5:32 PM
ari sari
Create your own music. Use clips from their library and record your own.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Saturday, May 29, 2010
Post weekly (weekly)
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Perkembangan Jaringan Nirkabel tahun 2010 dan beberapa tahun kedepan : HSPA+ , LTE , Wimax
USB Wireless Network / USB dongle telah menjadi perangkat pendongkrak popularitas 4G bersama dengan CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) dan laptop. Akan tetapi, handset mobile akan menjadi kunci keberhasilan WiMax. Sebagai contoh, Yota (Rusia), Sprint dan Clearwire (Amerika Serikat) telah menyediakan layanan mereka dengan perangkat dari HTC dan Samsung.
Di saat yang sama, operator mobile juga terus berusaha mendapatkan lisensi LTE (Long Term Evolution). Sekitar 20 operator diperkirakan akan meluncurkan layanan mereka pada kuartal keempat 2010 mendatang. LTE sendiri merupakan Next Generation dari GSM setelah HSPA+
Cakupan layanan LTE memang belum akan menyaingi WiMax, akan tetapi pada akhir kuartal keempat 2012, diprediksikan sekitar 600 juta pengguna akan dapat menikmati layanan tersebut.
Pasar 4G akan mencapai 150 juta pelanggan di akhir tahun 2014 mendatang. Adapun pangsa pasar antara WiMax dan LTE akan tergantung pada komitmen operator WiMax untuk mengupgrade ke 802.16m.
Vendor MiMax seperti Motorola dan Huawei sendiri sedang menyiapkan perangkat 802.16e+ yang akan membawa fitur-fitur 802.16m ke pasar. Sejumlah perusahaan di ekosistem ini sendiri sudah mulai mengujicoba interoperabilitas untuk 802.16m.
ABI Research sendiri telah mengumpulkan data kota-kota dan populasi yang tercakup layanan 4G selama setahun terakhir. “TD-LTE merupakan kuncinya,” kata Jake Saunders, Vice President for Forecasting ABI Research, seperti dikutip dari PCAdvisor, 14 Mei 2010.
“Meski awalnya ditujukan sebagai teknologi evolusi untuk TD-SCDMA bagi China Mobile, teknologi tersebut meraih minat sejumlah operator WiMax,” kata Saunders. “Kedua kubu (WiMax dan LTE) akan berusaha secepat mungkin menyelesaikan produksi chip, portofolio produk dan cakupan layanan. Akan ada persaingan yang keras dalam beberapa tahun ke depan,” ucapnya. (hs)
Informa forecasts that, even including fixed and mobile WiMAX, subscriptions will reach only 5 percent of the global 3G market by 2013, with 103 million connections. Forward Concepts predicts 38 million WiMAX subscribers by 2012, while Juniper Research forecasts 47 million WiMAX subscribers by 2013 –compared to nearly 1.8 billion UMTS-HSPA subscriptions by 2013 according to Informa.
Di saat yang sama, operator mobile juga terus berusaha mendapatkan lisensi LTE (Long Term Evolution). Sekitar 20 operator diperkirakan akan meluncurkan layanan mereka pada kuartal keempat 2010 mendatang. LTE sendiri merupakan Next Generation dari GSM setelah HSPA+
LTE capabilities:
- Downlink peak data rates up to 326 Mbps with 20 MHz bandwidth
- Uplink peak data rates up to 86.4 Mbps with 20 MHz bandwidth
- Operation in both TDD and FDD modes
- Scalable bandwidth up to 20 MHz, covering 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz in the study phase
- Increased spectral efficiency over Release 6 HSPA by a factor of two to four
- Reduced latency, up to 10 milliseconds (ms) round-trip times between user equipment and the base station, and to less than 100 ms transition times from inactive to active
Cakupan layanan LTE memang belum akan menyaingi WiMax, akan tetapi pada akhir kuartal keempat 2012, diprediksikan sekitar 600 juta pengguna akan dapat menikmati layanan tersebut.
Pasar 4G akan mencapai 150 juta pelanggan di akhir tahun 2014 mendatang. Adapun pangsa pasar antara WiMax dan LTE akan tergantung pada komitmen operator WiMax untuk mengupgrade ke 802.16m.
Vendor MiMax seperti Motorola dan Huawei sendiri sedang menyiapkan perangkat 802.16e+ yang akan membawa fitur-fitur 802.16m ke pasar. Sejumlah perusahaan di ekosistem ini sendiri sudah mulai mengujicoba interoperabilitas untuk 802.16m.
ABI Research sendiri telah mengumpulkan data kota-kota dan populasi yang tercakup layanan 4G selama setahun terakhir. “TD-LTE merupakan kuncinya,” kata Jake Saunders, Vice President for Forecasting ABI Research, seperti dikutip dari PCAdvisor, 14 Mei 2010.
“Meski awalnya ditujukan sebagai teknologi evolusi untuk TD-SCDMA bagi China Mobile, teknologi tersebut meraih minat sejumlah operator WiMax,” kata Saunders. “Kedua kubu (WiMax dan LTE) akan berusaha secepat mungkin menyelesaikan produksi chip, portofolio produk dan cakupan layanan. Akan ada persaingan yang keras dalam beberapa tahun ke depan,” ucapnya. (hs)
Informa forecasts that, even including fixed and mobile WiMAX, subscriptions will reach only 5 percent of the global 3G market by 2013, with 103 million connections. Forward Concepts predicts 38 million WiMAX subscribers by 2012, while Juniper Research forecasts 47 million WiMAX subscribers by 2013 –compared to nearly 1.8 billion UMTS-HSPA subscriptions by 2013 according to Informa.
- http://teknologi.vivanews.com/news/read/150926-2012__tahunnya_4g
- http://www.3gamericas.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page§ionid=249
- http://www.3gamericas.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page§ionid=259
Friday, May 28, 2010
How to copy charts into a word processor
When copying charts into a word processor, whether in Microsoft Office from Excel to Word or in openoffice.org from Calc to Writer, the software embeds a special object that links back to the original spreadsheet. If you then change the details in the Excel spreadsheet the chart in the Word document will change accordingly. In many cases this is advantageous; however, it can cause problems if the Word document cannot 'see' the Excel file, for example, if you email the Word file to someone without the Excel file. It is generally better to paste the chart as an image in the first place using the 'Paste special' facility.
I will start by explaining how to do this in Microsoft Office:
Once you have created your chart in Excel you select it and copy it, as shown here.
In older versions of Word you pull down the 'Edit' menu and select 'Paste Special'. You may have to wait a moment for all the menu items to be revealed.
In the latest versions of Word, 'Paste special' is in a menu underneath the 'Paste' button.
A box will open, from which you select 'Picture (Enhanced Metafile)', and click OK.
This will then insert the chart as a picture, which you can manipulate like any other imported image.
In openoffice.org, the procedure is pretty much the same as above, with 'Paste special' is in the 'Edit' menu, or alternatively you can use a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + V. The major difference from above is that the following box will open when you select 'Paste special'. Simply select 'Bitmap' and click OK to paste the chart as a picture.
I will start by explaining how to do this in Microsoft Office:
Once you have created your chart in Excel you select it and copy it, as shown here.
In older versions of Word you pull down the 'Edit' menu and select 'Paste Special'. You may have to wait a moment for all the menu items to be revealed.
In the latest versions of Word, 'Paste special' is in a menu underneath the 'Paste' button.
A box will open, from which you select 'Picture (Enhanced Metafile)', and click OK.
This will then insert the chart as a picture, which you can manipulate like any other imported image.
In openoffice.org, the procedure is pretty much the same as above, with 'Paste special' is in the 'Edit' menu, or alternatively you can use a keyboard shortcut: Ctrl + Shift + V. The major difference from above is that the following box will open when you select 'Paste special'. Simply select 'Bitmap' and click OK to paste the chart as a picture.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Amid Backfire, Facebook CEO Overhauls Privacy Settings
Palo Alto, California -- Amid escalating criticism from users, privacy advocates and lawmakers alike -- that the world's largest social-networking site Facebook lacks competent privacy controls, CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday overhauled its privacy controls to fend off dissatisfied users that it is betraying the trust that has made it the world's biggest social network. Now, keeping your personal information underwraps on Facebook just got simpler.
In a news conference at its headquarters, Facebook's 26-year-old founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg addressed the attendees with: “Quite a lot of users are upset with us,” while he took the stock of recent blunders that caused growing pains said as he announced simplified privacy controls.
“It has been a pretty intense few weeks for us, listening to all the feedback coming in from all the changes we have made.” “One of the big lessons we learned from this is: Do not mess with the privacy stuff for a really long time.”
He said that -- “Our engineers and designers are holed up in a conference room in their Palo Alto offices cranking for the last couple of weeks on new privacy settings.”
As Facebook has vehemently expanded into a global behemoth of nearly 500 million users, a boisterous segment of them have taken resentment at new features that make their personal information widely available on the face of the Internet. Many were also discomfited with a dizzying array of more than 100 privacy-setting options, which Facebook has acknowledged can be overwhelming.
Zuckerberg admitted during the press conference that executives at the remarkably successful social networking firm have made mistakes and have communicated badly with users about their privacy concerns.
“We do not pretend that we are perfect,” Zuckerberg said in an interview. “We believe in privacy. We believe in giving people control. We try to create new things, hear feedback and respond with changes to that feedback all the time.”
“But more and more, people desirous of sharing the information. As long as they have good control over that, I think that is where the world is going,” said Zuckerberg.
At the conference, Zuckerberg released a revamped privacy settings controls that offers a new one-click options to help subscribers protect their privacy, and “significantly reduce” the amount of information that is always visible to everyone, responding to a hordes of complaints that it had become far too hard to determine and control levels of protection.
Screen shot of Facebook's new privacy controls rolling out over the next few weeks, taken from the social networking site's privacy guide.
The changes, which will be introduced gradually over the next few weeks, mean that one click can block any third-party sites from tapping into Facebook's treasure chest of data on a user. A similar one-click option will allow a user to stop applications on Facebook from digging into user information unless otherwise authorized.
“This is a pretty big redevelopment to the system we already have,” Zuckerberg said while describing the changes during a press briefing at the social network's headquarters in the California city of Palo Alto.
“This alteration certainly indicates that Facebook has put a lot of thought into privacy issues. Their new privacy controls show that they now 'get it' and understand user concerns,” said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. “What I especially like is how they are giving users a way to control what, if anything, is available to third-party Web sites and applications.”
Olds remarked that he is glad that Facebook not only included simplified controls but kept the more complicated, granular controls for users who want to really dive into the experience.
Still, privacy will stand in a way as an issue for Facebook, which was established as a private gathering place for college students but is now in the midst of tremendous expansion as an open computing platform, say privacy experts.
“I view [Facebook] battling between the communities of open communication and those who value privacy,” says Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University.
Tour Facebook's new privacy settings ; Courtesy: Cnet
In a news conference at its headquarters, Facebook's 26-year-old founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg addressed the attendees with: “Quite a lot of users are upset with us,” while he took the stock of recent blunders that caused growing pains said as he announced simplified privacy controls.
“It has been a pretty intense few weeks for us, listening to all the feedback coming in from all the changes we have made.” “One of the big lessons we learned from this is: Do not mess with the privacy stuff for a really long time.”
He said that -- “Our engineers and designers are holed up in a conference room in their Palo Alto offices cranking for the last couple of weeks on new privacy settings.”
As Facebook has vehemently expanded into a global behemoth of nearly 500 million users, a boisterous segment of them have taken resentment at new features that make their personal information widely available on the face of the Internet. Many were also discomfited with a dizzying array of more than 100 privacy-setting options, which Facebook has acknowledged can be overwhelming.
Zuckerberg admitted during the press conference that executives at the remarkably successful social networking firm have made mistakes and have communicated badly with users about their privacy concerns.
“We do not pretend that we are perfect,” Zuckerberg said in an interview. “We believe in privacy. We believe in giving people control. We try to create new things, hear feedback and respond with changes to that feedback all the time.”
“But more and more, people desirous of sharing the information. As long as they have good control over that, I think that is where the world is going,” said Zuckerberg.
At the conference, Zuckerberg released a revamped privacy settings controls that offers a new one-click options to help subscribers protect their privacy, and “significantly reduce” the amount of information that is always visible to everyone, responding to a hordes of complaints that it had become far too hard to determine and control levels of protection.
Screen shot of Facebook's new privacy controls rolling out over the next few weeks, taken from the social networking site's privacy guide.
The changes, which will be introduced gradually over the next few weeks, mean that one click can block any third-party sites from tapping into Facebook's treasure chest of data on a user. A similar one-click option will allow a user to stop applications on Facebook from digging into user information unless otherwise authorized.
