LibraryThing | Catalog your books online

"Enter what you're reading or your whole library—it's an easy, library-quality catalog. LibraryThing also connects you with people who read the same things."

http://www.librarything.com/

CuePrompter.com - The Online Teleprompter

CuePrompter is a free teleprompter/autocue service. Your browser works like a teleprompter -no extra software needed.

http://www.cueprompter.com/

‘The Year’ for Linux Desktop?

"Is the year of the Linux desktop upon us? ZDNet blogger Robin Harris thinks 2008 is it. With the advent of sub -$400 notebook computers and sub-$200 desktops comes a greater demand for Linux, Harris says, because “on a razor-thin margin, vendors can’t afford Windows.” He points to AsusTek’s Linux-based Eee PC as an example, and notes that the company is set to build 1 million Eees in the first quarter of 2008."

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/osb/?p=290

S.F. Caltrain station offers valet parking for bicyclists

"A valet service for bicyclists who commute on Caltrain will get an official welcome Wednesday in yet another acknowledgement by Bay Area transportation officials that pedal-power has arrived as a viable alternative to the private automobile."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/08/BA2UUAQM1.DTL

Telegraph : Predictions for 2008

The decline of Microsoft

Microsoft may well look back on 2007 as its annus horribilis.

After a four-year delay, it finally launched its newest operating system, Vista; many users responded with a shrug, and others with heavy criticism. Some went as far as to switch back to Windows XP, prompting Microsoft to offer a downgrade option for Windows Vista Business and Ultimate customers. Microsoft also lost $8 billion (£4 billion) on the like of the Zune music player, Windows Mobile and its Xbox games console. The sort of blunders that would have killed any other company haven't yet had a severe impact on this giant, but it's beset on all sides. IBM is after Microsoft's Office suite with its free alternative, Lotus Symphony (tinyurl.com/2mfvuq) and disgruntled Vista customers are beginning to look at Ubuntu (ubuntu.com), Openoffice (openoffice.org) and Apple's Mac range.

ClustrMaps

Hit counter map widget

http://clustrmaps.com/

Radical transparency

"Radical transparency is a management method where nearly all decision making is carried out publicly.

All draft documents, all arguments for and against a proposal, the decisions about the decision making process itself, and all final decisions, are made publicly and remain publicly archived.

The only exceptions to full transparency include data related to personal security or passwords or keys necessary for physical access required to carry out publicly negotiated decisions. Any technical actions which are perceived to be controversial or political are considered to lack legitimacy until a clear, radically transparent decision has been made concerning them."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_transparency

"But here's the interesting paradox: The reputation economy creates an incentive to be more open, not less. Since Internet commentary is inescapable, the only way to influence it is to be part of it. Being transparent, opening up, posting interesting material frequently and often is the only way to amass positive links to yourself and thus to directly influence your Googleable reputation. Putting out more evasion or PR puffery won't work, because people will either ignore it and not link to it - or worse, pick the spin apart and enshrine those criticisms high on your Google list of life."

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.04/wired40_ceo.html

Wii Wireless Controller

Play unrestricted with this wireless Wii controller released by Nyko. Fling your arms and swing your swords without any limits.. no more excuses for missing the target now..

http://www.gadgettastic.com/2008/01/08/wii-wireless-controller/

OpenOffice.org repository for Extensions

"Publish your extensions and discover their popularity. Experience new functionality. Adjust your OpenOffice.org to your needs. Maximize your productivity... ...with the help of extensions, which add functionality or slight tweaks to the user interface or entirely new features to the OpenOffice.org product."

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/

Large Text File Viewer

• Have you ever felt frustrated when you just want to look at the content of a large text file but it takes forever for Notepad or Word to open it?
• This program was designed for viewing large (>1GB) text files.
• It uses little memory and is able to open a gigabyte file instantly.
• Background file indexing makes browsing even faster.

http://www.swiftgear.com/ltfviewer/features.html

Previously... BBC iPLayer

"With BBC iPlayer you can catch up with the programmes from the past seven days you've missed or want to watch again by playing them direct on the BBC iPlayer website or downloading them to your computer."

(seems to work happily on Linux)


http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/