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• Facebook shares climb 10% in private auction to $103B valuation

  Inside Facebook

  Kim-Mai Cutler

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:39 pm

  Facebook’s shares climbed 10 percent from a week ago in a private auction that valued the company at $103.4 billion. SharesPost, which arranges sales of shares in privately held companies, said it completed an auction of 150,000 shares of Class B stock today at a clearing price of $44. That’s up 10 percent from a week ago, where shares cleared at $40 with a $94 billion valuation. Facebook may raise around $5 billion after filing for an initial public offering last week. While we don’t know what the ultimate market capitalization will be, the fact that the shares cleared at a…

• Romance survey [infographic]

  Holy Kaw!

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pm

  Via Hotels.com. Infographics to put you in the mood. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Introducing New Apps for Timeline

  Facebook Blog

  Carl Sjogreen

  18 Jan 2012 | 5:26 pm

  New timeline apps are now available from Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor, and others.  You can now enhance your timeline with apps that help you tell your story, whether you love to cook, eat, travel, run, or review movies.Apps bring your timeline to lifeOnce you've added an app, you can begin updating your timeline with your activities as they happen. For example, if you love design, shopping or fashion, you can add the Pinterest or Pose apps to make your favorite items part of your timeline.If you love to cook, you can add…

• facebook: Andrew "Boz" Bosworth on engineering at Facebook: http://t.co/TByWEVW7

  Twitter / facebook

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:35 am

  facebook: Andrew "Boz" Bosworth on engineering at Facebook: http://t.co/TByWEVW7

• Why your Internet Marketing Company Should Offer Conversion Analysis

  Performancing

  Guest Blogger

  29 Jan 2012 | 10:37 pm

  If your internet marketing company is helping to drive traffic to your website, you may still be losing money. But how is that possible? Getting new visitors to your website is only the half the battle; ultimately, they need to become new — and preferably loyal and repeat — customers to benefit your business and help you grow revenue. The process of getting new visitors to become customers is called conversion, and if your internet marketing company isn’t offering conversion analysis as part of your internet marketing strategy, you need to start shopping around for a new marketing…

• 

  Inside Facebook

• Facebook shares climb 10% in private auction to $103B valuation

  Kim-Mai Cutler

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:39 pm

  Facebook’s shares climbed 10 percent from a week ago in a private auction that valued the company at $103.4 billion. SharesPost, which arranges sales of shares in privately held companies, said it completed an auction of 150,000 shares of Class B stock today at a clearing price of $44. That’s up 10 percent from a week ago, where shares cleared at $40 with a $94 billion valuation. Facebook may raise around $5 billion after filing for an initial public offering last week. While we don’t know what the ultimate market capitalization will be, the fact that the shares cleared at a…

• Liveblogging Inside Social Apps: Social Apps for Marketers and Brands, Maximizing Audience Engagement

  Brendan Irvine-Broque

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:03 pm

  We’re at the San Francisco Design center, blogging Inside Network’s third annual Inside Social Apps conference. The final panel of the day focused on how marketers and brands can use social apps to maximize audience engagement. Joining moderator Josh Constine, of Techcrunch, were Context Optional CEO Kevin Barenblat, Buddy Media Senior VP Carla Bourque, Facebook Page Product Manager Russ Heddleston, Starz Media VP of Digital Media David Katz, Hearsay Social CEO and Starbucks Board Director Clara Shih. All of the panelists agreed that building mobile experiences and applications is…

• 60 million users engaged with apps on Facebook mobile platform since launch; average 5 times per month

  Brendan Irvine-Broque

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:23 pm

  Facebook Director of Product Management Carl Sjogreen revealed that more than 60 million users have engaged with mobile applications via Facebook, 320 million times per month since the mobile platform launched in October 2011. Sjogreen shared this statistic during a fireside chat with Founder of Inside Network Justin Smith at the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco. This means that 60 million users navigated to either mobile web or native applications that integrated with Facebook, and these users engaged with the app roughly five times per month. With 425 million monthly active…

• Liveblogging Inside Social Apps: Facebook Platform Roadmap in 2012

  Brittany Darwell

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:52 pm

  We’re at the San Francisco Design center, blogging Inside Network’s third annual Inside Social Apps conference. Founder of Inside Network Justin Smith sat down with Facebook Director of Product Management Carl Sjogreen for a fireside chat called “The Facebook Platform Roadmap in 2012.” With the company filing for an initial public offering last week, Sjogreen was unable to share too much about the future of monetization the platform, but he provided insight on the state of Open Graph, mobile and games on Facebook. The following is a paraphrased transcript of the discussion.

• Facebook appends its 2005 stock plan to its IPO filing in new amendment

  Kim-Mai Cutler

  8 Feb 2012 | 2:36 pm

  Facebook added a horde of documents to its filing for an initial public offering, including a copy of the 2005 stock plan. There are also some offer letters to executives, the five-year agreement with Zynga and an agreement from 2010 with Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies when the late-stage investment firm held an 8.2 percent stake in the company. Perhaps the most interesting thing though is a copy of the 2005 stock plan. In there, you can see how options and restricted stock units for the company were structured. The Zynga-Facebook agreement is the exact same one the gaming company…

• 

  Holy Kaw!

• Romance survey [infographic]

  9 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pm

  Via Hotels.com. Infographics to put you in the mood. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Do aliens go invisible by 'going green'?

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:24 am

  As we discover more and more planets around other stars, the Fermi Paradox is becoming, well, more paradoxical. The Fermi Paradox simply asks the question "where are they?" Our Milky Way galaxy is so big and so old -- and we are estimated to be accompanied by at least 100 billion planets -- that aliens should have visited us by now. Instead, when we peruse the heavens, we are faced with the Great Silence, which is one of the biggest challenges to modern astronomy. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Mysterious sounds reported around the world

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:23 am

  People around the world have reported hearing strange sounds from the skies over the past month. Sometimes they describe it as a hum or low rumble; other times it’s a whine, thump, or even a melody. Often the sounds have been recorded and posted online, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories. One blogger wrote, "either the world is ending, aliens are landing or everyone is getting hoaxed. Or, possibly, there’s an actual scientific explanation for the mass amount of YouTube videos capturing bizarre sounds that are being heard around the globe. Are we witnessing the beginning of a…

• Costa Concordia: an ecological time bomb

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:21 am

  As workers begin to extract the half-million gallons of fuel in the shipwrecked cruise liner, locals are worried that their pristine waters are in danger. Reporting by Rossella Lorenzi. Written and produced by Rossella Lorenzi and Martin Berman. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Inside Syria's capitol: nervously normal

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:18 am

  As the violence in Syria continues to escalate, Syrian citizens are arming themselves to resist their oppressive regime. For days, Homs, the third-largest city in Syria, has endured shelling, tanks and attacks by heavy weaponry. Syrian protestors react with more violence against forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, resulting in all-out war zones in some residential neighborhoods. Full story at Discovery News. More news from Discovery Communications. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• 

  Facebook Blog

• Introducing New Apps for Timeline

  Carl Sjogreen

  18 Jan 2012 | 5:26 pm

  New timeline apps are now available from Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor, and others.  You can now enhance your timeline with apps that help you tell your story, whether you love to cook, eat, travel, run, or review movies.Apps bring your timeline to lifeOnce you've added an app, you can begin updating your timeline with your activities as they happen. For example, if you love design, shopping or fashion, you can add the Pinterest or Pose apps to make your favorite items part of your timeline.If you love to cook, you can add…

• Listen to Music With Your Friends

  Alexandre Roche

  12 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am

  Music is one of the most powerful and fun ways to connect. Whether it's at a concert with a bunch of people or on a long car ride with your best buddy, we love listening to music with our friends. But what if you could listen to music with your friends when you're alone, like at work, at home or on the go?Today, with music services on Facebook, there's a new way to listen with friends. This feature lets you listen along with any of your friends who are currently listening to music. You can also listen together in a group while one of your friends plays DJ.  You can listen to the same song,…

• Timeline: Now Available on Mobile

  Mick Johnson

  15 Dec 2011 | 10:00 am

  UPDATE on Sunday, December 18th 2011: We're excited to announce that timeline is now available on Facebook for iOS version 4.1, for iPhone and iPod Touch devices.Originally Published on Thursday, December 15, 2011: Timeline gives you an easy way to see the things you've shared, and collect all your best moments in a single place. In addition to making timeline available on the web, today we're also launching timeline on Android and m.facebook.com.Mobile timeline starts with your unique cover photo. As you scroll down, you'll see your posts, photos and life events as they happened, back to the…

• Timeline: Now Available Worldwide

  Paul McDonald

  15 Dec 2011 | 4:30 am

  UPDATE on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012: Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story. Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it. You can learn more about these new features by taking the quick tour available at the top of your timeline. If you want to get timeline now, go to the Introducing Timeline page and click "Get…

• A Faster Facebook for Android

  Keith Peiris

  7 Dec 2011 | 11:30 am

  Today we're launching an updated Facebook app for Android. It's now quicker and easier to view photos, get messages and navigate around the app.Photos get betterPhotos and albums are up to two times faster than the previous Android app. It's also easier to share photos, view comments and edit captions on the go.View photos with tags, comments and likes Messages on top Your messages and notifications are now at the top of your screen. You can respond to friends and stay updated without leaving the page you're on.Get notifications and messages at the top of every screenMenu on the side You can…

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  Twitter / facebook

• facebook: Andrew "Boz" Bosworth on engineering at Facebook: http://t.co/TByWEVW7

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:35 am

  facebook: Andrew "Boz" Bosworth on engineering at Facebook: http://t.co/TByWEVW7

• facebook: RT @fb_engineering: Josh Wiseman's take on what it's like to build products at @facebook http://t.co/KUSqUhDO

  25 Jan 2012 | 11:33 am

  facebook: RT @fb_engineering: Josh Wiseman's take on what it's like to build products at @facebook http://t.co/KUSqUhDO

• facebook: Engineer Q&A series: advice and a behind-the-scenes look at working at @fb_engineering: http://t.co/0mDDxjWn

  20 Jan 2012 | 1:00 pm

  facebook: Engineer Q&A series: advice and a behind-the-scenes look at working at @fb_engineering: http://t.co/0mDDxjWn

• facebook: RT @fb_engineering: Under the hood: how we built and designed Mobile Timeline http://t.co/qJvwKgzk

  19 Jan 2012 | 11:36 am

  facebook: RT @fb_engineering: Under the hood: how we built and designed Mobile Timeline http://t.co/qJvwKgzk

• facebook: Introducing New Apps for Timeline http://t.co/6ggLdMEA

  18 Jan 2012 | 5:26 pm

  facebook: Introducing New Apps for Timeline http://t.co/6ggLdMEA

• 

  Performancing

• Why your Internet Marketing Company Should Offer Conversion Analysis

  Guest Blogger

  29 Jan 2012 | 10:37 pm

  If your internet marketing company is helping to drive traffic to your website, you may still be losing money. But how is that possible? Getting new visitors to your website is only the half the battle; ultimately, they need to become new — and preferably loyal and repeat — customers to benefit your business and help you grow revenue. The process of getting new visitors to become customers is called conversion, and if your internet marketing company isn’t offering conversion analysis as part of your internet marketing strategy, you need to start shopping around for a new marketing…

