Technomaly » Web

Top Reasons To Benefit From Google’s Cloud

sarin — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:22:45 +0000

A Google Blog posted recently that over the next few weeks users will be able to store their files to the Google “Cloud” and then be able to access them/share them from any web connected computer. All you will have is 1GB of storage for files you don’t convert into a Google Docs file. And yet if you want more storage, then just pay $.25 per gigabyte. And even you’ll be able to search all of the material you’ve saved to the cloud. These services can be smartly used with less of overheads on the go.

What are the advantages of using Google Cloud service?

Data in Google Apps is stored in the cloud instead of on employee computers, so multiple users can access and contribute to projects concurrently without worrying about using the same operating system or browser. Co-workers can access the web-based document simultaneously in their browsers, and even make changes that other authorized users can see in real-time.
Google has been pushing the technological bounds of cloud computing for more than ten years. Today, feedback and usage statistics from hundreds of millions of users in the real world help us bring stress-tested. From consumer user base, Google can quickly learn which new features would be useful in the business context, refine those features, and make them available to Google Apps customers with minimal delay.
Rapid innovation powered by the cloud has another advantage over traditional technology cycles: employees adapt to a continuous stream of manageable improvements better than they tolerate large, disruptive. Gradual iterations in bite-sized chunks substantially reduce change-management challenges. Conversely, employees are subjected to a painful re-learning cycle each time companies upgrade traditional software.
The web is the epicenter of innovation, and Google’s multi-tenant infrastructure is designed to push improvements to the entire customer base on short iteration cycles.
Browser-based applications are key ingredient as new features in web applications when launched; users automatically get these improvements just by refreshing their browsers. Even after back-end systems can support new features, users don’t get new functionality in those environments until the software on their computers and mobile phones have been upgraded, which can be an expensive and labor-intensive project.
Web-based applications powered by Google’s global infrastructure give workers full access to their information across devices, so they can be productive in more places. Their data is stored in the cloud, so employees can connect with all of their information and get work done from any Internet connection. Google’s infrastructure gives users seamless access to their information at work, at home, on the road and from their mobile devices.
Google’s large investments in physical and process-based security are passed on to customers. First, Google is able to hire many of the world’s leading security experts to protect our systems and conduct. Their data centers are hardened with many of the latest measures in security precautions, including biometric access controls and multi-tiered security perimeters. Furthermore, Google has also implemented a multi-layered security process protocol designed to help keep customer data safe on the go.

Youtube Huge Resolution Update

markracz — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:03:45 +0000

The people over at Youtube announced this weekend during the VidCon that their players will support the 4k resolution videos, which is (yes) four times larger than 1080p (and twice as much as IMAX). The ideal screen to watch a 4k video must have 25 feet (that’s alright, I’ll just turn my bedroom wall into an LCD). As most of us aren’t yet fully accustomed with normal HD so to say when streaming, this breakthrough sound really awesome, but at a second glance you realize that you need a way faster connection (“light speed” as Ramesh Sarukkai from Youtube says) than the one you probably have right now and a display to go with it(are there any displays available in regular stores able to handle this resolution?). You would probably end up investing more in streaming 4k video than in a state of the art console system (or a wedding or a car).

Youtube put together an initial playlist of five videos which can be seen in a 4k resolution and if your connection and gear can take it, go right ahead and let us now how it was. I guess that someone could open a 4k theme bar where people could watch youtube vids and have cocktails. I always wanted to watch CC Catch clips at the craziest resolution available.

Via: http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20010174-248.html

Calculate Home Energy Savings with Microsoft Hohm

J. Matthew Zoss — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:35:23 +0000

Want some information on your home’s energy efficiency and how you can save money? Microsoft’s web app Hohm will calculate the energy usage of your specific house. It doesn’t take much to set up, either – just enter your address and Hohm will set you up with the basic information. The more info you provide, the more specific Hohm can get about your energy usage. It took me about five minutes to enter my power company info and get some data back on my house.

Hohm isn’t just about showing you how much power your home uses – it’s also filled with useful tips on how to lower your energy consumption. If you’re interested in lowering the energy usage of your home, Hohm is a great tool to start with.

Via Lifehacker

Your Hulu Viewing Experience is About to Get Better

J. Matthew Zoss — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:58:15 +0000

I watch a lot of shows on Hulu, because watching shows when The Man says you have to is for suckers. The unfortunate downside to my strategy is that many times, the Hulu viewing experience kinda blows. It has a tendency to pause and stutter, and my the less powerful of my two laptops can’t even run it full-screen. Therefore, the news that Hulu is rolling out several new improvements to its viewing software has got me jumping for joy. First up is adaptive bitrate streaming. Should your connection slow, Hulu will automatically lower the resolution (from 480p to 360p) to keep the show running smoothly. This new feature is optional, but unless you’re a huge resolution snob there’s no reason not to select it.

Also included in the new version of the video player is sound normalization that means you’ll no longer be blasted by too-loud ads, subtitle support, thumbnail support for searching an episode and even a heat map that shows you the most popular scenes. There are also a few other tweaks like a bigger screen and a few retooled controls, but to sum it up you can simply say that Hulu is now better, and it gets better today.

