Blog - Waves 'n' Whorls

News Corp wants to sell Myspace for $100 million

News Corp is looking to sell the struggling social network Myspace, previously called MySpace but now stylized as My_____, for $100 million. That's less than 20 percent of what the company originally paid for the website.

The sale is expected to draw bids from several investment firms and companies who may try to buy parts of Myspace or the whole company. The groups considering a deal for Myspace include Chinese Internet holding company Tencent, Myspace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, Redscout Ventures, and Criterion Capital Partners LLC, owner of social networking site Bebo, according to people familiar with the matter, cited by The Wall Street Journal. Last month, there was talk that Myspace would be sold to Vevo, the online music website partly owned by the world's biggest record companies. It now looks like Vevo is no longer as interested.

Over the past few years, Myspace has been on a steady decline in terms of revenue, mindshare, and traffic. It's even considered one of the slowest social networks. It seems as Facebook grows, Myspace continues to falter. This is despite a recent redesign, a new mobile site, and even a desperate attempt to cling to Facebook for help.

News Corp bought Myspace for $580 million in 2005. Initially, the deal paid for itself after Google inked a three-year $900 million search advertising deal the following year. Since then, Myspace has become less and less relevant as a social network and is now largely considered a failed Web property.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/43569-news-corp-wants-to-sell-myspace-for-100-million.html

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A Royal Wedding Scam

Government?s Disaster Response Wins Praise

In numerous interviews in the low-income Alberta neighborhood here on Friday, shortly before President Obama and other officials toured what is now an unimaginable wasteland, residents said they had few complaints about the handling of the aftermath by state, local and federal agencies.

Many expressed mild frustration about limits on their access to damaged homes, the pace of road clearing and power restoration, and traffic jams caused by roadblocks and nonfunctioning signals. But most agreed that government and charitable agencies were coping as effectively as feasible with immediate demands for shelter, food, water and medical care, along with search and rescue operations.

?It ain?t like Katrina,? said Darius Rutley, 21, whose house in Alberta was obliterated. ?We?re getting help.?

Axavier Wilson, 20, who survived the storm in a closet as the rest of his house blew away, said he had been impressed that both Gov. Robert Bentley and Mr. Obama had visited right away. ?I don?t think there?s much to mumble and grumble about,? he said. ?Everybody feels secure about getting help.?

There was a single cry of ?Help us!? on Friday from a man who watched the president?s motorcade roll through a treeless lunar landscape, but hardly the wails of stunned desperation shouted from New Orleans rooftops.

It was a very different kind of storm, of course, with different demands for response. And clearly, disaster recoveries should be judged over months, not days. But the early moments of this operation suggest that certain logistical and political lessons have been learned.

Stung by criticism that he waited 12 days to tour the Gulf Coast after last year?s BP oil spill, Mr. Obama took barely 40 hours to land in Tuscaloosa, the hardest-hit area in the eight Southern states struck by tornadoes last week. The death toll stands at 349 people; Alabama officials said that included 250 in their state, with 39 in Tuscaloosa County.

?I?ve never seen devastation like this,? Mr. Obama said after Friday?s tour. ?It is heartbreaking.? ?We?re going to make sure that you?re not forgotten and that we do everything we can to make sure that we rebuild,? he added.

Top federal officials, including Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, were in touch with Mr. Bentley shortly after the tornadoes landed Wednesday, according to a timeline from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA officials contacted the White House about the need for a federal emergency declaration even before Alabama had submitted a formal request that evening, said Art Faulkner, the state?s emergency management director. It was quickly granted.

Mr. Obama spoke to Mr. Bentley, a Republican, on Wednesday night and to the governors of four other affected states on Thursday. He sent the FEMA administrator, W. Craig Fugate, to Alabama on Thursday. Five members of the cabinet are expected in the state on Sunday.

?We can?t control when or where a terrible storm may strike,? Mr. Obama said Thursday afternoon, ?but we can control how we respond to it.?

By late Thursday, Mr. Obama had signed the disaster declaration for Alabama, and later did the same for Georgia and Mississippi. The declarations mean the federal government will pay 75 percent of the uninsured costs of repairing public buildings, like a damaged fire station here; that residents can qualify for modest recovery grants; and that businesses can apply for low-interest loans, Mr. Fugate said in an interview.

As of Friday afternoon, FEMA had placed liaison officers in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee, according to a spokesperson.

In Alabama, as in other affected states, the White House was winning early praise from state, local and Congressional leaders of both parties.

?I like what we?re doing thus far,? said Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, a Republican.

