Microsoft has had a bit of a rough patch with its service packs lately, but the software giant on Tuesday plans to release the first service pack (SP1) for Office 2008 for Mac.
Office 2008 for Mac made its debut in January, and SP1 will provide increased stability, security and performance enhancements to the suite, according to Microsoft.
Specifically, it includes fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of a computer's memory by using malicious code, and all improvements that were included in the Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.01 update. Microsoft's help and support section has a full run-down on SP1 additions - more than 1,000 fixes.
Users can download the 180MB SP1 file on the Mactopia Web site or launch Office and select Help/Check for Updates, according to Erik Schwiebert, a software design lead for Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU).
"So, why SP1, and why now? Well, it's no great secret that we released Office 2008 later than our original plans intended," Schwiebert wrote in a blog post. "Even after that delay, there was a decent list of issues in the product that were postponed during the original release cycle that we knew we wanted to fix, so we knew that we had to plan for an update sometime in 2008."
Schwiebert acknowledged that not every Office 2008 bug was fixed in time for the SP1 release, but "I hope you'll agree that this update shows that I and the rest of the MacBU are committed to this product and to its future," he said.
Microsoft also announced that the next version of Office for Mac will include Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) support. Office 2008 did not include VBA-language support, which meant that existing macros in Office documents could not be edited or executed on Macs.
Schwiebert wrote in an August 2006 blog post that "VB on the Mac exists for cross-platform compatibility. There is no other software on the Mac that also uses VB, so it doesn't help Mac Office integrate with other workflows based purely on Apple solutions."
As a result, "any work we do on VB only serves to satisfy one of the two major requirements [so] we have less developer time to continue to improve Mac Office's use of Apple-specific technologies."
That did not exactly sit well with Office 2008 for Mac users. "A section of the Mac community spoke out very vocally against our decision, and I still hear echoes of it to this day," he wrote Tuesday.
"Many of the technical challenges I wrote about then still remain, but for a while now I and several others have been working with a group of people who know a heck of a lot about the internals of VB, and once we determined that we could achieve the revival VB in the new schedule for the next version of Mac Office, we locked it into place on the feature list," Schwiebert said.
No exact release date for the next version has been set, but Schwiebert expects that it "will be available somewhat sooner than 2012."
Microsoft announced last week that automatic updates for Microsoft Windows Office 2007 service pack (SP1) will start hitting customers' computers on June 16 via Microsoft Update. Microsoft made SP1 available for download on December 11 after limiting its testing to just a few months and only at large enterprises at its Technology Adopter Program.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Obama Mobile Wins 2008 Golden Dot Award for Best Mobile/Text Messaging Campaign
Got hope? How about a virtually integrated content management platform that amasses vast political support via text and media messaging?
Barack Obama, a leading presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket, seems to have a firm grip on both. What's more, the young senator's HOPE and Obama Mobile digital content initiatives have been so successful, that the Graduate School of Political Management of The George Washington University has awarded them the 2008 Golden Dot prize for Best Mobile/Text Messaging Campaign at its annual Politics Online conference.
Powering Obama's hi-tech cachet and the so far unmatched fundraising feat is Distributive Networks' innovative text messaging and data management system, with messages and downloads delivered in partnership with the wireless connectivity aggregator, SinglePoint.
The mobile application is simplicity itself and requires nothing more than texting the word HOPE to OBAMA (62262), or registering online at www.BarackObama.com/mobile. Obama supporters can then receive news, updates on events, download campaign images and ringtones, and even provide feedback or questions directly to the campaign via text messaging.
Barack Obama, a leading presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket, seems to have a firm grip on both. What's more, the young senator's HOPE and Obama Mobile digital content initiatives have been so successful, that the Graduate School of Political Management of The George Washington University has awarded them the 2008 Golden Dot prize for Best Mobile/Text Messaging Campaign at its annual Politics Online conference.
Powering Obama's hi-tech cachet and the so far unmatched fundraising feat is Distributive Networks' innovative text messaging and data management system, with messages and downloads delivered in partnership with the wireless connectivity aggregator, SinglePoint.
The mobile application is simplicity itself and requires nothing more than texting the word HOPE to OBAMA (62262), or registering online at www.BarackObama.com/mobile. Obama supporters can then receive news, updates on events, download campaign images and ringtones, and even provide feedback or questions directly to the campaign via text messaging.
Obama Mobile Takes '08 Mobile Messaging Award in France
After winning the 2008 Golden Dot prize for Best Mobile/Text Messaging Campaign, Presidential candidate Barack Obama and his HOPE-Obama Mobile campaign score once again, this time taking home the 2008 Mobile Messaging Award in the Messaging Application: Public Sector or Not for Profit category. Propelling his Democratic bid for the White House with hi-tech appeal and the still unmatched fund-raising machine are Distributive Networks and SinglePoint - two media interactivity experts that power Obama's digital content initiative.
The award -- solely dedicated to mobile messaging -- was jointly presented last week by Informa Telecoms
The award -- solely dedicated to mobile messaging -- was jointly presented last week by Informa Telecoms
Hands On: Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
I got drunk, drove under the influence, visited a strip club, got lucky, and heard every one of George Carlin's seven words you can never say on television at least twice--and that was only during the first 90 minutes of playing the game.
There's been a lot of hype around this game over the past months, and I have to say that Rockstar continues to impress me with the latest installment in the GTA series. GTA4 offers a seemingly infinite sandbox of things to do, from following the storyline and completing missions to roaming the city and wreaking havoc.
In GTA4's compelling storyline, Rockstar introduces protagonist Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant with a dark and shady past. Persuaded by his cousin Roman, Niko moves to Liberty City (which closely resembles NYC) to escape his past and pursue the American dream.
In this installment of the series, Rockstar adds more realistic detail and varies the game play. For instance, the people of the city are more aggressive and will actually run you over if you're standing in the street--much like in real-life NYC. And if you crash your own vehicle hard enough, you'll be thrown violently through the windshield.
The familiar wanted-level star system is back, with some improvements. In previous games you had to pull into an auto body shop to get your car painted, or evade the fuzz long enough to run over star power-ups; the new system is more logical and enjoyable. It revolves around line of sight and your last known location: If the police spot you, the search area will be refocused around your new location. And if you're observed breaking into a car, a description of its make and color will be sent over the police radio. And don't assume you're safe from police in your safehouse: If your wanted level is high enough, they will come in after you.
The "phone with text messaging" feature is a lot of fun. You add new people to your phonebook as you meet them and call them later to hang out, go on a date, or take a job and pick up some extra cash. It's also convenient, because it lets you restart failed missions easily.
A few more notable new features include the ability to watch television (with surprisingly good programming), to get lap dances at the strip club, and to get drunk and then drive.
So where does GTA 4 fall short? This is nitpicky, but the driving mechanics take a while to get used to. And shooting while driving is cool but can be difficult to master. The biggest problem, though, is the lack of checkpoints during multistage missions, which can be frustrating.
If you should want a break from single-player mode, check out the online mode. You and up to 16 others can play in more than a dozen online games, including Cops 'n Crooks, Turf War, Deathmatch and Race, Carjacking, and more.
Grand Theft Auto IV is a must-have for all those mature enough to enjoy it. The new features considerably outweigh the minor shortcomings. Single-player mode will keep you entertained for a good 30 to 40 hours, depending on how missions-focused you are, and the multiplayer mode offers endless hours of game play.
There's been a lot of hype around this game over the past months, and I have to say that Rockstar continues to impress me with the latest installment in the GTA series. GTA4 offers a seemingly infinite sandbox of things to do, from following the storyline and completing missions to roaming the city and wreaking havoc.
In GTA4's compelling storyline, Rockstar introduces protagonist Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant with a dark and shady past. Persuaded by his cousin Roman, Niko moves to Liberty City (which closely resembles NYC) to escape his past and pursue the American dream.
In this installment of the series, Rockstar adds more realistic detail and varies the game play. For instance, the people of the city are more aggressive and will actually run you over if you're standing in the street--much like in real-life NYC. And if you crash your own vehicle hard enough, you'll be thrown violently through the windshield.
The familiar wanted-level star system is back, with some improvements. In previous games you had to pull into an auto body shop to get your car painted, or evade the fuzz long enough to run over star power-ups; the new system is more logical and enjoyable. It revolves around line of sight and your last known location: If the police spot you, the search area will be refocused around your new location. And if you're observed breaking into a car, a description of its make and color will be sent over the police radio. And don't assume you're safe from police in your safehouse: If your wanted level is high enough, they will come in after you.
The "phone with text messaging" feature is a lot of fun. You add new people to your phonebook as you meet them and call them later to hang out, go on a date, or take a job and pick up some extra cash. It's also convenient, because it lets you restart failed missions easily.
A few more notable new features include the ability to watch television (with surprisingly good programming), to get lap dances at the strip club, and to get drunk and then drive.
So where does GTA 4 fall short? This is nitpicky, but the driving mechanics take a while to get used to. And shooting while driving is cool but can be difficult to master. The biggest problem, though, is the lack of checkpoints during multistage missions, which can be frustrating.
If you should want a break from single-player mode, check out the online mode. You and up to 16 others can play in more than a dozen online games, including Cops 'n Crooks, Turf War, Deathmatch and Race, Carjacking, and more.
Grand Theft Auto IV is a must-have for all those mature enough to enjoy it. The new features considerably outweigh the minor shortcomings. Single-player mode will keep you entertained for a good 30 to 40 hours, depending on how missions-focused you are, and the multiplayer mode offers endless hours of game play.
Popular PC Games Now Going Wii
Three popular Humongous PC games for children from Majesco Entertainment and Mistic Studios are slated to be ported to the Nintendo Wii: Freddi Fish: Kelp Seed Mystery, Pajama Sam in Don't Fear the Dark, and Spy Fox in Dry Cereal. The games, which have sold about 15 million copies and won over 400 awards in the PC realm, will now even become more mainstream in the transition to Wii. Each will cost $19.99--a nice price break from the typical Wii game. The games will be available in summer or fall of this year.
Each game will incorporate the Wii remote in point-and-click-style adventure play, and will teach children something new each time. For example, the Freddi Fish game allows users to develop hand-eye coordination. Pajama Sam lets children learn teamwork, clever thinking, and creative problem solving skills to navigate a course through underground river caverns, a sunken mine, and a giant treehouse. And the Spy Fox game features over 100 levels of arcade-style games, which helps develop critical thinking skills as each level becomes more challenging.
Each game will incorporate the Wii remote in point-and-click-style adventure play, and will teach children something new each time. For example, the Freddi Fish game allows users to develop hand-eye coordination. Pajama Sam lets children learn teamwork, clever thinking, and creative problem solving skills to navigate a course through underground river caverns, a sunken mine, and a giant treehouse. And the Spy Fox game features over 100 levels of arcade-style games, which helps develop critical thinking skills as each level becomes more challenging.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Kijiji at Heart of eBay-Craigslist Dispute
EBay's U.S. launch of its Kijiji.com classified ad business and fears of a hostile takeover from the Craigslist camp led to the recent legal scuffle between the two companies, according to legal documents released this week.
EBay last month filed suit against Craigslist for diluting its shares. Craigslist said the suit came "out of the blue" but neither company provided any additional details on what had caused the suit.
Court documents released by eBay this week point to disagreements over eBay's online classifieds efforts, and closed-door dealings between Craigslist founders Craig Newmark and James Buckmaster.
The timeline goes something like this:
August 2004: eBay purchases a 28.4 percent stake in Craigslist under the condition that it would lose its "right of first refusal" if it launched a company that competed with Craigslist.
March 2005: eBay launches its classifieds site Kijiji.com abroad
June 2007: eBay launches Kijiji.com in the U.S. Craigslist notifies eBay that that is in violation of its agreement, and that eBay's rights to first refusal were no longer in effect.
July 2007: In what they call a good faith effort, eBay pulls former vice president Joshua Silverman--now chief executive of Skype--from the Craigslist board since Silverman had worked on eBay's classified business in Europe until June 2006. EBay moves to replace Silverman with Thomas Jeon, an eBay lawyer, but Craigslist does not respond the eBay's request, according to the filing.
July 12, 2007: Craigslist exec James Buckmaster writes to former eBay CEO Meg Whitman to express concern about Kijiji, telling her that Craigslist is "no longer comfortable having eBay as a shareholder" and requests a repurchase of eBay's stake.
July 23, 2007: Whitman responds that eBay was able to "completely firewall off the operations relating to our Kijiji offering" from anything relating to Craigslist, and offers to acquire Craigslist outright. "We would welcome the opportunity to acquire the remainder of [Craigslist] we do not already own whenever you and [Newmark] feel it would be appropriate," Whitman writes.
October 15, 2007: Craigslist meets with its lawyers without notifying eBay. Minutes from the notes suggest that Craigslist was trying to thwart a "potential threat of an unwelcome takeover."
January 1, 2008: Craig Newmark and Buckmaster reorganize the Craigslist stock structure and issue one reorganization share for every five shares of common stock, diluting eBay's share to 24.85 percent. That puts eBay below the 25 percent ownership threshold that allows them a spot on eBay's board.
April 22, 2008: eBay sues Craigslist.
"We will file our formal response in the next few weeks, and until then will do our best to abide by protocol in not responding to specific assertions made in eBay's complaint," Craigslist said in a Wednesday blog post.
"Sadly, we have an uncomfortably conflicted shareholder in our midst, one that is obsessed with dominating online classifieds for the purpose of maximizing its own profits," the post continued. "It's a conflict of interest worth keeping in mind if you decide to give this filing a read."
EBay last month filed suit against Craigslist for diluting its shares. Craigslist said the suit came "out of the blue" but neither company provided any additional details on what had caused the suit.
Court documents released by eBay this week point to disagreements over eBay's online classifieds efforts, and closed-door dealings between Craigslist founders Craig Newmark and James Buckmaster.
The timeline goes something like this:
August 2004: eBay purchases a 28.4 percent stake in Craigslist under the condition that it would lose its "right of first refusal" if it launched a company that competed with Craigslist.
March 2005: eBay launches its classifieds site Kijiji.com abroad
June 2007: eBay launches Kijiji.com in the U.S. Craigslist notifies eBay that that is in violation of its agreement, and that eBay's rights to first refusal were no longer in effect.
July 2007: In what they call a good faith effort, eBay pulls former vice president Joshua Silverman--now chief executive of Skype--from the Craigslist board since Silverman had worked on eBay's classified business in Europe until June 2006. EBay moves to replace Silverman with Thomas Jeon, an eBay lawyer, but Craigslist does not respond the eBay's request, according to the filing.
July 12, 2007: Craigslist exec James Buckmaster writes to former eBay CEO Meg Whitman to express concern about Kijiji, telling her that Craigslist is "no longer comfortable having eBay as a shareholder" and requests a repurchase of eBay's stake.
July 23, 2007: Whitman responds that eBay was able to "completely firewall off the operations relating to our Kijiji offering" from anything relating to Craigslist, and offers to acquire Craigslist outright. "We would welcome the opportunity to acquire the remainder of [Craigslist] we do not already own whenever you and [Newmark] feel it would be appropriate," Whitman writes.
October 15, 2007: Craigslist meets with its lawyers without notifying eBay. Minutes from the notes suggest that Craigslist was trying to thwart a "potential threat of an unwelcome takeover."
January 1, 2008: Craig Newmark and Buckmaster reorganize the Craigslist stock structure and issue one reorganization share for every five shares of common stock, diluting eBay's share to 24.85 percent. That puts eBay below the 25 percent ownership threshold that allows them a spot on eBay's board.
April 22, 2008: eBay sues Craigslist.
"We will file our formal response in the next few weeks, and until then will do our best to abide by protocol in not responding to specific assertions made in eBay's complaint," Craigslist said in a Wednesday blog post.
"Sadly, we have an uncomfortably conflicted shareholder in our midst, one that is obsessed with dominating online classifieds for the purpose of maximizing its own profits," the post continued. "It's a conflict of interest worth keeping in mind if you decide to give this filing a read."
The Saga Continues: Craigslist Files Own Suit Against eBay
Craigslist took its battle against eBay from the blogosphere to the courtroom Tuesday when it filed its own suit against the online auction site that accuses eBay of unlawful and unfair competition and copyright infringement, among other things.
EBay last month filed suit against Craigslist for implementing new policies that eBay said unfairly diluted it economic interest in Craigslist by more than 10 percent.
