New Social game in Blogsphere

Jeff Pulver at Pulvermedia started it and it is running further than Jeff expected. Many a people are playing Blog-Tag and If you are in to social games, this is a game to play!
There is another version that is running parallel to Jeff's version is Dave Gale at hitting the wire has his own version up and running. There is another guy at SOLOSEO tracking all these tags.
I got into it here; VOIP IP Telephony: Jeff Pulver's blog-tag takes many a turns, here is mine

Follow the links and play the Blog-Tag game.

Links;
Jeff Pulver's entry
Dave Gale's post
Soloseo's tracking article

Tags: blog-tag, weseepeople

Say hello to many as possible and have a great holiday

I hope Santa will come your way and Your holiday will be filled with laughter and Joy. If you pass by an unfortunate person, please try to make him/her smile. Don't forget that all the Kids are the same!

Best Regards!

Tags: santa, holiday, joy

DIGG site update and sneezes from others

One of my favorite sites that I frequently visit got a face lift. The site is DIGG. I like the interface but needed some getting used to. That was that and i was going to forget about it when I read about an article on Mashable, has stated it is overhyped and spent half a page describing changes. I think that is too many changes for overhype.

Niel Patel at Search engine Land has said the same thing as the Mashable but in a better way for my taste. Yours may differ so follow the links and find out for your self.

Links;
DIGG Blog announcement with video
The New Digg Features, Plus A Submitter's Perspective
Mashable article

Tags: digg, new digg, Social networking

Myspace going to Japan, Can it compete with MIXI?

According to a WSj article, News Corp., moving to take advantage of growing international traffic to its MySpace Web site, confirmed plans for a joint venture with Softbank Corp. to operate a Japanese version of the popular social-networking site.

The joint venture follows News Corp.'s creation in recent months of local versions of MySpace in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Germany and France. These customized sites have helped increase MySpace's international traffic sixfold to 26.4 million unique visitors in the past year, according to September data from comScore Media Metrix.
But it might meet some resistance from Japanese social networking site, MIXI. Mixi is built with secular circles of friends who are only known to depending on what user chose to share.
Any user on MIXI is visible universally, but what is seen is also chosen by the user. For an example, you may allow a friend of yours to see your space, while denying all friends of the chosen friend. Or you may chose some of her or his into your circle if you know them as well.
So it is debatable if the open nature of Myspace would appeal to Japanese users. There always will be rebels and early tasters. But they might retreat to secular MIXI spaces.

Links;
WSJ myspace in Japan
MIXI Japanese Social Network

Tags: myspace, MIXI, Social networking, social networks

Blog and go to Jail

according to CPJ, Committee to Protect Journalists, their is a rise in imprisonment of journalists. But due to the increase in internet publishing, internet publishes are joining print publishers in the jail. The graph bellow shows radio and television journalists as well as film artists.
I really do not consider my self a journalist but I enjoy the freedom to write about what I like and how I feel about my subjects. I do not catch on political process unless they cross over to the subjects that I care. My interests are mostly, technology, communication, food, health and alternative energy.
But do not think that only third world regimes are only the culprits. There are western countries on the list as well. But it seems regimes that do not care about people nor the world are on the top of the list.
Please follow the link if you are interested in reading more.

Links;
Committee to Protect Journalists

Tags: technology, communication, food, health, alternative energy, journalist, prison

Internet Archive, DCMA, and the new IA blog

Geemodo writes about Internet Archive's help in eliminating DCMA from libraries, archives, research and scholarship. The article could be found in the links.
While I was there, I noticed that IA also has a new blog where, one could find about what's new at IA. I really do like it. I like to have IA gives me news via a RSS feed. If you have not been there, follow the links, and digest.


Links;
Geemodo: Internet Archive Secures Exemption To The DCMA

Internet Archive's Blog

Do we see these People?

I read two articles today that made me question my self, Do we see these people? The first one was about veterans, the homeless ones, who show up some times near traffic stops here, where we erase our guilt by giving a dollar or some food. I have settled to give my lunch away, 'cos it is hard to see those hungry faces. And I don't know where the money will go if I give a dollar. But you see that here and there but do we really see?
I have no answer but I will direct you to these two articles, so you might find some answers.

1.U.S. vets from Iraq war emerge at homeless shelters
U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.

"When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that."

2. Poverty in USA
For the fourth consecutive year, the poverty rate and the number of Americans living in poverty both rose from the prior years. Since 2000, the number of poor Americans has grown by more than 6 million. The official poverty rate in 2004 (the most current year for which figures are available) was 12.7 percent, up from 12.5 percent in 2003. Total Americans below the official poverty thresholds numbered 37 million, a figure 1.1 million higher than the 35.9 million in poverty in 2003. (U.S. Census Bureau, Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2004)

Both these resources came from, TCRNews.

Tags: poverty in America, Veterans, Homeless

Proposed Copyright laws turn all Australian to Criminals

I was shocked to read;
“a family who holds a birthday picnic in a place of public entertainment (for example, the grounds of a zoo) and sings ‘Happy Birthday’ in a manner that can be heard by others, risks an infringement notice carrying a fine of up to $1320. If they make a video recording of the event, they risk a further fine for the possession of a device for the purpose of making an infringing copy of a song. And if they go home and upload the clip to the internet where it can be accessed by others, they risk a further fine of up to $1320 for illegal distribution. All in all, possible fines of up to $3960 for this series of acts – and the new offences do not require knowledge or improper intent. Just the doing of the acts is enough to ground a legal liability under the new ‘strict liability’ offenses.”
$3960 Australian dollars fine for having a birthday party, singing and posting the party video on the net so grandma could watch it! The words comes to my mind cannot be typed here. I am sure this is what might happen here if MPAA and RIAA had upperhand, not that they don't.

