scatteredemotions Rate me Fan me Add me's blog: "News Stories"

Source cNet { http://news.com.com/IBMs+Many+Eyes+project+seeks+stats+freaks/2100-1008_3-6171756.html?tag=nefd.top } AMBRIDGE, Mass.--Many Eyes, the data-sharing site from the Visual Communication Lab at IBM, is getting more social. The Many Eyes Web site, in public alpha since January, enables people to upload data sets from common delineated files, such as an Excel file, then go through a few clicks to make it visual and available to all. Images: Many Eyes for 'seeing' data There are 15 different types of data charts, called visualizations, that can further be manipulated by viewers to search and parse for different views and more specific data subsets. Users can upload their own data set, and also choose others' data sets to visualize. The idea behind the site is that people who have a common interest in certain types of data can come together on the Internet as they do with music, movies and video. The group hopes that it will be a place for researchers to make contact, too. "We think people will use it to build communities around data," said Matt McKeon, a developer for Many Eyes. Toward that end, the IBM research team is adding more features for social-networking and Web 2.0 ease of use. "When the sports statistic freaks find us, that will be nuts...and very cool." --Matt McKeon, developer, Many Eyes An option exists for pulling the visualizations and tools into blogs, but users have requested bigger versions and live updates to incorporate into their Web sites. The Many Eyes team plans to add a ratings system for the best, as well as static tag categories and more browsing options. (Currently, all the data sets and visualizations are tagged by their creators.) Many Eyes has a place for comments, but the team plans to add categorized forums where people with common interests can discuss data. A number of these and other social-networking components should be in place by the summer, according to McKeon. IBM seeded it initially with about 20 data sets, but now there are over 2,000 data sets from users, according to McKeon. McKeon originally worked on a similar data visualization project for the U.S. government in Iraq to help soldiers evaluate combat data. "One really surprising thing is that the Christian bloggers found us. They have been using it for dissecting the Bible...And then there's the book people, a lot of stuff uploaded from Project Gutenberg. We thought sports statistics would be the big thing. There have been some baseball and hockey stuff uploaded. But yeah, when the sports statistic freaks find us, that will be nuts...and very cool," said McKeon. Many Eyes has data sets from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Education and even Linden Lab. One of the charts shows which countries Second Life residents reside in, in their first life. Irene Greif, IBM fellow and director of the collaborative user experience at IBM Research, said at an IBM press event on Wednesday that Many Eyes seeks to "harness the collective intelligence," the tag line on the Many Eyes home page. "If people can collectively share and learn, then will issues that are not normally understood, be understood by more people? That is the intention of Many Eyes, to give people a comfort level with sharing data," said Greif. When it comes to legal issues of private data, McKeon said that the group complies quickly with any take-down requests. So far, there have only been a few, from early users who did not realize their data would be public. Since then, the team has added more warning signs to its pages. The team is also working on the ability to host data that could then be kept private or by invite-only. Organizations are interested in using Many Eyes as a hosted service to disseminate information to the public. IBM is also in talks with companies interested in a private version for internal data access, said McKeon.

