The New Web

AlertPay: A Great Alternative to Paypal

2009-01-16T16:15:00.000+08:00

If you would like or have started to earn and transact business in the Web, they you most probably have heard already of PayPal. Paypal claims that it provides a "safer, easier way to pay online". That is true.

However, if you are NOT a holder of an active credit card (Master Card, Visa or American Express), then you will not be able to enjoy the full privileges of having a PayPal account. Why? Because you need to "link and confirm your card to get Verified and lift limits on your PayPal account."

You can sign up for or create a FREE PayPal account but until you get Verified, you will not be able to withdraw money from your PayPal account.

With an Unverified PayPal account, you can ONLY perform the following transactions:

1. Send money from your PayPal account to another's PayPal account. Sending Limit is $500.00 USD. The "Sending Limit is the maximum amount of money you can send through PayPal before you link and confirm your debit or credit card."

2. Receive money from another PayPal account to yours.You can also accept payment through a Credit or Debit Card transaction. However, "you can (only) accept up to 5 credit or debit card payments per year at our low per transaction rate."

3. Request Money or Payment from another PayPal account holder. I think there is no set limit here.

4. YOU CANNOT withdraw from your PayPal account and transfer your PayPal balance into your local bank account. With an Unverified PayPal account:
a. Your Monthly Withdrawal Limit is ZERO. "The Monthly Withdrawal Limit is the maximum amount of money you can withdraw each month from your PayPal account."

b. Your Total Withdrawal Limit is ZERO. "The Total Withdrawal Limit is the maximum amount you can withdraw from your PayPal account if you have not been verified. Once your Total Withdrawal Limit reaches a zero amount, your Monthly Withdrawal Limit will be zero as well."

This is where AlertPay comes in. With AlertPay, you can transfer your money from your AlertPay account to and withdraw it from your local bank. -- WITHOUT CREDIT CARD VERIFICATION! Of course, with AlertPay, you can avail of all the other usual services that an online payment system like PayPal offers like sending or requesting funds to or from other AlertPay members or payment facilities such as banks and credit card companies.

From the AlertPay Account Verification FAQ page:

Q: What if account verification? Account verification identifies who you are as a KYC (Know your customer) policy. It's important for the AlertPay network that members identify themselves by submitting documentation to protect our members against fraud. At any time, AlertPay can ask you to become verified.

Q: What type of verification documents can I provide to AlertPay? AlertPay requires a copy of 1 proof of address and 1 photo identification for verification. Please ensure that all four edges of the documents are visible.
Photo identification can be one of the following:

* Driver's license
* Passport
* State ID, Country ID or Photo Medical ID

Please submit the back of the identification if the expiration date is located on the back.

Proof of address must show your name and address and be dated within the last 6 months. You can submit one of the following:

* Utility Bill
* Phone bill
* Credit card statement
* Bank Statement
Q: Is verification necessary to add, withdraw, or transfer funds? Verification of an AlertPay account is not necessary in order to, add or transfer funds. We believe verification increases the security of our network as we are able to verify and authenticate users. Although not necessary, verification is highly recommended.

In some cases, when transactions involve substantial amounts, our security center may ask some members to verify their AlertPay account in order to proceed with their transactions.

And more, you can even earn by referring people to AlertPay (which is what I'm doing right now): "Each time you refer someone to AlertPay, you could earn up to $10 USD. The more people you bring to AlertPay, the more we will reward you. Helping you earn more money -- think of this as our way of saying thank you."

So, if you're tired of online payment hassles, then check out and sign up for an AlertPay account. It's a great alternative to PayPal. ;-)

Creating Blogrolls in Google Reader

2007-11-18T19:14:00.000+08:00

In case you missed the announcement, Google has rolled out a new feature in Google Reader that enables bloggers to create blogrolls based on their Reader subscriptions.

Such nifty capability to produce blogrolls may not be new for a lot of bloggers as several feed aggregators like Bloglines and a well-known pioneer site in making blogrolls, Blogrolling, offer the same service. Some may think such services are already neat, but others may see them as quite "out of touch" in terms of integration with most ever-developing blogging platforms.

Blogging newbies would consider Blogrolling convenient and effective already in maintaining a blogroll, as did I when I discovered blogs. But at some point, you would realize that surely there is much better than that especially if you get tired of visiting another site just to update your blogrolls.

Now comes this feature in Google Reader and I'd say that this is the ultimate way of creating blogrolls -- integrated with a very user-friendly Google product at that!

So now let me tell you some how-to tips in creating a blogroll in Google Reader:

1. Subscribe to your favorite blogs using Google Reader. If you're not yet a Reader user but is browsing using Mozilla Firefox, one easy way to do this is to open all the blogs listed in your existing blogroll and, one-by-one in each blog, click on the RSS button located in the right-most end of the address bar opposite the site's address. If an RSS button does not appear in the address bar, subscribe by clicking the "Add to Google", RSS or any feed icon that you can find somewhere in the blog. Another way to subscribe to a site is to do it directly in Google Reader: just copy and paste the blog's address in the "+Add subscription" field.

2. Tag each blog you've just subscribed to in Reader. Go to a subscribed blog and from the 'Feed settings...' pull-down menu, tag the blog by creating and adding it to a 'New folder' (e.g., "My Blogroll"). Do this for each of the blog you'd like to be included in your blogroll.

3. Change the folder's sharing setting to 'Public'. By default, all newly created folders in Reader are private. To change the setting, go to the Reader 'Settings' page then to 'Tags'. Select or tick your "My Blogroll" folder and from the "Change sharing.." pull-down menu, choose 'Public'.

4. Add your blogroll script into your blog's template. Instantly after doing the previous step, the "add a blogroll to your site" link should appear opposite your "My Blogroll" folder. Click on the link to pop up the "Put a Blogroll on your site" page. Customize the would-be appearance of your blogroll in your blog, copy the script and paste it in the part of your blog where your old blogroll used to be.

5. Rename your subscriptions. Now, you may want to change the names of the blogs as they appear in your Reader blogroll. To rename them to your wishes, go to the 'Feed settings...' pull-down menu and choose 'Rename subscription...'.

There you are, now you can easily organize and manage your blogroll while reading and keeping updated with all your favorite blogs through Google Reader.
--------------------
This is cross-posted in my other blog, Planet Google.

Thirsty For Some Joost? I've Got Unlimited Joost Invites!

2007-05-26T01:01:00.000+08:00

Joost has launched a new Beta version of its great cable-TV-in-your-PC software.

This version 0.10.3 otherwise known as "Joost Friends Edition" enables existing "Official Beta Testers" like me to invite as many friends or contacts as my time would allow it. In short, unlimited Joost invites for those who want to try the future of web-based cable TV. Leave a comment or email me if you want one.

