GWEI - Google Will Eat Itself

If you believe Google wil eat itself... http://www.gwei.org/

This (the picture below - Google founders) is unrelated to GWEI... but it looks... funny?

Grass-Roots Globalism

What is it? Read about it.
http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR25106.shtml

iPod Nano

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/nano.ars/1
This is everything you need to know about the iPod Nano.

Also... I found this. I doubt its real. I think someone is just damn free.

Simon Wiesenthal

Once in a while, HanWorks Research dedicates a post to history -- past events that have had profound impact on the human race, and the movers and shakers who made the world it is today.

News: Simon Wiesenthal was buried in Herziliya on Friday, but no government ministers attended the funeral.

Simon Wiesenthal was a Holocaust survivor and a famed Nazi hunter who spent the rest of life after the war chasing escaped Nazis and building up cases against them so that they would be bought to justice.

Notably, he also assisted Israeli intelligence (Mossad) in tracking down Adolf Eichmann, one of the most high-ranking Nazi to be ever caught.

My first encounter with the name "Simon Wiesenthal" was in Frederick Forsyth's The Odessa File, where the ODESSA is an organisation/network that helps former SS members. Sadly, today is my second encounter with his name.

Unfortunately, Wiesenthal's work has not always been appreciated. Chasing war criminals is no small and easy job. It takes patience, time and courage. Although there were opposition from governments (Americans and Russians during the Cold War), he eventually won the hearts of many.

"He was ... the conscience of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Nobody did more than he to bring the perpetrators of history's greatest crime to justice."

No doubt, it was a tiring job, but he had a stong conscience for justice. Today, people like him are few and far between, and there are even fewer people who choose the road less taken by.

Blogshares

BlogShares is a fantasy stock market for weblogs. Players get to invest a fictional $500, and blogs are valued by incoming links.

So we have Investopedia and StockQuest, now we trade blogs.

Google Hacks

Take a look at these projects which utilise the Google API.
Its pretty amazing what people can think of.

Google与李开复博士

I was not aware until today when I read the Google Blog that Dr. Kai-Fu Lee actually has a blog and a webpage!
Another PR campaign from Google?

New Look for Vista and MS office

http://techrepublic.com.com/2300-10877-5862875.html

New looks for Vista, Office

Quite nice design... but takes a long time to come out yah? haha

Oh yes and btw, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9189611/site/newsweek/ talks abt the war between Google and Microsoft (also appeared in newsweek 19 sept 2005). It says that Google Desktop is a very obvious attempt to take on MS. Eg, Sidebar, and the searching of the computer, hence making MS rather useless...

Screencasting

You heard about podcasts. But have you heard about screencasts?
I encountered this term when I came across this.

Yahoo! Mail Beta (Update)

To try the beta system, you have to submit a request. To know if you have been accepted, you will need to login to Yahoo! Mail and look out for a big greenish promotion sign.

Anyway, this seems like a strategy to attract attention (like Gmail invites).

And, for your information, Yahoo! Mail Beta is based on AJAX.

New Yahoo Mail Beta

Yahoo is testing a new version of its web-based email service featuring a new interface more like that of a desktop e-mail application and faster response time.

Picture from http://www.thetwowayweb.com/stories/storyReader$2050

New features:
E-mail caching; message preview; drag-and-drop filing; the capability of quickly searching e-mail headers, body text and attachments; and the ability to view multiple e-mails at the same time in separate windows and scroll through all message headers in a folder rather than one page at a time.

From the looks, the email war (think Google Gmail, Microsoft Hotmail), is heating up again.

However, I do admit that drag-and-drop feature in web based email has always been a "dream", and Yahoo! is now making that dream a reality. It would even be better if drag-and-drop can be combined with the filter/categorisation feature of Gmail.

Sooner or later, we might be even talking about themes/styles in the web-based email interface (with regards to Yahoo Mail, Gmail and Hotmail).

PageRank Explained

This site http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/ provides a reasonable explanation on how the Google PageRank works.

What is rather interesting is the possible theory:

Toolbar PageRank (log base 10)	Real PageRank
0	0 - 10
1	100 - 1,000
2	1,000 - 10,000
3	10,000 - 100,000
4	and so on...

And if are really interested in how Google/PageRank came about...
read The Anatomy of a Search Engine by the founders of Google - Sergey Bin and Lawrence Page.

Windows Vista Editions

http://winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_editions.asp

There will be two general categories of Windows Vista editions, which map closely to the two that exist today for XP:

In the Home category, Microsoft will create four product editions:

1. Windows Vista Starter Edition,
2. Windows Vista Home Basic Edition,
3. Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, and
4. Windows Vista Ultimate Edition (previously known as "Uber" Edition).

In the Business category, there will are three editions:

1. Windows Vista Small Business Edition,
2. Windows Vista Professional Edition (previously known as Professional Standard Edition), and
3. Windows Vista Enterprise Edition (previously known as Professional Premium Edition).

In all, there are seven product editions planned for Windows Vista (or nine, if you count the N Editions as being different - no Media Player). Note that all of these product names are placeholders for now: They could change before the final product is released. However, this breakdown of editions is current as of this week and is unlikely to change.

Site Extract

---

Windows Vista Home Premium Edition

Whole home entertainment and personal productivity throughout the home and on the go. As a true superset of Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition will include everything from Home Basic, as well as Media Center and Media Center Extender functionality (including Cable Card support), DVD video authoring and HDTV support, DVD ripping support (yes, you read that right), Tablet PC functionality, Mobility Center and other mobility and presentation features, auxiliary display support, P2P ad-hoc meeting capabilities, Wi-Fi auto-config and roaming, unified parental controls that work over multiple PCs, backup to network functionality, Internet File Sharing, Offline Folders, PC-to-PC sync, Sync Manager, and support for Quattro Home Server. Windows Vista Premium Edition is similar to XP Media Center Edition, except that it adds numerous other features and functionality, including Tablet PC support. My guess is that this will be the volume consumer offering in the Windows Vista timeframe (today, XP Pro is the dominant seller). This version is aimed at PC enthusiasts, multiple-PC homes, homes with kids, and notebook users.

The marketing message: Home Premium Edition turns it up a notch. In addition to the baseline functionality offered in Home Basic, this version focuses on such things as integrated entertainment (movies, memories, and more), mobility (media and productivity on the go), and connected living (connect with family, friends, and home). Home Premium Edition supplies whole-home entertainment and personal productivity throughout the home and on the go.

Might want to look at the comparison table...

Moodgrapher

This website tries to get the average mood of bloggers and even tried to predict future moods.
A rather interesting and original research idea that holds great potential, ranging from marketing to cognitive science.

http://ilps.science.uva.nl/cgi-bin/livejournal/mood

A Six Figure Blogger

Anyone thinking of earning $ through blogging?
Check out this guy who earned over $100K in over a year -- through blogging.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/09/01/im-a-six-figure-blogger