The Good NET Guide

Posts Tagged ‘majority’

Facebook’s f8 conference is shaping up to have quite a few improvements in store for developers, and we think we’ve come across another one: a change to Facebook’s data retention policy. Yesterday, Facebook employee Monica Keller (who left MySpace to join the company last month), took part in a conversation on Twitter that seemed to indicate that developers may no longer have to delete user data. The possible change came to light after Gnip CEO Eric Marcoullier gently chided Keller about developers being unable to store any user data, to which she responded, “come to f8!”.

Since that tweet, we’ve heard further whispers about a change to Facebook’s 24 hour policy retention, and that Facebook is already briefing developers on the upcoming changes.

So why does this matter? Facebook has historically been quite restrictive with regard to what developers are allowed to do with user data; in particular, it only allows developers using Facebook Connect to store user data for 24 hours before they have to delete it, or ping Facebook’s servers for a refresh. There are some exceptions to that rule (you can get a sense for them here), but the majority of the ‘meaty’ content can’t be stored by developers. As a result, applications have to constantly connect with Facebook’s servers, which multiple developers we’ve spoken with say is very  inefficient.

If Facebook does extend that 24 hour window, developers would be able to do things that generally require locally stored data, like batch processing (this isn’t feasible now because the application would have to make an API call for each user). Likewise, if these applications had the data stored locally they would be able to boost load speeds because they wouldn’t have to  wait for a call to Facebook’s servers after their applications loaded.

Of course, such a change would also have privacy implications (we’ll wait until we have all the details before we analyze those).  That said, we’ve also heard that many developers simply ignore some of Facebook’s data retention policies, in part because Facebook has a very hard time enforcing them. So it’s unclear just how big an impact this would have on the applications being developed.

We’ve been getting a number of tips about the Google App Engine API being down hard, causing lots of services who depend on it to fail or be downright inaccessible. A quick check on API-status, which tracks that sort of thing, confirmed the service disruption, which most of our tipsters say started occurring right before 8 AM Pacific Time.

The outage was also confirmed by the App Engine team in a Google Groups discussion, making it clear this wasn’t a scheduled event:

Since 7:53am PST, App Engine has been experiencing an unexpected outage affecting the majority of App Engine applications. The team is working quickly to correct the cause and will have an ETA on the fix
shortly. Please watch this thread for updates. We sincerely apologies for the inconvenience.

We’ll update once it comes back up.

(Thanks to everyone who sent this in)

Looking at blogs and news sites across the web, it’s clear that many have robust communities with eager, intelligent people looking to contribute. But up until recently, the only way most sites (particularly blogs) allow users to share their thoughts is through comments, which work well enough, but certainly aren’t always perfect. Grogger is a new service that looks to help sites tap into this community knowledge, allowing you to build a site that includes posts written by both you and your audience.

At its core, Grogger is an easy-to-use blogging platform, but rather than only exposing its editing tools to a handful of site administrators, they’re shown to everyone. When a user comes to your Grogger site and writes an entry (called a Grog), it’s then added to a moderation queue, where your site administrators can approve it. Once an entry has been approved, other users can vote it up using a ‘Like’ system, and administrators can ‘feature’ it to make it even more prominent. And while readers are free to contribute their own Grogs, they can also leave old-school comments under posts by other writers.

Grogger tracks each user’s profile over time, allowing you to quickly look up all of their previous posts. You can also elect to only follow certain writers if you want to tweak your reading experience (and Grogs can be broken up into categories). Frequent contributors are rewarded through a badge system. The site has only one theme available at this point, but more are coming in the near future, and you can manually edit the CSS if you want to get creative.

Grogger is still pretty early on (I ran into a few bugs, and some of the UI isn’t that intuitive), but it’s got potential. The site is now open to the public and is free, with plans to eventually roll out some premium options.

The Nook has seen its fair share of delays but Barnes & Noble is now saying that it will be available online and in the majority of stores mid-week — just in time for Valentine’s Day, guys! That’s actually right on schedule according to the timetable the bookseller set back in December. But please, unless your spouse has specifically asked for an ebook reader, don’t give him or her a Nook or Kindle this Sunday.

