Google Maps, which is still technically in beta (is anything at Google not in beta?), is already a fantastic tool. In fact, I've stopped using MapQuest all together. The main reasons:
Google Maps allows you to scroll around in real time
Just click anywhere on the map and drag it around. It's like having a huge map of the US on the desk in front of you.
The maps just look better
High-resolution, nicely shaded maps with wide streets (when zoomed in). The text is easy to read well-placed. Markers have a nice drop shadow effect that looks really cool.
The maps are larger
By default, Google Maps' maps are huge, taking up most of the screen, this means better printing, and One field You don't have to tab between fields to enter an address, just type it into the search bar all at once. Google Maps figures it out.
More detail
You'll find more parks, lakes, college campuses, and all the other landmarks that help you find your way.
Less clutter
Unlike MapQuest, you won't find a ton of clutter around the page. Most of the clutter on the MapQuest page is advertising. The only advertising you'll see on Google is if you type in, say "pizza" and the name of a town. You'll see flags around the map indicating pizza places. Presumably these are pizza places that advertise with Google. This kind of advertising makes sense.
Google Maps lacks some of MapQuest's features like "Save to PDA, and Send to phone, but to be honest those features didn't work so well anyway and Google will likely add features like these eventually.
You can check out Google Maps at http://maps.google.com
Monday, March 14, 2005
Sunday, March 13, 2005
On the Radio, Whoa Oh Oh Oh, On the Radio
We bought a new car and, unlike our old car, the new one has a working radio. That's when we realized that it had been so long since we'd actually listed to a radio in the car that we had no idea where to find any of the local stations. So we used the "seek" feature repeatedly until we had a few presets, most of which turned out to be lousy. Then we wondered where on the mighty Web we might find a complete list of radio stations in the Chicago area. Turns out we found a wonderful site that allows you to search for radio stations all around the world and on the Internet (streaming). The site is called Radio-Locator and can be found at http://www.radio-locator.com.
Radio-Locator's home page lets you search for stations by city or zip, state, or call letters. You can also use the Advanced Search to search by a myriad of other categories like format, owner, and more. You can search World radio by country or streaming Internet radio by format.
We ran a search on our zip code and it brought up 53 radio stations within listening range. Listed for each station are: Info, Call Sign, Frequency, Dist./Signal, City, School (if applicable), and Format. Clicking on "Info" brings up a page of technical details about the station like Web site, owner, address, coverage map, and many other things I can't imagine I'd ever need. The coverage map is actually pretty cool, showing the point of origin and color-coded rings emanating out from it. Slick.
Back to the main search list, clicking on the Call Sign brings up the stations Web page (in a new window, thank you very much). If the entry has a little lightning bolt to the left of it, you can click on it to launch their Internet stream. Also slick.
http://www.radio-locator.com
Radio-Locator's home page lets you search for stations by city or zip, state, or call letters. You can also use the Advanced Search to search by a myriad of other categories like format, owner, and more. You can search World radio by country or streaming Internet radio by format.
We ran a search on our zip code and it brought up 53 radio stations within listening range. Listed for each station are: Info, Call Sign, Frequency, Dist./Signal, City, School (if applicable), and Format. Clicking on "Info" brings up a page of technical details about the station like Web site, owner, address, coverage map, and many other things I can't imagine I'd ever need. The coverage map is actually pretty cool, showing the point of origin and color-coded rings emanating out from it. Slick.
Back to the main search list, clicking on the Call Sign brings up the stations Web page (in a new window, thank you very much). If the entry has a little lightning bolt to the left of it, you can click on it to launch their Internet stream. Also slick.
http://www.radio-locator.com
Monday, February 14, 2005
Sharing Your Music (and More) Legally
Apparently if you share music with less than 30 people at a time it is considered a private performance and is completely legal. That's the idea behind Grouper, a free peer-to-peer file sharing service which, rather opening your file collection to the general public, opens it to a group of people (less than 30 of 'em) you specify. Here's the other catch, which you'd better let your invitees know in advance. You cannot download each others' music, you can only stream it. This may come as a disappointment to your friends and family, but it's completely necessary if Grouper wants to obey the law. And, given the RIAA's relentless witch-hunts (more on that in another post), I'm sure they are playing it very much by the book.