?They seem to be taking this very seriously,? said Representative Robert B. Aderholt, a Republican from northern Alabama. ?They have been very proactive and very reactive to our requests.?

Kevin Sack reported from Tuscaloosa, and Timothy Williams from New York.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a2a321747f96068a6d8b07083fbb858d

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Meet OpenMargin, taking eReading to new heights. [Video Interview] #TNW2011

The Netherlands based startup, OpenMargin is building a social network around eReading.

Their service, which launched last week as part of The Next Web Startup Rally, consists of two parts. Firstly, an iPad app allows you to read books and create notes. Secondly, a Web app fosters discussion between users over the notes. See our full story on their launch here.

Watch our video interview here about how OpenMargin aims to provide a social platform for readers and publishers alike.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/eu/2011/05/01/meet-openmargin-taking-ereading-to-new-heights-video-interview-tnw2011/

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News Corp wants to sell Myspace for $100 million

News Corp is looking to sell the struggling social network Myspace, previously called MySpace but now stylized as My_____, for $100 million. That's less than 20 percent of what the company originally paid for the website.

The sale is expected to draw bids from several investment firms and companies who may try to buy parts of Myspace or the whole company. The groups considering a deal for Myspace include Chinese Internet holding company Tencent, Myspace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, Redscout Ventures, and Criterion Capital Partners LLC, owner of social networking site Bebo, according to people familiar with the matter, cited by The Wall Street Journal. Last month, there was talk that Myspace would be sold to Vevo, the online music website partly owned by the world's biggest record companies. It now looks like Vevo is no longer as interested.

Over the past few years, Myspace has been on a steady decline in terms of revenue, mindshare, and traffic. It's even considered one of the slowest social networks. It seems as Facebook grows, Myspace continues to falter. This is despite a recent redesign, a new mobile site, and even a desperate attempt to cling to Facebook for help.

News Corp bought Myspace for $580 million in 2005. Initially, the deal paid for itself after Google inked a three-year $900 million search advertising deal the following year. Since then, Myspace has become less and less relevant as a social network and is now largely considered a failed Web property.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/43569-news-corp-wants-to-sell-myspace-for-100-million.html

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Going Solar: Green tech for the geek set

Some around the 8th heavy storm of this spring, it occurred to me that I?m woefully unprepared for power outages in this area. As someone who makes their living off the ability to have always-available power, that thought worried me somewhat. It?s not at all uncommon to have storms, floods and the like that bring power down in this area for days on end. Add to that fact the rising energy costs worldwide and I realized that I needed to start thinking up some alternatives.

For many parts of the world, and Nashville, Tennessee included, solar is likely the most viable option. Though wind farming is a great way to go ?off the grid?, stories-tall windmills aren?t exactly convenient nor do they make my local HOA very happy. I?d heard stories about parts of the world that use solar very efficiently (in Israel, for instance, it?s very common to have solar-heated water) and so I started doing some digging into the viability of solar systems to at least keep a minimally-viable workspace.

What I found was both interesting and somewhat depressing. Obviously this idea can be very cost prohibitive, but for those of you who tend more toward the monthly payment versus cost of ownership style of living, it just might work.

Grid or No Grid?

To start, you need to get an idea of what sort of system you?re wanting. At the very least, you should be aware that there are two types:

Off-Grid: These systems are designed to provide you with 100% of your power needs. They store power in batteries for dark hours and ideally will allow you to remove yourself from the municipal power system (and monthly electric bill).

Grid-Tie: A grid-tie system is one that is intended to connect to your municipal power. Depending on its size, it can either simply supplement your existing power lines, or it can even (in some cases) send unused power back onto the grid. With a participating provider, you can get paid back for producing power that can be used in other homes.

Off-Grid (OG) systems tend to be more popular with the groups of people who are either building a new residence or simply want to be removed from a monthly bill. However, as you would expect, these systems can be wildly expensive. In what I found, my modest $90-per-month electric bill would require a system that cost in excess of $25,000 in order to take me completely off grid. In case you haven?t noticed, I?m a blogger and business consultant. In other words, I?m not the type of person to have $25k just laying around.

Obviously then I was left with the idea of a Grid-Tie (GT) system. I thought that I?d be quite happy with something that could reduce my monthly bill by 20 or 30 percent, and I found this to be a considerably more reasonably-priced option. In order to do this, I was looking at somewhere around a $10,000 investment, and it was entirely possible that I?d even make some of that back in low-use times by feeding back into the system.

