Big conferences, like SXSW, have come and gone – and if you’re like me – you missed the boat on all of them. As it turns out, you really could have attended – virtually.

Sure, there are a number of web services and sites that give you access to most of the content at conferences, whether you’re there or not. But one service that is pretty eye-catching: Lanyrd.

Lanyrd describes itself as a “social conference directory.” It features a conference coverage aggregator, pulling together notes, posts, slideshows, audio and more.

For instance, the SXSW 2011 page for Lanryd has 80+ slide decks, dozens of write-ups and video – and more. While it’s not a comprehensive list of content for SXSW, Lanyrd is a great place to go to look at some of the panels you missed out on.

What’s even more interesting about Lanyrd is its social function. Simply sign-in using your Twitter account, and suddenly you have access to all of the conferences your contacts are tracking and/or attending. If one of those conferences piques your curiosity, you can track it as well. And, by “tracking,” I mean following that conference on Twitter.

So the next time you can’t scrounge up enough pennies to pay a conference registration fee, head over to Lanyrd.

And, did I mention – it’s free?

Google has released an *experimental* extension for Chrome that allows users to BLOCK “content farms” from appearing in Google search results.

While they’ve been around, people are just now starting to talk about content farms and the shady nature in which they appear at the top of a list of search results. These websites specialize in producing tons of material – usually bad quality – to maximize their traffic from search queries. They’re suspect – yet quite effective at crowding out better, original material in search results.

Thankfully, people have caught on to content farms’ wiley ways – and so has Google.

Google Chrome’s Personal Blocklist extension lets users eliminate unwanted websites – like content farms – from search results. Users who download the extension also can edit their block lists, if they wish.

Now, here’s the best part – in my opinion.

Google will pay attention to the sites that users block and could *possibly* use the data to revise the quality of its search results.

I believe this extension is a step in the right direction for personalized search, but other tech-watchers aren’t so convinced. TechCrunch writes that most users probably won’t use the extension and also notes the possibility that rival content farms may use it to sabotage each other. VentureBeat adds that users could block sites that are uninteresting to them, rather than target spammy content farm-riddled search results.

I’ll admit that the average person probably doesn’t know how to spot a content farm and may end up flagging a legit Website. But, I have faith that those “in the know” will find this new Google tool helpful and will hopefully use it rid the search engine of spam once and for all.

But what was of real interest to me, and I’m sure a lot of other people, was the new Google Translate app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Available for free from the iTunes store, the new app translates voice input for 15 languages!

Google Translate for iOS also translates words or phrases into 50 languages and can read translations aloud in 23 languages.

According to the Google Mobile Blog, “the app also includes all of the major features of the web app, including the ability to view dictionary results for single words, access your starred translations and translation history even when offline, and support romanized text like Pinyin and Romaji.”

In January, Google launched a similar Translate app for Android devices.

Traveling for business or pleasure? Be sure to have Google Translate in your back pocket. This will no doubt be a handy tool for anyone traveling abroad – or even a boardroom businessman who has to communicate via satellite with, let’s say, foreign investors. Just talk right into the phone and have the translation read back to you aloud.

While handy, I do have to say that Search Engine Land may be over-dramatizing the launch of this app just a tad. They call Google Translate “a small glimpse at the future of search” – meaning that Google has broken ground in the new “search for words (and their meanings) in different languages” territory.

That is dicey terrain that will take many, many more years to dissect. Let us, instead, focus on the here-and-now – and use Translate for what it’s intended: Translation.

While we need a password for just about everything these days, chances are you use the same password, or some sort of variant, for every login.

Security experts tell us this is a big “no no” – but do we listen?

No way.

We don’t want to have to actually think when we’re logging in somewhere – we want to get in, and get in quick!

The creators of ObPwd, thankfully, understand our plight. Their unique password generator application promises to give us our security back – and do so without requiring us to use too much brain power.

Here’s how it works.

For starters, ObPwd is a password generator, not an application for storing your passwords. It is available as a free application for computers running Mac OS X and it is a free extension for anyone running Firefox.

ObPwd reads images and will create a unique password based on that image. For example, if you click on a picture of your car, it will generate the same password everytime you click on that particular picture.

Even if you change the name of the image, ObPwd will always generate the same passcode. According to the program’s creators, if you copy images and store them in various locations, the application will still generate the same passwords.

You can also click on images on websites to generate passwords. But, if the image gets replaced, you’re out of luck.

Advantage:

- ObPwd is great for creating a limited number of passwords that you regularly use. Because you need different images for each password, using more than a couple different images could make it difficult to remember which password is used for each purpose.

Disadvantage:

- If you use multiple computers – or a tablet device like an iPad – you need to have all the images available on all computers in order to have your password generated. Difficult? Yes. But, it’s what makes your passwords more secure.

