Private Domain Name Registration is Essential
Today I received a letter today offering renewal of my other expiring domain name with cheap web hosting deals by a marketing company. It was just ...
Thirty-Two Mile Cable Installed
Oceanographers have completed an important step in constructing the first deep-sea observatory off the continental United States. Workers in the multi-institution effort laid 32 miles (52 kilometers) of cable along the Monterey Bay sea floor that will provide electrical power to scientific instruments, video cameras, and robots 3,000 feet (900 ... (Read on Source)
FUTURESWINGS for 9.14.07 trading session
Signals are generated based on closing prices and daily statistics.
Scientists Doubt Meteorite Sickened Peruvians
Scientists doubt that the supposed meteorite strike that sickened some 200 residents of Peru last weekend actually involved anything from space. Based on reports of fumes emanating from the crater, some scientists actually suspect that the event could have been some kind of geyser-like explosion rather than a meteorite impact. (Read on Source)
Infosecurity New York: A must miss
Infosecurity New York has tried to establish itself as the No. 2 security conference in the U.S., behind RSA, but poor attendance might mean it's time for quits.
Kings continue to roll - Los Angeles Times
 The Money Times | Kings continue to roll Los Angeles Times - LA continues its recent good play, getting goals from five players in a victory over Nashville. By Lisa Dillman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer Heads swiveled at the fast and furious action -- fists flying and all -- in the waning minutes of the second ... Kings build on a fast start Predators go winless on West Coast |
Ancient Maya Used "Glitter" Paint to Make Temple Gleam
 | The ancient Maya painted one of their most ornate temples with mica to make it sparkle in the sun, a new study suggests. |
Unite Windows and Linux With a Single Mouse Click
Softpedia: "The idea is the same as in the previous guide, to obtain a single desktop with two completely different operating systems: Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux..."
DARPA Plans Cyberwar 'Matrix' (TechWeb)
TechWeb - InformationWeek - The agency's National Cyber Range for cyberwar simulation would be similar to Star Trek's holodeck or a Snow Crash-style Metaverse.
Tips On More Effective Use Of Adware Spyware Blocker Software Posted By : James Redder..
Using Google as a research aide for her thesis on money laundering was a common occurrence of one individual law school student. While writing her paper, the student found this to be a very important tool. Within months, the law school student began to experience a fluke as her trusty search engines began directing her towards completely unrelated websites that had nothing to do with money laundering.
The Bright Side of the End of the World
Covering the coming eco-apocalypse can be depressing business. But Rob Kutner sees the good times in end times (Read on Source)
Top Spammer Sentenced to Nearly Four Years
PCWorld: "The "spam king" was sentenced on Tuesday to 47 months in prison, with a ruling that the court hopes sends a message to other online criminals. Robert Soloway, the man known as the spam king for the massive volume of spam he sent out, pleaded guilty to fraud, spamming and tax evasion after being indicted in May 2007."
With Microsoft Midori, Platforms Take Shape In The Cloud (TechWeb)
TechWeb - InformationWeek - The advent of browser-based thin clients like CherryPal and projects from Microsoft, Google, and others indicates that fully cloud-based computing will make its way to the masses.
Updates of Resolution of Foxconn Bug --- From Foxconn FAE Heart Zhang
Ubuntu Forums: "Yesterday evening I sent one debug version BIOS about this issue to Ryan, ask him to help us verify again. This morning Ryan replied me his testing result. Almost bugs are fixed by this BIOS."
Stamps narrowly hang on for win
REGINA — Joffrey Reynolds rushed for 128 yards and a touchdown as the Calgary Stampeders survived a furious fourth-quarter rally to beat Saskatchewan 30-25 Thursday night, handing the Roughriders their first loss of the season. (Read on Source)
How Will the SEO Bubble Pop?