Clearly your milage may vary. What is right for me in this instance is not necessarily what is going to be right for you. As such, you?ll need to do more reading and homework than what I?m putting into this piece to find out exactly the right solution for your home.

But Wait!

Then a phone call with a solar installer got me thinking. I told him the premise behind my idea (remember, this wasn?t as much about saving money as it was about being able to continue working) and he had another suggestion entirely ? Go off-grid, but don?t do it for your entire house.

By our estimation, roughly 30 percent of our electricity use is taken up by the computers and electronic devices that are in this office. What?s more, if things got a bit hairy for a few days, this office is big enough to be a comfortable living space. It has good ventilation, a fireplace, fans and plenty of room for a couch or two. It can be closed off from the rest of the house, keeping it cooler or warmer as necessary. With the simple process of switching around a couple of wires in my basement, I could take this room entirely off the grid. Adding in a switching box would allow me to take it back on the grid with the flip of a lever, should something go wrong with the solar system.

Maybe you?re not in such a position. It?s worth noting, though, that many solar systems can be non-permanent and require very little room inside of your house for the storage and inversion of electricity. As such, even if you don?t have a room that you can completely wire for solar, you might have an area that could provide at least some power for emergencies without being in violation of an HOA, a lease or other such agreement.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/gadgets/2011/04/30/going-solar-green-tech-for-the-geek-set/

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Does the Web Play a Role in Design Homogenization?

The momentum of trends have always been a part of design, well before companies started advertising positions for web designers. But has the web contributed to the increasing homogenization of design?

In the last year, closed, invite-only communities for designers have sprung up on the web. Despite their exclusive nature, sites such as Dribbble and Forrst have stolen the spotlight from older, more easily accessible communities such as Behance.

With their fame, they have ? inevitably ? attracted criticism. The most common point is that they seem to contribute to the homogenization of design styles, at least within their communities. Dave Gamache, an interaction designer at ZURB, wrote last month that the criticisms hold weight to a certain extent.  His conclusions?

?The ?popular? filter surfaces some fairly homogeneous results, but why not try the ?everybody? filter? Honestly, the general quality of work is so high on Dribbble, you?re bound to find some treasures anywhere you dig in.?

Despite its exclusiveness, there?s quiet a variety of work on the site. But the same can be said of the web as a whole ? dig hard enough, and you?ll find things you?ve never seen before. What the wider community allows to rise to the top, though, tends to share similar elements and adhere to the flavor of the month.

This effect is groupthink manifested. Groupthink is frequently used as a criticism, and rightly so ? the only thing to be found in a community suffering from severe groupthink is stagnation ? even though most who use the term don?t understand its roots.

The term, coined by journalist and urban planner William H. Whyte in a 1952 Fortunate magazine piece, wasn?t defined in academic literature until the 70s, when research psychologist Irving Janis defined it as ?a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive ingroup, when the members? strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action.?

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/dd/2011/05/01/does-the-web-play-a-role-in-design-homogenization/

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Hardware 22 - The Second Day Magazine

Hardware 22 - The Second Day Magazine

Posted on 23rd Apr 2011 at 09:52 by Podcast with 7 comments

It?s podcast time again, and this time we?re talking about all the lovely hardware we?ve seen in our labs over the last few weeks. Clive starts off by telling us all about the AMD Radeon HD 6790, and why it?s only likely to be around for a relatively short period of time.

We also get chance to quiz Antony on the Silverstone TJ11, which it was his pleasure to review. The case is humungous, but isn?t quite the water-cooling behemoth we expected. Paul then gives us an account of his recent trip to Istanbul to cover the MSI Master Overclocking Arena European finals. Extreme overclocking and benchmarking is a funny old world, and it?s always interesting to get to see the action first hand.

Finally, we find time to discuss some of the larger tech news stories such as Seagate swallowing up Samsung?s hard disk production division, and the rumour that AMD is planning to mass produce its Radeon HD 7000-series GPUs in May.

Hardware 22 - The Second Day Magazine

As always, we've also set up our weekly competition too, the lucky winner of which will walk away with a Speedlink Strike FX wireless gamepad. This game pad is compatible with both the PC and PlayStation 3, and functions at distances of up to 10m.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/ZCeJO_WsPfs/

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In Search for F.B.I. Director, Administration Seeks a Shared Philosophy

Robert S. Mueller III, who became the F.B.I. director just a week before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will complete his 10-year term on Sept. 4, having led the in-progress effort to transform the bureau into a domestic intelligence agency.

A small team led by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been evaluating potential successors and, according to officials familiar with the deliberations, has reached certain views about the ideal candidate.