ObPwd may not have the most memorable, user-friendly name for consumers – but its application is unique and provides us with an extra layer of security. It’s probably not the best option for mobile people who need quick access to password-protected sites… but, hey, I’d try it.

I’d try just about anything – once.

Ask.com

They were big like 10 years ago, back before “Google” was a verb.

I’ve never really used them before, but may be willing now. Recently, I been searching the Web, not with terms, but with questions. I’ve needed answers to ailments, how to remove three discs stuck in the Wii console (don’t ask), quick fixes for recipes, even grammar questions. Sometimes Google is helpful with my questions. Sometimes not. Ask.com may be just what I’ve needed.

The 15-year-old search engine has undergone a makeover of sorts, now offering a social search and more personalized browsing.

Here’s how it works.

Simply type in your query and Ask.com will direct the question to experts – rather than leaving the answers up to the whole community – and by identifying the users’ interests through their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles.

This new personalized browsing feature – which is available with an Ask.com invite or to Ask’s iPhone app users – helps the site generate its own profile for a user. Give a few pieces of information, along with some Facebook and LinkedIn details, and poof – your Ask.com profile is built. Based on your profile, Ask.com is betting that it’ll know what types of questions you’ll want answered – and, in doing so, will route those questions to someone whose profile shows experience or knowledge related to your query. Does that make them an expert? Probably not.

And here’s where the social aspect comes in.

The personal profile that is created will help Ask.com identify users with similar interests, and users will be able to follow other users.

It does sound like a lot of work just to get a question answered. But, if the Q&A space is something that floats your boat – like it does for me – then the new relaunch of Ask.com is probably worth your while.

No advertising, just information. That’s what I like.

That said though, I’m quite envious of the people who are there. It’s the ‘World’s Biggest Tech Show’ and the buzz that is circulating through CES and beyond is almost deafening.

Tablets  - LOTS of them – are expected to be the big show-and-tell feature. Since Apple is not there, the other guys get their due. Other guys like – Acer, Archos, Creative, Dell, Entourage, Fusion Garage, LG, Motorola, MSI, Notion Ink, Samsung, Toshiba, and ViewSonic. These are all players, which CNET predicts will unveil their Android tablets – the newest crop.

Of course, a lot of serious eyes will be watching Lenovo’s IdeaPad U1 Hybrid – a laptop by day, a tablet by night. LOVE the concept. Hate the name.

The IdeaPad U1 made its debut at CES last year with a lot of fanfare. But it was never released and thus put on the back burner for much of 2010. Let the resurrection begin!

In case you’re not familiar with the IdeaPad and its pure awesomeness, Engadget gives it this powerful description:

“When the screen is locked into its upright position in the laptop’s chassis, it’s powered by a CULV Intel Core 2 Duo processor and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. But when the screen is pulled from its shell it morphs into a Qualcomm Snapdragon powered-multitouch slate with a 16GB SSD that boots Lenovo’s customized Skylight Linux interface. Two processors and two operating systems? Hybrid is right.”

And, by the way, when the IdeaPad is in its tablet form, the system then become LePad. No joke.

Two other tablets worth noting come from ASUS. They include physical keyboards.The Android-based Eee Pad Slider and Transformer both feature QWERTY keyboards and Tegra-2 processors. The Slider has a unique design with a fold-out keyboard. Innnnnnteresting.

Yes, CES will indeed live up to its pseudo-name again this year – that being the World Cup of Technology. The geeks are going crazy. And, if I was there – I would be too.

Unfortunately though, we’ll have to wait to see how consumers react to all of these new products in the year to come. Boom or bust?

Amid the unprecedented turn of events going on with the Wikileaks cyberwar, I thought I’d write about something people really care about: Themselves.

What do we, Americans, want for Christmas?

Not world peace.

Not food and shelter for the millions of children and families around the world living in squalor.

Not an end to the recession.

Not a cure for cancer.

We want an Apple iPad 3G. Oh, and not just any Apple iPad. We want one loaded with unlimited music and apps. And, as a recent CNET holiday consumer survey shows, we want loaded iPads over Universal Healthcare as our fantasy holiday gift.

But wait, it gets better.

When consumers were asked what holiday gift they would want for themselves if cost was not an issue, the top three answers covered everything from everyday necessities to consumer electronics and high-ticket luxury items:

- their mortgage paid for the year

- a 2011 Porsche Panamera 4S

- and the Apple iPad 3G with unlimited free music and apps.

In addition to Universal Healthcare,  the iPad also ranked higher than other gifts like maid service for a year, a lifetime membership to Netflix and the Amazon Kindle preloaded with 2,000 books!

