Apple Missing?

Internet sleuths discovered that anyone using Microsoft's new "Virtual Earth" Web site for a bird's-eye view of Apple's corporate headquarters saw only a grainy overhead photograph of what appears to be a single, nondescript warehouse and a deserted parking lot - not Apple's sprawling campus, with 11 modern buildings surrounding a plush courtyard.

Microsoft blames an outdated photograph. But Apple's headquarters in Silicon Valley shows up more appropriately for anyone viewing the same location using Google's mapping Web site, which also combines many of the same government-funded satellite and aerial overhead photographs.

Yahoo Acquires Konfabulator

Search engine giant Yahoo has acquired Konfabulator, a 'small' company that produces the famous widgets software for use on desktops. While it might seem to be a normal move for a big company to acquire a small company, it is not so normal when Yahoo now releases the widgets free of charge, and even offers a refund to those who recently paid the licensing.

Yahoo seems to be following in the footsteps of Google, by realising that having products (in Google's case - Google Earth, Picasa, Blogger), will boost up a company's reputation. The amount forked out by Yahoo is peanuts compared to the excellent (long-term) PR generated.

http://widgets.yahoo.com/

Windows Genuine Advantage

In a controversial effort to stop software piracy, computer users who go to the Microsoft website for Windows updates will have their system scanned, to check whether their copy of Windows is a counterfeit.

This is certainly another ridiculous move from MS. We should all switch to linux today.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1122382824047_77/?hub=SciTech

Apache Server

Why I Hate the Apache Web Server

A hilarious presentation entitled 'Why I Hate the Apache Web Server' was shown during the last day of ApacheCon Europe.

Google Moon

Want to see how the moon looks like?
http://moon.google.com/

According to Google Blog, the data is based on information from NASA, but its largely incomplete. They have not included " the Moon's 22 seas, 8 Soviet Luna landings, 3 NASA Ranger impacts, and 7 NASA Surveyor landings ."

TIME - 50 Coolest Websites 2005

Recently, TIME published a list of what it claims are the "50 coolest websites 2005".
The list can be found at http://www.time.com/time/2005/websites/

The list provides an interesting perspective on the internet. Though I don't really agree with the list, some of the websites are ... fascinating.

Microsoft Student 2006

Microsoft has released a software, Microsoft Student 2006, claiming it can help students.

Microsoft Student 2006 is a comprehensive, subject-specific resource designed to help middle- and high-school students complete high-quality homework assignments and projects in less time. With curriculum-based templates and tutorials, a fully functional graphing calculator with 2-D and 3-D four-color graphing capabilities, trusted content, and tools for cutting through online clutter, Microsoft Student 2006 provides students with the tools and information they need to achieve academic success.

While the layout and design of the software itself certainly seems impressive. One wonder how a software can encapsulate a holistic learning experience. E-learning is still a contentious point, but it is a fact that school work and computers are as unalike as cheese and chalk. Perhaps, Microsoft should still focus on its core competency, instead of coming up with software like these.

Gmail adds Atom feed

For those of you who still don't know yet, Gmail actually added atom feed a few months ago.
Only new messages will be displayed.
https://gmail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom

Google Toolbar

Anyone looking at the About of the Google Toolbar (if you have it installed in IE/FireFox) will see
de parvis grandis acervus erit

It is latin and it roughly means:
Out of small things a great heap will be formed.

Harry Potter

The 6th book of the Harry Potter series will be released on 16th July [12 AM]. The book entitled Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price, will be the second last book of the series. J.K Rowling has already promised that a character will be killed in this new book, but fans are assured that it is certainly not Harry Potter. So what else is in the installment, besides the imaginative and kaleidoscopic array of magic? Just wait a few more days.

New version of Qict

Tay Wei Kiat today releases a new version of this popular Qict software after a much anticipated wait. Version 3.0.0 Beta was made available for download eariler today.

Qict is fully skin-able and customizable dictionary lookup tool with great looking and user-friendly interface that allows users to check the meaning of any word or phrases. Qict requires internet connection to work as it draws on the large database of Dictionary.com. Qict comes with Qiz, a bonus program that is able to generate vocabulary quizzes based on information stored in Word Vault for users to improve their vocabulary

It has won:
5 Star Rating Award from Sofotex.com
5 Star Rating Award from TopShareware.com
5 Star Rating Award from MostShareware.com
5 Star Rating Award from Download2You.com
5 Star Rating Award from Download3000.com
4 Star Rating Award from FileTransit.com
Listed at Freewarefiles.com
And most importantly, certified by Softpedia.com to be 100% free from viruses, spywares and adwares.

For more information, visit Qict Official Homepage and download a copy of Qict today!

Podcasting

With iTunes bringing podcasting mainstream, as Jobs has promised, I am personally wondering why podcasting is so popular. Perhaps the article below will provide some answers.
http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2005/07/podcasting/index.php

To add on to the article, I should say that it takes quite a while to download an ipod and also quite some time to listen to it (in a suitable environment). In fact, my own experiment suggests that it is far faster to scan/read a full text of page on FireFox than to listen to a length of text being spoken out (e.g. an interview).

Google Earth (Update)

Google Earth seems to have taken the world by storm.

Google Earth offers wonderful aerial views of any point on earth, including volcanoes, islands, etc. Navigating through the program is easy and going from one place to another seems like a helicopter ride. Moreover, program displays high-resolution images for major cities like New York, Beijing, etc (you can even see the house!).

More details: http://earth.google.com/sites/

According to their website, the images are photographs taken by satellites and aircraft sometime in the last three years.

Google Earth is simply excellent PR. However, it does raise some interesting questions, such as the cost of the bandwidth and well, cost for getting the images, etc. Currently, Google has integrated search (works for US and some other countries only) in Google Earth. Hence, to cover the costs, will Google include ads, travel booking features, etc in future versions of Google Earth? Remember, nothing is ever free.

If you don't like to download the 10 MB installation file, you can also get some images at
http://maps.google.com (but you will miss out the cool stuff like 3D [see above]).