Source: Hulu Blog

Drag and Drop Images into Gmail

J. Matthew Zoss — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:51:11 +0000

After recently adding the ability to drag and drop attachments into Gmail, Google is continuing the trend with the ability to drag images into your gmail message. Currently, the feature is only enabled in Google Chrome, but it’s apparently on the way to other browsers soon.

Google, I love ya. You take the products I use and continuously make them better. Next time I see you, I owe you a Coke.

Via the Official Gmail Blog.

Don’t Panic! Twitter is Down but Not Out

J. Matthew Zoss — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:22:25 +0000

If you’re a heavy Twitter user, you might be freaking out right now. Across the board, Twitter users are showing zero followers and zero following. No, you didn’t get punished for something you tweeted – Twitter is fixing a bug, and your stats will be restored shortly. We’re not sure what bug they’re working on exactly, but it may in fact be this recently revealed trick that forces folks to follow you – yes, you can make Oprah and Shaq follow you. At least, you could until recently. Only time will tell if the trick will remain after Twitter is done with its repairs.

The Terminator Hates Apple

J. Matthew Zoss — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:00:22 +0000

Film maker Leon Wang has discovered the real mission of the Terminator, and it may not be what you expect. Watch the full video here to discover what these evil machines are actually up to.

Via Engadget

Paid Subscriptions Coming to Hulu

J. Matthew Zoss — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:12:27 +0000

Online streaming television content has changed the way many of us watch TV, and no site has had more of an impact than Hulu. The streaming TV hub currently offers content from several networks for free, with the primary restriction being a steady cycling of new and old programming. According to sources “with knowledge of the plans,” Hulu will soon be unveiling Hulu Plus, a paid subscription service that will allow greater access to older shows for a $9.99 monthly fee.

Personally, I’d be more than willing to pay $10 a month to access older content, provided that said monthly fee allowed me access to complete archives of shows I enjoy. Currently, most shows on Hulu make the five most recent episodes available. Upping that nominally to the 10 most recent shows wouldn’t be worth it, but I might even drop my Netflix account if you made complete seasons available. And would it kill you to get some Law and Order episodes up on the site? I need to keep up on New York City’s war on crime!

Image and Story Source: Lifehacker

Google Under Fire By German Privacy Advocates

Nick Upton — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:11:21 +0000

Everyone’s friend Google is getting some flak in Germany for collecting private wi-fi networks with its Street View fleet.

The Street View part of Google Maps has yet to launch in German, and it had already had plenty of critics among Germany’s very private populous. But once privacy officials found out that the service would offer up much more than simple pictures, they were far from pleased.

Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he’s “horrified” by the discovery.

“I am appalled… I call upon Google to delete previously unlawfully collected personal data on the wireless network immediately and stop the rides for Street View,” according to German broadcaster ARD.

Spooks have long desired the ability to cross reference the Mac address of a user’s connection with their real identity and virtual identity, such as their Gmail or Facebook account.

It’s really no wonder that people are upset, it wouldn’t be hard a malevolent government or law enforcement agency to take advantage of these to quash free speech or gain a virtual window into a person’s mailbox. I think German especially has one eye open for the possibility of an authoritarian government.

Google says the MAC addresses are never shared with anyone and the wi-fi and network SSID information is only used to determine locations, but that has done little to ease the fears of the Germans.

Google has, of course, all this information in its American version of Street View, but nobody seems to care all that much.

[Via The Register]

Learn Science With the Insane Clown Posse

J. Matthew Zoss — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:07:42 +0000

I’ll keep this short, because there’s not much I can say to illustrate the majesty of Cracked.com’s “Textbook for Juggalos.” If those words don’t make any sense to you, here’s what you need to know: schlocky Christian horror-gangsta rappers Insane Clown Posse have a new video out called “Miracles” which, in short, is about how fucking dope and mysterious the world is. You really need to watch it, and can see said video here. Then you can truly appreciate the glory of the ICP science textbook, which can be seen in all its glory here.

Cracked Via BoingBoing

First Android TV Drops In September

Asterios Kokkinos — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:00:31 +0000

Last month we reported on the first Android car and the web-enabled fridge, so it’s our fine honor here at Technomaly to tell you about yet another fun techno-hybrid: the Google Android Television.

Sweedish firm People of Lava has beaten the others to the punch, manufacturing a television dubbed The Scandinavia. The set will come in 42, 47 and 55 inch models, and will cost between $2,000 and $2,5000 for the smallest size. The 42 inch model drops in September, with the others following shortly.

As for the Android features? Well, it’ll do the standard internet surfing and be able to provide Facebook, Youtube and Hulu access – watching Hulu on your television is, of course, a geeky thrill. But the neat thing is that People of Lava are creating their own Android App store, which means you’ll be able to buy apps and content designed specifically for the Android TV. Pretty cool!

Source & Photo Source: FastCompany

Download Hulu Videos With StreamTransport

J. Matthew Zoss — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 15:53:48 +0000

I love Hulu, although lately I’ve been having a hard time finding anything good on the site to watch. But let’s pretend for a moment that I wanted to watch an episode of The Real Housewives of the Trailer Park (that’s a show, right?). Let’s also pretend that I know I won’t have internet access when I want to watch it. StreamTransport is the answer.

