Beautiful Chalk Lettering

Trendland reports: [edited]

After graduating in 2007 with a BFA in Communication Design from The University of North Texas, Dana Tanamachi moved to New York City to design Broadway show posters.

Since then Dana works full time as a custom chalk letterer and has been commissioned by clients such as West Elm, Rugby Ralph Lauren, Google, The Ace Hotel, Adidas, EveryDay with Rachael Ray, Lululemon Athletica, and O Magazine.

Thanks to Conrad Gempf for the link
------------

Olympus OM-D E-M5

Simply Robin has published a hands-on review of Olympus' new semi-pro Micro 4/3 offering.

First impressions are that Olympus has taken the format up another level, the images are beautiful, and the low-light performance the best I have seen in the Micro 4/3 format.
------------

Spider silk a superb heat conductor

TG Daily reports: [edited]

Spider silk conduct heat as well as metals do, an Iowa State University professor has discovered.

Indeed, spider silk - especially the draglines that anchor webs in place - is a better thermal conductor than silicon, aluminum and pure iron, and 800 times better than other organic tissues. It conducts heat at the rate of 416 watts per meter Kelvin, compared with 401 for copper and 0.6 for skin tissues.

"This is very surprising because spider silk is organic material. For organic material, this is the highest ever. There are only a few materials higher - silver and diamond."

The reason for spider silk's unusual heat-carrying properties, says Wang, is its defect-free molecular structure, including proteins that contain nanocrystals and the spring-shaped structures connecting the proteins.

Spider silk could be used to help create flexible, heat-dissipating parts for electronics, better clothes for hot weather, bandages that don't trap heat and many other everyday applications.
------------

iPad - The Third Generation

Faster, LTE (4G) enabled, 5MP camera, and a 2048 x 1536 pixel screen for the same price as the previous model.

For Apple's blurb click here.

For a brief 'hands-on' view click here and here.
------------

Sony SmartWatch

ZDNet reports: [edited]

Alongside Sony's new Xperia smartphone it launched a cool accessory called SmartWatch ($150, pre-order). Unlike the iPod nano, which is an iPod being forced into being a watch, SmartWatch is an accessory to an Android phone. It connects via Bluetooth so that you can receive email and SMS notifications, answer calls and keep tabs on social networks like Facebook and Twitter — in addition to playing music. Plus it clips to any standard watch band.

In addition to the Sony Xperia line of phones, SmartWatch works with the following handsets: HTC Desire S, HTCEvo 3D/Shooter, HTC Sensation, HTC Wildfire, HTC Wildfire S, Motorola Defy, Motorola Droid 2/Milestone 2, Motorola RAZR, Orange San Fransisco, Samsung Galaxy 5, Samsung Galaxy Ace, Samsung Galaxy Fit, Samsung Galaxy Gio, Samsung Galaxy Mini, Samsung Galaxy S II, Samsung Galaxy SL.
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Lions close up

PetaPixel reports: [edited]

UK-based wildlife photographers Will and Matt Burrard-Lucas got the Internet’s attention a couple years ago with the BeetleCam, a special remote controlled DSLR that allowed them to capture close-up photos of animals in the wild that photographers would have difficultly strolling up to. After the success of that experiment, they decided to return to Africa last summer with upgraded (and armoured) versions of the BeetleCam in order to photograph lions in Kenya.
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Corner Picture Frames

To go with your Kulma Bookshelf.

via: DigsDigs.
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Kulma Bookshelf

martinacarpelan.com reports: [edited]

Kulma, 'Corner' in Finnish, is a shelf to be positioned either in a positive or a negative corner of a room. The idea is to utilise and highlight the space within the shelf and the corner surrounding the shelf. Produced by Martina Carpelan, designed with Hong Ngo in 2006

H 250 x W 420 x D 250mm. Solid oak, hand-made in Finland.

Price: €95 + shipping
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10 Commandments for Con Men

Lists of Note reports: [edited]

'Count' Victor Lustig was a con man of considerable note. Born in 1890, by the 1930s he was wanted by approximately 45 law enforcement agencies worldwide. He had 25 known aliases and spoke 5 languages.

In 1925, Lustig posed as a government official in Paris, took five businessmen on a tour of the Eiffel Tower, and then 'sold' it to one of them as 7300 tonnes of scrap metal; the con went so well, he tried it again soon after.

