Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
Google Launches New Web Browser: Chrome is Google’s latest weapon in its bid to become the leader in all Internet areas.
Verdict #1: The Web doesn’t need another browser. Especially coming from Google. Keep me in the Firefox corner.
Verdict #2: The name is too close to Crone to survive without any mocking. We’ll see.
This is a public service warning to all cellphone users and photographers and videorecorders living in or visiting Oregon: Get permission for the audio part!
| Oregon law allows audio material to be recorded only if one of the parties is aware the recording is taking place. Judge said Vang was recording video and audio using his cell phone camera. Only the audio recording violated Oregon law, she stressed. |
And failing (or opting not) to get permission for the audio, turn it off before shooting your video.
If you’re reading this from an Oregon prison cell due to your video indiscretions, be advised to read Ain’t Complicated daily.
I read this earlier this morning in an email I received from Brigada Today:
| Check out their product called Celtrek Global SIM Card. It provides the latest in global communications technology by allowing users to travel practically anywhere around the world and use their own cellular phones to make and receive calls at a fraction of the rate their network carrier would normally charge. You simply replace your network carrier SIM card with the Global SIM Card and start saving up to 90% or more on mobile calls from overseas. Best of all, you have one U.S. based phone number assigned to you no matter how many different countries you travel to. If you happen to be from the USA, this allows for all calls from friends and family in the states to be local calls. If you’re from other countries, check with GlobalAirtime about other deals for your land. Learn more at http://www.globalairtime.com. |
I haven’t yet, but I want to check into this. It sounds like a very neat and handy service.
Oooops! 😯 Maybe that’s not such a good photo to go with the title!
Here, this next one is better:
Today is our daughter Dora’s twentieth birthday. So I made the above wallpaper with her in mind because of this transition from her teens to her twenties. Of course, it’s a good verse for all of us.
Now…two news items to start out your day….
| Happiness is key to longer life
“Happiness does not heal, but happiness protects against falling ill” says Ruut Veenhoven of Rotterdam’s Erasmus University in a study to be published next month. After reviewing 30 studies carried out worldwide over periods ranging from one to 60 years, the Dutch professor said the effects of happiness on longevity were “comparable to that of smoking or not”. That special flair for feeling good, he said, could lengthen life by between 7.5 and 10 years. The finding brings a vital new piece to a puzzle currently being assembled by researchers worldwide on just what makes us happy — and on the related question of why people blessed with material wealth in developed nations no longer seem satisfied with their lives. |
And this less happy story:
| Russia vs Georgia
A fragile cease-fire appeared even more shaky as Russia’s foreign minister declared that the world “can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity.” The declaration from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came simultaneously with the announcement that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was meeting in the Kremlin with the leaders of Georgia’s two separatist provinces. “One can forget about any talk about Georgia’s territorial integrity because, I believe, it is impossible to persuade South Ossetia and Abkhazia to agree with the logic that they can be forced back into the Georgian state,” Lavrov told reporters. […] Russian troops also appeared to be settling in elsewhere in Georgia. […] The scene underlined how closely the soldiers Russia calls peacekeepers are allied with its military. |
I said two news items, but here’s a third one to end on a more positive note:
| Anything into oil
“Working with the USDA we’ve identified enough waste material around the country, we truly believe we can make the United States totally energy independent of foreign countries in about five years,” he said. WND originally reported on the project in March as Bell, an agricultural researcher, confirmed he’d isolated and modified specific bacteria that will, on a very large scale, naturally and rapidly convert plant material – including the leftovers from food – into hydrocarbons to fuel cars and trucks. That means trash like corn stalks and corn cobs – even the grass clippings from suburban lawns – can be turned into oil and gasoline to run trucks, buses and cars. |
Make it a good day today!
Instant messaging world confirms six degrees of separation
| A social graph derived from billions of instant messages validates folklore that there are about six degrees of separation between any two strangers on the planet. |
Any two? 😯
So Bin Laden isn’t all that far removed from President Bush after all. And neither of them is so far from me. Weird.
| A research team at US software giant Microsoft studied 30 billion instant messages sent by 240 million people in June of 2006 and determined that, on average, any two could be linked in 6.6 steps.
"Weve been able to put our finger on the social pulse of human connectivity – on a planetary scale – and weve confirmed that its indeed a small world." Microsoft researcher Eric Horvitz told AFP on Monday. […] Horvitz and colleague Jure Leskovec estimate that the Microsoft Messenger chats they studied amount to half of the instant messages sent worldwide in June two years ago. |
That’s a staggering amount of messages!
(What a boring job.)
| The researchers stress that they were not privy to the contents of messages and that information indicating peoples identities was removed. |
Yeah. Sure. 🙄
I remember the pre-Google days when AltaVista was The Best Search Engine.
Is this the dawn of post-Google days?
| Cuil Press Release
MENLO PARK, Calif.—July 28, 2008—Cuil, a technology company pioneering a new approach to search, unveils its innovative search offering, which combines the biggest Web index with content-based relevance methods, results organized by ideas, and complete user privacy. Cuil (www.Cuil.com) has indexed 120 billion Web pages, three times more than any other search engine. Cuil (pronounced COOL) provides organized and relevant results based on Web page content analysis. The search engine goes beyond today’s search techniques of link analysis and traffic ranking to analyze the context of each page and the concepts behind each query. It then organizes similar search results into groups and sorts them by category. Cuil gives users a richer display of results and offers organizing features, such as tabs to clarify subjects, images to identify topics and search refining suggestions to help guide users to the results they seek. “The Web continues to grow at a fantastic rate and other search engines are unable to keep up with it,” said Tom Costello, CEO and co-founder of Cuil. “Our significant breakthroughs in search technology have enabled us to index much more of the Internet, placing nearly the entire Web at the fingertips of every user. In addition, Cuil presents searchers with content-based results, not just popular ones, providing different and more insightful answers that illustrate the vastness and the variety of the Web.” |
So Cuil has some “significant breakthroughs,” eh?
We’ll just have to wait and see.
And test and see.
Look, I know I keep bringing up this subject. If you get tired of it, just skip over it this time.
| Cancer chief sees cell phone risks
The director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UPMC Cancer Centers plans to issue an advisory to about 3,000 faculty and staff today about the possible health risks associated with cellular phone use. "Recently I have become aware of the growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer," Dr. Ronald Herberman said in the memorandum. "Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use." The advisory suggests certain measures to limit exposure to electromagnetic radiation emitted by the devices, such as shortening the length of conversations or keeping the phones away from the head by text messaging or using headsets or speaker phone options. It also recommends that children not use cell phones except in emergencies. A child's developing organs "are the most likely to be sensitive to any possible effects of exposure," according to the document. |