RIA Feeds Most Popular Stories

Simple, Social Friend Finder Shizzow Opens to California

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:51:11 +0000

Where is that friend of mine? Who else likes to go there? Where is that place on the map? It's simple, useful questions like this that location based social network Shizzow aims to answer and the service just opened up today to users outside of beta location Portland, Oregon to now include users anywhere in California.

There are lots of location based social networks available, but this one is refreshingly simple. Is that enough to effectively differentiate Shizzow? It's going to have to be, because there's not much else about the service that's unique. Most features are easily reproduced, however, and usability may be the key point of competition in this market.

Sponsor

Shizzow let's you "shout" about where you are, based on the name of the place instead of its address (that's figured out in the back end), and listen to the shouts of friends' locations. You can see who hangs out at particular locations and what locations your friends hang out at most often. Ultimately, the service should help your lonely self connect with people in public more often, if that's something you're looking for.

Posting can be done through a mobile interface, a Google Gadget or the Shizzow web page. There's some IM and SMS integration as well.

Is there an API? Not yet. When will it open for general availability? Just before the SXSW conference - that's pretty cliche, but it could work.

Why would you use this instead of Brightkite, Loopt, something built on top of Yahoo Fire Eagle? If you're comfortable using any of those services already, you probably have no need to use Shizzow. The company's attempts to explain how different their service is haven't been particularly convincing.

The Upside

If you're looking for a less geeky, attractive, easy to use location based network to use with a wider circle of people than just early adopters - Shizzow will likely play well with that crowd (the rest of the world). If we told you three years ago that a simple service that let you broadcast 140 characters or less about "what you're doing" was going to take the world by storm, you'd probably have called us crazy. Similarly, comparing location based social networks on features may not be the best criterion.

Usability is key to adoption beyond the relatively small number of people who obsess over every feature and Shizzow is simple, clean looking and usable. Location based social networking sometimes feels so bleeding edge pretentious that you wonder whether these communities even want more users. That's not the feeling you'll likely get looking around Shizzow.

Does the the world at large want to find friends and be found via short messages? We're not sure, but it's possible. Can Shizzow take its simple, useful tool out into the world successfully? We'll see, location based social networking is a new paradigm and given privacy concerns (even if they're not rationally "valid") it could be a hard sell to mainstream users.

Shizzow is now available for users in California. Drop by, give it a try and let us know what you think. See also WebMonkey's interview with the Shizzow CEO this morning, it's an interesting discussion about side projects, simplicity and mobile communication.

Discuss

[via http://www.readwriteweb.com/ @ November 18, 2008 @ 5:51pm]

Event : UX Options with Microsoft, 11th Dec 2008 (Dublin)

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Event Invite: User Experience Options with Microsoft - a full-day seminar

If you've been reading a lot about Silverlight, WPF and all the various flavours of the Expression tools - you might be wondering about how they all fit together, and with more mature technologies like VB6 and WinForms. Well, this is your chance to find out! A free day-long seminar with Ronan, Martha and visiting expert Max Knor will be well worth it!

Where? Microsoft EPDC2 Auditorium, Microsoft European Product Development Centre, South County Business Part, Leopardstown (Bus transfer available from Sandyford Luas stop - leaving at 9:40am sharp!)

When? Thursday, December 11^th. 10am -5pm (Doors open 9:30)

Register here!

Event Overview:

Over the years, Microsoft has provided developers with many tools and technologies for building UIs for their applications, from VB6, WinForms to WPF and Silverlight. Come along to this free day-long seminar to get a great overview of all your options. Learn which tools to use in which situation from Microsoft technology experts Max Knor (TechEd favourite and developer from Microsoft Austria), Ronan Geraghty and Martha Rotter (Microsoft Ireland Developer and Platform Group). If you are interested in delivering excellent user experiences, either in rich clients or on the web – this seminar is for you!

Sessions:

10:00 – 11:15 The Microsoft Client Continuum

The Microsoft Client Continuum : a continuous series of client platform technologies available from Microsoft ranging from the very "rich" functionality of WPF to the greater "reach" of ASP.NET and of course Silverlight. Learn how the technologies compare and which one is the right one to use based on your needs.

11:30 – 13:00 Introducing the Windows Presentation Foundation

The Windows Presentation Foundation is a new GUI framework for desktop applications. Shipping as part of .NET 3.0 it addresses a lot of issues, Windows Forms developers have been faced with for years. With WPF, the UI is defined in an own language called XAML, whereas the code beside (event handlers,..) are written in C#. This concept allows better separation of UI and code, so that you can change the visual representation without a need to touch the corresponding code. WPF provides you with the ability to restyle all controls (even the built-in ones) and apply themes to them to create a unique user experience throughout your entire application. Besides that, you can compose controls, e.g. easily include images, buttons and other controls within lists, with the help of the new content model. Apart from visual stuff, WPF introduces a powerful data binding engine, an included command model, routed events and much more. Join this session to learn how to create your own UIs with the help of the Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML), how to apply styles, and leverage the new features of WPF!

