RSS Updates Moving Beyond Pings

eweek: "Some of the leading RSS search and aggregation services have begun banding together to build a next-generation approach for distributing update notifications to the syndicated feeds that are a core part of most Weblogs and a growing number of news and portal sites..."

I happen to use Ping-O-Matic which is mentioned in this article.

BTW: Flash Player Version 7 Penetration at 90%

Handy Reminder: Here is where to find Macromedia's Latest Flash Player Version Penetration Statistics...

Trouble at the ODP

SiteProNews: "A backlog in sites awaiting review is one thing but recently, accusations of bribery, favouritism and editors lashing out at critics have caused many to lower their previously favourable estimations of the Open Directory (DMOZ.org)..."

RocketFM - FM Transmitter for Desktop Computers

Griffin Technology: "RocketFM uses any available FM frequency to transmit audio through your home, car or office stereo system. Applications such as iTunes, GarageBand, video soundtracks and even streaming internet radio can be conveniently broadcast with RocketFM."

I'm a fan and a user of Griffin's iTrip, these might be a neat (and cheaper) altertative to Apple's Airport Express + Airtunes. It promises a 30ft range.

AIGA / Aquent Survey of Design Salaries 2005 is now viewable online

"This year we've included a five year trend analysis. To see how design salaries have faired..."

The Complete Guide to Backing Up iPod & iTunes Music

iPodlounge: "create a true backup of your iTunes music library, copied from your hard drive."

This is a nice summary of the process I've followed before and have also suggested to others, so I wanted to share...

Microsoft launches antispam tools, services

ZDNet: "Microsoft debuted on Thursday its MSN Postmaster Web site, which offers tools and services designed to combat spam."

Homeland Security flunks cybersecurity prep test

CNET News.com: "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has failed to live up to its cybersecurity responsibilities and may be 'unprepared' for emergencies, federal auditors said in a scathing report released Thursday."

Office 12 to beat Longhorn, emphasize collaboration

arstechnica.com: "Earlier this week, Microsoft released a few details of the next version of Office, Office 12. The original plan was to release Office 12 with Longhorn, apparently Microsoft has decided to suck it up and roll the suite out in 2006..."

iGuy toy case for iPod: Turn your iPod into a bendy figure

SpeckProducts: "Meet iGuy- the first bendable, posable friend for you and your iPod! Not only is iGuy fun, he's fully functional- offering great rubberized protection, docking capability, and screen protection for your iPod or iPod Photo..."

That's gumby-cool. What a great idea, kudos to Speck.

Antiphishing toolbar for Firefox released

CNET News.com: "Internet services company Netcraft has released a version of its toolbar for Firefox. The plug-in can help users of the Web browser avoid phishing scams, the company said..."

Ga. credit-card holders 'blink' cards - Boston.com - Technology - Business

"About 400,000 credit-card holders in Georgia will be the first in the country to use a new technology that allows them to pay for items by waving their card near a terminal instead of swiping it through a machine."

Ah, the marriage of RFID + Consumer debt. I guess you can now officially add "blink" and the verb "blinking" to your list of buzzwords.

WellRounded Dreamweaver Extension

"WellRounded is a Dreamweaver extension that creates easily resizable rounded rectangles you can use to frame your content. The rounded rects are not single static graphics, they are sliced graphic pieces in combination with modern CSS code. WellRounded generates an infinite variety of looks based on your choice of color, stroke, border, drop shadow, corner radius, etc. Once a rounded rect is added to the page you simply type or paste content into it..."

This looks like a handy little niche-market extension, I'm certainly going to try it out.

Good Experience - Things that need to STOP

Mark Hurst of Good Experience shares a great rant on "several tech design errors that I've seen for years". Some I certainly agree with, I don't know I share his position on anti-aliasing. Thanks to Mark for culling this list of annoyances, it's always good to vent ;)

DVD Insider: Singing the Blu's

"Everyone is waiting for the Next Big Thing in storage, with too many people convinced that: a) it's Blu-ray; b) it will be here shortly and c) it's going to give you huge/cheap/high-quality video storage. But the DVD Insider sees a wrench in the works..."

Mobile Marketing Association Release Consumer Best Practice Standards

"The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), in cooperation with the CTIA, today announces the release of its Best Practices Guidelines for Cross-Carrier Mobile Content Services.