“This is a pretty big redevelopment to the system we already have,” Zuckerberg said while describing the changes during a press briefing at the social network's headquarters in the California city of Palo Alto.
“This alteration certainly indicates that Facebook has put a lot of thought into privacy issues. Their new privacy controls show that they now 'get it' and understand user concerns,” said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. “What I especially like is how they are giving users a way to control what, if anything, is available to third-party Web sites and applications.”
Olds remarked that he is glad that Facebook not only included simplified controls but kept the more complicated, granular controls for users who want to really dive into the experience.
Still, privacy will stand in a way as an issue for Facebook, which was established as a private gathering place for college students but is now in the midst of tremendous expansion as an open computing platform, say privacy experts.
“I view [Facebook] battling between the communities of open communication and those who value privacy,” says Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University.
Tour Facebook's new privacy settings ; Courtesy: Cnet
Posted in: Facebook
Yahoo Makes Content Deal With “Farmville” Developers Zynga For Social Gaming
Sunnyvale, California -- Internet pioneer Yahoo seems to be on a tear has agreed to a deal with Zynga, makers of the monumentaly popular Farvmville and Mafia Wars games on Facebook, the alliance will see Yahoo integrating Zynga games across Yahoo's broad range of sites and service offerings, that includes Yahoo's home page, Yahoo Mail, and Yahoo Messenger, which is a significant indication that Zynga will not need Facebook alone to thrive.
Zynga has just announced a new partnership with Yahoo, a major victory for both companies. A representative for Yahoo quoted by WebProNews, “The partnership integrates Zynga's most popular social games across Yahoo!, empowering users to easily play games and access updates across some of its most popular properties including the Homepage, Yahoo! Games, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger and others. The incorporation is part of Yahoo!'s commitment to provide personally relevant experiences to people, from across the Web.”
“Hold your breathe for some exciting and engaging new titles coming to Yahoo that you can easily play with your friends, family, and fellow gamers and share with your networks across Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, and Zynga,” wrote Yahoo senior director of developer network and social platforms Cody Simms.
“In addition to the recently endorsed Facebook and Twitter integrations, this relationship is a key part of advancing Yahoo!'s social experience that lets people share updates across Yahoo! and other social platforms,” the rep says. “This will motivate deeper user engagement, and create new opportunities for developers as an extension of Zynga's current platforms.”
“Yahoo is concentrating on delivering compelling, personally relevant experiences and social games are core to this experience,” said Yahoo Americas executive VP Hilary Schneider, in a statement. “Zynga will bring top notch social game experiences to Yahoo, including through our open platforms such as Yahoo Application Platform and Yahoo Updates.”
Zynga is popularly known for versions of its hot social games currently available on Facebook. Their titles are also accessible on MySpace and the iPhone.
Yahoo, though battling a lot in recent years, has one of the biggest audiences -- an estimated 600 million users on the planet. Zynga too, is also a Goliath in its own right, claiming to have over 230 million active users play its titles every month, so this partnership may end up benefiting both companies greatly.
This partnership is amongst the latest in a series of alliances and acquisitions the company has been making to strengthen its social and mobile offerings: Yahoo just days back announced a partnership with Nokia, over mapping and messaging software, just bought the Indonesian mobile social network Koprol, and recently announced partnerships with Twitter and Facebook to bring more of its users online social lives into the Yahoo framework.
Zynga games are expected to roll out across the Yahoo network in the coming months. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Zynga has just announced a new partnership with Yahoo, a major victory for both companies. A representative for Yahoo quoted by WebProNews, “The partnership integrates Zynga's most popular social games across Yahoo!, empowering users to easily play games and access updates across some of its most popular properties including the Homepage, Yahoo! Games, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger and others. The incorporation is part of Yahoo!'s commitment to provide personally relevant experiences to people, from across the Web.”
“Hold your breathe for some exciting and engaging new titles coming to Yahoo that you can easily play with your friends, family, and fellow gamers and share with your networks across Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, and Zynga,” wrote Yahoo senior director of developer network and social platforms Cody Simms.
“In addition to the recently endorsed Facebook and Twitter integrations, this relationship is a key part of advancing Yahoo!'s social experience that lets people share updates across Yahoo! and other social platforms,” the rep says. “This will motivate deeper user engagement, and create new opportunities for developers as an extension of Zynga's current platforms.”
“Yahoo is concentrating on delivering compelling, personally relevant experiences and social games are core to this experience,” said Yahoo Americas executive VP Hilary Schneider, in a statement. “Zynga will bring top notch social game experiences to Yahoo, including through our open platforms such as Yahoo Application Platform and Yahoo Updates.”
Zynga is popularly known for versions of its hot social games currently available on Facebook. Their titles are also accessible on MySpace and the iPhone.
Yahoo, though battling a lot in recent years, has one of the biggest audiences -- an estimated 600 million users on the planet. Zynga too, is also a Goliath in its own right, claiming to have over 230 million active users play its titles every month, so this partnership may end up benefiting both companies greatly.
This partnership is amongst the latest in a series of alliances and acquisitions the company has been making to strengthen its social and mobile offerings: Yahoo just days back announced a partnership with Nokia, over mapping and messaging software, just bought the Indonesian mobile social network Koprol, and recently announced partnerships with Twitter and Facebook to bring more of its users online social lives into the Yahoo framework.
Zynga games are expected to roll out across the Yahoo network in the coming months. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Posted in: Facebook
Google Announces Chrome Stable For Linux, Mac
Mountain View, California -- Google has moved the latest version of Chrome 5 for Windows out of beta and also announced stable versions of Chrome for Mac and Linux, and upgraded the browser for the first time withmany new features and speed, since launching the Web browser's fifth revision in less than two years.
The latest Windows version operates JavaScript 30% to 35% faster than the earlier version, according to Google. The new stable release for Mac and Linux empowers users to synchronize bookmarks and browser preferences across multiple computers and platforms so consumers can feel at home no matter which machine they work on. Preferences include color themes, homepage, startup settings, Web content settings and page zoom settings.
According to threatpost.com, the release also resolves “at least two 'high risk' vulnerabilities and several security-related denial-of-service crashes.”
“Our stable release also combines HTML5 features such as Geolocation APIs, App Cache, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop,” wrote Google on its Chrome blog on May 25.
The browser also offers several HTML5-based features, gains lots of attention recently as the centerpiece of an ongoing dispute between Apple and Adobe, which includes geolocation APIs, App Cache, Web sockets, and attachment drag-and-drop in Gmail. Although Adobe's Flash player was integrated into the development versions of Chrome 5, it has been touch-and-go in the beta versions and has not yet made it to the stable release of Chrome 5. The developer's version is now on version 6.
Apple has refused to support Flash on the iPhone or iPad.
“For a taste of HTML5's powerful features, try browsing through websites developed in HTML5 such as scribd.com, dragging and dropping attachments in Gmail, or by enabling the geolocation functionality in Google Maps. We have also given Chrome's bookmark manager a facelift with HTML5.”
According to data released by NetMarketShare in April, Chrome had a market share of around 6.73 percent, while rival browsers IE (59.95%) Firefox (24.59%), Safari (4.72%) and Opera (2.30%) joined Chrome in the list of top five most used browsers. The latest release is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Chrome v5.0.375.55 includes support for extensions and themes, improved bookmark management and synchronization, browser preferences syncing, and the most recent stable updates to Chrome's trailblazing JavaScript engine, V8.
The latest Windows version operates JavaScript 30% to 35% faster than the earlier version, according to Google. The new stable release for Mac and Linux empowers users to synchronize bookmarks and browser preferences across multiple computers and platforms so consumers can feel at home no matter which machine they work on. Preferences include color themes, homepage, startup settings, Web content settings and page zoom settings.
According to threatpost.com, the release also resolves “at least two 'high risk' vulnerabilities and several security-related denial-of-service crashes.”
“Our stable release also combines HTML5 features such as Geolocation APIs, App Cache, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop,” wrote Google on its Chrome blog on May 25.
The browser also offers several HTML5-based features, gains lots of attention recently as the centerpiece of an ongoing dispute between Apple and Adobe, which includes geolocation APIs, App Cache, Web sockets, and attachment drag-and-drop in Gmail. Although Adobe's Flash player was integrated into the development versions of Chrome 5, it has been touch-and-go in the beta versions and has not yet made it to the stable release of Chrome 5. The developer's version is now on version 6.
Apple has refused to support Flash on the iPhone or iPad.
“For a taste of HTML5's powerful features, try browsing through websites developed in HTML5 such as scribd.com, dragging and dropping attachments in Gmail, or by enabling the geolocation functionality in Google Maps. We have also given Chrome's bookmark manager a facelift with HTML5.”
According to data released by NetMarketShare in April, Chrome had a market share of around 6.73 percent, while rival browsers IE (59.95%) Firefox (24.59%), Safari (4.72%) and Opera (2.30%) joined Chrome in the list of top five most used browsers. The latest release is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Chrome v5.0.375.55 includes support for extensions and themes, improved bookmark management and synchronization, browser preferences syncing, and the most recent stable updates to Chrome's trailblazing JavaScript engine, V8.
Posted in: google
Google allows Street View car inspection
Internet
giant Google is to allow German data protection officers to examine one of its controversial Street View cars, which collect data for its online mapping service, the company announced Thursday.
Earlier this month, German officials were highly critical of a data protection gaffe which enabled the Google's vehicles to collect snippets of private data on unencrypted wifi networks as they trawled the streets gathering information to appear on Street View.
The decision came after Hamburg data protection officer Johannes Caspar asked to inspect a Street View vehicle, when Google admitted the error earlier this month.giant Google is to allow German data protection officers to examine one of its controversial Street View cars, which collect data for its online mapping service, the company announced Thursday.
Earlier this month, German officials were highly critical of a data protection gaffe which enabled the Google's vehicles to collect snippets of private data on unencrypted wifi networks as they trawled the streets gathering information to appear on Street View.
"Since we announced two weeks ago that we wrongly recorded wifi user data, we are globally working hard to address the associated concerns of data protection authorities," Google wrote in a statement.
The US company also agreed in principle for Caspar to see an original hard drive
from a Street View vehicle, but said they first had to resolve legal issues over the private data contained on such a hard drive.
"We hope that a solution for this difficult situation will be found soon," Google said.
Hamburg-based prosecutors have launched an initial investigation into the data collection gaffe.
Posted in: google
Facebook overhauls privacy settings
San Francisco : Social networking site Facebook introduced a new set of privacy controls Wednesday in an attempt to quell criticism that it was lax about protecting users' personal information.
The new controls are featured in a streamlined privacy panel that allows users much easier management of who can access their information.
"We believe in privacy. We believe in giving people control," Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg said at a press conference to announce the overhaul.
"But more and more, people want to share information. As long as they have good control over that, I think that's where the world is going".
The new settings feature a single control that limits who can see the content posted by a Facebook user, and allow users to control who sees their list of friends and their personal pages - information that was previously available to all Facebook users.
"We've heard that people want a simple way to take control of their information," Zuckerberg said. "We looked at a video someone posted about how many steps it took to stop sharing their information, and we thought, 'Yeah, that's too much.'"
Facebook is making it easier for users to opt out of instant participation on Facebook's partner sites. Zuckerberg said users can quickly and easily choose a setting that won't allow their information to be shared with third-party websites. The sharing of content will also apply to Facebook products launched in the future, he said.
Criticism of Facebook has been building since December, when the company introduced new settings that automatically shared more user information unless users took convoluted steps to opt out. In addition to the company's official policies, several security snafus allowed friends to snoop on users' Facebook chats and see which partner websites they had been surfing.
The new controls are featured in a streamlined privacy panel that allows users much easier management of who can access their information.
"We believe in privacy. We believe in giving people control," Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg said at a press conference to announce the overhaul.
"But more and more, people want to share information. As long as they have good control over that, I think that's where the world is going".
The new settings feature a single control that limits who can see the content posted by a Facebook user, and allow users to control who sees their list of friends and their personal pages - information that was previously available to all Facebook users.
"We've heard that people want a simple way to take control of their information," Zuckerberg said. "We looked at a video someone posted about how many steps it took to stop sharing their information, and we thought, 'Yeah, that's too much.'"
Facebook is making it easier for users to opt out of instant participation on Facebook's partner sites. Zuckerberg said users can quickly and easily choose a setting that won't allow their information to be shared with third-party websites. The sharing of content will also apply to Facebook products launched in the future, he said.
Criticism of Facebook has been building since December, when the company introduced new settings that automatically shared more user information unless users took convoluted steps to opt out. In addition to the company's official policies, several security snafus allowed friends to snoop on users' Facebook chats and see which partner websites they had been surfing.
