5.11.2006

Mashups are good but Frappr goes too far...



Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using API's such as the ones offered by Google for good, especially those using Google Maps and other such useful tools however I discovered a site featured on the Google API page called Frappr.com that goes a little into the realm of dangerous. It essentially takes Google maps and overlays different peoples locations using user inputted data such as your zip code, myspace or other such social networking pages and your email address. You can create groups for you and your friends or coworkers and even put a photo of yourself on the page. Neat concept and all but it was scary enough when all someone needed was your address to get an extraordinarily accurate little satellite map to your house with turn by turn directions. Now all they have to do is go to frappr and look at your picture, decide they like the way you look and bang, they can find you. The internet provides enough ways to have personal information stolen and for stalkers to find new victims without all of us providing a photo, map and email address for the crazies to follow right to our front doors.

Google Trends shows what people are searching for


Google Zeitgeist is a monthly report on the top searches in many categories, as well as overall, top gainers, and more.  Unfortunately, while interesting, the Zeitgeist offered little in terms of comparable information or long term use.  Today Google unveiled Google Trends, a searchable, graphable, tool that allows you to delve into keyword history, comparable search terms, and more.  You can see which geographic areas topped the charts in the search, which languages, and which related stories might have led to the peaks and valleys (similar to Google Finance), via an integrated news snapshot.  See the picture for Red Sox vs. Yankees 2005 summary.

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AIM Pages - AOL's answer to MySpace

AIM Pages Beta Test
AOL released their answer to MySpace, a product called AIM Pages.  Since they already have the largest social network in the world (AIM has a 50% share of use in the chat category), this is a natural extension.  You have direct access to add your "buddies", "profile", and more.  Easy to customize modules pull in photos, bookmarks, the works.  If you want an easy personal page, don't care for MySpace, or are simply looking for the next big thing, check it out.  Not that it's anything special, but it will be so easy for AOL to win over existing users that it will be an instant market contender. 
Your personal URL will be http://aimpages.com/[screenname]

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5.08.2006

Tip: Renaming batches of Photos

This works for any files, but since its likely most useful for photos (and why I'm bringing it up), a little known trick for renaming groups of files together was brought up on Yahoo! Tech (now you can rename photos to have a descriptive name, if you accidentally copied them to your computer as DSC100405060, DSC1040506653, etc...):

"In Windows Explorer (or your My Documents folder, or wherever the
files are located), select the files you want to rename. You can do
this by clicking and dragging a box around them, or select them
individually by holding down the Ctrl button and clicking
individual files.Once all the files you want to rename are
highlighted, press F2, or right-click on one of the files and select
Rename. All of your file selections will disappear except for one, but
don't panic: Type in your new name and click Enter. That's it! One file
will be now be named "renametext" and the others will have sequential
numbers in the format of "renametext (1)" and "renametext (2)" and so
on. File extentions like .gif, .jpg, or .doc will all be intact,
so you can rename multiple types of files at once even if the formats
aren't the same."

Colbert Roasts President Bush


If you haven't seen it yet, Stephen Colbert was at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner for a roast of President Bush.  The formal synopsis is "Comedian Stephen Colbert made humorous remarks about various current
events and the relationship between the press and the White House. He
also presented a video of a mock press conference which ended in a
chase scene featuring long-time correspondent Helen Thomas" (Google Video Blog).  You can watch the roast here, and the entire event here.

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ABC puts all of their new shows online for free


This was discussed before, but finally its live: ABC is the first major station to full TV episodes directly on the web for free, within 24 hours of their innitial airing.  Additionally, you can watch up to the entire current season of many of their major shows.  This is a test service, promised to be free until the end of June, so we don't know what the outcome will be.  Still, for now, you can watch full shows with only a few small (no more than a minute) commercial breaks, and fastforward in between segments (sections up until the commercial break you haven't yet watched).  You can't blow the video up full screen, but the content loads right away and looks pretty good for what it is.  Definately an impressive first step for ABC, expected  to be followed by Fox soon.

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5.05.2006

tv shows online

out of nowhere comes PeekVid, a site hosting a few hundred tv shows, including all of the boondocks and then older things like the ben stiller show. all epsides stream directly off the website (fresh prince anyone), and can be downloaded in conjunction with KeepVid, a video stripper for online content. no news on who is posting and why they're challenging to make this happen, since its likely to get sued quickly.

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5.02.2006

Napster moves to free model

Everybody remember Napster, the music download service with an identity crisis that moved them from a free sharing system to a paid subscription system?  Now they've announced that they're moving to a free model where all songs can be listened to right off the website without cost - up to 5 times.  This way, if you need to hear that cd before you decide to buy, you can give the full tracks a shot all the way through.  There are sharing and linking features also built in, so alert everyone you know of what songs you like.  They're of course hoping that after 5 times of a song that you like you're hooked and you pay for the $0.99 track, or sign up for the $10/$15 (for portable) a month subscription model.

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