Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Opera Unite: Your Browser Is Now a Full-Featured Server [Browsers]

On top of the server-side compression and new interface we saw last week, Opera has done something pretty wild with the next version of their software: they've turned it into a zero-config server for files, music, photos and websites.

The concept is somewhere between a personal web server and a filesharing application, technologically and conceptually. The interface is straighforward, divided into panels for each service that you choose to "host." All of them behave in the same stupid-simple way: you start a service, whether it be photo sharing, music streaming, web hosting, or straight file sharing, select a shared directory, set your privacy preferences and go. There are also hosted chat services, and "Fridge," which is a—you guessed it—hosted quasi-Facebook wall, for other Opera users to drop notes on.

Even at this early stage you can find a lot of hosted content to explore, including plenty of publicly streamable music, which will almost certainly cause Opera problems even though, strictly speaking, they're not actually doing the streaming. There's no video service for now, but Unite is extensible, meaning that anyone can design a plugin to add to the program's default file-serving capabilities.

Opera is proud of the fact that Unite runs against the tide of most new web services, opting for client-side content hosting over cloud-based solutions—so proud, in fact, that th! ey're ab le to repeatedly, straight-facedly describe Unite as a "Web 5.0" product, which is a bit rich considering it is just a collection of services that have been available for years, albeit never in such a simple or consolidated way. As a convenient tool for sharing large amounts of content, I get it. As a game-changer? I'm not so sure.

Of course, you might, so just try it out: a technical preview of Opera Unite is available for download here. [Opera]

Pear'd

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheDieline/~3/YzWeYXvIPkI/peard.html

New work by Chicago based designer Susie Grace, a recent grad of Columbia College:

"This drink was conceptualised because of my frustration wit the lack of pear drink products. So, I decided to create the packaging that would resemble a pear shape, as well as a clean simple label to show the contents of the drink to be just pear, wanting to emphasis clean and sparkling."

Share you thoughts on Susie's design below.

Opera Unite: a cloud-based promise to 'reinvent the web,' again

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/16/opera-unite-a-cloud-based-promise-to-reinvent-the-web-again/

Opera has a little surprise in store for you this morning with its Opera Unite service. A web-based application built into the Opera browser that the Norwegian-based company says will "reinvent the Web" as it makes your computer, data, and media available via any web browser through the Unite cloud. A bold claim, sure, but just look at the breadth of the cloud-based services available to Mac, PC, or Linux/Unix users:

File sharing -- securely share files direct from your computer
Web server -- turns your home computer into a web server via Opera Unite URL
Media player -- direct link to your music collection from any web browser
Photo sharing -- shares your image library over the web without requiring a photo service
Lounge -- self-contained chat service running on your computer
Fridge -- a place where friends and family can post notes

We're taking the service / software for a spin right now and at first blush, we're duly impressed by the ease of setup and control. Hit the links below to try it for yourself. Video introduction after the break.

Read -- Download
Read -- Opera Unite press release

Continue reading Opera Unite: a cloud-based promise to 'reinvent the web,' again

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Opera Unite: a cloud-based promise to 'reinvent the web,' again originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ARM promises dual-core Cortex A9-based smartphones next year

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/16/arm-promises-dual-core-cortex-a9-based-smartphones-next-year/

The world's two most visually engaging smartphones -- the iPhone and the Pre -- share very similar cores based on ARM's Cortex A8 architecture, and with the newer, more advanced Cortex A9 in the pipeline, you can't help but let your mind wander a bit as you envision what twice as much computational power could bring to a handset. The A9 employs more advanced instruction pipelining than its predecessor, but the biggest news has to be the fact that it can pack two or more cores -- and ARM fully expects dual-core A9-based phones to hit in 2010. Of course, power consumption is the biggest constraint when it comes to this category of device, and while the company says that peak drain will exceed that on today's crop of devices, average consumption will actually drop thanks largely to a move from 65nm to 45nm manufacturing processes. Add in 1080p video promised by TI's next-gen OMAP4 silicon wrapped around an A9 core, and you've basically got a home theater in your pocket that's ready to rock for a few hours on a charge. That and Snoop Dogg, of course.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

ARM promises dual-core Cortex A9-based smartphones next year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 05:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RT @acfou - The ROI for Social Media Is Zero http://ping.fm/3KH31 - what do you think?

