Action Comics No. 1 Available Online

Action Comics No.1, The Birth of Superman, has been scanned and made available online.

FireFox 2.0 Beta 2 Released Today

Firefox 2 Beta 2, the most awaited browser from Mozilla launched today. There is another beta scheduled in September before the launch of Firefox 2 final in October.

Punk-o-Matic

Skip the music classes. Select drum beats, bass, and electric guitar beats and make your own punk music.

Google Book Search Supports Downloading and Printing of Books

"Starting today, you can go to Google Book Search and download full copies of out-of-copyright books to read at your own pace. You're free to choose from a diverse collection of public domain titles -- from well-known classics to obscure gems." Prior to today you were only allowed to read the books online.

ESPN Launches ESPNU: College Sports Network for Internet

ESPNU.com is designed to be a companion for the ESPNU television network, the company said. It will include news, scores, columns, video and audio highlights, podcasts and the live streaming of games. The streaming will include both live simulcasts of televised games and events that will be exclusive to the Internet, the company said.

Free Books For Your Ipod

"LibriVox is the largest of several emerging collectives that offer free or inexpensive audiobooks of works whose copyrights have expired, from Plato to “The Wind in the Willows.”

The audio format of choice for the service is MP3 , which means the audiobooks can play on any computer and most digital music players. Unlike with commercial audiobooks, listeners are free to copy and share the recordings." -- New York Times (August 25, 2006).

Google Apps For Your Domain

Now you can offer private-labeled email, IM and calendar tools to all of your users for free*, so they can share ideas and get things done more effectively. You can design and publish your organization's website, too. It's all hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software for you to install or maintain.

Generate Your Own Energy For Almost Nothing

From VelaCreations: "Wind power is abundant, clean, inexpensive and easy to do. It is our belief that anyone can be in control of where his or her electricity comes from. There is nothing more rewarding and empowering than making a wind powered generator from scrap materials."

Build your Chispito wind generator. See the instructions at http://www.velacreations.com/chispito.html

Google Launches Trends

With Google Trends, you can compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often.

Google Launches Free Word Processor

Google has re-launched Writely, the online word-processor they recently bought, in public beta. Access to Writely is now free for everyone. Just sign up for an account. Writely does most things Word does, for free

Pluto Is No Longer A Planet

Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

Zimbio's "network of public portals are designed to help people quickly get down the learning curve on any topic of interest by seeing what other people are reading, saying, and recommending about the topic. Public portals are interactive, dynamic websites that offer a range of features including group blogging, member photos, links to favorite websites, RSS headlines, tracking of search results, and discussion forums."

Watch The First Film Ever Made (1888)

Roundhay Garden Scene (1888) was shot by Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince using the Le Prince single-lens camera. It lasts for less than 2 seconds and includes 4 frames.

The Problems With Web Surfing In Public Places

"Although obsessing about computer security is a bit like worrying about a toddler — potential hazards lurk everywhere and you can drive yourself crazy trying to avoid them — the fact is, business travelers take certain risks with the things they do on most trips."

2007 College Rankings

U.S. News & World Report's 2007 college rankings are now online, along with some associated admissions-related articles. Read more at:http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

Google Is Now Offering Coupons Online

From the Librarian in Black: "Google is now offering coupons. Yes, coupons. The kind you snip out and bring to the grocery store. Teaming up with Valpak (you know, the blue envelopes with mostly useless coupons?), Google now offers printable coupons from businesses in Google Maps searches. They're only offering 20,000 coupons right now, but plan to expand, which they can probably do easily since they're offering the service free to any business that wants to take advantage of it. If a local business has a coupon available, a "Coupons" link will show up under their name in the Google Maps results. That link will take you to a page with a local map, business information, and a coupon."

Library Park Being Built For Outdoor Reading

Weston Branch Library of the Broward County Libraries, FL,
has gotten money to build a "library park" on a 5.8 acre site. City
Manager John Flint told the Sun-Sentinel, "It is unique, and meant to
complement the library and be geared for reading and studying activities
outdoors." The park is planned to have benches, lighting, and
walkways/exercise paths.

Teens Don't Think CD Copying Is A Crime

An article in the Orlando Sentinel reports on a poll done by the LA Times and Bloomberg. The informal study looked at teenager attitudes towards copying media. Only 31 percent said they thought it was illegal to copy a CD borrowed from a friend who had purchased it. Attitudes about ill-gotten media were less clear, and the article admits than even the legal system is slightly fuzzy on this issue.