Cory Bohon

Desktops (sometimes called Wallpaper by the Windows folks) are a great way to spice up your computer and give it a personality all its own. However, many people don’t like the images that come standard with operating systems.

Enter Simple Desktops. This website is dedicated to displaying and allow you to download minimalist, distraction-free, desktop wallpaper for your Mac, for Windows, and even your iPad.

Check out Simple Desktops today and get your computer personalized to your liking.

Know of another website like this? Let me know in the comments below, or send me a message on @coryb on Twitter.

I was recently turned on to a new social networking-based “game” called Empire Avenue. The basics of Empire Avenue is a stock market that is based on the social networks that you take part of and connect to the service. When you connect social networks that you are actively involved in (such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.), your share price will go up based on your ratings.

No stock market would be complete without a currency (called Eaves), and the ability to purchase people. Empire Avenue allows you to do this, in fact, you can purchase up to 200 shares in any one person. You don’t just have to invest in individuals who you are connected to on social networks, you can invest in anyone. As you build your wealth and as others purchase your shares, your share price will go up.

Check out Empire Avenue today, and be sure to click here when you sign up to get 2,000 eaves instantly when you connect a Twitter, Facebook, Flickr or YouTube account.

For tips and tricks with wise investing on Empire Avenue, check out this post by Chris Pirillo.

There are a lot of great code snippet sharing tools out there, from GitHub’s Gist to Codepad to any other number of online services. However, a new code snippet sharing service recently peaked my interest called Chop.

Chop is a project created by an interactive design company called ZURB. They have a few different tools on their Playground website. Chop is interesting not only because of its simplicity and ease-of-use, but also because it’s built with Ruby on Rails.

Chop currently has syntax highlighting support for Ruby, Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Java, C/C++, PHP, SQL, Diff, JSON, YAML, ERB, and XML. The service can even grab code from a Git raw page or another webpage just by specifying the URL to the page.

Once you Chop a piece of code, you will be able to send a URL “to your nerds” or … a special someone (although there may be repercussions after sending geeky code to some people). Once you are in the sharing page, you will be able to comment on the code by clicking on the line you would like to edit.

Overall, Chop is a pretty good service that allows you to quickly and easily paste and share a chunk of code while doing that in style. For a free service, we couldn’t really ask more, but I would like to see the ability to download code snippets that have been pasted in.

It was just a few years ago that Apple ventured into the area of podcasting by launching one of the first curated podcast subscription services on the then-named “iTunes Music Store.” Podcasts have grown a lot since then, adding better audio, better subscription services, and even adding video. No longer do you have to be tied down to your computer to listen to podcasts, but can download them over a 3G connection anywhere with an iOS or Android device.

The original iTunes Podcast Listings

I enjoy listening to audio podcasts during the day, walking between classes or driving to and from school. I then catch up on video podcasts whenever I get a chance (usually on YouTube because the iTunes versions can take a while to download, plus sync over to my iOS devices). Without further ado, here is my current list of favorite audio and video podcasts.

Audio Podcasts

• TWiT. Enough said. What geek’s podcast list could be complete without this stunning podcast featuring roundtable discussions of the latest tech news.
• Mac Break Weekly has become a classic among the Mac faithful. I was even featured on this podcast in episode 49 (listen here) where Leo gave my Dockables Mac app a pick of the week.
• Security Now! is a great podcast for keeping up-to-date on the lastest in computer security. It’s hosted by the computer and security researcher Steve Gibson.

Video Podcasts

• Hak5 provides interesting news and tips and tricks for the hacker, computer security, and computer networking scene. It’s geeky, fun, and a great show hosted by Darren Kitchen and Shannon Morse. Be sure to watch it and find out all about the Wi-Fi Pineapple!
• The Ben Heck Show gives you interesting insight into computer and electronics modding. Be sure to check out the episode on the Super Can Cooler.
• The Geek Group is not really a “video podcast” in the true sense of the word. It’s more or less a vlog on YouTube providing a lot of super-geeky science videos. I really like it because, well, I really like science and knowing how things actually work.
• Tekzilla has been one of my favorite shows since it launched. It provides great tech news and coverage of new gadgets.
• This Week in Startups is a show hosted by Jason Calacanis and features interviews with various startup visionaries in the tech community. Tune in and watch to find out about all of the hot new web services.

This podcast list is definitely tech-heavy because I like keeping up-to-date with my favorite subject. These podcasts are what I’m listening to and watching right now, or at least all of the podcast media that I have time to consume right now.

Let me know your favorite podcasts on Twitter or in the comments below. I especially would like to know of any non-tech related podcasts that you are currently listening to.

Recently, I launched a new website, thanks to some grant funding I received from the University of South Carolina as a part of their Magellan Scholarship program. This website is devoted to the user interface and web accessibility research that I have been doing since my freshman year at the university.

The website hosts a blog, forum, and plugins, tools, and resources for developers and website administrators who want to make their sites more accessible by using our tools and resources. Below is the introductory post from the AccessibleFutures.org blog:

Welcome to AccessibleFutures.org. This project is a direct result of the accessibility developments and research conducted by the BrailleSC.org project at the University of South Carolina Upstate by Cory Bohon, Dr. George H. Williams, and Dr. Tina Herzberg. You can find out more information about BrailleSC.org by visiting the website.

AccessibleFutures.org provides tools, plugins, documentation, and other resources to developers and website administrators looking to make their websites more accessible. Our plugins for popular content management systems like WordPress, Omeka, and Drupal allow anyone with limited knowledge of website accessibility to create rich, fully accessible websites after the fact.

If you are interested in user interface design and/or web accessibility, then check out AccessibleFutures.org today.