Posted in: Facebook
Apple's iPad hits Japan in international launch
TOKYO, Apple Inc's iPad made its overseas debut on Friday, with buyers storming Japanese and Australian shops to be among the first outside the United States to snap up the long-awaited tablet PC. The device, which has a 9.7-inch color touchscreen for surfing the Web, watching movies, playing games and reading e-books, also goes on sale in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, the UK and Canada later on Friday. At Apple's flagship store in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, about 1,200 people lined up before the store opened at 8 a.m.
''I wanted to touch it as soon as possible. I felt a true excitement when it was finally in my hands,'' said Takechiyo Yamanaka, a 19-year-old who camped out in front of the Ginza store from Wednesday evening to be the first in line. Apple has sold a million iPads in the U.S. since its April 3 debut, exceeding even the most bullish pre-launch estimates. Demand was so heavy the company had to delay the international roll-out by a month. Enthusiasm for the iPad in Japan, the world's second-largest economy, is good news for Apple as international sales are increasingly important for the maker of the Macintosh computer and iPhone. An iPad model with 16 gigabytes of memory and WiFi-capability is selling for 48,800 yen ($537) in Japan, compared with $499 in the
U.S.
Apple gets almost three-fifths of its revenue from overseas now, and is seeing stunning growth in Europe and Asia. On Wednesday, Apple shot past Microsoft Corp as the world's biggest technology company based on market value, the latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which
nearly went out of business in the 1990s.
SALES GALLOP
Analysts said the iPad was sure to match the success seen in the U.S. in overseas markets, helped by a large base of Apple fans who already own the iPod or iPhone. RBC Capital Markets estimates iPad's total shipments will reach 8.13 million units worldwide by the end of this year. Apple does not provide iPad sales forecasts. But analysts also warned Apple may struggle to supply enough of the device and noted competition from faces a spate of competitors set to significantly expand the number of rival offerings in the tablet market this year. ''It's a little bit hard to say because there's still going to be supply constraint, but I'm expecting them to sell every single thing they can ship,'' Andy Hargreaves, a U.S.-based analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, said ahead of the overseas launch.
On Tuesday, Dell unveiled its Streak tablet computer that can double as a mobile phone and will have a front-facing camera for videoconferencing. Sony Corp said on Thursday it would launch an e-reader in Japan by year-end. Application providers and telecoms firms in Japan are losely watching the arrival of iPad for business opportunities. In Japan, where 476,000 iPads are expected to be shipped this year, according to RBC, Apple suspended taking pre-orders
of the device after only three days due to a supply shortage. Dentsu Inc, Japan's top advertising firm, which operates an online book store to distribute magazines such as Newsweek Japan to smart phones including the iPhone, plans to distribute content to the iPad. NTT Docomo, Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, will sell wireless LAN routers for the iPad's Wi-Fi connection next month to rival No.3 operator Softbank, which exclusively provides 3G networks for iPad.
''I wanted to touch it as soon as possible. I felt a true excitement when it was finally in my hands,'' said Takechiyo Yamanaka, a 19-year-old who camped out in front of the Ginza store from Wednesday evening to be the first in line. Apple has sold a million iPads in the U.S. since its April 3 debut, exceeding even the most bullish pre-launch estimates. Demand was so heavy the company had to delay the international roll-out by a month. Enthusiasm for the iPad in Japan, the world's second-largest economy, is good news for Apple as international sales are increasingly important for the maker of the Macintosh computer and iPhone. An iPad model with 16 gigabytes of memory and WiFi-capability is selling for 48,800 yen ($537) in Japan, compared with $499 in the
U.S.
Apple gets almost three-fifths of its revenue from overseas now, and is seeing stunning growth in Europe and Asia. On Wednesday, Apple shot past Microsoft Corp as the world's biggest technology company based on market value, the latest milestone in the resurgence of the maker of the iPhone, which
nearly went out of business in the 1990s.
SALES GALLOP
Analysts said the iPad was sure to match the success seen in the U.S. in overseas markets, helped by a large base of Apple fans who already own the iPod or iPhone. RBC Capital Markets estimates iPad's total shipments will reach 8.13 million units worldwide by the end of this year. Apple does not provide iPad sales forecasts. But analysts also warned Apple may struggle to supply enough of the device and noted competition from faces a spate of competitors set to significantly expand the number of rival offerings in the tablet market this year. ''It's a little bit hard to say because there's still going to be supply constraint, but I'm expecting them to sell every single thing they can ship,'' Andy Hargreaves, a U.S.-based analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, said ahead of the overseas launch.
On Tuesday, Dell unveiled its Streak tablet computer that can double as a mobile phone and will have a front-facing camera for videoconferencing. Sony Corp said on Thursday it would launch an e-reader in Japan by year-end. Application providers and telecoms firms in Japan are losely watching the arrival of iPad for business opportunities. In Japan, where 476,000 iPads are expected to be shipped this year, according to RBC, Apple suspended taking pre-orders
of the device after only three days due to a supply shortage. Dentsu Inc, Japan's top advertising firm, which operates an online book store to distribute magazines such as Newsweek Japan to smart phones including the iPhone, plans to distribute content to the iPad. NTT Docomo, Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, will sell wireless LAN routers for the iPad's Wi-Fi connection next month to rival No.3 operator Softbank, which exclusively provides 3G networks for iPad.
Posted in: Technology news
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Novas edições de Informix: Saldos? [Verifique o novo artigo e nota final]
Hi. In the last IIUG conference I had the chance of talking to some Brazilian members of the Informix community and they gave me the idea that there is an high demand for Portuguese content. When I started the blog I decided to do it in English (and that was not an easy decision because I'm not that confident about my English) for two main reasons:
----- Portuguese from here on.... -----------------------
Introdução:
Bom, para quem teve o trabalho de ler a introdução acima em Inglês por favor ignore este paràgrafo. Para os restantes basicamente a introdução serve para explicar que apesar de a lingua do blog ser o Inglês é provável que comece a publicar alguma informação em Português. A razão porque escolhi o Inglês para escrever o blog foi porque tenho a ideia que em Portugal a maioria das pessoas que trabalham em informática não se importam de ler Inglês e assim consegui uma audiência maior. Na conferência de utilizadores deste ano tive oportunidade de trocar impressões com membros Brasileiros da comunidade Informix e eles deram-me a ideia que há muita gente para quem este assunto não é indiferente e portanto existe muita gente que por um motivo ou outro preferem ou restringem-se aos conteúdos em Português. Assim, e porque o tema do último artigo é realmente muito importante, tomo-o como o ponto de partida para algumas entradas em Português no blog.
Novas edições do Informix
Como já terão tido oportunidade de ler ou ouvido comentar, a partir do dia 25 de maio de 2010 a IBM reformulou a oferta das várias edições do Informix.
Portanto algumas das edições a que estávamos habituados deixaram de estar disponíveis. Nomeadamente a Enterprise Edition e a Workgroup Edition foram descontinuadas. Como susbtituição foram introduzidas respectivamente a Ultimate Edition e a Growth Edition (ah... os nomes...). De forma muito resumida, a Ultimate Edition inclui tudo o que o Informix tem para oferecer com excepção da Storage Optimization Feature (compressão), e a Growth Edition exclui particionamento, funcionalidades de paralelismo, e compressão (inclui Enterprise Replication e clustering - até dois nós secundários em modo leitura/escrita - ) e está limitada a 4 sockets ou 16 cores e 16GB de RAM (soma do total de memória atribuída ao Informix em cada instalação).
Mas as grandes novidades são a introdução de duas novas edições: Innovator-C (disponível para todas as plataformas) e a Ultimate-C para Windows e MacOS. Mas o que têm de não diferente estas edições "-C"?:
Outras edições permanecem como existiam: Developer Edition e Express Edition.
Portanto agora temos uma base de dados gratuita com algumas limitações, mas que se aplica a muitos cenários. Significará isto que a IBM perderá vendas? Não necessariamente. É claro que pode comprar-se suporte. Quem implementar soluções criticas sobre estas edições de gratuito irá provavelmente desejar ter suporte. Por outro lado isto deverá aumentar a penetração e reconhecimento do Informix no mercado. Estas edições poderão ser o par perfeito para a iniciativa de open source. Poderia falar de várias situações que levaram algumas empresas e usar mySQL ou Postgres simplesmente por causa do custo. Muitos destes cenários poderiam enquadrar-se nas possíveis utilizações destas versões. Isto torna a iniciativa de Open Source ainda mais relevante agora. As melhorias no Hibernate são um excelente sinal e depois de uma troca de impressões com um parceiro local penso que outros projectos Open Source deveriam receber atenção da iniciativa. Felizmente muitos deles já se encontram listados no website da iniciativa.
Outra boa melhoria (deveria chamar-lhe uma correcção) efectuada foi ao nível da usabilidade no website do Informix. Se aceder a http://ibm.com/software/data/informix, ou simplesmente http://ibm.com/informix ou até http://www.informix.com, irá ser redireccionado para uma página com uma ligação para "downloads". A partir daí pode navegar facilmente numa lista de downloads disponíveis.
Onde pode obter mais informação sobre este tema?:
NOTA [ 22 Julho de 2010]: Este artigo está desactualizado! As edições Ultimate-C para Windows e Mac foram retiradas. A versão Innovator-C ficará disponível para todas as plataformas e surge uma nova edição (Choice), com custos de licenciamento menores que a Growth Edition e com limites que se situam entre a Innovator-C e a Growth Edition.
Artigo com as últimas alterações:
http://informix-technology.blogspot.com/2010/07/informix-editions-revisited-versoes.html
Cumprimentos
- I wanted to reach a wider audience
- I believe most Portuguese IT workers are used to read English, so it would not be hard for them to follow this (ignoring my English mistakes of course)
----- Portuguese from here on.... -----------------------
Introdução:
Bom, para quem teve o trabalho de ler a introdução acima em Inglês por favor ignore este paràgrafo. Para os restantes basicamente a introdução serve para explicar que apesar de a lingua do blog ser o Inglês é provável que comece a publicar alguma informação em Português. A razão porque escolhi o Inglês para escrever o blog foi porque tenho a ideia que em Portugal a maioria das pessoas que trabalham em informática não se importam de ler Inglês e assim consegui uma audiência maior. Na conferência de utilizadores deste ano tive oportunidade de trocar impressões com membros Brasileiros da comunidade Informix e eles deram-me a ideia que há muita gente para quem este assunto não é indiferente e portanto existe muita gente que por um motivo ou outro preferem ou restringem-se aos conteúdos em Português. Assim, e porque o tema do último artigo é realmente muito importante, tomo-o como o ponto de partida para algumas entradas em Português no blog.
Novas edições do Informix
Como já terão tido oportunidade de ler ou ouvido comentar, a partir do dia 25 de maio de 2010 a IBM reformulou a oferta das várias edições do Informix.
Portanto algumas das edições a que estávamos habituados deixaram de estar disponíveis. Nomeadamente a Enterprise Edition e a Workgroup Edition foram descontinuadas. Como susbtituição foram introduzidas respectivamente a Ultimate Edition e a Growth Edition (ah... os nomes...). De forma muito resumida, a Ultimate Edition inclui tudo o que o Informix tem para oferecer com excepção da Storage Optimization Feature (compressão), e a Growth Edition exclui particionamento, funcionalidades de paralelismo, e compressão (inclui Enterprise Replication e clustering - até dois nós secundários em modo leitura/escrita - ) e está limitada a 4 sockets ou 16 cores e 16GB de RAM (soma do total de memória atribuída ao Informix em cada instalação).
Mas as grandes novidades são a introdução de duas novas edições: Innovator-C (disponível para todas as plataformas) e a Ultimate-C para Windows e MacOS. Mas o que têm de não diferente estas edições "-C"?:
- Pode fazer o download, desenvolver e colocar em produção sem custos de licenciamento
- Pode adquirir suporte
- Apesar de terem limites nos recursos que podem utilizar, mas esses limites são razoáveis (certamente haverá opiniões contrárias)
- Download livre e sem custos
- Pode ser usada para desenvolvimento sem custos
- Pode ser utilizada em produção
- Está disponível para todas as plataformas suportadas pelo Informix
- Limitada a 2GB de RAM (soma de toda a memória atribuída ao Informix por cada instalação), 1 socket ou 4 cores, sem limites de espaço usado em disco
- Dois nós de Enterprise Replication
- HDR (1 nó secundário em modo de leitura/escrita)
- Funcionalidades não disponíveis: Compressão, Continuous Availability Feature ( CAF - shared disk secondaries - nós secundários com discos partilhados), particionamento, funcionalidades de paralelismo, Advanced Access Control (LBAC), Informix Warehouse e múltiplos nós secundários, encriptação de colunas, queries distríbuídas (I-Star) e outras funcionalidades (detalhes na licença)
- Suporte opcional
- Download livre e sem custos
- Pode ser usada para desenvolvimento sem custos
- Pode ser utilizada em produção
- Está disponível apenas para Windows e MacOS
- Limitada a 16GB de RAM (soma de toda a memória atribuída ao Informix por cada instalação), 4 sockets ou 16 cores, sem limites de espaço usado em disco
- Enterprise Replication totalmente funcional
- HDR (1 nó secundário em modo de leitura/escrita)
- Particionamento
- Paralelismo
- Nós secundários em modo leitura/escrita
- Warehouse Feature (ETL)
- Advanced Access Control (LBAC)
- Informix Warehouse Tool (SQW)
- Funcionalidades não disponíveis: Compressão, Continuous Availability Feature ( CAF - shared disk secondaries - nós secundários com discos partilhados)
- Suporte opcional
Outras edições permanecem como existiam: Developer Edition e Express Edition.
