Source: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=fH_d9UHu2xGbDZaiy6ky6g
Combines then filters various technology news sites. Filters on Title, Description, and content analysis.
Tokyo is currently the largest city of origin of Twitter messages in the world, more than twice that of second placed San Francisco and New York in the USA as of this summer. (Incidentally, while the Japanese Kanji language Twitter service, which only launched in April of this year, contains advertising, the rest of the planet's Twitter service currently does not). International usage of Twitter is pretty extensive, with multiple languages and character sets available. The recent attacks in Mumbai India had a pretty substantial online communications element to them, with the tag #mumbai widely used to track events in multiple languages, and with the attackers using Blackberrys and mobile phones to collaborate and to monitor the media. The...
The cable firm is widely expected to unveil details of its much anticipated 50Mbps broadband service.
Randall Stross / New York Times:
Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites — FOR some time, Procter & Gamble, the world's largest advertiser, has been dipping its big toes into the vast pool of Facebook, now the world's largest social network. I recently knocked on the doors of both companies to hear how the experiment was going.
I'm going to put aside my differences with the Le Web conference and organizer Loic Le Meur for a moment to address another issue at the event: the complete lack of Internet connectivity, both days. A good conference has at least three separate connections. One is for the audience and has both wifi coverage and as many ethernet cables as can be managed logistically. A separate ethernet connection should be reserved for the stage to ensure that demos go smoothly. And a final connection should be reserved for the press room so that bloggers and journalists can file reports even if the main audience connection goes down (as an aside, the press room should also have a simulcast of the stage so that press can work from there and cover the event real time). A fourth connection should be dedicated to livestreaming the event (Ustream was doing that at Le Web). Le Web, which paid €100,000 to Swisscom to ensure lightning fast Internet, had no Internet connectivity. Nothing for the audience, nothing for the stage, nothing in the press room. Ustream had 50% connectivity, and lost some great footage.
Microsoft apparently isn't going to ignore the iPhone completely. They released a Seadragon application for the iPhone today that lets users "infinitely zoom" on high quality images with near zero transition times. The embed below shows Seadragon in action, and the experience on the iPhone is very similar. We've covered Seadragon applications like TouchWall and pptPlex previously, and in March Microsoft built it into Silverlight. You can browse a few photosets included in the application or add your own content from Photosynth or any RSS feed. Get the application at this iTunes link. More on the excellent 148apps.
NOw that many of us no longer wear white shirts and neckties, now that suits or even dress slacks are not often work-requirements, the uniform for many of us includes a pair of jeans. I am wearing a pair right now. One environmental group just asked "How Green are Your Jeans?" Answer: NOT. There's the blue dye based on fossil fuels. The "stone-washed" models which means chemically treated and probably by workers with no workplace health protection. Some cotton farming is organic, some definitely not. And those metal rivets and zippers? Think about copper and zinc mining and do not imagine this is either clean nor energy-efficient. Levi Strauss is a privately-held company and big player in the jean industry....
Estonian Parliament approved a measure Thursday that will allow citizens to vote by mobile phone in the tech-friendly nation's next election.
uvLayer, a startup that has built an intuitive webtop for sharing YouTube videos and other media, has launched the latest version of its site which introduces a host of new features, including support for more IM networks and Flickr search. uvLayer has slipped under our radar until now, but their product is impressive, allowing users to search for and organize media much as they would on their computer's desktop. These 'desktops in the cloud' (called canvases by the service) can be made public, allowing users to browse through the media you've collected in an organized manner. These canvases are useful for purposes beyond pure entertainment - for example, teachers can organize videos into appropriate lessons folders for their students.
Marc Miller / Gmail Blog:
Fast PDF viewing right in your browser — When I get sent a PDF, sometimes I just want to view it — I don't always need to download and save it right then. So starting today, you'll see a new “View” link next to PDF attachments you get in Gmail: — Clicking “View” quickly opens …
It's pretty clear that the future for sending high-definition content to HDTVs is wireless, since it eliminates all those cables that everyone is trying to hide behind walls, in home theater cabinetry, or however else they can. But as is often the case with nascent technologies, the best approach for transmitting wireless HD is up for grabs. The upcoming CES spectacular next month in Vegas will present a showcase for new products championing one standard or another. In fact, market research firm Parks Associates is planning a panel where four proponents of those methods&?WirelessHD, WHDI, wireless HDMI, and 802.11n#151;will duke it out. Of course, the marketplace is where the real fight will take place, and it's still too early...
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Ex-Yahoos Weigh in on Their Choices for New Yahoo CEO — With so many more ex-Yahoos out there now that the most recent layoffs have taken place, BoomTown put out feelers to a range of them to ask whom they would like to run the company they no longer work for. — After all, who better than to pick a new CEO than an ex?
Facing opposition from top officials, civil rights groups, and wireless companies, the FCC has canceled upcoming vote on controversial free Internet plan.
As a response to my on-stage comments and this post about entrepreneurial culture in Europe, Le Web organizer Loic Le Meur is asking readers if I should be "invited back at Le Web next year." As of the writing of this post, nearly 2/3 of respondents say no, I should not be invited to return.
Kara Swisher continues her search for Jerry Yang's replacement, gathering picks from the raft of ex-Yahoo employees.
Don Reisinger examines five Facebook trolls and how to deal with them when they start bothering you.