• Buy Links for SEO or not

  Guest Blogger

  22 Jan 2012 | 11:43 pm

  Links, and in particular one-way links, have always been thought to be one of the top metrics that search engine web sites look for when ranking websites. Although the spirit of linking to another website is to show a tacit recommendation for that website, there are many ways in which this metric can be exploited. One way is to simply buy links or pay a search engine optimization company to buy links for you. The temptation of saving the time and effort of having to build relationships and court the opinions of webmasters is quite a strong one, yet many people swear off buying links for their…

• InstaBG Delivers Instagram Backgrounds To Your Twitter Account Automagically

  Guest Blogger

  31 Dec 2011 | 12:59 pm

  While I take great pride in managing my Twitter account through user interaction, quick responses to questions and sparse sharing of my own personal posts I don’t care much for updating my background so it remains fresh upon user visits. It’s for that reason that I began using and highly recommend the program InstaBG. The InstaBG platform connects users to their Twitter account and the Instagram photo sharing platform in order to create backgrounds based on user preference. The program couldn’t be easier to use, simply click on the “Sign in with Twitter Account”…

• Newest Free Mac Apps for Better Productivity

  Guest Blogger

  24 Dec 2011 | 1:29 am

  We all have trouble focusing from time to time. With the massive time waster that is the Internet tempting us with endless pages of Lolcats, YouTube videos, social-networking sites and Netflix, it is practically turning us all into creatures with the attention span of a goldfish. When was the last time you actually got through a task without checking Facebook? Or sending a text? I bet you can’t even remember. It is no surprise that an avalanche of free applications has been released by developers for the Mac that helps to combat the lack of productivity that sometimes occurs in our…

• Have You Selected The Right SEO Keywords?

  Guest Blogger

  15 Dec 2011 | 10:19 am

  The first step in any successful search engine optimization campaign should be to consider your target market. What products and services do you sell? What sets you apart from your competitors? Why should people shop online with you? These questions help you to build up a picture of those who are likely to buy your products or services online. They also give you an immediate insight into the keywords (search terms) that will be used in order to find your website online. This is a great starting point when considering the keywords that you wish to target. Some would argue that keyword analysis…

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  Ajaxian » Front Page

• Winding road of open-source webOS

  jvaughan

  2 Feb 2012 | 2:21 pm

  HP continues to divulge bits and pieces of a road map for the ill-starred and nearly-orphaned webOS. The company has followed up its December plan to release webOS mobile platform and development tools with a proposed timeline, with a full release set before year’s end.  Some people see a life for the associated Enyo JavaScript framework aside from any success or failure webOS ultimately achieves.

• Shim uses node.js to test sites on multiple browsers

  jvaughan

  14 Jan 2012 | 8:01 pm

  Shim was developed within the Boston Globe’s media lab as a way to study how Web sites look on various devices and browsers. A laptop intercepts all wifi traffic – this is redirected to a custom node.js server – which inserts a javascript, or “shim,” at the head of each web page that is visited. The shim, once loaded in a device’s browser, opens and maintains a socket connection to the server, according to to Shim’s developers. Shim was written in 2011 by Chris Marstall, Creative Technologist at the Boston Globe. The software has been open sourced. Write…

• HipHop Virtual Machine for PHP

  jvaughan

  10 Dec 2011 | 6:15 pm

  Facebook Software Engineer and HipHop for PHP team member Jason Evans provides details on Facebook’s move to a new high-performance PHP virtual machine. Described by Evans is ”a new PHP execution engine based on the HipHop language runtime that we call the HipHop Virtual Machine (hhvm).” He sees it as replacement for the HipHop PHP interpreter (hphpi). He continues: We have long been keenly aware of the limitations to static analysis imposed by such a dynamic language as PHP, not to mention the risks inherent in developing software with hphpi and deploying with hphpc. Our…

• Adobe to forgo Flash plug-in for mobile devices

  jvaughan

  12 Nov 2011 | 4:04 pm

  Earlier this week, Adobe VP and General Manager Danny Winokur disclosed that the company has concluded that HTML5 is ”the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.” The company said it would stop building Flash to run on mobile browsers. In a blog post on the new focus of Flash strategy, Winokur wrote: Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores.  We will no longer continue to develop Flash Player in the browser to work…

• Intel’s Parallel Extensions for JavaScript

  jvaughan

  8 Oct 2011 | 10:38 am

  Intel’s Parallel Extensions for JavaScript, code named River Trail, hooks into on-chip vector extensions to improve performance of Web applications. Details of Intel’s attempt to get on the JavaScript juggernaut emerged last month at its developer event. The prototype JavaScript extension offered by Intel is intended to allow JavaScript apps to take advantage of modern parallel chip capabilities. Sequential gives way to parallel, at least in theory. In-browser games and image editing are pitched as examples of application elements that would take advantage of new eight-core…

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  Pathfinder Software

• Workshop: Faster Innovation With Lean + UX + Agile

  Joe Miller

  18 Jan 2012 | 11:13 am

  Your job as an innovator is to discover a product and model that works before you run out of time and money. 9 out of 10 new products fail. So fail faster, fail cheaper. So use Fast Innovation with Lean + UX + Agile to iterate and pivot your product and model to success. Join us for a half day workshop on January 20th, 2012 to experience what fast innovation can do for you. Pathfinder Software’s Amy Willis (UX) Bernhard Kappe (Products Strategy) and Reid MacTavish (Agile Development) share their lessons learned in using lean+ux+agile to deliver software products that customers want and…

• Lean + UX + Agile

  Joe Miller

  10 Jan 2012 | 2:23 pm

  Lean + UX + Agile. Lean Startup, User Experience Design and Agile Development are all approaches to improve your odds of creating successful products. Are they mutually exclusive, or can you assemble them together to make a lean, mean product machine? In November Pathfinder’s Bernhard Kappe, Amy Willis and Reid MacTavish gave a sold out talk at the Chicago Product Management Association to share their lessons learned in making products with Lean + UX + Agile methodology. We have produced a video of the event including the slides with a narrative voice over for your enjoyment. If…

• How To Do Customer Interviews

  Joe Miller

  10 Jan 2012 | 2:11 pm

  How To Do Customer Interviews. In November Pathfinder CEO Bernhard Kappe and Broker Savant’s Todd Wyder gave a talk on how to do problem and solution interviews at the Chicago Lean Startup Circle. Too many entrepreneurs follow the “Field of Dreams” approach to product development. As entrepreneurs we hear a little voice in our head, and it says “if you build it, they will come”. Maybe the voice is right. Maybe it is wrong. Either way interviewing your potential customers will give you significant insight into developing your product or service if you ask the right questions. The…

• An Interview with Eric Ries at the Chicago Lean Startup Circle

  Bernhard Kappe

  5 Jan 2012 | 2:50 pm

  In September I did an interview with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, at the Chicago Lean Startup Circle. Pathfinder’s Bernhard Kappe Interviews Eric Ries on the Lean Startup. Eric was in fine form – funny, engaging, with self deprecating humor, great stories and insights. If you’re involved in innnovation, either at a startup or a large organization, I think reading the book and watching the video will be great food for thought. Share/Bookmark

• The Big Hill that Microsoft “Superphones” and Tablets Will Have to Climb

  Dietrich Kappe

  3 Jan 2012 | 5:50 pm

  photo credit: codepo8 RIM is putting the remaining stock of it’s BlackBerry Playbooks on clearance for $299. This is after HP engaged in a rummage sale of both it’s new and refurbished WebOS tablets. What are buyers running on the hacked devices? That’s right, Android. That’s now two major players who have thrown up their hands rather than compete. For Microsoft it means a long uphill climb against two established competitors. Nokia won’t help MS much here, once Android squishes their existing phones out of the developing world marketplace. So what will MS have…

• 

  Official jQuery Blog

• jQuery 1.7.2 Beta 1 Released

  dmethvin

  31 Jan 2012 | 5:33 pm

  Hey there Internets, it’s the jQuery Core team! We haven’t talked in a while, but over the holidays we were busy fixing the bugs you reported. The result of that hard work is jQuery 1.7.2 Beta 1. We decided to get a beta out by Groundhog Day so you wouldn’t be in the shadow of six more weeks of unfixed bugs. You can get the code from the jQuery CDN: http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.7.2b1.js Oh, we know what you’re thinking: “Cool, a new version of jQuery; I’ll wait until the final release has been out a few weeks and then I’ll give it a try.”…

• Plugins Site Update: The Old Is New Again

  Adam J. Sontag

  13 Dec 2011 | 8:44 am

  We’ve gotten a lot of feedback since last week’s announcement about the plugins site’s unfortunate tumble into oblivion, and I’d like to address a few of the most important concerns that have surfaced since. “Could you make the old backup available for posterity?” Yes. We can — and have. Over the weekend, we restored the most recent backup we had, and the original site is now living at archive.plugins.jquery.com; you should be able to browse through everything that’s there to your heart’s content. We also applied the most recent user…

• What Is Happening To The jQuery Plugins Site?

  Adam J. Sontag

  8 Dec 2011 | 1:20 pm

  For about a week, instead of hosting several hundred jQuery plugins and several thousand advertisements for laptop batteries, our plugins repository has been serving up a pretty pathetic message about spam and an allusion to some “new submission process.” This happened very suddenly, and we’re sorry to everyone who’s been inconvenienced. Please allow me a few minutes to explain what happened, where we’re headed, and how it impacts you. If you’re in a rush, here’s the short version. The Backstory Though the plugins site you’ve known and loved…

• jQuery Conference 2012: UK – Training Workshops Announced

  Ralph Whitbeck

  29 Nov 2011 | 7:56 am

  We are very happy to announce two training workshops for this years United Kingdom conference. The trainings will be given by Doug Neiner, Ralph Whitbeck and Mike Hostetler of appendTo. The general admission tickets for the conference are now sold out but you can buy conference/training bundles and still attend the conference. appendTo will be giving Introduction to jQuery and jQuery Mobile workshops. The workshops will be held on Thursday, 9 February, 2012 at the Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford, UK. Introduction to jQuery jQuery has become the most popular JavaScript library for developers…

• Call for jQuery 1.8 Ideas

  dmethvin

  22 Nov 2011 | 10:28 am

  We’re ready for our next round of community input, this time for version 1.8! This is your chance to suggest things we can fix, add, change, or remove in jQuery to make it better. You can add a suggestion using this form; whenever possible provide links to a bug report, a page with a detailed description, or implementations that represent your idea. We’d like to have all your input by December 5 so we can read and discuss them before setting the 1.8 roadmap. Many thanks for the suggestions left on our earlier blog post about how we can improve jQuery by trimming it down.

