links for 2006-01-15
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(tags: feedlounge)
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(tags: backup)
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(tags: mobile)
links for 2006-01-14
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WOOOHOOO!
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computer zen
Mosaic of WebCam Stills Arranged Geographically
I’ve been reading the information aesthetics blog regularly as I’m a HUGE fan of data visualization. Today, they linked to the netlag world webcam map. Holy cow – this is a video that you must see.
Says information aesthetics:
An impressive reality video of 1609 different webcams positioned around the world. specially developed software called ‘picksucker’ saved an image of each camera every ten minutes (from 29-01-2004 until 30-01-2004 18:40 GTM), which are placed on a geographical world map & become animated according to time. created by pleix, a community of digital artists (graphic designers, 3d artists, musicians…). Although based on completely different input data, the end result is looks similar to google search activity map.
FeedLounge Launches On Monday
Another RSS Aggregator? Yes. This one, though, is helmed by Alex King, whose Tasks Pro software is fantastic. Again and again, Alex responds to his customers’ feedback by adding new features and fixing bugs. This attitude, applied to a subscription-fee-based-aggregator is going to be very interesting.
I met up with Alex and his partner in crime Scott Sanders today at Starbucks in Redwood City. They gave me a demo. Very cool stuff. Feels like an app, not a web site(a good thing). I can’t wait till Monday!! I’ll be subscribing right away.
Per-Application Volume in Vista
I’ve been using Vista now for a week and I don’t think I’m going back.
- 3D-Flip is amazing. I can page through quarter-scale screenshots of the 20 or so app windows I have open to find the right one. The fact that they are live, active windows, not just screenshots is gravy. Please turn this into a screensaver.
- Pin to Start Menu lets you right click on an app and add immediately add it to app list that comes up when you hit the start button. I used to have to drag shortcuts around to do that in XP. They should add Pin to Send To Menu.
- Glass is really cool. Titlebars and window outlines are translucent(you choose the color, shade and alpha level). It’s not useful, but it gives you apps a feeling of … um … realness.
My new favorite, though, is per-application volume. I had no idea about this feature until Scoble mentioned it today. WOWOWOWOWOW! I guess NOW I don’t have to turn off email and IM notifications and system sounds if I want to turn up the music. Nice touch.
Anyway, that’s why I read his blog and ask him questions. He knows which features of which products are special. Maybe that makes him an evangelist and maybe it just makes him awesome.
John Tokash 