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April Fools: YouTube Flails, Amazon Cloud Computing In A Blimp, 3D Chrome Browsing, Google Masters A.I.
April 1st, 2009 Uncategorized 2 Comments

April Fools: YouTube Flails, Amazon Cloud Computing In A Blimp, 3D Chrome Browsing, Google Masters A.I.

Wow. April Fools Is In full swing.

The Guardian goes all Twitter, ditching the printed version and the website. “Experts say any story can be told in 140 characters.”

Amazon launches a brand new cloud computing service called Floating Amazon Cloud Environment, or FACE. “The FACE uses durable, unmanned helium-filled blimps with a capacity of 65,536 small EC2 instances, or a proportionate number of larger instances. The top of each blimp is coated in polycrystalline solar cells which supply approximately 40% of the power needed by the servers and the on-board navigation, communication, and defense systems. “The government will have absolutely no chance of acting against them, because they will be too busy trying to decide which Federal Air Regulation (FAR) was violated, not to mention scheduling news conferences. “

Meanwhile, Google masters artificial intelligence in a post and description that’s way too geeky for me.

But they’ve created the world’s first Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity (CADIE), which is a computer that’s come alive and is making changes at Google. “Earlier today, for instance, CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage.”

Another early project for Cadie: making a 3D version of Google Chrome, since “81% of households had red/blue 3D glasses lying around.”

Last and certainly least, and there’s no gentle way of putting this, YouTube just flails with upside down video viewing.

Gmail now has AutoPilot.

Google Brain Search uses CADIE technology to index your brain.

Google Australia introduces the gBall, which will change Australian rules football as we know it.

There is also a featured YouTube video of a panda by the user ‘cadiesingularity’ with a profile stating “Cadie - the world’s first Cognitive Auto-Heuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity”.

When browsing Street View in Google Maps, a panda is shown in the bottom right map instead of the yellow person usually shown.

CADIE even has its own blog on Blogger.

There is also a “CADIE’s recommended places for humans” link in Google Maps, which leads to the “Panda Mapplet” and includes several marked locations with “CADIE’s” commentary. Under Redmond WA a link is listed which will rick roll the viewer.

Meanwhile, Identi.ca has acquired Twitter. A Twitter executive was quoted afterwards saying: “I was worried we were going to have to make a business out of that whole Twitter thing! I’m really glad it’s someone else’s problem now.”

Google is apparently also building a new $100 laptop together with Alienware (Dell). It will have a built-in brain wave reading chip, with sensors that need to be applied onto the user’s skull.

Scientists at CERN have found the cell that basically triggered the Big Bang.

The Pirate Bay sells out to Warner Bros.

There’s a new social network for your nose, a friendspace for your fragrance, a place to share your opinions on perfumes and vote for your favorite smells. They call it smellr and it’s online now.

Opera has moved on from Mouse Gestures and comes out of the closet with Face Gestures.

The entire Internet is being rebooted.

Expedia is offering flights to Mars from $99. In related news, Hotels.com offers rooms on the Moon.

Add a bit of shine to your website with Laminatr.

This new Landmark jQuery plugin will alter the face of the internet.

Yahoo debuts Ideological Search.

Social Media Use Decreases Customer Satisfaction.

This brand new mobile phone works as either a coin-operated or credit/debit card mobile.

BBC’s Top Gear show comes to Hulu.

Woopra takes its Web Analytics suite up a notch and launches a webcam spy-feature for websites.

Woot is selling crap.

Reddit now looks competely like Digg (good one).

Wired: Twitter plans to make money. I’m gonna order that TW-900.

TweetDoubler gives you twice the bird.

Topify got sued by Fedex. “Fedex claims they have a registered patent for delivering faster and better email notifications and they claim we have infringed it.”

Fark now has its own social network. It looks vaguely familiar.

SocialBlade cracked Digg’s algorithm.

Epistolary Aardvark for Offline Access! “Until now, Aardvark could only be used via instant messenger or email to get answers to your questions within minutes. Through Aair Mail, you’ll be able to send questions via regular postal mail, just like you’d send a letter to a friend.”

Seacom has wired the entire African continent, which now has the fastest internet connection in the world.

AXECollegeHumor

LiveJournal has a Friends Page redesign project.

Microsoft added support for automatic mood detection in Windows Live Messenger. “We’re happy to announce that due to the great breakthroughs from Microsoft Research, we have an alpha version working that monitors your real-time physiological state and translates that into a mood (happy, sad, anxious, etc), such that you would never have to enter an emoticon again.”

Web celebrities (including Michael Arrington) are spotted dancing together, and they got the video to prove it.

The BDFL, having shepherded Python development for 20 years, officially announces his retirement, effective immediately. Following a unanimous vote, his replacement is named (Barry Warsaw).

Google is rumored to be acquiring Palm.

Ford, GM announce the Android Car. It looks cool.