• 

  The Official Google Blog

• Going gothic with bestselling author Anne Rice

  A Googler

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  Bestselling Southern American author Anne Rice is coming to Google headquarters to discuss her latest book, The Wolf Gift, on Friday, February 24 at 10am PT. One of the most popular authors of contemporary fiction, Rice has bewitched readers with her vampire chronicles, tales of the Mayfair Witches and other metaphysical gothic fiction for more than thirty years. Submit your question online between now and Feb 23 at midnight PT, and it could be asked during the Interview with the Vampire—we mean, the interview with Anne Rice. To watch the live broadcast, tune in to the Authors@Google…

• Introducing Chrome for Android

  A Googler

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:40 am

  In 2008, we launched Google Chrome to help make the web better. We’re excited that millions of people around the world use Chrome as their primary browser and we want to keep improving that experience. Today, we're introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet. Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go,…

• What’s your X? Amplifying technology moonshots

  A Googler

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 pm

  Last week, we ran an experiment. We hosted a gathering, called “Solve for X,” for experienced entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists from around the world. The event focused on proposing and discussing technological solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems. Discussions began last week with this small event, and now we invite others to join the conversation on our website and our Google +page. The Solve for X gathering, which we co-hosted with Eric Schmidt, is a place to celebrate a concept we champion internally and that we believe will inspire many others: technology…

• Supporting U.S. student veterans with a new scholarship

  A Googler

  6 Feb 2012 | 3:03 pm

  The newest addition to the Google scholarships family is the Google Student Veterans of America (SVA) Scholarship. We’re partnering with the nonprofit Student Veterans of America (SVA) to support their mission of providing veterans with the resources, support and advocacy they need to succeed in higher education and throughout their careers. The Google SVA Scholarship is available to student veterans who are pursuing degrees in computer science and related fields in the U.S. for the 2012-2013 academic year. In addition to the financial award, recipients will be invited to attend the annual…

• Super Bowl XLVI: Mobile, Manning and Madonna

  A Googler

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:35 am

  Now that the final Super Bowl touchdown has been scored, the dip bowl wiped clean and the last of the chicken wings devoured, we’re taking a look at some game-day search trends to see what football fans were searching for this year. As the Giants and Patriots battled it out on the field yesterday, U.S. viewers multi-tasked, watching the game on television and also going online more than ever before, turning to their smartphones and tablets to look up players, halftime show performers and their favorite Super Bowl commercials. In fact, around 41% of searches related to [Super Bowl ads] that…

• 

  Google Code Blog

• Google Summer of Code 2012 is on!

  Scott Knaster

  4 Feb 2012 | 12:08 pm

  By Carol Smith, Open Source Team Cross-posted with the Google Open Source Blog Today at FOSDEM I was proud to announce Google Summer of Code 2012. This will be the 8th year for Google Summer of Code, an innovative program dedicated to introducing students from colleges and universities around the world to open source software development. The program offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source projects with the help of mentoring organizations from all around the globe. Over the past seven years Google Summer of Code has had 6,000 students from over 90 countries…

• Fridaygram: science education, simulating galaxies, spider webs

  Scott Knaster

  3 Feb 2012 | 12:11 pm

  By Scott Knaster, Google Code Blog Editor Most software developers started getting interested in technology at an early age. With that in mind, Google Roots in Science and Engineering (RISE) is a program that annually awards grants to groups that come up with great new ways to teach students in Computer Science (CS) and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This year’s awards were just announced. The winners included a program that helps primary school students in Dublin, girls in the San Francisco Bay Area, and kids in Uganda who want to learn about technology. Scientists love…

• Angry Birds Chrome now uses the Web Audio API

  Scott Knaster

  31 Jan 2012 | 2:16 pm

  By Fred Sauer, Developer Advocate Cross-posted with the Google Web Toolkit Blog Last week Angry Birds for Chrome was updated to use the Web Audio API for all its in-game audio for Chrome users, which means Chrome users get the full Angry Birds experience, without any plugins. The Web Audio API supports a wide variety of use cases, including the high fidelity and low latency requirements of games. Users of other supported browsers will still get sound via Flash or HTML5 audio. How does this cross-browser audio magic work? As you may have seen or heard, Angry Birds was in no small part made…

• Translating JavaScript to Dart

  Scott Knaster

  30 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm

  Marcin Aaron By Aaron Wheeler, Senior User Experience Prototyper, and Marcin Wichary, Senior User Experience Designer Cross-posted with the Chromium Blog It took approximately 2000 years for the original Rosetta Stone to be discovered, which helped translate the Egyptian Hieroglyphs. We couldn’t wait that long to bridge the Dart and JavaScript worlds, so today we are releasing the JavaScript to Dart Synonym app. Like most web developers, we are familiar, comfortable, and productive with JavaScript. We were curious about Dart, and thanks to a recent Dart hackathon, we had the chance to play…

• g|saudi arabia 2.0 is back

  Scott Knaster

  29 Jan 2012 | 10:31 am

  By Rania Hadi, MENA Outreach Manager View this post in Arabic Building on a year packed with g|days throughout the Middle East and North Africa, today we are announcing Google MENA’s first 2012 event to kick off the new year. On March 24-25, Google, in collaboration with Badir Technology Incubator, will be hosting our second event in the Kingdom: g|saudi arabia 2.0. We’re coming to Jeddah with a host of fresh sessions on all things technology and business. Google engineers, product managers, and business leaders will be there to not only deliver trainings but will be available for any…

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  Google Webmaster Central Blog

• Preparing your site for a traffic spike

  Susan Moskwa

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:30 am

  Webmaster level: Intermediate It’s a moment any site owner both looks forward to, and dreads: a huge surge in traffic to your site (yay!) can often cause your site to crash (boo!). Maybe you’ll create a piece of viral content, or get Slashdotted, or maybe Larry Page will get a tattoo and your site on tech tattoos will be suddenly in vogue. Many people go online immediately after a noteworthy event—a political debate, the death of a celebrity, or a natural disaster—to get news and information about that event. This can cause a rapid increase in traffic to websites that provide relevant…

• More Options for Google+ Badges

  Maile Ohye

  26 Jan 2012 | 1:53 pm

  Webmaster Level: All Update on February 2, 2012: The new Google+ badge is now out of preview and available to all users on all sites. When we launched Google+ pages in November, we also released Google+ badges to promote your Google+ presence right on your site. Starting today in developer preview (and soon available to all your users), we're adding more options for integrating the Google+ badge into your website. You can configure a badge with a width that fits your site design and choose a version that works better on darker sites. You'll also see that Google+ badges now include the unified…

• What’s new with Sitemaps

  Jonathan Simon

  26 Jan 2012 | 12:18 pm

  Webmaster level: AllSitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site. Webmaster Tools’ Sitemaps feature gives you feedback on your submitted Sitemaps, such as how many Sitemap URLs have been indexed, or whether your Sitemaps have any errors. Recently, we’ve added even more information! Let’s check it out:The Sitemaps page displays details based on content-type. Now statistics from Web, Videos, Images and News are featured prominently. This lets you see how many items of each type were submitted (if any), and for some content types, we also show how many items have been…

• Update to Top Search Queries data

  Susan Moskwa

  25 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pm

  Webmaster level: All Starting today, we’re updating our Top Search Queries feature to make it better match expectations about search engine rankings. Previously we reported the average position of all URLs from your site for a given query. As of today, we’ll instead average only the top position that a URL from your site appeared in. An example Let’s say Nick searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 3, 6, and 12. Jane also searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 5 and 9. Previously, we would have averaged all these positions together…

• Making form-filling faster, easier and smarter

  Maile Ohye

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am

  Webmaster Level: Intermediate One of the biggest bottlenecks on any conversion funnel is filling out an online form – shopping and registration flows all rely on forms as a crucial and demanding step in accomplishing the goals of your site. For many users, online forms mean repeatedly typing common information like our names and addresses on different sites across the web – a tedious task that causes many to give up and abandon the flow entirely. Chrome’s Autofill and other form-filling providers help to break down this barrier by remembering common profile information and…

• 

  Twitter Blog

• Post-Bowl Twitter analysis

  twitter

  6 Feb 2012 | 1:06 pm

  The results are in: People love to share the experience of watching the Super Bowl with millions of other viewers from around the world. Whether it’s cheering for your team, commenting on the halftime show or discussing the ads, it seems you have a lot to say about this annual tradition—and you’re using Twitter to say it.Here’s a fun fact: in 2008, Twitter’s largest spike in Tweets per second (TPS) during the Super Bowl was just 27. Three years later, fans sent 4,064 TPS, which was the highest TPS for any sporting event at that time.This year, the TPS peak was 12,233 Tweets. The…

• Roar of the crowd: Super Bowl on Twitter

  twitter

  2 Feb 2012 | 11:34 am

  From @TimTebow leading the Denver Broncos to a shocking overtime win (and a new record for sports-related Tweets per second: 9,420) to San Diego Chargers receiver @ericweddle1’s sideline Tweets from the Pro Bowl—we watched all of the NFL post-season’s most memorable moments come alive on Twitter.And while the @Giants and @Patriots’ rematch and halftime show play out on TV, the national conversation is happening well beyond your den: it also happens on Twitter. Follow your favorite NFL players, coaches and commentators during the game, or just search for #SuperBowl to see how everyone…

• Tweets still must flow

  twitter

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:25 am

  See below for an update.One year ago, we posted "The Tweets Must Flow," in which we said,“The open exchange of information can have a positive global impact … almost every country in the world agrees that freedom of expression is a human right. Many countries also agree that freedom of expression carries with it responsibilities and has limits.”As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression. Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for…

• Hack Week @ Twitter

  twittereng

  25 Jan 2012 | 12:20 pm

  Hack Week is one of the ways we actively promote innovation through experimentation around the company. This week, a wide range of folks here are taking time away from their day-to-day work to collaborate and develop ideas that they are passionate about. Get comfortable with uncertainty; it leaves room for inspiration. #hackweek— benji shine (@bshine) January 24, 2012Employees across the company have formed nearly 100 teams to work on a variety of projects. Some are developing ways that could make Twitter even easier to use; others are testing out a new feature or tool that people might…

• Twitter Translation Center adds Right-to-Left Languages

  twitter

  25 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am

  Beginning today, right-to-left languages are now available for volunteers to translate in the Twitter Translation Center, starting with Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu. The Twitter Translation Center takes a crowd-sourced approach to translating and localizing Twitter for people around the world. More than 425,000 volunteers contribute to the Translation Center, and to date have helped make Twitter available in 22 languages. With their help, these will be the next four.As we prepare to add Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu to Twitter, we’ve developed new ways to ensure that Tweets and hashtags…

• 

  Business on Twitter

• How advertising has progressed on Twitter

  admin

  19 Jan 2012 | 6:15 am

  In the beginning there was but one tweet, and no-one could have foreseen the might marketing machine that Twitter would become. Now, with sponsored tweets and third party text ads, it’s easy to forget the innocence of Twitter all those years ago. Or would be, if Mashable hadn’t produced this fab infographic to remind us... [Continue Reading]

• Locomu: A Wholesome Twitter Apps Directory, A guest post by Hemant Sirohi

  admin

  30 Nov 2011 | 10:11 pm

  Locomu is an all inclusive Twitter apps directory that brings all the Twitter apps meandering across the web. The long list of apps include popular names which have world wide acclaim as well as the not so popular names which are both useful and meaningful but are not noticeable to the users. Searching applications and tools for... [Continue Reading]

• Twitter: Following More Than 150 People? Big Head!

