10 Old Technologies That Are Now the Next Big Thing

The time is now for these new technologies that are in fact old technologies.
Quick, name some of the hot new technologies that are now on stage to lead the new technology revolution. You'll probably name some transportation tech, computer tech and green tech. But how many of those are really new? On second thought, you will find that some of the newest tech is really some of the oldest tech. Technology in and of itself isn't always sufficient to change the world. You need a congruence of smarter technology, economic impetus, social acceptance and a political climate all ripe for change. Here is my list of 10 new techs that are really old tech, with a quick guess why now is their time. I'd welcome your comments and suggestions for 10 additional items.
1. Electric cars. The automobile industry going through a major change from petroleum-based engines to hybrid systems or, in some cases, all-electric. Now that has to be new, right? Wrong. Let's go back to 1902 and the Phaeton and take a ride. Why did the gasoline engine win in the early 1900s? I'm thinking the mobility, range and distribution network had a lot to do with it. And I'm thinking those three factors will drive the second transition to the all-electric car.
2. Efficient public transportation. Jump on and off, frequent schedules, and the ability to quickly branch out beyond the urban center. Sounds like the early trolley system to me. In the 1920s trolley tracks were U.S. You can still ride the trolleys in Europe. Maybe if you could just skip the wires and use hybrids, those trolleys might return.
3. Touch-screen computers. Would you believe I'm typing this on my 1993 Apple Newton MessagePad? No you wouldn't, and you'd be correct. How about on my Windows-based tablet that Bill Gates predicted in 2001 would now be ubiquitous? Right, not on that either. Connectivity, design format, ease of use and useful applications all conspired to keep the tablet computer firmly in the future. Now that is about to change. Even the great gray lady herself, The New York Times, is figuring the tablet will soon move from the future to your hands.
4. Photovoltaic. Sunlight in, power out. What could be easier? It was first accurately described in 1883. What took so long? Well, you needed a long manufacturing ramp to make those cells competitive with the big power plants, and you needed a lot of money to fund those manufacturing facilities. And you needed a lot of innovation to take the basic idea and get it on a roof. You needed government incentives, a marketing plan and a community of installers. It could all happen starting in 2010.
5. Virtualization. Are you looking to lose a barroom argument? Mention to a long-time IBMer that virtualization is a new technology cooked up in Silicon Valley. Now be prepared to hear about virtualization running along quite nicely on 1960s mainframes, thank you very much. Of course, the difference this time around is that virtualization extends beyond the mainframe and IBM-only realm. But IBM did have all the pieces in place way back then.
6. Cloud computing. Remember how we used to chuckle about those 1940s and 1950s predictions that the world would only need four or five big computers? What a bunch of chuckleheads to think that. Now let's see, if Google keeps growing and Amazon keeps growing, that will leave room for three more big cloud companies. I still credit Salesforce.com's  Marc Benioff for seeing this train leaving the station early, but those cloud predictors from the 1950s may have gotten the forecast correct.
7. Encryption. OK, we are in the wayback machine for the next couple.  Why is it that when the credit card hacker breaks into the banking system, they get the actual user name and card number instead of a bunch of scrambled data? Is it because computer-based encryption was seen as too slow, costly and cumbersome when the financial systems were first built? Was it hubris for those early developers to consider their banking systems unhackable? It certainly wasn't because encryption was a new technology. I'd say on this one it is time to go tell the Spartans, who used encryption.
8. Secure banking. When I bank online, I use a name and password to get to a banking site that shows me a nifty icon to assure me I am on the real banking site and not on some hack site in a former Soviet Republic. That cannot possibly be the summit of secure banking and online transactions. Real online security requires something you have (like a fob that is either hardware- or software-based), something you know and some way to determine who you really are. How old is that idea? Dan Brown could probably write a novel about the Templars' check cashing system.
9. Super insulation. In these green-energy-aware times, it is evident that the best energy conservation technique is to not use the energy in the first place rather than try to get more efficient use out of existing energy resources. You can retrofit your house to waste less energy and use more efficient heating and cooling systems, or you can build a super-efficient system from the start. Time to go on vacation. Maybe those old adobe dwellings have something to teach us after all.
10. Personal, pollution-free transportation. You want to travel a mile or so to the store or the library or school. Or maybe you just want to take a nice trip around the neighborhood. What choices do you have? You could walk around the block. You could put down the top on the convertible and at least feel like you were not so confined. Or you could jump on a vehicle first refined for easy, personal, pollution-free transportation in 1885. That would be a bicycle.
Source: http://www.smartertechnology.com/c/a/Technology-For-Change/10-Old-Technologies-That-Are-Now-the-Next-Big-Thing/
Suscribe my post

Google Launches Dictionary and Translated Web Search

Amid all the hubbub over Google DNS on Thursday, the search giant also released two more helpful tools to help you get a richer search experience and improve your language skills. Google launched its dictionary project, offering a feature-rich resource that goes beyond simple definitions of words; and its new translated Web search makes it easier to find Web pages written in more than 40 languages.

Dictionary

Google dictionary puts a full-service resource right at your fingertips that can be accessed through Google's Dictionary page or through a regular Web search. To access words through regular search, click on the "definitions" link on the top right of your results page next to where it says how many results Google has returned for your query (click to enlarge the screen cap).
Google dictionary isn't just for English. The project contains 27 other languages, including the major Western European languages, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, and many more. Notable languages currently missing from the project include Japanese and Persian. Google Dictionary also has an English-to-foreign language component, allowing you to translate single words from English into a foreign language or vice versa. This is similar to what you can do in Google Translate.

Rich Definitions Page

Google's word definitions page is full of useful information including an International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation guide, synonyms, standard definitions, and usage examples. You can also find external links to Princeton University, Wikipedia, and elsewhere to see to further definitions and usages of the word in question; however, it should be noted this collection of aggregated links on Google's dictionary page has been around for some time, according to The Los Angeles Times.
If the word you're searching for is found in another language, Google provides a link to that dictionary as well, and particularly difficult or unusual words include an audio file to let you hear how the word is pronounced. Try searching in English for words such as schadenfreude or Zoroastrianism to see this in action. Some words may also trigger image results; search for winceyette to see an example of this. You can also bookmark particular words for easier access at another time.
From what I can tell, Google's dictionary project has not been merged with the spell check on Google Docs.
TIP: Google's dictionary is very comprehensive, so for all you juveniles out there: Yes, you can find your favorite dirty words and their definitions in Google Dictionary. And no, these words don't have pronunciation sound files.

