NEW RESOURCES

The National Library of Medicine has digitized early English books. “The National Library of Medicine (NLM) announces the release through its Digital Collections of nearly 200 items uniquely held by the NLM and printed in the English-speaking world from 1552 to 1800.” One of the items digitized is one of the first books on the issue of depression — from 1660!

The California Historical Society and Historypin are trying to crowdsource images and stories from the 1915 World’s Fair (PRESS RELEASE). “The California Historical Society and Historypin are inviting 1915 World’s Fair enthusiasts and the public to share their personal photographs and memorabilia from the Panama Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) for an online exhibit aimed at creating one of the largest virtual grassroots collections of stories, family memories and images from the World’s Fair.”

A new, free online genetic research tool is now available. “Technology rapidly is advancing the study of genetics and the search for causes of major diseases. Analysis of genomic sequences that once took days or months now can be performed in a matter of hours. Yet, for most genetic scientists, the lack of access to computer servers and programs capable of quickly handling vast amounts of data can hinder genetic advancements. Now, a group of scientists at theUniversity of Missouri has introduced a game changer in the world of biological research. The online, free service, RNAMiner, has been developed to handle large data sets which could lead to faster results in the study of plant and animal genomics….The website was created to be user-friendly and allows users to upload data, analyze it through as many as five steps against the complete genomes of five species: human, mouse, Drosophila melanogaster (a type of fly), TAIR10 arabidopsis (a small flowering plant) and Clostridium perfringens (a type of bacterium). Genomic data for any species is welcome for upload to grow the database.”

USEFUL STUFF

Mocavo is having a free access weekend that goes through Monday evening. “Back by popular demand, all Mocavo Basic members can now access all of the premium Mocavo Gold features for free until Monday at 11PM ET.”

From CIO: 7 Things OneNote Can Do That Evernote Can’t. “About a year ago, I chose Evernote over OneNote, and I started amassing my own digital archive. At the time, Evernote’s Mac software was far superior to OneNote’s Mac app. However, Microsoft has continually upgraded OneNote for Mac and iOS, and today it’s a legitimate Evernote rival; if I were facing the Mac Evernote versus Mac OneNote decision today, it would be a different situation. If you’re a Windows user, the choice is even more challenging, because the OneNote 2013 Windows desktop app has valuable features that aren’t available in Evernote or OneNote for Mac.To help you decide between these two notebook tools, I’ve come up with seven things OneNote does that Evernote can’t. Of course, this is only one side of the story. For the flip side, read ‘6 things Evernote does that OneNote can’t.'”

tuts+ has started a series on encryption. This first article is the what and why encryption. The next article is promised to be about encrypting e-mail.

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

My favorite read-it-later tool Pocket is now offering a text-to-speech feature on its iOS app. Of course they would do that two days after I deleted the app from my iPhone because I was never using it. “Called Listen, the text-to-speech feature could come in handy if you’re out jogging, driving some place, or simply want to lie down and give your eyes a break. Listen has actually been available to Android users of Pocket for several years now, so it’s great to see it finally make it to iOS. For sure, iPhone users intent on listening to their saved articles could always highlight text and hit ‘speak’, but a proper feature built into the app is definitely the way to go.”

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Google has launched a competitor to iBeacon. “If you’re not familiar, beacons are low-energy battery-friendly hardware that use Bluetooth to transmit data. Since Bluetooth connections have a much smaller range public Wi-Fi and work indoors unlike GPS, it allows retailers, developers and companies to precisely pinpoint the user’s location and send relevant information based on where consumers currently are.” iBeacon, if you don’t know, is from Apple. Facebook is getting into beacons as well.

Evan Williams wants developers to come back to Twitter. “Williams also suggested that it was time for Twitter to look for new ways to connect with software developers and to take another stab at making Twitter a platform. Twitter famously went to war with developers several years ago when it restricted developers’ access to the API that allowed them to grab Twitter data for their own use.” I think he’s got the right idea, but I also think if Twitter wants developers to come back, they’re going to have to do a lot of grovelling.

RESEARCH AND OPINION

Twitter and Facebook are being used more and more as news sources. “Fully 63% of Facebook users and the same share of Twitter users now say each platform serves as source for news about events and issues outside of friends and family—a share that has increased substantially from 2013, when about half of users of each platform (52% of Twitter users, 47% of Facebook users) said they got news there, according to a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.” Another argument for transparent alogrithims in Facebook that make it clear why each user is getting the news they are getting. Good evening, Internet…

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