He also wrote the following list of commandments for aspiring con men:

1. Be a patient listener (it is this, not fast talking, that gets a con-man his coups).

2. Never look bored.

3. Wait for the other person to reveal any political opinions, then agree with them.

4. Let the other person reveal religious views, then have the same ones.

5. Hint at sex talk, but don’t follow it up unless the other fellow shows a strong interest.

6. Never discuss illness, unless some special concern is shown.

7. Never pry into a person’s personal circumstances (they’ll tell you all eventually).

8. Never boast. Just let your importance be quietly obvious.

9. Never be untidy.

10. Never get drunk.

via kottke
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Samsung Galaxy Beam

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

The Samsung Galaxy Beam was first launched in Singapore in July 2010, although the feature of a built-in pico projector did little to propel the handset up the popularity charts.

Almost two years down the line, though, and Samsung reckons the time is right to revisit the prospect, pitching a refreshed Galaxy Beam to the rest of the world. The projector is able to cast a 50in beam with a 720p resolution.

The Beam packs a 4in, 480 x 800 display and a 1GHz dual-core processor running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. There's 8GB of internal memory expandable to 32GB through Micro SD cards, and a 2000mAh battery.

Pricing and availability to be announced.
------------

FujiFilm Finepix JV210

If you're looking for a 'cheap-as-chips' digital camera, this one (original price £150) is available new on ebay for under £50 including p&p.

It comes with a 14MP sensor, 3x optical zoom and a rechargeable battery. You can even capture videos with it. You'll need to supply an SD card, but you can get a 4GB version for under £4 (inc. p&p) from Amazon.
------------

Teller reveals his secrets

Smithsonian.com have published an entertaining article about how magicians manipulate the human mind.

Excerpts follow:

"In the last half decade, magic has become shockingly respectable in the scientific world. I asked a scientist friend why the sudden interest. He replied that those who fund science research find magicians “sexier than lab rats.”"

"I’m all for helping science. But after I share what I know, my neuroscientist friends thank me by showing me eye-tracking and MRI equipment, and promising that someday such machinery will help make me a better magician."

"I have my doubts. Neuroscientists are novices at deception. Magicians have done controlled testing in human perception for thousands of years. Magic’s not easy to pick apart with machines, because it’s not really about the mechanics of your senses. Magic’s about understanding — and then manipulating — how viewers digest the sensory information."

"It’s hard to think critically if you’re laughing. We often follow a secret move immediately with a joke. A viewer has only so much attention to give, and if he’s laughing, his mind is too busy with the joke to backtrack rationally."

"To fool the mind, combine at least two tricks. Every night in Las Vegas, I make a children’s ball come to life like a trained dog. My method — the thing that fools your eye — is to puppeteer the ball with a thread too fine to be seen from the audience. But during the routine, the ball jumps through a wooden hoop several times, and that seems to rule out the possibility of a thread."
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Henry Miller on Practical Creativity

1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.

2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to ‘Black Spring.’

3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.

4. Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!

5. When you can’t create you can work.

6. Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilizers.

7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.

8. Don’t be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.

9. Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.

10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.

11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.

via Brain Pickings

SXSW 2012 free music

Every year generous artists make one of their songs available for free download from the SXSW site. And each year the unofficial home of sxsw torrents collects and makes them available as a bittorrent file. There are 771 tracks currently available. Enjoy!

For cover art click here
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Panasonic Eluga

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

The skinny - it's 7.8mm thick and weighs 103g - handset sports a 4.3in, 540 x 960 (qHD) display and packs in near-field communications (NFC) contactless payment and file transfer tech.

The smartphone runs Android 2.3.5 running on a 1GHz Texas Instruments dual-core CPU. There's 8GB of Flash storage on board and an 8Mp camera on the back. Bluetooth 2.1 and 2.4GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi join 3G HSPA for wireless connectivity.

Eluga is also waterproof and dustproof, Panasonic claims.
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Free Font - Amaranth

Font Squirrel has this quirky postmodern sans serif available to download in regular, italic, bold and bold italic.
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5 colour scheme web apps

Design & Dev reports:

Colour is one of the most important aspects of any design. And since colour has such a massive impact on your viewers, it’s important to know your theory.

Warm colours give off a fiery message, while cool colours can provide a more calming effect. Analogous colour schemes, often found in nature, are comforting, while complementary colour schemes have a more energetic feel.

