Blogging for Money

Would you blog for money? Even if it was transparent (you had to post a logo) and you were allowed to say bad things? Does blogging for money pollute the serene waters of blogoshere as we know it? Does it cross the line, turning friends into pushers…?  (And is that really any worse than when your friend invites you over for a Tupperware/Scrapbooking/Candle party?)  Does it make you dishonest? Is it wrong? People are talking about this.

Visit some of the above links and let the ethical debate begin…

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Bubbler. I have to say that I like the name better than Blogger…so much cuter, don’t you think?  Anyway, Bubbler is an upcoming blogging software package from Five Across, Inc. that will let you post photos, video, audio, Office files, and text…no HTML required. In fact, you can drag and drop icons into the application to post them. It’s blogging made even easier, if that is possible. Another cool feature is something called a "court reporter" which basically lets you post live to your blog, IM-style, using a new protocol called SXTP. Bubbler is still in testing, officially, but it looks like you can get a blog now, since it’s a public beta. I Googled for some sample Bubbler pages, and all I found was this and this (the CEO’s blog). If anyone finds some cool beta Bubbler blogs (oh, now I really love saying this)…let me know.  All I have to say is - BlogExplosion surfing is about to get a LOT more interesting…

"More than one-third of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees and managers who were contacted by Treasury Department inspectors posing as computer technicians provided their computer login and changed their password, a government report said Wednesday." (See story at CNN.com)

Which just goes to show you that social engineering is still one of the most effective ways to gain access to otherwise secure systems. Scary, isn’t it?

 Males = 75.5 %
Females = 24.5%

LAME.

Source: Blogads Survey, March 2005

Google Print is the latest and greatest offering from my favorite technology company. According to their website: "Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information, but much of that information isn’t yet online. Google Print aims to get it there by putting book content where you can find it most easily – right in your Google search results."  That’s right, books online - fully searchable books online. Similar to Amazon’s "search inside the book" feature, Google Print offers a search box for you to search for keywords inside the book you are viewing. However, you cannot simply read the book cover to cover in this digital format, but there many links for you to "buy this book", conveniently placed on the left of the screen, beneath the search box. To search for a book in Google Print, just do a regular Google search for the book’s title, but precede it with the word "book". (Ex. book divine comedy)

I have 50 Gmail invites! Do you, too? I know there are several of us out there with Gmail invites to spare…like Lewis, for example. I’d love to give these away, but I think the excitement has worn off for the most part. Even GmailSwap is closed. I’m wondering why Gmail won’t just go public already? If you are the last person on the planet without a Gmail account, then email me or comment here for an invite.

Power naps have become so popular, that people in NYC are shelling out cash for a few minutes in a nap pod at a place like MetroNaps, located in the Empire State Building. MetroNaps believe napping makes employees more productive and refreshed. Plus, the MetroNaps website had info on various scientific studies that touted the benefits of napping, such as: "Snooze Power: Midday nap may awaken learning potential - ‘Napping may protect brain circuits from overuse until those neurons can consolidate what’s been learned about a procedure,’ says neuroscientist Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School, a coauthor of the new study."

I’d say they make a pretty good case for implementing our own version of the siesta.

Viva la competition!

From Cnet:

"Web giant Yahoo is poised to launch a new digital store and music player, aiming to compete more directly with Apple Computer’s successful iTunes service, according to sources familiar with the project…The new MusicNet-powered music service will be integrated into Yahoo’s
existing infrastructure, possibly including features such as links to
its popular instant-messaging program, sources said. MusicNet’s
technology allows companies to offer subscription services or per-song
downloads, and is used by Virgin Digital Downloads, America Online and
others…Sources close to the company said the new service is likely to launch by the end of the month."

My hope is that as more and more companies compete to offer music downloads, the prices will drop. At 99 cents per song, or a typical CD for $9.99, the consumer isn’t saving any money over buying the CD themselves at the store. Not to mention they are doing all the work to create the CD, download the tunes to their iPod, etc.. You don’t get the album art or lyrics and the mp3s themselves have restrictions on their use. (You can only burn them to so many CDs, you can only play them in iTunes, for example). It sure makes stealing music look appealing.

Google Picture Organizer, Picasa, has just released a new version: Picasa 2. With this version, there have been a lot of improvements. For one, Picasa 2 is now integrated with your Gmail account, so you can send pictures to your family and friends easily (though they don’t have to use Gmail.) Also, the new version provides many more image editing tools than before. Beyond the basic fixes (red eye removal, cropping, contrast, etc.) you can now apply different effects to photos like Sephia, B&W, and Glow, to name a few…and it’s much easier than using a complex program like Photoshop. Another new feature is the "Order" button, which takes you a page where you can order prints from either Shutterfly, Walmart, Snapfish, or Kodak’s Ofoto.

However, one of my favorite new features is the "Collage" feature, which will generate a collage of selected pictures by either merging them on top of each other (as a multi-exposure), arranging them as a contact sheet, arranging them as a grid, or, (the default setting): picture pile, which makes your pictures look like a pile of polaroids. You can then save your creation to your "My Pictures" folder, save it to your Desktop background folder, or apply it as a screensaver. Very cool stuff.

According to PC Magazine, the Top 15 Firefox extensions are:

        •     About site 0.1.1         
        •     Adblock 0.5.2         
        •     Bandwidth Tester 0.4.1         
        •     Cards 0.16.1         
        •     Clusty Toolbar 1.0.2         
        •     ColorZilla 0.8.2         
        •     DictionarySearch 0.7         
        •     ForecastFox 0.5.8         
        •     FoxyTunes 1.1         
        •     GoogleBar 0.9.0.30         
        •     Google Preview 0.8         
        •     MapIt! 0.4         
        •     ScrapBook 0.12.0         
        •     Tabbrowser Preferences 1.1.1         
        •     xMirror 0.1.1

Good list, but where would I be without my Gmail notifier?

What are your favorites?