More as they come in. Let us know what you’re finding out there in the comments.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Verizon, Too, Turns To Subsidized Netbooks
March 31st, 2009 Uncategorized none Comments

Verizon, Too, Turns To Subsidized Netbooks
We’ve wondered before why mobile operators say they hate the subsidies they pay to discount handset prices, but then expand their use of them to include laptops and netbooks. The trend looks like it’s here to stay, as Verizon Wireless has now confirmed it will start selling 3G-equipped netbooks by the end of June, so now, in addition to tying yourself into a 2-year contract where you’re paying back the cost of your cell phone, you’ll soon be able to tie yourself into a long-term data-service contract to pay back the price of a laptop, too. Of course, once that contract’s up, the device will still be locked to the operator from which you bought it, making it difficult (or impossible) to take your business elsewhere. Meanwhile, business is flowing the other direction, too: Dell is reportedly looking to set up a virtual operator in Japan, selling its customers network access on another operator’s mobile network to use with their mobile-equipped laptops. It’s an interesting contrast in models, because it’s unlikely Dell will subsidize the hardware like the operators. Part of the issue with handset subsidies is that consumers are used to paying the lower subsidized prices, and so any change that raises prices will be met with disdain. But people aren’t used to the benefit of subsidies for their PCs, so may be more open to paying a higher upfront cost for the hardware if it means they don’t have to sign a long-term contract with a high monthly service charge.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Help Loic Le Meur (Seesmic) and John Furrier (Silicon Angle) find new hosting
March 29th, 2009 Uncategorized none Comments

Help Loic Le Meur (Seesmic) and John Furrier (Silicon Angle) find new hosting

Loic Le Meur complained about his hosting last night. The other day John Furrier, my former boss, complained his host was down too and he told me that he’s looking for new hosting. Loic runs Seesmic, which includes the popular Twitter client Twhirl and John is starting a new blogging company that covers the tech industry.

I’m not going to pitch them on Rackspace (my new employer). Instead, I’m going to ask you to help them out. After all, maybe Joyent or GoGrid or Amazon’s Web services or Google’s App Engine or Microsoft’s Azure or something else is better for them to consider.

Some things to consider:

1. Uptime vs. service vs. cost. Which one is best? My cell phone number is +1-425-205-1921, how many hosting company employees make themselves available like that? How many have hundreds of people standing by on the phone to help you 24/7?
2. Hybrid approaches, important? Some companies want to have a stack of their own servers as well as keep some things in the cloud. As their file sizes get bigger and bigger having them on the same high performance network might be important, especially as they use new cloudbursting techniques (moving files from their own datacenter to the cloud when they get popular or their own servers start to get too busy).
3. Agnostic from religion? GoGrid, for instance, lets you spin up Windows or Linux instances. If you’ve already built your infrastructure on Windows, that might be important. For guys like Loic and John, though, it’s less important because they are already on LAMP stacks. But still, they might need WordPress loaded. That’ll be tough to get at some hosting companies.
4. Other things? Does your business need hosted email, for instance? Some hosters do that, others don’t.
5. Best-of-breed APIs? Here Amazon and Google are leading the way, but their approaches are very different. Which one might be appropriate to Seesmic or John’s new blogging company? (Rackspace is making sizeable investments here, too).

But if you were in their shoes, which hosting company would you go with? What other things should they consider? Who is doing the best for super small startups like John’s company, or already-established companies with tons of storage needs like Seesmic?

Posted in technology Tagged: datacenter, hosting, storage

Help Loic Le Meur (Seesmic) and John Furrier (Silicon Angle) find new hosting
March 28th, 2009 Uncategorized none Comments

Help Loic Le Meur (Seesmic) and John Furrier (Silicon Angle) find new hosting

Loic Le Meur complained about his hosting last night. The other day John Furrier, my former boss, complained his host was down too and he told me that he’s looking for new hosting. Loic runs Seesmic, which includes the popular Twitter client Twhirl and John is starting a new blogging company that covers the tech industry.

I’m not going to pitch them on Rackspace (my new employer). Instead, I’m going to ask you to help them out. After all, maybe Joyent or GoGrid or Amazon’s Web services or Google’s App Engine or Microsoft’s Azure or something else is better for them to consider.

Some things to consider:

1. Uptime vs. service vs. cost. Which one is best? My cell phone number is +1-425-205-1921, how many hosting company employees make themselves available like that? How many have hundreds of people standing by on the phone to help you 24/7?
2. Hybrid approaches, important? Some companies want to have a stack of their own servers as well as keep some things in the cloud. As their file sizes get bigger and bigger having them on the same high performance network might be important, especially as they use new cloudbursting techniques (moving files from their own datacenter to the cloud when they get popular or their own servers start to get too busy).
3. Agnostic from religion? GoGrid, for instance, lets you spin up Windows or Linux instances. If you’ve already built your infrastructure on Windows, that might be important. For guys like Loic and John, though, it’s less important because they are already on LAMP stacks. But still, they might need WordPress loaded. That’ll be tough to get at some hosting companies.
4. Other things? Does your business need hosted email, for instance? Some hosters do that, others don’t.
5. Best-of-breed APIs? Here Amazon and Google are leading the way, but their approaches are very different. Which one might be appropriate to Seesmic or John’s new blogging company? (Rackspace is making sizeable investments here, too).

But if you were in their shoes, which hosting company would you go with? What other things should they consider? Who is doing the best for super small startups like John’s company, or already-established companies with tons of storage needs like Seesmic?

Posted in technology Tagged: datacenter, hosting, storage

Remains of the Day: Saving Money on Gas Edition [For What It's Worth]
March 25th, 2009 Uncategorized none Comments

Remains of the Day: Saving Money on Gas Edition [For What It's Worth]

It never hurts to save some extra scratch when you’re filling the tank, and all-around money-saver BillShrink is back to help.