Monday, June 15, 2009

12 Companies Targeting Early Tech Adopters

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/eJc1DNCuPpw/sponsors_post_14june09.php

Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to explore the latest Web technology products and trends. We're fortunate to have a great group of sponsors who support this goal. So, once a week, we write a post about them; about who they are, what they do, and what they've been up to lately. We hope you'll pay them a visit as a way to show your appreciation for their sponsorship of this site.

Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor? ReadWriteWeb is one of the most popular blogs in the world and is read by a sophisticated audience of thought leaders and decision-makers. We have several innovative new features in our sponsor packages that we'd love to tell you about. Email our COO Bernard Lunn for all the details.

Sponsor

Ready to learn more about the smart companies that support this site you love to read? Read on...

Socialtext

Socialtext provides an enterprise wiki platform for organizations who want to accelerate knowledge sharing, foster collaboration, or build online communities.

Socialtext is currently offering a free white paper entitled "5 Best Practices for Enterprise Collaboration." It explains how collaboration solutions (a.k.a. Enterprise 2.0) can "dramatically reduce enterprise cycle times and costs. These results may be critical to survival in difficult economic times, and the right collaboration solution is the easiest, most cost effective way to achieve them."

Download Socialtext's free white paper at http://socialtext.com.

Crowd Science

Crowd Science gives online publishers reports on the demographics and attitudes of their audience. We at ReadWriteWeb have signed up to this new service, because demographic data is something we've struggled to get in the past. It's important for any online business to know their audience, so Crowd Science is a welcome addition to the stats armory that most of us in the Internet biz use.

You can sign up to get demographic data by clicking here.

Mashery

Mashery is a platform for Web services, allowing companies to manage their APIs using Mashery's expertise. At the "Business of APIs" conference, Mashery CEO Oren Michels explained to the audience that while APIs are a technology, their use is a business decision. He went on to say that Mashery has helped customers such as WhitePages.com, Thumbplay, Compete.com, and Calais. Check out the white paper "Five steps to scaling your business development using Web services" to discover how you can use APIs for your business.

You can find out more about APIs and their business use at www.mashery.com.

Rackspace

Rackspace is one of the world's largest hosting providers, but it's also competing in the cloud computing arena. In October Rackspace announced two major acquisitions: SliceHost and JungleDisk. Slicehost is a popular cloud computing and hosting provider with about 15,000 users, while JungleDisk is one of our favorite online backup services. JungleDisk used to rely on Amazon's S3 storage solution, but it now also supports Rackspace's cloud storage solution. At the same time, Rackspace also announced a new suite of services, Rackspace Cloud Hosting, which combines a hosting platform (CloudSites) with a cloud storage solution (CloudFS), and, in the long run, a tight integration with Slicehost's services.

Click here to explore Rackspace's hosting and cloud computing solutions.

Aplus.net

Aplus.net offers a variety of services relating to Web hosting, including shared hosting, dedicated server, managed hosting, Web design, marketing and online advertising services, search engine optimization, e-commerce solutions, and domain registration.

You can register for Aplus.net here.

2009 Semantic Technology Conference

What are the big players doing in semantic search? Which startups are challenging them? How does semantic technology change search results? What key advantages and new opportunities does semantics provide in consumer and business search markets?

At the 2009 Semantic Technology Conference, taking place from 14 to 18 June 2009 in San Jose, semantic applications and usage cases will be presented by product developers and technical experts in such fields as advertising, business process management, cloud computing, digital asset management, and e-commerce.

Hakia

Hakia is a general purpose "semantic" search engine that delivers a search experience based on focus, clarity, and credibility. Today's search engines retrive popular results via statistical ranking, but popular websites are not always credible and credible websites are not always popular.

Hakia's semantic technology provides a new search experience based on quality, not popularity. Its search results come from credible websites recommended by librarians; they represent the most recent information available and remain absolutely relevant to the query.

Weebiz

Weebiz is the social network for companies. It's the place where you can promote your products and services, meet new clients, suppliers and partners, share valuable industry information, and leverage your business relations. Weebiz puts companies at the center of a hub where opportunities converge. It is a beautiful and simple-to-use tool that provides the perfect environment for business networking.

You can pre-register your company on Weebiz by clicking here.

Mollom

The web is changing. User contribution is now what makes or breaks a site. Allowing users to react, participate and contribute while still keeping your site under control can be a huge challenge. Mollom is a Web service that helps you identify content quality and, more importantly, helps you stop spam on your blog, social network or community website. When site moderation becomes easier, you have more time and energy to interact with your community.