Portanto agora temos uma base de dados gratuita com algumas limitações, mas que se aplica a muitos cenários. Significará isto que a IBM perderá vendas? Não necessariamente. É claro que pode comprar-se suporte. Quem implementar soluções criticas sobre estas edições de gratuito irá provavelmente desejar ter suporte. Por outro lado isto deverá aumentar a penetração e reconhecimento do Informix no mercado. Estas edições poderão ser o par perfeito para a iniciativa de open source. Poderia falar de várias situações que levaram algumas empresas e usar mySQL ou Postgres simplesmente por causa do custo. Muitos destes cenários poderiam enquadrar-se nas possíveis utilizações destas versões. Isto torna a iniciativa de Open Source ainda mais relevante agora. As melhorias no Hibernate são um excelente sinal e depois de uma troca de impressões com um parceiro local penso que outros projectos Open Source deveriam receber atenção da iniciativa. Felizmente muitos deles já se encontram listados no website da iniciativa.
Outra boa melhoria (deveria chamar-lhe uma correcção) efectuada foi ao nível da usabilidade no website do Informix. Se aceder a http://ibm.com/software/data/informix, ou simplesmente http://ibm.com/informix ou até http://www.informix.com, irá ser redireccionado para uma página com uma ligação para "downloads". A partir daí pode navegar facilmente numa lista de downloads disponíveis.
Onde pode obter mais informação sobre este tema?:
- http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/
Website do produto (se aceder a http://www.informix.com/ será redireccionado - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/br/data/library/techarticle/dm-0801doe/
Comparação entre as várias edições (pode ainda estar desactualizado. Se tal acontecer consulte a versão em Inglês: https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0801doe/) - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/innovator-c-edition/
Website da edição Innovator-C - http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ultimate-c-edition-windows/
Website da edição Ultimate-C - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/growth-edition/
Website da edição Growth - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ultimate-edition/
Website da edição Ultimate - http://www.ibm.com/software/sla/
Licenças de software - http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=877&letternum=ENUSZP10-0238
Carta de anuncio para a região EMEA - ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/pm/br/n/imb14078usen/IMB14078USEN.PDF
PDF com alguma informação sobre as versões - http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21431901
Migração de entitlement para clientes IBM que usam produtos Informix
NOTA [ 22 Julho de 2010]: Este artigo está desactualizado! As edições Ultimate-C para Windows e Mac foram retiradas. A versão Innovator-C ficará disponível para todas as plataformas e surge uma nova edição (Choice), com custos de licenciamento menores que a Growth Edition e com limites que se situam entre a Innovator-C e a Growth Edition.
Artigo com as últimas alterações:
http://informix-technology.blogspot.com/2010/07/informix-editions-revisited-versoes.html
Cumprimentos
Glance to the Rescue
While I have been using Glance for awhile now and tend to use it to do webinars, many of you may not know you can also use it to view and take control of your colleagues computer. Just this morning I was able to send my colleague a link and within seconds I was viewing their computer and able to help diagnose the problem he was having. The experience went very smoothly and it was as if I was sitting next to my colleague clicking their mouse and using their computer. While I was not able to initially solve my colleagues problem seeing what was happening allowed me to think about the issue and hopefully tomorrow morning I will get another chance to do a another session and resolve my colleagues issue. I will let you know what happens. But all in all Glance is a handy tool to have access to not only for webinars but for jumping in and doing technical support.Postscript: This morning I took control of my colleagues computer and successfully resolved the issue, it took about 30 seconds- with tools like this, it makes me look good.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
New Informix editions: Bargain time? [ Please check end note and new article]
Again a non technical post. I'm really sorry about that... I still don't have enough free time and things are hapening that can't be ignored in this blog....
Before I start, a disclaimer: This post is by no means IBM official information. Please check the URLs given as reference and in case of doubt contact your local IBM sales representative.
So, you may have read it elsewhere, because it's all over the Informix related sites and forums: IBM did a total repackaging of the Informix product. That means that the different versions that we were used to have are gone (not all). Starting today there will be no more "enterprise edition" nor "workgroup edition". In their place there will be respectively the Ultimate Edition and the Growth Edition (oh... the names....). In very simple words, Ultimate Edition packs everything Informix has to offer except the Storage Optimization Feature (compression), and the Growth Edition excludes the partitioning, parallel features and compression (includes ER and clustering - up to two secondary nodes read/write - ) and is limited to 4 sockets or 16 cores and 16GB of RAM (sum of total memory allocated to Informix in a single install).
But the really great news are the introduction of two more editions: Innovator-C edition (available for all platforms) and Ultimate-C Edition for Windows and MacOS platforms. Now, what is so great about these "*-C" versions?:
Other editions stay as they were: Developer Edition and Express Edition.
So now we have a free (as in beer, not free as in speech) database with some limitations, but probably usefull for a lot of scenarios. Will this mean that IBM will loose revenue? Not necessarily. It's clear that you can buy support. If you implement some critical applications on these "freely downloadable" editions it's probable that you'll want support. On the other hand, this should increase Informix presence and awareness in the market. These versions may be a perfect match for the Open Source initiative. I could name a lot of situations where I saw companies use mySQL or Postgres simply for cost reasons. Many of those scenarios would fit the usage cases for these new editions. So the initiative gains a lot more relevance now. The improvements in Hibernate are a very good sign and after some talks with a local partner I think other open source projects should receive attention. Thankfully many of them are already listed in the Open Source Initiative website.
Another good improvement (I'd better call it a fix of course) was the usability of the Informix web home. If you access http://ibm.com/software/data/informix or simply http://www.informix.com, you're end up on a page with a link for "downloads". From there you can easily navigate to a new list of Informix available downloads.
Where can you gather more information?:
NOTE: [ July 22, 2010 ]: This article is outdated! The Ultimate-C editions for Windows and Mac OS were withdrawn. The Innovator-C will be available for all platforms and a new edition (Choice) will appear. This will have lower license costs than Growth Edition, and limits between the Innovator-C and the Growth Edition.
Article with the last changes:
http://informix-technology.blogspot.com/2010/07/informix-editions-revisited-versoes.html
Regards
Before I start, a disclaimer: This post is by no means IBM official information. Please check the URLs given as reference and in case of doubt contact your local IBM sales representative.
So, you may have read it elsewhere, because it's all over the Informix related sites and forums: IBM did a total repackaging of the Informix product. That means that the different versions that we were used to have are gone (not all). Starting today there will be no more "enterprise edition" nor "workgroup edition". In their place there will be respectively the Ultimate Edition and the Growth Edition (oh... the names....). In very simple words, Ultimate Edition packs everything Informix has to offer except the Storage Optimization Feature (compression), and the Growth Edition excludes the partitioning, parallel features and compression (includes ER and clustering - up to two secondary nodes read/write - ) and is limited to 4 sockets or 16 cores and 16GB of RAM (sum of total memory allocated to Informix in a single install).
But the really great news are the introduction of two more editions: Innovator-C edition (available for all platforms) and Ultimate-C Edition for Windows and MacOS platforms. Now, what is so great about these "*-C" versions?:
- You can download, develop and deploy without licensing costs
- You can choose to buy support
- Although there are resource limits these are reasonable (there will be other opinions....)
- Free to download
- Free to develop
- Free to deploy
- Available generally for all platforms
- Limited to 2GB of RAM (sum of total memory allocated to Informix in a single install), 1 socket or 4 cores, no storage limits
- Enterprise replication (2 nodes)
- HDR (1 secondary read/write)
- Features not available: Compression, Continuous Availability Feature (CAF - Shared disks secondaries), partitioning, parallel features, Advanced Access Control (LBAC), Informix Warehouse, multiple secondaries, column encryption, distributed queries (I-Star) and some other functionality (check the details in the license)
- Optional support
- Free to download
- Free to develop
- Free to deploy
- Available only on Windows and Mac OS
- Limited to 16GB of RAM (sum of total memory allocated to Informix in a single install), 4 sockets or 16 cores
- Full Enterprise Replication
- HDR (1 secondary read/write)
- Partitioning
- Parallelism
- Read/Write secondary nodes
- Includes Informix Warehouse Feature
- Advanced Access Control (LBAC)
- Informix Warehouse Tool (SQW)
- Features not available: Compression, Continuos Availability Feature (CAF - Shared disks secondaries)
- Optional Support
Other editions stay as they were: Developer Edition and Express Edition.
So now we have a free (as in beer, not free as in speech) database with some limitations, but probably usefull for a lot of scenarios. Will this mean that IBM will loose revenue? Not necessarily. It's clear that you can buy support. If you implement some critical applications on these "freely downloadable" editions it's probable that you'll want support. On the other hand, this should increase Informix presence and awareness in the market. These versions may be a perfect match for the Open Source initiative. I could name a lot of situations where I saw companies use mySQL or Postgres simply for cost reasons. Many of those scenarios would fit the usage cases for these new editions. So the initiative gains a lot more relevance now. The improvements in Hibernate are a very good sign and after some talks with a local partner I think other open source projects should receive attention. Thankfully many of them are already listed in the Open Source Initiative website.
Another good improvement (I'd better call it a fix of course) was the usability of the Informix web home. If you access http://ibm.com/software/data/informix or simply http://www.informix.com, you're end up on a page with a link for "downloads". From there you can easily navigate to a new list of Informix available downloads.
Where can you gather more information?:
- http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/
The product website (if you access http://www.informix.com/ you will be reditected - https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/data/library/techarticle/dm-0801doe/
The comparison between different Informix Editions - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/innovator-c-edition/
Innovator-C site - http://www.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ultimate-c-edition-windows/
Ultimate-C site - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/growth-edition/
Growth Edition site - http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/informix/ultimate-edition/
Ultimate Edition site - http://www.ibm.com/software/sla/
Software license agreements - http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=877&letternum=ENUSZP10-0238
EMEA announcement letter - ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/pm/br/n/imb14078usen/IMB14078USEN.PDF
PDF with some info about the different versions - http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21431901
Software License Entitlement Migration for IBM Customers using Informix products
NOTE: [ July 22, 2010 ]: This article is outdated! The Ultimate-C editions for Windows and Mac OS were withdrawn. The Innovator-C will be available for all platforms and a new edition (Choice) will appear. This will have lower license costs than Growth Edition, and limits between the Innovator-C and the Growth Edition.
Article with the last changes:
http://informix-technology.blogspot.com/2010/07/informix-editions-revisited-versoes.html
Regards
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Post weekly (weekly)
"Abstract: This paper reports on the design, development, and application of a Checklist intended to assist educators in recognizing strengths and weaknesses in their technology-based programs at their institutions. The Checklist sampled public and private schools to validate the existence and impact of the Technology Facade. Initial findings indicate that schools have masked the effective use of computers labs and classroom computers behind the auspices of teacher activities, student participation, and parental involvement. The study and suggests possible courses of action to address deficiencies in the use of technology, the construction of the necessary infrastructure, and the design of a viable instructional strategy."
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
First Species whose parent is a computer!
If that's all you heard, "This is the first self-replicating species we've had on this planet whose parent is a computer.", what would you think? Would you be concerned about the end of mankind? Inevitable doom? Would you think about the potential for good? The cure for diseases, or a species that eats oil, maybe? Would you worry that it would become an invasive species that we couldn't stop, or would you be full of hope for Alzheimer patients and cancer patients and diabetics?
What would your students feel?
How advanced is science? Well, when they became concerned that they wouldn't be able to distinguish real DNA from synthetic DNA they decided to put "watermarks" in the synthetic DNA. Let that sink in a bit.
How's this for a writing prompt idea? This video is not likely to keep many high school students awake, but your favorite science teacher can easily explain it to the students well enough to have them understand what's going on. Then, let them brainstorm about possible good results of this technology and then possible bad results. Bring those lists together, then ask them to write a paragraph or two about where they stand on the idea. Provide a rubric on what you're looking for in the assignment, of course, and let them write.
