Zero Click Thoughts

Brazil is taking advantage of one of its most abundant natural resources: the sun! Researchers at the University of Sao Paulo are working to develop a self-contained wi-fi access point powered by the sun’s energy. Prototypes of the new technology already dot the university’s campus.

The project is aimed at providing wireless Internet in a country where power sockets and fixed line links are in limited supply. The creators of the project hope that it may provide free Internet access to many poor communities. The technology, designed to function in an open environment, will prove beneficial to schools that lack a reliable electricity source.

Presently, researchers have been able to provide a connection for up to two days. Their goal is to get that number up to ten, so that Brazilians can enjoy free Internet access during the rain season and the winter months.

George Mason University has a great tool for organizing online research. It’s called Zotero, and it’s just a simple download that operates as an extension to Firefox. Zotero can sense when you’re viewing an article, book, or other web object and can find and automatically save the full reference information for each item. Once stored in Zotero, the information can easily be transmitted to other browsers. In addition, Zotero can communicate with the software running on your PC (like Microsoft Word). Zotero allows you to take notes, keep timelines, and write bibliographies easily and effortlessly. This wonderful research tool can also be used offline, so you can readily view all of the material you’ve utilized even in the absence of an internet connection. To use the words of Zotero’s creators, you should “Research, not re-search.”

courtesy of www.jec.cl

About a year ago we saw our first laptop to fall in the ‘netbook‘ Category. This was called the “Eee Pc” made by Asus. These ultra portable computers typically weigh under 3 pounds, have screens under 10 inches, and cost under $500. They are meant for on-the-go users for basic applications, some of which are web surfing and Microsoft Office. Asus was the first real netbook on the market, but now it seems like everyone has jumped on the band wagon. Lenovo just came out with the s10 series, costing a little bit over $400. The Lenovo has Windows XP, decent performance specs, and of course that trusted Lenovo quality that so many businessmen and women love.

One of the other netbooks that just came out a month ago is the new Dell Mini 9. The Dell rocks a 8.9 inch screen, and also a small price tag of under $500. Along with most of the other new netbooks, the Dell has the Intel Atom processor, ideal for ultra mobility.

There’s so many to choose from, but which ones are the best? Well I love the idea of a small ultra portable laptop. But how small is too small? Many of the netbooks have only a 7 inch screen, thats only twice the size of a little iPhone! That just wouldn’t cut it, for me at least. I would say the Lenovo IdeaPad s10 is the most impressive device. It has a low cost, good performance, a great name, and a nice 10 inch screen.

These new netbooks are pretty impressive! I recommend you make a trip to your local retailer and check them out, see if you like the compressed laptop idea.

courtesy of www.intel.com

Sprint’s WiMax network has now begun offering its blazing fast WiMax network in Baltimore. Sprint’s 4g technology is supposed to be up to twice as fast as any other mobile internet offered by Verizon or AT&T.

They named the new network, Xohm (”zoam”), and it currently requires a network card in order to access it which costs you about $60. Many laptops will soon be shipped with integrated technology to handle WiMax, and user access would be similar to WiFi.

Does this mark a transition to a completely wireless age? With speeds of 2-4 megabits/second, it very well could. Just like how land line phones are slowly fading away, we could see the same trend in a few years with personal cable/DSL.

Seems like just yesterday Apple converted its original ‘Ipod Mini’ to the ‘Ipod Nano’ that is now so popular. Coming out in early 2006 the Nano has been exceeding expectations ever since. The 4G Nano (Isn’t it hard to believe this is the fourth Nano!) has some pretty cool new features.

As you can tell from the photo, the Nano went back to the 1G-2G portrait shape, rather than the landscape. They did, however, use the same screen as the previous 3G, due to its high appraisal. The Nano has integrated features of the Ipod Touch/IPhone as well, such as being able to recognize when you tilt the device- which subsequently puts the screen in landscape mode.

There are two brand new features to the Ipod familiy that we see on the Nano, and they are getting a lot of attention. First is the Genius feature. Say you are at a song you enjoy, and you would like to hear similar songs. Just click and hold the center button, and a playlist is automatically populated for you based on your genre choice.

The second new feature is the ’shake to shuffle’ feature (hence the witty title). To shuffle to the next song, just shake your device, and just like that you’re at a new song.

This is a great new device from Apple, and with nine different color choices, it will certainly be on top of the charts for the holidays wish list!

I’m sure you’ve heard of LinkedIn, the social networking site aimed at connecting professionals. But having an account and using it efficiently are two different stories. Sara Skiff, a writer for technolawyer, suggests several ways to better use the site:

1. KEYWORDS ARE YOUR FRIEND!

Anticipating what employers might search for is half the battle. If you include a popular keyword, you’ll get more hits and more profile views. This will increase your chance of someone seeing you and liking you.

2. DON’T SLACK, BE THOROUGH!

Include all of your past work and education history. The more you have, the greater your chance that an alumnae of a company or school might try to contact you.

3. GO PUBLIC!

Include your name in your profile’s URL and change your security settings to full view for public access. With this simple step, your profile can easily be found using search engines like Google.

4. TOOT YOUR OWN HORN OR HAVE OTHERS TOOT IT FOR YOU!

Have colleagues and clients write a recommendation for you. These prove to be great additions to your profile because if an employer sees that someone took the time to write about you, you must be valuable.

5. ASK QUESTIONS!

You can post questions on your profile. Posing a question is a great way to start a dialogue with another professional.

