AMCP Tech Blog

Apple Computers had their secret press meeting today, and they have released some great products. As the rumors pointed out, we now have an Intel-powered Mac Mini, starting at $599 and comes with a 1.5GHz Intel Solo single-core chip, a 60GB hard drive and a combo drive that can play DVDs and burn CDs. The higher end version sports a dual-core 1.67GHz Core Duo processor, an 80GB hard drive and a SuperDrive that burns CDs and DVDs However, that'll take you down $799. While the price is still a little high for a low end computer, it's great for people that are thinking about switching to a Mac.

However, as an iPod user, the exciting news was a brand new, iPod stereo, called iPod Hi-Fi. The huge stereos come with a dock for your iPod and can connect your iPod Shuffle. You can buy the new $349 stereo today. My thoughts: Use some computer speakers instead of a big stereo; besides, it'll save you a lot of money. The stereo costs as much as the iPod itself! No thanks! I'll stick with the good ole' in-ear headphones.

Steve Jobs also released some more iPod fun for all of you. Enter the new iPod Leather Case. Sure, it will cost you $99 just for a case, but hey: We are all made of money? Right? Right? The case is made of "fine Italian leather with an extremely soft and durable lining", according to Apple. I personally think that $100 for a case is a little over the top. I got my case, made of real leather, mind you, for $40. From what I can see, there is no easy way of changing songs or doing anything while your iPod is in the case. With mine, I can flip it open and change songs, and do pretty much anything I could do without a case.

Give or take, these sound like great products. My Dad (Hi Dad!) has been meaning to buy a Mac for sometime now, and I'm sure people like him will now switch since Apple is now offering Intel-powered Mac Minis (and in that case, he better give my his Dell!). For those of you that forget, Microsoft will be revealing their new Origamiproject on March 2, which is rumored to be a Tablet PC.

While we got a sneak peak at Edgeio, it is now available to the public. That's right, you can now sell your wife's 100 pair of slippers without her knowing (not recommended)! As you know, Edgeio was co-founded by TechCrunch writer, Michael Arrington and RealNames founder, Keith Teare. Edgeio is a listing service, much like eBay and allows users to list jobs, housing, services, cars, and anything else you can think of. I won't review it - seeing as I already have! If you want some more information, I suggest you check out our sneak peak at the service. You can sign up for Edgeio now!

I know that many of you have been hearing about Microsoft and their new Origamiproject. Speculation has been the name of the game ever since Microsoft evangelist, Robert Scoble started talking it up about this new project. Rumor has it that this is Microsoft's attempt at spearheading into the portable gaming market. Not quiet, according to Kevin Tofel, this is a new Table PC. Other people think this could be a number of things including a Xbox portable, a Portable Windows Media Center, a media device, or a mobile offering. According to other sources, this device will be touchscreen.

However, these pictures don't explain where the mouse or keyboard would go. Maybe we'll be seeing a stylus? If this is infact a touchscreen device, why would there be a keyboard? We usually don't see that with a mobile offering. Another question: What kind of OS would this be running? A stripped-down version of Windows XP? If you don't want to be a rumor-monger, then you can wait until March 2 to see what Microsoft is planning. More photos:

Today I'll be talking about one of the biggest things to hit Email, phishing. And no, I'm not spelling it wrong, when we talk about the Internet term, it's spelled with a "ph". Phishing is when people (or a company) send out Emails (works a lot like spam) asking for the user to update personal information such as passwords or credit cards, but the link they provide you in the email is a fake.

It's likely that the links provided in the Email are fake also. They may bring you to a "mock-up" version of some companies website. I remember sometime this year they made a fake Yahoo! website. It'll trick you into submitted personal information such as your name, address, and even your credit card number. One way is looking at the address. It is common sense to know that if a website is trying to mimik another company, it's fake. For example, Yaho.com is not the same as Yahoo.com (although Yahoo! owns Yaho.com). Sometimes it's easy to know that this Email is phishing. Look at this screenshot from my Gmail:


I don't even have a PayPal account. Luckily, Gmail has a built-in AntiPhishing protection system that will remove any links in the Email to protect you. Since Gmail has such a great spam filter, this Email didn't even reach my Inbox. But you want to know how to protect yourselve? Here's how:

1. Look for a personal greeting of some sort. Most companies will only address you by your full name and not just as "User" or "Member".
2. Never, and I mean NEVER give out your personal information over Email. Sometimes you don't know who might read it. If the Email looks like it is really from the company, visit the companies website and look for some form of contact. If you need to, call them or Email them with the Email address they provide. Companies shouldn't even be asking for personal information over Email anyways!
3. Do NOT download any of the attachments in the Email unless you are 120% sure it's safe and you know it's from someone you know (like close friends or family). Trust no one.
   

If you think you are a victim of a phishing attack, change your password on the official company website and report the phishing scam to the official company. Should you have been fooled into giving away your credit card, contact your credit card company and have it locked out.

If you need a AntiPhishing tool, I suggest the Netcraft Toolbar (works with both Firefox and Internet Explorer). Microsoft also has an AntiPhishing toolbar for Internet Explorer and there's a built-in AntiPhishing program in Internet Explorer 7.

Apple Computer sent out invitations to a "secret event" that will be held this Tuesday, February 28 and will be unveiling some "fun new products". AppleInsider is reporting that we might see new Intel-powered Mac Minis, instead of the much anticipated next-generation iBook. Another product that could be released are new iPod offerings; ideas include an iPod Boombox, and iPod accessories. New Intel-based iBooks aren't expected to be released until sometime this Spring.

Personally, I really want to see an Intel-powered Mac Mini. As a Windows user, I'm still not willing to pay almost $2,000 for a new iBook Pro, when my Dell suits me. I also expect that this new Mac Mini will be cheaper than that of the original Mac Mini. Take your guesses folks; what do you expect Steve Jobs to reveal this Tuesday?

This is the second part of a three- series in which I test three of the hottest new Microsoft Betas: Windows Live Mail, MSN Messenger 8, and, of course, the brand-new Office Live.

Beta Testing MSN Messenger 8 - MSN Messenger 8 intends to be the successor to the current Microsoft IM product, Windows Messenger 7, which I don't like at all. Messenger 7 is clunky, annoying (though not as annoying as AIM or YIM), and hard to get rid of. That's just my opinion, of course, but I've conversed with many people who agreed with me about that. MSN Messenger 8 apparently aims to fix those problems. It is a snap to install, and once it is installed it does not pop up every time you load your computer, an annoying feature that YIM, AIM, and even GTalk have in common. I have not used MSN Messenger 8 very much, so it's hard to review its functionality, but here's what I have to say from what I have seen.

Messenger 8 is much smoother (that's the best word for it) and better-looking than its predecessor, and I like the GUI much more than that of AIM or YIM. The only competitor it'll have in that field is GTalk, and GTalk's user interface is quite different from Messanger 8's. The GTalk creators were going for simplistic elegance, while the creators of MSN Messenger 8 were obviously going for something more feature-rich and complex. They managed to make MSN Messenger 8 look relatively good and still be relatively feature-rich, much more so than GTalk. To the left of the MSN Messenger 8 interface are several icons. The top icons are for things like games, music and videos -- things an average user might actually want to use. However, towards the bottom there are icons for online auction and dating sites, things that Microsoft was obviously paid to link to -- things that I'd never want to use. To the right of the link bar is the main part of the MSN Messenger interface. To the top of this part is your profile information and avatar, to the middle is your buddy list, and to the bottom is a box that shows ads and video clips.

I don't know if I'm qualified to make a final judgement on MSN Messenger 8. I haven't had it for more than a few weeks, I've used it very little, and I don't know much about the IM field, since I don't use instant messaging much (outside of conversations via GTalk in Gmail). On top of that, I've probably been spoiled by GTalk's simple and ad-free IM environment. But from what I've seen of MSN Messenger 8 so far, here's what I think: it's about money. While using GTalk, it seems like Google's main motivation is a simple desire to improve IM software in general, with no monetary aspect (at least, not yet), Microsoft's goal with Messenger 8 was clearly to make money. Besides that, I think MSN Messenger 8 is better than YIM and AIM, but stalls at GTalk because of GTalk's simplicity and ease of use -- and lack of obnoxious ads and promotional links.

