking towards alternatives. [Techdirt]
A Quick Guide to XP Keyboard Shortcuts. Check out PCMag.com's list of handy-dandy keyboard shortcuts for Windows XP and Office XP. [Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley]
Beating the DRM.
Dr. Weinberger offers the best case against DRM I've read yet. Complete with a graphic of the author that I thought at first was J.D. Lasica. (See?)
[The Doc Searls Weblog]Copy Protection Is a Crime. An interesting article at Wired, written by David Weinberger. The crime, he says, is against humanity. He argues that society is based on bending rules, and copy protection allows no rule bending. There are times when rules need to be imposed within that marketplace, whether they're international laws against bootleg CDs or the right of someone to sue for libel. But the fact that sometimes we resort to rules shouldn't lead us to think that they are the norm. In fact, leeway is the default and r...[MORE] [The J-Walk Blog]
The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint by Edward Tufte. Edward Tufte has a new 24-page pamphlet out called The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint on how to improve your PowerPoint presentations: In corporate and government bureaucracies, the standard method for making a presentation is to talk about a list of points organized onto slides projected up on the wall. For many years, overhead projectors lit up transparencies, and slide projectors showed high-re... [kottke.org]
Hugo-nominated fiction online. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine have both posted the Hugo-award-nominated fiction they published this year to their websites. Win or lose, these are some of the finest sf published in 2002.
Asimov's Link (Ian R. MacLeod -- Breathmoss; Charles Stross -- Halo; Gregory Frost -- Madonna of the Maquiladora; Ursula K. Le Guin -- The Wild Girls; Molly Gloss -- Lambing Season; Michael Swanwick -- The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport)
F&SF Link (Maureen F. McHugh -- Presence; Charles Coleman Finlay -- The Political Officer; Jeffrey Ford -- Creation; Richard Chwedyk -- Bronte's Egg) Discuss (via Futurismic) [Boing Boing Blog]
99 bottles and 515 languages. The 99 Bottles of Beer project has translated a computer program that outputs all 99 verses of the folk-song into 515 programming languages. Link Discuss (Thanks, Trish!) [Boing Boing Blog]
another neat XP toy.... Y'z Dock "XP-only ripoff of the Mac OSX dock." [gammatron (phase ii)] [jenett.radio]
Whole Wheat Radio... Now in Stereo. Last night my favorite webcast, Whole Wheat Radio, switched over to stereo. It's still a fairly low quality stream, but it sounds much better to me. Jim made the change mainly because of my constant bitching and moaning. It was the only way he could get me to shut up. Permalink Created Sat, 10 May 2003 17:03 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
MSNBC: AAC sound quality not up to par [The Macintosh News Network]
thanks Loyd!. PowerToys for Windows XP
[via The Daily Thing: Product Reviews] [jenett.radio]
A New Look at FirstGov.Gov. U.S. GovernmentFirstGov.Gov Unveils Redesigned SiteA new look and some new features this federal gov portal. The search functionality, including the powerful advanced interface, remains the same. Remember, you can limit your search to material from state government web sites. [ResourceShelf]
Enterprise Search: When Google Isn't Enough. Intranet and Personal Search
Source: Business 2.0
"When Google Isn't Enough"
A discussion of Scopeware and The Brain Btw, I've been demoing a version of Scopeware that allows me to keyword search most materials on my hard drive. So far, very impressive. [The ResourceShelf]
Spam Toons. A small collection of cartoons about spam. Permalink Created Wed, 07 May 2003 16:34 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
Akiyoshi's Illusions. I've linked to Akiyoshi Kitaoka's Illusion Pages in the past, but it's worth another trip. He updates it regularly, and it never ceases to amaze me. It now has a warning: Caution: This page contains some works of "anomalous motion illusion", which might make sensitive observers dizzy or sick. Should you feel dizzy, you had better leave this page immediately. Permalink Created Wed, 07 May 2003 16:01 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
Shakespearean Insults. Get a random insult, courtesy of Willie the Shake. If you don't like it, then... Thou hath not so much brain as ear wax. Permalink Created Wed, 07 May 2003 15:58 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
Monolithic Domes. The Monolithic Dome Institute has everything you need to know about monolithic domes. Let's start with the basics... what is a monolithic dome? The Monolithic Dome is a super-insulated, steel reinforced concrete structure used for homes, schools, gymnasiums, bulk storage facilities, churches, offices, and many other uses... Monolithic Domes have real strength. They can withstand the force of a tornado, hurricane or earthquake. They cannot burn, rot or be eaten by bugs. The Monolithic Dome is en...[MORE] [The J-Walk Blog]
A Review of Contemporary Science Fiction. In the fine tradition of E2's Books that will induce a mindfuck, I present a list of authors and books that I think are more than worth the time required to read them. My main criteria here are that the books be interesting, gripping, etc. -- not necessarily of great "literary" value. [kuro5hin.org]
Mathematical Comic Strips. A very nice collection of newspaper comic strips that deal with mathematics. (via Robot Wisdom) Permalink Created Tue, 06 May 2003 15:09 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
Recommended: Registry Mechanic.
