The Evolution of Desktops: from 1984 to the present

A couple of days ago I did a little experiment with the previous (and first!) entry of this blog with the objective of collecting some statistical information about people like me, who are avid readers of nerdly news, and in particular of trying to measure the famous slashdot effect and compare it with its analogous from other sites. The blog entry made its way to the front page of Slashdot, Digg and their spanish clones: Barrapunto and Meneame, generating around 140,000 combined visits that were logged using Google Analytics. This time I want to share the results with you.

Duration

The article was on Slashdot's front page for about 20.5 hours (from August 13^th, 2:30PM until August 14^th, 11:00AM). As you can see below, most of the visits took place on monday morning. After leaving the front page of Slashdot and Digg the daily visits were reduced from 81,300 to 17,000 and surely will continue dropping as fast as they grew.

	Sunday	Monday
Visits:	42,813	81,316
Visits/hour:	4,505	7,390
Visits/minute:	75	123

Bandwidth

A first visit to the page produce a transfer of arround 720kB, with that and the number of new visitors can we figure out how much data (approximately) was transferred during that time.

Sunday:	28.7GB
Monday:	54,6GB
Total:	83.3GB

Where do all those geeks come from?

People came from all over the world, in fact from 157 different countries. Most stories in Slashdot/Digg reach every corner of the world!

North America:	77,634 visits
Europe:	41,159 visits
Oceania:	6,443 visits
Asia:	5,423 visits
Hispanic America:	5,350 visits
Africa:	724 visits

USA:	67,752 visits
Canada:	9,882 visits
UK:	9,336 visits
Spain:	7,577 visits
Australia:	5,209 visits
Germany:	3,770 visits
Netherlands:	2,413 visits
Sweden:	2,014 visits
Brazil:	2,008 visits

Languages

English:	116,853 visits
Spanish:	7,402 visits
German:	1,975 visits
French:	1,763 visits
Japanese:	1,758 visits
Dutch:	1,465 visits
Portuguese:	1,351 visits

The Referrers

I didn't imagine such big difference between the traffic from Slashdot and from Digg.

Slashdot:	75,753 visits
Digg:	18,087 visits
Barrapunto:	3,767 visits
Metafilter:	3,271 visits
I-am-bored.com:	1,627 visits
Slo-Tech:	1,589 visits
del.icio.us:	1,582 visits
Meneame:	1,538 visits

Firefox & the geeks!

Almost 2/3 of the people were using the Firefox browser, who said Internet Explorer is the most popular browser? Well, not among us :)

Firefox:	63%
Internet Explorer:	20%

OSs

Unfortunately Linux is still not so popular as Firefox, even among the geeks.

Windows:	72%
Macintosh:	14%
Linux:	13%

Combo: OS - Browser

Screen Resolution

Resolution:	1280x1024 and 1024x768
Color Depth	32 bit

Plugins

Flash:	96,6%
Java:	96%

Connection Speed

Dialup:	9%

Do geeks click on Ads?

Finally for all of you wondering what you can get (besides a burning web-server) from being slashdotted, here are the numbers. You are not going to become rich, but perhaps you have more luck than this guy.

Page Impressions:	154,243
Clicks:	454
Dollars:	$134

Apple creates iTunes free TV Show page

Apple creates a new page in its iTunes Music Store with some free TV Shows listed, free to download. This offer is exclusive only in US iTunes Music Store.

Apple has been pretty generous doling out free videos on the iTunes Music Store (at least to those of us in the United States), but they made it a bit challenging to find all the sweet, sweet gratis content. Enter the new Free Downloads page (iTunes link), it is your one stop shop for all the free videos currently available for download from iTunes.

Sweet.

read more | digg story

Dell to recall 4 million batteries

The recall affects certain Inspiron, Latitude and Precision mobile workstation units shipped between April 2004 and July 18, 2006.

update Dell and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission plan to recall 4.1 million notebook batteries on Tuesday, a company representative confirmed Monday.

The recall affects certain Inspiron, Latitude and Precision mobile workstations and XPS units shipped between April 2004 and July 18, 2006. Sony manufactured the batteries that are being recalled, the representative said. Click here to see photos of recalled batteries.

If they have one of the affected units, consumers are advised to eject the battery from the notebook after powering down and continue using the notebook with its AC power adapter, the CPSC said. Dell has so far received six reports of overheating units that caused property damage, but no injuries.

Dell has faced several issues this year related to exploding or flaming notebooks, and wants to ensure the safety of its customers, the representative said. The 4.1 million units is a subset of the 22 million units shipped during that time frame, he said. Dell said it doesn't expect the cost of the recall to materially affect its earnings. The company reports earnings for the previous quarter this Thursday.

At the moment, this looks like the largest battery recall in the history of the electronics industry, said Roger Kay, an analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates. "The scale of it is phenomenal."

Sony will help pay the costs associated with the recall of 4.1 million batteries the company supplied to Dell, said Rick Clancy, a Sony spokesman.

"We are supporting Dell's recall," Clancy said. "There will be financial assistance and we are sharing engineering data and both doing further research." He declined to specify exactly how much assistance Sony would provide.

Customers will be able to go to a Dell Web site or to the Consumer Product Safety Commission site to determine if they need a new battery. Dell also plans to launch a toll-free number, 1-866-342-0011, for people affected by the situation, IDC analyst Richard Shim said.

"It's a huge deal," Shim said, particularly for Dell customers with employees in remote locations or traveling. "If you have people all over the field, then you're asking folks to send in the batteries and run off just AC (alternating current power) until they can get new batteries shipped out to them."

Dell had only six incidents over millions of units, Shim said, but it's "a dangerous situation."