I read the article on Internet Industry Association, IIA, which represents a broad range of internet businesses in Australia, in conjunction with the QUT Law Faculty Intellectual Property Research Program, has identified a number of scenarios which could trip up Australians in their everyday use of copyrighted materials.

Said IIA chief executive, Peter Coroneos: “We can’t be sure if this is the government's intent, or whether there has been a terrible oversight in the drafting of this Bill. Either way, the consequences for the average Australian family could be devastating.”

It gets even uglier as you read more on the site; see this scenario, taken from the risks for teenagers due to the new law pdf;

Kate and her classmates, having finished Year 12, spend a night on the town. At the restaurant they break into spontaneous song with a medley of hits, much to the entertainment of the other diners. Ellie captures the performance on her mobile phone’s video feature and posts it to her MySpace page for the world to see. People find the clip hilarious and thousands of people view it.

Depending on whether the restaurant holds a performance license, the girls may be infringing through an unauthorized performance. This is a criminal offence. (Section 132AN). This potentially involves two criminal offences.
The possession of a device for making an infringing copy (Section 132AL) and the distribution of an infringing copy (of the song/s) Section 132AN contains strict liability offence provisions for which maximum fines of $6600 per work (ie. song) applies. Section 132AL carries a maximum fine of $6600 when prosecuted as a strict liability offence. The copying of each song is a separate offence. Section 132AI for the distribution offence/s (as above).

Are you sick yet. You can get all the information at IIA site. If you are an Australian, and you would like to express your concern over the proposed changes, please write to the Attorney-General, the Hon. Phillip Ruddock, at

PO Box 1866
Hornsby Westfield NSW 1635

or

PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600

Or call:

Telephone at parliament house: (02) 6277 7300
Telephone at electorate office: (02) 9482 7111

Who wrote those laws, Kangaroos and Dingos?

Links;
Internet Industry Association,AU
The proposed changes to the Bill can be found by visitng http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/ then clicking on "browse" > "legislation" > "current bills by title" > "Copyright amendment bill 2006".
Another view

Tags: copyright law, Australia, IIA, MPAA, RIAA

Social networking goes corporate.

Cogmap another web 2.0 application put to good use has come out with a organization chart of organizations, so that sales people could make better sales decisions. It was a brain child of a salesman, Brent Halliburton, who got tired of doing sale in a wrong or uncertain way.
But the idea of Brent seems to be solid. Most of the company and personnel information is public nowadays and yet it is hard to find the right person to make a contact or a presentation.
So what really is Cogmap? according to Cogmap help page;

"CogMap is a tool for sales people, entrepreneurs, and recruiters to understand organizations and keep information up to date. If you are like us, you had some of these things happen to you:

• Worked at a company without a published organization chart and had no idea who worked for anyone else
• Tried to figure out who to call at a company and come up empty
• Bought a list of people to call and had all the information be wrong
• Met people that all had different titles and been unable to tell who was the decision-maker in the room!"

So go and find out more or put your organization on a Ajax map or add companies that you know of. It is a sharing site so that you may benefit from the others entries as well as you finding information that you need about a company.
Basically, Cogmap is a organization chart wiki. It is a graphical Wikipedia for sales people where everyone shares their knowledge of organizations to make it easier to understand them.

Links;
Cogmap

Tags: Social networking, wikipedia, ajax, web 2.0, cogmap, organization chart wiki

Social Software Symposium for Researchers and Students at UNC

Fred Stutzman of Unit Structure fame, in October announced that UNC Social Software Symposium will be taking place in UNC-Chapel hill in December 8-9 this year. The topics will cover, areas of social software: folksonomy and social networking websites.
Fred implies that the purpose of this event is to bring together young researchers in the field, to explore research methods and strategies for studying social software. Therefore, if you are a researcher in the field (faculty or currently enrolled student, Masters-level or above) and would like to be involved with such an event, and he encourages anyone who is interested to contact him directly for more details. "meeting of the minds" meeting plans to, discuss methods and strategies for studying social software, and what else do social networking, hopefully walk away with many new friends and research collaborators.
Fred's site and the article is in the link below. You will also find Fred's contact information at the site.

Links;
Unit Structures: Announcing the UNC Social Software Symposium
Unit Structures: Call For Participation: UNC Social Software Symposium
UNC SSS (Social Software Symposium)

Tags: Social networking, Social Software, UNC SSS, meeting of the minds

What happens when second life stops?

Second Life is populated by more than 1.5 million people with Linden Labs advising that the population is growing at around 38% per month. Those 1.5 Million users had a nasty experience this weekend when grey goo infected the virtual lives with golden rings.
Even if your virtual world did not have golden rings, you may have got affected by slowdown of the servers and the ultimate need to take the servers off line.
Some seem to have found it quite funny and interesting, while others were quite angry that their virtual world could be attacked in this manner or could not live virtually for sometime!
According to blog entries posted by Linden Lab, the company blocked users from logging in at about 2:45pm PST in order to manually eradicate the virtual world of the rings. Login capabilities were restored half an hour later.

Are these worms are the only problem that Second Life going to have? No according to some of the SL trackers like New world order or NWN. He brings out a rather interesting question, what happens when SL reaches 2 Million users? The post related to this question is a must read if you have any interest in SL.

