Virtual Socialnetworking

Google Lively is a hybrid of facebook-like social networking and the virtual world of Second Life. Labled as Google Lively, the new product went into Beta a few weeks ago.

More info can be found here.

Touch Screen PC from HP -- WOW

Religion in IT? Why not?

Oh, yes, you heard me right... just discovered latest from the press -- buddhist geeks. if you are not one of the regular geeks you need to read this:

"The longer our lives, the more we’ll have a chance to see that there’s no self living them.” - James Hughes. What is Transhumanism and how is it related to Buddhist practice? Will technology enable us to radically extend our lifespans, help us control our thoughts and emotions, and bring about the potential to upload our consciousness into virtual reality spaces? And if so, what are the deeper implications for our contemplative traditions. Will these advances actually support the deepening of wisdom? According to professor James Hughes, a Buddhist practitioner and leading voice in the Transhumanist movement, these advances will enable us to deconstruct the notion and experience we have of an “authentic self” and will support the development of happiness, and the cessation of suffering."

TO hear the FULL PODCAST click here

Go to webmonkey.com for some tutorials

Yes, WebMonkey.com is still a great source for tutorials on building web pages, blogs, visual design , etc.

It has also been enhanced with technology diggs and reviews. Honestly it has been about 5 years since i last visited the site.

Today, while updating my Google Reader I found an interesting article on the webmonkey discussing google talk a chat application that is now available on iPhone.

Now i wish that i could import my AIM contacts into it, just like I can do via Gmail. but no, i guess AT&T does not want to loose its SMS profits. bummer

My recent discovery: AIM & Gmail Integration

Latest news:

I just discovered that there is a way to import AIM contacts into Gmail Chat. wow, now i never have to leave Google again.

:)

This is googleriffic!

THere is a feature under options to go off the record. what that does is, it does not save the conversation to gmail.

i am in love now

XMRadio on iPhone

Yes, it finally happend the marriage of my two favorite products! XM will start streaming 25 of its channels on iPhone. Too bad it will cost $9.00. So, i need to get the Orb working on my iPhone to get all the channels, and not to pay a dime for it.

To read the press release :
Click here

"Amazingly zippy" - 3G iPhone

July 11th, is the day to get the new 3G iPhone! Its cheaper, its faster, it offers more amazing capabilities. The short list of improvements include:

1. The download speeds have improved by 50%!
2. Improved battery life
3. me.com which will include mail, contacts, calendar, and a photo gallery which will delivery desktop like activity to the phone
4.multiple cool applications
5.anyone can build applications, sell them on the iPhone store and make 70% revenue share from all purchases

To ease ajax development

Last year Google has brought forward the Google Web Toolkit. Basically you write your Ajax applicaiton in Java, using which ever IDE you feel comfortable. When you are ready to test and/or deploy you can simply use the Google Web Toolkit compiler to translate your application into HTML and JavaScript.

Why would you care? Well if you are a Java Developer this means you do not have to bug yourself with debugging JavaScript or learning it, or worrying if IE vs Firefox can support it. And that my friends, is golden!

GeoTagging Photos on iPhone

With geotagging capability your iPhone will be able to take a picture and record the location where that picture was taken. This data will become part of the metadata set attached to each photo. If you are using Flickr, you can already search images by location. With this new iPhone feature, locations are geting more and more accurate, and as a result of that the process of loading and tagging the photos has become more efficient.

Playstation 3: Linux Install

Apparently Yellow Dog came up with the Linux version for PlayStation 3. If you have an 80G hardware, running Linux would turn it into a very powerful machine.

Linux is an open source OS, therefore it comes absolutely free! Why would it be appealing to customers? Well, thats easy. Sony being a competitor to Microsoft does not have Windows Media Center support, therefore you cannot stream many movie formats. If you are a Netflix lover, such as myself, you would know that Netflix offers many movies online. However PS3, wont play it :(. It also wont play my favorite XM Radio Online.

So, a Linux OS install offers an opportunity to download and install all the necessary tools for film and audio streaming.

To get more info on Yellow Dog Linux Download click here.

Using Orb Server to stream content to iPhone

Orb server can be downloaded to windows. You will then be prompted to create an account. Once the server is set up you will navigate to orb website via your Safari browser on the iPhone. Then you just stream and chill!

Favorite iPhone Feature

My favorite feature on the iPhone is, its integration with Google tools. For example if I need to get directions to a particular venue I can send SMS addressed to Google with the name and zip code, or city of the location. Within seconds I get a response back, I can click on the link and call the number directly from SMS, or I can click on the map link and Google Maps gets launched.

From the map of the location, I can route directions directly from wherever I am at.

Other useful features, are Gmail and Reader ... but those are more traditional and don't tend to interest me as much as SMSing with Google.

I will post some images later.