In 2004, eBay acquired a minority 28.4 percent stake in Craigslist with the understanding that eBay's right of first refusal would be revoked if eBay launched a company that competed with Craigslist. When eBay launched the U.S. version of its Kijiji.com classifieds site in 2007, Craigslist pulled the company's right of first refusal and, in an effort to avoid a hostile takeover bid from eBay, Craigslist later reorganized its stock allocation and gave eBay a very limited stake.
A more detailed timeline of the events, according to eBay, can be found in this earlier AppScout post.
Craigslist has a long list of accusations including: unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.
Some of the details in the filing make it seem like Craigslist was the nerd being stuffed into the locker by the high school bully. According to Craigslist:
- eBay pressured Craigslist to allow eBay employees to work out of Craigslist's office
- eBay said it shouldn't have to pay for the job-posting ads it posted on Craigslist
- eBay pressured Craigslist to not issue employee option on Craigslist stock in favor of other alternatives, like options on eBay shares
- eBay requested real-time access to Craigslist computer systems
- eBay wanted information on planned Craigslist launches, information on growth of traffic in cities where Craigslist already had a presence, and information on Craigslist expenses and overall metrics
- During their first board meeting, eBay informed Craigslist that they purchased small shares of other companies and eventually gobbled them up, implying that they'd do the same to Craigslist, like it or not.
Craigslist "feared they had a wolf in sheep's clothing in their midst," according to the suit.
Craigslist didn't even want to partner with eBay in the first place, according to its suit. The shares owned by eBay were originally up for grabs when a shareholder decided to sell them in the summer of 2004. EBay expressed an interest and Craigslist said it was open to discussions, but Craigslist said it walked away from the table after eBay made unreasonable demands.
Newmark and Buckmaster were charmed later that month during a meeting with then eBay CEO Meg Whitman, in which she expressed a shared desire for a community-based site. But Whitman and eBay's CFO Rajiv Dutta later met with the Craigslist shareholder and purchased an option to acquire the minority interest in Craigslist, which precluded Craigslist from finding an alternative buyer. The shares were issued to eBay in early August 2004.
Basically Craigslist claims that eBay wanted to acquire Craigslist outright from the beginning and was trying to gather insider information on Craigslist while it was secretly planning the U.S. launch of the competing Kijiji.com, which Craigslist considers to be anticompetitive behavior.
Craigslist is also suing eBay for copyright infringement after eBay allegedly purchased Google ads that displaying the phrase "Craigslist.org" in the title, but linked to Kijiji.com.
Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.
EBay last month filed suit against Craigslist for implementing new policies that eBay said unfairly diluted it economic interest in Craigslist by more than 10 percent.
In 2004, eBay acquired a minority 28.4 percent stake in Craigslist with the understanding that eBay's right of first refusal would be revoked if eBay launched a company that competed with Craigslist. When eBay launched the U.S. version of its Kijiji.com classifieds site in 2007, Craigslist pulled the company's right of first refusal and, in an effort to avoid a hostile takeover bid from eBay, Craigslist later reorganized its stock allocation and gave eBay a very limited stake.
A more detailed timeline of the events, according to eBay, can be found in this earlier AppScout post.
Craigslist has a long list of accusations including: unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty.
Some of the details in the filing make it seem like Craigslist was the nerd being stuffed into the locker by the high school bully. According to Craigslist:
- eBay pressured Craigslist to allow eBay employees to work out of Craigslist's office
- eBay said it shouldn't have to pay for the job-posting ads it posted on Craigslist
- eBay pressured Craigslist to not issue employee option on Craigslist stock in favor of other alternatives, like options on eBay shares
- eBay requested real-time access to Craigslist computer systems
- eBay wanted information on planned Craigslist launches, information on growth of traffic in cities where Craigslist already had a presence, and information on Craigslist expenses and overall metrics
- During their first board meeting, eBay informed Craigslist that they purchased small shares of other companies and eventually gobbled them up, implying that they'd do the same to Craigslist, like it or not.
Craigslist "feared they had a wolf in sheep's clothing in their midst," according to the suit.
Craigslist didn't even want to partner with eBay in the first place, according to its suit. The shares owned by eBay were originally up for grabs when a shareholder decided to sell them in the summer of 2004. EBay expressed an interest and Craigslist said it was open to discussions, but Craigslist said it walked away from the table after eBay made unreasonable demands.
Newmark and Buckmaster were charmed later that month during a meeting with then eBay CEO Meg Whitman, in which she expressed a shared desire for a community-based site. But Whitman and eBay's CFO Rajiv Dutta later met with the Craigslist shareholder and purchased an option to acquire the minority interest in Craigslist, which precluded Craigslist from finding an alternative buyer. The shares were issued to eBay in early August 2004.
Basically Craigslist claims that eBay wanted to acquire Craigslist outright from the beginning and was trying to gather insider information on Craigslist while it was secretly planning the U.S. launch of the competing Kijiji.com, which Craigslist considers to be anticompetitive behavior.
Craigslist is also suing eBay for copyright infringement after eBay allegedly purchased Google ads that displaying the phrase "Craigslist.org" in the title, but linked to Kijiji.com.
Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.
Zoho Lets Users Login with Google and Yahoo! Accounts
Online office suite Zoho rolled out yet more functionality this morning, allowing users to login using existing Google and Yahoo! accounts. Also, contacts can now be imported to Zoho using one of the two companies' webmail services.
Zoho cites a recent Lifehacker poll with pushing it toward introducing these new features. The poll, simply titled "Google Apps or Zoho Suite?", found the majority of participants (42.5 percent) voting "Google, because I'm lazy and already had a Google account." Second place, at 21.2 percent was "Zoho, because I tried both and it's better."
"I think there are two takeaways from the poll," writes a commenter on Zoho's official blog. " 1. Many users don't prefer creating yet another account for yet another online app. 2. Users prefer Zoho to Competition when they try both (In this case around 75 percent prefer Zoho)."
Zoho cites a recent Lifehacker poll with pushing it toward introducing these new features. The poll, simply titled "Google Apps or Zoho Suite?", found the majority of participants (42.5 percent) voting "Google, because I'm lazy and already had a Google account." Second place, at 21.2 percent was "Zoho, because I tried both and it's better."
"I think there are two takeaways from the poll," writes a commenter on Zoho's official blog. " 1. Many users don't prefer creating yet another account for yet another online app. 2. Users prefer Zoho to Competition when they try both (In this case around 75 percent prefer Zoho)."
Photobucket Requests Password Change After Security Issue
An unknown security issue on Photobucket earlier this month has prompted the photo Web site to request that all its users change their passwords.
"Photobucket has identified and immediately resolved an isolated security incident," according to a spokesman. "There was no impact to any financial information related to Photobucket Pro subscribers, and we have no reason to believe that any photos or video from private Photobucket accounts have been accessed."
As a precaution, Photobucket is recommending that users change their passwords. The company also upgraded its policy to require passwords that are at least six characters long.
If you haven't signed into Photobucket lately, you'll be directed to a warning screen upon sign-in that asks you to change your password. Photobucket will not force you to change the password, though, and you can click "No Thanks" if you're seriously attached to it.
"Photobucket has identified and immediately resolved an isolated security incident," according to a spokesman. "There was no impact to any financial information related to Photobucket Pro subscribers, and we have no reason to believe that any photos or video from private Photobucket accounts have been accessed."
As a precaution, Photobucket is recommending that users change their passwords. The company also upgraded its policy to require passwords that are at least six characters long.
If you haven't signed into Photobucket lately, you'll be directed to a warning screen upon sign-in that asks you to change your password. Photobucket will not force you to change the password, though, and you can click "No Thanks" if you're seriously attached to it.
imeem's Media Platform Embraces Google's OpenSocial
Social media site imeem today announced new support for OpenSocial on the site's own Media Platform, pushing the reach of Google's open platform to some 300 million users.
The move makes it easier for developers to port OpenSocial apps to imeem. Imeem has also created OpenSocial extensions which give developers access to media metadata from Javascript., allowing them to build JavaScript, HTML, and Adobe Flex apps that can access all of imeem's extensive music, video, and photo libraries.
The new container will be officially unveiled today at Google's OpenSocial Summit. Among the other features are support for core OpenSocial JavaScript APIs and added support for OpenSocial gadget xml.
The move makes it easier for developers to port OpenSocial apps to imeem. Imeem has also created OpenSocial extensions which give developers access to media metadata from Javascript., allowing them to build JavaScript, HTML, and Adobe Flex apps that can access all of imeem's extensive music, video, and photo libraries.
The new container will be officially unveiled today at Google's OpenSocial Summit. Among the other features are support for core OpenSocial JavaScript APIs and added support for OpenSocial gadget xml.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
UpTake Beta Travel Site Open to Public
Tired of searching through dozens of Web sites to find everything you need to plan the vacation of your dreams? Now with the public beta launch of UpTake (formerly called Kango; see our preview here), you can plan the trip of a lifetime all in one place--as long as it's in the U.S, for now. Housing the largest database of over 400,000 U.S. hotels, attractions and online opinions, the site offers a wealth of information to travelers. Eventually UpTake will expand to include locations outside the U.S. as well.
UpTake was founded by Yen Lee, former GM of Yahoo! Travel. Lee says, "Unlike other travel sites, we are focused on delivering the most comprehensive coverage. We offer the broadest and deepest information about U.S. hotels and we'll be developing similar levels of coverage for other lodging and destinations later this year."
In a meeting earlier this month, Lee discussed the idea behind his new site. He told us UpTake is not meant to be a community site, a content publisher, or a booking site; it is primarily focused on being "a search engine for travel," with no distractions for the traveler searching for just the right travel experience.
UpTake allows you to browse through a top list of cities, hotels, and top things to do. Besides visiting a city, the site also caters to those who love the outdoors. You can select from lists of mountains, camp sites, parks, oceans, cruises, lakes, deserts, natural wonders, and even wine country. It links to reviews from a wide variety of sources, weighing trusted sources more heavily.
UpTake was founded by Yen Lee, former GM of Yahoo! Travel. Lee says, "Unlike other travel sites, we are focused on delivering the most comprehensive coverage. We offer the broadest and deepest information about U.S. hotels and we'll be developing similar levels of coverage for other lodging and destinations later this year."
In a meeting earlier this month, Lee discussed the idea behind his new site. He told us UpTake is not meant to be a community site, a content publisher, or a booking site; it is primarily focused on being "a search engine for travel," with no distractions for the traveler searching for just the right travel experience.
UpTake allows you to browse through a top list of cities, hotels, and top things to do. Besides visiting a city, the site also caters to those who love the outdoors. You can select from lists of mountains, camp sites, parks, oceans, cruises, lakes, deserts, natural wonders, and even wine country. It links to reviews from a wide variety of sources, weighing trusted sources more heavily.
Verizon Joins Rival Open-Handset Consortium
Those holding out hope that Verizon might join Google's Open Handset Alliance will probably have to wait a little longer; Verizon announced Wednesday that it would join the LiMo Foundation, a global consortium of mobile providers developing an open handset platform.
"Verizon Wireless is committed and invested in encouraging innovation, providing developers the opportunity to deliver new wireless choices and expanding the mobile market," Kyle Malady, vice president of network for Verizon, said in a statement. "We expect our involvement with LiMo to advance these principles."
LiMo launched in January 2007 with seven founding members: Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Panasonic, Samsung and Vodafone. Its mission is to create an open, Linux-based software platform so that the global industry can produce transparent mobile devices. LiMo now has 40 mostly international members, and it demonstrated 18 handsets from 7 vendors supporting LiMo Platform technology in February 2008, according to the foundation.
"Verizon Wireless is demonstrating itself a champion of openness in mobile innovation by joining the board of LiMo Foundation," said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation. "This offers further concrete evidence that LiMo is positioned at the heart of the rapidly emerging, industry-wide trend to secure the benefits of openness and choice in technology."
Verizon has done an about-face on openness issues in the past year. The company, which was long regarded as one that produced phones with crippling features, shocked the industry last year when it opened its network to all applications and devices and later hosted its own open development conference.
There was speculation that Verizon might then join Google's Open Handset Alliance, but that never came to fruition. Earlier this month, Google filed a petition with the FCC criticizing Verizon's plans for recently purchased open-access 700-MHz c-block spectrum, so it's not likely that these two will see eye-to-eye any time soon.
This story originally appeared on pcmag.com.
"Verizon Wireless is committed and invested in encouraging innovation, providing developers the opportunity to deliver new wireless choices and expanding the mobile market," Kyle Malady, vice president of network for Verizon, said in a statement. "We expect our involvement with LiMo to advance these principles."
LiMo launched in January 2007 with seven founding members: Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, Panasonic, Samsung and Vodafone. Its mission is to create an open, Linux-based software platform so that the global industry can produce transparent mobile devices. LiMo now has 40 mostly international members, and it demonstrated 18 handsets from 7 vendors supporting LiMo Platform technology in February 2008, according to the foundation.
"Verizon Wireless is demonstrating itself a champion of openness in mobile innovation by joining the board of LiMo Foundation," said Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation. "This offers further concrete evidence that LiMo is positioned at the heart of the rapidly emerging, industry-wide trend to secure the benefits of openness and choice in technology."
Verizon has done an about-face on openness issues in the past year. The company, which was long regarded as one that produced phones with crippling features, shocked the industry last year when it opened its network to all applications and devices and later hosted its own open development conference.
There was speculation that Verizon might then join Google's Open Handset Alliance, but that never came to fruition. Earlier this month, Google filed a petition with the FCC criticizing Verizon's plans for recently purchased open-access 700-MHz c-block spectrum, so it's not likely that these two will see eye-to-eye any time soon.
This story originally appeared on pcmag.com.
Q
Unknown to many, MC Hammer has been actively exploring the world of high-tech. His initial interest, born out of a desire to promote his music through alternative channels, has since become one of the many projects the rapper has been involved with since he first gained prominence in the eighties. A chance encounter with Flock browser creators Geoffrey Arone and Anthony Young has since led to the launch of DanceJam, a video site aimed squarely at dance fans--a community of which Hammer has counted himself a member for more than 30 years.
We spoke with Hammer about his music, his decade-long passion for the Web, and what exactly makes him so damned legit.
I was eight when Please Hammer Don't Hurt Them was unleashed on the world. Shortly after the release of the record, the man behind the record, Oakland native, Stanley Burrell, built a $12 million home on a hill that overlooked my little suburban house in Fremont, CA. Hammer would drive around the city in a fleet of expensive sports cars and SUVs with vanity plates that bore the titles the gold and platinum records that had let him afford his small army of vehicles.
All of which is to say that the artist left an impression on me, like so many other members of my generation, in my formative years. I bought the records and wore the pants, and when he hawked Taco Bell, I probably ate a few extra burritos. For the three or four years that he was on top, Hammer was--to use a tired expression--a cultural force that couldn't be touched.
Since then, Hammer has worn various hats, all with an equally tenacious determination. There were two gangster albums--a new attempt at legitimizing Hammer as a harder emcee than the one the world had come to embrace. In 2001, he released Active Duty. Featuring a cover blazon with a bald Hammer posing in front of a blurry shot of the American flag, the album offered up tracks with titles such as "No Stoppin' Us (USA)" and "A Soldier's Letter," the former bearing an accompanying that featured images of George W. Bush, 9-11, and an American flag-sporting Hammer rapping on the steps of Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, the rapper had re-embraced his spiritual side, preaching to congregations around the bay area and hosting his own program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
I had an opportunity to speak with him yesterday about DanceJam, and a few other things I just had to know.
BH: I have to ask you, right off the bat--do people casually refer to you as "Hammer" in conversation? I sent the initial e-mail referring to you "Mr. Burrell," and the reply came back "Hammer."
Hammer: People refer to me a "MC Hammer" or "Hammer." Yeah, that's fine.
So, how did you get involved with DanceJam?
Well, you know, DanceJam was the product of maybe two or three years of forward thinking that I started on, a few years back, just looking at the environment of the music industry and where I thought it might be going. I was continuing to make music. I thought that going forward and creating a music project, that it would be great to create communities around the music.
The first ten songs that I wrote were dance songs based on different geographies across the country. There were different tempos and different sounds for different regions. I had a song that was made for the way people dance in the south, and a song that was made for the way people dance in the Midwest, and a song that was made for the way people dance in northern California, and a different song for Southern California, and another song for New York. So having these different songs at different tempos, I just thought it would be great to have a community that was based around these different kinds of dance. That's where the original idea evolved from, on my side of the plate.
How was your own music integrated into the project, if at all?