Recommended: Registry Mechanic
Found via the Gnome folks newsletter. Well worth downloading and running on your box. I'm not going to report how many issues it found save to say that the number was odd, the number was not prime and the number was large.
Thanks Chris!
[The FuzzyBlog!]Calling all Windows Media 9 freaks, there's a new skin that's awesome. So says Sean Alexander.
[The Scobleizer Weblog]Google Stuff. This site has links to lots of information about Google. Nicely organized, and up-to-date. (Thanks Zaine) Permalink Created Mon, 05 May 2003 18:01 GMT ### [The J-Walk Blog]
QuickTopic.
I've recently gotten to know Steve Yost and his QuickTopic topic board/mail list program. Instead of being a message board - scaled to handle threaded discussions and full fledged bulletin board features, QuickTopic focuses just on one thread.
It's a wonderful system as every post to the topic board or mail list entry - gets mirrored. So if I go to the site - what I leave on the topic board gets sent to the mail list. And if I reply to a email message or post my own message, that gets put onto the Topic board. Totally seamlessly!
If only other commenting systems and message boards were this clean! A lot of people use QuickTopic as their comment system for their blog. That way the blogger can ne notified when someone leaves a comment behind.
No wonder Steve is one of the architects and implementors of ThreadsML!
[Marc's Voice]The ABC's of Personal Knowledge Management.
The ABC's of Personal Knowledge Management
Who would have thought that one of the most powerful personal knowledge management tools available to us is the simple alphabet.nbsp For a while now I've been using the ideas of David Allen and his Getting Things Done (GTD) process for organising oneself.nbsp His ideas for keeping track of projects, ideas, actions and reference materials is personal knowledge management to the quick. nbspFor me and others has helped to quieten down the background noise of reminders for those things not yet done.
One of the simplest yet most powerful ideas within GTD is the reduction of noise in a personal filing system.nbsp How do you file your own reference materials?nbsp Two parameters drive the system.
1) It must be easy and fun to file materials otherwise you won't
2) It must be easy and fun to find materials otherwise you won't trust the results of step 1.
This is the beauty of the alphabet.nbsp Simply categorise what you have in your hand (and I mean simply), put it in a manilla folder, label it and file it under the first letter of the label.nbsp All in order and quick to retrieve.nbsp When you need something, what you have filed will be on only 1-3 places.nbsp My gas bill will be under G for Gas or T for TXU my supplier.nbsp I can find it quickly and so can my wife if I'm not around.
A complicated system may have had me filenbspmy gas billnbspunder Bills -> Home -> Utilities -> Gas.nbsp Far to difficult to recall and far to difficult to initially categorise because I have to keep the categories and their rules in my head.nbsp Hence, nothing gets filed and it all piles up.
I came across the General Reference Filing tip before the book had arrived (Amazon isn't the quickest on postage across the Pacific) and implemented it straight away.nbsp Read the tip a couple of times and buy a labeller.nbsp It makes all the difference.nbsp Scanning consistent and well printed text is much quicker than reading handwriting.nbsp Itnbsponce tooknbspa while to read all the folder labels for my gas bill which were not ordered alphabetically, were handwritten and not always in the same place on each folder.nbsp Just now I found it in under a second.nbsp My filing cabinet is now more useful than the 4-drawer box it was.
This morning I re-organised my Outlook folders the same way.nbsp I now have a Reference Filing file (separate from my mail .pst file) and within it a long list of alphabetically ordered folders.nbsp Within five minutes I had most material refiled under the new system.nbsp That itself shows how quick the filing and retrieval can be.
This afternoon my Palm Pilot is going to get a good re-organisation as well.
Effective Research Strategies. Internet Research Skills
Source: The Virtual Chase
The Skill of the Hunt: Effective Research Strategies for Finding Information on the Web
From Genie Tyburski's article, "Successful Web-based research encompasses economy of time and effort. It also takes into account the quality of the answer. The key is to focus on the strategy and skill of the hunt rather than the find." [The ResourceShelf]
The Simpsons and Math. This site deals with mathematical references on The Simpsons. The Simpsons also contains over a hundred instances of mathematics ranging from arithmetic to geometry to calculus, many designed to expose and poke fun at innumeracy. In fact, Al Jean, Executive Producer and head writer, has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University. Example: Apu: In fact I can recite pi to 40,000 places. The last digit is one! Homer: Mmm, pi. (via Muxway) Permalink Created Tue, 29 Apr 2003 ...[MORE] [The J-Walk Blog]
Six Technologies That Will Change The World. I've seen plenty of overhyped articles about "technologies that will change the world" that basically take some of the overhyped topics of today and extrapolate out five or ten years. This article, from Business 2.0, though, looks at six specific technologies that companies are working on that could really have a huge impact. The difference here, of course, is that many of these technologies are pretty far away from ever making it to market - and some may never get there. So, this is more like a list of six technologies that may change the world - rather than ones that will