Every so often these warnings come out, and it’s probably worth paying heed. Using WiFi in public places can endanger your computer (especially if you use windows). Internet News reported today that Windows-based computers with wireless capabilities are vulnerable for certain types of exploitation–even if you are not accessing the Internet. So be careful in public places and make sure you’re secure.
Category: Uncategorized (Page 8 of 22)
Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Pet Sounds with your very own portable Brian Wilson! Woof! That’s a hoot, and I’m sure a collector’s item. I don’t know if I’m ready for a little Brian Wilson hanging around the house, but I do like his 37 year late album Smile: a true work of genius.
Every week I sign up for a new social networking site just to explore their features and see what’s out there. With so many socialnet sites, I lose track of what I’ve joined, and I usually never do much with many of them. I signed up with Flixster on Wednesday and wasn’t sure if I’d use it much or not. Flixster may turn out to be a useful site. It is definitely like Netflix’s Friends feature combined with MySpace. The nice thing is that users can simply rate movies; they don’t have to sign up for a rental plan. This makes it easy to build a larger friends database and connect with a variety of people who like movies. And for someone like me who prefers to hear movie recommendations from other people, I find this very appealing.
If Netflix was smart, they’d follow Flixster lead and offer an expanded version of the Friends feature with no requirement to join. Of course, once people enter into a network and come to visit their movie page, it would be easier to encourage them to sign up for a plan, download a film or buy a film.
Why did Google spend over a billion dollars to buy YouTube? To avoid competition with Google Video? To tap into YouTube content? To utilize YouTube technology? It appears Google bought YouTube for the information they could learn about user habits.
Eric Schmidt spoke at the Web 2.0 Conference the other day and he shed light on a little of their strategy. According to Steve Bryant, YouTube’s “huge user base will allow Google’s servers to better understand what users want on the Web.”
“The underlying draw is to see what users are doing and have computers suggest related or adjacent content. It is a whole new paradigm and important to users,” Schmidt said.
So this data from the collective habits of YouTube users will help Google refine their ad-serving engines. And he’s betting that is worth a bunch more.
Interesting.
You may have seen this but I finally saw it today. Wow! Powerful. Hope you enjoy!
Here’s a nice little quote for the day:
“…play in its purest form is not entertainment, or business, or emotional escape, but an entry into sacred space. It suspends the world about us, perhaps for deeper or more joyful entry into that world. It is an engagement, often light-hearted enough, with the mystery of being.”
– Anthony Esolen (with attribution to Johan Huizinga)
The role of play in my spiritual walk has been fundamental. In fact, the first retreat I ever led was called Holy Play. Thanks Anthony.
Plugoo gives your website visitors the ability to chat with you using a widget embedded directly in your site. This might be interesting. I’m not a big chatter (or a big phone person) but some folks might rock on this, and I could see some cool applications.
via Solution Watch
I got an email from the Discovery Store this morning, and I usually don’t even look at them. But today I did and discovered 🙂 this cool device. 
A SkyScout Handheld Planetarium. Using a GPS tracking system, it identifies your location and then helps you track the celestial objects in your area. Rock! It’s a little steep at $399 but this sure would be a cool thing to have.
Freshen your breath and your body at the same time! Fuwarinka Functional Candy and Gum (wow talk about a mouthful) tastes great and makes your body smell good at the same time. Forget the deodorant and hand me a piece of gum!
via PSFK
A word for the day from one of my favorite poets:
“To find my home in one sentence, concise, as if hammered in metal. Not to enchant anybody. Not to earn a lasting name in posterity. An unnamed need for order, for rhythm, for form, which three words are opposed to chaos and nothingness.”
Czeslaw Milosz