Not at all. Once the concept was there, I was meeting with Google and Orkut, throwing around concepts about combining the best of their properties, i.e. Google Video and the Orkut platform, and coming up with some ideas of how best to facilitate the communities that we just spoke about. So I was throwing around ideas with [Orkut founder, Orkut Bykkkten] and Jennifer Feiken, one of the founders of Google Video, and also going over to places like YouTube and taking a look at their operations, again with the idea of someday birthing a community that would be built around the culture of dance. So it quickly moved from being not only my project to a project for everyone who loves and is entertained by dance.
So you initially got involved with the Web because it sort of naturally sprung out of what you had been doing, all these years.
Actually, my involvement with the Web goes all the way back to '94. I used to go out to Silicon Graphics, back in '94, '95, to their research and development. I wanted to see all the things that they had that would be helpful in delivering video over the Web.
I also went over to Apple's research and development and was introduced to a young man who was writing the code for QuickTime. This was in my journey to find out who would give us the tools necessary to view video over the Web. It was very ego driven [laughs]. I wanted my videos to be seen anywhere and everywhere "on demand," and not have to wait for them to come on once or twice a day on music television. I wanted people to be able to see the videos whenever they wanted to, and I thought that the Internet would afford that type of demand, but I quickly found out that there were things called "compression technology" and "broadband pipes" that were missing from the equation [laughs].
Do you see yourself ever using this site to promote some of your own work?
The focus is not me. It's not about Hammer. It's about being entertained by dance and loving dance and the dance culture, and how that plays out in the world of Hammer as an artist, we'll see.
But there's certainly a focus of having professionals on the site, showing people how things are done.
There absolutely is. Choreographers, professionals--top-notch choreographers who are choreographing some of the biggest pop stars and musicians today, who will be a part of the instructional side of DanceJam. And I myself will also offer some instruction on various dance styles and dance moves, so to that extent, absolutely.
It's as much for people who are casually showing themselves dance in their bedrooms as it is for those who want to pursue these things professionally?
Right, so it goes all the way from just being entertaining and having fun to doing it to be physically fit, to those who are going to go out to a club and want to check out what the hottest dance is. And it's also for those who have aspirations to become a star and be discovered by some of these top choreographers and Hollywood types who will be trolling the site.
You've probably been spending a lot of time watching the videos up on the site lately. Have you learned anything yourself? Have you picked up any moves?
Well, dancing is something that I do on a daily basis, for 30 plus years, so I'm always abreast of dance moves... but DanceJam certainly adds to the convenience of being able to go to one place to discover something new. But I'm pretty much abreast of the latest.
Social networking seems to be a big part of the site. What sorts of things do you see users discussing and learning from one another?
Well, you know, dance as an art form is very intricate, so you may get someone on there who sees someone doing a move, and their initial comment might might be, "I like the way you did that, and if you add that to this move, or combine it with this, and add that to this, it will look like this"; and they say, "As a matter of fact, I'll upload a video showing you what I'm talking about."
You'll have those who automatically want to have a conversation about making the dance moves better, and you'll have those who will say, "No, I think that I can actually do that move better than you, and I'm willing to battle you," and they'll have a dance-off. And then you'll have others who will say, "Can you show me what you were thinking when you executed those moves?" It really runs the gamut, because we have special features that allow you to put a video in slow motion and rewind it. It really becomes an environment where you have a community and conversation around the art of dance.
I like the idea of people using the platform to battle one another. Is there a rating system in place?
There is absolutely a rating system in place. What will happen is, when you see a battle, right after it's done, you'll pick which person won the battle, and there will be a continuous stream of battles for you to judge.
Are there options for creating profiles? Is it like Facebook, in that respect?
Absolutely. Users create their profiles, and they'll have an option of a traditional picture being loaded, or they'll create a video avatar that will start when you slide your browser across it. It's very, very well done, in terms of the features of your profile.
You mentioned earlier that when you were first becoming interested in the Web, you visited various other businesses, and I know that the co-founders of the site also helped to create Flock. Do you foresee any integration with other sites?
Oh, definitely. We've already begun that process, and we'll certainly be integrating with other sites. We're already signing off on deals.
It's in beta right now--when is it going to go public?
We hope to throw the doors open by the end of this month.
And you mentioned YouTube and Google Video earlier--there's a lot competition in the video space. What sets this one apart? Why should people check out the site?
Well, because when you go there, you know the reason you're there. If you're looking for dance, you know that at DanceJam, there's going to be a ton of dance. There's no other place of significance that has a community based around dance.
You may find a dance video on another site, but here is a place where you can enjoy the experience in an enhanced way. The features that we have and the community set us apart from other places that aggregate all sorts of videos, from A to Z. We are focused on dance, and there's nowhere else that has the user experience that we have.
Anything else you want to add, before we go?
Meet me at the DanceJam.
We spoke with Hammer about his music, his decade-long passion for the Web, and what exactly makes him so damned legit.
I was eight when Please Hammer Don't Hurt Them was unleashed on the world. Shortly after the release of the record, the man behind the record, Oakland native, Stanley Burrell, built a $12 million home on a hill that overlooked my little suburban house in Fremont, CA. Hammer would drive around the city in a fleet of expensive sports cars and SUVs with vanity plates that bore the titles the gold and platinum records that had let him afford his small army of vehicles.
All of which is to say that the artist left an impression on me, like so many other members of my generation, in my formative years. I bought the records and wore the pants, and when he hawked Taco Bell, I probably ate a few extra burritos. For the three or four years that he was on top, Hammer was--to use a tired expression--a cultural force that couldn't be touched.
Since then, Hammer has worn various hats, all with an equally tenacious determination. There were two gangster albums--a new attempt at legitimizing Hammer as a harder emcee than the one the world had come to embrace. In 2001, he released Active Duty. Featuring a cover blazon with a bald Hammer posing in front of a blurry shot of the American flag, the album offered up tracks with titles such as "No Stoppin' Us (USA)" and "A Soldier's Letter," the former bearing an accompanying that featured images of George W. Bush, 9-11, and an American flag-sporting Hammer rapping on the steps of Capitol Hill. Meanwhile, the rapper had re-embraced his spiritual side, preaching to congregations around the bay area and hosting his own program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
I had an opportunity to speak with him yesterday about DanceJam, and a few other things I just had to know.
BH: I have to ask you, right off the bat--do people casually refer to you as "Hammer" in conversation? I sent the initial e-mail referring to you "Mr. Burrell," and the reply came back "Hammer."
Hammer: People refer to me a "MC Hammer" or "Hammer." Yeah, that's fine.
So, how did you get involved with DanceJam?
Well, you know, DanceJam was the product of maybe two or three years of forward thinking that I started on, a few years back, just looking at the environment of the music industry and where I thought it might be going. I was continuing to make music. I thought that going forward and creating a music project, that it would be great to create communities around the music.
The first ten songs that I wrote were dance songs based on different geographies across the country. There were different tempos and different sounds for different regions. I had a song that was made for the way people dance in the south, and a song that was made for the way people dance in the Midwest, and a song that was made for the way people dance in northern California, and a different song for Southern California, and another song for New York. So having these different songs at different tempos, I just thought it would be great to have a community that was based around these different kinds of dance. That's where the original idea evolved from, on my side of the plate.
How was your own music integrated into the project, if at all?
Not at all. Once the concept was there, I was meeting with Google and Orkut, throwing around concepts about combining the best of their properties, i.e. Google Video and the Orkut platform, and coming up with some ideas of how best to facilitate the communities that we just spoke about. So I was throwing around ideas with [Orkut founder, Orkut Bykkkten] and Jennifer Feiken, one of the founders of Google Video, and also going over to places like YouTube and taking a look at their operations, again with the idea of someday birthing a community that would be built around the culture of dance. So it quickly moved from being not only my project to a project for everyone who loves and is entertained by dance.
So you initially got involved with the Web because it sort of naturally sprung out of what you had been doing, all these years.
Actually, my involvement with the Web goes all the way back to '94. I used to go out to Silicon Graphics, back in '94, '95, to their research and development. I wanted to see all the things that they had that would be helpful in delivering video over the Web.
I also went over to Apple's research and development and was introduced to a young man who was writing the code for QuickTime. This was in my journey to find out who would give us the tools necessary to view video over the Web. It was very ego driven [laughs]. I wanted my videos to be seen anywhere and everywhere "on demand," and not have to wait for them to come on once or twice a day on music television. I wanted people to be able to see the videos whenever they wanted to, and I thought that the Internet would afford that type of demand, but I quickly found out that there were things called "compression technology" and "broadband pipes" that were missing from the equation [laughs].
Do you see yourself ever using this site to promote some of your own work?
The focus is not me. It's not about Hammer. It's about being entertained by dance and loving dance and the dance culture, and how that plays out in the world of Hammer as an artist, we'll see.
But there's certainly a focus of having professionals on the site, showing people how things are done.
There absolutely is. Choreographers, professionals--top-notch choreographers who are choreographing some of the biggest pop stars and musicians today, who will be a part of the instructional side of DanceJam. And I myself will also offer some instruction on various dance styles and dance moves, so to that extent, absolutely.
It's as much for people who are casually showing themselves dance in their bedrooms as it is for those who want to pursue these things professionally?
Right, so it goes all the way from just being entertaining and having fun to doing it to be physically fit, to those who are going to go out to a club and want to check out what the hottest dance is. And it's also for those who have aspirations to become a star and be discovered by some of these top choreographers and Hollywood types who will be trolling the site.
You've probably been spending a lot of time watching the videos up on the site lately. Have you learned anything yourself? Have you picked up any moves?
Well, dancing is something that I do on a daily basis, for 30 plus years, so I'm always abreast of dance moves... but DanceJam certainly adds to the convenience of being able to go to one place to discover something new. But I'm pretty much abreast of the latest.
Social networking seems to be a big part of the site. What sorts of things do you see users discussing and learning from one another?
Well, you know, dance as an art form is very intricate, so you may get someone on there who sees someone doing a move, and their initial comment might might be, "I like the way you did that, and if you add that to this move, or combine it with this, and add that to this, it will look like this"; and they say, "As a matter of fact, I'll upload a video showing you what I'm talking about."
You'll have those who automatically want to have a conversation about making the dance moves better, and you'll have those who will say, "No, I think that I can actually do that move better than you, and I'm willing to battle you," and they'll have a dance-off. And then you'll have others who will say, "Can you show me what you were thinking when you executed those moves?" It really runs the gamut, because we have special features that allow you to put a video in slow motion and rewind it. It really becomes an environment where you have a community and conversation around the art of dance.
I like the idea of people using the platform to battle one another. Is there a rating system in place?
There is absolutely a rating system in place. What will happen is, when you see a battle, right after it's done, you'll pick which person won the battle, and there will be a continuous stream of battles for you to judge.
Are there options for creating profiles? Is it like Facebook, in that respect?
Absolutely. Users create their profiles, and they'll have an option of a traditional picture being loaded, or they'll create a video avatar that will start when you slide your browser across it. It's very, very well done, in terms of the features of your profile.
You mentioned earlier that when you were first becoming interested in the Web, you visited various other businesses, and I know that the co-founders of the site also helped to create Flock. Do you foresee any integration with other sites?
Oh, definitely. We've already begun that process, and we'll certainly be integrating with other sites. We're already signing off on deals.
It's in beta right now--when is it going to go public?
We hope to throw the doors open by the end of this month.
And you mentioned YouTube and Google Video earlier--there's a lot competition in the video space. What sets this one apart? Why should people check out the site?
Well, because when you go there, you know the reason you're there. If you're looking for dance, you know that at DanceJam, there's going to be a ton of dance. There's no other place of significance that has a community based around dance.
You may find a dance video on another site, but here is a place where you can enjoy the experience in an enhanced way. The features that we have and the community set us apart from other places that aggregate all sorts of videos, from A to Z. We are focused on dance, and there's nowhere else that has the user experience that we have.
Anything else you want to add, before we go?
Meet me at the DanceJam.
Flock Intros Support for Digg, Pownce, and AOL Mail
Just in case integration with Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, Blogger, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Picasa, Photobucket, Livejournal, Wordpress, Xanga, Del.icio.us, TypePad, Ma.gnolia, Piczo, and [deep breath] Blogome wasn't enough to convince you to give Flock a chance, the "social Web browser" has added support for Digg, Pownce, and AOL Mail in its latest iteration, Flock 1.2 beta.
Social bookmarking service Digg and micro-blogging app Pownce have both been added to the browser's sidebar, and support for AOL Mail notifications have been integrated into the latest version of the software.
Version 1.2 of the browser is available for download on Mac, Windows, and Linux. We might just wait until they introduce DanceJam integration, however.
Social bookmarking service Digg and micro-blogging app Pownce have both been added to the browser's sidebar, and support for AOL Mail notifications have been integrated into the latest version of the software.
Version 1.2 of the browser is available for download on Mac, Windows, and Linux. We might just wait until they introduce DanceJam integration, however.
MySpace Wins Largest-Ever Spam Case
Many people have been using MySpace as a way to pursue their illegal activities--including spammers. But recently, the social networking platform owned by News Corp. put its foot down and won the largest anti-spam judgment in history, according to the Associated Press.
MySpace won $230 million in damages in a suit against the notorious "Spam King," Sanford Wallace, and his friend Walter Rines for allegedly sending over 730,000 spam messages to MySpace members, disguised as coming from trusted friends.
"MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site," says Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, in the article. "We remain committed to punishing those who violate the law and try to harm our members."
CAN-SPAM, an anti-spam law, was passed in 2003--and every violation under this law gives $100 to MySpace. The amount is even tripled when it is done "willfully and knowingly."
So will this be the end of spam? Probably not; spam still plague most of us, and spammers and scammers will always find new avenues to con people out of money. MySpace hopes this case, however, may scare off at least a few.
MySpace won $230 million in damages in a suit against the notorious "Spam King," Sanford Wallace, and his friend Walter Rines for allegedly sending over 730,000 spam messages to MySpace members, disguised as coming from trusted friends.
"MySpace has zero tolerance for those who attempt to act illegally on our site," says Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, in the article. "We remain committed to punishing those who violate the law and try to harm our members."
CAN-SPAM, an anti-spam law, was passed in 2003--and every violation under this law gives $100 to MySpace. The amount is even tripled when it is done "willfully and knowingly."
So will this be the end of spam? Probably not; spam still plague most of us, and spammers and scammers will always find new avenues to con people out of money. MySpace hopes this case, however, may scare off at least a few.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Twistori: A Twitter-Based Social Experiment
There are thousands of people busy Twittering their life events, thoughts, and feelings right now. Between you and your Twitter friends, you really only get a small glimpse of the activity on Twitter at any point in time. Twistori doesn't try to bring you everything that everyone is twittering right now, but it does try to give you a feeling of what people out there are passionately twittering about. The site scrolls twitter entries that contain certain keywords like "I believe," "I love," and "I hate."
Twistori is a social experiment. The goal of the service is to provide a window into what people use Twitter to write about and in what context people express some of their strongest feelings. The service scrolls through public Twitter posts from multiple users that use the phrases "I love," "I hate," "I think," "I believe," "I feel," and "I wish." You can click on any of the terms to see what people are feeling or wishing for at any given moment.
The service pulls data from Summarize, a Web service that allows you to see what Twitter users are discussing in real-time. Not all of the statements are bold declarations of opinion or emotion. Most people are just twittering about their day. One user writes "I feel dead tired," and goes on to mention why, another user feels "really bad for the intern we just pranked."
If you're more interested in seeing what aggravates people, you can click on "hate" to see what people are hating on right now. The usual suspects are in the scrolling list, like people who hate meetings, hate complainers, and hate their allergies. The best category is "I believe." This category provides some insight into what people are thinking at the moment as well as what people really think about their lives and the world around them. It's remarkable how many people twitter statements like "I believe I belong, I just need to prove it."
The story is the same in the "I love," "I think," and other categories. Most people are thinking what you would expect someone to post publicly on a service like Twitter; they discuss their day, express their feelings about current events, and chat about what they want for dinner. At the same time though, it's fun watching what people are saying right now scroll by on the page in front of you. Twistori is by no means finished; the developers behind it call its current incarnation a first step.
Twistori is a social experiment. The goal of the service is to provide a window into what people use Twitter to write about and in what context people express some of their strongest feelings. The service scrolls through public Twitter posts from multiple users that use the phrases "I love," "I hate," "I think," "I believe," "I feel," and "I wish." You can click on any of the terms to see what people are feeling or wishing for at any given moment.
The service pulls data from Summarize, a Web service that allows you to see what Twitter users are discussing in real-time. Not all of the statements are bold declarations of opinion or emotion. Most people are just twittering about their day. One user writes "I feel dead tired," and goes on to mention why, another user feels "really bad for the intern we just pranked."
