WeSeePeople

Twitter Hacking, A Primer To A Revolution!

2009-06-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

Image from 352media

Mashable has a nice article on Twitter hacking and creating social chaos! Interesting.

Boy Big Guys Fight And Say Bad Words! Leo Laporte Loses It With Mike Arrington

2009-06-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

Is not it pathetic? Both but more so on Leo because I thought he was a great emcee all along!

FaceBook Devalued?

2009-04-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Looks like Marks stance on 15 Billion valuation of Facebook is wavering and it might be as low as 2 Billion now, according to a TechCrunch Post! The article talks a lot about company values, early investors and anti-dilution provisions.
Hmmm I guess I better tweet like Oprah, if my posts are this short!

StumbleUpon Is Back To Being A Startup

2009-04-14T00:08:00.000-07:00

Social Book marking site, StumbleUpon has broken free from ebay and become independent again. StumbleUpon was in the folds of Ebay for nearly two years after in 2007 Ebay acquired it for $74 million.
"After nearly two years as a subsidiary of eBay, today StumbleUpon returns to being an independent company. StumbleUpon is now backed by myself and co-founder Geoff Smith, along with several great investors who’ve backed companies such as Google and Facebook."
Hope they can stay up strong among services like DIGG.
StumbleUpon Blog

Internet For Everyone

2009-04-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

There should not be a digital divide. Let's start at home! http://InternetforEveryone.org

Associated Press! Forces An Affiliate To Takedown Youtube Videos

2009-04-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

AP Continue to show that they are still trying to coral the wild horses with straw fences or trying to be media mafia of the present. They post embeddable videos to YouTube and when people post them, even an AP Affiliates, get pulled up for violations. I also do not understand why people post AP News. While Ago they tried to define fair use.
AP does not create news, just like everyone else, they pick up the news from a source, so it is not that hard to find the source of news, which has nothing to do with AP usually, Like the video below which TechCrunch pointed us to (They have a bunch of links to various sources of information on this piece of news!). The video carries an interview of an radio station manager who was stopped by AP and a local producer.
Somewhere in the video, it comes out, "What an idiot!", yes you guessed right!

FriendsFeed, Better Faster and

2009-04-06T08:33:00.000-07:00

I Logged into my Friendsfeed beta page and I think, I love it. What I have seen so far makes me want to have it running all the time on tab. Here is a video showing the features but there is a great article and a another video by Techcrunch. Follow the link after the video.

Techcrunch article

EFF, Apple, Songs, Copyright Laws and You

2009-04-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

I read an article today at EFF that stated with;

"President Obama reportedly gave an iPod, loaded with 40 show tunes, to England's Queen Elizabeth II as a gift. Did he violate the law when he did so?

You know your copyright laws are broken when there is no easy answer to this question."

I am mum on this and you can read more (you should) at EFF, iPods, First Sale, President Obama, and the Queen of England

Orkut Skin Previews Via Activity Streams

2009-04-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

Orkut has added skin updates to your activity streams. So you will be able to see all the new skins that orkut has implemented lately, without having to dig through them.
Now you will see your friends skins via the activity updates and of course you can previews the skin by clicking on your friend name.
I think this lead me to believe that it is better to get all my friends or add more frinds to my lists so I can preview more skins. Then again, I will have to dig them up!
orkut Blog: Skin updates in Activity Streams

Barclays Bank Tax Avoidance Schemes Documents

2009-03-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Barclays Bank lawyers had no clue as where their nuts lay and banned The Guardian from publishing of internal Barclays Bank documents alleged to detail huge tax avoidance schemes by the company that total more than $16 billion.
But the documents are out and many people and sites are taking an stand. Perhaps the UK Judge erred in his infinite wisdom or those wigs they wear is made of lead. Either way another attempt to keep the public uninformed thwarted.
I learned about this at TechCrunch and wikileaks (Overloaded with traffic) has the documents as well.

Google Friend Connect Gives More Help With The New Friend Connect Help Forum.

2009-03-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

Even though Google Friend Connect had good help resources at the Friend Connect Support, like setting up your site, adding social gadgets, and the difference between a friend and a member, folks at FriendConnect has brought out another resource.
They have secured a place in the New Google Help Forums and you can post your questions, tips and tricks for FriendConnect at the new Friend Connect Help Forum.
I did not have much problems with the Friend Connect Service but if you did now you know where to find help.
Via Social Web Blog

FriendFeed Offsite With FrienFeed Desktop App.

2009-03-16T17:19:00.000-07:00

FriendFeed has revealed another way to keep tab on your friends, off the site. With the new Adobe Air-based desktop application updates whenever your friends post something on FriendFeed on your desktop.
The difference is invisibility this time, that is until there is something to see. Unlike many ways that you keep a watch on your friends like IM notifications, RSS feeds, e-mail digests, or the Facebook app, where you have to flip between what you are doing and the method, Bubbles are the way with Friendfeed desktop app.
You can even comment directly from the bubble that pops up to inform you of update.
You will need Adobe - Air to run the application but it is easy two clicks to install.
FF Blog
Tags: social network, Friendfeed,

Amazon Kindles A DCMA Fight With Kindlers And kindlepid.py!