  Stephen Bray

  30 Nov 2011 | 3:12 am

  By: Stephen Bray I haven’t thought lots about Twitter recently. I haven’t been using it – or so I thought? There have been lots of reasons for this. Firstly a busy business and family life reduces the time I can devote to Twitter, which can be a distraction. Secondly, I find that once I’m following... [Continue Reading]

• How to organise, promote and share an event using Twitter and other applications

  TabithaPotts

  10 Oct 2011 | 7:56 am

  Although we all love social media and the Internet, there’s nothing like a live event sometimes to create a buzz and bring people together. However, there’s nothing like social media and the Internet to promote your event, sell tickets, organise the event, create interest during it and continue the conversation afterwards! I am not a... [Continue Reading]

• Twitter: Is It Time To Shoot The Messenger?

  Stephen Bray

  23 Aug 2011 | 7:46 am

  At a speech in Kuwait this February British Prime Minister David Cameron stated: ‘The Internet and social media’ is a powerful tool in the hands of citizens, not a means of repression. It belongs to the people who’ve had enough of corruption, of having to make do with what they’re given, of having to settle... [Continue Reading]

• 

  Lifehacker: Iphone

• Waze for iPhone Offers Voice Control for Hands-Free Operation While Driving

  Adam Dachis

  9 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am

  iPhone: Waze, our favorite turn-by-turn navigation app for iPhone (and Android) just added a great new feature: hands-free operation. Now you can control Waze with a wave of your hand and the power of your voice. More »

• Make Your Own Screen Protector Quickly and Cheaply with Adhesive Vinyl and an Xacto Knife

  Adam Dachis

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pm

  We've previously mentioned that you can make your own screen protector on the cheap with adhesive vinyl. Although it's a simple process to understand in theory, it helps to actually see it in practice. This video from Household Hacker demonstrates how to make a vinyl screen protector and apply it to your device in just a few minutes. More »

• The Best Virtual Assistant for iPhone

  Adam Dachis

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:30 am

• Black SMS Encrypts and Decrypts Your Text Messages

  Adam Dachis

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:00 pm

  iOS: Anyone can pick up your phone and read your text messages. It's also not that difficult for someone to install spy software or for the U.S. government to acquire your messages from your carrier. If you want to keep your text messages private, Black SMS is an app that provides a very simple method for doing so. You simply type in the message, set a password, and send it over to iMessage. The recipient can then use their copy of Black SMS to decrypt the message using the password you set by simply pasting the message into the app and entering the password. (Watch the video above for a…

• Get the Most Out of Your iPhone's Notification Center, from Beginner to Jailbreaker

  Thorin Klosowski

  7 Feb 2012 | 6:00 am

  More »

• 

  Gizmodo: Iphone

• iPhone Thief Confronted in Extremely British Fashion

  Michael Hession

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:20 am

  After witnessing a fellow train passenger swiping an unattended iPhone, one brave chap decided to take action—in the form of video taping and yelling. Oh, the yelling. This could not be more hilarious and silly and proper and kind. More »

• Aluminum Speaker Dock Looks Right At Home Under Your iMac

  Andrew Liszewski

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am

• Nature's Greatest Predator Reduced To Blaring Your LMFAO

  Andrew Liszewski

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:20 am

• An iPhone Used as a Hockey Puck at 82 MPH

  Sam Biddle

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:36 am

  If you want to sell something in tech, you can either employ cleavage or violence. In this case, the boys at G-Form are demoing their new iPhone case by beating the hell out of it with a hockey stick. Sure! More »

• TripLingo Romance Edition: Love Abroad

  Roberto Baldwin

  7 Feb 2012 | 3:28 pm

  More »

• 

  TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

• Apple Store employees accept petitions from protesters

  Chris Rawson

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:00 am

  Slightly over a dozen protesters from Change.org and SumofUS delivered a petition signed by more than 250,000 people to the Grand Central Terminal Apple Store today. Both organizations are urging Apple to improve working conditions at factories run by its overseas suppliers, particularly Foxconn's massive facility in China. CNET reports the event was relatively low-key -- there were more people present covering the event for the media than the number of protesters who showed up -- and Apple Store employees seemed well-prepared when they accepted the big box of signatures. The group claims the…

• NOAA drops BlackBerry, embraces iPhone and iPad

  Steven Sande

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:00 am

  The Loop is reporting that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is taking RIM BlackBerry devices off of the list of officially supported mobile devices. What's taking the place of the trusty old BlackBerry? iPhones and iPads running iOS 5 and newer versions of the mobile OS. While a February 3rd memo from NOAA Chief Information Officer and Director for High Performance Computing and Communications Joseph Klimavicz noted that support for BlackBerrys will continue until May 12, 2012, it does not say when the government organization will actually start providing workers…

• Satechi's Cup Holder Mount keeps your iPad and iPhone close at hand

  Steven Sande

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  So, your Family Truckster is loaded with sixteen cup holders in various places. Since you already have a place to stash your hot coffee while driving, wouldn't it be nice to use one of those cup holders for something really useful, like holding your iPad or iPhone within arm's reach? Satechi yesterday delivered the SCH-121 Cup Holder Mount (US$29.99), which comes with two cradles, one for 7" - 10" tablets and the other for your smartphone. While you don't exactly want to be going down the road watching movies on your iPad, this is perfect for the back seat crowd, front row passengers, or for…

• Daily iPhone App: Spice Invaders

  Mike Schramm

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  If you're tired of tower defense games, I don't blame you. Feel free to skip this post, but let me say this before you go: I wouldn't spotlight yet another tower defense game if it wasn't special. That's why Spice Invaders has made the cut. The standard tower defense tropes are in place. Build and upgrade towers with spells and abilities to repel invaders while carrying on a map-wide campaign. But Spice Invaders by On5 Games (published by Chillingo) goes a step further. First of all, the game is super polished. It runs great and looks terrific, and everything from the characters to the UI…

• App usage doesn't drop during Super Bowl -- except during halftime

  Mike Schramm

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:00 pm

  Mobile advertiser Flurry's latest report, on app usage during the Super Bowl, is fascinating for those of us who have been following the "second screen" phenomenon: The tendency of mobile device users to use their devices while also watching television or other media. Flurry notes that during last week's big game, not only was the app audience (according to the apps that the company is actually monitoring) almost as large as the Super Bowl audience as a whole, but as you can see above, app usage steadily grew throughout the game. With one interesting exception, that is: During the Madonna…

• 

  RubyFlow

• Things I learned from functional programming

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:16 am

  http://sokolmichael.heroku.com/blog/2012/01/31/things-to-learn-from-functional-programming/

• Emerging Trends in Ruby on Rails Development in 2012

  9 Feb 2012 | 1:24 am

  In this post, a few Ruby on Rails developers and experts share their trend predictions in Ruby on Rails development in 2012.

• Mongoid::Token - Short snappy tokens for Mongoid documents

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:47 pm

  I have just completed version 1.0.0 of Mongoid::Token - a little library for generating short, unique tokens for your mongoid documents. Great for keeping your URLs nice and short.

• Designing Rails API using Rabl and Devise

  8 Feb 2012 | 5:19 pm

  Enabling RESTful API access for Rails application is easy. However, the complexity arises when some responses are expected in xml format and JSON format. Complexity increases manyfold when these API calls need authentication. Sethu explains how to use Rabl and Devise for designing your API access.

• Newman 0.2.0 Released!

  8 Feb 2012 | 1:58 pm

  For the last week or so, I've been trying to build a framework which does for email what Sinatra/Rack have done for web application development. It's not nearly production ready, but Newman now has good documentation of its implementation, and I'd love to hear what people think of it. I could really use some help, since email is not something I'm an expert on.

• 

  RailsCasts

• #322 RABL

  Ryan Bates

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:00 am

  RABL - Ruby API Builder Language - provides a DSL for generating JSON or XML responses in a Ruby application. Learn how to share and configure complex JSON data in this episode.

• #320 Jbuilder

  Ryan Bates

  30 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am

  Jbuilder provides a DSL for generating JSON. It includes a template engine which allows you to create complex responses with helpers and conditions.

• #318 Upgrading to Rails 3.2

  Ryan Bates

  23 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am

  Rails 3.2 sports many new features including automatic explain queries, tagged logging, key-value store in Active Record, improved migration generator and more. Learn all about these new features in this episode.

• #316 Private Pub

  Ryan Bates

  16 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am

  Private Pub makes it easier than ever to publish and subscribe to real-time events in a Rails app. You can use publish_to with a block of JavaScript or supply a hash for use with JSON.

• #314 Pretty URLs with FriendlyId

  Ryan Bates

  9 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am

  If you are tired of model ids in the URL, overriding to_param can only get you so far. The friendly_id plugin can help by making it easy to generate a URL slug and maintain a history.

• 

  Riding Rails - home

• Rails 3.2.1 has been released

  fxn

  26 Jan 2012 | 3:32 pm

  Rails 3.2.1 is out, with some fixes and doc improvements. Please check the CHANGELOGs gist for details.

• Rails 3.2.0: Faster dev mode & routing, explain queries, tagged logger, store

  David

  20 Jan 2012 | 9:22 am

  So we didn’t quite make the December release date as we intended, but hey, why break a good tradition and start hitting release targets now! In any case, your patience has been worldly rewarded young grasshopper: Rails 3.2 is done, baked, tested, and ready to roll! I’ve been running on 3-2-stable for a few months working on Basecamp Next and it’s been a real treat. The new faster dev mode in particular is a major step up over 3.1. Do remember that this is the last intended release series that’s going to support Ruby 1.8.7. The master git branch for Rails is now targeting Rails 4.0,…

• Rails 3.2.0.rc2 has been released!

  spastorino

  4 Jan 2012 | 1:01 pm

  Hi everyone, Rails 3.2.0.rc2 has been released! What to update in your apps Update your Gemfile to depend on rails ~> 3.2.0.rc2 Update your Gemfile to depend on sass-rails ~> 3.2.3 Start moving any remaining Rails 2.3-style vendor/plugins/*. These are finally deprecated! Extract your vendor/plugins to their own gems and bundle them in your Gemfile. If they're tiny, not worthy of the own gem, fold it into your app as lib/myplugin/* and config/initializers/myplugin.rb. Changes since RC1 ActionMailer No changes ActionPack Add font_path helper method Santiago Pastorino Depends on rack ~> 1.4.0…

• Rails/master is now 4.0.0.beta

  David

  20 Dec 2011 | 7:33 am

  The forthcoming 3.2.x release series will be the last branch of Rails that supports Ruby 1.8.7. There’s a new 3-2-stable branch in git to track the changes we need until 3.2.0 final is release and for managing point releases after that. So for now you should stop floating on rails/master if your application is not compatible with Ruby 1.9.3. We have updated the version numbers to indicate this backwards incompatibility to be 4.0.0.beta. This doesn’t mean that 4.0 is anywhere close to being released, mind you. We’re simply doing this now because we’re dropping support for Ruby 1.8.7 in…

• Rails 3.2 RC1: Faster dev mode & routing, explain queries, tagged logger, store

