The Intermission

Microsoft Announces Office Live Workspace - Like a “SharePoint Lite”

Ars Technica reports on a new “software plus services” offering for Microsoft Office. Office Live Workspace is basically just 250 MB of online storage that’s exceptionally well integrated with Microsoft Office. If you’ve ever shared files that are stored on SharePoint, I expect this will be very similar. This will be more notable if I find out that OLW provides all the nice check in/check out/versioning features of SharePoint. If so, this is a nifty little service.

I’m not quick to praise Microsoft, but SharePoint is a pretty nice piece of software. Well, “nice” might not be the right word. It’s extremely powerful and extremely complex. For a lot of applications, though, it’s an obvious choice over other web portal offerings. I’m hopeful that OLW will be simpler in proportion to is lesser feature set.

Use Coke’s MyCokeRewards to Get a Free Coke

All you have to do is enter a special code and tell them where you ship your free 20 oz. Nice This one comes courtesy of TechBargains.

European Finance Group is Worried about the US Dollar

Understandably, the leader of the G7 (now called G8?) is concerned about the declining value of the dollar. An article in the International Herald Tribune explains his plea to the US to do something to reverse this trend. I’m sure this plea is based on the interests of his and other countries, and less based on his concern for the US. But it still shows that other countries are worried about a recession in the US. And if they’re worried for their own sake, maybe we should be worried for ours.

Alternate Sleep Patterns (or, How I Got Through College)

Do you remember that Seinfeld episode where Kramer learns about how DaVinci didn’t sleep at night, but instead took little naps throughout the day, and then he tries the same technique for himself? I actually used this technique fairly often in college. If I had to stay up late to finish a project, I’d prepare by taking a 30 minute nap and then washing my face. All in all, I’d say it worked pretty well. But, in retrospect, I have no idea how I got by with so little sleep in college.

Well, Wired has a how-to page that describes how to Cheat on the Need to Sleep. Apparently, there are legitimate techniques that are intended for use in situations that require people to be awake for long periods of time. For example, if you’re in a long distance solo boat race. The techniques are similar to what Kramer tried, except a little more sophisticated. Here’s my favorite part of the article:

Scientists say that a successful midday nap depends on two things: timing and (no kidding) caffeine consumption. Experiments performed at Loughborough University in the UK showed that the sleep-deprived need only a cup of coffee and 15 minutes of shut-eye to feel amazingly refreshed.

1. Right before you crash, down a cup of java. The caffeine has to travel through your gastro-intestinal tract, giving you time to nap before it kicks in.

2. Close your eyes and relax. Even if you only doze, you’ll get what’s known as effective microsleep, or momentary lapses of wakefulness.

3. Limit your nap to 15 minutes. A half hour can lead to sleep inertia, or the spinning down of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which handles functions like judgment. This gray matter can take 30 minutes to reboot.

So what have you found online that’s interesting?