Snippet from the post;
"So, how about two million signups, this year?

Well, yes. In 45 days at the time I write this on the 14th, we'll reach 2 million accounts close to New Year's Eve, GMT. The numbers are self-evident-– assuming they remain steady-– and the arithmetic was what they taught me when I was eight. A subtraction, an average, and a division. 45 days.

We crossed the million line about 28 days or so ago. That means a million in 73 days. I can't even have a baby in 73 days. As always, assuming the figures remain steady. Last time they didn't. The signup rate increased, bringing our millionth signup in at least a month ahead of the initially predicted date.

That's about 13,700 signups per day, in case you're wondering. Right at this tick of the clock, we're averaging a paltry 13,464 signups per day.

And the volunteers are pooped. Very few of them are active. The small numbers of Mentors and live-helpers are burned out. Help Islands don't get a lot of love from the Mentors right now. There aren't enough active Mentors to cover them anyway. And there are other reasons:"

So read and save your virtual life, be a mentor, be a volunteer.

Links;

New World Order article

SL Blog post grey goo on grid

Tags: second life, grey goo, virtual lives, virtual world, Linden Lab, New world order

Familiar stranger is a social animal!

Shub at myspace, not that Myspace, Shub's is a blog, has written a good article on familiar stranger. Article is a personal view of a person looking back and through social contacts. But what caught my eye was;
"Contrast that with my experience today? What is it that has made us so cynical? Age? Why is it that we're more easily trusting when we're young? Is that the wisdom, and maturity that age brings with us? Or is it cos I'm in foreign land, that I keep distance? I think not. Haven't we all noticed how we're terribly incapable of making eye contact with fellow Indians on the road(more so in a foreign land)? We're constantly on our guard. Why? "

Just take out the last sentenceor ignore th focus on Indians, and it applies very well to everyone. I love children because they are the best people on this earth. No worries, care free, trusting, and most of all color blind when it comes to people. But as they grow, Shub's paragraph comes to play.
I have no answer to the problem as I myself is one of these social animals, who believe that you have to prove to me that I can trust you.
Oh please give me back my childhood.

Links;
Shub's myspace

Tags: social animal, childhood, best people, children

Post election Voting machine round up

Lest all of us forget about the Voting machine's inabilities, faulty mother boards, vote missing, etc it will be another election coming with the same problems.
I think it is time that we push forward to find a better voting solution, better voting machines for this great social networking or as I would like to call it, mother of of all social networking. So I started crawl the net hunting for solutions. There are many a sites that devotes themselves to uncover the hidden truths in these machines. But this time I will stick to one site, that I became to trust during h Sony rootkit saga, Freedom to tinker.
Freedom to tinker has a collection of articles that tells us the state of voting and the machines right now. I will start with one just before the elections.

1.Diebold Quietly Recalled Voting Machine Motherboards
2.Diebold’s Motherboard Flaw: Implications
3.Unattended Voting Machines Already Showing Up (with a photo as well)
4.Post-Election Review
and end with post election review.

From the article;

"This is supposed to be impossible. Having examined a similar version of Diebold’s software, I know that when the Cast Vote button is pressed, the system is supposed to (1) invalidate the smartcard, then (2) record the vote, then (3) kill the voting screens, then (4) eject the smartcard. This voter saw Steps 1 and 4 happen, but not Step 3. (We don’t know whether Step 2, recording the vote, happened.) At least one voting screen was still there, and that screen was active: something happened when the Cast Vote button on that screen was pressed, but it wasn’t the something that would normally happen.

It’s hard to see how this can happen, absent a subtle, serious bug in this part of Diebold’s software. And by “this part” I mean the part that carries out the four-step procedure that includes recording the vote. Could this bug have affected vote recording for other voters? What other problems could it have caused? We don’t know. We could probably tell, given access to a Maryland voting machine."

I think it is time that we look at all the voting machines, not only just Diebolds, and be ready for the next election.

Tags: evote, voting machines, Diebold, 2006 elections, Social networking

2006 Elections On the net

I think elections are on of the best and oldest social networking and we all should take part in it, no matter what your affiliations are.
This year the Internet has taken a major role in the elections, from poll results to Blackbox voting and all to controversies. Remember Makaka.
Anyway I noticed this on BoingBoing;
Internet video coverage of today's US elections
Ajit says, "I am gathering relevant videos concerning the mid-term elections at ticklebooth.com. Already on the list, voter intimidation in Virgina. Congresswoman Schmidt unable to vote on machines she approved." Link

links;

BoingBoing

ticklebooth.com

Blackbox Voting

Tags: 2006 elections, blacbox votiing, makaka

Social Networking set to be next AD space.

eMarketer has a report out that mntions AD SPENDING ON SOCIAL NETWORK sites is set to top $1.8 billion by 2010, but the network operators need to accommodate the advertisers requirements. The advertisers need to measure the performance of the ADs and sites like MySpace need to develop tools to fulfill these needs.

eMarketer predicted that ad spending on social networking sites this year will be $350 million--an upward revised from the previous estimate of $280 million. Next year, the amount going to social networking sites will reach $865 million, with MySpace.com capturing 60% of spending, according to the report.

At the same time, eMarketer cautioned that social networking sites must develop metrics for their unique marketing offerings--including sponsored groups, or users that add brands as "friends" or "interests." Like you may have a coke friend or you ill have to join Coke group.

