In the midst of economic uncertainty Italy has an inspired idea! Create a street market where goods are exchanged rather than sold. The market will provide exchanges between hard goods, skills or knowledge services.

An excerpt from an article in La Stampa newspaper (translation by Mark Vanderbeeken, Experientia):

“Our market is not a real market,” explains Filippo Dionisio, President of ManaMana’ – in the sense that money is banned. We want to go beyond the commercial concept of barter, which is often seen as a precursor to money, and to affirm instead the value of exchange, where such exchange can also be immaterial and cover connections and relationships between people.” That’s why the “SenzaMoneta” event should be seen first of all as a meeting between people, where goods, products and also knowledge can be exchanged without any money passing hands, thereby also limiting any possible waste.”

Online organizations such as freecycle offer similar services, but the transactions are always anonymous. Chicago had hosted the Big Swap Bonanza last year, but as yet, no news of it happening this year.

I would think something like this would be a fun event for a summer day in Chicago. What do you think Mayor Daley?

Via: CORE77

Market Website with a great picture gallery. The smiles of delight and the variety of unusual finds are fun to see.

Interesting article from Smart Money Magazine about products that may be obsolete by the end of the decade or even by year’s end.

I was a bit surprised that Compact Digital Cameras made the list. These cameras are cheap and take fantastic photos. Better than any phone camera. And most importantly, incredibly easy to operate. Of course, if you can operate a DSLR and afford the lenses and such, you are probably a more advanced photographer than most of us and would walk right past the compacts. But since most of us aren’t Dorothea Lange or Ansel Adams, I think these cameras will be around for awhile. And frankly, I just can’t see clicking through pages of iPhone photos. “Whose that blurry spot there? Umm Gramma or Uncle Bob…not sure.”

And used textbooks? That’s not really a new idea. Although it is nice to see so many more ways to purchase used textbooks other than the local university book store.

I will still buy external hard drives. Cheap, and fast backups. The time it would take to upload a 50mb file let alone your movie collection? I don’t have that much time. A couple of hard drives will work just fine.

How about you? Any other items available today that you think might not be available next year? Do you agree with the list? Please comment below.

Via Smart Money

The beginning of a new year brings a fresh start. A new way to look at our lives and make changes, make resolutions, change habits, plan for business, or personal growth. Just search the web for “RESOLUTIONS” and you’ll find thousands of entries. Many people, all wiser than myself, have ideas and suggestions for us.

Me? I don’t make resolutions, well, not a list anyway. I’ve tried the list a couple of times but nothing ever stuck. Just another list of to-do’s that I never got done.

Christine Kane, a songwriter, and creative consultant, suggests you choose a word for the year. The idea is to set an intent for the year, not a list of to do’s.

How does it work? Let’s say your intent is to live healthier and you find yourself staring at a big ol’ chocolate cake, you remember your word, (maybe it’s the word “HEALTH”) and your intent of living a healthier life and decide you will have a piece of fruit instead. Or a smaller piece of cake.

I like this idea. It’s simple, it’s easy to remember (I have enough lists, thank you!) and isn’t doomed to failure as say the “I plan to workout 3 times a week” resolution.

So I began with the word “FOCUS”. Focus on my business, focus on this blog, focus on my health and fitness. The problem? I would think “FOCUS” and immediately ask “umm…focus on what, which, who?”.

I thought of words like “ABUNDANCE”, “DISCOVERY” or “EXPANSION” and they seemed too open and undefined. I still wanted focus. That I knew for certain. But none of these words moved me.

No, it has to be simpler, right? Maybe I am just over thinking this. And then it came to me. “SIMPLICITY”. After saying this word I actually felt a feeling of relief. To me, simplicity meant ridding my world of extraneous things, of stresses and distractions.

One example? In my search of finding the “perfect workout”, I have accumulated books, DVD’s, gadgets and gear for 20 different sports or workouts. Not anymore. “SIMPLICITY” dictated that I choose the workout that was simple and effective. Done. All that other stuff you’ll soon find on Ebay or listed on Freecycle.

I am applying “SIMPLICITY” to my finances by paying off credit cards and finding simple ways to save money.

All those projects and “someday I’ll learn to…” stuff. On its way out the door. Closets are becoming uncluttered. Storage areas and cabinets will be emptying out.

