6 posts tagged “technology”
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AllofMP3.com
Based in Russia, AllofMP3.com is iTunes for the morally flexible. The site allows users to download copyrighted music from major labels at the rate of three cents a megabyte, about one dollar an album. A group of American record companies are suing AllofMP3 for damages of $150,000 for each of the millions of songs they say it sold between June and October 2006. That adds up to a total of $1.65 trillion, more than twice the GDP of Russia.
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- Alluc.org
- VideoHybrid.com
- Peekvid.com
- TVlinks.co.uk
- YouTVPC.com
- 1Dawg.com
- Bitme.org
- Bitme.tv
- Google Search Parameter Engine
Most of us here who blog regularly and use other internet services probably find this incomprehensible, but I've met plenty of these people, even ones that are not senior citizens. I couldn't imagine my life without the 'net and if my connection goes down (rarely) I go into cardiac arrest. If I forget my cell, I turn right around to get it, I don't feel comfortable without it. What about you?
Nearly 50 Percent of Americans Have Little Use for Internet and Cell Phones, Survey Finds
Monday, May 07, 2007
NEW YORK — A broad survey about the technology people have, how they use it, and what they think about it shatters assumptions and reveals where companies might be able to expand their audiences.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that adult Americans are broadly divided into three groups: 31 percent are elite technology users, 20 percent are moderate users and the remainder have little or no usage of the Internet or cell phones.
But Americans are divided within each group, according to a Pew analysis of 2006 data released Sunday.
• Take this quiz and find out what kind of tech-user you are.
The high-tech elites, for instance, are almost evenly split into:
— "Omnivores," [I bet most of you reading this fall into that catagory?] who fully embrace technology and express themselves creatively through blogs and personal Web pages.
— "Connectors," who see the Internet and cell phones as communications tools.
— "Productivity enhancers," who consider technology as largely ways to better keep up with their jobs and daily lives.
— "Lackluster veterans," those who use technology frequently but aren't thrilled by it.
John Horrigan, Pew's associate director, said he started the survey believing that the more gadgets people have, the more they are likely to embrace technology and use so-called Web 2.0 applications for generating and sharing content with the world.
"Once we got done, we were surprised to find the tensions within groups of users with information technology," Horrigan said.
Many longtime Internet users, the lackluster veterans, remain stuck in the decade-old technologies they started with, Horrigan said. That a quarter of high-tech elites fall into this category, he said, shows untapped potential for companies that can design next-generation applications to pique this group's interest.
The moderate users were also evenly divided into "mobile centrics," those who primarily use the cell phone for voice, text messaging and even games, and "connected but hassled," those who have used technology but find it burdensome.
Mobile companies, he said, can target the mobile centrics with premium services, especially once faster wireless networks become available.
The Pew study found 15 percent of all Americans have neither a cell phone nor an Internet connection. Another 15 percent use some technology and are satisfied with what it currently does for them, while 11 percent use it intermittently and find connectivity annoying.
Eight percent — mostly women in the early 50s — occasionally use technology and might use more given more experience. They tend to still be on dial-up access and represent potential high-speed customers "with the right constellation of services offered," Horrigan said.
The telephone study of 4,001 U.S. adults, including 2,822 Internet users, was conducted Feb. 15 to April 6, 2006, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
My style has changed over the years. I used to be a pack rat. I still like my stuff, but I'm aggressive about weeding out now, and if I keep something, it's in functional storage. While my overall style still could be classified as somewhat eclectic, I've become an ever increasing fan of clean, minimalist design. IKEA type style. Swedish country home. Danish design. Modern masters. Form, function. strong lines, little bling and no clutter, easy maintenance. I still love Crate and Barrel or Martha Stewart furniture, but pared down. Soothing color palettes. What does this have to do with gtd, the internet, or better emailing and rss subscription reading? In as much as I like clean, soothing, minimalist functionality in my "real" surroundings, so I too gravitate toward that in the online world as well, leading me to today's recommended Firefox add ons.