Mollom is currently protecting over 9,000 active websites and has caught over 83 million spam messages since it started. Its average efficiency is 99.96%. Find out more on the Mollom website.

Domain.ME

.Me is a true phenomenon among TLDs. With its unforgettable meaning and limitless word combination possibilities, .Me gives a truly personal tone to your domain name. If you are looking for a name that speaks for itself .Me is your best choice. Let .Me speak for your online business or personal blog.

.Me potential is enormous and it simply asks for you to be creative and coin the name that suits you best. If you have a great, original idea for a domain name, register .Me before it's taken. To check out other ideas, explore the world of .Me.

Enterprise 2.0 Conference

Forward-looking businesses are using web 2.0 and social tools to achieve new levels of productivity and efficiency in a tough economy. The Enterprise 2.0 Conference is the leading event for business and IT professionals challenging the status quo and leading the charge to Enterprise 2.0.

Over forty sessions across six conference tracks cover the latest trends in Enterprise 2.0 technology innovation and organization-wide change: Enterprise 2.0 in action; social tools for the enterprise; foundations for Enterprise 2.0; new ways to work (Organization 2.0); and community engagement through social media.

SiSense

SiSense sees enterprise business intelligence as being a heavy and expensive project that requires a ton of IT support. Its main product, Prism, enables immediate deployment and connects to any data source, dynamically. In doing that, it frees IT from the need to maintain and build data warehouses, OLAP cubes, and refresh reports. It also frees users to use any business intelligence methodology, reports and charts, to bring more common sense and provide them with uncommon insights.

SiSense Prism is a powerful business intelligence tool, easy to learn and use, that works on your desktop. Create stunning visuals, reports and performance dashboards using a smart tool that is fast and easy to use.

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

ReadWriteWeb is hosted by Media Temple and is published using SixApart's Movable Type.

If you've ever wondered what ReadWriteWeb looks like behind the scenes, or if you've never seen the Movable Type publishing interface - that's it on the left. We recently upgraded to MT 4.23, which is the latest version. We got onto this release as soon as it was available - in fact our contacts at Six Apart emailed the actual code to us before it was up on their website. That's customer service for you!

The companies above pay our rents or mortgages and we appreciate it. We hope you'll stop by their sites and see what they've got to offer.

Have you got a smart company that could use some more visits by the sophisticated readers of a blog like ReadWriteWeb's? Drop us a line and let's talk.

Thanks to all our sponsors and our readers for your support!

Discuss

What the Little Bird Told Me About You: Three Twitter Apps for Psych Analysis

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/UNJ5gk8zWEo/tweetpsych_maps_your_mind_through_your_tweets.php

Tomorrow morning, social media and marketing researcher Dan Zarrella is debuting a new way to see into the minds of Twitter users by analyzing their most recent 1,000 tweets.

TweetPsych uses two linguistic analysis methods to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their tweets. It compares the content of a user's tweets to a baseline reading Zarella built by analyzing over 1.5 million random tweets and shows the areas where that user stands out. It also reminded us of two other fascinating apps that show how long a user has been on Twitter and with whom they hold most of their @reply conversations. Being socially minded journalists, we've made bookmarklets for all three services.

Sponsor

Zarrella wrote in an email tonight that he used RID (Regressive Imagery Dictionary) and LIWC (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) to parse the data. RID is a text analysis tool composed of more than 3,000 words from 43 categories of cognition and emotion. LIWC is a text analysis software program that calculates the degree to which people use different categories of words in emails, speeches, poems, or transcribed daily speech. The program considers positive and negative emotion words, self-references, and words that refer to sex, eating, or religion.

Profiles with updates that are protected cannot be analyzed by TweetPsych.

Let's take a look inside the mind of a few Twitter users. Most of the social media elite tend to have fairly impersonal tweets; hence, their TweetPsych profiles are relatively homogeneous catalogs of upward mobility, obsession with professional affairs, and moral imperativism. Here's a profile of a photographer/mother/homemaker/blogger in Georgia:

In marked contrast, here's a 20-something, male entrepreneur in Virginia:

We thought TweetPsych was so nifty that we, a.k.a. Marshall Kirkpatrick, made a bookmarklet. Drag the text TweetPsych into your browser's bookmar bar, visit a Twitter profile, then click the bookmarket to see an analysis of a Twitter user's profile.