And every time I want to buy that latest gadget that promises to make my life or work easier, I pause and ask myself, “Will it really?. Or will it sit in my closet gathering dust?”.

This year, I will ask the question before I make any decision, “Will it complicate and clutter my life?” If I can say no to that question, then it is worth pursuing.

So when I look back from 2011, how will I describe 2010?. In a word, simplicity.

If you are anticipating the iSlate, SI Tablet or JooJoo or looking seriously at buying that Kindle or Nook, then you better have a plan for all those books you’ll no longer need!

Here’s one idea.

Mike Stilkey creates wall mountable book sculptures by painting covers and spines along a stack of books to create a single painting/sculpture. Lovely!

Click here for more book sculpture pics. Click here for galleries and where to buy.

Via Ifitshipitshere

With the New Year only a few weeks away, you may be thinking of New Year’s resolutions. Whether you are making a list or just finding a theme for the New Year, here’s a way to email yourself in the future and tell yourself all your hopes and dreams you had for this coming year.

Thankfully, you can make your entries public or private. Some brave souls have made public entries and these are available for viewing. Very interesting. They even have a book released. Simple but brilliant idea. Just think what it will be like when you open this email a year from now!

968,478 letters written to the future and counting…

futureme.org

Another e-book reader/netbook said to be available in February 2010. Engadget had contacted the company directly and confirmed that the shipping is on track. Check out the video below.

Next year should be very interesting as the market for e-book readers and netbook tablets heat up.

Via Engadget

Publishing companies have finally come to the realization that Americans no longer wait for information. It’s no longer the morning paper or late edition, dropped at their door. They are actively searching for news and content when they want it. Magazines and newspapers are losing readers to browser homepages like iGoogle, Bing, Yahoo!, or a favorite blog. Want an update? Want all sides of the topic covered? Want more in depth coverage. Refresh your browser, search the topic again or subscribe to that blog.

And worse yet for these publishing companies, it’s all free! Try as he might, Murdoch’s war on free isn’t gaining much ground. Just look at the competition for a paid site like The Wall Street Journal. The Street, MSNBC, Motley Fool are just a few that offer investing advice and market analysis for free.

Given all the free information available, publishing companies are having to find ways to attract measurable audiences so they can get the advertising dollars to pay for the content audiences want.

So what’s a publishing company to do? Look to the music and film industry, of course. How did these industries get the ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ and dollars back? By providing easy, accessible, on-demand purchase options such as downloading your favorite song from Amazon or Apple, or subscription based media streaming like Netflix or advertiser supported television streaming like Hulu.

In December, Time, Inc. along with Conde Nast, News Corp., Hearst, and Meredith revealed that they have created a digital consortium. From this meeting of the minds comes a web tablet and future digital newsstand where publishers control copyright, distribution and revenue. Partnering with The Wonderfactory, the SI Tablet may take publishing where the iPod took the music business. On-line and on-demand. And most certainly not free.

The video below is a demo of the SI Tablet. Sports Illustrated fans may drool. Don’t get too excited. After all, it’s just a demo.

Now, we’ve been hearing a lot of talk and seeing a lot of “demos” of these magic tablets that allow instant access to book, photos, videos and magazines. Let’s look at the list of the many ‘rumored’ tablets some even promising availability in 2010.

SI Tablet – Time, Inc. and The Wonderfactory (available in 2010)

Que Reader – Plastic Logic (available in 2010)

JooJoo – Fusion Garage (Shipping in 2010)

Courier – Microsoft – (via rumors)

iTablet – Apple (via rumors)

So why do content publishers think a dedicated device or web store will be adopted today when other digital formats like interactive CD-Roms, Zinio, or e-readers, haven’t really taken off?

Because people are more tech savvy today. From cellphones to smartphones, from mp3 players to BluRay players to the ubiquitous netbook. More people use and are comfortable with technology today then at any other time in the past. And web browsing is part of most people’s day, whether catching up with Grandma on email or reading the latest news headline.

That being said, news, sports and information are different than movies or music because they need to be timely. If I buy a subscription to the Chicago Tribune, will I get up to date news information downloaded to my device? And what if I can get this information for free on another website? Like iGoogle or other attention gatekeepers? Would I still pay? Not sure.

And what will the price be? Will I save a few bucks going electronic or will you charge me the same as a paper subscription. How about a ‘Publisher’s Member Subscription’ where you can download and read unlimited magazines for a monthly price? Interesting.

