academhack

While I was checking out Evernote (see post below) I got enamored with the idea of having my database accessible over the web (read iPhone). Evernote makes this really easy. But ultimately Evernote was no where near powerful enough to entice me into switching (in fact I have been ramping up my Devon use lately [...]

I am working on a follow up post to my recent scribe on using Twitter in Academia (for whatever reason this garnered a great deal of interest and I have received many questions which I am trying to address in one long post). At any rate in the meantime here are some places around the [...]

I must admit that when I first heard about Twitter I thought it represented the apex of what concerns me about internet technology: solipsism and sound-bite communication. While I obviously spend a great deal of time online and thinking about the potential of these new networked digital communication structures, I also worry about the way [...]

First, an exciting piece of news for all of those who like free stuff and RSS: NetNewsWire (high-powered RSS client for Mac) and FeedDemon (a PC version) are now free. That’s right free as in free beer, which is doubly good because RSS helps you get free speech as well.
Second, I recently did an interview [...]

One of the more frequent questions I get asked as an academic is what program do you use to manage all the information/articles you come across. In fact, even academics with more luddite tendencies want a program to manage all of the journal articles or papers that are stored on their computers. For me I [...]

If you are new to the world of Web 2.0 and are looking for a good introduction you might want to check out Mark Marino’s talk. Mark recently did a presentation at USC which covered a range of internet tools that one might consider for teaching and research. The link is to his write up [...]

I just got back from a conference in Portland (Maine not Oregon). Honestly one of the more interesting/produtive academic conferences I have attended (the annual SLSA conference for those who are interested). While the quality of the presentations were high, it struck me that many a presenter could have benefited from a little free application [...]

If you have been thinking about buying Devon, today might be the day. Today, and today only it is half price if you purchase it through macZot. Devon is one of those programs that would make it impossible for me to ever stop using a Mac, a priceless storer, and sorter of information.

To the readers, I apologize greatly for lack of posting, being new faculty has taken up all my time. What little blogging time I have had has been taken up by the blog for Emergent Media and Communications here at UTD. But never fear, I now have an office (which wasn’t the case a couple [...]

Darcia writes to recommend Chatterblocker (Windows or Mac) a piece of software which helps to eliminate background noise. Unlike Noise (my software of choice for this task), Chatterblocker works not by creating white noise, but rather by distoring the current noise (i.e. altering current conversations enough that they cannot be followed.) Because I [...]