Update on Twitter Awareness Metrics of Swine Flu

A quick update on the Twitter Awareness numbers for the Swine Flu. As of Monday @ 1:57 PM. Swine flu accounted for 2.68% of all Twitter activity, and the @CDCemergency Twitter account continued to experience rapid growth posting a 300% growth over the last two days. In addition to these trends, there have emerged unofficial Swine squatters, do these additional sources of information help or hurt the official effort to distribute public health information?

Your brain really is forgetting... a LOT

I'm currently reading Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life by Dr. Sandra Aamodt and Dr. Sam Wang. The enormity of the title notwithstanding, I'm enjoying the book, and ran across this rather amazing quotation: There is good evidence that we "erase" and "rewrite" our memories every time we call them, suggesting that if it were ever possible to erase specific content, playing it back first might be an essential component.

Four short links: 27 Apr 2009

Google Server and Data Center Details -- Greg Linden reports on a Efficient Data Center Summit. Google uses single volt power and on-board uninterruptible power supply to raise efficiency at the motherboard from the norm of 65-85% to 99.99%. There is a picture of the board on slide 17. (and this is a 2005 board). Greg has left Microsoft...

Exploring Apache Pivot 1.1, Part 1

This is the first in a series of several articles that explore some of the new features in Apache Pivot 1.1. Pivot is a Java-based RIA toolkit that is currently undergoing incubation at the Apache Software Foundation. This article discusses Pivot's support for drag and drop.

Real world RIA productivity tools

Ever noticed how certain phrases seem to do the rounds in the tech industry? One such phrase I see a lot is "eat your own dog food" or more charmingly "dogfooding". I can relate this to a number of RIAs which I use day-to-day when developing, managing and promoting RIAs which I thought might be of use to share in no particular order (and with no affiliation).

Responding to Morozov on Twitter's "Power to Misinform"

In Foreign Policy, Evgeny Morozov writes about Twitters power to misinform in the context of the emerging Swine Flu crisis. In his article he brings up concerns about the use of Twitter to spread misinformation and makes some broad generalizations about the motivations of the average Twitter. In this article, I response to some of the things Morozov has to say about the validity of analyzing Twitter trends.

Personal Genome Project Expanding the Personal Gene Pool from 10 to 100,000

The Personal Gemone Project is evolving from a small pilot of ten to a massive collection of 100,000 public medical histories and DNA sequences. Find out how you can register to participate in an experiment that will lay the necessary foundation for a complete understanding of how one's genetic sequence affects health and disease.

Robots on the March

Reading Richard Hillesley's IBM, Sun and OpenOffice.org at IT PRO, I was struck at certain rather glib assertion: OpenOffice is more than adequate to the needs of the 95 per cent of users. This is the same thing we hear about Linux. But dare we ask what it if it isn't in fact true in some significant sense?

Timeline of Patchable Synthesizers outside Americas (Updated)

Here is the most recent version of my Timeline of Patchable and Modular Synthesizer Makers outside the Americas.

Tracking and Graphing Awareness of Swine Flu with Twitter

As the Swine Flu story develops, Twitter is an invaluable, open-platform for gathering data and graphing trends of awareness. As the CDC investigation into this emerging virus uncovered more cases in CA, KS, TX, @CDCemergency experienced a rapid +85% jump in followers as Twitter became a conduit for critical public health information. While the government tries to get the word out about prevention stragies and instructions for care for the sick, services like Twist and Twitterholic can be used to measure the impact and reach of these public health messages.

Twittering the Swine Flu (Follow @CDCemergency)

The Centers for Disease Control and the Red Cross are using Twitter to get the word out about Swine Flu. Can something as simple as Twitter make a difference when fighting a potential influenza pandemic?

Colin Moock video update: Extensive samples online, discounts are now live

Just a quick follow-up to the announcement a few weeks ago about The Lost ActionScript Weekend. Two common questions have been coming in: 1. "Will these things be discounted at all?" A discount code is now in place. Here's the...

