Dekoh Challenges Apollo As Desktop/Web Platform

clipped from www.readwriteweb.com After the tremendous build-up and response to Adobe's Apollo platform, which aims to integrate desktop apps with the Web, we must also remember there are other products trying for the same thing. Dekoh is one such competitor and, like Adobe's Apollo, it is in the business of bringing the browser to the desktop. While Apollo has the benefit of huge financial backing and pre-existing developer support, Dekoh is aiming to attract developers by providing more features. Which actually makes it hard to describe what Dekoh is in a sentence. When Ryan Stewart covered the private beta release of Dekoh, he implied it was like the WebOS products that we've profiled before on R/WW. Anyway here's a table showing the main differences between Dekoh and Apollo (courtesy of the Dekoh blog):

Slashdot, TechCrunch ... and now Stumble ?

clipped from www.computerworld.com I certainly didn't stumble upon Stumble. It's the first item listed in Peter Smith's 20 must-have Firefox extensions. I'm installing one per day. Stumble is a service that pulls up Web pages. Users submit pages and tag them according to topics. When I click the Stumble! button added to my toolbar -- more on this momentarily -- a Web page in one of my topic areas is presented. I can give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down, or I can just move along. Stumble claims, in my view correctly, that it "helps you discover great content you probably wouldn't find using a search engine." The likelihood of my trying to find these pages via search or surf is slim. I didn't even know I wanted to see them until they were there in front of me.

Adobe launches Apolla alpha

clipped from www.computerworld.com Adobe launches runtime to take rich Internet apps to desktop March 19, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Adobe Systems Inc. today released the first public alpha version of its cross-operating system application runtime designed to allow developers to build rich Internet applications for the desktop. Code-named Apollo, the runtime focuses on allowing Web developers to use their existing skills in HTML, JavaScript and AJAX to create desktop versions of rich Internet applications, Adobe said. "People are starting to push the limits of AJAX and what they are able to do in the browser," said Pam Deziel, director of product marketing for Adobe's platform business unit. "[Apollo] is a way to further enrich the experience we have in Web applications by taking advantage of some of the functionality of desktop apps like drag and drop." The first version of Apollo for developers includes a free software developer's kit with a set of command-line tools for developing and working with Apollo applications.

Jangl!

clipped from www.jangl.com Giving out your own personalized Jangl ID ratherthan your real phone number lets you control all incoming and outgoingcalls. If you want privacy, Jangl lets you be anonymous. If you want control, Jangl lets you decide when and if you want to talk. Privacy • Control • Simplicity Jangl Me... it's the best way to give out your number, online and offline. Jangl - It's the new way to talk.

The Pulver 100

clipped from www.pulver.com The Pulver 100 is the first and foremost listing of privately held growth companies that represent the future of IP communications. Originally introduced in 2002, the pulver 100 recognizes companies that have substantial real-world deployments and enjoy significant growth rates. The pulver 100 has become an indicator of the leading edge in IP communications, and the companies named to the 2007 Pulver 100 represent the future of the IP communications industry.

Wikia, Wikipedia ....

clipped from www.wikia.com Wikia opens new "magazine rack" websites WIKIA LAUNCHES NEW COMMUNITY WEB SITES, ADDS HIGHLY INTERACTIVE FEATURES IN ON-GOING QUEST FOR COLLABORATION ( http://entertainment.wikia.com ), ( http://local.wikia.com ), ( http://politics.wikia.com ), (http://www.wikia.com ) Following its acquisition of the popular online sports community, ArmchairGM ( http://www.armchairgm.com ) last year, Wikia began working to create fan-driven communities that incorporate the same interactive features of the ArmchairGM site, including democratic sorting of content, blogging, commenting and more. http://music.wikia.com http://marveldatabase.wikia.com Music Wikia at http://music.wikia.com , the Marvel Comics Wikia at http://marveldatabase.wikia.com , and the online travel guide, World Wikia at http://world.wikia.com .

