Entries Tagged 'Cool Tools' ↓

Marcelo posted a note that Adam MacBeth has been building a Google map of all the software companies in Seattle. It is self service, if you own a software company, then you can pin it on the map. It makes an interesting contrast to the map of Silicon Valley that we are all so familiar with.

Seattle Software Companies . This is a map of companies in Seattle that do software work. It is not limited to companies headquartered in Seattle, but includes any company with a development office in the area. I’ve tried to keep companies off the map that are out of business or not yet viable, but please let me know if there is something that needs to be removed or edited. Source: Adam MacBeth

It is a neat map, then Adam’s blog is also interesting, in the longer run though, use the map, it is at least very interesting to see where companies are clustering.

Tags: google, map, adam, Macbeth, fun, seattle, software, companies

Last night the Phoenix mars Lander touched down perfectly and has started transmitting pictures from its local area. While most of the pictures right now are “situational” in that they are looking to make sure that the craft has deployed properly, and that the local area is fairly dull or benign when it comes to large rocks, or things that could hurt the lander, the pictures are still pretty cool.

The mars Phoenix Lander’s pictures are right here at the gallery, of course everyone is all over this one, and our fascination with Mars just will not go away. As a possible abode of life, both Mars and Europa have a promise that life either exists or did exist at some point on both planets. Since mars is closer, it has been the easier target to get to.

Picture from NASA

In all this is pretty cool, Mars has been an interesting target to try to hit. And it would be very cool to see the polar icecap.

tags: mars,lander,phoenix,pictures,landed,safely,very,cool

There is nothing more interesting than a raw political campaign, the addition of web 2.0 elements to change people’s minds is something that we saw early in 2004, the use of YouTube videos, fact checking, and the rest of it. This year, 2008, we are seeing an increase in the use of Web 2.0 technology, like the use of blogs and wiki’s to help form people’s opinions about the candidates.

The McCainpedia is just one example of this phenomenon, another one is Hillary Clinton’s direct appeal to Bloggers to support her, by having her first blogger call in Q&A. Expanding the broad base of ways that people can comment, the need for systems like archive.org to capture all this information is important, so let’s hope that they are busy following all the political flotsam that is out there for campaign 2008. What is interesting is the notation out at Jamaicaobserver.com about the use of Web 2.0 technology amongst the democrats.

What is ironic is that Barack Obama has proven himself to be more adept at using the web-based technology for political purposes than is Hillary, whose husband championed investments in what was dubbed the dotcom boom. If ever one needed an example of the law of unintended consequences at work, one need to look no further than to Hillary’s demise in the recent presidential primaries due in no small measure to Obama’s ability to mobilise funds at the grassroots level on the Internet. Source: Jamaica Observer

There is a lot to be said about the use of Digg, and other systems to see some interaction from the candidates. What is obvious though is that political managers are going to be watching how the web was used to drive people to support candidates. They will also be watching what tools were used effectively in taking down candidates. While this election might be more of an issue of choice about what technology is effective, the next election in 2012 will take all the lessons from 2004 and 2008, to turn the campaigns into a hyper linked, Web 2.0/3.0 driven effort to grab people’s attention, and sway their votes.

Tags: Clinton, obama, mccain, web 2.0, web 3.0, election, technology, wiki, blog, campaign elements, interesting

In the “about time” department, Techmeme announces that they now have a search capability locally on site. This is good, bit late, but better late than never. Gabe Rivera posted on the techmeme blog today some cool information about the feature, this one caught our attention.

What’s next? Search for Techmeme’s sister sites are planned but not active as of today. Also on the way are RSS feeds for search results, the simplest kind of search “API”. Source: Techmeme

So if I want, and many folks I know are going to do this right off the bat when the Search RSS goes live is sit there like a voyeur and watch what other people search for on techmeme, not only to help us figure out what is important this moment, but using some neat programming, make a flex based feed, mapping, and just about any other kind of “twitterish” process as techmeme search helps other folks figure out what is important this moment.

This could be interesting, can we have the RSS feed now, or should we just hang out for 36 months waiting for that feature set? (This is problem, you give someone something, then they always want more, never should have posted “what’s next”).
Tags: techmeme, search,rss,watcher, people, fun

With ISP profiling for advertising companies, as well as other ways that the ISP’s can work out a profile of who you are, there are some likely ways that you can pollute the results just to make some poor advertising executives day, and your ISP’s day just a tad bit more annoying.

This is akin to going to the grocery store, using your grocery tracking card and buying beer, diapers, and ice cream, when you never bought diapers before. This is very effective when you don’t have kids, as you will get advertising for diapers, which people pay for, that has no chance of getting you to make a purchase for diapers ever again.

Earlier on ITToolbox I wrote about AntiPhorumLite, a way to automate your browsing habits as a back end never to be seen process that can pollute the results of phorum which is being used in the UK for the same concerns, ISP’s monitoring your surfing habits, all to make a profile, sell better advertising, and make money off your habits.