This free piece of software captures streaming video at full quality, recording the video like a TiVo. Therefore, you have to play a show in its entirety in order to record it, but hey, reality TV is good enough to watch twice, right? The recorded show is saved as am FLV file, so you’ll need a VLC player in order to watch it.

StreamTransport should work on any streaming video site, such as YouTube or any, umm… “provider of adult content.” Keep in mind that programs like these tend to get shut down by “The Man”, so you may want to enjoy this program while you can.

Story and Image Via Lifehacker

How the Health Care Bill Might Affect You

J. Matthew Zoss — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:40:50 +0000

There’s been a lot of crazy nonsense thrown around on both sides of the debate about the recently passed health care legislation. Misinformation has been everywhere, and I imagine that there are a lot of people who really don’t know what, if anything, they should except as a result. The New York Times has put together a pretty handy web tool that shows you how you are likely to be affected – just put in your situation and it will walk you through the predicted outcome.

You can check it out here. I didn’t see anything about Death Panels anywhere.

Are Your Facebook Friends Feds?

Nick Upton — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:50:06 +0000

New papers uncovered via the Freedom of Information Act show that federal agents have been making friends and keeping tabs on people in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the rest.

The papers showed that they use those fake accounts to check up on alibis and talk about sweet FBI parties.

Apart from unveiling how much time the feds are probably spending on social networks, is this really surprising? Everyone has seen the stories about police checking up on someone via their social networking, so why wouldn’t more sophisticated agencies use it for more sophisticated crimes.

The first comment on Slashdot hit it right on the nose.

“If you need a leaked document to know that spies are spying, you fail at life. Obviously information-gathering agencies will deploy personnel wherever there are large amounts of potentially useful information to be gathered,” said someone going by the handle of calibre-not-output.

[Via Slashdot]

Google Maps Adds Bike-Friendly Directions

J. Matthew Zoss — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:21:52 +0000

I have a lot of friends who are both big bicycling enthusiasts and tech aficionados, so this news item will be of particular interest to them. Google has added a bicycle directions option to its popular Google Maps application. The new biking directions work exactly the same way as searching for directions by car – just select the “by bicycle” option in the drop-down menu under your destination. Google Maps will then calculate a route along bike paths, streets with bike lanes or bike-friendly roads. By default, it will try to steer you away from steep hills or busy streets.

Google Bike Maps is still in beta, but already has more than 150 cities’ data in place. Pair this program with a Google phone, and you’ve got a do-it-yourself GPS for your bike!

Story and Image source: Lifehacker

Oscar Red Carpet Streamed Live Over Livestream

Asterios Kokkinos — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:00:26 +0000

The NYC based live streaming startup Livestream just partnered up with the massive newswire service Associated Press to run all of the AP’s live video streams, streams until this point I had no idea existed. The first event to be covered under the new Livestream/AP partnership? The Oscars!

Look, I could give two craps about the Oscars, but I know that there are people out there who do care about them – those people should be excited to know that they’ll be able to check out free AP red carpet coverage of the Oscars at livestream.com/aplive. I swear to god someone was just excited to hear that news.

The Livestream player will also be embeddable for blogs and Facebook pages for free, which will hopefully make AP/Livestream more money on advertising than they’ll lose on bandwidth.

Other Livestream partners include ESPN, NPR, Fox, Scripps, and National Geographic. Livestream’s number one competitor? UStream, which is a service you probably have heard of.

Why anyone would want to watch something live on the web, I have no idea. Isn’t the whole point of web video that we watch it when we want, be it two in the morning or in the middle of the work day?

Source & Photo Source: TechCrunch

Google Takes Page From Microsoft Photosynth

Nick Upton — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:31:58 +0000

Google Maps is taking a note from Microsoft’s Photosynth and tapping into user photos to create street views of places that street view doesn’t reach.

Google released a video of the new addition in action, and it looks almost exactly like Photosynth. It basically uses location data and algorithms to combine photographs into a large panoramic view.

It’s a fascinating development for Google maps, and unlike Photosynth that requires someone to have all those pictures, photographers can just upload the picture to Maps layer and let Google do the work.

I can’t wait to see if this really catches on, this type of community interaction and collaboration really shows what the Internet can do with the right tools.

Email Your Files Into The Cloud With SugarSync

J. Matthew Zoss — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:02:36 +0000

The advent of cloud-based file storage is one of my personal favorite technological advances of recent years. I once lost several years of writing when my computer’s hard drive failed because I was bad about backing it up on discs, but now I’ll never have to worry about that again. Every file I save is automatically backed up to a cloud-based folder so it’s accessible from all of my computers or any other machine with an internet connection. Cloud-based storage, how I love thee so!

While I use a program called Dropbox for my cloud storage, its competitor SugarSync just added one hell of a new feature: the ability to email a file to your online storage folder. Just email a file to your personal SugarSync address, and the file will automatically be uploaded to your storage folder. Of course, file size is limited by your email’s outgoing mail size limit, but for most users this will be a super-convenient way to hang onto files they want to keep without using up inbox storage space or carrying a flash drive every time they use a public computer.

