I'm picking up some serious NetVibes

NetVibes is one of those under-appreciated apps that does one thing amazingly well - namely, sets up a tabbed homepage full of live widgets and streaming feeds. Next to a cup of coffee, it is the best way to start the day.

Put your email, facebook, flickr, weather, news, live tv, podcasts and more in your face.

Rick Broida of LifeHacker, wrote how to trick it out...

Cheers...

Burn Baby Burn

[ from LifeHacker ]

Free CD and DVD burner ImgBurn emerged victorious in LH's recent Hive Five Best CD and DVD Burning Tools, followed closely in tow by commercial burner Nero 9.

Freeware app CDBurnerXP rounded came in a distant third.

Cheers...

What Have You Seen, Florence Nightingale?

[ from Science News ]

Florence Nightingale: The Passionate Statistician... Nightingale created many novel graphics to present statistics that would persuade Queen Victoria of the need to improve sanitary conditions in military hospitals.

When Florence Nightingale arrived at a British hospital in Turkey during the Crimean War, she found a nightmare of misery and chaos. Men lay crowded next to each other in endless corridors. The air reeked from the cesspool that lay just beneath the hospital floor. There was little food and fewer basic supplies. By the time Nightingale left Turkey after the war ended in July 1856, the hospitals were well-run and efficient, with mortality rates no greater than civilian hospitals in England, and Nightingale had earned a reputation as an icon of Victorian women. Her later and less well-known work, however, saved far more lives. She brought about fundamental change in the British military medical system, preventing any such future calamities. To do it, she pioneered a brand-new method for bringing about social change: applied statistics.

Cheers...

May I Recommend...?

It's certainly convenient if you have a great group of friends who love reading books and putting you on to the next great read. However, if you don't hang out with book types, here's a referral site that gives you recommendations based on other's reviews (instead of the Amazon cyborg suggester).

And if you're really not into making your own choices, they have an affiliate site that lets you take a quiz to see if you should really vote the way you think you should. (They actually ask if you think the candidate should be a Mormon...)

Cheers...

High Fives Decision Making

For anyone who has ever had to lead a group writing a mission or vision statement, or planning an event, a lot of time can be spent checking to see how everyone is feeling about how things are going. This "High Fives" method can cut that time dramatically, especially as the group expands beyond 5 or 6 individuals. Here's how it works:

The facilitator clearly states the question or idea and provides the scale below (it is helpful to post the scale on a flip chart before the meeting begins):

5. I can give an unqualified yes to the decision. I'm excited or enthusiastic about it.
4. I can live with the decision. It's OK with me.
3. I am concerned about this decision but will not block the group.
2. I think there is a major problem with the decision and choose to block the group's action.
1. Too soon to make any decision; work needs to be done before the question can be asked.

Each person in the group responds to the question by indicating with a show of fingers his or her level of endorsement of the proposal. When the group responds with �fours� and �fives�, the decision goes ahead. �Threes� indicate a need to discuss the question further, as do �ones� or �twos.�

Cheers...

Latest Productivity Black Hole

As one of my colleague's referred to them, Yahoo's new Widgets are "ridiculously cool!" Download the engine and then pick up a few more of the Widgets from the gallery. One of the guys responsible for most of the coolest ones is Arlo Rose. You can check out his blog at mouselabs.

Enjoy!

Here's the scoop. I read an article in Information Week and ended up here. Well, not HERE, but at another blog that I played around with. From THERE, I'm bringing over three recent findings. First, a friend of mine stumbled on the Silophone, which is one of those great abandoned stuff turned into art things. If you like words like I like words, you should like visiting TextArc. Finally, I'm always on the lookout for people that are doing original work on the web. The people at BrainPuppy seem to fit that description.