Brilliant!- Finally only one phone number!

clipped from www.nytimes.com A new service called GrandCentral, now in its final weeks of public beta testing, solves all of these problems. It’s a rather brilliant melding of cellphone and the Internet. Its motto, “One number for life,” pretty much says it all. At GrandCentral.com, you choose a new, single, unified phone number (more on this in a moment). You hand it out to everyone you know, instructing them to delete all your old numbers from their Rolodexes. From now on, whenever somebody dials your new uninumber, all of your phones ring simultaneously, like something out of “The Lawnmower Man.” No longer will anyone have to track you down by dialing each of your numbers in turn. No longer does it matter if you’re home, at work or on the road. Your new GrandCentral phone number will find you.

Let's start exercising ...

clipped from www.cnn.com WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Exercise boosts brainpower by building new brain cells in a brain region linked with memory and memory loss, U.S. researchers reported Monday. Exercise generated blood flow to the dentate gyrus of the people, and the more fit a person got, the more blood flow the MRI detected, the researchers found. "The remarkable similarities between the exercise-induced cerebral blood volume changes in the hippocampal formation of mice and humans suggest that the effect is mediated by similar mechanisms," they wrote. "Our next step is to identify the exercise regimen that is most beneficial to improve cognition and reduce normal memory loss, so that physicians may be able to prescribe specific types of exercise to improve memory," Small said.

sxip: Identity Management Startup Company

clipped from www.sxip.com Sxip pronounced \skip\ Sxip Identity is the market leader in Identity 2.0, an internet-scale approach to identity and access management that is simple, secure and open. What Sxip Identity Does Sxip Access: On-Demand Identity Management Easily provision and manage user access to Google Apps, Salesforce and other software-as-a-service solutions with Sxip Access' seamless integration with existing corporate directories, providing secured single sign-on, enterprise grade control and security, and increased productivity.

Senertec Dachs: A 90% Efficient Power Plant for Your Home

clipped from www.treehugger.com Many scenario planners suggest that, in the future, technologies such as fuel cells will change power generation from the steam-belching centralized model which typified the industrial revolution to a decentralized network, with each household generating power and feeding what they don't need back into the system--earning money for the efficient households. What if that technology were already available today? Guess what: it is. And it is called micro-CHP (for combined heat and power). Micro-CHP adopts the concept of co-generation, which is when heat is simultaneously collected and distributed from a generator used to produce electricity. Systems powered by natural gas or heating oil have been available on the market in "micro" models suitable for single households for some years now (see Whisper Gen for example). But what if these systems could use renewable fuels? At the Heating Industry Convention (ISH) in Frankfurt this week, the company Senertec introduced a

Sitepal-Animated Avatars for your Website

clipped from www.sitepal.com

Allows you to design speaking animated characters that can be embedded into your website for a more personal approach and to increase sales (so they say, what do you think?)

South by Southwest conference in Austin

http://2007.sxsw.com/
South by Southwest conference-looks great!

http://www.howdoisaythis.com/
Online video collaboration for common issues

http://www.talkshoe.com

A new way to create Interactive Podcasts and talk with interesting people with similar interests around the world.

Simplifying ruby on rails

clipped from www.digital-web.com Ruby on Rails for the Rest of Us What Is Ruby On Rails? You’ve probably heard of Ruby on Rails, which has been generating noise in the web development field over the past year. While buzz and hype are nothing new to our industry, it’s always beneficial to cut through that hype and the jargon to understand what a new technology really is about. Ruby on Rails is an open-source web development framework that allows you to rapidly develop data-driven applications using the Ruby programming language. By applications I don’t mean software applications such as Photoshop that run on your desktop. Instead, I am referring to web applications such as Basecamp and Flickr. Like a desktop app, a web application solves a problem. For example, Basecamp lets you manage your client projects easily via the web, and Flickr lets you share photos with friends and family effortlessly.

Tool for brainstorming

clipped from bubbl.us brainstorming made simple What is it? The simplest way to brainstorm online. Why bubbl.us? It's extremely easy to use and has almost no learning curve. Our intuitive user interface lets anyone brainstorm and organize ideas without getting in the way. Features Share and work together with your friends. Brainstorm without touching the mouse. Display your ideas online or through email. Print your work.

BZ Media Webinars

clipped from bzmedia.com http://bzmedia.com/webseminar/ BZ Media LLC is a high-tech media company that combines the best of print and Web-based publishing with industry-leading technical conferences and expositions. BZ Media's flagship publication is SD Times®, the newspaper of record for software development managers. The latest issue of SD Times is available at www.SDTimes.com. You can read many of its stories online, or download the entire issue in Adobe's Acrobat (PDF) format for FREE right from the Web site.