If you're more interested in seeing what aggravates people, you can click on "hate" to see what people are hating on right now. The usual suspects are in the scrolling list, like people who hate meetings, hate complainers, and hate their allergies. The best category is "I believe." This category provides some insight into what people are thinking at the moment as well as what people really think about their lives and the world around them. It's remarkable how many people twitter statements like "I believe I belong, I just need to prove it."
The story is the same in the "I love," "I think," and other categories. Most people are thinking what you would expect someone to post publicly on a service like Twitter; they discuss their day, express their feelings about current events, and chat about what they want for dinner. At the same time though, it's fun watching what people are saying right now scroll by on the page in front of you. Twistori is by no means finished; the developers behind it call its current incarnation a first step.
UploadJockey: Upload Your Files to Multiple Sites
If you have a collection of photos or documents that you need to get from your computer to a best friend's computer, there's no excuse to tie up their inbox with a 50MB ZIP file; there are tons of services on the Web that will host the file and give a URL where your friend can retrieve the file. The difficulty comes with choosing the right service, or if there are multiple files, choosing the right services so your friend doesn't get stuck downloading one and having to wait 45 minutes before he can download the next one. UploadJockey solves this problem by uploading your file to multiple file hosting services with one click.
UploadJockey supports RapidShare, Badongo, Sendspace, zShare, MegaUpload, and Depositfiles. The service uploads files up to 100MB, and you can either create an account at UploadJockey to keep track of the files that upload, or you can upload them individually straight from the home page. Simply click the browse button to find the file you want to upload, type in an optional description of the file, and click "upload file."
Once the file is finished uploading, you'll be presented with an UploadJockey link that you can then give to friends and anyone else. When your friend clicks the link, they're directed to a page at UploadJockey that has individual download links for each of the six supported services. From here you can choose a service and UploadJockey will keep track of how many times the file has been downloaded from any of the supported services.
Unfortunately, because UploadJockey is free, it's also heavily ad-supported. Expect flashing banner ads and the occasional pop-up when clicking the UploadJokey link, and then again when when clicking on the service of your choice to actually grab the file. Even so, if you want to give your friends a variety of choices when posting files for them to download, UploadJockey can provide six links for every file so your friends don't have to worry about one service pulling the file or throttling the number of files they can download at one time.
[via DownloadSquad]
UploadJockey supports RapidShare, Badongo, Sendspace, zShare, MegaUpload, and Depositfiles. The service uploads files up to 100MB, and you can either create an account at UploadJockey to keep track of the files that upload, or you can upload them individually straight from the home page. Simply click the browse button to find the file you want to upload, type in an optional description of the file, and click "upload file."
Once the file is finished uploading, you'll be presented with an UploadJockey link that you can then give to friends and anyone else. When your friend clicks the link, they're directed to a page at UploadJockey that has individual download links for each of the six supported services. From here you can choose a service and UploadJockey will keep track of how many times the file has been downloaded from any of the supported services.
Unfortunately, because UploadJockey is free, it's also heavily ad-supported. Expect flashing banner ads and the occasional pop-up when clicking the UploadJokey link, and then again when when clicking on the service of your choice to actually grab the file. Even so, if you want to give your friends a variety of choices when posting files for them to download, UploadJockey can provide six links for every file so your friends don't have to worry about one service pulling the file or throttling the number of files they can download at one time.
[via DownloadSquad]
CBS Buys CNET
Been saving up those pennies to purchase a major global tech news organization? Well, if you had your eyes on CNET Networks Inc, it seems you can just keep on looking. CBS Corp announced this morning that it will buy the company for around $1.8 billion, thereby significantly bolstering the network's Web reach.
"CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest-growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, promotion and advertising initiatives," the companies said in a joint statement.
The deal values CNET at $11.50 a share. The company posted $406 million in revenue last year, according to Reuters.
"CBS and CNET Networks will have significant additional exposure to the fastest-growing advertising sector and can accelerate our growth through a number of new content, promotion and advertising initiatives," the companies said in a joint statement.
The deal values CNET at $11.50 a share. The company posted $406 million in revenue last year, according to Reuters.
Comodo Offers Free "Expert" Malware Cleanup
For a limited time Comodo is offering free malware cleanup to all. This isn't just a free scanner; they're literally offering experts who will remotely manage the cleanup. "By offering a free malware cleaning service, we aim to create a community of confident consumers with clean PCs" said Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO and Chief Security Architect of Comodo. "This is how we continue to build on our vision of a trusted Internet so that more and more users will feel safe while surfing--and purchasing--on the web."
To give the service a try, visit www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/avsmart/malware-removal.html and click the "Clean my machine now" button. But before you do, read on to learn what I discovered about this service.
Free expert help with malware removal isn't new. For years, this kind of help has been available using the HijackThis utility. Download it from www.trendsecure.com, run it, and post your log to any of the dozens of security sites that offer HijackThis log analysis. Within a day, sometimes within hours, you'll get one-on-one expert advice on removing any malware that's present. I expected the Comodo service to be similar, but with faster response because it uses live chat. Boy, was I ever wrong!
To test the service I requested free malware removal help in one of my standard malware-infested systems, one containing some particularly virulent threats. I quickly got through to a live chat agent. After some initial questions the agent supplied a link to Comodo's remote-control software. Unfortunately the system rebooted every time I tried the link. The agent then recommended I manually install Comodo Firewall Pro and run its malware scan. Here again any attempt to download the product triggered a reboot, so I downloaded it to a thumb drive on a clean system.
The malware scan ran quickly and identified numerous malware traces; full deletion required a reboot. After reboot it announced that not all malware could be removed and offered to give me information about Comodo's (non-free) removal products. I re-contacted the agent for advice. This time around remote control system worked; hooray!
The firewall went nearly berserk over the remote-control software, popping up warning after warning after warning - I just clicked allow, allow, allow. The agent examined my system, viewed my list of malware and suggested I reboot into Safe Mode and delete them manually. I tried, but I could only delete about half the files. The rest got an "Access Denied" message. Per the agent's advice I rebooted out of Safe Mode and scanned again. This time, surprisingly, the scan reported no more malware... yet the files that I couldn't delete were visibly still present. One adware sample blithely continued to pop up unwanted advertising windows.
Do please note that nothing I did up to this point actually required help from Comodo. I could have downloaded Comodo Firewall Pro on my own. I could have launched its detection-only malware scanner and saved a list of found files. And I could have tried to delete them in Safe Mode, all on my own.
I got back in touch with the agent and asked what's going on - the malware files are still present but the scanner says everything is fine. The agent "explained" that some of the applications are now altered due to missing files so the scanner doesn't find them. I don't buy that at all. The fact that the files are protected from deletion indicates that the malware is actively running and protecting its files. The agent again connected remotely and poked around with MSCONFIG, pointlessly disabling some malware startup links. Naturally that didn't help.
After lunch I jumped back into the process with a new agent. He downloaded and launched something called "Comodo ScanPack". The scan ran for perhaps 45 minutes. When it finished I asked the agent what's next. He replied, "That is all, you are clean".
In fact, the system was not even remotely "clean"! Of the three known threats installed on the system one adware sample was completely missed. It kept on popping up ads as if nothing had happened. Another threat remained active, protecting its files against deletion. The third was successfully cleaned up, but not by the agent. I did it myself by deleting files in Safe Mode.
I spent a total of almost three hours with various agents. I had to uninstall the existing firewall and install Comodo Firewall Pro in its place. And after all that the system was not cleaned up at all. But the very, very worst thing is that the agent reported "you are clean" without even checking. That false sense of security is worse than no help at all. I'll have to take this experience as representative, since I can't possibly spend this much time on each of my other malware-infested test systems.
If you must have free expert malware removal help, turn to HijackThis - the experts who process HijackThis logs actually know something about malware. But if your time is worth anything at all you're better off just buying an effective antispyware like Spyware Doctor, which successfully removed all three of the malware samples from this particular test system.
To give the service a try, visit www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/avsmart/malware-removal.html and click the "Clean my machine now" button. But before you do, read on to learn what I discovered about this service.
Free expert help with malware removal isn't new. For years, this kind of help has been available using the HijackThis utility. Download it from www.trendsecure.com, run it, and post your log to any of the dozens of security sites that offer HijackThis log analysis. Within a day, sometimes within hours, you'll get one-on-one expert advice on removing any malware that's present. I expected the Comodo service to be similar, but with faster response because it uses live chat. Boy, was I ever wrong!
To test the service I requested free malware removal help in one of my standard malware-infested systems, one containing some particularly virulent threats. I quickly got through to a live chat agent. After some initial questions the agent supplied a link to Comodo's remote-control software. Unfortunately the system rebooted every time I tried the link. The agent then recommended I manually install Comodo Firewall Pro and run its malware scan. Here again any attempt to download the product triggered a reboot, so I downloaded it to a thumb drive on a clean system.
The malware scan ran quickly and identified numerous malware traces; full deletion required a reboot. After reboot it announced that not all malware could be removed and offered to give me information about Comodo's (non-free) removal products. I re-contacted the agent for advice. This time around remote control system worked; hooray!
The firewall went nearly berserk over the remote-control software, popping up warning after warning after warning - I just clicked allow, allow, allow. The agent examined my system, viewed my list of malware and suggested I reboot into Safe Mode and delete them manually. I tried, but I could only delete about half the files. The rest got an "Access Denied" message. Per the agent's advice I rebooted out of Safe Mode and scanned again. This time, surprisingly, the scan reported no more malware... yet the files that I couldn't delete were visibly still present. One adware sample blithely continued to pop up unwanted advertising windows.
Do please note that nothing I did up to this point actually required help from Comodo. I could have downloaded Comodo Firewall Pro on my own. I could have launched its detection-only malware scanner and saved a list of found files. And I could have tried to delete them in Safe Mode, all on my own.
I got back in touch with the agent and asked what's going on - the malware files are still present but the scanner says everything is fine. The agent "explained" that some of the applications are now altered due to missing files so the scanner doesn't find them. I don't buy that at all. The fact that the files are protected from deletion indicates that the malware is actively running and protecting its files. The agent again connected remotely and poked around with MSCONFIG, pointlessly disabling some malware startup links. Naturally that didn't help.
After lunch I jumped back into the process with a new agent. He downloaded and launched something called "Comodo ScanPack". The scan ran for perhaps 45 minutes. When it finished I asked the agent what's next. He replied, "That is all, you are clean".
In fact, the system was not even remotely "clean"! Of the three known threats installed on the system one adware sample was completely missed. It kept on popping up ads as if nothing had happened. Another threat remained active, protecting its files against deletion. The third was successfully cleaned up, but not by the agent. I did it myself by deleting files in Safe Mode.
I spent a total of almost three hours with various agents. I had to uninstall the existing firewall and install Comodo Firewall Pro in its place. And after all that the system was not cleaned up at all. But the very, very worst thing is that the agent reported "you are clean" without even checking. That false sense of security is worse than no help at all. I'll have to take this experience as representative, since I can't possibly spend this much time on each of my other malware-infested test systems.
If you must have free expert malware removal help, turn to HijackThis - the experts who process HijackThis logs actually know something about malware. But if your time is worth anything at all you're better off just buying an effective antispyware like Spyware Doctor, which successfully removed all three of the malware samples from this particular test system.
SitePoint Offers Free Photoshop Book as Download
I am all about free, which is why I got so excited when an email from SitePoint fell into my inbox: "Our entire Photoshop Book is FREE to download for 30 days!" it promised.
This particular free book is the 278-page "The Photoshop Anthology." It's nicely illustrated, though any screen captures with text are ratty. Published originally in 2006, it's obviously a version behind, but most of what's taught still applies. This is nuts-and-bolts teaching. You will learn. Of course, I downloaded it.
My 63MB zipped PDF came only after I coughed up an email address for a tagged download link. The PDF, though a true copy of the book, isn't a book. Reading off a screen is still not the same as holding paper in your hands. (And you can't easily take a PDF to the bathroom.) But it's free, at least for the next 29 days.
Much of the book is devoted to bringing graphics to the Web, but there are still plenty of how-to's for shooters. If you're taking pictures to keep, Photoshop is the difference between a snapshot and a photograph. Any edge in using it is always appreciated.
Post by Geoff Fox
This particular free book is the 278-page "The Photoshop Anthology." It's nicely illustrated, though any screen captures with text are ratty. Published originally in 2006, it's obviously a version behind, but most of what's taught still applies. This is nuts-and-bolts teaching. You will learn. Of course, I downloaded it.
My 63MB zipped PDF came only after I coughed up an email address for a tagged download link. The PDF, though a true copy of the book, isn't a book. Reading off a screen is still not the same as holding paper in your hands. (And you can't easily take a PDF to the bathroom.) But it's free, at least for the next 29 days.
Much of the book is devoted to bringing graphics to the Web, but there are still plenty of how-to's for shooters. If you're taking pictures to keep, Photoshop is the difference between a snapshot and a photograph. Any edge in using it is always appreciated.
Post by Geoff Fox
Monday, July 27, 2009
CBS, IFC Eye More Online Original Programming
The "upfronts" are meetings held by the major TV networks each year to show advertisers and the press all the shows they'll debut in September, most of which will be canceled by October.
CBS, however, added something a little different this year (and I'm not talking about the very smart decision to keep How I Met Your Mother on the air). It has entered a non-exclusive partnership with EQAL, makers of the interactive online Web series lonelygirl15 and the soon-to-conclude spin-off Kate Modern. Sadly, the announcement doesn't include specifics on new online shows, just that CBS got first dibs on new EQAL-created shows. Primarily, the deal appears geared more toward CBS using EQAL as consultants to extend its current show brands to online and mobile.
EQAL's CEO said in the release that it is "the first time that television stories will be extended and amplified online in a way that takes full advantage of the Internet's capabilities for interaction and community." Hmm. I think the producers over at LOST on ABC might be able to argue that point. It's a first for CBS, though.
IFC -- that lonely channel filled with obscure independent movies you've never heard of -- also has some grand plans for online original programs. NewTeeVee reports that the network held a "downfronts" about online shows to come.
Later this month IFC will debut new online shows including a morning talk-show spoof, a mockumentary about a woman stalking the mayor of San Francisco, and a third season of Young American Bodies with partner Nerve.com; even the promo for that one is NSFW.
This isn't completely new territory for IFC. A previous online show, Getting Away with Murder followed the life of a 25-year-old hitman who lives with his mom. IFC.com is also running an Australian comedy called Wilfred, where a guy in a dog costume plays... a dog. It's not really an original, IFC just bought the rights, cut it into chunks, and put it online.
CBS, however, added something a little different this year (and I'm not talking about the very smart decision to keep How I Met Your Mother on the air). It has entered a non-exclusive partnership with EQAL, makers of the interactive online Web series lonelygirl15 and the soon-to-conclude spin-off Kate Modern. Sadly, the announcement doesn't include specifics on new online shows, just that CBS got first dibs on new EQAL-created shows. Primarily, the deal appears geared more toward CBS using EQAL as consultants to extend its current show brands to online and mobile.
EQAL's CEO said in the release that it is "the first time that television stories will be extended and amplified online in a way that takes full advantage of the Internet's capabilities for interaction and community." Hmm. I think the producers over at LOST on ABC might be able to argue that point. It's a first for CBS, though.
IFC -- that lonely channel filled with obscure independent movies you've never heard of -- also has some grand plans for online original programs. NewTeeVee reports that the network held a "downfronts" about online shows to come.
Later this month IFC will debut new online shows including a morning talk-show spoof, a mockumentary about a woman stalking the mayor of San Francisco, and a third season of Young American Bodies with partner Nerve.com; even the promo for that one is NSFW.
This isn't completely new territory for IFC. A previous online show, Getting Away with Murder followed the life of a 25-year-old hitman who lives with his mom. IFC.com is also running an Australian comedy called Wilfred, where a guy in a dog costume plays... a dog. It's not really an original, IFC just bought the rights, cut it into chunks, and put it online.
Comcast Buys Plaxo to Boost Social Networking Presence
Sick of social networks yet? Too bad.
Comcast Interactive Media has purchased Plaxo for an undisclosed sum in an effort to add social networking components to its network.
"Together, we will be able to help users connect with all the people they care about, across all of the devices they use, with all the media they love to consume, create, and share," Plaxo executives wrote in a Wednesday blog post.
Plaxo will remain a separate company and retain its 50 employees to work on Plaxo's networked address book service and its social network, Pulse.
"We are developing an exciting roadmap with Comcast that includes socially enabling the media experience in places such as Comcast's high traffic portal (Comcast.net),CIM's popular interactive entertainment properties (such as Fancast and Fandango), and the television," Plaxo said.