U.S. astronomers and engineers have built a new camera to precisely measure the size of planets moving around distant stars. This camera has been dubbed OPTIC -- short for 'Orthogonal Parallel Transfer Imaging Camera.' According to the research team, it is 'so sensitive that it could detect the passage of a moth in front of a lit window from a distance of 1,000 miles.' I'm not sure if this analogy is right, but the team said it was able to precisely define the size of a planet called WASP-10b which is orbiting around the star WASP-10, about 300 light-years from Earth. But read more...
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Joie De Vivre: The Europeans Are Out To Lunch — I write this from a hotel room at Newark airport in New Jersey. I'm half way home from a wonderful week in Paris at the Le Web conference where I mingled with 1,700 or so attendees. My mood: jetlagged, sated and cranky. — My week was spent in luxury.
OK, I'm SURE all of data center equipment vendor Verari Systems' competitors MUST offer leasing as a transaction option, but I haven't heard anyone else appeal so blatantly to green budgets or corporate mandates. The company has introduced what it is calling the Green Leasing Program, which takes into consideration energy efficiency and lifecycle management as part of the leasing process. The realist in me knows that this announcement is probably motivated more because of the current economic climate (which makes upfront data center investments really tough) than any kind of altruism. But its pretty smart, because it recognizes that management and ongoing technology refreshes are key to any green IT strategy. Frankly, it can help a company get started,...
Here are a few of CNET Reviews' favorite items from the past week, including Apple's new in-ear headphones, the Kodak OLED wireless picture frame, and the Samsung Delve.
I write this from a hotel room at Newark airport in New Jersey. I'm half way home from a wonderful week in Paris at the Le Web conference where I mingled with 1,700 or so attendees. My mood: jetlagged, sated and cranky. My week was spent in luxury. I was treated to a business class flight to Paris, a stay at one of the nicest hotels in the city, and at least three of the best meals I've had since the last Le Web conference in 2007. I'm still a little dazed after a five hour, fourteen course dinner last night at Restaurant Guy Savoy, my first foray into a Michelin three star restaurant, for example. A fleet of Peugeots sallied us across town. Europe is more formal than Silicon Valley, so I wore a suit each day to the conference. In all, an atypical week for me in every way (jeans, tshirt, Jet Blue and Motel 6 is how I roll on most of my trips). Life is good in Paris.
Three years ago I wrote about the potential then pending IT technologies had for addressing the world climate management issue - today all the pieces needed to make it happen are coming together.
A company called EFi-X USA reportedly plans to take on Psystar and Apple's Mac Pro with hacked hardware.
Slammin' pram makes your kids play-date magnets, so head for the park. Choose the streamlined single seat, or pick the two-seater to wheel twin toddlers in style.
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Broadens App Store Acceptance, Approves ‘Pull My Finger’ — One of the major criticisms of the App Store has been a seemingly arbitrary rejection policy on the part of Apple. Air-o-Matic was one of the developers rejected by Apple for the reason of “limited utility” for his humor app “Pull My Finger”.
Earlier today we learned that Apple had decided to allow a new genre of apps into the app store with the release of Pull My Finger, a humorous but simple application that emits predictably nasty sounds whenever users pull on a virtual finger. The application was intitally rejected by Apple, sparking debate over the seemingly arbitrary standards it was using in its approval process. Today's policy shift sets the stage for imitators looking to build on the irreverent success of Pull My Finger, and we've already got our next contender in the battle for flatulence supremacy. It's called iFart, and while it's an improvement over Pull My Finger, I seriously hope this isn't the start of a new trend.
One of the great things about Android Market is that you can see what everyone has to say about the applications they've downloaded. Very useful in figuring out if you should really download that app called "Alien Blood Bath" or just avoid it all together. The system, however, is slightly flawed. It appears that no one is really moderating these comments, and they usually end up turning into heated debates on the most futile of topics. So, rather than let these little gems go to waste, we've run into the middle of the battle, and emerged somewhat unscathed with loads of half-baked comments for everyone to enjoy.
I met Clinton Fitch a few years ago at a Mobius event and just had the pleasure of hanging out with him this last week in Seattle. Clinton puts together some of the most comprehensive reviews you can find online and I enjoy reading his material. One feature that I particularly enjoy is his yearly Top 10 Windows Mobile applications article that is now in its 5th year. Check out the Clinton Fitch.com 2008 Top 10 applications article and see if you have these loaded on your Windows Mobile device.
Rob Roy's Las Vegas outpost may remind you of a mega-casino: It's massive. It's full of blinking lights. And its security guards will get rough if you step out of line. But you won't find dealers shuffling cards here. Instead, this facility shuffles bits—on an unprecedented scale.
Dubbed SuperNAP, it's the world's densest data center. In the desert, far from any possible power-cutting natural disasters, Roy, CEO of Switch Communications Group (and no relation to the Scottish vigilante), built a server farm the size of 11 football fields. It eats 1,500 watts per square foot—almost eight times the industry standard—and houses more than 7,000 storage cabinets. Its secret? Rather than placing its blade servers on racks and pumping cold air up through raised floors, Switch packs machines inside containers that draw in cool air and shoot hot exhaust out of the building. "We invented a whole new world to get here," Roy says.
Roy's computer education began at 12. His father, paralyzed in a diving accident, was pursuing a degree in computer science, and Roy volunteered to type his papers and turn the pages of his books. Twenty-seven years later, as more and more petabytes zoom into the data cloud, he sees his facility as home to tech's most creative projects: "We want neat, cutting-edge concepts going on in there—video, gaming, voice."
