News 03.31.2006 (Part 2)

Internet News
New feature coming to NET9 tomorrow, stay tuned...
New Google Talk is out - Haven't had a chance to see what's new about it yet, will check out later tonight.
Damn Small Linux 2.3 released - I'm still amazed at how much Linux goodness these guys are able to cram into 50MB.
Google TV? - Google needs to get to polishing up the services they already have. This is too similar to Google Video and I think a TV feature could be integrated into Google Video fairly easily. Besides, this is still rumor until we see it with our own eyes.

Podcast Links:
Buzz Out Loud - 03.31.06
Buzz Out Loud - 03.31.06 - Interview

News 03.31.2006

Internet News
A very interesting article over at the ZDNet Enterprise Web 2.0 blog showing how the whole user/IT ecosystem should work. I think more IT professionals should read this as it is a great return-to-your-roots guide to being a truly successful IT professional. Plus, as part time users in the form of testers and early adopters of the very technologies we sometimes try to force on users, we are the ones responsible. It is our duty to ensure that should either the user or the IT professional decide to part ways, the whole system doesn't come crashing down due to any lack of communication, documentation, or understanding of the products and/or services involved in our delicately balanced tech ecosystem.

Podcast Links:
Buzz Out Loud - 03.30.06

News 03.29.2006

Internet News
A very interesting article over at the ZDNet Enterprise Web 2.0 blog showing how the whole user/IT ecosystem should work. I think more IT professionals should read this as it is a great return-to-your-roots guide to being a truly successful IT professional. Plus, as part time users in the form of testers and early adopters of the very technologies we sometimes try to force on users, we are the ones responsible. It is our duty to ensure that should either the user or the IT professional decide to part ways, the whole system doesn't come crashing down due to any lack of communication, documentation, or understanding of the products and/or services involved in our delicately balanced tech ecosystem.

Podcast Links:
UMPC Cast Podcast #3
Inside The Net 16: Podzinger
Buzz Out Loud - 03.28.06
Buzz Out Loud - 03.27.06
Buzz Out Loud - 03.27.06 [Interview]
Engadget #73 - 03.28.06

3pm Hot Link:
Beatles - Because

News 03.27.2006

Internet News
Well, Netvibes was down yesterday which was kind of expected since it was the hot topic of the week with the news of them adding the Box.net module and getting some much deserved VC funding from a handful of investors. Never the less, the outage did force me to roll back to more primitive methods of getting to the information I was after.

Google News
Seems someone found a hack to get Google to look a little different than usual. Here is the code to change the look of Google Search results:
javascript:alert(document.cookie="PREF=ID=fb7740f107311e46:
TM=1142683332:LM=1142683332:S=fNSw6ljXTzvL3dWu;
path=/;domain=.google.com")

You can copy and paste the code directly into the URL bar and it should work, unless you are not in the US, in which case you have to change the country abbreviation to your own, i.e. domain=.google.com to domain=.google.co.uk.

Podcast Links:
Diggnation Ep.38 - 03.23.06
Inside The Net 15: Steve Chen of YouTube
TWit #47

3pm Hot Link:
Mos Def feat. DJ Premier - Mathematics

Just Something To Listen To

Not much to report today. Just some podcasts and a 3pm Hot Link.

Podcast Links:
TalkCrunch Ep.3: Amazon's New Grid Storage Service
Buzz Out Loud - 03.24.06
Buzz Out Loud - 03.23.06

3pm Hot Link:
Black-Eyed Peas - My Humps

80% of Podcasts do not make it to a portable player

"According to a recent consumer survey conducted by Bridge Data, the relevance of portability to podcast usage has been vastly overstated. In fact, more 80% of podcast downloads never make it to a portable player or another device - they are consumed on the PC (or, worse, never listened or deleted)."

read more | digg story

News 03.23.2006

Internet News
Netvibes has added a 1 GB personal storage module via a partnership with box.net. Looks like Netvibes isn't playing around when it comes to delivering a functional web-based desktop. I keep up with the blog RSS feed, and am reeled back in to using Netvibes for more and more things I used to have several services for. Netvibes is the greatest, and has just set the bar even higher with this new module.

Podcast Links:
Inside The Net 14: YouTube
Buzz Out Loud - 03.22.06
Buzz Out Loud - 03.21.06

3pm Hot Link:
DMX - Dogs Out

Why DRM is Doomed

The problem is that digital rights management relies on locking content away, and as long as we have general purpose computers capable of running whatever code someone cares to write then there will always be ways around those content locks.

read more | digg story

News 03.21.2006

Google News
Google Finance (Beta) has launched and has already received mixed reviews:

The Good:
Google Unleashes Google Finance

The Bad:
Google Finance Disappoints

Personally, I love the work they've put into making it easy to use yet full-featured and interactive. It works, enough said.

