DBH: 27 September 2006

I'm very sorry that I have not updated this blog in over a month. The past month or so has been a very busy time. Hopefully, I will be able to continue updating this blog on a more regular basis.

So, enough about that!! Here are today's (read: not only are these from today but they have also been building up for a month now) DBHits...

Ask.com

Ask.com has really done a lot of work to their site. They have always been a great search engine to use but now it's becoming even better. While I still use Google out of sheer laziness most of the time, Ask.com's searches seem to be more organized and intuitive. They also have a cool emoticon explanation feature; just input almost any emoticon into the search field and you'll get an explanation of the meaning(s) of the emoticon in question. A very fun feature!! They also offer an encyclopedia search feature in conjunction with Wikipedia and a dictionary search feature in conjunction with The American Heritage Dictionary. Both can be very useful tools. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Ask.com's "My Stuff" feature allows you to save, notate and share searches. This a great way to do research on topics and easily find stuff you want to go back to or to share cool sites with your friends!! It also allows you to import bookmarks from IE or Firefox so that you can access them from any computer. I highly recommend giving it a try; you just may become addicted...

GEOS: Graphical Environment Operating System

This is a link to an article that talks about the history and design of the Graphical Environment Operating System (GEOS). GEOS was an OS made to run on the Commodore 64 and was second only in popularity to Mac OS and MS-DOS. I like this article (be forewarned that it's a long one) because it talks about those design features that GEOS introduced that subsequently became standards in the field of Graphical OSs. Yes, I am a geek. If you'd like to give this innovative OS a try to see what it was like, the article includes instructions on how to emulate it.

SafariPod

Support Fair Trade and get a cool iPod stand!!

Citizen Journalism

This article is about the phenomenon of Citizen Journalism (CJ) and its introduction via OhmyNews to Japan. I think that CJ is a great opportunity to combat the commercialization of mainstream journalism despite the exceedingly aggressive backlash it is receiving from many professional journalists. There is a disconcerting lack of genuine investigative journalism being done these days. Too often, the small amount of investigative journalism that is being done is tainted by big business bribery and political censorship. CJ may offer a way to bring back some of the social consciousness, community - be it local or global - awareness and interest in presenting all facets of a story that is important to meaningful journalism. Check out some articles of the articles at OhmyNews International to find out what is all about. You can also sign up to become a contributing member. Maybe I'll try this some day, when I have something news worthy to write about.

Gawker Artists

This site has some cool collections from contemporary artists. Some of the artists that I enjoy are Matt Dyck, Markus Hartel, Brian Quinlan and Trey Ratcliffe.

Genographic Project

This is a little bit of the biological anthropologist in me pushing its way to the surface. This is a link to the National Geographic's Genographic Project. The project seeks to understand human evolution and migration through the study of genetics. It is a very interesting project and the site has a lot of resources on genetics, evolution and migration. It would be great resources for primary and secondary school teachers. I'm thinking about participating in the study; we'll see...

Mario Wedding Cake

If I ever have a wedding cake, this might be a fun way to go...

Mrs. Abe

This is an article about the new Japanese Prime Minister's wife. Apparently, she may be able to connect with the Japanese people even better than the PM.