Technobriefs
Facebook v. Google--pot calls kettle black: be it LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook or others of their social networking ilk, I've always been a little uncomfortable about trusting a third party with a comprehensive list of all my friends. Even if the current management of such sites is benign, who knows who they will sell themselves to next year. Now Facebook is very annoyed that its users may share their contact information with other sites via Google's Friend Connect. Since Google only looks at public information that Facebook offers to everyone through its API, how can there be additional privacy concerns? The real privacy risk is making your friends list public by using Facebook in the first place: Facebook's Glass Jaw, Facebook flap: Google’s side, How Google's Friend Connect works, Facebook Disconnects Google: Protecting Users... Or Itself? or as Yoda would have said: Begun, the Data Wars Have.
Games for the greater good: I am fascinated by the rise of "human computation", where humans join together to solve big problems, often attracted by the task being structured as a game. I have previously mentioned reCAPTCHA and foldit. Now Luis von Ahn and colleagues at CMU have established a new hub for these "games with a purpose" at gwap.com, see New games are designed to make computers smarter.
Space: new digger-bot nears the Red Planet: How NASA's Phoenix Will Land on Mars and New Mars Lander Looks for Water, Old Signs of Life (be sure and watch the slick animation). Meanwhile on Earth, Google and Microsoft battle it out online for "space, the final frontier": Two New Ways to Explore the Virtual Universe, in Vivid 3-D and Peeking through Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope.
Personal aircraft: looking like some 1940s pulp sci-fi fantasy, new amazingly small flying machines: Swiss man soars above Alps with jet-powered wing (videos) and GEN H-4 Helicopter To Take Flight in Leonardo da Vinci's Hometown.
Technobits: lies and the lying liars who tell them: Comcast Restricted Bandwidth To BitTorrent Users 24/7, Study Charges --- Verizon goes Linux, shuns Google's Android: Verizon Wireless, Mozilla Join LiMo Foundation --- Stolen Laptop Helps Turn Tables on Suspects --- 5 Tools for Keyword Brainstorming --- when image search by keyword just doesn't cut it: Picitup Visual Image Search --- Google celebrated the birth of the laser on May 16, 1960 --- crazy raspberry Ants swarm over Houston area, fouling electronics --- will the EPA be forced to act on global warming to save its habitat?: Polar Bear Is Made a Protected Species --- belated NYT article about the Maker Faire --- better living through container design: easy pb&j --- sorry, this is off topic for TB: my wife just made this website for our family's music teacher Jeff Sanford’s Cartoon Jazz Orchestra and this is just here to nudge up it Page Rank.