Podcast Links:
TWiT #46
Buzz Out Loud - 03.20.2006

3pm Hot Link:
N.E.R.D. - Lapdance

Google - Music to my MP3 library

Great tip, with search at hand, for finding your favorite, and hard to find, music with Google.

Check out 3pm first, as there may be some music already found for you. This ongoing project has become one of NET9's greatest assets.

read more | digg story

DRM shortens battery life by 25%

Tests were done on portable music players using standard MP3 files and DRM encrypted WMA files. The results. Up to 25% less battery life thanks to DRM sucking the juices as it constantly verifies licenses.

read more | digg story

Great New Stuff

770 News
Customized Discovery mobile content to appear on Nokia's wireless devices

New NET9 Features!
The cool del.icio.us playTager script now integrated into NET9! Now you can check out what podcasts we listen to around here. Also added is the 3pm Hot Link, a link to a random mp3 file found out on the web. Be sure to check out the 3pm page for more mp3 goodies as well.

Podcast Links:
TalkCrunch Ep.1: Google Calendar v. the Competition?
Inside The Net 14: SXSW

3pm Hot Link:
Gil Scott - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

The Net's New Age

Interesting story on some of the differences and similarities to Web 1.0 and Web2.0 era's. " Technology that aims to revolutionize how surfers use the Web is fueling a new wave of Internet investment and challenging established media"

read more | digg story

Google Office In The Works?

Just hours after screenshot leaks of what appears to be Google Calender, rumors began to circulate about Google possibly buying up Writely. All this begins to make one wonder, is Google setting up an office suite? The leak of information about GDrive, Google's idea of "infinite storage", becomes more clear if this is true. GDrive would provide the platform to store applications and files usually found on your desktop. As most rumors are based on crumbs of truth seen through a distorted window, this addition to interesting information about Google's future plans will be observed with a close eye.

More on Google-Writely rumor

Update:
Well, this rumor turned out to be true. Google has aquired Writely.
Check out what else is being said over at the Official Google Blog as well as the Writely Blog.
The plot thickens...

µTorrent 1.5 released!

This is a big version release for µTorrent, the popular and lightweight BitTorrent client. The major additions are Peer Exchange and Protocol Encryption, in combination with optimizations to download speed and hard disk accesses. changelog: http://www.utorrent.com/download/1.5/utorrent-1.5.txt

read more | digg story

New AJAX-powered blogging system

AJAXPress is an AJAX based blogging system. It is a standalone application written in PHP with a MySQL backend, and allows users to create their own AJAX-powered blogs. It comes complete with an AJAX powered admin interface.

Well, mark one more of my 2006 predictions correct.

read more | digg story

Similarity Or Simulation?

Okay people, tell me why these devices look similar. Oh wait, first off I have to say that the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet shown at the top is real and has been for some time. The second device is all over the web at the time of this post and may or may not be a real device. It is rumored to be the Origami device that is the hype of the week, but I have doubts that it is in fact real.

Notice that none of the LED indicator lights are on while the screen is showing what looks to be a connection to the Internet. If this is a real picture of Microsoft's Origami device, things could get really interesting really quickly for Nokia. But that will all depend on the actual size of the device, the capabilities, and the price.

All eyes are on Microsoft at the moment with their Origami Project, but I think Nokia still has a lot more in store for the 770 in the near future. Let's just hope neither company disappoints the users and fans of mobile devices.

Are you Living in a Computer Simulation?

There is a significant probability that you are living in computer simulation. If the simulation hypothesis is true, you exist in a virtual reality simulated in a computer built by an advanced civilization. Your brain, too, is merely a part of that simulation. This is a very interesting read.

read more | digg story

New Digg Comment System Released!

Now each digg user has the ability to rate their favorite comments by digging them. If you see an off-topic comment, simply click the bury icon to shrink and remove the comment from view. Other new features include: threading, editing, and friend flags.

read more | digg story

The Art Of Folding Hype

It's really funny how people shift gears from the hype of one company's announcement (Apple) to another (Microsoft). After the recent disappointing Apple showing early this week people have looked elsewhere to satisfy the void created by the hype. The strangest part about this hype transition is the direction it went. Microsoft!? Okay, it just so happens that March 9th Microsoft will show it's oddly hyped Origami device/software/thing/whatever and people have all locked in on the possibility of it being a great mobile device. There have been pictures and a video floating around blogs since the discovery of the teaser site, but many are skeptical and some just plain don't care as long as it turns out to be more exciting than the Apple event. How the tables have turned. Microsoft may very well benefit from the excess hype from Apple and gain more attention than they expected. Come March 9th, we'll see how good Microsoft is at Origami.

Links
Origami Project
Origami Portal
GottaBeMobile

Google says goal to build $100 billion company

Web search leader Google Inc aims to become a $100 billion company and said on Thursday that it plans to put systems in place to help reach that scale during 2006.

Anything is possible...

read more | digg story