Source cNet { http://news.com.com/Web+2.0+business+cards+sport+photos%2C+avatars/210-41025_3-6171860.html?tag=nefd.top } NEW YORK--If you ever wondered, the physical measurements of Web 2.0 are 28 by 70 millimeters. It happens that those are the measurements of Moo cards, a new take on the centuries-old business card that's becoming the "secret handshake" of the Web 2.0 set. Moo cards At the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference here, and at other recent geek-heavy events like South by Southwest, the Game Developers Conference and the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference, as well as for months in blogger-heavy circles, people have been busy handing out Moo cards. The smoothly laminated cards are a fraction of the conventional 86- by 54-millimeter business cards and have contact information on the front and personal, customizable photographs on the back. Plus, because of their small size, there are 52 Moo cards per sheet of paper, rather than 22 per sheet for traditional-size cards. What ties the cards so closely to Web 2.0 culture is that they are quickly being adopted as the method of choice for giving out personal information by users of the online community-based services Flickr, Second Life, Fotolog, Bebo and Habbo Hotel. When the cards launched last September, they were available only to Flickr users, who could order packs of 100 cards for $20 and upload as many as 100 different images per set. And because Flickr power users tend to be on the cutting edge of tech culture, many of them began passing out the cards left and right and acting as unpaid evangelists. And that's because users can personalize their cards as they choose, adding just about any kind of image and having as many different images as they want. "I love being able to show everyone my avatar and I can pack a whole bunch of them into my pocket before going to an event and let people pick their favorite picture." --Jeska Dzwigalski, community manager for Second Life At the Virtual Worlds 2007 conference, many Second Life users are handing out the cards, with varied images of their avatars on the backs of the cards and a Second Life logo on the front. "Moo cards make business cards less businessy," said Jeska Dzwigalski, community manager for Second Life publisher Linden Lab. "I love being able to show everyone my avatar and I can pack a whole bunch of them into my pocket before going to an event and let people pick their favorite picture." Linden Lab is a Moo.com partner and receives a share of revenue from cards ordered by Second Life users. While some Moo card users love the size, others--or those who receive them--sometimes feel that they are too small. At less than half the size of a normal business card, they can easily disappear into a pocket. That's why, even for many passionate users, they are often used more as personal calling cards rather than cards for professional purposes. Yet despite that, Moo.com is shipping hundreds of thousands of the cards every week to 120 countries around the world, including China and even North Korea, said CEO Richard Moross. Part of that is because users can customize their Moo Cards in any way they want, and can create many different versions of their cards. Befitting their becoming somewhat of a cultural icon, there is a Flickr pool with thousands of photos of people's cards displayed in a myriad artistic and personal ways. Moo.com also hosts regular meet-ups of card users, looking for new ideas of what to do with the cards. Further, they seem to have taken on a bit of a collectors' status as well. Moross said that he'd seen some for sale on the crafts marketplace, Etsy.com. A search there Thursday found several sets of Moo cards made into fridge magnets, as well as several custom Moo card carrying cases. "We're a blank canvas," said Moross. "We're only as good as what our customers give us. We're not having the best ideas now. Our customers are. The thing we're doing right is we're listening."

Source cNet { http://news.com.com/Tech+companies%2C+investors+clash+over+patent+law/2100-1028_3-6171866.html?tag=nefd.top } WASHINGTON--A rift has arisen among larger technology companies and smaller venture capital firms over whether dramatic changes to U.S. patent law are necessary. The differences in opinion played out during a Thursday hearing here in the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee, which doesn't have the power to write patent laws but aimed to explore the small-business implications of Congress' ongoing push for sweeping changes in the area. Large technology players such as Oracle, Microsoft and eBay have lamented what some call a "broken" U.S. patent system prone to the rise of so-called "trolls" who sit on broad or obvious patents to extort exorbitant settlements from deep-pocketed companies like theirs. But the legal changes those companies advocate have garnered mixed reviews from some smaller start-ups, particularly venture capital firms. "We think in fact our patent system is the gold standard in the world," said Brian Lord, general counsel for New Hampshire-based AmberWave Systems, which researches, develops, patents and licenses advanced semiconductor materials technology. The firm, which has 23 employees, recently reached a licensing deal with Intel related to AmberWave patents for strained silicon used in chips. One point of contention has been a recurring proposal that the Patent Office set up a "post-grant opposition" process, by which outsiders could challenge issued patents without going to court. The idea behind the procedure is to put into place a lower-cost alternative to litigation, but smaller firms argue that such a process would inject too much uncertainty into the validity of their patents, potentially causing them to lose investors. Favoring 'deep-pocketed Goliaths' Many changes promoted by large high-tech companies could "add costs, delay and uncertainty that favor deep-pocketed Goliaths," said John Neis, managing director of Venture Investors, a small venture capital firm in Madison, Wisc. He also spoke on behalf of the National Venture Capital Association, which represents more than 480 venture capital firms nationwide. Mitchell Gross, president and CEO of Mobius Management Systems, which provides records management software, disagreed. He said the state of the patent system has left small businesses like his "afraid to innovate." "The system is so tilted to the patentee's advantage...that defendants are forced to settle, regardless of the merits of their defense or the weakness of the patent," he told the politicians. It's unclear how those competing concerns, which stalled votes on patent proposals in previous years, will be reconciled by the committees charged with rewriting patent laws. Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) said he and Rep. Howard Berman, the chairman of a House intellectual-property panel, plan to introduce a new version of their proposed patent law rewrite during the next two to three weeks. It would be their third attempt at such a measure in the last five years. "It is Howard Berman's top priority, it is mine, and we have bipartisan support on the committee for the measure," he said in a telephone interview Thursday, adding that he expected the bill to proceed quickly to hearings and to pass the House by early summer. House members are currently finalizing bill language with Sen. Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and hope to introduce identical bills simultaneously, Boucher said. A Leahy spokeswoman said she hoped her boss' new bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), would be ready by April. Appearing before the Small Business Committee on Thursday, U.S. Commissioner for Patents John Doll said he believed the American system bests all others, but he voiced openness to legal changes. Doll stopped short of endorsing any particular patent law changes, although his boss, Jon Dudas, has backed a number of recommendations in the past. Doll said the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office would "fully support and implement whatever program Congress thinks is appropriate."