Given these constraints, Grouper is still a neat tool. Keep in mind that while music can only be streamed, everything else (photos, documents, video, etc.) is fair game for downloading. Plus there is instant messaging (group and individual) built in. This could actually become a great business tool for teams in far-flung locations.
Just pick a folder(s) on your hard drive to share, send out a bunch of invitations and you're off and running. People accept your invitation, create their own account, share their files and you've got yourself a regular file-sharing commune.
You can immediately see who's online, search each others' files, chat with each other, and send out group messages. While the interface looks very cool, some elements of it, like the playlist, still need some fine-tuning. Also, the wide beveling of every element is fashionable, but wasteful. I'm sure skins will become available that allow designers to better use the real estate.
Ultimately, Grouper is a great free tool that will allow you and your friends to share music and files and have a little fun. It's available at http://www.grouper.com and costs nothing but some hard drive space.
Now if I could just get my brother Pete to join. I swear he has 4,000 albums....
Given these constraints, Grouper is still a neat tool. Keep in mind that while music can only be streamed, everything else (photos, documents, video, etc.) is fair game for downloading. Plus there is instant messaging (group and individual) built in. This could actually become a great business tool for teams in far-flung locations.
Just pick a folder(s) on your hard drive to share, send out a bunch of invitations and you're off and running. People accept your invitation, create their own account, share their files and you've got yourself a regular file-sharing commune.
You can immediately see who's online, search each others' files, chat with each other, and send out group messages. While the interface looks very cool, some elements of it, like the playlist, still need some fine-tuning. Also, the wide beveling of every element is fashionable, but wasteful. I'm sure skins will become available that allow designers to better use the real estate.
Ultimately, Grouper is a great free tool that will allow you and your friends to share music and files and have a little fun. It's available at http://www.grouper.com and costs nothing but some hard drive space.
Now if I could just get my brother Pete to join. I swear he has 4,000 albums....
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
A Cheesy Database
If you are lactose intolerant read no further. As an amateur cheese aficionado and lover of databases, I have a database of the cheeses I've tried, various qualities of them like flavor, aroma, hardness, wine pairings, etc. I decided to see if anyone else had done something similar, and, not surprisingly, someone has. In fact, it's probably the first place you'd look —cheese.com.
Cheese.com claims to have 652 cheeses in its database. You can use the basic search tool or browse by country, texture, milk, and more. Each entry includes a description, country, milk, recommended wine, and producer (although wine and producer appear to be "undefined" in the ones I tried).
The site itself is straightforward with unobtrusive ads on the right. However, while the database is fairly large, the lack of further information (serving suggestions, pairings, recipes, etc.), photos, and style make cheese.com a bit underwhelming.
A better bet is igourmet.com, which is an e-commerce site, but offers a great deal of information (and photos!) of cheese. Also, it offers serving suggestions, recipes, and related items. When the related items button is clicked it brings up similar cheeses and foods, which is pretty cool if you're putting out a cheese plate.
IFfanyone know of a better database, I'm all ears!
Cheese.com claims to have 652 cheeses in its database. You can use the basic search tool or browse by country, texture, milk, and more. Each entry includes a description, country, milk, recommended wine, and producer (although wine and producer appear to be "undefined" in the ones I tried).
The site itself is straightforward with unobtrusive ads on the right. However, while the database is fairly large, the lack of further information (serving suggestions, pairings, recipes, etc.), photos, and style make cheese.com a bit underwhelming.
A better bet is igourmet.com, which is an e-commerce site, but offers a great deal of information (and photos!) of cheese. Also, it offers serving suggestions, recipes, and related items. When the related items button is clicked it brings up similar cheeses and foods, which is pretty cool if you're putting out a cheese plate.
IFfanyone know of a better database, I'm all ears!
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Lost in Translation
I think this is a fairly popular site, but maybe you haven't yet run across it. It's called http://www.engrish.com and it's all about the sometimes flailing attempts by Japanese marketers to translate copy into English.
It's a pretty large collection of examples and I strongly suggest you check out much of it. You'll be laughing loud and often.
It's a pretty large collection of examples and I strongly suggest you check out much of it. You'll be laughing loud and often.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Put News Headlines On Your Site or Blog
The world is starting to love RSS. If I had my way, my toaster would serve up RSS feeds. Actually that's not a bad idea, hmm. Anyway, people love a site that serves up relevant news feeds. It's sticky and it's about as low maintenance as you can get. But how do you do it on the cheap? Or better, for free? It's easy thanks to a site called RSS Digest.
