time

Set camera clock to GMT for better geotagging?

Tell me what to do here, folks.

I encountered a rat's nest of problems with geotagging recently because I'd left my camera clock to local time on a vacation eight time zones away. Some have suggested to me that I change my camera clock to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the closest thing the planet has to an absolute time zone reference point, as an easier way to embed location information in my digital photos.

I've been reluctant to make the GMT switch because I didn't want a photo I took at, say, 8 p.m. California … Read more

Power Downloader plays a free RTS game

After spending the morning hours organizing his documents and case files, Power Downloader decides it's high time for a break. Though he's happy with his organizational progress so far, Power knows that he can't spend all of his time working. After all, a little relaxation and time out from a project often helps to recharge both the body and the mind.

To make the most of his downtime, Power Downloader decides a little gaming is just the thing to help him relax. With nothing new to play on his computer, Power decides to check out the top … Read more

New York Times drops internet subscription service

There are basically only two business models for media distribution: advertising, and charging for access. Print media typically uses a combination of both whereas online media for the most part has relied exclusively on advertising. One of the few exceptions was the New York Times and their TimesSelect service. For $7.95 a month or $49.95 a year, visitors could read articles by columnists such as Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman. It might come as a surprise, but apparently this offer didn't manage to seduce enough people to keep TimesSelect alive.

'The New York Times' drops online subscription service

The New York Times has finally given up on the Web-subscription model, announcing Monday that the newspaper's online site will no longer charge for any content.

The decision comes two years after The Times began charging $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for Internet access to premium content, such as pieces by columnists and archived stories, according to a story that appeared in the paper.

The Times said that the subscription service met targets, acquiring 227,000 paying subscribers and generating $10 million a year.

Executives at the newspaper seemed to suggest in The Times' story … Read more

Changing with 'The Times'

I grew up with The New York Times and still believe that for all its faults, real or imagined, this remains the best general interest daily newspaper published in the United States--in print and online.

When you're that visible, everyone's got an opinion. So it is that The Times gets it from the left, from the right and from the whack jobs who inhabit that bizarre netherworld beyond both extremes.

But anyone who thinks sensibly about the intersection of media and the Internet has to agree that The Times made the right decision when it announced today the end of the TimesSelect subscription service. … Read more

New Facebook app is testy, inquisitive

The New York Times has a new Facebook application it launched today. It's called The New York Times Quiz, and as you'd expect, there's some question-asking going on here, and if you're not up on current events, you're likely to make a fool of yourself in front of all your Facebook buddies. The quiz is composed of five questions about yesterday's news. Each question has five answers, and it's up to you to pick the right one. While Google may be one click away, you're urged to figure things out on your own.

After submitting your guesses, you'll find out how you did instantly. Your results are judged in three separate sections. The first is your Times IQ, which is an aggregate rating of your performance on each quiz you take. You also get ranked to your friends, and in comparison of Facebook users as a whole. It would be nice to have your results compared to how others did in each of your networks, although this is something that could be added later on down the line if The New York Times feels like doing some extra coding.

Along with the results section, you get a link to each related story on The New York Times for every question. Ideally this would create a scenario where users go to check their wrong answers and fill in the blanks, although the application is kind enough to let you know what the right answer was either way. You also get a list of five stories to read up on for tomorrow's quiz, which gives you a heads up--and a chance to avoid being embarrassed again if you did badly.

The New York Times is doing two things right here. The first is making your results public. There's nothing worse than having your lack of knowledge shown off to everyone, and while you can tweak what gets published in the news feed, people can still see your scores in the results page. The second is getting you to come back and visit the site--specifically The New York Times--to get ready. Assuming you're willing to put in the time, your quiz score will always be 100 percent and you can rule your friends--except those who use Google News to figure out the answers.

[via ReadWriteWeb]… Read more

Highly useful: TimeBridge makes scheduling easy

I wrote favorably about the idea of TimeBridge last year. It's a service that's supposed to make scheduling meetings less of pain in the neck, by letting an organizer send out several proposed times for a meeting, and then coordinating the replies of attendees until everyone agrees on a single time, at which point it will lock in the agreed-on time for everyone and release the tentative hold it had on the alternate spots.

The service is now in public beta (finally), and I've been using it to schedule meetings. The upshot: It works great.

What I … Read more

Of course I'm going to blog about the new iPods

I didn't attend the Apple event yesterday, but I watched the liveblogging by Tom Krazit here on CNET and by Ryan Block on Engadget. Not the same as being there, but still fun.

As everyone knows by now, Apple introduced three completely new iPods along with minor updates for the iPod Shuffle and iPhone:

iPod pico: Earbud players sold in… Read more

The value of things: a great hi-fi vs. a $23,000 Yves Saint Laurent sweater

Perusing the August 26th Sunday New York Times Style Magazine, ogling the latest in women's fashion, my mind wanders. Apparently there's an insatiable market for luxury apparel; the 316 page issue is jam-packed with goodies like a $3,495 Chanel Jersey Handbag and a freaky looking $5,390 Louis Vuitton Feather Necklace. Then again, if you really want to make that special someone really happy, go for the $26,500 Hermes Sable-and-Crocodile Kelly Muff or perhaps something more practical like the $23,155 Yves Saint Laurent sweater embroidered by Lesage. I'm sure it's all splendid couture, … Read more

Another business opportunity for Google

A friend sent me a link to the transcript of a talk that author Peter Wayner gave at Google last year.

It's basically about how Google could provide an incentive for newspapers and bloggers to do more original reporting rather than just rehashing previously published reports. (Yes, I know that's what I'm doing here-- but I've done a lot of genuine on-site reporting here lately, from Hot Chips, Zonbu headquarters, and Siggraph-- so I can see both sides of the issue.)

Wayner presents some interesting figures. He says… Read more