The guidelines cover these major areas of mobile content services: Advertising and promotion; Opt-in; Opt-out; Subscription services; Help for consumers; Glossary of standard terms an abbreviations"

The article above has a link to the full guide in PDF format.

eBay Drop-Off Stores Balk at Regulation

The New York Times: "...as more eBay drop-off stores spring up around the nation to help redistribute the accumulated cargo of an acquisitive culture, some public officials worry that they could become unwitting fences for stolen goods..."

TableMaker Component For Flash

FLASHRELIEF announces TableMaker, a tool for formatting Flash content. With TableMaker you can create HTML style tables in Flash...

Upcoming iTunes to support podcasting

"Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Sunday night that support for podcasting will be included in the next version of iTunes, due within 60 days, reports..."

Mercedes-Benz Mixed Tape 07 Free MP3 Downloads

Mercedes-Benz International offers up another cool free 15 song mix of eclectic music. Launch the player and choose the download all songs option. Enjoy.

On2 to use Wildform Flix

Flashmagazine: "Wildform have entered into a cross-licensing deal with On2 Technologies, the company that created the video codec that will be in Macromedia Flash 8. This gives On2 access to an already established customer base when Flash Player 8 arrives this autumn..."

EFF: "Stop Congress from Raising the Broadcast Flag"

Electronic Frontier Foundation: "The Broadcast Flag, a plan to give Hollywood remote control of how you record, copy, transfer, or replay over-the-air digital television, was knocked flat by the courts. Now the film and TV industries are running to Congress to get the fix in..."

Google Turns to the Dark Side?

"Here at Fool.com we've long wondered when Google would finally give in to temptation and become a portal. How fitting that it happened yesterday, on opening day for the latest blockbuster in the Lucasfilm franchise: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. You know the story, don't you?..."

Funny observation on the timing. I guess with browsers now having embedded search boxes, most defaulting to Google, they can do whatever they want their own homepage.

Electric Rain Releases Swift 3D 4.5 for 3D Export to Flash and Video

creativepro.com: "In addition to providing vector and raster style video export, Swift 3D 4.5 introduces a host of vector rendering enhancements including pen-style outlines for improved cartoon rendering, adjustable shadow density and color, realistic transparency, render speeds up to 50 times faster, control over outlines at intersections, support for Level 3 EPS and enhanced SVG output."

J.Y. Blog Entries Will Return on 5/20

See you then, thanks J.

Create your own iTunes visuals without writing code

Dixie Unlimited - dxpCompose: "The complete visual composing studio. Create your own iTunes visuals without writing code..."

Looks like fun

Online Video Ads: Think Web, Not TV

"Online video advertising is really taking off. As broadband penetration continues to rise and ad-serving technologies become more sophisticated, more advertisers are adopting the format. According to a recent Jupiter Research executive survey, 24 percent of online advertisers plan to use streaming video ads in 2005, nearly three times the percentage that ran them in 2004..."

Rich media online advertising is definitely gaining greater acceptance. This article has some useful info.

Will Google's AutoLink Go Far or Too Far?

eweek.com Opinions: "Like Microsoft's Smart Tags, the browser linking feature in Google Toolbar Beta 3 has the potential to be useful – or pernicious..."

e-mail Marketing: Keeping your spam ‘score’ low

This is a brief but useful article that reviews some tactics to consider regarding email filtering services and their effect on your email campaigns. Major points: "Watch your image-to-text ratio, Be compliant, Avoid jargon, Keep your list clean,Consider accreditation or reputation-based services"

Vocalise TTS Helps You Flash Your Talking Heads

"Vocalise TTS is the new character animation extension for Macromedia Flash mx 2004 that uses text to speech to create amazing talking characters...Based on original Disney animation techniques and using the latest text to speech technology"

Turbine Mobile dynamically generates Flash Lite for mobile phones

"By dynamically integrating image, audio, video and database content into Flash SWF templates, Turbine Mobile generates Flash Lite overcoming the natural limitations of static Flash. Supports Flash Lite features such as external ring tone-like audio formats and i-Mode and EZMode Emoji characters..."

This looks promising.

"DVD storage is so over"

"DVDs are long gone--and the longer these companies keep fighting over profits, the more they assure their disc obsolescence..."

Interesting perspective - seems like floppies got replaced by zip disks that got offed by CDRs that are outpaced by DVDRs, guess we'll see where things go.