  David

  19 Dec 2011 | 4:46 pm

  Once you’ve boarded the Rails train, you just know that every stop along the way is going to be a good time. This release candidate is no different and we’ve packed it with loving goodies without making upgrading a hassle. Faster dev mode & routing The most noticeable new feature is that development mode got a ton and a half faster. Inspired by Active Reload, we now only reload classes from files you’ve actually changed. The difference is dramatic on a larger application. Route recognition also got a bunch faster thanks to the new Journey engine and we made linking much faster as well…

• 

  Ruby Inside

• This Week in Ruby: Rails 3.2, Rails Tutorial, and Why You Should Learn Smalltalk

  Peter Cooper

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:35 pm

  It's the latest Web-based syndication of Ruby Weekly, the weekly Ruby and Rails e-mail newsletter (which just tipped 11K subscribers). Ruby Weekly now has a 'tips' page where you can submit links for potential inclusion so if you're releasing something or have written a cool post, fill out the form and you may be in Ruby Weekly next week :-) Headlines Rails 3.2 Released DHH has unveiled Rails 3.2! Not quite as big a deal as 3.1 but has a faster development mode, faster route recognition, a tagged logger, and more. With Rails master now aiming at 4.0.0, it seems 3.2 may be the last version of…

• This Week in Ruby: Nominate Your Ruby Heroes, Include/Extend, Ruby on Netbeans, Jekyll-Bootstrap, and more

  Peter Cooper

  20 Jan 2012 | 8:32 am

  Welcome to this week's Web-based syndication of Ruby Weekly, my Ruby e-mail newsletter. Headlines Vote for your 'Ruby Hero' in the Ruby Hero Awards The Ruby Heroes awards run each year and present 6 community nominated 'heroes' with an award at RailsConf. Nominations are now open so go and drop your nomination for the Rubyist whose code has brightened up your life the most in the past year. Heroku Receives InfoWorld's Technology of the Year Award Sorry it's just a press release but it's great to see a company that came up from the Ruby world continue to do well. Congrats to the Heroku team.

• The Last Week in Ruby: RSpec 2.8, Redcar 0.12, Torquebox 2.0 beta, articles and more

  Peter Cooper

  16 Jan 2012 | 3:36 am

  Welcome to this week's Web-based syndication of Ruby Weekly, the Ruby e-mail newsletter. While I have you, be sure to follow @RubyInside on Twitter as I'm going to be posting news more frequently there than on the Web site in future. Follow @RubyInside Also, if you're interested in getting one interesting programming related quote or link each day on Twitter, check out @codewisdom. Follow @CodeWisdom Headlines RSpec 2.8: The Popular Ruby BDD Tool Goes Supersonic RSpec 2.8 and rspec-rails 2.8.1 have been released and some users have been reporting significant performance improvements. Other…

• RSpec 2.8: The Popular Ruby BDD Tool Goes Supersonic

  Peter Cooper

  7 Jan 2012 | 5:53 am

  RSpec 2.8 has been released, along with rspec-rails 2.8.1 for the full Rails 3.x integration experience. RSpec is a BDD-focused testing tool that's particularly popular in the Rails world where everyone except DHH is using it (if you believe the hoopla). RSpec has faced accusations of being less than speedy in the past, but it seems 2.8 has had a performance firework shoved up its tailpipe: David Chelimsky, the creator of RSpec, also notes that in RSpec 2.8: the documentation has been significantly improved there's improved support for tags and filtering random example running order support…

• The Past 2 Weeks in the World of Ruby: 40 Links to Bring You Up to Speed (January 2012)

  Peter Cooper

  6 Jan 2012 | 7:03 am

  Ruby Weekly has just tipped over 10,000 subscribers but I know not everyone is into getting their news via e-mail, so here's the latest frequent roundup of the latest Ruby and Rails news for you, all on the Web :-) Key News, Releases, and Headlines Hungry Academy Application Process Closes This Weekend LivingSocial's 'Hungry Academy' will provide a paid, on-site 5 month Ruby and Rails learning experience and mentorship program to a small group of lucky applicants. Interested? You've only got a few days left to apply. DOS Attack Vulnerability Found in Ruby 1.8's Hash Algorithm Ruby 1.8.7-p352…

• 

  WordPress News

• Year of the Meetup

  Jane Wells

  27 Jan 2012 | 12:17 pm

  We hereby declare 2012 as the Year of the WordPress Meetup. You’ll want to get in on this action. meet·up \mēt-əp\ noun A meeting, especially a regular meeting of people who share a particular interest and have connected with each other through a social-networking Web site: a meetup for new moms in the neighborhood; a meetup to plan the trip; a meetup for WordPress users.1 So what is a WordPress Meetup? Basically, it’s people in a community getting together — meeting up — who share an interest in WordPress, whether…

• Internet Blackout Day on January 18

  Jane Wells

  17 Jan 2012 | 3:18 pm

  WordPress.org is officially joining the protest against Senate Bill 968: the Protect IP Act that is coming before the U.S. Senate next week. As I wrote in my post a week ago, if this bill is passed it will jeopardize internet freedom and shift the power of the independent web into the hands of corporations. We must stop it. On January 18, 2012 many sites around the web — from small personal blogs to internet institutions like Mozilla, Wikipedia, reddit, and I Can Has Cheezburger? – will be going dark in protest and to drive their visitors to sites like americancensorship.org to…

• Help Stop SOPA/PIPA

  Jane Wells

  10 Jan 2012 | 11:18 am

  You are an agent of change. Has anyone ever told you that? Well, I just did, and I meant it. Normally we stay away from from politics here at the official WordPress project — having users from all over the globe that span the political spectrum is evidence that we are doing our job and democratizing publishing, and we don’t want to alienate any of our users no matter how much some of us may disagree with some of them personally. Today, I’m breaking our no-politics rule, because there’s something going on in U.S. politics right now that we need to make sure you know…

• WordPress 3.3.1 Security and Maintenance Release

  Ryan Boren

  3 Jan 2012 | 1:24 pm

  WordPress 3.3.1 is now available. This maintenance release fixes 15 issues with WordPress 3.3, as well as a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability that affected version 3.3. Thanks to Joshua H., Hoang T., Stefan Zimmerman, Chris K., and the Go Daddy security team for responsibly disclosing the bug to our security team. Download 3.3.1 or visit Dashboard → Updates in your site admin.

• WordPress 3.3 “Sonny”

  Matt Mullenweg

  12 Dec 2011 | 2:58 pm

  The latest and greatest version of the WordPress software — 3.3, named “Sonny” in honor of the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt — is immediately available for download or update inside your WordPress dashboard. WordPress has had over 65 million downloads since version 3.0 was released, and in this third major iteration we’ve added significant polish around the new user experience, navigation, uploading, and imports. Check out this short video that summarizes the things we think you’ll find are the cat’s pajamas: For Users Experienced users will…

• 

  Epicurious.com: Latest Features

• How to Make Magnolia Bakery's Red Velvet Cupcakes

  epicurious.com

  9 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  This Tuesday, surprise your loved one with homemade red velvet cupcakes with help from none other than Magnolia Bakery. Watch the video to see the famous bakerys Bobbie Lloyd demonstrate how to bake and frost these delicious treats.

• Romantic Menu Planner

  epicurious.com

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:45 am

  Whats the perfect recipe for a romantic meal? To find your ultimate Valentine's Day menu, use our fun, interactive Romantic Menu Planning tool. Answer six easy questions, and we'll formulate a romantic recipe plan that corresponds to your skill in the kitchen, how much time you have to cook, and the type of food you're interested in preparing.

• Valentines Day Table Crafts

  epicurious.com

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:50 am

  February 14 is a day for exchanging cards and eating chocolate, sure, but it's also a day for spending sweet time with loved ones. Serve up a special family Valentine's Day with our creative, kid-friendly art projects, including several that can go straight from the craft table to the dining table.

• Aphrodisiacs to Sweeten Your Valentines Day

  epicurious.com

  6 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  Foodies who want to get into the mood for Valentine's Day know that aphrodisiacs can help spice things up between friends and lovers. As documented throughout history, foods such as chocolate, honey, oysters, and figs have all been said to ignite and sustain desire, passion, energy, and love. See for yourself with 10 recipes that incorporate these ingredients, plus some others that you might not expect.

• Top Five Beer Cocktails

  epicurious.com

  5 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  Instead of simply picking up a case of beer to share with guests during the big game tonight, why not spice things up by making beer cocktails? In this feature, we share recipes for five beer cocktails, including some oldies-but-goodies, a few reinterpretations, and a couple of brand-new cocktails created by the nation's top mixologists.

• 

  DISney News Stories - wdwinfo.com

• Disney reports first-quarter earnings

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:30 am

  The Walt Disney Co. has reported their first quarter earnings for the time period ending on December 31, 2011.

• Opening date announced for Disney's Cars Land

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:18 am

  Disney President and CEO Iger announced that Cars Land at Disney California Adventure will open in June.

• Earl of Sandwich to open at Disneyland

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:36 pm

  Earl of Sandwich will open a restaurant at the Downtown Disney District in Disneyland.

• Rumor: FASTPASS late returns to end in March

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:15 am

  A rumor is spreading around the internet that Walt Disney World may soon begin enforcing FASTPASS return times.

• Super Bowl MVP heads to Disney World

  6 Feb 2012 | 10:39 am

  Eli Manning, the Super Bowl's MVP, is headed to Walt Disney World today for a parade down Main Street U.S.A.

• 

  Disneyland News Today Podcast

• The DLNT Podcast Episode 98 and 99 (2/1/12) – Enhanced Edition

  Conner Purzycki

  3 Feb 2012 | 11:42 pm

  An enhanced podcast is a podcast with added features that standard podcasts do not have. Enhanced podcasts include advancements such as Chapter listings, this allows you to skip through segments or see all of the contents of this show. Enhanced podcasts also contain images allowing you to differ the chapters by or actually see a picture of what the podcaster is talking about. Enhanced podcasts have only one negative feature, you can not play them on most basic mp3 players. The file format for an Enhanced Podcast file is .m4a, which can play on an Apple iPod or a Microsoft Zune. If you need or…

• The DLNT Podcast Episodes 98 and 99 (2/1/12) – Normal Edition

  Conner Purzycki

  3 Feb 2012 | 11:40 pm

  Join me, Conner Purzycki, and a cast including Jamie Nakagiri and Brian Martsolf for a variety show dedicated to the Disneyland Resort and its many fans. Plenty of Disneyland information and fun awaits you on this edition of the Disneyland News Today Podcast!!! On this weeks show we have the very last edition of the Disneyland Graveyard.  Bid the segment a fond farewell as we honor The Golden Horseshoe Revue.  Then join us for Refurb, Remove, or Re-Imagine where we decide what to refurbish, what to remove, and what to re-imagine between three attractions featuring non-disney franchises.

