Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Create MP3 Files From Text in Emails and Web Pages

Source: http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/convert-email-text-to-mp3-files/2140/

create mp3 text files Vozme is web based tool that turns any snippet of text into an MP3 audio file that you can either listen online or download to your local hard drive.

You just have to copy the text from a web page or an email and paste it inside the Vozme text box.

While there are tons of solutions that convert text to spoken words, what I liked about Vozme is the clutter free interface and the fact that it runs inside the browser without requiring any downloads.

Bloggers can easily integrate the Vozme feature in the site so visitors can either listen to your full blog posts or they can select a portion of text and have Vozme narrate it like a speech.

Vozme.com - Accepts Spanish, English and Italian languages. Thanks Jane.

Create MP3 Files From Text in Emails and Web Pages - Digital Inspiration

Africa: small-scale generator powered by sugar and yeast (video)

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/221909009/africa-smallscale-ge.html

Afrigadget recently blogged about an inexpensive power source for Africa created by Dr. Cedrick Ngalande in Malawi. Today, the blog points to videos of the invention in action:

The rotor moves slowly most of the times but does pick up at certain intervals. This process continues for many hours. Since the rotor is quite heavy (and hence more inertia) a small geared DC motor can be connected to the rotor to generate power for cell phones, $100 laptops, and other things in Africa. People can leave this thing to charge their phones/$100 laptops overnight.
Basically we have two chambers on either end of the rotating (pivoted) rod. The arrangement of the chambers is such that on either side of the rod, one chamber sits on top of the other (this is important). At the beginning of this operation, I fill the bottom chamber on each side with a yeast sugar solution. Each bottom chamber is always locked under pressure by special valves. Due to pressure the solution starts moving from a bottom chamber into its respective top chamber. Note that by moving upwards, the fluid's center of gravity shifts, resulting in a mass imbalance which causes the wobbling.

Link to post with video.

Sleeveface pool on Flickr

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/222441038/sleeveface-pool-on-f.html

Sleeveface is my new favorite Flickr pool. There are more than 700 examples and they're a total laff riot. Seen here are contributions from John Rostron (left) and Godesinge (right). Link (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)

AT&T hands out free hotspot access to broadband customers, ups its bandwidth

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/222466758/

Filed under: Wireless, Networking

AT&T, continuing to be the open, giving, and free-wheeling loony that it is, has decided to bestow cost-free access to its 10,000+ WiFi hotspots (for its broadband subscribers, that is). Effective immediately, if you're tossing money the company's way for any high-speed access, you can hop onto wireless networks in retail shops, restaurants, and airports free of charge... provided they're AT&T networks. We know its a lot to handle, but get this -- the telco has also upped the speeds of its U-verse service to a whopping 10 Mbps downstream / 1.5 Mbps upstream configuration, undoubtedly warming the hearts of AT&T subscribers hankering for a little more bandwidth to sustain their ever-increasing 'net needs. It's like the holidays all over again. Read - AT&T To Deliver Free Access To Nation's Largest Wi-Fi Network Read - AT&T Boosts Bandwidth Choices and Speed with 10 Mbps Offer for U-verse Customers

AnyTV Streams Internet Video to Your Desktop [Featured Windows Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/221360527/anytv-streams-internet-video-to-your-desktop

Windows only: The free AnyTV streaming video player gives you access to dozens of internet media streams (television, radio, and other video) from one interface for easy viewing at your computer. AnyTV isn't quite as slick as our favorite Joost, but for TV junkies, it does offer an eclectic collection of streams from around the world. I had trouble getting some channels to play in AnyTV, but did wind up watching a bit of Eyewitness News while testing. After the jump, see a full screenshot of AnyTV in action.