Internet Resources

What's in a name?

For goodness sake, what is a lulu? Have you ever heard the phrase, "Boy, that was a real lulu!?" A lulu is an old term for 'a remarkable or outstanding person, object, or idea.' Enter Lulu.com...an open marketplace for digital content. Lulu.com was founded in 2002 by Canadian, Bob Young, also the co-founder of Red Hat, the world's leading open source company. Lulu is the web's premier independent publishing marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers. It is the only place on the web where you can publish, sell and buy any and all things digital---books, music, comics, photographs and movies. Lulu.com provides the tools and leaves control of the content in the hands of the people who created it. You can use Lulu to publish and sell any kind of digital content and no one will ask you to change ANYTHING. Lulu.com is fast, easy, free, you maintain control and 80% of the profits.

Lulu.com is a better publishing model than the current industry publishing. In the conventional publishing model, the publisher is in control of the author's content and is oftentimes, the "bottleneck". And unfortunately, many good books never get published. J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was turned away by several publishers before one showed any interest . Last but not least, the author may see only 10% of the revenue from sales after the traditional publisher has deducted all of the expenses; an author publishing their creation using Lulu.com, however, will keep 80% of the revenue. Lulu.com does not print the book until someone buys the book. This service is a huge value to anyone who has a book, music, movies, etc. and an audience who would benefit from that particular subject matter and media. Lulu.com has over 30,000 titles and is growing by over 1,000 titles a month. Lulu.com is also tied into Amazon.com so that you can buy Lulu's books through Amazon which means you can also get an Amazon ranking.

Lulu.com is also offering downloads of their books. One of their most popular has been Matthew Basham's inexpensive download on CISCO, Learning by Doing: Cisco Certified Network Administrator (CCNA) Lab Manual version 4 volume 2, eBook. He also has bound books on the same topic. Most of the successful authors to date on Lulu.com are authors who have both content and an audience.

Lulu.com sells calendars and DVD's. Thus, you can sell your software package, your videos or your movie through Lulu.com. This will be yet another option for the next generation of movie makers.

Lulu.com is a key element of the explosion of content on the internet. Google, Amazon and eBay have NOT cornered the Internet. The Internet can still be viewed as the Wild West; there is lawlessness and a lack of measurement. The next generation of publishing is here!

Photography

Digital Photography Review has all the latest in digital photography and imaging news, reviews of the latest digital cameras and accessories, the most active discussion forums, a large selection of sample images, a digital camera buyers guide, side-by-side comparisons and the most comprehensive database of digital camera features and specifications.

The Imaging Resource offers the most comprehensive, informative, and factually accurate digital camera information available anywhere. Here you will find the latest digital camera , scanner and printer reviews as well as our exclusive Comparometer image comparison database and our unique Camera Finder.

icon The Comparometer is an excellent component for analyzing camera references side by side. I highly recommend utilizing this feature before your camera purchase, especially if skin tones are important to you. This feature will leave no doubt which camera is best for you!

Looking for a different dictionary?

Then check out ObjectGraph. It has three dictionaries; classical (regular), FOLDOC (Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing), and Elements (Periodic Table of Elements). As you begin to type in a term, ObjectGraph starts to cycle through a list of words and the dictionary definitions. The site also includes a rather comprehensive page explaining how it works and a blog which gives information relative to its development.

Need to know what your IP address?

Here are a couple of sites which will determine your IP address:

Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? TinyUrl.COM will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings. Visit TinyUrl.COM and try it out.

Test your firewall with Steve Gibson's Shields Up!

If you are a parent and are having trouble reading your children's text messages, you may want to check out TransL8it! TransL8it! is a free, translation engine and dictionary for SMS lingo, text, acronyms and emoticons.

Bitmap? MIME? Avatar? Are you confused by some of the Internet's terms and acronyms? The Internet Literacy Consultants' Glossary of Internet Terms makes it easy to look up any Internet term. Additional glossaries:

NetGlos - The Multilingual Glossary of Internet Terminology
This is a basic multi-lingual Internet glossary (in Chinese, Dutch/Flemish, English, German, Greek, French, Hebrew, Italian, Maori, Norwegian, Portuguese and Spanish)
Marketing Manager's Plain English Internet Glossary
This glossary defines the Internet from a marketer's perspective. You will find some terms and concepts not mentioned elsewhere, such as 'cybermarketing' and 'browser wars.'

If you are looking for a site to assist your children with school, check out Fact Monster. Contents include an atlas, almanac, dictionary, encyclopedia and areas of interest including World and News, U.S., People, Word Wise, Science, Math, Sports, Cool Stuff, Games and Quizzes and Homework Center. Examples of the contents on the "U.S." page, for example, has information on Laws and Rights, U.S. Geography, U.S. States and Flags and Maps, Year by Year 1900-2002, Speeches and Documents, Timelines, etc.

Beta News - Read About It Here First! Want the newest information on upcoming hardware and software? I highly recommend if you check out this site if you want cutting edge news.