Some social networking sites

http://www.linkedin.com/ Business networking site

http://www.foundercontact.com/ Business networking for Entrepreneurs only

https://www.xing.com/ Business networking "Powering Relationships"

http://www.ning.com/ Create your own social network for anything.'

http://twitter.com
A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!'

http://www.haystack.cerado.com/html/haystack_directory.php
Networking Directory-self described 'serious social networking for businesses and associations.'

Review: The Book of Javascript

clipped from books.slashdot.org

Michael J. Ross writes "Developers of Web sites, whether professional programmers or Web hobbyists, are oftentimes impressed by the more advanced functionality that can be achieved on a Web page using JavaScript. Yet these personal discoveries of JavaScript's power do not always motivate the developers to implement similar functionality on their own sites — partly because most of those custom-built JavaScript functions are cryptic, and make no attempt to show how the developer would customize the code for their own use. The majority of JavaScript books are of limited help in this regard, because they focus on the language details, illustrated only with code snippets. Many readers would benefit more from instruction via working examples, which is the approach used by The Book of JavaScript." Read the rest of Michael's review.

Adobe Tackles Photo Forgeries

clipped from www.wired.com

A suite of photo-authentication tools under development by Adobe Systems could make it possible to match a digital photo to the camera that shot it, and to detect some improper manipulation of images, Wired News has learned.

Adobe plans to start rolling out the technology in a number of photo-authentication plug-ins for its Photoshop product beginning as early as 2008. The company is working with a leading digital forgery specialist at Dartmouth College, who met with the Associated Press last month.

The push follows a media scandal over a doctored war photograph published by Reuters last year. The news agency has since announced that it's working with both Adobe and Canon to come up with ways to prevent a recurrence of the incident.

Interview with Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe

clipped from news.com.com

As the company develops new products, it intends to combine the multimedia authoring skills it has in Photoshop, Premiere and other applications with the Web design and development savvy of Macromedia, Chizen said. Indeed, as Web-based applications become more functional, Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia--maker of Flash and Web development tools--looks better every day, especially as Microsoft continues to challenge Adobe with competing products.

Now Adobe is looking to add Web-delivered services to its product line, says Chizen. The company has already developed an online video editor and, Chizen said, an online version of image editor Photoshop is in the works. Also in the works is Apollo, a new client development strategy due later this year.

The CEO of Adobe Systems oversees a company that successfully harnessed the power of an earlier technology wave--personal computers--for tasks like digital publishing and photography.

Adobe missing from Microsoft's will-run-on-Vista list

http://reseller.co.nz/reseller.nsf/news/F8DBCD95A252597CCC25728A000DAEB9
Microsoft has released a list of 800 applications it has officially verified so far to run bug-free on Windows Vista.

The list is notable for both its brevity and the absence of many applications popular on Windows XP, although Microsoft and analysts said that the majority of XP software can run, albeit with hiccups, on Vista.

Popular Windows software that is conspicuously missing from Microsoft's list includes Adobe Systems Inc.'s entire line of graphics and multimedia software, Symantec Corp.'s security products, as well as the Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox Web browser, Skype Ltd.'s free voice-over-IP software and the OpenOffice.org alternative to Microsoft Office.

Newsflash-the U.S Patent and Trademark Office using wikis....

clipped from seattletimes.nwsource.com

WASHINGTON — The government is about to start opening up the process of reviewing patents to the modern font of wisdom: the Internet.

The Patent and Trademark Office is starting a pilot project that will not only post patent applications on the Web and invite comments but also use a rating system designed to push the most respected comments to the top of the file, for serious consideration by the agency's examiners.

A first for the federal government, the system resembles the one used by Wikipedia, the popular user-created online encyclopedia.

"For the first time in history, it allows the patent-office examiners to open up their cubicles and get access to a whole world of technical experts," said David Kappos, vice president and assistant general counsel at IBM.

Adobe loses Associated Newspapers from QuarkXP

clipped from www.printweek.co.uk

Quark lost another major client to arch-rival Adobe last month when Associated Newspapers (AN) ditched Quark Publishing System and QuarkXPress from its national titles.

AN has opted for an editorial content management system from Reading-based Atex with Adobe's InDesign and InCopy software.