"You should be able to securely post family photos online in Pulse, and have them viewable by any of your family members, whether they are online, at work, on their mobile device, or in their living room watching TV," the post continued. "And you should be able to discover new shows to watch, based on what your friends and coworkers have recommended."
Plaxo has already been working on the universal address book for Comcast's SmartZone, an integrated e-mail and voice messaging service set to launch later this year. Comcast is also hosting all of the address book accounts for Comcast Webmail users.
Current Plaxo members should not be greatly affected by this news, according to Plaxo.
Comcast Interactive Media has purchased Plaxo for an undisclosed sum in an effort to add social networking components to its network.
"Together, we will be able to help users connect with all the people they care about, across all of the devices they use, with all the media they love to consume, create, and share," Plaxo executives wrote in a Wednesday blog post.
Plaxo will remain a separate company and retain its 50 employees to work on Plaxo's networked address book service and its social network, Pulse.
"We are developing an exciting roadmap with Comcast that includes socially enabling the media experience in places such as Comcast's high traffic portal (Comcast.net),CIM's popular interactive entertainment properties (such as Fancast and Fandango), and the television," Plaxo said.
"You should be able to securely post family photos online in Pulse, and have them viewable by any of your family members, whether they are online, at work, on their mobile device, or in their living room watching TV," the post continued. "And you should be able to discover new shows to watch, based on what your friends and coworkers have recommended."
Plaxo has already been working on the universal address book for Comcast's SmartZone, an integrated e-mail and voice messaging service set to launch later this year. Comcast is also hosting all of the address book accounts for Comcast Webmail users.
Current Plaxo members should not be greatly affected by this news, according to Plaxo.
Animoto: Turn Photos into Video, Free
What's the best way to send your photos to friends? For most people, it's email, pure and simple. There are alternative methods. though, and this one is very cool (and free... I'm all about free): Animoto.
Using Animoto's browser-driven interface, you upload 10 to 15 photos, choose some music (theirs or yours) and wait. Actually, the wait's a little too long, something Animoto acknowledges in its press briefing. I sense more traffic than the company anticipated.
In a few minutes, your boring photos have been magically transformed into a 30-second snappy video, which rocks! Animoto will host your production, allowing you to embed at will, or you can download it and dispense to whoever you wish.
"The heart of Animoto is its Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor," says the company. That's good, because I like my coffee hot and my intelligence artificial.
The 30-second limit actually works in your favor. Even your mom doesn't want to watch more than 30 seconds of your video. However, for those outstanding moments when more time is necessary, extended productions are available at $3 per video credit.
Here's a little Animoto video I plan on exhibiting at Cannes next year:
Post by Geoff Fox
Using Animoto's browser-driven interface, you upload 10 to 15 photos, choose some music (theirs or yours) and wait. Actually, the wait's a little too long, something Animoto acknowledges in its press briefing. I sense more traffic than the company anticipated.
In a few minutes, your boring photos have been magically transformed into a 30-second snappy video, which rocks! Animoto will host your production, allowing you to embed at will, or you can download it and dispense to whoever you wish.
"The heart of Animoto is its Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor," says the company. That's good, because I like my coffee hot and my intelligence artificial.
The 30-second limit actually works in your favor. Even your mom doesn't want to watch more than 30 seconds of your video. However, for those outstanding moments when more time is necessary, extended productions are available at $3 per video credit.
Here's a little Animoto video I plan on exhibiting at Cannes next year:
Post by Geoff Fox
Presdo Helps You Schedule Events with Busy People
Let's be honest, we're all busy. For many of us, it's difficult enough to find time to eat lunch and it's nearly impossible to find time to meet up with friends and relax. If you have an event to schedule though, it's even more difficult to juggle the schedules of everyone around you to find a time when you can all get together. Presdo can help. The service takes the hassle out of scheduling events by letting people propose new times and dates instantly without sending e-mails back and forth or leaving voice-mails.
Presdo is very simple, just type in what you would like to do, and at what time and day. The service understands plain language. Type in "Sushi at Sapporo, next Thursday at 6pm" and it'll understand what you want to do, where, and when. The service will scrub your text for the information and then to an invite page where you can customize the event notification with more information, any special messages for recipients, and add recipients.
When you're editing the event, you can change and update any aspect of the event on the fly and before you send it to the people that you want to attend. You can change the date and time, even enter an e-mail address you'd like to use for the responses you'll get to the invite. You can instantly enter names and e-mail addresses for the recipients as well.
Presdo has its hooks into Google Maps as well, so when you click to specify the location of the event, you can tell the service to search for restaurants, bars, or other venues. The service will search for the type of venue you specify in the vicinity of your selected city, and will then provide a list of results. Select one of the results to add it to your event and view a map of the location. Once the location is attached to the event, you and everyone else invited can view the map and get directions to the venue from their location.
Presdo's strength goes beyond its simple event-planning and easy-to-use interface. The real action begins when people begin to reply to their invitation. Guests can click a link in their e-mail to be taken to the Presdo event page, where they type in new times and dates in plain language, like "next Friday at 8pm," and Presdo will then alert you to the suggestion. All of your attendees can submit new times, and Presdo sends them to you so you can work it out without everyone chattering among each other.
The goal of the service is to provide people a hassle-free way to schedule meetings, events, and gatherings, and provide a single method for the event owner and everyone who's invited to suggest and propose new times without it becoming a tangle of messages. It doesn't hurt that Presdo sports an attractive design and ample features. Without sacrificing functionality, Presdo manages to simplify event scheduling.
Presdo is very simple, just type in what you would like to do, and at what time and day. The service understands plain language. Type in "Sushi at Sapporo, next Thursday at 6pm" and it'll understand what you want to do, where, and when. The service will scrub your text for the information and then to an invite page where you can customize the event notification with more information, any special messages for recipients, and add recipients.
When you're editing the event, you can change and update any aspect of the event on the fly and before you send it to the people that you want to attend. You can change the date and time, even enter an e-mail address you'd like to use for the responses you'll get to the invite. You can instantly enter names and e-mail addresses for the recipients as well.
Presdo has its hooks into Google Maps as well, so when you click to specify the location of the event, you can tell the service to search for restaurants, bars, or other venues. The service will search for the type of venue you specify in the vicinity of your selected city, and will then provide a list of results. Select one of the results to add it to your event and view a map of the location. Once the location is attached to the event, you and everyone else invited can view the map and get directions to the venue from their location.
Presdo's strength goes beyond its simple event-planning and easy-to-use interface. The real action begins when people begin to reply to their invitation. Guests can click a link in their e-mail to be taken to the Presdo event page, where they type in new times and dates in plain language, like "next Friday at 8pm," and Presdo will then alert you to the suggestion. All of your attendees can submit new times, and Presdo sends them to you so you can work it out without everyone chattering among each other.
The goal of the service is to provide people a hassle-free way to schedule meetings, events, and gatherings, and provide a single method for the event owner and everyone who's invited to suggest and propose new times without it becoming a tangle of messages. It doesn't hurt that Presdo sports an attractive design and ample features. Without sacrificing functionality, Presdo manages to simplify event scheduling.
AutoRun Lost in Vista
Q: I'm running on Win Vista Ultimate. I haven't loaded too many new applications lately since the initial load of programs when I first obtained the system.
It seems to me the AutoRun always worked at the beginning. At some point, the AutoRun quit working so I now always have to launch the "setup" executable file via Windows Explorer after inserting a CD or DVD. Is it something I did or did some Vista update shut down the AutoRun? Can I turn AutoRun back on? - Gene Elias.
A: It may well be that a Vista update did the dirty deed. I've had other reports of problems in this area. If that's the case the fix is a Registry tweak. Launch REGEDIT by entering its name at the Start menu. A User Account Control prompt will appear - enter an admin password or confirm that you want to continue. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. In the right-hand pane look for a value named NoDriveTypeAutoRun. It really should be present, but if it's not there right-click in the right-hand pane and choose New | Binary Value - then name the value NoDriveTypeAutoRun.
The default data is for this value is 95 00 00 00 (occasionally it shows up as a DWORD value with data 0x00000095 - same thing). If yours does NOT have this value, in particular if instead it has FF FF FF FF or 0xFFFFFFFF, that's the problem. Assuming it's the binary value, double-click it, delete all four bytes and enter 95 00 00 00. If it's a DWORD, double-click it and just enter 95 (be sure it's set to hexadecimal and not decimal; hex is the default). Close REGEDIT, reboot, and see if that did the job.
If somehow you're still not getting AutoRun, repeat the entire process above but start in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. If the NoDriveTypeAutoRun value is present in this key it overrides the setting under HKEY_CURRENT_USER. - Neil J. Rubenking.
It seems to me the AutoRun always worked at the beginning. At some point, the AutoRun quit working so I now always have to launch the "setup" executable file via Windows Explorer after inserting a CD or DVD. Is it something I did or did some Vista update shut down the AutoRun? Can I turn AutoRun back on? - Gene Elias.
A: It may well be that a Vista update did the dirty deed. I've had other reports of problems in this area. If that's the case the fix is a Registry tweak. Launch REGEDIT by entering its name at the Start menu. A User Account Control prompt will appear - enter an admin password or confirm that you want to continue. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. In the right-hand pane look for a value named NoDriveTypeAutoRun. It really should be present, but if it's not there right-click in the right-hand pane and choose New | Binary Value - then name the value NoDriveTypeAutoRun.
The default data is for this value is 95 00 00 00 (occasionally it shows up as a DWORD value with data 0x00000095 - same thing). If yours does NOT have this value, in particular if instead it has FF FF FF FF or 0xFFFFFFFF, that's the problem. Assuming it's the binary value, double-click it, delete all four bytes and enter 95 00 00 00. If it's a DWORD, double-click it and just enter 95 (be sure it's set to hexadecimal and not decimal; hex is the default). Close REGEDIT, reboot, and see if that did the job.
If somehow you're still not getting AutoRun, repeat the entire process above but start in the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. If the NoDriveTypeAutoRun value is present in this key it overrides the setting under HKEY_CURRENT_USER. - Neil J. Rubenking.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
CallerComplaints.com: Find Out Who Keeps Calling You
The federal Do Not Call list was hailed by consumers but admonished by telemarketers for cutting into their business. Unfortunately the scourge of telemarketing calls, political recordings, and other annoyances hasn't gone anywhere. If a company can claim to have a "relationship" with you, they can still call you right when you sit down to a meal.
If you're getting unsolicited phone calls from companies who either don't respond when you answer or refuse to remove you from their calling lists, CallerComplaints.com can help you find out who owns the number that's been nagging you, or if other people have the same problem with the same company that you are.
Even though millions of people have signed up for the Federal Do Not Call list, if a business can claim to have an "existing relationship" with you, they can still call you at all hours. Political organizations, campaigns, and other non-profits are exempt from the Do Not Call list as well. In the end, this means that even though the bulk of the dinnertime marketing calls have stopped, plenty of companies can still spoof numbers or come up with an excuse to call you if they want to. CallerComplaints.com can help.
The service allows you to search for phone numbers that other members may have reported in the past. The community at CallerComplaints.com is fairly large, and thousands of numbers are in the site's database. The site recently celebrated its 200,000th search. If you find a number that's called you in the past, you can see what other members have said about the callers from that number, and then you can file a complaint.
Recently filed complaints are featured on the home page, as are the most popular numbers that visitors have searched the site's database for. If you see an offending number, click on it to go directly to a page dedicated to the number and the offending company (if the company name is listed). If you find a number that has called you, you can fill in missing information about it in the site's database and add your own story. If you find a company or a number that other members have complained about, you can add your own experiences.
CallerComplaints.com also lists offending complaints and numbers by area code. The site has the area codes organized into hundreds on the left side of the page, so you can browse listings if offending companies in your area or calling from numbers in your area code. The service also offers a few helpful articles on caller ID spoofing, how to stop political campaign calls, and how to file complaints with the FTC against offending telemarketers who call even though you're on the Do Not Call list.
Individuals have entered the majority of the existing complaints at CallerComplaints.com, so while there are plenty of numbers there may not be identifying information on the owners of those numbers. At the same time, the database is growing and the site serves an important role: providing a place where the public can air their complaints in the open.
If you're getting unsolicited phone calls from companies who either don't respond when you answer or refuse to remove you from their calling lists, CallerComplaints.com can help you find out who owns the number that's been nagging you, or if other people have the same problem with the same company that you are.
Even though millions of people have signed up for the Federal Do Not Call list, if a business can claim to have an "existing relationship" with you, they can still call you at all hours. Political organizations, campaigns, and other non-profits are exempt from the Do Not Call list as well. In the end, this means that even though the bulk of the dinnertime marketing calls have stopped, plenty of companies can still spoof numbers or come up with an excuse to call you if they want to. CallerComplaints.com can help.
The service allows you to search for phone numbers that other members may have reported in the past. The community at CallerComplaints.com is fairly large, and thousands of numbers are in the site's database. The site recently celebrated its 200,000th search. If you find a number that's called you in the past, you can see what other members have said about the callers from that number, and then you can file a complaint.
Recently filed complaints are featured on the home page, as are the most popular numbers that visitors have searched the site's database for. If you see an offending number, click on it to go directly to a page dedicated to the number and the offending company (if the company name is listed). If you find a number that has called you, you can fill in missing information about it in the site's database and add your own story. If you find a company or a number that other members have complained about, you can add your own experiences.
CallerComplaints.com also lists offending complaints and numbers by area code. The site has the area codes organized into hundreds on the left side of the page, so you can browse listings if offending companies in your area or calling from numbers in your area code. The service also offers a few helpful articles on caller ID spoofing, how to stop political campaign calls, and how to file complaints with the FTC against offending telemarketers who call even though you're on the Do Not Call list.
Individuals have entered the majority of the existing complaints at CallerComplaints.com, so while there are plenty of numbers there may not be identifying information on the owners of those numbers. At the same time, the database is growing and the site serves an important role: providing a place where the public can air their complaints in the open.
Carl Icahn Moves to Restart Microsoft/Yahoo! Merger
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn isn't happy with Yahoo!'s rejection of Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid. So he did what any reasonably upset rich guy in his right mind would do: He wrote the company an open letter.
Addressed to the company's chairman, Roy Bostock, the letter begins: "It is clear to me that the board of directors of Yahoo has acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and Microsoft. It is quite obvious that Microsoft's bid of $33 per share is a superior alternative to Yahoo's prospects on a standalone basis. I am perplexed by the board's actions. It is irresponsible to hide behind management's more than overly optimistic financial forecasts."
Icahn recently purchased nearly 59 million shares of Yahoo!. He goes on to state that a number of shareholders have approached him to establish a new board for the company to "attempt to negotiate a successful merger with Microsoft, something that in my opinion the current board has completely botched." In addition to purchasing stock, Icahn has also formed a 10-person slate for board elections and sought clearance from the FTC to buy up to $2.5 billion in stock.
"While it is my understanding that you do not intend to enter into any transaction that would impede a Microsoft-Yahoo merger, I am concerned that in several recent press releases you stated that you intend to pursue certain 'strategic alternatives,'" he continues. "I therefore hope and trust that if there is any question that these 'strategic alternatives' might in any way impede a future Microsoft merger you will at the very least allow shareholders to opine on them before embarking on such a transaction."
Addressed to the company's chairman, Roy Bostock, the letter begins: "It is clear to me that the board of directors of Yahoo has acted irrationally and lost the faith of shareholders and Microsoft. It is quite obvious that Microsoft's bid of $33 per share is a superior alternative to Yahoo's prospects on a standalone basis. I am perplexed by the board's actions. It is irresponsible to hide behind management's more than overly optimistic financial forecasts."
Icahn recently purchased nearly 59 million shares of Yahoo!. He goes on to state that a number of shareholders have approached him to establish a new board for the company to "attempt to negotiate a successful merger with Microsoft, something that in my opinion the current board has completely botched." In addition to purchasing stock, Icahn has also formed a 10-person slate for board elections and sought clearance from the FTC to buy up to $2.5 billion in stock.
"While it is my understanding that you do not intend to enter into any transaction that would impede a Microsoft-Yahoo merger, I am concerned that in several recent press releases you stated that you intend to pursue certain 'strategic alternatives,'" he continues. "I therefore hope and trust that if there is any question that these 'strategic alternatives' might in any way impede a future Microsoft merger you will at the very least allow shareholders to opine on them before embarking on such a transaction."
Yahoo! Slams Icahn's Bid to Restart Microsoft Merger Talks
Yahoo! shot down Carl Icahn's bid to restart the Yahoo-Microsoft merger, telling the billionaire investor that he had a "significant misunderstanding" of the Microsoft offer.