Google buys social networking service?

CNET News.com: "Google has apparently acquired social networking service Dodgeball, as it continues its expansion beyond search."

Open-source divorce for Apple's Safari?

ZDNet: "Two years after it selected open-source rendering engine KHTML as the basis of its Safari Web browser, Apple Computer has proposed resolving compatibility conflicts by scrapping that code base in favor of its own..."

Adobe Releases New Camera Raw 3.1 Plug-in For Photoshop

"Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced availability of an updated Adobe Camera Raw plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0, as well as an updated Adobe DNG Converter that adds compatibility for four new camera models...In response to requests from the photography community, Adobe Camera Raw 3.1 now allows for automatic updating of embedded JPEG previews to raw files through a special preference setting within the application..."

Adobe may divest software after Macromedia merger

MacNN: "NPD predicts that Photoshop and Dreamweaver customers will be least affected by the merger...GoLive, Fireworks and FreeHand products may be sold..."

Grokker Search Launches New Site & Visual Search Application

"Grokker brings together multiple information sources in a single application and presents up to 2,000 results per query, giving you the ability to explore any subject far beyond the obvious..."

Interesting graphical search results clusters links in various categories. My first nit is that you need to rollover small icons that have not immediately clear label, in order to get a rollover summary. However, for a deep search the categorization and large number of links that fit on a single screen may be very helpful.

Cost of Doing Business Highest in Northeast

"A recent study shows that Boston has surpassed New York City as the costliest metropolitan area in which to do business--one of the rare occasions when surpassing its New York rival isn't cause for celebration..."

So, for those of you who wondered about my cross-country relocation to OR...

Using a Mac and Windows computer together

"With all the differences in interpretation of JavaScript, styles, and such, it's important to test Web sites on more than one platform. Too many sites lock out large audiences because they're "optimized for IE" or Windows-only..."

Interesting brief article on cross platform Website testing. I'm a fan of Virtual PC for its immediacy and integration when working on a Mac as primary machine.

Fontographer: It's Alive, Alive!

creativepro.com - Fontlab Purchases Fontographer: "Fontlab Ltd. is pleased to announce the licensing from Macromedia Inc. of the Fontographer product line. 'Fontographer is a respected name in the field of digital typography,' said Ted Harrison, president of Fontlab Ltd..."

Assuming this is part of the product paring strategy for Macromedia as it prepares to become part of Adobe.

Exploit code chases two Firefox flaws

CNET News.com: "wo vulnerabilities in the popular Firefox browser have been rated 'extremely critical' because exploit code is now available to take advantage of them."

Federal Court Kills Broadcast Flag Rule

"A federal appeals court struck down an FCC ruling requiring broadcast flag technology, eliminating the requirement that all receivers be equipped with the anti-piracy devices by July of this year. The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that the FCC overstepped its bounds in requiring all receivers, computers, and video players to include the anti-copying technology..."

PIXELSURGEON "Classic Review" of Ferris Bueller's Day Off

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." So runs the mantra of the John Hughes 1986 classic, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. For many years the master of the empathic teen comedy, Ferris is arguably Hughes' magnum opus, a masterful film that taps into every teenagers' (and more than a few adults') desire for imperium in the face of a rule-laden world."

Nice to see an old favorite get some attention :)

Tech start-up scene poised for revival

CNET News.com: "...technology professionals have reason to be cautiously optimistic about jobs at start-up companies. Venture capitalists have been raising new funds at a fast clip, and the money is expected to fuel a new wave of investments in fields including energy, wireless communications and the Internet. But the scale of the funding likely will not rival that of the last Internet craze, and some of the positions created by new companies are likely to be located offshore..."

'Tiger' Trips Up Some Creative Workflows

"Though some third-party developers have been able to take advantage of new features of Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X 10.4, code-named Tiger, other developers are finding that their creative applications are incompatible..."

Users of Macromedia, Extensis, Creo, and Autodesk apps should probably read this if you haven't yet upgraded to Tiger.

Yahoo! video search is fully operational

"Yahoo! has launched its eagerly awaited its video search service, which will allow viewers to search news clips, music videos and movie trailers from sources such as CBSNews.com, MTV.com and IFILM.com.

The yahoo video search, which was released as a test site last December, is now available as a fully operational site at http://video.search.yahoo.com."

