Google's Library of Alexandria Comes to a Halt

Google seemed poised to deliver the digital version of the Library of Alexandria. For years, the company has been scanning books from libraries, amassing an incredible repository of the world's printed information. That data was searchable--snippets of text helped identify books related to search terms--and, recently, Google made it into a bookstore. Read more: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/26559/?p1=A4

The official 48-page ruling from US District Court Judge Denny Chin

Adblock Plus, annoyance-free web surfing for Chrome and Firefox

Adblock Plus claims that it can 

• Block all ads automatically, no distractions
• Browse faster and safer

For free. 

Primarily within Firefox, though the Chrome functionality is improving rapidly. This little add on is the winner of the 2011 best overall (non-security) add-on for browsers, for the second year in a row. Impressive. The install took seconds, and we've been sailing around the web mostly ad free. The difference is immediate and incredible. Boston.com and Campus Technology are changed sites! 

See who Adblock Plus beat. 

Continue to Adblock Plus to install the add-on or find out more. 

Let us know what you think!

Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office has arrived, but not for Macs.

I was eager for something like this to come along, so when I say a new post in my reader entitled "Google Cloud Connect or: Shouldn't This Have Been Built into Word in the First Place?" I anxiously clicked away. As the post will tell you;

What does Google Cloud Connect do for you?

• Cloud Storage – Every document you create or open and save on your computer is saved both to your computer and to your Google Docs account. That means if you need to work on it from another computer, you can just go to docs.google.com and download it.
• Version Control – Every time you click save in Word, PowerPoint, or Excel, Cloud Connect will save a new version of the document. Did you ever delete something by accident and then save the file? Or edit a document only to realize that the previous version was better? Version control can solve these problems. You can access old versions, listed by date, from directly within Word, PowerPoint, or Excel.
• Collaboration – Just like Google Docs, Google Cloud Connect allows you to share your documents with others just by entering their email address. Your collaborators can edit the files simultaneously, and if you both edit the same part of the document at the same time, you’ll be able to decide which version should be used.

And more. There are endless benefits to a setup like this. Now you can work online or off, at any computer, and have all of the functionality of Word or the simplicity of Google Docs. This is similar to MS Office Apps, which has proven to be very useful for me many times, but will utilize the Google Docs setup I already use.

Mac users will have to wait, from "Google Cloud Connect moves Microsoft Office files to Google Docs, as long as you're not using a Mac"

"Due to the lack of support for open APIs on Microsoft Office for Mac, we are unable to make Google Cloud Connect available on Macs at this time," Sinha said. "We look forward to when that time comes so we can provide this feature to our Mac customers as well."

To find out more, or start using connect, go to Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office.

Multilingual Zotero with Duplicates Detection

Recent improvements to Zotero make it easier and more accessible for you to use. 

Adhering to detailed bibliographic rules is a hefty task that Zotero makes easy by automating the creation of bibliographies and citations. What if, however, you are a multilingual scholar, working with materials in more than one language? There are special challenges here that will soon be met, thanks to the efforts of Zotero community developers who are nearing the final testing phase for Multilingual Zotero, a groundbreaking tool that can automatically capture, organize and correctly format items enriched with translated and transliterated multilingual data.

Finish reading and watch a screen cast at the Zotero blog.  

Mobil Security and Free, Lookout

Do you have a smartphone? Well many more of us do now, than did before. One thing that rarely crosses anyone mind, other than with they fall prey to an attack is protecting your mobile device. If you check on your bank balances, provide password information, download apps, or even check email -- you could be at risk. Lookout provides you with an option to keep yourself protected for Android, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile smartphones.

Try it out!

Lookout: Free Mobile Security for Smartphones

eBook User's Bill of Rights -- will it work? #ebookrights #HCOD

With the restrictions on eBooks placed by hardware creators and publishers, it was only a matter of time until we would see something like this come about. The "eBook User's Bill of Rights" surfaced this week on the LIS Librarian News website. After a quick search on Google, Sarah Glassmyer filled in a bit of the background on this recent addition to the dissatisfaction with restricted rights on eBooks in her post, "HCOD, eBook User Bill of Rights, and Math".

One interesting quote from the Bill of Rights stood out as being very reminiscent of the music debate in the not so distant past. 

Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.

Has this held you back from joining the eBook revolution? And do you think this will work? 

'Mexican Legal Dictionary' App

From, "Thomson Reuters Rolls Out 'Mexican Legal Dictionary' App"

In response to the growing demand for information on Mexican law, Thomson Reuters recently developed a Mexican legal dictionary app. The app includes English and Spanish audio pronunciations as well as definition of legal terms from the company's Mexican Legal Dictionary. It also includes other information like sentencing guidelines and reference guides to the role of certain Mexican government advisory councils.