You can clearly search and find that many people think that SEO is dying a painful death , but do you know exactly how that will happen? Well, Ian Lurie decided to speculate how the SEO bubble will pop and proposes three theories. In his first theory, bigger agencies will start doing their SEO in-house. In his second, SEO will just not be needed ... (Read on Source)
Google Tops of Top 50
For whatever kind of internet list, which company do you think is the odds-on favorite to be at the top of it? If you bet on Google, you'd bet wisely. Google sits at the top of Comscore's Top 50 Internet properties list, reaching 141.5 million US Internet users out of 189 million counted. But that's not the interesting part. . .
Charity letter aims to halt golf scheme
More than 1,400 people signed an online letter protesting against Donald Trump's Aberdeenshire golf complex plans within 24 hours of it being launched last week. (Read on Source)
Europe Lowers Goals for Biofuel Use
European legislators recommended Thursday that government goals for using biofuels be pared back, in a setback to the fledgling industry. (Read on Source)
Graphic Tablets: the Basics
Graphic Tablets: the Basics What is a graphic tablet? Chances are that you have already used one. While checking out at your local department or grocery store, have you ever been a...
HipHop Toolbar 4.5.188.6
Get instant access to the latest hiphop news, play radio stations and multiplayer games in your browser. Stay up to date in real time! It's free, with no spyware or viruses. Easy customizable to suit your needs. [Update | License: Freeware 0 | Requires: Win ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista | Size: 1 KB]
Lawsuit Claims Mapmaking Firm Owns Your Neighborhood
A mathematician who pioneered a fractal-based urban-mapping technique is embroiled in a copyright battle that raises legal questions about whether a company can claim ownership of the definition of neighborhoods: their specific locations and boundaries. The dispute highlights a growing movement to quantify the amorphous tendrils connecting communities.
Bernt Wahl had the idea in 2004 to use a blend of mathematical modeling and old-fashioned shoe leather to map out unofficial neighborhoods — areas like Bernal Heights in San Francisco, or New Orleans' French Quarter — whose borders are drawn mostly in the minds of the inhabitants.
Since then, he's produced maps defining more than 18,000 neighborhoods in 350 U.S. and international cities, which are used in everything from search localization to epidemiology. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is currently using Wahl's maps to better understand which neighborhoods are being slammed hardest by the mortgage crisis.
Vermont-based mapping company Maponics is now suing Wahl to keep him from creating any more neighborhood maps "derived from or containing parts of" the original maps he produced four years ago, which defined 7,000 neighborhoods in 100 cities. Wahl did that work as a contractor for a real estate web portal, which then sold the copyright to Maponics. Because American's biggest metropolitan areas were included in the original batch of maps, the lawsuit could effectively bar Wahl from the mapmaking business for good.
The lawsuit highlights the growing importance of neighborhood data in web applications and science. Since Wahl pioneered the industry four years ago, other companies have entered the neighborhood-mapping field, which has swollen into a big part of a $17 billion localized-mapping industry, says Ian White, CEO of San Francisco-based Urban Mapping.
Neighborhood mapping is being used for marketing, siting new retail outlets, social networking, and analyzing crime patterns and earthquake damage. Yahoo announced in June that it had licensed neighborhood-mapping data from Urban Mapping for 2,000 U.S. cities. Earlier this year, Zillow opened its database of 7,000 neighborhoods to the world under a Creative Commons license.
"Everyone made out like a bandit except me," Wahl says.
Wahl began his work when he was contracted by real estate portal HomeGain to optimize the firm's search engine. At that time, real estate site maps were organized either by ZIP code or by census tract, which are both fairly arbitrary shapes drawn with disregard for the differences in the neighborhoods within. The Thomas Guides have long noted neighborhoods, but did not attempt to define where they begin and end.
Wahl saw that as a fatal flaw. "Neighborhoods are really important," he says. "For example, there's a census tract that combines downtown Berkeley and North Berkeley. In Berkeley hills, the average age is 57, and downtown it's 24. The incomes and values are completely different. It made me start thinking that we needed a different way to let people look for homes."
Working with 15 student interns, Wahl began phoning local-government planning departments, chambers of commerce and other community sources in hundreds of cities. "There's usually a librarian in each place who remembers the neighborhoods — the trick is finding them," Wahl says. "And you have to be careful about what people tell you, because they can tend to bleed their home into a better neighborhood."