But Roy tries not to take this stuff too seriously. Consider the comic book he penned about his staff, Switchblades: The Dark Ethereals have hacked into Earth's ionosphere with a plan to destroy the Net! Luckily, Roy, er, Core and his band of super-employees are here to save the day—and keep the world safe for truth, knowledge, and the entrepreneurial way.
Sound blast n. A supersize sound bite, blasted over the Internet by a tech-savvy politician. Barack Obama's campaign speeches, uploaded onto YouTube and viewed by millions, have defined the form. The average sound bite is 10.3 seconds; a typical sound blast is 10 minutes or more.
Frolleague n. A work colleague friended on a social networking site and thus granted access to personal information, from blog entries to stag party pics, that may be perceived as less than professional—or even (if the frolleague happens to be a frupervisor) grounds for dismissal.
Ocean deserts n. pl. Desolate zones in the world's seas. These regions are expanding with global warming, which has dampened the circulation of marine nutrients and lowered the concentration of oxygen to such an extent that some 20 percent of Earth's oceans are now moribund.
Twiller n. A thriller composed and published entirely on Twitter. At 140 characters per installment, these works of serial fiction are the microblogger's answer to the cell phone novel, a popular genre in text-happy Japan.
— Jonathon Keats jargon@wired.com
Watching an operating system evolve from a small, worthless lump of Vista, to becoming a unique, beautiful chrysalis of Sevenness, will probably be nothing like watching my godchildren grow up to be young adults, but probably a lot more fun. I love them to bits, like I couldn't possibly describe in words, but my God they wear me out. People have accused me of jumping ship; from hating Microsoft to loving Microsoft, having someone cover for me who writes about Mac's, and even yesterday when I said, "forget the client, hit the server" instead. Windows 7 is taking shape, and for those who can't stand Vista for all the reasons they have, will find it difficult to hate Windows 7....
Two experts pick the best games and toys
Techdirt founder Mike Masnick tackles growing calls for a voluntary music-licensing scheme, pushed most recently by Warner Music Group to universities.
Gmail gets a handy update that lets you open PDFs using the Google Docs viewer. Gone is the option to open them up in HTML, but this is a good thing.
MIT professor Hal Abelson started today’s final presentation for the school’s “Building Mobile Applications” class by saying, “A course like this couldn’t have existed ten years ago… maybe not even a year ago. Courses like this right now are unique, but in two years they’ll be completely ordinary.” What’s extraordinary is that on top of a full college course-load at one of the most challenging schools in the country, these groups of students built fully working mobile applications for Windows Mobile, Android, and Symbian devices while mentors from the likes of Google, Nokia, Bank of America, and Microsoft oversaw their progress.
This morning I had the opportunity to have a chat with Bhaskar Roy, Co-Founder and VP of Product Management of Qik, a popular live video casting application available on most major mobile platforms. It's not the first time we've interviewed him but, with competition at an all time high, I figured it was time to check back in. The interview was conducted over IM and later formatted to fit within the traditional Q&A structure.
A new website serves as a portal to the underworld of anonymized content posted through the Tor network.
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Key data center architect leaves Microsoft, headed for Amazon — James Hamilton, one of the big brains behind Microsoft's data center strategy, has left the company, according to a note on his Microsoft home page. And we just confirmed that he's headed across town to Amazon.com …
Three years after Sony was caught loading rookits onto CDs, the company is now spying on children. Didn't execs think someone might get mad?
From lame Star Wars to overhyped Spore, these once-promising videogames failed for a variety of reasons. Read 'em and weep.
After a lull around Thanksgiving, December has seen some of the biggest layoffs in the tech industry yet since the economy entered its tailspin in the fall. Our Layoff Tracker is now past 100,000 lost jobs (109,629, as of this writing) across nearly 300 different technology and media companies both large and small. To put this in perspective, Citigroup alone announced 52,000 layoffs in November, and across the U.S. economy, just counting September and October, there were nearly 500,000 unemployment claims as a result of mass layoffs (data isn't in yet for November or December).
What I'm about to say will anger a lot of CE manufacturers, but this has been the laziest year in consumer electronics to date and I'm recommending that rather than spending money on the boring stuff that has come out in 2008 we all spend our money on digital media - games, music, audiobooks, ebooks, and the like. And I don't mean digital Blu-Ray and game disks, either. I mean all bits, all season.
Apple's growing popularity and switch to Intel chips has made the Mac OS a target for manufacturers wishing to sell Mac clones.
It's Elevator Pitch Friday, which means another startup has created a video that's worth showing you. This week's presentation comes from Duck Duck Go, a start-up that wants to make it easier for you to find what it is that you are looking for on the Internet. Duck Duck Go combines a search engine's algorithmic search technology with Wikipedia's user generated content. They argue that the combination of these two technologies makes it quicker and easier for people to find what they want on the Internet.
Company offers a twist on the typical cut-loose package doled out by most companies, according to sources.
