Pazpar2

Pazpar2 is a metasearching middleware webservice featuring merging, relevance ranking, record sorting, and faceted results.

Repositories Support Project (RSP)

Repositories Support Project (RSP) is a useful resource to guide establishing, maintaining and promoting Open Access repositories.

Recent article cautioning over-reliance on Impact Factors

Here is yet another article cautioning over reliance on Impact Factors for measuring research impact.

[0902.2183] A principal component analysis of 39 scientific impact measures

..scientific impact is a multi-dimensional construct that can not be adequately measured by any single indicator, although some measures are more suitable than others. The commonly used citation Impact Factor is not positioned at the core of this construct, but at its periphery, and should thus be used with caution..

novo|seek

novo|seek is an another search engine for PubMed. It claims to retrieve more relevant references with ability to fine tune search query.

RSS and Libraries

RSS and Its Use In Libraries

View more presentations from Sukhdev Singh. (tags: rss libraries)

Annual Review of ReadWrite web technology in India - State of Innovation in India: 2009

ReadWriteWeb has a latest post calling it annual review of State of Innovation in India: 2009. Zoho; DimDim; Mkhoj; iYogi; TutorVista; Ubona; Mscriber; Obopay and Naukri finds mention in it.

MixedInk

MixedInk is a Free Collaborative Writing Tool.

Web application for Data collaboration

Swirrl is a web application that allows to store, share, edit and analyze information.

zSHARE.net

zSHARE - Free Image, Video, Audio, Flash and File Hosting

.."With zSHARE you can upload files, images, videos, audio and flash for free. Simply use the upload form below and start sharing! You can also use zSHARE as your personal file storage: backup your data and protect your files"..

Why Google Chrome won't be my Browser

Downloaded and installed Google Chrome. Installing was done without any problem. Just for the last step - it required to close down my Firefox which was installing it. It wanted to copy its settings. Fine, closed the Firefox, but installation pop up of Chrome was refusing to die. The "x" was inactive. Anyway killed it and started the Chrome. Entered Gmail URL, it opens up a pop-up for Proxy Authentication. Ok done, but noticed that it does not provide for saving the authentication which normally other browsers do. So every time I needed to start a session, it prompts for authentication. Very irritating!

The technology behind Google Chrome has been explained through a 38 pages cartoon booklet. This way of explaining is quite innovative. So I was quick to learn that big advantage of Chrome lies in multiprocessing. If a "Tab" gets struck, the whole Chrome need not be killed.

However, I still can not afford to shift from Firefox to Chrome. I am used to many 'add-ons' or Plug-ins available for Firefox. Hope such add-ons are also available for Chrome in near future.

Koha and Delhi Public Library

Delhi Public Library is implementing Koha for its OPAC. Tried to have a look but could not enter the OPAC. It is restricted to Library Members only. Anyway, a good begining for one of the largest Public Libraries of India.

midomi.com

Search for Music Using Your Voice by Singing or Humming, View Music Videos, Join Fan Clubs, Share with Friends, Be Discovered and Much More For Free! - midomi.com

Diigo

Diigo - Web Highlighter and Sticky Notes, Social Bookmarking and Annotation, Social Information Network!

ImageOx

Free Photo sharing & Image Hosting with ImageOX

..ImageOx provides free image sharing/hosting with a number for EXCLUSIVE features such as instant autorun CD Flash presentation, image galleries (albums), image slideshows, instant folder creation (image series), personal profiles and image management area with free user registration..

PDF File support now available in Google Docs

Google Docs now has added support for PDF Files. I you select
Upload a File option, you will notice the following towards the bottom right hand position:

"PDF Files (up to 10 MB from your computer, 2 MB from the web)"

The uploaded PDF file is shown as image. You can print it or share it. So, editing is not available yet.

English - Hindi Dictionary for Java enabled Mobile Phones

English - Hindi Dictionary is a freely downloadable J2ME application. It can be installed on a Java enabled mobile phone. May be helpful for visitors to India and as well for those who would like to learn English.

Google AJAX Feed API

Google AJAX Feed API - Dynamic Feed Control Wizard - allows to embed a Dynamic Feed Control on web page.

Netvibes is giving away its technology

Netvibes that enables meshups of widgets, RSS Feeds, emails, instant messengers etc. at one place is now giving away its technology from Netvibes.org site.

ThoughtMesh

.."ThoughtMesh is an unusual model for publishing and discovering scholarly papers online. It gives readers a tag-based navigation system that uses keywords to connect excerpts of essays published on different Web sites"..

My first encounter with Google Health

Google Health is now a reality. On visiting it, I landed on an agreement page. Apart from other usual terms and conditions, I had to agree to authorize Google to share my health information in my profile. However, it appears that I can choose with whom it could be shared.

This could even contain sensitive information relating to the following:

* HIV or AIDS
* Mental illness or any mental health condition
* Alcohol or substance abuse
* Sexually transmitted diseases
* Pregnancy
* Abortion or other family planning
* Genetic tests or genetic diseases

This authorization also covers any record that a doctor or other health care provider may supply to Google Health. The good thing is that I can withdraw this authorization by deleting my profile or using options available in Google Health.

Health profile could be created by entering information relating to Drug interactions, Age, sex, height, Medical Conditions, Medications, Allergies, Procedures, Test results, Immunizations etc. Health profile can be populated from very user-friendly search tool or from alphabetic listings. Diseases can be added from alphabetical list. The items in the list are with “reference” links. The “reference” here means special pages with brief but excellent description of the disease. These contain information on symptoms, treatment, prognosis, tests, prevention, complications, when to consult a doctor etc. These pages are supplemented with what Google is best at. These are search results from Google Scholar, related groups and search trends. These pages are illustrated with diagrams and pictures.

One can even import medical records from independent service providers offering personal health services. It has the following in the listing. Very likely, this is going to expand in future.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Cleveland Clinic MyChart
Longs Drug Stores
Medco
MinuteClinic from CVS Caremark
Quest Diagnostics
RxAmerica
Walgreens Pharmacy

One can also explore health services for medical records. The following are listed at present:

Cleveland Clinic MyConsult
ePillBox.info
Heart Attack Risk Calculator
HxTI VaccineView
iHealth, powered by Medem
Lifestar
LIVESTRONG.COM Health Center
MediConnect Global
MyCareTeam MCT-Diabetes
MyDailyApple

One can also find a doctor and add to medical contacts. It also has tools to alert and send you notices like drug interactions depending upon information in the profile.

My overall impression is that it could become very useful tool for keeping better personal medical histories and records. As expected, presently it can be fully exploited by people residing in U.S. Hopefully more and more service providers from other countries would be associating with Google Health.