Wolfram Alpha - Diversity in the Search Engine world?

Wolfram Alpha is a search engine, the primary use of which is research. You type your question in, it analyzes it, and gives you an answer. What I think is the most impressive thing about Wolfram Alpha is that it works on older browsers, recognizes questions incredibly well, and has lots of info to give. Some of the most awesome things you can do with Wolfram Alpha are looking up dates, math of all sorts, geographic locations, and other things of the sort.

It's a source of information far more relevant in some instances than Google, Bing, or any of the older conventional search engines. That's not to say it stands a chance of  dethroning any of the other search engines from their respective thrones (or lack there-of). The new search engine doesn't really help you find websites, and it's image search capability is highly limited. It specializes in providing data, and while it does an incredibly impressive job if this it definitely doesn't have what it takes to be the search engine.

One thought however is that it could replace Google in things like schools, where Google can sometimes be abused to search for things irrelevant to the student's education. It could also earn it's own seat on the Search Engine scene, and though it will have difficulty dominating it, it can certainly hope to stand side by side with other search engines as being useful and advantageous to use regardless of whether you use other search engines.

I think that Wolfram Alpha has certainly earned it's place in fame, and that schools should take advantage of it's relevant, data-focused interface. A student can't find, say, video games on Wolfram Alpha. It can't find internet forums or chatrooms. It only handles data, and images directly relevant to the data searched for, such as graphs or maps.

Give Wolfram Alpha a try for yourself at http://www.wolframalpha.com/. Try searching your birth date, or finding a complex math formula for the site to evaluate. Even browsers as old as Internet Explorer 6 can handle the site, though just barely, and you will get a warning.

Pirate Bay still wins, again. Average citizen will probably suffer, again.

The entertainment industry has embarked in an all-out war against piracy around the globe, with the hopes of scaring would-be pirates from illegally obtaining digital media. But if the likes of the MPAA and RIAA plans on sinking the ship that millions sail throughout the Internet, they should think again.
The primary target for the entertainment industry, as it would seem, has been The Pirate Bay. It is far more than a website that enables users to acquire digital content of both legal and illegal variety. It is a symbol. It is a powerful message that the entertainment industry hates but many people, even those who don’t commit acts of piracy, agree is true: the system is broken.

 Welcome back to the piracy scene. I'm your host, nerdzilla, and we're here to examine Piratebay. Now, Piratebay is nowhere near the only site of it's kind, and quite frankly I personally have no idea why it is the only site under this much fire. Perhaps Piratebay is simply the most popular, or perhaps this is the entertainment industry's way of suppressing the people. Perhaps this is there way of threatening people, scaring people into doing what they want. However, Pirate Bay does a lot more than offer torrents that just happen to contain "ilegal" MP3s or videos.

I personally go to a less controversial site for my free, legal music.Consequently, I can't name a single popular band.

A defining issue that plagues the industry and, more importantly, consumers is draconian Digital Rights Management (DRM) techniques that everyone’s hearing about lately. This is why you can’t read that e-book you purchased on a competing device, listen to that MP3 anywhere you want to, watch that movie on your computer, or play that game without an always-on Internet connection. It’s these very techniques that drive paying customers to piracy (even yours truly has fallen victim to DRM gone horribly wrong).

 I was under the impression it was common knowledge that DRM is a torture device. (<-- satire) But since some people actually think it's an effective method of protecting things let's go over DRM. DRM is a method of security applied mainly to video games, music, and video by large companies with the intentions of making sure you don't do anything considered pirating. What it does however, is put vague limits on what you can do with what you bought with your hard earned money. Want to install your video game? Have you installed it more than 5 or so times with said CD-key? Whoops! No can do. DRM has now stepped in and you're no longer allowed to play that video game you bought, with money. Want to play the music you bought on Itunes on your Zune? on any other media player except iTunes? No sir. DRM says to take a hike.

DRM is essentially flawed to the core idea because it makes limits that it THINKS pirates are especially likely to break, but ignores completely that completely legal users can do so as well. Therefore, legal users are often victimized by the limits set by DRM.

If that wasn't bad enough, DRM is pretty weak in that it can often be removed, ilegally, pretty easily.

Yeah... right now a pirate is playing the game without hassle and you're labeled a pirate and not allowed to listen/play for no good reason.

This, is why most people hate DRM.

Beyond the technological advances that will keep illegal file sharing going for the foreseeable future, the one thing that matters more than anything else is the fact that many people actually participate in piracy and have no issue with doing so. There are surely those that feel no moral implication for their actions, and that number is probably growing.

It's disgraces like DRM that make it so that in your average private chat on MSN or even public chat on a chatroom, nobody will think poorly of you for admitting to pirate things. I've had friends I've met on forums pirate games to play with me, and not really cared. After all, I have a legal copy and am not helping them. I don't feel obligated at all to stop them. (Unless it's a game I REALLY like, in which case I may casually suggest paying for it.) Even then though. What am I supposed to do? Refuse to play with them?