Because of my relative ignorance on the IM topic in general, and the possible errors in the post above, I feel compelled to provide you with a screenshot of Messenger 8 so that you can form your own opinion. Here is is!


Keep an eye out for the final, and most important, item in this series: a beta-test review of Office Live. Teaser: loads of screenshots!

We have all been hearing rumors about a "PSP 2" that might come out next year - and if you don't, well you live in a very small box. I just want to say that it is absolutely out of the question that we will see any sign of a PSP 2 handheld in the near future, never mind next year! Though, I would like to see some kind of built in camera or video capturing device. The original "rumor" was to have a PSP 2 come out when Microsoft supposedly reveals their handheld, some form of an Xbox 360 gone mobile.

This picture is of the beta for the PSP update version 3.00 that I am currently using, in all of its' PSP greatness. The updates main features are, different playback modes, additional PSP icons, and are you ready for this....Full screen movies! No more black bars on the sides of the UMD movies!

DS Lite: In other handheld news, the upcoming release for the newly designed DS light in Japan stores are surprisingly not giving away preorders as they did with the original DS console. This is very alarming seeing as the DS is a very hot item in Japan right now and is as rare as finding an XBOX 360 in stores in the US; The only difference is this shortage of Japanese DSs' has been going on for almost a year! It is not rare if you sell your DS back to the store that you got it from in Japan for a good 14,000 yen (the same price you bought it for). Well, we are already starting to see signs of DS Lite release troubles...It seems as though the DS Light models colored Ice Blue and Navy blue have been pushed back almost a week from their original release date for March 2nd.

A DS Browser?: Also Opera has stated that they will be creating a web browser for the DS in the near future, as reported. The announcement was made at a Nintendo conference held earlier this month. Little is known about the browser or its features. What we do know is that it will be released hand in hand with a T.V. tuner for the DS.

PS 3 Updates: Okay, now that that's settled, lets move on to the biggest gaming rumor so far this year. That's right, the release date for PS3! Very recently a SCEA rep has stated in an interview that Sony is still on for their Spring 2006 launch date. They are still having trouble with the video chip in terms of heating conditions and are currently waiting till the last minute to release a final date that we can finally get it on!

AdsenseBits reports that the Google Bot is now reporting it's User Agent as Mozilla, Googlebot. They suggest that this might indicate that Google is trying to create thumbnails of all pages for display on their frontpage. They also suggest that Google might be up to something more, as using a real web browser for their slurping will let them know a lot more about pages than their old lynx--based text browsing. They can now look at JavaScript, CSS, and more. The CPU usage of their system must have just increased significantly.

Furthermore, I heard a talk by a Google researcher yesterday who hinted at the fact that Google is ready for another leap forward in their core market: search. One wonders what this might be. (This is a repost from So Many Schemes.)

I was contacted by Ahmed Farooq, the man behind a new local social search engine that provides information on a cities' hotels, restaurants, retail, attractions, entertainment, residences, bars/clubs called iBegin. However, iBegin currently only supports Toronto, but they are looking to expand their services to other cities in the coming months. iBegin is currently in private beta, although I can invite up to five friends. You know the drill everyone, it's first come first serve.

iBegin is built upon user submitting information. Users submit companies or businesses that they might find helpful to other users. Upon searching for, let's say "food", you get your normal list of results. When you click on something, you get a Google Map of the area. However, iBegin doesn't stop there; You can upload photos of the business, as well as review and add it to your favorites.

This service has a wiki-like approach to making sure that their index of results aren't tainted. As a user, you can mark a result as spam, update the data on the company, or write that this business no longer exists. These submittings are reviewed and added to the information about that company as needed. iBegin makes it easy to submit a service to be included in the index. Fill out some simple information on the company and service, and it's done. iBegin has a great search. You can easily limit your results down to the street of the desired location, as well as find businesses near the business you are looking for.

As written, iBegin is in private beta. Invites are given out first come, first serve - and for the note, many AMCP editors will be getting an invite. I think that I have an unlimited amount of invites to hand out, so we'll see how far I can get before I'm barred from handing them out! While we're on the topic of invites, iBegin easily allows you to import friends from Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, GMail, AOL Mail, or MSN Mail and invite them. This is another great feature. Invites for all!

I really think that this service can take off; once they start expanding to other cities. Since I don't live anywhere near Toronto, this information doesn't really benefit me. I think that once they expand and really get a lot of users, this could become the next Digg of local search. Maybe, if they're lucky, they'll get bought by Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft and become part of their local search offerings.

At least I got the right day this time!!! Below is the Thursday Linker, a service where we tell you what's we think is "pure cool" in the technology world (not to be confused with the Friday Linker ;-)).

Tech News

Bye-bye, BlackBerry?: Will the BlackBerry vanish into the technology history books? It's quite possible. The fate of the little device that millions of people rely upon will be decided tomorrow -- in court.

UK Government Confiscates Firefox CDs: An interesting Slashdot post. The UK government recently confiscated Firefox CDs from a company intending to sell them for $10 apiece, and contacted the Mozilla foundation to inform them -- only to find that the cds were allowed under the TOS. An amusing read.

Tech Sites

Google Pages: I could have filed this under Tech News or Pure Cool as well. Google released a brand new hosting service this morning, as reported. The service provides 100MB of free storage, an AJAX online WYSIWYG (also known as: What You See Is What You Get) editor, and no ads on its pages. It's not a service for computer geeks, but it's worth checking out.

100 Downloads: This site has links to all sorts of cool downloads for Win XP . . . I already used many of them before I actually visited the site, but the ones I did not already use turned out to be cool. Check it out.

Pure Cool

A Solid That's Light as Air: This one goes in this category because I have nowhere else to put it -- but I guess it is pretty cool. If you haven't heard of Aerogel before, it's the lightest solid in the world, weighing in at only slightly more than air. This article talks all about it, and has some pretty cool photos of it.

Wi-Fi anywhere you want?: The New York Times reports a new service that allows you to get WiFi anywhere you want. Anyone within 200 feet of the newly created WiFi hotspot will allow any computers to connect. Now that's pure cool!

Google recently unveiled Google Pages, a web hosting service out of Google Labs that provides users with 100 megabytes of space and a subdomain: *.googlepages.com. I opened a Google Pages account this morning, and I've been trying it out. The interface is extremely simple. There is a web-based WYSIWYG editor that allows you to change the template, change the layout, add images, and add text to your web pages. You can have multiple pages with multiple layouts. I have no idea how much bandwidth you get . . . but since no amount is mentioned, there's a possibility it's unlimited. It does not seem like they've put AdSense ads on the pages -- yet.

Google Pages seems, from my first cursory glance, to be a good tool for people who want to put a web site up quickly, and who don't know how to code. However, I fear that it's not a good tool for the people like us: the geeks. I have yet to find a way to edit the source code of the pages, which is a big problem: I usually hand-code my pages. Oh well. I suppose I'm part of the shrinking 0.1% segment of webmasters who actually hand-code their pages.

Check it out and form your own opinions.

Screenshots

Update: Google has since stopped allowing signups for Google Pages. Here we go, again! Google releases a new service that makes frontpage headlines everywhere, and then they pull the plug! Look's like we have another Google service. :-(

OpenWengo was released yesterday by France-based company, Neuf Telecom. The new service uses an extension that when installed with Firefox, allows the user to make free calls to other users. While this service is currently, VoIP only, I'm sure we will be seeing some form of PC-to-phone calling capabilities.