14:00 – 15:30 Building WPF composite smart clients

Windows Presentation Foundation is a powerful framework for developing smart client applications. It provides functionalities as a rich data binding engine, styling of controls, a built-in command pattern and much more. That's great for flashy demos, but when it comes to real business applications, you are facing some problems: What if the application consists of different modules, which need to be independent? Such a modularity allows parallel development of modules and enables more flexible deployment, as additional modules can be added later, with no need to update the original parts. Other problems are the separation of data, visualization and logic or the reuse of views. Microsoft Patterns & Practices Group has collected some of these real-world problems and has built the "Composite Application Guidance for WPF" (the project formerly known as "Prism"), which provides a set of proven patterns and components. In this session you will see how to leverage the blocks of the guidance to ease the development of your own WPF composite smart clients.

15:45 – 17:00 Building Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight 2

Silverlight provides a powerful platform for building the next generation of rich interactive applications on the Internet. In this session, we take a deep look at the programming model and tools that developers and designers can leverage to build these true next-generation experiences for consumers and businesses, and demonstrate building a Rich Interactive Application (RIA) using Silverlight and Microsoft .NET. We cover how to use Microsoft Visual Studio to create applications, how to create UI using XAML markup and code, how to build a custom control and how to retrieve data from a Web service.

Cross posted from Ronan's blog [via http://blogs.msdn.com/ @ November 18, 2008 @ 5:00am]

Tiny Victories Inside Microsoft - SmallestDotNet makes headway

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:57:20 +0000

Sometimes there's little victories, tiny victories that make me happy. It's a big*ss company, Microsoft is, and ~~sometimes~~ it's hard to get stuff done. But sometimes I get something small done that might make a larger difference.

Remember SmallestDotNet.com (blog post) from August? Well, that kicked off a number of discussions about how it was hard to find and install the .NET Framework. It was hard for end users and it was hard for developers to get it.

We put together to small "swat teams" and fixed two small things.

First, the brouchureware. The site http://www.microsoft.com/net/ has a nice URL, non-threatening clipart dude, and some marketing stuff, but had no way to get the .NET Framework it was talking about. Now it also has an unambiguous button that links directly to the small 2.6 meg .NET Framework bootstrapper. Directly. No download interstitial page. Magical. Duh.

Second, the .NET Framework page on MSDN. It's at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/netframework, is linked to all over and gets a lot of traffic.

However, when you visited it before it had a bunch of generated links like "Popular Downloads" that were either old or stupid and would point folks to .NET 2.0 redists that were old. It was hard to find nearly everything.

We redesigned it to include (as above) a giant and unambiguous Install It Now button. However, if you click More Info you get a nice list of other versions to download. Madness!

I say some of this with some slight sarcasm because I've learned that there are tens of thousands of pages out there in Microsoft-world and like any garden, you'd be surprised that some sections just aren't tended to as often as they should. Pages that you look at all the time might not be looked at as often as they should from the inside.

It also includes a link to the Full Package just under the link to the bootstrapper. It's generally a lot tidier, IMHO. There's also some talk about taking my SmallestDotNet.com detection code, or code like it, and putting it on these sites to make everything as easy as possible.

I believe there's talk of tending to a lot of these gardens in the coming months and I'm hoping to ~~stick my nose in~~ get involved with those layouts as well.

Anyway, this was a tiny victory and it made me smile. I hope it helps you, as there were a lot of people involved in what appears to be small changes.

[via http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ @ November 4, 2008 @ 4:57am]

Silverlight Unit Test Framework source code released

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:18:45 +0000

A week ago, we gave the world the first release of the Silverlight Toolkit. Shawn Burke told you that we’re agile, and that we have a neat release model. The fun continues! Today, the source code to the Silverlight Unit Test Framework is available...(read more) [via http://silverlight.net/blogs/microsoft/default.aspx @ November 4, 2008 @ 9:18am]

Mobile Messaging Reaches Record-Breaking Numbers

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:45:29 +0000

Mobile messaging is experiencing a period of record growth, according to some figures released from VeriSign earlier this week. Looking at the numbers more closely, some interesting trends emerge. Those include the use of messaging for social and political change, marketing, such as that done by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's mobile campaign, and the use of mobile messaging for charitable donations. Other sectors experiencing significant increases are the enterprise and financial institutions. In those two areas alone, mobile messaging has seen a 115% increase in only a year's time, and much of that is thanks to the financial industry's adoption of the medium for business to consumer communication.

Sponsor

According to new numbers being released by VeriSign, Inc., mobile messaging is a fast-growing trend worldwide. The medium experienced a surge here in the U.S. thanks to the recent presidential elections as Obama utilized the platform for making announcements, but that isn't the only reason for the growth.

Explosive Growth

In Q3 2008, VeriSign Messaging and Mobile Media Divison's mobile messaging networks enabled more than 58.3 billion messages per day to travel through their pipes...10% more than in the previous quarter and up from 280 million per day in Q3. Based on these record-breaking numbers, VeriSign projects that their mobile messaging networks will enable close to 200 billion total messages by the end of the year.