Step 1: Go find an RSS feed you want to put on your site. I use Newsisfree.com, but there are many out there, including: Syndic8, 2RSS, Feedster Feedfinder, Moreover.com, etc.
Step 2: Go to RSS Digest and paste the URL for the newsfeed (e.g., http://xml.newsisfree.com/feeds/83/11083.xml) into the first field.
Step 3: Click the "Create the Code" button and follow the onscreen prompts for setting up your feed. When you're done you'll have a snippet of code that you can paste into your blog or web page that will wow your site visitors and make you look really smart.
I use RSS Digest on this very blog in fact. You'll see the headlines on the lower right side of the screen there. It took me all of 15 minutes to add them. Which gives me plenty of time to go work on that toaster...
Step 1: Go find an RSS feed you want to put on your site. I use Newsisfree.com, but there are many out there, including: Syndic8, 2RSS, Feedster Feedfinder, Moreover.com, etc.
Step 2: Go to RSS Digest and paste the URL for the newsfeed (e.g., http://xml.newsisfree.com/feeds/83/11083.xml) into the first field.
Step 3: Click the "Create the Code" button and follow the onscreen prompts for setting up your feed. When you're done you'll have a snippet of code that you can paste into your blog or web page that will wow your site visitors and make you look really smart.
I use RSS Digest on this very blog in fact. You'll see the headlines on the lower right side of the screen there. It took me all of 15 minutes to add them. Which gives me plenty of time to go work on that toaster...
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
All the Music You Can Handle
There's no better site for music information than the All Music Guide. It contains a huge database of artists and just about everything you might want to know about them, including biographies, discographies, in depth reviews, music samples, chart information, similar artists, influences, and a whole bunch of unique features like "Explore by Mood." You have to register (for free) to get at all the good stuff.
The site is very usable, with a simple tabbed layout for each artist. I really like being able to see ratings for all an artist's albums at a glance along with similar artists an influences. Coupled with a service like Rhapsody or iTunes, you can ensure the albums you buy won't disappoint.
http://www.amg.com
The site is very usable, with a simple tabbed layout for each artist. I really like being able to see ratings for all an artist's albums at a glance along with similar artists an influences. Coupled with a service like Rhapsody or iTunes, you can ensure the albums you buy won't disappoint.
http://www.amg.com
Monday, January 31, 2005
Movie Title Screen Database
One of the many great things about the Web is that people can share their obsessive labors of love with the world. Apparently Steven Hill really digs movie screen titles, which are screen captures of the title screens that appear before every movie. While the interface isn't the greatest (basically click on a letter and scroll WAY down until you find the movie you're looking for), the collection is pretty darned impressive. I looked up a few of my favorite obscure movies and they were there (even "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai!)
Check out the collection at Steven Hill's Movie Title Screens Page.
Check out the collection at Steven Hill's Movie Title Screens Page.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
RSS: In Lego Form
One of the coolest RSS reader tools I use (and I do use several) is Serence's free KlipFolio. It's wholly unique in its approach to presenting news and blog headlines. Unlike the traditional RSS readers that feature an Explorer-like folder structure and a preview window, KlipFolio sits on your desktop as a collection of "klips," which are essentially interchangeable panels full of scrolling headlines. The klips are completely resizable and highly configurable, with many "skins" to choose from. You can even control transparency. Klips snap together like legos as you drag them around, allowing you to arrange them however you want.
When you download KlipFolio it has a few Klips pre-installed, but there is an endless supply of Klips available at the KlipFarm. Just click the "Show Preferences" button in the upper left of the menu bar and select the "More Klips..." button. You will be whisked away to the KlipFarm where you can hunt for Klips to your hearts desire. There are Klips for CNN, Wired, Slashodot, LiveJournal, and all the usual suspects. If you can't find what you're looking for, just download the "Feed Viewer" Klip and you can add whatever RSS feed you want.
I recently discovered a Klip for Monster.com that lets you watch for jobs that match criteria you select. Now that's handy!
Check out KlipFolio at Serence.com.