When it comes to educational software, the trick is to make kids think they're just playing a traditional escapist game, while they're really being surreptitiously fed facts and logic problems that put their brains to work. But while many games have done this for years, the technique hasn't really made the jump to online virtual worlds - most of the kid-friendly virtual worlds are more focused on socializing and having fun than learning. Now JumpStart, a best-selling educational software developer, is looking to fill this niche with its new JumpStart Virtual World, which launched this week in public beta. The game has high production values, with rich 3D graphics, customizable avatars, and a large world to explore. The game is browser-based, and works on both Mac and Windows with a small browser plugin.
The Free Software Foundation has patiently worked with the networking giant on General Public License compliance for too long. No more.
A recap of several industry parties in New York this week. Yes, industry parties still exist--just make sure you bring some cash to pay for your drinks.
The Google video-sharing site unveils an annual treat that lets people use videos from around the site to create holiday greeting cards that they can send to friends and family.
Shot in high-def and bursting with eye-popping energy, director Tad Fettig's environmental show on PBS reinvigorates the sometimes-stodgy documentary.
The National Air Transportation Association says requiring Big Three execs to take commercial flights like the rest of us "sets a bad precedent."
A Defense Department project, supposedly designed to support U.S. troops, was used instead to channel millions of dollars to personal friends and allies of its chief.
There is something about great sales people or deal makers that is entirely social. They are connectors, as Malcolm Gladwell calls them—people who know the interests, skills, and needs of everyone in their social or business circle and connects them together. If you are really good at this, like Sidney Weinberg (a legend who helped build Goldman Sachs), you are a super-connector. Zentact has the modest goal to help you become a super-connector. It has a long way to go before it can do that. But it is starting with the kernel of something that is intriguing. At its core, Zentact is a browser add-on (for Firefox only right now) that helps you read the Web with the interests of your social network in mind. If you want to try it out, we have 500 invites for the private beta (but once you are in, you can invite as many people as you want by sending them a message through Zentact).
Users of Microsoft's browser are at risk from untrusted as well as trusted sites, as attacks seek to drop password stealers and Trojan horses onto systems.
The moon will appear bigger and brighter tonight than it has in 15 years or will again for another eight. The moon's elliptical orbit is bringing it closer than usual to Earth tonight.
The U.S. military has allegedly been working on tiny buglike drones — to serve as miniature flying spies. But this Air Force Research Lab video shows that the military also wants to turn them into biomorphic weapons that can lie in wait before striking an adversary with lethal accuracy.
Cityfile, a compendium of news and rumors about New York's business and media leaders, has acquired Web addresses matching the names of dozens of the people it writes about.
In the fifth guilty plea stemming from a $2 million hacker crime spree, a New York man admits to a federal fraud charge, after being caught at a Manhattan Citibank with nearly $12,000 in cash, and 12 blank mag-stripe cards with stickers on them and a different PIN written on each.
Hackers have rigged the government-run logging permitting process in Brazil, enabling them to unlawfully harvest hundreds of millions of dollars in Amazon resources. As many as 30 people have been arrested.
CNET gets access to the world's first large-scale telescope meant for the full-time use of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.
Search giant's Web browser exits beta, while Yahoo shows hundreds of employees the exit. Also: iPhone at Wal-Mart?
Google adds a feature to AdSense that lets people make money off parked domains. And just in case you're wondering, Gmail is college students' favorite e-mail service.
The social network has released the first of several instructional videos that tell interested developers and site owners how to integrate its new universal-login technology.
ZDNet's Larry Dignan outlines the landscape for cloud computing, including how big the stakes really are, and how well Google and Amazon.com will fare.
This is just kind of crazy. A Russian businessman has trademarked ";-)" -- yes, the winking smiley face emoticon. Oleg Teterin now owns the rights to it according to the Russian federal patent agency, the Associated Press reports...
Permalink: Russian Businessman Promises Not to Sue you for Violating his Trademark ;-)
Who would've thought that the Twitter scourge would actually make its way to the unborn in the form of Kickbee? This strapped-on set of piezo sensors are able to monitor the baby, sending wireless updates to Twitter so that expectant parents are able to show off to the rest of the world how their little unborn child is doing...
Permalink: Kickbee Gets Unborn Started On Twitter Habit
Any US publisher with a domain name he or she isn't using (yet) can now squeeze a couple of extra dollars out of it by using Google AdSense For Domains, another way for the search giant to make more money from online real estate and give some of it back to people with parked domains...
Permalink: AdSense For Domains Now Available For All US Publishers
After dashing the hopes of iPhone/Android fanboys and girls everywhere with last month's news that Mobile Firefox (Fennec) would not be ported to the two popular/emerging platforms due to licensing and technological reasons, Mozilla has instead turned to the widely adopted (mostly abroad) Symbian platform...
Permalink: Christian Sejersen Confirms Mobile Firefox for Symbian in the Works
Dr. Mark Drapeau is a biological scientist, government consultant, and regular contributor to Mashable.com and other venues.
Behind every Twitter account is a person. But some of these people 'hide' behind organizational brands, obscuring their persona and therefore reducing authenticity and transparency.
While some brands do a decent job of engaging people on Twitter, many don't, and one could further argue that brand names and logos, as opposed to full names and user images, are not in the spirit of the Twitterverse.
Twitter is about people sharing information with other people. So how do one-dimensional organizational brands fit into this mix? When you really think about it, they don't...
Permalink: Do Brands Belong on Twitter?
The folks over at Google Labs have been hard at work, trying to tighten the grip of your virtual leash, and today introduced a new way to feed the desire for instant gratification: SMS text messaging for chat. How often have you tried to chat with somebody, but they don't respond because they "just walked away from their computer?" Well, Gmail chat will now send those messages along to your intended recipient's cell phone...