I have to say that this recently released Joost version has some speed in it compared to the previous one that I tried (version 0.9.2). Well, my hard disk is newly defragged and this probably contributes to the program's speed and stability. In any case, I don't mind defragging my hard drive everyday as long as I can watch without a glitch Joost programs like this one:

From The Joost Team:
"(W)e invite you to enjoy the variety of new shows we're introducing each week. This week we bring you a host of new channels from Universal Music, great science fiction like Earth Final Conflict, and Creature Comforts from Aardman Animations. We've also got swimsuit models and snowboarders, anime and animals, and much more. But that's just the beginning. Each week we'll launch new channels - making sure you can watch what you want, when you want. So stay tuned..."

Well, I am. Way to go Joost Guys!

How Social Media Will Change the World

2007-05-11T01:43:00.000+08:00

Here's a very interesting article from Lifehack on how the concept of social media sites like Digg will most likely influence major areas of our lives and basically change the world:

With a very simple concept, Digg.com has changed the fundamental nature of the news media and how millions of people access information. Digg (and its fellow social media sites) democratized the media, and wrenched control of what gets read from the gatekeepers of print and broadcast corporations and gave it to the people. Now, argue about whether this is good or bad, but it’s now a fact of life.

And someday soon this concept will spread to just about every area of our lives, from politics to entertainment to business to … you name it.

Get ready for the democratization of everything, like it or not...

Read the article in full here.

SEOmoz's 2007 Web 2.0 Awards

2007-05-11T00:51:00.000+08:00

The Web 2.0 Awards were first created by SEOmoz in 2006:

"Our team reviewed hundreds of sites in the Web 2.0 sphere to uncover the best in each of 41 categories. From there, we assembled a team of 25 of the most knowledgeable, well-respected experts in the field to vote on the winners."

The Web 2.0 Awards Zeitgeist tells more information about the event.

Web 3.0: The Semantic Web

2007-05-10T01:33:00.000+08:00

So, this is is how somebody from W3C envision the future of the Web, which, as somebody claimed, could spell the end of Google:

The semantic web is an evolving extension of the World Wide Web in which web content can be expressed not only in natural language, but also in a form that can be understood, interpreted and used by software agents, thus permitting them to find, share and integrate information more easily.[1] It derives from W3C director Tim Berners-Lee's vision of the Web as a universal medium for data, information, and knowledge exchange.

Purpose

Humans are capable of using the Web to carry out tasks such as finding the Finnish word for "car", to reserve a library book, or to search for the cheapest DVD and buy it. However, a computer cannot accomplish the same tasks without human direction because web pages are designed to be read by people, not machines. The semantic web is a vision of information that is understandable by computers, so that they can perform more of the tedium involved in finding, sharing and combining information on the web.

For example, a computer might be instructed to list the prices of flat screen HDTVs larger than 40 inches with 1080p resolution at shops in the nearest town that are open until 8pm on Tuesday evenings. To do this today requires search engines that are individually tailored to every website being searched. The semantic web provides a common standard (RDF) for websites to publish the relevant information in a more readily machine-processable and integratable form.

Tim Berners-Lee originally expressed the vision of the semantic web as follows:
“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.”

—Tim Berners-Lee, 1999
Semantic publishing will benefit greatly from the semantic web. In particular, the semantic web is expected to revolutionize scientific publishing, such as real-time publishing and sharing of experimental data on the Internet. This simple but radical idea is now being explored by W3C HCLS group's Scientific Publishing Task Force (Demo).

Tim Berners-Lee has further stated:
“People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you've got an overlay of scalable vector graphics - everything rippling and folding and looking misty - on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you'll have access to an unbelievable data resource."

—Tim Berners-Lee, A 'more revolutionary' Web

You can learn more about The Semantic Web by going through the W3C Semantic Web Frequently Asked Questions.

[via Digg]

Slow Joost

2007-04-29T10:35:00.000+08:00

I have had Joost now for over a month and yet I haven't really enjoyed watching programs using the much-loved web-based cable TV software since the client basically crashes almost all the time.
Apparently, Joost's web connection speed and PC hardware requirements are quite high which is why, according to this Joost FAQ:

"We're constantly working to improve CPU and memory usage behaviour, but there are occasional instances where even quite powerful computers experience difficulties running the Joost software."

To improve Joost performance, someone suggested simple hard disk defragging. This would probably help especially if your system is low on ROM resources or disk space and since running the client "creates a cache on your hard drive that on occasions can become relatively large in size (up to 2GB).":

"However, it shouldn't normally fill up your disk, unless it was almost full to start with. We are aware that there is a Joost bug which shows up Disk Full errors when the disk is not full and asks for more info about your computer. If this happens, check if your disk is really full and if it is, try to free up some disk space."

Well, I guess it would still take some time before they finally figure out how to make Joost "lighter" and more responsive. It's still in beta anyway.

By the way, if you want to try Joost for yourself, leave a comment and I'll give you an invite -- I have three Joost invites up for grabs.

The Coming Virtual Web

2007-04-20T01:24:00.000+08:00

BusinessWeek Online has run a very interesting special report on the fast-becoming popular virtual world Second Life and The Coming Virtual Web.

From this article:

The number of Second Life residents generating more than $5,000 in monthly income has more than quadrupled to 116 in the past year, according to San Francisco's Linden Lab, owner of Second Life.

BusinessWeek.com made a stab at finding out who's raking in the most, and how. Virtual real estate has been the most lucrative industry from the start. The top land baron, Ailin Graef, became the first Second Life millionaire in November. Some Second Lifers are making a mint off consulting fees from the real-world corporations that are entering the virtual world. And there's a rapidly growing industry in designing clothes, accessories, and animation for avatars.

Start living in The New Web.

Btw, I am Lorimer Larsson in Second Life, pleased to meet you.

Interplanetary Internet

2007-04-15T01:39:00.000+08:00

Cyber and real terrorists who have thought of creating global havoc by destroying the Web's major hardware infrastructure may have to build a spaceship first before they can execute their plan:

Net reaches out to final frontier

A programme to kick-start the use of internet communications in space has been announced by the US government.

The Department of Defense's Iris project will put an internet router in space by the start of 2009.

Launching Iris could also signal the beginning of the development of the internet in space.
It will allow voice, video and data communications for US troops using standards developed for the internet.

Eventually Iris could extend the net into space, allowing data to flow directly between satellites, rather than sending it via ground stations.

"Iris is to the future of satellite-based communications what Arpanet was to the creation of the internet in the 1960s," said Don Brown, of Intelsat General, one of the companies who will build the platform.

...At the moment most satellites have to communicate with one another through ground stations or via radio signals to a relay satellite.

Deploying routers on satellites would allow them to communicate directly with one another using common internet standards, known as internet protocol (IP).

"The Iris architecture allows direct IP routing over satellite, eliminating the need for routing via a ground-based teleport," said Mr Brown.

It also raises the possibility of routinely transferring data through the satellite network, rather than ground based cables.

"This is a logical extension of radio communication between satellites," said Paul Stephens of DMC international imaging, a subsidiary of Surrey Satellites in the UK.

Along with Cisco and US space agency Nasa, it put one of the first routers in space onboard the UK-DMC satellite, part of the Disaster Monitoring Constellation (DMC) used for observing the Earth for major disasters.