The industry might sue someone like me though, simply for not being terrified of their little regime. It wouldn't be the first time they've done something horribly controversial to the little guys and quite frankly I wouldn't be able to win. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the court officials were biased. As some may know, that has already happened.

Like DRM, which victimizes the average citizen and only makes it slightly more tedious for the average pirate, the industry will probably once again do something that doesn't solve the problem in an attempt to win this hopeless war that will probably wind up offending everyone, again.

Massive drop in Facebook users, and why?

Now, some of your thoughts, if you're anything like me and secretly want to destroy Facebook wih fire, might be something along the lines of  "MUAHAHAHAHA!"...

Of course that doesn't make for a very interesting article. We're here to look at WHY Facebook users are leaving. This graph, pictured above, clearly shows that a major ammount of people are leaving. Only 31.14% of the answers were from people that were staying. 30.33% of the people were leaving due to "don't trust it with my personal information". I'd personally group the 7.12% that said "It sells my data to advertisers." with that.

Apparently 2.01% of people are leaving because of bugs! One of these bugs, which apparently just occurred recently, is something so terrible I don't think even Myspace has screwed up that badly before.

Last night, in an embarrassing glitch for Facebook that raises questions about privacy on the site, some users of the social-networking service began getting hundreds of personal messages that weren’t intended for them.

Yeah... that letter about how you like turtles just went to your boss.

In short, Facebook has really screwed up. People are leaving en masse. Now if only it was less of a civil war to delete your account.

Let's take a look at IE9

What is this? The above image is a test showing the speed that javascript is processed in. To the far left is IE8, at a disgraceful high. In the middle, green, a bit behind Safari and Chrome, is the IE9 Platform Preview. What you're seeing here is a major change, one that would provide a much faster browsing experience for those of us that honestly don't care if IE has yet to meet the other Browsers in speed yet.

I don't know about the readers, but I'd be glad to use IE more often if it stops being so... slow. For now, I'll be sticking with Chrome for the most part.

First, we showed IE9’s new script engine, internally known as “Chakra,” and the progress we’ve made on an industry benchmark for JavaScript performance. With the differences between script engines on benchmarks approaching the duration of an eye-blink, we described our approach for making real-world sites faster. Chakra compiles JavaScript in the background on a separate core of the CPU, parallel to IE.
We showed our progress in making the same standards-based HTML, script, and formatting markup work across different browsers. We shared the data and framework that informed our approach, and demonstrated better support for several standards: HTML5, DOM, and CSS3. We showed IE9’s latest Acid3 score (55); as we make progress on the industry goal of having the same markup that developers actually use working across browsers, our Acid3 score will continue to go up. As part of our commitment to the standards process, we submitted test cases to the standards bodies. We also made these tests available for everyone to try in any browser.

What this means, in short language that even someone like me that uses a browser rather casually, is that IE9 will be freaking awesome. HTML4 is what we've been using for the last...decade? That means it's time for an ugprade. HTML5 has it's sights on taking the throne from Flash, by providing some of the core things Flash is famous for such as videos in a much smoother, faster environment. All this while being integrated with the browser!

For those that aren't aware of exactly what Acid3 is, typing "define:Acid3" on a google search produces this simple definition.

Acid3 is a test page from the Web Standards Project that checks how well a web browser follows certain selected elements from web standards

In short, Acid3 is one of many tests on Browser functionality. The higher the score, the better. The maximum score is a 100. 55 isn't exactly beautiful, but IE8 got a 20. That being said, it's definitely an improvement.

HTML5 applications will need great script performance and consistent “same markup, same results” across browsers. Great HTML5 applications will build on that foundation and go further, providing game-like interactivity and movie-like graphical richness to the user experience.

HTML5 will also be allowing web designers to implement graphics not unlike those you'd expect in a video game into the browser. Basically, it's freaking sweet.

Today we also announced the availability of the first IE9 Platform Preview for developers, and our commitment to update it approximately every eight weeks. The Platform Preview, and the feedback loop it is part of, marks a major change from previous IE releases.

 This is what looks to me to be Microsoft's own way of providing a public demo of their upcoming browser. I've yet to test it, but seeing as how it's free I will probably wind up installing and testing it sooner or later.



My recommendation is to look forward to the future, for IE9 is looking good. There is no currently known release date for IE9.

Chrome gets it's own 'app store'

Today at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco, Google showed off a preview of a major new product: the Chrome Web Store. Yes, this is an app store for the web.

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/19/chrome-web-store/#ixzz0oUM6ZiVw

  Google Chrome, gets an app store? Suddenly, Chrome is taking the leap into being more than a Browser. They'll be offering games, and essential apps in this new store, though apparently some will be at a price. I am eager to see how this plays out, though I do not appreciate them imitating Apple. As long as they don't make the same mistakes as Apple, though, things should go well.

“Developers care about monetization. But they need more than just advertising,” Google VP Product Sundar Pichai said on stage. With the Chrome Web Store, Google has simplified the process of buying apps on the web. Once you sign in to your Google account, apps are just one click away (presumably using Google Checkout). From there you can say, buy Plants & Zombies, the very popular game in Apple’s App Store. But this runs all on the web in Chrome, thanks to Flash. You can run the game full-screen as well.

