This is news that is completely Friday-worthy.

Capogiro is open at Penn!!  It’s in the new construction at 39th and Walnut.

[Photo from Jaime at FWTS]

They have a daily flavor menu online.  They also have sandwiches.  See photos and a full menu scan at Fries With That Shake.

[Thanks Jess!]

Maybe not completely off-topic this time…

• The iPhone has a free whiteboard app, allowing people in close physical proximity to collaboratively create sketches or drawings using their iPhone or iPod Touch.  You can get it from the App Store, or search for “Whiteboard: Collaborative Drawing” from the App Store on your iPhone. [A brief review from ReadWriteWeb]

• Apparently, Feb 9th will be the debut for the Kindle 2. According to the NYTimes Bits Blog, one of the updates might be smaller side buttons to avoid the accidental page turns, which several of you noticed and found annoying.  Here are some leaked photos from BoyGeniusReport. [From Computerworld]

• John Mark Ockerbloom at Penn has posted his ALA MIdwinter notes and slides where he was on a panel discussing the OCLC WorldCat records policy, and a panel on the open ILS at the DLF.

• For those of you for whom search can’t be fast enough, here’s Keyboardr, a search mashup that provides the results of your search from Google, Wikipedia, blogs and images, As You Type!  [from ReadWriteWeb]

• Change.gov, Obama’s transition website, was offering an open forum for asking questions, and then allowing people to vote to prioritize which ones should be answered first.   Apparently, they got an overwhelming response and closed it down at midnight, last night.  You can still, however, see the list of all the questions, and how people voted for them, here.  The tool they used to accomplish this is Google Moderator, which is designed for just such a function.

• Unofficial survey: Is anyone using Twitter for work?  Do you find it useful for communicating with patrons, or with staff?  Tame the Web has a post about using Twitter for internal communication in the library.  Post your thoughts in the comments!

• ChaCha is a free call or text-a-question service for anyone with a mobile phone.  It’s got an ad for mobile marketing on the same page, so I imagine users would end up with some ads too.     [Thanks Noelle]

• Attention Facebook users:  The Koobface virus has hit Facebook, so avoid anything that requires that you download “a new Flash Player” to watch a video.  Here’s some details, more details, and Facebook’s instructions on how to get rid of it. [From Webware]

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  O’Reilly has been tracking Facebook demographics for several months, and has posted some interesting charts about Facebook users and demographic statistics.  For those of you who wonder how the user base is evolving, take a quick look.

• This isn’t really for fun, but I’m going to stop edition-ing these Friday posts. Just so you know it’s a conscious decision.

• Kit O’Toole created a nice post covering some favorite Firefox extensions, in case you’re looking for ways to mix some of your internet business (images, iTunes, Twitter, making small URLs, etc.) together.

• Here’s an interesting report (14 page PDF) from the Pew Internet and American Life Project discussing how people get frustrated when their electronic devices (computer, cell phone, etc.) fail or break down. [Thanks Emily]

• Apparently Netflix and TiVo are teaming up, putting the Netflix Watch Instantly feature on the HD-compatible boxes — brilliant!  It’s aimed at new customers (people who have TiVo through Comcast or DirecTV won’t get the benefit, but if you subscribe to TiVo and have a Netflix account, it looks like you’ll be able to start using it soon.

• For those of you who use Google Reader for your RSS feeds, I’ll remind you about the Trends feature.  It’s a good way to see how well you keep up with your feeds, and it’s nicely packaged in fun charts and graphs.  The Reader blog had a nice write-up about some of the things you can do with it.

• Another really useful tool for use with Google Reader is the ReadItLater Firefox extension.  If you use Firefox, this extension allows you to mark things to read later and it keeps them in a tidy list for easy reference.  It adds a small checkbox next to all your feeds and you can quickly browse the titles and pick out the ones you want to read later.  It’s not just limited to Google Reader though, you can use it on any page you find.  Here’s a write-up and video on how it works. [From ReadWriteWeb]

• O’Reilly Radar has an interesting post about the future of eInk as a paper replacement.  As we continue to think about the uses and benefits of ebook readers in libraries, this plays a role — especially if it “catches on” anytime soon.  For a counterpoint, see this post at Locus, thoughtfully linked by one of O’Reilly’s commenters.

• Technorati, a blog search engine, has released their 2008 state of the blogosphere write-up, with demographics, stats and other details on exactly who all these bloggers are, and what they are doing. [Via InfoToday]

• The iPhone apparently has an application to help you avoid speed traps on the highway.  Here’s a commentary and some features. [via ReadWriteWeb]

• For all you Mac users: Mac360 wrote a good, detailed review of MacPilot, a program that helps you optimize your Mac, without having to remember all the command line prompts and other tricky entrances.

• The second installment of IgnitePhilly was held last week.  It consists of a series of 5 minute presentations about cool things (sometimes geeky things, but not always) people are doing locally. Commentary from O’Reilly.  [Thanks Beth]

• DeVaughn found some helpful links for searching digital photos. His links and comments, below:

Gimp-Savvy: Great, quick, no sign-up resource for user content and archived photos, all copyright free. (For those “My project is due tomorrow” moments)

Zimbo: A collection of the most popular public photo sharing sites, most you have to sign-up or have an account. Wikimedia Commons and Flickr are the obvious standouts. [Thanks DeVaughn]

• Kate sent me this link to the iPig.  In addition to being “Too Cute to Exist,” as she put it, it’s an iPod speaker system that touts 5 speakers, 25 watts of sound and a 4″ subwoofer.

• The sun’s solar wind is decreasing, leaving spacecraft more susceptible to damaging effects of cosmic rays.  No, we’re not in any danger, thanks to our atmosphere. [From the BBC News]

• The Machine Project has a post on making your own pickled vegetables using just salt (and no vinegar).  [From Boing Boing]
  

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• A short response to the highly popular (especially among librarians, in my opinion) Google Makes us Dumb article.  The author argues that technology, including Google, makes us more efficient, saving more time to think and communicate. [From the NYTimes]

When I’m reading my RSS feeds, I see so many non-library technology articles, that I thought I’d start a Friday post of interesting technological articles.   These may not have any relevance to libraries, but seem interesting enough to mention.

1. The Chevy Volt will be going into production soon. It claims to be more advanced than the Prius, offering 40 driving miles on electricity before it even touches the gas in the tank.  [From Wired]

2. For you Facebook users, there’s an app you can add which allows you to grab all the photos that have been tagged with your name. [From Webware]

3. The Chronicle discusses whether leading with truly green building should be a responsibility of higher education, using Princeton’s new Lewis Library, designed by Frank Gehry, as the example (or lack of example, as the case may be). [From the Chronicle of Higher Education. Use the Drexel Misc. EJ login to read the full article.]

Happy Friday!