When you download KlipFolio it has a few Klips pre-installed, but there is an endless supply of Klips available at the KlipFarm. Just click the "Show Preferences" button in the upper left of the menu bar and select the "More Klips..." button. You will be whisked away to the KlipFarm where you can hunt for Klips to your hearts desire. There are Klips for CNN, Wired, Slashodot, LiveJournal, and all the usual suspects. If you can't find what you're looking for, just download the "Feed Viewer" Klip and you can add whatever RSS feed you want.
I recently discovered a Klip for Monster.com that lets you watch for jobs that match criteria you select. Now that's handy!
Check out KlipFolio at Serence.com.
Friday, January 28, 2005
What Bloggers Are Blogging About
Daypop, a cool site that a bills itself as a "current events search engine" has a Top 40 for blog topics. It's a great way to see what bloggers are blogging about right now. It's like a Buzz Index for blogs.
Check it out: http://www.daypop.com/top/
Then for a lark check out the most popular wishlist items on Amazon.com: http://www.daypop.com/wishlist/ Useful? not really. But hey, if you're having trouble thinking of a gift for that certain someone, maybe this will spark an idea.
Check it out: http://www.daypop.com/top/
Then for a lark check out the most popular wishlist items on Amazon.com: http://www.daypop.com/wishlist/ Useful? not really. But hey, if you're having trouble thinking of a gift for that certain someone, maybe this will spark an idea.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Best of the Desktop Searches: A Surprise
I've always liked Copernic, which is a cool research tool that aggregates search results from multiple subject-specific sites and allows you to save them, filter them, etc. Now the same people who created Copernic have the best free Desktop Search Tool available, which is called (not surprisingly) Copernic Desktop Search. For the uninitiated, a desktop search tool is a search engine for your own computer. It searches e-mail, files, music, and photos located on your own hard drive. Given the expanding size of hard drives, the number of e-mails we have to wade through, and our own lack of organization, this has become a necessity.
Everyone's been talking about Google's Desktop Search because, I think, people just like to talk about Google. I tried Google's and I really didn't like it. It killed my system and really didn't do the job. Don't get me wrong, Google itself is a fine search engine, but mostly because of its massive index. When I'm searching my own stuff, I'm more interested in ease of use, stability, and filtering. All of which Copernic provides with aplomb.
Copernic Desktop Search, once installed, starts indexing all the stuff on your hard drive. Depending on how much stuff you have, it could take a while, however it runs very silently in the background and uses very little system resources. You can install it and work on other things as it goes about its indexing business. I'd say install it and let it run overnight.
Next time you reboot and you'll notice a little search window in your task bar. When you click in the search window, you'll notice a little menu pop up above it. Go ahead and type in the word or phrase you wish to search for and then click on the appropriate item in the menu, which includes things like: Emails, Files, Music, etc. (you can also choose to search external sources like News, the web, etc.) The Copernic Desktop Search window will come up and list the results. This is very slick, quick and easy. The results window offers a preview window so you don't have to open any of the results to see them. Another nice feature.
For me the true test of a tool like this is how often I use it in my daily work. I use Copernic Desktop Search 5-6 times a day, usually for e-mail, but for files as well. I think you'll find yourself using it just as much.
http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html
Everyone's been talking about Google's Desktop Search because, I think, people just like to talk about Google. I tried Google's and I really didn't like it. It killed my system and really didn't do the job. Don't get me wrong, Google itself is a fine search engine, but mostly because of its massive index. When I'm searching my own stuff, I'm more interested in ease of use, stability, and filtering. All of which Copernic provides with aplomb.
Copernic Desktop Search, once installed, starts indexing all the stuff on your hard drive. Depending on how much stuff you have, it could take a while, however it runs very silently in the background and uses very little system resources. You can install it and work on other things as it goes about its indexing business. I'd say install it and let it run overnight.
Next time you reboot and you'll notice a little search window in your task bar. When you click in the search window, you'll notice a little menu pop up above it. Go ahead and type in the word or phrase you wish to search for and then click on the appropriate item in the menu, which includes things like: Emails, Files, Music, etc. (you can also choose to search external sources like News, the web, etc.) The Copernic Desktop Search window will come up and list the results. This is very slick, quick and easy. The results window offers a preview window so you don't have to open any of the results to see them. Another nice feature.