Another game is Lego Star Wars. This game is run through Chrome’s use of native client (so developers can use native code to develop for the web). This is a full 3D game, built using rich HTML5 APIs.

There will also be apps in this store based around content. This means that magazines and periodicals will be coming to the store — and they’ll be able to charge for them. Sports Illustrated showed off its web app on stage.

I'm excited to see that HTML5 is being implemented and used in this, especially for video games, being a gamer myself. While the app store looks nice, I do fear that price tag. Will it be on games? Will it spread to things nobody should have to pay for such as themes, or extensions? I hope price is not used on most things, because I don't know about my peers but I'm sick of paying for things there should be an open source / free version of, but just so happens there isn't.

Sure, video game makers need money. But the inevitable maker of "ChromeCalculator" surely does not. This is my main worry concerning this "app store". Hopefully Google will realize that since Google Chrome is not proprietary it does not have the same monopoly the original "App Store" does. Trying to charge for every little app would hopefully result in an open source backlash. Otherwise, some of us would be denied the ability to experience the store.

More on the Facebook scene

It's been a rough few weeks for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ever since he unveiled his company's plan to personalize the Web. After a string of Facebook security breaches and outcry from US Senators over Facebook's new privacy policies, the New York Times revealed the complexities of Facebook's new privacy policy (now longer than the Constitution). Now, it seems users are stepping back and taking a hard look at their relationship to America's most popular social network--some dissatisfied users even planning a "mass exodus" from the site.

Aaaah... Facebook users. You know somehow I saw this coming a mile away. It's as if it was completely obvious to me that Facebook was NOT a place to have a private life. It was as if I was immediately tipped off that they wanted the truth and nothing but the truth and would go to any means to get the truth to the questions they asked so that they could have your info. I must have a sixth sense that allows me to see these magical things.

Satire aside, Facebook is carving it's own little niche in the world as the 'real life' social network. The problem with it is that Facebook itself is not a part of 'real life'. In short, the two should not mix so dangerously. Those of us who are experienced with the internet know exactly what happens when offline and online worlds clash. Bad things happen, generally to individuals.

On the note of the article at hand, not being directly about Facebook's screwups, but rather about Facebook's CEO being depicted as a sex maniac. I find this giant gaping flaw that makes the article seem mis-leading to me.

Hot on the heels of this controversy comes news out of Hollywood that probably won't help Zuckerberg's image. A leaked version of the script for The Social Network (aka the "Facebook Movie"), which dramatizes the fledgling company's rise, paints the young entrepreneur as a "ruthless and untrustworthy sex maniac," writes the Times of London.
The film, slated for an October release, is set to star Jesse Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake. Written by Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network is based on Ben Mezrich's book The Accidental Billionaires. The film unfolds during flashbacks that occur while Zuckerberg (Eisenberg) faces former business associates in court in 2008.

 Reading the above quote, one should come across the answer to the fill in the blank that someone forgot to add to the title of the article. "The Social Network Depicts Facebook CEO As 'Sex Maniac' IN A MOVIE.

 My immediate response after seeing that part of the article was "Wait hold on my care meter just about twenty yards.". I mean, really?! It's a big deal that a guy starring in a movie is portrayed as a pervert? I don't know about my readers but I definitely don't think of the actor when I see a character in a movie.

Firefox 4, and what to expect in upcoming releases of Firefox 3

Don't get your hopes up. Firefox 4 isn't coming out around the corner. Mike Beltzner simply announced his vision for the next upcoming major release of Firefox. What does he have in mind, you may be eager to know? Well, nothing very specific. Good intentions are a great start though, right?

Fast: making Firefox super-duper fast

Powerful: enabling new open, standard Web technologies (HTML5 andbeyond!).

Empowering: putting users in full control of their browser, data, and Web experience.

Upcoming versions of Firefox 3 are more out in the open. You can expect some of the following major updates in future firefox. In Firefox 3.6.4, you can expect Firefox to finally take a step into the security spotlight by stealing a security feature Chrome has been using for a long time.

"Uninterrupted Browsing" is the term, and if Flash, Quicktime, or Silverlight are crashing your browser, they will simply crash instead, leaving you free to continue browsing or reload to try again.

Quote from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6.4/releasenotes/

"Firefox 3.6.4 provides uninterrupted browsing for Windows and Linux users when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins.

If a plugin crashes or freezes, it will not affect the rest of Firefox. You will be able to reload the page to restart the plugin and try again."

In addition. I have done some beta testing of the Firefox beta. The specific version is 3.7a5pre-release. Some of the notable things I see in this release are a change to the interface, and a brand new way to handle your addons. In the future, according to this pre-release anyway, you will use about:addons as your browser URL to manage your addons. What we're looking at is the death of the traditional addons.mozilla.org web-page and it's reincarnation in a more sophisticated, user friendly form.

I took the liberty of taking a screen-shot of both of these obvious changes to the new version. The operating used at the time was Windows XP, as I was in a work environment. I do however support the use of less obsolete operating systems.

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/4061/95008296.jpg