Jon Barclay

Have you ever had a group paper that you had to work on, and in order to write it you emailed drafts around to each member of the group for revisions? It works, but not very well. Google Docs is an excellent solution to the collaboration problem. It allows you to create a document and give all the members of your group the ability to change it, simultaneously. Now this won’t get the paper written for you, but it can make it a heck of a lot easier.

Try it out and see if Google Docs isn’t the perfect answer to your next group assignment.

Its been quite a while now since Google announced a new product called Street View. It basically is a new way of seeing a street not from a satellite picture but as if one was standing on the street looking around. When I first heard about it I thought it sounded interesting and a little creepy but that they would just do it in San Francisco and San Jose.

Now low and behold Google has gone and expanded their coverage to many many places including our neighborhood! It is a little surreal to look at your own home, and especially if you happen to be lucky enough to be outside when the camera took the snapshot.

Google is no slouch and has been expanding the coverage very rapidly. On Sunday night I was looking at my in-laws neighborhood and was disappointed that they had not yet been added. However, within a few days Google added many streets around them. Check out this picture from their neighborhood, and keep in mind it won’t be long before yours may be added. Time to get to that yard work!

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Jon Stewart nailed it yet again with his hilarious look at Obama’s speech on race.

If you haven’t had a chance to hear Barrack Obama’s speech on race in America, take a half hour and listen to an example of why Obama can bring real change for our country.

This is a really interesting video. It reminds me that we can never become complacent, and always need to be learning and adapting. Continually working to keep up isn’t just for IT people anymore.

They say when it rains it pours. Well it seems like when finding new music that is usually the case. In the same week I found Tift Merritt, I also stumbled on to A Fine Frenzy. I really like this single from her first album, One Cell in the Sea.

Check it out.

One of the new albums I have been listening to is Another Country by Tift Merritt. The CD is full of beautiful, melodic songs. She actually reminds me of Alison Krauss, but perhaps without as much of a country twist.

My favorite song is probably the albums namesake Another Country.  However, my guess is the single from the album is Broken.  Check it out, my guess is you’ll be hooked to.

They say the only things you can count on in this world are death and taxes. Well, they might need to add that when Apple runs a commercial it is bound to have a great song playing in the background.

The topic of the demise of jingles, and the rise of commercials being tied to new artists is one that I wont write about now. But, in the meantime enjoy some Yael Naim, and say thanks to Apple for bringing us yet another really great artist.