For me the true test of a tool like this is how often I use it in my daily work. I use Copernic Desktop Search 5-6 times a day, usually for e-mail, but for files as well. I think you'll find yourself using it just as much.
http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Technogeekboy's Top Five Reasons to Use FireFox
I have been very excited to see the numbers on FireFox usage go up every week. Slowly but surely, FireFox has become the first real challenger to Microsoft's Internet Explorer since Netscape's heyday. There are several reasons why I think you should be using FireFox instead of Internet Explorer, but I'll limit myself to the top five. And I won't even mention security...
1) Tabbed browsing I really don't understand why Microsoft has left this out every iteration. It's very user-friendly and seems like it would be easy enough to implement, but for whatever reason they've yet to steal the idea.
2) It's faster It truly is, I've timed it. Even with a bunch of extensions (more on extensions in a moment), FireFox loads and browses significantly faster than IE. Dial-up users (you are still out there aren't you?) take note!
3) Extensions Extensions are little add-ons that developers create and make available for free on the FireFox website. Some of them like, Stumble!, Web Developer, ForeCastFox, and Sage, I can't imagine living without.
4) Bookmark handling Internet Explorer's "Organize Favorites" is and always has been a joke. How hard can it be to create an interface to organize a bunch of shortcuts? Apparently for Microsoft it's very difficult. As soon as you click on FireFox's "Manage Bookmarks" you'll smile. I guarantee it.
5) It's not Internet Explorer I'm not Microsoft bashing here, honestly. Any company that owns 96% of the market is going to get complacent. Microsoft was pretty complacent to begin with, so that kind of domination has been deadly for IE. Even if you never switch to FireFox you'll still be reaping the benefits of it down the road when Microsoft finally gets off its butt and does something good with Internet Explorer.
...but just to be safe, go download FireFox anyway http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
1) Tabbed browsing I really don't understand why Microsoft has left this out every iteration. It's very user-friendly and seems like it would be easy enough to implement, but for whatever reason they've yet to steal the idea.
2) It's faster It truly is, I've timed it. Even with a bunch of extensions (more on extensions in a moment), FireFox loads and browses significantly faster than IE. Dial-up users (you are still out there aren't you?) take note!
3) Extensions Extensions are little add-ons that developers create and make available for free on the FireFox website. Some of them like, Stumble!, Web Developer, ForeCastFox, and Sage, I can't imagine living without.
4) Bookmark handling Internet Explorer's "Organize Favorites" is and always has been a joke. How hard can it be to create an interface to organize a bunch of shortcuts? Apparently for Microsoft it's very difficult. As soon as you click on FireFox's "Manage Bookmarks" you'll smile. I guarantee it.
5) It's not Internet Explorer I'm not Microsoft bashing here, honestly. Any company that owns 96% of the market is going to get complacent. Microsoft was pretty complacent to begin with, so that kind of domination has been deadly for IE. Even if you never switch to FireFox you'll still be reaping the benefits of it down the road when Microsoft finally gets off its butt and does something good with Internet Explorer.
...but just to be safe, go download FireFox anyway http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Monday, January 24, 2005
The Best Brands of the World: Logo Database
Something tells me this site is doing something wrong (http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/search/), but for anyone who's needed a logo for a presentation, it seems like manna from heaven. Type in the name of the company for which you need a logo and it returns a list of possible matches. I tried a random list of companies like ESPN, AON, Caterpillar, and Quaker Oats and it had them all.
Sure, you could try going to all the different company Web sites to get them, but Best Brands of the World has them in .EPS format, which beats those fuzzy web logos any day. Plus, some sites are very careful not to make their logo easy to download and use by mixing it with other graphics or slicing it into pieces.
Happy logo hunting!
Sure, you could try going to all the different company Web sites to get them, but Best Brands of the World has them in .EPS format, which beats those fuzzy web logos any day. Plus, some sites are very careful not to make their logo easy to download and use by mixing it with other graphics or slicing it into pieces.
Happy logo hunting!
Friday, January 21, 2005
"Whither Weather?": Weather Sites and Tools
As the sky dumps an endless supply of the white powdery stuff here in the Midwest, my thoughts turn to weather sites and tools. There are quite a few of them out there, and they all have their positives and negatives. Here's a look at the notable ones:
Weather Sites
Accuweather.com
http://www.accuweather.com
My current favorite. Lots of great data and maps, with a moderate amount of advertising. Nice hour-by-hour charts.
