StevenCarlson.org

Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10 (via...

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:09:58 +0200

Yosemitebear Mountain Giant Double Rainbow 1-8-10 (via Hungrybear9562)

"Facebook has been awarded the patent for a click-behavior based search engine application. The..."

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:38:50 +0200

“Facebook has been awarded the patent for a click-behavior based search engine application. The United States Patent & Trademark office has today approved a patent application titled “Ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation“. The application was filed by Facebook back in 2004 and has been awarded only recently.”

- Facebook Wins Patent For Click-Behavior Based Search Engine Algorithm » Social Web -

"For all its problems, the first 10 years of the 21st century were in fact humanity’s finest, a..."

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:36:13 +0200

“

For all its problems, the first 10 years of the 21st century were in fact humanity’s finest, a time when more people lived better, longer, more peaceful, and more prosperous lives than ever before.

Consider that in 1990, roughly half the global population lived on less than $1 a day; by 2007, the proportion had shrunk to 28 percent — and it will be lower still by the close of 2010. That’s because, though the financial crisis briefly stalled progress on income growth, it was just a hiccup in the decade’s relentless GDP climb.

”

- 2001 - 2010: Best. Decade. Ever?

As recently as two years ago, mobile banking in the developing...

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:52:00 +0200

As recently as two years ago, mobile banking in the developing world was an object of skepticism among financial insiders. While proponents argued that cell phones could revolutionize personal finance in poorer countries, regulators warned of money laundering and most bankers worried that low customer balances wouldn’t be worth the transaction costs. Many thought of “m-banking” as a niche product that, at most, could maintain the loyalty of existing traditional bank customers. Few imagined it might bring savings, credit, and liquidity to those who don’t belong to a bank in the first place.

Now, however, the doubters have been proved entirely wrong. The spontaneous and unplanned explosion of m-banking in the developing world has gone well beyond expectations. And the effects for development could be monumental. (via The M-Banking Revolution - By Jamie Holmes and Jamie Zimmerman | Foreign Policy

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"The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled..."

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:49:39 +0200

“The Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday that a California marketing company had settled charges that it engaged in deceptive advertising by having its employees write and post positive reviews of clients’ games in the Apple iTunes Store, without disclosing that they were being paid to do so. The charges were the first to be brought under a new set of guidelines for Internet endorsements that the agency introduced last year. The guidelines have often been described as rules for bloggers, but they also cover anyone writing reviews on Web sites or promoting products through Facebook or Twitter. They are meant to impose on the Internet the same kind of truth-in-advertising principles that have long existed offline.”

- Reverb P.R. Firm Settles Case on Fake Reviews - NYTimes.com

A Polish man living in Germany spent five years with a bullet in...

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 09:40:26 +0200

A Polish man living in Germany spent five years with a bullet in the back of his head having forgotten he was shot because he was drunk when it happened. (via BBC News - Polish man finds bullet in head five years after party

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"The secret to Farmville’s popularity is neither gameplay nor aesthetics. Farmville is popular..."

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:30:18 +0200

“The secret to Farmville’s popularity is neither gameplay nor aesthetics. Farmville is popular because in entangles users in a web of social obligations. When users log into Facebook, they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with each others’ farms. In turn, they are obligated to return the courtesies. As the French sociologist Marcel Mauss tells us, gifts are never free: they bind the giver and receiver in a loop of reciprocity. It is rude to refuse a gift, and ruder still to not return the kindness.[11] We play Farmville, then, because we are trying to be good to one another. We play Farmville because we are polite, cultivated people.”

- CHART OF THE DAY: Farmville-Maker Zynga’s Revenues Reach $600 Million, Fueled By Social Obligations

Tuesday marks the 1,600th anniversary of one of the turning...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:01:35 +0200

Tuesday marks the 1,600th anniversary of one of the turning points of European history - the first sack of Imperial Rome by an army of Visigoths, northern European barbarian tribesmen, led by a general called Alaric. (via BBC News - 24 August 410: the date it all went wrong for Rome?

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Chasing truth (by Daniel Unitt)

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:45:19 +0200

Chasing truth (by Daniel Unitt)

"I was surprised, I was surprised about games. I had a conversation with some folks at Apple at one..."

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:32:53 +0200

“I was surprised, I was surprised about games. I had a conversation with some folks at Apple at one point, and they were surprised that games was the big thing on the iPhone too. I also heard anecdotally that the people making the first PC operating systems were surprised that games were that big too. So I think people build platforms for utilitarian purposes and then get surprised that games are a killer app, so I don’t think it’s uncommon. But clearly a lot of people like them.”

- Exclusive: Discussing the Future of Facebook and the Facebook Ecosystem with CEO Mark Zuckerberg

"Now, with municipal elections due in October, Hungary is facing its third election campaign in 18..."

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:14:32 +0200

“Now, with municipal elections due in October, Hungary is facing its third election campaign in 18 months. Disgusted, the Two-Tailed Dog Party decided to run for office in Budapest and the southern Hungarian town of Szeged with the slogan: “Eternal life! Free beer! Tax cuts!” “Money without work!” is another popular cry as are: “We will promise anything,” “There’s a 93 percent chance we won’t steal” and “You will be happy!””

