This afternoon I’ve been playing with a real fun annotation tool (at least fun compared with Microsoft Word). It’s called A.nnotate, and it’s one of the simplest tools I’ve encounter, letting you add small (or very large) notes, corrections, or scribblings that float on top of the document like tiny widgets.

By default the notes are anchored to where they’ve been put on the document, but you can simply move them about, or sort them on a one-page listing that’ll organize them by time or who wrote them.

Power users will get the most use of the small notes. You can re-color them one of 21 shades and give each one tags, either from a preselected list or by making your own. This is one of the simpler ways to organize corrections, things to delete, and additions, so whoever gets the document back can sort out what needs to be done and very easily turn it into a workflow.

In addition to Word docs and PDF files, the service works with entire Web pages. You can plug in any old URL and it will take a snapshot of the page in a similar fashion to Iterasi (review). These same notes will show up on a source list you maintain. Clicking on any of them will take you right to where you left the note on the saved page, which will stay the same even if the source content changes.

The service is free to use–to an extent. Each document you open costs credits. You get 150 free each month, and the standard document costs 5 credits a page. If you want to work on docs with others, and work on several more massive, multipage documents, there are premium plans that expand the amount of credits you’ve at up to 50,000 per month.

Other services in this space include Diigo (coverage), Evernote (coverage), Fleck (review), and TrailFire.

(Via Web Worker Daily via Lifehacker)

Leave notes on any bit of document, PDF, or Web page with A.nnotate. You can even add tags to each note and sort through them later.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Fore more visit Source: [webware]

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Microblogging service Twitter has reportedly closed a $15 million Series B funding round, according to Om Malik of GigaOM.

Malik estimates that it will bring the company’s valuation to about $80 million and that the round is led by a new investor rather than existing investor Union Square Ventures (…

Source [The social]

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Sam Newman is an analyst with the Energy and Resources Team at Rocky Mountain Institute.

For years, Hollywood has sold us images of futuristic houses filled with “smart” appliances. Think of the coffee machine that can make as many drinks as a Starbucks barista, the refrigerator that tells you when you’re out of milk, or the clothes drier that can speak.

Real attempts at such devices have long been constrained to trade shows and demonstration homes. These devices have been portrayed as artificially intelligent, user-friendly, and capable of two-way communication with us and other appliances.

Today’s smart appliances have a new benefit that goes far beyond novelty and will finally bring them to the shelves of Home Depot: energy efficiency. Their adoption will be part of a response to the important need to modernize the ways that we buy and consume electricity.

Appliances and electricity use

More than a third of electricity generated in the United States is used in households. Air conditioners use 16% of that electricity; refrigerators use another 14%. Hot water heaters and other home appliances — including clothes dryers and dish washers — consume an even more: 29%. Using existing technology, each of these machines can be made “smarter,” lessening our environmental impact.

Every time your air conditioner kicks on during a hot summer afternoon, it contributes to a bigger problem. When many air conditioners turn on at the same time, they force up the demand for power from the local utility, putting stress on the system.

To meet this demand, utilities rely on peak generating plants, which might only be used on the hottest days of the year. Power from these plants is carbon-intensive and pricey to generate.

The benefit of smart appliances

Smart appliances will respond to price signals from the grid to lessen these peak loads. Under a “real-time pricing” system, energy used during peak hours will cost more than energy used at night, when demand is low. This price structure allows residential energy users to optimize their energy usage habits to save energy and reduce emissions.

Imagine setting your air conditioner to save money by remaining off during weekday afternoon hours when power is costly. It would turn on in the late afternoon, so the home would still be cool when you returned from work.

Similarly, a clothes dryer could be programmed to an “economy” setting which would turn its heating element on and off to take advantage of the cheapest power rates. The dry cycle would take a bit more time, but it would grant the household to respond to variations in electricity supply.

For instance, if a cloud passed in front of the sun, reducing the output of a solar power array, the price of power would increase, signaling the dryer to turn off until the cloud moved away.

Studies have shown that consumers conserve energy when provided with real-time feedback and improved control systems via a personal or appliance smart meters. Just as vehicle owners drive more efficiently when provided with real-time fuel economy data, residences with smart meters use less electricity.

In a current study in Washington state, overall energy usage fell 10% following the implementation of smart water heaters and dryers. If used nationwide, these technologies could save $70 billion and eliminate the construction of 30 new coal-fired power plants over 20 years.

Smart appliances in the real world

The next step toward getting smart appliances in each of our homes is taking these pilot programs to scale.

In March, Xcel energy, one of the United States’ largest utilities, selected Boulder, Colorado, for an innovative smart city project.

Residences will be fitted with smart appliances, and the utility infrastructure will be upgraded to enable real-time demand response and power pricing. Predicted benefits include lower peak demand on summer afternoons, reduced overall carbon emissions, and improved system reliability.

Appliances that can speak back to you are unlikely outside of Hollywood fantasies any time soon. But smart appliances that save money and reduce carbon emissions are not science fiction. These technologies offer a market-based approach to energy efficiency that will help reduce your environmental impact.

For more information see:

• Gridwise Program at Pacific Northwest National Lab
• Xcel Energy’s Smart Grid City project

For more visit Source:[green.yahoo]

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LONDON (MarketWatch) — Moody’s Investors Service late Thursday downgraded the senior unsecured debt rating of American International Group, Inc. to Aa3 from Aa2. The rating bureau has also downgraded the ratings of several subsidiaries, including those whose ratings have relied on material support from the parent company, as well as those with significant exposure to the US residential mortgage market. […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net

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