You may not be familiar with the company Tronical but you will know their work because they are responsible for Gibson’s Robot Guitar tuning systems. Well judging by this video it appears that Tronical are about to launch some standalone systems that can be retrofit to pretty much any guitar be it a Les Paul [...]
Category: Personal
How To Use Pinterest
I believe in the power of the internet to support communities, share information and learn about the universe. I submit Instructables, post how-to videos and mentor students around the globe. I use open source and creative commons just as much as I add to it.
Yet Pinterest makes me uncomfortable. This social media service assumes that any visual content is there for the taking. Their ‘pin it’ button seamlessly integrates copyrighted material into the Pinterest licensing system. It’s just a little too slick not to wonder what’s happening behind their closed doors.
I am not going to delve into the legality of Pinterest TOS nor how many users are pinning content without copyright approval. That will be played out over time by those far more qualified than myself.
What I want to share with you is the understanding that Pinterest is a tool. And just like any other tool you need to use it wisely to support your needs or it will use you. The following is a heirarchy of methods I employ when sharing information on the internet and specifically addresses the optimization of Pinterest.
Meet Your Newest Social Network Google+
After long speculation, Google is officially introducing the company’s Facebook rival today, named Google+. It has a number of unique features to the service. Plus, there is no sign up required for anyone with an active Google account. But is this really the Facebook killer we have been waiting for?
Google+ has five different points of emphasis. The first is Circles, which lets you drag and drop friends into specific groups. Similar to Facebook friend lists, yes, but a lot of the sharing revolves around which groups the user decides to share certain bits of information to.
Building upon Circles is Hangouts, which is really just Google’s fancy term for group video chat. In the stream, users can see who is ‘hanging out’ and decide to join a hangout and participate in a large video conference. Hangouts may consist of random friends or specific Circles of friends.
Sparks is the third point of emphasis, and it stems more from Google search than it does from the social aspects of Google+. In a nutshell, it is a mini search engine. The service encourages the user to search for things of interest and save them in a list. Instead of a standard list of results, Sparks presents different articles or videos the user can watch, read, or share. And using the list of interests, the results for each are accessible again at any time.
Finally, we have two mobile features, available on the Android Market immediately and coming to the App Store soon. Instant Upload plays up the fact that it is a tedious process to upload multiple photos from a smart phone. This feature will automatically upload any photos and videos a user captures and store them in a private album in Google+ for sharing upon the user’s own discretion. Huddle, simply put, is Google’s answer to iMessage. It combines text messaging and chatting into one and allows for group chatting from within the app. Circles plays a big role in this as well.
Those five main features are the stars of the show here. Aside from them, Google+ does provide some more familiar features. A stream shows real-time updates from friends and a hub for sharing statuses, photos, videos, and links. Plus, each user gets an individual profile. The normal bar at the top of each Google product turns black when Google+ is active, and acts as full navigation for the services, profiles, and notifications.
The Google+ project is currently available by invitation-only, but over time Google will roll it out to everyone. So — the question you have been waiting for — is this going to take down Facebook? I think for sure that it has more potential than any other competitor thus far. However, since Facebook reportedly now has 750 million active users, winning the battle will be an extremely long and painful challenge. Google+ is either going to fly or die.
(Via Skatter Tech.)
Back To The Future 25 year reunion
The cast of Back To The Future have reunited in New York to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film franchise. Submit your videos at http://itn.co.uk/itndirect.html .
How to Sell Products via Your Facebook Page
Ever wished you could directly sell your products and services from within Facebook? If so, this post is for you.
I decided to dig in and research the current landscape thoroughly, both to better understand the lay of the land and to save you the research hassle.
It was only a matter of time before Facebook and e-commerce would converge. Until a little over a year ago, only storefronts existed on Facebook, where merchants could display and promote their products and, with ‘Add to cart’ buttons, imply e-commerce functionality.
But when users clicked on ‘Add to cart, they were whisked away from Facebook to the merchant’s website where the actual shopping-cart experience occurred.
Almost There: Storefronts, but Not Stores
Two prominent examples of storefront-only functionality on Facebook are Threadless and Best Buy, both of which include great integration with Facebook’s social features (sharing, commenting, liking), but don’t support e-commerce transactions within Facebook.
