Easter Spirit

       Click to watch.

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Multi-touch touch screen by Jeff Hann at TED

An exciting TED talk -- about 8 minutes to watch





MatalasCo -- Web development with a sharper idea for your online presence

It Works! Of course, it's by Google

The wizards at Google have provided another wonder. It may not be any quicker than the recently enhanced Google Search, but it's fun! Here's what they have to say:


Welcome to Google Talk Guru!

Get started! Send a chat invitation to guru@googlelabs.com.

Google Talk Guru is an experimental service that allows people to get information like sports results, weather forecasts, definitions etc via chat. It works on many popular chat applications that support Google Talk.

To start using Google Talk Guru:

1. Sign into a chat client that supports Google Talk
2. Send a chat invitation to guru@googlelabs.com or click the link "Sign in and invite myself to chat with Guru" at the bottom of this page.
3. Find guru in your contact list and send chat queries to guru using the examples below:

Sport scores:	score arsenal
Weather:	weather Nairobi
Calculate:	123 * 45
Currency:	120 KES to USD
Definition:	define laptop
Translation:	translate earth to French
Web result:	web Mount Kenya
Help:	help translate

© 2011 Google

I used Talk Guru to get my local weather, convert Philippine pesos to US dollars, visit my website and convert grams to ounces. Cool.

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Yesterday's Update to OED

  The Oxford English Dictionary published its new word list yesterday, including the verb to heart as in the famous NY logo. A couple of weeks ago I saw this usage in a program title on GMA Manila TV and experienced some cognitive discomfort, the noun feeling awkward used as a verb. This OED article offers several spins on how people come to prefer usages such as this and OMG, LOL, and FYI, which are new in this OED. These initialisms occur a lot in my natural online communication. It seems I'm always editing them out, occasionally leaving them. How about you? Do you like or lament the fluidity of language change? Do you believe that SMS text shortcuts and spell-checkers are creating generations of illiterate barbarians? :-)Another whimsical fave is the 10-second rule for food morsels fallen on the floor, now in an OED near you!MatalasCo -- Your BFF with a sharper idea for your online presence

Google Maps now has Live Traffic Info

Sweet!
I just entered my wife's place of work and saw the red lines where the traffic is slow.
Use Google Search then click on Maps, or use your Android phone.

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Riding in the Google Car That Drives Itself

See videos of the car in action at the TED conference last week.

"The car traveled from San Francisco to Long Beach, California, for the conference as part of Google’s ongoing tests. Sebastian Thrun, one of the developers of the project, says he thinks we’ll see self-driving cars in the hands of consumers within our lifetimes, he notes that at this time, “It’s really just a science project … pushing the boundaries of what’s possible."
Also, here's a TechCrunch article from last October with highway videos.


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China Starts 12th Five-Year Plan: Highlights

This article describes the two main themes of China's new economic plan, to be discussed starting tomorrow at the big annual event of the Communist Party of China. 

This is my first visit to Business Insider. There is a wide selection of articles, not only on business, but also politics, technology and, of course, the ubiquitous celebrities. Looks good!

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Other uses for Google Search

Want to convert dollars to Euro's? 

Find the current time in London? Spell check? Calculate? 

Define a word or search within a website?

The Social Media Guide offers 10 simple Google search tricks some basic and some new ones which you may find yourself using regularly. We've been using the currency converter and the recipe measurement converter a lot since we discovered them.


Thanks to Linda Lawrey for this post on Google Buzz!

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Sync Google Docs & Microsoft Office

"Google just made it easier for people to collaborate with each other using Microsoft Office by officially launching Google Cloud ConnectThursday...
"Documents can be edited in either Google Docs or Microsoft Office, and whoever is collaborating with you does not need to own Microsoft Office to edit those documents and synchronize the files with each other."
Read more from Mashable


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9 Things to Try in Google Chrome 9

Check out 9 Things to Try in Google Chrome 9
This re-post from Linda Lawrey needs no introduction except to observe -- posts like this reward following Google Buzz. 
My favorite of these 9:  jpg files reduced by 40% using WebP.
Thanks, Linda!

Feature #3

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piAnimation

I would like to see this animated on Google Buzz.

Google's Tablet Event Next Wednesday

Mashable is my first source for tech news, where I found the following.

"Google will be holding a press event next Wednesday, February 2, at its Mountain View headquarters to show off Android Honeycomb, the company’s tablet-optimized OS -- "an in-depth look at Honeycomb, Android ecosystem news and hands-on demos.” The stage presentations will begin at 10:00 a.m. PT. Google is calling it the event “A Taste of What’s New from Android.”

"Google is also sharing the Android love with the rest of world; the event will be live streamed atYouTube.com/Android.

"Honeycomb, Android 3.0, is the first Google OS built specifically for the tablet form factor. "

Tablet, netbook, laptop, why do you prefer one among the others?

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Financial Crisis Report

Digging into this one will be interesting. Maybe NPR is not the best news source, but it's the one I use as a starter.

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/27/133280214/financial-crisis-report-seen-as-too-little-too-late

Matalasco Loves Blogger

Another demo of Blogger, so easy!

MatalasCo -- Web development with a sharper idea for your online presence

Showing of Blogger -- so easy!

Meeting with a new blog client today and demonstrating how easy Blogger is!

MatalasCo -- Web development with a sharper idea for your online presence

Inside the Growth Engine, A guide to China's regions, provinces and cities

Thanks to Thomas Morffew  for linking on Google Buzz

Inside the growth engine, A guide to China's regions, provinces and cities