Permalink: SMS Text Messaging Comes to Google Chat
If you're a student at a U.S. educational institution, you qualify for some pretty insane deals Office and Windows. Microsoft's Ultimate Steal program allows students to order Office Ultimate 2007 for $59.95 (no, that's not a typo) and Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade Edition (regular or Product RED branded) for $65...
Permalink: Steal a Copy of Windows Vista or Office 2007 Ultimate
Featured links from the CNET Blog Network
We need to monitor information security grifters, too--Bad guys are taking advantage of the global recession with an increase in attack volume and sophistication.
Microsoft's phone news at CES--No Zune phone? Not news. But Microsoft might use CES as an opportunity to announce new software and services for Windows Mobile, and Zune might be part of the mix.
Virtual goods bubble looming? --Virtual worlds and social networks are looking to monetize users through virtual goods. Viable strategy or the Internet version of the pet rock?
Investigators now crack crime computers on the spot--System allows crime investigators to boot, run computers without compromising the chain of evidence, according to inventor.
And the subsidization of 3G-equipped netbooks starts to slowly take shape here in the US.
Starting Sunday, RadioShack will be selling the Acer Aspire One for $99 with a two-year contract from AT&T at $60 per month for 5GB of high speed data...
Permalink: 3G Aces Aspire One For $99
Microsoft is continuing its adventure into web apps with a new Live Labs experiment called Thumbtack. As a simple web-based filing cabinet for storing clipped information from around the web, Thumbtack is yet another entry into an already broad market, but it brings one particularly interesting trick to the table...
Permalink: Microsoft Labs Gets Into Web Scrapbook Biz With Thumbtack
We have two special gifts for all you today. The Blu-Ray packs have been sent out but if you added me in Twitter you'll have discovered a super secret Blu-Ray pack that I won't mention here. Luckily, we have two great prizes today so get cracking.
As is often the case, a startup comes up with one idea and then quickly realises there is a better model. UK startup Skimbit started out with a decision-making tool with affiliate links, but has now realised the method used to aggregate those affiliates could be offered to other publishers. Similar schemes leave little room for editorial control, but it's new Skimlinks off-shoot aggregates 11 affiliate networks and puts publishers - blogs, forums, web apps - in full control, in return for a revenue share.
Obama's Nobel Prize-winning choice for Secretary of Energy signals an about-face when it comes to treatment of science in Washington. Physicist Steven Chu could make a big impact on energy policy, and put the country on the right track toward renewable energy. Commentary from Betsy Mason, Wired.com science editor.
Movie studios routinely pull films from both iTunes and Netflix's streaming movie rental system, due to the legacy of "release windows" that give temporary exclusives to cable companies. The strategy works today, but it's not sustainable.
We've reviewed a lot of home audio solutions, and they all offer different benefits and drawbacks. The big trend is "music everywhere", whether through powerline networking or wirelessly. Most of these products require a specific music source to feed into the system. Sonos brings something rather more complete to the goal of "music everywhere". Read on for the complete review of the Sonos solution.
This is a guest post by Angela Benton, Founder & Publisher of Black Web 2.0, a site that covers the internet industry from an African-American perspective. It was co-written by Black Web 2.0 General Manager Markus Robinson. The release of Blackbird, an African American focused web browser sparked quite a bit of controversy this past week. The TechCrunch post about it elicited reactions from both sides of the aisle (it has 275 comments and counting). Some argued for the value of niche audiences while others debated that the idea of a Black browser is in and of itself separatism, racist even. But catering to niche audiences online is nothing new. In fact, browsers that focus on a specific market segment isn't all that new either.
Australian ISPs are refusing to back official plans to set up filters that restrict where people can go online.
Star Wars fans are to feel the force of the seminal sci-fi films and their iconic soundtracks on stage in a major new show.
Visualising computer viruses by their behaviour
More than one million Americans have been caught out by a ruse peddling fake security software, say US authorities.
A chat with a Russian hacker
From iPlayer to the big screen - in the home
The idea behind Leverage was simple and had some potential: it offered an advanced management system for gift cards, hugely popular worldwide especially this time of year, so you could register all of them and keep track of how much you have left or stored on each one. You were also able to buy gift cards, or swap them with others. The service also let you manage all of your loyalty reward programs, such as frequent-flyer or frequent-stay plans. Leverage, which was founded in May 2005 and had raised $2 million in angel funding, planned to generate revenue by reselling gift cards (see our launch coverage for more). It turns out the business model wasn't solid enough to keep the company afloat during tough times. It appears the entire staff has been laid off (right before the holidays, which is supposed to be a key period for this type of company) last week.
The beginning of what promises to be a fascinating story (and possibly a Hollywood movie) around the rise and fall of Denmark's IT Factory is starting to emerge. In late November celebrated CEO Stein Bagger went missing in Dubai - it later turned out he abandoned his wife and child and fled to New York as his company fell apart. He then borrowed a friend's car and credit card and took embarked on quite a road trip to California, where he promptly turned himself in to local police. Danish media tracked him down for an interview (translated version is here). Among the first questions they asked: Why did you perpetuate a four year fraud that involved $170 million or so in fraudulent revenues (90% of IT Factory's revenues may have been nothing but lies)?
