A new Gmail Labs feature dubbed "Mail Goggles" has Gmail ask you a series of math problems before allowing you to send out emails late on certain nights—like, say, those nights when you're artificially motivated to tell your boss/significant other/frenemy just what the deal is. You can adjust the bewitching hours and difficulty of the math problems in your general settings. [via]

I don’t agree with Michael Moore over much, but for all his many jarring viewpoints, I find his approach to copyright and digital media surprisingly modern and refreshing. As Stan noted last month, Michael Moore decided to release the somewhat stale movie Slacker Uprising for free via download on the Internet:

“This is being done entirely as a gift to my fans,” Moore said. “The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November. I think Slacker Uprising will inspire million (sic) to get off the couch and give voting a chance.”

Of course, once it was released to the wilds of the web, it made its way very quickly to international torrenting websites like The Pirate Bay. Unlike DVDs and most corporate video distribution websites, there are no regional restrictions. This doesn’t seem like a particularly big deal at first blush, but when you take into account, as TorrentFreak says today, that Michael Moore only owns the distribution rights for the Uniteds States and Canada, it becomes clear that there might be a flaw in this plan.

They had noted that this potential set of circumstances seemed obvious to them, but wondered if it was intentional or accidental by Moore. He responded today.

“What do you think I’m up to? I know it may not be obvious to most, but I think you guys get it,” Moore wrote to us. “I only own the US and Canadian rights. So my hands are tied. But this is the 21st century. What are ‘geographical rights’ ?” Moore continued. “I’ll say it for the hundredth time: If I buy a book and read it, and then give you the book to read, I have broken no laws. Why is that not true for all media?”

He went on to express that he’s looking for folks to pick up on this fact (and perhaps a fight with the international copyright holders?). He might not get one, in this case.  Slacker Uprising isn’t the shockwave-inducing film that Fahrenheit 9/11 was, and isn’t really as relevant to those residing outside the United States as to those inside. For these reasons, it’s less likely that there will be a copyright fight here than under normal circumstances.

I do, however, admire the sentiment expressed here.  While this was incredibly safe ground for Moore to use, it all has to start somewhere, and bringing some scrutiny on the absurdity of copyright rules in the digital age is an admirable goal.

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How do you make 4096 noodles in hurry? By stretching and folding the dough 12 times.

A clip from Philip Morrison's 1987 PBS program "The Ring of Truth: Atoms" featuring chef Kin Jing Mark making noodles to demonstrate the principle of halving.

The NYTimes has released a new interactive graphic, The Measure of a President.

Does candidate height and weight play a role in electoral success?

With Mr. Obama and John McCain set to square off in the second of three presidential debates tomorrow, it seemed worth taking a look through recent history.

Some commentators are going as far as to argue that a Presidential candidate cannot be too skinny for fear that most Americans will not be able to relate them.

Netvibes, the site that lets users customize their homepages with a variety of widgets, has partnered with Rambler.ru to bring its widgets to the massive Russian web portal. Rambler is the Yahoo of Russia, with an estimated 40 million users and 3 billion monthly pageviews. The deal is being described as “multi-year” and worth “multi-millions”, but further details haven’t been disclosed. Netvibes availability on Rambler.ru is expected to begin in November.

This marks the first time Netvibes has licensed its platform for installation and distribution to an independent third party, and probably won’t be the last. In order to stay competitive with other widget hubs like iGoogle, Netvibes would do well to spur its growth by offering its widgets to other region-specific portals (that said, Netvibes has been doing well, with a reported 500 million widgets served montly). According to the press release, the Rambler homepage will include Google Search, Blinx video search, and a number of Russian services like Price.ru.

In July Google acquired Begun, a contextual ad service, from parent company Rambler. As part of the $140 million deal, Rambler has been using Google for some of its advertising and search functions.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

UK based Bloombla combines Twitter style updates with past tense story telling in a short format, for a service I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything quite like before.