I haven't had the chance to test OpenWengo out (because I'm on a computer that doesn't have Firefox installed, nor does it have a microphone), however, I know that this service has the potential to be a hit. I always like services that use a Firefox extension, just because I don't need to download any software. OpenWengo currently supports Mac OS X and Windows, but also comes with a classic, download service. Has anyone tried it yet?

A little while ago I heard a talk by a Google researcher which boiled down to the following statement: With enough data, many computational problems transform into search problems. For example, if you have an index of a billion web pages, you can make a darn good spell checker because you've seen 200 different ways to spell Britney Spears. You can also translate among various human languages because you've seen documents in so many different languages. And you can make Google Local or Yahoo Local or MSN Local because you can verify information among many sites -- if you see Bob's Pizza associated with a particular phone number on five sites, that number is probably the number of Bob's Pizza. My question, then, is what else can you do when you have mind-bendingly large quantities of text?

• Identify trends. For example, BlogPulse. I also experimented with this once and mined common links and phrases from 40,000 LiveJournal posts. This could be implemented on a larger scale, though. Could a program identify a change in rhetoric across an entire region or follow cultural shifts?
  
• Mine information on people. I've seen this done, but never well. (But this is creepy. I'm not sure the world really needs better stalking tools.)
  
• You can verify links. For example, (shameless plug) my site AbsurdlyCool FreebieFinder finds freebies online while avoiding referral links by verifying links across multiple sites. If a link has an embedded referral ID, it won't be identical on many sites, and so will be ignored. This could be applied to other domains.

Please comment on other possibilities. What if you have images as well as text? (This is a repost from So Many Schemes.)

In the past two months or so, I've been invited to test a bunch of new invite-only Microsoft beta products, notably Windows Live Mail, MSN Messenger 8, and (perhaps most importantly) Microsoft Office Live (otherwise known as Office 12). I feel somewhat awkward reviewing the former two products, because I have barely had time to use them (Office Live has only been out for a few days!), so I hope that the screenshots of the various products will make up for any inadequacies in my reviews. How can you possibly go wrong with screenshots of an exclusive beta? ;-)

I will be splitting my reviews up into three posts. This is the first one, a review of Windows Live Mail. Enjoy!

Windows Live Mail is simply a long-overdue update to Microsoft's popular Hotmail service. By releasing Hotmail, Microsoft basically kick-started the web-based email industry, and deserves some credit for being an industry pioneer. However, since then Hotmail has been way behind the times. The Hotmail interface is confusing and clunky, the storage is comparatively puny, and the spam filter is certifiably awful, blocking only the most obvious spam messages. It was plain to me that Hotmail needed a fix when I checked it out several years ago, fresh from a year of using Yahoo! Mail.

Now it seems that Microsoft is ready to provide that fix. I was invited to Live Mail about two months ago, and I've been testing it since then. Live Mail comes with two gigabytes of web-based storage, which puts them in the league of the other web-based email providers. This is a major upgrade from the 250 megabytes of storage that come with an account at the publicly available Hotmail. But the major changes were made to the GUI, which is very slick. I was stunned by the un-Microsoftishness (whew!) of Live Mail Beta when I first tried it. The interface is very nice. It is divided into three horizontal boxes: a pane to the far-left with links to the various parts of the web-mail interface (Inbox, Junk, Trash . . .), a pane to the right of that one with a list of the messages in your current directory, and a large box to the right that actually displays the messages when you click on them in the middle pane. When you right-click a message in the middle pane, you are given several options, among them an option to delete the message or mark it as spam. You can select multiple messages in the middle pane by pressing “Shift” and clicking on them. When you click on a message in the middle pane, it immediately appears in the right pane; the effect is very smooth. Perhaps the most impressive feature of the interface is the ability to drag a message into a specific folder, as if you were in a desktop email client. Above the email interface are two tabs: “Calender” and “Today”. “Calender”, surprisingly enough, takes you to the slick, AJAX-based Calender app that comes with Live Mail Beta. “Today” takes you to a page with the latest developments in Live Mail Beta. I imagine there will be links to news articles, and perhaps RSS feed capabilities, there when Live Mail Beta comes out to the public. All in all, I'd say that the webmail app that Live Mail resembles closest is AIM Mail. I like the Live Mail interface. It manages to be feature-rich and simple at the same time, combining the best features of an email client and a web-based email interface. That kind of statement means a lot, coming from me: that's the first time I've ever praised a Microsoft product like that. I like Live Mail a lot. But I have several small complaints about it, and one very big one.

I think the ads are too big. They're somewhat larger than a standard website banner, and they're very obtrusive, far more so than the small text ads displayed by Google's Gmail, and even larger than those displayed by Yahoo Mail. But I have to say that I'm glad that they do display the ads, instead of getting me hooked on the beta product, and then releasing it to the public and surprising me with huge ads. My second complaint is the fact that the interface is too small for the average Internet Explorer window, making it so that you have to scroll down the page in order to see the entire thing. It's not a major complaint, but it's annoying enough to warrant notice. And then there's one big problem with Live Mail. With typical selfishness (you didn't really think I'd take a pro- Microsoft stance in this article, did you?), Microsoft made the full version of Live Mail available only for users with Internet Explorer 6 or above. If you log on in Firefox, you get a stripped-down version of the interface and a message saying that the Microsoft team “has not finished building all the Live Mail Beta functionality for this browser,” which seems to imply that they will make all the Live Mail Beta functionality available for Firefox at some point. I'll believe it when I see it. This is a typical Microsoft error: they risk alienating people who are not already Hotmail/Internet Explorer users from the new product by forcing them to adopt a new standard in order to use it.

So that's my review. Where are the screenshots? Right here. Coming up next: MSN Messenger 8 . . . .

More than anything else, I think that Web 2.0 encapsulates the dawning realization that there is still money in the Internet. During the first dot com boom, the Internet was fun because suddenly everyone and their uncle could make money online. It was sort of a wild west meets low-capital capitalism, and this is happening again. Google has proved that web based advertising is big business, Million Dollar Homepage spawned a million copycats, and everyone wants to make the next del.icio.us.

However, and this is part of what makes Web 2.0 exciting, due to the low-capital nature of creating a web company, it is very difficult to stay on top. Without a true technological advantage, or a physical product, it seems like anyone can simply form a startup with two friends in their garage and displace giants. Granted, this almost certainly isn't true, but this perception leads to the rise of 20 copycat sites for every successful business. Likewise, for every good idea, there are 10 different renditions of it coming out in beta every week. Only one or two of those are actually going to succeed. It's crazy, capitalistic, scheming, wild west fun, and it seems to be back. But for how long? (This is a repost from So Many Schemes.)

I've been playing with a new service which allows Sony PSP users to log into their AIM accounts and instant message their friends. The new service, AIMonPSP, is free, but is currently in beta. AIMonPSP doesn't use Flash or Java, because those formats are not supported in the latest version of the firmware, but uses JavaScript to open up a new window. They describe it as:

AIMOnPSP is an AOL Instant Messenger client for the Sony Playstation Portable. The purpose of this project was to make a web-based AIM client that can be used in almost any browser that supports JavaScript (such as the one included in the new PSP firmware); it uses no Java or Flash. AIMOnPSP is a free service and runs from our server which means that you don't have to download anything or load anything onto your PSP in order to use it.

I'm very excited about the potential of instant messaging and VoIP on a PSP. While I've been looking forward to a service that can chat with all protocols, like Trillian, for my PSP, this is a good start. I would really like to see a form of a PSP keyboard come out so typing wouldn't be such a pain on the fingers (you have to enter each letter), so having a long chat with a friend can take forever to type out.

To day I was invited to test out Edgeio, a Web 2.0 version of eBay. Edgeio was co-founded by TechCrunch writer, Michael Arrington and RealNames founder, Keith Teare. Edgeio is a listing service, much like eBay and allows users to list jobs, housing, services, cars, and anything else you can think of.