In particular, officials said, the administration wants someone who shares the philosophy and has the management abilities to press forward with changing the bureau?s culture, so that agents focus less on solving already-completed crimes and more on uncovering potential threats ? even at the expense of accumulating arrests and convictions.

Possible contenders include James B. Comey, a former deputy attorney general; Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the United States attorney in Chicago; Raymond W. Kelly, the New York City police commissioner; Ronald K. Noble, a former enforcement head at the Treasury Department who now leads Interpol; and Kenneth L. Wainstein, a former assistant attorney general for national security.

Officials say the administration is also looking for someone who will be easily confirmed and who will be respected both inside the bureau and elsewhere in the intelligence community.

Finally, they say, they want someone with the character to be a strong leader during a crisis and to maintain an appropriate level of independence, but who would keep a low political profile and focus on operational matters while deferring to the White House and the Justice Department on policy issues.

In many ways the administration appears to be looking for a clone of Mr. Mueller, who worked relatively smoothly with four attorneys general of widely divergent personalities and political views, under both a Republican and a Democratic president.

?Bob is a hard person to replace,? Mr. Holder told reporters last week. ?He has done a really excellent job in transforming the F.B.I. He is a person who has the confidence of the people in the F.B.I. and people in the intelligence community. He?s a person I?ve worked with for a number of years ? he?s a friend. He has the president?s confidence as well. So we want to make sure the person picked to be his successor will be able to fill those really large shoes that he leaves.?

Mr. Holder said the administration wanted to have the next director in place by the time Mr. Mueller is required to step down. He hinted that a nomination could come as early as May, though other officials said that later was more likely. The Senate has been slow to vote on Justice Department nominees lately; by contrast, in 2001, the Senate confirmed Mr. Mueller less than a month after his nomination.

It is not clear whether there is a front-runner for the job.

Most of the high-profile potential nominees come with advantages and disadvantages.

Mr. Comey, a career prosecutor who was the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York before his elevation to deputy attorney general, earned a reputation for independence by leading ? with Mr. Mueller at his side ? an internal Bush administration revolt in March 2004 over the legality of the program of surveillance without warrants, forcing the White House to modify the program.

Mr. Comey is now identified as a Republican political appointee, which could make it easier for him to win confirmation, but the Obama administration might also be reluctant to signal that it could not find a Democrat for the job. Mr. Comey also now has a well-paying job at Lockheed Martin and may be reluctant to leave it.

Mr. Fitzgerald, a longtime prosecutor and a holdover United States attorney from the Bush administration, also has a strong reputation for independence, as leader of the investigation into the leak of the name of a Central Intelligence Agency operative, Valerie Plame Wilson.

Like Mr. Comey, Mr. Fitzgerald now has the public identity of a Republican political appointee. Moreover, his demonstrated willingness to challenge the Bush White House could give its current occupants pause, though they would never say so in public.

Mr. Kelly, by contrast, is a Democrat with a strong law enforcement résumé. Before becoming commissioner of the New York Police Department, he was a Treasury Department official during the Clinton administration and supervised the United States Customs Service, the Secret Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, has endorsed him for the F.B.I. position.

But Mr. Kelly would be 70 at the start of his 10-year term. In addition, his efforts to expand the Police Department?s counterterrorism intelligence-gathering capabilities have led to turf-war friction with F.B.I. officials. He also helped scuttle Mr. Holder?s signature plan to prosecute the Sept. 11 defendants in Manhattan.

Mr. Noble, too, is a Democrat who oversaw the Treasury Department?s enforcement arm for a period during the Clinton administration. He has global stature as the first American to be elected to lead Interpol, developing ties that would resonate with the F.B.I.?s increasing presence overseas. But he has less operational experience than other candidates and is somewhat less well-known in Washington.

Mr. Wainstein is the candidate most closely associated with Mr. Mueller, whom he worked with first as the F.B.I. general counsel and then as his chief of staff. Later, Mr. Wainstein became the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, then led the Justice Department?s national security division. Since leaving the department, he has frequently testified before Congress about national security legal policy issues. Like Mr. Comey and Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Wainstein is now identified as a Republican appointee ? though he, too, was a longtime federal prosecutor and is generally respected on both sides of the aisle.

At least two prominent figures are said to have made it clear that they do not want to be considered for the job, including Merrick B. Garland, a federal appeals court judge, and Jamie Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general and a member of the Sept. 11 commission.

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=f2dea78b20a0a9eecdfedbbd6f3198f1

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