Icahn, who recently purchased nearly 59 million shares of Yahoo!, said in a letter this week that a number of shareholders have approached him to establish a new board for the company to "attempt to negotiate a successful merger with Microsoft, something that in my opinion the current board has completely botched."
"We do not believe it is in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders to allow you and your hand-picked nominees to take control of Yahoo! for the express purpose of trying to force a sale of Yahoo! to a formerly interested buyer who has publicly stated that they have moved on," Roy Bostock, Yahoo! chairman, wrote in a Thursday letter.
Bostock reiterated Yahoo's stance that Microsoft's initially $31 per share offer significantly undervalued Yahoo!, but denied that Yahoo! completely ignored the option of a takeover.
"We could not have been more clear in that communication and in every subsequent communication, both public and private, that we were and are willing to enter into any transaction that would maximize value for stockholders and provide them certainty of value," Bostock wrote.
Yahoo! made an offer of $37 per share on May 3, but Microsoft opted to walk away from the deal.
Icahn, who recently purchased nearly 59 million shares of Yahoo!, said in a letter this week that a number of shareholders have approached him to establish a new board for the company to "attempt to negotiate a successful merger with Microsoft, something that in my opinion the current board has completely botched."
"We do not believe it is in the best interests of Yahoo! stockholders to allow you and your hand-picked nominees to take control of Yahoo! for the express purpose of trying to force a sale of Yahoo! to a formerly interested buyer who has publicly stated that they have moved on," Roy Bostock, Yahoo! chairman, wrote in a Thursday letter.
Bostock reiterated Yahoo's stance that Microsoft's initially $31 per share offer significantly undervalued Yahoo!, but denied that Yahoo! completely ignored the option of a takeover.
"We could not have been more clear in that communication and in every subsequent communication, both public and private, that we were and are willing to enter into any transaction that would maximize value for stockholders and provide them certainty of value," Bostock wrote.
Yahoo! made an offer of $37 per share on May 3, but Microsoft opted to walk away from the deal.
Photoshop Express: Adobe's New Free Web App
Adobe announced today the launch of the long-awaited Web component to its flagship digital-imaging application, Photoshop. Debuting today in public beta, Adobe Photoshop Express is a free online photo-sharing, editing, and storage site. As of its launch, users will be provided with 2GB of free storage and integration with popular Web apps such as Facebook and Photobucket. Further partnerships with sites like Flickr to come.
"Photoshop is trusted technology that has changed the visual landscape of our world. Now, Photoshop Express allows anyone who snaps a digital photo to easily achieve the high-impact results for which Adobe is known," Adobe vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions Doug Mack said. "Photoshop Express is a convenient, single destination where you can store, edit and share photos whether you're at home, school or on the road."
Designed to be, in part, an entry into the sometimes intimidating Photoshop, Express offers a number of tools aimed directly at beginners, including user-friendly one-click versions of essential editing tools, including cropping, blemish and red-eye removal, sharpening, and resizing. A number of other effects are also offered at launch, including sketch, pop color, and distort.
Photoshop Express also boasts a number of sharing options, including a built-in Gallery feature, slideshows, and export and import from social networking services such as Facebook. Photos need not be public, of course: Adobe assured us that the site offers a number of robust privacy options so that only the people you authorize can see your photos.
We received a briefing on the service late yesterday, and I was very impressed with what I saw. Aesthetically, the site borrows heavily from the design of CS3's Bridge app, with a clean, gray menu. The adept use of Flash on the site makes it one of the smoothest feature-rich online apps I've seen.
In ease of use, Express makes Photoshop look downright enigmatic. Tasks like red-eye and blemish reduction are easily executed with a single click. For less-intuitive features such as exposure, the app provides thumbnails of several different grades to choose from.
Between the instant name recognition that comes with the Photoshop brand and the incredibly rich tools sets it offers, this slick app has a pretty good chance of rising swiftly to the top of the online digital-imagining heap. Look for our full review soon at PCMag.com.
"Photoshop is trusted technology that has changed the visual landscape of our world. Now, Photoshop Express allows anyone who snaps a digital photo to easily achieve the high-impact results for which Adobe is known," Adobe vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions Doug Mack said. "Photoshop Express is a convenient, single destination where you can store, edit and share photos whether you're at home, school or on the road."
Designed to be, in part, an entry into the sometimes intimidating Photoshop, Express offers a number of tools aimed directly at beginners, including user-friendly one-click versions of essential editing tools, including cropping, blemish and red-eye removal, sharpening, and resizing. A number of other effects are also offered at launch, including sketch, pop color, and distort.
Photoshop Express also boasts a number of sharing options, including a built-in Gallery feature, slideshows, and export and import from social networking services such as Facebook. Photos need not be public, of course: Adobe assured us that the site offers a number of robust privacy options so that only the people you authorize can see your photos.
We received a briefing on the service late yesterday, and I was very impressed with what I saw. Aesthetically, the site borrows heavily from the design of CS3's Bridge app, with a clean, gray menu. The adept use of Flash on the site makes it one of the smoothest feature-rich online apps I've seen.
In ease of use, Express makes Photoshop look downright enigmatic. Tasks like red-eye and blemish reduction are easily executed with a single click. For less-intuitive features such as exposure, the app provides thumbnails of several different grades to choose from.
Between the instant name recognition that comes with the Photoshop brand and the incredibly rich tools sets it offers, this slick app has a pretty good chance of rising swiftly to the top of the online digital-imagining heap. Look for our full review soon at PCMag.com.
Photoshop Express beta: I Think I Need Some Space
I got a note from Adobe last night. It was like getting email from a girlfriend in a relationship that doesn't work out, but she doesn't want to give in and accept a breakup.
I recently tried the Photoshop Express beta, but I hadn't gone back. Had they noticed? At any rate, Adobe wanted me to chuck it all and commit to Photoshop Express beta.
Not so quick, Adobe. I'm a guy. We don't commit easily. Anyway, I'm still in love with Photoshop Express beta's older, faster, sister, Photoshop. She's heavier than she once was, but those features--wow--they still drive me nuts. I really don't want to piss her off.
Photoshop Express beta is a slick-looking, Web-based photo editing suite. A right click shows that it's running in Flash. Photoshop Express beta is some of what Photoshop is, but slower and less capable. Quite honestly, it's also some of what Gimp is, but slower and less capable. . And Gimp (unlike Photoshop) is free. Have I mentioned, I'm all about free?
You edit on Photoshop Express beta through your browser. The meat of the system lives on a server somewhere, shipping bits and pieces to you as needed. Every time you try and do something new, you wait while that functionality is delivered.
In all fairness, the site has most of what you'd normally need to do simple edits on your photos. You can adjust levels, sharpen, fix color problems and do some minor blemish removal. As you go along, you can save version after version, making sure you never get into a situation where you've fixed a photo until it's broken! And, you can do all this without installing anything weightier than the Flash player you probably already have.
There's also plenty of space. Photoshop Express beta offers a very generous 2GB of storage.
The power in Photoshop Express beta lies is its ability to interface with Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket and Facebook. Sending photos in and out of those applications is a breeze... OK, a slow breeze. f you're making minor adjustments to a few online shots, this might be the way to go.
In the end, though Internet connectivity is faster than it once was, it's not fast enough for this.
Post by Geoff Fox
I recently tried the Photoshop Express beta, but I hadn't gone back. Had they noticed? At any rate, Adobe wanted me to chuck it all and commit to Photoshop Express beta.
Not so quick, Adobe. I'm a guy. We don't commit easily. Anyway, I'm still in love with Photoshop Express beta's older, faster, sister, Photoshop. She's heavier than she once was, but those features--wow--they still drive me nuts. I really don't want to piss her off.
Photoshop Express beta is a slick-looking, Web-based photo editing suite. A right click shows that it's running in Flash. Photoshop Express beta is some of what Photoshop is, but slower and less capable. Quite honestly, it's also some of what Gimp is, but slower and less capable. . And Gimp (unlike Photoshop) is free. Have I mentioned, I'm all about free?
You edit on Photoshop Express beta through your browser. The meat of the system lives on a server somewhere, shipping bits and pieces to you as needed. Every time you try and do something new, you wait while that functionality is delivered.
In all fairness, the site has most of what you'd normally need to do simple edits on your photos. You can adjust levels, sharpen, fix color problems and do some minor blemish removal. As you go along, you can save version after version, making sure you never get into a situation where you've fixed a photo until it's broken! And, you can do all this without installing anything weightier than the Flash player you probably already have.
There's also plenty of space. Photoshop Express beta offers a very generous 2GB of storage.
The power in Photoshop Express beta lies is its ability to interface with Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket and Facebook. Sending photos in and out of those applications is a breeze... OK, a slow breeze. f you're making minor adjustments to a few online shots, this might be the way to go.
In the end, though Internet connectivity is faster than it once was, it's not fast enough for this.
Post by Geoff Fox
Friday, July 24, 2009
Hasbro Family Game Night: Board Games Go Digital
Board games might have to change their category's name. Battleship, Yahtzee, Boggle, ConnectFour, SORRY! and the new SORRY! Sliders are coming soon to your favorite game console, via Hasbro Family Game Night.
The game, created by EA and Hasbro, adds challenges and many other dimensions to these standard board games with new versions, including ConnectFour Power Chips, Boggle Portal Cubes, Battleship Barrage and Reverse Yahtzee.
"We're giving families a new way to bond and play together," says Chip Lange, Vice President and General Manager of EA's Casual Entertainment Label. "Hasbro Family Game Night offers parents and their children a digital party experience full of classic brands they know and love. Between original and new rule settings, an easy-to-play party mode and a customizable game room feature, the variety and choice promise hours of fun family play."
Hasbro Family Game Night allows players to experience a digital game room with the opportunity to customize their play through changing the setting, furniture, and decorations. The game also adds a chance to earn trophies and play in party mode mini-game challenges such Match the Pattern, Shake for Words, and Bomb Run.
"Hasbro Family Game Night is designed to bring family and friends of all ages together in the digital living room for an evening of 'anything goes' fun," says Mark Blecher, General Manager of Digital Media and Gaming at Hasbro. "Hasbro has been providing families with the best in game play for decades, and now they can enjoy some of our most beloved brands with an all-new digital twist."
Hasbro Family Game Night will be available this fall on the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 2 entertainment systems.
The game, created by EA and Hasbro, adds challenges and many other dimensions to these standard board games with new versions, including ConnectFour Power Chips, Boggle Portal Cubes, Battleship Barrage and Reverse Yahtzee.
"We're giving families a new way to bond and play together," says Chip Lange, Vice President and General Manager of EA's Casual Entertainment Label. "Hasbro Family Game Night offers parents and their children a digital party experience full of classic brands they know and love. Between original and new rule settings, an easy-to-play party mode and a customizable game room feature, the variety and choice promise hours of fun family play."
Hasbro Family Game Night allows players to experience a digital game room with the opportunity to customize their play through changing the setting, furniture, and decorations. The game also adds a chance to earn trophies and play in party mode mini-game challenges such Match the Pattern, Shake for Words, and Bomb Run.
"Hasbro Family Game Night is designed to bring family and friends of all ages together in the digital living room for an evening of 'anything goes' fun," says Mark Blecher, General Manager of Digital Media and Gaming at Hasbro. "Hasbro has been providing families with the best in game play for decades, and now they can enjoy some of our most beloved brands with an all-new digital twist."
Hasbro Family Game Night will be available this fall on the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 2 entertainment systems.
Amazon Sues New York State Over Online Sales Tax Law
A new law requiring out-of-state Internet retailers to collect sales tax on Web purchases made in New York is unconstitutional and should be invalidated, according to a lawsuit filed by Amazon in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The new law violates the commerce clause of the Constitution by imposing tax-collection obligations on out-of-state entities, due process clauses by creating "an irrebuttable presumption of 'solicitation' [that] is overly broad and vague," and equal protection clauses by intentionally targeting Amazon, according to the suit.
If you buy something online, you're largely exempt from state taxes you might incur if you'd made the same purchase in an actual store. Technically, you're supposed to report your online purchases and pay taxes on them, but no one really does that.
New York lawmakers last month, however, approved a budget package that includes a bill that would force online stores like Amazon.com to collect sales tax. New York stands to bring in up to $50 million in unpaid taxes.
Amazon is suing the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF), and wants the court to rule that Amazon is not required to comply with the statute because it is unconstitutional, and is requesting that DTF cover its legal fees.
Amazon has argued that since it does not have a physical presence in New York and many other states, that it should not be required to collect taxes on shipments going to those states.
"Amazon has no physical presence in New York," according to the suit. "It does not own, lease, or otherwise occupy any physical property in the state, and none of its employees works or resides in the state."
Amazon said in its suit that affiliates "do not solicit or consummate sales on behalf of Amazon and are not authorized to act as Amazon's agents." They operate independently from Amazon, and should not be considered a brick and mortar extension of the site, the suit said.
The bill gets around that in a rather tricky way, however, by going after Amazon's affiliate program.
Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.
The new law violates the commerce clause of the Constitution by imposing tax-collection obligations on out-of-state entities, due process clauses by creating "an irrebuttable presumption of 'solicitation' [that] is overly broad and vague," and equal protection clauses by intentionally targeting Amazon, according to the suit.
If you buy something online, you're largely exempt from state taxes you might incur if you'd made the same purchase in an actual store. Technically, you're supposed to report your online purchases and pay taxes on them, but no one really does that.
New York lawmakers last month, however, approved a budget package that includes a bill that would force online stores like Amazon.com to collect sales tax. New York stands to bring in up to $50 million in unpaid taxes.
Amazon is suing the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (DTF), and wants the court to rule that Amazon is not required to comply with the statute because it is unconstitutional, and is requesting that DTF cover its legal fees.
Amazon has argued that since it does not have a physical presence in New York and many other states, that it should not be required to collect taxes on shipments going to those states.
"Amazon has no physical presence in New York," according to the suit. "It does not own, lease, or otherwise occupy any physical property in the state, and none of its employees works or resides in the state."
Amazon said in its suit that affiliates "do not solicit or consummate sales on behalf of Amazon and are not authorized to act as Amazon's agents." They operate independently from Amazon, and should not be considered a brick and mortar extension of the site, the suit said.
The bill gets around that in a rather tricky way, however, by going after Amazon's affiliate program.
Get the rest of this story on pcmag.com.
Overstock Cutting off New York-based Retailers Over Internet Tax
Online retailer Overstock.com sent out a note yesterday to some 3,400 New York-based advertisers, stating that as of June 1st, the site will no longer accept their advertising--at least until the New York State Internet tax that goes into effect on that date is repealed.
"We love New York," said the site's chairman and CEO, Patrick Byrne, "but New York's new tax law required us to choose between New York customers and New York ad businesses. In the end, we chose our customers. The governor and legislature of New York should understand that a tax is a price that a government charges for a service, and when the price of anything is raised, people (including us) buy less of it."
Earlier this month, Amazon sued the State of New York over the new tax, stating that the site "has no physical presence in New York. It does not own, lease, or otherwise occupy any physical property in the state, and none of its employees works or resides in the state."
"We have worked to assure that Overstock.com has as small a tax footprint as possible because of the benefits it provides to our customers," added Overstock's senior VP of finance, David Chidester. "We have no taxable connection to New York that is recognizable under constitutional principals [sic] laid down by U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and we will keep that status, even if it means having to say goodbye to some long time New York business connections."
"We love New York," said the site's chairman and CEO, Patrick Byrne, "but New York's new tax law required us to choose between New York customers and New York ad businesses. In the end, we chose our customers. The governor and legislature of New York should understand that a tax is a price that a government charges for a service, and when the price of anything is raised, people (including us) buy less of it."
Earlier this month, Amazon sued the State of New York over the new tax, stating that the site "has no physical presence in New York. It does not own, lease, or otherwise occupy any physical property in the state, and none of its employees works or resides in the state."
"We have worked to assure that Overstock.com has as small a tax footprint as possible because of the benefits it provides to our customers," added Overstock's senior VP of finance, David Chidester. "We have no taxable connection to New York that is recognizable under constitutional principals [sic] laid down by U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and we will keep that status, even if it means having to say goodbye to some long time New York business connections."
Amazon to Comply With New York Internet Tax
While Overstock showed a little bit of anti-Internet tax solidarity yesterday by banning New York-based advertisers, Amazon is opting to follow the letter of the law, as they take up their battle in court.
The mega retailer announced today that they will begin collecting the newly imposed tax from New Yorkers when it goes into effect on June 1st. They will continue collecting until the issue has been resolved.
