Blaise Aguera y Arcas of Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth gives this TED talk about their software. Photosynth “can access gigabytes of photos in seconds” and integrate related images from all over the web into a single expandable, collapsible, explorable whole:

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h o w j s a y . c o m is an online English Pronouncing Dictionary. The site uses
They’re associated with fonetiks.org’s free “guides to the sound systems of ten languages” (including nine varieties of English) and “pronunciation samples by over 40 native speakers.”Their Phonetic Alphabet for Keyboards is potentially useful for radio scripts. “We needed a practical phonetic alphabet for use with a standard computer keyboard. These phonetic annotations were needed as an aid during recording sessions. To increase typing speeds, upper case symbols were mostly avoided and the commonest items were assigned to easy-to-reach keys.” For example:

via Jake- PRX.

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Akamai has a Real-time Web Monitor tracking “global Internet conditions around the clock.” Areas w/ highest traffic are brightest. You can also color the map by areas with the slowest connections (latency) or the most recent “network attacks.”

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Two apps that record radio for later listening, progammable by station and time: Rogue Amoeba - Radioshift (Mac $32) and RadioTime.com (Win $29). Both capture the station’s online audio stream then save it as an mp3 soundfile. Haven’t used either but I frequently resort to Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Hijack Pro, and can vouch for that co. heartily.

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For the preceeding Murrow mp3, I tried out the new Zamzar - Free online file conversion. Submitted an online real-audio file thru Zamzar’s eb form; received an email w/ an mp3 attached. All went well. They can do the same for image, audio and video formats.

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I haven’t tried this, but if you have frequent ProTools probs, you might give this shareware a go: ProTools Prefs & Database Helper (Mac 10.4.x). It finds-&-deletes Digidesign databases (.ddb) and preference files (.plist) to help debug Pro Tools perturbations.

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Doug Kaye of The Conversations Network has posted on his Blogarithms an in-depth guide to Recording Skype Interviews, which he sez can now exceed the audio quality of a high-end telephone hybrid.

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My kick ass guitar teacher has a brother who developed software that allows you to create loops and other sorts of musical feats without ever touching a computer. Amazingly cool. Introducing, the Amazing Rolo’s Wii Loop Machine!

I can’t wait to check it out. I already am imagining myself dancing around the kitchen while making music for radio, with just the click of a button.

Check out the Demo videos here.

The Amazing Rolo’s Wii Loop Machine, part 1:

Part 2:

PS–I have to say it’s a little eerie how much my guitar teacher and his brother look alike.PPS-And NPR passed on this guy when he applied for a Kroc fellowship. I can’t believe they let this genius slip through their fingers. Or wait, maybe I can.

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