2009-03-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

I am most wrote a foue letter word and Amazon after that. It looks like that Amazons kindle files are actually mobi files and locked.
As usual someone went and found a way through the weak protection so that other books (legally purchased) could be read on Kindle. So the application or the script that provided the means were found on the net, somewhere.
Then someone, who was interested in these mobile stuff, posted a link to the files and got a take down notice from Amazon.
Well I thought Amazon and Kindle was cool and was genuinely happy to see kindle for iPhone but I know now, how I will read my books.
Time to look for a ebook reader for iphone. Oh Four letter word Amazon, I am going to get Moleskin Book out of my iPhone ;)

Social Services Profit, Flickr Collection At Getty Images

2009-03-12T08:18:00.000-07:00

Looks like Yahoo found another way to make money from Flickr, for creators of photographs, the middlemen (yahoo and Getty) and who ever else pick up the crumbs, like ad agencies.
The Getty site has a nice Flickr Collection and promises to make it dynamic and larger as time goes by. The pricing is not cheap, $50 for 500KB photo to about $330 for a 47.5MB photo.
The getty images seeing the value of 3 billion and growing collection of photographs, has hand picked photos from user submitted accounts.
More than being another collection, the getty flickr collection has added value in being able to search by categoreis such as concept, people, location, subject and composition.
If you are planing to make money from your photos at flickr, you need to be chosen to sign up with getty images and flickr has all the information on this page, such as;

"How can I participate? Getty Images’ photo editors will identify photos that they would like to feature in the collection and reach out directly to members of the Flickr community via a new platform that we are developing for them."
Hope this will be a better deal for all those photographers! not a dead fish!

DIGG Townhall Latest Webcast (Feb 09) Online

2009-02-28T12:56:00.000-08:00

The Digg Townhall Webcast Held on February 26, 2009 5pm PT/8pm ET
The fifth Digg townhall meeting, hosts Kevin and Jay answered questions about power users, customized Digg pages, and dupe detection. Also present was the special guest Anton Kast, Digg's VP of Research & Development.
More info on the embedded video is available on Digg Townhall.

How To Follow A Blog With Google Friend Connect

2009-02-26T18:04:00.000-08:00

Since Google introduced Follow your Favorite Blogs within the blogger account setting, there have been multitudes of people adding their favorite blogs and being displayed using the Google Friend Connect! I have used the widget on one of our Blogs and seem to be working very well albeit only three followers so far!. But today Google Blog Announced that Blooger has joined the Open Network of Friends Connect.
Following Video should give you an idea, "How to follow a blog";

Official Google Blog: Blogger connects to Google Friend Connect

Legalize And Tax Marijuana! Says Ammiano.

2009-02-23T11:07:00.000-08:00

SF Weekly is reporting about Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's proposal to help alleviate fiscal problems of California by legalizing pot. It might actually alleviate more than fiscal problems. San Francisco may take over from Amsterdam from being the weed capital of the world. What ever the Dutch do, they can't grow Marijuana like Californians!

Quintin Mecke, Ammiano's press secretary, confirmed to SF Weekly that the assemblyman's 10 a.m. Monday press conference regarding "new legislation related to the state's fiscal crisis" will broach the subject of reaping untold -- and much-needed -- wealth from the state's No. 1 cash crop.

Mecke said Ammiano's proposed bill "would remove all penalties in California law on cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase, possession, or use of marijuana, natural THC, or paraphernalia for persons over the age of 21."
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano will announce legislation on Today to legalize marijuana and earn perhaps $1 billion annually by taxing it.
Well I am ready for a few laughs!
SF Weekly

Get Or Give Your Lacal News At Patch

2009-02-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

If you were worried about your local news paper dying of vanishing over night, fear not. According to an article I read over at John Battelle's blog, Patch which is beta now ready bring you your local news by local journalists.
The important part of this is the fact that many ties the demise of newspapers to Google, Google Advertising somehow. And who is supporting this Local News Startup? Google's vice president of advertising, Tim Armstrong. As John noted, the about page of patch lists this under the Investor;
"Polar Capital Group, Tim Armstrong's private investment company, is an investor in Patch. Polar invested in Patch because Tim believes that Patch should be in every community in America, and wants Patch in his town. He wants to read local news stories done by journalists, make sure that local government is transparent and accountable, see all the ways he can give back to his community, and have his town be as interesting and alive online as it is offline. Tim is also a believer in American ingenuity and knows that products like Patch will help deliver a commercially viable way for communities to support the important work of local journalists, institutions, governments, and businesses. Tim works at Google and his family lives in a Connecticut patch."
Google folded it's news paper advertising and radio advertising recently.
Do you belive news papers will die? In either case, you can join and create your own Patch!
John Battelle's blog post
Patch Beta

End Of Porn, Chinese Scientists Develops Anti-Porn Program

2009-02-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

Scientists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) will offer government organizations and website operators a more intelligent computer tool to discover pornography and lewd materials on Internet.