From what I've heard, you can start posting items on your blog that you want to sell, tagging them with "listing", and the Edgeio bots will pick them up and add them to their index. Edgeio will also try to send a trackback to the blog post so the blogger can find away to edit the details of the item. This feature will be very popular with bloggers and webmasters alike. Edgeio also wants to make sure that the buyer is inline, so you'll have one-click access to their eBay reputation.

You maybe wondering just how Edgeio will make their cash. Well, they plan to charge powersellers 25 cents to get top positions on their listings page and they are looking into running a third-party contextual ad service, possibly Google Adsense. This will allow local sellers to have advertising in the right column. Edgeio creates RSS feeds for local listings, items for sale, and almost anything else you can think of. This is another area that advertising could be implemented. Anyone with a RSS-enabled website can publish content through Edgeio.

I'm still in the process of playing around with Edgeio, but I can guarantee that you that this service will be big. With such influential people like Michael Arrington leading the party, they can't go wrong. People that have signed up are starting to get their invitation codes in their e-mail.

Yahoo employee, Russell Beattie, recently decided to remove all comments from his blog because he just couldn't keep up with all of them. This has caused some people (here, here, here, here, and here) to say that a blog is not a blog, without comments.

Comments are a feature on many blogs. I agree with this, I think that comments are a great and fun way to express your thoughts on a particular subject. However, many blogs (including this one) have had to moderate comments because of how pervasive spam comments are. Comments have become a burden to many webmasters and bloggers alike, because of the time needed to respond to comments and to make sure that spam bots aren't playing your system. However, many blogs offer comments because of traffic benefits and for the community.

The Bloggers Blog, a blog I regularly read, says that saying that a blog that has not comments isn't a blog is "silly". I personally disagree. For example, I really enjoy the news the Bloggers Blog has, but I'm sometimes frustrated because I can't comment on the news they talk about. I can't even e-mail them because there's no contact link! In turn, they argue that many popular blogs don't have comments such as Boing Boing and Post Secret.

As a content publisher and blog reader, I have mixed feelings. As a reader, I like comments because I can commment on what I'm reading. However, as a publisher, it can take time to approve or delete comments as well as respond to them. I think that it all comes down to how the blogger wants his or her blog set up, comments or no comments.

I sometimes consider myself lucky for somehow getting into the beta testing program at Yahoo! and Microsoft for testing out the new Windows Live Mail and Yahoo Mail Beta. Of course, I've been using Gmail for a year. All three of these next-generation e-mail services offer their own pluses and minuses:

Yahoo! Mail Beta: Yahoo Mail Beta resembles an online version of Outlook. With keyboard support, Tabbed email, and 1GB of storage, it's a pretty big force to be compete with. Yahoo released their new version of Yahoo Mail to a limited number of beta testers in September, 2005. There have been a few updates to Mail Beta, for example, an RSS Reader. The new Yahoo! Mail Beta has AJAX written all over it. It has a create feel to it and the UI is great. While the loading is something to consider, Yahoo Mail Beta makes it up with sheer coding.

Tabs work much like Mozilla Firefox. You double click a message and it'll open up in a new tab. Right clicking a message gives you the options to delete, mark as spam, the same old. Yahoo Mail Beta supports Firefox 1.0-1.5 and IE 6 (It doesn't support IE 7.0 Beta 1-2). My only complaint is loading. I know that with AJAX, there will be sometime of loading. Yahoo puts design and pure sexy into one: Yahoo! Mail Beta.

Google Gmail: Not much to say about Gmail, considering it's no longer in private beta (Yes, it's still in "beta" ;). Gmail is slick, with very or little loading time. Gmail currently uses a new type of way to group e-mails: threading, grouping e-mails together to look like a conversation. I'd really like to see other companies embrace this, it's great when you send a lot of Emails to the same person (You know how many Emails I send to Joe?).

Gmail recently introduced Webclips, Google's form of RSS feeds in Gmail. They also just introduced inline chatting using Google Talk, a feature that I now swear by. While you still can't call people, you can chat in a pop-up window or within Gmail. The great thing is that you can browse around Gmail while chatting with a few of your friends. For example, you could be writing an e-mail while chatting with your friend. Cool, eh?

Google has done Email right. With over 2.5 GB of free Email storage, you can't go wrong with Gmail. Highly recommended to all.

Windows Live Mail: Windows Live Mail is currently in private beta and is the future of Hotmail. You can currently only use Internet Explorer to use Windows Live Mail. Windows Mail failed to impress me. Although it's a great update from the ugly Hotmail, it falls behind both Gmail and Yahoo Mail Beta. You can drag an drop Emails, but there's no tabbed browsing. Nor is there anything that makes the service stand out from the rest.

There are three panes. The first is your normal Inbox, Spam and Trash. The next shows your Emails. I really don't like this setup because I have to scroll around to read the full message. I should be able to read most of all of the e-mail without having to scroll around (unless of course the Email is long). I think that Live Mail doesn't take advantage of your available screen space. However, as I've said, this is a great step from the ugly Hotmail we once knew.

MSN has quietly rolled out a new set of updates to their search, one of which being a new algorithmic update. One will notice that when searching, you're greeted with a new UI; a sleek grey backround. It looks great. You'll also notice that the MSN Search page also have inherited this new look. I really love the new look. Although I've never really been into MSN Search, maybe I'll start using it. Afterall, you can add the search to Firefox.

Welcome to the first edition of the Friday Linker! No, this is not a new AMCP service -- I forgot to post the Thursday Linker yesterday ;-p. Here it is:

News:

First Ever?: The first-ever Mac OS-X virus was discovered by internet-security company Sophos recently. The virus spreads via iChat: you recieve a file that seems to come from one of your buddies, but if you download it it disables many of your files and continues to spread. As yet, however, the virus cannot spread unless you give your permission to download the file, so if you're a Mac user, don't download anything via iChat and you'll be safe ;-).

Brand-New Battery -- How Exciting!: MIT recently released a brand-new battery for hybrid cars recently. They tweaked the chemicals in the battery, and the result is a much more efficient battery. The new batteries could also be used for more mobile transportation, such as bikes and scooters, and as backup sources for energy from "green" energy plants.

Anti-Rootkit regulation in the works?: There may be regulation against "dangerous" rootkit software such as Sony's? COOL! Regulators doing something right for a change? Cooler still!

Cool Sites

Ajaxian!: I've been using Ajaxian for a long time now. It's an exceptionally cool site that posts regularly about (guess what?) AJAX. It's worth visiting just for a peek at the cool site design.

Glaxstar Gallactica: Glaxstar is an interesting and little-known start-up site. It's home to several very cool Firefox extensions, though you may have to wait to get them.

Optimize me, please!: The Optimus keyboard is the coolest keyboard I've ever seen. The keys are blank, but they have small color screens on them, so they can be customized. For instance, you could put an application icon on each of the F-keys, and assign each one to its respective application. Put all that in a sleek, stylish design (my own words, and I don't work for them ;-), and you've got something. When can I order?

$100 Laptop?: Ever heard of a brand-new laptop for $100? I have. MIT designed the hardware and is working with several companies (notably Red Hat and Google) to make this laptop a reality. The laptop will come with a hand-crank to provide a power boost when needed, it will run Linux, and it will have the ability to network with others of its kind in the area. Here's the catch, though: if the laptop is ever sold, it will be sold to schools for one hundred dollars -- and given to young students. Oh well, I don't like the design anyway.

IP Lookup + AJAX = Seriously cool: Sure, there are other services that do the same thing -- but none of them are even half as cool as the SEOmoz AJAX IP lookup, which utilizes the Google Maps API and can pinpoint the exact location of an IP address -- and then point it out on a satellite map of the globe. How cool is that?

Microsoft has released their AntiSpyware program, Windows Defender Beta 2 to the public. As you know, Windows Defender is the new name for Microsoft AntiSpyware. It is based on Giant Company Software, which they purchased back in December 2004. Windows Defender is the future for Microsoft's AntiSpyware software, and will be shipping with Windows Vista. Here's a small review:

Installation: Windows Defender installs pretty quickly. It doesn't require a system restart, which is good, because that means that Microsoft hasn't edited the Windows kernel.