AN chief information officer Ian Cohen said: "As a large Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator customer, a decision was made to replace QuarkXPress with InDesign as the core solution."

Atex's system will be used to produce the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard, Metro and London Lite. The software will also be used to manage content for the publisher's websites.

Ideas for designing our UI

clipped from www.fuzzyfuture.com

50 sources for web design inspiration

When Fuzzy Future first got started, I said that our goal was to build content that other people can use to improve their own projects. Almost every day, while I’m checking out a blog or social bookmark site like Del.icio.us or Digg, I see a post entitled something along the lines of “50 beautiful web designs” or “25 amazing wordpress templates.” As a web developer and not really a web designer, I always love these posts because they’re great inspiration for the next time I need to create my own template, theme, site, etc. Over the years I’ve managed to build up a decent bookmark list of these “inspirational” sites so I thought I would put them all in one place for other people to take advantage of as well. So, without further ado, here is my list of 50 sources for web design inspiration…A little help for us artistically challenged individuals

by stark | Web Design |
Trackback

A lesser known scripting language - Groovy

clipped from groovy.codehaus.org

Groovy is ...

An agile dynamic language for the Java Platform with many features that are inspired by languages like Python, Ruby and Smalltalk, making them available to Java developers using a Java-like syntax.

Developing web applications , writing shell scripts easily, writing concise, meaningful, test cases using Groovy's JUnit integration, or prototyping and producing real industrial strength applications have never been so concise and groovy.

Groovy works cleanly with all existing Java objects and libraries and compiles straight to Java bytecode in either application development or scripting mode.

A simple hello world script:

def name='World'; println "Hello $name!"

Octopoart: Search Engine for Gadget parts

clipped from www.techcrunch.com

Today, Y Combinator backed Octopart has launched a vertical search engine for electronics parts, ideal for electrical engineers and hobbyists alike. The engine helps electronics buyers find the best deals by aggregating and normalizing product data from Allied Electronics, Digi-Key, Mouser, and Newark InOne. The site was started by two physics grad students, frustrated by continuously facing difficult price comparisons while buying supplies for their lab. They recently dropped out to pursue the development of Octopart along with other verticals.

The Top Five Technologies for 2007

clipped from computerworld.com

The Top Five Technologies You Need to Know About in '07

From next-gen CPU architectures to high-powered personal-area networks, we name the five hottest trends in developing technology.

March 01, 2007 (Computerworld) -- It seems like every month a new technology emerges with the potential to change everything. Technology writers and analysts get hyperexcited. Everyone starts patting one another on the back and hugging. And two years later, we're still talking about the promise of that technology, with little to show in the here and now.

That's why as we began to look at core technologies that may have the greatest effect on the world of computing over the next 12 months, we paid special attention to how soon these advances will be available to everyday users, either at the enterprise or the personal level. The result is the following list of five emerging technologies with groundbreaking potential -- this year as well as in the future.

1. Ruby on Rails: Faster, easier Web development
2. NAND drives: Good-bye HDD?
3. Ultra-Wideband: 200x personal-area networking
4.Hosted hardware: Supercomputing for the masses
5. Advanced CPU architectures: Penryn, Fusion and more

Cuisine: The New French....Michelin-starred Indian restaurants

Reviews of five Indian restaurants in London-three of which have Michelin stars.

clipped from travel.nytimes.com

Zaika, in a stately bank building in Kensington, no longer has a Michelin star but retains a loyal following for its haute Indian cuisine.

India gave Britain chutney, mustard, pepper, curry and mulligatawny soup. It gave Britain flavor. It even gave us Jamie Oliver's trademark “pukka.”

Thinking creatively about thinking creatively

clipped from www.core77.comMore Brain, Less Storm:

Flanagan makes a good case for the importance of spending the time to develop new tools and techniques for truly effective product product development brainstorming.

How to think creatively about thinking creatively

By Michael Flanagan

Charles in Space

http://charlesinspace.com/

Can also be reached by typing nerdinspace.com!

Bill Gates calls Simonyi "one of the great programmers of all time."

Here he chronicles his upcoming journey into space -certainly it will be interesting to watch and see what he comes up with next.....

Great site and the closest I'll get to floating in space (cyber-space that is) for some time.

ICEBlog posted to Technorati

Technorati Profile