The DMC router uses the latest IP networking standards to send critical images to ground stations for use by rescue workers.

With IP becoming more prevalent for use in space, Nasa and internet pioneer Vint Cerf have also investigated the possibility of using internet technology across the solar system.

Although some work has been carried out on the necessary standards and protocols, no definite schedule has been announced for this interplanetary internet.

Apparently, this is part of an idea of "one of the founding fathers of the Internet", Vint Cerf, to build an Interplanetary Internet.

The Future PC

2007-04-14T01:20:00.000+08:00

Is this how we will use the PC in the future? Well, at least that's how Intel envision the future to be with their aggressive development of the Ultra Mobile PC or UMPC.

Watch this and say "to think is to create" a thousand times:
Got this one from Om Malik's blog.

The New Web Defined

2007-03-14T21:28:00.000+08:00

Web 2.0 essentially embodies democracy in the internet.

For the more comprehensive definition, go to this Wikipedia article.

So, Where Will They Try Put An MP3 Player Next?

2007-03-08T20:12:00.000+08:00

Before, Levi's introduced the iPod jeans. Now, a company called DADA has launched their mp3-playing Dada Footwear Code M/BBS (ooops, for men). Which I think will only be marketable if a Nike Corporate Logo Swoosh is emblazoned on either side of the shoes.

Makes me wonder where or in what will some company try to put an mp3 player next?

Internet Killed the Television Star

2007-03-07T22:06:00.001+08:00

We're probably seeing the beginning of the end of the cable industry as this article suggests:

Television is big business. No, let's not understate it: television is very big business. The global broadcast and cable television industry generates billions of dollars worldwide annually from subscription, equipment, advertising, and service fees; and is dominated by huge media conglomerates like General Electric, Viacom, News Corp., and Disney. The new kid on the block is Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), which sends television signals over the Internet - and the early forecasts are bright. Research firm iSupply predicts that IPTV will be a $26 billion industry in 2010, while Gartner says that 3 years from now IPTV will have the attention of 48 million pairs of eyeballs.
This post looks at 3 new IPTV startups (plus a couple of "sort of IPTV" websites) that have been gaining steam over the past few months. Analysts and pundits view these companies as competitors to the cable industry, far more so than video sharing sites like YouTube.

read more | digg story

CNET's Top 10 Games in the Past Ten Years

2006-08-03T19:57:00.000+08:00

CNET released their Top 10 Games in last ten years in celebration of the tech site's 10th anniversary. I couldn't agree with them more om their top two choices.

Updates on Virgin Galactic's Plans

2006-06-18T15:42:00.000+08:00

Will you have the chance to take a flight on Virgin Galactic?

Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipOne claimed the X-Prize when it reached an altitude of 100km for the second time in less than 2 weeks. Although this was a much simpler feat than reaching orbital altitude and velocities, many believed we were on the verge of a space tourism revolution. Virgin Galactic, one of the companies attempting to make a business out of suborbital flights recently unveiled details about SpaceShipTwo at a space tourism conference in London.

Virgin Galactic is a collaborative venture between Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites. Branson committed to purchasing a fleet of larger vehicles than SpaceShipOne, capable of carrying a pilot and several passengers on a suborbital flight.

Reporters from Flight International were on hand at the recent Royal Aeronautical Society space tourism conference in London when representatives from Virgin Galactic updated the audience on their plans.

They revealed that SpaceShipTwo will be much larger than SS1, carrying 6 passengers and 2 pilots. The vehicles will be carried into the air by bigger versions of the White Knight aircraft. Once they fire their new hybrid rocket motors, the vehicles will be capable of reaching an altitude of 140 km. Brave passengers will experience 5 minutes of weightlessness, where they might be allowed to float around the cabin. They’ll have to hurry back to their chairs; however, as they’ll suffer 7Gs of force as the vehicle decelerates back through the atmosphere.

All About Maps

2006-06-18T11:43:00.000+08:00

What's with maps in relation to the Web nowadays? Check out these interesting articles:

Where 2.0 Gives the World Meaning
At another table, a web developer named Christopher Schmidt showed off his system for locating himself on a map using nothing more than a tiny Python application on his Nokia phone and a Bluetooth-enabled GPS device. When he's not working for map-sharing site Platial and map-analysis company MetaCarta, Schmidt spends his time wandering around his hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, using his custom cell-phone software to unmask the ID numbers on each GSM cell tower he passes. Then he associates that tower ID with a GPS-defined location, and uploads it to his website.

When his electronic surveying is complete, Schmidt will have a system that can tell him where he is at all times -- without GPS -- by triangulating the signals from the newly mapped cell towers.

Calling himself a "neogeographer," Schmidt is part of a generation of coders whose work is inspired by easily obtained map data, as well as the mashups made possible by Google Maps and Microsoft's Virtual Earth.

Undoubtedly, the most interesting map geekery was coming out of a growing group of open-source programmers who've devoted themselves to liberating the tools once used by experts to do geographical analysis. Schuyler Erle, co-author of Mapping Hacks, said the open-source community has focused on all the things you can't do in Google Maps. "We can browse Google Maps, but the look and feel of those maps is fixed," he explained. "We want the flexibility to tell our own stories with maps. What's exciting is the ability to do your own cartography, to put your own labels on and show your own roads."

The Now Of Gaming

2006-06-17T23:05:00.000+08:00

Yes, I know, you've got to play this one: Crysis

The Future of Gaming

2006-06-15T21:27:00.000+08:00

One day, the guys at Valve would add new meaning to the phrase "first-person shooter game" and make a VR version of Counterstrike in the same fashion as the creators of Warcraft would notice the project of this PhD student and take multi-player real-time strategy gaming into new heights with this:

This video shows some of my PhD research on multi user multimodal tabletop interaction. It allows multi user gesture and speech interaction ... all » over Google Earth and Warcraft III on a digital table display.

Uber cool!

INTEL's Next Gen Notebook Designs

2006-06-12T21:23:00.000+08:00

This site has a video showing "some very innovative and creative designs for next generation laptops":

Intel likes toying around with PC and laptop designs to push the imagination and creativity with computer makers. That's why the chipmaker periodically creates concept designs that it will never produce.
The latest two designs were first unveiled at Intel Developer Forum last spring and were on display this week at Research at Intel Day.

read more | digg story

Meet Japan's latest robot

2006-06-12T12:43:00.000+08:00

When it comes to robotics, Japan is no doubt the world's frontrunner. Look at their latest creation here:

Japan's latest samurai robot swaggered around a Tokyo department store to promote a full range of house-sitting robot and to gear up itself up to start its overseas business.

The robot, named ''Kiyomori'' after a 12th-century general (Taira no Kiyomori), can walk and sit comfortably with its 39 jointed frame.

