Tag Archives: work

TypeWith.me Makes Real-Time Text Collaboration Dead Simple, Resurrects EtherPad [Collaboration Tools]

If you like Google Wave's real-time collaboration but not the interface or registration, check out TypeWith.me. It's a solid, simple, as-you-type document collaboration webapp with no sign-up required. A quick background: Google recently bought previously mentioned EtherPad with goals of integrating it into Wave, then closed the service. Then , after some backlash, they open-sourced the entire app. TypeWith.me took that code and put it on a new server that, unlike EtherPad, won't be closing down any time soon
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Schedule Reply Windows to Minimize Interruptions [Distractions]

If you find your productive periods of work ever shrinking because of email, phone, and other interruptions, it's time to adopt a policy of scheduled replies. Photo by Mike "Dakinewavamon" Kline . Over at the organizational blog Everyday Simplicity they found their productivity was taking a hit because of excessive interruptions and perpetually responding to emails and phone calls as they came in. Their solution was to set aside scheduled windows of time to deal with incoming email, voicemail, and other inputs: I only return messages left for me at 10 am, 2pm, and 4 pm. My phone's ringer is turned off, and my cell phone sits in my purse.
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Thinking Space Maps Your Mind on Android [Downloads]

Android: Your best thoughts can come to you when you're nowhere near your work space. If you're carrying an Android phone, Thinking Space is an elegant and convenient way to map out where your mind goes on the go. Thinking Space does most of what you'd want a desktop mind mapping package to do, and a little more, in some cases. You'll figure out the methods for adding and branching thoughts pretty quickly, and if you're already using Freemind , it can read those files, too
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MIT Media Lab Extension: The New Home of Face-Melting Research [MIT Media Lab]

The world-renown MIT Media Lab is a place where every project is an amazing, unbelievable glimpse into humanity's technological future. Now, thanks to a massive $90 million extension, the architecture can match the wondrous excitement created within. In case you haven't had the opportunity to swing by this particular block in Cambridge, Massachusetts, here's what the old Media Lab looks like. It's still there
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Sandra Bullock Oscar Acceptance Speech in Hot Demand [VIDEO]

The 82nd Academy Awards were last night, and it wasn’t just about iPad commercials and pissing matches between media conglomerates ; actual awards were given out, too. Although The Hurt Locker might have taken home the most gold statues (six wins out of nine nominations), one of the most talked-about moments of the night was Sandra Bullock’s acceptance speech for Best Actress. Currently, the speech is being watched by scores of Internet users, according to Google search trends. Bullock won the award for her work in The Blind Side
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Robot Pokemon: Kojiro Would Destroy Asimo with Musculoskeletal Jujitsu [Robots]

Kojiro here is the work of Tokyo's JSK Robotics Laboratory. With his 60 degrees of motion, provided by a network of Super Effective! artificial muscles and tendons, he'll utterly destroy Asimo in the inevitable slow-motion robot battle in their future. I say slow motion because, I mean, look at this thing.
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VU Meter Hack Turns PSP Into Something Functional [Mods]

This mod turns the PSP into a pretty cool looking little VU Meter (that's volume meter, to you non-audiophiles). So dust off that PSP kiddo, it's time to breathe life into that fledgling portable once again! The hack is the work of "foo foo" and it works as advertised. Spin up an audio track, and watch the little lights pump up in down with the levels. It's no Korg DS-10, but then again few things are. At the very least this hack would provide you with literally minutes of fun as you wait for Sony to get its act together and release the mythical PSPad , PSP Phone, or whatever it ends up being.
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DOIs and their discontents

Those of you who are regular readers of Ars' science content are probably aware of our use of Digital Object Identifiers , or DOIs, which act as online reference information, taking readers directly to the papers being discussed. Readers almost never comment about that feature, except when it fails, in which case we invariably hear about it—and it fails at least once a month. We've tried explaining both our reasons for using them and the reasons they break in the forums, and have recently linked to Ed Yong's excellent discussion of the system and its problems. Within a week, we were dealing with complaints due to a broken DOI. So, this is an attempt to provide a comprehensive description of the DOI system, why we use it, and why it doesn't always work smoothly.
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Paper Rater Analyzes and Improves Your Writing [Writing]

If you like to write but lack confidence in your skills, Paper Rater is a a free, web-based service that analyzes your writing and offers feedback on your grammar, spelling, and more. Paper Rater couldn't be easier to use. Just paste in the text you want analyzed, choose what type of content it is—essay, research paper, speech, etc.—and submit it for review. Within seconds, Paper Rater generates a report that analyzes several aspects of your submission. Naturally, the app takes a look at grammar and spelling, but it also gives feedback on your writing style and choice of words.
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Use Cheap Reading Glasses to Fix a Farsighted Webcam [Clever Uses]

Web cams are optimized for things like video conferencing, not close focus. If you're trying to use your web cam to record things close up—awesome stop-motion Lego combat, electronics tutorials, etc.—you can hack the focus with cheap reading glasses. Vik Ollver was happy with his webcam—it even worked in Linux!—but he wasn't happy with the lack of close focus. He didn't care if it could focus across the room, he wanted it to focus sharply on the contents of his work bench.
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