"If social networking sites are to capture more than experimental ad dollars, adequate measures of return on investment need to be in place," the report stated. "So far, these are still a work in progress."

As a percentage of total online ad spending, eMarketer expects ad spending for social networking sites to account for 2.2% of the $15.9 billion estimated total online ad spending this year; by next year, such sites will account for 4.7% of the predicted $18.3 billion in online ad spending. By 2010, the report estimates that social networking site spending will account for 8.5% of the projected $25.5 billion in online ad spending.

Tags: emarketer, Social networking, advertising

Is Universal instant messaging for you?

Universal Instant Messaging (Qnext, MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ), and add to the list all these, Video Conferencing, Voice over IP, File Transfer, File Sharing, Group Text Chat, Online Games, Photo Sharing and Remote PC Access.
Seems to be inviting and here is the real news!. Since it is platform independant, aka Java based, it will run on all you desktops. Windows, Macs, and Linux. So if you were stuck on windows just because all your friends were on MSN but you really love your Linux desktop, fret no more. Download Qnext and be online.
Fellow blogger Solarion has the scoop on his site. Visit Geemodo read and then catch a ride.
Links;
Geemodo: SUN shines on Qnext Desktop Messaging: "Universal Instant Messaging (Qnext, MSN, AIM, Yahoo, ICQ), Video Conferencing, Voice over IP, File Transfer, File Sharing, Group Text Chat, Online Games, Photo Sharing and Remote PC Access."

Tags: Universal Instant Messaging, Video Conferencing, Voice over IP, File Transfer, File Sharing, Group Text Chat, Online Games, Photo Sharing, Remote PC Access

How to tame Gleeful Barbarians, Oops I meant children.

Frank Gruber over at Somewhat Frank, has written a nice article about Social Networking for Parents. He starts off with "Joseph Morgenstan once said, "Children are gleeful barbarians." So how do parents handle "gleeful barbarians?""
Then he goes on to explain how these guardians of tiny barbarians getting help. Seems web 2.0 is taking part of the credit. Means web 2.0 based social networking sites are providing places for parents to go seek or give help from/to each other.
After going through each link and describing the site a little he ends the article with an Alexa traffic graph. So it seems there are a lot of parents that give and take help. So go ahead and be a parent.
But make sure that you follow some of the links he has provided.

Tags: Social networking, parents, web 2.0

If the world was miniature, would you understand it better?

The idea of reducing the world’s population to a community of only 100 people is very useful and important. It makes us easily understand the differences in the world.
There are many types of reports that use the Earth’s population reduced to 100 people, especially in the Internet. Ideas like this should be more often shared, especially nowadays when the world seems to be in need of dialogue and understanding among different cultures, in a way that it has never been before.

The text that originated this webmovie was published on May 29, 1990 with the title “State of the Village Report”, and it was written by Donella Meadows, who passed away in February 2000. Nowadays Sustainability Institute, through Donella’s Foundation, carries on her ideas and projects.
See the world in miniature form here!

Tags: community, earth, population, sustainability

Why Afgan war is so difficult!

One soldier told : "Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I'd say 'That damn marijuana'."
Yes 10 foot marijuana plants hindering war on terror. According to this yahoo news;
General Rick Hillier, chief of the Canadian defence staff, said on Thursday that Taliban fighters were using the forests as cover. In response, the crew of at least one armored car had camouflaged their vehicle with marijuana.

"The challenge is that marijuana plants absorb energy, heat very readily. It's very difficult to penetrate with thermal devices ... and as a result you really have to be careful that the Taliban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," he said in a speech in Ottawa.

"We tried burning them with white phosphorous -- it didn't work. We tried burning them with diesel -- it didn't work. The plants are so full of water right now ... that we simply couldn't burn them," he said.

Even successful incineration had its drawbacks.

"A couple of brown plants on the edges of some of those (forests) did catch on fire. But a section of soldiers that was downwind from that had some ill effects and decided that was probably not the right course of action," Hillier said dryly.

Tags: afgan, marijuana, war on terror

Social networking goes Indian, Yaari debuts

A new social networking site targeting Indians from around the world to get together and have bananas, martinis and Yaari. (I have no Idea what this means either?)
Idea comes from two Stanford (My rivals) educated (?) Indians, Here is the CEO profile.
Site is getting there and already many a people have joined. I could not find out if non-Indians could join and may be they will update the site about those information. Seems to be a good get together place for Desi (Indians?).

Update:
Later I noticed that there are many a social networks targeting India and this blog does a good comparison those sites.

Tags: yaari, India, Social networking, weseepeople

Networkworld gets it wrong! about Google source search.

I was searching for social networking software and information for weseepeople when I landed on of my favorite news magazines, both in print and online, Got it wrong about Googles source code search engine. At least they posted it directly from IDG without checking out the article. The article is not even a half right in my view.
Article starts off with;
"The company's new source-code search engine, unveiled Thursday as a tool to help simplify life for developers, can also be misused to search for software bugs, password information and even proprietary code that shouldn't have been posted to the Internet, security experts said Friday."