The company said thanks to its new technology, Kiyomori walks more humanlike than others biped walking robots which are unable to stretch their knees while walking.

read more | digg story

Bloggers take on telecoms giants to save spirit of Net

2006-06-10T23:07:00.001+08:00

The essence of the Web is freedom and democracy. Fight to save the true spirit of the Net!

From this article in the The Independent Online Edition:

Campaigners across the political spectrum are massing against plans to introduce "congestion charging" on the World Wide Web, which they say could kill the spirit of the internet.

An army of bloggers has been joined by celebrities including the singer Moby and the founders of Google and Microsoft to fight a decision in the US House of Representatives that allows telecoms companies to charge popular websites for priority access to the Web.

A law that would have enshrined the neutrality of the Net was voted down by congressmen late on Thursday.

Telecom and cable companies are in effect being allowed to erect toll booths along the information superhighway - and individuals who post their own videos or blogs online could find their websites confined to the internet's B-roads or even blocked altogether.

A Sad Day for The Web:' US House rejects Net neutrality rules'

2006-06-09T21:40:00.000+08:00

I think this is so important I'm also posting it here in this blog:

Today will be defined in history books as the day the Internet started to become NOT democratic and free: House rejects Net neutrality rules:

The U.S. House of Representatives definitively rejected the concept of Net neutrality on Thursday, dealing a bitter blow to Internet companies like Amazon.com, eBay and Google that had engaged in a last-minute lobbying campaign to support it.

Read what is being talked about as Google's "last-minute lobbying campaign to support" Net Neutrality here. Or better yet, I'm pasting here in full what Google CEO Eric Schmidt himself has to say about it (Google even created a webpage for it in haste, which is in itself rare):

A Note to Google Users on Net Neutrality:

The Internet as we know it is facing a serious threat. There's a debate heating up in Washington, DC on something called "net neutrality" – and it's a debate that's so important Google is asking you to get involved. We're asking you to take action to protect Internet freedom.

In the next few days, the House of Representatives is going to vote on a bill that would fundamentally alter the Internet. That bill, and one that may come up for a key vote in the Senate in the next few weeks, would give the big phone and cable companies the power to pick and choose what you will be able to see and do on the Internet.

Today the Internet is an information highway where anybody – no matter how large or small, how traditional or unconventional – has equal access. But the phone and cable monopolies, who control almost all Internet access, want the power to choose who gets access to high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest. They want to build a two-tiered system and block the on-ramps for those who can't pay.

Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight. Please call your representative (202-224-3121) and let your voice be heard.

Thanks for your time, your concern and your support.

Eric Schmidt

I know. It's all sad.

read more | digg story

Eat Your Heart Out, Windows!

2006-05-26T21:26:00.000+08:00

At last, we are seeing the beginning of the end in Microsoft's dominance of the PC software market. Google and Dell teamed up in a bid to break Windows!:

MICROSOFT'S dominance of the computer software market came under attack today after PC giant Dell and internet search engine Google reached a landmark deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, millions of Dell computers will come supplied from the factory with Google software already installed, including several PC applications, a Google toolbar and a co-branded homepage.
Advert for The Scotsman Digital Archive

Financial details were not disclosed, but both firms will receive revenues from the deal.

When the negotiations between the pair were first reported nearly four months ago, Google reportedly was considering paying Dell up to $1 billion (£534 million) to load its software over a three-year period.

"It's a really big deal for both companies," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. "It's very good for them and very good for us."

The deal is likely to mark a major turning point for Google and mark a serious threat to Microsoft. Powered by its dominant Windows operating system and leading Internet Explorer web browser, Microsoft has long been the guiding force for most consumers' computing experiences.

Don't you just love it when you know you will eventually have a better alternative in Google products than mediocre softwares from Microsoft? I don't know about you, but don't you also think the Google Trend below on Google vs. Microsoft says a lot about whom company should users trust more?:

	EU Hits Microsoft With Record $613M Fine Corvallis Gazette Times - Mar 24 2004
	Google Share Price Set At $85 WTOV9.com - Aug 19 2004
	EU court rules against Microsoft KING5.com (subscription) - Dec 22 2004
	Google shares soar CNN - Oct 21 2005
	Google shares sink NEWS.com.au - Feb 1 2006
	Microsoft to Delay Windows Vista Release Munster Times - Mar 22 2006

We Will Always Be Feeling Lucky With Google

2006-05-25T20:37:00.000+08:00

You have something in the tip of your toungue. But what's in your mind are just seemingly random words that you're not even sure relate to what you're trying to say or remember. You go to Google and type the keywords in the search field. You click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button and there it is: the site that reminds you of what you'd like to say or think/remember.

That's how the "I'm Feeling Lucky" feature of Google works. I read somewhere that the search algorithm used by Google actually mimics or simulates how the human brain works. So it's no surprise what Larry Page announced on their vision of the "ultimate search engine" in this article:

A search engine that knows exactly what you are looking for, that can understand the question you are asking even better than you do, and find exactly the right information for you, instantly - that was the future predicted by Google yesterday.

Speaking at a conference for Google's European partners, entitled Zeitgeist '06, on the outskirts of London last night Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page gave an insight into perhaps the most ambitious project the Californian business is undertaking - artificial intelligence (AI).

"The ultimate search engine would understand everything in the world. It would understand everything that you asked it and give you back the exact right thing instantly," Mr Page told an audience of the digerati representing firms from Warner Music and AOL to BSkyB and the BBC. "You could ask 'what should I ask Larry?' and it would tell you."

Eventually, we will always be feeling lucky with Google. :-)

read more | digg story

Google Adsense Going Into Video Ads

2006-05-23T21:30:00.000+08:00

From this article:

Google Inc. will begin distributing online video ads for the first time later this week, continuing the Internet search engine leader\'s effort to diversify beyond the static written messages that generate most of its profits.

Gotta have Adsense video ads in my blogs!

read more | digg story

Yes, They're Still About Search

2006-05-11T21:16:00.000+08:00

Disproving notions that Google is veering away from its mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful", the search giant recently simultaneously released not one, not two, but four (!) products with "one thing in common: They all enhance and improve the search experience for our users."

Google Co-op is a way for users to help us improve search. It lets people and organizations label web pages and create specialized links related to their unique expertise. Whether it's information about a hobby, a profession, or an unusual interest, everyone can contribute to making Google search more relevant and useful for the entire community.

Google Desktop 4 gives you another way to improve search, by personalizing your desktop. New "Google Gadgets" deliver an array of information--ranging from games and media players to weather updates and news--straight to your desktop.

Google Notebook (which we'll be launching next week) is a personal browser tool that lets you clip text, images, and links from the pages you're searching, save clippings to an online notebook, and then share notebooks with others.

Google Trends builds on the idea behind the Google Zeitgeist, allowing you to sort through several years of Google search queries from around the world to get a general idea of everything from user preferences on ice-cream flavors to the relative popularity of politicians in their respective cities or countries.

I personally love Google Trends and Google Desktop and I think I can never have enough of Google's great products. Google can always shove every new product down my throat for all I care since I'm always sure the product is created with me, the user, in Google's mind first.

