Ed's Tech Tips

This is a clever web site created by a collaboration of European Mac software developers that were inspired by the Pixar animated movie Ratatouille, which by the way is a great movie. You can save up to 70% off on some cool software. I've written about a couple of the programs before, PulpMotion and CSS Edit. There's only a couple days left so go check it out. You might find good Christmas gifts. There are some very strong web and multimedia applications, such as, RapidWeaver and iStopMotion.

I have written a couple times about e-books and I recieved an email from Asia Lu listing her top ten favorite free ebook web sites. I thought it was a pretty good list and thought I would share with you. Thanks to Asia for compiling the list. By the way, most of these services should work with the new Kindle ebook reader from Amazon.

1. Project Gutenberg: This is one of the first sites to promote ebooks. If it is in the public domain you'll probbaly find it here.

2. Asiaing.com: Over 2,000 free ebooks & free magazines. Most of them can be downloaded directly. I love the slogan: "Knowledge shared, power gained!."

3. The Online Books Page: Listing over 25,000 free books on the Web. The site is hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Library.

4. PSU's Electronic Classics Site:Classic works of Literature.

5. PlanetPDF: Classics works of Literature.

6. University of California, eScholarship Edition: The eScholarship Editions collection includes almost 2000 books from academic presses on a range of topics, including art, science, history, music, religion, and fiction.

7. University of Adelaide Library's collection of Web books: The collection includes classic works of Literature, Philosophy, Science, and History.

8. AvaxHome.ru: Some new ebooks. Rapidshare download links. Copyright is a problem.

9. The National Academies Press

Read more than 3,000 books online FREE!

10.You! Everyone has his own favorite ebook website. Maybe It's already on the list. Maybe not. It doesn't matter. The most important thing is that you love eBook.
 

My and daughters and I were featured in an article on GPS cell phones in the December 5th issue of the New York Times in a special edition of Circuits. There are numerous articles on a wide variety of GPS related electronics including devices for your dog, car, camera and bicycle. It's not every day that your name starts off an article in the New York Times:

ED GRAY’S two teenage daughters wanted cellphones, but the answer was a firm parental no — until Mr. Gray learned about a service that changed his mind...

I knew the article was coming out soon, but I was first made aware of it actually being in print from an alum of Mount Holyoke College, Ellie Landowne '56 who sent me an email after she saw my photo in the paper. While numerous articles had been written about the GPS phones, not many have focused on who is actually using them and the related location map services from providers like Sprint and Verizon. The reporter came across this blog and found a short article I wrote this past summer on the subject.