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Why do Radio Stations Still Deal in Physical Media?


Well, yes and no. As anyone who works in newsrooms or radio stations know, CDs are still being delivered by the dozens every day for reviews and previews.





It's Time to Stop Sending Letters

Hello, it's Monday May 12th, and stamps just got more expensive again! I've decided...$0.42 is too much. It's time to stop sending letters.

In lieu of going out and buying a sheet of 100 one-cent stamps, I say we figure out how to not need them. Here's a helpful little guide to make those "forever" stamps you bought six months ago last as long as possible.

Discover the Joys of Scanning
I used to think that, every time I had to send someone an official document, it required a stamp. The truth is, that's just not so. I now invariably ask "is it OK for me to scan and email this?" Ninety percent of the time, the answer is yes. I actually have a signed and scanned W-9 that I've sent to dozens of clients. All I need to change is the date.

Scanners are cheap, and easy to come by. I actually recently gave one away of Freecycle because I couldn't find a buyer for it on Craigslist. It might take an hour or so to figure out how to use it, but once you've got the procedure, you'll save yourself time, money and paper.

Online Bill Pay
By now this probably seems like a no-brainer. But, chances are, you haven't fully switched over yet. You've got most of your bills on auto-pay, but a couple still get paid with a check in the mail. Take an hour out of your day and go completely treeless. Either sign up at the company's site, or schedule monthly transfers with your bank.

And for those bills that you might pay to companies or individuals that don't have billing systems, like my landlord, discuss the possibilities of PayPal. When I showed him how easy it was, and told him that it would significantly reduce the number of times per year my payment was late, he was totally into it!

Say I Love You in Binary


Less Stuff = Better Living: Getting Rid of Stuff

There are about fifty things on my desk right now. Most of them are pieces of cards, a couple dollars, some tax forms. But there are also some CDs, a phone, a computer monitor, a camera, a guitar tuner, a printer cartridge, a knife...y'know....THINGS!

And then when I widen my view beyond the desk...things start to look really desperate. I'm surrounded by stuff. Probably 50% of it is made of paper...most of that being books. But there's also a heavy dose plastic, metal and good ol' wood. A lot of my things, strangely enough, exist simply to carry other shelves, filing cabinets, etc. Frankly, I'm getting tired of it.

And so, in the spirit of EcoGeekiness, I hereby pledge to actually do something about it. This stuff has to go! It's pretty easy to get rid of stuff nowadays...with EBay and Craigslist and Freecycle. But some of it might not be so easy to part with. So I am hereby beginning a series in which I will be replacing hardware either with multiple-use items (trading scissors for knives) or with software. And, hoorah! I will free myself of these earthly ties....and increase that beautiful spiritual connection I have with this machine before me.

The first item to guitar tuner.

Guitar tuners, after all, are just a microphone and some very simple software. Most laptops have microphones built right in, so why waste money on a hunk of plastic when you're computer can do the job for you?

After a quick search, I found this $15 shareware program for my Mac, which not only is simple to use, but is significantly more accurate than my physical guitar tuner.

And for my PC we've got Audio Tuner 0.5, which works on everything from Windows 95 to Vista and, while it's not as pretty as, and a little clunkier than the Mac ap, it is absolutely free, and tuned me up in no time. But even better is the free GuiTools, which not only has a built in tuner, but also helps identify every single chord and scale you can play with a six-string.

So I hope Freecycle is ready for my guitar tuner. Maybe somebody out there needs it for its portability. But I'm happy to say...I just don't need it anymore.


Papyrus E-ink Device Could Help You Get Edumacated

It's no secret that we at Ecogeek are fans of the e-ink display technology. The low battery consumption and superior readability compared to laptops and other mobile devices, not to mention the thin form factor, all combine to bring us closer to a digital literary future. With Amazon's Kindle doing the rounds in the US and the Bookeen Cybook constantly running out of stock, e-ink toting devices are inching their way into the public's hearts.

I still think that e-books have a ways to go before I'd personally get one, mostly in terms of price and features, and I have had a few of my own ideas on what would make a good reader. However, the group of thinkers and designers over at The Greener Grass have gone and created a concept that I could wholeheartedly get behind. The Papyrus.

The Papyrus is a concept for an education-centred e-reader device that would focus on making participation in courses easier and more interactive. The concept calls for a colour e-ink touch screen and presumably a Wi-Fi connection to connect the devices of all the students together. Collaboratively, they can tag, highlight and annotate their reading material and remotely help eachother understand the text and find the important parts in it. As a first-year university student who hadn't read a single academic text since the turn of the millenium, I can say I would have greatly appreciated such a feature in my textbooks, not to mention saving all the space and weight of all those books as I cart them around.

As far as pricing goes, they're setting their sights on a hundred dollars. This seems unrealistic, but they are convinced it could be realised with the removal of unneeded hardware features (audio, for example) and the help of publishers. These publishers would subsidise the device and could sell their text books directly to the students through a subscription service.

The concept also makes a case for the interactivity of lectures. Many students are afraid to ask questions when there's something they don't understand. If they could just shoot the lecturer a quick private message rather than pipe up in front of a hundred other students, the idea is that the lecturer would be much more aware of whether or not s/he is getting through to the students.

I suspect that if this device is to actually be made, the price tag will go the way of the OLPC and the Eee PC and end up at least double the initial goal. Even so, it would be a fantastic device in an increasingly digital world. If the resolution of e-ink screens get a bump up, the prices a bump down and the features a polish, I welcome a transition into a fully digital student life. There's still something to be said for the feeling of opening a book and reading it on the couch or in bed, but at least e-ink is getting us one step closer to that feeling without killing trees every time there's a new book (or, more likely, a very slightly altered new edition) to be published.

Via Engadget








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