Translated Search

Google has added a feature to its search options panel that allows you to search in English across Web sites in
other languages. Google has had a similar feature for some time that allows you to automatically translate foreign language Web sites appearing in Google's regular search results. But this newest feature searches only foreign language Web sites.
To activate the feature, choose a search term like "Beethoven" and then click on "Show Options" on the top left of the results page. Then click on "Translated Search" at the bottom of the options panel on the left side. (Click on the screen cap for a closer look.)
Once you've got your translated search, a box at the top of the results page tells you what language the results are being translated into and what language the results are being translated from. You have the option to add other languages to expand your search; Google supports 42 choices.
TIP: If you installed the javascript uncovered by Gizmodo that gives you the rumored visual revamp of Google, you won't be able to access translated search or Google Dictionary from the search results page. To get this functionality you either have to delete your Google cookie or use another Web browser. http://www.pcworld.com/article/183717/google_launches_dictionary_and_translated_web_search.html

Suscribe my post

Google Customizes More of Its Search Results

For many of its users, Google offers Web search results that are customized based on their previous search history and clicks. For example, if someone consistently favors a particular sports site, Google will put that site high in the results when they look up sports topics in its search engine.
But there has always been one catch: people had to be signed in to a Google account to see such customization.
On Friday Google said it was extending these personalized search results, and the resulting improvement in ad targeting, to people who are not logged into the service.
The new service, according to a Google blog post, will use an anonymous cookie on a user’s computer to customize search results based on the user’s last 180 days of search activity. A “view customizations” link will appear on the top right of the search results page, and will lead to an explanation of how the results have been tailored and how the feature can be turned off.
“Our goal is to provide relevant search results,” said Nathan Tyler, a Google spokesman. “The benefits that we’ve seen for signed-in users were so great we want to extend those same benefits to everyone.”
But the change is already irking privacy advocates, who say that using Google while not logging in was one way to minimize exposure to its data-collection practices.
“The key point is that Google is now tracking users of search who have specifically chosen not to log in to a Google account,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. “They are obliterating one of the few remaining privacy safeguards for Google services.”
In an evaluation of the announcement on the blog Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan noted that there was no way for searchers or others to view the saved search records on Google, and that Google was giving people the opportunity to permanently opt out of the arrangement.
“All the major search engines have long recorded what you search on. Google’s simply using it to refine your results,” Mr. Sullivan wrote. By BRAD STONE http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/google-customizes-more-of-its-search-results/

Suscribe my post

How I Hire Programmers

There are three questions you have when you’re hiring a programmer (or anyone, for that matter): Are they smart? Can they get stuff done? Can you work with them? Someone who’s smart but doesn’t get stuff done should be your friend, not your employee. You can talk your problems over with them while they procrastinate on their actual job. Someone who gets stuff done but isn’t smart is inefficient: non-smart people get stuff done by doing it the hard way and working with them is slow and frustrating. Someone you can’t work with, you can’t work with. The traditional programmer hiring process consists of: a) reading a resume, b) asking some hard questions on the phone, and c) giving them a programming problem in person. I think this is a terrible system for hiring people. You learn very little from a resume and people get real nervous when you ask them tough questions in an interview. Programming isn’t typically a job done under pressure, so seeing how people perform when nervous is pretty useless. And the interview questions usually asked seem chosen just to be cruel. I think I’m a pretty good programmer, but I’ve never passed one of these interviews and I doubt I ever could.
So when I hire people, I just try to answer the three questions. To find out if they can get stuff done, I just ask what they’ve done. If someone can actually get stuff done they should have done so by now. It’s hard to be a good programmer without some previous experience and these days anyone can get some experience by starting or contributing to a free software project. So I just request a code sample and a demo and see whether it looks good. You learn an enormous amount really quickly, because you’re not watching them answer a contrived interview question, you’re seeing their actual production code. Is it concise? clear? elegant? usable? Is it something you’d want in your product?
To find out whether someone’s smart, I just have a casual conversation with them. I do everything I can to take off any pressure off: I meet at a cafe, I make it clear it’s not an interview, I do my best to be casual and friendly. Under no circumstances do I ask them any standard “interview questions” — I just chat with them like I would with someone I met at a party. (If you ask people at parties to name their greatest strengths and weaknesses or to estimate the number of piano tuners in Chicago, you’ve got bigger problems.) I think it’s pretty easy to tell whether someone’s smart in casual conversation. I constantly make judgments about whether people I meet are smart, just like I constantly make judgments about whether people I see are attractive.
But if I had to write down what it is that makes someone seem smart, I’d emphasize three things. First, do they know stuff? Ask them what they’ve been thinking about and probe them about it. Do they seem to understand it in detail? Can they explain it clearly? (Clear explanations are a sign of genuine understanding.) Do they know stuff about the subject that you don’t?
Second, are they curious? Do they reciprocate by asking questions about you? Are they genuinely interested or just being polite? Do they ask follow-up questions about what you’re saying? Do their questions make you think?
Third, do they learn? At some point in the conversation, you’ll probably be explaining something to them. Do they actually understand it or do they just nod and smile? There are people who know stuff about some small area but aren’t curious about others. And there are people who are curious but don’t learn, they ask lots of questions but don’t really listen. You want someone who does all three.
Finally, I figure out whether I can work with someone just by hanging out with them for a bit. Many brilliant people can seem delightful in a one-hour conversation, but their eccentricities become grating after a couple hours. So after you’re done chatting, invite them along for a meal with the rest of the team or a game at the office. Again, keep things as casual as possible. The point is just to see whether they get on your nerves.
If all that looks good and I’m ready to hire someone, there’s a final sanity check to make sure I haven’t been fooled somehow: I ask them to do part of the job. Usually this means picking some fairly separable piece we need and asking them to write it. (If you really insist on seeing someone working under pressure, give them a deadline.) If necessary, you can offer to pay them for the work, but I find most programmers don’t mind being given a small task like this as long as they can open source the work when they’re done. This test doesn’t work on its own, but if someone’s passed the first three parts, it should be enough to prove they didn’t trick you, they can actually do the work.
(I’ve known some people who say “OK, well why don’t we try hiring you for a month and see how it goes.” This doesn’t seem to work. If you can’t make up your mind after a small project you also can’t make it up after a month and you end up hiring people who aren’t good enough. Better to just say no and err on the side of getting better people.)
I’m fairly happy with this method. When I’ve skipped parts, I’ve ended up with bad hires who eventually had to be let go. But when I’ve followed it, I’ve ended up with people I like so much so that I actually feel bad I don’t get to work with them anymore. I’m amazed that so many companies use such silly hiring methods instead.- http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hiring
Suscribe my post

50 Greatest Twitter Tips & Twitter Secrets

Beautiful Day tips : Twitter is a micro-blogging service and it is very hot now. It allows users to send at most 140 characters to their followers. Twitter opens a new way to connect with other party in the community. It’s so successful because it’s simple and easy to create your own community.
I’ve been tweeting for quite some time now, mainly for personal learning, making new friends, and observing what communities are doing. Following are 50 greatest Twitter tips and Twitter secrets to move you towards a successful experience on Twitter.

