Web 2.0 Banner Parody
I tried out the Web 2.0 Header Generator.
That funny pic is what I got:
Sweet+Silhouette+-+Myras+LittleBlogBETA.png)
Cute and shiny. Lets see if I will actuially use it have fun with
Web2 Logo Creator.
Web2 Web2.0 Header Logo Photoshop Metal Brush
Technorati Tags: Web2, Web2.0, Header, Logo, Photoshop, Metal, Brush
Google Maps and Google Earth comparisons of Hurricane Katrina devastations
Image: Google , Google Maps and Google Earth comparisons of Hurricane Katrina devastation's
I wanted to share my discovery of the fact that Google Maps has implemented an extra overlay for the Katrina Hurricane. You can see the devastation and the satellite images as it was before. Horrible.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=New+OrleansMaybe it was the reaction to some spontaneous websites that various people have published to share information about the disaster. One remarkable wiki like usage of Google Maps was programmed to share instantly information about the amount of disaster or help in a specific street or area of New Orleans.
http://whateverimight.blogspot.com/2005/09/wired-news-disaster-map-wiki-is-born.htmlGoogle Earth has been used by hundreds of people to illustrate the disaster before and after too. So GoogleBlog and GoogleEarth has posted some of them themselves. Try it. Google Earth compared to Google Maps is like the real world compared to a 12inch PC Monitor.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/seeing-what-katrina-has-wrought.htmlIf you seek more Information about he Hurricane and the progress afterwards I suggest Wikipedias coverage. It has also links to Wikinews reports and the most important Internet sites.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_katrinaTechnorati Tags: New, Orleans, Hurricane, Katrina, Google, Earth, Maps, ComparisonLabels: Comparison, Earth, Google, Hurricane, Katrina, Maps, New, Orleans
Image credit: NASA Discovery will be flown back to Cape Caneveral Floridy on a Boeing 747 Plane
That will cost time that is needed to analyse the accomplished test mission and prepare a the Discovery as Backup shuttle for the next Space Shuttle start. The flight will have much resemblance to the
original Space Shuttle project that has been modified because the development cost would be 3x higher than the final version for 5 Billion $.
Space Shuttle Discovery has safely returned to Earth.
The Discovery has safely returned after some delays to Earth.
Because of unreliable weather the shuttle has landed on the Edwards Air Force Base near Los Angeles.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Discovery returns safely to Earth: "Discovery returns safely to Earth
Shuttle landing
The shuttle Discovery has touched down successfully in California after the first mission since 2003's Columbia disaster.
Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base at around 1312 BST (0512 PST; 1212 GMT) after bad weather forced a change to the intended Florida landing site.
Columbia broke up on re-entry because of damage it sustained when foam debris fell off the fuel tank during lift-off."
Wired has found a great new extension to the web as we know it. Worth a try.
Wired News: Information Wants to be Liquid: "
Hegland's idea is simple -- he plans to move beyond the basic hypertext linking of the web, and change every word into a 'hyperword.' Instead of one or two links in a document, every single word becomes a link. Further, every link can point to more than one place, pulling up all kinds of background context from the web as a whole.
Liquid Information takes Berners-Lee's ideas and runs with them. Hegland's experimental system is geared toward allowing users -- not just writers and editors -- to make connections. Instead of just viewing websites, readers can change the way information is presented, or relate it to other information elsewhere on the web.
'"
Technorati Tags: hypertext, www, hypercard, wikipedia
NASA Space Shuttle Discovery is returning to Earth on Monday. Cape Caneveral has given OK to the shuttle status.
(Image Credit: NASA)
Image credit: NASA/KSC
Discovery Space Shuttle is due to launchTuesday
The Discovery is expected to start on Tuesday, July 26th 2005 if the weather allows it.
It will be at 10:39 on Tuesday morning to be precisely. That is the exact time the Columbia launched 2 years ago. Must be because of the same routine on shuttle launches.
Israel's first spaceman, Ilan Ramon, was aboard NASA's oldest orbiter as the vehicle lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center right on time at 10:39 a.m. EST (1539 GMT).
...
Originally targeted for launch in July 2001, the astronauts and scientists involved with STS-107 -- NASA's designation for the mission -- have had to endure lengthy schedule delays caused by fleet-grounding technical problems and higher priority shuttle flights.