Source cNET { http://news.com.com/IBM+developing+wiki+how-to+tool/210-1046_3-6171905.html?tag=nefd.top } SAN DIEGO--IBM's Almaden Research Lab is developing a Wikipedia-like tool for how-to knowledge that would help people automate repetitive tasks performed on the Web, such as filling out forms or paying bills. Tessa Lau, a developer at the San Jose, Calif.-based lab, demonstrated the technology called Koala at ETech, a four-day conference on emerging technology running here this week. IBM's been developing Koala, a Firefox Web browser plug-in, over the last year. The lab has yet to release it widely to the public. "We looked at the boring stuff we have to do on the Web, like checking the Comcast bill every month, and then paying it," Lau said. Koala "allows you to script really mundane tasks (like that) on the Web and share your script with others. It lets you share knowledge about how to do stuff in the world." Here's how it works: the Koala plug-in shows up in the left-side pane of the Firefox browser. Once the user hits record, the application will create a simple programming script of tasks performed online that appear in that pane. For example, if a person were shopping for a new home in San Francisco, he or she might first go to the Multiple Listing Service Web site for the Bay Area. Koala would record that Web site as a first step in the how-to process. Next, the shopper might input criteria for the home in MLS fields, and Koala would note each data field in the overall script. If an initial search for homes based on certain criteria (e.g., a $1 million, two-bedroom home) didn't yield enough matches, the user might change criteria in the field of the Koala script. That way, Koala would automatically regenerate the search, without the user having to do it. "The script is in real language, so if I change the criteria to a $2 million home, it will auto-generate these functions for me and click all the buttons (on the MLS site). It captures this straightforward process," she said. Once the process is finished, the user would save the script and upload it to the Koala wiki so it could be shared with others. Lau said that so far, Koala has more than 70,000 scripts. The result, she said: "We can wiki-ize this process of capturing knowledge." But what if another person shopping for homes in San Francisco had different criteria? They could change fields in the script, such as home price or number of bedrooms. Or Lau said, Koala lets users generate general scripts that don't include personal data or preferences. For example, if a Koala user wanted to automate the process of ordering business cards, he or she could set the application to generalize data fields, or keep them anonymous, but the steps would still be recorded. For the individual, Koala can populate fields on a Web site by drawing on personal data such as name, job title and address, stored in a database on the person's desktop. That way, Koala customizes scripts for different people when they're performing tasks. People won't get business cards with another person's name on it. To protect credit card numbers in scripts, Lau said IBM is working on solving that issue by writing code to recognize types of numbers and then make those numbers anonymous. Still, there are other major concerns with this kind of technology. Lau said she has talked to the Mozilla Foundation, the people behind the Firefox browser, about releasing the technology more widely. Mozilla's biggest concern is that people would create malicious scripts, she said. Because the software's open source, she said they hope that "could be solved by community regulation."

