Free Google Voice Phone Booths

The Googleplex in Mountain View won't be the only place to boast of a British-style, Google-themed phone booth. In celebration of the new Google voice call feature within Gmail, Google is planning on installing these phone booths high-traffic places (college campuses!). Calls made from these booths will be free.

Read the entire Fast Company article here.

Boomerang for Gmail--FINALLY!

Boomerang for Gmail is the Chrome extension that I have been waiting for for ages. I am personally a neat freak when it comes to keeping a clean inbox, and there are times when I wish that I could schedule an email to pop up in my inbox at a later time when I actually need to read it. Alternatively, I've also wanted to schedule emails to be sent at a later time, instead of keeping it in my draft box until it's time to send. In comes Boomerang! It's currently still in beta mode so it may be a little buggy, but it's about time something like this came along!

Read the full article on Lifehacker here. Thanks for the find, lil' bro!

Honda's "People Mover"

Designed for people with debilitating injuries or for those with problems walking, this cool little motorized unicycle-like chair can help people move around!



Check out the CrunchGear article here. Thanks for the find, David!

750 Words

Writing in diaries seems to be an old-fashioned notion in our digitized way, but 750 Words finds a way to bring it all to our computers. Here's some personal testimony from my brother:

"If you have around 20-25 minutes to spare a day, I recommend 750words.com, it's a pretty nifty site. Basically, it's a private online journal that you write 750 words in daily, or whenever you want to work stuff out.  I used it today, and it's so freaking cool - you can customize everything about it, and when you're done writing the 750, you get an awesome page of statistics: words per minute, distractions, what you felt, what you were concerned about, what your mindset was, what the primary tense was (past, present, future), what the primary sense was, a rating, frequently used words, etc. It's kinda awesome, and you can have a safeword so only you see it.  Just passing along the coolness :)"

Want more information on 750 Words? It's also featured in this Lifehacker article.

Light Blossoms

Philips has come up with a new aesthetically pleasing light fixture that uses both solar and wind energy. Check it out here.

Google's New Approach to China

Big news: Following an investigation into some Gmail and intellectual property security breaches from China, Google decided that they will no longer accept censorship as a condition for being permitted the use of their Chinese Google site (www.google.cn). A briefing on the events that led to their decision can be found on the Official Google Blog.

Highlights from the post:

• "We have taken the unusual step of sharing information about these attacks with a broad audience not just because of the security and human rights implications of what we have unearthed, but also because this information goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech."

• "We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results."

• "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."

"Don't be evil," indeed. Read the full post here (highly recommended!). The NYTimes also has a writeup of the policy shift.

Thanks for the find, Sarah and Ryan!

The Children of Cyberspace

We already see the generational gaps between the ways we interface with technology as compared to our parents, but the ever-speeding technological change curve may be increasing at an even faster speed. Technology has changed our methods of communication, as well as our expectations of social norms.

Highlights from the NY Times article:

• "They [researchers] theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development."

• "... younger children tend to be ever more artful multitaskers. Studies performed by Dr. Rosen at Cal State show that 16- to 18-year-olds perform seven tasks, on average, in their free time — like texting on the phone, sending instant messages and checking Facebook while sitting in front of the television."

• "Children my daughter’s age are also more likely to have some relaxed notions about privacy. The idea of a phone or any other device that is persistently aware of its location and screams out its geographic coordinates, even if only to friends, might seem spooky to older age groups."

To read the entire article, click here.

Tech Support Cheat Sheet

For more nerd-tastic comics, check out www.xkcd.com.

Thanks for the find, David!

Ommwriter: The zen way to write distraction-free

We all know what it's like to write papers in today's technology-intensive, multi-communication type of world. It's no wonder that it's so hard to "get into the zone" when we're constantly distracted by BlackBerry blinking lights, GChats, Facebook, and email notifications.

In enters Ommwriter, an immersive writing experience that helps us regain our ability to concentrate amidst a world of instant gratification. It's a simple text editor (with relaxing music and soothing backgrounds) that gets rid of all that formatting nonsense that often controls perfectionists like myself.

Unfortunately, it's currently only available for Macs, but if you happen to have one, it's worth trying out. Ommwriter might just save you from yourself.



Ommwriter from Herraiz Soto on Vimeo.

Duke Schedulator

The new Duke ACES program's absurd multiple-click scheme has prompted a few Duke students to come up with their own version of how ACES should be run. Duke Schedulator allows you to test out several different schedules graphically (and easily!), and also gives you price comparisons across multiple popular textbook sites for all textbooks listed for your courses. If only I had known about it before my last registration period was over...

Better Talking

Next time you need to prepare for a phone interview, try Better Talking, a free service that gives you a mock interview with standard interview questions.

[caption id="attachment_4" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Screen shot from www.bettertalking.com"][/caption]