...
Columbia's voyage -- the 28th flight for the orbiter and the 113th for the shuttle program -- is the first flight not going to the International Space Station since the same shuttle hosted a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission in March 2002.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sts107_launch_030116.htmlThe engineers have not yet found a cause for the failure of 1 of the 4 fuel level indicators. In tests in April 2005 the same failure has occured and has been filed as unpredictable fluctuation dureing tests. It may have been a too weak grounding. According to officials at least only 1 sensor needs to work properly to control the engines properly. The other sensors are to ensure redundancy. The rule that all 4 sensors need to work before liftoff was 1 consequence of the Challenger catastrophe.
If all goes right, the Discovers Space Shuttle will supply The ISS with food and repair equipment.
Technorati Tags: NASA, Discovery, Space, Shuttle, STS-114
Countdown for NASA Space Shuttle Liftoff to ISS after 2,5 Years break.
The NASA has planned a Spcaceshuttle Mission to fly in ca 4. Hours. That is an essential mission for the International Space Station ISS and even more important for the future fate of the Space Shuttle . The engineers worked more than 2 Years to rise security of space flight with the shuttles after the Columbia tragedy. NASA has spent 1.5 Million Dollars for the Development of enhancements and security measures.
Chances are 60 % high that the liftoff can take place. Space shuttles are due to start only in good weather conditions and in a bright daylight sky.
Today here was a slight shock as a cover of the Space Shuttle window fell off and broke the heat shield after falling 20 meters down. But the crashed parts could be replaced and the responsibles ensured that such repairs happened all the time. Good luck Space Shuttle and ISS.
Beer Wine Chianti Wodka Whiskey Pina Colada Sex on the Beach Bloody Mary Champagne Gin and Tonic Maiden's Prayer Martini Blue Hawaiian G-Spot Geisha Margarita Tequila Sunrise Manhattan Sangrita Spritzer Angel's Tit Mai Tai.
And, horny already ? Not ? Then you are probably a woman. Scientists have found a rise of lust in males when they are confronted with names of different types of alcohol. No joke. They haven't been filed up with beer. Just reading some words.
I wonder how much of this effect is "natural" or genetic and how much is Pavlov's reflex induced by sexy advertising on TV.
Automatic effects of alcohol cues on sexual attraction:
"Automatic effects of alcohol cues on sexual attraction
Authors: Friedman, Ronald S. 1; McCarthy, Denis M. 1; Förster, Jens 2; Denzler, Markus 2
Source: Addiction, May 2005, vol. 100, no. 5, pp. 672-681(10)
The present study tested whether suboptimal priming (which may be defined as ‘under viewing conditions rendering conscious identification highly improbable’) with alcohol-related stimuli would activate existing expectancies about alcohol's effects on sexual desire. It was predicted that alcohol cues, relative to non-alcohol cues, would activate expectancies of alcohol's aphrodisiac properties. We hypothesized that for men, stronger expectancies in this regard would predict an increased tendency to judge women as sexually attractive following the alcohol primes. Design
Two experimental studies manipulated cue (alcohol versus control) and rating dimension (attractiveness versus intelligence). Self-reported alcohol expectancies of sexual desire were assessed approximately 1 month prior to the study. Study 2 assessed additional expectancy content domains. Setting and participants
Study 1 comprised 82 undergraduate males and study 2 78 undergraduate males. Studies were conducted at the University of Missouri–Columbia, Columbia, Missouri, USA. Interventions
In both experiments, male participants were suboptimally primed with either alcohol-related or control words. Following this priming, they were presented with a series of photographs of young women and asked to either rate their attractiveness or their intelligence. Findings and conclusions
In both studies, a three-way interaction between cue, rating dimension and alcohol expectancies was found. Within the attractiveness rating condition a two-way interaction was found, indicating that in this condition, stronger expectancies that alcohol increases sexual desire predicted higher attractiveness ratings after suboptimal exposure to alcohol primes. No effects emerged in the intelligence rating condition. Discussion centers on implications for sexual risk-taking as well as a range of other non-consumptive behaviors."
Technorati Tags: Advertising, Sex, appeal, desire, alcohol, male, reflex, subconscious
Google Inc. may offer hosting services to
Wikipedia, a free
community-built encyclopedia, and other projects hosted by the
Wikimedia Foundation. Preliminary talks are scheduled to continue in March.
