January 28, 2008 by Steve.

scanR is a service that helps you capture information contained in whiteboards, documents, and business cards. You simply use your cell phone camera or digital camera to take clean photos of whiteboards, paper documents, and business cards. If you use your camera phone, you send the picture via MMS (also called Multimedia Messaging, PIX Messaging, or Picture Mail) or e-mail to scanR.

To send an MMS, take a photo, select the option to send the photo via MMS, address the message to doc@scanR.com for documents, wb@scanR.com for whiteboards, or bc@scanR.com for business cards, and send it. Most phones take less than one minute to upload the image. Larger images always give better results, so set your phone to take the largest possible image (biggest width and height) to send to scanR. If you’re using a digital camera, be sure to save it as a JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg) file and send it via e-mail to scanR.

You will receive via e-mail a PDF file of the photo with the text converted, if possible. scanR currently has a free version, scanR Trial, as well as a premium paid version, scanR Pro. The premium version permits unlimited uploads and removes all advertising from its processed images. scanR Pro offers two plans: unlimited use for $2.99 monthly or $29.90 annually, or 40 uploads for $9.99.

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January 7, 2008 by Steve.

A survey by Liberty Mutual Group and Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) showed that teens considered sending text messages via cell phones to be their biggest driving distraction. Of the teens surveyed, 37% said that text messaging was extremely or very distracting, while 20% said that they were distracted by their emotional states, and 19% said that having friends in the car was distracting. A January 2007 survey by Nationwide found that 19% of motorists say they text message while driving.

The federal government estimates that 30% of all crashes in the United States involve driver distraction. Inattentive driving accounted for 6.4% of crash fatalities in 2003 (the latest data available), according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. While cell phones and text messaging top the list, distractions also include radios, palm pilots, laptops, navigational aides, eating, drinking, grooming, reading, writing, television watching, and attending to children. In November, New Jersey became the second state after Washington to ban driving while texting.

Many companies are now establishing cell phone usage policies because of their concern that they may be held liable for accidents caused by their employees while driving and conducting work-related conversations on cell phones. Some policies state that employees can conduct business over the phone as long as they pull over to the side of the road or into a parking lot. Other companies have completely banned the use of all wireless devices in the car.

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January 2, 2008 by Steve.

Grey Googlers is the title given to a recent article in USAToday describing the growing number of older people who are turning hobbies into a source of income thanks to Google.

Jerry Alonzy is one example. He created a career as an independent handyman at the mercy of weather patterns near Hartford, Conn. He always made a decent income that rarely grew. Then he found Google, and his life changed. Alonzy, 57, now makes $120,000 a year from the ads Google places on his Natural Handyman Web site. In return for placing its ads on Web sites and blogs, Google pays Web publishers every time one of its ads are clicked. Those clicks help keep Alonzy and his wife living comfortably and talking about moving to Hawaii. All he needs is a laptop and a high-speed Internet connection, and he can live anywhere.

Alonzy can make this money because of Google’s AdSense program, introduced in 2003. Google created AdSense as a way to expand beyond search listings and onto hundreds of thousands of Web sites and blogs. Now anyone with a Web site can add the familiar “Ads by Google” text box somewhere on their site.

Folks who make the most money put in long hours setting up their site and feeding it lots of content. Google’s computers scan the content on Web pages to match it with appropriate advertisers. Articles on Alonzy’s Web site about how to keep mice away might result in ads for pest control services, while a recipe for turkey casserole at Cooks Recipes might generate ads for diet tips and beauty makeovers.

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