Enterprises and financial institutions have seen growing numbers of mobile messages sent, too. From Q3 2007 to Q3 2008, the total number of messages delivered rose from 129 to 227 million - a 115% increase.

Much of that activity comes from SMS's new position as the preferred platform for mobile banking. VeriSign's Mobile Banking platform, which includes seven of the top ten banking brands and three of the top five credit card companies, has grown 35% since last quarter alone.

Mobile messaging, as defined by VeriSign, isn't just SMS, though. They take into account a number of different types of messages, including the following:

• SMS - Short Message Service. SMS is the most common form of mobile messaging, also referred to as "text" messaging.
• ICSMS - Inter-carrier Short Message Service. ICSMS messages are text messages exchanged between carrier networks.
• MMS - Multimedia Messaging Service. MMS allows users to send multimedia messages that include images, video and audio.
• ICMMS - Inter-carrier Multimedia Messaging Service. ICMMS messages are multimedia messages exchanged between carrier networks.
• P2P Messages - Person to person messages, or messages sent from one mobile user to another.
• A2P Messages - Application to person messages, or application-generated content such as news alerts, ring tones, promotional video clips, and enterprise messages that are sent to mobile users.

It's interesting that even as the iPhone and other app-filled devices grow in popularity, when it comes to getting information quickly, we're still turning to the mobile message - and now more than ever before. Will this trend ever level off as more people switch over to the smartphones whose "real internet" experiences no longer require text-based workarounds for getting the information needed? By the looks of these numbers, it doesn't appear that will be the case.

Image credit: enV by Nesster

Discuss

[via http://www.readwriteweb.com/ @ November 18, 2008 @ 2:45pm]

Silverlight Tip of the Day #69 – Silverlight 2 Developer Reference

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 22:55:30 +0000

By popular request I am posting the Silverlight Developer Reference image for Silverlight 2. This image is large (6750x4200) and will make a great poster for printing for your reference. To download, right click on the image and choose “Save Picture As...(read more) [via http://silverlight.net/blogs/microsoft/default.aspx @ November 3, 2008 @ 10:55pm]

Re: Patch for windowsbase.dll

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I create a nunit test, and its ok!
I test it like this:
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCu lture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("fr -fr");
Point po1 = Point.Parse("5.5,4.3");
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCu lture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en -us");
Point po2 = Point.Parse("5.5,4.3");
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCu lture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("de -de"); [via http://groups.google.com/group/mono-olive @ January 1, 1970 @ 12:00am]

Murdoch: The Future Of Newspapers Goes Beyond Dead Trees

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corp., gave a speech on Sunday titled "The Future of Newspapers: Moving Beyond Dead Trees." In the speech, he made the bold statement that newspapers would always be around in some form or other. "Too many journalists seem to take a perverse pleasure in ruminating on their pending demise," he said. "Unlike the doom and gloomers, I believe that newspapers will reach new heights in the 21st century."

Sponsor

The speech, recorded in the United States and relayed nationally by the Australian Broadcasting Corp., was the latest in an annual ABC series of lectures by a prominent Australian.

Murdoch, who grew a small city newspaper into a media conglomerate that now includes 20th Century Fox, Fox News Channel and Sky Broadcasting, Dow Jones & Co. and the social network, MySpace, knows a little something about the media industry.

He doesn't believe that the internet will be the death of newspapers at all - it will only transform them. He called the doomsayers who predict the Internet killing off newspapers "misguided cynics who are too busy writing their own obituary to be excited by the opportunity." He believes they are missing the fact that the online world is really just a huge new market ready to be tapped. And it's filled with news-craving consumers. People now are "hungrier for information that ever before," he said. "Readers want what they've always wanted: a source they can trust. That has always been the role of great newspapers in the past. And that role will make newspapers great in the future."

The news of the future may not come in the printed paper format anymore, Murdoch admits. In the coming decades, he too expects some newspapers to lose circulation. But as those numbers die down, others will increase. Online news sources will grow and grow. The circulation gains he expects will be not only through web pages and RSS feeds, but also email that delivers customized news and ads to our mobile devices.

"In this coming century, the form of delivery may change, but the potential audience for our content will multiply many times over," he said.

But what will this new online model for information delivery look like? Murdoch mentioned The Times of London and The Wall Street Journal, both papers he owns, as examples of those that managed to obtain large, online readerships. With the WSJ specifically, Murdoch made note of its plans to offer three tiers of online content: free news, a subscriber-level service, and a third "premium service" of reader-customizable "high-end financial news and analysis."

Will this tiered content model fit all, though? We think it may be too soon to tell. We're already seeing other initiatives to help "save journalism" arise that use a new crowd-funded model where micro-donations sent in through the internet help pay the reporter's salary.

Two such experiments in crowdfunding are Spot.us and Representative Journalism, both which are testing this concept at the local level. Spot.us allows freelance journalists to pitch story ideas and get funding from the public in the San Franciso Bay Area, and Representative Journalism (or RepJ) is running a test in Northfield, Minn., funding one full-time journalist to cover that community.

