For those of you eager to switch from Internet Explorer; comes a one day only promotion from Opera. They’re celebrating their 10th birthday and offering an Ad free version of their browser (Normally $39USD) via download.com
Simply e-mail registerme@opera.com to obtain a registration code.
As you’re probably aware Nokia licensed Windows Media technology from Microsoft last February; in an attempt to build a widely distributed iPod class contender and squeeze out any major MP3 player out of business.
But why would Nokia choose one of its biggest competitors as an ally? If Nokia really wanted to go for market share in music, surely they would approach Apple? No doubt, Nokia tried and Apple nixed the idea.
But, why would Apple say no to a partnership with the world’s largest cell phone maker? If you consider the iPod as a platform for listening to music, the logical next step of the evolution is the cell phone? News started to surface on the internet about a possible iPod phone; the Motorola ROKR is set to launch next week.
Nokia rolls out approximately 690 million phones a year, Microsoft Windows Media is subscription based unlike iTunes, and 3G is out in the open and on the horizon at many countries. Given the customer loyalty Nokia has and Microsoft market-share; I think this can be a possible iPod Killer.
However, If there is one lesson CEO Steve Jobs has learned the hard way, it is that being first rarely pays in technology markets (remember Newton?). Part of the success of the iPod was exactly that it did not come first, and it is likely that Steve Jobs will play this game the same way.
For More:
Yazan Malakha Ranting and raving about a contaminated blogosphere.
Intoxicated by their newly struck friendships; and attempting to create better personal connections, Arab bloggers managed to contaminate the blogosphere with a new form of junk, forgetting what blogging is all about.
Chain letters infuriate me probably more than any other piece of spam I ever encountered. I still can’t get over how intelligent grown men and women, lose all sense of reality and forward along these ridiculous, badly written, error-ridden pieces of garbage. I find it peculiar that those inbox fillers have managed to find their way to blogs.
Let me remind you of what blogging is all about: From a technical side; blogging is all about posting, subscribing and tagging (not to be mixed with the chain-letter phenomena); these are the three fundamental building blocks for all the different kinds of blogging.
Posting came first; people have been blogging in some form since the advent of the Internet. Creating Geocities pages for instance was as early forms of blogging. Then came subscribing; RSS is a big deal, but it’s a technology not a human behavior, it’s an enabler; subscribing is a human behavior and is fundamental to the whole blogging equation.
Tagging is the third and final leg of the stool. With well over ten million bloggers posting a couple of times a week (on average), how do you keep track of all the content generated? You can’t, not in an absolute sense anyway. But you can establish a framework for user generated content and build on top of it. There are two forms of Tagging, self tagging and aggregated tagging; both equally important, Think how difficult it would be to find photos on Flickr without tagging, get the picture? Now think how Technorati simplified blog search.
There are several forms of blogging, it’s not limited to posting a short blast of text into your favorite software be it blogger, typepad or wordpress. Podcasting is blogging, posting photos on Flickr is blogging, hell even posting a video of your dog is blogging. To blog is to chronicle your thoughts, your opinions, maybe your activities and personal life, either in the hopes of enlightening yourself and others, or because your ego is the size of Texas. I fail to see how chain-letters would serve to do either.
The ease of use of web logging tools and the lower entry barrier should not be abused to create a new problem of internet communication. Use it to engage wider audience, tackle the incredible amount of misinformation being tossed about, or to find the true facts behind the stories! Enrich your lives and others. Break the chain, nothing bad is going to happen, I promise. Or at least find a new name for your “chain-letter” trend.
Till next time.. Tagging who?
Well everyone has been throwing quotes left and right, here’s one of the wisest things ever said:
“Give a man a link and he can waste an afternoon. Teach a man to Google and he can waste a lifetime.”
Yazan Malakha (1979 - ) - Some MSN conversation
As you probably know Ludicorp (creator of Flickr) got into bed with Yahoo last march, later on it moved from it’s home in Vancouver to Yahoo’s Sunnyvale’s campus. A couple of months ago Yahoo issued the following statement on Flickr’s website.
“Please note that we will be migrating all independent Flickr accounts to Yahoo!’s network in 2006. At that time, if you have not done so already, you will be asked to create a Yahoo! ID (or link your account to your Yahoo! ID if you already have one) in order to continue using your account. We’ll provide further details about the merge as the date approaches.”
Angered by the new requirement some Flickrites are planning to kill off their identities before they can be moved into the new family.
“If Flickr really forces me to join Yahoo in 2006 in order to still use my account, I will quit 24 hours before the deadline,” wrote Thomas Müller, a Hamburg, Germany-based artist and creator of the protest group “Flick Off!”
Now in my humble opinion keeping your personal data on someone else’s machine implies a continual set of readjustments of the contract between the you two. Web-based social neighborhoods will change as much as local cities neighborhoods do, remember the old old Usenet/AOL invasion, or the more recent Yahoo and Geocities acquisition?