Story and Image Via Lifehacker.

MySpace Launches New Slogan, It’s Not “Please Love Us”

Asterios Kokkinos — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 14:00:03 +0000

MySpace, a service which we used to like but now do not like, has announced a new slogan: “Discover & Be Discovered.” The slogan fits in line with MySpace’s new user experience philosophy, which will be to bombard you with new and unexpected content the moment you hit the website.

And what will you be bombarded with? Pre-selected content like new people to meet, movie trailers to watch, games to play, articles to read…it’ll all be part of an “activity stream,” which will apparently be the backbone of “Discovery.”

If it works, then users will want to come back to the site every day to experience new preselected content, which’ll mean more hits, which’ll mean more ad revenue. If it fails, then MySpace is doomed, forever to be mentioned in the same breath as Friendster.

Here are a few slogans for MySpace that I feel might work better:

MySpace: A Reliable Source Of Underage Girls
MySpace: Why Not Use Us Ironically?
MySpace: Hey, At Least We Don’t Have Farmville
MySpace: Boo! Just kidding, we’re not ghosts, but please use us!

Source: TechCrunch

CODEORGAN Turns Web Sites Into Techno

Nick Upton — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:53:08 +0000

A new site designed to waste your time shows you just what any Web site would sound like. I spent far, far too long plugging in every Web site. I must say, Techomaly.com is the best!

[Via Codeorgan]

Google Makes Nearly $500 Million Off Typos

Nick Upton — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:35:33 +0000

A couple of Harvard boys took a survey of typosquatting web sites — sites that take advantage of common misspellings — and found nearly 1 million sites taking advantage of the top 3,264.

All those sites mean a whopping $497 million in ad revenue for Google.

To the researchers, Google’s funding and ad placement goes against the search giant’s “Do No Evil” mission.

So what’s the harm in typosquatting? First, typosquatting confuses consumers, causing them to visit sites different than the ones they intended to visit.

Second, site operators must pay large sums of money to ad platforms such as Google AdWords in order to reach the users who specifically requested the corresponding sites.

Third, we found evidence that ad platforms exacerbate typosquatting. Using regression analysis, we determined that websites in categories with higher pay-per-click ad prices face more typosquatting than websites whose keywords fetch lower ad prices.

We’ve likely all been caught by these types of sites at one point or another, and it really is annoying, but who knew people were making so much money off of what amounts to polluting the internet. I’m skeptical, but as more information like this comes out, hopefully things will change.

European internet laws limit these types of practices.

[Via Measuring Typosquatting Perpetrators and Funders

US Web Users Watched 33 Billion Online Videos in December

J. Matthew Zoss — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:00:54 +0000

More and more evidence is rolling out to prove that the internet is the greatest time-waster mankind has ever created. In the month of December 2009, 178 million internet users in the US watched 33 billion online videos. Of those 33 billion videos, 40% or 13 billion were on YouTube, making it by far the most-watched provider of online video content. The number two site for videos was Hulu, with a mere 3% of the total – of course, that still accounts for 1 billion videos.

YouTube’s 136 million unique visitors watched a staggering 97 videos per user, while Hulu’s 44 million unique viewers watched 23 videos each. The full results of the online video survey can be found here and does not contain any information about online video porn, which I assume accounts for around 80 gazillion online views per day.

Source: Download Squad

Google Buzz Hits 9 Million Posts & Comments

Asterios Kokkinos — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:00:31 +0000

What the hell is Google Buzz anyway? A BBS embedded in Gmail? A Twitter-killer? The death of Facebook? Well whatever it is, it’s got over 9 million posts and comments since its launch on Tuesday. That’s over 160,000 comments & posts per hour, and 200 posts per minute by mobile device.

That’s incredible for a service that launched about three days ago. For me personally, I find that my friends are taking to Google Buzz like moths to a hi-tech flame – people are “buzzing” up stories and photos, arguing over movies and generally acting like idiots on the internet always do.

I’ve sent out a Google Buzz or two myself, and I’ve noticed that the reactions are much more immediate. This could be due to Google Buzz’s relative shiny-newness, but I think it’s a little deeper – we’re constantly on Gmail. I have virtually no friends who use Yahoo or, god forbid, Hotmail – everyone I know is on Gmail. Everyone I know is also checking their Gmail twenty times a minute.

So what Google’s done is given us one more thing to obsessively check. While waiting for that email from that special someone, why not browse what your friends are “buzzing” about? Makes sense to me. Clever, Google.

Source: Mashable

Image Source: Google

Netflix Instant Streaming Adding 5.1 Surround Sound and Captions

J. Matthew Zoss — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:00:19 +0000

Netflix’s instant streaming feature is becoming an increasingly popular part of the service, to the point that actually having to open an envelope can sometimes feel like an inconvenience. Fortunately, along with an ever-expanding library, Netflix is adding a couple upgrades to the feature this year. At an unspecified time in the coming months, Netflix’s streaming movies will be available in 5.1 surround sound and optional closed captioning. Technology site CNET originally reported that the service would begin offering movies in 1080p HD, but Netflix has since clarified that such an upgrade in picture quality is not scheduled for this year. We’d love to see that increase in picture quality, but it’s hard to complain about unlimited streaming movies in 720p for only nine bucks a month. Of course, if 1080p doesn’t arrive in 2011, we’ll probably start complaining then.