That news have caused a wave of responses all over the world:
Yahoo lists 55 news reports on this topic.
English speaking Google News shows up 61 results.
There are 23
German speaking news reports up until now. French online press present 7 reports according to
Google News. Japan shows 1 report from
japan.Cnet.com.
That's porbably because Google is becoming increasingly stronger and a stiff competitor for Microsoft in more and more areas. And Wikipedia is gettign increasingly mature and already is one of the Top 200 Websites in the world. It is heading towards the Top 100. Who will have access to this growing Library of knowledge ?
The steps of Google towards Wikipedia are not surprising. Google's competitors, such as Clusty.com, MSN Search, and Yahoo,
aready offer searching of encyclopedias as a dedicated search category. Clusty.com offers the
English Wikipedia, MSN Search links to Encarta, and Yahoo
has access to the Columbia Encyclopedia.
Wikipedia is often one of the top results of many searches. Anyone can distribute and even modify Wikipedia content in
compliance with its license, called the GNU Free Documentation License. Besides attribution, the license requires that
modifications are made available under the same conditions, a principle known as "copyleft" and most frequently applied to
computer software such as the free operating system Linux.
How could a tight Wikipedia integration into Google look like ?
- A Wikipedia-specific search category like Google's Newsgroups Index Google Groups that even is editable. You can subscribe to Google Groups and post a
response to a message thread.
- A Wikipedia-specific search category that is non-editable and links to the original project like Google Category that uses the Open
Content the
Open Directory Project.
- An inline feature that emphasizes Wikipedia results at the top of a search result. For details see Google Web Search Features .
The technical side of Google hosting also leaves various possibilities:
- Google could place a daily updated mirror of Wikipedia that is Google-owned and hosted as a subdomain like news.google.com.
That option could be perceived negative by the Wikipedia users. There is aready a discussion on Wikipedia how to deal with
Mirrors of Wikipedia that are listed in Google search results higher than the original content. Wikipedia:Send
in the clones
- Google could offer some Web servers with unlimited bandwith for the Wikimedia Foundation without conditions. That would have
benefits for both sides: Wikipedia, that is currently in the Top 200 Web sites according to Alexa.com, would have no problems
with delivering the content to the users. Google could index Wikipedia content instantly and is not restricted to the limited
number of requests to index it by Google Webspiders.
Here is an excerpt of a page about hosting posted on Wikimedia's "Meta-Wiki", which is used by the community to coordinate
project organization:
"Google Inc. have made a proposal to host some of the content of the Wikimedia projects. The terms of the offer are currently
being discussed by the board. The developer committee have been informed of some of the details via email. A private IRC meeting
with Google is planned for March, 2005. Please note that this agreement does not mean there is any requirement for us to include
advertising on the site." [1] (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Google_hosting)
The original summary [2] (http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2005-February/002180.html) was written by
Angela Beesley, one of the two elected board members of the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia and its sister
projects. According to a message posted to a public Wikimedia discussion list by the second elected trustee, Florence
Nibart-Devouard, Wikipedia founder and Wikimedia president Jimmy Wales met with Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin on February 10, "who were extremely enthusiastic about the whole project." [3] (http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/foundation-l/2005-February/002185.html)
References
This article was originally based on the blog entry "Google wants to Host
Wikipedia or its Content (http://sweetsilhouette.blogspot.com/2005/02/google-wants-to-host-wikipedia-or-its.html)" by
"Sweet Silhouette". Portions of it are therefore licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License
2.0.
It is also based on the collaborative work of members of Wikinews including me. See here for a current version of the news.
Technorati Tags: Wikipedia, Google, Searchengine, Ads, Encyclopedia
Google Inc. plans to host
Wikipedia content or the whole Wikimedia Foundation resources on its servers.
Google made an initial offer to the Wikimedia Board. It will be discussed by the members of the Wikimedia Board and Wikimedia developers.
In March 2005 the plans will be substantiated in a Meeting with Google represantatives.
The steps of Google towards Wikipedia are not surprising. Competitors like Clusty.com, MSN Search or Yahoo offer searching through encyclopedias too.
Clusty.com offers the english Wikipedia,
MSN Search their Encarta and
Yahoo has access to the Columbia Encyclopedia.