Meanwhile, we're seeing papers in our hometowns shift coverage locally to combat the online threats. What once was a throwaway community circular is now being revived as a lightweight way to ingest your local news. That model may succeed as well.

What's more, the internet may allow for more than one business model to succeed here. However, only time will tell which ones really work best.

Discuss

[via http://www.readwriteweb.com/ @ November 18, 2008 @ 2:00pm]

Boxee Raises $4 Million for Open-Source Media Center

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:24:16 +0000

These are clearly not the easiest times to secure financing for a startup, but Boxee, which makes an open-source media center application that works on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and the Apple TV, just announced a $4 million investment from Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. Bijan Sabet from Spark and Fred Wilson from Union Square will join the Boxee board.

Boxee, which is still in private beta testing, is a media center solution that allows you to play back content from third-party providers like Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central, or Last.fm through a very slick interface.

Sponsor

Of course, Boxee will also play back any videos, photos, or music files you have on your own computer or local network. Besides playing back media, Boxee also aggregates reviews from third-party websites and allows you to share your activity with your friends.

Open-Source on the Apple TV

Most of the hype around Boxee right now is due to the fact that it can be installed on an Apple TV, which greatly extends the functionality of these devices.

As Boxee is an open-source program, developers can easily extend the functionality of the application and develop plugins for it. Boxee's back-end is based on the open-source xbmc media center project.

The Firefox of Media Centers

Fred Wilson calls Boxee the "Firefox of the media center software sector," and judging from what we have seen of it so far, we would have to agree.

According to Boxee's announcement, the company will use the additional funding to extend its user base and to extend the feature set of the software. Hopefully, this additional funding will also mean that we can soon see hardware with pre-installed versions of Boxee.

quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo

Discuss

[via http://www.readwriteweb.com/ @ November 18, 2008 @ 5:24pm]

Create COOL implementations of Search API 2.0 Beta + Ads

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0000

In case you haven't seen this -

During the keynote at PubCon in Las Vegas we announced “Project Silk Road” which is a collection of services, including a new version of the Live Search APIs for developer community – basically Search API 2.0 Beta + Search Ads pilot.

We are looking for some really cool implementations from the developer community which will be displayed on our website at: http://search.live.com/developers We’re looking for as many implementations as possible! Come on team, put your developer skills to use and share your passion about Microsoft technology!

Win a Prize:

All submissions entered by (12am) midnight PST US on Dec 5^th 2008 will be eligible for our prize drawing of a $120 gift certificate to the Microsoft Company store.

Please note: All submissions must be on live websites (so we have to be able to navigate to the website or be able to download the application to see it) and must follow our Terms of Use – present on Search API and Ads web sites respectively. Drawing will take place on Dec 8^th 2008 and the winner will be notified via email by Dec 9^th 2008.

Send all links/information about implementations to: AniB@Microsoft.com.

GeekswithBlogs.net

Check out one of the first implementations of the Search API 2.0 Beta at http://geekswithblogs.net

Learn more about: Search API 2.0 (Beta) + Ads pilot

The Live Search API 2.0 Beta enables you to embed as a custom component a flexible and powerful search engine on your sites and applications. With the addition of XML (POX) and JSON formats, as well as the previously supported SOAP API, the Live Search API 2.0 Beta allows you to integrate the power of search using the code and formatting you choose. In addition, some source formats types are also accessible through an OpenSearch-compliant RSS interface.

Step 1: Get an App ID

Go to http://search.live.com/developers to create your AppID which you will use to gain access to all the great search results from Search API 2.0.

Step 2: Select your URI type

When you want to query the HTTP endpoint you first start with an HTTP GET request to the appropriate URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). There are two URIs, one for XML results and one for JSON results: http://api.search.live.net/xml.aspx and http://api.search.live.net/json.aspx respectively.

Both URIs expect at least three required query string parameters: AppID, query, and sources. The AppID query string parameter is a value you get when you sign up as a developer with the Developer Center program (http://search.live.com/developers). The query value will be the query you want the API to execute for you, and the sources value indicates which Live Search Engine indexes you want the query to be run against.

Step 3: Select your source type

The following are the source types supported by the current release of the Search API 2.0 Beta.

Source	Description
web	Searches for web content
image	Searches for images on the web
news	Searches news stories
instantanswer	Searches Encarta online
spell	Searches Encarta dictionary for spelling suggestions
phonebook	Searches phonebook entries
relatedsearch	Returns the query strings most similar to yours

Step 4: Select your front end

RIA - Silverlight

Silverlight is a framework from Microsoft that enables developers to build Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), using the same .NET framework and programming languages they are familiar with using in their typical .NET applications. Because of its strong integration with browsers, as well as with images and other media, it is a robust and very interesting client for building applications using the Live Search API 2.0 Beta.

