Most people are familiar with the social networking site Twiiter which allows you to post updates to your followers about what you’re doing.  Twitter limits these update messages to only 140 characters.

SMS Messaging is another popular form of communicating quickly with friends and family.  It also places a limit on the number of characters you can use for your message.  A text message is limited to 160 characters.

Today I learned of a web site “12-Seconds” which allows you to record video updates to your friends and family but the catch is like the other methods of communication I’ve mentioned, 12-Seconds places a time limit on how long your video message can be.  You guessed it, each message must be under 12 seconds long.

Here’s why 12-Seconds limits your messages.

Because anything longer is boring. The scientists here at the 12 seconds dodecaplex have conducted countless hours of research to determine the precise amount of time it takes for boredom or apathy to set in during typical Internet video viewing. Our patent pending Electro-Tear-Duct Prongers have determined that exactly 12 seconds of video is the ideal amount of time to keep anything interesting.

You record your 12-second messages directly on the 12-Seconds web site or via your mobile phone (you then e-mail it your special e-mail address.)

Check out 12-Seconds here, and see what you can record in only 12 seconds.

For alll you ebook enthusiasts, and for those who want to be, have we got a site for you.   OnlineCourses.org, a site dedicated to helping people find great online courses from online universities, has compiled a list of 100 useful e-book links to  help you find the course material you should read for that pesky English Lit class.  But, for those of us who just like to read e-books, its a great repository of all types of sites (free, paid and otherwise) where we can grab an e-book and read, read, read!

Thanks for our friends at The Gadgeteer for the heads up on this.

With all of the ups and downs of today’s economy, wouldn’t it be nice if we could get some help from the professionals?  Ways to save, invest and budget our money?  How about loans and investing strategies?  Now how about being able to get it via Twitter?

Mint.com, the popular online personal finance site has partnered with Twitter to provide Money Tweets.  Money Tweets are a way to receive advice and education on finances, as well as current news that can impact our financial future, all via the Twittersphere.

Mint.com’s Money Tweets includes five categories, allowing people to read whatever content most interests them:

• Topics – Collects information relating to budgets, saving, investment, loans, and retirement feeds.  These tweets are from the experts, such as the Wall Street Journal.
• Tweets about Mint.com – Tracks, in real-time, what people are saying about Mint.com in Twitter.
• Tweets from Mint.com - Updates followers on the latest from Mint.com.
• Questions – A question of the day.  A way to bring about discussion and brainstorming on a relevant topic.  Kind of a twitter whiteboard-like discussion.
• Popular – Keeps followers on top of hot financial topics.

To find out more, go to the Mint.com site.

Woot.com, is a very popular, ‘deal a day’ website that is known for having great prices for one item per day.  They stay on sale from midnight (West Coast Time) until midnight the next day or until they run out of stock.  Products tend to lean toward tech such as GPS, computers, etc but a variety is out there.

Since starting they’ve added

• kids.woot.com for kids oriented stuff
• sellout.woot.com which is basically a second daily deal but done in conjunction with Yahoo!.
• wine.woot.com … Self explanatory
• shirt.woot.com for daily cool shirts

There are numerous copycat websites, although none seem to have the quality of the deal they have and they don’t have the sense of humor woot does in their product listings.

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With Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Sony and smaller e-stores all vying for your dollars (and device support), how do you decide where to buy? There’s no price match guarantee with eBooks, and if you are platform agnostic, with no clear favorite site, where do you download that new bestseller you wanted?

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Charlie’s Playhouse is celebrating the 150th Anniversary of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species by offering 10 – 20% off their items when you ask your kids to answer one simple question. “What is Evolution?”

If you send in a video of your child answering the question, you can get 20% off Charlie’s Playhouse products; if you send in a written answer, you’ll get 10% off. This seems like a question that could get some interesting replies, doesn’t it? And what a simple way to start an educational discussion …

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Time to welcome another previously offline company to the wonderful world of the web! It’s hard to believe, but not everyone has always been on the web. Why is the launch of this particular website newsworthy on Gear Diary? Read on…

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I came across a new website out there today called Greensteal.com.  It is kind of like woot.com in that they have one deal a day; the only difference is that the stuff Greensteal sells is all good for the environment.  All of the products concentrate on things like saving water, electricity or even gas.  Just like woot, there is only one product per day, and it’s only available for a limited time. So now you can save money and save the environment without putting a huge dent in your wallet.

Today’s deal is a Showerstart Ladybug Adapter.  With this little device between the pipe and you shower head, you can turn your shower on and let it warm up; once the water is at temperature, the adapter takes the flow and slows it down to a trickle.  Before you get in, you pull a string and it will return to full flow.  Check the temperature then get in.  It is only $22.95 with $5 shipping just for the next 14 hours from Greensteal.com.