1. Pick a memorable username.
2. One tweet one story.
3. Try to follow back when people following you, you’ll get credits for your kind action.
4. No puns for optimized headline.
5. Focus on keywords for optimized headline.
6. Don’t consolidate stories.
7. Link directly to the story.
8. No subheads.
9. Don’t try to fill up 140 characters, keep it short to your point.
10. The highest form of compliment on Twitter is the retweet. Share the love, it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
11. Spend some time making a custom background.
12. Don’t make your background look like some sort of advertisement, it turns people off.
13. Speak your mind, be personal and be transparent!
14. Tweet with photo with TwitPic.
15. Be interesting, boring story turns people off.
16. Be informative, now is the time to use Twitter to tell people about your business goals, your professional interests, to spread knowledge and offer customer support.
17. Be interactive.
18. Be considerate, people will feel it.
19. Find a balance, there is no exact number of how many tweets per day.
20. Be a observer, observer what communities are doing.
21. Learn from Twitter user who has most followers.
22. Upload a photo of yourself and show it in your Twitter profile, people love to know who they are chatting with.
23. Try to tweet regularly so that people know you have an active presence.
24. Try to not use Twitter as your own personal “this is what I’m doing” list.
25. Try to add value to the conversation by sharing links.
26. Mix some personal information so that people know you’re a human being and not just an online merchant pushing links.
27. Thank people when they follow you on Twitter with a direct message.
28. Start conversation with the “@” command, don’t just wait for people to talk to you.
29. Ask questions. Twitter is great for getting opinions.
30. Make sure to respond to people that ‘@’ or direct message you to show your respect.
31. Make noise beyond the Twittosphere, this is only way to build a following is for people to know you’re there.
32. Don’t worry about how many Twitter followers you have, if you become an active participant you will see your followers increase.
33. Don’t spam anyone with anything.
34. Promote your Twitter name in your email signature, business cards, websites, blogs. Don’t be afraid to mention Twitter offline either.
35. If you see that people are talking about you (good or bad) on Twitter search, then join in the conversation!
36. Don’t stalk or harass people on Twitter, if someone ignores you, just let it go.  The same goes for you, if people are stalking or harassing you, you can block them on twitter.
37. Go mobile, there’re tons of Twitter apps for the iPhone and Blackberry.
38. Try to keep your Twitter “following/follower” ratio balanced.
39. Fill up your information in Twitter profile, people like to know who you are.
40. Link to a website that’s relevant, preferably your blog or Facebook page.
41. Be patient you won’t build relationships or feel the community spirit over night.
42. Get a good desktop client with TweetDeck.
43. Track your results and statistics with TwitterBurner.
44. Make objectives about what you want to achieve by using Twitter, and stick to them.
45. You don’t have to read every tweet.
46. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
47. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
48. If someone says you’re using Twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
49. Talk to people about their interests.
50. Enjoy and have fun with your Twitter conversation, don’t make it too serious!

Do you have more Twitter tips and Twitter secrets to add? Just share with us in the comment box below. I’m glad to hear from you.
Enjoy with the Twitter tips. Wish you have a successful Twitter journey!

Source: http://www.bloghighlight.com/50-greatest-twitter-tips-twitter-secrets/

Suscribe my post

100 tips to Improve Your Live

Beautiful Day | This post was written by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits

Most of us are interested in improving something about ourselves: our productivity, our sanity, our organization, our happiness, our effectiveness, our impact on the environment, our minds, our dreams.
And you can spend hundreds of dollars on books and thousands of hours on websites looking for your answers.
Or you can look no further, as we've collected 100 of the best tips on all of these subjects -- a massive resource list that is almost guaranteed to have something of use for everyone.
This list is an introduction to the blogs of LifeRemix.net, taking a sample of some of the best tips from each of the blogs in the network: Black Belt Productivity, Behance, Cranking Widgets, Dumb Little Man, Happiness Project, LifeClever, LifeDev, No Impact Man, Pick the Brain, Success From the Nest, Tim Ferriss' Four Hour Workweek, Unclutterer, WiseBread, Zen Habits.
Will all of these tips work for you? Probably not. Just pick and choose the ones that appeal to you, and give them a try.

