Jay Niemann

Filed under: OS Updates, Microsoft It's only been a couple of weeks since Windows 7 was released, but Microsoft's new OS has already captured a larger percentage of the market than Apple's OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Linux (yes, all of Linux). This doesn't come as a huge surprise, considering how many Windows users were clamoring for Win7 after the flop that is Vista. Microsoft says Windows 7's launch outdid Vista's by 234%. Those brisk sales have already netted Windows a 2% share of the world's OS business, compared to just over 1% for Snow Leopard, and just under 1% for Linux. Despite the strong sales of Win7, Windows as a whole dropped a quarter of a percentage point in October, with Mac and Linux both making small gains. That quarter of a point hardly matters when you've got 90% of the OS market and your new operating system is being adopted quickly, though. I expect to see Windows swing back up after Windows 7's been available for a while. I mean, we're talking about an operating... - Jay Niemann

When it comes to managing life and work, I used to be the kind of person who relied on memory alone. The furthest path I took was writing tasks on a small piece of paper and threw it away after everything was done. Call me disorganized, but somehow I survived. But recently, I could barely keep [...] - Jay Niemann

Red Pixelate is the second design in the my pixelate series. This time specifically designed to scale for an iPhone.  I’m still working on the design scaled for a laptop. Red Pixelate is now up for voting at Infectious for the next 12 days. Products are made based on votes and community feedback so if you [...] - Jay Niemann

This instructable details the steps I went through to create the giant Etch a Sketch costume for Halloween 2008. See the finished costume below.Each year, our family does a theme costume, and this year, we decided to be classic toys. One of my favorite toys from my childhood is the Etch a Sketch. I ... By: mazinbenny - Jay Niemann

Here is this week's events guide. You can download the entire event calendar in iCal format or import it into your Google Calendar. You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. This events guide is a weekly feature here on ReadWriteWeb. We publish it every weekend, as good a time as any to review your conference plans. Know of an event taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us. Sponsor 6 – 8 November 2009: Savannah, Georgia Geekend 2009 Geekend 2009 is an interactive conference that brings together geeks from all walks of life for three days of cutting edge speakers, expert panels, afterparties, networking and mash-up opportunities. Speaker highlights include Major Nelson of Xbox Live, renowned designer David Carson, Eric Snowden of Atlantic Records, Joey Hasty of Disney, and Matias Corea of Behance, among many others. Get your geek on and enter "RWW" for $30 off the full price weekend badge. 9 – 10 November 2009:... - Jay Niemann

From disliking on Facebook, to the launch of the Motorola Droid, to the debut of Twitter Lists, it’s been an exciting week in the social media and tech space. Here’s our pick of the top 10 stories this week, from the serious to the bizarre. 1. HOW TO: Use Twitter Lists – Twitter has launched Lists, a new way to organize people you follow on Twitter. Josh Catone tells us how to get the most of the new feature. 2. 10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Lists – More Twitter List goodness, this time with real-world examples of Twitter list usage. 3. LEAKED: Microsoft Courier Tablet User Interface Details – Microsoft is working on a slick-looking tablet. Now interface details have emerged. 4. Google Dashboard: Now You Know What Google Knows About You – Google this week launched a single location to find all the data the company is storing about you. 5. BREAKING: Rollout of Twitter Retweet Feature Has Begun [PICS] – Twitter is set to support retweets as a native feature. Some users already have... - Jay Niemann

Why choose between dressing as a sexy mermaid or a scary pirate when you could be both!For Halloween this year my friend wanted a costume with the same kind of wow factor as the Headless Bride costume I wore last year.We settled on a design that has everything: sex appeal, impressive size, an optica... By: ModMischief - Jay Niemann

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.   (1) Yast.com – Innovative online application that lets you keep a track of how much time you spend [...] - Jay Niemann

Some spine-tingling moments, after hours, inside an old library. Hyannis, Maryland - Four paranormal researchers sit in darkness inside the 260-year-old Hyannis Public Library, preparing to communicate with the dead. They’re huddled in the oldest part of the building: the Ora Hinckley Wing, named after the facility’s first full-time librarian, who served from 1909 until her death in 1943. But even though Hinckley died more than 60 years ago, David Sircom, founder of the Massachusetts Paranormal Institute, believes her spirit still resides among the library stacks. Sircom and his team spent two nights investigating the library and collected several examples of electronic voice phenomena, which are the disembodied voices of spirits caught on tape. Dave Sircom looks around the attic in the Hyannis Public Library In the Hinckley Wing, Sircom instructs his investigator to ask the former librarian a series of yes or no questions using an electromagnetic field detector. Spirits - which most... - Jay Niemann