Dashboard: The Dashboard of Windows Defender is very easy to use. If you're a OneCare users, you'll feel right at home with this. The UI of Windows Defender is just right; you seem to know were everything is and how to work the application. The Dashboard features drop down menus of other features of Defender. However, the menu works a bit differently; instead there's a new type of toolbar, with Back and Forward buttons, runs along the top, providing access to the home screen, Scan, History, Tools, and Help.

As you can see, Windows Defender has the sleek icons that Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta2. For example, the Back and Forward icons a great addition to Windows Defender; and they look great which makes it all the better. The dashboard will also display the state of your system (Green, Yellow, Red). You can update your spyware definitions without even leaving the Dashboard!

Scanning and Features: I was very surprised to see that Windows Defender can scan a system relatively quickly. A quick scan took less than 5 minutes. Windows Defender managed to up-root even more spyware and tracking cookies than my other four AntiSpyware applications did! Impressive.

Defender comes with the expected set of features, however, there is one that stands out. Windows Defender ships a 'Software Explorer', a feature that allows you to see all currently running services, start up programs, and network connected programs.

Windows Defender is no longer XP SP2-only; you can now run Defender on XP, 2000, 2003, and x64 (however, you'll need to download a seperate executable for x64).

Conclusion: I believe that Windows Defender is a solid offering from Microsoft. Windows Defender has come along way from the Beta 1 we once knew, and I recommend it to everyone that wants to keep their system spyware free. You can download Windows Defender from Microsoft now.

On this very day, the AMCP Tech Blog was born. At first, this blog was a way for me to express my thoughts on technology, but now it has turned into something special: a place where I can share my thoughts with an audience that cares, and some great editors who help me out along the way. We've expanded to even more editors and more content. All of us here have been working very hard to come to this point, and it feels great.

I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone that has helped me; For everyone that has helped me along the way, and put up with my evil demands. I'd also like to thank all of the editors helping out here; without you guys, I'd be lost. And what would be a blog without its readers? You guys are the best. Here's a little something written by senior editor, Joseph Wilkinson:

A Brief History by Senior Editor, Joseph Wilkinson: Hi everyone. It's been a great year at the AMCP Tech Blog. The Blog went from a PR 0 to a PR 5 in one year. We have covered topics ranging from web services to new gadgets, from portals to operating systems, for an entire year now. We've reviewed dozens of public and private betas for you, kept you abreast of the latest and greatest in the tech world, and even given out invitations to exclusive betas. Alex, over the course of one year, has hired six new editors (including myself) with various specialties so that we can give you a better all-around view of the technology world. And we continue to grow. We have changed from a small blog focused mainly on computer security to a rather large one with comprehensive coverage of the technology world. As we start a new chapter in our history, look forward to more posts on Linux, assorted gadgetry, and reviews of several Windows Live betas. We will also continue our coverage of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. It's been a good year, and we look forward to enjoying many more in the future.

Opera Software has announced that they have created a browser for Nintendo's portable gaming system, the DS. However, this feature is currently only offered in Japan, and will drain your wallet of about $32. You can add this feature to your DS with a DS cartridge; so no new firmware is needed. All you need to do is insert the card into the Wi- Fi enabled Nintendo DS, connect to a network, and begin browsing on two screens.

This is a great step by both Nintendo and Opera. Opera really knows how to do mobile web browsing; they have already perfected a browser for phones, what's stopping them from moving to even more portable devices?

However, I think this is too little too late. For one thing, the Sony PSP has been able to browse the Web for months, not to mention that I was running a hack to do it in June 2005. I also want to point out that the resolution on the DS is horrible. Even browsing some websites on the PSP can be Hell, try doing that on a DS! I haven't been able to find a DS around here in the States that has this. I'm interested to see if it will be touched based; then I might reconsider.

Google has bought yet another company, this time it's Measure Map, a blog analytics tool. What I find interesting is Measure Map isn't even public yet; you need an invitation to use it. I'm interested to see what Google will do with the service. Will they integrate it with Google Analytics, their website tracking offering? Even better: Will they integrate this service with Blogger, their blogging tool?

Measure Map is still in private beta, so I haven't been able to try it out. The service allows bloggers to understand what people are clicking on your blog and where incoming links are coming from. The whole system is built utilizing AJAX. I'm interested to see what Google plans to do with Measure Map. I'd love to see it integrated with Blogger.

I have been thinking about web annotation. I envision a social service that allows you to annotate any webpage, share your annotations with a group of friends, and use this both as a form of artistic expression (web graffiti) and as another level of online knowledge transfer. These annotations could be text based or graphical. Ideally, I'd like both, where you could simply draw on the page, or type in text, and have it stick with a little mouse-over date/time stamp. I know the technical challenge of overlaying data on dynamic content is imposing, however.

Now, a site called Mystickies [via Goggle Blogoscoped] is trying this with floating text boxes -- sticky notes. Their service isn't collaborative or sharable yet, which is a shame, but it's a start.

There are some other attempts at online annotation, such as the Annotation Engine. However, the Annotation Engine doesn't have social controls or groups, so the quantity of annotation -- spam, graffiti, whatever -- grows out of control. It's also old and kind of broken. I think a good system would use a karma and interest threshold approach, similar to slashdot, to decide what to show you.

Another fun project is wikalong, which I am a big fan of. It's not on-page annotation, it is a sidebar wiki for every page on the internet. They simplified the annotation problem into something manageable, and then pulled it off.

In an interview with Washtenaw County Sheriff Deputy, Paul Mobbs said that blogs are replacing instant messaging. Paul gives briefings to parents about blogging, but does things differently; he doesn't warn parents about it, like all those other nut cases. Instead, he think that blogs are stemming off of IM:

I know fifth-graders who have blogs, sixth-graders, seventh-graders, eighth-graders, up all the way up through high school and college to adults. I personally believe it stems off instant messaging and is now the next level up.

I think it's interesting that fifth-graders actually have a blog and take it seriously. However, I don't think blogs are ready to replace IM, yet. Remember that less than five percent of the world is actually blogging, and not even half read a blog. Most people don't even know what a blog is. While the interview is a good look into child blogging, I think saying that IM is ready to go is a huge understatement.

Microsoft AntiSpyware (aka Windows Defender) is causing some problems for users that have Norton Anti-Virus installed on the same computer. A recent update to Microsoft's Anti-Spyware application flags Norton Anti-Virus as a password-stealing program and prompts users to remove it.

According to two forum posts at Microsoft, Windows AntiSpyware (5805, 5807) detects Norton software as PWS.Bancos.A, a password stealer. When the user takes the advice of Windows AntiSpyware and removes Norton, it becomes corrupted and Norton no longer works. It does this through several steps of removing 1405 "infected" registry locations (which are the Norton files). In order to reinstall Norton, you have to go and remove the other registry files, which I suggest you don't do because editing the registry can get messy if you don't know what you are doing.

Microsoft has told me that they are working on an update to fix this problem; however, they can't be held in anyway because afterall, this is a beta product.

AOL Vice Chairman Ted Leonsis has launched his blog to the public. Before, the blog could only be accessed by AOL employees. I'm surprised that Ted isn't using AOL Journals to publish his blog - after all it is an AOL service. He responded in a post saying that if he wants to do the things he's doing right now, he'll need to use a seperate blogging platform:

A few people have asked me why I'm not using the AOL Journals product for this blog. I love AOL Journals, and there are several of them that I check regularly, but the simple answer is that my tech guys told me that we needed to use a different platform in order to do the things I want to do with this blog. Beyond RSS feeds, we're kicking around a few other ideas that will be rolling out in the next few weeks and months. Stay tuned!

You can change your AIM superbuddy to a cartoon caricature of Ted. AOL Journals will be adding some new features such as videos in blog posts. AOL Journals launched in May.