1. Find Inner Serenity by Making it Easier to Find Your Keys. For most people, getting control of clutter brings a greater sense of calm and decreased frustration.
2. Surround Yourself With Progress. When you complete a list of action steps, your instinct might be to throw the list away. After all, the work is completed! However, some creative professional teams take a different approach; they relish their progress. Some go so far as surrounding themselves with it.
3. Empty Your Inbox in 30 Seconds. Is your inbox filled with thousands and thousands of unread messages? Before you give up hope, there's an instant way to clear your inbox of old emails in less than 30 seconds.
4. Instantly Build Self Confidence. These tips will get you riding high in no time.
5. Reduce Your Trash To Almost Zero. Follow the No Impact Man experiment to reduce our trash as close as we can to zero.
6. Feel like a million bucks for cheap. Feel healthier and more energized right away without spending a fortune.
7. End Laundry Chaos. More than 20 tips to help you keep your laundry chaos to a minimum.
8. Learn the Secrets of the Super-Organized. A few simple habits keep clutter and chaos at bay.
9. Check Email Once a Day ... or Once a Week. Simple tips that will reduce interruption and increase your productivity.
10. Become an Early Riser. 10 benefits of rising early, and some practical tips on how to do it.
11. Learn Lessons from Google About Self-Image. How you think of yourself greatly affects how successful you can be. Google has got self-image down to a science.
12. Make a Good First Impression. Research shows that people decide what kind of relationship they want with you in the first ten minutes of a meeting, so making a good first impression really matters.
13. Know the Hype Behind Bottled Water. Have you ever stopped to think about just how incredibly odd it is to buy bottled water?
14. Leave Work at Work. Want more time for your family or personal life? Here's how not to think about your job 24/7.
15. Create a Landing Strip to Become Organized. We come from work exhausted, often carrying our work bags, groceries, and the mail. A landing strip will help you avoid disorganization from the time you get home.
16. Understand Time to Increase Return on Investment. Time is your most valuable resource. Understanding these ideas will help you make optimal decisions.
17. Give Your RÈsumÈ a Face Lift. Even if you can't hire a fancy designer and are stuck with Microsoft Word, a few tweaks can turn your blasÈ rÈsumÈ into an elegant and functional showpiece.
18. Boost Your Energy Level. Feeling energetic is a key to happiness and to self-esteem, so take steps to keep your energy high.
19. Actually Execute Your To-Do List. Many productivity systems will tell you how to organize your tasks, but what happens if you don't feel like doing them?
20. Keep Your Desk Clean and Tidy. Do you spend waste more and more time looking for lost items instead of being the brilliant creative person that you are? Here's how to get your desk clean, clutter-free, and keep it that way for good.
21. Learn the Truth About Baby Carrots. Baby carrots not really young carrots! They are also less nutritious and less flavorful than regular carrots.
22. Try Quick and (Almost) Painless Ways to Kill Distractions. Are you spending more time dealing with emails, IMs, phone calls, and random stray files than actually working? Here are ten actions you can do right now to kill distractions and get back to work.
23. Reduce Your Carbon Emissions. The most important lifestyle changes you can make to reduce your carbon emissions are listed here.
24. Put the Action Method Into Practice. After a couple years of studying how creative people stay organized, we developed a simple and easily customized method for managing projects. A good portion of 2006 was spent putting the Action Method into practice.
25. Gently End Procrastination. Need an easy way to remind you when you should be working and when you should be playing? Try using teaming up Flextime with Growl. Here's how.
26. Read Your RSS Feeds Faster and More Productively. Four simple tips for reducing the time you spend on reading feeds.
27. Use Catchphrases to Change the Way You Think. By keeping certain ideas active and accessible through review and repetition ñ whether itís ìSay yes,î ìFake it ëtill you feel it,î or ìPeople succeed in groupsî ñ you can shape the way you think.
28. Photograph Your Mementos to Free Up Clutter. Taking digital photos of your mementos can get rid of clutter, free-up storage space, and provide you with a simple way to walk down memory lane.
29. Save Trees With Ease. Want to avoid all the paper towels, paper napkins and other tree-killing stuff there's no need to use? Read here.
30. Organize Your Cluttered Desktop and Regain Your Sanity. Is your desktop littered with zillions of random files and folders often litter my desktop. Learn how 5 ordinary folders can keep your desktop immaculate.
31. Eat Slower. Why eating slower is better for your health, your sanity, your digestion, and more.
32. Maximize Your Lunch Hour. Your lunch hour should be the least "productive" moment in your day. If it lasts a mere 20 minutes-or just doesn't exist anymore-here's how to turn it around and make it joyful.
33. Increase Workplace Productivity by Not Being a Jerk. You get more flies with honey, as the saying goes. This is a brief outline for how to work and play well with your coworkers (and get more done).
34. Find Cheap Gas Instantly. If soaring gas prices are draining your wallet dry, here's five ways to find cheap(er) gas anywhere.
35. Find Your Purpose. We're all searching for our purpose. It seems tempting that having it appear by divine intervention would be great. Maybe not.
36. Make a GTD System for about $20. Putting together a functional GTD system for the price of a week's worth of Starbucks.
37. Avoid costly DIY mistakes. You can end up costing yourself more in the long run if you don't watch out for these mistakes.
38. Think About Whether You Can Afford NOT to Pursue Your Dreams. Pursuing dreams is crucial, even when it means taking a hit or entering financial uncertainty.
39. Plan for Success. Waiting for your ship to come in is a waste of time.
40. Improve Your Mind by Reading the Classics. How to use the wisdom of the classics to become a better writer, thinker, and speaker.
41. Break Habits of Highly Ineffective Emailing. A list of what not to do when emailing, avoiding these habits will take you a long way toward better, more productive email.
42. Make Your PDA Green. If you're worried about e-waste and the toxins produced by burying and burning old cell phones and PDAs, you may want to try my green hipster's pda.
43. Learn to Go From Solo to Successful Collaboration. Self-starters are often successful doing everything themselves. However, when forced to grow beyond the one gal/guy-show, many creative professionals are unable to take the leap from a solo success to a successful collaboration.
44. Create a Morning Routine. Developing a routine in the morning could lead to greater sanity and happiness, and achieving your goals.
45. Learn How to Survive a Road Trip. Road trips always begin on a high note, but by the end even Mother Teresa would be willing to shove her grandmother out of the car. Here are 9 tips to help keep you sane and happy on any road trip.
46. Share To Make Ideas Happen. The philosophy to "share ideas liberally" defies the age-old instinct to keep ideas secret. However, the creative person's tendency to jump from idea-to-idea-to-idea causes most ideas to die in isolation. Creative professionals should take every opportunity to communicate new ideas broadly, seek feedback, and develop a sense of accountability.
47. Use Space Under Stairs for More Storage. Very cool under-stair storage where each step is a drawer.
48. Know What's In Store If You Have a Toddler. New parents often wonder what's in store for them once their kid is able to move around on their own. Here's what you can expect.
49. Work in Multiple Positives. These hyper-productive activities will benefit you in multiple ways at once.
50. Use a Super Slim Wallet. It's time to shrink down that backbreaking Constanza wallet. Here are 8 ways to radically slim down your wallet.
51. Advertise Action to Yourself. We live in a world of choices. When we buy, we have to make a choice between varieties, brands, and sizes. Similarly, when we work we have to decide what to focus on and how to use our time. While prioritization helps us focus, our minds still have the tendency to wander. We are most likely to focus on whatever catches our eye. Along the lines of "out of sight, out of mind" we learn that "right before our eyes, actions thrive."
52. Gain Muscle in Minimal Time. How Tim Ferriss gained 34 pounds of muscle in 4 weeks.
53. Choose Living Over Sleeping Sometimes. Despite the importance of healthy sleep habits, there are times when it's good to throw caution to the wind and invest in your life in other ways.
54. Make Reference Items Helpful. We spend too much time discussing, storing, and organizing notes. References are only valuable if you refer to them. Even with a well-organized system for managing references (either digital or paper), how often do we actually use them? How do we make reference items helpful?
55. Eat Sustainably. If you are interested in how to eat sustainably, read about it here.
56. Lose Weight Without Exercise. How to lose 20 lbs. of fat in 30 days with a sensible diet.
57. Find Calm & Sanity Through the Environment. If you've ever thought a more environmental life might also be a calmer, saner life, you're right.
58. Learn About the Successfully Self-Employed. Is freelancing for suckers? Are you already an expert? This series explores the levels of the free-agent -- and how to understand what each one means.
59. Learn GTD the Easy Way. An online primer of all the chapters of Getting Things Done.
60. Set Goals So You Actually Accomplish Them. Setting goals is hard. Following through is even harder. Using a framework that builds on your personal view of the world can make the process easier. This series helps outline how.
61. Reduce Gamer Clutter. If you are a gamer, these are a number of suggestions to help you keep your entertainment system under control and the gaming clutter to a minimum.
62. Stick to a Schedule of Regular Exercise. Exercising regularly boosts moodóright awayóand also makes it easier to sleep, keeps your weight down, and gives you energy.
63. Cut Back on Computer Cables. Follow these 8 simple steps to get rid of the birds' nest of cables behind your computer.
64. Pay the Price to Be an Entrepreneur. The price of access can be steep, but once you're flying down the road -- it's well worth it.
65. Single-task. Increase your productivity by learning not to multi-task.
66. Get Outside Your Comfort Zone. Comfort isn't all it's cracked up to be.
67. Drop Ideas That Fail. Ideas are a commodity. Being able to execute them well is what creates success. Hanging on to an idea, even after it his proven to be ineffective is the downfall of many aspiring entrepreneurs.
68. Learn to Calculate Risk. Risk and reward go hand-in-hand. Knowing what to expect can help reduce risk and shape your reality.
69. Don't Settle for Just One Path. Variety is the spice of life. So why do you have to be just one thing when you grow up?
70. Get Rid of Paper Clutter. A four-part series dedicated to reducing the paper clutter in your home.
71. Set Up Action Areas. Boxes need to be mailed, errands need to be run, cookies need to be eaten, orders need to be fulfilled, but by whom? Whoever has a chance! The Behance team got tired of limiting our action steps to just an area on paper - why not make "action areas" out of physical space?
72. Find Hidden Clutter. Ten places to start looking for hidden clutter in your home.
73. Get a Promotion. 20 tips that landed the writer an IT promotion -- most could be used in any field.
74. Dispose of Old Electronics. The best ways to dispose of old electronics.
75. Increase Your Intelligence. A list of 5 simple activities that will boost your brain power.
76. Present Yourself. Creative achievements seldom happen in isolation. A big part of making ideas happen is controlling how you come across to others. Of course, the Creative's tendency is to say, "who gives a crap what other people think." While there is merit in never compromising oneself for the sake of another's opinion, creative professionals need to make an effort to be understood. You need to present yourself effectively to engage others and get the support (and the business) you need to push ideas forward.
77. Follow George Orwell's Rules for Effective Writing. Becoming a better writer will create better career opportunities and increase productivity.
78. Lay Your Energy Line. Creative teams juggle multiple projects at once. The constant streams of ideas lead to more ideas. As energy is spread across projects like peanut butter, prioritization is all but lost. Energy Lines are a simple way to prioritize and use design to guide creative energy.
79. Focus on Continuous Improvement. By mastering the optimization mentality you can become an expert in your chosen field.
80. Motivate Yourself. This post will teach you to recognize the primary motivation killers and how to beat them.
81. Become a More Light-hearted Parent. We all want a peaceful, happy atmosphere at home ñ and you canít nag and yell your way there.
82. Give Up Nagging. Itís no fun to nag, and itís no fun to be nagged. Give your relationship a lift by putting an end to the irritating nag cycle.
83. Learn to Sacrifice Temporary Pressure for Long-term Goals. All success requires sacrifice. Do you have the determination to endure temporary punishment to reach your dreams?
84. Learn the GTD Workflow. An excellent into to GTD for the novice, a great refresher for the experienced.
85. Use the Power of 10 Minutes. 10 Minutes can be even more productive amount of time than 50 minutes, if used properly.
86. Triple Your Workout Effectiveness. Do you exercise regularly but don't get the results you want? Here are some simple but powerful ways to boost that workout.
87. Work 8 Hours Straight Without Hating Yourself. There is an art to taking breaks that can help you work longer, and more productively.
88. Learn Whether You're Waking Up at the Wrong Time. Everyone's internal clock can tell us when we should be working. Are you listening to it?
89. Reduce Wasted Plastic Cups and Bottles. If you want to toss fewer plastic cups and bottles in the trash, you may be interested this ultra-cool reusable cup and water bottle.
90. Avoid Entrepreneurial Burnout: Fill Your Tank. Many times entrepreneurs suffer from going to hard with their vision, without thinking about keeping the work pace sustainable.
91. Take Steps to Boost Your Happiness in the Next Hour. You can make yourself happier ñ and this doesnít have to be a long-term ambition. You can start right now.
92. Learn to Capture Ideas and How to Manage Diarrhea of the Brain. Sometimes our best ideas come at the worst possible times. These tips will help to make sure none of those precious ideas fall through the cracks.
93. Know the Signs That a Pink Slip is Coming. If you can answer yes to THREE or more of these questions, you may want to think about sprucing up your resume and dry-cleaning your best interview attire.
94. Try No TV. In an extreme experiment to reduce waste to near zero, No Impact Man turned turned off electricity, which means no TV. Read about how to entertain a little girl with no TV.
95. Accelerate Your Mortgage Payments to Save a Bundle. See how much money you can save by adding just a few extra dollars a month to the principal.
96. Use a Today List to Get Stuff Done. Helps you focus on what needs to be done today.
97. Use Money to Buy Happiness. Some of the best things in life arenít free, so spend money in ways to bring you more happiness bang for your buck.
98. Save the Lives of Animals With One Change. If you want to help save the lives of hundreds of thousands of animals just by not using plastic bags, perhaps the easiest environmental step, read here.
99. Get the Most Out of Your Rebates. Follow these tips and we can all fight the Man and wrench our hard-earned money back from those big, faceless corporations.
100. Eliminate All But the Absolute Essential Tasks. Is your to-do list overwhelming you? Here's how to simplify it to the core tasks.