The Sports Illustrated issue on the SI Tablet certainly looks like something many sports fans will pay for. It’s basically the current website only layed out and displayed on the SI tablet. Will the free SI.com site go away? Will you need to log in to access the site as a paid subscriber. Probably. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. If the content and delivery is compelling enough for me to pay for it. I’ll pay for it. But I think it is the beginning of the end of free news and magazine content on the web.

So will 2010 be the year of the E-Reader/Web Tablet? Will we see the first virtual newsstand? And what will this mean to free content on the web? Well, one thing is for sure, it should be very interesting.

This week it’s all about Facebook, the fun loving, friend updater, time sucking application that asks and sometimes answers the perennial question, “Where are they now?”.

First up is a song about what happens when Mom discovers Facebook!

“Things were so much better when she couldn’t turn her laptop on. Download the mp3,

Kate Miller-Heidke sings a very funny song about old flames on Facebook. Wacky camerawork and profanity so NSFW. But thankfully there are subtitles!

And this is an old one, but the faces on these guys are priceless.

Okay, back to work people.

Remember pop-under ads? So late 90’s right? You’re surfing the web for awhile and close your browser and what do you see but an ad to check your computer for viruses, or get your college degree or GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS! something like that. I thought they had gone the way of most pop-up windows, and were being blocked by my browser.

Well THEY’RE BAAACK! Yep, Netflix is now the worst offender. For the last two months Neflix has been haunting me whenever I close my browser. Okay, Netflix, I am already a member so please leave me alone! What’s even more disturbing is I have spyware and pop-up blockers on all my computers and these ads still appear!

Okay, rant over. Let’s get rid of them, shall we?

FIREFOX

Make sure you’re blocking pop-ups. On a Mac, go to the menu Firefox then to Preferences and then click on Content. Make sure the Block pop-up windows is checked. Then go to Security and make sure the top 3 boxes are checked.

On a Windows machine go to Tools/Options and click on Content and make sure the Block pop up windows is checked. Now click on the Privacy tab and uncheck Accept third-party cookies.

The next step, which is the same for both OS’s, is to block the offending domain. Make sure the pop under window is active. Go to Firefox menu and click on Tools/Page Info. Click on the Permissions tab. At the top of the window is the domain name. Now uncheck the boxes on the left and and click on the Block button on the right for each item. Click on the tab Security. Under Privacy & History it tells you whether the website is storing information or cookies on you computer. If yes, click on View Cookies. This is where you can delete the offending cookie and block it. You may find others that you can delete as well.

SAFARI: (Mac Os)

In Safari you can block pop ups by going to the menu Safari and checking Block pop-ups. Then click on Preferences. Go to Security tab and you’ll see that you can set how to Accept Cookies. If you check Only sites I visit, Safari will block cookies from third parties and advertisers. If you want to check to see if there are any sites you are not familiar with simply click on Show Cookies and review the list of sites and delete the sites that you think are troublesome.

INTERNET EXPLORER 8 (Windows XP/Vista/7)

In Internet Explorer 8, you can block pop ups by going to Tools/Internet Options and go to Privacy tab. Click on Turn On Pop-up Blocker. Then continue to Pop-up Blocker Settings. If you set the setting for Internet Zone to Medium you are blocking 3rd party sites. Click on Settings and you can allow websites, (like your company webmail page). You can also set the Blocking Level from Low, where you allow pop-ups from secure sites to High where you allow no pop-ups at all.

To block the offending domain, you have to look at the URL address in the pop-under window. Now go back to Tools/Internet Options/Privacy and click on Sites. Here you can add the site to your blocked sites.

If you have an older browser, you should upgrade. After all, the software is free and the newer browsers have better security and newer features.

Now, if another pop-under ad appears, you’ll know how to get rid of it. Back to browsing like it’s 2009!

There are many iPhone and iTouch apps for filmmakers that are more or less calculators, notepads or slates. Not to take away from any of them. I admit they are very useful. But this lens controller is ingenious. The program uses the iPhone/iTouch wireless remote capabilities to allow for wireless lens control. You do have to buy a separate lens motor and not sure of the price of the app just yet, but for filmmakers this is pretty nice tech!

For a rather comprehensive list of other apps for filmmakers, go to World Wide Angle. Informative article.