Rakuten Goes Into OverDrive
April 1, 2015
If you use a public library or attend school, you might be familiar with the OverDrive system. It allows users to download and read ebooks on a tablet of their choice for a limited time, similar to the classic library borrowing policy. According to Reuters in the article, “Update 2: Rakuten Buying eBook Firm OverDrive For $410 Million In US Push” explains how the Japanese online retailer Rakuten Inc. bought the company.
Rakuten has been buying many businesses in the “sharing economy,” including raising $530 million for Lyft. OverDrive is a sharing company, because it shares books with people. It is not the only reason why Rakuten bought the company:
“Another reason for the purchase is the firm’s reach in the U.S. market, [Takahito Aiki, head of Rakuten’s global eBook business] said. Rakuten has been on a buying spree in recent years to reduce reliance on its home market in Japan. In October it bought U.S. discount store Ebates.com for about $1 billion.”
What does this mean for the textbook industry, though? Will it hurt or help it? When Amazon and other online textbook services launched with cheaper alternatives, the brick and mortar businesses felt the crunch. The cup may be either half full or half empty. Publishers may not be familiar with the sharing economy and may have an opportunity to learn first hand if this deal goes down.
Whitney Grace, April 1, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
New UltraSearch Version Available for Free Download
April 1, 2015
Anyone who has researched alternatives to Window’s built-in Desktop Search has probably read about the freeware program UltraSearch. Now, MajorGeeks.com offers a free download of the latest version, UltrasearchPortable 2.0.3. The description specifies:
“UltraSearch finds files and folders on local NTFS drives and provides the results in just a few seconds.UltraSearch does not maintain an index which is stored on your hard disk, but achieves its speed by working directly on the Master File Table (MFT) of the NTFS partitions. UltraSearch even identifies NTFShardlinks. Simply enter a file name or a pattern like *.exe and see the first results while you are still typing. In addition, UltraSearch supports regular expressions. Additional information like file size and file dates (last changes, last access and file creation) will be shown for all listed files. Naturally, the Explorer context menu is available inside UltraSearch. UltraSearch enables you to exclude folders, files or file types from searches via an exclude filter. The search results can be sorted according to different criteria, printed or exported as text, RTF, HTML, CSV, and Excel file.”
UltraSearch can be started from within a Windows Explorer directory. It also allows users to store the 100 most recently used search patterns for later reference, and includes an autocomplete function and pattern suggestions.
Keep in mind, though, that UltraSearch is not your only Windows Desktop Search alternative. Some others include Sow Soft’s Effective File Search, Gaviri Pocket Search,Snowbird, ,FileSearchEX, Super Finder XT, Locate32, Search Everything, and Launchy. There’s plenty to check out for the comparative shopper.
Cynthia Murrell, April 1, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
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