Me?

I’d take the maid service – and then, when the service expired, I’d ask for it again next Christmas.

Cleaning toilets blows. But, then again, so does paying a mortgage.

I use Google’s search engine. I use its browser, Chrome. I use its voice service… and sometimes, even chat. But, lately, what’s really come in handy is Docs.

I know Google Docs has been around a while, but sadly I’ve only just discovered how useful and convenient it really is. I rely on it primarily because I work from a MacBook and most of my colleagues work from MS Office on their pc’s. Docs lets me convert my work into any type of file… allowing seamless document circulation between parties. Docs also enables me to share my work with other people by granting them email access. All they have to do is log in.

I know. I know. This is nothing new to a lot of people. But what IS new is a just introduced Google Docs beta feature called Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office.

Basically, Google Cloud Connect is an add-on for Office that syncs documents, spreadsheets and presentations from Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 with the cloud. In other words, it takes data on the desktop and makes a backup copy in Google Docs, gives it a unique URL and constantly syncs the data with anybody else that might be sharing the same document.

The technology behind Google Cloud Connect derives from DocVerse, a productivity tool that Google acquired earlier this year that lets multiple users collaborate and edit Microsoft Office documents.

What’s fantastic is that a business team can edit a document from either Microsoft Office or Google Docs simultaneously – and Docs will save all of the revisions, so if someone messes up someone else’s edits, it’s easy to revert them.

This new launch is all about getting Office users – like my old self – to ditch the software permanently and switch to Google Docs and the cloud. Admittedly, I had resisted the change… but once I went cloud, I knew I was never going back.

Microsoft’s productivity suite had its time in the sun. Now it’s Google’s turn to shine – and it’s oh so bright.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who’s just been re-elected Judiciary Chair and is the LEAD SPONSOR of the bill, plans to push COICA through the lame duck session which started this week.

Here’s the lowdown.

Under COICA, the government could force Internet service providers to block access to sites like YouTube, Wikileaks, and others that the government claims are spurring the spread of copyrighted materials.  The Electronic Frontier Foundation lists some other vulnerable sites as well. In blocking these sites, the government would be violating the First Amendment and reasonable due process, and setting a terrible precedent that totalitarian regimes across the globe would use to justify their own crackdowns on Internet freedom.

What’s troubling is this bill has some big backers, like the Chamber of Commerce, NBC Universal, Disney, and Time Warner – to name a few. And, they’ve sent a multi-industry letter to Sen. Leahy stating their support of COICA.

The ACLU, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, and other human rights organizations have issued a letter of their own, underscoring that this legislation puts us in the company of China, Iran, and Turkey – all of which regularly censor access to online content.

The future of tech does not mean we give corporatists and big business power over the Internet. It means we keep the Internet open!

Time to wake up Leahy! Stand up for this country. Don’t make us stoop to the likes of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hu Jintao!

Sign the petition to stop the Internet Blacklist. Or, read up on COICA and decide for yourself.

The first vote on this bill is scheduled for today!

Windows Slate 500.

The so-called business tablet went on sale recently with little fanfare.

Why?

At first glance a Windows-based tablet just seems like a crummy idea. But, the Slate claims to fill the role of what the iPad and other consumer-based tablets lack – and that is mobile business.

The HP tablet has front and rear-facing cameras. It has a USB port and an SD memory card slot, not to mention a 32-bit Windows 7 Professional operating system.

With the Slate, HP also has its sights set on specific industry segments such as retail, insurance, hospitality, healthcare, and education. Based on its research, HP believes there is a need for a portable, tablet device complete with customized Windows-based software in these industries.

That is all well and good… but will there ever be a real need for a business-based tablet in the broader sense? And, furthermore, is there really a big distinction between the Slate and a tablet like the iPad?

No really.

While the Slate’s suped up features standout now, it’ll only be a matter of time before the other tablets follow suit. Cameras, USB ports, and memory card slots are all expected to show up in the next version of the iPad in 2011.

And, with regard to need, well, Tony Bradley at PCWorld sums it up perfectly. He writes:

Users don’t want a tablet to be a full desktop operating system, or run all of the software, and use all of the peripherals commonly associated with PCs. They have PCs for that. The tablet is a mobile computing device with the emphasis on “mobile” rather than “computing”. The tablet needs to be lightweight, have exceptional battery life, and provide intuitive–preferably one-handed–access to all of the tasks and tools users need.

The quantifiable difference between consumer-based and business-based tablets seems a little muddled. But, I do commend HP for giving it the old college try. Spin it whichever way you want  - marketing is marketing. And, if HP says the Slate is ideal for business – and people buy it – then so be it.

Can’t knock ‘em for trying.