Like JSON applications that live in the browser, Silverlight applications can’t normally invoke services (raw HTTP or SOAP) on domains other than the domain where the Silverlight application is downloaded from. But because Live Search API 2.0 beta publishes a crossdomain.xml policy file at the root of its domain, http://api.search.live.net/crossdomain.xml, it allows RIAs to access its endpoints, making it possible to use the Live Search API 2.0 Beta from Silverlight.

Interoperable – PHP

Another reason to maintain a more open API using HTTP (and raw XML and JSON) is to enable interoperable scenarios with Live Search API 2.0 Beta. It isn’t just for .NET programmers. For example, PHP has a powerful JSON parsing mechanism, which, given PHP is a dynamic language, enables PHP developers to program against a JSON object graph in a very straightforward way.

RSS

In additional to the XML/JSON APIs which allow a user to make explicit search requests of the different Live Search sources, these sources are also exposed via a web feed mechanism formatted using Really Simple Syndication (RSS). In addition, the RSS endpoint is open and doesn’t require an App ID. Any user can make a feed request of the API and subscribe to that feed using his favorite feed reader. The feed reader can then take care of maintaining state, and the user will be notified whenever there is new data.

This is the only part of the new Live Search API 2.0 beta that can be used by end users, since it is the only URI that doesn’t require an App ID as part of the query string.

Step 5: If you want to Monetize

Another feature of Live Search 2.0 is ad-serving capability. If you sign up for a Live Search API 2.0 Beta App ID and opt into the adCenter terms of use, and apply for an Ads unit ID thru adCenter as listed on our Developer Center (http://search.live.com/developers) once approved, you can integrate ads into your web pages using simple XML or JSON APIs. Ads are just another content source, so all the information about the other search sources applies to the ad source, although there are a few additional required query string parameters and an additional adCenter Unit ID.

Query String	Description
Ad.AdUnitId	Your adCenter Unit ID
Ad.PropertyId	Your adCenter Property ID
Ad.Pagenumber	The page number requested
Ad.SBadCount	Number of sidebar ads requested
Ad.MLadCount	Number of mainline ads requested

SDK can be found here

[via http://blogs.msdn.com/ @ November 18, 2008 @ 5:00am]

Microsoft Silverlight for Dashboards

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:11:59 +0000

Microsoft Silverlight for Dashboards Continuing our examination of cutting-edge business dashboards using RIA (Rich Internet Application) technologies, we now look at the state of the art of Microsoft Silverlight dashboards. Never heard of a Silverlight dashboard? Well, it’s no wonder. By comparison, business intelligence dashboards using Flash, Flex, AJAX and other RIA approaches are commonplace. Working silverlight dashboards, however, are hard to find. Because of the vast differences betw [via http://www.technorati.com/ @ April 28, 2008 @ 5:11pm]

Event : UX Options with Microsoft, 11th Dec 2008 (Dublin)

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Event Invite: User Experience Options with Microsoft - a full-day seminar

When? Thursday, December 11^th. 10am -5pm (Doors open 9:30)

Register here!

Event Overview:

Sessions:

10:00 – 11:15 The Microsoft Client Continuum

11:30 – 13:00 Introducing the Windows Presentation Foundation

14:00 – 15:30 Building WPF composite smart clients

15:45 – 17:00 Building Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight 2

[via http://blogs.msdn.com/ @ November 18, 2008 @ 5:00am]

Using Encoder Templates in your Silverlight Application

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:05:57 +0000

I received a comment regarding the new Expression Encoder SP1 Silverlight player templates and how they can be used within your own application. Right now the templates appear to stand on their own. That’s only because the output of an Encoder action...(read more) [via http://silverlight.net/blogs/microsoft/default.aspx @ November 3, 2008 @ 11:05pm]

YouTube Monetizes Embeds

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:12:08 +0000

In an attempt to capitalize on traffic that happens off the main site, YouTube today announced a monetization program for embedded videos at the NewTeeVee conference in San Francisco.

With an audience of 280 million viewers worldwide every month, and 44 percent of viewers watching videos on sites other than YouTube, a new revenue channel makes a lot of sense - for Google as well as its partners.

Sponsor

YouTube has been working on replicating the YouTube experience on other sites and this is a smart move given the consumption of online video is rapidly increasing worldwide; people want to watch video anywhere, anytime, on any device - not just on the YouTube homepage.

While YouTube addition of Adsense With embeds, you can now control annotations, look at captions, and even search for other videos directly, regardless on where they are posted.

How does it work?

Advertisements appear on the bottom 20 percent of the screen (see image below) and last for about ten seconds, apparently the time recommended for maximum engagement. You can see it in action on Lisa Nova Live.

Image: Monetized YouTube embeds on Lisa Nova site

An interesting function that they've included is the ability to scroll though advertisements, and while we're not quite sure who would want to do that advertisers seem keen: you can now click through directly to the advertisers site.

Google certainly seems to be making an effort to monetize YouTube; adding Adsense yesterday, monetized embeds today, you have to wonder what's coming tomorrow.

What do you think?