What causes the problem?
Lithium ion batteries have two to three times the energy density of nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries and four times the energy density of lead-acid batteries. Higher energy density translates to longer battery life. Lithium ion batteries are used in consumer electronics and notebooks, which only require a limited amount of energy. Hybrid cars and power tools, however, generally use more traditional batteries, in part because of the risk of explosion.
Dell battery packs

The problems Dell is having stem from impurities within the anode and cathode of the battery, said Kay, who was briefed on the problems by Dell executives. Over time, those impurities, usually tiny pieces of metal, can work their way to the edge of the anode or cathode and rupture the isolator that sits between the two, he said. Once that happens, you get a short circuit and possibly a fire.

In cell phones, lithium ion batteries can overheat because of a short circuit. If the temperature rises slowly, the battery case may melt. If it rises rapidly, however, enough pressure may be generated to create a small explosion in a lithium ion battery. Consumers have suffered severe burns as a result of these failures. The chemical reaction that produces energy in a lithium ion battery is considered quite violent.

Several companies, including Valence Technology and PowerGenix, are working on safer lithium ion batteries or batteries which rely on different chemicals.

"The timing of this does buy Dell goodwill with customers and potential customers," said Sam Bhavnani, an analyst with Current Analysis. The first pictures of exploding laptops were posted in June, and the company has moved fairly quickly to investigate whether or not the problems were isolated or more widespread, he said.
Models in the hot seat

Dell plans to announce a recall of 4.1 million batteries worldwide on Tuesday. Here's a list of the affected models.

It's possible that other PC vendors are using the Sony batteries in their products, Kay said. Dell executives told Kay that the company was one of the first to begin using this type of battery, and that they think other problems will crop up down the road for other PC companies.

But even if two companies use the same batteries, they don't necessarily design the technology that connects the battery to the notebook in the same way, Kay said. For example, Lenovo's notebooks use software that's designed to shut down the battery if it notices a problem and they charge the batteries more slowly than others in the industry, a company representative said. A Dell representative was unable to comment on the specifc technology it uses to enclose its batteries.

Sony's lithium ion cells can be found in the battery packs used by other manufacturers, but at this point Sony and those manufacturers have not seen the same level of problems that affected the Dell notebooks with Sony's technology, Clancy said. "We are in close communication with our customers, and as appropriate we will work with them and the CPSC if needed," he said.

A Lenovo representative said the company has not seen an unusual pattern of problems with its notebook batteries, although no PC company is immune to battery issues from time to time. Lynn Fox, an Apple Computer spokeswoman, said, "We are currently investigating whether batteries that have been supplied to Apple for our current and previous notebook lines meet our high standards for battery safety and performance." Representatives for Hewlett-Packard and Gateway were not immediately available to comment.

CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland contributed to this report.

read more | digg story

Digg Adds Video Thumbnails

Starting today, all newly submitted videos from YouTube and Google will include static thumbnail previews. Support for Yahoo! videos is coming soon.

Starting today, all newly submitted videos from YouTube and Google will include static thumbnail previews. Support for Yahoo! videos is coming soon.

If you're a video hosting provider and would like digg to include thumbnail support for your videos, email us at support at digg.com, and we'll do our best to add you.

Enjoy,

Kevin

posted by Kevin Rose at 2:21 PM

read more | digg story

A new way to test your bandwidth (and it looks pretty cool too!)

The site allows you to select servers to ping from around the country on an interactive map and graphically displays connections as they travel with varying speeds along the way. It also lets you store results of tests for your computer and sort them by date, time, speed and distance.

Applications that test bandwidth speeds have been around for years, but Speedtest.net takes the concept a step further.

The site allows you to select servers to ping from around the country on an interactive map and graphically displays connections as they travel with varying speeds along the way. It also lets you store results of tests for your computer and sort them by date, time, speed and distance.

Finally, Speedtest provides a simple way to share your results with others--taking the practice of monitoring bandwidth into the Web 2.0 realm.
Posted by Mike Yamamoto



read more | digg story

Movie Download Service Sued Over Spyware

Washington State has sued the owners of the Movieland.com, alleging that the company used spyware to strong-arm users into signing up for its paid movie download service. Consumers who downloaded Movieland.com's free 3-day trial software were eventually hit with frequent pop-up ads informing them that they were legally obliged to buy the product.



Robert McMillan, IDG News Service Tue Aug 15, 10:00 AM ET

The state of Washington has sued the owners of the Movieland.com, alleging that the company used spyware to strong-arm users into signing up for its paid movie download service.
ADVERTISEMENT

Consumers who dowloaded Movieland.com's free three-day trial software would eventually be hit with frequent pop-up ads informing them that they were legally obliged to purchase the product, said Paula Selis, an assistant attorney general with the state. The tactics forced some consumers to give in and pay between $20 and $100 for the service, she said.

Washington State, and other organizations like the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau have received thousands of consumer complaints about Movieland.com, dating back to the end of 2005, Selis added.

"We sued them because we were getting complaints from consumers who felt that they were being harassed and held over a barrel for payments that they didn't agree to make," she said.
Company, Two Officials Named

The suit was filed yesterday in King County Superior Court in Seattle. It charges Movieland.com's parent company, Digital Enterprises, of West Hills, California, with violating the state's antispyware and consumer protection laws. Two company officials are also named in the suit: Easton Herd, and Andrew Garroni, both of Los Angeles.

Garroni and Herd's companies operated a number of video download services, including Moviepass.tv and Popcorn.net, the Washington Attorney General's office said.

Though the company's free trial software does advise users that they will be obliged to purchase a monthly license if they do not cancel, this notice does not sufficiently explain what will happen if the software is installed, Selis said.

Movieland.com's Web site offers downloads saying, "No Spyware," "Virus Free," and "No Extra Charge."

The company did not return a call seeking comment for this story.

