Archive for July, 2010:
Some Eye Candy for Your Friday
If you read here, you’ll know I’m in love with data visualizations. Have you noticed that visualizations have become more beautiful lately, i.e. over the last decade or so? Good data visualizations are as much art as they are information. Anyway, here are a couple blogs dedicated to beautiful data that I read avidly. FlowingData [...]
Fire is Always Interesting
Pretty slow day today, until this video: Watch a Flamethrower and a Fire Extinguisher Battle in Slow Motion Be still my geeky heart. Also interesting today, this brief history of data visualization by Shawn Allen of Stamen Design (h/t FlowingData). This is a class I wish I could take.
Sweet Enhancements to the WebCenter Chrome Extension
Rich (@rmanlan) and Anthony (@anthonyslai) have been heads-down enhancing the WebCenter Chrome extension for quite some time now. Today, Rich let me know it’s nearly done and almost ready for some beta testing. The extension still posts to WebCenter and shows you your activity stream, which is pretty sweet in and of itself, but it also [...]
Scribd Explains how HTML5 Works
Here’s an interesting poster I found on Digg. Scribd recently went HTML5-only, dropping Flash. Unfortunately, they still use Flash for document embedding, as you’ll notice below, but this may soon be history as well. YouTube launched HTML5-embedding via iFrame just last week. Scribd in HTML5: How it Works
Seesmic Web Ups the Ante for Social Web Apps
Seesmic (@seesmic) released major updates to their Seesmic Web client, including support for more services, HTML5 desktop notifications for Chrome users and lots more speed. Seesmic Blog: Seesmic Web – Now with Facebook and LinkedIn Support, Desktop notifications, and Faster than ever! If you read here, you might recall that I switched to Brizzly nearly [...]
The Impact of Today’s Library of Congress Exemptions
Gizmodo has one of the better roundups of the impact that today’s Library of Congress statement that assesses what each of the six exemptions to the DMCA means to the average Joe, erm Gizmodo reader. The big ones are: jailbreaking and unlocking your smartphone are both legal and ripping your DVDs for noncommercial use is [...]
Supertrackr Tracks Keywords in Real Time
By way of Louis Gray (@louisgray), Supertrackr uses PubSubHubbub to track keywords in real-time, delivering its results via XMPP. Pretty cool stuff and similar to PuSHBot, except it can deliver content from any source using Superfeedr or PuSH. louisgray.com: Supertrackr Tracks “Anything” on the Web, Instantly Dunno about you, but I like IM bots, as [...]
Our OpenWorld Session
Yesterday, I promised details on the AppsLab session at OpenWorld. Paul (@ppedrazzi) initially proposed our session, which he would have presented, had he not decided to ride off into the sunset. Good luck dude. It’s too late to change the title and abstract of the session’s name, so it appears in the Schedule Builder as: [...]
The OOW Ruby Quotient Rises
Last month, I blogged a plea to get out the OpenWorld Suggest-a-Session vote for Raimonds Simanovskis’ (@rsim) Ruby sessions. And today, Tim (@planspark) announced the winners over on the OpenWorld blog. Both Raimonds’ sessions, PL/SQL Unit Testing Can Be Fun! (S319104) and Fast Web Applications Development with Ruby on Rails on Oracle (S319119), made the cut. [...]
Apple’s Arrogance
John Gruber pointed to this post by Ken Segall, which his readers promptly borked. Daring Fireball Linked List: The Ever-Arrogant Apple Basically, a sarcastic take on Antennagate and Apple’s arrogance, i.e. yeah, they’re arrogant because they know better than we do, similar to a topic I covered years ago apropos of the original iPhone. Looking [...]
Get the WebCenter Spaces iPhone App Now
I got word today that the WebCenter iPhone app has been released to iTunes. You can get it here (iTunes link). The app is free and requires 11g Release 1 Patchset 2. Looking at the screen captures, it’s reminiscent of the Oracle People app that Clayton Donley built, with an activity stream, connections, profiles and [...]
The Top Idea in Your Mind
Paul Graham, who would know a thing or two about ideas and raising money, adds his thoughts on the classic temple of inspiration, the shower. The Top Idea in Your Mind (h/t John Gruber a.k.a. Daring Fireball) You’ve probably experienced a shower eureka in the past. I certainly have, and in fact, I pondered waterproof methods [...]
Facebook Credits as Global Currency
Facebook officially crossed 500 million users today, although that milestone has been rumored for months. This post from ReadWriteWeb offers up a very interesting theory about a possible biproduct of Facebook Credits. Facebook Credits: The World’s First Global Currency? This makes a ton of sense and is frankly, more than a little frightening. Think about [...]
What Caffeine Actually Does To Your Brain
Geeks and coffee go together like peas and carrots, so you’ll likely enjoy this fascinating look by Lifehacker Australia at how caffeine really works on your brain. I especially like the tips on how to tune your caffeine intake for maximum effect. What Caffeine Actually Does To Your Brain | Lifehacker Australia Related is this [...]
Awesome Infographic of the Market for Apps
Check out this infographic compiled and designed by Online MBA (h/t Gizmodo) depicting the total app marketplace. I’m surprised that BlackBerry offers a better deal for developers and a larger market of addressable customers (I assume) than Apple and Android, and yet their market only has 2,800-ish apps. Is there a caveat here, e.g. development [...]
Waste Management to Launch Oceanopolis
Not usually something I’d find interesting, but Waste Management (yes, the garbage company) is launching a Facebook game called Oceanopolis. A Facebook Game With a Mission: Waste Management to Launch Oceanopolis From the TechCrunch post: “In the game, players maintain their own island by recycling trash to build a sustainable community and interacting with friends. [...]
Inside the AT&T-Apple Relationship
Wired has an interesting look inside the tenuous relationship between Apple and AT&T. It’s a fun read, and I guess I’m not surprised that Apple takes such a hard-line with its partners. Why wouldn’t they use the same “you’re holding it wrong” approach? For Apple, the uncompromising attitude succeeds more often than it fails, and [...]
Nexus One Discontinued
This news has me bummin. Why? Because the Nexus One is a great phone, from what I’ve seen and heard, and it’s the only pure Android device out there, i.e. it runs vanilla Android without any carrier layers. Nexus One | News and Updates (h/t Geekosystem)
Always Connected Means No More Vacation
Interesting piece from Salon.com mirroring what I observe from people in this business. I’ve known people who left their IM status permanently active to give the illusion that they were always working. Reminded me to George Costanza leaving his car parked in the lot to seem like the first to arrive and last to leave. [...]
Your Antivirus Software Hates You
It’s been a long time since I used antivirus, but I remember this loop of annoyance. DOGHOUSE, h/t Gizmodo
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