Here’s 5 Web apps to help you find the perfect colour palette for your next design.
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Clear for iPhone

TechCrunch reports: [edited]

Clear, the heavily-anticipated touch-based to-do list iPhone app, is now available from the iTunes App Store (69p).

Why the big draw for what’s typically been a rather ho-hum app category, the lowly to-do list? Clear is pure eye candy, for starters. But it’s also representative of a major leap forward in smartphone app design, as it’s been built from the ground up for the touch interface. The app is based solely on the use of now-common gestures: swipes, pulls and pinches.

With Clear, there are only a few gestures you need to in order to use the app: pull down on a list to add an item, swipe to the right to complete an item or to the left to delete it, pinch apart two items to insert a new one in between, and pinch vertically to close the current list and see all the lists in the app. Lists are colour-coded with a heat map to show the most pressing tasks at a glance.
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Pansonic Lumix DMC-GX1 - Review

Digital Photography Review has published a comprehensive review of Panasonic's top-of-the-range micro four thirds compact.

Summary of Conclusion:

The GX1 is a camera that gets a whole lot right. If the combination of small form factor and high number of external control points are priorities, the GX1 has to be at the top of an enthusiast's wish list. You'd be taking advantage of the highest quality image sensor available for the Micro Four Thirds market and buying into an extensive range of high quality optics including fast prime lenses.

The GX1 is a very capable and solid, but not ground-breaking camera that does a very fine job at what it sets out to accomplish. Panasonic has addressed almost every criticism of its early generation G-series cameras in a package that, when paired with its collapsible kit zoom is among the most pocketable cameras in its class.
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Gerber Steady Tool

Gerber.com reports: [edited]

Built for the weekend adventurer, the Gerber Steady combines the utility of a multi-tool and the functionality of a camera tripod. It comes equipped with an adjustable cell phone and screw-in camera mount and two foldable legs that serve as a tripod. The rest of the tool is all Gerber ingenuity – a fine edge blade, a serrated blade, three screwdrivers, a bottle opener, pliers and wire cutters.

Overall Length: 6", Closed Length: 4", Weight: 5.8 oz.

Price: $64.00
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Painting with sound

The New York Times reports: [edited]

Like a 3-D take on Jackson Pollock, the latest work by the artist Martin Klimas begins with splatters of paint in fuchsia, teal and lime green, positioned on a scrim over the diaphragm of a speaker. Then the volume is turned up.

For each image, Klimas selects music — typically something dynamic and percussive, like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Miles Davis or Kraftwerk — and the vibration of the speaker sends the paint aloft in patterns that reveal themselves through the lens of his Hasselblad.

The resulting images are Klimas’s attempt to answer the question “What does music look like?”

via kottke
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HoverBar for iPad 2

Twelve South reports: [edited]

HoverBar hangs iPad 2 beside your Mac, letting you use iPad as a secondary, touchscreen computer.

The flexible HoverBar arm positions iPad in a place where you can keep tabs on Twitter, stocks or partake in a FaceTime chat.

As a bonus, you can use HoverBar separately to float iPad 2 as a micro workstation, a handy kitchen mount or as a tool that elevates iPad, creating a whole new way to interact with apps.

Price: $79.99
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Classic Apple Products iPhone Cases

Core 77 reports: [edited]

A company called Schreer Delights is selling a line of iPhone cases that reference Apple's design history, printing visual elements from the original Mac, the original iMac and the original iPod directly onto the case. Each runs a little under 50 bucks.
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'I Do' Wedding Bands

Sakurako Shimizu creates wedding bands with a representation of the waveform of the couple's own voices saying, 'I do' cut from the metal.

View more of his creations here
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Free Font - Open Sans

Open Sans is available in 5 weights (with complementary italics) from Font Squirrel.

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Electric Tron Motorcycle

Bike EXIF reports: [edited]

It’ll cost you at least $55,000 but it’s electric, so you’ll save money on gas. The Xenon was styled by Florida-based Parker Brothers Choppers, and it’s based on the gas-powered "Light Cycle" they created for the movie 'Tron: Legacy'.

There are two versions of the production Xenon, a basic model and the “XR”, which doubles the battery power to give a 100-mile range. A 40,000W motor delivers a top speed of 70 mph, and the battery pack is fully charged in three to four hours.
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Solar panels becoming financially viable

New Scientist reports: [edited]

SOLAR power has always had a reputation for being expensive, but not for much longer. In India, electricity from solar is now cheaper than that from diesel generators. The news - which will boost India's "Solar Mission" to install 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022 - could have implications for other developing nations as well.