[Note from Judie: This is the same technology that was featured in the Evolve Roadrunner Showerhead reviewed by Wayne in April 2008. I've got two of them, which I purchased after his review, and they are still going strong! The Ladybug adapter allows you to continue using your own showerhead, which is a nice feature.]

Amazon Prime is Amazon’s service where, for $79 a year, your purchases get free two-day shipping. Better still, Amazon Prime members can upgrade items to one-day shipping for just $3.99. It comes in handy… trust me! If you buy a lot from Amazon and are impatient (who, us???) it is a great little add-on.

Well, Amazon just went and made their Prime service even better. From now on Amazon Prime-eligible items that are ordered on Thursday before 5PM EST will be delivered Saturday. This means if you have that impulse buy on Thursday you don’t have to wait all weekend before getting it.

Is it worth $79 a year? Only you can decide. Me? I love it.

It’s a ritual around my house, and I imagine it’s done in households everywhere — the bed time story.  Whether one of my kids is laying down for a mid day nap or getting tucked in for the night, they always get a story before they close their eyes.

With three girls at home we’ve become fans of many of the Disney characters, so when Disney Digital books asked us to review their new online service I jumped at the chance.  Disney Digital Books provided me with a one month test subscription to try the service out at home with my family.  Here are my thoughts.

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It never ceases to amaze me that even when it seems like there is a clear leader in a particular genre, other companies will pop up with competing products. The cynic in me thinks “why are you trying to reinvent the wheel?” But the entrepreneur in me thinks, “good for you, give them hell!”

So it’s with mixed feelings that I tell you about Yebol, a new semantic search engine that has audacity to take on the other guys.

Yebol is a new(ish) semantic search engine that’s still in beta. But what makes Yebol unique is 1) within 2 months, it will be able to return semantic results for every conceivable search query and, where necessary, index in real-time – the holy grail of semantic search! and 2) its adult content filters are enabled by default and cannot be disabled (which is sure to be contentious!).

Note that, despite being in beta, Yebol is already able to generate more semantic results than either Bing or Kosmix.

Note that Yebol are currently holding a monthly draw (for $25 Amazon vouchers). To be in with a chance of winning, people simply need to become a Facebook fan and provide feedback.

Give it a try; it’s something different, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Yebol Knowledge Based Smart Search.

Rarely do I lead a service anymore, (ANY service!) during which at least one cellphone doesn’t go off. It can be a Bar Mitzvah… CELL RINGS! It can be a wedding… CELL RINGS! Or it could even be a funeral… CELL RINGS!

I guess it is understandable, after all who would want to miss that all-important call during worship. :sarcasm:

This, however, is a very different story about technology and worship…

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The Evernote Blog is a great way to keep up with the latest Evernote news while also learning new tips and tricks for using the service that looks to become “your external brain”. Now they have come up with a new way to help Evernote become even more indispensable than ever – Theme-based months. That’s right, each month the Evernote Blog will focus on one specific area and how the service can be used to keep life a bit more organized. First up??? A treat for all you foodies out there.  As they explain…

Welcome to Food Month

And so begins Evernote’s Food Month, our exploration of all the many ways gastronomy and Evernote intersect. Throughout October, we will bring you user stories, videos, tips, community projects, giveaways, and tons of other great stuff all around the topic of food and Evernote.

We’re really excited about our first Food Month activity: seasonal recipe cooking class. We’ve enlisted the help of Laurine Wickett, chef and owner of Left Coast Catering (and Top Chef contestant) to use Evernote to put a new twist on your favorite seasonal recipes.

So jump on over to the Evernote Blog and learn some new tricks for using this amazing productivity tool.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video.I’m a huge fan of the Engadget podcast. Not a week goes by that I don’t listen to Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, Nilay Patel. Their podcast is updated weekly and they chat about the week’s top news and provide added insight that you don’t get from their web site. I’m not sure how frequently these Engadget live shows are going to happen. This episode feature Jon Rubenstein formerly of Apple and now leader of Palm and was taped on 9/13/09. Aside from some problems with low audio and a questionable selection of first guest (cool demo of Pixi – but terrible explanation of why there’s no Wi-Fi (Sprint didn’t want it?) and come on Jon Rubenstein doesn’t know the type of processor in the  Pixi  ?) the video is of interest to anyone who is a diehard Engadget podcast listener. Follow the link below if you’d like to download a copy of the show to your iPod or Zune.

Engadget Show

Take a stroll down memory lane.

Memory lane of the internet that is.

The Telegraph U.K. has published a look at 20 popular web sites and how they actually appeared when they very first launched.

From Facebook, to Dell, Ebay, YouTube and more.

Things were a whole lot simpler back then.  ;)

Check out all 20 sites here.