Mortgage underwriter Joshua Hager saw the writing on the wall and started looking for a new job in November. Now out of work, he’s trying to get his foot back in the door of a financial firm. By Tami Luhby NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A week ago, Joshua Hager was despondent. Laid off by a mortgage company, […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net
Archive for March 29th, 2008
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03
2008
 
Developer to Facebook: I got there first on friend-finding featurePosted by: admin in General News The creator of a Facebook application called Friendmates doesn’t seem to be too thrilled with the social-networking site’s new “People You Might Know” feature, which launched earlier this week. “This new feature and its functionality is suspiciously identical to the application I released for Facebook six months ago (albeit with limited resources),” developer Amir Ariana stated in an e-mail to CNET News.com, “but it gives no credit to the original author.” Facebook has asserted that if developers apply to its FBFund grant program, there’s no guarantee Facebook won’t come up with something similar to their business plans. Facebook representatives couldn’t immediately comment on whether this also applies to existing platform applications. “I believe the outcome of this and similar moves without appropriate repercussions in giving credit to developers who are coming up with innovative ideas will ultimately result in the discouragement of such developers and a diminish(ed) effect on innovative thinking,” Ariana continued. “I know change cannot be stopped, but along the way giving credit to the little people underneath will be a key to success against competition.” Friendmates isn’t exactly SuperPoke or Zombies. The application has only 238 daily active users, which amounts to 9 percent of those who have installed it. It also doesn’t look that similar to “People You Might Know.” Friendmates grants you to see which friends have the most friends in common with you, tag Facebook members whose faces you recognize, and hear from those who have recognized you. And it invites users to manually tag their friends with how well they know them in order to assess other members whom the users might know. Additionally, business social-networking site LinkedIn has operated a feature similar to Facebook’s for months now. And here’s some irony: Ariana, as well as Friendmates co-creators Steve Dill and Sean Erle Johnson, are all members of the Microsoft network on Facebook, indicating that they’re current or recent Redmond employees. Microsoft, as you probably know already, has a $240 million stake in Facebook.
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03
2008
Map your family in more ways than one with It’s Our TreePosted by: admin in General News It’s Our Tree is a genealogy service that lets people create very easy family trees using Adobe Flash. Like Geni (review) and Kindo (review), the idea is to get your entire family involved by inviting them to join and add family members they remember. It doesn’t offer some advanced services like DNA sleuthing using cheek cells, but it’s incredibly easy to get started, and the finished product can double as a Rolodex, birthday reminder, and private e-mail system for you and your family. Like Geni and others, to get started you simply add family members using the directional arrows found on each person’s block. There’s support for divorces, first, second, and third marriages, half siblings, and any other oddly conceived (literally) member of your extended family. It also supports nine different languages, meaning if you’re trying to share your tree with your Italian grandmother she’ll be able to see it in her language, including the invite to participate. It’s a nice touch if your family is spread out. Each family member you (or others) create gets his or her own profile in case you feel like turning the service into an updatable family phone tree. My one irk with this is that they don’t take advantage of a pre-existing contact-management service like Plaxo, Gmail’s contact list, or LinkedIn to save you some time of having to dig all that up. What does make these profiles interesting is that you can add all sorts of geo-data to your family members including the place of birth, death, burial, and present location. This information can be toggled on a big Google map, which can lead to some really great exploration if you’re willing to spend the time researching and inputting it all. Ancestry.com’s DNA service will do something similar, even though it actually shows you where your family is from based on cultural migration. I’m giving this service a thumbs up, even though if you’re already tied to one of these services, its feature set is almost identical to Geni and Kindo, so give it a look before trying to get your whole family to convert. Grandma will state grazie. 
Make your family tree swiftly and easily with It's Our Tree. It's got support for half siblings, deaths, and geo-location for where people were born. (Click to enlarge.) (Credit: CNET Networks)
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03
2008
Hearst Magazines acquires relationship advice sitePosted by: admin in Social Media and Tech Publishing giant Hearst Magazines announced on Wednesday plans to acquire Answerology, a New York-based start-up that offers a question-and-answer service for relationship advice. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but PaidContent reported that it was in the seven figures. Matthew Milner, Answerology’s founder, will be brought on …  Want to hear the real deal about recycled paper? Hear it from Office Depot. Looking for the inside scoop on water conservation? Find out from Delta Faucets. Wondering about organic food standards? Learn the details from the Organic Consumers Association. Listen to these interviews and more on the weekly GreenTalk Radio. Host Sean Daily, co-founder of GreenLivingIdeas.com, talks to people who are on the forefront of green and ecology-oriented business. Subscribe on iTunes or stream individual episodes on the website, and you’ll get a comprehensive view into products and services that aim to help the environment.
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03
2008
‘Rickrolled basketball game’ video is ’80s pop fictionPosted by: admin in Social Media and Tech
This post was updated at 9:19 AM PT on Thursday to reflect the correction issued by the New York Times. Wow, we all fell for this one. An NBC affiliate in Spokane, Wash., reported Tuesday that one of the Web’s most popular viral videos of late was a fabrication, … Mortgage underwriter Joshua Hager saw the writing on the wall and started looking for a new job in November. Now out of work, he’s trying to get his foot back in the door of a financial firm. By Tami Luhby NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — A week ago, Joshua Hager was despondent. Laid off by a mortgage company, […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net |
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