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How to be a successful startup founder (Jessica Livingston, investor - redd
2008-02-05 14:21:00
Here is a great video from authors@google from Jessica Livingston.Jessica is one of the founding partners of Y-Combinator, a really innovative early stage tech venture capital firm who has funded reddit (who sold to conde-nast/wiredmagazine) , kiko and more than 30 web startups in 3 years and who wrote the book, Founder s at Work.In her book Jessica interviews startup founders from paypal, hotornot, hotmail, google, blogger, apple computers, viaweb and 30 other highly successful web and tech startups.I bought the book a few months ago, and whilst i had read most of it, i really enjoyed this video from google as it condenses the best bits of the book into a 35 minute talk.If you are interested in how to start a successful startup, i would totally suggest watching jessica speaking at google. (the first 5 mins are slow, but she really gets into some great insights for startup founders in her talk)
More About: Investor , Startup , Startups

Google releases new Identity 2.0 platform (Social Graph API)
2008-02-05 12:03:00
Im not sure if this cool or creepy! Interesting take on the Identity 2.0 debate. TO be honest i had my money on facebook succeeding as an identity provider for web 3,0 :)From Google .... With so many websites to join, users must decide where to invest significant time in adding their same connections over and over. For developers, this means it is difficult to build successful web applications that hinge upon a critical mass of users for content and interaction. With the Social Graph API, developers can now utilize public connections their users have already created in other web services. It makes information about public connections between people easily available and useful.The API returns web addresses of public pages and publicly declared connections between them. The API cannot access non-public information, such as private profile pages or websites accessible to a limited group of friends. http://code.google.com/apis/socialgraph/
More About: Platform

Beautiful Web Design
2008-02-05 09:49:00
If your into sexy as hell web design and graphic design, we suggest checking out CommandShift3Have a look at the Best Web Design s this Month and have a look at the Worst Web Design EverWe have submitted a number of our client web designs to CommandShift3, we will keep you posted with an update of what the design community thinks of our web designs...
More About: Beautiful

Mass Media: Weapons of mass distortion (The Guardian)
2008-02-04 13:11:00
An industry whose task should be to filter out falsehood has become a conduit for propaganda and second hand news Where once journalists were active gatherers of news, now they have generally become mere passive processors of unchecked, second-hand material, much of it contrived by PR to serve some political or commercial interest. Not journalists, but churnalists. An industry whose primary task is to filter out falsehood has become so vulnerable to manipulation that it is now involved in the mass production of falsehood, distortion and propaganda.There never was a time when news media were perfect. Journalists have always worked with too little time and too little certainty; with interference from owners and governments; with laws that intimidate and inhibit the search for truth. But the evidence in this new book, Flat Earth News, suggests our tendency to recycle ignorance is far worse than it was.Read the full story at the guardianRead the "Flat Earth News" Boo...
More About: Media , Guardian , Weapons , The Guardian , Mass Media

If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?
2008-02-04 12:59:00
The most common retort against privacy advocates -- by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures -- is this line: "If you aren't doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?" Some clever answers: "If I'm not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me." "Because the government gets to define what's wrong, and they keep changing the definition." "Because you might do something wrong with my information." My problem with quips like these -- as right as they are -- is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It's not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect. Two proverbs say it best: Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? ("Who watches the watchers?") and "Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said, "If one would give me six lines written by t...
More About: Wrong , Hide

Bush: lets spend $6bn to spy on the internet (News.com.au)
2008-02-04 12:57:00
Dont forget the free trade agreement fellow aussies... This applies to you!If you are interested in protecting your online privacy, we recommend installing TOR (a P2P privacy network that hides your identity online, secures your online data and protects your privacy from online snoops, including your own government) Bush goes ahead with this, this will mean that your ISP (Bigpond, iinet, unwired, optus etc) will monitor your internet usage and report what you do online to the US government.People say if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear... but i question why the US government has the right to read our private communications!!! I say... bugger off! PRESIDENT Bush has promised a frugal budget proposal next month, but one big-ticket item is stirring controversy: an estimated $US6 billion ($6.83 billion) to build a secretive system protecting US communication networks from attacks by terrorists, spies and hackers. The US government has tracked, among other ...
More About: News , Internet , The Internet