Well the ratio of hackers (crackers) to developers (real hackers) vastly out number the first and there for benefit is higher than the assumed misuse. Also before google code search ever came online, there were many other source code search engines were in use and I do not know about any of the crackers benefiting from those engines. May be they are not telling me.
Here are some sites for the editors, and the writer of the article;
Krugle, my favorite,
Koders is another,
Ruby focused source search,
And you can build your own with this tool, remember hackers and hackers are both resourceful people.
One of the people who gave the ideas to the writer is from source code analysis company (Editor fix those links!) and if people could analyse their own code with tools like the ones above, fortify might not need to fortify any more. But a visit to site and checking out services etc, fortify will have work some time to go! ;).
The other company (another broken link) which gave the information csc, get's it right;
"Skilled hackers may already be able to do this type of search with Google's Web search engine, but Code Search is "another tool that makes it a tad easier for the attacker," says Johnny Long, a security researcher with Computer Sciences Corp"
But still misses the point about other source code search engines.
But think again, about the benefit to the developers, able to find proprietary code in open source software before being used in a project. Or to find out what crackers see before hacking an open source project.
For the record, I did search for the same phrase on all the above engines and came away with almost the same results.
The writers phrase, "this file contains proprietary," was used and on google it found one and on koders it found 9!

Tags: google code search, krugle, hackers, crackers, weseepeople

Networkworld gets it wrong! about Google source search.

I was searching for social networking software and information for weseepeople when I landed on of my favorite news magazines, both in print and online, Got it wrong about Googles source code search engine. At least they posted it directly from IDG without checking out the article. The article is not even a half right in my view.
Article starts off with;
"The company's new source-code search engine, unveiled Thursday as a tool to help simplify life for developers, can also be misused to search for software bugs, password information and even proprietary code that shouldn't have been posted to the Internet, security experts said Friday."

Well the ratio of hackers (crackers) to developers (real hackers) vastly out number the first and there for benefit is higher than the assumed misuse. Also before google code search ever came online, there were many other source code search engines were in use and I do not know about any of the crackers benefiting from those engines. May be they are not telling me.
Here are some sites for the editors, and the writer of the article;
Krugle, my favorite,
Koders is another,
Ruby focused source search,
And you can build your own with this tool, remember hackers and hackers are both resourceful people.
One of the people who gave the ideas to the writer is from source code analysis company (Editor fix those links!) and if people could analyse their own code with tools like the ones above, fortify might not need to fortify any more. But a visit to site and checking out services etc, fortify will have work some time to go! ;).
The other company (another broken link) which gave the information csc, get's it right;
"Skilled hackers may already be able to do this type of search with Google's Web search engine, but Code Search is "another tool that makes it a tad easier for the attacker," says Johnny Long, a security researcher with Computer Sciences Corp"
But still misses the point about other source code search engines.
But think again, about the benefit to the developers, able to find proprietary code in open source software before being used in a project. Or to find out what crackers see before hacking an open source project.
For the record, I did search for the same phrase on all the above engines and came away with almost the same results.
The writers phrase, "this file contains proprietary," was used and on google it found one and on koders it found 9!

Tags: google code search, krugle, hackers, crackers, weseepeople

Now you can see more with Google Vidget(tm)

If you have a personalised Google home page, you can add google videos to it now. Google has released Official Google Video Gadget.
Now you can search for your videos based on tags or what ever you fancy.

Tags: Google video, vidget, google IG

YahooHackday (Hackday06) ends with all girl team winning the top Prize!

I just landed on Techcrunch via DIGG and found out that the winning hardware/software device was created by Diana Eng, Emily Albinski and Audrey Roy. The winning device, called Blogging In Motion, combined a camera, a handbag, a pedometer and the Flickr API to create a device that takes a picture after every few steps and then automatically blogs those pictures.
Techcrunch, did two day coverage of the event and you can find them here and here along with the post I just mentioned.

Tags: hackday06, Blogging In Motion

Google world domination part one, two, oh what ever

Some inf o about googletalk, one good piece of social networking.
VOIP IP Telephony: Google Talk and world domination all without mass destruction

Tags: googletalk, voip ip telephony

A monster list of AJAX resources

I plan to use AJAX in every possible way in bringing up weseepeople website (if I ever find time). So naturally constantly search for AJAX stuff. I have gone through 50 Ajax resources, 60 ajax resources and a quite a few.
But I did not feel they were worth of writting, until I came across this list by ash on windows Live spaces. First I was going to let it go as a just another list. But a closer look made me change my thinking.
So I say that if you are looking AJAX info, I suggest you pay a visit to this list.

Tags: AJAX, AJAX List, Live spaces

Google reader takes you to the end of the internet

Of all the things that google has to offer, I think it is becoming THE social network. After reading Geemodo: Google reader goes further, I went over to my Google reader page, yes there are changes. I think I like new stuff. But the most fascinating part was that it sent me to "The End of The Internet"
Actually it was a story on digg that sent me to the end of the Internet, by the way of an Easter egg within the google reader. If you want to do the same, here is the link to cybernetnews which has all the information and screen captures.
But I found out that the First Blog had the original article.
The First!: More photos on Google Reader

Tags: google reader, Easter egg, end of the Internet

Go inside Monalisa and find the unknowns. Like the original color of the Painting.

What a painting can tell you if you look hard enough! with 3D scanner and bunch of history research, microscopic analysis and viola! here it is!
Mona Lisa was Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, a Florentine cloth merchant. Records suggest she wasn't pregnant when she posed for Leonardo, but that the painting was commissioned to celebrate the birth of her third child, says Bruno Mottin, curator in the research department of the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France. Also known as C2RMF.The Painting was originally painted with Mona Lisa wearing a large transparent overdress made from gauze, they said. Under normal light, part of the garment is visible on the right-hand side of the painting, but appears simply to be part of the background.
"This type of gauze dress ... was typical of the kind worn in early 16th Century Italy by women who were pregnant or who had just given birth," “You can see it when you know what you’re looking for,” said Bruno Mottin, of C2RMF. He spoke at a news conference with researchers from the National Research Council of Canada.

