Google's Personalized Home Page

Post ImageGoogle is the search engine everyone loves to love. And they are not a portal, oh no, they are definitely not that evil word portal. And yet, we have Google News. We have Google Mail. We even have Google Groups and Google Local. Possibly the only “portal” feature missing is a customizable page. Well, that was the only thing missing.

Feast your eyes on Google’s new personalized home page. You can now customize Google to display your Gmail, articles from Google News, weather for your area, your stocks, and more. Your new selections come in a simple, fast loading, very Google-esque page.

Just remember, Google is not a portal 😉

Read: Google

Shure E3c Earphones

Post ImageWhen my dad stopped by on Sunday, he dropped a few things off. One of those things was a brand new pair of Shure’s E3c Sound Isolating Earphones. I have to say, they are without a doubt, the best set of earphones I have ever used.

Originally developed for professional musicians, the E3c combines WideBand MicroDriver technology with a sound isolating design to deliver rich, detailed sound with improved high end while blocking outside noise — ideal for optimizing your listening experience with portable MP3, DVD, and CD players as well as all other audio sources.

Usually with headphones or earphones I end up either just stuffing them into my bag, or wrapping them around my device. These E3c earphones are wicked though, as they come with their own little carrying case and a bunch of different “sleeves”, so that you can find the one that feels best in your ear.

The earphones are very light too, so they are comfortable to wear. It took me a moment to figure out how to put them on, but once I did, I realized the design is actually quite clever! As you can see in the picture, they kinda wrap around your ear.

If you’re in the market for some new earphones, definitely check these out. Awesome sound quality, and very comfy to wear!

Read: Shure

WestJet adds Satellite TV

westjet and bell expressvuI like the idea of making our airplanes more “modern.” That is, Internet and TV should be on every flight! Via Tod Maffin:

WestJet is the first and only airline in Canada to offer an in-flight TV service that can be individually controlled by each guest from their own seat. WestJet’s complimentary satellite TV service offers a selection of up to 24 television channels from Bell ExpressVu in every seatback on all of WestJet’s 737-700 aircraft, including news, sports, music, children’s and leisure programming.

Satellite TV on WestJet? Why would you ever fly Air Canada again?

Read: Broadcaster

Look who's blogging!

Ah, everyone’s favorite secretary has finally joined the darkside. Welcome to the blogosphere Annie 🙂

Blogging is mainstream, I know, but I still get excited when someone I know starts a blog.

Yahoo destroys the RIAA, iTunes, Napster

All I can say is, thank you Yahoo. Your new $5/month Music Unlimited subscription service will be the end of the RIAA, as Mark Cuban reports:

The RIAA can no longer claim that students who are downloading music are costing them thousands of dollars each. They cant claim much of anything actually. In essence, Yahoo just turned possession of a controlled music substance into a misdemeanor. Payable by a $5 per month fine.

The Music Unlimited site looks nice, but sports this little warning on the right side:

If you’re an iPod user with a Windows-based PC, you can transfer music you already own to an Apple iPod using the Yahoo! Music Engine. Unfortunately, iPods are not currently compatible with the Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription service.

Maybe the beginning of the end for iTunes too, though speculation of an iTunes subscription service has become more common lately. Even Hilary Rosen, yes the former head of the RIAA, who blogs at Huffington Post is calling for Apple to open up the iPod. With music that cheap available from Yahoo using Microsoft’s technology, it doesn’t look so good for Apple.

Yes, it’s interesting to note (or not) that Yahoo is using Microsoft’s DRM technology. Russell Beattie at Yahoo expressed concern about that, but Scoble replied “we only win if you do.” So true! Yahoo, Napster, and basically everyone except iTunes is using the Microsoft technology. I don’t see how iTunes and iPod can remain on top.

Speaking of Napster, things are not looking so good for them following the launch of Yahoo’s new service either, as techdirt explains:

Napster made a big deal earlier this year in advertising how much “cheaper” they were than Apple (though, many questioned the math). Of course, when you pitch yourself as the “low cost” alternative, you have to have a plan in place for the time when (not if) someone else comes in with lower prices. It appears that Napster’s plan is not to plan at all.

Pretty amazing if you ask me. With the launch of a single service, Yahoo has caused problems for three major players in the music space. And made things look very promising for Microsoft indeed.

Read: Yahoo! Music Unlimited

Belinda Stronach Roundup

If you’re a Canadian, and you don’t live under a rock, you’ve by now heard that Belinda Stronach crossed the floor today from the Conservatives to the Liberals (and the Canadian dollar rose as a result). If this is the first you’ve heard of the biggest political news of the current year, check out the 445 articles at Google News, then come back. Good. Now that you’re all caught up, let’s take a look at what the blogosphere is saying.

My good friend Brock says “Stronach, you’ve got no backbone.” He’s definitely not the only one with that opinion. Debris Trail goes even further:

Is this the Canada you want? Are we so apathetic and cynical and greedy that corrupt regimes can actually hope to hold onto power? Belinda Stronach is banking on exactly that.

