:CSIS1180-006 Spring 2008

A new beta version of Google Earth is available with some interesting new features.  Revamped navigation controls, 3-D photo realistic buildings, and time-lapse views of sunrise/sunset are whats new in this version.  A new “North” button automatically rotates the Earth until North is at the top if you got lost or disorientated, and the Street view found in newer versions has been upgraded considerably.  Google Earth 4.3 is still a beta version however, and certian standard features are still missing.  All of this problems will be fixed by the time Google Earth 4.3 is officially released, but if your in a dire need for a Google Earth fix the beta version can be downloaded from their site or by using the Google Updater.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/04/google-earth-up.html

Keith Meyer

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Google has just recently released a new developing package for its iGoogle gadgets that seem to put into place an unique social networking site.  The package allows developers to build and test applications that use the OpenSocial tools Google announced last year.  With iGoogle membership in the tens of millions, it seems as though Google has finally produced a worthy competitor to MySpace and Facebook.  Google hopes to have dedicated customers to their other services sign up, as well as steal some from the competition through services not availables on their platforms.  Google plans for its service to become the centralized hub of internet social networking, allowing users to access other networking site through the Google interface.  This in turn puts the heavy lifting on the other sites while Google handles the traffic.  Google seems to be in position to claim a major stake in the social networking scene with this move, and more advancements are sure to come.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/04/igoogle-sandbox.html

Keith Meyer

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“Internet search engine shares information on thousands of Orkut social-network users in child pornography investigation. ”

This past Wednesday, Google Brazil, willingly handed over information to Brazil’s senate panel to investigate pedophilia.

“Felix Ximenes, Google’s communications director, delivered a set of DVDs containing information on 3,261 users of the company’s popular Orkut social-networking service for an investigation into the spread of child pornography on the site.  ‘With the information we have received, we will be able to strike a major blow against the pedophile network acting in the country,’ said Sen. Demostenes Torres.”  Here’s the whole story.

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Even if your Myspace page or Facebook page is private, you should worry about the risks of the social network. On Facebook, applications have a box that is necessary in order to gain access to the application saying “know who I am and access my information.” This includes everything except contact information. Meaning your pictures, location, job, income, description of yourself and likes and dislikes are available. the 70 million users of facebook also provide their full name, which the 17 million users on Myspace do not have to include. The third party can target ads relating to your gender and age. If your listed as married, you will get ads involving marriages and pregnancies. It’s pretty creepy. Facebook and Myspace are great means of communication and lots of fun but people need to be more aware of the applications they use as well as the personal information listed on their pages, whether your view is private or not!

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Miss One Tree Hill last night? Don’t worry. WB is now online and better than ever.  You can now watch any WB show or movie right online.  Brian Stetler of New York Times states, “The Web site, to start in a test form next month, will focus on those consumers — 16- to 34-year-olds, particularly women — with free ad-supported episodes of “Gilmore Girls,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Smallville” and other series once on WB. “    In 1995, The WB was a network website but closed down in 2006.  Lucky for us, they’re back in action.  Read on!

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Microsoft Windows XP, the Operating System used by Windows since 2000, has recently been replaced with Vista.  Many claim that Vista is insuperior to XP and have lobbied to Microsoft to extend the lifespan of the OS.  While at first things seemed promising, CEO Steve Ballmer has gone on record stating that Microsoft will not keep XP around just to satisfy some disgruntled users.  Although Microsoft has sent out CDs allowing users to downgrade from Vista to XP, people are still paying for the higher-priced Vista when they purchase their machine.  This fact also is causing the sales figures for Vista to be highly exxagerated, which is what Microsoft said it based its decision on regarding the situation.  I luckily dont have to worry about it becuase my machine runs XP, but I also never though the day would come when a technological advance has backfired to this extent and the majority of users are actually downgrading.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/04/microsoft-wont.html

Keith Meyer

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Paddy Donelly and Lee Monroe, graduate students at the University of Ulster-Belfast, have created the Big Word Project, a site that sells words at $1 a letter and then allows the owner to create a link to another page using that word.  For example, after buying “IDIOT” for 5 dollars, the buyer made it a link to the Wikipedia page of George W. Bush, and “STERIOD” redirects to the page of Roger Clemens.  Besides this, it allows for someone to place a relatively cheap ad online and gives people a new way to express themselves using modern technology.  So far, over 2000 of the 291,500 Oxford words have been sold by the duo, with hopes of many more to come.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/magazine/16-05/st_alpha

Keith Meyer

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Ebay, intially a 25% minority owner in Craigslist, has now filed a lawsuit against the company alledging it has diluted its stake by 10%.  Craiglist is staunchly deneing the claim, saying they have done nothing to dilute Ebay’s equity.  Also, there are mad at Ebay for not approaching them first before going ahead with the lawsuit.  Craigslist saw this as an unethical move and maybe signs of ulterior motives from Ebay.  No one is sure what measures Craigslist could have taken to purposely reduced Ebay’s equity in their own company, but there is sure to be a hot topic among the industry for some time to come.

http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/04/craigslists-fee.html

Keith Meyer

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Now that Blu-Ray has become the new industry standard, HD DVD and any related technology is basically forgotten news.  Toshiba, the company behind HD DVDs, reported a profit drop of a whopping 95 %, since the decision was made in February to cease the HD DVD business and exclusively use Blu-Ray technology and discs.  Most of the decline came from shutting down assembly lines and and dealing with now useless inventory.  This will now effect all other aspects of Toshibas products for years to come.  This should be a message to Toshiba to not invest everything into new but competing technologies, because in this situation there is no need for anything but the industry standard. 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EARNS_ASIA_ELECTRONICS?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Keith Meyer

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The M70 by ASUS will be the first notebook PC released with a 1 TB hard drive.  A terabyte is 1000 GB, which is an insane amount of space that can fit almost any video or song you currently own.  The need for such a huge hard drive came from complaints from notebook owners that they had to buy an external hard drive to fit all of their data, which requires a wall socket connection and essentailly turns your notebook into a desktop.  The utter loss of mobility caused by this spurred computer developers to make bigger hard drives standard on notebooks, but ASUS has now officially upped the ante for the industry.  Along with the 1 TB hard drive, the computer will run specs better than competition, along with a Blu-Ray drive and a 1080p High-Def LCD screen.  A terabyte can fit 1000 copies of the Encloypedia Britanica, and the prefix “tera” originated in ancient Greece as a word for “monster”. 

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/04/16/index.html#entry-48557814

Keith Meyer

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