Other tweet-analyzing apps we love are Mailana, which shows Twitter conversations and links between different users within and beyond a given user's network, and WhenDidYouJoinTwitter, which shows the date a user joined Twitter (or the date the user implemented the most recent iteration of his username). The WhenDidYouJoinTwitter bookmarklet is also available at that link.

Here's Mailana at work:

This app is particularly good at showing the hubs or connectors in your network, and can also be useful for making new connections with other users. You can use the Mailana bookmarklet on any Twitter profile.

Best of all, try out Marshall's 3-in-1 bookmarklet LittleBirdie to see what each of these apps finds from the Twitter users you love best. Simply drag the text link into your browser's bookmarks bar, visit a Twitter profile, and start analyzing/judging the heck out or everyone you do (and don't) know.

Discuss

Take Your Sites to the Cloud (for Free) with Force.com

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/-Clzybx0q88/take_your_sites_to_the_cloud_with_forcecom.php

Today, Salesforce.com has taken their enterprise cloud computing to the next level with Force.com Sites.

The new offering from this "platform as a service" allows anyone to easily build a fully-featured website using the very same cloud infrastructure it has provided for applications. In other words, a comprehensive website can now be created through Force.com, and literally all you need do is design your UI with web standards such as HTML, JavaScript, Flex and CSS.

Sponsor

One Custom Site, 100 Users, Free Forever

As an incentive to those interested in exploring the new platform, Force.com is allowing anyone to create one site for 100 users at no cost indefinitely.

Truth be told, almost all users of the platform have exceeded the user limit and other factors extremely quickly. But a freemium approach should let smaller enterprise dip their toes in the water when it comes to Force.com Sites.

Same Cloud Service, New Approach

Force.com is one of the leading avenues for developers looking to build their applications in the cloud. Until now, web pages were an afterthought for the service.

But there's no doubt the back-end could power robust, scalable sites. Needing only a front-end that you develop, your site is fashioned through the ridiculously simple Visualforce interface.

The new face to the platform has been in developer preview since February of this year. In that time, it's powered websites for some of Salesforce.com's biggest customers, including the Red Cross, Crocs, Dell, FICO, Juniper Networks, NJ TRANSIT, Seagate, and Starbucks.

Salesforce.com posits their new service as an alternative to Java and .NET, and for those looking to first and foremost reduce overhead in hardware and software, it's not a bad one.

According to Salesforce.com and an independent assessment by Nucleus Research, site development on Force.com is significantly faster than traditional approaches, letting you focus on user experience and content rather than database configuration.

Discuss

What the Little Bird Told Me About You: Three Twitter Apps for Psych Analysis

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/UNJ5gk8zWEo/tweetpsych_maps_your_mind_through_your_tweets.php

Tomorrow morning, social media and marketing researcher Dan Zarrella is debuting a new way to see into the minds of Twitter users by analyzing their most recent 1,000 tweets.

Sponsor

Profiles with updates that are protected cannot be analyzed by TweetPsych.

In marked contrast, here's a 20-something, male entrepreneur in Virginia:

Here's Mailana at work:

Discuss

Poll: Which Web Office Suite Would You Pay For? Adobe or Google?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/SWGbiAkTB0E/poll_which_web_office_suite_would_you_pay_for.php

Today, Adobe announced that their online office suite at Acrobat.com is moving out of beta and they will begin offering both free and paid subscriptions to the web-based suite of applications. For consumers, the change won't have that much of an impact since the core services at Acrobat.com will remain free: Buzzword (the word processor), Presentations (slideshows, still in beta), and Tables (spreadsheets, new today). However, business users will now face a dilemma as Adobe begins to charge for PDF conversion as well as their web meetings product, Adobe ConnectNow.

Sponsor

This move clearly pits Adobe against Google, with both companies now offering premium services to business users. But what will companies choose? Google or Adobe? What would you choose?

Adobe's New Acrobat.com

Along with the announcement about the preview release of Tables, an online spreadsheet application which joins Presentations in the Adobe Labs area, the bigger news today is the pricing plans for the online live meeting service, ConnectNow. Adobe will offer two different plans, a Premium Basic Service and a Premium Plus Service. In addition to online meetings, each service will also include support options and allow users to convert files to PDF format, another feature that will not be accessible to those using the free version of Acrobat.com.

The Basic Service allows up to five participants in an online meeting and supports the conversion of ten documents to PDF per month. This service will cost US $14.99/month, or US $149/year.

