Want to digg something?

Do the buzzwords "Wiki", "Facebook", "Twitter", "RSS", "Digg" resonate with you? If you do not know any of these and you are in IT field, I guess you have to start reading more. :)

These websites have also created some new verbs like Google - while you are googling any of the terms above, someone else is digging an article, your friend is getting "poked" in Facebook (this is where you click a button and a line pops-up on the other person's page saying they've been poked), you wonder "What are people twittering about?". Then, your application is no longer a portal but a mashup and apple is bricking its iPhone. Brick is not even in Wiki encyclopedia yet, it is a term made popular by apple for making iPhone into unusable "brick" if users install unauthorized software.

Above all that, Iphone still has such a cool interface and Apple products always win in usability. See right picture.

Below are 2 videos that explain about Digg:





I think I will not start using Digg, Twitter or Facebook for now. Also trying Friendster but not really keen. But I am totally addicted to RSS & Wiki.

Very Cute Presentation on Wiki

This is a really cool presentation on Wiki (referred by my boss). Visit here for more. Hope can create a presentation like this next time. :)

Google Bought Feedburner

Although this news is 3 months old and I cannot believe I missed this out, I am compelled to post this to marvel at the power of enterpreneurship.

Yes, Google bought FeedBurner for speculated $100 million. But the story I wanted to highlight here is not focusing on Google, but rather on FeedBurner. Barely after 3 years since it was started, it had reached a level of recognition enough to grab Google's attention.

So, I do believe in great innovation. And I do believe when you create something great, it will not take too long before people start to recognize the potential of the product.

FeedBurner, founded by four serial entrepreneurs in February 2004, has been on the leading edge of a second-wave Internet boom with the popularity of blogs, commercial newsfeeds and podcasts. FeedBurner developed tools to enable writers, publishers and broadcasters to capitalize on the boom with advertising, tapping the power of RSS, short for Really Simple Syndication, a technology standard for publishing regular updates to Web-based content.

FeedBurner provides a suite of Web-based services to help publishers -- from one-person operations on up to major media companies -- with tools to manage all aspects of content syndication via blogs and podcasts. The services simplify the tracking of circulation and delivering content to the right place in the right format. Advertisers use FeedBurner to buy space in the new media, providing a new revenue stream for the content creators.

FeedBurner's customers -- 431,171 publishers as of Wednesday -- include Reuters, USA Today, Newsweek, Wired, Fast Company, Inc., Geffen Records, CNET UK, IDG publications (CIO, PC World, Computerworld, Mac World), Ziff Davis publications (PC magazine, eWeek), Smartmoney, Marriott, Amazon (podcast), Yahoo! (corporate blogs), eBay (corporate blogs), Castrol Syntec, Christian Science Monitor and Indy500.

Costolo and three other consultants -- Steve Olechowski, Eric Lunt and Matt Shobe -- left Andersen Consulting in Chicago in 1996 to start Digital Knowledge Assets, a maker of software that enabled users to publish and share their thoughts on the Internet. The software foreshadowed today's blogging craze. They sold the startup in 1998. FeedBurner was their third company.

Like Google, FeedBurner is known for its innovation and playful spirit. Costolo said in an interview last year the company knocks out new features every six weeks. "We also conduct regular hackathons where the engineering team knocks out a bunch of services in one day," he said.

This is what I hope for when we started Agile Methodology in our company. We are making progress but still need a lot of effort to build the culture to promote innovation and playful spirit. I guess I cannot see these days since I am leaving.

This is the announcement made by FeedBurner on their website:
http://blogs.feedburner.com/feedburner/archives/2007/06/feedburner_google.php

Free Poll

I stumbled upon this site that allow to create free poll. So, just for trying out, I put up a poll here (see right and see below). :)

It is cool as I have been searching for something like this a while ago.

There was one time, I wanted to order dinner for the team during OT and I wanted to ask which restaurant should we order at that time. Hmm... Maybe I will create a poll for this next time. LOL.

Woman Fertility

What is the chance of me stumbling on news of 2 different technology breakthrough discoveries on woman fertility ( or infertility) in a day?

Answer: 1 in around 200,000 (measuring in hours, considering I started to read at around 5 years old). (No guess on my age, please)

The first test-tube baby created from an egg matured in the laboratory and then frozen has been born in Canada, in a breakthrough offering hope to women with cancer and others unsuited to normal IVF treatment.

More info on the local newspaper, The Star.

On other study, a bizarre hairless rodent living underground in Africa may offer clues about the links between stress and human infertility, scientists said on Monday.

Stressed-out mole-rats become infertile after constant bullying by the colony's "queen", the only female to reproduce. But this infertility is reversible and when the queen dies, a previously non-breeding female quickly takes her place.

Why I am interested in the articles?
1. First and foremost, I am a woman (if you have not already know that)
2. I am a stressed-out woman (proven with hair fall on the rise)
3. I love kids! ( I almost wanted to strangle one of my best friend who said she does not plan to have kids. To her: YOU know who you are. Don't let me strangle you!)

Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu

Technology is Changing the World

Not only technology do not do evil (yeah, google mantra again. :) ), technology can stop evil.

Now we can help to monitor some parts in the world to prevent violence using the following URL:

http://www.eyesondarfur.org

Here is the link to the news:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/6/worldupdates/2007-06-06t102718z_01_nootr_rtrmdnc_0_india-301691-1&sec=worldupdates

Google Master Plan

Google has been and continue to be a very great inspiration for me!

Google Master Plan in a whiteboard:

Click here Larger Picture.

Google Master Plan in a movie:

http://masterplanthemovie.com/

Google Search Continues

I just read an interesting article about Google latest development in a local newspaper. I feel compelled to blog this. Yes, I am a Google fan!!!

Google's Search latest challenge and tweak included:

Better at reading the minds of users to interpret a very short query.
Are the users looking for a job, a purchase or a fact? The formulas can tell that people who type "apples" are likely to be thinking about fruit, while those who type "Apple" are mulling computers or iPods. They can even compensate for vaguely worded queries or outright mistakes.

Gave more weight to pages with phrases like "French Revolution" rather than pages that simply had both words.

Finding local businesses - Finding local stores without enough importance to links from other sites . I think this is working well as I was using Google successfully to find some companies in Malaysia and it showed up as first ranking or at least at the first page.

QDF, for "query deserves freshness."

Freshness describes how many recently created or changed pages are included in a search result, is at the centre of a constant debate in search: Is it better to provide new information or to display pages that have stood the test of time and are more likely to be of higher quality? Until now, Google has preferred pages old enough to attract others to link to them.

THE QDF solution revolves around determining whether a topic is "hot". If news sites or blog posts are actively writing about a topic, the model figures that it is one for which users are more likely to want current information.

Here is the link to the full article in New Straits Times