The core premise of Bloombla is a statement starting with “I’ve.” Users enter what they’ve done before, for example I’ve been to the United States, or I’ve eaten a Wagyu steak. Interestingly (or perhaps strangely), the service forces the structure of your story, with the first two words after I’ve having to come from their list (it auto prompts possibles as you type), with only the end statement free for input. You also can’t change the I’ve, so you can’t say I’m, as I found out when my first entry on Bloombla ended up reading “I’ve annoyed at having to match words in Bloombla.”

There is some reasoning around the forced entries, besides wanting to annoy users. Each entry is matched against existing entries, and common entries get a cumulative vote, for example 15 people on the site currently have posted “I’ve been to Italy.” Like Twitter, there’s also a social aspect to the site, complete with feeds from friends, so you can track what your friends have done previously as well.

I get the niche. Users like sharing what they’ve done before, and you see these sorts of statements on blogs, social networking sites, and even services such as FriendFeed. I get that they are trying to make a centralized destination for these sorts of statements, and certainly I can see some novelty value in using it. What I don’t get though is the business case: how many times are people going to want to share “I’ve done xyz” or “I’ve drunk a bottle of Vodka today” in past tense on an ongoing basis on the one site, when they can easily share the same things on regular services that don’t force a restriction on what they say.

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Sugar Inc, the company behind a network of popular women-focused blogs that includes PopSugar, is announcing two major releases tonight that take advantage of its fashion-hungry userbase. The first, dubbed PopSugar’s CelebStyle, is positioning itself as an IMDB for style, analyzing outfits from many of television’s most popular shows. Sugar Inc is also announcing a new ShopStyle API, which gives developers access to the site’s massive database of clothing and accessories which can be used in any variety of applications. Here’s a breakdown of both announcements:

ShopStyle API
ShopStyle, which Sugar aqcuired a year ago, is a search engine for fashion. The site indexes clothing and accessories across thousands of brands and stores, presenting them to users in a uniformly formatted grid of thumbnails, prices, and descriptions.

Sugar had previously made this data available to partner sites like In Style and People, and is now opening it up to developers. CEO Brian Sugar says that apps using the API could easily be deployed across a variety of platforms, including webpages (like SaleHabit, which Sugar developed in a weekend), Facebook, and the iPhone.

In thirty days, the platform will also allow developers to convert clicks from the fashion items they’ve displayed into cash. Sugar says the revenue split will vary by app, and will be determined by the success rate of the app’s lead generation.

Fashion may not be most developers’ cup of tea, but the market for this kind of application is huge - expect to see a variety of fashion-based iPhone and web applications hit the market in the next few months.

PopSugar’s CelebStyle

PopSugar’s CelebStyle will allow users to see exactly what their favorite stars have been wearing on some of the most popular shows on TV. The site is edited by a number of Sugar employees, who will pick some of the most prominent outfits from these shows and offer links to each accessory and piece of clothing. To build and help populate the site, Sugar is leveraging the technology and partnerships behind StarBrand, which it acquired in May. Through some of these partnerships (and PR representatives), Sugar editors will have access to lists detailing exactly what the stars were wearing, so users will be assured that the items presented are authentic.

Visitors to CelebStyle will also be able to craft their own outfits using Sugar’s database of clothing, which can be added as comments beneath any article. For instance, users could put together an outfit closely mirroring a fancy get-up shown in the latest episode of Gossip Girl, but with clothes that were only a fraction of the cost.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Who knew sugar wafers and Rolos could so accurately recreate the situational Pavlovian response we get from looking at the latest silicon wonders from Intel, AMD, ATi and NVIDIA? While we've never before craved some motherboard and milk or hot motherboard à la mode, we must admit, we're coming around to what could be the hottest dessert trend of Q4 2008. And that old Dell gathering dust in the corner is looking mighty scrumptious. [Craftster via Technabob and Geekcake]

The developer-only iPhone 2.2 software sounds promising so far, boasting hidden features like Google Street View, auto-correction toggle, and emoji icons. It better be good, considering Apple is already breaking promises, having missed the September deadline for push notification.

Michael Moore decided to give away his latest film ‘Slacker Uprising’ for free, but only to people in the US and Canada. However, since he chose to use BitTorrent, and open trackers such as The Pirate Bay, it was fairly easy for the rest of the world to download it as well. Was this done on purpose? Moore responds.

