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linux / software — 2 comments
14
Apr 07

Linux 3D Desktop: Beryl and Compiz Reunion

    3D desktop is one of the weakest Ubuntu’s spot, besides of course power management and multiple screen support. And having two independent group of developers (Compiz and Beryl) who used to be a single group before, but now working separately, does not really help. But the good news are they decided to reunite!

3Ddesktops: Compiz and Beryl

    After several weeks of discussion the leaders of Compiz and Beryl have agreed that the two communities shall reunite. This decision is supported by both David and Quinn and represents the majority decision of the administrators and developers in each community. At this early stage not a lot has been decided, but these are the main points of the agreement gathered by Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols:

  • Compiz will effectively split in to two divisions: Compiz-core and Compiz-extra.
  • The Compiz-Core division will focus on core functionality. The name of the core package will remain compiz.
  • The Compiz-Extra division, which includes plugins, decorators, settings tools and related applications and their developers, will merge with the Beryl project’s programmers and offerings in these areas to form a new community with the temporary name of "Composite Community".
  • The codebase of the new community will consist of the best plugins, decorators, settings tools and related applications from the Beryl and Compiz communities. We will create a code review panel consisting of the best developers from each community who will see that any code included in a release package meets the highest standards and is suitable for distribution in an officially supported package. Support for existing packages will be continued at least until the first stable release of the new project.
  • The websites of each community will remain up and running until a new, user oriented site is completed. Since the forums are the heart of each community, they will be merged first. Once we have a single community forum we can use it to discuss the additional details, including the name of the new project, as well as setting the goals for the first release.

    The end result of this for Linux desktop users should be a single, united and improved 3D desktop option.

action / cool places — 1 comment
13
Apr 07

Chopsticks for Masses = Forks for Incapable

    Non-Asian people are trying – "Ok, I am taking these two sticks, and trying to lift a piece of meat. Ok, I am taking these two sticks, and trying to lift a piece of meat. Ok, I am taking these two sticks, and trying to lift a piece of meat… Oh.. common screw that – give me my fork!"

    Asian people are laughing – "Look, they are eating with forks, how primitive those creatures are. Let us screw with their mind a bit more, let’s give them a chork…"

Chopsticks + Fork = Chork

 

    A clever idea – don’t you find? That is what Asian people, nowdays, call Chork, or "Chopsticks for masses". This training chopsticks will enable all "Asian wanna be eaters" to transition smoothly from something as boring as forks and knives.

action / software — 3 comments
13
Apr 07

Google likes Microsoft more than it likes Google

This is quite interesting how Microsoft can optimize better than Google for Google. Just try to search for a "search" in Google – see who the Google’s favorite is… ;)

google searches, microsoft wins

blogging / me — 1 comment
13
Apr 07

Great Minds Blog Alike

You wake up and think "hmm.. what should I blog about today?" Not that you don’t have anything to blog about, you just have so many ideas, and can’t choose the right one, ’cause your brain just don’t digest those waves of ideas…

In the middle of something important at work (e.g. meeting), you think "hmm… what does my blog statistic look like? how many people visited?", you go online and check – it is so easy to do…

Before you go to sleep, you think "hmm.. I’ll just take a very quick look, and see my technorati rating – do I have any new links? How about trying different Google searches?"..

sounds familiar? – well, then I think I am not alone out there in www universe :)

Having a good psychological understanding behind the above "addiction" (and that is exactly what it is – "opium for the masses") I came to realize that it really is "reigning over me", and I just have to acknowledge this fact in order to come back from a "stuffed and screaming brain" to the "peace of mind". And guess what, I did find a very simple and working, at least for me, approach.

I woke up yesterday, and the wise, and often very silent, part of me suddenly spoke:

   Toly, define you purpose, you are loosing it, just because your purpose is not defined. What exactly do you want from this blog? Do you want to make money on it, is that it? Would you like an overall world recognition? Do you like to share your insides with outer existence? Do you keep notes for yourself? Are you trying to open up, by ‘writing  you brain’ out?  Define it – only then shall we speak again

And you know what, that was a real discovery for two weeks of my blogging period, so I decided to follow my wise insides, and define that hidden purpose.

 Make money? – I am making money. That is never a burden to have more, but definitely not the purpose, so heck with all that "make money’, "I’ll teach you how to blog for profit", "marketing your blog" websites. As my Italian friend says "Fooo ged a but it!" And the truth is, if you have a common sense, and know how people think and act, then to get those google ads blend in with a blog, so visitors click on them and to choose expensive key words is NOT all that hard. Screw those million cheesy "I know it all" articles out there – have a common sense – you’ll be just all right!

Word ranking and recognition? – sure! who does not want that? But what does blog has to do with it? My take on it would be to implement a great idea – give it a life, and get all that "good-for-nothing" world recognition. Why "good-for-nothing"? Well it is very simple: you see the need for more (than already is) recognition is inversely proportional to the level of self-confidence and self-happiness, so if you want more that only means that those two "selfs" do not satisfy you. Why "good-for-nothing" again? :) ’cause even if you get it, self-confidence and self-happiness will still not satisfy you – this is a wrong way to boost those.

I look at ranking as I look at the game that many people know the rules to, but very few know how to play. But you know what? You learn by doing – so just play it, if you like the game! There is no penalty for loosing, in fact loosing is not even well defined in this game. :)

So the verdict is "to share my insides with outer existence, to keep notes for myself, and to open up, by ‘writing  myself’ out"! that would be, and that is my purpose.

The funny thing is,  I am currently "writing myself out", by creating this article, and I do feel "peace of mind" coming back to me. I wish, my dear reader (if you anybody else but me :) ) you define your purpose, and join me in peace!

Great minds think alike – Great minds in peace are alike…

action / cool places — 1 comment
11
Apr 07

GOOGLE: “If you’re watching a YouTube video, we know you’re watching that video.”

google radio and tv  

– Hey, mom, what channel is GOOGLE on today?
– You’re my silly boy… – on every channel. You see these little ads on the right of our 65” TV screen?

– Hey, mom, I am bored, can you turn on the radio?
– Sure, sweety.. Oh, your favorite "GOOGLE tunes"
– Yea, mom, GOOGLE knows what I like

Information right from the source

Google CEO Eric Schmidt on "How big is the market for all these Google ads":

Today, the vast majority of our revenue is in text ads correlated with searches. In the last couple of years, we have developed what are called display ad products, including banner ads, video ads, click-to-call ads, and things like that. And I’ve also said that we are pursuing the possibility of television advertising. By that I mean traditional television advertising. And we bought dMarc Broadcasting to do radio ads.

So let’s rank the probability of them being affected by targeted ads. There’s search: That’s 100 percent affected. What about radio? Is it possible to get a targeted ad right to your car right now? Not yet because we can’t target the individual receiver in your car. If two cars are next to each other, the same radio station cannot have two different ads. However, if it’s at a regional level we can do it to the zip code level. So let’s call that partial targeting.

Now, let’s look at television. Every one of the next generation of cable set-top boxes is going to get upgraded to an IP-addressable set-top box. So all of a sudden, that set-top box is a computer that we can talk to. We can’t tell whether it’s the daughter or the son or the husband or the wife in a household. All we know is we’re just talking to the television. But that’s pretty targetable because family buying patterns are pretty predictable, and you can see what programs they’re watching. And if you’re watching a YouTube video, we know you’re watching that video.

My point of going through this little treatise is to say, if the total available market is ($600 billion to $800 billion, we won’t be able to target all $800 billion. It will not be a 100 percent perfectly targetable, straight into your brain, but we should be able to offer a material improvement (in response rates) to many businesses.

 

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