Tr.im announces that it’s going open source! What is this talk? Tr.im was supposed to shut down it service completely, but had decided to stay around. Then come this new news that Tr.im will release its source code for everyone. This means you and I can go get Tr.im’s source code, install that onto a server, and run a free URL Shortening Service.
Bloggers and Twitterers love URL Shortening Service as it allows them to shorten their blog posts’ web addresses, and promote their blogs on Twitter and other similar social network portals. Shorter URL saves some space when using Twitter as Twitter allows only so many characters to be in a tweet. Also, Shorter URL makes a long ugly link looks nicer.
The problem of using URL Shortening Service is that you are relying on a third party to handle your web links. When a URL Shortening Service that you are using is going out of business, all your web links that you had promoted to friends, online social network portals, and so on will be lost. Your true web links are still there, but the problem is that newer people won’t be able to find your true web links.
If URL Shortening Service is a must for you, I suggest you run a URL Shortening application on a server or on an affordable web-host, and use that for yourself. You don’t have to advertise your URL Shortening service at all, unless you want to run a free URL Shortening Service. With this in mind, you can use Tr.im’s source code to run your own operation.
Hard to find local news, hard to find public records, and you can even enter your zip code to find what is happening in your area are done superbly by EveryBlock. If you’re living in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and {Washington, DC}, then your local news are covered.
EveryBlock was independently owned for two years, but MSNBC just bought EveryBlock recently. Although EveryBlock is now owned by MSNBC, its brand will stay the same!
First look at EveryBlock’s website, it looks like any other blog’s pages, but when you click onto a city that you want to get your local news from, it gets interesting from there. When entering a city’s front page, you see a box that allows you to enter your zip code right away. When entering your zip code, if there is no news available for your area, EveryBlock offers you to sign up for email alerts, or you can choose the other option which is subscribing to an RSS feed. There are featuring events and featuring news show right below the zip code box in the front page. You can also browse news by neighborhoods. Each news has a map on the sidebar to show the story’s location. There is so much more…
EveryBlock has become my next favorite website. Before the buyout of EveryBlock, I had never heard of EveryBlock, but by browsing the Internet for news, I saw EveryBlock got purchased by MSNBC, and by exploring EveryBlock, I’ve come to like it very much. By the way, if you want to run a website like EveryBlock, you can! How? EveryBlock is offering its source code to you for free.
And so the social race is heating up even more! MySpace decides to take some glory off of FaceBook’s recent FriendFeed buyout by buying up iLike for $20 million. iLike is a social online application/service that adapts to music lovers’ behaviors and offer its recommendations on popular music. FaceBook’s users and other social network portals’ users are using iLike in millions. This means MySpace is trying to turn on the heat on this social race.
[polldaddy poll="1885727"]
Microsoft has rolled out a new patch to plug 19 security holes that affect multiple Windows versions. The patch is released to address ActiveX vulnerabilities, Web Server vulnerabilities, and other serious bugs on Workstation.
ActiveX allows programmers to assign a much higher privilege to their software that run on Windows, and only Windows can use ActiveX. This is why ActiveX is powerful and dangerous for computer users that are using Windows. Not yet patch ActiveX can be dangerous as it allows hackers to install malicious software, virus, and worms onto Windows. If you’re not heavily using ActiveX and not visiting strange websites often, then you can use your router to block all ActiveX connection if your router permits this specific action. Unfortunately, updating Windows with the latest patch requires you to enable ActiveX connection, and if your router blocks ActiveX connection, then you can’t get the latest patch to secure your Windows.
Another noteworthy security issue is related to Windows Media. A serious bug that allows hackers to trick Windows users to open up infected AVI files with Windows Media, and this hack will allow hackers to have a control of your computer. AVI files are pretty popular, though Flash (flv) files are more dominant on the Web now a day, but still, many web services are still providing a choice between playing videos using Flash or AVI. This is why you need to update your Windows with the new Microsoft’s patch.
Web Server’s related vulnerabilities are also very important as the servers are the plots that plants grow on — meaning that if a server is infected with a virus or a worm, that virus or worm can replicate itself onto Windows users’ computers. Windows users who have always been careful by applying new security patches are safe from this situation, but not everyone is updating their Windows with the latest patches. It’s very important for websites that are running Windows servers to update with the newest patch so they can provide virus-free and worm-free services to all.
Remotely depositing check to your bank is feasible? This is something that someone is fantasizing about? No, the answer is yes! A small bank named USAA is allowing their bank customers to deposit checks remotely by capturing the images of each check using iPhone. By capturing the front and the back of a check through the use of iPhone’s camera, and having USAA’s iPhone application on the iPhone to deliver the check images securely to the bank for depositing — this feast is surely easing the process of making a deposit.
The only real concern is that how securely is this process can be! Depositing check remotely through iPhone is definitely saving you some driving time to the bank, but capturing checks’ images onto iPhone can be somewhat unsettling. Imagining if your iPhone gets hack, then this process suddenly can become really scary! All your checks’ information such as check payers, organization names that the checks associate to, the addresses on the checks, and the amount of the deposits — all can be obtained by the hackers.
A future Microsoft’s keyboard is in the making that will one day be in store near you has the ability to measure each key’s force. They call it as a pressure-sensitive keyboard. What is the use of pressure-sensitive keyboard? We all know how normal keyboard acts! When pressuring a key that represents a specific letter on a normal keyboard, it types out that very letter to a standard output (computer monitor and so on). It’s not the case for pressure-sensitive keyboard if the software that you are enjoying with has utilize the pressure-sensitive keyboard’s tech. For an example, when playing video game on your computer or laptop, pressure-sensitive keyboard allows you to move how fast or how slow, jump how high or how low in the game by exerting how hard on your keyboard. All keys on pressure-sensitive keyboard act simultaneously when a keyboard’s user exerting force onto more than one key at the same time — sort of like multi-touch of touch screen.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDI8eYIASf0
Google announces that it is acquiring a video compressing technology company On2 for $106 million. This is a big news for the online community since Google is deciding to up its video technology game. Google’s immensely popular YouTube video portal is probably the reason why Google is positioned itself by buying On2. On2 has big customers such as Adobe, Sony, Skype, Nokia, Sun Microsystems, and others.
With Google bankrolling the drive for improving video compression, On2 can begin to improve its already popular video compression technology. Google is realizing that the future for videos is on the web, and to deliver High Definition quality over the web requires better video compression technology. It seems that Google believes On2 can help Google realizes this very goal.
Good video compression technology will save Google from the spending of massive bandwidth. Likewise, YouTube’s users can also save ton of bandwidth when playing videos that stream with high compression format. Better compression format allows videos to deliver faster over the web and still retaining the high quality image. Watching streaming HD videos online as of now one can get frustrated due to the pauses while videos are still downloading the contents. Hopefully, Google and On2 can whip something up which will allow HD videos to be the norm for the Internet users.
I bought my PS3 when it was at $600. It came with only one game controller, and 60 GB HD. Now a day you can grab a PS3 for $200 less. PS3 from Blogmyway online store costs only $389.95, brand new, and it has 160 GB HD, and one Dualshock 3 wireless controller. I still think the current price of PS3 is expensive. The good news is that Sony corp CEO Nobuyuki Oneda said the production cost of PS3 units is now %70 cheaper. This means Sony may be able to cut down the price of the PS3 further! In my opinion, if you’re a patient type, you don’t have to go out and buy a PS3 now, you can wait till next year that Sony drops the price for PS3 again, and get a PS3 then will be cheaper.
For your information: I get commission in U.S. dollar if you buy a PS3 at Blogmyway Store.
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