Suscribe my post

How Google wonder wheel making money for you

Ever since the launch of the google wonder wheel, thousands of users have discovered its features and the ways in which it can benefit them while using it.
Much like other tools provided by Google, this tool is another great feature in which the user can benefit and make money from.
Here are some possible and interesting ways in which you can make money by using the google wonder wheel:

1. Webmaster – Make money by discovering related keywords you wish to target while focusing on your niche. The easiest is to choose your niche and to stay focused on a main keyword which usually gets a lot of hits from the search engine, however there are other keywords from which you can gain more traffic and convert more visitors to cash – traffic = money and don’t you forget it.
2. User – Save time by exploring relevant results related to the original keyword you search for. Whether it’s for a research you are doing, a term paper or just about anything else consuming your time (time is money in case you forgot/didn’t know), Google wonder wheel can tell you what you are missing or need to search and save you that precious research time.
3. Advertiser – Make money with the google wonder wheel by discovering what’s hot and related to your product or the product you advertise. Advertising cost more when it’s directly related to the product. However, if you find other relevant products or products using this tool you can save money on advertising and make money from related products.
4. Manager – Mind Mapping takes time and cost money. Save some time and money and make yourself and your company money by using the Google Wonder wheel for data mining on ongoing projects.
5. Using the Google Wonder Wheel is completely free! and as you can see you can actually make money using it. Or as they say – “The best things in life are free”.

Go and make some money!
Suscribe my post

SEO experts: Now Google's a phone company, too

Google moving into mobile market

Lost in the widespread hoopla over Google's acquisition of mobile phone advertising firm AdMob was the company's concurrent purchase of VoIP provider Gizmo5, which Search Engine Land's Greg Sterling says will make Google Voice a stand-alone service.

Sterling writes that this could put the search giant into direct competition with VoIP market leader Skype, which boasts a worldwide user base of 480 million people. Search engine optimization (SEO) professionals must monitor Google's move into the VoIP market closely, to ascertain what sort of SEO opportunities present themselves once Google Voice goes public.

Google already offers a Goog-411 service, effectively extending parts of its search functionality onto the mobile platform. This, coupled with the increasingly rapid adoption of Google's Android cell phone OS, could give the company a solid bridgehead into the mobile market, creating new fields of opportunity for search engine optimization (SEO).

In another article about Google Voice, Sterling notes that consumer privacy advocates are troubled by the further expansion of Google's data indexing, saying that the extent of the data collection raises questions about the security of personal information.

Suscribe my post

Bing Partners with Wolfram Alpha

Microsoft is expanding the capabilities of its Bing search engine by tapping into the computations, algorithmic, and data capabilities of the Wolfram Alpha computing engine, using the service as a way to deliver more-relevant information to search uses right from the get-go, rather than merely referring them to a list of sites. Wolfram Alpha—launched back in May by Stephen Wolfram and the folks who make Mathematica, Wolfram Alpha aims to not just find information, but make it “computable” to users—that is, Wolfram Alpha not only lets users find information, but do useful things with it. Bing plans to leverage Wolfram Alpha’s capabilities to enhance Bing’s search results: the collaboration will start with bringing nutritional information and tools into Bing’s search results, along with some genuine “math” to make those last-minute homework sessions a little more tolerable.