Here's the video:
What would your students feel?
How advanced is science? Well, when they became concerned that they wouldn't be able to distinguish real DNA from synthetic DNA they decided to put "watermarks" in the synthetic DNA. Let that sink in a bit.
How's this for a writing prompt idea? This video is not likely to keep many high school students awake, but your favorite science teacher can easily explain it to the students well enough to have them understand what's going on. Then, let them brainstorm about possible good results of this technology and then possible bad results. Bring those lists together, then ask them to write a paragraph or two about where they stand on the idea. Provide a rubric on what you're looking for in the assignment, of course, and let them write.
Here's the video:
Moving from Mind Mapping to Knowledge Mapping
Much can be said about the benefits of using mind mapping software for the personal, academic, and business needs that many of us have. I know for myself that I greatly benefit from using mind mapping software on a daily basis to plan workshops, overview my content for courses, and for managing projects that I am working on. Using mind mapping software makes me more effective at the work I do and allows me to share information in a rich graphical way that resonates with my colleagues. For me, having access to the tools and techniques of mind mapping provides me a rich palette of tools to draw from when I am doing the work that I do. While using mind mapping software in traditional ways has been quite effective for me- my eyes were opened to a whole new way at looking at mind mapping when I learned about a product called Context Organizer about two years ago.
Context Organizer is a summarization tool that can extract summaries from PDF's, Word, and from URL's. With a click of the mouse I can have Context Organizer a MindManager add-in, build me a rich in information map. When I first tried Context Organizer I couldn't believe how fast I could produce my map filled with contextualized information, I was interested in researching. And so that was the "aha" moment for me going from "mind mapping" in a traditional sense to "knowledge mapping" with a click of the mouse. Going from a blank mind mapping canvas to a completed "knowledge map" was quite exciting to see. Imagine the power I felt having all this information in my map that I could organize and structure the way I wanted. This is the true power of knowledge mapping. The synergy between Context Organizer working within MindManager is exquisite giving the user the opportunity to reorganize information as they see fit. As a Professor of Education I am constantly doing research to keep abreast of new trends in special education and assistive technology and have come to rely on Context Organizer to comb the web looking for new information. Developing my own knowledge maps helps me to see the big picture and look at the current trends in the field and gives me a point of access to determine if I need to read the original articles.
Since the release of Context Organizer for MindManager, Context Organizer has evolved and now works in the cloud with an online mind mapping application called Comapping. Comapping works within the browser and the user with a annual subscription can access their maps and collaborate in real time with any browser and a connection to the web. This is a true paradigm shift and one that all of us are weighing as we begin to dip our toes into the cloud. For me having access to my maps whenever I am connected to the web is quite powerful and I have come to utilize Comapping more and more in the work that I do. But more importantly, I have been able to use Comapping with Context Organizer which has been seamlessly integrated into the application. Now I can attach Word and PDF files to my Comapping maps and have them summarized within seconds. An even more powerful feature is being able to attach a URL link to a branch on my map and have the entire contents of the website summarized. For researchers this is an incredible tool and one that you should take a look at. Now I can develop my personal "knowledge maps' that I can store online in a mapping tool that allows me to organize the information the way I want.
Looking ahead Context Organizer is moving to a soon to be announced portal that will enable
users to type in a URL which will then return key words and a summary. This new tool called Web Summarizer will give you the capability to type a URL and have the information instantly summarized complete with key words. You will also be able to search your knowledge database to find links to the information you are interested in. With Web Summarizer you will be able to build you own knowledge databases and when you are done you will be able to export the summaries to your mind mapping application-creating the perfect repository for your information set.
So at least for myself, I am using a new term called "Knowledge Mapping" to share with you a new way to think about mind mapping and handling vast amounts of information that can be personalized to meet your needs. If you are interested in learning more how you can handle the information overload with these tools send me an email and I would be glad to share with you how your business or school could benefit from using "knowledge mapping." So happy "Knowlwdge Mapping."
Context Organizer is a summarization tool that can extract summaries from PDF's, Word, and from URL's. With a click of the mouse I can have Context Organizer a MindManager add-in, build me a rich in information map. When I first tried Context Organizer I couldn't believe how fast I could produce my map filled with contextualized information, I was interested in researching. And so that was the "aha" moment for me going from "mind mapping" in a traditional sense to "knowledge mapping" with a click of the mouse. Going from a blank mind mapping canvas to a completed "knowledge map" was quite exciting to see. Imagine the power I felt having all this information in my map that I could organize and structure the way I wanted. This is the true power of knowledge mapping. The synergy between Context Organizer working within MindManager is exquisite giving the user the opportunity to reorganize information as they see fit. As a Professor of Education I am constantly doing research to keep abreast of new trends in special education and assistive technology and have come to rely on Context Organizer to comb the web looking for new information. Developing my own knowledge maps helps me to see the big picture and look at the current trends in the field and gives me a point of access to determine if I need to read the original articles.
Since the release of Context Organizer for MindManager, Context Organizer has evolved and now works in the cloud with an online mind mapping application called Comapping. Comapping works within the browser and the user with a annual subscription can access their maps and collaborate in real time with any browser and a connection to the web. This is a true paradigm shift and one that all of us are weighing as we begin to dip our toes into the cloud. For me having access to my maps whenever I am connected to the web is quite powerful and I have come to utilize Comapping more and more in the work that I do. But more importantly, I have been able to use Comapping with Context Organizer which has been seamlessly integrated into the application. Now I can attach Word and PDF files to my Comapping maps and have them summarized within seconds. An even more powerful feature is being able to attach a URL link to a branch on my map and have the entire contents of the website summarized. For researchers this is an incredible tool and one that you should take a look at. Now I can develop my personal "knowledge maps' that I can store online in a mapping tool that allows me to organize the information the way I want.
Looking ahead Context Organizer is moving to a soon to be announced portal that will enable
users to type in a URL which will then return key words and a summary. This new tool called Web Summarizer will give you the capability to type a URL and have the information instantly summarized complete with key words. You will also be able to search your knowledge database to find links to the information you are interested in. With Web Summarizer you will be able to build you own knowledge databases and when you are done you will be able to export the summaries to your mind mapping application-creating the perfect repository for your information set.So at least for myself, I am using a new term called "Knowledge Mapping" to share with you a new way to think about mind mapping and handling vast amounts of information that can be personalized to meet your needs. If you are interested in learning more how you can handle the information overload with these tools send me an email and I would be glad to share with you how your business or school could benefit from using "knowledge mapping." So happy "Knowlwdge Mapping."
Sunday, May 16, 2010
xPaper - Great Digital Pen Solution
I have been a long time user of digital pen technologies and am always amazed by its feature set and simplicity. At the core of digital pen technologies is Anoto functionality which gives software developers the tools to create innovative solutions. For the past several years I have been using a solution from Talario called xPaper. In it latest iteration xPaper, lets you print your forms on ordinary paper and write on the form with the digital pen. Once the pen is docked the ink is automatically downloaded to the form and within seconds you have a crystal clear PDF of your contents that you are ready to add to your work flow.
xPaper is comprised of several different components; the xPaper software, the xPaper printer driver, and a commercially licensed digital pen. Once you load the xPaper software and XPaper
printer driver you are ready to get started. You simply open any form on your computer and using the xPaper printer driver you print the form on your color printer. Talario has a list of suggested and approved printers that can be used with their solution on their web site. Once the form is printed you will notice a light watermark dot pattern on your print out. These dots allow the digital pen, which has a camera at the base to know exactly where the ink is being written. It is quite ingenious to say the least. Now all you have to do is write on the paper and dock the pen to see the results. Within seconds the ink appears on the form and you are ready to add it to your work flow. Talario has a number of Connectors that let you decide what you would like to do with the form that is stored in the xPaper application. Using one of the connectors you could easily send the PDF to your Gmail account or FTP it to your server. In any case with a couple of clicks of the mouse you can transpose your form into a digital document and archive it.
This past semester I was teaching a graduate course in Action Research and utilized xPaper to record my biweekly meetings with my students as I mentored them through the process. To get started, I printed my Conference Log Sheet with xPaper and once the students met with me I would record our session notes with the digital pen along with my expectations for our next meeting. When my student's left our meeting I would hand them the form as a review of the session for them as a take away and then I would dock my pen so that I had a record of the meeting. xPaper worked flawlessly and many of my students remarked at the end of the semester that having the progress notes really helped them to move through the process. Using xPaper saved me a great deal of time, energy, and paper. Having my students' archived notes on my computer that I could quickly access worked out extremely well for me as well. Now that we are in the process of accreditation it is great that I can archive this information.
If you are looking for ways to add digital pen and paper solutions to your work flow send me an email and I can share with you how you can use Xpaper in the work that you do to increase efficiency. xPaper is ideal for anyone who uses forms on a daily basis and needs a way to move them to the computer for backup and archival purposes.
xPaper is comprised of several different components; the xPaper software, the xPaper printer driver, and a commercially licensed digital pen. Once you load the xPaper software and XPaper
printer driver you are ready to get started. You simply open any form on your computer and using the xPaper printer driver you print the form on your color printer. Talario has a list of suggested and approved printers that can be used with their solution on their web site. Once the form is printed you will notice a light watermark dot pattern on your print out. These dots allow the digital pen, which has a camera at the base to know exactly where the ink is being written. It is quite ingenious to say the least. Now all you have to do is write on the paper and dock the pen to see the results. Within seconds the ink appears on the form and you are ready to add it to your work flow. Talario has a number of Connectors that let you decide what you would like to do with the form that is stored in the xPaper application. Using one of the connectors you could easily send the PDF to your Gmail account or FTP it to your server. In any case with a couple of clicks of the mouse you can transpose your form into a digital document and archive it.This past semester I was teaching a graduate course in Action Research and utilized xPaper to record my biweekly meetings with my students as I mentored them through the process. To get started, I printed my Conference Log Sheet with xPaper and once the students met with me I would record our session notes with the digital pen along with my expectations for our next meeting. When my student's left our meeting I would hand them the form as a review of the session for them as a take away and then I would dock my pen so that I had a record of the meeting. xPaper worked flawlessly and many of my students remarked at the end of the semester that having the progress notes really helped them to move through the process. Using xPaper saved me a great deal of time, energy, and paper. Having my students' archived notes on my computer that I could quickly access worked out extremely well for me as well. Now that we are in the process of accreditation it is great that I can archive this information.
If you are looking for ways to add digital pen and paper solutions to your work flow send me an email and I can share with you how you can use Xpaper in the work that you do to increase efficiency. xPaper is ideal for anyone who uses forms on a daily basis and needs a way to move them to the computer for backup and archival purposes.
How to Get Notified When Someone Hacks Your Facebook
Facebook just announced a tool that notifies you by e-mail or SMS text message when someone logs into your Facebook profile from an unknown computer.
The idea is to help you recognize when a hacker has broken into your account so you can respond quickly by either changing your password (if that’s still possible) or contacting Facebook.
Once you enable the notifications, you’ll be required to identify each computer you use to log in when you first use it and choose whether or not it’s a private or public machine. You’ll be able to see a history of registrations from machines potentially used by hackers, and of course those hackers will be forced to type something into the identification field to get in, so you should be able to tell whether it was just a login that you forgot or not.
Here’s a quick guide to turning this feature on and using it.
Step 1: Go to Account Settings and Enable Notifications
When you’re logged into Facebook, you’ll see the word “Account” in the top right corner of the browser window. Click there to get a drop-down menu of options, then click on “Account Settings,” as pictured below.
You’ll end up looking at a page that lists ways you can customize your account, including “Name,” “Password,” “Linked Accounts” and “more.” As long as you don’t navigate away from the “Settings” tab, you’ll see “Account Security” close to the bottom of the list. Click “change” on the right to show the following option:
Check “Yes” when you see the prompt, “Would you like to receive notifications for logins from new devices?” Then click “Save.” The feature is turned on. Now we’ll show you how to use it.
Step 2: Log In and Register Your Computer
The settings won’t be customizable until you register the computer you’re logged in with, so you’ll have to first log out and then log back in. You can do this from the “Accounts” button in the top-right corner, as we mentioned before. When you log in again, you’ll see a screen titled “Register this computer.”
Type the name of the computer in (it can be anything you want as long as it’s something you’ll recognize and remember), and choose whether you want Facebook to remember this computer or not.
Facebook suggests a good rule of thumb: If the computer is a public one (like one you’d use at a library, a shared work computer or a machine in your school’s computer lab), leave the box unchecked so it will have to be registered each time a new login occurs, leading to an e-mail or text notification.
If it’s a machine you use every day, then go ahead and check the box; you probably don’t want to receive an email every time you log into Facebook from a safe place!