Go To This Site When You Can’t Find Your Phone
Go to this page. Enter your phone number. Click enter. Find your phone — if you didn’t leave it in a bar yesterday night, that is. Simple. Pretty. Just how we like them.
(Via Gizmodo.)
Check Your Facebook Privacy Settings With ReclaimPrivacy
Whether or not you agree with Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s assertion that the age of privacy is over, you can likely agree on one thing – Facebook privacy settings are not easily deciphered.
If you’re not sure whether you’ve sufficiently protected what you share on Facebook, then ReclaimPrivacy.org has a bookmarklet to help you be as private as you’d like.
The bookmarklet (essentially a snippet of Javascript that executes from your browser bar) assesses your Facebook settings in a number of different areas. It looks at personal information, contact information, friends, tags and connections, known applications that leak personal information and whether or not your friends can accidentally share your information. It also checks whether or not you’re currently sharing information via the controversial “Instant Personalization” that was unveiled last month at f8.
The site and bookmarklet are the creation of software engineer Matt Pizzimenti and is completely open-source and hosted on GitHub. According to the website, ReclaimPrivacy.org will “never see your Facebook data” and will “never share your personal information”. The scanner operates entirely on the client side in the user’s browser, it says.
To run the bookmarklet and see how private you may or may not be on Facebook, simply follow these directions:
- Drag this link to your web browser bookmarks bar: Scan for Privacy
- Log in to facebook.com and then click that bookmarklet
- You will see a series of privacy scans that inspect your privacy settings and warn you about settings that might be unexpectedly public.
You can also become a fan of Reclaim Privacy on Facebook. The site, which is hosted on Google’s App Engine, was down earlier today because it had used up all of its bandwidth, so Pizzimenti has added a donation box to help cover bandwidth costs.
(Via Read Write Web)
Which Social Network Is Right For You?
Between Twitter, Facebook, and Googles new social networking tool, Buzz, its hard to turn a corner without running into another social network. But how do you know which networking tool fits you best? Were here—with big charts and all—to help.
Last week Google Buzz made us ask ourselves what we wanted out of social networking. To answer that question, we charted what we liked and disliked about setup, privacy, usability, and other aspects of Buzz, Twitter, and Facebook. Here’s the result.
This chart doesn’t cover everything about every network out there. MySpace is (seemingly) on the decline or, at best, re-purposing itself. LinkedIn is really a business contact pool, FourSquare a geo-location game, and other networks generally too niche to be compared in the same aspects and categories.
For the simple read, here’s the full chart of our Buzz, Twitter, and Facebook comparison. We color-coded each answer to give a context of where it stood, in comparison to what we know is possible and what a smart user would like to see. Red means that you can’t rely on this network for this feature. Yellow indicates that the network offers it or makes due, but could definitely be better. Green means something works, and can be considered a selling point.
Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students
For much of the world, it’s that special time of the year when students head back to school. The good news for students is that even though that means waking up early and doing homework, there are a number of web-based and social tools to help you get through the school year. From staying organized to improving study habits to making sure you reference your research sources properly, the web can help you be a better student.
We’ve assembled a list of 15 of the best applications available for students. What other applications are helping you at school this year? Let us know in the comments!
Stay Organized
The first thing you need to do in order to have a successful school year, is develop a plan to stay organized. If you’re constantly missing due dates or losing track of your notes, you’ll find yourself in a deep hole rather quickly. The following web applications can help you get organized and stay organized.
1. Evernote – Evernote is one of the best note taking applications available, allowing you to sync notes between the web, your phone, and any computer. With Evernote you can save text, audio, and images (like screenshots, entire webpages, or photos taken with your camera phone), and everything — even the images — is searchable, so you’ll never lose track of your notes. One of the ways Evernote really excels is in the number of different methods you can use to add notes to the application, which include via the web, mobile apps, email, or even Twitter.
2. Notely – Notely is a complete, end-to-end solution for taking notes and staying organized. With a course and assignment calendar, note-taking tools, and to-do list, Notely can keep you on top of your schoolwork and assure that you never miss a due date.
3. GradeMate – GradeMate is a free online organizer made with students in mind. With it you can create to-do lists, manage due dates, keep track of grades, and even collaborate with fellow students.
