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category archive listing Category Archives: tools

Wrestling with Scribd’s fullscreen display

I’ve been using the document-sharing service Scribd to embed documents in posts for various projects. but sometimes the “fullscreen” feature doesn’t work with the embedded document. I’m trying to troubleshoot this. So as a test I’m embedded a Scribd document here, to see if fullscreen works:
1 5 2010 Concurrent Meeting of the Oakland Redevelopment [...]

Making Twitter Lists more useful with filtering

Sometimes you don’t want EVERYTHING, just what you want. (Image by ervega via Flickr)

Today Twitter has begin a broad rollout of a new feature, Twitter Lists. The feature had been available only to a select group of beta users, but product manager Nick Kallen tweeted yesterday, “Currently, 25% of all users have Lists.” I don’t [...]

Integrate your brochure site into your blog (updated advice)

Recently I offered some advice for how small businesses and independent professionals who aren’t very tech-savvy could expand their existing simple brochure sites into sites that will actively help build their business.
…Because the way the internet works today, a static brochure site is like a car up on blocks: You can sit in it, you [...]

Expanding a business brochure site into something that will really help your business

These days, brochures aren’t enough to make your business findable. (Image via Wikipedia)

If you’re a semi-retired professional who wants to build a consulting business, and you’re not an internet whiz, what kind of web site will really help clients find you? And how can you easily build and maintain a useful professional network?
My dad, Jack [...]

Typepad: Often the best choice for serious but non-geeky bloggers

If you want to start a serious blog and you’re not a geek, you’d probably want to use Typepad rather than Wordpress. (Image via Wikipedia)

Right now, a lot of my colleagues (especially journalists) want to start building an independent online brand for the first time. Thus, they want to launch their first serious blog or [...]

Google Earth and News: Make Your Own Street Views (and More)

The Flatirons of Boulder, CO, as rendered by Google Earth. (Image via Wikipedia)

Recently Frank Taylor blogged about a cool Google Earth trick that could be an intriguing visual online news tool: homemade street views.
The example he cites is from Taiwan, where developer Steven Ho lives. Taylor wrote:
“[Ho] has been waiting for signs Google would bring [...]

Kindle Text-to-Speech: “Robotic NPR”

NPR’s next hire? (Image via Wikipedia)

I’ve made a discovery about Amazon’s Kindle e-reader: It’s a pretty good “news radio.” That is, its text-to-speech function does a surprisingly decent job of reading news content aloud.
I currently subscribe to the Wall St. Journal on my Kindle, and I’ve gotten in the habit of letting it read me [...]

Instapaper: Because the Device Shouldn’t Matter

Image by alexhung via Flickr

Now that I own (and use daily) a laptop, iPhone, and Kindle, I’m developing a new relationship to text content. I realize that I shouldn’t have to care about the device. The news and other content I choose to read should just be there — available on whichever of my devices [...]

After Google Shared Stuff dies, how to easily e-mail links?

As of 3/30, Google Shared Stuff will be no more. I’m annoyed, because it was an easy bookmarklet-based way to quickly e-mail a link to someone while simultaneously saving it in an easily findable, searchable way.
…So I’d switched back to Furl — which is clunkier but also performed those two key jobs.
…Then today Furl announces [...]

MediaCloud: Tracking How Stories Spread

Last week, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society launched Media Cloud, an intriguing tool that could help researches and others understand how stories spread through mainstream media and blogs.
According to Nieman Lab, “Media Cloud is a massive data set of news — compiled from newspapers, other established news organizations, and blogs — and a [...]