Now that your computer is registered, you can see more options when you revisit the “Account Settings” page where you first enabled the notifications. You’ll see a history of registrations; it won’t record every time you log into a computer that’s already registered, but it will record every new registration, which should include at least the first time any hacker logs in.
You can check or uncheck the option to have the immediate notifications sent to your cell phone via text message in addition to the basic email option.
The idea is to help you recognize when a hacker has broken into your account so you can respond quickly by either changing your password (if that’s still possible) or contacting Facebook.
Once you enable the notifications, you’ll be required to identify each computer you use to log in when you first use it and choose whether or not it’s a private or public machine. You’ll be able to see a history of registrations from machines potentially used by hackers, and of course those hackers will be forced to type something into the identification field to get in, so you should be able to tell whether it was just a login that you forgot or not.
Here’s a quick guide to turning this feature on and using it.
Step 1: Go to Account Settings and Enable Notifications
When you’re logged into Facebook, you’ll see the word “Account” in the top right corner of the browser window. Click there to get a drop-down menu of options, then click on “Account Settings,” as pictured below.
You’ll end up looking at a page that lists ways you can customize your account, including “Name,” “Password,” “Linked Accounts” and “more.” As long as you don’t navigate away from the “Settings” tab, you’ll see “Account Security” close to the bottom of the list. Click “change” on the right to show the following option:
Check “Yes” when you see the prompt, “Would you like to receive notifications for logins from new devices?” Then click “Save.” The feature is turned on. Now we’ll show you how to use it.
Step 2: Log In and Register Your Computer
The settings won’t be customizable until you register the computer you’re logged in with, so you’ll have to first log out and then log back in. You can do this from the “Accounts” button in the top-right corner, as we mentioned before. When you log in again, you’ll see a screen titled “Register this computer.”
Type the name of the computer in (it can be anything you want as long as it’s something you’ll recognize and remember), and choose whether you want Facebook to remember this computer or not.
Facebook suggests a good rule of thumb: If the computer is a public one (like one you’d use at a library, a shared work computer or a machine in your school’s computer lab), leave the box unchecked so it will have to be registered each time a new login occurs, leading to an e-mail or text notification.
If it’s a machine you use every day, then go ahead and check the box; you probably don’t want to receive an email every time you log into Facebook from a safe place!
Now that your computer is registered, you can see more options when you revisit the “Account Settings” page where you first enabled the notifications. You’ll see a history of registrations; it won’t record every time you log into a computer that’s already registered, but it will record every new registration, which should include at least the first time any hacker logs in.
You can check or uncheck the option to have the immediate notifications sent to your cell phone via text message in addition to the basic email option.
Posted in: Facebook
TweetDeck Heading to Mobile Web Browsers
Popular Twitter client TweetDeck announced today its plans to make TweetDeck into a browser-based mobile application that can run on a variety of devices. By focusing on building an application for the mobile browser — rather than native platforms — TweetDeck hopes it can get on more devices and increase efficiency in the process.
TweetDeck (TweetDeck) already has apps for the iPhone (iPhone) and iPad, with plans for an Android (Android) app also in the works. However, for the hundreds of millions of smartphones out there that aren’t iPhone or Android models, the development process is more complicated, and thus a web app is a better alternative.
By creating a web app, TweetDeck will be able to support Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian and webOS handsets. The mobile web app strategy has other benefits too, including improved battery life and overall performance.
Right now, it looks like TweetDeck is building a basic mobile website that will provide custom hooks for JavaScript and CSS for different platforms. That way the Palm Pre, which has a more advanced browser than, say, a BlackBerry Curve 8320, can offer its users a more interactive and robust experience. The BlackBerry user can still enjoy the app, but it will be tailored to the device’s screen size and browser capabilities.
Fits with TweetDeck’s Overall Vision
Tweekdeck’s plan for a mobile web app aligns well the company’s desktop application strategy. Built using Adobe Air (adobe AIR), TweetDeck is designed to be cross-platform — it can run on Macs as well as PCs running Windows (Windows) or Linux (Linux). However, just as TweetDeck plans to make concessions and adjustments for mobile platforms, the company has also made tweaks with its desktop product to improve performance in different environments (like in Mac OS X).
There are pros and cons to doing cross-platform development on a shared codebase, but for development teams with more limited resources, the approach is attractive because it lets developers focus more on making iterative improvements to the software rather than creating and maintaining separate programs for each platform.
If anything, this strategy works even better in the mobile browsing space, not just because of the way that different platforms and rendering engines can be targeted, but also because of the additional level of overhead involved with mobile app creation. Each application has its own platform, its own app store, its own rules and procedures for issuing updates, and its own set of supported operating systems. It’s much easier to build an application targeted for mobile browsers and then add or omit features based on what type of device is accessing the page.
If you’re interested in beta testing TweetDeck for mobile browsers, you can throw your hat in the ring by replying to this support ticket.
We’re not sure how TweetDeck for the mobile web will measure up against native mobile apps, but it will certainly make the application available on many more devices.
TweetDeck (TweetDeck) already has apps for the iPhone (iPhone) and iPad, with plans for an Android (Android) app also in the works. However, for the hundreds of millions of smartphones out there that aren’t iPhone or Android models, the development process is more complicated, and thus a web app is a better alternative.
By creating a web app, TweetDeck will be able to support Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Symbian and webOS handsets. The mobile web app strategy has other benefits too, including improved battery life and overall performance.
Right now, it looks like TweetDeck is building a basic mobile website that will provide custom hooks for JavaScript and CSS for different platforms. That way the Palm Pre, which has a more advanced browser than, say, a BlackBerry Curve 8320, can offer its users a more interactive and robust experience. The BlackBerry user can still enjoy the app, but it will be tailored to the device’s screen size and browser capabilities.
Fits with TweetDeck’s Overall Vision
Tweekdeck’s plan for a mobile web app aligns well the company’s desktop application strategy. Built using Adobe Air (adobe AIR), TweetDeck is designed to be cross-platform — it can run on Macs as well as PCs running Windows (Windows) or Linux (Linux). However, just as TweetDeck plans to make concessions and adjustments for mobile platforms, the company has also made tweaks with its desktop product to improve performance in different environments (like in Mac OS X).
There are pros and cons to doing cross-platform development on a shared codebase, but for development teams with more limited resources, the approach is attractive because it lets developers focus more on making iterative improvements to the software rather than creating and maintaining separate programs for each platform.
If anything, this strategy works even better in the mobile browsing space, not just because of the way that different platforms and rendering engines can be targeted, but also because of the additional level of overhead involved with mobile app creation. Each application has its own platform, its own app store, its own rules and procedures for issuing updates, and its own set of supported operating systems. It’s much easier to build an application targeted for mobile browsers and then add or omit features based on what type of device is accessing the page.
If you’re interested in beta testing TweetDeck for mobile browsers, you can throw your hat in the ring by replying to this support ticket.
We’re not sure how TweetDeck for the mobile web will measure up against native mobile apps, but it will certainly make the application available on many more devices.
Top 10 Twitter Trends This Week [CHART]
There’s only one person who Twitter loves more than Justin Bieber, and that’s Mom. Her special day came in at number one on this week’s top trends list.
Even after the results of the UK’s general election were in, the new coalition government remained on the minds of many tweeters this week. Sports (sports), music and movies took home the rest of the list, which you can view below, courtesy of our friends at What The Trend. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart.
You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section as well as read more about this past week’s trends on What The Trend.
Top Twitter Trends This Week: 5/8 – 5/14
Even after the results of the UK’s general election were in, the new coalition government remained on the minds of many tweeters this week. Sports (sports), music and movies took home the rest of the list, which you can view below, courtesy of our friends at What The Trend. Because this is a topical list, hashtag memes and games have been omitted from the chart.
You can check past Twitter trends in our Top Twitter Topics section as well as read more about this past week’s trends on What The Trend.
Top Twitter Trends This Week: 5/8 – 5/14
Rank | Topic | Top Index This Week | Previous Peak Index | Description |
#1 | Mother’s Day | 1 | Mother’s Day was celebrated on Sunday May 9, 2010 (in Canada, USA, Australia (), Italy, Venezuela, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa & The Netherlands). | |
#2 | Justin Bieber | 1 | 1 | Justin Bieber & Charice appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show May 11th. |
#3 | GE2010 | 1 | 1 | In the UK, the Conservative Party has joined forces with the Liberal Democrats in a coalition government. |
#4 | Super Junior | 1 | BONAMANA is new single from Korean Boyband Super Junior. Their fans E.L.F (everlasting friends) are celebrating their comeback. | |
#5 | Soccer/Football | 1 | Cruzeiro lost to São Paulo. Chelsea FC played Wigan, and countries are announcing their FIFA World Cup lineup. | |
#6 | NBA | 1 | 2 | Fans tweeting about the NBA playoffs. LeBron James trended highest because of his sub par performance in the game against the Celtics. |
#7 | Iron Man 2 (Movie ()) | 2 | 4 | Iron Man 2, the sequel to the incredibly popular 2008 original, was released on May 7th in North America in both regular format and IMAX 3D formats. |
#8 | Jesus | 2 | People are thanking Jesus Christ. | |
#9 | Betty White | 1 | On 5/08/10, 88-year-old Betty White hosted SNL thanks to a campaign started on Facebook. | |
#10 | Robert Pattinson | 1 | It’s Robert Pattinson’s birthday. The English actor, best known for his role in the file "Twilight ()," turned 24. |
Twitter Improves Trending Topic Algorithm: Bye Bye, Bieber!
Twitter has updated the algorithm behind its popular Trending Topics feature, changing the focus from the most discussed items to what is “most breaking” and “immediately popular.”
Twitter confirmed to Mashable that on Wednesday it made updates to improve the relevancy of trending topics. In the past, trending topics were dominated by consistently popular items (e.g. Justin Bieber) with little regard as to what was “hot” at any given moment.
Here’s how Twitter explained the new changes in an update to the Help section:
“The new algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the ‘most breaking’ breaking news from across the world. (We had previously built in this ‘emergent’ algorithm for all local trends, described below.) We think that trending topics which capture the hottest emerging trends and topics of discussion on Twitter are the most interesting.”
Twitter quickly goes on to say that the algorithm is a “work in progress” — a.k.a. it’s not going to weed out every random trending topic or catch all breaking news. The company also makes it clear that the algorithm doesn’t block any topics from trending. This is essentially a response to the countless Justin Bieber fans complaining that Bieber is no longer a trending topic.
The move is a good one, but one the company should have made long ago. The value of trending topics has dropped for many over the last few years. Perhaps this change will make them relevant again.
Twitter confirmed to Mashable that on Wednesday it made updates to improve the relevancy of trending topics. In the past, trending topics were dominated by consistently popular items (e.g. Justin Bieber) with little regard as to what was “hot” at any given moment.
Here’s how Twitter explained the new changes in an update to the Help section:
“The new algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the ‘most breaking’ breaking news from across the world. (We had previously built in this ‘emergent’ algorithm for all local trends, described below.) We think that trending topics which capture the hottest emerging trends and topics of discussion on Twitter are the most interesting.”
Twitter quickly goes on to say that the algorithm is a “work in progress” — a.k.a. it’s not going to weed out every random trending topic or catch all breaking news. The company also makes it clear that the algorithm doesn’t block any topics from trending. This is essentially a response to the countless Justin Bieber fans complaining that Bieber is no longer a trending topic.
The move is a good one, but one the company should have made long ago. The value of trending topics has dropped for many over the last few years. Perhaps this change will make them relevant again.
New Entry-Level MacBook Leaked
A Vietnamese website — the same one that got hold of another Apple 4G iPhone last week — has posted a video and details about the new entry-level MacBook 7.1.
The machine’s CPU was upgraded to a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, increased from 2.26GHz in the previous generation, and graphics were given a shot in the arm with a NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU. These updates will be the first for the MacBook since October 2009, when the notebook got a longer battery life and overall design reworking.
Apple’s recent round of laptop refreshes has thus far included upgrades to the MacBook Pro, including a standard 4GB of RAM and a choice between Intel’s i5 and i7 processors on larger models. Similar CPU and graphics changes appear to be trickling down to standard MacBooks, as well. Upgrades to the MacBook Air were also rumored but have yet to surface as fact.
Here’s a video of the alleged new MacBook being unboxed and its specs discussed:
And here are the pics that put the proof in the alleged pudding:
The machine’s CPU was upgraded to a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, increased from 2.26GHz in the previous generation, and graphics were given a shot in the arm with a NVIDIA GeForce 320M GPU. These updates will be the first for the MacBook since October 2009, when the notebook got a longer battery life and overall design reworking.
