Take that stack of unread Google Alerts, all that time spent scrolling through results that aren’t relevant. Forget it all. Instead, look forward to smart alerts with Smartlerts.

Smartlerts starts out like Google Alerts. But while Google Alerts stay dumb, Smartlerts keep track of the links you follow in the daily emails, and tunes the results accordingly. In just a few days, you start getting results that are relevant, with none of the crud.

Sit back and let the engine tune itself, or give a hand: you can mark down particularly off-key alerts, and mark up the ones that are spot on. Meanwhile, the smart alert engine keeps an algorithmic eye on your browsing, anonymously learning your friends, fans and total strangers.

Eventually, Smartlerts start to suggest relevant results that you might be interested in - looking beyond your search terms to the context they occur in.

You just annexed a bit of the web and used it to extend your brain. Keep on top of the stuff you care about, with smarter alerts.

The fastest and most insightful notification service for turbulence in the cloud.

We’ve all been there: just as you hit post, the dreaded Tumblr error message. Or the basecamp Oops. And don’t even think of a Gmail error or a Facebook fail. Shaking, you head to the status blog. Which invariably says “all systems go”.

Rather than hitting refresh and getting irate, just head to Is _________ down? We listen to twitter all day long, comparing instances of worried tweets to the regular baseline. If anyone of those essential services falters, the tweets are half-way around the world before the status blog gets its boots on. We’ll be listening.

We honestly listen all the time. Our baseline is pretty good. We can tell you the probability that things are really down bad, rather than a local glitch. With Is ___________ down?, you can breathe easy. Let other people tweet in panic, and let us learn from it.

You’re wondering what happens if Twitter goes down? Funny guy.

The excellent Hoomos Alsi on Kenmare will serve their 100,000th order any day now.

Here are some charts —

Got receipts? Let me know the # at the bottom.

Curious about Lakh?

(From an old discussion with TA,  posting now after seeing the wonderful mapnificent.net).

BikeOut is a tool to show you what’s accessible by lane/other facility cycling, vs regular direct routes. It shows how the current cycle infrastructure brings some places closer, or how there are islands of difficult-to-access places now made accessible by new links. 

Here’s a demo: 

Red shows the fastest route (within 1 mile for d/town Bk, 8 mins for Union Sq). Green shows the same time/distance for the safest routes..

Thump thump. There’s a lot of data out there. Right now, someone sent a geolocated tweet from over the road. Thump thump. And you’re sitting in a tax block that has three DOB violations, one outstanding road surface issue and an unresolved request for a bike rack. Thump thump. Someone upstairs in your building is photographing local stores and putting them on twitter, and just last week a volunteer group came by and uploaded details of your street trees to a webmap. Thump thump.

The Happening City map keeps an ear open for new data, all the time. As geographic information gets published, the Happening City absorbs it. Each update or new source is a mini heartbeat, and collectively the pulses of new information show what’s happening around you.

Zoom out, and the map really becomes informative. Each time new data is released, the map updates all five mile grid cells covered by that information. Compare places to get a sense of the scale of open data that we’re generating. If content generating, open places are liveable, find the hotspots on the map and move there. Keep zooming, and the grid resolution becomes coarser. You’re looking at the pulse of cities, regions, society, humanity.

Thousands of data layers go into the Happening City map, from federal datasets to local crowdsourced info. It’s a dynamic artwork, and an essential tool to measure the vibrancy of cities and regions. Wizzy algorithms plus some whizzier humans keep the inventory up to date and wise to the latest feeds and downloads. Everything gets republished as a data feed — we’re smart enough to avoid including that in the aggregation, could lead to a black hole.

Really Sleepy Syndication helps you stay on top of your RSS and blog feeds — while you sleep.

Overwhelmed by your Google Reader inbox? Unable to keep up with the volume of your network’s twitter updates? Are you staying awake just to stay connected?

Really Sleepy Syndication will help. Import your Google Reader feeds, plug in your earphones, and go to sleep. Wake up eight hours later, filled with insightful analysis, witty comments and the latest buzz (and Buzz) from your network.

It’s RSS while you ZZZ. Really Sleepy Syndication waits until you’re asleep, then drip feeds the day’s updates into your ears. The latest text-to-speech guarantees accurate and easy-to-absorb renditions. Any links in your messages are followed and summarized, so you get the complete picture*. The soft murmurs continue for a few hours, or until your feed runs out.

Download today, be rested and well informed.

* actual pictures only available with additional headset extension.

Noteworthy turns your precious Moleskines, Muji notebooks and Staples pads into tagged, indexed graphics on your desktop, iPhone and iPad. Combine the beauty and flexibility of a paper notebook with a intuitive and powerful digital book editor.

Ever wished you could look something up in an old notebook? Are you carrying two full notebooks, just in case you need to refer back? How easily can you find those initial sketches from a couple of months ago? Have you ever backed up those notes?

How Noteworthy turns your old notebooks into essential reference materials:

1. Sign up on the Noteworthy website. Print off the mailing label, and drop your notebook into the mail. Buy a three notebook deal for the best rate. We’ll even send you a fresh notebook.
2. The Noteworthy team scan the notebook, and alert you by email. This process takes a few days, but it’s worth the wait.
3. Go online to browse the notebook pages in crisp high-resolution images. Tag any page section with keywords - maybe a project number, or client.
4. Download the Noteworthy app to your mobile device, and browse your notebooks anywhere. Search, tag, share, forward as pdf to email.

The notebook pages aren’t just images, they’re like a hypertext-enabled super version of your printed notebook. Noteworthy’s cursive script recognition identifies and tags of titles and dates. It detects and tags changes in pen or density of text, helping you divide the notebook into logical chunks. And images are extracted from pages, making it easy to find that critical chart or diagram.

Noteworthy isn’t the end for your filled-up notebooks. It’s the beginning. Keep annotating. Make links to other pages, add tags, link to external documents or embed the pages in other places.  Noteworthy remembers these layers of data and presents them on the page, alongside your original scribbles.

Meanwhile, carry on taking notes in your current notebook. It’ll become Noteworthy soon enough.

Take one large party-able space with four projection screens, one per wall. Hook up each screen to Chatroulette with a webcam pointing inwards for each one.

Throw a party, and the random webcam people can join us. Like a flash mob but with no control and no guarantee of finding it. Ignore the screens, or chat, or click Next…

Who doesn’t like naked strangers at their party?