Twitter How tos
Are you new to twitter? Then this is a very good resource for you:
Twitter Lists.
And more video tutorials here.
Archive for June, 2009
Iran election on twitter
It has been a very controversial subject. Iran elections and media coverage has proved to the world the power of citizen journalism using twitter.
Would you like to see realtime images of people using their phone cameras and uploading them to twitter?
This link to twicsy speaks for itself.
Free Tool for Gov’t Agencies to Communicate Public Safety Alerts Online or Via SMS
(from readwriteweb)
A new SMS and email notification service is helping local government agencies reach citizens when and where it will do the most good: As soon as possible, and wherever that citizen happens to be.
Depending on whether agencies in a selected location are participating (currently, nearly 1,000 agencies have signed on since the company’s launch in March), users can sign up at the Nixle website to subscribe to emails, web alerts, and text messages about community issues from tornado watches and traffic accidents to local robberies and fugitives on the loose. Nixle moreover provides a painless way for local agencies to transition into modern times and notify community members of critical details in ways that will have an immediate impact.
“Any tool that helps us improve public safety is worth using,” Oklahoma County Sheriff John Whetsel is quoted as saying in a Nixle press release. “People rarely go anywhere these days without access to a cell phone or the Internet. With Nixle, we’re always able to relay important information, thereby improving the community’s quality of life.”
Users can add as many locations as they like to receive alerts for different areas; for example, I know of several female relatives who would be more than happy to know of police alerts in the various towns I travel to and worry/overreact accordingly.
Users can also choose which kinds of alerts to receive and what on medium they prefer to receive them.
Nixle claims to be the first authenticated, secure service for connecting municipal agencies and community organizations to residents in real time. It uses the Google Maps API to determine and display location and proximity. The company is privately funded and its services are free to all governments, government agencies and organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and end users.
As geographic location and proximity become more and more relevant to users and the wealth of information about locations increases, applications such as Nixle seem like the next logical step in law enforcement and public safety. It’s great that these alerts are available in real time; it would also be great to see a Brightkite-esque “check-in” process made available for users. For example, if I’m at a friend’s house and a store down the street is robbed, it would be great to have the information and know to stay safely inside for a little while.
Then again, real-time availability of information is just as useful as location-based information, particularly when issues of public safety are involved.
What do our readers think? Is a real-time, geo-specific alert system the future of law enforcement? Or is it creepy, Big Brother, Minority Report territory?
Finally Google Maps tells you “what’s here?”
Finally what many people was waiting, to be on a google map, right click and have a “what’s here?” option.
When a user clicks on “What’s here?” Google will return as specific a result as possible, be that an address, a “natural entity,” or a place name. When combined with the “At this address” feature, “What’s here?” can even be used to return a full list of businesses located at a given address. Hypothetically, that is. The list of conditions for this feature functioning as laid out in the announcement seems to be a bit long and convoluted.
Steve Jobs was not just sick but had a liber transplant
(from techcrunch)
There really isn’t much to say here beyond what are being reported as the facts. Apparently, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had a liver transplant two months ago, the Wall Street Journal reports tonight
. When you read that, it’s pretty shocking — but not that surprising.
After Apple initially tried to pass off Jobs’ gaunt physique as a minor ailment, Jobs himself came out in January and announced that the undisclosed illness he was suffering from would require him to take aleave of absence from the company. He has been on that leave ever since. But the good news in the WSJ report is that Jobs is in fact feeling well enough now to return to work as scheduled at the end of this month — which is just days away.
But here’s an interesting nugget from the story:
When he does return, Mr. Jobs may be encouraged by his physicians to initially “work part-time for a month or two,” a person familiar with the thinking at Apple said. That may lead Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, to take “a more encompassing role,” this person said. The person added that Mr. Cook may be appointed to Apple’s board in the not-too-distant future.
That seems to suggest that the transition is well underway for Cook to eventually lead Apple. Thatshouldn’t be a surprise, Cook has done a masterful job in Jobs’ absence, pretty much doubling the value of the company’s stock during that time. Jobs has long been thought to be perhaps more important to his company than any single figure is to their’s. But his time away has seemingly proven otherwise. Of course, there was already likely a multi-year pipeline for products when Jobs left.