In India, electricity from solar supplied to the grid has fallen to just 8.78 rupees per kilowatt-hour compared with 17 rupees for diesel. The drop has little to do with improvements in the notoriously poor efficiency of solar panels: industrial panels still only convert 15 to 18 per cent of the energy they receive into electricity. But they are now much cheaper to produce, so inefficiency is no longer a major sticking point.

Solar power is now cheaper than diesel anywhere as sunny as Spain. That means vast areas of Latin America, Africa and Asia could start adopting solar power.

The one thing stopping households buying a solar panel is the initial cost. Buying a solar panel is more expensive than buying a diesel generator, but solar becomes cheaper than diesel after seven years. The panels last 25 years.

Image: Joerg Boethling/Alamy
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Panasonic DMC-TZ30

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

Panasonic has updated its range of travel zoom cameras with the DMC-TZ30. It is the slimmest 20x zoom camera on the market. Its lens covers a 24-480mm equivalent range and features the company's latest Power O.I.S stabilization.

The high-speed 14MP MOS sensor allows autofocus taking as little as 0.1 seconds, and it can shoot at up to 10 frames per second (5fps with AF-tracking). It also has GPS and an updated mapping function to show photos on a map with greater detail. The usefulness of this and other features is increased by a touchscreen.
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Doxie Go

GetDoxie.com reports: [edited]

Doxie Go + Wi-Fi is the tiny new wireless scanner that scans all your paper. Scan anywhere – no computer required – then sync wirelessly to Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, or directly to the cloud [WiFi SD card required, Ed.].

- Tiny, fast, and rechargeable.

- Doxie 2.0 syncs scans, creates searchable PDFs, creates multi-page stacks, and sends directly to your favorite apps and cloud services.

- Works with Evernote, Dropbox, Flickr etc.

£204.75 (w/4GB WiFi SD card) from Amazon.
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Free Font - Lavanderia

Lost Type reports: [edited]

Based on lettering found on Laundromat windows of San Francisco's Mission District, Lavanderia features numerous opentype features and three weights.
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Phone size comparison site

phone-size.com does exactly what it says on the tin. Useful.
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Smart E-Book Interface Prototype Demo

1912 American Type Founders Specimen Book

Kottke reports: [edited]

The Internet Archive is hosting a copy of the American Specimen Book of Type Styles released by the American Type Founders Company in 1912. It's a 1300-page book listing hundreds of typefaces and their possible applications.
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Smartr for iPhone

iLounge reports: [edited]

Xobni has released Smartr Contacts for iPhone, an iOS adaptation of its popular contact and relationship management solution for other mobile and web platforms.

Smartr Contacts is a free app that allows users to extract information from their e-mail data and social network connections to create integrated profiles for their contacts, combining details from different sources such as phone numbers, photos, e-mail history and social network status updates.

Contacts are further ranked within the app by importance rather than alphabetically, placing the most commonly referenced contacts nearer to the top of the list and also provides linked contextual e-mail and calendar information for each contact.

For more info, click here
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Magnus iPad Stand

Ten One Design reports: [edited]

Magnus is first machine-crafted from pure aluminum and then hand-finished using the latest manufacturing techniques. After that, customized magnets are installed into the base, and rubberized feet are fitted to the bottom surface.

Our designers targeted a reduced silhouette. Viewed from the side, you see only the iPad's tilt, and a flat plate on the desk.

Magnus may look like it's defying gravity, but it feels like a permanent attachment. You may need two hands to separate it from your iPad.

Price: $49.95
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Free Font - Open Sans

Open Sans is available in 5 weights (with their complementary italics) from Font Squirrel.
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Motorola Xoom 2 Media Edition Android tablet

Register Hardware has published a review of Motorola's latest tablet.

Snippets follow:

"Like Goldilocks with porridge, I’ve yet to find a tablet size that I think is just right. Seven inch models are too small, 10.1 inchers too big. The iPad with its 9.7in screen should do the trick but it’s just too square for me – physically and metaphorically."

"Motorola may just have cracked the problem with a cut-down version of its Xoom 2 . The key difference is the screen which now measures 8.2in corner to corner but keeps the Xoom 2’s resolution of 800 x 1280."

"At 8.9mm thick, 216mm wide and 140mm tall it’s much easier to slip into a backpack or bag, and at 388g it’s the lightest high-end tablet you can buy."

