Google, Vimeo, Big Data, Pinterest, More: Morning Buzz, February 19, 2012
Digital archive of Revolutionary War coverage? “In addition to the 400-page, full-color book, Todd Andrlik and Sourcebooks are launching a sensational multimedia package complete with website, digital archive of 300+ Revolutionary newspapers, interactive app, video, audio and educational lesson plans.”
Nice! HijackThis has been released as open source.
A new exhibit based on scrapbooks of African-American life by L.S. Alexander Gumby: “Now, examples from his life’s work are available online on the Unwritten History: Alexander Gumby’s African America website, which has digital reproductions of more than 60 pages from his scrapbooks.” (He did 161 scrapbooks total. Wow!)
Google, now with more privacy issues. “While one Google team was taking advantage of a little-known backdoor that could change the default Safari setting, the Google Chrome team was working to get Apple to close the backdoor–apparently with neither team having knowledge of the other’s actions.”
I didn’t even know that there WERE fifty thousand beers, much less that there was a database app for them.
Old article but still interesting: Five low-profile startups that could change the face of big data.
Search Engine Land takes a look at Volunia.
Vimeo has added Creative Commons browse and search capabilities.
Code Hero sounds like a great Kickstarter project.
Wondering about Pinterest? Here’s a 57-slide deck. Need an invite? Send me your e-mail address and I’ll send you one.
Handy: Five easy ways to find cheap gas. Good morning, Internet…
China, Google, Chemistry, Civil War, More: Morning Buzz, February 17, 2012
China has published a national bribery blacklist.
Whoopsie! Google.com was accidentally getting flagged as malware.
I know someone who will be very interested in this new archive about Polynesian voyaging. “If he had known what a complex undertaking it would be, Nainoa Thompson says now, he might not have asked Honolulu Community College to create a digital library of documents related to the Polynesian Voyaging Society.”
A new search engine oriented toward privacy: Stealth.
Heh, applying Google PageRank to chemistry: “Aurora Clark, an associate professor of chemistry at Washington State University, has adapted Google’s PageRank software to create moleculaRnetworks, which scientists can use to determine molecular shapes and chemical reactions without the expense, logistics and occasional danger of lab experiments.”
The new version of Twitter (the new new version of Twitter) has been rolled out for everybody.
Can’t get to Arizona? Now there’s virtual Arizona!
Ancestry is offering free access to its Japanese internment camp record collections from now through February 23.
Wow: a very interesting Civil War diary published: “Diaries belonging to a Civil War soldier who witnessed the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln have been digitized and published by UC Merced’s Kolligian Library.”
A new Web site provides information on New Jersey’s same-day surgery centers.
New Web site looks at Canada during the First and Second World Wars: “Wartime Canada is an online database that preserves historical Canadian documents from those wars and makes them accessible to the public….There are 400 documents online and an additional 3,000 to 4,000 to be uploaded in the coming months, with new material being added every day…”
Some amazing pictures: how Japan has rebuilt and cleaned up in the 11 months since the earthquake and tsunami. Astounding. Good morning, Internet…
Google, Facebook, TextPipe, More: Evening Buzz, February 16, 2012
Woo! A new Web site to rank privacy policies. “PrivacyChoice has analyzed more than a thousand of the most trafficked web sites to score them on a scale of 1 to 100 in their collection and use of personal data, as well as the collection and use practices of the third-party companies that they allow to track users on their sites.”
Google Maps: trouble in France.
TextPipe is now version 9.0. Sigh… love TextPipe.
The 2010 Mexico Earthquake: a 3-D map study of before and after.
The EPA has released a new tool for tracking greenhouse gases.
Bowdoin’s student body talks about mass deactivation of Facebook. “Last Monday, Tyler Patton ’12 and Ruiqi Tang ’13 launched massdeactivation.blogspot.com, the site of their self-proclaimed ‘social experiment’ that urges Bowdoin students to disable their Facebook profiles from February 8 to March 8.”
History, Archives, Google, Iowa, More: Morning Buzz, February 14, 2012
A new oral history project captures the stories of Haiti earthquake survivors.
Hey! The UK Supreme Court has a Twitter account.
Oo! Awesome Archives! What an awesome Tumblr!
Remember the book The Long Tail? Now it’s a free online comic.
Twitter is going to https by default. Good for them.
Google Wallet, hacked again. WOW.
Meanwhile, Google is laying fiber in Kansas City.
The British Library is going to start archiving video game Web sites! So cool. So when I’m still playing Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom fifty years from now, I’ll have a place to find hints.
The University of Iowa has launched an online archive of university yearbooks. The 100 yearbooks cover 1892-1992.
