PSP Kanji v2.0 Alpha

Sammy Fatnassi's PSP Kanji v2.0 Alpha released last week. The homebrew software teaches you the basic Japanese Kanji, Hirigana, Katakana characters. Homebrew software like this makes me want to ask my brother to return my PSP, assuming he hasn't upgraded to SONY firmware that has patched all the bootloader holes. Interestingly, Sammy was a programmer on the Game Advance "Fear Factor" game.

ZIPskinny Beta

Census data is a treasure trove of information. Uncle Sam's web interface to the data has always been kinda shitty. I remember messing with the data to check the oft-asserted observation here in DC that single men vastly outnumber the single women. (Turns out DC men do outnumber the women by a big margin in some high income zip codes in the 20-29 bracket, eg 20036 - Dupont Circle, but nowhere near the 3:1 or worse as claimed. I suppose when you don't find the men you want, the ratio could feel 10:1.) ZIPskinny presents a wealth of demographic data on one page for any given zip code and does comparisons for all dozens of adjoining zip codes for selected data. Very cool.

Glinkr

cogmap and geni ajax charts on the web for serious use. French Glinkr.net opens ajax charts / mindmaps to the masses for general use. Natrificial had a java applet version of thebrain for the web but that product seems to have been repositioned for enterprise knowledge management (BrainEKP). I'm not sure if the general American web climate is intellectual enough to use glinkr to diagram arguments on their blogs. glinkr doesn't support importing or exporting of maps though the latter is on the roadmap.

HungryFlix Beta

HungryFlix the online marketer and distributor of independently produced video targeted at portable media players relaunched a beta release today. The site doesn't seem quite ready for business yet. It is filled with inventory but none of it seems available to download. The price per item ranges from $.99 to $1.99. Payment is through paypal.

MSN Mobile Beta

MSN Mobile beta launches. This is Microsoft's attempt to be the off-deck portal for content. I think it's only as relevant as the bundled online services are relevant. If you rely on live mail or msn spaces then this could be your thing. I use the best of breed services through the mini-opera browser -- which don't include live mail or spaces -- on my Samsung A900 so I'm gonna skip this offering.

inDplay

New to me, but reported last month in BusinessWeek. It bills as itself as "the online marketplace for film, tv, and video rights." They have 334 videos in the inventory. Recently sold are the 1997 Slamdance debuted documentary Timothy Leary: the Art of Dying and animation Marco Polo - Return to Xanadu. Still available is the 18 minute experimental animation The Tribe: An Unorthodox, Unauthorized History of the Jewish People and the Barbie Doll. Come and license it before someone else does!

Flash 9 for Linux Out of Beta

Vista doesn't install on my apparently unsupported PC, so I have to buy a new box... Or will I migrate to Ubuntu on the desktop? Hmmm. If I do, I'm comforted to know that Flash 9 for Linux is out of beta. Download here.