4. Backpack – Initially designed for business users, Backpack is also a great way for students to keep research organized. Backpack is sort of like a single page wiki that lets you keep files, images, notes, and to-do lists in a single place and share them with fellow students (which is great for collaborative projects).
Study Better
When you sit down to study, you want to arm yourself with the best web tools available to make sure you get the most of your study time. By utilizing the tools listed in this section, you can get more done, and do it more quickly, so that you can have more time for fun and still be prepared for that upcoming test or paper.
5. StudyRails – StudyRails is perfect for those who have trouble blocking out distractions when it comes time to study. The site lets users schedule study time and alerts them (by text message) when it is time to drop everything and hit the books. But where StudyRails really becomes important for chronic procrastinators is that it can be set to block out your favorite web sites and computer applications during scheduled study time. That way you won’t be tempted by Twitter or World of Warcraft when you’ve set aside some time specifically to write a paper.
6. Diigo – When you’re reading books for class, you probably use a highlighter and sticky notes to mark off the passages that are of particular note to what you’re studying. But what do you do on the web? Diigo is a web-based highlighter and sticky note system that lets you annotate your web research. You can also share your work with classmates.
7. Delicious – Delicious is the quintessential bookmarking application on the Internet. If all you want to do is collect all the web resources you’re using for a class, project, or paper under a single tag, Delicious is one of the best and easiest to use tools you can utilize.
8. Mindmeister – There is a slight learning curve involved, but once you get use to them, one of the best ways to organize your thoughts and research is through mind maps. And one of the best online mind mapping tools is Mindmeister, which lets you both easily create mind maps, and also collaborate on them with your classmates. They offer special discounted academic pricing for students.
Work and Collaborate
Web-based and social tools can also help you to actually get your work done and collaborate with others in your class on group projects. From word processing to presentations, the apps in this category will help you turn in complete and polished work.
9. Google Docs – Google Docs is one of the best online word processing and spreadsheets applications available, and it offers great collaboration features that allow you to work together on group assignments. In fact, we use it often here at Mashable to keep track of who is working on what and collaborate on posts and projects. The two main advantages of using Google Docs over more feature-rich applications like Microsoft Word (which is also a great application that I use on a daily basis) is that Google’s offering is free and, more importantly, you can access your files from anywhere. Also check out Adobe’s Buzzword.
10. EtherPad – EtherPad takes collaborating on written documents to a completely new level by allowing a group of people to edit a document at the same time and actually see what everyone else is writing as they write it. When used by multiple people meeting in person or combined with a VoIP app like Skype, EtherPad can be an amazing collaboration tool for group studying or hashing out who is doing what on a group project.
11. Sliderocket – It would be hard to get through your school career without having to give a presentation, and one way to make your presentation more memorable is with a great set of slides. SlideRocket is an awesome online presentation building tool that lets you create beautiful, multimedia rich presentations, that are accessible from anywhere. Also check out Empressr.
12. WikiDot – If you’re working in a group project, you’ll want to keep everyone on the same page, and one of the best ways to organize your thoughts as a group is by using a wiki. WikiDot is a great, simple, wiki hosting solution that students can utilize to create an unlimited number of wiki pages to organize their projects and group research.
Cite Right
Now that you’ve got your work in order, you’ll want to make sure you have everything properly cited, because like clichés, accusations of plagiarism are something you should avoid like the plague. The tools below will help you to keep track of your sources and cite them properly when the time comes.
13. CiteMe – This Facebook application from the Online Computer Library Center lets you search the world’s largest library catalog by title, author, subject, or ISBN and get properly formatted citations in APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, or Turabian style.
14. EasyBib – EasyBib is one of the most popular online bibliographic tools, letting you automatically create citations in APA, Chicago/Turabian, and MLA styles. Over 218 million citations have been generated using the site since 2001. Also check out Ottobib.
15. Zotero – If you need to cite your work in a more obscure style, then check out Zotero. This Firefox extension automatically collects your research sources and then lets you create citations in any of one of over a thousand different styles. Zotero also lets you take notes on your sources and is available in over 30 different languages.
(Via Mashable!.)
Recent Comments