Using the anecdotal data, Wahl drew polygons that contain the neighborhoods, then tacked them to base maps created by the U.S. Census. The new maps hit big. HomeGain went from limping into its last few million dollars of startup capital to being one of the leading real estate search sites. The company was eventually sold to a consortium of five giant newspaper companies, including the Washington Post.
When HomeGain's management changed, the new bosses sold Wahl's first neighborhood map data to Maponics for $40,000. Wahl had permission to keep selling and using the data for six months, according to court documents.
"They gave me $5,000," Wahl says.
Wahl has continued to develop his data, refining the boundaries on his U.S. maps, and expanding internationally to Asian and European cities in 30 countries. His customers include Craigslist and Ask.com, and he gives away data at no charge to researchers, including those at the FDIC, and to epidemiologists working with the Centers for Disease Control to track the spread of disease.
"We aren't getting rich off this, though clients do pay for the data," Wahl says. "We try to get the data out everywhere we can, so we can see how people are using it — that's very interesting. It's about public service and the public good as much as making money."
But the low price tag for Wahl's maps is precisely what irks Maponics, which accuses Wahl, and his company, Factle, of offering the data at "fire-sale prices."
Last year, Maponics contacted one of Wahl's customers, Toursheet.com, and demanded the social place-marking site stop using Wahl's data. "It allows ... Toursheet to use a common map to show the attitude of the neighborhood, so people can have a real sense of community," says founder Kyle Else. "Well, it did before I heard from Maponics.... They threatened my future development. I missed my window because of their threats, and I'm stuck in limbo until this is sorted out."
Maponics filed suit in federal court in Los Angeles in November 2008 accusing Wahl of copyright infringement and unfair competition.
"We're not out to put Bernt out of business," says George Frost, Maponics' attorney. "If they've got another product that isn't related to our product, they're free to sell it. But the software and information that went into it belong to us."
Maponics CEO Darrin Clement has said in e-mails to Wahl's customers that Wahl "stole" Maponics data. That's prompted Wahl to countersue for defamation.
Wahl believes neighborhood boundaries are in the public domain. "I don't know how anyone can say they own it," Wahl muses. He argues there's more at stake than just profits.
"This data literally saves lives," says Wahl. "We could make more money at other jobs or selling the data for market value, but want we want to do is save lives and save the world. That starts at the neighborhood."
Book Review: The Book of IMAP
... the authors seem to be most familiar with. While there is some coverage for Debian and Red Hat, more would have been better, along with other UNIX flavors. Some ...
Busy del Toro Talks 'Hobbit, Hellboy II' DVD
With more than a dozen cinematic irons in his creative fire, the writer/director takes time out from tackling Tolkien to talk about the art of moviemaking.
No Protective Effect On Cancer From Long-term Vitamin E Or Vitamin C Supplementation, Trial Shows
Data from a large-scale prevention trial has shown no protective effect from vitamin E on prostate cancer or vitamin C supplementation on total cancer.
A Small Data Glitch At Facebook
We’ve received two reports tonight of users having their email notification settings on Facebook deleted. They were notified at login that there was a problem, and told to head over to the Notifications page to reset them. (Read on Source)
Sotec Launchs a New Notebook and Desktop PC in Japan
... HDD, a DVD SuperMulti Drive, and a 95mm body slim case. It runs on Windows Vista Home Premium/Ultimate or Windows XP. Price: 59,800 Yen (500). ...
Larry Johnson wants out of Kansas City - SportingNews.com
 Seattle Post Intelligencer | Larry Johnson wants out of Kansas City SportingNews.com - Running back Larry Johnson wants to leave the Kansas City Chiefs, regardless of whether coach Herm Edwards is retained after a 2-14 season, the Kansas City Star reports. Edwards now plays waiting game after disappointing ending to season Chiefs, Bengals ready for change |
SEO Chat Forums - Targeting UK with a .com domain
Date: January 3rd, 2009 09:47 PM - webslinger - Untitled Post: This should help... http://forums.seochat.com/showthread.php?p=645296#post645296...
name: MAGPIE