Weather.com (The Weather Channel)
http://www.weather.com
Good information but such a clunky, ad-heavy page that I often look elsewhere. You're better off using a site that uses weather.com's data like cnn.com.
Weatherunderground.com
http://www.weatherunderground.com
A bit amateurish-looking, but information-rich, weatherunderground looks like a site built by weather geeks. One standout feature is the "Zoom Satellite" which allows you to zoom in and out of an animated map. Very cool.
Intellicast.com
http://www.intellicast.com Solid, if unspectacular site.
Weather Tools
Weatherbug
The best tool out there. Great radar maps, webcams, and detailed forecasts. Be careful configuring alerts though. It can become a bit of a nuisance. Advertising is limited to a big banner ad at the bottom of the interface, which you at least get to choose when installing.
Desktop Weather (The Weather Channel)
Popular tool with some great features. I'm a big fan of the weather trend chart that shows the hourly temperature changes over 12 hours. With the bells and whistles comes a lot of advertising and fluffy garbage that mars an otherwise nifty interface.
WeatherPulse
Popular tool uses weather.com data in a very simple and clean interface. Not a lot of bells and whistles.
Weather Sites
Accuweather.com
http://www.accuweather.com
My current favorite. Lots of great data and maps, with a moderate amount of advertising. Nice hour-by-hour charts.
Weather.com (The Weather Channel)
http://www.weather.com
Good information but such a clunky, ad-heavy page that I often look elsewhere. You're better off using a site that uses weather.com's data like cnn.com.
Weatherunderground.com
http://www.weatherunderground.com
A bit amateurish-looking, but information-rich, weatherunderground looks like a site built by weather geeks. One standout feature is the "Zoom Satellite" which allows you to zoom in and out of an animated map. Very cool.
Intellicast.com
http://www.intellicast.com Solid, if unspectacular site.
Weather Tools
Weatherbug
The best tool out there. Great radar maps, webcams, and detailed forecasts. Be careful configuring alerts though. It can become a bit of a nuisance. Advertising is limited to a big banner ad at the bottom of the interface, which you at least get to choose when installing.
Desktop Weather (The Weather Channel)
Popular tool with some great features. I'm a big fan of the weather trend chart that shows the hourly temperature changes over 12 hours. With the bells and whistles comes a lot of advertising and fluffy garbage that mars an otherwise nifty interface.
WeatherPulse
Popular tool uses weather.com data in a very simple and clean interface. Not a lot of bells and whistles.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Random Name Generator
I think the Random Name Generator at http://www.kleimo.com/random/name.cfm is a special kind of genius.
According to the creators:
"The random name generator uses data from the US Census to randomly generate male and female names. Use it for screenplays, fake id's, car rentals, pick-up lines, books, prank calls, movies. Give a random name to that special someone you meet at the bar."
My girlfriend uses it to name her Sims characters as well.
It's a pretty simple interface. You just select if you want male or female names, how many you want, and how obscure you want them to be. I get the best results using an "Obscurity Factor" of 60-70. For some reason anything higher produces less interesting names. Anyway, next time you need a fake name check it out.
According to the creators:
"The random name generator uses data from the US Census to randomly generate male and female names. Use it for screenplays, fake id's, car rentals, pick-up lines, books, prank calls, movies. Give a random name to that special someone you meet at the bar."
My girlfriend uses it to name her Sims characters as well.
It's a pretty simple interface. You just select if you want male or female names, how many you want, and how obscure you want them to be. I get the best results using an "Obscurity Factor" of 60-70. For some reason anything higher produces less interesting names. Anyway, next time you need a fake name check it out.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Metacritic: Get the broad view
I've long been a fan of Metacritic. When it comes to getting an overview of what the critics are saying, there's no better site. Metacritic compiles reviews from many well-known movie, music, and videogame critics, weights them (1-100), and presents them as a whole score. It also lists all the reviews with their weighted score. Here's a complete explanation of how the scoring system works.
The result is an easy way to see which films, albums, or videogames are worth seeing, listening to, or playing. You can read all the individual reviews that they've compiled or just take a quick glance at the synopsis. You can also find a lot of great stuff by looking at the All-Time High Scores in each category. Yo u may be surprised at some of the movies that were universally well-regarded.
