If your are not familiar with the concept of semantic search, or wonder what it means – watch this video. These guys are off to a pretty good start but I think their site could use a bit more usability tuning.
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Archive for December, 2007
What man has wrought (shame)
31
Dec
The American Bison, or Buffalo, is the largest terrestrial mammal in North America, and once inhabited the Great Plains in massive herds. They were central to the lives of Native American tribes.
This pile of bison skulls from the 1870s illustrates the extent of their slaughter in the 19th century by white settlers: from a population of about 60 million in 1800 to as few as 750 in 1890. They have since been reintroduced into the wild and are no longer considered a high risk endangered species.
V is for Vader – Rewriting the Star Wars Prequels
29
Dec
I have seen lots of bad movies in my life. Most of them are soon forgotten. But only one film betrayed me to such a degree that I continue to think about it years later. I am speaking of coarse of the ruination of Star Wars with the prequels (yes, I can be that much of a geek sometimes). Fixing these stories is the subject of hundreds of fan made YouTube videos and thousands of webpages, so at least I’m not alone. I shutter to think of hours that have been spent as fans discuss what it was that made Star Wars jump the shark. Was it Jar Jar? Midi-chlorians? Or was it Lucas lavishing attention on special effects and zipping around the galaxy trying to squeeze as many creatures, star ships, Jedi, planets, and cities into the movie as possible while leaving plot, character development, acting, and dialog as a mere after-thought? I think we all know the unfortunate answer to that question. Read the rest of this entry »
Powerpoint on Powerpoint – rules we should all use
27
Dec
Here is a great presentation on how to use powerpoint.
Google searches the skies, tracks your flight
27
Dec
Google rolls out a new flight tracking feature: just type your airline
and flight number into the search box, and get the departure and
arrival location and estimated time. I really love these guys.
Better flight stats results [Official Google Blog]
Use Gmail to find out who sold your email address
27
Dec
Google lets you put a + sign in you email address that it ignores but you can use to create filters. For example, when you create an account at buy.com, just I just tell them my email address is BenShoemate+buy.com@gmail.com. If I start getting ads for “V I A GR A” I know who to boycott, report, complain, filter. Cool.
Also, gmail ignores the . in your name. So even if you signed up for FirstLast@gmail.com you can tell people at work its First.Last@gmail.com and set up a filter to auto tag those as work. Also cool.
office 2007 :The windows installer service cannot update one or more protected windows
17
Dec
I am trying to install Office 2007 onto a clean install of Windows XP (on a friends eee PC – it is really a sweet little laptop.. anyway), I get the error above about protected files. Here is the solution. (This may have happened because in optimizing XP down, some files were deleted).
1. From Windows install disk goto E:\I386 folder and open open (Double click) on the FP40EXT.CAB file. It should open.
(or – if you do not have the disk, find a working XP computer and go to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\40\bin).
2. find fp4autl.dll in the list and copy it (ctrl-c)
3. go to c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\40\bin and paste it (ctrl-v)
4. Restart the 2007 office install
Viola! (thanks guys over at http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=627360)
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Google iPhone applications
15
Dec
Picasa – Google’s picture browsing, tagging, sorting, viewing, uploading, sharing, free software – has been redesigned for the iPhone interface. Google has also introduced an iPhone-only slideshow feature that automatically flips through a user’s favorite photo albums. iPhone users simply need to navigate to Google’s site (www.google.com) using the Safari browser of the iPhone (and iPod touch) will find a navigation bar that lets them switch between Google services. Really cool. Apple + Google = BFF!
http://www.google.com (with your iphone)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140576-c,iphone/article.html
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2007/12/picasa-redefined-for-your-iphone.html
Qoute of the Day
12
Dec
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.” – Thomas Jefferson
The Ron Paul Tea Party – Liberty is Brewing
12
Dec
On Dec 16, on the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party – Ron Paul organizers (if you don’t know who he is watch this) want you to donate to the Ron Paul Presidential Campaign. They are to create what they call a money bomb – the largest single day fund raiser in history in order to get the national media to take him seriously. It is amazing to see how dedicated his supporters are. With little coordination they have created an internet phenomenon. Good luck guys.