Source CNN { http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/03/29/zimbabwe.summit/index.html } DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (CNN) -- Southern African leaders Thursday emerged from a conference in Tanzania's capital allied with embattled Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and calling for the lifting of all sanctions against his government. Mugabe maintains a tight grip on power as his country spirals into economic disaster. After the Southern Africa Development Community emergency summit, Mugabe described the meeting as "excellent." "We are one with our neighbors," he said. Mugabe has been condemned by the West and human rights groups for arrests and reported intimidation and beatings of his political opponents. His forces have been accused of severely beating opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara on March 11. The SADC meeting comes a day after Zimbabwean forces raided the Harare headquarters of the opposition, Movement for Democratic Change, the country's main opposition group, and detained about 10 MDC staff and officials. Police said the raid was part of an overall initiative to arrest people responsible for throwing petrol bombs around Harare. MDC officials said it was just another attempt to intimidate the opposition group. Tsvangirai was among those detained, just before he was to hold a news conference from the headquarters, MDC officials said. Government police denied that Tsvangirai was among those arrested.

Source CNN ( http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/03/29/iran.uk.sailors/index.html ) TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran released Thursday what it says is a second letter from captured British sailor Faye Turney in which she criticizes British policy in Iraq. "Isn't it time for us to start withdrawing our forces from Iraq and let them determine their own future?" said the letter, addressed to the British Parliament and released to media organizations by the Iranian embassy in London, England. It was the second letter in two days said to be from Turney, 26, who has also been shown on Iranian television. The first asked her parents to look after her husband and young daughter. (Watch Turney say what happened when she was captured Video) Also Thursday, the U.N. Security Council appealed for the early release of the detainees, and Iranian state television broadcast five seconds of footage that it said was of the operation that seized the 15 British sailors and marines in Iranian territorial waters last week. Gunshots could be heard on the tape and a helicopter was shown above inflatable boats in choppy seas. Iranian guard boats were seen cruising around while a couple of Iranian guardsmen shot into the air. Then the video showed some of the British troops -- including Turney -- seated in a boat with an Iranian flag, presumably after their capture. An Iranian military official also appeared on state television giving a briefing about the incident, indicating on a map where he said it happened. (Watch the war of words build Video) The demonstration looked similar to a Wednesday briefing on the incident by British Vice Admiral Charles Style, who released a map of the Shatt al-Arab purporting to show the coordinates of the British boat when it was captured, along with pictures of handheld GPS devices showing the location. (Watch Iran's use of maps to show British 'trespassing' Video) Britain's Ministry of Defense said its position remained unchanged by the Iranian footage, The Associated Press reported.

Source iTWire { http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10876/1092/ } Dubbed the Xbox 360 Elite, this will be a third SKU to run alongside the Core and Premium Xbox 360 configurations already on the market. The Elite will feature 120GB HDD, HDMI port and cable, component and composite cables plus and audio adapter for use with HDMI. One rumour confirmed as not being part of this bundle is the smaller (cooler) 65nm chipset, built in HD-DVD drive or IPTV support. April 29 is the North American launch of the Elite Xbox 360 with a striking matt black design, with matching black controller and optional black battery packs. For US$479.99 US and Canadian customers can pick up the Elite Xbox 360, for the rest of us, in other regions, we will have to wait for a further announcement. Microsoft will also offer the 120 HDD separately for existing Xbox 360 owners (oh Joy!) at a cost of US $179.99 (Yikes!)

Source iTWire ( http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10709/127/ )

The N95 has been described as "probably the best equipped handheld device on the market anywhere," and according to one report a leading UK retailer is restricting buyers to one unit when the N95 goes on sale on 1 April. The N95 is a 3G WCDMA device with support HSDPA, WiFi and EDGE networks. It has built-in stereo speakers, a standard 3.5 mm audio connector, support for compatible microSD memory cards and 3D graphics. It runs Nokia's S60 software on Symbian OS. The GPS functionality works with the Nokia Maps application (www.smart2go.com) that includes maps for more than 150 countries. According to Nokia, these enable users to explore the world, find specific routes or locate services such as restaurants and hotels and cove more than 15 million points of interest. Users can also purchase additional features, such as city guides and voice guided navigation. Full technical specifications at www.nseries.com/n95.