Archive for July, 2007
Microsoft genealogy program?
Computers and the Internet have been a boon for genealogy buffs. Now Microsoft may be getting into the game with a program called Family.Show 2.0 that was announced in a recent blog. I can’t tell from the blog exactly what Microsoft plans to do with the program. At the moment it seems to be some [...]
Forget Vista, on to Windows 7
Unfortunately for Microsoft’s sales target, that’s what quite a few people seem to be saying. They are quite happy with Windows XP and are willing to wait until 2010 or whenever. Windows 7 is the present working name for the next version of Windows. It’s supposed to ship in about three years according to ZDNet. [...]
Updates to Google Docs and Spreadsheets
Speaking of Google software, updates have been made to the online applications Google Docs and Spreadsheet.
Google SketchUp
One of Google’s entries in the software arena is called SketchUp. It’s an architect’s tool but it’s very easy to use and has home applications as well. One home application would be to lay out where all the furniture would go in a room. It’s a lot easier than moving sofas and chairs around. [...]
Another silly proposal from Congress
Are the representatives we send to Washington really as dumb as they often seem? It is beyond the scope of this blog to speculate on why “We the People” keep electing the sort that make silly proposals like this one (P2P Networks Harm National Security) from Henry Waxman of California but here we have another [...]
Site for hungry surfers
As I have posted before, there are a lot of specialized search engines aimed at a particular niche. I know that quite a few people get recipes from the Web and here’s a search engine called foodieview.com that indexes recipes. It also has restaurant reviews for some major cities.
Big AOL is watching you
Everybody wants to know what you look at when you are online so they can sell you more stuff. If you use AOL, the company already knows a lot about you but it wants to know more. The New York Times blog called Bits reports:
AOL is getting nosier.
It announced today that it agreed to buy [...]
Web 2.0 or “mashup” platforms
It’s an ugly term but it seems here to stay. I mean the unaesthetically named “mashup”. I can’t deny that it’s descriptive since it refers to taking disparate sources on the Internet and putting them together on one site- for example, maps from one source and weather for the places on the maps from another [...]
Google wants to take better pictures
Google is serious about photographing the earth. The company has announced the purchase of ImageAmerica. The Google Earth and Maps blog says:
I’m pleased to announce that we have acquired ImageAmerica, a company that builds high resolution cameras for the collection of aerial imagery.
According to CNET:
In addition to developing its DDP-2 (Direct Digital Panoramic) camera [...]
A whole lot of shortcuts
If you use keyboard shortcuts, you’ll love this site with 200 shortcuts for a variety of applications. I have posted about many of these before but this list includes some applications that I haven’t mentioned previously. I personally no longer have enough brain cells left to remember 200 shortcuts but I do manage [...]
Bird watching
This has nothing to do with computers but it’s the weekend so here’s a site called Bird Cinema for my fellow bird fanciers. It’s a kind of YouTube where people post their videos of bird activity.
