Are you wondering if something typed and given to you is plagiarized? Maybe you are a college professor and want to check if your student has bought a term paper as the handed in work looks suspicious. Or maybe you did not have time to do your work and someone else “helped” you for a fee.

For freelance writers articlechecker.com is a must. You may write your own articles for clients but it is wise to run your article through this website. Someone else may have already written an article similar to yours and it will look as if you plagiarized their work. Your boss and client will not be happy with you.

Or maybe you found love on the Internet. Your significant other sends you poetry and you are falling hard and fast for this person. You hear horror stories of people pretending to be something that they are not only to get their heart broken. The words, the poetry, you have never met a person like this in your life. How can such a fantastic person as this be in love with you? Of all of the people in the world, the person wants YOU. Before you fall hard and fast for this person, check out articlechecker.com.

The website articlechecker.com is simple to use. Go to the website and just copy the words you want to check. There is a box that says “paste text here.” Simply follow the directions and paste your words in the box. Below the box there is a checked box for Google. You can leave the check mark so Google searches it. All pages I’ve checked were scanned within twelve seconds or less. Uncheck the box next to Google and check your words through Yahoo by clicking on the box and leave a checkmark for maximum results. Articlechecker.com will let you know what percentage of the words is plagiarized and which ones. The website will even bring you to the copied page. Talk about cool.

No matter what the reason is if you want to check out a report, poem, or article feel secure knowing if the writer is being honest to you by using articlechecker.com

I think the instant messaging applications are starting to get big again, or perhaps it is just because I am starting to use instant messaging apps more frequently. Either way, there are quite a few of them out there so it is always important to be a little different than the others. How much more different can you be messaging a friend? Two words: Goober Networks.

Goober is an instant messenger developed by a team of Germans based in Delaware that’s going up against the big guys (Skype, MSN, ICQ, etc.) with a desktop client that overflows with features. Available for Mac, Linux, Windows, and cell phones, you can practically use Goober anywhere. In addition, like many of the instant messaging apps, Goober incorporates their network, MSN, ICQ, and Jabber. Interestingly, AIM is not part of the protocol group. 

The application comes equipped with voIP, so making and receiving calls is a nice addition. Users can also send text messages, and MP3s. Unfortunately, video is not yet included but I am sure that will be added in the future. Still, it seems like your normal application, right? Look a little closer and you’ll find that Goober differentiates itself primarily by providing a suite of widgets that can be used to communicate through the client. 

An email widget can be placed in the signature of messages and a “portal” widget can be placed on social network profiles and other webpages. This is rather cool because instead of the other person getting the application, they can instead go to your site, Facebook, or wherever else you placed the widget and chat with you. Both options present buttons for one-click instant messaging, VoIP calling, and file transferring with the user. An additional “classifieds” widget assists those trying to conduct business online who want to be reached through more synchronous means than email.

There is more – if you are looking to listen to a little music while you chat, so be it. Like AIM, Goober has also integrated entertainment music and video into the client. Goober scours the internet for free video channels and radio stations found on the internet and allows for the playback of them at the bottom of the client. I love this feature but unfortunately, the quality is subpar. 

Overall, Goober is a pretty decent IM client. Unfortunately, I won’t be a switcher quite yet. AIM is not included. However, those who regularly communicate across several protocols should check it out, especially once Goober adds AIM and Gtalk support. It is currently in beta, so many features and changes will be taking place. Fortunately, your phone and other computers won’t be left out to collect dust with their multi-platform upgrade system. Speaking of phones, if you own an iPhone, I was told that there are more great features coming soon in conjunction with the iPhone so stay tuned. I do application reviews at iPhone Matters so be on the lookout when this feature is released.

Not quite sure where to eat? Do you want to know what others think about a particular restaurant? Try BooRah! BooRah is a semantic and natural language processing aggregator of restaurant reviews. The service pulls in reviews from numerous review sites and a substantial list of restaurant review blogs, and then analyzes the emotional tone of the reviews it finds. Good reviews (“Rahs”) and bad reviews (“Boohs”) are collected concerning food, service, and ambience.