Source: CNET.com

Google Buzz-ing With New Social Perks

Nick Upton — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:57:36 +0000

Google is taking direct aim at Twitter and Facebook, and putting the whole mess on Google Maps and Gmail.

Google has integrated Buzz into Gmail so users can keep up with their entire network of friends on Gmail without finding all their friends all over again. This could be huge for Google’s other services like Friend Connect which are interesting, but so far not very popular. It could mean that people really start paying attention to all their Google products more to see those little snippets from friends that are so addicting.

The picture sharing is especially interesting when linked up with Picasa and Flickr — which is much better than putting great pictures into the cloister of sites like Facebook.

And Google says the whole system is designed specifically for phones.

On your phone, Google Buzz is much more than just a small screen version of the desktop experience. Mobile devices add an important component to sharing: location.

Posts tagged with geographical information have an extra dimension of context — the answer to the question “where were you when you shared this?” can communicate so much. And when viewed in aggregate, the posts about a particular location can paint an extremely rich picture of that place.

I’m excited to play around with Buzz, especially because it could make checking up on friends a part of checking e-mail — something that can get tedious when one needs to head to Facebook and Twitter and Flickr and MySpace etc.

[Via Google]

Doodle 4 Google Contest Only Open To Kids, Dammit

Asterios Kokkinos — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:00:34 +0000

Google’s launched the latest iteration of their “Google 4 Doodle” contest, which invites students grades K-12 to design a drawing around the Google logo.

Yeah, that’s right, the contest is only open to kids. This is a national disgrace. What’s the point of even having a civil rights movement if Google can just take them away from me, like that? What, are my grown up doodles not good enough for you, Google? THIS IS AN OUTRAGE.

For those lucky enough to fit within Google’s arbitrary preset age limits, prizes include laptops, a trip to Google’s offices in New York, netbooks, WACOM tablets and t-shirts. All things I could use, right now. Do these kids have any idea what I could do with a new laptop and a WACOM tablet? My designs would change the world, dammit, the world!

The grand prize winner gets a $15,000 dollar scholarship, which he or she’ll probably waste on school. Not me, man. You give me fifteen grand and I’m out of here, starting a new life down in the Bahamas. For 3 months or so. I guess 15 grand really isn’t “fuck you people I’m out of here” money, it’s more, “prudently invest this” money.

Source: Google

OMG, ROFLCon? LOL!

J. Matthew Zoss — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:42:05 +0000

I spend a lot of time online. An unhealthy amount, some might say. I’d like to say that I’m typically using the web in productive ways, but that would be a lie. I spend a ton of time enjoying the web’s most popular memes such as LolCats, Chad Vader, FAIL Blog, Awkward Family Photos and all the other hilarious, strange and ridiculous thing that make the internet worth using. Something wonderful and terrifying has happened to bring the creators of all these popular memes together under one roof: ROFLCon, the internet culture convention.

Now in its second year, ROLFCon will be held April 30th – May 1 at MIT, and feature lectures and discussions with the folks that are shaping the culture of the internet. Registration is open now and will cost most of you $65 bucks ($45 for students). More awesome web luminaries than I could possibly list here will be in attendance, but here’s a sampling of some of the participants:

Joel Veitch, creator of We Like The Moon
The Gregory Brothers, creators of Auto-Tune The News
Ben Huh of I Can Has Cheezburger
Moot of the horrifying 4Chan
Jason Steele, creator of Charlie the Unicorn

Also in attendance: The folks behind phenomena like Dinosaur Comics, Stuff White People Like, Keyboard Cat, This is Why You’re Fat, David After Dentist, the Three Wolf Moon shirt and many, many more. If you have no idea who any of these people are, I suggest you visit Know Your Meme (who will also be in attendance).

Source: ROFLCon

Yubby: Google For Video, Not Much Else

Asterios Kokkinos — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:00:10 +0000

Finally, there’s a service that searches all the other websites that carry video and allows you to put them all into one embeddable player. Or if such a service did exist, I wasn’t aware of it and so this feels new. Anyway, it’s called Yubby, and covers 34 different search services, from the bigger names like Youtube and Yahoo! Video to smaller engines like Veronica, a video service so obscure that I cannot find it online.

It’s easy enough to use, and I created the following little embeddable video widget cataloging some video of a hilarious performer named “Asterios Kokkinos.” Watch out for this guy, he’s clearly got talent and moxie!

You are watching channel Asterios’ Video

What’s that? It doesn’t work with Wordpress, and only creates a hyperlink? Boo, Yubby, boo. What, am I supposed to dust off my Myspace page to embed this damn thing? Individual videos can be embedded if your Wordpress page has the right plugins installed, but I can’t get this player as a whole to work.