Interesting thoughts: Why Apple should start its own search engine.
I think Tennessee Steampunk would be a great name for a band, how about you? Good morning, Internet…
Cars, Montana, The Pentagon, Twitter, More: Morning Buzz, February 9, 2012
Motor Trend has launched its own YouTube channel. “The Motor Trend Channel’s programs have been developed to create content from the unique opportunities and insights offered by SIM’s large portfolio of automotive media brands, from Motor Trend to Hot Rod, Motorcyclist, Lowrider, FourWheeler, Dirt Rider, Car Craft, Automobile, Import Tuner and more. The programs cover first rides and drives and tests of the latest two- and four-wheeled machinery, as well as automotive lifestyle and documentary shows.”
Fipeo, a new video social network. The article describes it like this: “People with complementary interests find that video and respond in kind. Connection are formed and the new acquaintances carry on the relationship.” Sadly I can imagine this getting real weird (in a negative way) real quick….
Nice! The Montana State Library and its digitization effort.
The IRS has a new online tool to help low- and moderate- income tax payers find prep help. “The new tool, available 24 hours a day on IRS.gov, makes it easier than ever for qualified individuals to find free help through the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. Volunteers at VITA locations generally offer tax preparation for people with incomes of $50,000 or less free of charge.”
Interesting. A database of software made in Australia and New Zealand. Already over 100 entries.
Followup: the Pentagon Press Secretary and the Twitter Town Hall.
The 2012 Republican Convention has an official Twitter account. (Please note that I am including this for informative purposes, not as an endorsement. Don’t expect an endorsement unless the Silly Party has a convention….)
There’s a great blog that covers “forgotten” movies, as well as weekly DVD releases of old movies from Warner. Check it out at
http://forgottenfilmcast.wordpress.com/. Good stuff.
Twitter breaks down the Superbowl tweet numbers. “…in 2008, Twitter’s largest spike in Tweets per second (TPS) during the Super Bowl was just 27. Three years later, fans sent 4,064 TPS, which was the highest TPS for any sporting event at that time. This year, the TPS peak was 12,233 Tweets.”
Lady Gaga is launching her own social network. Closed beta. Good morning, Internet…
Google, Carpets, Old Movies, Herbs: Evening Buzz, February 4, 2012
Nifty: carpets made using Google Earth and Google Maps images.
Speaking of Google Earth, the ocean terrain in Google Earth has received a major update. “Through several rounds of upgrades, Google Earth now has 15 percent of the seafloor image derived from shipboard soundings at 1-kilometer resolution. Previous versions only derived about 10 percent of their data from ship soundings and the rest from depths predicted by Sandwell and NOAA researcher Walter Smith using satellite gravity measurement.”
Speaking of maps, a new mapping initiative from the NYPL.
Wow, a 1917 film (19 minutes long!) covering a construction project in San Francisco is now online.
Coming soon — an online archive of letters from the 1860s.
From the New York Times: a new database of hazardous building materials. Though from the article it seems like we’ll be down to building with mud and sticks….
A tool for reading Google Books offline: GooReader.
Ooo! What a lovely archive of Japanese woodblock prints!
Resource: seven alternatives to Google Analytics.
This should be fun: “The Library of Congress and France’s national audio-visual archive announced plans Wednesday to exchange up to 500 hours of digitized film and TV shows that reflect how the United States and France have portrayed each other in media.” Will this include Deux-Deux from The Inspector?
A new online database of herbs is coming from the University of Lethbridge. “Photos of 21,000 plant specimens are being digitized and will be available online, complete with scientific name, location, collection time, phenology and habitat.”
Sierra Leone has launched a new online mining database. “The purpose of the system is to have information on all revenue data for the country’s extractive industry – payments made for licenses, royalties, and contributions to local chiefdoms – collected, recorded and published for public accessibility.”
A new archive for Asian recipes. Domo Kun chocolate-covered marshmallows for the win. Good afternoon, Internet…
YouTube, Google, Cooking, White House: Morning Buzz, February 4, 2012
YouTube has FOUR BILLION video views a day — and I’m pretty sure they’re not all keyboard cat.
Interesting: a new Google search tool called Don’t be Evil.
Also interesting: a tool to calculate the cost of living abroad.
Some members of Congress have some questions about Google’s new privacy policy.
Huh, I didn’t know the White House was on Storify.
The oral histories of Yorkshire, will be digitized.
The UN has launched a new database to help businesses adapt to climate change.
About.com has launched a free cooking app.
A very article on vector images: where to find them and resources for editing them. Good morning, Internet…