The decline of celebrity culture
2008-02-04 11:59:00
The power of the internet has enabled a new conversation...We are seeing a celebration of being normal, being an average person, being the people we all are.I think we are seeing a decline of celebrity culture and a return to the celebration of our cultureA celebration of being just an everyday normal guyWith over a million views... this shows how much just being us is warming with the masses...So the everyday normal guy is back
More About: Culture , Celebrity

Data Cleansing and Fuzzy Lookups with SQL Server Integration Services
2008-02-04 06:26:00
Data quality is a critical issue for most web applications and databases. For example, in an online bookstore "H.G. Wells" and "HG Wells" are the same author, but often duplicates like this in any database. We have just finished a database cleansing solution for a client, and it has been interesting to use SQL Server 's Fuzzy Lookup feature to achieve this.If your interested in SQL Server Integration Services Fuzzy Lookup and Data Cleansing , check out this video (warning, is faitly technical) Donald Farmer introduces the data quality features of SQL Server Integration Services with demos that show how to use the Fuzzy Lookup component for inexact matching and how to use Data Mining within the data integration process.Watch Video at MSDN TV
More About: Data

Hey, You Condescending Jerk, No One Prints Emails Anyway
2008-02-04 04:25:00
Apologies, it's time for rant. I know it's all the rage right now to be green. but is it really necessary to put a line at the bottom of every email telling me to consider the environment and not to print it? It was fine when just a few people did it last year, but now a significant percentage of emails coming in every day have some variation of the "do not print this email" message. Not everyone does it, just the condescending holier-than-thou types. But it happens often enough to have become a serious annoyance. For background on the "movement," see this article. You know what? I don't need you to tell me that I need to be a good Earth citizen. I don't print emails (no one does, you idiots), but if someone wants to I have no problem with it. Maybe they want to print out a map or something. I don't think that makes them a bad person. The same people who insist on wearing colored rubber bracelets to show their support for the cause du jour put this crap at the bottom of emails...
More About: Jerk , Emails , Prints

Rapper MOS DEF rips Bill Maher a new one on terrorism and 9/11
2008-02-03 04:18:00
"They're passing the Presidency around like a party joint - it goes from the Bushes to Clinton, back to Bushes . . . " - MOS DEF
More About: Terrorism , Bill Maher , Bill , Rapper

Rapper MOS DEF rips Bill Maher a new one on terrorism and 9/11
2008-02-03 04:18:00
"They're passing the Presidency around like a party joint - it goes from the Bushes to Clinton, back to Bushes . . . " - MOS DEF
More About: Terrorism , Bill Maher , Bill , Rapper

The Decline Of Democracy
2008-02-03 03:51:00
"A democracy is nothing more than mob-rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the remaining forty-nine percent" ? Thomas JeffersonSince the start of the 21st century the entire world has witnessed a decline in freedoms and democracy..this editorial explores how this decline occurred and how people have fought back from the declineThe first ten years of the 21st century will not be remembered as great years. The birth of the new century and the new millennium will be marked in history as the uprising of great evils across the world.Of course we have not progressed from absolute freedom to an absolute lack of it, nor have we progressed from absolute stability to an absolute lack of stability, but we have progressed into an era where human rights and democracy are in decline across the world.Most people have already realised that these have not been the most inspiring times for democracy and human rights. 2007 was confirmed as the second year in a row du...
More About: Democracy

An introduction to social media (Video)
2008-02-01 07:55:00
http://myjigsawdata.com/jigsaw_jan_ind_we binar.html
More About: Video , Social , Media , Introduction

Authors@Google - Cory Doctorow
2008-01-30 23:39:00
Hey guysIf you have a few min (20) spare, have a listen/watch of cory doctorow speaking at googleVery very interesting
More About: Google , Authors , Copyright , Cory Doctorow