Wow, what a dissapointment. The entire internet’s running on Wordpress, Yubby! Get it together!

So, the verdict – Yubby is pretty good if you’re looking for a video and don’t feel like searching 34 different websites. But its embeddable player, which is supposedly the point of it, can’t be linked to in Facebook and can’t be embedded in a Wordpress post.

Cookin’ With Bing

J. Matthew Zoss — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:27:54 +0000

I use a lot of Google software every single day, so when Microsoft’s Bing search engine was released I wasn’t too tempted to switch, even when the positive reviews started trickling out. But as the search engine has added new features to help separate itself from the pack, it’s steadily become a more interesting program. I really like this latest feature: an ingredient recipe search. Type an ingredient into the search bar (from something common to the outlandish) and it will return recipes from popular cooking pages right there on page, without making you click through. I do a my fair share of recipe searching online because I’m hopeless in the kitchen on my own, so this is a pretty useful tool. No more clicking back and forth to see which chocolate chip cookie recipe looks the best – they’re all laid out there on the same page.

What’s more, the Bing recipe search has recipe ratings, as well as fat and calorie comparisons so you can compare them to one another. You can even sort recipes by courses, so you won’t be flooded with entrees when you just want to whip up an appetizer.

See the Bing recipe search demo in action here.

Story and Image via Lifehacker

Airports Aren’t Laughing At Your Twitter Terrorism Jokes

Geoffrey Golden — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 05:11:12 +0000

It used to be that screaming “I’ve got a bomb” at the airport was the best way to get arrested. Now, thanks to the digital age, all you have to do is Twitter jokes about bombs. Everything’s so much easier now.

In Northern England this week, a frustrated man – delayed at the airport due to snow – was arrested for sending this tweet:

“Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”

When police arrested the man, they interrogated him for 7 hours. Apparently, they didn’t think it was a funny line, even with the two exclamation points and the use of Strong Bad’s favorite expletive.

Still, in terms of ridiculous jokes being misconstrued as bomb threats, they do it best on the moon:

…where they tweet about smoking as they shoot the bird.

Source and Photo: Daily Mail

Additional Photo: The Beat

Netflix Is Tearing This Country Apart

Geoffrey Golden — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:42:39 +0000

“Red States vs. Blue States” is so 2004. Now we can use this Netflix heat map on the New York Times website to fully understand the cultural/socio-economic differences of areas in the United States, by seeing what their most popular movie rentals are. For example, Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes To Jail gets a lot of rentals in Atlanta, but absolutely none in Seattle. It also seems like the further away you get from a major metropolitan city, the more popular Paul Blart: Mall Cop becomes.

However, not all movies have a divisive effect. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is on queues all across this great nation, in cities and suburbs. Twilight also seems pretty popular, no matter where you are. However, despite its huge returns at the box office, nobody wants to watch Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull again. The USA will heal over the ridiculousness of that ending.

Google Grabs Graffiti and Goes Global

Geoffrey Golden — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:57:03 +0000

You might think of graffiti as a strictly a local art form. After all, graffiti artists are painting on the sides of neighborhood buildings. It’s impractical to tear down a brick wall and send it on a tour of art galleries. (Then again, size hasn’t stopped Jeff Koons‘ work from getting around.)

Thanks to Google Maps Street View launching in the UK, Brits have been geotagging their favorite pieces of local graffiti and posting links around the web. Finally, a spray painted penis, captioned with the word “wanker,” can be seen by those of us outside of London.

Actually, there are some truly amazing works of graffiti getting posted, like the awesome “building cat.” Check out this gallery for more.

Fan Made Mega Man Film Coming ‘Very Soon’

Nex — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:42:26 +0000

Eddie Lebron is a man. A man who loves a man. A man who loves a man named Mega Man.

Instead of shacking up Brokeback-style in the mountains of Wyoming, Mr. Lebron has opted to immortalize his little blue paramour via the most traditional of means: A feature length, home made film.

The most impressive bit is that the flick proudly wears its low budget, fan made aesthetic like a certificate of authenticity turned medal of honor, and yet still manages to look way more respectful of its source material than any of Hollywood’s attempts at turning a beloved video game into a film.

Of course, I’m basing all of that on the surprisingly awesome trailer and the newly released Sneak Preview, but, according to Lebron, we don’t have much longer to wait to catch the film in its entirety.

“The next big question is: when will it be released? The film shall be released online 2 weeks after the premiere. Well, when will the premiere be? I don’t want to say officially when it will but I do have a specific time frame in mind and it’s soon … very soon,” Lebron writes in a recent blog entry. “Without giving too much, the film will be premiered before the summer.”

Using only their minds, our crack team of mathemagicians crunched the numbers, and assuming Mr. Lebron’s film can avoid any crippling delays, we have, at maximum, a six month wait ahead of us; An almost insignificant time frame if Lebron can deliver on his hype.

(Image: Capcom)

Google Suggestions Prove How Horrible We Are

Asterios Kokkinos — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 05:35:31 +0000

Jeff, our editor at Technomaly, asked me to type “why do girls” or “why do black people” into Google, and see what the suggestions were. Well, here it is – absolute proof that we, as a species, are doomed.