I have been threatened on my own and my family's life, and I have been threatened with firearms between 25 and 30 times. He would not say who threatened him, but told that they would have money from him.
The pink slips were passed out on Thursday throughout the various business duchies that make up CBS Interactive—CNET, CBS.com, CBSNews,com, CBSSports.com, BNET, GameSpot, TV.com, last.fm, and CHOW. While CBS confirmed to me and other reporters that layoffs did happen across the board, it refused to talk about how many total people are losing their jobs. That left us scrambling about gathering piecemeal information. There were about 20 layoffs at Last.fm; 8 editors, we hear, at CBSNews.com are out of a job; another set of "redundancies" were eliminated at CBSSports.com. But how big exactly were the layoffs, especially at Cnet, where most of the employees reside? CBS, which is at heart a news organization, doesn't want the public to know how many layoffs just occurred at CBS Interactive. As of this writing, Cnet didn't even report the fact that there were layoffs on Thursday. Neither did CBSNews.com. And it's not because they didn't get the memo (from CBS Interactive CEO Quincy Smith, reprinted below).
Palm, which has been struggling to stay alive, is likely to introduce a new Linux-based operating system and a new family of smartphones at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month.
The remake of the '50s sci-fi classic updates its message, but the shiny environmental fable fails to rise above a shop-worn "earthlings are stupid" mind-set.
Get the inside scoop from Wired's experts -- all our product reviews are at your fingertips when you download our brand-new, free iPhone app. Get our entire reviews database on demand. Did we mention that it's free?
Hip hop mixtapes used to be a street thing—cassettes and (later) CDs crudely dubbed by local DJs and MCs to be passed around as a grassroots promo tool. But between the RIAA crackdown and the bandwidth explosion, up-and-coming artists began migrating to the Web, harnessing blogs, zip files, and free file-sharing services like Megaupload to find fans and launch careers well before their actual albums come out. "Mixtapes create a product for people to wrap their heads around," says Nick Catchdubs, cofounder of the DJ-run record label Fool's Gold. "An artist could release a million individual MP3s to the Internet, but a solid mixtape makes way more of a statement." Here's a look at the new school of mixtape maestros — and their upcoming releases.
Listen: Nick Catchdubs' Wired Mix
As a Redmond-virgin, I took the opportunity to check out the three Microsoft campus “must-see” destination today - Microsoft Home, Microsoft Center for Information Work and the Microsoft Visitor Center. Whilst both Home and CIW were both cool and still cutting edge, neither of which has had any major renovations for a while and there’s plenty of good coverage about what they involve, however the new Visitor Center just launched weeks ago so it’s still fresh. You can check out a gallery of photos above.
One of the most interesting installations of the new Visitor Center is the floating sphere with 3D projection. From what I could gather, it uses four projectors to cast a perspective-correct overlay on top of a large white sphere lifted in the air. Whilst it is similar to the installation at Google’s lobby with “live search terms”, this too seems to be “live” with popular Live Search queries appearing occasionally.
The other installation, more of an artistic rather technology showcase is a “video wall” that plays a pretty cool looking animation about the Microsoft experience complete with wall-to-wall mood lighting.
Both features are the works of an obviously capable design Seattle firm, Hornall Anderson. It shows in the turtle.
Shared by Robert Scoble
I love the Big Picture. The photos there are always incredible.
Shared by Robert Scoble
I love seeing the old images that the Library of Congress is putting onto Flickr. Here's a video that I filmed of the team that does that at the Library of Congress: http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/getting-usa-s-treasured-images-onto-flickr
The Library of Congress posted a photo:
![[New York NL Giants team at Polo Grounds (baseball)] (LOC)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3132/3085256450_9cba3a3c50_m.jpg)
Bain News Service,, publisher.
[New York NL Giants team at Polo Grounds (baseball)]
1913 APr. 10.
1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
Notes:
Original data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards: Giants, 4/10/13.
Corrected title based on research by the Pictorial History Committee, Society for American Baseball Research, 2006.
Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).
Format: Glass negatives.
Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.
Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbain
Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.12466
Call Number: LC-B2- 2627-9
This will be the first of many tech tip posts on the 5D MKII and video in general - specifically aimed at still photographers making the jump to video.
First - I got my 5D MKII production camera yesterday(yep I had to wait ’til yesterday to get mine…:) and I also received a battery pack. One small details that I didn’t know about (because I only use 1D EOS series cameras for the most part) is that you can use AA batteries in this pack - should you run out of the rechargeable ones… again - this is common with most of the Canon cameras outside of the 1D series - but many pros might not know this. And given that the Canon 5D MKII batteries are hard to come by - I thought I’d share this simple tip.
The second tip that I picked up is that the WIFI base to this camera will allow you to trigger the camera’s video on and off remotely (when you’re connecting (pairing) your computer to the camera via WIFI.) Most of your won’t care about this - but to others (ME) that’s a big deal. Currently - if you have LiveView enabled and the camera in video mode - if you plug a pocket wizard or other device into the camera and trigger it - it will trigger a still frame - NOT the video. And that’s a problem for some of the stuff I’m working on. I also hear that the Canon IR trigger will also do this (start and stop the video function)- the more expensive and newer one that is - the LC-5. UPDATE: THE LC-1 works as well.
That’s it for now. Time for some zzzzs.
If reading blogs doesn’t give you your enterprise storage fix, there’s a new option in town: Twitter!