• The DLNT Podcast Episodes 96 and 97 (1/25/12)

  Conner Purzycki

  28 Jan 2012 | 9:27 pm

  Join me Sean Dickey, and a cast including Jamie Nakagiri, Brian Martsolf, and Conner Purzycki for a variety show dedicated to the Disneyland Resort and its many fans. Plenty of Disneyland information and fun awaits you on this edition of the Disneyland News Today Podcast!!! On episode 96 we have the Disneyland News and Rumor Report where we are getting you caught up on all the news you have missed the past few weeks. Following that will be the Disneyland Events Calender hosted by Brian Martsolf. On episode 97, join us for the Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, where we tell you whats good, whats…

• The DLNT Podcast Episode 95 (1/11/12) – The Christmas Podcast Parade Commentary

  Conner Purzycki

  18 Jan 2012 | 8:29 pm

  This week’s show is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. No, it’s not a Tower of Terror segment, but we are entering the Twilight Zone in relation to our usual content on the program. This episode presents an audio commentary for last year’s Christmas Podcast Parade. While we have no news or vital information for you, we certainly hope you will enjoy this inside look at the creation of episode 95 of the Disneyland News Today Podcast.

• The DLNT Podcast Episode 94 (12/25/11) – The 5th Annual Christmas Podcast Parade 2011 – Enhanced Edition

  Conner Purzycki

  25 Dec 2011 | 9:21 am

  An enhanced podcast is a podcast with added features that standard podcasts do not have. Enhanced podcasts include advancements such as Chapter listings, this allows you to skip through segments or see all of the contents of this show. Enhanced podcasts also contain images allowing you to differ the chapters by or actually see a picture of what the podcaster is talking about. Enhanced podcasts have only one negative feature, you can not play them on most basic mp3 players. The file format for an Enhanced Podcast file is .m4a, which can play on an Apple iPod or a Microsoft Zune. If you need or…

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  The Disney Blog

• Lawsuit Accusing SeaWorld of Enslaving Killer Whales Dismissed

  John Frost

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:55 pm

  As we reported earlier this week, PETA had filed a lawsuit accusing SeaWorld’s Orlando and San Diego parks of treating its killer whales as slaves. We felt the lawsuit was ridiculous on its face. SeaWorld officials called the lawsuit frivolous. Now a Federal Court has ruled that it’s unconstitutional too. The result is a dismissal that both sides claim as a win. SeaWorld avoids a silly legal fight and PETA gets publicity for its cause.More at the LA Times. Lawsuit Accusing SeaWorld of Enslaving Killer Whales Dismissed originally posted on The Disney Blog - Disney News and…

• Amazing Fan Tribute to Star Tours

  John Frost

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:01 pm

  There are fan tributes and there are fan tributes. This amazing video celebrates the 25th Anniversary of Star Tours better than any other tribute I’ve seen, which is saying a lot. “Star Tours Origins (ST-45 Project)” is not an exact recreation of that ride, but rather a version the creators see as the “Ultimate Star Wars Adventure”.The original Star Tours attraction opened in 1987 at Disneyland and gave guests the opportunity to experience the world of Star Wars from the mind of George Lucas first hand. This fan version imagines how it might have been if they had…

• The River: Season 1, Episode 1 – Magus

  John Frost

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:16 pm

  Editor’s Note: Please welcome Melissa Sue Sorrells Galley who will be reviewing ABC’s thrilling new drama The River.The River is a found-footage style genre mashup of science fiction, horror, drama and suspense, and its first hour is just as complicated as that description sounds. It moves quickly—too quickly. But here are the basics:Beloved television personality and explorer Dr. Emmet Cole and his cameraman went missing six months ago, and even though the official search party has broken up, his wife and friends refuse to give up the search. They head to the Amazon, track down…

• Earl of Sandwich Soon to Grace Disneyland Resort

  John Frost

  7 Feb 2012 | 11:38 pm

  Being an Earl in England is not quite all it used to be, but having a name like Earl of Sandwich and being a descendant of the inventor of the sandwich, does give you some unusual brand equity. And so it was in 2004 that the latest Earl of Sandwich and his son (coincidentally named Orlando) opened up their first restaurant in Orlando at Downtown Disney. It’s been a terrific success and they now have 17 locations.Disneyland Resort today announced that Earl of Sandwich will open a new location at Downtown Disney in early summer 2012. The restaurant will offer guests a unique, casual-quick…

• J.R. Martinez, Dancing With The Stars Champion, Visits Wizarding World of Harry Potter

  John Frost

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:14 pm

  Actor and former U.S. army soldier J.R. Martinez was hosted by Universal Orlando Resort today as he vacationed in Orlando. Best known for winning season 13 of ABC’s hit TV series, “Dancing with the Stars,” J.R. enjoyed an exciting performance by students from the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic while visiting The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. He also visited Ollivanders wand shop and soared above Hogwarts on Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.(Photos courtesy Universal Orlando Resort. All rights reserved.) J.R. Martinez, Dancing With The Stars Champion, Visits Wizarding…

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  Blue Sky Disney

• Raiding Childhood...

  6 Feb 2012 | 9:14 am

  If adventure had a documentary...If you love Indiana Jones as much as I do, then this is for you. Jamie Benning and the geeks responsible for "Star Wars Begins" have now made a documentary, or "Filmumentary" as they call it, of "Raiders of the Lost Ark.""Raiding the Lost Ark"If you love the Man with the Hat, Raiders and its sequels, or serials in general, this is a small piece of love. Grab something to drink and eat and sit down and watch this.Now where did I leave my whip...

• Another Year, Another Milestone...

  1 Feb 2012 | 1:41 am

  Iger, party of one, your table is waiting...As work progresses on DCA, a lot of people are wondering what will be happening in the top of the Carthay Circle Theater...Most of you know that the building will not actually be a theater, but have a high end restaurant on the top floor and more modest accommodations down below. But everyone is wondering what the new joint will be know as."1901"That's right. That is the name of the new, premium restaurant in the park. Named as most of you know, for the year Walter Elias Disney was born.The menu is still being worked on, but you can expect a high…

• Blue Sky In Eleven (Part One)...

  26 Jan 2012 | 10:25 pm

  Slowly, we're back...Even though Blue Sky was quiet for the last part of the year, a lot still went on...The beginning of the year saw an eyesore from the Disneyland Resort's Second Gate disappear.I focused on what I thought was the true successor to Colonel Henry Walton, Jr., Ph.D.We started to get enlightened on what Shanghai Disneyland was going to become.This post offered a great interview with Glen Keane that focused on the difference between the Lamp and the Mouse.Blue Sky put some perspective on what to create a Disney theme park/not create a Disney theme park.Or this really great…

• Buying An Empire...

  18 Jan 2012 | 2:14 pm

  The Force will be with him, always...Yes, this will be another one of those posts...George Lucas gave an interview with the New York Times where he talked about how he is done with the commercial part of his career. Even producer Rick McCallum commented on it saying: "Once this is finished, he's done everything he's ever wanted to do," Imagine that, to have accomplished all your goals in life. Not many people can say that.But if we are to believe him, it brings up that question I always wondered. Will he take Lucasfilm public, sell all, or part of the company? There is plenty of reason to…

• Contemporary By Design...

  10 Jan 2012 | 7:46 am

  Now let's do something about the last hotel...If you've been to the Disneyland Resort lately, you've seen all that construction...Not just in the parks, but around the entire resort. And one of those projects that is about to end is the renovation/makeover of the Disneyland Hotel. After almost three years, the hotel is in the final stages of turning itself into an actual Disney Hotel. I know for some that might sound confusing, but those of us that remember, know that it wasn't even owned by the Mouse till 1989.That's when Jack Wrather's company was bought by Disney, simply to own the hotel.

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  Amazon Web Services Blog

• Amazon S3 Price Reduction

  AWS Evangelist

  6 Feb 2012 | 9:46 pm

  As you can tell from my recent post on Amazon S3 Growth for 2011, our customers are uploading new objects to Amazon S3 at an incredible rate. We continue to innovate on your behalf to drive down storage costs and pass along the resultant savings to you at every possible opportunity. We are now happy (some would even say excited) to announce another in a series of price reductions. With this price change, all Amazon S3 standard storage customers will see a significant reduction in their storage costs. For instance, if you store 50 TB of data on average you will see a 12% reduction in your…

• Amazon DynamoDB - Two Videos and a Webinar

  AWS Evangelist

  6 Feb 2012 | 1:06 pm

  We launched Amazon DynamoDB with a live video feed that was very well-attended. If you didn't get a chance to watch at the time, you can do so now: You may also enjoy this short video featuring Werner Vogels, James Hamilton, Dave Lang, and Swami Sivasubramanian: The Introducing Amazon DynamoDB Webinar will take place on February 15th at 10:00 AM PST. Stefano Stefani (Principal Software Engineer) and Dave Lang (Product Manager) will be presenting and fielding questions from the audience.The webinar is free but you do need to sign up. -- Jeff;

• Amazon CloudFront: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Making Plans

  AWS Evangelist

  2 Feb 2012 | 7:59 pm

  Looking BackIn 2011 we added a total of seven edge locations to Amazon CloudFront and Route 53. We also added lots of new features, as I documented last year. Looking ForwardOur newest edge locations are located in Milan, Italy and Osaka, Japan. This brings our total worldwide location count to 26 (see the CloudFront page for a complete list). Each new edge location helps lower latency and improves performance for your end users. Making Plans We have additional locations in the pipeline for 2012 and beyond. Our planning process takes a number of factors in to account including notes from our…

• New Elastic MapReduce Features: Metrics, Updates, VPC, and Cluster Compute Support (Guest Post)

  AWS Evangelist

  31 Jan 2012 | 3:52 pm

  Today's guest blogger is Adam Gray. Adam is a Product Manager on the Elastic MapReduce Team. -- Jeff; We’re always excited when we can bring features to our customers that make it easier for them to derive value from their data—so it’s been a fun month for the EMR team. Here is a sampling of the things we’ve been working on. Free CloudWatch MetricsStarting today customers can view graphs of 23 job flow metrics within the EMR Console by selecting the Monitoring tab in the Job Flow Details page. These metrics are pushed CloudWatch every five minutes at no cost to you and include…

• Amazon S3 Growth for 2011 - Now 762 Billion Objects

  AWS Evangelist

  30 Jan 2012 | 7:15 pm

  As of the end of 2011, there are 762 billion (762,000,000,000) objects in Amazon S3. We process over 500,000 requests per second for these objects at peak times. Here's the annual growth chart: This represents year-over-year growth of 192%; S3 grew faster last year than it did in any year since it launched in 2006. Where are all of these objects coming from? Although we definitely made it easier for you to delete objects using Multi-Object Deletion and Object Expiration, we also gave you plenty of ways to upload new objects using Multipart upload, AWS Direct Connect, and AWS…

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  The Official Google Blog

• Going gothic with bestselling author Anne Rice

  A Googler

  8 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  Bestselling Southern American author Anne Rice is coming to Google headquarters to discuss her latest book, The Wolf Gift, on Friday, February 24 at 10am PT. One of the most popular authors of contemporary fiction, Rice has bewitched readers with her vampire chronicles, tales of the Mayfair Witches and other metaphysical gothic fiction for more than thirty years. Submit your question online between now and Feb 23 at midnight PT, and it could be asked during the Interview with the Vampire—we mean, the interview with Anne Rice. To watch the live broadcast, tune in to the Authors@Google…