Amazon has thus far been a staunch opponent of the tax stating that it "has no physical presence in New York. It does not own, lease, or otherwise occupy any physical property in the state, and none of its employees works or resides in the state."
The company filed a suit with New York State's Supreme Court earlier this month opposing the new law.
The mega retailer announced today that they will begin collecting the newly imposed tax from New Yorkers when it goes into effect on June 1st. They will continue collecting until the issue has been resolved.
Amazon has thus far been a staunch opponent of the tax stating that it "has no physical presence in New York. It does not own, lease, or otherwise occupy any physical property in the state, and none of its employees works or resides in the state."
The company filed a suit with New York State's Supreme Court earlier this month opposing the new law.
iDial: A Rotary for Your iPhone
iPhoneskinning.com is a blog devoted entirely to mods, wallpapers, games, and other iPhone add-ons. Boing Boing discovered this ridiculously cool app for Jailbroken phones via the site. iDial turns your regular touch numeric keypad into a good, old fashioned rotary--you know, those round things they had a long time ago, back before buttons were invented by John C. Buttonsberg in the early 70s.
Add http://rep.sosiphone.com as a source to your iPhone's installer and ask the operator to connect you.
Add http://rep.sosiphone.com as a source to your iPhone's installer and ask the operator to connect you.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
iSlsk brings P2P to Your iPhone
So you've Jailbroken your iPhone. Now what? Well, there's that rotary dial pad that we showed you a couple of days back. That was neat, sure, but why not go for broke? After all, you'll need something to kill the time until the 3G version of the phone finally hits. iSlsk brings what is perhaps one of the most eagerly awaited applications for the unlocked phone: P2P.
Available for both iPhone and iPod Touches, iSlsk piggybacks on Soulseek, downloading files and importing them into the iPhone's music library. According to Wired, the app downloads songs at around 20 Kbps over Wi-Fi and about half that on AT
Available for both iPhone and iPod Touches, iSlsk piggybacks on Soulseek, downloading files and importing them into the iPhone's music library. According to Wired, the app downloads songs at around 20 Kbps over Wi-Fi and about half that on AT
Wired Buys Ars Technica for $25 Million
Just when you thought it was safe to call it a weekend, Wired capped off the week of tech-writing upheaval by picking up the mega-popular and always sharp technology news site Ars Technica. The news follows CBS's recent acquisition of CNET for a cool $1.8 billion and the decision by PC World's editor-in-chief Harry McCracken to step down in favor of starting his own yet-to-be-named tech news venture.
According to Tech Crunch, the actual price that the Conde Nast-owned pub is paying for Ars Technica has yet to be officially announced, but it's being estimated somewhere in the range of $25 million. An official announcement is expected next week--at the moment, both Ars and Wired have yet to report the news.
Ars Technica will be integrated into Wired's large network of existing sites, with its current staff of around a dozen or so staying on during the acquisition.
According to Tech Crunch, the actual price that the Conde Nast-owned pub is paying for Ars Technica has yet to be officially announced, but it's being estimated somewhere in the range of $25 million. An official announcement is expected next week--at the moment, both Ars and Wired have yet to report the news.
Ars Technica will be integrated into Wired's large network of existing sites, with its current staff of around a dozen or so staying on during the acquisition.
Flexible Queries in Microsoft Access
Q: I imported an Excel spreadsheet into Access 203. Access took the labels in the first row of the spreadsheet as the field names. The first column is called Movies.
One title in this column is "The Santa Clause," and others have the word "Santa." If I go to Design view to make a query and enter the criteria "Santa" for the field Movies, Access returns nothing. If I type the whole name, it finds it. I would like to find all the movies whose titles contain a certain word. - Carlos Kruger.
A: You were in the right place, and you entered almost the right thing. To find values that contain a certain word you need to use the Like keyword in your criteria. This lets you use wildcards - a question mark represent exactly one of any character while an asterisk represents any string of characters. In your case the criteria you want is Like "*Santa*".
Here are some more examples of flexible criteria for an Access query:
Not "*Santa*" -values that don't contain the word Santa
Like "Santa*" -values that begin with Santa
Like "S???a" -5-letter words that start with "S" and ends with "a".
> "Santa" - values that come after Santa alphabetically
"Santa" OR "Saint Nick" - one or the other of those two exact phrases
IN("Santa", "Saint Nick", "Santa Claus") - any of the three exact phrases
As you can see there are lots of possibilities. - Neil J. Rubenking.
One title in this column is "The Santa Clause," and others have the word "Santa." If I go to Design view to make a query and enter the criteria "Santa" for the field Movies, Access returns nothing. If I type the whole name, it finds it. I would like to find all the movies whose titles contain a certain word. - Carlos Kruger.
A: You were in the right place, and you entered almost the right thing. To find values that contain a certain word you need to use the Like keyword in your criteria. This lets you use wildcards - a question mark represent exactly one of any character while an asterisk represents any string of characters. In your case the criteria you want is Like "*Santa*".
Here are some more examples of flexible criteria for an Access query:
Not "*Santa*" -values that don't contain the word Santa
Like "Santa*" -values that begin with Santa
Like "S???a" -5-letter words that start with "S" and ends with "a".
> "Santa" - values that come after Santa alphabetically
"Santa" OR "Saint Nick" - one or the other of those two exact phrases
IN("Santa", "Saint Nick", "Santa Claus") - any of the three exact phrases
As you can see there are lots of possibilities. - Neil J. Rubenking.
Microsoft Offers Alternative to All-Out Yahoo! Takeover
At what point does this whole Microsoft/Yahoo! business stop being a war of corporate speak and become the software equivalent of some bad on again, off again sitcom romance? If the two companies hadn't managed to jump the proverbial Webware shark into dysfunctional waters before, surely this latest piece of news has sent them over the edge.
According to Reuters, Microsoft announced over the weekend that it had once again contacted Yahoo, this time discussing a deal that wouldn't involve the full out acquisition they had previously been proposing.
Redmond didn't discuss any actual details, but the move is generally assumed to be a direct response to billionaire investor Carl Icahn's recent tough words for Jerry Yang and company. Microsoft also notes that it, "reserves the right to reconsider [an all out take over of Yahoo.]"
According to Reuters, Microsoft announced over the weekend that it had once again contacted Yahoo, this time discussing a deal that wouldn't involve the full out acquisition they had previously been proposing.
Redmond didn't discuss any actual details, but the move is generally assumed to be a direct response to billionaire investor Carl Icahn's recent tough words for Jerry Yang and company. Microsoft also notes that it, "reserves the right to reconsider [an all out take over of Yahoo.]"
AOL Closes Bebo Purchase
While the rest of the tech world sits back and watches the Microsoft/Yahoo! soap opera unfold, outlandish plot-twists and all, AOL quietly finalized its $850 million purchase of social media site, Bebo.
The company is combining the newly acquired network with its other social media platforms, including AIM and ICQ, under a new People Networks business unit that is expected to cater to some 80 million users. The new unit will be headed by Bebo president, Joanna Shields.
"We are committed to looking at what's the right brand for the right audience, AOL's presidenta and COO Ron Grant told Paid Content. "We have unified the back end (of AIM and ICQ) to make sure the technology platform is unified and open."
The company is combining the newly acquired network with its other social media platforms, including AIM and ICQ, under a new People Networks business unit that is expected to cater to some 80 million users. The new unit will be headed by Bebo president, Joanna Shields.
"We are committed to looking at what's the right brand for the right audience, AOL's presidenta and COO Ron Grant told Paid Content. "We have unified the back end (of AIM and ICQ) to make sure the technology platform is unified and open."
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Kluster: Using Social Networking to Make Your Ideas Reality
Kluster is a unique take on a potentially boring topic: project management and development. What makes Kluster so interesting is that it makes managing those concepts a fun and collaborative experience, where you can bid out your ideas to the community, get their input on how to make your ideas reality, and even get community members to buy into your ideas, either virtually or with real money. The service is new and innovative, and plans to launch at this year's TED conference on February 26th.
Kluster is an example of how social networking can be used productively, for more than just adding friends and collecting comments. The service is designed to give people with ideas a way to show them off to the rest of the community, collaborate to turn ideas into products or services, and even get buy-in from potential investors or people who just want a stake in helping bring the idea to life.
The service is easy to use. You sign up for an account (completely free), and then customize a profile where you outline your goals and some information about yourself. You can generate a project, which helps you pin down your goals and what you want to see emerge from your idea. Whether your project is just getting the word out about a cause you're interested in or whether you have an idea for a new invention, you can design your project around your idea. Kluster will help you break down your project into manageable goals and steps called Phases. Most people who have done project management of any kind will tell you breaking down a project this way is critical. Large goals can be overwhelming, but multiple small goals and tasks are much easier to manage, and can lead you all the way to the end of the project.
After you have your project laid out broken up into Phases, you and other community members can propose solutions to different phases and ways to accomplish those individual goals. Kluster calls these solutions "sparks," and the platform allows you to post your spark in video format, graphics, designs or plans, or plain text. The idea is that if your phase ends with a product design, a product designer who shares your interest can take a look at your project, draw up a design, and submit it to you so the two of you can collaborate on it. You can collect as many sparks as you like, and all of this is visible to the entire community.
If community members can help with a spark, they can add an "amp," or a tweak to the spark that might make it fit better for your project. It sounds complicated, but the point is to give people a way to help influence your entire project on a large scale as well as influence individual steps on a small scale. One person may be willing to help you patent your product design, but another might remember a small formatting change that would keep you from having to submit a patent request more than once.
Finally, members can invest in your idea using "watts." Watts are the currency at Kluster, and if someone thinks your idea is great, they can put some of their watts into your project. If your project takes off, they get more watts in return to invest in other ideas, and if your idea tanks, they lose their watts. The goal here is to give people a stake in making each other's ideas real, create enough risk to weed out the unreasonable ideas, and reward people for participating and supporting each other.
The service invites people who have ideas for businesses and new services to join and collaborate on their ideas, but also wants people who have ideas on how to change the world to join as well. Kluster's capabilities remain to be seen, but by combining social networking with intricate and intelligent project management tools, I can easily see the service becoming an incubator for a lot of good ideas.
Kluster is an example of how social networking can be used productively, for more than just adding friends and collecting comments. The service is designed to give people with ideas a way to show them off to the rest of the community, collaborate to turn ideas into products or services, and even get buy-in from potential investors or people who just want a stake in helping bring the idea to life.
The service is easy to use. You sign up for an account (completely free), and then customize a profile where you outline your goals and some information about yourself. You can generate a project, which helps you pin down your goals and what you want to see emerge from your idea. Whether your project is just getting the word out about a cause you're interested in or whether you have an idea for a new invention, you can design your project around your idea. Kluster will help you break down your project into manageable goals and steps called Phases. Most people who have done project management of any kind will tell you breaking down a project this way is critical. Large goals can be overwhelming, but multiple small goals and tasks are much easier to manage, and can lead you all the way to the end of the project.
After you have your project laid out broken up into Phases, you and other community members can propose solutions to different phases and ways to accomplish those individual goals. Kluster calls these solutions "sparks," and the platform allows you to post your spark in video format, graphics, designs or plans, or plain text. The idea is that if your phase ends with a product design, a product designer who shares your interest can take a look at your project, draw up a design, and submit it to you so the two of you can collaborate on it. You can collect as many sparks as you like, and all of this is visible to the entire community.
If community members can help with a spark, they can add an "amp," or a tweak to the spark that might make it fit better for your project. It sounds complicated, but the point is to give people a way to help influence your entire project on a large scale as well as influence individual steps on a small scale. One person may be willing to help you patent your product design, but another might remember a small formatting change that would keep you from having to submit a patent request more than once.
Finally, members can invest in your idea using "watts." Watts are the currency at Kluster, and if someone thinks your idea is great, they can put some of their watts into your project. If your project takes off, they get more watts in return to invest in other ideas, and if your idea tanks, they lose their watts. The goal here is to give people a stake in making each other's ideas real, create enough risk to weed out the unreasonable ideas, and reward people for participating and supporting each other.
The service invites people who have ideas for businesses and new services to join and collaborate on their ideas, but also wants people who have ideas on how to change the world to join as well. Kluster's capabilities remain to be seen, but by combining social networking with intricate and intelligent project management tools, I can easily see the service becoming an incubator for a lot of good ideas.
Kluster Gets into Citizen Journalism with KNewsroom
Kluster, the social network designed to be an incubator for the next big Web idea, has released one of the first projects that it helped foster and create. The service is called Knewsroom, and it aims to get people involved in writing, reporting, and critically analyzing the news by suggesting leads and avenues of research. The service even offers its writers prizes and rewards for contributing high quality or relevant news stories.
Knewsroom is part social networking and part citizen journalism. The idea is that community members not only get an opportunity to write the news, follow leads, and investigate stories, but can also be paid for their work. Kluster members who sign up to be part of the Knewsroom have access to Knews, which features stories from the day's major events in politics, business, technology, entertainment, design, and sports. The news that's generated from the Knewsroom is a collaborative project, where some members suggest story leads and other members take the leads and run with them.
The citizen journalism aspect comes in after the leads are generated. Members at Knews can choose any of the story leads suggested and then create original content with video, audio, or photos. They can write their own analysis and commentary, and report on the stories as though they were reporting the news themselves. Alternatively, if the story is breaking, they can pull a news piece from a syndicated source like the Associated Press or Reuters and re-publish the story at Knews.
The social networking elements at Knews are in the way it ties back to Kluster. When we last reviewed Kluster, we discussed the concept or "watts," or currency that Kluster members trade to support ideas and projects that other members create. In the Knewsroom, members can support story ideas, topics, and leads with their watts. If someone picks up a story idea or a topic that a member has invested in, the investor stands to gain from its popularity. Story ideas in specific are riskier investments, and general topic areas are less risky.
Kluster members are hoping that other members who participate in writing the news will pick up the stories they've invested in. If other members write about stories that have been invested in, the investors then see a return. If not, the investors lose their watts. In addition to spending watts on stories, writers can also be rewarded for participating and helping make the news. Every day, the Knewsroom developers choose the top five topics and top five stories in each of the six sections. Members who invest in stories stand a chance to not only win watts, but cash bonuses along with the writers of the original content.
Knews takes a different approach to citizen journalism, and tying the concept back to Kluster, the idea incubator, provides an instant community with a stake in the success of the project. Unlike other citizen journalism sites, Knews gives all members a stake in suggesting, writing, and following up on the news.
Knewsroom is part social networking and part citizen journalism. The idea is that community members not only get an opportunity to write the news, follow leads, and investigate stories, but can also be paid for their work. Kluster members who sign up to be part of the Knewsroom have access to Knews, which features stories from the day's major events in politics, business, technology, entertainment, design, and sports. The news that's generated from the Knewsroom is a collaborative project, where some members suggest story leads and other members take the leads and run with them.
The citizen journalism aspect comes in after the leads are generated. Members at Knews can choose any of the story leads suggested and then create original content with video, audio, or photos. They can write their own analysis and commentary, and report on the stories as though they were reporting the news themselves. Alternatively, if the story is breaking, they can pull a news piece from a syndicated source like the Associated Press or Reuters and re-publish the story at Knews.
The social networking elements at Knews are in the way it ties back to Kluster. When we last reviewed Kluster, we discussed the concept or "watts," or currency that Kluster members trade to support ideas and projects that other members create. In the Knewsroom, members can support story ideas, topics, and leads with their watts. If someone picks up a story idea or a topic that a member has invested in, the investor stands to gain from its popularity. Story ideas in specific are riskier investments, and general topic areas are less risky.
Kluster members are hoping that other members who participate in writing the news will pick up the stories they've invested in. If other members write about stories that have been invested in, the investors then see a return. If not, the investors lose their watts. In addition to spending watts on stories, writers can also be rewarded for participating and helping make the news. Every day, the Knewsroom developers choose the top five topics and top five stories in each of the six sections. Members who invest in stories stand a chance to not only win watts, but cash bonuses along with the writers of the original content.
Knews takes a different approach to citizen journalism, and tying the concept back to Kluster, the idea incubator, provides an instant community with a stake in the success of the project. Unlike other citizen journalism sites, Knews gives all members a stake in suggesting, writing, and following up on the news.
InsideTrip Gives You Cheap Flights, No Frills
A lot of travel sites have flight fare finders, which usually press you to book a flight with the service's preferred airline or sponsor. Other services are vacation package finders, which make it difficult to book a cheap flight without having to also book a hotel room and a rental car. InsideTrip is a very simple, no-frills, no-fluff, all-business flight search site. The service asks you some simple questions about your trip like when you're leaving and where you're going, and immediately returns fares based on things airline comfort, flight time, accesibility.