The result is an easy way to see which films, albums, or videogames are worth seeing, listening to, or playing. You can read all the individual reviews that they've compiled or just take a quick glance at the synopsis. You can also find a lot of great stuff by looking at the All-Time High Scores in each category. Yo u may be surprised at some of the movies that were universally well-regarded.
Monday, January 17, 2005
USB Flash Drive Roundup
USB 2.0 Flash Drive Roundup: I ran across this great article about USB Flash drives (you can never own enough) and thought I'd share. It's from the good people at Ars Technica.
USB Flash Drives are quickly becoming the data transfer media of choice for business people. Especially in e-mail environments that reject large attached files. While my company allows pretty much any size attachment to be e-mailed internally (and I'm not complaining), I've worked in offices that limited attachments to 3 Meg. Tough when you're trying to share a graphic-heavy presentation or video file.
I also keep a 128 Meg SanDisk drive loaded with PC troubleshooting software (Spybot, RegCleaner, Avast's free antivirus tool, etc.) This "toolkit on a drive" is indispensable when friends call me to drop by and troubleshoot their PC.
USB Flash Drives are quickly becoming the data transfer media of choice for business people. Especially in e-mail environments that reject large attached files. While my company allows pretty much any size attachment to be e-mailed internally (and I'm not complaining), I've worked in offices that limited attachments to 3 Meg. Tough when you're trying to share a graphic-heavy presentation or video file.
I also keep a 128 Meg SanDisk drive loaded with PC troubleshooting software (Spybot, RegCleaner, Avast's free antivirus tool, etc.) This "toolkit on a drive" is indispensable when friends call me to drop by and troubleshoot their PC.
MSN Video Puts You in Charge
You probably haven't heard much about MSN's video service, I certainly hadn't. In fact, I don' even remember how I ran across it since I traditionally have hated MSN's site. However, I found something there that I like very much—MSN Video.
The concept is simple and one I've been preaching for since the early days of broadband. Since most TV news channels are just clearinghouses for random news stories, why not just let us pick which stories we want to see?
Similar to the way Tivo and PVRs have revolutionized the way we watch entertainment TV, MSN Video may revolutionize News Channels. The main difference being that so far it's only available on your PC.
The MSN Video page is pretty clean and embraces the "clip" concept. At the top of the page is the viewing window, along with some advertising. On the lower left is a list of news categories. The center of the page contains a grid of video thumbnails. Finally on the right is the video queue, where the videos to be played are lines up.
That's it. Pretty simple. Making it even simpler is the drag and drop nature of the page. All you need to do is drag a video thumbnail into the queue on the right and it's added to your playlist. Roll over the first video in the queue, select "Play," and the videos will begin playing one after another.
The video quality is very clear, similar to ESPNMotion and the sound stays synched well, unlike other video streams I've seen.
The video selection is relatively deep with current events and offers several categories (e.g. Sports, Home, Entertainment, etc.)
Overall, MSN Video is definitely worth checking out and even though they haven't eliminated the commercials, it makes for a solid, innovative news channel.
The concept is simple and one I've been preaching for since the early days of broadband. Since most TV news channels are just clearinghouses for random news stories, why not just let us pick which stories we want to see?
Similar to the way Tivo and PVRs have revolutionized the way we watch entertainment TV, MSN Video may revolutionize News Channels. The main difference being that so far it's only available on your PC.
The MSN Video page is pretty clean and embraces the "clip" concept. At the top of the page is the viewing window, along with some advertising. On the lower left is a list of news categories. The center of the page contains a grid of video thumbnails. Finally on the right is the video queue, where the videos to be played are lines up.
That's it. Pretty simple. Making it even simpler is the drag and drop nature of the page. All you need to do is drag a video thumbnail into the queue on the right and it's added to your playlist. Roll over the first video in the queue, select "Play," and the videos will begin playing one after another.
The video quality is very clear, similar to ESPNMotion and the sound stays synched well, unlike other video streams I've seen.
The video selection is relatively deep with current events and offers several categories (e.g. Sports, Home, Entertainment, etc.)
Overall, MSN Video is definitely worth checking out and even though they haven't eliminated the commercials, it makes for a solid, innovative news channel.
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