"The new reduced shape, size and weight make the Xoom 2 ME a very fine e-book reader too. Holding it in one hand for prolonged periods is no chore and the rubberised back minimises the chances of it slipping through your fingers to virtually nil."

"Some of the weight saving is also due to the reduced sized battery. At 3900mAh it’s only just over half the capacity of the 7000mAh battery in the Xoom 2. Looping a 720p MP4 video, it managed 4 hours 20 minutes from a full charge but in more general use you can easily get over seven hours depending on screen brightness, Wi-Fi use and so forth."

"Inside you get a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 dual-core chip, 16GB of storage, 1GB of RAM and 1.3 and 5MP cameras pointing forward and backwards respectively. Usefully the web cam now works with Skype video calls."

Price £330
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Free Font - Mosaic Leaf

Behance Network reports: [edited]

This is a free font created by emptypage design studio, inspired by the Akzidenz Grotesk typeface.

If you use our font in your design, please tell us about this and show your work. Font contains Western and Central Europe encoding, and also Baltic and Turkish. Mosaic Leaf include also Nordic characters set, numbers, punctuations and symbols and currency symbols.
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Video Notebook

Mocha reports: [edited]

The VHS video may now be just a nostalgic memory for most of us. But this retro video notebook revisits the now obsolete format.

Celebrating the best parts, the Video Notebook comes complete with a protective video cover and a set of those famous sticky labels. It is ideal for carrying around in your bag, taking on your travels, keeping on your desk or storing on your bookshelf.

Ruled - 260 pages. Dimensions: H19 x W11 x D2.5cm. £11.50 + p&p.
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Sculpteo App

Mobile Beat reports: [edited]

3D printing service Sculpteo have announced a free iPhone app that you can use to design 3D objects, upload your designs to the cloud, and receive a ceramic object in the mail a few days later.

The designs are based on photographs you take of yourself or a friend. Sculpteo’s app turns your face’s profile into a 3D object, such as the vase shown here. You can also transform it into a number of other objects, such as a bowl, plate, or mug. Once you’ve completed the design, you upload it and Sculpteo sends it to a local 3D printing facility which manufactures the object using a ceramic printing process.

Pricing depends on the size and complexity of the object: Large objects such as the vase above cost about $300, while a small cup costs just $70.

via Keith Seckel, via Ronda Couch
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Polaroid SC1630

Register Hardware reports: [edited]

Making use of its Android platform, SC1630 users will be able to download a wide range of apps and games.

The company points towards the SC1630s camera credentials – a 16Mp CCD sensor and 3x optical zoom – as features smartphones fail to match. On the rear there's a 3.2in touchscreen display, with a host of production functions, scene modes and editing tools. There's Bluetooth and WiFi and there will be a 3G option.

Polaroid has yet to announce pricing or a release date.
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Canon Powershot S100

Digital Photography Review have published a comprehensive review of Canon's flagship 'enthusiast' compact.

Conclusions [edited]

The S100 combines the best qualities of a pocketable point and shoot and an enthusiast compact camera. It provides well thought-out full manual control in a form factor approaching the size of Canon's Elph series.

Canon S100 boasts fast continuous shooting speeds and short shot-to-shot times. The S100 is one of the few compact cameras that stays light on its feet even in RAW+JPEG mode (assuming you're not trying to shoot continuous bursts).

The S100 produces well-balanced JPEG images that are full of detail and color. In typical Canon style, minimal default chroma noise reduction in the S100 results in JPEG images that retain a good amount of low-contrast detail without appearing desaturated.

Overall, the S100 is very competitive: it is capable of delivering very good image quality in an addictively small package, in a wide range of shooting environments. It is also a genuine pleasure to use, thanks to its effective and well thought-out operational ergonomics.

The Canon S100 is well-suited to two types of photographers: compact camera shooters looking to upgrade to a similarly small camera with more control, raw mode and better image quality, and DSLR photographers looking for a compact 'take anywhere' pocket camera with much of the same manual control as their larger cameras.

- - - - -

For a more anecdotal review, click here
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XO 3 Tablet

The Register reports: [edited]

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has been showing off the first models of its XO 3 tablet at the Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The 8-inch tablet uses the 1GHz Marvell ARMADA PXA618 processor, 512MB of RAM and comes with a 1024x768-resolution LCD, or a lower cost Pixel Qi sunlight-readable display. Connectivity is via an Avastar Wi-Fi system-on-chip and the tablet can be hand-cranked for power, or there’s an optional solar cell contained in the tablet cover.

