The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘development’

As a full time systems administrator, I can tell you without equivocation that IT is hard. There are lots of little problems that occur.

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IT in a box: the ClearBOX

Here it is, folks! Its been a few long months for Sprint fans toting Touch Pro2’s, given that the same device on all of the other carriers saw upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.5 months ago while their own Pro2s stayed back at WinMo 6.1. We knew the update was coming sometime in March , and then we pinned the date down to some more specific : today.

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At long last, Windows Mobile 6.5 is available for the Sprint Touch Pro2

One of Yahoo’s key chief technologists, Sam Pullara, is leaving the company to become an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Benchmark Capital. Pullara was the technologist how headed up the development of the the Yahoo! Open Application Platform, the Yahoo! Query Language and Yahoo! Pipes. His departure follows that of veteran Yahoo senior executive Ash Patel earlier this week.

Back in 2008, Yahoo was making a big push to open itself up to developers, and Pullara was one of the champions of that strategy. He was also Yahoo’s representative on the OpenSocial Foundation, which sought to create a counterweight to Facebook.

Pullara has been an EIR before. In 2004, he held that position at Accel Partners and created a startup called Gauntlet Systems, which he sold to Borland in 2006. At Benchmark, he will be looking for new startup opportunities. He will also be working again with Benchmark partner Peter Fenton, who was at Accel when Pullara was there. Pullara’s last day at Yahoo will be on April 1. Yahoo has no plans to hire a replacement.

Today, another Benchmark EIR, former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos, was named CEO of Eucalyptus Systems.

One of the three points I laid out as TiVo’s keys to survival was to partner with more content providers. And just like that, Virigin Media announced it will be offering TiVo set-top boxes to its 3.8 million subscribers sometime this year. This move, along with the Conax partnership , makes TiVo a major player in the European DVR market.

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TiVo will be offered by Virgin Media in UK later this year

We featured a so-called leaked video showing MW2 ’s upcoming map pack last week but had no idea when players will get access to the new maps. Activision finally came clean, though, and announced that the DLC will hit PCs first on March 30, with consoles getting it sometime afterwards. Oh, and yeah, it will be named Stimulus Package just like the rumor stated, which is a kind of appropriate name, actually.

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Modern Warfare 2 DLC map pack coming to PC March 30, Xbox and PS3 shortly after

We’ve told you about the iTable before , and PQ Labs. They showed off their latest stage in the development process at CeBIT this year, by installing the screen into a coffee table. The newest version can register up to 32 touch points and actually determine the shape of the object being placed on the screen.

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The iTable continues to develop and show gaming potential

Its a proven fact that playing guitar will get you chicks.

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i-tab digital tablature reader

There’s a story going around right now that the development costs for Apple’s A4 chip, which powers the iPad , might be as high as a billion dollars. Let’s not get carried away here. Apple licensed the CPU and GPU from ARM , and the A4 shares a lot of elements with the Tegra 2

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Apple’s A4 chip a billion dollar investment? That can’t be right

If you’ve ever been to Google’s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters, also known as the Googleplex, you may have noticed that the area is essentially a collection of low-rise office buildings off of Highway 101. There isn’t a large amount of housing, residential infrastructure or shops close by; which is one of the reasons why Google has an expansive cafeteria, gym, and even childcare options on-premises. Furthermore, there is little to no public transportation available nearby, which is why Google provides luxury buses with wi-fi to employees commuting from San Francisco. It appears that Google is trying to change this. Last week, the search giant sent a letter to the City of Mountain View to encourage the city to pursue sustainable development opportunities in area around Google campus (known as the North Bayshore area). I’ve embedded the documents below.

Here’s an excerpt from the letter:

We are writing you to express our preferences for the future of Google s continued growth in the City of Mountain View We would encourage you to provide opportunities for the North Bayshore area to continue to be the center of sustainable development for Google’s HQ campus

Our goals for Google s HQ are to provide a future redevelopment that is nurturing and regenerative to the environment provide a vibrant community and worklife balance for all and efficiently manage transportation and pedestrian access needs. This must include mixed uses office retail and residential along with the kind of land use development described in the Final Report by the Mountain View Environmental Sustainability Task Force. We encourage you to be the model Silicon Valley community leading the way with visionary development opportunities to create the most efficient sustainable and fiscally supportive plan to the community of Mountain View and the North Bayshore area.

The issue is that some of the area around the Google campus is zoned for commercial use only and development may entail changes in zoning. Google is simply trying to lobby the City of Mountain View to change the zoning. We contacted Google for a response to this and a spokesman for the company confirmed that the letter was sent in an effort to begin the discussion of a zoning change. We’ve also contacted the Planning Committee for the City of Mountain View.

Here’s an except from the minutes of the Mountain View City Council meeting that addressed Google’s letter and proposal:

Google would like an opportunity to have an in depth discussion with Council about their vision of creating a sustainable community in North Bayshore that would incorporate a range of uses including residential. Given the complexity of the aforementioned issues and Google’s interest, staff suggests that Council and or the EPC schedule a Study Session focused on North Bayshore. This will allow staff to provide additional information and possible strategies regarding transportation TDM and sea level rise issues. The Study Session would also allow Google time to present their ideas on North Bayshore and future development of their properties.

This seems to be just the beginning of a lengthy process (rezoning usually is). Since Google has a stake in the development of this property, it makes sense that it would subsidize any nearby housing or shops infrastructure in some way. It’s not surprising that Google wants to develop its complex to be more sustainable and comfortable for its employees. That way they never leave.

Photo Credit

Back in December, we ran a post about the “most stalker friendly people on the web.” The main point of reference for it was a leaderboard made by Osnapz, which showed the Foursquare users with the most followers. Now, with Gowalla’s API officially launched, they’ve done the same for that service.

These numbers are interesting because unlike a service like Twitter, both Foursquare and Gowalla make you explicitly accept new followers that you will broadcast your location to. While back in December, it was Robert Scoble who was the most stalker-friendly person on Foursquare, he’s only the 210th most stalker-friendly on Gowalla, with only 54 friends. The most stalker-friendly person on Gowalla is entrepreneur and blogger Wayne Sutton, with 724 friends, according to Osnapz data.

Judging from this data, Gowalla is clearly less social than Foursquare from from a friending-perspective. But that’s hardly surprising given that the emphasis on Foursquare is your friend timeline, while on Gowalla, that’s the fourth tab. And whereas “mayorships” are an important factor on Foursquare, “stamps” (sort of like badges) are a key to Gowalla, which the Osnapz data reflects.

Meanwhile, looking at the Foursquare leaderboard, it’s clear just how fast that service is growing. Back in December, Scoble led the way with 1,768 stalkers (I mean, friends). Today, a user named @elarov is in the lead with over 5,800 friends. Leo Laporte is close behind with just over 5,000, while Scoble is now in third with just over 4,600. Just looking at Scoble’s numbers, he has nearly tripled his followers in just two months.

I’m sure the Please Rob Me guys will have a field day with this data.

[photo: flickr/heyjoewhereyougoinwiththatguninyourhand]