Movieland.com is the second company to be sued under Washington's 2005 Computer Spyware Act. In January the Attorney General's office sued Secure Computer of White Plains, New York, alleging that its Spyware Cleaner software failed to work as advertised. That litigation is ongoing, Selis said.

read more | digg story

Iranian President Launches Jihad On Microsoft

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new blog is targeting certain Israeli visitors with a virus attack. Israeli bloggers report that the Iranian president's site is sending viruses (or Trojans) to anyone with an Israeli IP address. Well, not exactly -- he's attacking anyone from Israel using Windows and Internet Explorer.

Iranian prez launches jihad on Microsoft

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - ValleywagUpdate: The Independent says this was a false alarm from virus-checking software, not an attack against the Great Satan.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's new blog is targeting certain Israeli visitors with a virus attack. Israeli bloggers report that the Iranian president's site is sending viruses (or Trojans) to anyone with an Israeli IP address.

Well, not exactly -- he's attacking anyone from Israel using Windows and Internet Explorer. It's possible that Iran is carrying its campaign of hate against Israel online -- but is it not also possible that Ahmadenijad seeks to rescue the Israelis from the Western materialism of Microsoft and open it up to the traditional values of Linux?

read more | digg story

Guide to getting a job at Yahoo, from Chief of HR of Yahoo

Guy Kawasaki interviews Libby Sartain, the Chief HR of Yahoo, who breaks down what Yahoo is looking in candidates and how you can get a job at Yahoo.

This is HR and recruiting week on my blog! This is an interview with Libby Sartain of Yahoo. She is responsible for leading Yahoo! Inc.’s global human resources efforts and managing and developing the human resources team. Prior to joining Yahoo! in August 2001, Sartain was “vice president of people” at Southwest Airlines. She holds an MBA from the University of North Texas and a BBA from Southern Methodist University.

1.

Question: At any given moment, how many jobs are you trying to fill?

Answer: Our number of open requisitions fluctuate, but if I had to average, I would say about 1,000 at any given moment and 2,500 or so total per year.
2.

Question: On average, how many applications do you get per job?

Answer: For the last few years, we have received more than 120,000 resumes a year. So, we start with about 50/1 ratio, but when we narrow that down to actual qualified candidates, we see about ten for every job.
3.

Question: How can a candidate break through the noise?

Answer: The biggest obstacle for a candidate is if they send in a resume but don’t map it for a specific open position. With so many resumes, and recruiters looking to fill what is open today, they might be missed. So the best thing is to apply to the one or two jobs that are open and for which your skills are a direct match. It is also helpful to be referred by someone inside the company. But, be sure it is someone who can vouch for you and your work.
4.

Question: What makes a cover email and resume “pop” for you?

Answer: In the cover email, or summary when submitting your applications through an online jobs site like Hot Jobs, we look for your personality to show through. You should be able to come up with a succinct summary of who you are, what you bring to the table, and why we should hire you...but your unique personality should “pop”.

I suggest that you write an “elevator pitch” for yourself to have at the ready while you’re looking for a new job. You can summarize in your cover email/online submission: Who are you? What do you stand for? What is your next big personal objective? How would you like to contribute in your next role. Sitting down and writing a fifty to seventy-five word elevator pitch for an imaginary listener is a wonderful experience of self-discovery. To be able to boil down your entire existence into such a short package is one way to discover your essential personal statement to the world. At least, what you’d like your essential personal statement to be. Getting comfortable with the pitch also helps when you are interviewing.
5.

Question: What do you dread seeing in a resume?

Answer: I dread seeing resumes that don’t tell me where you have worked and what you have accomplished there. Many people have taken to writing capabilities statements but most don’t have any meat to show how and where they developed the capabilities they claim they have. Over-inflating your jobs and experience also works against you. And, when you have seen as many resumes as our recruiters have seen, this over inflation is completely obvious.

This sounds strange in the Silicon Valley, but i also like to see some stability. If someone held every job for two years or less, alarm bells go off in my head. I wonder if the candidate has worn out his or her welcome.
6.

Question: Does a resume that’s over one page long hurt a candidate’s chances?

Answer: We are looking at resumes electronically, so the pages aren’t really the issue. They should be succinct, but if they are two pages, or three pages...and great, that works. Anything over three pages is too much.

(Editorial comment from Guy: God help us, Libby is unleashing three-page resumes on us. Nota bene: she said “and great.” Of course, every candidate believes his resume is great and requires three pages just like every entrepreneur believes he needs sixty PowerPoint slides.)
7.

Question: How would you stack rank education, experience, and enthusiasm as desirable qualities of a candidate?

Answer: You have to have the whole package, but enthusiasm goes a long way with me. I look for people who will fit in our culture and who are smart, fun, friendly, and are passionate about what we are doing.
8.

Question: How does your criteria differ from other Silicon Valley companies like Apple or Google?

Answer: We offer a distinct opportunity. We can usually offer a candidate a variety of different experiences because we have so many different products and services and the largest audience in the world. People select us over the competition because we offer them a role that fits their interests and objectives. They also like the fact that the can move to another area in the future, so they like the prospects for their career development.
9.

Question: What’s the effect of a candidate saying that she wants to help Yahoo kick Google’s butt?

Answer: We love people who want us to win against our competition, and we have competitors in every product and service we offer. (Editorial comment from Guy: This is HR-speak for, “It’s a good thing.”)
10.

Question: How can candidates increase the probability of a great interview?

Answer: Be prepared! You should have at least researched the company and the business/products that you would be working with on the Internet. You should know what you bring to us and convince us that you can do the job. Once again, we want to see your personality too.
11.

Question: Can an “art history major” with no technology educational or technology work experience get a job at Yahoo?

Answer: Sure, but not a technology job. We have folks with art history backgrounds working in a number of areas like surfing (Editorial comment from Guy: this refers to editorial work), user experience and design, marketing or maybe even human resources. It helps if you have experience in a prior company with such a degree.
12.

Question: If a candidate doesn’t hear back, at what point should she try to initiate contact—or do people basically “send and pray”?

Answer: Praying might help, but I suggest that candidates always check back if they don’t hear. But if they get a response that says we have found another candidate, they need to move on.
13.

Question: By approximate percentages, how do successful candidates for non-officer level positions come to you?

Answer:
*

Candidate found listing on Yahoo Jobs page—30%
*

Yahoo employee referred the candidate—30%
*

Yahoo internal recruiter contacted a prospect (that is, the person wasn’t looking)—20%
*

Yahoo retained headhunter contacted a prospect (that is, the person wasn’t looking)—2%
*

Conversion from contractor or temporary—10%
*

Hot Jobs and other jobs sites—7%


read more | digg story

Study: Apple leads industry in customer satisfaction

Newly published data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index show that Apple leads other personal computer manufacturers, beating out Dell, HP and others.

On a 100 point scale, Apple merited a score of 83, according to the ACSI, a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase and a 7.8 percent increase from 1995, the first year the ACSI measured the PC industry.

The annual ACSI is sponsored by the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and University of Michigan’s M. Ross School of Business. It’s derived from phone interviews with customers contacted by using digital-dial telephone samples — more than 70,000 consumers are identified and interviewed annually.

Both Apple and Dell advanced this year — Dell moved up 5 percent to a score of 78, despite slipping market share and lower earnings. In fact, overall customer satisfaction in the PC industry increased 4 percent to 77, the highest score since the ACSI began tracking the industry. Every single PC maker showed improved satisfaction this past year, according to the ACSI results.

read more | digg story

Digg Tools

An updated list of tools and links relating to Digg.

Name Comment

Digg Search Widget v2.00 A widget created by Sahas Katta of Skatter Tech for Yahoo! Widgets that allows you to quickly search and read Digg stories. [widgetgallery]
Digg Opera Widget A widget designed for the Opera web browser that allows you to view Digg's RSS feeds within the browser. [Download]
Digg.com RSS Widget A widget that gets the current front page headlines from digg and displays them in a nice little interface.
Digg Digger A widget for Yahoo! Widgets that fetches all the new stories submitted to digg.
Digg News Widget A widget for Yahoo! Widgets that receives news via various RSS feeds from Digg.com.
Diggnation Widget A widget created by Troy Hutchinson that lets you know what the latest Audio and Video Diggnation releases are.
Unofficial Digg Widget A widget, created by mikee7, that allows you to view Digg's front page headlines on your desktop.
Digg With Diggnation A widget that gives you the latest items from Digg's RSS feeds and displays the latest audio and video episodes of Diggnation.
Digg.com Toolbar A widget that gives you the latest items from Digg's RSS feeds and displays the latest audio and video episodes of Diggnation.
Digg Toolbar A toolbar that gives you access to digg's front page headlines. [Mirror]
Diggbar Toolbar A toolbar that allows easy access to some of digg's services. Compatible with Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Webpedia Toolbar A toolbar that gives you access to five different RSS feeds: del.icio.us popular, digg front page, furl most popular, hot spurls and webpedia blog.
Digg Toolbar A great-looking ticker/marquee made with Macromedia Flash. Display the feed of your choice on your website.
DiggTree DiggTree is a RSS aggregator for digg.com.
DiggDesk A RSS Reader application that displays digg's feeds in a skinnable ticker window. Very small and compact.
Clean Digg RSS Feed Digg RSS feed that links directly to story links and not Digg's comment page.
popurls.com Show popular links from Digg, del.icio.us, Furl, Flickr, Reddit, TailRank, Slashdot and Youtube.
Diggaz With Attitude Diggaz With Attitude is a program that displays the latest Digg and Google News articles in your taskbar. It also lets you add your own custom RSS feeds and get movie times based on your zip code.
Digg Top Stories Google Desktop Sidebar plug-in that displays the ten most recent stories from Digg.com. You may download directly from the authors website or from Google.
DiggTray An application that notifies you of new front page articles while sitting in your notification area.
Digg vs Dot A simple website put together to highlight the act of crossposting articles among two very popular sites, Digg.com and Slashdot.org.
DiggUpdate An application that gives you quick access to digg's front page stories in your Mac OS X menu-bar.
Digg Newstracker for Winbar Just download and rename the extension to .trk and place in newstrackers in your winbar folder.
eFinke RSS Ticker A Firefox extension that allows you to view your LiveBookmarks in a ticker form, scrolling across your browser. Add your favorite Digg RSS feeds to view them as a ticker.
whonu One of it's buttons generates it's RSS feed for many social services, including Digg.
Digg FeedFlare FeedFlare that shows your Digg counts for your blog in your RSS feed with a link to the already dugg story or a link to submit it to digg if it hasn't yet been dugg.
PocketDigg A RSS reader that formats Digg's feeds for use with a portable/mobile device.
Digg PSP A custom formatted webpage that allows you to view Digg on your PSP.
digglet PSP A custom formatted webpage, created by Lucas Steigmeyer, that allows you to view Digg on your PSP. Lucas has also created a version for other mobile devices such as cellular phones, which you can view here.
Textfairy Offers digg news for mobile devices.
Highlight Digg Comments Display a list of links to your yellow highlighted digg comments with this Greasemonkey userscript.
Digg Add Mirrors Greasemonkey script that adds mirrors to Digg's article links.
digg at Userscripts.org Digg related scripts for the Firefox Greasemonkey extension.
Digg Submit Bookmarklet v2 Digg Submit Bookmarklet allows you to quickly submit a link to Digg from your web browsers bookmarks toolbar.
gada.be/digg A site that searches digg and can generate RSS feeds for your search term.
Hot Daddy Multi-search website that allows searching of digg.com.
Digg Friends Checker Digg Friends Checker uses Google's search engine to find people who have you added to their friends list on digg. Not guaranteed to find everyone who has you as a friend, but it's pretty good.
Keotag Searches digg and other social services, generates it's RSS feed and also has a tag generator.
YubNub digg Command List YubNub is a command-line for the web. You can also install YubNub into your browser: Installing YubNub!
Talk Digger Searches conversations from many websites, including Digg. You can also have RSS feeds for your search term.
Wink People powered search engine that searches Digg.
Digg IRC An unofficial IRC channel created by a few select digg members. Great place to chat among fellow diggers.
Digg Sidebar Version 4 An unofficial IRC channel created by a few selectDigg Sidebar gives you quick navigation of digg's links via your Firefox sidebar panel. A built-in RSS Reader is included.digg members. Great place to chat among fellow diggers.
Cacheout! A Firefox extension that allows access to articles undergoing the "digg effect" using services such as CoralCDN.
Digg GMail Skin Digg GMail skin allows you to change the user-interface of GMail's webmail page to look similar to digg.com.
Digg This! A Firefox extension that adds ‘Digg this’ to the right-click context menu or Tools menu to allow you to easily submit a story to digg.
Digg Buttons Chicklet buttons that you can put on your website to link to digg.com. [Mirror]
Digg Search Plugin A plug-in for Firefox that lets you search digg for stories.
Upcomming.org Digg Group A collaborative event calendar for Digg users.
Run your own Digg Allows you to run your own Digg-type website. Choose from three different digg-clones for download.
Digg Buzz alert A page that can alert you when new stories appear on the front page of digg by use of a cheesy yet attention getting sound effect. The page must be left open in your browser to work.
Diggdot.us Have Digg, Slashdot, Del.icio.us, and Reddit all on one page.
Digg Soundboard A soundboard made from digger's comments on digg.
Direct-link versions of Digg feeds Contains Digg's entire feed list.
popTart Allows you to preview articles in a resizable frame at the bottom of the browser and also optionally remove display elements from the website such as the header, footer and sidebars. You can also use your right/left arrow buttons to page through articles.
Digg This A wordpress plug-in that detects incoming links from Digg.com to your wordpress post and automatically display a link back to the digg post, for people to digg your story. When a digg is first recognized an email is sent to the site’s admin.
Digg Userbar A custom image to use on your blog/site to show that you are a member of Digg. [Mirror]
Digg to CoralCDN A tiny standalone application that coralizes links from Digg / all in an effort to help with the "digg effect" issue.
HotDigg A screensaver (can also be run as a standalone application) that displays Digg's news article titles flying across your screen. The article titles increase in size to show popularity in a similar form as Digg's "Cloud" page.
DiggLicious A combination of digg and del.icio.us. It's definitely worth checking out.
DiggBot An automated messenger bot created to work with the popular instant messaging application, MSN Messenger. With DiggBot, you can receive the latest updates to digg's front page through your messenger. *As of April 07, 2006, DiggBot does not seem to be working anymore.
MAKEbot An instant messenger bot that can deliver the latest news, pictures, bookmarks, projects, etc. to your computer or mobile phone. MAKEbot has the ability to search digg.

read more | digg story

Facebook + Google maps = Facebook Friend Mapper

See where your friend are from originally. Not necessarily useful, but interesting to look at.

Facebook Friend Mapper
1) Login to Facebook
2) See where your friends are from
3) Digg here, if you feel so inclined

Quick and to the point. Where are your friends from.

Also checkout Bookfaced, exchange books on campus with other facebook users.

So the facebook api was easy to figure out once I realized that the sample php scripts were completely broken. After tackling that I moved on to the google maps api. Also not to difficult, here I basically copied the examples strait from the docs. I decided to do my own geocoding from a database I had sitting around. It seemed to be a lot quicker than using the javascript geocoding stuff they suggested. Making an individual call per item on the client side could get really slow.
FAQ

* How long did this take?
About 2 hours
* Does it work?
Maybe, you be the judge


read more | digg story

Real Player To Support Windows Media In Linux...

RealNetworks will release open-source software this year that will let Linux computers play Windows Media files.

SAN FRANCISCO--RealNetworks will release open-source software this year that will let Linux computers play Windows Media files.

The media delivery software company and Novell made the announcement at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo here. Novell said it will include the tool in its Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in the fourth quarter.

Currently, Linux users can play Windows Media Video (WMV) and Windows Media Audio (WMA) content if they install closed-source modules, said Jeff Duchmann, general manager of client and digital rights management technologies at RealNetworks. That will change as the result of a licensing deal RealNetworks has signed with Microsoft and its settlement of an antitrust suit against the software giant. It will release open-source code to play the files as part of the Helix Community project it launched to bring RealNetworks technology to Linux.

"The work we're doing will all go into the Helix client," Duchmann said in an interview here. However, the software won't support digital rights management available with Windows, he added.

RealNetworks also is evaluating adding support for the AAC compression format, an audio compression format used by Apple Computer's iTunes and others, he said, though that would require further licensing actions for the company. "If we're going to do music services on other platforms, like Linux, we're going to have to support it," he said.

Duchmann added that RealNetworks also hopes to bring its music store technology to Linux.

Expanding application support is a key part of making Linux viable on desktop computers. It's a goal many companies have chased, largely unsuccessfully, for years. Novell is the largest company currently working on the idea, employing a catch-phrase of spreading Linux "from the desktop to the data center."

"We have for the first time a real alternative to the Windows desktop. Linux and open source are there," Novell Chief Technology Officer Jeffrey Jaffe said at a news conference. In particular, there's a big chance for companies to make their case as customers evaluate Microsoft's new Vista version of Windows.

"Over the next six months, there is an opportunity for the IT organizations to do a significant pilot--to find several hundred users who are knowledge workers and let them as a pilot try out our desktop," Jaffe said.

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Solar system to welcome three new planets

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is planning to add three new members to the exclusive club of large celestial objects orbiting our Sun.

12.00pm Wednesday August 16, 2006
By Steve Connor

The nine planets of the solar system are about to be transformed into 12.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is planning to add three new members to the exclusive club of large celestial objects orbiting our Sun.

Astronomers are about to vote on an official proposal to extend the definition of a planet to include at least three more objects that are known to be big enough to warrant planetary status.

It will mean that astronomy textbooks will have to be rewritten with the names Ceres, Charon and UB313 being added to the more familiar names of the classical planets.

At one point it was thought that Pluto - the smallest and most distant of the planets - would be kicked out of the club, but now it appears that it is welcomed as the prototype of a new class of smaller planets known as "plutons".

The International Astronomical Union, which has been the arbiter of planetary nomenclature since 1919, has received a new definition of a planet from a special committee of seven experts set up two years ago to adjudicate on the issue.

Ron Ekers, the president of the IAU, said the ancient description of a planet as an object that wanders against a backdrop of fixed stars is no longer valid in an age of advanced telescopes.

"Modern science provides muchmore knowledge than the simple fact that objects orbiting the Sun appear to move with respect to the background of fixed stars," Dr Ekers said.

"Recent new discoveries have been made of objects in the outer regions of our solar system that have sizes comparable to and larger than Pluto.

These discoveries have rightfully called into question whether or not they should be considered as new planets." The three new planets are Charon, once considered a moon of Pluto but now described as its double planet; Ceres, formerly known as an asteroid or minor planet; and UB313, an object that has yet to be given a formal name (although it has been nicknamed Xena), and which was only identified last year.

There are now eight "classical"planets, three "plutons", those planets that are similar in size to Pluto withextremely wide solar orbits, and theasteroid-like Ceres.

Experts sitting on IAU's planet definition committee - composed of astronomers, historians and writers - concluded that in future a planet should be defined as a celestial body that is big enough for its gravity field to form a near-spherical shape.

The object must also be in orbit around the Sun - or another star - but not as a satellite of another planet, which rules out the Moon and the larger moons of other planets.

"Our goal was to find a scientific basis for a new definition of 'planet', and we chose gravity as the determining factor," said Professor Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist and member of the definition committee.

"Nature decides whether or not an object is a planet.".

The new definition of a planet means that there are another dozen or two dozen other known objects in the solar system that may one day be included in the planetary club.

The seven-member definition committee convened in Paris in late June and early July, and its recommendations will now go to the IAU's general assembly which will vote on the resolution as its meeting in Prague this week.

Professor Owen Gingrich, the committee chairman, said the deliberations were long and hard, but in the end a consensus was reached.

"In July we had vigorous discussions of both the scientific and the cultural-historical issues and on the second morning several members admitted that they had not slept well, worrying that we would not be able to reach a consensus," Professor Gingrich said.

"But by the end of a long day, the miracle had happened - we had reached a unanimous agreement."The issue came to a head after it was discovered that UB313 was bigger than Pluto, which was discovered in 1930 and was only called a planet because it was originally thought to be as big as Earth.

- INDEPENDENT

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Now I'm a believer - going from PC to Mac

Now I'm a believer

GRAEME PHILIPSON
August 15, 2006

A move to Mac is on, and another straggler joins the merry band.

IN THIS column two months ago I mentioned my intention to move to the Apple Macintosh. I have now done so.

When my MacBook Pro arrived I threw myself straight into it. I started using it immediately, for a large and important PowerPoint presentation I needed the following Monday.

It has been an interesting transition, and one that has gone much better than I expected. I knew it would be tricky. Moving to a new computer always entails a fair bit of work, and moving between architectures involves more.

The first thing was to copy all my files across from my old PC. This was a simple enough job - I didn't try to network the machines, but used a 5 GB USB drive I have. Then I installed Microsoft Office for the Macintosh.

I'm not getting rid of Microsoft entirely. It's Windows I can't stand. I'm a heavy user of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and the fact that they are available on the Mac made my decision much easier.

All these applications actually work better on the Mac. The interface is cleaner. And the files are identical to the PC versions, so any Office file created on the Mac can be read by the PC, and vice versa. No compatibility issues at all. I can report that PowerPoint on the Mac is a little flaky - it has a nasty habit of disappearing and not saving your file.

I checked on the internet and found that this is a documented bug. And one that Microsoft has refused to acknowledge. It's OK if you save your work regularly, but - once again - not happy, Bill.

The biggest job was to move my historical email messages. I used Outlook on the PC and I decided to go with the Mac Microsoft equivalent, called Entourage. It's very similar, but neither Apple nor Microsoft make a utility for transferring emails from one to another, which is a bit pathetic. You'd think perhaps Apple would step in and provide the utility, to make it easier for people to make the move.

A quick Google search uncovered a few methods, all of which involved porting through a third package with better import/export capabilities. A bit cumbersome, but it worked OK. I got my address book across as well, but with some mangled fields in some records.

So much for the actual migration - painless enough, with the minor glitches one expects when moving. But what is the Mac like to use?

In every department, it beats the PC hands down. The machine itself is quite handsome. The file structure and the way all the utilities work are different, but very easy to get used to and far more intuitive than with Windows.

I had no difficulty moving songs off my iPod onto the Mac. Apple doesn't want you to do this - it reckons it increases the chances of piracy. But there are plenty of free utilities on the internet, such us Senuti (which is iTunes spelt backwards) and iLinkPod.

I then set up a 300 GB external drive. I had been using this on my Windows network, and I imagined it would need reformatting for the Mac. No such trouble - I simply needed to plug it in and the Mac did the rest. That's the way it is with just about everything on the Mac, you plug it in and it works. Now, none of this is news to Mac users. They have been smugly asserting for years that the Mac is better and easier. I have often criticised Apple over the years, and commented on the Mac's declining market share, but I have always acknowledged its technical superiority.

I was for many years of the opinion that Windows was good enough, and that the advantages of a much greater choice of software and the ready availability of technical support - not to mention the lower cost - made it the more sensible choice.

