October 2008
32 posts
September 2008
30 posts
The Ultimate Small Business Resource Guide →
This electronic book lists dozens of useful small business resources that are cost-effective and easy to access. Even if you’re not in business for yourself, there are lots of excellent tips in here.
While it’s normally $35, for a limited time the folks at Lifehacker have put it up as a free, downloadable eBook.
Get it while you still can!
Pandora, SOMA FM, other net radio broadcasters ask... →
Once again, we’re back to the point where Internet radio is going to be killed by entrenched interests unless we act. How many times do we need to stand up to this?
BoingBoing rounds up the latest alerts for us, and this time it looks dire indeed.
How To Master Photoshop In Just One Week →
I’m not sure I’d be able to cram all of this into a typical week, but I was still very impressed by this collection of Photoshop tutorials.
Starting with the basics, it offers dozens of links to instructional videos, step-by-step tutorials, and explanations on how to accomplish various effects and techniques.
[via Lifehacker]
Toots and the Maytals →
Toots Hibbert has been making fantastic music with the Maytals since the early 1960’s, and is still going strong today [Wikipedia Article]. Their upbeat, infectious string of hit singles helped define ska and reggae in Jamaica.
I had the chance to see him in concert last night, and it was the finest live performance I’ve ever seen … THE finest. I’m still blown away.
If...
Boxer →
Yesterday’s post has me thinking of classic video games…
If you’re using an Intel Mac, you can create a kick-butt retro gaming machine with Boxer, a DOS emulator that allows you to load and run vintage DOS games like Commander Keen and Ultima IV, or even old-style spreadsheet and word processing programs.
Try cutting and pasting without a mouse!
[via Lifehacker]
Pew Internet: Teens, Video Games and Civics →
Pew Internet & American Life studies are among the best ways I’ve found to get a handle on how kids use technology in our country.
Their latest report deals with teens and video games, and the results fly in the face of the conventional wisdom that all of these games rot your brain, cause antisocial behavior, and have no redeeming value.
I’ve been a video game player since 1981,...
Amazon Confirms Student Version Of Kindle →
TechCrunch reveals something I’d been hoping for: there’s going to be a textbook version of Amazon’s popular Kindle ebook reader.
Unfortunately they’re only talking about college-level books at the moment, but the massive backpacks I see our middle and high school students lugging around have me crossing my fingers that they’ll release other educational versions...
WatchHow Foreign Governments are Buying America, by Columbia University economist Joseph Stiglitz.
A very interesting perspective in light of recent events.
[via BoingBoing]
North Korean Propaganda Posters →
The California Literary Review has posted a photo essay of excerpts from David Heather and Koen De Ceuster’s book North Korean Posters: The David Heather Collection.
These posters, along with the descriptions that accompany them, are utterly fascinating and stylistically compelling.
Using art to control perception and behavior is a time-honored tradition. Seeing it executed from such a...
WFMU's Pile of Comedy Records →
Back in July Kliph Nesteroff posted a boatload of classic comedy records on WFMU’s Beware of the Blog.
I had been meaning to share this goldmine for a while, but the way this week is going I guess it was meant to wait until today. I can certainly use some comedy!
There are a total of 13 recordings featured here in MP3 format, including Godfrey Cambridge, George Gobel, Jack Parr, Phyllis...
DropBox →
While I love JungleDisk, for casual users looking to store, share, and back up files online, initial JungleDisk setup can be intimidating.
This is partly a strength — if the JungleDisk folks decided to give it up and move to Tahiti you’d still have access to your information because you went to the trouble to set up your own Amazon S3 (online storage) account. On the other side, too,...
Please Dress Me →
I love cool, quirky, and artistic t-shirts, and the Internet is exploding with small (and large) shops selling fantastic, high-quality shirts in a variety of styles.
There are so many great places, in fact, it’s tough to slog through them all to find what you’re looking for. No longer: Please Dress Me is a search engine for online tees. Enter your search term (the more generic,...
iTunes 8 →
The new iTunes has been released and is available for immediate download on both Mac OS X and Windows systems. I’ve been playing with the new Genius feature that creates playlists based on similarities between songs (a la Pandora), and so far it’s impressive.
To get started with this feature after installation, you have to sign into your iTunes Store account and agree that it’s...
Play With Spider →
Spiders creep me out like nobody’s business, but I still think this Flash experiment is fantastic.
Control and customize an extremely realistic spider — you can even feed it bugs!
Squicky goodness for all.
[via BoingBoing]
Amazon Ends Post-Order Price Guarantee →
The Consumerist reports that one of the things I liked best about Amazon.com is no more.
Prior to September 1st, if you found out that the price for something you’d bought had dropped within 30 days of purchase, they’d refund you the difference. Not any more.
I’ve been a fan of Amazon since my first order back in January 1996, a few months after they launched. (I wonder what...
Music: Quantic's Death of the Revolution →
I am overflowing with happiness because music like this is still being made today.
This collection of (mostly) instrumental Latin American reggae and dub fits perfectly next to the finest Studio One cuts of the 20th Century.
It’s been on constant rotation in my iPod and at work, and never fails to bring a smile. I particularly like the Columbian influence on the music, infusing the beats...
How to Set Up a Laptop Security System →
The lauded tech brain trust at Lifehacker has some excellent advice about securing our laptops against theft.
I certainly hope it never happens to me, and feel awful when it happens to someone I work with … which sadly seems to crop up at least once a year.
Google Chrome →
Google has released their very own open-source web browser!
It’s designed to be super fast, easy to use, private, stable and safe. The new tabbed interface they’ve implemented looks particularly interesting.
Oh, and one of my personal favorite graphic authors, Scott McCloud, even wrote a fantastic comic explaining the whole thing.
Right now it’s Windows only, leaving us Mac...
Article: Musical key to unlocking teenage... →
This article from The Age in Australia reveals that the music teens listen to often indicates underlying tendencies.
It says that Heavy Metal indicates higher levels of suicidal thoughts, depression, and shoplifting; Dance indicates higher levels of drug use; Jazz indicates loners and misfits; and French Rap is linked to “more deviant behaviours” like “theft, violence, and drug...