Imagine mozart being born before the piano?
2008-01-30 13:01:00
Imagine van gough being born before the technology of oil paints?Imagine mozart being born before the piano?Imagine hitchcock being born before the movie camera?We should ask ourselves, are there children being born today who's canvas of choice has not been invented yet? What might we be missing out on? A call to action indeed...
More About: Piano , Mozart , Imagine , Moza

Nothing is growing faster than information
2008-01-30 12:24:00
Nothing is growing faster than informationGlobal physical production increase 2002-03 - 7%Global information increase 2002-03 - 66%
More About: Information , Growing

The Next Fifty Years of Science (Kevin Kelly, Founder, Wired Magazine)
2008-01-30 12:08:00
Did you know, placebo testing in science didnt exist untill the 1930s? Imagine testing the effectiveness of anything without a placebo comparison! This was a great step in the evolution of the scientific method.Landmarks in the history of the scientific method are the invention of libraries, indexes, citations, controlled experiments, peer review, placebos, double blind experiments, randomization, and search among others.Kevin Kelly (Founder of Wired Magazine ) talks about the next 50 years of evolution of the scientific method and how important the scientific method is.... Fascinating In the next 50 years, as the technologies of information and knowledge accelerate, the nature of the scientific process will change even more than it has in the last 400 years. We can't predict what specific inventions will arise in the next 50 years, but based on long-term trends in epistemic tools, I believe we can speculate on how the scientific method itself -- that is, how we know -- will change ...
More About: Science , Years

Ad-spending usually plunges when economic growth slows. Will it be any diff
2008-01-30 04:14:00
WHEN the American arm of Hyundai, a South Korean carmaker, said last week that it was worried about the economy and may cancel its plans to advertise in the Super Bowl, American football's grand finale, on February 3rd, the advertising and media industries shuddered. Marketing spending is one of the first things companies decide to cut when faced with slowing sales. Suddenly a recession in ad-spending seemed imminent. In the event, Hyundai decided to stay in, but buyers and sellers of ad-space know that it is only a matter of time before someone somewhere pulls out for real. Yet, even as stockmarkets tumble and economies falter, some ad-men expect the knife to cut most deeply in 2009 rather than in 2008. Maurice Lévy, chief executive of Publicis Groupe, a French advertising firm, reckons that despite the chance of a recession in America, 2008 will be a good year for sellers of ad-space. Three big-ticket events?America's presidential election, the Olympics in Beijing and the Euro...
More About: Growth , Spending , Economic , Diff

What does the "Media Business Model" mean?
2008-01-30 04:04:00
Most web sites will be monetized with some kind of media model. Don't think banner ads when I say that. Think of all the various ways that an audience that is paying attention to your service can be paid for by companies and people who want some of that attention.Both media and most online businesses are based on "software economics", where the cost of creating something of value is relatively high but the marginal cost of distributing it to each consumer is very low. So you can look at the web as the ultimate extension of the media business model to a wide range of other industries.  But when people think of the "media business model", they usually just think of advertising. That's a big part of it, to be sure, but as those of us in the media business know, it goes far beyond that.  Here's a list all the revenue models you can find in the media industry, all based around a core of free or almost-free content: CPM ads ("cost per t...
More About: Business , Media , The Media , Model

How Teenage Rebellion Has Become a Mental Illness
2008-01-29 04:58:00
For a generation now, disruptive young people who rebel against authority figures have been increasingly diagnosed with mental illnesses and medicated with psychiatric (psychotropic) drugs.Disruptive young people who are medicated with Ritalin other amphetamines routinely report that these drugs make them "care less" about their boredom, resentments and other negative emotions, thus making them more compliant and manageable. And so-called atypical antipsychotics such as Risperdal and Zyprexa -- powerful tranquilizing drugs -- are increasingly prescribed to disruptive teenagers, even though in most cases they are not displaying any psychotic symptoms.Read the full article at Alternet
More About: Mental , Mental Illness , Teenage , Illness , Rebellion