“This notion of creating and presenting computational knowledge in search results is one of the more exciting things going on in search (and beyond) today, and the team at Bing is incredibly fired up to bring some of this amazing work to our customers,” Microsoft wrote in its Bing blog. “You will begin to see the benefits of this unique partnership over the next several days as we roll it out in the U.S.”

Wolfram Alpha already hosts a deep cache of tools and collated information, but Microsoft plans to initially start its integration of Wolfram Alpha tools with genuine hard math and something that appeals more directly to everyday consumers: diet and health information. Using Wolfram Alpha, Bing will be able to bring detailed nutritional facts and health information. For instance, users will be able to bring up nutritional information on various types of food and calculate their Body Mass Index—Microsoft plans to roll out more features as the collaboration progresses.

No financial terms of the partnership have been disclosed.

The move emphasizes Microsoft’s efforts to differentiate Bing from traditional search engines, providing usable information and results right in the results page instead of referring users to other sites. However, Google and other search providers are not resting on their laurels either: the next frontier of Internet search is not really letting users find a site with the information they’d like, but presenting that information without forcing the user to go to that site at all.

Source : http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/bing-partners-with-wolfram-alpha/?news=123

Suscribe my post

Consortium Named for Tests to Replace TOEFL

The Korean education authority has selected a consortium that will be the organizer of the new government-run English proficiency tests.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Wednesday a group consisting of the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) and four universities will administer the first-grade-level exam of the state tests.

The new test is expected to compete with TOEFL, with hopes that it will eventually take over from the American-developed system.The ministry plans to run three levels of state-certified English tests from 2012 after conducting several pilot tests through 2011. Grade one tests will be developed for adults seeking to go to graduate school or gain employment, while grades two and three will be used for students attending elementary to high schools.

The KCCI, a key business lobby group, will cooperate with Seoul National University, the organizer of TEPS tests; Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, developer of the FLEX tests; Sookmyung Women's University, organizer of the MATE tests; and Korea University.

Three consortiums applied for the contract to develop and organize the grade one test.

Both the government and the successful consortium will provide 800 million won, meaning 1.6 billion won will be available for the development of the Internet-based test, said Keum Yong-han, a ministry official responsible for test development. The Korean Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation has been developing the grade two and three exams.

The ministry hopes that Korean universities and corporate entities will eventually adopt the tests. Currently, the U.S.-based nonprofit organization, ETS, dominates Korea's English test market through TOEFL.

Currently, the National Tax Service is reviewing whether or not to conduct an investigation into ETS over the untaxed income - amounting to billions of won - it collects in annual fees earned from Korean test takers. Ahn Byong-man, minister of education, science and technology, said that he intended to push colleges and universities to adopt the state tests.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr

Suscribe my post

Bagaimana memulai blog sukses ??

Saya saat ini budaya menulis sudah menjadi semakin berkembang dengan adanya dukungan dukungan blogspot dan wordpress atau sejenisnya. Budaya menulis yang dulu sudah menjadi kuno dan klasik. Dulu kita menulis benar-benar harus sebuah pasar yang kompetitif untuk bisa menjadi sebuah tulisan yang dibaca, namun saat ini dengan "budaya menulis massal" melalui blog membuat peluang tulisan kita untuk dibaca semakin besar, hanya saja mesti berfikir lanjutannya adalah bagaimana blog saya atau anda dibaca oleh orang, singkat kata dikatakan bahwa blog kita mempunyai jumlah pengunjung yang cukup memuaskan. kecuali anda cukup idealis dan berkata "saya cuma ingin menulis saja kok", hmm ya itu terserah pada masing-masing personal

Setelah itu barulah berfikir untuk menjadikannya sebagai "kebun uang" :)
untuk memulai menulis di blog ya tentunya harus punya blog..hehe...benerkan?!
yang cukup terkenal adalah blogspot, gratis dan simpel penggunaannya, dan hingga sekarang tangguhnya wordpress belum mampu mengalahkan rating blogspot di dunia maya..percaya ga?? :)
Sekarang saya mau berbagi sedikit cara-cara saya dalam memulai sebuah blog, semacam langkah-langkah utama untuk sebuah blog yang baik dan bisa sukses mendatangkan pengunjung(kecuali kalo hanya sekedar untuk membuat dummy blog), tentunya berdasarkan pengalaman saya dan baca-baca sana sini.
begini ceritanya...Baca Selengkapnya...

7 Tipe Pemimpin

Agar operasional atau aktivitas keluarga, perusahaan dan organisasi berjalan dengan lancar sesuai visi dan misi diperlukan seseorang yang disebut Pemimipin. Maju mundurnya kehidupan keluarga, perusahaan atau organisasi sangat tergantung bagaimana seorang pemimipin memanagenya.

Inilah beberapa tipe pemimpin :
1. TIPE GOOD FATHER

Tipe pemimpin ini merupakan pemimpin yang sejuk, cool, baik jika kita berhadapan dengannya. Tipe pemimpin ini adalah seorang yang memberikan solusi pada suatu persoalan dan memimpin anak buahnya dengan bersahaja. Bawahan atau orang yang berada dalam kepemimipinan akan merasa damai, aman dan termotivasi.

2. TIPE ENTREPRENEUR

Tipe ini merupakan pemimpin yang mempunyai ide kreatif, rajin, pekerja keras dan ulet. Pemimpin ini selalu mempunyai hal-hal baru untuk kemajuan dan bisa memotivasi bawahannya.

3. TIPE BADUT

Badut merupakan tokoh lelucon, untuk tipe pemimpin semacam ini mempunyai sifat yang tidak serius dalam melaksanakan sesuatu hal. Apabila berhadapn atau berkumpul dengan bawahannya, ia selalu me lucu dalam segala situasi, sehingga bawahannya sering menghiraukan segala perintahnya.

4. TIPE BELUT

Belut merupakan salah satu hewan yang berbadan licin, sulit untuk ditangkap. Untuk pemimpin seperti ini merupakan pribadi yang tidak jujur, selalu ingkar janji dan tidak bisa dipegang janjinya. Tipe belut ini selalu pasang ‘badan dua” apabila dia menghadapi persoalan yang memojokkan pribadi dan posisinya. Tipe pemimpin ini sangat berbahaya bila ada di lingkungan perusahaan. Dia rela mengkambinghitamkan bawahnnya yang tidak bersalah.

5. TIPE FAUNA

Fauna merupakan istilah untuk dunia hewan (binatang), segala jenis dan bentuk hewan menarik ada di dunia ini. Tipe pemimpin semacam ini mempunyai sifat emosional, temperamen, buas seperti macan yang akn menerkam mangsanya. Dan pemimpin ini arogan seolah-olah dia yang pintar. Apabila emosinya naik, ucapan yang keluar dari mulutnya macam-macam nama binatang seperti “ Babi “, “ Anjing “ dan seterusnya. Tipe ini kedengarannya agak kasarme, tapi di dunia nyata memang ada tipe seperti ini khususnya di dunia perusahaan. Bawahan atau orang di bawah naungan pemimpin seperti ini tidak akan nyaman dalam bekerja.