The Ultimate Film Snob Tool: View Netflix Rentals By Neighborhood

J. Matthew Zoss — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 18:32:45 +0000

Img source: PC World

We humans tend to want to live near people who are similar to ourselves in some respect, whether its religion, ethnicity, socio-economic background or what have you. In demographic studies, this is called clustering. Some people tend to cluster by interest – such as when a neighborhood becomes known for a high concentration of working artists. The New York Times recently released a fun online tool that lets you discriminate against your neighbors based on a whole new criteria: what they rented on Netflix in 2009!

The interactive map offers 12 major urban areas, breaks down the top rentals by neighborhood, and allows the user to sort movies based on top rentals, metascore and other criteria. Play around with it a bit and you’ll notice some really interesting patterns. Acclaimed TV Mad Men was heavily rented in city centers, while the Idris Elba-fronted movie Obsessed was rented almost exclusively in African American neighborhoods.

Take a look at the interactive Netflix Map and see what people were watching in your neighborhood. I’m happy to say that I live in an area where movies like Milk and Burn After Reading top movies like Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Oh, and Los Angeles? You have terrible taste!

How Technology Is Killing – Yes, KILLING – Pornography

Geoffrey Golden — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:45:34 +0000

In the past, the sex business has been on the cutting edge of technology, whether it’s supporting home video and DVDs in their infancy, or giving us AI-driven love dolls. However, folks who get their rocks off by downloading Ass Disasters 5 on BitTorrent will be sad to learn that the internet is killing the porn business as we know it.The Daily Beast recently posted a list of reasons why the porn-for-profit model, which was once thought to be a never-ending fountain of cash, is actually drying up. Among their reasons: internet piracy of profitable DVDs, Video On Demand not catching on, serious online competition from amateurs & hookers, and the time-sucking giant that is World of Warcraft.

Ironically, porn’s penchant for being on the cutting edge might make it the first media industry to completely collapse in the digital era. Or will printed newspapers beat them to the media graveyard?

[Image via]

Have You Heard The Word Is Google?

Geoffrey Golden — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:08:00 +0000

Tech words are dominating the English language, according to The American Dialect Society. They recently announced that the word “google,” as in, “So I googled it and found out my cat shouldn’t be making those noises,” was named the society’s Word of the Decade. I’m not surprised. As the internet audience went from enormous to ginormous this decade, Google searching became an important part of our every day lives. However, I’m sure the people Alta Vista are pissed off that “Alta Vista-ing” didn’t catch on.

Another tech word got high marks from the ADS. “Tweet” was picked as their top word of 2009. There’s no doubt that tweeting was a popular word last year, but it seems ironic to give a word award to Twitter. After all, the whole point of Twitter is to get people to use less words. Don’t believe me? Google it.

[Image via]

Pandora Finally Turns A Profit

Nex — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:41:51 +0000

Pandora, as played by Cthulhu

For the first time since it was launched in 2005, the automated music recommendation service Pandora has managed to turn a profit.

“We became profitable for the fourth quarter of 2009, and now we’re shooting for profits for the entire 2010 [period],” said Pandora CTO Tom Conrad in a recent chat with technology wonk Om Malik.

Conrad fails to specify exactly how much profit the company pulled down, but given the embattled, post-apocalyptic wasteland that is the modern music industry, it’s impressive that Pandora isn’t deep enough in the red to give Sissy Spacek traumatic prom flashbacks.

Personally I adore Pandora, if only because its ability to show me new music that I actually dig is rivaled only by former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield. Since he’s been booted from the network in favor of reality shows about greasy Italian stereotypes, I’m praying to every eldritch horror that ever occupied a corner in one of Lovecraft’s fever dreams that Pandora lives forever.

“Through strange eons, even death may die,” and all that, right?

(Image: James Ryman)

Facebook Iz In Ur Profile, Violatin Ur Privacy

Geoffrey Golden — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:11:27 +0000

Facebook CEO Mark Zimmerberg recently went on record as saying that people care less about privacy today. That’s why this anonymous interview with a Facebook employee, which surfaced on The Rumpus recently, is so telling.

In the interview, the employee claims that there was once a master password that allowed Facebook employees to enter anybody’s profile. Now employees can login to profiles with the touch of a button, as long as they provide good reason to the higher ups. (Of course, couldn’t an employee claim a profile has been compromised just to get access to the user’s phone number, or even creepier – the list of their favorite bands?) Also, all private messages are stored in an easy to search database, which employees can peruse. Nice!

Many in the comments section of the article are questioning the credibility of the source. Anonymous sources are hard to trust. I will say this: given the CEO’s apparently lax views on privacy, if you’re worried about whether your private info is in safe hands on Facebook, I’d delete it immediately.

[Image via]

Google To End Censorship In China

Nick Upton — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:54:56 +0000

In a surprising move — especially after weathering so much flak for Chinese censorship — Google says it will no longer censor Google products in China.

While surprising, the action isn’t unprompted. According to a Google blog post, it is in response to a security attack that sought to spy on human rights activists.

