Web Search Strategies in Plain English

The Common Craft people have done it again. This time we have web search strategies, again in plain English.



They have also come up with a new license agreement, which is nicely explained, in plain English, on their web site.

New spin on "Print on Demand"

Whilst printing on demand services such as lulu.com have helped many authors and academic publishers with handling small print runs of specialist publications, an entirely new twist to 'print on demand' is about to be unveiled at the University of Michigan Library. They have installed one of the first of the new generation of book printing and binding machines in which you order a book and it prints, binds and charges you for a copy. Of course it only works for out-of-copyright or copyright free materials, but think for a moment what this means. Supposing you need a copy of a literary classic to read on one of your courses or as you're about to set off on a trip, just pop down to the machine and print a copy for ten dollars and away you go!

Thanks to the Chronicle for highlighting this story.

virtual worlds - make your own

hmm. Seems everyone is in to virtual worlds these days. Not only am I having some fun beta testing metaplace and have long wandered through Second Life, but now Lively (by Google) seems to really be taking off with its simple web-based interface. Pop into the Google Room or create and share other spaces and let your animated avatar start chatting. My own little venue is here:

chrome - slightly tarnished by licence debacle

Google's new chrome browser has been the subject of the geek-chat this week. At first glimpse it looks simple and clean in design, matching the general google philosophy. It seems quick to respond, but then I wonder to what extent browsers other than IE manage that partially by looking sleeker (digital placebo effect?). Must try some speed tests with Firefox, etc.

The most embarrassing issue on the launch appears to be an over-zealous part of the licence agreement (you know the stuff that you don't read before clicking "accept"?) that gave ownership of everything you do through the browser to Google! Apart from that sudden correction, things seem to be running smoothly and it will be interesting to see how things like google docs and the new video-communications packages integrate. Meanwhile it seems that Microsoft are effectively painting themselves as the champions of freedom with the new privacy features on the latest version of IE. Hard to work out who is supposed to be the 'evil empire' these days.....