Encarta the once ubiquitous encyclopaedia is to be discontinued

On October 31, 2009, MSN® Encarta® Web sites worldwide will be discontinued, with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will be discontinued on December 31, 2009. Additionally, Microsoft will cease to sell Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium software products worldwide by June 2009. Encarta FAQ.

Why

Encarta has been a popular product around the world for many years. However, the category of traditional encyclopedias and reference material has changed. People today seek and consume information in considerably different ways than in years past. As part of Microsoft’s goal to deliver the most effective and engaging resources for today’s consumer, it has made the decision to exit the Encarta business. Encarta FAQ.

What tosh companies speak – the way people consume information as far as online encyclopedias go is much the same as it ever was: it’s just Microsoft couldn’t compete with Wikipedia. In the current financial climate Encyclopaedia Britannica must be suffering – why pay £50 pounds for annual subscription or even £5 a month when Wikipedia’s free?

Hat Tip: Ars Technica.

Wordle’s a bit of fun, it takes test you provide be-it a webpage or a piece of text and turns it into a word-cloud which gives greater prominence the more a word is used. Here’s one of OutofRange.net.

To create your own you have to take a screen shot – as the Wordle website points out. take-a-screen.org, unsurprisingly has instructions for taking a screen shot and not just for Windows machines – the windows instructions suggest using paint, you might want to investigate paint.net, which is a brilliant piece of software that’s free to use.

Hat Tip: Next Left.

FixMyStreet is a simple website, which allows you to report problems to your council via email, by simply entering your post code, clicking the location of your problem on a small scale Ordnance Survey map of the area. Four weeks later you’ll get a reminder asking if the problem has been resolved, if not you can then email your councillors.