But I eventually tired of the endless reboots, the constant threat of viral infection, and the incredibly clunky nature of Windows. I live on my computer, for work and play, and it's important to have the best. Once the Mac went with the Intel processor, my mind was made up.

That means that the Macs can now run Windows. I could set my machine up to boot Windows if I wanted, but I can't see any reason to do so. I need to run the odd Windows application (my wine cellar software is the most important), but my old PC, now relegated to a corner of my desk, can do that. I can see absolutely no reason why anyone should not run a Macintosh. Microsoft ties itself in knots trying to get Vista to market, while Apple has a better operating system now. Microsoft tries to convince the world that you need a thing called Media Center to use your PC as a consumer electronics device, while the Mac does it now.

As I write, I'm streaming a symphony from iTunes on my Mac wirelessly to my stereo. My iPod is updating in the background. I've got Google opened on my second monitor with the Firefox browser, alerting me to breaking news. I have my email client and spreadsheet software open. My files are backed up overnight.

I know I can do all that on a PC, but it's so ugly. The Mac makes it all easy, with maximum integration and with a supremely elegant operating system. And I've had to reboot twice in two weeks, down from twice a day under Windows.

I've been amazed at how many other people I've met recently who have moved to the Mac. There is definitely a move on. The Mac's market share is up. Windows - just say no.

graeme@philipson.info

CCTV10-Science fiction program

CCTV science fiction programs on asteroids colliding with Earth, in chinese

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where all your disk space has gone

What is this?

Disk Inventory X is a disk usage utility for Mac OS X 10.3 (and later). It shows the sizes of files and folders in a special graphical way called "treemaps".

If you've ever wondered where all your disk space has gone, Disk Inventory X will help you to answer this question.

For a quick start please read the readme file on the disk image. Or see a 1 minute video about Disk Inventory X from macbreak.com.

How much does it cost?

It is absolutely free and released under the GPL. The layout algorithm is based on KDirStat. The idea to develop this program came to me when a fellow of mine showed me his creation WinDirStat.

Spill-Resistant eMark Super Mobile Keyboard, World's Thinnest

kimurakeyboard.jpgThe eMark Super Mobile Keyboard is marketed as the world's thinnest keyboard and just so happens to be spill-resistant—no more worrying about a cup of joe (or, mayhap, other liquid-like substances) muddying up the keys. From Japanese company Kimura Metal, the keyboard measures only 1mm, or about 0.04-inches. The USB keyboard has a retractable cable and comes in both white and black. Since it's so thin, it's possible to wrap it much like a Fruit Roll-Up. It's due to hit Japan later this month for around $256. – Nicholas Deleon

Internet Explorer Loses More Ground to Firefox

Internet Explorer Loses More Ground to Firefox

By Peter GalliAugust 11, 2006
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While Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has lost further market share this year, there has been a significant slowdown in the acceptance of its largest competitor, the open source Firefox browser, according to a white paper released by Janco Associates on Aug. 11.ADVERTISEMENT
Internet Explorer has continued to lose market share this year, to 75.88 percent share in July 2006 from 77.01 percent in January 2006 and 84.05 percent in July 2005. That comes off its January 2003 peak of 92.39 percent, the paper, written by Janco CEO Victor Janulaitis, says.
PointerAnalysts have predicted that Firefox faces an uphill battle. Click here to read more.
"While Microsoft lost some browser market share in 2006, by the third quarter it seems to have stopped the rapid advance of Firefox. The delayed release of IE 7 could be a bad omen for its market share, but on the positive side, Microsoft has announced that when IE 7 is released it will be distributed as a 'Live Update' that will be tagged as a security release," the white paper says.
That move should help minimize any loss in market share caused by those users who would take it as an opportunity to evaluate other browsers, the report notes.
A summary of the Janco white paper report can be found here.
In contrast, Firefox's market share rose to 13.71 percent in July 2006, up from 12.42 percent in January 2006 and 10.89 percent in July 2005.
But two factors have helped slow its acceptance: the continued disclosure of security issues within Firefox and the fact that it lost a number of users because of its incompatibilities with IE, the paper says.
"Some Web sites looked and acted differently. We interviewed a number of corporate users who said this was one of the primary reasons they migrated back to Microsoft's IE," the report states.
PointereWEEK Labs says the Firefox 2.0 beta 1 is no slam-dunk. Click here to read more.
The Netscape browser has also lost some ground this year, slipping 0.43 percent to maintain its No. 3 market share position of 4.98 percent, the white paper says, noting that the introduction of Netscape version 8.0 has not been widely accepted by the Internet browser community.
eWEEK.com Special Report: Advances in Web Browsers
"In interviews with selected users, we found that many of them were turned off by the installation process. We often heard the comments that the process was ad and pop-up window laden.
"In addition, several of the individuals we interviewed felt that the 'overhead' associated with the ads in Netscape made it a much less effective tool to use. However, they did say they like many of the new features, including tabbed browsing," the paper says.
But there is some good news for Microsoft in the paper, which says that while Firefox continues to gain ground, there has been a significant slowdown in its acceptance, primarily because Microsoft is managing to successfully hold onto its Internet Explorer base.
"The acceptance of Firefox by new users has now slowed to the point that a major innovation would have to take place for new users to try the browser. While Firefox is challenging Microsoft like no other competitor has done in quite some time, its usage has stalled at one to two users out of 10," the paper found.
While Firefox and Netscape were slowly edging away at the Microsoft browser monopoly, the recent announcement by Netscape parent AOL that it is shifting focus to an advertising model could signal a change in the long-term emphasis on its browser.
"With that shift, Firefox will have to come up with some new and exciting features to increase it acceptance by users," the paper says.
PointerA browser flaw a day keeps hackers at play. Click here to read more.
With regard to the methodology behind the white paper, Janco, of Park City, Utah, says it develops and maintains several Web sites.
As part of its normal business needs, Janco monitors browser visitors to those sites and captures the type of browser that visitors to those sites are using.
The sites are maintained at Janco's corporate offices, Janco's outsourced Web servers and other remote Internet sites.
All of the sites are commercial in nature with a business to business focus, the paper says.
eWEEK.com Special Report: Browser Security
"We do not receive any compensation from any of the providers of browsers to conduct this study. Janco captures one record for each unique visit to the sites monitored. If a user leaves the site and returns a second time, that is counted as another visit. The survey is accurate to within plus or minus 1 percent," it says.
The white paper also makes the following recommendations: IE users should continue to use that browser and, if they need features like tabbed browsing, should look for the IE add-on or test Firefox to see if it meets their needs.
As Firefox now meets the requirements of most Internet users, Janco recommends that the browser be installed and used at this time, but advises against installing Netscape Version 8.0.
In summary, Janco said that over the past two years there has been "nothing new" from Microsoft and AOL on the browser front, bar some cosmetic changes.
Security breaches in IE have been rampant, with many hackers focusing on the product that they could do the most damage to.
PointerTo read more about how Internet Explorer's security problems have been multiplying, click here.
As Firefox gains market share, it is expected to face the same issues.
Firefox's future growth will depend on how exposed its code is and how quickly it responds to security breaches, it said.
"The anti-Microsoft feelings in part of the user community continue to increase with each new security breach. Users are now starting to blame Microsoft for the breaches because of poor design or poor implementation. This is making it easier to justify moving away from the problem – Microsoft," Janco said in the paper.
That, in turn, means that users are now looking to solutions other than IE, and Firefox could be positioned to gain even more market share in the future, the paper concluded.
PointerCheck out eWEEK.com's Enterprise Applications Center for the latest news, reviews and analysis about productivity and business solutions.