Sydney Video Production
2008-01-29 00:12:00
Looking for Sydney Video Production ? At Shifted Pixels, we deliver Sydney Video Production services for corporate videos, marketing videos, web viral videos and dvd.Our Sydney Video Production services include:Sydney Video Production - Creative StrategySydney Video Production - Writing and ScriptingSydney Video Production - Production, Filming, Lighting and SoundSydney Video Production - Post Production, EditingSydney Video Production - Compression and DigitisationSydney Video Production - Distribution and Viral MarketingView our Sydney Video Production information page for more information on our Sydney Video Production Services.Labels: Sydney Video Production

sydney web 2.0 agency
2008-01-28 14:19:00
sydney web 2.0 agency, sydney web 2.0 company, melbourne web 2.0 agency, Sydney web 2.0 consultantAt shifted, we have been helping corporates, sme's and startups with web 2.0 and emerging web technologies for many years. We are a leading sydney web 2.0 agency and offer:Web 2.0 Strategy & ConsultingWeb 2.0 Design and ImplementationWeb 2.0 Marketing and PR 2.0 ServicesWeb 2.0 Design and Graphic DesignWeb 2.0 Useability and AccessibilityWeb 2.0 AJAX, RSS, ATOM, JSON etcWeb 2.0 Blogs, Podcasts, Web TBWeb 2.0 SEO and SMOWeb 2.0 Online reputation managementIf you are looking for a sydney web 2.0 agency, then please feel free to give us a buzz. We want to talk to you
More About: Agency

Are you an articulate, free thinking indivigual? If so, you may have a prob
2008-01-28 14:13:00
Great Advertisment for the mainstream media :)
More About: Free , Thinking

The Greatest Grassroots Campaign in Political History: IGNORED BY BIG MEDIA
2008-01-28 14:11:00
Now that the internet has become the media channel of choice for the informed and the awakened, we are starting to see just how badly mainstream media reports the "News".If you havnt heard of Ron Paul, then blame big media. If i was a US citizen, i'd be voting Ron Paul. The Greatest Grassroots Campaign in Political History : IGNORED BY BIG MEDIA
More About: Media , Big Media

Study shows marijuana increases brain cell growth
2008-01-28 13:47:00
Umm, so what do we do now?Alcohol kills brain cells and marijuana increases brain cell growth?Alcohol is legal and marijuana is illegal... its almost like our government wants to keep us stupid?Ohh wait...http://peety-passion.com/relax/con tent/view/54/1/
More About: Study , Cell , Growth , Brain , Marijuana

Multitasking is dumbing us down and driving us crazy - Neuroscience is conf
2008-01-28 13:35:00
I think your suggestion is, Can we do two things at once? Well, we?re of the view that we can walk and chew gum at the same time.?Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state, on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, June 2, 2004To do two things at once is to do neither.?Publilius Syrus, Roman slave, first century B.C.Full Article on Multitasking
More About: Driving , Crazy , Neuroscience

Security vs Privacy
2008-01-28 13:34:00
All too true.. thanks government!
More About: Security , Privacy

Free Legal P2P Music Downloads
2008-01-28 13:25:00
Looks like the music industry is finally catching up with reality... QTRAX, a web music download startup, has signed 4 major labels and has 25 Million tracks with DRM-free download for free. By comparison iTunes has 6 Million for paid download  in its library. The trend is clear - labels have given up on DRM completely and are willing to experiment with ad supported free music downloads. My guess is they will eventually give up on the ad supported part of the model and just realize that recorded music is nothing more than marketing collateral for other revenue streams like live performances. However i would suspect that it may take one of the labels has to go out of business first for that to happen.Source: TechCrunch
More About: Music , Downloads , Free , Legal

Cross Site Scripting - WTF
2008-01-26 08:45:00
Ok so website hackers use this thing called cross site scripting or XSS to hack websiteHere is a cheat sheet
More About: Site , Cross , Scripting

Sydney Facebook Developer Garage
2008-01-25 00:32:00
Last night we went to the first ever Sydney Facebook Developer Garage , a meeting of Sydney Facebook Developers.We had a live video feed dicussion with David Morin, The Facebook Platform Manager from Facebook in San Francisco, and i got the chance to ask about new features in the Facebook API. Our friend, Mick Liubinskas, has written a more indepth summary of event : HereWe look forward to the next Sydney Facebook Developer Garage