mrweaver's blog

The Food and Drug Administration has launched a single Web page that provides safety information for prescription drugs. The site includes information in a range of categories including:

• Drug Labeling
• Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS)
• Studies and Clinical Trials of Approved Products Required by FDA or Agreed to by the Application Holder
• Registries and Clinical Trials
• Latest Safety Information
• Using Medicines Safely

By launching this single page, the FDA has made this information much easier to find.

I had the pleasure to give a presentation to the Northeast Ohio PC Club (NEOPC) about ebooks and audiobooks.

I discussed not only the library's Netlibrary service, but also ebook readers and audio book devices.

IMDb.com (the Internet Movie Database) is offering a selection of full-length movies and TV episodes that you can watch for free.

When you search for a tv series, look for the phrase "episode list." You can click on that to see all available episodes. Not all series are complete, but there are more than 6,000 tv series episodes and motion pictures.

The Future of the Internet: and how to stop it by Jonathan Zittrain

The author argues that the Internet has moved away from "generative" technologies: democratizing, do-it-yourself technologies that encourage innovation.

Now, with explosive growth in the use of iPhones, Blackberries, Xboxes and other "tethered" devices--Web-connected technologies whose development are strictly controlled by their manufacturers--the power of the personal computer, and the ability of the end user to express him/herself, will be diminished in the future.

Zittrain writes: "...the Internet's generative characteristics primed it for extraordinary success--and now position it for failure."

Generative technologies develop by the interest/passion of their creators, as did the Internet: but then the Internet went mainstream. More corporate interests have found ways to tap into it, but control little pieces of it for themselves.

A provocative book.

Doodlebuzz.com brings a different approach to news aggregators/news search engines.

After you enter your search terms, you draw lines to which the search results are attached.

The site is fun and with as clean as interface as your artistic skills can provide.

Genealogy buffs may be interested in a new program from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service.

This fee-based program enables genealogists to access naturalization and immigration records.

Tineye.com is a promising and innovative image search engine.

Currently in beta (not ready for prime time), TinEye doesn't use keyword searches. Instead, you upload a picture and TinEye tells you where it appears on the Web.

Here are some same searches.

I came across this specialized search engine: PDF Search Engine. With this engine, you can search Websites for PDFs (portable document format).

PDF Search Engine will search all kinds of Websites, including forum/message board sites.

VCDB from Punctuative.com, which stands for "Venture Capital Database," is a free search tool for the venture capital industry.

Search by name (firm, or individual), location, or by the amount of assets under management.

G.ho.st, the Global Hosted Operating System, is a free, Web-based operating system and desktop computing environment available from any computer with an Internet connection.

You get the first 3GB of email storage and 5GB of data storage for free.

There are a number of hosted services and applications, which you can read about here.