NRC Scientists scanned the painting with a 3D scanner, which is a variation on equipment used by American astronauts earlier this month to check the space shuttle for damage before it returned to Earth. The Canadian research council, which has worked with museums around the world since the 1980’s and with the French for a decade, developed a model able to resolve fine details in artworks.

The NRC team of scientists has now created a 3-D digital model of the "Mona Lisa" — a highly detailed computer scan of what may be the most famous painting in history. They did it in a basement at the Louvre in Paris, where the painting is on display.They have been poring over the results for nearly two years, and reported their first findings today.

They found that the wooden board on which da Vinci painted the portrait is slightly warped, but in surprisingly good shape, considering that the work was done between 1503 and 1506. The oil paint is mottled with fine cracks, as happens to many old paintings, but the paint appears well-bonded to the wood beneath it. Parts of the scan, done in X-rays and other wavelengths, show damage near the top of the painting, and a repair made after a visitor threw a stone at it in 1956.

But if you thought that all mystries about Mona Lisa is resolved, you are wrong, she still holds some information to herself, like the method of Da Vinci's sfumato - or smoky - painting technique which continues to elude experts.

Now to the painting. Click on the link below to go inside the painting. Select the method based on your browser capability.

1. If you have flash capability this is the link for you.

2. Just plain old html link is here.

Enjoy and be amused!

Tags: MONALISA, Mona Lisa, Leonardo, NRC, C2RMF, Lisa Gherardini, Florentine

Mozilla VS Debian

It seems communities like Debian and Mozilla are fighting over OSS products. If we respect each others rights, treat the others with respect, these type of squabbles will not come to be. I like both the products and use them. For the sake of OSS, I hope they will come to terms. read more at geemodo
Geemodo: Firefox playing fox with Debian

Tags: geemodo, firefox, debian, OSS

Myspace educates parents! Protect your own!

With all the negative publicity that it was getting due to young members being under attack by unsavory characters. The site, is said to be one of the largest global social networking site,with more than 100 million profiles created by users that count among them Chief Executive Officers and Fortune 500 companies such as MySpace advertiser General Motors Corp. -- has also made it a destination for child predators from coast to coast in the United States.
It has joined hands with Seventeen magazine, the National School Board Association and the National Association of Independent Schools to offer parents tips on how to protect minors online.
But if you read the whole article on yahoo, I (may be you) get the feeling that it is trying to hand over the plate to parents of these young people. I will just mention few sentences here for your reference but I hope you would read the complete article. One way or other, it is still better than doing nothing to protect the young.

from the article;
"

"MySpace introduced a new technology and created a new world," Atoosa Rubenstein, Seventeen editor in chief, said in an interview. "But it's not their sole responsibility to patrol them."

"My mom was the person who told me not to walk down the dark alley by myself, not the person who created the dark alley."

To download the parents guide, surfers can click on "Safety Tips" at MySpace.com. Brochures will also be distributed to about 55,000 schools representing grades 7 through 12 in the United States in October."

Weseepeople, Diebold and elections!

What a social networking site got to do with Diebold and elections? A lot I guess after reading some article in the press and blog sphere. On of the earliest large peaceful social efforts were elections did not matter whom we elected for what position. All the people were equal, and had the same right as the one next to them. But now somehow it seems that Diebold decides it for you,
like;
You have voted! when you have not!! and let you not vote!!!
Let yo vote again, in the above case!!!! But did you really did not vote? No one will ever know!!!!!

Confusing? yes exactly what I felt when I ran through those very informative write ups. Did read them not once but twice to get the feel of the idea. My information comes mainly from three articles and misinformation from Diebold. You too will find that the response given to one research by Diebold get debunked very clearly by another research/article.
Here are the three articles that I am referring to;

1.Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine by
Ariel J. Feldman, J. Alex Halderman, and Edward W. Felten

There is a full report in pdf format, and don't forget to read about the PDF troubles at Geemodo.
Also you can download and watch a video of the operation of diebold and the procedure of making a loser a winner. Benedict Arnold VS George Washington. And Benedict Arnold won even though George Washington had more votes! That's where democracy goes to Diebold.
For that read the next blog below, it does a much better job than me.
2. Where democracy goes to Diebold by ZDNET blogs This brings together all the information together and gives you a better view.

3. Avi-Rubin's Blog My day at the polls.
I don't think Avi needs an introduction, he has been working on this issue for a long time is a die hard, Diebold fan.
All three gives a very good assessment on the current state of affairs of Diebold voting whatever.
As usual Dibold has claimed that the Princeton research was done on an old version of the machine. Then Diebold, give the team a new one.

Amazon's New RSS Gig, Product Promotions via API and RSS

The information and the feeds Seems to be working and pretty interesting. They are using Amazon S3 to store the feeds! or the feeds are from S3.

I have enabled the fist feed on meddesktop blog, look at the first right hand column.

The newest release of ECS provides both an API and a set of RSS feeds to allow developers direct access to promotions.

What are promotions? Glad you asked!

Promotions are short-term special deals that help customers to make purchases sooner rather than later, and which allow merchants to provide more attractive offers in a competitive retail environment. A promotion for a particular ASIN could be anyone one of the following:

• Buy 3 items and get a 4th one for free.
• Get 10% off of a purchase.
• Save $20 on a purchase of $100 or more.
• Free shipping.

