mrshl | blog

Well, it’s not called PowerPoint, and it lacks quite a few of the power features you get from Microsoft’s market leading desktop presentation software. But, as Dwight Silverman at the Chron points out, Google’s newest “doc” application solves a couple of big problems for the millions of people who aren’t PowerPoint users: 

App by app, Google has been building an impressive online office suite with word processing and spreadsheets. Now the search giant has added a presentation manager, which is slick and solves two common problems — sharing presentations when the recipient doesn’t have PowerPoint, and needing to give a presentation to an audience on a computer that lacks software.

Presentations at Google Docs lets you both build presentations in your Web browser, as well as upload ones you’ve built in Microsoft’s PowerPoint. That makes presenting on any machine a snap — you just have to hope that, if it doesn’t have PowerPoint, it can at least get to the Internet

Silverman doesn’t dwell on it, but perhaps the biggest selling point for Google’s Office products is the ability to collaborate on documents in real time and track changes with easy-t0-use versioning. Microsoft’s excellent Office 2007 product also offers these capabilities, but it doesn’t come cheap and it’s not near as easy to set up.

Oh, yeah. Google’s product is free. 

Fry’s: 1,300 Unopened Rebate Applications Found In Dumpster - Consumerist

This confirms that at least some rebate processors are just heaving your rebate applications into the void.

Don’t worry. You won’t have to be a tech genius to see how cool this is. Just watch the video.

Matt (thekassette) pointed me to Simplify Media a while back: a free program that lets you share your iTunes library with friends over the Web. Now, you can stream music to your pals in Austin and Chicago—or vice versa.

Interestingly, the software leverages capabilities iTunes has had all along. When iTunes 4.0 was first released, the included Bonjour software (then called Rendezvous) allowed users to share their libraries with friends over the Internet as long as they were connected to the Web. Unfortunately, Apple crippled the feature shortly after release when they discovered people were actually using it. Since 4.0.1, only people on a shared network have been able to share libraries. A number of software developers released plug-ins and programs that got around this restriction, but they’ve always skirted the edge of legality.

Now, Simplify has restored the lost capability and done so in a way they claim is completely legal. You can invite up to 30 of your closest friends and share your iTunes library, no matter where you are. My guess is that the 30-invite limit is part of what keeps Simplify on the kosher side of copyright law.

User limit notwithstanding, being able to check out tracks on your pal’s computer is pretty swell. As soon as your friends come online, they show up in the iTunes interface. Then, you can click on their name in the left-hand menu, and browse their library just like your own. Oh, and you know what’s really cool/scary? Your friends don’t even have to be running iTunes in order for you to see their songs. I found this out the other day:

Matt: someone should throw a band together to cover “transaction de novo” from beginning to end and do it at like the rothko or something
me: i don’t know what or who that is.
Matt: oh sorry, awesome bedhead album. i’m listening to it from yr machine right now!
me: oh! is that the new one?
Matt: no, it’s super old
me: ah. i’ve not hit it in quite a while. i downloaded that a while back and haven’t given it a shot. i love most everything by them, though. i’ve been really digging the new one a lot.
now i remember it’s called 23. easily their most poppy record.
me: wait, i’m not even running itunes, i didn’t know you could access my library.
Matt: that’s the beauty of simplify, as long as it’s pointed at yr music folder and running, i can use it
me: okay. THAT is cool.

Anyway, I’ve been using the software, and it works pretty much as advertised. If you fancy sharing music beyond your home network, I highly recommend it. If you’re not an iTunes user, the Simplify Web site promises they’re working on versions for Windows Media Player and Winamp.

After trying—and failing—to sell their voting machine business, Diebold has decided to simply change the name of their most controversial department. Diebold Election Systems is now Premier Election Solutions!

The first one ever made was an Abba record. Now, it’s on track to become obsolete before it turns 30. And the DVD won’t be far behind.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Compact disc hits 25th birthday.

Via Engadget.