6. TIPE ROBOT

Pemimipin dengan tipe ini dalam bekerja dan menjalankan peraturan sangat kaku. Dan tipe pemimpin ini agak mengarah ke sifat diktator, tidak peduli dengan alasan yang dibuat oleh bawahan yang melanggar disiplin perusahaan.

7. TIPE UMANG-UMANG

Pemimpin seperti ini mempunyai sifat aneh yang penakut, lemah dan plin plan. Anda perhatikan tingkah laku Lucu yang umang-umang, apabila ada manusia mendekatinya, dia akan masuk ke sarangnya, setelah menjauh dia akan keluarkan kepalanya perlahan-lahan dengan penuh keraguan. Demikian juga dengan tipe pemimpin seperti ini sangat lemah dalam mengambil keputusan, takut mengambil resiko serta keputusan yang diambilnya selalu berubah-ubah.

Sumber: http://hermawayne.blogspot.com/
Suscribe my post

Madoff Death

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A man accused of making more than $7 billion off the investment schemes of jailed financial manager Bernard Madoff drowned after having a heart attack, authorities said Monday.

Jeffry Picower, 67, was found at about noon Sunday by his wife, Barbara, at the bottom of a pool at their oceanside mansion. She pulled him from the water with help from a housekeeper. He died a short time later at a nearby hospital.

An autopsy conducted Monday found he suffered a heart attack and drowned, said Dr. Michael Bell, chief medical examiner for Palm Beach County. The death has been ruled accidental, and the heart attack was brought on by heart disease. Toxicology tests are pending.

"Obviously, we won't have results for a couple of weeks but we don't anticipate them showing anything," Bell said. "If they do and it shows something unusual, we will amend the death certificate to reflect that."

Picower had been accused by Madoff investors of being the biggest beneficiary of Madoff's schemes. In a lawsuit to recover Madoff's assets, trustee Irving Picard demanded Picower return more than $7 billion in bogus profits. Picard has said the litigation could continue.

Picower suffered from Parkinson's disease and had "heart-related issues," said family attorney William D. Zabel. He described Picower's health as "poor."

Picower's home and property is worth more than $33 million, according to the county records. He was No. 371 on the 2009 Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, with a net worth of $1 billion.

Picower and his wife started the Picower Foundation in 1989, which has donated millions of dollars. But after the Madoff scandal broke in December, the Picower foundation, whose assets were managed by Madoff, said it would be forced to close.

Picower had asked that the lawsuit against him be dismissed.

Steven R. Schlesinger, a New York lawyer who represents about 25 Madoff investors, called his death "another tragedy in a string of tragedies surrounding Madoff."

"Only time will tell whether Jeffry Picower was a victim or a villain," Schlesinger said Monday.

While some speculated his death could make it more difficult for suing investors to recoup their money, at least one attorney called it "a minor hiccup in the litigation against him."

"I think it's a tragic event," said Peter Shapiro, a Florida attorney whose firm represents several Madoff investors. "Ultimately, the litigation against his estate will go forward and investors will watch closely on the bankruptcy trustee's efforts with the expectation that there will be a recovery for their benefit."

Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after he admitted losing billions of dollars for thousands of clients over a half-century career that saw him rise to be a Nasdaq chairman. Madoff's attorney, Ira Sorkin, did not respond to a request for comment.

___

Associated Press Writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report from New York.

Suscribe my post

Usaha Saya Tingkatkan Trafik Blog

Setelah beberapa lama, baca sini baca sana.walaupun belum terlalu sukses, tapi lumayanlah. karena usaha untuk "tingkatkan trafik" bukan saja butuh ketekunan dan kerja keras tapi juga butuh waktu yang cukup lama untuk melihat hasil nyatanya, kalopun ada tarfik yang meningkat instan secara cepat biasanya tidak bertahan lama. misalnya trafik yang diperoleh melalui backlink pada lintas berita, tiba2 keesokan harinya trafik melonjak drastis karena artikel yang kita masukkan ke lintas berita ternyata berhasi memikat pengunjung-pengunjung lintas berita.com
Berikut pengalaman pemikiran dan beberapa usaha yang saya lakukan untuk meningkat trafik pada dua blog saya.

Pada blog the-beautiful-day.blogspot.com

1. Blog saya harus terindeks oleh google.usahanya mungkin anda sudah tahu, bisa secara manual masuk ke google.com/addurl ato menggunakan layanan-layanan gratis web submiter seperti. Kalo saya menggunakan kedua-duanya, tapi cukup satu kali, karena kalo keseringan nanti akan dianggap spam oleh google.
2. Memasang backlink-backlink pada katalog-katalog blog seperti topblogarea.com, blogtoplist.com dan sejenisnya.
3. Mendaftar ke social bookmarking seperti... selengkapnya baca ...
   

Saya NgeBlog dan Adsense

Sudah hampir 4 bulan kerajingan ngeblog, bener-bener mabuk ngeblog. Pada saat orang lain sibuk berjaringan dengan si muka buku alias FB, saya masih saja kerajingan ngeblog. 2 bulan pertama asyik dengan mengotak ngatik template, trus berfikir bagaimana punya penghasilan dari ngeblog. Dari hasil baca sana sini tentang cari uang online, mulai dari joko susilo, akira hara sampai miyabi(hehe), akhirnya menemukan bahwa google adsense yang menjadi rajanya, baru kemudian teringat kalo tahun 2007 saya pernah mendaftar google adsense dan keterima(masalahnya mendaftarnya sekarang susah susah mudah), kenapa ga saya coba lagi, dan untungnya passwordnya masih ingat. dan mulailah menyusun rencana.

sebetulnya sudah banyak mencoba seperti awsurvey dan yang sejenisnya, ternyata tidak menarik hati, karena saya tidak berhasil berhasil dan menurut saya program ngga terlalu ok untuk mencari uang lewat jalur online secara kontinyu. ah masalah yang ini lain waktu aja ceritanya.

Singkat cerita saya mulai main adsense, pertama melalui blog ini(tapi sekarang ga saya pake lagi untuk adsense) kemudian coba masukin kebeberapa blog yang lain dan ternyata di blog saya yang membahas tentang ebook, adsense baru mulai berhasil memberikan uang. Dengan Jumlah rata-rata 200 pengunjung per hari sekarang adsense saya sudah siap untuk dicairkan (26 oktober 2009), lumayanlah untuk jerih payah selama kurang lebih 4 bulan dan mudah2an bisa menjadi passive income yang lumayan.

Nah gimana triknya...??
lain waktu deh saya cerita lagi :)
Suscribe my post

Forever Love

You are my description of love
You are my description of friend
You are my description of everything
You are my description of beginning to end.

You have put me on a pedestal
You make me feel ten feet tall
You've always been there for me
You've loved me through it all.

You've stood by me through thick and thin
You've always been patient and kind
Just thought I'd let you know
You're the owner of this heart of mine.