Apple’s recent round of laptop refreshes has thus far included upgrades to the MacBook Pro, including a standard 4GB of RAM and a choice between Intel’s i5 and i7 processors on larger models. Similar CPU and graphics changes appear to be trickling down to standard MacBooks, as well. Upgrades to the MacBook Air were also rumored but have yet to surface as fact.
Here’s a video of the alleged new MacBook being unboxed and its specs discussed:
And here are the pics that put the proof in the alleged pudding:
Posted in: Technology news
Happy 50th birthday to the laser
It was dismissed by some scientists as "a solution looking for a problem."
But when the first working laser was rolled out 50 years ago this week -- developed at California's Hughes Research Laboratory -- it didn't take long for the hyperfocused beams of light to find work.
Having fascinated science-fiction fans since the origins of ray guns in the late 1800s, lasers (literally "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation") have become common in modern life.
From talking on the telephone to listening to a CD, laser technology makes a lot of what we do happen.
"Everyone has some sort of connection every single day to lasers -- even if most people have no idea what that connection is," said Mark Bronski, manager of laser production at German-based TRUMPF Inc., the largest manufacturer of industrial lasers in North America.
Regret that bad tattoo from the '80s? Want to watch a DVD or listen to a compact disc? Tired of your eyeglasses or contacts?
A laser can help.
And, remember those Pink Floyd concerts with mind-altering laser light shows?
In basic terms, a laser is any device that creates a narrow, intense beam of light, then amplifies that beam.
The atoms of a physical substance, usually a crystal, are charged up while mirrors at both ends of the laser reflect the energy back and forth to strengthen it.
The "ruby laser," so-called because physicist Theodore Maiman used a ruby rod to make it, was first used on May 16, 1960.
Maiman's first scientific article about the discovery was turned down. While the second was awaiting publication, the laboratory went to the press with the news, prompting scientists who hadn't seen his complete findings to initially dismiss the discovery as insignificant.
There's no way to list everything lasers do. (Although, we do suggest another look at the world's largest laser, currently working to save -- not destroy -- the Earth).
But here's a rundown of just a few applications for lasers, and a nod to where laser technology might go next.
Laser surgery
From a high-tech update to the old nip-tuck to eye treatment that can eliminate the need for glasses or contacts, lasers are often used in surgery.
Carbon-dioxide lasers and others are used to remove unwanted tissue -- from tumors, warts and tattooed skin -- and create incisions that are less intrusive, less painful and leave less scarring than traditional surgery.
Entertainment
At planetarium domes everywhere, starry-eyed fans have enjoyed laser light displays for decades. The shows combine beam effects -- which sweep through the air -- and screen effects, which create images, patterns and shapes on a wall or other fixed object.
At Georgia's Stone Mountain Park, near Atlanta, Georgia, more than 20 million people have watched a laser show projected onto the massive granite mound.
Billed as the world's longest-running laser show, it offers a "dazzling display of neon laser lights featuring characters, stories, graphics and fireworks choreographed to popular musical scores," according to spokeswoman Jeanine Jones.
For the more active set, there's laser tag.
Adopted by the U.S. Army in the late '70s for training, laser tag was offered in crude form in toys around the same time. In 1984, two recreational laser tag centers were opened in Texas.
At most laser-tag venues, teams with laser guns scramble around an indoor course, shooting at each other in the near-dark. Technology varies somewhat, but, generally, laser tag uses infrared signaling to track lasers and determine whether they've hit their target -- usually a vest worn by the player.
Telecommunications
Most of us probably don't think of lasers being involved in our telephone conversations or internet use. But they are.
Fiber optics -- the ultrathin, glass cables used to carry digital information for phones, computers and cable TV -- use laser-generated pulses of light to carry that data at incredibly high speeds.
For computer users, communications companies claim that fiber-optic connections can download music, videos and other files to computers 25 times faster than traditional cable -- at least in the places where it's available.
The fervor over the upcoming Google Fiber project shows that lots of folks are eager to give laser-powered, in-home fiber a try.
CDs and DVDs
Tiny lasers are at work any time you turn on a disc player.
Whether audio or video, these players focus a laser beam on a series of bumps on the disc. The way the different bumps reflect that light determines the sound and images.
And when your CD skips? That's because the laser can't read data through a dirty or scratched outer layer -- although it's probably not the laser's fault that the disc is dirty or scratched in the first place.
So, what's next?
Scientists in all sorts of fields are experimenting with more uses for lasers.
The U.S. Air Force is pondering an airborne laser defense system, albeit one with a high-flying price tag.
Lasers are also being used in technologies such as holographs, new energy sources and space exploration.
And like personal computers, says Bronski, lasers are shrinking.
"Lasers that used to fill up a small-sized room are now the size of a desk," he said. "We'll see that trend continue in the future -- things getting smaller while maintaining their outputs or increasing their outputs."
So, does that mean that handheld lasers could be around the corner? You know -- the kind Han Solo says always trump hokey religions and ancient weapons?
"Those technologies might not be so far off," Bronski said. "At some point, it might be possible to make a much smaller package for these laser devices ... like little phasers or whatever."
But when the first working laser was rolled out 50 years ago this week -- developed at California's Hughes Research Laboratory -- it didn't take long for the hyperfocused beams of light to find work.
Having fascinated science-fiction fans since the origins of ray guns in the late 1800s, lasers (literally "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation") have become common in modern life.
From talking on the telephone to listening to a CD, laser technology makes a lot of what we do happen.
"Everyone has some sort of connection every single day to lasers -- even if most people have no idea what that connection is," said Mark Bronski, manager of laser production at German-based TRUMPF Inc., the largest manufacturer of industrial lasers in North America.
Regret that bad tattoo from the '80s? Want to watch a DVD or listen to a compact disc? Tired of your eyeglasses or contacts?
A laser can help.
And, remember those Pink Floyd concerts with mind-altering laser light shows?
In basic terms, a laser is any device that creates a narrow, intense beam of light, then amplifies that beam.
The atoms of a physical substance, usually a crystal, are charged up while mirrors at both ends of the laser reflect the energy back and forth to strengthen it.
The "ruby laser," so-called because physicist Theodore Maiman used a ruby rod to make it, was first used on May 16, 1960.
Maiman's first scientific article about the discovery was turned down. While the second was awaiting publication, the laboratory went to the press with the news, prompting scientists who hadn't seen his complete findings to initially dismiss the discovery as insignificant.
There's no way to list everything lasers do. (Although, we do suggest another look at the world's largest laser, currently working to save -- not destroy -- the Earth).
But here's a rundown of just a few applications for lasers, and a nod to where laser technology might go next.
Laser surgery
From a high-tech update to the old nip-tuck to eye treatment that can eliminate the need for glasses or contacts, lasers are often used in surgery.
Carbon-dioxide lasers and others are used to remove unwanted tissue -- from tumors, warts and tattooed skin -- and create incisions that are less intrusive, less painful and leave less scarring than traditional surgery.
Entertainment
At planetarium domes everywhere, starry-eyed fans have enjoyed laser light displays for decades. The shows combine beam effects -- which sweep through the air -- and screen effects, which create images, patterns and shapes on a wall or other fixed object.
At Georgia's Stone Mountain Park, near Atlanta, Georgia, more than 20 million people have watched a laser show projected onto the massive granite mound.
Billed as the world's longest-running laser show, it offers a "dazzling display of neon laser lights featuring characters, stories, graphics and fireworks choreographed to popular musical scores," according to spokeswoman Jeanine Jones.
For the more active set, there's laser tag.
Adopted by the U.S. Army in the late '70s for training, laser tag was offered in crude form in toys around the same time. In 1984, two recreational laser tag centers were opened in Texas.
At most laser-tag venues, teams with laser guns scramble around an indoor course, shooting at each other in the near-dark. Technology varies somewhat, but, generally, laser tag uses infrared signaling to track lasers and determine whether they've hit their target -- usually a vest worn by the player.
Telecommunications
Most of us probably don't think of lasers being involved in our telephone conversations or internet use. But they are.
Fiber optics -- the ultrathin, glass cables used to carry digital information for phones, computers and cable TV -- use laser-generated pulses of light to carry that data at incredibly high speeds.
For computer users, communications companies claim that fiber-optic connections can download music, videos and other files to computers 25 times faster than traditional cable -- at least in the places where it's available.
The fervor over the upcoming Google Fiber project shows that lots of folks are eager to give laser-powered, in-home fiber a try.
CDs and DVDs
Tiny lasers are at work any time you turn on a disc player.
Whether audio or video, these players focus a laser beam on a series of bumps on the disc. The way the different bumps reflect that light determines the sound and images.
And when your CD skips? That's because the laser can't read data through a dirty or scratched outer layer -- although it's probably not the laser's fault that the disc is dirty or scratched in the first place.
So, what's next?
Scientists in all sorts of fields are experimenting with more uses for lasers.
The U.S. Air Force is pondering an airborne laser defense system, albeit one with a high-flying price tag.
Lasers are also being used in technologies such as holographs, new energy sources and space exploration.
And like personal computers, says Bronski, lasers are shrinking.
"Lasers that used to fill up a small-sized room are now the size of a desk," he said. "We'll see that trend continue in the future -- things getting smaller while maintaining their outputs or increasing their outputs."
So, does that mean that handheld lasers could be around the corner? You know -- the kind Han Solo says always trump hokey religions and ancient weapons?
"Those technologies might not be so far off," Bronski said. "At some point, it might be possible to make a much smaller package for these laser devices ... like little phasers or whatever."
Posted in: Technology news
Some quitting Facebook as privacy concerns escalate
Concerns over Facebook's new privacy policy and the online social network's recent efforts to spread its information across the Web have led some of the site's faithful to delete their accounts -- or at least to try to.
On Wednesday's episode of a podcast called This Week in Technology, host Leo Laporte, a well-known tech pundit, said he had to search wikiHow, a how-to site, to figure out how to delete his Facebook account permanently.
After finding the delete button, which he said is hidden deep within the site's menus, Laporte proceeded to delete his account during the online broadcast.
"That's it. It's gone," he said during the show. "And I think that's the right thing to do."
It's unclear how many people have chosen to delete their Facebook accounts in recent weeks. The popular social network doesn't publish statistics on how many people quit the site.
But there has been much uproar online about Facebook's alleged lack of concern for the privacy of its users' personal information, and its clear that some people have become so upset that they're leaving the networking site, which has more than 400 million members.
Still, the account deletions likely aren't numerous enough to affect the site's overall size. Facebook spokeswoman Annie Ta said in an e-mail that Facebook has grown by more than 10 million active users since late April.
iReport: Are you done with Facebook?
In recent weeks, the site has been hit with several privacy bugs and scares that, among other things, made private chat conversations briefly visible to Facebook friends. And on April 21, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new Facebook feature called the "Open Graph," which essentially brings Facebook-like functionality to a number of websites.
CNN.com is one of several dozen sites that partner with Facebook to display and share users' interests.
Some Facebook users, including Sam Schreiber, say they are bothered by the fact that their online preferences are showing up all over the internet now, instead of just on Facebook.com.
Schreiber, a 24-year-old who considers herself social-media savvy, says she may delete her account soon because she doesn't understand Facebook's privacy settings well enough to know that her information is being kept safe.
"People already use them like it's crack, so I don't see what the next step is aside from world domination," she said. "So I just think it's too much."
She was particularly concerned when one of her Facebook friends saw on the music site Pandora that she likes the band "New Found Glory."
"I was like, that's really creepy. I haven't logged in. I didn't give it permission. I didn't do anything," she said.
Schreiber said she tried to change her Facebook privacy settings to keep that from happening again, but had to turn to news articles for information about how to do so, which she thought was unreasonable.
Facebook: Read the site's privacy policy
Facebook appears to be rattled a bit by these changes. The blog All Facebook reports that the site's executives called an "all hands" meeting Thursday to discuss its privacy policy in light of recent criticism.
And there are rumors that the site may amend its policies, as CNET reports.
The site has had its detractors before. Each time Facebook makes changes to its privacy policy, thousands of users tend to complain.
But interest in deleting Facebook accounts appears to be rising.
If you type in the phrase "How do I" on Google, one of the first suggested searches that comes up is "How do I delete my Facebook account," a factoid discovered by Danny Sullivan, a blogger at Search Engine Land.
Sullivan looked at similar searches over time and published a graph that shows searches about deleting Facebook accounts have been on the rise sharply since 2009.
"Yes, there's definitely a rising trend," he writes in a blog post on the matter. "Over time, more and more searches at Google have involved [deleting Facebook accounts], it appears. In fact, if you go back to Google and start typing in 'del,' you get 'delete facebook account' as the top suggestion."
A number of tech pundits, including Laporte, have also written recently about deleting or deactivating their accounts.