“BooRah is the ultimate, personalized review guide providing consumers a smarter way to find great restaurants. BooRah’s patent-pending natural language processing technology automatically summarizes a collection of online reviews from bloggers, professional critics and consumers, and allows consumers to search based on personal preferences. By capturing the community vibe and social essence of existing online groups, and comparing the results to individual search criteria, BooRah delivers unsurpassed relevance with the broadest community reach…”

Now there are plenty of restaurant review sites out there, so it is imperative to stand out from the rest. How does BooRah do it? One thing is inside the review excerpt. You will find food terms, like a particular dish, identified and linked out to a search results page displaying that same item in the same location at which you are currently looking. If I am reading a review that says some place’s shrimp (my favorite) are alright but aren’t the best in town – I’m one click on the word shrimp away from finding out where in town is said to have better ones. I think a few other review sites my do this also; I just do not remember them being as simple.

The site searches for reviews across many different sources, depending on the location. CitySearch, Yahoo Travel, Tripadvisor and many many more are included. In some locations, even the local newspaper is a source. Now that they have the sources, reviews also need a personal touch. Reviews can also be written on the BooRah site itself. I am sure it is extremely hard for systems that scan reviews to recognize things like sarcasm or other peculiarities of human communication, but BooRah seems to do a decent job making a review objective instead of subjective.

BooRah is an impressive database of restaurant reviews from around the US, primarily focused on the nation’s large metropolitan areas. I was able to find good reviews in my smaller town however. Your first visit to BooRah can be a little overwhelming. There is information everywhere crammed, on what seems like, one page. Of course, this can quickly be solved by narrowing your search. Once you have found the restaurant, it’ll even show where it is using Google Maps!

Other than the easily fixable quirks, I really love BooRah. It is informative, simple, and fun. Not to mention, if you direct your mobile browser to BooRah.com, you will be taken to the mobile version (currently in Alpha) and able to search on the go. Pretty cool.

So what are you waiting for? After looking up your local “Rahs,” go ahead and take your family out to eat making it another “Rah” in their book.

Canon’s latest offering in the highly competitive semi-pro market does just about everything you could possible want from a mid priced camera. And, on the whole does it just a little bit better than the competition.

I am not usually a big fan of Canon, but they have got just about everything right with this model. High quality results, easy to use, and high on my list of priorities, considerably less expensive than the most obvious competitor, the Nikon D300. It reacts quickly to changing light conditions, and is more customizable than most photographers are likely to need.



But my favorite aspect of the EOS 40D is the fact that it is almost certain to pass the Knowles destructotest™ This is one well built camera with exceptionally well sealed compartments and Canon’s new dust reduction system. Always a bug bear for any photographer in the field dust is no longer an issue: a dust-repelling coating on the sensor, ultrasonic dust “shaking”, and a digital “dust map” How well this stands the test of time remains to be seen, but I have nothing but praise for it so far. With the optional battery pack grip, it’s almost like going back in time and grabbing a big handful of a A-1 with a motor drive, my favorite back in the day.

The only problems I could find with this camera is the LCD screen doesn’t live up to my new expectations after using the Nikon D300 and the metering system tends towards underexposure. Still, as always, better under than over.

A growing amount of people are turning to the internet for their shopping needs online shopping is as big as a business as ever. This makes a lot of sense given the belief that you can find everything cheaper by shopping online than at a brick and mortar store retail. However is this really the truth, does the internet always save you money? The website Bountii attempts to help you with the answer.

The basic premise of Bountii is to allow someone shopping online to price compare everything at one site instead of having to check many sites. You simply go to Bounti enter your search term and it will spit out results. It also allows you to organize the results through a number of qualifications such as cheapest price, lowest shipping etc. While this site is pretty neat, it has one major flaw. While entering various search terms, many times I got no results. For Bountii to be truly useful it must find a way to encompass more than a handful of things to search for.