It is possible that Google plans to implement Wikipedia results as an inline feature ( called
Google Web Search Features) similar as they already offer Froogle results, Stock Quotes or map info on top of the search results.
That would be helpful because Wikipedia often already is the top result of many searches and appropoiate formatting could make the results more transparent.
On the other hand anyone can offer Wikipedia content as long as the presentation complies with the GNU Free Documentation License. So Google Inc. could run a noneditable Wikpiedia mirror and even present its adverting Adwords. So far Google did not require to implement Adwords in their offer.
They already share an Open Content Project: called Google Directory (http://dir.google.com/) which is an altered version of Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org/).
Here is an excerpt of the original Wikimedia statement:
Google Inc. has made a proposal to host some of the content of the Wikimedia projects.
The terms of the offer are currently being discussed by the board. The developer committee has been informed of some of the details via email. A private IRC meeting with Google is planned for March, 2005.
Please note that this agreement does not mean there is any requirement for us to include advertising on the site.
This statement is not an official statement of Wikimedia Foundation Inc. It was reported by board member Angela Beesley and is her unique responsability.
See a discussion concerning this issue
here.
Here are some News reports concerning this issue:
Google News Aggregator,
Tech News World,
Beta News,
Slashdot,
Google Blog,
News.comSources:
Sweet Silhouette,
User:Angela
Now the amazing part is that i heared about that on
http://del.icio.us/tag/wikipedia and not on Wikpedia or Wikinews.
Technorati Tags: Wikipedia, Google, Searchengine, Ads, Encyclopedia
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License.
Michael Moore addicted to Blogs
Catchy title isn't it? Well he actually discovered Blogsphere and its power. Now he has
his own Blog with RSS feed and all. And guess who set it up for him ? Wonkette, that's right, the
Wonkette. He's actually working on a new film
Bloggers & Me
about the influence of Blogs and hopefully Internet on the whole in politics.
That reminds me on the James Dean, ehrm I mean Howard Dean candidate for Presidency. They generated such a buzz that even I heared of it.( At that time I was quite offline.) Lateron they fell as deeply as they rose. I remember reading that it was because they campaign management underestimated the traditional media: Radio, TV & Newspapers. They played a big role in the critical phase.
Thanks
Beth for pointing me to that interesting blog.
BTW:
Wikipedia noted under
Use of the Internet in Howad Dean's Biography the following:
Dean's presidential campaign was remarkable at the time for its extensive use of the Internet to reach out to its supporters. The candidate's staff, and occasionally even the candidate, frequently
"blogged"
while on the campaign trail and even sought advice on important
campaign-related decisions -- in at least two instances even making
decisions through online polls of supporters. By soliciting
contributions online, the campaign shattered previous fundraising
records for the Democratic presidential primary. Dean has been
credited with being the first national candidate to play to the
strengths of the Internet, in particular by engaging the American
public directly in the political process.
Update:
Thanks to a critical point of view by
Group Think from Mark Heimonen a
little correction. It seems that the mentioned Blog is a fake. It is not mentioned on Micheal Moores Homeppage and it has developed less and less probable since the last time i read it. It is presumably a Blog set up to undermine the reputation of Michael Moore. I learned a lesson: Don't trust everything that is written on the Wide Wide Web especially somthing that is so easy to set up as a Weblog. 2. Whenever there is politics, be more suspicious and keep away. Once again thanks Mark Heimonen.
Technorati Tags: Moore, Michael Moore, Blogs, media, politics, disinformation
Slashdot | ISS Oxygen Generator Fails and works again.
Seems to be very unreliable. Since its installation the oxygen regenerator named Elekton failed numreous times. It must have been repaired on almost every new cargo ship delivery up there. Elektron generators have failed in the past and have been replaced by identical units. But unfoutunately the current one is the last availible. If it fails like the former oxygen generators there is no alternative. NASA sets its hope into a new Generation of oxygen generators with solid electrolyte. The were designed to avoid the current troublemaker: bubbles of oxygen and hydrogen in the electrolyte, that stop the process. Ironically they are also the aim of the generator. The Elektron oxygen regenerator is said to be a more complex design than the MIR oxygen Generator. I wonder if they are using centrifugal force to separate the bubbles. Good Luck ISS, you need it.
Myras Pic
My Hope
When will a Space Shuttle launch again ?