The business angle is the important one here. Some have alleged that Jobs and Apple have held news of Jobs’ health too closely for a publicly traded company. But Apple’s board of directors, which includes Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Vice President Al Gore, apparently were getting updates on the situation. Here’s what the WSJ had to say on that:
At least some Apple directors were aware of the CEO’s surgery. As part of an agreement with Mr. Jobs in place before he went on leave, some board members have been briefed weekly on the CEO’s condition by his physician.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t note that the timing of this story appears favorable for Apple. This news breaks late on a Friday, after Apple has just held a successful launch of a very high profile new product, the iPhone 3G S, that sent the stock soaring today. Obviously, the market won’t be open again until Monday.
In 2004, it was disclosed that Jobs had suffered from pancreatic cancer, which was cured. But, a side effect of that cancer is likely the thing that lead to this liver transplant, many doctors familiar with such things have stated.
While little is known about the actual operation, the belief is that it was done in Tennessee, because first and foremost, the waiting list of a liver there is much lower than the rest of the country. From the WSJ:
The specifics of Mr. Jobs’s surgery couldn’t be established, but according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the transplant network in the U.S., there are no residency requirements for transplants. Having the procedure done in Tennessee makes sense because its list of patients waiting for transplants is shorter than in many other states. According to data provided by UNOS, in 2006, the median number of days from joining the liver waiting list to transplant was 306 nationally. In Tennessee, it was 48 days.
It’s good to hear that Jobs has apparently recovered well from the very serious procedure, and we look forward to him returning to work, when he’s ready.
Tactful – no fear
Time to relax… with cafe del mar
Another Bullshit Generator
Writing your internet business plan, but suffering from writers block? Use this handy tool to break the deadlock and write like a pro!
Firefox find feature
Do you use the CTRL+F to find stuff in the page that you are browsing? If you do, this could help you a lot.
Findlist is a add-on for firefox that will add a drop down list in your find bar with the latest searches. It could be very handy.
Linux native multitouch support
You can add multitouch support to linux:
You need: Linux kernel 2.6.30; a computer with a Broadcom 5974, Stantum, NTrig or DiamondTouch surface (the HP TouchSmart tx2 has a Ntrig surface, but you need to get the appropriate firmware from the NTrig site); our NTrig, Stantum, or DiamondTouch driver, or the Broadcom 5974 driver from Henrik Rydberg; their demo code.
Augmented Reality: Layar browser
Layar is a sort of browser derived from location based services and works on mobile phones that include a camera, GPS and a compass. Layar is first avaliable for handsets with the Android. It works as follows: Starting up the Layar application automatically activates the camera. The embedded GPS automatically knows the location of the phone and the compass determines in which direction the phone is facing. Each partner provides a set of location coordinates with relevant information which forms a digital layer. By tapping the side of the screen the user easily switches between layers. This makes Layar a new type of browser which combines digital and reality, which offers an augmented view of the world.
In other words you take your phone, the GPS and compass locate you, but instead of opening the map app, you open the camera, and you focus whatever you want… like a building. There will be a layer on top of the camera with all the info: if you have in your view a restaurant, maybe the menu, if it is a window, maybe is a house for rent so you have the price and the number of bedrooms. Cool, isn’t it?
Take a look at the video:
Opera Unite
Opera Unite is extending what you are able to do online. Opera Unite harnesses the power of today’s fast connections and hardware, allowing all of us to help define the future landscape of the Web, one computer at a time. Read about how Opera Unite is going to change the way we interact on the Web…. in a couple of words a browser with P2P technology.
The future? I don’t know, but a very good idea… indeed.
Opera Unite is
Obama Swats a Fly
Samurai Edition
The Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator™
This is one of the most valuable resources of keywords that you have to mention in an interview or any conversation ;-)
The Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator™
Just click on the button and you will get wise sentences such as:
- integrate authentic synergies
- streamline open-source networks
- engage data-driven wikis
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