I absolutely LOVE the updated Gmail Super Clean Greasemonkey extension for Firefox. It's gorgeous and highly functional. Along with that Greasemonkey extension, I have included several others that integrate with Gmail (and other services) and Google Reader "like butta". These extensions only work with the Firefox browser (I assume you are using Firefox if you are reading this) with the Greasemonkey extension installed, except for Greased Lightbox which also works with Opera. If you don't have Greasemonkey yet, the link is included below.
- Greasemonkey for Firefox - allows for 3rd party scripts to be installed for increased browser functionality and site mods.
- Gmail Super Clean - Clean, minimalist script that makes Gmail so much nicer to look at, plus interface tweaks.
- text area backup - stop losing your typed text when your browser crashes, auto backs up your work, no more frustration!
- Gmail + reader integrator - adds a "feeds" tab on the left of Gmail that allow you to access all of your feeds without having to open up a new tab.
- Greased Lightbox - enhances browsing on websites that link to images such as Google Image Search, Flickr, Wikipedia, Facebook, MySpace, and deviantART by opening up an overlay to view the full sized image.
- Secure-em-All - Secure the Connection on: Excite, Yahoo, Gmail, Microsoft Passport. (Add any site to the Included pages list for it to be automatically switch to secure mode as well).
Have you ever been driving, remembered something you wanted to write
down or remember for later? You don't have a pen and paper handy, or you can't pull over to make a note, or worse, you try to multi task while driving? Problem solved with free Jott service. Call the toll free Jott number, it beeps, you leave a message.
Jott then simply and elegantly goes to work for you. You're audio voice memo is sent off and gets transcribed and send it back to you as an
email with both the original audio as well as the text of what you said
into the phone. Jott doesn't stop there. You can import your contacts from Gmail, Outlook/OE and other sources and Jott voice notes to friends and colleagues. How cool is that? Apparently you can blog with it as well. For the unorganized, it's another tool in your arsenal to bring chaos into order. For those more than slightly anal, like myself, it's a neurotic list maker's cyber dream come true! Let me know if you've tried Jott or would find this useful!
| 10 Unknown Windows Freeware Applications You Should Know About |
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| Written by the administrator of PCFastlane | |
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1. Circumventor This freeware will turn any Windows XP or 2000 PC with an Internet connection into a CGI proxy you can use at work to bypass web filters. Sure, regular web proxies will do the same thing, but isn't it cooler to have your own personal proxy that is ad free? This handy tool will search a computer for installed software and license keys and generate results as a HTML file. It's handy for recovering lost software licenses and Windows license keys. 3. Xpize Windows XP GUI enhancer. It changes Window's normal, boring icons into something worth looking at. 4. ISO Recorder ISO
Recorder is a light weight power toy for Windows XP, Server 2003, and
Vista that let lets you easily mount ISO images to CDs and DVDs. With
ISO recorder, mounting an ISO file is as easy as right clicking and
choosing "Copy image to CD." A 64-bit version of this program is
available. Compact and fast image viewer and basic editor that works with most versions of Windows. It offers features that will please both novice users and geeks, including support for just about any file format out there, mutli language support, playing multimedia files, cutting and cropping, basic photo enhancement options, and more. This Windows modification makes an admin's job easier. With the program, you can create a customized Windows CD that already has many updates, optimizations, and useful software on it. Though it's in Spanish, it's easy enough to figure out how it works. Click here for a translated version of the information page in English, courtesy of Google Translator. 7.Hamachi Hamachi lets you create your own virtual network of computers without actually having to network them together. It basically creates a LAN with other computers over the Internet. Hamachi is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. 8. BeamFile With this freeware application, you can easily send files up to 5 GB in size to friends and family. 9. CamStudio CamStudio is a feature-full program that lets you record videos of applications on your computer. It's great for making demonstration videos and even lets you add screen captions, include yourself in the video, and convert the AVI files it generates into smaller SWF (flash) files! 10. Abiword Many people know about this tiny little word processor, but its other open source brother, Open Office, takes the spotlight too often. Abiword is very small and light, making it perfect for systems that can't handle the bloatedness of Open Office. Abiword is available for many operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Mac. |
There are dozens of well known freeware applications out there. From
web browsers to word processors to anti-viruses, there is freeware
everywhere. Take a look at these 10 great Windows freeware applications
you have probably either never heard of or never fully looked into.