Lots of the top folks in the enterprise storage community are now using the microblogging service, and a regular community has evolved. It’s really taken off over the past few months.
If you’re interested in enterprise storage, here’s a short list of the top folks to follow, in no particular order:
Plus there are a few official company twitterers:
While you’re at it, don’t forget to check out FriendFeed:
You might also want to read these other posts…
© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. |
Storage Folks Are Twittering
Read more posts categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal
I love pieces like this — experts writing about how they use their tools — even when they’re about apps I don’t personally use.
Everyone wants to be popular. Popular businesses make money. Popular people have lots of friends. Popular artists get their music heard by large audiences.
No one wants to be invisible. Invisible businesses fail. Invisible people are depressed. Artists that publicly state they would like to remain obscure secretly want to be popular more than the popular artists do.
There are two types of popularity the web enables:
1) Insta-fame (or viral fame)
Insta-fame is something relatively new in our society. Thanks to news media, for a while there was the idea of ‘15 minutes of fame’ - a concept the web has killed . The new form of insta-fame is to become internet famous. And once you’re internet famous, you’re forever a part of web culture. Even after your big ‘hit’ you’ll still never shake the references in social media, YouTube remixes, or Google. It could prove difficult, if not impossible to get away from what the web comes to know you as due to insta-fame.
A few examples of insta-fame include:
These videos/memes exist far outside the realm of YouTube. Along with a handful of others, these are memes that make up part of pop culture on the web and are referenced, linked to, remixed and talked about throughout the social web. Also note that none of the above people intended to become popular, it just happened.
You more than likely will not experience insta-fame, it is like getting struck by a bolt of lightning. There is no way to predict who will become internet famous and it’s not a strategy to bank on. Also, while you could capitalize on insta-fame, you probably don’t really want this anyway. This is numbers-based popularity.
2) Reputation-based popularity
If you’re not Techno Viking, becoming popular on the web is actually pretty hard work. It’s not anything you could “force” to happen - instead it is the result of relentlessly contributing on a subject you are passionate about until you start to become a referential person for that subject matter. In other words, when people write on a subject, your name naturally comes up as the go-to person. At that point, your reputation and popularity start to work for you naturally.
Examples of people who have achieved reputation-based popularity include:
These guys may make it look easy, but in reality they have put in an incredible amount of work building their reputation through being thought leaders in a global conversation, writing landmark books and keeping blogs/developing sites that smart people visit. This is influence-based popularity.
If it’s the valuable kind of web popularity you’re after, your only real option is to get to work.
Related posts from The Future Buzz
The Shift Of Trusted, Influential Media: From Brands To People
Related posts from around the web
Top 100 Web Celebrities (TechCult)
35 Tips For Getting Started With Social Media (Mike Fruchter)
Be A Real Friend To Your Socail Networking “Friends” (Louis Gray)
TalkShoe this afternoon released a major upgrade to their live podcasting platform, one that allows for a call to be created mobile, on the fly and independent of a connection to the web.
CEO Dave Nelson posted the details to the company blog today:
So now you can do a movie review as you leave the theater, inform your audience about a breaking news story, or tell your friends about a hot new restaurant while the taste is still on your tongue.
You may recall a similar service was released back in March by TalkShoe competitor BlogTalkRadio called CinchCast. The primary difference between the BlogTalkRadio offering and TalkShoe’s new feature is the ability to bring in callers to the show and broadcast it live (Cinchcast is time-shifted only).
As a podcast producer who has frequently used TalkShoe as a valued production tool, I can say that this is one feature that’s been on my personal wishlist for quite some time. It allows TalkShoe to move into the category of journalistic tool that Twitter has found itself in, and adds another utility to the repertoire of the New Media producer.
In essence, it finally allows users to have the same functionality in audio format they’ve had for quite some time with the video format thanks to services like Qik and Flixwagon.
---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:
Access Pownce from your IM with New Add-on
The Most Gorgeous Ajax Interface Ever!
Bebo and AIM Partner to Offer Instant Messaging on Profiles
Windows Live Messenger to Power IM on Bebo
SweetIM Adds Effects to Your AOL Instant Messenger
Sabifoo - IM to RSS
Meebo’s Breakthrough: File Transfer Between IM Networks
Our greater reliance on computers and digital data could leave the future in bits, warn experts.
Building digital copies of big cities
The battle over Congo's precious natural resources
Most gamers seeking treatment for compulsive gaming are not addicts, says the head of Europe's only gaming addiction clinic.
Michael Graves has a post today on how to save money when making calls to or from overseas. He highlights client Junction Networks and their OnSip service which I use quite a bit when I go across the water, as well as some other neat ideas to save your money for something better than a phone call.
Here are some tips I've deployed.
1. In the UK I have a free VoIP User number from VoIPUser.org. It points to my GrandCentral number in the USA. Calls are billed at local call rates, I get to my voice mail and return the call via GrandCentral. I could just as easily do this by pointing the VoIPUser number in the UK to an inbound number PhoneFusion, CallVantage, Vonage, OnSIP or anything else that can be dialed and password authenticated which offers Find Me/Follow Me capabilities.
2. In France I have a paid for Gizmo5 number. That points to GrandCentral. Of course with DIDs and SIP connected pointing a number to any number is really easy. Get a few in countries you travel to regularly and dial in locally, avoid international long distance.
