Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Wikipedia founder launches Green Wikipedia

Wikia Green aims to build the best resource for citizens of the Earth to learn about the environment and how to live a more sustainable life. Commendable.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

Eat less meat to fight climate change

UN figures suggest that meat production puts more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than transport (18% v. 13%). BBC.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Singapore Animated: First public screening of Singaporean animated short films at the ICA, London


If you like animation and short films, don't miss Singapore Animated at the Institute of Contemporary Art on the 25th of October.

Organised by the Singapore Creative Network UK, the event is the first public screening of some of the best animations from Singapore c
urated by Gavin Lim, an award-winning director in the Singapore International Film Festival.

Mysteries of the Universe to be solved next Wednesday

The Times' science editor reports on the Large Hadron Collider that will help us understand how the Universe works while creating a blackhole that will devour Earth.

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Google v. Microsoft, the browser war

Microsoft's IE8 includes a feature to hide your tracks, making it harder for Google to collect data and to serve you targeted ads based on this data. Google's response? A new Google browser to compete with IE.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

UK to become the biggest country in the EU in 50 years' time,

By 2060, the population of major Europen countries will be:
  • UK 77 million
  • France 72
  • Germany 71
  • Italy 59
  • Spain 52
Article from the Guardian.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Qik.com: Stream video live from your phone

The power of a live broadcast studio in your hand. Love the concept. What is not answered in their FAQs is: How much does this really cost?

Update: Sandrine pointed to me that the service isfree. Data charges depend on your plan with your phone provider.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Beware of a new Facebook scam!

Today you may receive a message on your wall saying "Hey. Somebody wrote something about you in their blog.. everybody needs to see this.. Go here" followed by a blogspot URL. This will redirect you to a fake Facebook page where you will be prompted to enter your Facebook login details. DON'T FALL FOR IT! It is a scam designed by people keen to get hold of your personal data. I almost went for it but noticed the unusual URL at the top of the "fake Facebook page". Consider it a civic duty to spread the word.

Friday, August 08, 2008

Apple removes I Am Rich, a $1,000 featureless iPhone application

"Eight people bought the software, which has no function except to alert other people that you have money"... so why did Apple blocked it? Story on the LA Times.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Google offers free music in China

The service will let users search songs by singer or song title then download them from partner website Top100.cn, a Chinese music site. From CNet.

Friday, August 01, 2008

Google Lively, a Second Life killer? Yes but a slow death.

Google launched Lively, a browser based Second Life style real-time 3d world. It looks good, clean and fun but if you thought Second Life was slow... wait till you try Lively. Will it kill Second Life? Most Second Life users don't speculate on virtual lands and use the platform to meet and chat. They are the ones most likely to be seduced by Google Lively. Especially if they are from South Korea, the country of mega-fast broadband. For everyone else, they will prefer not to use Second Life than not to use Google Lively until they get a 50MB broadband connection. Via Tech Crunch.


Nasa: There is water on Mars

From the Guardian.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Growth slump may force Italy out of eurozone

For my Italian readers. This is according to Capital Economics and the article is purposely alarmist.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Technorati state of the Blogosphere

The new results are not in but the survey leading to them is available here: http://v2.decipherinc.com/survey/mmc/mmc08001

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Google Knol, a Wikipedia rival?

The main difference between the two is that Google Knol puts the spotlight on authors and their opinions while Wikipedia strives to be factual. To that extent it is more a Squidoo or an about.com rival. It is very early day but the obvious pitfal for such venture is to prevent articles from turning into disguised sales pitches. Another concern is that Google will favour Google Knol articles over Wikipedia in its search queries.