EFF Urges Support For Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA, HR 1201)

"The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has been wreaking havoc on consumers' fair use rights for the past seven years. Now Congress is considering the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA, HR 1201), a bill that would reform part of the DMCA and formally protect the "Betamax defense" relied on by so many innovators...Last year we sent 30,000+ letters of support for the DMCRA, and the bill got a hearing on Capitol Hill. It's time to double that number - take action at (this link)"

(mt) Media Temple: Free Upgrade for current (ss) customers

"(mt) Media Temple values its existing customers immensely. We are extremely pleased to announce a major upgrade for our current (ss) Shared-Server customers to the new (ss) Shared-Server 4.0 platform...This represents more than a 700% increase in resource allocations. There is no fee associated with this upgrade and your current pricing will remain exactly the same."

I'm an (mt) hosting customer. It's always cool when you get more than what you originally paid for without asking.

Review of Telestream Flip4Mac WMV Studio Pro

"What if you could work with the Windows Media format on your Mac as easily as you can with the QuickTime format? What if you could open, edit and create Windows Media files in any QuickTime-based application without the need for conversion?..."

Looks like a promising addition to the Mac DV production arsenal.

Ben's BB's: Cohen Leverages The Power of Metaphor Once Again In New Ad

Ben's BB's - TrueMajority: I was a fan of the clear message and design of his previous Oreo cookie budget ad. He succeeds again in picking a powerful metaphor to get the point across in this new online Flash ad.

WebEx Communications, Salesforce.com join forces

Briefly Noted: "WebEx Communications, a webinar technology company, and Salesforce.com, a Web-based CRM provider, announced they have integrated products..."

Google Announces Web Accelerator

"Google Web Accelerator is an application that uses the power of Google's global computer network to make web pages load faster. Google Web Accelerator is easy to use; all you have to do is download and install it, and from then on many web pages will automatically load faster than before...Dial-up users may not see much improvement, as Google Web Accelerator is currently optimized to speed up web page loading for broadband connections."

A Quick Peek at Longhorn

Eight screen captures of new interface: Wow, perhaps there's still a lot of work being done on the UI, but this just seems to have a lot of design issues. I don't know if it's Mac OS envy or what, but Microsoft appears to be abandoning many of its own XP Icon Style and overall UI conventions and I don't understand why. This could cause problems for developers who have finally caught up to creating software with the XP UI design in mind. I'm curios to see how this continues to develop...

Small Business Checking Can Now Earn Interest

"The House Financial Services Committee passed a bill last Wednesday that would allow small businesses to earn interest on their checking accounts. 'Most small businesses don't qualify for sweep accounts, so they are forced to use the non-interest business checking account,' said Patrick Lyden, manager, legislative affairs, NFIB. 'We believe that with the passage of this law, any interest that small businesses can earn will help them.'"

Computers On Grocery Carts?!

Boston.com: "What they won't do is tell you how many fat grams or calories are in your cart. The idea is to make it easier for consumers to buy, not induce second thoughts that maybe you should put something back on the shelf..."

Computers are great and all, but this is definitely a technology looking for a user. Hey maybe they could provide stations that you could plug your iPod into and download musak to listen to while you shop!

Consumers revolt. You are going to be paying the more for your groceries so that stores can provide you with another costly technology you didn't ask for. $500/ a unit will seem high when babies start spitting up on the keypads. Go buy stuff at your local (health food) market, and bring your own cloth bags and a handwritten list on paper, and hand your money to the human being making a livelyhood helping you check out.

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Incompatibilities and Workarounds

macintouch.com Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Incompatibilities and Workarounds: "This list is compiled mostly from reader reports, and items may not be verified with more than one source. Please see our Tiger Compatibility Updates for a list of third-party Tiger updates and check with manufacturers for official information."

Repair Teams Try to Calm 'Computer Rage'

"The loss of a computer, cell phone or other gadget can be so jolting that it is fueling the rise of what some psychologists call 'computer rage'..."

Having experienced massive computer data loss, many broken gadgets, and trying to coach parents / grandparents regarding computers via phone - I was just waiting for this kind of article to finally surface.

Apple Releases New Version Of QuickTime Broadcaster

"QuickTime Broadcaster is Apple's award-winning live encoding software that lets you produce professional-quality live events for online delivery -- quickly, easily and affordably..."