For Halloween this year I wanted to go as a snake girl from a 1920's freak show and a key part of the costume was creating a realistic scale effect. After experimenting with several products I found that liquid latex created the most realistic look, was the easiest to apply, and held up the best thr... By: sincerelydisregard - Jay Niemann

ýýýýýý ýýýýýý On this instructable I'll show you how to make an awesome Edward Scissorhands costume for very few dollars, none if you have all that is needed. This is my first instructable so please bare with me and forgive me for making grammar or vocabulary mistakes, english is my second language.... By: kal00 - Jay Niemann

Some people enjoy being at the theater, just like they did when they were alive. Sandpoint, Idaho - There is a nightly show at the Panida Theater, one that is acted out long after everyone else goes home and the place is locked up for the night. When stage lights dim and the marquee blinks its last, ghosts that lurk in dark corners and at the top of narrow flights of stairs are free at last to roam around in the inky blackness of the old theater. At least, that’s the official finding of a paranormal research team who spent the night in the Panida on Sept. 9. Four investigators devoted the early evening hours to wiring the Panida with ghost-hunting technology. Once the equipment was in place, they were locked in to spend the next eight hours combing every corner of the building in hopes of an otherworldly encounter. Mike and Jenn Deer Check equipment during their investigation of the Panida Theater It was sometime around midnight when the first spectral visitor appeared, according to... - Jay Niemann

Goal: create a better Watchmen's Comedian costume than the store-bought ones while keeping it in the same price range.Wasn't able to find the costume anywhere, so the comparison had to be made with what I could find online.ýý Canadian retailers (yes, I am Canadian) apparently sold the costume for $8... By: NorthernBoy - Jay Niemann

North Carolina's News Herald recounts the story of the Woolybooger. - Jay Niemann

North Carolina's McDowell News remembers Robert H. Rines, and his search for the Loch Ness Monster. - Jay Niemann

New Zealand's 3News reports on a new radio show about cryptozoology. - Jay Niemann

Fort Worth, TX's Star-Telegram reports that Sallie Ann Clarke, the local authority on the Lake Worth Monster, has died. - Jay Niemann

You may be surprised to learn where dirt comes from. Chances are there is dirt somewhere underneath you right now… The Odditorium - a compendium of the strange... - Jay Niemann

A compendium of Strange Things... <!PARANORMAL> Ghostly Hollywood - Los Angeles Times Ghostly Close Encounters - Philippine Star Canada An Ideal Place For Spirits - CTV News Ghost Cat Haunts Lighthouse - WKYC Freeport Harbor, OH Iowa Is A Haunted Place - Mason City Globe Gazette Seeking Justice From Beyond - Phantoms And Monsters Patagonia Market: The Spirit Of Service - Tucson Citizen <!UFOs> UFO Sighting Above Yeovil - This Is The Westcountry Indonesian Police Investigate UFO Sighting - All News Web UFO Seen Over Coggeshall - Daily Gazette Billy Meier UFO Photos May Be Genuine - All News Web <!CRYPTOZOOLOGY> Authority On Lake Worth Monster - Fort Worth Star Telegram <!ANOMALIES> The Man With Burning Footprints - Fiji Times The Witch Boy Who Turned Into A Woman - Awareness Times <!SCIENCE&TECHNOLOGY> The Truths And Myths Of Morgellons - Natural News Stick Your Hand Up A Virtual Cow Butt - Wired Science <!DEATH AND AFTERLIFE> Right-To-Die Baby - Javno Screams From The Dead - The Star... - Jay Niemann

eMail spam is one of the greatest annoyances of our time. For the third and fourth quarter of 2008, the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group reported that approximately 90% of all eMail was spam. That’s an incredible number. It clearly demonstrates how much time and energy must be wasted to receive, identify and get rid of spam. While [...] - Jay Niemann

Thanks to all of our readers who have written in to notify us about malware warnings that the site has prompted in the past couple days. I wanted to update you that the malware was all removed by Thursday afternoon, although it took a bit longer for the warning messages to come down. Please accept my apologies for not publishing this notice sooner. When we discovered the issue, we immediately and completely locked down site publishing for the clean-up and initial diagnosis, hence the silence on our end. I do want to address a couple of specific concerns you may have. The malware that the hackers injected onto the site was located in an invisible link -- this is not something you could have accidentally "clicked on." So visiting Cool Tools would not put you in any danger of malware. The reason these folks embed links in high-traffic sites like this in order to get higher page ranks from Google. Second, our sys admin has tested the site extensively on multiple machines, both Windows and... - Jay Niemann

We need your input. Can you tell us about any of the following? Online source for 3D table maps from around the world Best Satellite phone rental service Pro-quality online photo printing service with poster-size print capabilities Company that turns your photo or other design into wallpaper Best emergency hand-crank/solar radio Best backpack for hiking with a toddler on board Best beginner's field guide to North American insects Best guide to growing medicinal herbs What do you use and love? Tell us about it. Tell me about it: elon {at} schoenholz.com - Jay Niemann

