Microsoft Australia is currently running one of those "visit our site and we'll give money to charity" promotions, promising to donate $1 to the Smith Family for every viewer (up to a $100,000 ceiling) of a site which promotes Office 2007 (and is also a sneaky way to get people to install Silverlight, Microsoft's Flash wannabe). I can't help thinking Microsoft would convince more people to use 2007 if the cursed Ribbon got dumped, but still, why not direct some more of Bill's money towards a worthy cause? (Handy tip: don't try this on a slow connection, on my Next G link it was beyond painful.)

Microsoft Smith Family Office Charity

Windows and now Mac OS X only: The beta NY Times reader application which Adam gave the full screenshot walk-through treatment is now available for your Mac. The application definitely provides a better reading experience than the web site only; there are fewer ads, more ways to customise the page's layout (headlines only, headlines with excerpts, different photo sizes), and it helpfully grays out articles you've already read. (Click the image to see a full-size screenshot, where the American Idol article I read is grayed out.) The NY Times beta reader is a free download, and it requires (ugh) Silverlight to run on your Mac, as well as login details to NYTimes.com (free registration).

Web application Popfly takes a building block approach to mashup creation, allowing regular folks like us to connect services like Flickr, Twitter, and maps to your heart's content and your creativity's limit. It's all available through a drag and drop interface somewhere along the lines of Yahoo Pipes. Popfly is free to use, requires a Windows Live login and the Silverlight browser plugin. It's currently in beta, and be aware that I saw significant slow-down on my computer when using Popfly. Hot mashups currently on the site include Flickr Mappings and Seattle Traffic via Virtual Earth, but the real question is: Does anyone want to build their own mashups? If you give it a try, let's hear your thoughts in the comments.