So what are you waiting for? Take your own picks.

The Combimouse

2006-05-07T12:15:00.000+08:00

[via Digg; Engadget]

All in the name of computing efficiency, the Combimouse is one brilliant idea, indeed:

(The) concept is quite simple: reduce the repetitive and arduous task of moving your hand from keyboard to mouse and back again a few thousand times a day. They accomplish that by splitting the keyboard and making the right half into a full fledged mouse. Your merely switch up your grip and the mouse function automatically springs into action. You might look a bit dorky in the act, and it surely won't work for everybody, but it seems to us that a spreadsheet pusher could quickly get used to the setup and learn to rock it.

Why is 'Ctrl-Alt-Delete' famous?

2006-03-10T20:21:00.000+08:00

Two words: Bill Gates.

The Dark Side of Natalie Portman

2006-03-09T20:59:00.000+08:00

A Day in The Life of Natalie Portman. Hahaha.

Microsoft's Origami Project: The Ultra-Mobile PC

2006-03-09T20:38:00.000+08:00

So, this is what Bill Gates has been blabbering about:

The Ultra-Mobile PC a.k.a. the meaner Tablet PC

Google's Decision Is Correct If China Eventually Becomes A Democracy

2006-01-28T17:46:00.000+08:00

Filtered search results is better than no search results at all. That is Google's reasoning in agreeing to launch a Chinese local version of Google, Google.cn, on the week of the Chinese New Year at that:

Google users in China today struggle with a service that, to be blunt, isn't very good. Google.com appears to be down around 10% of the time. Even when users can reach it, the website is slow, and sometimes produces results that when clicked on, stall out the user's browser. Our Google News service is never available; Google Images is accessible only half the time. At Google we work hard to create a great experience for our users, and the level of service we've been able to provide in China is not something we're proud of.

This problem could only be resolved by creating a local presence, and this week we did so, by launching Google.cn, our website for the People's Republic of China. In order to do so, we have agreed to remove certain sensitive information from our search results. We know that many people are upset about this decision, and frankly, we understand their point of view. This wasn't an easy choice, but in the end, we believe the course of action we've chosen will prove to be the right one.

I'm with Google on this and I hope they will indeed turn out to be right although I'm thinking how can we eventually qualify if Google's decision is correct? If China becomes a democracy because of this move by Google? Well, no one knows although we should never underestimate the power of limited information.

Limited information is better than no information at all.

Sex-Based MMORPG On Its Way

2006-01-19T20:41:00.000+08:00

As predicted, the release of this MMORPG would catch the fancy of, well, all hardcore gamers (pun intended):

Naughty America purports to be the world's first online game to feature sex (according to its tagline), conveniently ignoring games such as Sociolotron and Red Light World, not to mention Spend the Night.

In what appears to be a cross between The Sims, Habbo Hotel and online dating, Naughty America will allow users to perform sexual activities and even film them, as well as customise their appearance and decorate their house. It's available in March 2006. If you like getting naughty with other toons, it might be for you, but there are plenty of other offerings out there in the adult space at the moment for your… enjoyment.

I always say I'd like to try doing anything once. Playing this game included.

iPod-Compatible Levi's Jeans

2006-01-11T19:28:00.000+08:00

Know why Apple's iPod is at the market for the long haul? Because of developments like this: Levi Strauss debuts iPod-compatible jeans:

"The Levi's RedWire DLX Jean is the latest extension of the Levi's brand leadership position by merging fashion and technology that provides consumers with the most innovative way to enhance their portable, digital music lifestyle," said Robert Hanson, Levi's U.S. brand president in the press release. "In designing the jeans we considered both function and fashion -- the result is a uniquely functional, yet stylish, great fitting jean."

Design features include:
Easy Pocket Storage -- An iPod docking cradle is built into the jeans and is "invisibly" housed within a side pocket. The Levi's design team took special care to ensure the iPod unit remains neatly and securely stored in the jean, while the iPod "bump" in the pocket is virtually eliminated. The cradle is equipped with sophisticated technology housed in a red conductive ribbon that allows users to quickly and easily remove their iPod from the pocket to view its screen while staying connected. The jean is machine washable once the iPod is removed.
"Hip" Controls -- A special joystick remote control is externally designed into the jeans' watch pocket to enable operation of the iPod. Four-way controls allow the wearer to easily play/pause, track forward, track back and adjust the volume control without ever removing the iPod from the pocket.
Handy Wire Retractor -- A handy retractable headphone unit has been built directly into the jean to help prevent tangles and efficiently manage the iPod earphone wires.
The new Levi's RedWire DLX jeans have been developed to be practical and leading-edge in their aesthetic. A crisp white leather patch and joystick, bluffed back pockets with hidden stitching, and clean minimalist buttons and rivets allude to the iPod's famously pure design. Special care has been taken to marry the physical design with a great-fitting jean.

read more | digg story

Larry Page, Robin Williams Rock CES

2006-01-08T05:20:00.000+08:00

All The New Web is abuzz with how Larry Page and Robin Williams rocked CES during the Google CES keynote.

The event, everybody says, was a huge contrast to that of Bill Gates' opening keynote address.

According to Engadget's live coverage of the event (where I shamelessly got the picture):

General opinion around us is this is one of the best keynotes ever. Incredibily entertaining yet sincere. Jason says, "There was no spin. I still don't know what Viiv is about, but I understood everything [Google] showed today perfectly."

During the show, Larry Page introduced Google Pack and Google Video Store through which and for a set price people will be able to sell their own videos and at the same time download or buy CBS TV shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, NCIS, Survivor and The Amazing Race" and choose from a library of classics like "I Love Lucy, The Brady Bunch, The Twilight Zone, MacGyver, Have Gun Will Travel, Mannix, My Three Sons, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager".

Plus people can also buy from a wide selection of "cartoon classics from Classic Media and children's educational programming from Clearvue", "music videos from SONY BMG" and "historic, news and educational footage from ITN". And for NBA fans:

"Google Video will also feature NBA games from this season and some of the greatest individual performances in NBA history. Marking the first time NBA fans can purchase full NBA contests on the Web, each NBA game for the rest of this season, including the NBA Playoffs and The Finals, will be available to fans in its entirety 24 hours after the contest's conclusion. In addition, the highest scoring games of several of the NBA's best players will be available including Kobe Bryant's 62 point performance in three quarters vs. Dallas last month."

So if you have a home video or movie that you'd like to share or let others watch, then you can upload it through the Google Video Upload Program.

I've already uploaded mine. :)

Managing and Updating Google Pack With Google Updater

2006-01-08T02:31:00.000+08:00

The great thing with the recently released Google Pack is not so much that Google now offers users a suite of great freebies as Google has also bundled a tool on installing, updating and managing those softwares -- the Google Updater -- which makes everything all the easier:

What is Google Updater?

The Google Updater is the program that downloads and installs all the software in the Google Pack. You can use the Google Updater to monitor the status of your installation, run software that’s been installed, or uninstall software. A Google Updater icon will appear in your system tray and will display notifications when there are updates or new software available.