Discuss

[via http://www.readwriteweb.com/ @ November 13, 2008 @ 8:12pm]

Freescale Debuts i.MX37 Chip For Portable Multimedia - IQ Online

Thu, 29 May 2008 04:11:20 +0000

Freescale Debuts i.MX37 Chip For Portable Multimedia
IQ Online, France - 53 minutes ago
MX37 processor is designed to meet growing demand for devices that deliver rich multimedia experiences anytime, anywhere. It will primarily slot into the ...

[via http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&q=rich+internet+application&ie=UTF-8&scoring=n @ May 29, 2008 @ 4:11am]

5 Places Your Opinion Counts - Debate Site Roundup

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:03:47 +0000

While you're waiting for The Great Debaters to come out on DVD in a couple of weeks, there are a few places where you can put in some debate practice online in the meantime. One of the great things about writing a blog is that it is a platform for voicing your opinions. But it can also be rewarding to hear from the opposing side, and one thing we do often on this blog is ask for your views (as we did last week on the topic of video comments, for example). Below are 5 sites that organize debates around any topic.

CreateDebate is the newest debate site to hit the web. It moved from private beta to public late this morning and offers an extremely slick interface for online debate. Debates on CreateDebate can take multiple forms. They can be open ended questions, such as "Who had the best NFL draft?" or they can be head-to-head debates, such as "Is drug abuse a criminal or health problem, Yes or No?"

Users can vote in two-sided debates and add arguments in each. Arguments are voted up or down Reddit-style with the top arguments displayed at the top of the page. Users can also add rebuttals to arguments which can be further voted upon. Debates that are time sensitive (such as "Who will win the Democratic nomination for president?") can be set to expire. CreateDebate can also be used for simple yes/no polling on non-contentious issues.

One unique feature of CreateDebate is that each debate has a "research" page that pulls in news from RSS or Atom feeds. Whoever creates the debate can add new sources to the research page and news stories can be automatically made into the focal point of a new debate.

Riled Up! is a more simple debate site that uses the head-to-head format. Debaters are asked simple yes or no, or X vs. Y questions and asked to support a side. Choose wisely, because once you've picked your side, you can't go back.

Similar to CreateDebate, users vote arguments up and down and can post rebuttals, which can be tagged as supporting, neutral, or opposing.

Wis.dm is really a question and answer site that many have compared to Yahoo! Answers, but because it favors yes/no questions, it is actually more akin to the debate sites here. Wis.dm is set up very simply : Someone asks a yes/no question, users vote, and people debate the answer in an unthreaded discussion forum below the question.

The free form nature of the actual debate makes it a bit harder to follow everyone's position than on more polished debate sites, but Wis.dm is easily the most used of the sites in the round up. Its simplicity makes it very approachable and probably contributes to its mainstream appeal.

outQuib is a social network focused on debate and discussion that we reviewed in January. Debates on the site take the form of a poll with multiple response and forum-style commenting. But the focus of outQuib is really the social aspect -- debates are used as a means of connecting like minded people who can form groups on the site.

Jyte is a product of JanRain, makers of MyOpenID, and I get the idea that it is really more of a proving ground for their OpenID products than it is a serious startup. Jyte allows people to make claims (like, "Tiger Woods is the best pro golfer of all time.") and then people can vote to agree or disagree.

Users can also add comments to the debate (arguments for or against) and give each other "cred" points in areas they think a particular user is especially credible -- though it appears that cred points don't really amount for much other than bragging rights.

Conclusion

With the US presidential election kicking into high gear over the summer and coming to a conclusion next fall (barring any repeat of what happened in 2000), debate sites can probably expect to see a bump in traffic as people head online in search of places to argue their opinions. Which of the sites above is your favorite? Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below.

[via http://www.readwriteweb.com/ @ April 28, 2008 @ 8:03pm]

Barcelona underground

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:00:00 +0000

TechEd dobiegł końca. Trudno mi pozbyć się wrażenia, że stanowił w dużej mierze po prostu europejską powtórkę PDC - wydarzenia szeroko opisywanego również w polskiej blogosferze. Zamiast więc standardowej relacji - luźny zbiór spostrzeżeń okołokonferencyjnych:

Podczas sesji Pata Hellanda opisującej architekturę modelowych aplikacji RIA poruszona została spontanicznie kwestia: czym różni się dzisiejszy zachwyt nad Silverlightem czy Flexem od mającej miejsce dziesięć lat temu gorączki Javy? Applety, "napisz raz-uruchom wszędzie", przeglądarka, łatwy deployment - wszystko to brzmi znajomo. Co o tym sądzicie?
Pozostając jeszcze w kręgu RIA: przez ostatnie 1,5 roku w pierwszej piątce najczęściej zadawanych pytań dotyczących Silverlight była kwestia uruchamianie tego typu aplikacji poza przeglądarką. Oficjalne stanowisko pozostało niezmienne : zalecamy w takich przypadkach wykorzystanie Windows Presentation Foundation. Tym bardziej dużą niespodzianką był dla mnie fakt, że skutkiem ubocznym wprowadzenia na rynek Live Services (czyli dotychczasowego Mesha potraktowanego jako platforma programistyczna) jest możliwość, po opublikowaniu swojej aplikacji "w chmurze", uruchomienia jej również offline. Wykorzystywane jest do tego celu lokalne środowisko Mesh, do tej pory wykorzystywane wyłącznie do synchronizacji danych. O samych Live Services z pewnością napiszę wkrótce trochę więcej.
Bardzo dobre wrażenie zrobiło na mnie Velocity, stanowiące kompleksowe rozwiązanie do skalowalnego cache'owania danych. Prezentowane (na żywo) testy pokazywały istotny wzrost wydajności oraz - co równie istotne - odporność na sytuacje krytyczne np. awarię serwera. W połączeniu z prostym w obsłudze API oraz uniwersalnością (Velocity nie ogranicza się do współpracy jedynie z aplikacjami WWW), całość wygląda bardzo smakowicie.
Choć to zapewne w dużej mierze kwestia genialnego prelegenta, uwierzyłem Davidowi Chappellowi w wizję nadchodzących zmian w mechanizmach uwierzytelniania użytkowników. Projekt Geneva to nowe ADFS i CardSpace oraz zestaw zabawek (czyli biblioteka :)) dla programistów . Możliwość (konieczność?) szerokiego porozumienia pomiędzy wszystkimi liczącymi się na rynku graczami wciąż brzmi dla mnie jak mrzonka, ale trzymam mocno kciuki za powodzenie. Pierwszą jaskółką niech będą choćby wczesne eksperymenty na styku LiveID i OpenID.
Dowiedziałem się również, jak w praktyce wygląda zderzenie świata wirtualnego i rzeczywistego. Podczas jednej z sesji generalnych zaprezentowano nieco szczegółów dotyczących nowego centrum danych, które Microsoft buduje w okolicach Chicago. Skala obiektu mającego za zadanie udźwignąć obecne i przyszłe plany rozwoju Azure robi piorunujące wrażenie. Wystarczy powiedzieć, że podstawową jednostką obliczeniowo/logistyczną jest kontener. Można spokojnie traktować tę nazwę literalnie, ponieważ w przeciwieństwie do standardowej szafy rack, przypomina on bardziej naczepę TIR-a i mieści w sobie ponad 2000 serwerów. W planach mówi się o ustawieniu przynajmniej 100 tego typu "pudełek". Wszystkie energooszczędne, chłodzone wodą - jest więc szansa, że USA uniknie kolejnego black-outu ;)

[via http://blogs.msdn.com/ @ November 15, 2008 @ 5:00am]

Silverlight 3: The Next Fit Client?

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:12:44 +0000

[via http://insideria.com/ @ November 4, 2008 @ 4:12pm]

Conflict between Rich Internet Apps and SOA? Say it isn’t so - ZDNet

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:44:20 +0000

Conflict between Rich Internet Apps and SOA? Say it isn’t so
ZDNet - 28 minutes ago
Aren’t Rich Internet Applications potentially part of that “last mile” between SOA-based infrastructures and client endpoints? RIAs are the foundations of ...

[via http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ned=us&q=rich+internet+application&ie=UTF-8&scoring=n @ November 5, 2008 @ 5:44pm]

Portable RIAs - Flex Apps in PDFs

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:54:00 +0000

The web began as a platform for browsing, finding, exchanging documents. Over the past ten years the web has moved beyond this document-centric role, and is now a platform for exchanging data. We typically refer to web sites used for data exchange as web applications. The next major evolution of the web is underway as web applications become more interactive and useful. The industry now refers to these next generation web applications as rich Internet applications or RIAs. Another popular mean [via http://www.technorati.com/ @ November 5, 2008 @ 7:54pm]

Video Coverage of Web 2.0 Summit

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:47:17 +0000

Thanks to our partners at TechWeb, co-hosts of the Web 2.0 Summit along with O'Reilly Media, ReadWriteWeb is pleased to present ongoing video coverage of the event. You can select sessions in the widget below, as they are released on video to ReadWriteWeb over the next couple of days. We will also be highlighting some of the sessions in separate posts. The first day of Web 2.0 Summit featured an interview with John Doerr of the famous VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (which invested in Amazon, Google and many other success stories).

Sponsor

Later in the interview, Doerr had 12 tips for entrepreneurs to cope with the current economy, which are well worth noting down...

Discuss

[via http://www.readwriteweb.com/ @ November 6, 2008 @ 7:47am]

ScreenToaster Makes Screencasting Easy

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:45:17 +0000

As you may have realized by now, we are big fans of screencasts here at ReadWriteWeb, and every time a new tool comes along that makes screencasting easier and more accessible, we can't help but give it a try. The latest screencasting tool to come across our desks is ScreenToaster, which, unlike most of its competitors, runs directly from your browser. While its functionality is limited compared to fully featured screencasting suites like Camtasia Studio or ScreenFlow, ScreenToaster turns out to be a great little tool if you want to create a short demo video or tutorial.

Sponsor

ScreenToaster is currently in private beta testing, but you can sign up for an invite here.

