Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Read The Words®... An exciting new tecnology presented to me.

I recently have been presented to an interesting new concept (at least for me). I am testing their services and possibilities in the last few days and they have overpassed my expectations. I encourage you to test it too and pass the word ahead, so we can help anyone who might need this kind of tecnology.
I could talk a lot about it, but none can say it better than themselves:

ReadTheWords.com began as a simple concept in January 2008: To assist students with learning disabilities with their studies, by means of auditory learning and auditory processing.
To that end we seeked out programers, technologies, and research departments from around the world and came up with a very basic platform, far less sophisticated than what you currently see on our website. Although we had originally intended this site to be used for auditory learning, through our researching efforts we found that the demand for this technology reaches far beyond our originally intended audience. Many other students, young professionals, actors and actresses, research departments, bloggers, ecommerce sites, and others, expressed how this technology could help them with their daily lives, and their businesses.
For this reason, we went back to the drawing board and added more features to meet more users’ needs. ReadTheWords created multiple input methods for users to create readings. We also greatly expanded our efforts to allow users take full advantage of the created readings as mp3’s. In particular, we found that Bloggers are constantly looking for ways to reach a larger audience and we, in turn, have found a way to meet this need by enabling them to create podcasts and share them with their readers. We also created a platform for bloggers and website operators to paste an audio toolbar in their website or blog, making it possible for any reader to become a listener. The feedback has been overwhelming and we continue to add new features and users to our site each day.
So, all this may lead you to wonder about the full extent of the possibilities that this technology presents. The answer is truly limitless. We encourage you to try our free service and let us know how you’ve been able to use it to your meet your own needs.

On the top right side of the screen you can see an example I have posted of their possibilities. An audio reading of this same post. Please enjoy it and give me your thoughts about it.

Sphere: Related Content

Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?

STYLES make fights — or so goes the boxing cliché. In 2008, they make presidential campaigns, too.
This is especially true for the two remaining Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Reporters covering the candidates have already resorted to traditional analysis of style — fashion choices, manner of speaking, even the way they laugh. Yet, according to design experts, the candidates have left a clear blueprint of their personal style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally meet-and-greet online.
On one thing, the experts seem to agree. The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way: Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC.
That is, Mr. Obama’s site is more harmonious, with plenty of white space and a soft blue palette. Its task bar is reminiscent of the one used at Apple’s iTunes site. It signals in myriad ways that it was designed with a younger, more tech-savvy audience in mind — using branding techniques similar to the ones that have made the iPod so popular.
“With Obama’s site, all the features and elements are seamlessly integrated, just like the experience of using a program on a Macintosh computer,” said Alice Twemlow, chairwoman of the M.F.A. program in design criticism at the School of Visual Arts (who is a Mac user).
It is designed, she said, even down to the playful logos that illustrate choices like, Volunteer or Register to Vote. She likened those touches to the elaborate, painstaking packaging Apple uses to woo its customers.
The linking of Mr. Obama with Mac and Mrs. Clinton with PCs has already become something of a theme during the primary. Early in the campaign, a popular YouTube parody of Apple’s “1984” Super Bowl ad made Mrs. Clinton the face of oppression. This week on The Huffington Post, Douglas T. Kendall, the founder of the Community Rights Counsel, a public interest law firm, made the connection more explicit.
But the designers believe the comparisons — but not perhaps the Orwellian overtones — are apt. In contrast to barackobama.com, Mrs. Clinton’s site uses a more traditional color scheme of dark blue, has sharper lines dividing content and employs cookie-cutter icons next to its buttons for volunteering, and the like.
“Hillary’s is way more hectic, it’s got all these, what look like parody ads,” said Ms. Twemlow, who is not a citizen and cannot vote in the election.
Jason Santa Maria, creative director of Happy Cog Studios, which designs Web sites, detected a basic breach of netiquette. “Hillary’s text is all caps, like shouting,” he said. There are “many messages vying for attention,” he said, adding, “Candidates are building a brand and it should be consistent.”
But Emily Chang, the cofounder of Ideacodes, a Web designing and consulting firm, detected consistent messages, and summed them up: “His site is more youthful and hers more regal.”
Mr. Obama’s site is almost universally praised. Even Martin Avila, the general manager of the company responsible for the Republican Ron Paul’s Web site, said simply, “Barack’s site is amazing.”
But the compliments are clearly double-edged.
While Apple’s ad campaign maligns the PC by using an annoying man in a plain suit as its personification, it is not clear that aligning with the trendy Mac aesthetic is good politics. The iPod may be a dominant music player, but the Mac is still a niche computer. PC, no doubt, would win the Electoral College by historic proportions (with Mac perhaps carrying Vermont).
While Mr. Santa Maria praised barackobama.com for having “this welcoming quality,” he added that it was “ethereal, vaporous and someone could construe it as nebulous.” He said there was a bit of the “Lifetime channel effect, you know, vasoline on the lens” to create a softer effect on the viewer. The “hectic” site that the Clinton campaign is offering could actually be quite strategic, exactly in step with her branding. After all, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly emphasizes how hard she will work for the average American “starting on Day 1.” If she comes across as energetic online, that may simply be her intention. If she shouts a bit more, typographically speaking, that may be the better to be heard.
Unlike the Republicans, the Democratic contenders have incorporated social-networking tools to their sites — allowing supporters to create their own groups, for example, though Mr. Obama is considered the pacesetter in that regard.
“Obama’s campaign gained attention here in the Bay area tech community early on when he launched the My.BarackObama.com portal that allowed for personal blogging from the public, messaging with other supporters, and a host of other tools,” Ms. Chang wrote in an e-mail message.
On the big Internet issues like copyright, Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford law professor who is supporting Mr. Obama, said there was “not a big difference on paper” between the two Democrats. Both tend to favor the users of the Internet over those who “own the pipes.” He is impressed by Mr. Obama’s proposal to “make all public government data available to everybody to use as they wish.”
In the long run, however, Mr. Lessig believes that it is the ability to motivate the electorate that matters, not simple matters of style. And he’s a Mac user from way back.

Sphere: Related Content

Monday, February 25, 2008

Truth or not... the way the world works... Does it??

I'll share some thoughts of mine with you in this blog. Thoughts about me, about you, about the world we live in and what is happening with it. Please feel free to share your thoughts too, no matter what or how you think.
I am now in the process of gathering some thoughts and selecting what to post here. If you have a sugestion on a theme i'll be glad to know.
Please wait for my next post. I look forward to share my feelings and thoughts with whoever's interested.
Thanks for your attention.

Sphere: Related Content