Adobe's Real-Time Media Flow Protocol

This is a long post. I wrote it while preparing a presentation on RTMFP for Toronto's FITC Flash festival next week. After I recover from the festival I'll post the sample files for the demo applications. The Flash player is...

Announcing the date of the FOSS revolution: 2032!

In the spirit of Bishop Ussher, I am prepared to announce the date the Free and Open Source Sofware revolution will be complete: it is the year 2032! Instead of SETI@home, we need a GERI@home project.

MySQL 2009 conference wrap-up: news flash about Flash and other notes from the experts

MySQL conference wrap-up: Flash, cloud computing, managing large installations, the value of community, and how to fumble your way to winning the presidency.

Four short links: 24 Apr 2009

Data, fonts, transparency, and exceptions: Performance Comparison: Key/Value Stores for Language Model Counts (Brendan O'Connor) -- sort-of benchmarking for the various distributed key-value stores. One of the first efforts to systematically investigate in such a way that there can be informed comment on value and quality of the alternatives. (via mattb's delicious stream) Typographica's Favourite Fonts of 2008 -- what...

iPhone Web Audio Playlist Hack

Mobile Safari, the iPhone's web browser, has surprisingly weak audio support. But here's a hack I discovered to embed audio playlists.

Locavore's Open Data

Buster McLeod is taking an "open data" policy towards his latest project, Locavore the iPhone app, by revealing the first month's stats. Locavore is a great app that helps you eat locally by showing you what produce is in season near you and what farmer's markets you can buy it at. It's a well-designed app that I look forward...

When No News is GREAT News: Analyis Apple Earnings Call

Apple crushed it (earnings in the most recent quarter). So much for the recession prompting consumers to stampede away from Apple's "high-end" products, as the prognosticators predicted (and the stock market priced into Apple's stock). So what's the moral of the story? Read on...

51 ActionScript 3.0 and Flex optimization techniques and practices

A homework assignment I was recently given for a Java programming class involved a competition to see who could create the most optimized implementation of an interface which was provided by the instructor. It was a challenging and very fun...

Windows 7 Starter Pushes the Web and IE

I run XP on my netbook and I've been looking forward to running Windows 7 on it. So I've been watching news about Windows 7 with interest. There is much discussion this week that the low-priced Starter Edition will only let you run three apps at a time. If you want to run more then you'll have to pay...

Pushing Data Around With Blaze/LCDS

Here's a quick tip for working with real time data in Flex applications (in particular Blaze Data Services and LiveCycle Data Services). LCDS isn't new by any means, but not everyone uses it on a daily basis. Here are a few ways that you can push real-time data between the server and client applications.

Four short links: 23 Apr 2009

Multitouch, visualizations, body hacks, and ubicomp: Dell Demos Multitouch on the Studio One 19 (Engadget) -- the multitouch software on this baby is Fingertapps from the New Zealand company Unlimited Realities, whose founder was at Kiwi Foo Camp this year. Multitouch hits consumer PCs in a very mainstream way. Circos -- open source Perl library to produce beautiful circular data...

Ignite Show: Jonathan Kahan on Samurai Swords as Cutting Edge Technology

A katana (commonly called a samurai sword) is a marvel of art and technology. In this week's Ignite Episode, Jonathan Kahan walks us through its creation and usage. This was filmed at Ignite NYC 3. The next Ignite NYC will be held on 6/1. This week the show is introduced by Andrew Hyde of Ignite Boulder and Techstars. The...

Celebrate Earth Day by Sharing Your Green Living Tips

We're celebrating Earth Day in our offices today by running a contest on Twitter (@oreillymedia). We're asking people how they're living green, and we've been getting a lot of great responses!

What the Sun/Oracle Combination Means for Java and Open Source

What does the Oracle/Sun merger mean for Java? There's been a lot of speculation and a fair amount of apocalyptic, "sky is falling" Twitter activity, but does anyone really know what Ellison has in store for Java?

