Word on the street

Word on the street is that Google is getting ready to release an online presentation software package. Code named Presently (a likely play on Writely, whom Google bought out before releasing Google Docs.
No word yet on it’s expected release.

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Add a Bible search to Firefox

I was looking up a Bible passage for my last post and found this great list of plug-ins for Firefox.
As you may know, Firefox has a pull down menu for searching right from the tool bar. A number of search engines have already been installed.
But now you can also add searches from Biblegateway.com. You can do a generic search with your default Bible translation, or you can choose from nine other versions including the NIV, The Message, King Jimmy, New King Jimmy and others.
Super easy and very handy.
install your preferred Bible search

Firefox shortcuts

Get Firefox
Ureeka! I’ve found three new shortcuts for Firefox. Yeah. I know. You probably already new about them… but I didn’t. So now the angels are singing from above like they did when you discovered them.

CTRL+T opens a new tab in Firefox. (Cmd+T on Macs)
CTRL+Shift+T opens the last closed tab!
And CTRL+L moves your cursor to the address bar.

Amazing!
Ok you can stop singing now. No seriously. You can stop.

Via: Lifehacker


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Windows Vista over hyped?

I did a “review” of Windows Vista this week for my tech column in the WDL.
I use the term “review” lightly because I haven’t actually sat down and played with the new OS like I do with other products I review.
But from all I’ve read and seen other than a cool new GUI I don’t see any strong reason to upgrade from Windows XP SP2 to the new OS – especially when there’s not a single computer in our office (including my laptop) that the OS will run on.
I need a new video card to run the OS and that’s gonna be a little hard to do with a laptop.
So hope that XP support sticks around for another 10 years or so.

Here’s a run down of the system requirements:

Basic edition requirements:
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
512 MB of system memory
20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
DVD-ROM drive
Audio Output
Internet access

Home Premium / Business / Ultimate requirements:
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 GB of system memory
40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:
– WDDM Driver
– 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
– Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
– 32 bits per pixel
DVD-ROM drive
Audio Output
Internet access

As a side note we ran an ad of a local office supplier selling brand new laptops with Windows Vista installed. None of them would run Vista Ultimate. There’s something amusing about that.

Every Nintendo game ever made

I won’t lie. This is incredible! Absolutely incredible! 670 original NES video games are being auctioned on E-bay right now.
Wow. What a flashback down memory lane.
The current bid is at only $30,600. That averages to a little over $45 a game but the package also includes a NES system, Power Glove, Power Pad, NES Advantage Contoller and more.
Here are some of my favorites from the list:

  • 2-in-1 Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt
  • Bad News Baseball
  • Bases Loaded (I, II, III, IV)
  • Battletoads
  • Chip ‘N Dale: Rescue Rangers
  • Contra
  • Contra Force
  • Double Dragon (I, II, III)
  • Duck Tales
  • The Empire Strikes Back
  • Ghostbusters (I, II)
  • Major League Baseball
  • NES Play Action Football
  • NFL Football
  • Power Blade
  • RoboCop
  • Skate or Die
  • Super Mario Bros. 3
  • Tecmo Bowl
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game
  • Tecmo World Wrestling
  • WrestleMania
  • WWF King of the Ring
  • WWF Wrestlemania Challenge
  • WWF Wrestlemania: Steel Cage Challenge
    I’m sure I could keep listing more games, but this is long enough. What about you? What are your favorite NES games?

  • Web to become primary vehicle for LA Times breaking news

    From Editor and Publisher:

    Speaking to hundreds of Los Angeles Times journalists in the newspaper’s Harry Chandler auditorium this morning, editor James O’Shea outlined a bold plan to increase traffic and revenue from LATimes.com in the face of an increasingly difficult economic climate for newspaper publishers, and urged journalists to think of the Web site as the newspaper’s primary vehicle for news.
    “We can’t hide from the fact that smart competitors such as Google and Craigslist are stealing readers and advertisers from us through innovative strategies that are undermining the business model we’ve relied on for decades,” said O’Shea, whose remarks were published in their entirety on the paper’s Web site.
    “Currently we have a newspaper staff and an LATimes.com staff,” he said. “No more. From now on, there are no two staffs, there is just one. And we will function as one. One of Russ’s first jobs will be to help set up that newsroom.”
    He said that LATimes.com would become the paper’s “primary vehicle for breaking news 24 hours a day.”

    I wonder how quickly other newspapers will take notice and start changing with the times.