… We have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of e-mails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

Google says it will take a “new approach to China.” And by new approach, Google means that it could shut down Chinese offices completely.

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered — combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web — have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

The Google move could be important for free speech, even if it comes off as a little dubious. The Google China office employs about 800 people at last count — 800 well-paid people that would be out of work. By threatening a total shutdown of what has become a huge player for the Chinese Internet, China may loosen some restrictions.

Google initially agreed to omit Web content that the country’s government found objectionable and the debate became a struggle for execs trying to align the censorship with their “don’t be evil” motto.

Via Google.

Facebook CEO Says, ‘Privacy Shmivacy’

Geoffrey Golden — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:15:53 +0000

During his talk at the Consumer Electronics Show, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed the theme of privacy, as it relates to his company. “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people,” Zuckerberg said. “We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are.” I’m getting dizzy, because that logic is totally circular!

Facebook is a successful business, built on getting people to put information on its website. When more users update their profiles with phone numbers, relationship statuses and pictures of themselves vomiting, there’s more information on Facebook, and therefore Facebook becomes more valuable. I see the above quote as saying, “Facebook has become successful at coaxing private information out of people, so now the social norms of ‘privacy’ have changed. We will continue to innovate in the field of getting more people to give us their formerly private information.”

It’s kind of like a cigarette manufacturer saying the definition of “healthy” has changed, because more people have decided to smoke their cigarettes.

[Image via]

Firefox Release Candidate 3.6 Available For Download

Asterios Kokkinos — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:04:32 +0000

Today, Mozilla made Firefox Release Candidate 3.6 available for download. You can download a copy here.

So what’s new in this version of Firefox? According to Mozilla, a faster JavaScript engine, themes, open video, audio, and font standards and suport for location-aware websites.

What’s a “release candidate?” Well, according to PC World, a release candidate in this case means it’s out of beta, and stable for everyday use, but isn’t completely finished. Mozilla cites 70 fixes from the beta in Release Candidate 3.6, and goes on to say that when 3.6 Final is done, your browser will automatically update with it.

So, let’s see how many tabs I can open at once without it crashing. I’m running OSX 10.5.8, 1.33 GHz G4 with 1.25 GB ram.

—

I’ve downloaded & installed the Release Candidate, and opened a little over 50 tabs at once. The new Firefox holds up nicely. There’s no lag in this Wordpress page I’m using, my gMail’s fine…not bad, Firefox!

YouTube To Microsoft: The HP Slate Sucks

Geoffrey Golden — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:32:23 +0000

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled a new product yesterday at CES 2010 and it’s… a tablet PC? Hey, isn’t Apple supposed to be making one of those? Perhaps in an attempt to beat Apple to the multi-touch punch, Ballmer demonstrated HP’s new slate PC, capable of running Windows 7. They posted a teaser video on YouTube (above), which is currently getting hammered in the comments section:

Vismund: “this amazing device will sell 20 units…”

jewjack: “IM GUNNA BUY TWO! (one when it comes out, and the second to replace the first when it breaks down)”

rhadiem: “This is just another sad case of HP/Microsoft trying to copy Apple and have some of the magic pixie dust rub off on them. What they didn’t show was :20 seconds into the video the slate caught a virus, bluescreened and after a 4 minute reboot the only app for it was the HP logo sizer and a half-baked use of multitouch for Paintbrush.”

SteelVelocity: “boooo!!!”

There are some positive comments as well, along with the usual PC vs. Mac “X ripped off Y” jibber jabber. However, with over 200,000 views and an average rating of 2 stars, it can’t be ALL Mac evangelists down-voting this video… or can it? It’ll be interesting to see what people think of a demonstration that’s longer than 18 seconds.

Horray! It’s Youtube Porn Day!

Asterios Kokkinos — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:23:12 +0000

Those techno-tricksters at 4-chan are at it again, having declared today a Youtube Porn Day. Techcrunch.com’s coverage of the how’s and whys of this phenomena is stellar, but to summarize: 4-chan found an overweight kid and did that thing the internet does where they raise someone to godhood for no reason. 15k subscribers later, Youtube suspended the account, probably because it seemed odd that 15k+ people would suddenly subscribe to a kid who’d done nothing.

Now 4-chan will have its revenge, by uploading gigabytes upon gigabytes of pornography onto Youtube. Godspeed, 4-chan. May you always right what is wrong.

How To Make Your Crappy Website Look Less Crappy

Asterios Kokkinos — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 07:05:26 +0000

The internet design website Six Revisions has kicked off the new year right, with an article about how to turn your terrible website into a terrible but well designed website.

<– See that giant weird graphic? Apparently, that’s how websites are supposed to look – covered in giant pink F’s. I don’t know if that’ll help, but hey, what do I know?

Their other design tips include:

More Dancing Hamsters
Not Less Dancing Hamsters
Taking The Existing Dancing Hamsters On Your Page And Double Them
More Blinking Text (Also: someone make wordpress accept the command)

And much, much more! So check it out, webmasters and webmistresses. And tell ‘em Asterios sent you. Somehow.

Photo & Source: Six Revisions