Building Bridges with the U.S. Intelligence Community

Guest blogger Jeffrey Carr is a cyber intelligence expert, Principal of GreyLogic, columnist for Symantec's Security Focus, and author who specializes in the investigation of cyber attacks against governments and infrastructures by State and Non-State hackers. Jeff is the Principal Investigator for Project Grey Goose, an Open Source intelligence investigation into the Russian cyber attacks on Georgia in August,...

O'Reilly Week in Review for April 20th, 2009

This week, we have an extended conversation with Googler Andy Hertzfeld about his latest Google Labs creation, the News Timeline. And, as usual, the O'Reilly Podquiz, that can win you a free O'Reilly Book....

MySQL conference begins: the resurgence of InnoDB and other current events

I sense a bigger enterprise theme at the MySQL conference this year. The pride of putting up a PHP- or Rails-backed web site lies in the past; now people are concerned with scaling into the clouds (figuratively and literally) and ensuring absolute reliability.

Playing with jQuery's ajaxSetup Function

A quick look at jQuery's ajaxSetup feature.

3D Web Plugins - The Next Trend?

Both Adobe and Microsoft have demonstrated the capabilities and importance of player-based runtimes within the browser -- There is no question about it. There are numerous things that you can do within the player based runtime that allow for an enhanced experience, and amazing graphical capabilities. Now, it appears that more and more 3D browser plugins are popping up.

Crossing the Divide: Incorporating RIA Practices into eLearning

Up until the past year or two, the people doing RIA development and the people doing eLearning development have, for the most part, been two different groups of people. In recent years, the increasing requirement for eLearning to be accessible over the web has pushed eLearning developers toward the same tools used to make RIA's. I think as they spend more time exchanging ideas with RIA developers, eLearning will pick up more of the functionality that characterizes the best RIA applications.

Four short links: 22 Apr 2009

Government, Bayes, SMS, and distributed keystores: Government Projects the Agile Way -- Can It Be Done? (NZ Government) -- notes and audio from a workshop at the New Zealand State Services Commission looking to merge agile and government. The pullquotes are mostly generic about agile, but the important thing is that there are agile projects within government and their numbers...

Four short links: 21 Apr 2009

Space arrays, mobile hell, book scanners, and open source brains: Great Brazilian Sat-Hack Crackdown (Wired) -- Satellite hackers in Brazil are bouncing ham signals off a disused US military satellite array. Truck drivers love the birds because they provide better range and sound than ham radios. Rogue loggers in the Amazon use the satellites to transmit coded warnings when authorities...

What's new in Windows Server 2008 R2 Active Directory?

Bring your Active Directory questions and come learn what's new in Active Directory for Windows Server 2008 R2. In this free webcast, taking place Friday, April 24, Active Directory MVPs and authors Brian Desmond (Active Directory, 4th Edition) and Laura E. Hunter (Active Directory Cookbook, 3rd Edition) discuss exciting new features in R2 for AD including the AD Recycle Bin, AD PowerShell, the Active Directory Administrative Center, Managed Service Accounts, and more. They'll reserve half of the event time to answer questions about the presentation and Active Directory in general, so this is your chance to get the answers you need. Register now!

New Poll: How will the Oracle purchase of Sun affect you as a developer?

The big news is that Oracle is buying Sun, which also means that Oracle will now control many popular open source projects like the very popular MySQL database server and the GlassFish J2EE server. So, how will this affect your...

Where 2.0 Preview - DARPA's TIGR Project Helps Platoons Stay Alive

Soldiers on the ground need to know the territory they patrol like the back of their hand. Knowing where insurgents like to plant IEDs or that an important political leader lives in a certain house can prove the difference between success and failure. But what happens when a platoon transfers out of Baghdad and a brand new one moves in? All that experience used to go out the window. But thanks to TIGR, a map-based knowledge-base developed by DARPA, platoons can now document information they learn on patrol, as well as accessing the latest intelligence. In this interview, hear how TIGR was developed, how it is helping troops stay alive and perform their missions better, and what the realities of deploying a brand new technology into a war zone are.