- Two-tailed dog livens up Hungary’s election | Reuters

"A Facebook fan, whatever the count, isn’t the same thing as a website visitor, said Hemen..."

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:41:55 +0200

“A Facebook fan, whatever the count, isn’t the same thing as a website visitor, said Hemen Patel, president of CRM Metrix, which handles web analytics for such marketers as Procter & Gamble Co. and Coca-Cola. Nor is a Facebook fan page really free, he said. “Even though the platform may be free, the agency is charging $250,000 to $300,000 to maintain it,” he said. “Then we see figures like 300,000 fans, but only 300 do anything actively. … The question becomes am I really going to sell $1,000 worth of Tide to this one person over a lifetime?””

- Facebook, Apple’s ‘Walled Gardens’ Pose Challenge for Brands - Advertising Age - Digital

"No matter what your company did in the past two years, Apple did it better. It reminds me of Sony in..."

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 11:24:35 +0200

“No matter what your company did in the past two years, Apple did it better. It reminds me of Sony in the 80s and Microsoft in the 90s. Companies were afraid of Microsoft in the 90s. All Microsoft had to do is decide to enter your space and you’d be out of business, if you weren’t lucky enough to be bought by the company. That’s not the case anymore. In this sense, Apple is the Microsoft of this decade.”

- The New Yardstick: If You’re Not Apple, You Lose

Today, UBS Investment Research analysts Brian Pitz and Brian...

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:20:21 +0200

Today, UBS Investment Research analysts Brian Pitz and Brian Fitzgerald released a report which puts revenue numbers against Amazon’s web services. The duo estimate that in 2010, AWS will generated about $500 million in revenues and will grow this to $750 million by 2011. By 2014, it would bring in close to $2.54 billion in revenues. (via How Big is Amazon’s Cloud Computing Business? Find Out

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"The news of Apple’s slow-moving cloud comes as Google’s competing service appears to be..."

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:14:01 +0200

“The news of Apple’s slow-moving cloud comes as Google’s competing service appears to be zooming along. The search engine has recently hired Elizabeth Moody, an attorney with deep experience negotiating digital-music deals. Record executives expect Moody will help cut the first cloud-music licensing agreement. Google has told music executives that it wants to launch a music service this year.
If Apple doesn’t appear to have the same urgency about racing Google into the cloud, it may be that Apple knows Google has a long way to go before it can seriously mount a challenge in music. Apple’s iTunes is the country’s largest music retailer, online or off.”

- Apple’s plan for Lala cloudier than ever | Apple - CNET News

Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social...

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:07:22 +0200

Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just a year ago (43 percent increase) according to new research released today from The Nielsen Company. The research revealed that Americans spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging. (via What Americans Do Online: Social Media And Games Dominate Activity | Nielsen Wire

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AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile...

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 20:04:10 +0200

AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile carriers, are planning a venture to displace credit and debit cards with smartphones, posing a new threat to Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., three people with direct knowledge of the plan said. The partnership, which also includes Deutsche Telekom AG unit T-Mobile USA, may work with Discover Financial Services and Barclays Plc to test a system at stores in Atlanta and three other U.S. cities that would let a consumer pay with the contactless wave of a smartphone, the people said. (via AT&T, Verizon to Target Visa, MasterCard With Smartphones - Bloomberg

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"Facebook Inc. will probably put off its initial public offering until 2012, giving Chief Executive..."

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:21:03 +0200

“Facebook Inc. will probably put off its initial public offering until 2012, giving Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg more time to gain users and boost sales, three people familiar with the matter said. Facebook would benefit from another year of growth absent the added scrutiny that comes with a public listing, instead of holding an IPO in 2011 as investors speculated, said the people, who asked not to be identified because Facebook doesn’t discuss share-sale plans. Still, Zuckerberg, who holds board control, could push for a stock sale at any time, they said.”

- Facebook Said to Put Off IPO Until 2012 to Buy Time for Growth - BusinessWeek

Following on the heels of Playdom’s acquisition by Disney for...

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:30:43 +0200

Following on the heels of Playdom’s acquisition by Disney for $563.2 million, we’ve learned that the social game publisher has sealed a five-year contract stipulating exclusive use of Credits, Facebook’s in-house virtual currency, across all Playdom games. (via Playdom Signs Five-Year Contract With Facebook, Will Exclusively Use Credits

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"In its reasoning in favor of EFF’s jailbreaking exemption, the Copyright Office rejected..."

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:34:57 +0200

“In its reasoning in favor of EFF’s jailbreaking exemption, the Copyright Office rejected Apple’s claim that copyright law prevents people from installing unapproved programs on iPhones: “When one jailbreaks a smartphone in order to make the operating system on that phone interoperable with an independently created application that has not been approved by the maker of the smartphone or the maker of its operating system, the modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses.””

- EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers | Electronic Frontier Foundation