• Introducing Chrome for Android

  A Googler

  7 Feb 2012 | 9:40 am

  In 2008, we launched Google Chrome to help make the web better. We’re excited that millions of people around the world use Chrome as their primary browser and we want to keep improving that experience. Today, we're introducing Chrome for Android Beta, which brings many of the things you’ve come to love about Chrome to your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone or tablet. Like the desktop version, Chrome for Android Beta is focused on speed and simplicity, but it also features seamless sign-in and sync so you can take your personalized web browsing experience with you wherever you go,…

• What’s your X? Amplifying technology moonshots

  A Googler

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 pm

  Last week, we ran an experiment. We hosted a gathering, called “Solve for X,” for experienced entrepreneurs, innovators and scientists from around the world. The event focused on proposing and discussing technological solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems. Discussions began last week with this small event, and now we invite others to join the conversation on our website and our Google +page. The Solve for X gathering, which we co-hosted with Eric Schmidt, is a place to celebrate a concept we champion internally and that we believe will inspire many others: technology…

• Supporting U.S. student veterans with a new scholarship

  A Googler

  6 Feb 2012 | 3:03 pm

  The newest addition to the Google scholarships family is the Google Student Veterans of America (SVA) Scholarship. We’re partnering with the nonprofit Student Veterans of America (SVA) to support their mission of providing veterans with the resources, support and advocacy they need to succeed in higher education and throughout their careers. The Google SVA Scholarship is available to student veterans who are pursuing degrees in computer science and related fields in the U.S. for the 2012-2013 academic year. In addition to the financial award, recipients will be invited to attend the annual…

• Super Bowl XLVI: Mobile, Manning and Madonna

  A Googler

  6 Feb 2012 | 6:35 am

  Now that the final Super Bowl touchdown has been scored, the dip bowl wiped clean and the last of the chicken wings devoured, we’re taking a look at some game-day search trends to see what football fans were searching for this year. As the Giants and Patriots battled it out on the field yesterday, U.S. viewers multi-tasked, watching the game on television and also going online more than ever before, turning to their smartphones and tablets to look up players, halftime show performers and their favorite Super Bowl commercials. In fact, around 41% of searches related to [Super Bowl ads] that…

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  1000 Words Rss

• 12 Hours of Sunlight

  8 Feb 2012 | 10:00 pm

  I began an Art & Design Photography class last fall. An assignment given to first semester students is called "12 Hours of Sunlight" where you photograph one outdoor scene every 15-30 minutes from sunrise to sunset and create a photo journal of your experience. The purpose of the assignment is to bring about a greater awareness of how natural light defines objects and affects mood as the sun moves across the sky, plus increase your ability to perceive what you are looking at. But all I could think is, "12 hours? Really? That's a lot of time!" And then there were the restrictions: no…

• Photo Books from My KODAK MOMENTS - on sale!

  8 Feb 2012 | 6:19 am

  My KODAK MOMENTS, the Facebook app we launched last year to create photo books right within Facebook, is having a sale.  The popular Medium sized book, 8.5" x 9.5", is on sale for $9.95 (normally $14.95) and FREE SHIPPING!  That's a savings of over $10 all together!Not only that, the books are very easy to make. You can select from your own Facebook photos or even your friends' Facebook photos - a great way to surprise someone with a thoughtful gift.  Have a friend (or a hubby) who is an athlete? - make a book of their last race.  Have a friend who is a cakepop queen? -…

• Kodak Picture of the Day: winter love

  7 Feb 2012 | 10:00 pm

  Photographer: tony derosa "New at light painting, just loved this one, it is in Leavenworth WA. I loved the lighting they have and it was winter so i called it winter love. It felt so warm." You can enter your own Kodak Picture of the Day.

• A personalized photo card, collage or calendar... it's the perfect gift for that special Valentine

  6 Feb 2012 | 10:18 pm

  Dozier is looking for a Valentine maybe you can help him out?   With Valentine's Day is right around the corner, why not create that special gift yourself?  Check out PrintProjects powered by RocketLife - it's the easy way to create and print your own greeting card, photo book, calendar or collage at home and in minutes – right on your home inkjet printer.  It's fast, easy, and creative.  You can add text and graphics, background effects and more.   What are you waiting for? Make your special someone's day even more special and turn those moments into…

• 5 creative Valentine's gift ideas for your EASYSHARE camera

  5 Feb 2012 | 10:00 pm

  Valentine's Day is just around the corner!  It is always an opportunity to do something thoughtful for your special someone.  Here are some creative ways to give the gift of an EASYSHARE camera this Valentine's Day: 1-     Take a picture of a creative message.  You give the gift of a brand new EASYSHARE digital camera.  As your valentine turns on the camera, they see the special message you had waiting just for them  2-     A scavenger hunt.  Take pictures ahead of time to create a fun treasure hunt adventure…

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  The LinkedIn Blog

• 3 Ways to Reinvent Yourself on LinkedIn

  Lindsey Pollak

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:49 am

  We’re already a month into 2012 and most job seekers have given up on their lofty New Year’s resolutions. If you’re in this boat, don’t despair! Instead, use LinkedIn — and a few trusted friends or colleagues — to help you make the change you desire. Over the years I’ve observed the ways that people use LinkedIn to change career direction or perk up a slumping job search. Here are my three favorite reinvention tips: 1. Focus.  Do you belong to LinkedIn groups in 23 industries, list 41 skills on your profile and display a profile heading with 7 slash marks between each…

• A More Secure LinkedIn Browsing Experience

  Arvind Mani

  7 Feb 2012 | 1:42 pm

  We are happy to announce LinkedIn now supports https for your browsing experience. This is currently an “opt in” feature that will be rolled out gradually in the next coming weeks to all of our members. Serving our site over https is a key step to enhance the security for all of you, especially for those of you using public networks such as open WiFi hotspots. Turning on https is very easy. Go to Settings -> Account -> Manage Security Settings Check the box and save changes. (You may be asked to login before accessing the Settings page). At any time, you can turn off https…

• Make Cupid’s Arrow Hit the Mark: Tips and Tricks for Snagging a Sweetheart AND a Sweet Gig on Valentine’s Day

  Nicole Williams

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:29 am

  Ed. Note: With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Nicole Williams captures some ways to put your search skills to good use  in finding your dream job instead! It’s been a few years since I’ve been on the dating scene, but I never departed for a date without the essential precursor to heading out with any new beau: doing the Google check. It hasn’t taken long for this stealth, inexpensive and revealing trend to hit the job market, and while the predominant talk on the street has been about what not to do (those pictures of the holiday party shenanigans). The good news is that I have a…

• The Rise of Pinterest — and Other Top Stories on LinkedIn This Week

  Daniel Roth

  3 Feb 2012 | 11:52 am

  First, some housekeeping: Every Wednesday night, we run the report on what stories were most shared by LinkedIn’s 135-plus million members. That means the news of Facebook’s coming IPO — announced Wednesday, Feb. 1 — had only one day to attempt to rocket to the top of our rankings. A Mashable story about the IPO came close, but didn’t have enough juice to unseat an infographic looking at the rise of Pinterest. That’s fitting, actually, as the top two stories show how fluid the current business world is. Facebook is the giant today. But new platforms like…

• What Makes Apple Tick? Adam Lashinsky Tells the Inside Story

  Daniel Roth

  30 Jan 2012 | 5:04 pm

  Ed. note: If you’ve read some of the recent coverage around Adam Lashinsky‘s recent comments on what makes Apple tick, you may want to check out the entire interview below.  For large periods of my professional life, I worked at Fortune — as a writer, editor and then as editor of Fortune.com. One of the many great pleasures of the place was working with Adam Lashinsky, a seasoned writer and senior editor-at-large. Each day, he’d call from his office in San Francisco and we’d talk about the business world, office politics, which execs were headed up and which down.

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  The Old New Thing

• What is the effect of memory-mapped file access on GetLastError()?

  Raymond Chen - MSFT

  9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  A customer was using memory-mapped files and was looking for information as to whether access to the memory-mapped data modifies the value returned by Get­Last­Error. A member of the kernel team replied, "No, memory-mapped I/O does not ever change the value returned by Get­Last­Error." That answer is simultaneously correct and wrong, a case of looking at the world through kernel-colored glasses. While it's true that the kernel does not ever change the value returned by Get­Last­Error, it's also the case that you might change it. If you set up an exception handler, then…

• The path-searching algorithm is not a backtracking algorithm

  Raymond Chen - MSFT

  8 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  Suppose your PATH environment variable looks like this: C:\dir1;\\server\share;C:\dir2 Suppose that you call LoadLibrary("foo.dll") intending to load the library at C:\dir2\foo.dll. If the network server is down, the LoadLibrary call will fail. Why doesn't it just skip the bad directory in the PATH and continue searching? Suppose the LoadLibrary function skipped the bad network directory and kept searching. Suppose that the code which called LoadLibrary("foo.dll") was really after the file \\server\share\foo.dll. By taking the server down, you have tricked the LoadLibrary function into…

• Microspeak: fit

  Raymond Chen - MSFT

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  In Microspeak, fit is a predicate noun which is never used on its own but always comes with a modifying adjective. For something to be a good fit is for something to be appropriate or suitable for a particular situation. The opposite of a good fit is not a bad fit, because that's pejorative. Rather, something that is not a good fit is referred to as a poor fit. The purpose of a previewer plug-in is to allow users to view the media without opening it. An image editing tool would not be a good fit for the previewing feature. (Alternatively, "would be a poor fit for the previewing feature.") To…

• The story of the mysterious WINA20.386 file

  Raymond Chen - MSFT

  6 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  matushorvath was curious about the WINA20.386 file that came with some versions of MS-DOS. The WINA20.386 file predates my involvement, but I was able to find some information on the Internet that explained what it was for. And it's right there in KB article Q68655: Windows 3.0 Enhanced Mode Requires WINA20.386: Windows 3.0 Enhanced Mode Requires WINA20.386 Windows 3.0 enhanced mode uses a modular architecture based on what are called virtual device drivers, or VxDs. VxDs allow pieces of Windows to be replaced to add additional functionality. WINA20.386 is such a VxD. (VxDs could be called…

• The compatibility constraints of error codes, episode 2

  Raymond Chen - MSFT

  3 Feb 2012 | 7:00 am

  A customer reported an incompatibility in Windows 7: If A: is a floppy drive and they call Load­Library("A:\\foo.dll") and there is no disk in the drive, the Load­Library call fails with the error ERROR_NOT_READY. Previous versions of Windows failed with the error ERROR_MOD_NOT_FOUND. Both error codes are reasonable responses to the situation. "The module couldn't be found because the drive is not ready." Programs should treat a failed Load­Library as a failed library load and shouldn't be sensitive to the precise reason for the error. (They can display a more specific error…

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  David Allen Company Updates

• GTD Connect: How Might You Calculate ROI For GTD ?

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:06 pm

  Hey there everybody, I have created a project to determine "Return On Investment" (ROI) for GTD. And then it hit me...I have no idea how to go about that. So my next-action, is this posting. Can anybody out there share some thoughts about how to determine ROI for GTD seminars, coachings, and /...

