Social Media Map October 29, 2008
Posted by mycto in Infrastructure.Tags: social networking
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Just spotted this on oxyweb.co.uk. It is a graphical map showing social media and which networks are more popular in which countries.
Orkut is number 1 in India and Brazil, while MySpace is number one in the US. Facebook rules the social tubes in Canada, England and Australia, while Xiaonei rules China.
Social Media Map
See the full size one here.
Technology Survivors October 17, 2008
Posted by mycto in Infrastructure, economy, search.Tags: Google, Great Depression 2.0, search
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Some, like Time Magazine’s Josh Quittner are using the phrase “Great Depression 2.0″ to describe the current financial mayhem. This is appropriate, if only for the way in which technology “versioning” has pervaded all of our lives–even our fear-laden financial ones.
Google seems to be doing OK despite all the frothing. The Sultans of Search smacked down 1.35 Billion dollars worth in the last quarter–that’s a 31 % jump since last we heard the numbers.
But I thought Armageddon was nigh and no one was going to do business anymore? Tell that to the Big G.
Google is so pervasive that it is hard to avoid them when you use that machine at your desk, or your home. They just keep making it easier and easier to use their tools. And in these testy time, users will choose free and easy.
Here’s a Tip for You October 15, 2008
Posted by mycto in economy.Tags: economy, news, tipd
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Unless you have been living in a cave that is under a rock inside a deep hole, you have been subjected to an overwhelming amount of media about the financial markets and the accompanying roller coaster.
Stepping up to the plate is a site that is focused on providing financial news and insights generated by a community. The site, www.tipd.com, allows users to submit stories and then users use a digg-like function to promote stories.
Amazing Personal Geek Library October 10, 2008
Posted by mycto in music, video.Tags: geek, Jay Walker, library
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Take a moment away from gazing at the continued sell off in the markets and the media bad news blitz and feast your eyes on these incredible images from Jay Walker’s personal library. The article after the jump at Wired tells the story in fascinating detail.
Jay Walker
Jay Walker’s library
One Dollar Movie Night October 7, 2008
Posted by mycto in economy, music, video.Tags: credit crunch, download, economy, movie, Sony, streaming
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With all the doom and gloom and naysaying going on in the media right now, I thought it would behoove us all to take a deep breath and look at how the credit crunch will make our technology lives better. You will note that I have used the phrase credit crunch and not depression, etc. Why? Because this financial debacle has created an inability for companies to get credit / cash as easily as they could before.
So what?
Movie Night
If companies can’t get access to funds as easily they will slow down development of new products which in turn will lead them to hiring fewer people which means that times will be getting tighter for some.
This is not an economics site, so I won’t bore you here with my thoughts on baby boomer and immigration and how that may positively affect the current crunch.
ANYWAY. Back to our regularily scheduled programming. If a dinner and a movie are going to be too pricey for the average American family, what about a $1 HD download / stream plus some of Orville’s best popcorn? This downtown will force companies in to really innovate and open the gates for small payment options for entertainment. The world may stay home from the malls and the car lots, but they are still going to need something to do. I expect to see announcements from Sony et al soon on massive reductions / price incentives for Blue Ray discs and players, but I think the real tell tale signs will be in movies and shows streaming from consoles and laptops for small prices.
Layoffs in a Digital Age October 4, 2008
Posted by mycto in Advertising, Recession, business, economy.Tags: Gawker Media, layoffs, Nick Denton, valleywag
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Remember how layoffs used to come in the form of a pink slip or a one on one meeting with the HR manager / director and then awkward goodbyes by the elevator? In today’s new media world where pretty much everything is written about, Gawker Media (owner of sites like Gizmodo, Jalopnik, and Lifehacker) told the managing editor of Valleywag, Owen Thomas to “cut Valleywag’s costs, in anticipation of an advertising recession”. No big deal, right?
What is more intriguing is the fact that Owen put the memo from Gawker boss, Nick Denton right up on the site, including a picture of Nick with the title of “Slasher”.
Nick Denton cuts costs at Valleywag
The last line of the memo defines the new age of millenialist journalism: “The one consolation is that there will be plenty of news for us to break — starting with this email, which you are free to leak.”
The layoff memo was posted at 10:45 am on Friday. The first comment was from one of the associate editors laid off–Nicholas Carlson who said: “And I don’t even get a last coffee at Beantrees. (though if I did, I would not be twittering it).”
Most of the comments (which there are plenty of) vasilate between “good luck” and “that sucks”, but the discussion is open and immediate.
For more, hit the link.
Best of Friday Tech October 3, 2008
Posted by mycto in Business Productivity, Infrastructure.Tags: Bailout, eco-friendly, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony
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Happy Friday dear readers–here are a few quick stories making the rounds:
Sony’s new electronic book–the Reader:
Sony Reader
Hit the link for the full story at Gizmodo: Sony Reader
Microsoft cares about the bailout too!
With the US economy in the tank–software giants are suffering as companies are pulling back on spending. This includes even jugernauts like Micrsoft whose stock has taken a beating lately:
Read more on the view from Redmond here
Samsung wants to save the environment too.
Samsung has announced two new eco-miser desktops that use less juice while humming away at your workspace.
Samsung eco friendly models
Hit the link for more info from Engadget
Silver Cloud in the Future for Microsoft October 2, 2008
Posted by mycto in Browsers, Business Productivity, Infrastructure, operating systems.Tags: Google, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, the cloud
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Did you hear the one about the guy from Microsoft, the guy from Google and the priest? Me neither.
What I did hear today was a lot about Microsoft getting into “the cloud”. What is this cloud and what magic does it perform you ask?
Cloud
The cloud is just a fancy phrase that describes the process where computers that are not at your desk do the majority of crunching / processing and you look at and edit this data on your pc through your browser.
If you look at your computer desktop you probably have a bunch of programs or applications that do things like word processing or spreadsheets or games. The future, will see the significant majority of all human interaction with data in “the cloud” be it on a desktop, a game console (think XBOX) or your phone.
Anyway, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s excitable CEO proclaimed today that Microsoft will be working on a version of an operating system (OS) that is geared for cloud computing. I believe I predict what this looks like already: strip out everything from the current version of Vista and just present users with an Internet Explorer button. CLICK. BLAM. INTERNET.
Microsoft
What Microsoft really needs is an easy to use online document editing and managing system and storage system. Wait–Google has one of those. Hmmmm. What would a company look like that was made out of these two entities?