Like many other filmmakers, Moore wants his film to be seen by as many people as possible. However, the ‘rights holders’ have other interests. They want to sell the movie to as many people as possible, making sure they get every penny they are entitled to.

Moore’s latest documentary, Slacker Uprising, is only available for free in Northern America. People who attempt to download the torrent elsewhere get this annoying “Sorry” message. Since there are no geographical restrictions on the official torrent file, however, it was easy to share the film with the rest of the world. It would only take one person to upload the torrent to another site, and the rest of the world would have access to it. That’s exactly what happened.

In last week’s article, we asked the question: “Is this deliberate, or accidental?” Since it is so easy to share the documentary with people outside the US and Canada, we hinted that this might have been done on purpose. A few days later, Michael Moore contacted us, with a direct response to the question we posed.

“What do you think I’m up to? I know it may not be obvious to most, but I think you guys get it,” Moore wrote to us. “I only own the US and Canadian rights. So my hands are tied. But this is the 21st century. What are ‘geographical rights’ ?” Moore continued. “I’ll say it for the hundredth time: If I buy a book and read it, and then give you the book to read, I have broken no laws. Why is that not true for all media?”

“I wish someone would figure out what I am up to,” he concluded. We believe many people have by now. This isn’t the first time Moore has clashed with the ‘rights holders’ of one of his own films. Last year The Weinstein Co. went after websites that hosted “Sicko”, while Moore publicly said that it was ok for people to download his movie illegally. “I’m not a big believer in our copyright laws. I think they’re way too restrictive,” he said at the time.

Even further back, in 2004, Moore also backed the people who downloaded his documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. “The more people who see it the better, so I’m happy this is happening, he said. “Is it wrong for someone who’s bought a film on DVD to let a friend watch it for free? Of course it’s not. It never has been and never will be. I think information, art and ideas should be shared.”

Perhaps it’s time to do a documentary on the anti-piracy and pro-copyright lobby Mr. Moore? They might not kill our children in the US or overseas, but they do kill creativity, innovation, and the spread of knowledge. Worth looking into.

Post from: TorrentFreak

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Open Source

Continue reading Open source Synkron does killer cross-platform synchronization

Intuitive navigation for users

Create common user scenarios, get "in character," then try working through your site. For example, if your site is about basketball, imagine being a visitor (in this case a "baller" :) trying to learn the best dribbling technique.

• Starting at the homepage, if the user doesn't use the search box on your site or a pulldown menu, can they easily find the desired information (ball handling like a superstar) from the navigation links?


• Let's say a user found your site through an external link, but they didn't land on the homepage. Starting from any (sub-/child) page on your site, make sure they can easily find their way to the homepage and/or other relevant sections. In other words, make sure users aren't trapped or stuck. Was the "best dribbling technique" easy for your imaginary user to find? Often breadcrumbs such as "Home > Techniques > Dribbling" help users to understand where they are.

Crawlable links for search engines

• Text links are easily discovered by search engines and are often the safest bet if your priority is having your content crawled. While you're welcome to try the latest technologies, keep-in-mind that when text-based links are available and easily navigable for users, chances are that search engines can crawl your site as well.
  
  This <a href="new-page.html">text link</a> is easy for search engines to find.


• Sitemap submission is also helpful for major search engines, though it shouldn't be a substitute for crawlable link architecture. If your site utilizes newer techniques, such as AJAX, see "Verify that Googlebot finds your internal links" below.

A: It's not something we, as webmasters who also work at Google, would really spend time or energy on. In other words, if your site already has strong link architecture, it's far more productive to work on keeping users happy with fresh and compelling content rather than to worry about PageRank sculpting.

Matt Cutts answered more questions about "appropriate uses of nofollow" in our webmaster discussion group.

A: We haven't found a case where a webmaster would benefit by intentionally "theming" their link architecture for search engines. And, keep-in-mind, if a visitor to one part of your site can't easily reach other parts of your site, that may be a problem for search engines as well.