Old Tomorrow says “I am finding it difficult to take Belinda Stronach seriously.” And Brian Walsh had this to say of Belinda’s future:

Only time will tell how this will affect you Beinda, I expect that your future in politics is to be short as you obviously have no patience and since you have a good job to go to at anytime, you will in fact leave the liberals in due course.

Blackhole has a pretty good analysis of Belinda’s move and what it might mean. Todd Warnell decided to use a little sarcasm to get his point across:

All in all, it is nice to see that the Liberal’s have already learned their lessons from the Gomery Inquiry and abandoned the practice of political bribery and kickbacks!

That’s just a taste of what’s out there. If you want to read more, the posts are coming fast and furious on Technorati, Feedster and BlogPulse. There’s a wealth of opinion and comment out there if you want to read it, and much of it is more representative of Canadians than what you’ll read in your local newspaper. Also be sure to watch this trend graph, which compares mentions of Belinda Stronach, Paul Martin, and Stephen Harper over the last month. I expect Belinda’s line will jump significantly tomorrow.

My opinion? I am just happy that Canadian politics are interesting again.

Read: Belinda Stronach

Updating the dictionary

Dave Pell posts about a recent Merriam-Webster survey to determine which popular words are not yet in the dictionary. Of the words in the top ten, the first four definitely have to be added, IMHO:

1. ginormous (adj): bigger than gigantic and bigger than enormous

2. confuzzled (adj): confused and puzzled at the same time

3. woot (interj): an exclamation of joy or excitement

4. chillax (v): chill out/relax, hang out with friends

Only problem with those is that number four is spelled incorrectly. It should be “w00t” 😉

Read: Merriam-Webster

Huffington Post Update

When I last wrote about the Huffington Post, I expressed that it seemed like a very cool experiment. It has now been just over a week since the site launched, and I thought it would be good to take another look.

I’ve been subscribed ever since it started, and let me tell you, there’s never a shortage of content. There are always new items popping up in my aggregator, so I rather like that. There are a few things I don’t like about the feed however:

  • On the newswire posts, you have to click through to the website to get the link to the story. Major pain! Link to the story from within the post please!
  • The posts come down into my aggregator with the Author name, so including that name again before the content of the post seems redundant. Might be required for online aggregators though?
  • I subscribe to the raw feed, so I get blog posts and news items. It would be nice if they appeared different somehow.

I suppose I haven’t really decided whether or not I like the content. I have found a few interesting posts, but I find you have to dig a bit. I’m not the only one with comments on the site though! Larry Borsato notes:

Let’s face it though, the Huffington Post isn’t much of a blog; they don’t have comments or trackbacks, so they aren’t really trying to engage in a conversation. They have a user agreement, and they are protectionist about copyright, though they do acknowledge fair use (since they expect to use the content of others). It’s more like a celebrities-only op-ed page, and the don’t accept letters from readers.

Good point. Blogging is all about the conversation, and it’s a shame that the Huffington Post is doing such a good job of stifling that. The problem is noted on the Neo Warmonger blog too.

Actually most of the comments I have seen so far have been negative. But I suppose we’re still talking about the site, and that’s all Arianna and her friends can ask for. How does the saying go? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? Is there a similar saying for parody? Check out Huffington’s Toast. Ah that made me laugh 🙂

Read: Huffington Post

No books in your new library!

As some of you probably know, I prefer bits and bytes to paper. So it should be no surprise that I rather like that the University of Texas at Austin has replaced the books in one of their libraries with a digital friendly study space:

By mid-July, the university says, almost all of the library’s 90,000 volumes will be dispersed to other university collections to clear space for a 24-hour electronic information commons, a fast-spreading phenomenon that is transforming research and study on campuses around the country.

Note that the books are not being removed completely, just moved to other library locations. There are many educators who will frown upon this decision by the University of Texas, but I think they are just unwilling to change their way of thinking. Does it really make sense to start with books? Books are definitely valuable resources, they have been for a long time, and will continue to be for a long time. However, searching through shelves of books or stacks of documents isn’t efficient. Start with the computer to get to the right book.

It should be noted too that many universities and their libraries are making books and other print material available in digital form. Combined with the transformation of certain libraries into digital centres, I think what we’re seeing is more of the “on demand” culture. Thanks to TiVo and similar services, you can get TV on demand. Thanks to podcasting, you can get audio on demand. There’s definitely a trend here, and all the University of Texas’ decision proves is that libraries and books are not immune.

“There’s a real transition going on,” said Sarah Thomas, past president of the Association of Research Libraries and the librarian at the Cornell University Library in Ithaca, N.Y. “This is not to say you don’t have paper or books. Of course, they’re sacred. But more and more we’re delivering material to the user as opposed to the user coming into the library to get it.”

What you want, when you want it, and where you want it. Welcome to the future of, well everything, it seems!

Read: New York Times

IE7 has tabs

Well it’s about time:

Yes, IE7 has tabs. Some people have asked why we didn’t put tabs in IE sooner. Initially, we had some concerns around complexity and consistency… will it confuse users more than it benefits them? Is it confusing if IE has tabs, but other core parts of the Windows experience, like Windows Media Player or the shell, don’t have tabs? I think we made the wrong decision here initially, and we’re making the right one now.

Now, where is the damn screenshot?

Read: IEBlog