6. ANSWER QUESTIONS!

Answering questions increases your visibility. By providing the best answers, you can be featured on the Answers home page. More people will see your profile!

7. COMMIT ALREADY!

The more you use the site, the more you will get out of it! Use the site at least twice a week so that you are constantly in-tune to new features and new opportunities.

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So even if you’re already using LinkedIn, ask yourself one question: are you REALLY using it? Don’t expect LinkedIn to do all the work for you, take some time and make your profile a page worth viewing. After all, the more interesting you appear online, the better your chances are of making contacts and expanding your network. Follow these easy steps and see what happens. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Bored with surfing all the usual Internet sites? Try StumbleUpon! StumbleUpon is a personalized browsing tool that matches websites with your interests. After the free registration, new users simply select categories that appeal to them. For instance, when I first started on Stumble, I listed humor, books, music, online games, investing, and puzzles as my interests. After that simple step, I was all set to navigate my own personalized webpath. And the more I use StumbleUpon, the better it can predict which sites I really want to see. The reason is the site’s rating system, which allows you to see more of the sites you like and less of the ones you do not. So the more you stumble, the more you find what you’re really after.

The easy-to-download toolbar allows you to stumble and stop stumbling whenever you please. Not to mention, you can send sites to friends (users and non-users alike) with just a click of the mouse. Want to contribute a review? The “Have Your Say” button allows you to write your own comments and see those posted by other stumblers.

StumbleUpon is serendipity webified. Everytime I use the web gadget, I’m brought to a page that I never knew I wanted to get to. My latest stumble? A page that offers suggestions for writer’s block. Maybe that page would have been a little more helpful before I started this entry!

It’s official, we have entered into an age where electronic reigns and paper is merely a relic of the past. Gradually, the changes have been made from letters to e-mails, newspapers to online updates, leather planners to PDAs, and hard-copies to file sharing. Still, there are arenas in which the tech revolution and the dependability of older modes are at odds. Perhaps the most obvious of these is the legal profession.

More and more law firms are embracing the paperless system, because it eradicates the hassle of dealing with cumbersome boxes filled with file folders and documents. However, the triumphs of electronic organization come into question when courts must decide whether or not to admit electronic copies of documents as evidence. With more businesses using electronic storage and trashing original documentation, the court has moved to reject the traditional law of requiring the primary source. However, a new precedent, called the “best evidence” rule, gives greater credability to an original document than to a duplicate. Thus, the inconsistent nature of the court’s feeling on electronic evidence has lead many individuals to question which papers are okay to discard and which should be kept for a rainy day.

The greatest advantage to electronic storage is in the bottom line. Firms that have gone paperless have reaped massive economic benefits from making simple changes like tracking billable time electronically, which eliminates a great deal of handwritten notes and reminders. Likewise, Document Management Software helps to organize all sorts of files so that searching for specific details is no longer a matter of rooting through a box, but simply entering a query. Evidently, the move away from paper has made many legal processes easier. But at the end of the day, lawyers need hard-copies beacuse the best evidence under law is still the original document. That’s why one legal technology expert put it best when he said, “I don’t think we can ever go paperless…but I think we can go less paper.”

(screen shot taken from www.google.com/chrome)

The much anticipated Google Chrome has finally been released by Google on September 8. Google previously did not want to create a web browser, as it focused on its integration with Mozilla Firefox. Now they have attempted to storm into the browser market, catching industry leaders on its heals. I have personally been using Chrome for over a week now, and here is my opinion.

Previously before I started using Chrome, I was using Opera. I would like to say Google Chrome feels like an upgrade from Opera. So what’s so different about it? Well first of all, check out the screen shots. There is no typical “file” tool bar on it similar to the new Internet Explorer. It has a similar home page to Opera’s famous “speed dial”. It takes your nine most visited pages, and provides a mini screen shot of them as shown.

Chrome feels so user friendly when you are on it. You can drag a tab from one window to another, combine two windows to multi tabbed window, it feels like you can literally drag and drop anything, anywhere! What I was most impressed with in Google Chrome was the speed. It is noticeably faster than Internet Explorer, I don’t even feel the loading time.

Now what I don’t like about Google Chrome? I have found it to be very glitchy. YouTube doesn’t get along too well, many flash web sites continue to ask me to install flash player. But, it is in its beta stage so I am sure these things will be fixed.

I recommend you try it out! Its a fun browser that is google fast!

read more about it here

We’ve all been there. Your flight’s delayed, it’s raining, everyone noticed the hole in your sock as you walked through security, the guy next to you at the gate has the hiccups, and you couldn’t be more thrilled about flying to Toledo. You want nothing more than to open up your laptop and e-mail your best friend about how much you hate your job. And then you see it, glittering in the distance. Not the overpriced airport connection that gauges you per hour, but a free network. You think you’re a genius. Afterall, everyone around you is busy trying to figure out which numbers on the back of their Visa actually make up the security code. Your wireless network connects you to the web instantaneously and it’s free ninety-nine!

Now for the catch. This “Free Wi-Fi” is usually a hacker offering a peer-to-peer network in order to access your files and passwords. Since your Internet access is provided by his connection, he can see everything you do. Not to mention, the hacker can set-up spyware on your computer that could leave your PC open to attack each time you log-on. What’s worse is the problem is widespread. Such phony networks have been found in LaGuardia, O’Hare, LAX, and Atlanta’s airport, and are no doubt on the rise elsewhere.

So the next time you’re stuck in a terminal and want to connect, just buck up and use the secure airport network. The free alternative could end up costing you a lot more.