3. Pal Tony Greenberg, one of the smartest guys I know when it comes to disrupting the pricing models in telecom in the 2.0/3.0 era tipped me off to something with the iPhone. It now seems to work without a SIM. That means forget the contract, use the phone as a VoIP phone with Truphone or FRING.
4. Of course there are other ways. Skype To Go and Mobivox offer a two stage calling method, as does RebTel. Truphone's Truphone Anywhere is a call through service that is a seamless way to keep costs down too. These services basically replace the calling card, but with Skype To Go and Mobivox you can reach Skype pals as well as dial out to other number.
5. For those who want less complication in their life, Global Travel roaming services like SIM4Travel and MaxRoam give you local presence numbers, cheap International Long Distance and forwarding of calls so you can leave your number behind and still be reached.
Bottom line, with a bit of imagination and insight, finding ways to save money on calls is not that hard to do...even when you travel.
Stopping the UK's digital divide becoming a chasm
ID fraud is a growing problem in the UK - here are some tips and tricks to help web users stay safe online.
Best known for its code-cracking work, Bletchley Park also played a role in the origins of the computer age.
Computer security experts warn that many teenagers are falling into a life of petty cyber crime.
Regular contributor Bill Thompson looks at what makes a good user interface
Regular contributor Bill Thompson looks at what separates TV and the internet.
Cyber thieves are hatching a plan to steal US funds through British supermarkets, the BBC learns.
A technology that helps the modern world keep running celebrates its 40th anniversary on 5 August.
The UK's role in the early days of the computer revolution have been overlooked, say conservationists.
The sixtieth anniversary of the birth of the first modern computer - known as Baby - is celebrated.
Misha Glenny meets one of Brazil's many cyber criminals, to find out what makes them go online to steal.
Cyber criminals are setting up web shops that sell stolen data for a knock-down price, say security experts.
There is a load of digital music players on the market (see my Holiday Guide) that offer consumers quite a bit of choice.
Here's one of those good ideas that makes you wonder why it took so long for someone to come up with it.
A vulnerability has been found in the way that Microsoft Word handles specially crafted Word files. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Word file...
I have been in Japan for the past week, working out of our office here in Yokohoma, meeting with customers and partners.
Filed under: News, Fable 2 In preparation for the Fable 2 Knothole Island DLC's release next Monday, Xbox.com has been updated with a listing of Fable 2's new achievements.
The killer app for the iPhone is -- drum roll, please -- the iTunes App Store.
Putting advertising on social network websites like Facebook or News Corp (NWS) MySpace has never made sense. They claim to have tens of millions of "members", "users", "friends".
Engadget's secret sources report that Apple's John Geleynse recently proclaimed the iPhone to be a "gaming console" and potentially a threat to the Nintendo DS.
There are right and wrong ways to market yourself as an athlete.
Game Informer recently teased that its latest issue features first details of Guitar Hero: Metallica, and with the issue now reaching subscriber’s mailboxes, information from the magazine has ...
Optimal Home Location is a Google Maps/Zillow mashup tool that helps you calculate the central location between all your commuting destinations.
On this week's podcast we spoke to James Blandy, who works on the TraceMonkey JIT project (for Javascript) at Mozilla.
This from Arrington’s report on leweb: And the fact that the panelists on stage, all either American or living in America, suggested that you can somehow succeed with a startup while maintaining ...
Just before announcing that Chrome was taken out of beta last week, Google released a browser security handbook for Web developers that details the key security features of the main Web browsers.
In 2008, ISPs started to really feel the heat when it comes to video file-sharing. Comcast got reprimanded by the FCC for blocking BitTorrent transfers and consumers rebbelled against P2P throttling.
Ars polices the intersection of law, politics, and technology from the week gone by.Read More...
On Thursday, I wrote about a pair of flaws in Windows that are being exploited by cyberscum, one of which involves a bug in Internet Explorer.
Almost every piece of information we access today is stored somewhere in digital form--think iPod, YouTube, digital cameras, mobile phones, not to mention our personal and professional information ...
Footnote.com and The National Archives Launch Largest Interactive World War II Collection Online Footnote.
You love Twitter, but you find its short form messages a little restricting? Or perhaps you want to add images and videos to your Tweets?
When I worked as a lowly overnight DJ at a small Contemporary Hit Radio station in Laramie, WY, one of the more tenured on-air personalities mentioned it was a small thrill when someone recognized...
Travelling rather a lot this year has left me spending plenty of time staring at showers[1]. There seem to be three broad categories of shower UI design.
Since the App Store got ratings a few months ago, it was only a matter of time before the first Rated M game popped up. Well, that time is now. Adult Swim Amateur Surgeon: The folks at Adult Swim...
Splashcast Media has teamed with Hulu to let users create video channels featuring content from Hulu, which they can then add to their Facebook or MySpace pages, blogs or websites.
Pastebud, the app that lets you copy and paste text from email and Safari, has been sending the copied emails (including personal information) out to anybody but the original user.
Don't embarrass yourself by busting out the same tired stock clip art for your next Power Point tour de force. WPClipart has a pile of royalty free images to share.
A prominent cigarette paper maker with drug-culture cachet is accusing a T-shirt company of stealing its distinctive style for a design celebrating President-elect Barack Obama's victory.
Philips has sought to preempt its usual CES presence by announcing a quintet of digital audio systems headlined by a newer generation of iPhone and iPod docks.