Clay Shirky, an academic, responded to the accusations. He is the opinion that some people will always be unhappy with the way it works now. Wikipedia is mostly democratic ( it at least tries to) and that comes with the benefits and shortbacks of democracy. Everyone has 1 vote, whether smart or dumb. I personally like it that way.
Of course librarians, teachers, and academics don't like the Wikipedia. It works without privelege, which is inimical to the way those professions operate. This is not some easily fixed cosmetic flaw, it is the Wikipedia's driving force. You can see the reactionary core of the academy playing out in the horror around Google digitizing books held at Harvard and the Library of Congress -- the NY Times published a number of letters by people insisting that real scholarship would still only be possible when done in real libraries. The physical book, the hushed tones, the monastic dedication, and (unspoken) the barriers to use, these are all essential characteristics of the academy today.
It's not that it doesn't matter what academics think of the Wikipedia -- it would obviously be better to have as many smart people using it as possible. The problem is that the only thing that would make the academics happy would be to shoehorn it into the kind of filter, then publish model that is broken, and would make the Wikipedia broken as well.
See Also: article_on_wikipedia_antielitism
Response To: An brief article about the troubles in the
Wikipedia Project and the already emerged Forks and more liberal
Wikis.
Larry Sanger a Co-founder of Wikipedia critisizes it's current state: Revert-Wars and anti-elitism.
Slashdot | Wikipedia Criticised by Its Co-founder
An brief article about the troubles in the
Wikipedia Project and the already emerged Forks and more liberal
Wikis.
Larry Sanger a Co-founder of Wikipedia critisizes it's current state: Revert-Wars and anti-elitism.
Slashdot | Wikipedia Criticised by Its Co-founderTechnorati Tags: Wikipedia, Fork, Wiki, Larry, Sanger, Elitism
First looks at Google Suggest - The JavaScript Weblog
The most complete Collection about the Background of Google's new Beta Service:
Google Suggest. Have fun with it !
As you may have heared it's Google that suggests you the most popular search terms while you type in your Request. It uses JavaScript and
XMLHttpRequest
First looks at Google Suggest - The JavaScript Weblog - javascript.weblogsinc.com
A Before After Comparison of some places that the Tsunami on Dezember 26th 2004 destroyed.
Very shocking pictures.
DigitalGlobe | QuickBird Images of Tsunami Sites: "
Description:Shore detail
after the tsunami.
Technorati Tags: Tsunami, earthquake, pictures
Court Denies Anna Nicole Smith a Share of Husband's Estate
Wow, I underestimated
Howard Stern. He seems to be Anna Nicole Smith's personal attorney , some papers refer to him as her lawyer. Anyway she has lost a step in the legal battle but it's not over yet. They probably will appeal to the full 9th Circuit Court and maybe the U.S. Supreme Court.
Court Denies Anna Nicole Smith a Share of Husband's Estate: "Stern"
Slashdot | Think Secret Predicts Sub-$500 Headless Mac
An cheap
Macintosh - long time no see, but definitely good dream. That could be a very attractive offer: A Mac for the price of an
iPod Slashdot | Think Secret Predicts Sub-$500 Headless Mac
Finally a revival of Marathon Infinity, a legendary Mac Game from Bungie, the creators of Halo 2, with advanced interactive discoveries and challenging tasks. Its successors Halo or Quake Marathon comes back as
Aleph One and runs even on Windows! If you never heared of it check this Open Source Game out. Mac Users and Windows fans that want to try Aleph One need the sold-out Marathon Triology games. Foutunately Bunge was so kind to give it
away freely. Thanks Bungie !
See the
Slashdot Article | Classic Mac FPS Marathon Turns 10
Slashdot | US to Pay to go to ISS
Interesting Discussion about the prospects of the International Space Station.
Some say, the Shuttles should be canceled and the US expenses for the ISS too. That would be a shock for the other participating countries and i hope that remains a rumor.
Slashdot | US to Pay to go to ISSHere is a brief
chronology of the ISS.
Technorati Tags: ISS, US, Shuttle, Russia
Starting a Blog, finally.
It's very exciting. Today I'm going to jump on the Blog waggon. What will i meet. Is it too easy?
Let's see.
Hello World !!
Disclaimer
Sweet Silhouette - Myras Little Blog is a personal site.
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