You can find all available softwares for inclusion in the Google Pack download here. Some notable ones are Trillian, Ad-Aware SE Personal, Adobe Acrobat 7, which now "launches up to 50% faster than Reader 6.0" (finally!), and the new Google Pack Screensaver with which you can "turn photos from your personal collection into a screensaver" and "view your photos full screen or as a virtual collage".

I just wished though that Trend Micro pushed for the inclusion of PC-cillin Internet Security 2006 in the Google Pack instead of users making do with Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition. Oh, well.

Live Coverage CES 2006 - Bill Gates Keynote

2006-01-06T07:57:00.000+08:00

Here's what's abuzz on the New Web:

Bill Gates' Consumer Electronics Association (CES) 2006 keynote where he talks about Microsoft's grand plans to offer products and technologies to consumers during this age of what he calls the "digital lifestyle":

"We've talked about this as the decade of digital lifestyle, the decade of digital workstyle. It's not just one application that makes it happen. It's the fact that as you adopt these things, they really go together."

Microsoft is really being aggressive in pushing forward with their media-centered software and products by partnering and having alliances with the big players in the media and telecommunications industry.

And that's what I think is great about Bill Gates: by being on the forefront of the digital revolution and anticipating what could the consumers want before they'd even realize that they need or want it.

1 In 10 Now Use Mozilla's Firefox

2006-01-06T02:11:00.000+08:00

From this article:

Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox browser finished the year with a flourish, a Web measurement firm said Wednesday, and came within half a point of the 10 percent market share that many analysts have set as the bar to long-term success against Microsoft's leading Internet Explorer.

According to the latest numbers from Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based NetApplications, Firefox wrapped up 2005 with 9.6 percent of the browser market, a gain of almost a full point over November.

"Firefox is very close to hitting a critical mass of 10 percent, which could mean a more rapid adoption rate," said Vince Vizzaccaro, vice president of marketing at NetApplications, in a statement.

So, if you happen to be one of those nine web users who still have the naivete and patience to use IE, then I recommend that you immediately switch to using Firefox and start worry-free browsing the Web.

Here's a complete breakdown of the browser share December data from Net Applications:

Sorry, No Google PC

2006-01-05T02:29:00.000+08:00

Google has broken the silence on speculations that the search giant would be venturing on hardware and maket $200-PCs:

"We have many PC partners who serve their markets exceedingly well and we see no need to enter that market," a Google spokesman told Times Online. "We would rather partner with great companies."

While Google has already been marketing a search appliance for small and medium-sized businesses in Google Mini, the company's core business is basically search and online advertising:

The LA Times report built on a note from Robert Peck, a Bear Stearns analyst, who recently said Google was set to launch "Google Cubes" – simple network-based boxes that could link and control home entertainment and computer systems. "In fact, Google could over time become more of a hardware company than anything else," he said.

However, it does seem strange that Google would want to move away from high-margin online advertising, its core business, to enter low-margin hardware manufacture.

So, now it seems Google is not bent on taking control of our lives after all.

And what does this teach me? Not everything you read on the Web is true.

CNN Poll: Google the best of the Web

2005-12-31T01:29:00.000+08:00

Although this doesn't come as a surprise for me, based on a year-end CNN survey:

"The search engine Google is the most significant development in the 15-year history of the World Wide Web, according to a poll of CNN.com users...

As part of the special, CNN.com ran a list of the top 10 defining moments during this time, and asked viewers whether they agreed with the list.

Forty one percent -- or 7,198 -- agreed that the advent of Google had the biggest impact on the World Wide Web."

Part of the results of the same survey by CNN Spark points to the Top Ten Web Moments:

"These are Spark's picks as the top 10 moments in the World Wide Web's short but impressive life...

10. WiFi hotspots -- Wireless Internet connectivity appears in airports, hotels and even McDonald's.

9. Webcams and photo sharing -- Communication becomes visual, and inboxes fill with baby photos.

8. Skype -- Telephony turns upside down with free long-distance calls, Ebay snaps it up in September 2005 for $2.6 billion.

7. Live 8 on AOL -- Five million people watch poverty awareness concerts online in July 2005, setting a new Net record.

6. Napster goes offline -- Regulators close the pioneering music swap site in July 2001 and file-sharing goes offshore.

5. Lewinsky scandal -- Matt Drudge breaks the Clinton/Lewinsky sex scandal in 1998. The blog is born.

4. Tsunami and 9/11 -- Two tragic events set the Web alight with opinion and amateur video.

3. Boom and bust -- Trillions of dollars were made and lost as the dotcom bubble ballooned and burst between 1995 and 2001.

2. Hotmail -- Went from having zero users in 1995 to 30 million subscribers 30 months later. It now has 215 million users.

1. Google -- Redefined search. Invented a new advertising model and commands a vast business empire."

I don't consider Google as just the best of the web -- Google IS the Web.

read more | digg story

All They Wanted For Christmas Was An i-P-o-d

2005-12-28T02:13:00.000+08:00

In contrast to Google Zeitgeist's weekly releases, Yahoo's Buzz Index offers a more, well, real-time indication of how Yahoo! search users behaved. Take this article, for example, about how Yahoo! searches on iPods spiked right after Christmas day:

Apple Swallows Holiday Buzz:

Queries on the coveted device more than doubled on the 25th after the wrapping paper was ripped to shreds, boosting the iPod into our top 20 search terms. Searches on Apple's music service, iTunes, were up 178% as well and cracked our top 30. But that's just a small indication of the stranglehold Apple had over the holidays -- iPod-related searches made up a humongous hunk of our top Buzz movers on Chrismukkah.

It could just well be that, compared to Yahoo's, Google search data are so huge that crunching or extracting trends from them always takes more time.

read more | digg story

"Digitization Continues"

2005-12-21T13:01:00.000+08:00

Google has released its 2005 year-ender Zeitgeist. The Google Zeitgeist "reflects tidbits of information related to the search behavior of Google users" and it pretty much shows the recent thoughts of an average Web user whereever in the world he is.

Google included this phenom about podcasting in this year-ender zeitgeist:

Digitization Continues
Cognoscenti may know that MP3 is the audio file format everyone is using to hear and share music, but the name of a certain company’s device that such files are played on is even easier to remember. Apple’s iPod inspired another new term: podcasting, which signifies producing or listening to digital audio on that very same portable device.

Hmmm, podcasting anyone?

[via the Google Blog]

NEXT: iPods With Built-In Mobile Phones

2005-12-17T21:24:00.000+08:00

Consider this trend: Consumers seek more iPods than cell phones this holiday.

Next year, we should probably be expecting iPods with built-in mobiles instead of cell phones having gigabytes of storage memory or even iPods with digicams as accessories.

I think everybody should begin to try podcasting nowadays...

read more | digg story

Podcasting For Regular People

2005-12-12T05:12:00.000+08:00

You know why "podcast" has been declared as Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary?