OLPC said that the tablet could be configured with either a Linux or Android operating system and will be sold exclusively to governments and aid organisations. The lowest cost tablet is expected to be around $100, although that would rise if Microsoft’s lawyers decide to extract an Android patent tax.

It is tablets like these that will be dropped by helicopter into remote villages as part of an research project by Professor Sugata Mitra into machine learning, that will test if people can teach themselves to write and use the internet without instruction. The project could revolutionise literacy programs around the world.
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Op/Tech Camera Wrist Strap

My Panasonic G1's neck-strap was rarely used as intended. Usually I wrapped it around my wrist, but it was bulky and clumsy, and occasionally obscured the lens.

This wrist strap is comfortable to use, and substantial enough to support medium-size cameras. It is also easily detachable.

£7.52 inc. p&p from Amazon.
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MakerBot Replicator

Engadget reports: [edited]

MakerBot just took the wraps off the Replicator, a new 3D printer that solves one of the technology's biggest problems at the moment - printing large.

It also offers up the company's Dualstrusion technology, making it possible to print in two colours. The Replicator can take either ABS (the plastic found in Lego) or biodegradable PLA plastic. The Replicator will run $1,999 for the dual extruder or $1,749 for a single.
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Kingston DataTraveler Micro USB Flash Drive

MyMemory reports: [edited]

Easily add 16GB of extra storage to your PC, netbook, notebook, car audio and more without increasing the size of its footprint. Kingston’s DataTraveler Micro USB Flash drive is designed in an ultra-small form factor that it even can be permanently left in the device while on the move.

£11.99 inc. p&p

Thanks to Mel for the heads-up
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Samsung DV300F

Digital Photography Review reports: [edited]

The DV300F has a 5x, 25-125mm, F2.5-6.3 stabilized zoom lens and a 16MP CCD sensor. It also features a 1.5" LCD on its front plate to allow easy self-portraits.

Its stand-out feature is its WiFi capability, that allows it to be remotely controlled from an Android smartphone (an iOS version is being developed). It can also automatically backup your images to your home computer via a WiFi network, or to a 'cloud' service such as Microsoft's SkyDrive or Samsung's All Share Play, avoiding the need to remove the camera's MicroSD card.
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How Doctors Die

Zócala has published an excellent article by Ken Murray on how medical professionals approach their own deaths.

The key quote is the introductory paragraph:

"Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could triple a patient’s five-year-survival odds – from 5 percent to 15 percent – albeit with a poor quality of life. Charlie was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice, and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with family and feeling as good as possible. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy, radiation, or surgical treatment. Medicare didn’t spend much on him."

via kottke
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Insync

lifehacker reports: [edited]

Insync is a new syncing and backup service similar to Dropbox, but with a bunch of additional features, like syncing your Google Docs and Gmail contacts.

Insync creates an always-in-sync folder on your computer that copies files to the cloud and to other machines running Insync. It also syncs your Google Docs to this folder as well, which is pretty great. If anyone shares a Google Doc with you it'll show up in your Insync folder, on your Insync page, and (of course) in Google Docs:

When you make changes locally, those changes are synced back up to Google Docs almost instantly. If you want to keep an eye on anything and everything Insync is up to, you can check in the menubar (system tray in Windows):

Revisions are tracked with your synced docs, too, so a quick right click can let you look back on all the revisions you've made. Here it is in action:

You can also drop any file into the Insync folder and it'll save it to your cloud storage and sync it with your other machines.

Insync is free for individual users and business accounts (limited to five users). Both account types come with 1GB of free storage. Additional storage options are forthcoming.

- - - - -

Brett's 2p'orth: I'm giving it a try, and it works fine, however, there is a (Google-imposed) 10MB limit on individual file sizes. Dropbox remains my 'cloud' storage of choice, but I'm using Insync to free up space on it for larger files.
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Resolutions 2012

1. Read through TNIV Bible using Robert Murray M'Cheyne plan.

2. Study Joshua - 2 Samuel using commentaries.

3. Resolve house insurance dispute.

4. Begin refurbishment of house.

5. Choose and purchase replacement for current vehicle.

6. Take regular long walks.

7. Improve guitar skills (at least 30 minutes per week).

8. Read at least one novel.
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