So you ask how long I'll love you
Well this is what I have to say
Past, present, future, always
Forever and a day!
Suscribe my post

Search Mapping by Google’s Wonder Wheel

Google has just rolled out some new features recently and the standout, from a wow-factor POV, has to be Wonder Wheel which displays search results as a series of spoked hubs, with the search term in the hub and related terms at the tip of each spoke.

Just do a Google search on, say, Thomas Pynchon. You will see the results displayed. Click on the “show options” link just beneath the Google logo.

You will be presented with the initial hub and spokes:

Clicking on any of the other links spawns a new wheel of associated links:

Notice in the right column a list of links relevant to whichever link you clicked on. Where Google detects a product search, it displays a list of e-commerce sites where the product is available. For the Thomas Pynchon search, however, it displays links related to the last link you clicked, Pynchon being an American novelist and not a product.

The links displayed in the right column are ranked in the same order as a regular search on the phrase you clicked on would show up. What is interesting is: Where are the Adwords ads? A search on Hawaiian vacations, with Wonder Wheel activated, displays no ads, just the right column of sites as they would be ordered in a regular search. Interesting.

Also interesting is that sometimes when you click on a keyword, the new wheel is spawned but instead of spokes, you just see the perimeter of the circle, dashed outline, rotating. I’m not sure if this is an error, or what.

I wouldn’t think this would shake up SEOs much, as the same sites are displayed as would come up in a regular search; however, these results are pushed to the side to display the wheels.

It will be interesting to see how this feature evolves.

Suscribe my post

Hacker attacks silence Twitter, slow Facebook

By Alexei Oreskovic-Thu Aug 6, 2009 6:23pm EDT-Reuters.com

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter and Facebook said they suffered service problems from hacker attacks on Thursday, raising speculation of a coordinated campaign against the world's most popular online social networks.

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, was knocked down by a malicious attack that prevented people from accessing its website for several hours on Thursday.

Facebook members saw delays logging in and posting to their online profiles, which the social networking site said was related to an "apparent distributed denial of service attack."

Facebook was working with Twitter and Internet search company Google Inc to investigate further, said a person familiar with Facebook but who was not authorized to speak to the press.

Speculation swirled on the Internet that other social networking sites had also come under attack, after relatively lesser-known site LiveJournal said it too had been targeted by hackers on Thursday. But those rumors could not be confirmed.

The incidents follow a wave of similar cyber attacks in July that disrupted access to several high-profile U.S. and South Korean websites, including the White House site. South Korea's spy agency said at the time that North Korea might have been behind the attacks.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said on Twitter's blog that the site was the victim of a denial-of-service attack, a technique in which hackers overwhelm a website's servers with communications requests.

"We are defending against this attack now and will continue to update our status blog as we continue to defend and later investigate," Stone wrote.

A separate Twitter status Web page said later on Thursday that the site was back up, but that Twitter was continuing to recover from the attack.

Google said in an emailed statement that it was in contact with some non-Google sites that were impacted by Thursday's attacks to help investigate.

"Google systems prevented substantive impact to our services," the statement said.

ANTISOCIAL ATTACKS

Motives for denial-of-service attacks range from political to rabble-rousing to extortion, with criminal groups increasingly threatening to hobble popular websites that don't pay demanded fees, according to security experts.

Twitter's newfound fame makes it an easy target for hackers, said Steve Gibson, the president of Internet security research firm Gibson Research Corp.

Twitter, which lets users publish short, 140-character messages to groups of online "followers," is one of the fastest-growing Internet companies. Continued...

Suscribe my post

Stephen Wolfram Reveals Radical New Formula for Web Search

The home page is nearly blank. At the center, just below a colorful logo, you’ll find an empty data field. Type in a phrase, hit Return, and knowledge appears.

No, it’s not Google. It’s Wolfram|Alpha, named after its creator, Stephen Wolfram, a 49-year-old former particle physics prodigy who became bewitched by the potential of computers. He invented a powerful computational software program (Mathematica), built a company around it (Wolfram Research), and wrote a massive book (A New Kind of Science) that claims to redefine the universe itself in terms of computation.

So when Wolfram asked me, “Do you want a sneak preview of my most ambitious and complex project yet?” he had me at “Do.”

The product of four years of development, Alpha is an engine for answers. Its ambition is to delve into “all the knowledge in the world,” Wolfram says, to find and calculate information. Though Alpha’s interface evokes Google ― whose co-founder Sergey Brin once spent a summer interning for Wolfram ― it’s more like the anti-Google.

Type in a query for a statistic, a profile of a country or company, the average airspeed of a sparrow ― and instead of a series of results that may or may not provide the answer you’re looking for, you get a mini dossier on the subject compiled in real time that, ideally, nails the exact thing you want to know. It’s like having a squad of Cambridge mathematicians and CIA analysts inside your browser.

Type in “Pluto” and Alpha calculates the dwarf planet’s distance from Earth at that very instant. Bang out a series of letters like “ACTCGTC” and Alpha recognizes it as genetic code and tells you what strand of DNA that particular gene lives on and what we know about it. Wolfram has licensed ― or created ― a whole library of databases and massaged them so the information is pliable. (To date, they include Wikipedia, the US Census, and “about nine-tenths of what you’d see on the main shelves of a reference library,” he says.) Combined with the near-­magical abilities of Mathematica, Alpha is a powerful computational engine that can effortlessly answer queries that no one has asked of a search engine before.

Consider a question like “How many Nobel Prize winners were born under a full moon?” Google would find the answer only if someone had previously gone through the whole list, matched the birthplace of each laureate with a table of lunar phases, and posted the results. Wolfram says his engine would have no problem doing this on the fly. “Alpha makes it easy for the typical person to answer anything quantitatively,” he asserts.

Wolfram needs some prodding before he talks about the business model. “Plan A is to get this out,” he says. “Maybe it will be a giant piece of philanthropy.” On the other hand, he adds, “we’re happy to license this.” He thinks Alpha would be welcome inside applications, on mobile devices, and in a generalized search engine. Wolfram has already shown Alpha to former intern Brin and thinks that it could make sense to have the engine running behind the scenes in Google searches.

Another possible source of revenue: licensing data­bases. In corralling information for Alpha, Wolfram has frequently been disappointed in the quality of the source material, and he plans to create hundreds of new databases in areas ranging from nutrition to tidal tables.

All of this is only stage one of the project, says Wolfram, who proceeds to get to the “crazy stuff.” Uh, like what? “We’ll actually be able to simulate in real time based on descriptions. The next question is, can we invent things on the fly, create things that have never been created before, in real time?”

This venture is so edgy that even the hyperbolically confident Wolfram is hedging a bit. “There are many things that could go horribly wrong,” he says. Indeed, weeks before its planned launch, the product is still rough, lacking both integrated natural language processing and sufficient data to deliver the Information Singularity that Wolfram envisions. But once Alpha tells you how many Nobel Prize winners were born under a full moon, you’ll know that we’ve moved one step up the evolutionary ladder of knowledge.

Photo: Physicist Stephen Wolfram poses in his home office. Associated Press/Michael Dwyer

Suscribe my post