You'll get the idea from this post from Evan William's blog about the big update at Odeo (I'm copying and pasting it in it's entirety):

Odeo version Next

Friday, December 02, 2005
Today we launched a big update at Odeo.

The biggest change is that anyone can now use the in-the-browser recording tool (Odeo Studio) and phone posting, along with the "Casually Private" sharing functionality we built around the idea of casual content creation. We've also redesigned the homepage for simplification and the workflow of the site around the idea of an audio inbox. You can still download everything in iTunes or your podcast client of choice. Or you can listen on the site.

So check it out. Record something. Send it to your mom.

Google's Plan To Take Control Of Our Lives

2005-12-01T22:37:00.000+08:00

Apparently, Google is not only targetting airports in making their presence felt in the not-so-virtual world. According to this blog post, Google is in the planning stage of producing an appliance "filled with just about any port you can name, including USB, RJ-45, RJ-11, analog and digital video, S-video, analog and optical sound, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth."

It seems to me that Google doesn't trust anybody else which is why they themselves are doing the job of providing what they think would be the best experience web slash home users deserve.

At the rate Google is slowly taking control of our lives, the company would eventually evolve into some kind of humanity's Big Brother.

Mozilla Foundation Releases Firefox 1.5

2005-11-29T17:24:00.000+08:00

Coinciding with the long-anticipated launch of Google AdSense's international Firefox referrals program, the Mozilla Foundation has released Firefox 1.5:

Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 3 is now available for download. This is the third release candidate of our next generation Firefox browser, to be released later this year, and it is being made available to our developer and testing community for compatibility testing and to solicit feedback.

Google's partnership with and support for the Mozilla foundation surely causes jitter in Microsoft's once-formidable hold of the software industry despite the reported earlier-than-scheduled release of Windows Vista next year.

read more | digg story

Growth@Google

2005-11-23T00:42:00.000+08:00

"Google employee population has swelled by more than 1600% in less than five years. How long before the layoffs begin?"

The day Google starts laying off people is the day the Web ceases to exist. And for that to happen, I think some carbon form of an electronic-chip-eating virus-fungus that by some chance can propagate through the Web and infect every existing PC circuitry would have to be created inside a lab.

And the possibility of that from ever happening is very remote. Well, for now.

Google will plateau, of course. But to imagine a company employing the most number of people with PhDs allowing its performance to drop meriting its reduction in headcount, that would be a sorry scenario. Google is the Web and the Web Google. Well, for now.

Or realistically, the day Google starts laying off people is the day its competitors, united by a common goal of bumping Google off the Web's pinnacle, triumphs.

read more digg story

Setting The Trend: Google's Free Wi-Fi For Mountain View

2005-11-21T02:39:00.000+08:00

Years from now, connecting to the Web would be just like turning your TV on. Thanks to this trendsetting move slash community outreach program slash win-win promotional project by Google.

Google's Wi-Fi gift to its home city of Mountain View only demonstrates the company's committment to serve society and the limitless number of doors for development that can be opened if resources are shared for the common good.

Imagine if all local governments of every city in the world follow suit. Imagine the possibilities.

read more | digg story

Real Story of the Rogue Rootkit

2005-11-18T19:08:00.000+08:00

Here's a Wired article on the events leading to the world's discovery of the invasive Sony CD rootkit, Sony admitting its mistake and incompetence and the failure of McAfee and Symantec to take appropriate actions on the security flaw.

read more | digg story

Trend Micro's Guide To Security For The Growing Business

2005-11-18T14:02:00.000+08:00

Here's a very useful guide from Trend Micro, the antivirus company regarded as the most innovative in the security industry. So, if I were you, you might want to check it out and listen.

read more | digg story

Google Base Launched! Google Purchase Next!

2005-11-16T22:38:00.000+08:00

Eat your heart out Amazon and eBay. Google Base is now live!

It's only a matter of time before Google launches Google Purchase or the program used to be speculated to be called as Google Wallet. Google Purchase is a direct complement of Google Base and it is expected to be the Web's alternative to Paypal.

Google is implementing its well-laid business plan with all the acquisitions it has made since the search giant went public and sometimes, the company's moves are predictable. But after acquiring Blogger, Picasa, Keyhole, Urchin, Orkut and dozens of other companies and registering all those new domains presumably to take a hold of the homes of future projects, it makes one wonder where is this all leading to.

What else are there in the Google pipeline?. Does Google really know where it's going?

read more digg story

A Future Timeline of Humanity and the Universe.

2005-11-13T11:49:00.000+08:00

This is a very interesting find. It shows a chronology of future events that could happen with humanity and the Universe.

Curiously, why are the items in the immediate future mostly "potentially contentious assertions" and the future logs millions of years from now "relatively uncontentious assertions"?

Makes me wonder if humans are getting impatient to witness the end of the Universe.

read more | digg story

The 'Unthinkable' Becomes Possible

2005-11-07T14:14:00.000+08:00

Michael Lynn's July presentation at the Black Hat security conference proved that hackers could exercise control over Cisco Systems' once-impenetrable Internetwork Operating System.

read more | digg story

An Online Funeral for Girl in World of Warcraft after Playing for Several Days Straight

2005-11-05T12:46:00.000+08:00

This is quite disturbing. I've heard of offline transactions of valuable in-game MMORPG items involving thousands of dollars, but this one is way too much. The Chinese are quite prone to this excessive online game addiction.

read more | digg story

Live! Live! Live!

2005-11-03T12:13:00.000+08:00

Google Video Blog is now Live! Watch the coolest videos contributed to the Google Upload Program.

You can also view some screenshots of the soon-to-be-released Microsoft Office Live here.

read more | digg story

A Web-Based Office

2005-11-01T16:01:00.000+08:00

Google is everywhere and everything on the web and, as yet another blow to Microsoft, Google is planning to hire programmers to improve OpenOffice.org:

OpenOffice has its roots in Sun Microsystems' StarOffice suite of programs. Five years ago, Sun turned its proprietary software into an open-source project. Only recently, however, has the competitor to Microsoft's Office attracted serious attention.

Now Google believes it can help OpenOffice--perhaps working to pare down the software's memory requirements or its mammoth 80MB download size, said Chris DiBona, manager for open-source programs at the search company.

"We want to hire a couple of folks to help make OpenOffice better," DiBona said.

Google has shown an affinity for open-source software, which are programs developed in the open and available for free. Many of the company's programmers came of age in the open-source era, so advancing the open-source agenda comes naturally, DiBona said. But the company also has business reasons to justify its open-source embrace.

"We use a fair amount of open-source software at Google. We want to make sure that's a healthy community. And we want to make sure open source preserves competitiveness within the industry," he said.

This move by Google is directly aimed at eventually competing and taking a market share of Microsoft's expensive suite of office productivity tools. This while Microsoft itself is planning to build a fully web-based Office.

Development of a Web-based Office is a not threat, contrary to what this article is saying. Would somebody see it as a threat if it would in time be offered for free?