I was reading an interesting article about how search engine news reporter, Danny Sullivan, is being treated like a spammer on Wikipedia. He was editing Wikipedia and added a link to his site on a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) article. A Wikipedia editor sent him a Email saying "Please do not add commercial links".

I use Wikipedia a lot - it's a great resource for information. You can find almost anything you want to know, and it's free. However, the editors there aren't...The nicest people. Some people have told me that Wikipedia is the next DMOZ, but I agree with Duncan, Wikipedia is run by Nazis - and the editors are the worst. You try to add in a bit of your own incite about the topic and they freak. For instance, I was contributing to an article (I can do that right?), and I got a message telling me that I have to stop "editing" things or I'll be banned. The fact that editors can't control themselves and talk to people like I'm a real person and not a computer is sad.

What sparked the problem here is that the editors were blocking out "commercial" or "fansites", which is ironic because every page has links of this type - with the difference usually in the fact that the links are given by the editors to their friends.

Maybe next time the editors there will actually think about how they treat people, what they're doing, and what will come out of their actions. For example, an editor responded to Danny in a childish way after discussing the problem:

Let me take your SEW articles as an example, since I'm a long-time reader: Do you have an article there with an external links section with more than three links? Do you have an article there with more than three external links going to the same domain? Why not? I envision Wikipedia as the "Search Engine Watch" without copyrights and that anyone can edit. All Wikipedia asks from all of us is a bit of generosity. Danny, I invite you to write us an entire article on, say, Google Foundation -- and (I dare you!) put no link to your articles in SEW -- and see what happens.

I'm wondering why this editor is daring people; Wikipedia is supposed to act professionally. The editors shouldn't be daring people (wait, I dare you!). As I've said, the fact that people working on Wikipedia can't control themselves is a problem. Fix it, I dare you.

Two years ago, one the most popular photo-sharing tools, Flickr was born. They are having a party in San Francisco tonight to celebrate. More information on Upcoming.org:

The Flickr team hopes you can join us as we enter our terrible twos. Adaptive Path will be hosting our event on their fabulous 2nd floor (2nd birthday, 2nd floor!). Our friends at O'Reilly are sending us copies Flickr Hacks hot of the press from the printers and QOOP is planning a little surprise.

The party is from (7:00 PM - 10:00 PM). Want driving instructions and GPS support - try Yahoo! Maps or Google Maps.

Yahoo has added some cool features to one of their social bookmarking services, MyWeb 2.0. The new features come after a few hours of being offline. The new features also come with a redesigned homepage. New features include:

• Updated homepage: The new homepage of MyWeb 2.0 shows your three recent saved pages by you, your friends, and all MyWeb users.
• Tag Search: Pretty simple - you can search other users tags.
• Badges: You can now display your latest saved pages with a MyWeb 2.0 Badge, which you can add to your blog.

There are some other small upgrades such as better performance and bulk editing. Yahoo MyWeb 2.0 is currently in Beta.

Yesterday Yahoo confirmed that they might be offering a new incentive program that would reward people that made Yahoo their default search engine. While the incentives wouldn't be money, you would get some really great rewards, which would be offered on a monthly basis. Users would have to login to a special search box, or maybe a special toolbar. Here's some of the ideas that Yahoo is thinking of (via News.com blog, with some comments by me):

• No Yahoo Mail ads. This would be welcomed! However, since I'm in the Yahoo! Mail Beta testing program, I don't get any ads! I love being a nerd!
• Unlimited Yahoo Mail storage, versus the 1GB now provided for free. I'll stick with Gmail. Almost 3GB!
• Outlook Access to Yahoo Mail. Users could use Outlook or Outlook Express to manage their Yahoo Mail as well as download and read it while offline. (currently not offered).
• Five free music downloads a month for playing on a PC or portable MP3 player. Me please! You'll also get discounted music subscriptions. Users would pay nothing for the first month of unlimited access to Yahoo Music Unlimited and $3.99 a month thereafter, rather than $6.99 a month for unlimited access.
• PC-to-phone calling credit. Users could receive $5 in calling credit per month for PC-to-phone calls over Yahoo Messenger with Voice, which costs 15 cents a minute. Yahoo is offering VoIP you know!
• Netflix discount. Users could receive one month free Netflix DVD rentals and pay $10.99 thereafter, rather than $17.99 a month. No thanks. I already have Netflix.
• Discounted Yahoo Personals subscription. Users could receive the first month free for joining Yahoo Personals and pay $19.95 thereafter, compared to the current cost of $24.95 a month. No thanks.
• Frequent flyer miles. Users could earn 250 frequent flyer miles each month that could be transferred to most major airline mileage programs. No thanks.

While Yahoo is just "thinking" about these incentives, it would be great should they decide to go through with it. I generally don't agree with incentive programs, because the companies never really stick to their guns. This just goes to show you how desperate Yahoo is becoming - is Google too much for them?

Rumor has it that Nintendo will be releasing an updated version of their currently portable gaming system, the Nintendo Dual Screen (DS). The new version is called DS Lite and has shaved off most of the weight. 20% of the weight is gone. It will be released in Japan on March 2nd for ¥16,800 (about $145). The dimensions are 133mm x 73.9mm x 21.5mm. Here's a mockup of what some people think the DS Lite will look like:


I think that Nintendo is waking up to the fact that the PSP by Sony is kicking some big butt. The fact that you can do so much more with a PSP opposed to a DS makes it even more of a reason to buy one. Remember, this is a mockup, and may not be what the DS Lite may look like at its release.

Update: I've been told that Nintendo is planning to release a few different colors of the DS Lite.

Hi. I have not posted the old Thursday Linker for several months now, and I think it's time it came back. I will not be able to post it every single Thursday, but I'll do my best . . . here are the links for this week.

Three hot topics:

The Cartoon Wars

It appears that, as well as destroying embassies and killing people, muslim fanatics are finding their way to the web as well. They've defaced over one thousand Danish websites so far.

Cochlear Implants

Cochlear implants, devices to aid hearing that are implanted directly in a person's head, got some web news coverage this week. They've seen some improvement recently; you can even plug your iPod into them! Hmmm...maybe after I sue Apple for making me go deaf, I'll buy a cochlear implant and a new 90gb iPod video with the money I get, turn up the volume so much that I destroy what remains of my eardrum, render the implant unusable, and sue Apple again!

Large Screen iPod Video?

On the iPod topic, I found an article pointing to another article in Think Secret claiming that Apple's going to come out with an iPod video with a much larger screen than the current video-playing models. The screen size they talk about is too large to fit in the original model, and Think Secret says that the proposed new model would solve this problem by eliminating the click-wheel -- and creating a touch-sensitive "virtual click-wheel" on the screen itself, which could be minimized when convenient. Interesting. Possibly just fluff, but still interesting.

Google's Censorship in China

The Google/China thing has been going on for longer than a week now, but I found a very funny link and I had to post it (and AMCP has written about it)

And last but not least...

This is definitely not a hot topic, but I could not pass it by. I found a really cool demo of a new touch screen . . . it totally blew me away when I saw the video. Don't miss it, it's absolutely worth watching. Maybe you're seeing the future of computing.

Google has released a new version of their desktop search software, now at beta 3. Of course, this version comes with the sidebar, but has a very interesting new feature. You can store your files on Googles servers and access them with a remote computer (such as a work computer). I can see some privacy advocates having a field day with this one, however, this maybe welcomed by some users. With the update, comes an update to their private policy. If I remember correctly, Google stated that they would never store your information on their servers. Compare the new one, to the old one, which states that "“these combined results can be seen only from your own computer; your computer’s content is never sent to Google (or anyone else)."” The new feature is called "Search Across Computers":

In order to share your indexed files between your computers, we first copy this content to Google Desktop servers located at Google. This is necessary, for example, if one of your computers is turned off or otherwise offline when new or updated items are indexed on another of your machines. We store this data temporarily on Google Desktop servers and automatically delete older flies, and your data is never accessible by anyone doing a Google search.