Last December, Zhang Quan and his colleagues at the CAS Institute of Acoustics developed a system of comprehensive Chinese character recognition, which could identify porn contents on Websites not only by key words but also by syntax and other language index.

"The system functions as a search engine. You input a website address, and it will automatically open every page on the site and examine words, sentences and paragraphs for pornographic materials," Zhang, chief scientist of the program told Xinhua on Thursday.

"It is smarter than keyword-based search engines, because it can discern articles which are critiquing porn materials from those which are merely talking dirty," he said.

The system could also pick up ambiguous paragraphs which it could not comprehend for examiners to scrutinize, he said.

The CAS official website and some of its institutes' websites have already adopted the system for trial use.

"We anticipate that many government organizations and website operators will find it useful," said Zhang, "and we will soon put the software into the market."

Scientists also established a database of "pornographic like" words working as a "searching standard" for the examination.

The software could be used by supervision watchdogs or websites themselves for a real-time supervision on the web contents.

However, Zhang admitted that the new invention could only sniff out "pornography in written form", and could do nothing about images or audio-visual materials.

"We have yet to find an effective way for audio-visual examination, which needs further advanced technology," Zhang said.

In early January, seven government departments including the State Council's Information Office and the ministries of Public Security and Culture, jointly launched a nationwide crackdown campaign on porn websites. As of Tuesday, a total of 1,911 porn websites were shut down.

It later extended the campaign to mobile phone games, online novels, blogs, videos, radio programs, mobile phone websites, chatrooms and instant messenger groups.

Min Dahong, a senior mass communication fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), said the government crackdown campaign would help build a much healthier web environment for Chinese youth. (From Xinhua)

Wikileaks Leak Its Own Anonymous Donor List (Partial)

2009-02-19T13:29:00.000-08:00

In an amateurish email blunder we all have committed at least once, putting bunch of email address in CC field instead of BCC field, Wikileaks have inadvertently released partial list of their donors. But trying to be open, they have posted the complete email online. But as far as I know, I guess the spamers got a few more address'
Wikileaks partial donors list, 14 Feb 2009

How ConnetU Really Lost Ater Winning Against Facebook!

2009-02-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

The websphere is awash with facebook / ConnectU case and what the court papers revealed. Mark Zukerberg is still the winner and Divya Narendra and Cameron and Tyler Winklevossare the losers even after winning.
ValleyWag has done a nice bit of calculations to show how the triplets lost.

Yahoo Twitts

2009-02-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

Yahoo has a twitter account, twitter/yahoo and so does a whole bunch of people, entities from Yahoo. All of them are invading Twitter. Is it a prequel to what?
Pehaps it was due to this PEW report that says 11% of Americans used service similar to twitter.

Social Trails On Android-Powered Phones, With My Tracks.

2009-02-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

I have been a GPS fan for a very long time. Geo tagging was a part of my life even before the digital cameras became part of daily like now. But those day (even Now) most people carry a GPS device, Camera (Or GPS enabled Camera) and record their trails or photographic wanderings. Then they come home and plug the device into a computer and do bunch of things to merge data with map services like Google Maps.
But Now, with My Tracks for Android based phones, can do these things in a much simpler way. All these could be done via an Android based phone, like T-Mobile G1. Too bad I cannot run it on my iPhone. But I have another program on iPhone that performs similar task, GPSlite.
The above trails were created by Sandor, a software Developer at Google
Official Google Blog: Happy trails with My Tracks for Android-powered phones

Google Book Search Goes Mobile With 1.5 Million Books.

2009-02-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

As you can see from the image above, I am on the Google's recently announced Book Search Mobile site. I value books a lot and I have read a lot, a lot more than an average person (but it seems that it has not helped me in writing!) and I have a section of the house, yes you can call it a study, dedicated to books. There are thousands of books and I feel like I am in the center of imaginary and real world at the same time.
I have browsed through Google Books, found books that I have not read or seen before. But now I can take my study where ever I go. I was more than thrilled to see all those titles on the Mobile book search site and I am sure I will spend more time there. Since iPhone gives me constant connection, I will be walking through all those books more often. I think more than those iPhone games now!
Inside Google Book Search: 1.5 million books in your pocket

Data Privacy Day! Raising data privacy awareness

2009-01-28T11:53:00.000-08:00

US and Canada is celebrating Data Privacy Day with 27 other European countries today. I am not sure why not the other countries. Because data privacy affects every one.
In the USA, the Information Technology Association of America is hosting an event called "Data Privacy Day: Increasing Privacy Awareness and Trust." Google is supporting this event by joining government officials and privacy community members.

In addition to collective efforts, Google is offering its users with their own privacy initiatives, from face blurring on street views to incognito mode on Google Chrome, which I use every day and like very much.
Follow the link to read more about Google privacy initiatives and policies.
Official Google Blog: Raising data privacy awareness