• GTD Times: Webinars on Keys to GTD, and GTD & Outlook

  8 Feb 2012 | 12:10 pm

  What's your level of GTD expertise? No matter what it is, these interactive and concise 90-minute webinars will deepen your mastery of the GTD best practices. David Allen Company offers these on an "a la carte" basis, giving you the flexibility and affordability to choose just the ones that work for you. Keys to Getting Things Done® This live Webinar will give a fast & fun overview on the keys for Getting Things Done, led by a Senior Coach. Learn about the best practices and tools for managing the five phases of your workflow: Collect, Process, Organize, Review & Do.

• GTD Connect: Work As It Appears, Oops!

  8 Feb 2012 | 8:51 am

  precocious ram lamb + late weaning last September = Oops in February Coming backwards but now out and ok. Oops!

• GTD Connect: What Context Lists Do You Use?

  7 Feb 2012 | 3:46 pm

  What are your contexts?

• GTD Times: How do you get people to do what they said they would do?

  7 Feb 2012 | 12:18 pm

  People who are starting with GTD often ask how to handle delegation, especially when a "waiting for" from another person doesn't get delivered as agreed. Here's a question and answer with David Allen on this topic. Question: I just finished the "Getting Things Done" book and I know the methods you have expressed will for sure help me! I was wondering if you can help answer one of my questions? For Actions, let's say you have to delegate work to someone. If that person doesn't do the work that they volunteer to, how do you act in a stress-free way which doesn't decrease your productivity and…

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  Deutsche Welle: DW-WORLD.DE - Germany

• Germany takes strong stance on gay rights

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:23 am

  Homosexuals are marginalized in many countries: some 80 nations make homosexuality punishable by law. Germany has put renewed emphasis on gay rights, and is working with the EU to protect homosexuals everywhere.

• Syrian agents intimidate dissidents in Germany

  8 Feb 2012 | 3:12 pm

  Two alleged Syrian spies have been arrested for spying on Syrian dissidents in Germany. The intelligence agencies say that such spying is by no means rare but they do what they can to protect them.

• Kazakhstan cozies up to Germany

  7 Feb 2012 | 7:35 am

  Kazakhstan hopes to win over the European Union as another key trade partner alongside Russia and China. Experts see the Berlin visit of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev as paving the way.

• Independents make their mark on German politics

  6 Feb 2012 | 1:56 am

  Many Germans are rejecting big-party politics. Non-voter numbers are up, and party membership is down. Citizens looking for ways to get involved directly in the political process are finding new ways to do so.

• Suspected associate of neo-Nazi group arrested

  1 Feb 2012 | 2:18 am

  Another man has been arrested in Germany, accused of having ties to the neo-Nazi terror group known as the National Socialist Underground.

• 

  TechCrunch

• HTC: Ice Cream Sandwich Will Start Hitting Our Handsets In March

  Chris Velazco

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:55 am

  At long last, HTC fans can finally stop holding their collective breath. After months of relative quiet, the Taiwanese company has taken to their Facebook page to spread the word: the Ice Cream Sandwich is coming, and it’s coming soon. For owners of certain HTC devices, the long-awaited Android 4.0 update will begin hitting handsets next month. HTC originally promised that Ice Cream Sandwich would be hitting most of their top-tier devices in “early 2012,” but that doesn’t seem to the case anymore unless you own one of their numerous Sensation devices. If anything, it…

• 100 Million Americans Watch Online Video Per Day, Up 43% Since 2010 -comScore

  Josh Constine

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:53 am

  Television is in trouble. Americans streamed 43.5 billion videos in December 2011, up 44% since December 2010, according to comScore’s 2012 US Digital Future In Focus report released today.  The study also showed that 105.1 million Americans now watch videos online each day, up 43% from 73.7 million in 2010. comScore says YouTube is largely driving this, and that average minutes per video view, average videos watched per user, and total ads streamed are way up as well. TV and film studios should take notice and consider how they can create companion content to engage this growing…

• Glancee: A Nice-Guy Ambient Social Location App For Normal People

  Eric Eldon

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:44 am

  Some of us can’t be bothered to check in, but still want to find interesting people nearby. The challenge for developers is how to do this in a way that is both useful and not creepy. Glancee, available for both iOS and Android, gets closer to solving these problems than most I’ve seen. The app lets you sign in with Facebook, then it shows you people within 100 yards, or one, two, or ten miles who have things in common. In some ways this sounds similar another app I recently covered, Highlight — but there are key differences, that will make each app appeal to different sets…

• Pixloo Helps You Sell Your Home With Free Virtual Tours, Exports To Zillow, Trulia & More

  Sarah Perez

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:28 am

  In December, Eric covered Open Home Pro, a startup that lets realtors sell homes via their iPads. Today, there comes a similar effort from Pixloo, except this service is designed for use by anyone – realtors and homeowners alike. With Pixloo, you can upload information about your home, including text, photos and even videos and then immediately export that data to major real estate sites including Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and others, all for free. OK, technically, Pixloo is freemium. The pricing tiers depend on whether you need one virtual tour, the number of exports per tour and…

• Avast, Me Hearties: How The Pirate Bay Changed The Way We Steal

  John Biggs

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:41 am

  The Pirate Bay, in many ways, is disappearing. It is one of the most popular torrent sites on the web and its database of millions of torrent files – essentially pointers to pieces of files hosted elsewhere – has long been the go-to spot for budding pirates around the world. While it still exists in spirit, the admins are now moving all of the torrent files off the site and are instead offering magnet links. This is an important distinction that will move the locus of general piracy from a single site to any number of sites, reducing the Pirate Bays importance as a source. First,…

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  San Jose Business News - Local San Jose News | The Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

• Group lists top companies for female execs

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:29 am

  Amid a push for adding a female board member to Facebook Inc.'s board of directors comes a report that lists the top companies for female executives. Neither Facebook nor many other Silicon Valley tech companies made the list of 50 companies ranked by the National Association for Female Executives. Notable exceptions were the region's top employer, Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and IBM (NYSE:IBM), which both made the top 10. Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ), which has Meg Whitman as its CEO, and Intel Corp...

• ChemoCentryx's stock up 5% after IPO

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:20 am

  ChemoCentryx Inc.'s stock was up nearly 5 percent in afternoon trading on Thursday, at around $10.50 per share. It opened at $10.75 per share. The Mountain View-based biopharmaceutical company raised $45 million in its IPO on Wednesday, selling 4.5 million shares at $10 each. It is trading under the ticker symbol CCXI. The company focuses on developing novel drugs for Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Written by Lisa Sibley. She can be reached at 408.299.1830 or lsibley@bizjournals.com...

• Dell preps Santa Clara campus expansion

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  Dell Inc. is gearing up to move into a second building at its Santa Clara site. Tenant improvements are being performed on the bottom two floors at 5450 Great America Parkway, and Dell plans to move workers in that space in July, according to Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn. The top two floors of that building, currently occupied by Oracle Corp., will see tenant improvements after Oracle moves out in mid-2012. Dell plans to move its workers into those floors by November, Blackburn said. When filled, the two buildings on 5450 and 5480 Great America Parkway will house about 700 people...

• Creation Technologies takes space for 120 in Milpitas

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  Creation Technologies Inc. is expanding its footprint in Silicon Valley with the signing of a lease for a research & development building in Milpitas. The Canadian electronics contract manufacturer will be moving into a 79,085-square-foot, one-story building on 1855 Barber Lane by June, according to Craig Petersen, vice president for Kidder Mathews. Petersen represented Creation Technologies in the transaction along with Mike Webber, senior vice president for Kidder Mathews. The privately held company currently leases about 49,000 square feet at 2801 Northwestern Parkway in Santa Clara but…

• Slideshow: Inside the walls of Facebook's new HQ

  9 Feb 2012 | 9:00 am

  Facebook Inc. has moved into its new corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, which boasts colorful, collaborative work spaces, funky furniture, cafeterias with free food and local art. The social networking company, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has about 2,000 employees at the campus now. Facebook is "allowed" to have 3,600 workers there under current permits but hopes to increase that number to a total of 9,400 once its entire headquarters is built out, which is still years away. Facebook said its relocation from Palo Alto and planned expansion will result in about 2,441 temporary…

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  San Francisco Bay Area News — — SFGate

• S.F. woman arrested in suspected drug-lab blast

  9 Feb 2012 | 10:31 am

  San Francisco police have arrested a woman in connection with an explosion in a suspected drug-manufacturing lab in her Ingleside neighborhood apartment, a blast that injured her and a 12-year-old boy, authorities said...

• Six pets die in Santa Rosa grow-house fire

  9 Feb 2012 | 8:49 am

  Four dogs and two cats died when their Santa Rosa owners' marijuana-growing operation caught fire and destroyed part of their home, authorities said. Firefighters were called to the single-story home at 645 King St. at...

• Enlarging Shasta Lake feasible, U.S. report says

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am

  The billion dollars it would cost to raise the dam holding back the largest reservoir in California would, at least on the surface, be money well spent, a federal study concluded this week. A study by the U.S. Bureau of...

• More Bay Area express lanes to offer toll access

  Michael Cabanatuan

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am

  Bay Area drivers will be able to buy their way into the fast lanes on six more freeway stretches - including the Oakland approach to the Bay Bridge - in 2015, as a region-wide express lane network rolls to a start....

• Oakland Mayor Jean Quan sees hope amid chaos

  9 Feb 2012 | 4:00 am

  After a year of nearly nonstop crises, Mayor Jean Quan Wednesday portrayed Oakland as a resilient city rebounding from economic and political wreckage. In her first State of the City address, Quan highlighted the city's...

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  News

• British man wanted in $1.5 million heist in 1993 nabbed in Missouri

  <br> <p class="Byline Affiliation">Associated Press</p>

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:37 am

  Edward John Maher was dubbed 'Fast Eddie' in news reports after he pulled off the heist in England and quickly vanished. After nearly two decades as a fugitive, he was arrested Wednesday in an apartment in the tiny town of Ozark, 160 miles southeast of Kansas City.

• Video: Girl escapes from would-be abductor in Walmart

  <p class="Byline">Associated Press</p>

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:35 am

  BREMEN, Ga. -- Authorities say a 7-year-old girl recalled her stranger danger training and was able to get away from a parolee who tried to abduct her at a Walmart store in west Georgia.

• German runner wins race to top of Empire State Building for 7th time

  <p class="bylinejb">By Deepti Hajela<br /></p><p class="bylineaffiliation">Associated Press

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:34 am

  Stuttgart resident Thomas Dold completed the Empire State Building Run-Up on Wednesday in 10 minutes and 28 seconds.

• Cassidy: The sheep of Silicon Valley have served us well

  <p class="bylinejb">By Mike Cassidy<br /></p><p class="bylineaffiliation">Mercury News Columnist

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:29 am

  For three years now a herd of sheep across Highway 237 from Cisco in San Jose has chomped weeds and grass while silently sending a message to the workers who inhabit the big corporate campuses nearby. Their unspoken statement? Don’t be sheep. Innovate.

• New AC Transit boss headed firm to recruit for job he ends up getting

  <p class="NormalParagraphStyle">By Denis Cuff<br>Contra Costa Times

  9 Feb 2012 | 11:16 am

  David Armijo is picked to head AC Transit