I haven't tried it, nor do I plan to. This isn't because I don't need desktop search, but because I hate sidebars. You can download the new beta release here.

Update: My Gmail account has been allowed access to Google's new feature, Google Talk within Gmail. The new feature is integrated into the sidebar, and when you mouse over a contact, you can Email them, chat with them, and see their contact information. I was unable to test out the chat feature within Gmail, because no contacts were online.

Google's online e-mail service, Gmail, has changed their homepage to reflect that they will be launching a new feature which will allow users to chat on Google Talk within Gmail. Via the homepage:

Chat with your friends from right inside Gmail. There's no need to load a separate program or look up new addresses. It's just one click to chat with the people you already email, as well as anyone on the Google Talk network. And now you can even save and search for chats in your Gmail account.

I've heard that they will be releasing this to a few accounts as early as tommorow. This puts services like Gtalkr at risk because:

1. Google sees this as a new feature and will compete with these types of services.
2. All Google has to do is turn off their API and Gtalkr is useless.

Google has currently added a "Chats" history category to the sidebar in Gmail. You can bet that when Google Talk and AIM integrate, this will be huge.

The open source media player, Songbird, has been released to the public. As previously reported, Songbird launched to the public last night. You can now download it. The Songbird homepage is currently under the weather, in other words, the server is down. There are two other download locations.

Songbird is led by former Yahoo and Winamp employee, Rob Lord. For those that don't know, Songbird is a desktop media player - much like services such as iTunes or Windows Media Player. Songbird is open source, meaning anyone can edit the code behind the program to fit their needs. While this pre-release version is Windows only, I've been told that Linux and Mac versions are in the works. Songbird also comes with an alternative theme: red. Bright red.

Songbird is built on the Mozilla Firefox rendering engine, so you can visit websites just like you would using Firefox. Think of it as a web browser for music. When you visit a website, Songbird searches for any media files on the page, and allows you to download them, copy them, or burn them. No DRM here.

Songbird currently supports MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, FLAC, to name a few. Songbird has been under development for sometime. I was expecting some form of a build in December, even though it was announced in November.

This is a proof-of-concept build, just to prove to people that Songbird does indeed exist. I've been playing around with it for the past twenty minutes and I'm in love with it. It plays great, and the extensions rule. Consider iTunes uninstalled!

I'm very excited to say that Songbird, the media player based on Mozilla will launch tonight. The release will be for Windows only, with Mac and Linux versions coming later on. From the screenshots I've seen, Songbird is not just a media player, but can also serve as a browser.

"Songbird plays the Web. Songbird may view Web pages as playlists of MP3s. Soon, Web page authors may publish playlists and transfer MP3s into Songbird in support of digital music stores like eMusic, music subscription services like Yahoo! Music Unlimited, virtual jamming services like Ninjam, playlist sharing services like WebJay and more." (via their website).

The great thing about Songbird is that it can work with Mozilla extensions - since it is based on the Gecko (Mozilla) rendering engine. Songbird is open source and currently works with MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG, FLAC and other files. When it does release to the public, AMCP will be covering the action.

I've been hearing even more news about how people post so much information about themselves - teenagers listen up. MySpace is very popular, and there are millions of new users signing up every month.

When you look at MySpace from a computer nerd view, you can just tell that the design sucks. One of my favorite articles about this is "MySpace: Is 'ghetto' a design choice?" by Whitespace. The overall all user interface and design of MySpace puts a frown on my face everytime I come across a MySpace page. If you want to "hack" into MySpace to change your backround image, you have to go through some really stupid steps. Another thing that bothers me is the fact that when you actually set up a blog using MySpace, it creates some really big URL. How am I supposed to share that with friends? Who even blogs using MySpace?

I see MySpace as a huge risk to anybody. Not just teens. Everyone seems to think that only teens use it - trust me, there's some really messed up 40-year olds on that site. People post so much personal information on their MySpace pages, anyone could easily find you. Take a look at this blog post, "MySpace User Found Dead". You know who this guy found her? Through the personal information provided by her. There are a ton of very strange people on MySpace. Take a look at some of the comments left on a few MySpace pages. Weird. I understand that people want to meet new people - that's great, that's what the Internet is good for. However, I think people really don't know what they're doing when they post personal information.

Disclaimer: I do not have a MySpace profile, nor have I ever used it.

I'm shocked that Dell has announced that they will no longer be supporting their hard-drive Mp3 player, the Dell DJ 5, 15, 20, or 30 GB players. Dell will still be offering their flash-based player, the Dell Ditty. Like all the other companies that have been put to rest, they just can't compete with Apple Computer's iPod.

Tis' was the case with Rio, a company that to this day, I still miss. My first Mp3 player was a Rio, and I think they made some of the best. The way they designed their Mp3 players, and the features made it a great buy. This is the same case with the DJ. I bought a DJ for Christmas 2004, and used it for a year, until I bought an iPod. In my "I want to Kill Myself When I use iTunes" posts (see #2), I actually said that I would rather use my Dell DJ. Now however, it sits and collects dust.

I sometimes wonder why the iPod is so popular. If you think it's bad, it's far worse with young people. I hate having to walk around listening to my iPod with those well known white headphones. It makes me feel like I'm part of that "Apple cult" - which I'm not (and for your information Linux has already claimed me). It's not that I don't like the Apple cult, but I hate how they go around thinking they're so secure on their new G5. Almost in a haughty sort of way. But I digress.

I still mourn Rio, and now the Dell DJ. Over the course of two years, five other people in my family has bought a Dell DJ - and I've owned two Rio players.

Yahoo currently allows you to host your own website with popular blogging tools, Wordpress or Movable Type automatically installed. No FTP, no hassle. For those of you that don't know, Yahoo has their own blogging tool, Yahoo 360.

I've been using Yahoo 360 since it launched back in March of 2005 and I love it. I won't go into detail of why I think it's a pretty sweet social network. I was reading up on the The Unofficial Yahoo Weblog that Yahoo will soon be adding 360 as a choice. This has made me wonder if 360 will be able to be used offsite - that is, offsite of Yahoo. This should mean that 360 has some form of an API in the works, which is a blessing in itself because now we can external applications running with 360.

If Yahoo can pull this off, I can guaranty you that 360 will reach the masses very quickly.

While doing a bit of lazy Sunday browsing, I discovered Gtalkr, a web-based version of Google Talk (not supported by Google). You login using your Google ID and password, and you're directed to a page that is Flash-based. From there, you can see all of your Gmail contacts and chat with them. Although, you can't call the via VoIP, you can still do the basic things that Google Talk does.

What makes this service truly stand out is the fact that it includes a RSS-reader and can show the latest YouTube content, Digg content, and the person who you are talking to's Flickr page. You can also see any unread Gmail messages. You can also access Yahoo! Maps and type in a Zip Code to see anywhere on the globe using the Yahoo! Maps API.

The overall look and feel of Gtalkr is great. Because I don't have Google Talk installed on the computer I'm using right now. You can even search your chats with people that you had on Gtalkr (a kick ass feature by the way), as well download the Gtalkr notifier which will show chat message alerts and recent Gmail messages.

This is a great service. You can count on my visiting this sites a handful more times. I can't wait to see what other features will be added to this already great service.

Update 1: I was just contacted by Wes Carr, the co-creator of Gtalkr. They will be adding support and integration for AIM, file transfer support (using libjingle) and later on, VoIP. I really like Gtalkr so far, and I'll be using it in the future.

I was talking about all the "Free iPods/Xbox/iBook...ect." offers and I was wondering if they really work. I signed up at Freepay, a service that gives away laptops once you get five other people to sign up for it. Here's the steps of Hell:

1. Sign up for a Freepay account. You have to enter some personal information like your address, Email address, and phone number. I used my cell phone number.
2. You then have to sign up for one of their partners offers. I choose some dating service - although I will never use it.
3. Refer five other people to sign up and they'll ship me a free iBook. Here's the link.