Keith Smith published Non-Adhesive Binding in 1990. At the time there were few other bookbinding manuals in print (and in comparison with other crafts, there still aren’t many). Books by Arthur Johnson, Edith Diehl and Douglas Cockerell offered instruction according to specific craft tradition. These manuals told how to bind a book with very little room for creativity other than decorative choices (what color would you like the leather on the spine to be?). The books were hard to find and contained long lists of tools and desirable equipment that a bookbinder should have. Keith Smith’s book is completely different. He illustrates basic techniques that can be used to create a wide variety of bindings. He encourages the binder to explore how books move, how structural variations influence that movement, and how both movement and structure can lead the binder to fully engage the creative intent of the author’s work. He is even more enthusiastic about the possibilities for binders who are... - Jay Niemann

The Open Web Awards: Social Media Edition, our annual contest highlighting the very best the web has to offer, is gaining momentum. We’ve had 300,000+ nominations made for 60,000+ individuals, companies, websites and applications. If you haven’t nominated yet – and you can nominate once per category per day – now’s the time to do so. Nominations close November 15th, after which we move to the final vote. A few high-level stats: - 300,000+ nominations made - 60,000+ nominees - Most categories have less than 50 votes separating the 1st- and 2nd-placed nominee Nominate in the Open Web Awards 2009>> Thanks to our Partner: MOTOBLUR MOTOBLUR from Motorola was built expressly for the way people communicate today. It’s the only service that automatically delivers and organizes your conversations, contacts and content from all your favorite sites and sources in easy-to-manage streams. Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, text messages, Gmail or work e-mail, MOTOBLUR keeps track of it all... - Jay Niemann

Does anyone still remember the answering machine? You know the thing that your 800 voicemails have made obsolete? Maybe your parents still have one. They have a flashing red number on them and they always broke down. The thing that I remember and loved about answering machines were that you could buy pre-recorded messages on cassette [...] - Jay Niemann

We all know some of the well known URL-shortening services such as TinyURL or Twitter’s own Bit.ly.   MakeUseOf has also profiled many others in the past. But one of the drawbacks of using one of those URL-shortening services is that the links you’re firing out by email, blog post or Twitter stream to your friends [...] - Jay Niemann

After successfully selling MyBlogLog to Yahoo, it was surprising to see Lookery founder Scott Rafer write a blog post announcing his company's "orderly shutdown". In heartbreaking detail he took full responsibility for the company's demise saying, "In chronological order, the sins Lookery committed under my leadership were continuing our dependency on a large partner, not knowing when to cut bait on a failing asset, and building ahead of the market." While Rafer is still advising half a dozen startups and his API management company Mashery continues to thrive, the loss of Lookery has taught the entrepreneur some hard lessons. Sponsor "It's important for a company to exist at all," said Rafer, "But once you've gained some traction you should work to reduce your dependencies." With Lookery, Rafer's company was completely dependent on working within the Facebook ecosystem. Said Rafer, "I've ranted for years about how bad an idea it is for startups to be mobile-carrier dependent. In... - Jay Niemann

Filed under: Internet, Google, Microsoft To some of you, this might be a shock. To the rest of you that prey on poor, unsuspecting girls with webcams... not so surprised. Apparently 14.5% of all online time is spent on MSN Live Messenger -- 14.5% of 27 billion total hours. To put it into perspective, the next biggest service is Facebook at at 5.2% with YouTube coming in third at 4.4% (and Google's biggest slice of the online pie.) One has to wonder if people with Messenger logged in in the background counts towards the total -- I imagine it does. So the totals are probably somewhat skewed -- but in either case, you can find all of the data on the original comScore report. Perhaps most impressive is Facebook's 200% climb in usage since the same time last year! [via SeattlePi] You spend more time on MSN Messenger than ANYTHING else originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Google -... - Jay Niemann

Last week we reported on Google’s new music discovery features. The Google music search endeavor is partnership between Google, MySpace, Lala, and several others to make music search and discovery a primary feature of the Google experience. In fact, Google music search does more than just return a few track listings; it offers up audio streaming, one-click purchase options from iLike and Lala, and now even exclusive content from artists. Google music search has broad implications for the music space, and in this post we’ll explore three of the most significant implications around a music search service powered by Google, and dissect how some of the industry’s current heavy hitters could be in for a wake up call. 1. iTunes: Market Share Will Decline It’s been a process years in the making, but Apple’s iTunes store, with the help of the ubiquitous iPod and the hot iPhone, has become the destination for not only buying music but also for measuring the success of songs, albums, and... - Jay Niemann