The blog Silicon Alley Insider posted a list of these on Friday with a headline that says, "Suddenly, everyone is quitting Facebook!"
The blog lists Peter Rojas of the blog GDGT and Matt Cutts from Google as among those who have deleted or deactivated their accounts.
That blog also posted a list of 10 reasons most people will not be able to part with their Facebook accounts, an apparent nod to the fact that, as Facebook continues to grow and to spread into other websites, it may become necessary to have an active Facebook account to make full use of the Web.
The New York Times also reports that people who once made a career promoting Facebook now may cancel their accounts. The newspaper says Deanna Zandt, author of a book called "Share This! How You Will Change the World With Social Networking," may delete hers.
"It's getting harder and harder for me to say, yes it's worth it, you're giving up your privacy to get these services, and I have to put my money where my mouth is," she told the paper.
Tech blogs have asked whether a "Great Facebook Deactivation Wave" is about to take off, and have listed reasons people should ditch the popular site.
Meanwhile, there is a second set of concerns about how difficult it is to delete your Facebook account if and when you decide that's what you'd like to do.
Facebook says on its website that you can "deactivate" your account by following these steps:
"To deactivate your account, navigate to the 'Settings' tab on the Account Settings page," the site says. "Deactivation will remove your profile and content associated with your account from Facebook. In addition, users will not be able to search for you or view any of your information."
But the social network will hold onto your photos and posts if you only "deactivate" your account.
If you want to completely "delete" your account -- meaning that all of your information will be deleted from view, although some of it may remain on Facebook's servers for a bit -- you can follow these instructions from wikiHow.
The user-edited site lists several methods for deleting a Facebook account. One of them is a seven-step process.
In his podcast, Laporte said one of the main reasons he felt he needed to delete his Facebook account is that having one gives his friends and family members an incentive to join, too.
And, because many people don't understand that everything on Facebook can be public, Laporte doesn't think it's responsible to have an account. By having a Facebook page, he said, "I'm coercing people I'm in relationships with to do something bad.
On Wednesday's episode of a podcast called This Week in Technology, host Leo Laporte, a well-known tech pundit, said he had to search wikiHow, a how-to site, to figure out how to delete his Facebook account permanently.
After finding the delete button, which he said is hidden deep within the site's menus, Laporte proceeded to delete his account during the online broadcast.
"That's it. It's gone," he said during the show. "And I think that's the right thing to do."
It's unclear how many people have chosen to delete their Facebook accounts in recent weeks. The popular social network doesn't publish statistics on how many people quit the site.
But there has been much uproar online about Facebook's alleged lack of concern for the privacy of its users' personal information, and its clear that some people have become so upset that they're leaving the networking site, which has more than 400 million members.
Still, the account deletions likely aren't numerous enough to affect the site's overall size. Facebook spokeswoman Annie Ta said in an e-mail that Facebook has grown by more than 10 million active users since late April.
iReport: Are you done with Facebook?
In recent weeks, the site has been hit with several privacy bugs and scares that, among other things, made private chat conversations briefly visible to Facebook friends. And on April 21, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new Facebook feature called the "Open Graph," which essentially brings Facebook-like functionality to a number of websites.
CNN.com is one of several dozen sites that partner with Facebook to display and share users' interests.
Some Facebook users, including Sam Schreiber, say they are bothered by the fact that their online preferences are showing up all over the internet now, instead of just on Facebook.com.
Schreiber, a 24-year-old who considers herself social-media savvy, says she may delete her account soon because she doesn't understand Facebook's privacy settings well enough to know that her information is being kept safe.
"People already use them like it's crack, so I don't see what the next step is aside from world domination," she said. "So I just think it's too much."
She was particularly concerned when one of her Facebook friends saw on the music site Pandora that she likes the band "New Found Glory."
"I was like, that's really creepy. I haven't logged in. I didn't give it permission. I didn't do anything," she said.
Schreiber said she tried to change her Facebook privacy settings to keep that from happening again, but had to turn to news articles for information about how to do so, which she thought was unreasonable.
Facebook: Read the site's privacy policy
Facebook appears to be rattled a bit by these changes. The blog All Facebook reports that the site's executives called an "all hands" meeting Thursday to discuss its privacy policy in light of recent criticism.
And there are rumors that the site may amend its policies, as CNET reports.
The site has had its detractors before. Each time Facebook makes changes to its privacy policy, thousands of users tend to complain.
But interest in deleting Facebook accounts appears to be rising.
If you type in the phrase "How do I" on Google, one of the first suggested searches that comes up is "How do I delete my Facebook account," a factoid discovered by Danny Sullivan, a blogger at Search Engine Land.
Sullivan looked at similar searches over time and published a graph that shows searches about deleting Facebook accounts have been on the rise sharply since 2009.
"Yes, there's definitely a rising trend," he writes in a blog post on the matter. "Over time, more and more searches at Google have involved [deleting Facebook accounts], it appears. In fact, if you go back to Google and start typing in 'del,' you get 'delete facebook account' as the top suggestion."
A number of tech pundits, including Laporte, have also written recently about deleting or deactivating their accounts.
The blog Silicon Alley Insider posted a list of these on Friday with a headline that says, "Suddenly, everyone is quitting Facebook!"
The blog lists Peter Rojas of the blog GDGT and Matt Cutts from Google as among those who have deleted or deactivated their accounts.
That blog also posted a list of 10 reasons most people will not be able to part with their Facebook accounts, an apparent nod to the fact that, as Facebook continues to grow and to spread into other websites, it may become necessary to have an active Facebook account to make full use of the Web.
The New York Times also reports that people who once made a career promoting Facebook now may cancel their accounts. The newspaper says Deanna Zandt, author of a book called "Share This! How You Will Change the World With Social Networking," may delete hers.
"It's getting harder and harder for me to say, yes it's worth it, you're giving up your privacy to get these services, and I have to put my money where my mouth is," she told the paper.
Tech blogs have asked whether a "Great Facebook Deactivation Wave" is about to take off, and have listed reasons people should ditch the popular site.
Meanwhile, there is a second set of concerns about how difficult it is to delete your Facebook account if and when you decide that's what you'd like to do.
Facebook says on its website that you can "deactivate" your account by following these steps:
"To deactivate your account, navigate to the 'Settings' tab on the Account Settings page," the site says. "Deactivation will remove your profile and content associated with your account from Facebook. In addition, users will not be able to search for you or view any of your information."
But the social network will hold onto your photos and posts if you only "deactivate" your account.
If you want to completely "delete" your account -- meaning that all of your information will be deleted from view, although some of it may remain on Facebook's servers for a bit -- you can follow these instructions from wikiHow.
The user-edited site lists several methods for deleting a Facebook account. One of them is a seven-step process.
In his podcast, Laporte said one of the main reasons he felt he needed to delete his Facebook account is that having one gives his friends and family members an incentive to join, too.
And, because many people don't understand that everything on Facebook can be public, Laporte doesn't think it's responsible to have an account. By having a Facebook page, he said, "I'm coercing people I'm in relationships with to do something bad.
Posted in: Facebook
Facebook launches new security feature
(CNN) -- Facebook has announced a new security feature that aims to keep hackers from tapping into users' personal information.
The change comes amid rising concerns about privacy and security on the online social network, which has 400 million members worldwide.
The new feature, announced Thursday, makes Facebook a bit more like an online banking site. Users can identify certain "approved" computers and mobile phones that are allowed to access their Facebook accounts. If an unauthorized device tries to log in, the user will be notified of that activity by e-mail or text message, allowing them, in theory, to shut down an attack before any information is stolen.
In order to access a Facebook account from a new computer, or from a friend's phone, for example, users may have to answer a security question.
Facebook says the feature is unique in the social networking world.
"We're confident that these new tools and systems will do a lot to prevent unauthorized logins and the nuisance they can cause," Lev Popov, a Facebook software engineer, writes in a company blog post. "As always, though, the first line of defense is you. We need you to help by practicing safe behavior on Facebook and wherever you go online."
Facebook users must choose to activate this change. To do so, log in to Facebook and click the "Account" button at the top right of the screen. From that menu, select "Account Settings." Scroll down to "Account Security" at the bottom of the page and click the link that says "change."
The site asks: "Would you like to receive notifications for logins from new devices?" If you would like to receive such updates, then click the button by "yes."
Facebook has come under fire in recent weeks for changes to its privacy policy and its announcement of the "open graph," which essentially extends Facebook's social features onto a number of other websites, including CNN.com.
Some users have complained they are uneasy about their personal preferences showing up on sites other than Facebook.com. Recently, an unknown number of people, including some notable tech pundits, have deleted or deactivated their Facebook accounts in response to privacy concerns.
Last month, a group of U.S. senators sent a letter to Facebook asking the company, which was started in a Harvard dorm room and is now valued at billions of dollars, to give users more control of their private information.
The new security features do not address the issues most users have been complaining about, such as whether Facebook will keep their information private. Instead, the latest feature aims to protect Facebook users from external hackers. It does not change company policy.
The online media this week jumped on news, confirmed by CNN content partner CNET, that Facebook called an "all-hands" meeting in response to the swell of concern over privacy issues. Facebook makes no mention of this meeting in its blog post, and it remains unclear whether Thursday's changes were a result of that meeting.
Thursday's changes are drawing some skepticism online.
Dan Nosowitz, a blogger at Fast Company, questioned whether Facebook should have made its new privacy setting active by default.
"Oddly, this system is 'opt-in,' meaning by default it's not enabled. You have to dig through Facebook's labyrinthine privacy settings to turn it on," he writes. "This might be a mistake, given how complex and intimidating Facebook's privacy settings already are."
On PC World's website, JR Raphael writes that the changes may not do much to ameliorate the concerns of angry Facebook users: "Facebook has just unveiled a new set of user controls, but it isn't likely to do much in the way of calming anger about the social network's privacy policies."
Let us know what you think of the changes in the comments below. What do you think of Facebook's efforts to integrate into other websites? Do you feel secure when using the site?
The change comes amid rising concerns about privacy and security on the online social network, which has 400 million members worldwide.
The new feature, announced Thursday, makes Facebook a bit more like an online banking site. Users can identify certain "approved" computers and mobile phones that are allowed to access their Facebook accounts. If an unauthorized device tries to log in, the user will be notified of that activity by e-mail or text message, allowing them, in theory, to shut down an attack before any information is stolen.
In order to access a Facebook account from a new computer, or from a friend's phone, for example, users may have to answer a security question.
Facebook says the feature is unique in the social networking world.
"We're confident that these new tools and systems will do a lot to prevent unauthorized logins and the nuisance they can cause," Lev Popov, a Facebook software engineer, writes in a company blog post. "As always, though, the first line of defense is you. We need you to help by practicing safe behavior on Facebook and wherever you go online."
Facebook users must choose to activate this change. To do so, log in to Facebook and click the "Account" button at the top right of the screen. From that menu, select "Account Settings." Scroll down to "Account Security" at the bottom of the page and click the link that says "change."
The site asks: "Would you like to receive notifications for logins from new devices?" If you would like to receive such updates, then click the button by "yes."
Facebook has come under fire in recent weeks for changes to its privacy policy and its announcement of the "open graph," which essentially extends Facebook's social features onto a number of other websites, including CNN.com.
Some users have complained they are uneasy about their personal preferences showing up on sites other than Facebook.com. Recently, an unknown number of people, including some notable tech pundits, have deleted or deactivated their Facebook accounts in response to privacy concerns.
Last month, a group of U.S. senators sent a letter to Facebook asking the company, which was started in a Harvard dorm room and is now valued at billions of dollars, to give users more control of their private information.
The new security features do not address the issues most users have been complaining about, such as whether Facebook will keep their information private. Instead, the latest feature aims to protect Facebook users from external hackers. It does not change company policy.
The online media this week jumped on news, confirmed by CNN content partner CNET, that Facebook called an "all-hands" meeting in response to the swell of concern over privacy issues. Facebook makes no mention of this meeting in its blog post, and it remains unclear whether Thursday's changes were a result of that meeting.
Thursday's changes are drawing some skepticism online.
Dan Nosowitz, a blogger at Fast Company, questioned whether Facebook should have made its new privacy setting active by default.
"Oddly, this system is 'opt-in,' meaning by default it's not enabled. You have to dig through Facebook's labyrinthine privacy settings to turn it on," he writes. "This might be a mistake, given how complex and intimidating Facebook's privacy settings already are."
On PC World's website, JR Raphael writes that the changes may not do much to ameliorate the concerns of angry Facebook users: "Facebook has just unveiled a new set of user controls, but it isn't likely to do much in the way of calming anger about the social network's privacy policies."
Let us know what you think of the changes in the comments below. What do you think of Facebook's efforts to integrate into other websites? Do you feel secure when using the site?
Posted in: Facebook