I personally don’t see why they can’t just create a Y! account and move on with thier lives (or lack thereof). What would you do? Leave a comment
By adapting the Wine compatibility layer for Windows, a method to run windows programs under OS X for Intel has been developed. Could this be Apple’s plot behind releasing a not-so-secure developers’ kit?
Porting Wine to OSx86 requires serious tweaking, which still results in very unstable programs, work such as this opens a range of possibilities in the future. Since future versions of OS X will be built around the same Intel Processors that power Windows. Will we be able to run Windows apps as if they were native to OS X? Or perhaps the other way around? Will be able to double, or triple boot?
It would be Apple’s dream come true if they’re able to actually have all Windows Applications available run under Mac OS X NATIVELY! I wonder what Bill Gates have to say about this, buy Apple Stock?
It’s times like these that I wish I poses a journalist’s writing skills and reach to describe the revolution taking place on the Palestinian end, for decades Palestinians have been outgunned and never outspoken, but not anymore.
Armed with powerful words, singing in Arabic, English and Hebrew with topics ranging from history and politics to love; The Palestinian Lyrical Front, comprising of 10 rap artists/bands aims to break the silence with Slingshot, a Hip Hop documentary focusing on the struggle and daily life of Palestinians living in Gaza, the west bank and Israel.
Their willingness to experiment with a new medium, the absence of religious scrapping, and the ability to differentiate between Zionism and Judaism is awe inspiring. These kids know their & peace’s enemy. Here’s a sample of their lyrics
حرام يا شعبي حرام, عشان
جدادنا اذا بشفونا بتألبوا بالقبور
كيف هم اخترعوا الصفر واحفادهم صاروا صفور
For the benefit of non-arab readers this means (it’s a pity how things have turned, if our grandfathers saw us they’d roll in their graves, they invented the zero and that’s what we’ve become)
Although their music may lack the immediacy of other rap songs, it’s still a veritable storm of apt samples, grumbling percussion, memorable riffs, and powerful lyrics. Songs like “olive trees” describe the uprooting of the Palestinians from their land, much in the same way Israeli settlers are uprooting olive trees today. Ironically, olive trees are an international symbol of peace.
Here’s a list of some of their songs. Right click and select Save as to download. By the way (DAM stands for Da Arab Mc’s not Blood as I initially thought)
1- Slingshot A Hip Hop Documentary (Trailer) (Windows Media Quicktime)
2- MBS + DAM – Boomerang
3- DAM - Meen Erhabe? (Who’s the terrorist)
4- DAM - ANA EW INTI
5- DAM - BORN HERE (ARABIC VERSION)
6- DAM – BORN HERE VIDEO (A MUST SEE)
7 - IRON SHEIK -OLIVE TREES
8 - IRON SHEIK - THE TALE OF THREE MUHAMMEDS (A MUST)
For More Visit: Iron Sheik, DAM, Slingshot
Please feel free to copy this into your website if you don’t feel like rewriting.
Yes you’ve read it right, RENT MY DAUGHTER!! I’m not particularly sure if there is any validity to these services. It’s quite humorous to think about though. Who hasn’t wished for a little runt to pick up around the house? Or possibly a faux family to impress the boss at that next company picnic?
You can email Jill, who specializes in parties and proms, if you need a date for your zit-full, annoying no girl would look at twice kid. Or perhaps invite Candace who specializes in birthday parties and playing in the park to play with your kids.
Let’s see, mullet, sub-high school education, incipient beer gut… Yep, he’s a republican; anyone who wonders how Bush got a second term can use this as a reality check:
Mullet. Check. Star spangled bandana. Check. Go USA sign. Check. “Get A BRAIN!” with Moron spelled Mor-A-n. Check check!!!
Source: It’s Recess Time Somewhere
Yet Another Google Post!
How To: Setup Google on Mac OSX iChat
Several people have been complaining about not being able to get Talk to run on their iChat despite following Google’s setup guide step by step. Well apparently iChat doesn’t translate the IP for talk.google.com properly and connects to the website IP instead of the Jabber service. By using 216.239.37.125 as the server I was able to connect to Talk (Screenshot below)
How To: Run multiple instances of Google Talk
This might not be useful for all of you, but for those who keep two addresses; or like messing with their friends by claiming to be a hottie, starting multiple instances of Talk is quite easy. If you have a desktop shortcut for Google Talk, right-click on the icon, go to ‘Properties’, and find the ‘Target’ field. Add /nomutex to the end of the target string. See the screenshot below.
Now simply double click on the icon, and another Google Talk instance will fire up.
How To: Replace Google Talk’s Logo?
By using Resource Hacker, I was able to replace Google’s Logo with a different logo, or remove the logo all together (Not exactly legal).
How To: Find Chat History Location
Chat logs are stored here: C:\Documents and settings\[username]\local settings\application data\Google\GTalk\chatlogs
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