10 things to learn on July 17th

10 things to learn from the almighty WWW today:

What To Do When Your Laptop Is Stolen


I had a super great post all ready for you today. It was on astroturf marketing and was in response to New York being awesome and fining Lifestyle Fit $300,000 for their extravagant use of fake reviews. You probably would have loved it. It would have earned me the industry street cred I’ve been lacking all these years. But you’ll never read it. Why?

Because my laptop was stolen out of Rae’s house last night. So now you get a different kind of post.

Ready?

Add Images and Videos in PowerPoint – authorSTREAM Desktop


Insert YouTube videos and images from the web – right into your PowerPoint slides

Microcosm Week: How E. coli Sees The Future | The Loom | Discover Magazine


In my book Microcosm, I took great pleasure in all the things that something as tiny as E. coli can do. It can survive in frozen soils and stomach acid. It can can build intricate tails which it can then spin hundreds of times a second in order to swim. It can navigate away from the bad and towards the good. It can protect itself from overheating by making just enough protective proteins it needs, with thermostat-like precision. It can survive starvation by folding its DNA into a crystalline sandwich and powering down for months, even years in some cases. It can build microbial cities out of goo, and even commit suicide to help its fellow E. coli survive.

Yet I may have underestimated the brainless intelligence of E. coli. It may even be able to predict the future.

The Wonderful World of Big Science – Neatorama


For most of its history, science has always been done by individual or at best a small group of scientists. World War II changed that: during the war, government-sponsored laboratories employing thousands of scientists sprung up to do large-scale research on weapons and technology. Since then, scientific research has entered a new era dubbed "Big Science".

Whether "big" science is any better than "small" science is a matter of controversy. Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory Alvin Weinberg (who coined the term "Big Science" in the 1960s) defended the organization and big-budget financing of Big Science as the only way to continue research into progressively more complex scientific matters. On the other hand, science historian Paul Forman posited that defense-related funding by the government shifted the focus in physics from basic to applied research.

Twitter Tips


This week I finished writing a series called the 12 Days of Twitter. I posted them on my personal blog, www.calilewis.me. The series covered the tips, tricks, dos and don’ts of Twitter. Here’s a link to each of the posts:

Introduction to the 12 Days of Twitter
Day 1: The Secret Code: What are all those initials and symbols?
Day 2: Use TweetDeck to Manage Conversations
Day 3: Share Your Funny Anecdotes While They’re Still Funny
Day 4: Follow Responsibly
Day 5: 3 Newbie Mistakes Made by New Tweeters
Day 6: Use Twitter Search to Connect and Find
Day 7: Twitter Mobile
Day 8: Five Awesome Things You Can Do with Twitter
Day 9: Mix It Up!
Day 10: If You’re Not a TweetDeck, You Might Be a Seesmic
Day 11: Twitter for Prizes and Profit
Day 12: Schedule Tweets in Advance

How to Behave: New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans


ALA | AASL Best Web sites for Teaching and Learning Top 25 Award


The "Top 25" Web sites foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration. They are free, Web-based sites that are user friendly and encourage a community of learners to explore and discover.

101 Killer Wordpress Plugins to Meet Anyone’s Needs – Webitect


Wordpress is easily the best and most robust blogging platform available today. Part of the reason for the success and “staple” status of Wordpress is due to the availability of thousands of plugins that can take your blogging experience from novice to pro overnight.

Thanks to the Wordpress community, there has probably been a plugin (or 6) developed for nearly every problem/situation/need that has ever arisen when it comes to using Wordpress.

I’ve decided to assemble and organize a list of 101 Wordpress plugins that can help take you from a rookie blogger to a professional one in no time at all. Taking advantage of some of the awesome plugins that are available can really make a difference in how you blog and can boost productivity and efficiency instantly. I hope you enjoy the list below, and at one point in time, I think I’ve used every single one of these. Have fun!

A Future For Work-Life Balance – The Atlantic Business Channel


Most people who have worked in corporate America are probably very familiar with the term work-life balance. Probably only a fraction of those people have actually experienced it. The Wall Street Journal today reports that former General Electric CEO, and all-around business guru, Jack Welch thinks work-life balance is a fiction — if you want to be at the top of your game. I think Welch is right for his generation, but as technology continues to advance, so should work-life balance.

Eggs, Milk, Bread – the World’s First Grocery API


The third largest retailer in the world, Tesco, a grocery-and-more chain largely in the UK, will soon unveil a REST API for its online store (Tesco API profile). Developers will be able to search products, as well as get nutritional information, such as how many calories are in a serving of crisps or biscuits.

The most innovative part of the upcoming API is its authentication of customers, providing developer access to a virtual shopping cart. Included are the customer’s favorites, which could be used for recommendations, or a quick ordering interface.

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