Lets be realistic as well, when Google is showing that the number four most searched for thing today (the 18th of May 2008) is “Asian Lady Boys”, this might be something you don’t want to have known about yourself, or your porno selections late at night when the rest of the family is asleep.

Thinking on this line, the use of AntiPhorumLite might be a way for everyone else to have an automated system to alter and make the results of ISP monitoring useless to marketing folks.

The idea is to let the program run and do its thing in the background to make it look like you are into things that are totally bogus about you. This will get advertising to be bogus because the profile and the majority of the data about you is bogus as well.

Here is the thought:

ISP spends money on monitoring equipment to track where you go via the Web
ISP sells that tracking to a marketing company thinking the data is accurate
Marketing company spends money to market you high end gorilla suits which you will never buy
Marketing company starts wondering why they are not selling more stuff
Doubt is raised as to the accuracy of the ISP profiles
ISP can’t sell profiles because the data is bogus
ISP is out money on the monitoring equipment that they bought
Marketing company is out money for the profiles and the advertising they bought

You still get to do your thing. In other words, pollute the data stream with crap, and make the data bogus. This might work out really well, because odds are likely that these systems are going to become more and more prevalent over time as ISP’s look for ways to monetize better. If we can’t get anyone to help people not be monitored, then the only way around it is to pollute the data stream, and call into question the data itself.

Tags: bogus, data, isp monitoring, marketing, profiles, users, phorum, antiphorumlite, trends

You can get to the podcast right here, and there is a lot of humor here. Really if you want a laugh, you gotta listen to this.

Go screaming to minute 45 to get to the fun bit, it is great hearing pundits swear on a pod cast about “hiding behind a shroud of privacy while pushing their business forward” when it comes to Facebook agreeing to play in Google’s playground on the whole open ID single sign on hoopla that is infecting the tech elite this morning. There is some humor here listening to Robert Scoble and others go at it.

So what this centers around is the idea that Facebook and Google are working on the whole Friend Connect program allowing anyone to take their friends along to any social network. The main argument centers around plaxo which is now part of comcast, and the reputation really of the social network that your friends are trying to get you involved with.

While Robert really likes plaxo, given their checkered history, many people use LinkedIn rather than Plaxo. So as people in the podcast really start getting into the whole idea of friendship portability, what they don’t get and what is not mentioned in the process is that when someone takes your contact information and dumps it into some other social network, it does not mean you have to accept that.

Picture from Google.

Many friends have tried to get me involved in plaxo, and some other weird reputation system, and it is really easy to just ignore them, dump them into the spam directory and not sweat it.

A good question is the Facebook privacy standards too protective? Do you really have to follow your friends around especially amongst the tech elite that tend to way early adopt any shiny new system just because they can. If you look at what happens fairly frequently, a large herd of people will follow along when the technical literati talk about something, but then actually using the system months later is fairly rare.

The initial boost in traffic is good, the follow through is fairly bad. Friend Connect and other systems are really designed to ensure that systems can work on one ID. The idea of having users allow their data to be ported to other systems, other networks, we don’t have that yet, but it is a good idea in the longer run to have something like this. The reason that I won’t use a lot of Facebook games or apps is because the data access that they have. I seriously doubt that based on my past behavioral patterns, that if my friends try to rope me into some other system, that I’ll just blindly go along with it.

In the mean time, go to minute 45, have a laugh, and then wonder what happens when your friends try to bring you into every other social network on the planet. Do you really have the time to beboMyspaceFacebookLinkedIn and the rest of them?

Tags: humor, Sam Whitmore, Marc Canter, Dana Gardner, Mike Arrington, Mike Vizard, and Robert Scoble Potty Mouth extravaganza, podcast

The Silicon Alley Outsider has done a great job putting together the SAI 25, which is a startup valuation index tied to the NASDAQ, and provides floating valuations of startups as they move up and down the popularity and valuation tree.

So far, the SAI 25 ranks the world’s 25 most valuable digital companies and 25 additional “Contenders.” As we get to know more companies, we will add them to the list. (We’ll be adding another 25 or so in a couple of weeks). Some of today’s SAI 25 will soon stagnate or tumble in value, and they will quickly be replaced with rising stars. But we’ll rank all of the companies we follow–even those outside of the SAI 25. Source: Silicon Alley Outsider

The floating valuation page is here, and is probably worth watching as your brand new shiny startup gets techcrunched, techmemed, and slashdotted along the way.

There have always been questions about how a startup is valued, along with its adoption rate. Having a moving index tied to valuation, much like Sampa’s Seattle Startup index that is tied to Alexa and Compete scores makes sense for a more national or in this case global valuation of a startup company. The uses are immediate, the list is made of folks we all know as we blog, test, and beta test some of this stuff along the way.

In other words, very cool, glad to have it, put it right next to Sampa’s startup index, and the idea of valuation, use, and adoption gets to be very apparent.

Keywords: silicon alley outsider, valuation, startup, money, sampa, seattle startup index, SAI, SAI 25, tool, toy, fun