Well, if you're a Microsoft employee, then, indeed, you would.

Coming Soon: Online Sex Games

2005-10-31T22:26:00.000+08:00

I read this article from Wired and thought, how a sex orgy inside a MMORPG would look like? Hahaha

Business 2.0 On Web 2.0

2005-10-29T04:25:00.000+08:00

Dot com startups and internet venture capitalists of the late 1990s learned the hard way -- good business should always be based on a sound business model. Web 1.0 was rather founded on fad:

"The problem with the last boom was that it was a bunch of VCs getting together and writing on a napkin what the ideal company was," says Danny Rimer, a VC with London-based Index Ventures and an early investor in Skype. "The better entrepreneurs today are launching companies based on ideas that are already proven in some way, often with substantial revenues. Today's boom isn't a 'What if?' proposition—it's substantiated."

When Netscape's IPO kicked off the original Internet boom, there wasn't a proven, sturdy business model to support all the ideas that later came flying into the market. This time there is. It starts with the melding of advertising, search and e-commerce developed by what are now referred to in Silicon Valley as the Big Five—Amazon.com, eBay, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Advertisers are flocking to the Web; Internet advertising, $9.6 billion last year, was up 26 percent in the first half of 2005 and is projected to hit $12 billion for the year. (Via this CNN Money article)

A Self-Powered Car

2005-10-25T20:44:00.000+08:00

The Israelis who are pioneering this technology would surely win a future X-Prize for Energy:

Amnon Yogev, one of the two founders of Engineuity, and a retired Professor of the Weizmann Institute, suggested a method for producing a continuous flow of Hydrogen and steam under full pressure inside a car. This method could also be used for producing hydrogen for fuel cells and other applications requiring hydrogen and/or steam.

The Hydrogen car Engineuity is working on will use metals such as Magnesium or Aluminum which will come in the form of a long coil. The gas tank in conventional vehicles will be replaced by a device called a Metal-Steam combustor that will separate Hydrogen out of heated water.

The basic idea behind the technology is relatively simple: the tip of the metal coil is inserted into the Metal-Steam combustor together with water where it will be heated to very high temperatures. The metal atoms will bond to the Oxygen from the water, creating metal oxide. As a result, the Hydrogen molecules are free, and will be sent into the engine alongside the steam.

The solid waste product of the process, in the form of metal oxide, will later be collected in the fuel station and recycled for further use by the metal industry. (Article via the Digg front page)

Understandably, Israel would be the first Middle Eastern state that needs this technology since it's not a major oil-producing country and oftentimes in the past its domestic oil demand exceeded supply. But then, of course, Saddam's Iraq is no more and Israel is a direct beneficiary of that US conquest. As this person puts it: it's all about Israel's need for oil.

It's always a sensitive issue when it comes to viable alternative energy sources to oil and petroleum. A number of economies in the world has oil as their lifeblood. Introduction of technologies that would result to alternatives to oil products seems to be always met with discouragement and does not prosper. Depending on which country you live in, this, however, is always good news.

I just hope that eventually promoting an X-Prize for Energy would change all of that. And more.

Human 2.0

2005-10-25T17:19:00.000+08:00

I've always belived we as human beings have been perpetually striving for the perfection of our species, much like our inherent desire for immortality.

Similar to our ancestors' discovery of fire and the first hunting tools made of rocks, technology has been our primary tool in advancing human knowledge to the point of simulating and even surpassing the processing power of how we gain it -- by using our brains.

Here's a thought-provoking artile via the Digg front page: Human 2.0

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Update: Here's a related Wikipedia article on Technological Singularity.

Saving the World With Tech

2005-10-23T20:10:00.000+08:00

From this article in Wired:

X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis kicked off the PopTech conference ... with a lofty goal ...: "Our mission is to bring about radical breakthroughs," he said in his opening-day address.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle-clearing solution offered up came from Diamandis, whose recent announcement of a NASCAR-like Rocket Racing League intends to spark America's love of spaceflight anew.

Those "radical breakthroughs" Diamandis hopes to incite may come from a new generation of X-Prizes Diamandis' organization is now putting together. "The X-Prize worked, and it worked so well that we have decided to build the X-Prize Foundation beyond space into other prize areas," he said.

There will be X-Prizes, Diamandis said, for education, genomics and energy. The energy prize, in fact, should be off the blocks soon. "We're trying to completely rework the automobile industry. It's a broken industry," he said. "There is no good reason why we don't have cars right now that are getting amazing performance at 200 miles per gallon or greater."

Indeed, with the dwindling energy resources of the planet, innovations on how we spend energy and fuel much more efficiently are very welcome and should be encouraged by promoting these new generation of X-Prizes, especially an X-Prize for energy.

The World's Smallest Car

2005-10-23T19:35:00.000+08:00

From this article in the PC Mag:

At four nanometers long and three wide, the Nanocar, developed by researchers at Rice University, takes the cake as the smallest car in the world.

"You couldn't build a smaller car," says Jim Tour, professor of chemistry and leader of the Rice University research team. The Nanocar is built of a single molecule, and it's impossible to assemble anything smaller than an individual molecule.

According to the article, the Rice University research team was able to record the first Nanocar collision in history. I wonder how fast can these Nanocars go. Do they come complete with standard ABS and airbags? Hmmm....

The Ten Best Mobiles Ever Made

2005-10-23T17:29:00.000+08:00

According to this article from the The Independent, the following are the ten best mobile phones ever manufactured:

Motorola DynaTAC
Nokia Cityman
The Motorola StarTAC
Nokia 8210
Sony Ericsson T610
KDDI Talby
Motorola V3 RAZR
Isamu Sanada HiPod
Nokia 8800
Vodafone Simply

Mobiles are not being called mobile or cellular or cell phones or simply cells anymore -- the terms are so nineties. The Industry would rather refer to them as mobile devices -- cameraphones, videophones, music players, navigation units, games consoles, pacemakers:

Add to this phones with blood-testing capabilities for diabetics and with fingerprint-recognition for spies, and you can see that the possibilities are endless.

I've always been waiting for a mobile device with a built-in lighter. Guess I have to wait for some time more.

Google's Money-Making Machine

2005-10-21T19:04:00.000+08:00

So, it is but fitting that in this blog's first post, we'll talk about how Google has continued to dominate the entire web, posting a 96% increase in third quarter revenues year-over-year:

From this Information Week article:

Third-quarter revenue was $1.578 billion, up 96% year-over-year, driven by growing online advertising and Google's growing share of the Internet search market.

Google's complementary advertising programs Adwords and Adsense have been the major revenue sources of the Internet search giant.

Google's strategic acquisition of Blogger or BlogSpot from Ev Williams' PyraLabs has proved to have done wonders for the company and the millions of bloggers who have been given the chance to serve Google Adsense Ads in their blogs. By promoting Google's advertising programs in the ever-growing and always-updated blogosphere, what Google now have is a self-generating win-win revenue machine for the company.

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Update: Well, here's a related article from CNN Tech: Google shares soar