Poll Results: Do you currently develop, or do you plan to develop, for the Twitter platform?

Well, although Twitter is certainly hugely popular, it appears that developers don't care as much about the Twitter APIs as they did with Facebook. The Twitter poll had less than half as many responses as Facebook, which means that there...

The Lean Startup Talk From Web 2.0 Expo

The Lean Startup at Web 2.0 Expo View more presentations from Venture hacks . One of our most popular talks at the Web 2.0 Expo SF was Eric Ries' The Lean Startup: a Disciplined Approach to Imagining, Designing, and Building New Products. I've embedded an audio version of his slides above. Eric recommends the talk for people who want...

Importance of Innovation in Finance & BarCampBank

“Progress is not the mere correction of evils. Progress is the constant replacing of the best there is with something still better.” -Edward Filene Two years ago, when we were organizing the first BarCampBank in the US, many people found it hard to believe that banks & credit unions could a place for meaningful grassroots innovation. Even crazier was...

Contractive Delegation

Well-factored code often has many small functions. If each adds value, and doesn't just pass the buck, then what do they all do? Typically, they contract their input by making it more specific. Then they delegate these specific data to a delegatee.

Announcing Apache Pivot 1.1

The Pivot development team is happy to announce the release of Apache Pivot version 1.1! Pivot is an open-source platform for building rich internet applications in Java. It combines the enhanced productivity and usability features of a modern RIA toolkit...

The Weekly RIA RoundUp for April 20

This week Yahoo refreshes ASTRA, Smashing Magazine provides a great list of AIR resources, CNET uncovers the truth about the MLB switch back to Flash video, Scott Barnes speaks his mind about Silverlight 3, Google App Engine extends its reach, ExtJS introduces some changes to its licensing, and the Masters is delivered with Flash Media Server. All this and more on the Weekly RIA RoundUp from InsideRIA.

Four Short Links: 20 Apr 2009

Camp, visualization, mistakes, and a wireless power meter hack: Toorcamp -- two day hacker camp in a Titan-1 missile silo. The coolest venue evar? I think so. The Allosphere (TED) -- JoAnn Kuchera-Morin demos the Allosphere, a planetarium-like sound-and-light visualization environment for scientific data. (via Lorrie Lejeune) The Mistake Bank -- The Mistake Bank is a place to share stories...

Transparency: The Key to Cloud Security

If your cloud provider refuses to answer any specific question about their security architecture related to your security requirements, run--don't walk--away from that vendor

Active Facebook Users By Country

Since I last posted numbers on Facebook's user base six week ago, the company has added close to 20 million active users. I've had a few requests for detailed numbers by country so I quickly assembled an update for each of the regions shown above....

PyMOTW: multiprocessing, part 1

The multiprocessing module includes a relatively simple API for dividing work up between multiple processes based on the API for the threading module.

Judith Krug: heroine of libraries, Internet, PATRIOT Act resistance

Consider giving a donation to your local public library this week in honor of Judith Krug, whose death at the age of 69 was announced this morning. Krug defended libraries and the Internet from censorship, and advised librarians how to protect their patrons from government spying on their reading habits.

Character-length restrictions, RPC, and choosing FriendFeed over Twitter

Database field-length silliness has haunted me throughout my career as an data/information architect, and I've never liked it. "VARCHAR(255)? What? Because in the lifetime of that data, which by the way you'd better be planning to exceed the lifetime of this miserable application, you're never going to need more than 255 characters?" ... So here comes Twitter with it's damned 140 characters.

jQuery FTW for April 18, 2009

Quick review of interesting jQuery-related links from the past week.