It's been a long time since I added anything here

so, I guess I should start adding some new stuff again.

Here’s some unboxing photos and a video of Yamaha’s Tenori-on device that appeared on the Engadget blog recently. This device is similar to the Monome project boxes but those devices don’t actually have sound generators in them like the Tenori-on does.

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Is google preparing to offer free ad-targeted broadband WiFi across the country?

Om Malik seems to think so but that's just the start of the offering from google. Get ready for GoogleNet. Here's the article in Business 2.0.
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Pheedo: Manage, insert advertising into your feeds, buy ads in other feeds...

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Finally, someone has come up with an RSS ad management and insertion application. I've seen the SFist, LAist, Gothamist sites advertising within their feeds but this is the first new site I've seen that is specifically designed for setting up ads in your RSS feeds. It might actually be possible to make a little scrill for the efforts of our blogging labors!

You can also buy ads to promote your blog and feeds in other streams including RSS and Atom feeds and on other blog sites. Verification of these ads being served elsewhere could be a tad bit difficult but this is a step in the right direction for the new open web. Here's the site link.

FYI: Read the TOU very carefully. They require a social security number of a Tax ID # for service and everyone must be approved before they are added to the service.
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Consumating your social network...

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A new social networking website has popped into existence out of thin air again. This time, the hook is consumating with your social network, i.e., finding people who have similar interests to you using those oh-so-web2.0 tags, having a lot of people on the site give you the thumbs up and a ranking based upon how many people said they would "do you". Uff da!

The funniest part of this site, other than the obvious misspelling of the word "consummating", at least with some of the more active profiles, is reading the comments from the "rate a date" functionality. People that "hook-up" can post about their experiences first with a comment from the person that "dated" the person described in the profile, and then with a rebuttal that must be posted within 24 hours of the "date" by the person represented by the profile. There are some great comments on a couple of profiles on both sides of the equation. Others simply let the dater post and don't reply back in time leaving the conversation a bit one-sided.

As far as I can tell, points are awarded to you by others who rate your responses to a series of seemingly random weekly-added questions, or by simply clicking the thumbs up button on your profile when they see it. There's also a nifty little recommendation engine that suggests people based upon the tags that you entered and the tags that you click on to find people. Additionally, there are sections for popular tags, unpopular tags and random tags as well as girls or boys nearby and most popular user tags.

One of the site's creators is ranked #1 [Ben Brown] and there's also a tag "f**kedbenbrown" that appears on two profiles as of this posting. It's good to be on top I guess and it helps to b an early adopter or a founder. RSS feeds of people's comments on their "dates" are available for aggregating this specific type of content as well. Their About section also includes a reference to the Uberweb2.0 acronym AJAX, or Asynchronous Javascript and XML, for the web2.0-challenged among us. I'm not sure where they're using it though; maybe it's being used for the thumbs up click?

Strangely enough, I just joined and have quickly moved from 4345th to 2025th in rank overnight! I have only one point as well. I gotta go answer some silly questions!

Check out the consumating site for yourself right here.
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Traffic signal changing device use now a federal crime...

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Have you ever seen a firetruck or ambulance change the stop light from red to green so that they can get to an emergency situation faster? Apparently, these devices are also being used by non-emergency personel like joe-motorist when they come to a stoplight as well [Who knew you could get these?]. Non-emergency use of these signal changing devices is now a federal crime, just in case you thought there weren't any other more important things to worry about in the domestic world right now. Here's the link to the story.
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It's a small, snobbish world...

Finally, social networking for elitist, fascist, social networking snobs! Awwww, I bent my wookie and was demoted to the Big World. Here's the link to the site.
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Auto club workers fired for discussing co-workers personal info on myspace.com...

Posted during their time off, chats and posts that took place on myspace.com including comments about their co-workers weight and sexual orientations, along with threats to slow down roadside assitance programs that the company they worked for provides to it's members was reason enough for the Automobile Club of Southern California to fire 27 people total from a San Diego office.

Here's the link to the short article.

The Moral of the story: Be careful what you post in print...
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Social networking site Cyworld holds a quarter of South Korea's population captive...

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Wired News recently published an article about the South Korean website, Cyworld, whose subscription total just hit 13 million, up from 10, about a quarter of the Asian coutry's population are members of this particular site, including 90 percent of the 24- to 29-year-old age group. Here's the link.
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Lightblubs that glow in the dark when turned off...

Glo Lux's patent-pending, non-radioactive full spectrum light bulbs actually glow in the dark for up to an hour after the light or the main power supply has been shut off. This is very handy in cases where the power is cut due to an environmental catastrophe, or other emergency circumstances.

The website talks about the 9/11 bombing at the very beginning as a "reason" for the light bulb's creation but all is forgiven if the product actually works, isn't harmful to humans [their site says that they're safe], doesn't cost too much and if it actually lasts at least as long as a standard light bulb.

Here's the link.
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Wired Magazine posted a very useful AJAX article today...

For those of us that are frightened fairly easily by seemingly ambiguous internet acronyms, myself included, AJAX might be a bit nebulous and scary. Wired magazine was nice enough to post an article today that might connect a few more head dots in the brain puzzle for us fearful freaks.

Apparently, it's not for just cleaning the toilet bowl and there's no bleach in it either.

Here's the link to the article.
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