Lexicographer Erin McKean writes in Boston.com that English and any other language is designed to be upgraded constantly, and an inalienable right of speaking is inventing and using new words. Where would we be without it?
Kevin putting it out there
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Photosynth amazing
Microsoft has gotten its act together in forming a small team to develop software independently. The results are amazing. Photosynth is online software that “stitches” you photos together. We used to do this with paper pictures, taking many shots of the same thing, and pasting the pictures together in kind of a collage. Here it is done automatically, and beautifully. There are a million ways to exploit this. I’m going to make my first one this afternoon.
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First Person in College Humor
POV means Point of View. There are now 2 or 3 short, very funny, videos about college life using a first-person point of view. This means that we can hear what the person is thinking. The one I like best is the bored student in the classroom. Please remember, this is college humor, so things like sex and drinking come up often at this site.
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Need a translator? Phone it in.
Jajah, an Internet telecommunications company, and IBM have teamed up to create a service that allows anyone to use a phone to translate between Chinese and English. For free (well, the price of the phone call, unless you use Jajah, or its competitor, Skype, for free). It works in reverse, too.
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Tokyo after the apocalypse
Some great art work of Tokyo scenes like Shibuya as if all humans were gone for about 50 years. Tokyo Genso (Fantasy). Reminds me of the book out a couple of years ago, The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman.