It’s a dark time to be a Harry Potter fan. The book series has drawn to a close, the next big-screen installment of the hit fantasy series has been unceremoniously delayed, and scientists have announced they’re getting close to a real-life invisibility cloak–hence sucking just a tiny …

Source [The social]

Share This

Share This

Social site Buzznet, whose CEO makes it clear that he’s hoping to compete with the likes of MySpace and MTV on the pop culture front, has nabbed a new executive from TMZ.com. Alan Citron, former general manager of the AOL-owned entertainment site, will become head of “special projects” …

Source [The social]

Share This

Share This

On November 1, 2007, Google launched OpenSocial, a set of APIs that leverage JavaScript and HTML for creating applications that access friends and update feeds from any compliant social network. Nearly 10 months later, Google is touting the maturation of the OpenSocial specification and growing developer and user adoption.

At this juncture OpenSocial version 0.7 has an addressable market of more than 300 million social network users, including the social networks that have delivered OpenSocial applications or are actively developing them, according to Joe Kraus, Google’s director of product management. Friendster, which claims 75 million users including 55 million in Asia, recently unleashed OpenSocial for its developer community. Hi5 has more than 1,800 OpenSocial-compliant applications and 66 million installations, according to platform architect Paul Lindner. Hi5 has nearly 60 million users, with 80 percent outside the U.S., according to ComScore.

Overall, Kraus stated that there are more than 4,500 OpenSocial applications and 150 million installs. In comparison, Facebook, which has so far eschewed OpenSocial, has more than 30,000 applications and 700 million installs.

“We expect to reach 500 million OpenSocial users by the end of the quarter. It’s also very international, as social networking is a global phenomenon,” Kraus stated.

(Credit: Google)

The latest version of OpenSocial, 0.8, adds a number of new features that extend beyond its original JavaScript roots. “When we launched OpenSocial JavaScript was the center, but the community wants more choice. We agreed upon a RESTful API that gives access to the social bits and is already implemented in Apache Shindig and deployed by hi5 in beta,” Kraus said. The OpenSocial RESTful API specification defines how servers, mobile devices, and desktop personal interact with OpenSocial containers without the need for JavaScript or direct user interaction.

“Hi5 launched with OpenSocial very early–January 1, 2008–and we ended up building the system, which had a lot of undefined pieces,” Lindner stated. “We had a lot of custom work with the REST endpoint so that applications could contact our server directly. As time went by all participants came up with one-offs, but now we’re bringing it all together in the community with common types of solutions for these problems. Standardizing on a single specification will grant application developers to write code once and it will work on all different containers. We are already seeing others build on REST specification. Plaxo, for example, has enabled privacy-enabled exchange of contact info.”

In addition, the OpenSocial community is working on compliance tools, such as an application that determines the level of compliance for a container.

(Credit: Google)

The 0.9 version of OpenSocial will add templates and markup, making it easier to develop the user experience dimension for an application. “Templates and markup are now in discussion on public mailing lists, but we believe we are pretty close,” Kraus said. Regarding when OpenSocial is deserving of a version 1.0 designation, Kraus stated that the “community will make the call.”

The community Kraus speaks of is the group of about 350 developers participating in the main discussion around the evolution of the open-source OpenSocial specification and reference implementation. Google obviously has major clout in the evolution of OpenSocial, but Kraus noted that just 10 percent of the major participants are from Google.

To further untether OpenSocial from its origins, Google has also proposed an OpenSocial Foundation, which would be a steward for ensuring the OpenSocial specification stays open and intellectual property and patent non-assertions are handled so that developers feel safe about using the code, Kraus stated. An announcement about the OpenSocial Foundation is expected “really soon,” Kraus added.

Google clearly has a vested interest in seeing OpenSocial succeed. As Google’s Vic Gundotra explained at the November 2007 launch, OpenSocial makes good economic sense. “The more applications, the more usage. More users means more searches. And, more searches means more revenue for Google. The goal is to grow the overall market, not just to increase market share.” Having the an open source community behind it will make Google’s economic mission much easier.

Fore more visit Source: [webware]

Share This

Share This

Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly in his 2004 Halloween costume.

(Credit: Blog Southwest)

A few years ago, it was trendy and “transparent” for CEOs to have their own blogs. But typically it didn’t go this far–then again, Southwest Airlines chief Gary Kelly isn’t your average CEO.

Kelly posted an entry on the Southwest blog …

Source [The social]

Share This

Share This

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — How will you pay for your child’s college education? Most families cobble together money from a variety of sources, though nearly four in 10 said they cover college costs without borrowing any money, according to a new survey for student-loan maker Sallie Mae by polling firm Gallup. And a good portion of […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net

Share This

Share This

Have you ever spent time scrolling through NASA’s image gallery? Some of the photos are mesmerizing. I particularly like the “Blue Marble” image of the Earth (at right), which was stitched together using satellite data.

Satellites provide more than pretty photos. Our ability to comprehend and predict climate change depends on continuous high-quality satellite data.

Unfortunately, this critical data stream is threatened by budget cuts and lack of political support. In 2005, the National Academies assessed the situation and deemed it “alarming.” Three years later, the outlook has not improved.

What satellites can tell us

Here are just a few examples of the indispensable role satellites play in weather and climate science. Satellites have provided a way to:

• Confirm that global warming is not caused by changes in the Earth’s reflectivity or “albedo”.
• Monitor and verify changes in deforestation emissions (key to any plan to reduce deforestation in developing countries).
• Track ice sheet melting and sea level rise.
• Predict and track storms and floods.
• Improve accuracy of climate models in simulating atmospheric temperature trends, the effects of aerosol pollution, and more.

But crucial information like this may not be available in the future. Many planned satellite missions have been delayed, pared down, or cancelled due to budget cuts.

For example, sensors that would have measured important climate-related variables such as solar irradiance, aerosols, and sea level have been removed from the upcoming National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System.

Existing satellites don’t last forever, so these cutbacks put long-term records at risk, precisely when we need all the information we can get about climate change and its effects.

We need funding for satellites

The National Academies Press has published several reports (here, here, and here) proposing short-term solutions that would avoid gaps in crucial datasets. But what we really need is a long-term commitment to a unified, high-quality Earth observation program.

This issue is so pressing that it was highlighted in a recent editorial in the journal Nature, which called on the next U.S. president to make Earth observation a priority. As Nature put it, “Providing for continuous high-quality climate data would be a substantial legacy, serving the interests of both U.S. citizens and the rest of the world for decades to come.”

This post is by Lisa Moore, Ph.D., a scientist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense Fund.

For more visit Source:[green.yahoo]

Share This

Share This

Bran Ferren tells a good story.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)

At the Intel Developer Forum on Tuesday, I skipped out of the sessions on CPU thermal management and USB sideband optimization and headed into a session where Bran Ferren, co-founder of Applied Minds and former president of Disney Imagineering, was giving an interesting speak at a somewhat more metaphysical level.

His thesis: “Storytelling is how ideas become permanent.” He believes that the World wide web is taking off (present tense, not past) because the technology is getting good enough now for storytelling. Since we process so much information visually, Ferren believes that new technologies for visualization are what makes the stories stick.

To illustrate his points, because just talking about visualization would be lame, Ferren headed over to a big flat-screen monitor with multitouch capabilities, and showed, first, how watching a display of aircraft flights in the U.S. clearly shows interesting items when you manipulate the display. First, by turning on trails and letting them fill in the map as the planes fly, you can clearly see where the no-fly zones are. Second, simply by watching the traffic in an accelerated playback, you can spot where the bad data is–the planes jump around.

Ferren and a colleague demo on a big flat-screen monitor. The image was also projected overhead.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CNET)

More interestingly, he showed different ways to visualize what’s likely a nuclear processing plant in Iran. Overlaying images taken at different times, it was clear to see not just the construction of a huge underground facility near a previously built but smaller research complex, but also how the new facility had been camouflaged over time and even made resistant to cruise missile attack. And by overlaying larger scale data–such as access to rail lines (good), nearby population density (low), and seismic activity (lowest in the country)–it became very clear that these remote facilities weren’t accidentally situated. The story was far more compelling than looking at single frames of satellite imagery.

As Ferren says, there are “endless problems out there just waiting for advanced visualization.” In other words, seeing is believing.

Speaking of which, there’s a a very cool new visualization and image processing product coming out later Wednesday. We’ll have the story here on Webware.

Click here for full coverage of the Intel Developer Forum.

Fore more visit Source: [webware]

Share This

Share This

Lotame, a targeted-ad start-up that focuses on social sites, announced Tuesday that it has raised $13 million in a Series B venture round. The lead investor is Emergence Capital Partners, and existing investors Battery Ventures and Hill Crest Management also contributed. The money, per a release, will be used for “…

Source [The social]

Share This

Share This

Goldman sees more pain for banks, brokers Analysts cut profit estimates and warn of more write-downs, asset sales By John Spence, MarketWatch Last Update: 8/20/2008 3:13:00 PM BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Goldman Sachs analysts became the latest to chop their profit estimates on bank and brokerage stocks on the expectation of more ugly write-downs triggered by the ongoing tumult in credit markets. “We […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net

Share This

Share This