Travel sites are bursting at the seams with more and more features and tools to make sure you get the absolute cheapest price on everything from the flight to your destination to your dry cleaning when you get there. Sometimes less is more, and InsideTrip gives you more of what you care about and less of what you don't. The service asks you only the most essential questions about your trip and provides you with dozens of fares to choose from, organized by price, comfort, ease of travel, and speed.
The beauty of InsideTrip is that it's all about airfare. You don't have to book a hotel room, get a rental car, or even sign up for an account to use the service. If you're just curious how much it'll cost you to fly next week versus the week after, you can find out immediately. If you want to know how much it'll cost to upgrade to first class, you can find out without having to start over again. The service only asks for the most basic information about your flight, like your departing and arrival airports, the date of your trip, how many people are going, and whether you want to fly economy or first-class. After you provide the information, the site will churn a bit and give you a list of rates.
Once you've provided all of your trip information, the site will churn a bit and give you a list of rates. The list is sorted based on InsideTrip's "TripQuality" score, which is calculated based on a Consumer Reports-style rank of trip speed, comfort, and ease. The service determines individual ratings of speed, comfort, and ease based on criteria for each category.
Speed, for example, is rated on travel duration, on-time stats for the airline in question, average wait time in security at the selected airport, and the number of stops along the way. Comfort is based on legroom on the airline selected, the type and age of the aircraft and the airline's history of overbooking and loading the plane up with passengers. Ease is based on the time allotted to connect to more than one flight, the quality of flight routing, gate location of your airline at the selected airport, and how often the airline has been known to lose passengers' luggage.
You can see the individual TripQuality rating for each leg of your trip if you book a round-trip ticket, and see which airline and flight number you'll be booking prior to booking the ticket. Unlike other travel bargain sites that won't show you the airline or the flight number before you actually book the flight, InsideTrip gives you everything, including flight times, up front.
Once you've found a flight that you like, you can click the Buy Now button to book the flight immediately. If you don't care for the options selected, you can narrow your search by using the sliders to the left of the page. You can choose specific times, choose a nonstop flight, select or de-select connecting airports, or even limit your trip to specific carriers to narrow or expand your search results. If you prefer, you can even increase the TripQuality threshold so you only see highly rated packages.
InsideTrip gives the traveler more control and power over the type of travel experience they have. I've booked with services like HotWire and Priceline that promise low prices, but sometimes you have to sacrifice a hassle-free trip in order to get those rock bottom rates. InsideTrip might not have access to those bottom dollar deals, but when you book your flight at least you'll know that you're leaving when you want to and arriving when you choose, all on an airline that you want to fly with.
Travel sites are bursting at the seams with more and more features and tools to make sure you get the absolute cheapest price on everything from the flight to your destination to your dry cleaning when you get there. Sometimes less is more, and InsideTrip gives you more of what you care about and less of what you don't. The service asks you only the most essential questions about your trip and provides you with dozens of fares to choose from, organized by price, comfort, ease of travel, and speed.
The beauty of InsideTrip is that it's all about airfare. You don't have to book a hotel room, get a rental car, or even sign up for an account to use the service. If you're just curious how much it'll cost you to fly next week versus the week after, you can find out immediately. If you want to know how much it'll cost to upgrade to first class, you can find out without having to start over again. The service only asks for the most basic information about your flight, like your departing and arrival airports, the date of your trip, how many people are going, and whether you want to fly economy or first-class. After you provide the information, the site will churn a bit and give you a list of rates.
Once you've provided all of your trip information, the site will churn a bit and give you a list of rates. The list is sorted based on InsideTrip's "TripQuality" score, which is calculated based on a Consumer Reports-style rank of trip speed, comfort, and ease. The service determines individual ratings of speed, comfort, and ease based on criteria for each category.
Speed, for example, is rated on travel duration, on-time stats for the airline in question, average wait time in security at the selected airport, and the number of stops along the way. Comfort is based on legroom on the airline selected, the type and age of the aircraft and the airline's history of overbooking and loading the plane up with passengers. Ease is based on the time allotted to connect to more than one flight, the quality of flight routing, gate location of your airline at the selected airport, and how often the airline has been known to lose passengers' luggage.
You can see the individual TripQuality rating for each leg of your trip if you book a round-trip ticket, and see which airline and flight number you'll be booking prior to booking the ticket. Unlike other travel bargain sites that won't show you the airline or the flight number before you actually book the flight, InsideTrip gives you everything, including flight times, up front.
Once you've found a flight that you like, you can click the Buy Now button to book the flight immediately. If you don't care for the options selected, you can narrow your search by using the sliders to the left of the page. You can choose specific times, choose a nonstop flight, select or de-select connecting airports, or even limit your trip to specific carriers to narrow or expand your search results. If you prefer, you can even increase the TripQuality threshold so you only see highly rated packages.
InsideTrip gives the traveler more control and power over the type of travel experience they have. I've booked with services like HotWire and Priceline that promise low prices, but sometimes you have to sacrifice a hassle-free trip in order to get those rock bottom rates. InsideTrip might not have access to those bottom dollar deals, but when you book your flight at least you'll know that you're leaving when you want to and arriving when you choose, all on an airline that you want to fly with.
Kango: Your One Stop Travel Shop
When I travel, I usually visit multiple sites for hotel suggestions, travel deals, and destination reviews before I book. Most people visit at least a handful of sites before settling on a place to stay and some destinations to visit when they travel. Kango wants to help bring all that information together: It's is a travel news and review aggregator, pulling information from dozens of Web sites and archiving it all in one place to make it easy to search.
Kango is in private beta and currently has detailed review and destination information only for Hawaii and California, but expect a nationwide rollout soon. If you don't live in Hawaii or California or your travel plans don't take you in that direction, Kango can still be a huge help when you're booking a hotel room or making travel plans. If you select your state of interest from the list at the bottom of the page, you can drill down to see available hotel and destination information for select cities in your region.
The bulk of Kango's information about any given city consists of hotel listings and reviews pulled from other Web sites, such as TripAdvisor and Hotels.com. The service gives you a basic idea of what you might pay per night to stay in a given hotel, and then invites you to check the price yourself and book a room.
If you are planning a trip to Hawaii or California, you'll get a feel for more of the features that Kango plans to roll out to the rest of the country. The site has suggestions for people traveling with pets or kids and for people with special interests in the Hawaii or California areas. If you're looking for a childcare program at your resort of choice, the Kango "family travel tips" blog can help. Additionally, Hawaii and California travelers can browse featured destinations and suggested locations in both states and read reviews written by Kango reviewers and members.
Currently, Kango developers are focusing more on evolving natural-language search technologies to aggregate more travel information from other travel sites and blogs. The site is the brainchild of former Yahoo! Travel General Manager Yen Lee.
The site claims to have collected over 20 million opinions and reviews from over a thousand sites. The sheer amount of information available at Kango is enough to back up the claim; you can search for hotels and destinations in just about any region of the country and find some information. Kango's full promise, however, won't be realized until there are at least some human minds behind the complex search algorithms. When there are Kango reviewers and members offering real opinions and reviews of destinations and hotels--the same way there are in Hawaii and California--then Kango will be less a fancy search engine and more a real travel resource.
Kango is in private beta and currently has detailed review and destination information only for Hawaii and California, but expect a nationwide rollout soon. If you don't live in Hawaii or California or your travel plans don't take you in that direction, Kango can still be a huge help when you're booking a hotel room or making travel plans. If you select your state of interest from the list at the bottom of the page, you can drill down to see available hotel and destination information for select cities in your region.
The bulk of Kango's information about any given city consists of hotel listings and reviews pulled from other Web sites, such as TripAdvisor and Hotels.com. The service gives you a basic idea of what you might pay per night to stay in a given hotel, and then invites you to check the price yourself and book a room.
If you are planning a trip to Hawaii or California, you'll get a feel for more of the features that Kango plans to roll out to the rest of the country. The site has suggestions for people traveling with pets or kids and for people with special interests in the Hawaii or California areas. If you're looking for a childcare program at your resort of choice, the Kango "family travel tips" blog can help. Additionally, Hawaii and California travelers can browse featured destinations and suggested locations in both states and read reviews written by Kango reviewers and members.
Currently, Kango developers are focusing more on evolving natural-language search technologies to aggregate more travel information from other travel sites and blogs. The site is the brainchild of former Yahoo! Travel General Manager Yen Lee.
The site claims to have collected over 20 million opinions and reviews from over a thousand sites. The sheer amount of information available at Kango is enough to back up the claim; you can search for hotels and destinations in just about any region of the country and find some information. Kango's full promise, however, won't be realized until there are at least some human minds behind the complex search algorithms. When there are Kango reviewers and members offering real opinions and reviews of destinations and hotels--the same way there are in Hawaii and California--then Kango will be less a fancy search engine and more a real travel resource.
TripTracker: Share Where You've Been
There are a number of services that let you share your exploits with fellow travelers. WeGor and TrekEarth, for example, encourages you to share your travels with a social community that can comment, discuss, and in turn share their own experiences.
TripTracker is similar in a lot of ways, but also offers a number of features that others don't. TripTracker's focus is on helping you keep a log of where you go and what you do. The goal at TripTracker is to give you the tools to make a real interactive travel journal complete with maps and waypoints and share it with the community.
What makes TripTracker different from other travel sites is that the focus is on creating a fully-featured and interactive travel journal first and sharing it with the community later. You can create maps with waypoints, and customize each waypoint with photos and details of where you went and what you did while you were there. You can add GPS tracks and daily journal entries, almost like keeping a blog of your trip, and you can merge and split entries and photos to correspond to different points in time along your journey.
TripTracker is free to use, and anyone can sign up. Don't be overwhelmed by the number of features and tools available though. You can enter points on a travel map manually, or upload GPS track files from dozens of different GPS devices. Once you have your tracks uploaded or waypoints entered, you can customize the entire journey with photos and journal entries that describe what you saw and did in a particular place.
TripTracker calls the entire experience a "trip." You can add multiple trips to your TripTracker profile. When you're finished customizing your trip, or when you return home and put the finishing touches on your journey, you can share it with your friends or with the whole TripTracker community. If you want your friends to follow you along while you're away, you can open up the trip to your friends so they can follow your progress. For example, one TripTracker member is currently on a biking trip across China, and if you're interested you can see where he is today and where he plans to bike to tomorrow.
You can make TripTracker your personal travel hub. Being able to upload GPS tracks and waypoints on a Google Map that actually reflects the locations you're visiting is very compelling. You can share your experiences with the world, or just with other TripTracker friends, and if your story is widely commented on or viewed, it may even be featured on the front page.
TripTracker is similar in a lot of ways, but also offers a number of features that others don't. TripTracker's focus is on helping you keep a log of where you go and what you do. The goal at TripTracker is to give you the tools to make a real interactive travel journal complete with maps and waypoints and share it with the community.
What makes TripTracker different from other travel sites is that the focus is on creating a fully-featured and interactive travel journal first and sharing it with the community later. You can create maps with waypoints, and customize each waypoint with photos and details of where you went and what you did while you were there. You can add GPS tracks and daily journal entries, almost like keeping a blog of your trip, and you can merge and split entries and photos to correspond to different points in time along your journey.
TripTracker is free to use, and anyone can sign up. Don't be overwhelmed by the number of features and tools available though. You can enter points on a travel map manually, or upload GPS track files from dozens of different GPS devices. Once you have your tracks uploaded or waypoints entered, you can customize the entire journey with photos and journal entries that describe what you saw and did in a particular place.
TripTracker calls the entire experience a "trip." You can add multiple trips to your TripTracker profile. When you're finished customizing your trip, or when you return home and put the finishing touches on your journey, you can share it with your friends or with the whole TripTracker community. If you want your friends to follow you along while you're away, you can open up the trip to your friends so they can follow your progress. For example, one TripTracker member is currently on a biking trip across China, and if you're interested you can see where he is today and where he plans to bike to tomorrow.
You can make TripTracker your personal travel hub. Being able to upload GPS tracks and waypoints on a Google Map that actually reflects the locations you're visiting is very compelling. You can share your experiences with the world, or just with other TripTracker friends, and if your story is widely commented on or viewed, it may even be featured on the front page.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
VibeAgent: Community Reviews and Travel Bargains
There are a number of travel sites that focus on social networking and travel sharing, like What's Your 20 and TripTracker. There are other travel sites that focus entirely on travel reviews and suggestions, like Kango and InsideTrip. VibeAgent brings elements of both to the same site, and provides both first-hand reviews of popular destinations as well as travel bargains, coupons, and vacation packages. At VibeAgent, you can be a participant in the community and write reviews of the places you've been, or search for a deal on a hot vacation spot.
VibeAgent has been around for a couple of years, but the community around the service is really beginning to grow. The site aims to provide travel recommendations written by real people who live and have visited popular destinations around the world, and allows you to connect with those people to be sure that their tastes and interests are similar to yours. This way, you can trust their opinions, or even make new friends. Using this method, VibeAgent has managed to collect reviews for over 120,000 hotels.
VibeAgent members that supply reviews and information are called "agents." The service focuses mainly on hotels, so agents supply their reviews on hotels and locations around the world, centered mostly on cities of interest. If you're interested in a specific hotel, you can search its name, or click to find a possible vacation city and browse all of the hotels in the area. Featured agents and hotels are posted on the front page of the site, and you can browse recent features to get a feel for what the service has to offer.
The service is similar to Hotels.com and other popular travel sites that advertise location ratings from self-described experts who can help you make a travel decision. What makes VibeAgent different--and better--is that the service's experts are its own user community. Each VibeAgent member specifies the most important elements in a hotel to them and what they're looking for when comparing shopping for a place to stay. This way the service can prioritize your search results based not only on price and location, but also on the most important factors to you.
As you find other agents that you can trust, you can keep track of their reviews and browse other hotels that they've reviewed in the past to find new enjoyable places to stay. Additionally, create your own reviews as you travel and become an agent that other members can trust and connect with. Member profiles sport the number of reviews, the number of friends, the number of compliments, and the number of firsts that each member has achieved, so you can tell at a glance how active an agent has been. Through all of this, the service pulls hotel deals and bargains from other sites around the Web and publishes them for VibeAgent members to take advantage of if they're planning a vacation.
VibeAgent doesn't partner directly with hotel chains, so their suggestions are based entirely on the factors that you choose. Additionally, you can trust that the reviews of the listed hotels are from other VibeAgent members and not corporate shills -if an agent's review smells fishy to you, you can simply move on to another agent instead. This unique blend of community-driven content, social networking, and bargain shopping creates a unique travel site with information that no other service can duplicate.
VibeAgent has been around for a couple of years, but the community around the service is really beginning to grow. The site aims to provide travel recommendations written by real people who live and have visited popular destinations around the world, and allows you to connect with those people to be sure that their tastes and interests are similar to yours. This way, you can trust their opinions, or even make new friends. Using this method, VibeAgent has managed to collect reviews for over 120,000 hotels.
VibeAgent members that supply reviews and information are called "agents." The service focuses mainly on hotels, so agents supply their reviews on hotels and locations around the world, centered mostly on cities of interest. If you're interested in a specific hotel, you can search its name, or click to find a possible vacation city and browse all of the hotels in the area. Featured agents and hotels are posted on the front page of the site, and you can browse recent features to get a feel for what the service has to offer.
The service is similar to Hotels.com and other popular travel sites that advertise location ratings from self-described experts who can help you make a travel decision. What makes VibeAgent different--and better--is that the service's experts are its own user community. Each VibeAgent member specifies the most important elements in a hotel to them and what they're looking for when comparing shopping for a place to stay. This way the service can prioritize your search results based not only on price and location, but also on the most important factors to you.
As you find other agents that you can trust, you can keep track of their reviews and browse other hotels that they've reviewed in the past to find new enjoyable places to stay. Additionally, create your own reviews as you travel and become an agent that other members can trust and connect with. Member profiles sport the number of reviews, the number of friends, the number of compliments, and the number of firsts that each member has achieved, so you can tell at a glance how active an agent has been. Through all of this, the service pulls hotel deals and bargains from other sites around the Web and publishes them for VibeAgent members to take advantage of if they're planning a vacation.
VibeAgent doesn't partner directly with hotel chains, so their suggestions are based entirely on the factors that you choose. Additionally, you can trust that the reviews of the listed hotels are from other VibeAgent members and not corporate shills -if an agent's review smells fishy to you, you can simply move on to another agent instead. This unique blend of community-driven content, social networking, and bargain shopping creates a unique travel site with information that no other service can duplicate.
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