At Amazon we have found that promotions are a key tool for driving additional sales and for increasing the ever-important conversion ratio (shoppers vs. buyers).

Finally, there are a set of 3 RSS feeds, updated each day, which enumerate the current set of active promotions:

• Dollar Off Promotions
• Percent Off Promotions
• Buy X Get Y Promotions

If you look closely at those URLs, you will see that they are stored, appropriately enough, in Amazon S3.

Tags: amazon, RSS, promotion via RSS, amazon S3, meddesktop

Lonelygirl15 found, and she is an actress!

New York Times reports that "A nearly four-month-old Internet drama in which the cryptic video musings of a fresh-faced teenager became the obsession of millions of devotees — themselves divided over the very authenticity of the videos, or who was behind them or why — appears to be in its final act."
The woman who plays Lonelygirl15 on the video-sharing site YouTube.com has been identified as Jessica Rose, a 20-ish resident of New Zealand and Los Angeles and a graduate of the New York Film Academy. And the whole project appears to be the early serialized version of what eventually will become a movie.
Matt Foremski, the 18-year-old son of Tom Foremski, a reporter for the blog Silicon Valley Watcher, was the first to disinter a trove of photographs of the familiar-looking actress, who portrayed the character named Bree in the videos. The episodes suggested Bree was the home-schooled daughter of strictly religious parents who was able to find the time to upload video blogs of her innermost thoughts.

Tags: lonlygirl15, youtube, jessica rose

Read that Banned book, at google Books!

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Banned Books Week, Google has opened up a whole bunch of banned books. The banned books (banned by various authorities due to various reasons) have kept millions of people away from gaining knowledge or being happy.
Following the threads at /., where I read first about this opportunity, It is fascinating that these books are banned. I had a good childhood and I was not banned from reading any books. Except when I caught up with paperbacks of Louis L'Amour's paper backs, and skipped my school book. Even that was not a ban but a reduction of volume!
It hurts even to hear any one banning a book, where are we? in the middle ages?
Anyway back to /. threads, they have some gems there!
The best was by iamthedave (he mostly writes about beer on his blog), which matches most of my sentiments. Here they are;

It's cool - I've read about 60-70% of the books on the list. It's odd - Call of the Wild has been challenged? It's informative - I've just started reading The Satanic Verses, and now i have a new reading list It's missing? - I can't believe Fahrenheit 451 isn't on that list... It's scary - many people in the world are denied access to these books. It's scarier - many people in this country would have these books banned It's sad - in 100 years, who knows if we'll all still have access to these books. It's encouraging - challenges, even recently, to these books in schools and libraries have failed - let's hope history repeats itself in such a fashion for years to come. The Google books might be giving just previews and fear not, most of the books are on Project Gutenberg.
Thanks to google for being aware of social problems.

Future of Web Apps Summit!

Social networking usually revolve around web apps. Blogger where this site resides is one of them and who have not flicked on flickr? And I am sure you have bumped into technorati, and Odeo, techcrunch yahoo, google are all web apps that have revolutionised the web sphere. If you are interested in these services, how would you like to here the people who implemented or were involved in implementing these technologies? Get into web 2.0? Then sign for the two-day Future of Web Apps Summit! You can sign up at summit website. Speakers include Evan Williams formerly of Blogger and now of Odeo, Ted Rheingold of Dogster, Tantek Celik of Technorati, and Steve Olechowski of Feedburner. The conference is put on by UK based Carson Systems, a company focused on enterprise web applications that is led by Ryan and Gillian Carson.
The cost is $295 for two days. And if you are lucky, click here to go to Shoutblog and you might get a 25% discount.
By the way Shoutblog is the blog of BuzzShout. BuzzShout is a democratic reviews and listings site for modern web 2.0 companies. Check out the front page for the latest companies and reviews as per description on the site.

If mobile Phone is your way of keeping touch, Blakberry gives you Blackberry Pearl!

Geemodo reports that New blackberry device, Blackberry Pearl is out. BlackBerry users I know do keep in touch with people using this device and it is wonder to see how they use it. For me, it is hard to type on that tiny keyboard with my chubby fingers but I have seen people typing faster on BlackBerry than I type on a regular keyboard! Anyway if that interests you head over to Geemodo and read the article;
Geemodo: BlackBerry Pearl or Blackberry 8100, You can have it now!

Crikey! No more, Croc hunter killed while documenting Sting rays!

Australian television star Steve Irwin, known as the ``Crocodile Hunter,'' died after a stingray's barb pierced his heart during the filming of a documentary, police said. The 44-year-old collapsed and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. He was filming at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas, a popular tourist resort, when the incident occurred about 11 a.m. today.

The freak accident happened while Mr Irwin, 44, was filming an underwater documentary off Port Douglas on the far north east coast of Australia, according to witnesses and emergency officials.

He was stung at about 11am (0100 GMT), according to a statement by his wildlife park Australia Zoo. The crew on the naturalist's boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and tried to resuscitate him en route to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter.

Born on February 22 1962 in the southern Australian city of Melbourne, Mr Irwin moved to tropical Queensland where his parents ran a small reptile and fauna park.

He grew up near crocodiles, trapping and removing them from populated areas and releasing them in his parents' park. He took over the park in 1991 and renamed it the Australia Zoo.

Mr Irwin met his US-born wife Terri at the zoo and footage of their honeymoon, which they spent trapping crocodiles, formed the basis of his first Crocodile Hunter documentary.