Features

In some respects, ScreenToaster is very similar to Jing, one of our screencasting tools. Just like Jing (and most other screencasting tools), ScreenToaster allows you to choose which parts of your screen you want to record, add subtitles, and then host those videos online. ScreenToaster, of course, also allows you to embed these videos anywhere you want to.

Using ScreenToaster is very easy. Once started, you simply start and stop the recording with a keyboard shortcut and easily add voice-over recordings and subtitles afterwards.

One issue with ScreenToaster that might be a showstopper for some is that it can't record audio while you are recording your screencast. Instead, you have to record your narration afterwards and ScreenToaster will not record any audio that is playing on your computer while you are recording your video. The reason for this is probably technical - ScreenToaster relies on Java for the video recording, but uses Flash for the voice-over. We prefer to record the narration while doing a screencast, as it makes timing your tutorials and demos a lot easier.

Also, as of now, your videos are only available on ScreenToaster itself and you can't download them to your desktop or convert them to any other file format.

Verdict

The developers are planning to add a lot of the missing features to ScreenToaster in the future. For now, if you just need a simple solution for recording a quick screencast, ScreenToaster performs exactly as advertised and is definitely worth a try.

Discuss

[via http://www.readwriteweb.com/ @ November 13, 2008 @ 7:45pm]

[Silverlight] Scott Guthrie가 발하는 Silverlight2의 RIA(Rich Internet Application)

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:00:00 +0000

안녕하세요. 준서아빠 김대우 입니다. 이번 Post는 어디부터 시작하면 좋을까요.
역시 Scott부터 시작해야 겠지요. ^_^

저는 Scott이, 그의 열정이 좋습니다. - 아마 그를 만났던 사람이라면 분명 누구나 공감 하실 겁니다.
(헤어스타일이나 작년 MIX07 키노트에서도 입었던 똑같은 빨간티와 청바지 같은 패션은 NoNo~)

Scott이 MIX08 키노트에서 가장 열정적으로 PT를 진행한 순간이 바로 이순간이라고 준서아빠는 믿습니다. 바로, Silverlight2의 Rich Internet Applications에 대해서 소개하는 내용입니다.

아울러, MIX08에서 발표된 Silverlight2의 여러 발표들 중에서 준서아빠가 두말할 필요도 없이 최고로 꼽는 내용이기도 합니다.

먼저, 영상부터 전달해 드리고 나머지 내용들은 아래에서 풀어 보도록 하겠습니다.

자, 참 많은 내용들을 열정적으로 쏟아내는 Scott.
Scott이 진행한 내용들은 대부분 국내 커뮤니티나 블로그를 통해 많은 부분 소개 되었는데요.

아래 내용들을 참고하시면 좋을 것 같습니다.
실버라이트2와의 첫만남 - ScottGu's First Look at Silverlight 2 의 번역본 - 오일석님
실버라이트 2 엿보기
실버라이트2에서 지원되는 기본 컨트롤 모음
Silverlight 2와 퍼가기

1. .NET 언어를 이용해 Silverlight2를 개발 가능 JavaScript, C#, Visual Basic, Iron Ruby, Iron Python
2. 크로스 플랫폼, 크로스 브라우져 그대로 지원
3. WPF UI 프레임워크 지원 - 다양한 컨트롤 지원, 데이터 바인딩 지원, 3rd party 컨트롤 지원
4. 네트워킹 지원 확장 / Socket 지원 / Cross Domain 지원
5. 데이터 연동 지원 / LINQ 지원 / 로컬캐쉬(Isolated Storage) 지원
6. 향상된 성능 지원
7. 작은 런타임 사이즈 / 빠른 설치 지원
8. Deep Zoom

그냥 훑어 보시기에도, 블로그 포스트 한두개로 풀어 버리기에는 너무나도 많은 내용이지요. ^_^

곧, 준서아빠(김대우)가 진행하는 MSDN 세미나가 열릴 예정이니 MSDN 세미나를 통해 많은 이야기 드리도록 하겠습니다.

PS. 준서아빠 생각에, MIX08에서 재확인 했습니다만. Microsoft의 Silverlight 경쟁상대가 어떤 기술이라고 생각 하시나요? Adobe Flash나 Flex? Google Gears? 또는 다른 어떤???

Microsoft Silverlight의 경쟁상대는 Microsoft .NET Framework의 WPF라고 준서아빠는 생각합니다.
경쟁의 허들은 데스크탑이라는 플랫폼이 아니라 "웹"이라는 UX 기술을 적용하기 어려운 플랫폼이 허들이며
Silverlight의 미래는 미디어 기능이나 Deep Zoom등의 기능들이 아니라,
- XAML이라는 UI분리 프레임워크와 .NET이 있기 때문에 타사의 기술과 비교는 맞지 않다고 생각합니다.

준서아빠의 미래예언(갑자기 사이비 종교 블로그로 변신? ㅎㅎ)이 맞을지 틀릴지는 시간이 말해 주겠지요.

[via http://blogs.msdn.com/ @ April 3, 2008 @ 4:00am]