The Premium Service allows for up to twenty participants and supports unlimited PDF creation. It will be US $39/month, or US $390/year.

Google Apps: The Better Web Office?

Compared with Google Apps, Adobe's online suite, while arguably a sleeker-looking product, is still very raw when it comes to features. Two of the core office services (Presentations and Tables) are still in beta and there are no email, calendaring, or portal-type applications as there are with Google. In other words, Adobe is content to supplement or replace a business's Microsoft Office install base, whereas Google wants to replace that plus your Exchange server and Sharepoint Server, too.

At $50 per user per year, the question as to whether Google Apps is the more expensive buy really depends on the number of users the company has.

Still, Adobe's key to success is that they're offering something Google doesn't: live web meetings. The closest Google can come to that is Google Video, which allows users to share pre-recorded video presentations like company announcements or training videos. Another option would be Gmail Chat, but it doesn't include ConnectNow's whiteboarding feature. Google also has nothing to do with PDF conversion, although they do allow users to upload and share PDFs in the Google Docs portal.

What To Choose?

Still, when it comes down to it, it's doubtful that any business would pay for two web office suites at the same time just to get a complete set of features. Not only would that not make financial sense, from a support perspective, it would be a mistake, too, especially considering that standardization and consistency are important factors to today's I.T. departments.

Instead, most companies moving to the cloud will have to make the choice: Google or Adobe? What will they choose? What would you choose if you had to decide?

Take the poll and let us know. Feel free to share your reasons why in the comments.

UPDATE: As a few commenters noted, Zoho is also a valid choice for web office suites. However, we intentionally left them out so as not to dilute the vote between the two companies that are arguably industry giants as opposed to (awesome!) startups. ThinkFree is also not included for that reason. If you would choose Zoho, though, vote "Neither" and leave a comment as to why.

Which Web Office Suite Would You Pay For?(survey)

Discuss

First Hybrid Solar Power Plant is a Jack Of All Trades [Solar]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/gNmUQFLTXiQ/first-hybrid-solar-power-plant-is-a-jack-of-all-trades

A new solar power plant is set to open its doors on June 24th in Kibbutz Samar, Israel—but this is a one of a kind complex thanks to a hybrid-microturbine.

The plant can generate 100 kW of on-demand power and 170 kW of thermal power and consists of 30 mirrors that concentrate the sun's rays to the 30-foot Aora Tower. The rays are used to heat concentrated air to drive an electric turbine and the microturbine kicks in at night to fill in the gaps. It is capable of running on biodiesel or natural gas, which means power 24-hours a day—rain or shine. Because it is so versatile, this technology could help power up off the grid communities without having to expand existing grids. Aora is already looking to expand into other countries—and I say bring it on. That tower reminds me of the Eye of Sauron—only more flower-y. [Aora Solar and Treehugger via Inhabitat]

Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Opera Unite: Your Browser Is Now a Full-Featured Server [Browsers]

Opera Unite: Your Browser Is Now a Full-Featured Server [Browsers]

Pear'd

Opera Unite: a cloud-based promise to 'reinvent the web,' again

ARM promises dual-core Cortex A9-based smartphones next year

Monday, June 15, 2009

12 Companies Targeting Early Tech Adopters

Socialtext

Crowd Science

Mashery

Rackspace

Aplus.net

2009 Semantic Technology Conference

Hakia

Weebiz

Mollom

Domain.ME

Enterprise 2.0 Conference

SiSense

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

What the Little Bird Told Me About You: Three Twitter Apps for Psych Analysis

Take Your Sites to the Cloud (for Free) with Force.com

One Custom Site, 100 Users, Free Forever

Same Cloud Service, New Approach

What the Little Bird Told Me About You: Three Twitter Apps for Psych Analysis

Poll: Which Web Office Suite Would You Pay For? Adobe or Google?

Adobe's New Acrobat.com

Google Apps: The Better Web Office?

What To Choose?

First Hybrid Solar Power Plant is a Jack Of All Trades [Solar]

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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Monday, June 15, 2009

Socialtext

Crowd Science

Mashery

Rackspace

Aplus.net

2009 Semantic Technology Conference

Hakia

Weebiz

Mollom

Domain.ME

Enterprise 2.0 Conference

SiSense

Our Gracious Hosts and Blogging Software

One Custom Site, 100 Users, Free Forever

Same Cloud Service, New Approach

Adobe's New Acrobat.com

Google Apps: The Better Web Office?

What To Choose?

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