Research reveals people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone. - Why Color Matters

A Guide to Choosing Colors for Your Brand


(via basement)

When people think Open Source and social networking, usually the first thing that comes to mind is Google and OpenSocial. What most don’t know however is that Facebook is almost as much, if not more Open Source focused as Google is.

One unknown fact about the Facebook Platform is that most of the technologies used to create the platform were used in-house before they were released to the public, and because of that they have been able to release many of those projects through OpenSource licenses to the public. Facebook has an entire page on their developers site that features the Open Source projects they are working on. On that page are 12 projects that I’ll describe here:

Facebook Open Platform

As one of the most significant contributions by Facebook, Facebook has made almost its entire developer platform, from FBML to the API, open source for other sites to enable developers to port apps from Facebook. It was recently made famous through its implementation by Friendster. Bebo has also implemented the code from this platform enabling developers to easily make the transition of their apps from Facebook to Bebo. Any developer can download the code, written in PHP, install it, and implement a Facebook-compatible API on their own site.

Thrift

Thrift, according to Facebook, “combines a powerful software stack with a code generation engine to build services that work efficiently and seamlessly between C++, Java, Python, PHP, and Ruby”. The idea here is that with Thrift, you can easily generate an intermediate layer that will talk between languages. Facebook uses this in their search, mobile, posts, notes, feed, and platform products currently, but the code is free and open for all to download.

MemcacheD

According to Facebook, they are the largest user of MemcacheD. MemcacheD is a memory-based caching technology that enables multiple servers to share a common pool of cache, all stored in memory, enabling very fast, scalable response times for web services. Facebook has made significant contributions to the source code of MemcacheD increasing response times by 20%. Twitter is also a significant user of MemcacheD among many other services.

Cassandra

Cassandra appears to be a distributed storage system enabling storage across many servers with no single point of failure. It’s unclear what Facebook services are using this currently.

phpsh

Written in Python (ironically), phpsh is a shell intended to make PHP development easier. Facebook says it was developed internally, but gives access to documentation, tab-completion, and more. Facebook has coined the term, “interactive scripting”, with this new shell. Could we be seeing the first “social” development environment?

Facebook Animation

Facebook is creating an entire library to enable javascript animation methods in the Facebook Javascript client library. Going head-to-head with the likes of YUI, the Animation libraries Facebook provides give shortcuts, keeping the Facebook look and feel in Facebook javascript development.

Facebook Firefox Toolbar

Completely open source, the Facebook Firefox Toolbar is an extension for Firefox that enables the user to track their Facebook friends, check messages, and more from the Firefox browser. It was written as an example of the Facebook Platform desktop client libraries, and Facebook is even allowing developers to submit patches to keep it going.

Facebook Exporter for iPhoto

If you have uploaded photos to Facebook from iPhoto the chances are you’ve used this plugin. The exporter takes the photos on your Mac and sends them to Facebook, all integrated into the iPhoto experience. All code is open source and available to the public, so you can get in as a developer and see how they did it, extend it, and more.

flvtool++

flvtool++ is a set of libraries used by Facebook to find and extract data from FLV files (used to generate Flash videos). Based on the Ruby FLVTool2 libraries, it was rewritten in C++ for performance. Facebook uses this actively in its Video app.

PHPEmbed

PHPEmbed enables developers writing applications in C++ and other languages to easily embed PHP in their code, making development times faster as developers don’t have to abandon existing development patterns to get the job done. Facebook wrote this to speed up their development processes and has released the code to the public.

Public Patches Library

Facebook has released a series of patches to various projects in the public. Of the patches listed, perhaps the most significant is a change to the PHP MySQL libraries.

Facebook Mirror

Facebook has offered a hosted mirror to the public where projects such as Apache, Linux, and other Open Source projects can mirror their code and others can download. Facebook is doing the community a service in this case by reducing the load from some of the most used Open Source projects available. Facebook also uses this mirror to host some of its own Open Source projects.

Conclusion

Facebook may have a bad reputation in the public eye when it comes to open source. However, I think that reputation may be quite misunderstood. Facebook is relatively new in comparison to Google, and they appear to be well on their way to being a leader in the Open Source community.