Go here to read the rest: 
B&N says the Nook will be available in stores nationwide this week conveniently in time for Valentine’s day

Canon knows how to make quality cameras and these latest pocket cams clearly show that off. The PowerShot SX210 IS leads the charge with a 14.1 MP sensor, 14x optical zoom, and a 720p video capture mode.

The rest is here:
Canon keeps the PowerShot line alive with the SX210, SD3500, and SD1400 IS

A year ago Aol trumpeted the launch of MediaGlow, a new business unit led by exec Bill Wilson. Sometime recently, though, the MediaGlow website, at MediaGlow.com, vanished. It now redirects here.

The unit included all of Aol’s content sites, including the aol.com home page and dozens of sub brands like Engadget and TMZ. All those sites are still there, of course, but Aol seems to be killing off the MediaGlow brand itself.

Last June the company issued a press release boasting 76.3 million unique monthly visitors to MediaGlow sites (the majority of which are from aol.com. And the business unit has been hiring journalists en masse – Aol now probably has the largest news room in the world.

Wilson’s corporate bio still says he runs MediaGlow. We’ve reached out to AOL for comment.

So, big problem with flying in a helicopter: if you crash, you’re screwed. It’s not like a jet, where you can eject (for obvious reasons), and it’s not like helicopters are designed with a crumple zone. For this reason, NASA has been testing a possible solution that utilizes an airbag-type system

Originally posted here: 
NASA testing helicopter airbags – sounds like fun!

The Blump.it Firefox plug-in just hit the blogosphere today and I had to try it. So I loaded it up on the Viliv X70 with the hope that it will improve the functionality of the small-ish touchscreen and turn it into a certain tablet computer clone.

See the original post here: 
Hands-on with the Blump.it Firefox plug-in on a Viliv X70

Remember, earlier this month when we wrote about the upskirt app that Apple deemed kosher, while at the same time banning a satirical Someecards app from the App Store? Yeah, we may have found an even better example of Apple’s hilarious hypocrisy.

Truth is, it wasn’t hard to find. The app called “Asian Boobs” is a top seller right now in the App Store. So what is it? Well, the title says it all: It’s an app that features the breasts of Asian women. Lots of them. Over 2,500 of them. And actually you can double that, for each breast in each picture. That’s a lot of boobs.

The description of the $0.99 app is also classy:

Photos of sexy asian girls with BIG BOOBS, 100+ galleries and 2500+ photos, updated regularly. Japanese girls, Korean girls, Chinese girls, Taiwanese girls, models, stewardesses, nurses, school girls, teachers, bikini girls, sexy girls and more.

Glad they squeezed the all-important “sexy girls” in there.

Again, to be clear: I’m all for Apple allowing apps like this in the App Store assuming they’re appropriately labels as 17+ (which this one is). The girls aren’t nude (Apple still doesn’t allow those except when it accidentally does), but the boobage is everywhere — as are the ass shots and crotch shots. Pure iPhone fun.

The problem is that Apple is rejecting apps, like Someecards, which are also labeled 17+ — for satire. Apple didn’t seem to like that the app poked fun at public figures like Roman Polanski and yes, Hitler.

It’s just beyond ridiculous that upskirt apps and apps dedicated to boobs are fine, but satire is not. Maybe the majority of app testers are grumpy but creepy old men, I don’t know.

Find Asian Boobs here for $0.99. Find Someecards app nowhere. Because Apple is ridiculous with these rules.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Much like everyone thinks they’re the best driver in the world, everyone thinks they’re great in the sack. Maybe you’ve got the Kama Sutra down like the back of your partner’s… hand; maybe you’ve used that internet connection to amass a few external drives full of “training material”. Whatever arts you’re trained in, the question has almost undoubtedly popped into your head during the heat of the moment: “Am I good at this the best lover in the world?”

Well, friends, to fall back on an almost-stale cliche that I promise we’ll use only a few dozen more times: there’s an app for that.

Read the rest of this post on MobileCrunch >>

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors