Friday, December 23, 2011

OpenWeb 12/24/2011 (a.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

OpenWeb 12/23/2011 (a.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

OpenWeb 12/21/2011 (p.m.)

  • Tags: censorship, OpenWeb, SOPA, DNS Blocking

    • The pending Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) continues to inspire opponents to come up with creative solutions to circumvent it.

      A new anti-SOPA add-on for Firefox, titled “DeSopa,” is such a counter measure.

      When installed, users can click a single button to resolve a blocked domain via foreign DNS servers, bypassing all domestic DNS blockades and allowing the user to browse the site though the bare IP-address (if supported).

    • “It could be that a few members of congress are just not tech savvy and don’t understand that it is technically not going to work, at all. So here’s some proof that I hope will help them err on the side of reason and vote SOPA down,” he adds.
    • If browsing a site through a single IP address is not supported, this other anti-SOPA plugin provides an alternative.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

OpenWeb 12/20/2011 (p.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Future of the Web 12/20/2011 (p.m.)

  • Tags: AT&T, T-Mobile, antitrust, mergers, spectrum, wireless networking

    • AT&T said on Monday afternoon that it had withdrawn its $39 billion takeover bid for T-Mobile USA, acknowledging that it could not overcome opposition from the Obama administration to creating the nation’s biggest cellphone service provider.

      The company said in a statement that it would continue to invest in wireless spectrum, but could not overcome resistance from both the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission.

    • Under the terms of the deal, AT&T will pay Deutsche Telekom $4 billion in cash and wireless spectrum as a break-up fee, and the two companies will begin a seven-year roaming agreement that will expand T-Mobile’s national coverage.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Future of the Web group favorite links are here.

Monday, December 12, 2011

OpenWeb 12/12/2011 (p.m.)

  • Tags: quantum computing, qubit

    • A team of engineering geniuses from the University of Bristol, England has developed the world’s first re-programmable, multi-purpose quantum photonic computer chip that relies on quantum entanglement to perform calculations.

      With multiple waveguide channels (made from standard silicon dioxide), and eight electrodes (see image above), the silicon chip is capable of repeatedly entangling photons. Depending on how the electrodes are programmed, different quantum states can be produced. The end result is two qubits that can be used to perform quantum computing — and unlike D-Wave’s 128-qubit processor (well, depending on who you ask) this is real quantum computing.

    • We know that entanglement can be used for very effective encryption, but beyond that it’s mostly guesswork. There’s general agreement that qubits should allow for faster computation of very complex numbers — think biological processes and weather systems — and early work by Google suggests that pattern recognition might also be a strength of qubits.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

OpenWeb 12/08/2011 (p.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Monday, December 05, 2011

OpenWeb 12/06/2011 (a.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

OpenWeb 11/30/2011 (p.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Future of the Web 11/30/2011 (p.m.)

  • [I want to start 2011 in a renewed spirit of generosity and sharing, so here are the complete PDFs of my last 3 books, for free; provided under a Creative Commons,non-commercial, share-alike, attribution license (see below). If you still want to buy the dead-tree versions of these books (or donate something for the free PDFs - yes, that's an option, too;), you can visit my Lulu Store, or go to Amazon.com, or check out my 'Paying for Gerd' page. You can also return the favor by blogging or tweeting of Facebook-liking my stuff. Thanks, and enjoy, and have a great 2011. Update: my free videos (50+ keynotes and presentations) are here, the iTunes podcast feed is here (just subscribe to download all videos to your iPod / iPad / iPhone, or computers), and my free slideshows (90+) are here, on Slideshare :)]

    Tags: free, pdfs, music, 2.0, end, control, Gerd Leonhard


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Future of the Web group favorite links are here.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

OpenWeb 11/27/2011 (p.m.)

  • Draconian post-9/11 U.S. government surveillance statutes will cost U.S. economy as customers shop for cloud services elsewhere.  

    Tags: cloud computing, data privacy

    • A few recent legal developments affecting U.S. online privacy have rightfully troubled privacy advocates and civil libertarians on American soil. In addition to the Patriot Act's relaxed regulation of law enforcement's access to private data, recent court rulings have made it clear that U.S. authorities can secretly request data from tech companies without the user ever knowing.

      If this seems objectionable from the standpoint of U.S. citizens, imagine how it looks to outsiders who are storing their data there. Some European companies who do business with U.S. technology companies are concerned enough to start looking elsewhere for infrastructure


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

OpenWeb 11/20/2011 (p.m.)

  • Vaporware, but interesting. More info on the developers' website at .  Basic idea is a computer on a stick that can be plugged into either other computers or into an HDMI flatscreen TV. In the latter scenario, Bluetooth connectivity for keyboard/mouse combo, provided by e.g., a smartphone. The USB connection is v. 2.0, but I'll guess that USB 3.0 would soon be an option in newer models.  According to the specs it can run either Android or Ubunutu. If you check the developer's website, they definitely have their eyes on the growth in the numbers of HDMI-equipped TVs. Note that if delivered as described, this breaks boundaries of mobile devices, tending toward a convergence of TV monitors and mobile devices in an unexpected way. 

    Tags: Cloud-Computing, Android, Ubuntu, TV-Internet, mobile devices

    • Google has made no secret about its plans for Android. Smartphones and tablets are just the beginning — the company wants Android everywhere. And thanks to FXI Technologies’ Cotton Candy USB device, we may not have to wait long to see Android on more than just our mobile devices.

      FXI essentially built an ultra-lean computer inside a small USB stick. Stick it into any device that supports USB storage, and Cotton Candy will register as a USB drive. From there, you can run the Android OS in a secure environment inside your desktop, courtesy of a Windows/OSX/Linux-compatible virtualization client embedded in the device.

      Stick Cotton Candy into a computer, and Android will appear in a virtualized window on your desktop. But get this: The USB key also features an HDMI connector. This way, you can connect the stick to your TV and use Android on the big screen (though you’ll need some kind of secondary input device, like a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard combo, to get anything done.)

  • Tags: android, IPad, mindshare


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

OpenWeb 11/16/2011 (p.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

OpenWeb 11/16/2011 (a.m.)

  • Page one of this extrordinary Business Insider interview of Ben Milne, founder of Dwolla.  Lots of highlights on this 3 page article.  An absolute must read.  Dwolla is using the Web and mobile Web connectivity to truly disrupt the massive Credit Card transaction and payment industry.  Built on top of the legacy Bank ACH payment and reconciliation system used by all Banks. This is awe-sum!  A recent economic study claimed that 40% of all transactions is "interest payment".  For Governments, it's 50%.  The Banksters are getting their vig at every turn, with Credit Cards accounting for much of the productivity-sales formula of invest, build, service, and sell.

    Tags: Dwolla, Banksters, Credit-Card-Payment-Industry

    • really strategic investors, which is what we did. One of our investors is a financial institution; one is a financial services company. 
    • Our investors do credit and debit processing for banks.  So when you get a credit card from your bank, it's being issued by companies like them.  Our investors are also distributing our product to financial institutions.  So we've been building a payment network, and we can do it legally because of who our investors are.
  • Incredible interview with Ben Milne of Dwolla, the PayPal and Square killer that promises to take a huge chunk out of the Credit Card transaction industry.  Incredible must read!  This is page 2 out of four.  Starts at: http://bit.ly/vzVUy3 excerpt: How does Dwolla work and how is it different from PayPal? With Dwolla, payments are made directly from your bank account.  No credit or debit cards are allowed.  And because they don't exist in the system, we don't have to bring the fees into the system.  You can spend any amount of money and when you do that, the person on the other end doesn't have to pay 1, 2, 3 or 4%. They only pay $0.25 a transaction, which is especially helpful when it's $1,000, $2,000 or $5,000 transactions.  Obviously PayPal becomes very cost prohibitive with those larger transactions.   The biggest difference between ideas like this and a PayPal — and PayPal is a phenomenal idea, Square is too — is that those are built on top of networks like Visa and MasterCard. We're building our own.

    Tags: Banksters, PayPal, Square, Credit-Card-Payment-Industry, Dwolla, Ben-Milne

    • The biggest difference between ideas like this and a PayPal — and PayPal is a phenomenal idea, Square is too — is that those are built on top of networks like Visa and MasterCard. We're building our own
    • All banks are connected by one ACH system.  Credit card companies utilize that same system to pay off your credit card charges.  Banks internally set along that same system to move money in their own banks.  This system in its own right is riddled with flaws — tons of fraud issues and waste and delays.  If you've ever had a payment take a few days to clear, its because they're waiting on that ACH system. 

      quote dwollaWe want to fix that system between the banks, take out the delays and make it instant.  If we can create this ubiquitous cash layer of distribution between consumers and merchants and developers and financial institutions, that actually fixes the problem.

    • We don't believe in credit cards.  We believe in authorization and in lower cost transfers.  Our generation actually understands that when you buy sh*t, it comes out of your bank account and you have to pay for that.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

OpenWeb 11/11/2011 (a.m.)

  • Excellent search FaceBook service.  The quote at the top of th epage explains why FaceBook users need to pay close attention to what FaceBook is doing to shred privacy:   "They 'trust me".  Dumb fucks."  ..... Mark Zuckerberg, FaceBook

    Tags: Facebook, FaceBook-privacy

  • Tags: China, China Telecom, wireless networking, mobile devices

    • Instead of resting on its laurels as China's third-largest wireless provider, China Telecom is now looking to branch out into relatively uncharted waters -- namely, the US consumer market. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Donald Tan, president of China Telecom Americas, confirmed that his company plans to bring its own branded wireless service to select US markets next year, in the hopes of capitalizing on the large Chinese communities and consumer bases scattered across the country.
    • If the trial goes swimmingly, he added, China Telecom may expand it to Canada, as well, and would even consider purchasing or constructing its own network in the States (pending FCC approval, of course). The provider, which has already been marketing its services to US corporations for a decade, also has the capacity to spend "hundreds of millions or billions" on stateside acquisitions

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

OpenWeb 11/10/2011 (p.m.)