'Smart pigs' keep oil pipelines clean

Saturday, August 12, 2006 · Last updated 3:45 p.m. PT

'Smart pigs' keep oil pipelines clean

By KRISTEN HAYS
AP BUSINESS WRITER

photo

Pipeline pigs sit on the shelves at Inline Services Inc., a Houston area-based pig manufacturer and distributor, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006 in Tomball, Texas. Propelled by pressure, oil or other contents running through the pipeline, the devices that often look like huge dumbbells dislodge debris and clean the pipe walls. The importance of so-called "pigging" leaped to center stage this past week after BP PLC shut down part of the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope, raising questions about the integrity of the country's pipelines and how more than 3,000 pipeline operators keep them running. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

HOUSTON -- Of all the technologies available to maintain the nation's 2 million miles of pipelines, one of the most critical devices evokes images of a muddy farm animal - the pig.

Now erase the image. The earliest, primitive pipeline pigs may have squealed as they scraped wax, mineral deposits, sand or other corrosion-causing debris from the insides of the nation's energy highways, but even that similarity is long gone.

The importance of so-called "pigging" leaped to center stage this past week after BP PLC shut down part of the Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope, raising questions about the integrity of the country's pipelines and how more than 3,000 pipeline operators keep them running.

Metal, foam, plastic or gel, ranging in size from a few inches to seven feet tall and wide as a tree - or however big they have to be to fit snugly inside a pipe - some pigs are simple scrapers. Others, known as "porcupine pigs," sport scrubbing wire brushes.

Propelled by the pressure of oil or other contents running through the pipeline, these devices dislodge debris and clean the interior pipe walls.

More sophisticated "smart pigs" carry instruments that gather images and other data inside the pipeline that allow operators to pinpoint trouble spots.

"I've heard so many people say 'If you could make one for arteries, you'd be rich,'" said Gary Smith, president of Inline Services Inc., a Houston-based pig manufacturer and distributor.

BP ordered the Prudhoe Bay shutdown after discovering a leak and severe corrosion in 16 miles of aging "transit" pipes that feed into the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline.

The company acknowledged those lines hadn't been pigged in years. Instead, BP had relied mostly on exterior ultrasound to monitor the pipes' integrity, believing the risk of corrosion was low because they carried market-ready crude or processed oil that had been stripped of harmful water, gas, and solids.

BP now says it will use pigs to maintain and inspect all its transit lines.

Even pipes that sit unused will corrode, said Steve Arrington, global operations manager for Houston-based oil services conglomerate Halliburton Co.'s pipeline and process services group.

"Corrosion is just a fact of life. Corrosion of metal alloys occurs all the time. All that man can do is minimize that or reduce it, but we cannot stop it completely," Arrington said.

Legend has it that early pigs, made of stuffed burlap bags or other material, would squeal as they scraped through a pipe, hence the name. But Smith said the name is an acronym for pipeline inspection gauge.

Smith said all kinds of debris can build up in a pipeline, everything from sand left over from fabrication of the pipe to condensation from natural gas to salt water from oil extracted offshore. And even simple bacteria can corrode the metal, he said.

However, many operators resort to pigging only when a problem is apparent. By then the pipe is usually already damaged, which can cause safety and environmental risks as well as jeopardize a multimillion-dollar pipeline.

Regular pigging is good business, said Kirk Langford, head of transmission pipeline inspection for oil services firm Baker Hughes Inc. "The better pipeline operators have always done this."

Other technologies help assess pipe integrity, such as measuring the flow of an electrical current, said Tom Miesner, a Houston-based pipeline consultant. Increased resistance means the pipeline wall is thinning.

However, smart pigging is the ideal, said Miesner, who worked 25 years with Conoco before its merger with Phillips Petroleum.

A five-year study by the Association of Oil Pipe Lines found the use of smart pigs can help reduce pipeline spills. The study, which covered 1999-2004, showed the overall number of spills on pipeline segments tested with smart pigs dropped approximately 50 percent.

"They are about the only thing you can run through a pipe in order to find anomalies," Miesner said.

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AP Business writer Steve Quinn in Dallas contributed to this report.