Social Networking get WIPped by WIPConnector

With a statement like ""Wireless is an industry that will explode, not a bubble that will burst", WIP (Wireless Industry Partnership), plans to bring together all who are involved in the Wi-Fi industry. The site is known as WIPCONNECTOR.

Caroline Lewko, founder and chief executive of WIP, said: "The wireless industry is approaching a tipping point, and will impact the lives of virtually everyone who uses technology of some kind."

"All around the world there are entrepreneurs that not only create new wireless technologies and applications, but change the way entire industries solve problems, deliver goods and services and enhance life." added Lewko.

Wireless markets are growing much faster than the overall telecoms industry, according to analyst predictions.

With funding available for wireless companies, and waves of hype surrounding technologies such as 3G, wi-fi and WiMax, the site - which costs $300 for full membership - sounds similar to efforts during the dot-com boom to pair up entrepreneurs with venture capitalists. But WIP is keen to dispel the comparison.

Membership is available to companies and individuals at an introductory rate of $300 (US) per year. WIP has also signed collaboration agreements with industry associations around the world such as the MX Alliance based in the UK and the Ottawa Wireless Cluster in Canada, and is negotiating with others. Members of these organizations are able to join WIP at a reduced rate.

A key benefit for WIP members is the ability to create a WIPConnector profile a virtual billboard advertisement that gives even the smallest wireless companies exposure to a vast array of potential partners, customers, distribution channels, investors and other strategic relationships.

The Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP) announced today that it has retained Mobility Public Relations as its agency of record for worldwide communications. Mobility Public Relations (www.mobilitypr.com) was selected because of the expertise and experience of the principals in the wireless industry having managed media and analyst relations programs for such companies as Cisco Systems, HP Mobile Bazaar and iPass.

If you are the wi-fi type, visit WIPConnector here.

Social network DIGG gets anti social (or trademark protection), which is not issued yet!!

I was checking out the new blogsearch engine Sphere, and noticed that one of the hot topics, was digggames, cease and desist letter to digggames.com, a site that lists flash games that appear on diggs. (He should have named it DIGGAMES.com). Anyway this seems to be the social discussion of the day. new facts come out like that digg does not have a trademark yet!
like this comment on shoutblog;

""Adam Says:
August 27th, 2006 at 9:28 am

Digg don’t have a legal trademark in the US, it was only filed for opposition on 8th August this year, that means ANYONE can object to it.""

Within the Shoutblog article is a sentense, that shocked me;
"At the extreme end, mashups would all be considered illegal, squashing all the creative juices that have made web 2.0 innovative and liberating."
Is this tyhe way web 2.0 going? I have seen many a mashups that shows creativity and brilliance. digg thrives on others creations and ideas, read the article on make you go hmm.com;
and you will find ananother view of the problem. I myself is not in the game of trademark stealing but now I am thinking protecting my own.
Anyway I hope this will not come to pass and we all need to learn something from it.

Next step of social networking and upcoming Toshiba Zune, OOPS Microsoft Zune!

The Microsoft's Zune player is bringing Social networking to portable music scene. It is the competitive advantage that it may have against apple's ipod, Zune is allowing users to create mobile social networks and stream music to nearby friends or strangers. However, it seems we will indeed have to wait for a Zune II player that will let you download and buy the music you want on the go. You will still have to connect the current version of Zune to a PC to do that. But the wireless DJ function and the ability to beam photos between devices are still great.
What actually is a wireless DJ function?
It is basically by putting the device in DJ mode allows one to transmit a stream of whatever one is currently listening to four other nearby devices. The streaming can be limited to friends or left open to anyone with a Zune player (this will generate an on-screen notification that you have a listener).
So don't buy any songs, just wait for others to play theirs and just sneak in some songs. If Microsoft is able to challenge ipod and capture a market share big enough, finding a DJ should not be hard. May be even have to choose which DJ to listen to.
Another item of interest is that it is ability to beam photos between devices. send your photo with your songs and you will have a instant friend out of a total stranger! But if M$ is doing what it usually does, your whole life might be on the Zune, and identity thefts will be long gone and identity losts will take it's place.

Let's get anti social!

I was researching, again! about social networks. I found some information. But one article made me laugh at myself! But you need to checkout the article on techcrunch by Mike. Then visit the two sites, ISOLATR and SNUBSTER.
Even the font used on ISOLATR is supposed to be Comic SANS. (The site is meant to be a joke) but SNUBSTER is not really a joke, you can join and make your "dead to me" list!
Anyway have fun! I did.

Social Networking is a mess so we go for community Gatherings

I was researching about social networks and it seems a mess at the moment. Blog space is filling up as fast as web grew in the 90s and perhaps it is better to build a blog community, not just a hit counters and map mash ups.
I am still at work on researching and if any of you want to join my quest, welcome!

Welcome to Blogger beta

I just got this site setup in Google blogger beta. I first read about it on slashdot article and from there ended up reading about it at Significant Blogger Upgrade - Freshblog. From another article on freshblog I came to blogger home page. Tried to convert switch my old blogs but was denied! I said ok and I was presented with my google account login, I logged in and I was asked to create a blog. Here I am with a new idea that I had for a long time, we see people. In this material world we live in we need a place to really connect. We log in to places like myspace and forget about our real friends. Coffee shops, movie theaters, seashores (mountains for who lives far from sea). Anyway I do not have a final product but all the ground work is laid out. I will bring my ideas views on line here.
Thanks Google! for the Beta Blogger (take a tour), I already like it.