I have always thought of these to be a scam, but when I read somewhere that people were actually getting their free stuff in the mail, I decided to sign up. So far guys, I haven't gotten spammed yet. If I do get the iBook, I'll post it here. However, I have to get 5 other people to sign up. So please, sign up and help to get me a free iBook.

I've been hearing rumors that Amazon is close to launching a contextual advertising system similar to Google's AdSense. As of yet, they have been using Google's advertisers to fill ads on their sites, but now wish to send Google packing. Amazon will be approaching certain affiliates from their associates program to see if they would like to beta test the program. However, doing so would require you to remove Adsense or YPN (Yahoo! Publisher Network) ads from your blog seeing as the TOS (Terms of Service) doesn't allow competitive ad networks on your site.

All .Blogspot/Blogger users have been wondering what has been happening to the Blogger servers. According to the Status page, they have been trying to add new network equiptment, but there has been several crashes already. I love how CNET editor Tom Merritt described it:

Blogspot went down today again, shrinking the blogosphere tremendously. For the past three days, Blogger's web log service has been up and down more often than Google's stock. The Blogger status blog uses the word "outage" 10 times on its first page. Today's post is one short line about "problems," because the word "outages" just starts to grate after a while. Meanwhile visiting a blog at anything.blogspot.com has become a crapshoot at best.

The fact that Blogger has been crashing has caused a few people to become upset. I remember back in March of 2005 we were having problems. I'm not happy about it, but then again I'm not ready to kill someone because Blogger is down. There are some talks going on over at the Blogger Forum about the crashing. Yesterday I could access Blogger, but couldn't access any .blogspot domains.

Don't you hate it when you comment on a blog and you have to revisit it to see all the comments left by other people? This can get really difficult when you currently comment on over 10 blogs or so. Isn't it a pain to have to revisit each blog just to jump back in the conversation?

Luckily, we now have a solution: Today I was one of the lucky people that were able to test out a new service, called coComment, that allows bloggers to track all their comments in the same place. This idea will change how people comment on blogs. Here's how it works:

1. First, you add a special bookmarking on your bookmarks toolbar, and go over to any blog and write a comment.
2. Instead of clicking the "Submit" button, click the coComment! button in your toolbar. Then click the Submit button on the blog.
   

Doing this will allow coComment to track all the latest comments on that blog. Doing this sends it to your "My Conversations" page. You can see mine here. coComment is currently in a private, beta. Readers of course, will be allowed to comment asking for an invite, and invites will be give out once it enters invite-only phase.

What makes coComment different is you can share your comments in a simple box that can be added to any blog. coComment also generates a RSS feed for your page and the team has told me that new features will be added such as integrating coComment into your blog, and the ability to customize the appearance (eg colors, fonts, etc.) of coComment elements.

The current blogging platforms that are supported are Blogger, Wordpress, MSN Spaces, MySpace, TypePad, and Xanga. I honestly think that once this service opens up, it could be very popular with bloggers. I currently hate that fact that I can track comments without getting all the other comments Emailed to me, so coComment fits the gloves great. As I've said wrote, this is in private beta. Once it is released in the form of an invite-based beta, I'll update this post and start sending out invites. If you want an invite, leave a comment.

Update: Someone has pointed me out to some invite codes. I can't send this codes to you via Email, but I'll post them here. Some may not work because they can only be used once, and may have already been used. If one doesn't work, try another:

4829-0427-4849-8166-9231
9242-2151-2260-3868-6752
2767-3652-3286-6151-2864
9843-5276-6273-6027-0561
7578-3800-6665-0465-1143
6726-6802-7958-6957-8842
0720-3537-8821-8170-8164
5533-8940-1580-1309-8423
3069-4116-7727-3746-0935
2564-2720-2372-4792-8706
8715-2862-6788-6752-3825
4824-7797-6804-2663-1983
9220-4265-3366-0078-4734
9852-3075-8150-8554-7297
0945-8999-8286-3220-4915
8666-9614-3725-5349-2803

Update 2: According to the coComment blog, they will be sending out invite codes to anyone that has registered for an invitation sometime Monday morning. Head over there and sign up!

Update 3: I've been told that the codes above don't work. I've been hearing that when you sign up, that within an hour they'll send you an invite code.

Update 4: Here's some more coComment invite codes. As with the ones above, some maybe used already. If they are, just use a different one:

0178-0956-4325-8035-8568
6322-1410-9291-0078-4569
2322-0632-7180-0332-8736
9060-7815-1426-4886-8780
5024-6668-1458-3080-1410
4045-7372-1250-2882-4793
4126-3356-1031-4599-1200
7313-5995-0342-2270-8603
2334-7533-8868-2005-3910
3911-9054-3083-7374-6184
6358-3185-3783-7505-8552
4247-5000-7241-8131-5517
2621-6898-0499-2641-6538

Update 5: Sorry for this post being offline. I saved it as a Draft before and Blogger took the whole post offline. coComment has also added support for Flickr and has fixed some problems with commenting on Wordpress blogs.

Update 6: I found some more codes. Remember, some might not be working because they've already been used!

5595-3210-4562
5079-5746-6867

Update 7: Here's some more coComment invite codes that you guys can use:

6006-6526-0215
4131-4452-4281
1835-6489-2913
3856-0086-0692
3246-1973-0943
0322-2708-8342
9191-5094-4412
5300-5127-9636

Last week I completed reading "Just Say No to Microsoft" by Tony Bove. As you can guess, the book isn't just a bashing book, but gives alternative ways to use the Web and computers without the famous Microsoft monopoly.

Some Microsoft employees might be offended by such a book, but it was very accurate in it's statements. I have to give Bove credit for admitting that he hates Microsoft in a book. After all, the whole point of the book is to try to live without Microsoft in a Microsoft world. You know the whole Mac and Linux talk. The subtitle is "How to Ditch Microsoft and Why It's Not as Hard as You Think."

I honestly think everyone that works at Microsoft should read this book; it gives a good incite into what the problems are with their software and how to improve on them (seeing as a Microsoft employee has already read it). I found it interesting that John C. Dvorak, a well known tech (who also is part of TWiT), wrote the forward. Interesting book, check it out.

Forbes is reporting that China is no longer allowing Google.cn in Shanghai and Beijing. It was confirmed that the government was blocking the site when the traced it back to a government- owned and operated server. The result is the same as sites that are already blocked by the Chinese government - such as the BBC. There were repeated attempts to access the Google site from an Internet Cafe in Beijing, which resulted in a time-out error. Google will soon be issuing statement, a spokeswoman said.

The fact that Google has been censoring the results of the search engine in China has caused huge arguments from bloggers and news analysts alike. The reason was because the Chinese government removes all offensive materials - or materials that may be detrimental to their government. Some people even got so upset that they stopped running Google Adsense on their blog.

There's been a lot of buzz in the past week and a half or so about the fact that Google agreed, finally, to censor a version of their search for China. People said that Google was breaking its "do no evil" mantra, that they were doing it for the money, and that the googlers deserved to be eaten (no, I made that one up ;-) ). Well, after all that buzz, is google.cn (the censored Chinese version of google search) really being blocked by the chinese government? Phillip Lenssen seems to think there's a chance...this is a repost from Illumeon.

You gotta' love open source. One of Mozilla's not-so-well-known products called SeaMonkey has been released. SeaMonkey is the modern version of the Mozilla suite and includes a web browser, e-mail and newsgroup client, an IRC client, and an HTML editor. For a full list of features, see the Mozilla website. The first major release, 1.0, is on the streets and can be downloaded now.

Updated on Feb 3, 2006: I just installed SeaMonkey 1.0 and I'm a bit shocked. It isn't very pretty, but is most likely more appealing to Web developers. While it isn't the prettiest piece of software out there, Firefox should borrow some of its current features like the menu (you can change settings within the window). As you can see in the screenshot, it isn't pretty. I'm speachless...