  • Tags: flash, silverlight, html5, HTML5 Wins

    • You could hardly ask for a more ringing endorsement of the future of HTML5 and a Web based on open, common standards than Adobe and Microsoft's near-simultaneous leaks announcing the impending disconinuation of their respective rich media browser plug-ins, Flash and Silverlight.
  • Tags: IPv6, Comcast

    • Comcast has been conducting IPv6 technical trials in our production network for more than a year, and we've been working diligently on IPv6 deployment for over 6 years. After so many years of challenging preparatory work, significant technology investment, internal skills development, and close collaboration with our technology partners, I am incredibly pleased to announce that we've achieved another critical milestone in our transition to IPv6 — we have started the pilot market deployment of IPv6 to customers in selected markets!

      We're now the first large ISP in North America to start deploying IPv6. This is a significant milestone not just inside our own company but also in the industry, particularly given the chicken and egg relationship between the availability of content and software that supports IPv6 and the deployment of IPv6 to end users.

    • This first phase will support certain types of directly connected CPE, where a single computer is connected directly to a cable modem. Subsequent phases in 2011 and 2012 will support home gateway devices and variable length prefixes.

      Critically, our approach is "native dual stack" which means customers will get both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Some other ISPs that are less prepared may be using tunneling or large scale NAT in the network. Those approaches are likely to result in some applications (such as some real-time applications) breaking or seeming slow. Native dual stack, the approach we are using, avoids breaking or slowing applications and maintains a better and faster broadband Internet experience. Our customers buy Xfinity Internet service in large part for our great speeds, and they can rest assured that they won't have to slow down as the world transitions to IPv6, as we've "just said no to NAT" in this phase of our IPv6 transition.

    • For all the key technical details, check out this complementary blog post from John Brzozowski.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

OpenWeb 11/10/2011 (a.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

OpenWeb 11/09/2011 (a.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

OpenWeb 11/08/2011 (p.m.)

  • Tags: Mozilla, web OS, B2G, boot to Gecko

      • Mozilla has been experimenting with an interesting idea called Boot 2 Gecko. Essentially, B2G (as it’s called) is a mobile operating system based on the Web, as opposed to what the project’s wiki calls “proprietary, single-vendor stacks”. Mozilla has something there--open Web technologies indeed increasingly provide an intriguing platform for lots of things, mobile and otherwise.

        The developers on the B2G project are looking at the following areas:
        • New web APIs: build prototype APIs for exposing device and OS capabilities to content (Telephony, SMS, Camera, USB, Bluetooth, NFC, etc.)
        • Privilege model: making sure that these new capabilities are safely exposed to pages and applications
        • Booting: prototype a low-level substrate for an Android-compatible device
        • Applications: choose and port or build apps to prove out and prioritize the power of the system

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Future of the Web 11/08/2011 (p.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Future of the Web group favorite links are here.

Monday, October 31, 2011

OpenWeb 11/01/2011 (a.m.)

  • Sencha.io is designed to give Web app developers the ability to synchronize and manage data in the cloud without having to write an excessive amount of code. For messaging, data management, login and deployment, Sencha claims that a few lines of Javascript will allow mobile Web developers to easily integrate these functions to apps built with HTML5.

    Tags: Sencha.io, mobile-apps, mobile-framework

  • HTML5 development company appMobi is releasing a new browser today called MobiUs that will give mobile Web apps the same type of functionality that now is currently only enjoyed by native apps for platforms like iOS and Android. AppMobi thinks of MobiUs as the replacement for Flash in mobile - it renders mobile websites like a Flash extension would and gives developers device access in ways previously unavailable to in HTML5. MobiUs is technically a mobile browser. That is not the way appMobi thinks it will be used though. The company expects it to be function more like a browser extension. Like Flash, users will be prompted to download it once and from then it will just run in on the device.

    Tags: mobile-apps, mobile-web, ReadWriteWeb, appMobi, MobiUS


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

OpenWeb 10/30/2011 (a.m.)


Posted from Diigo. The rest of Open Web group favorite links are here.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Federal Gestapo

Federal Gestapo is a new list i've started at Diigo. After reading through the slam of recent articles about the DOJ shutting down Gibson Guitar and seizing their assets without a shred of due process, i thought it time to start collecting evidence of Federal abuse. Interestingly, the Gibson Guitar story sent me to the Tenth Amendment movement, affectionately known to marxist-socialist-liberal big government tyranny types as "tenthers". The 10th Amendment is perhaps the most redundant of all Constitutional rights in that it restates the basic premise of our Constitutional Republic and the rational behind the USA Constitution: limited government. It further states that those powers not specifically reserved to the Federal Government belong to the States and the People (individuals rights). The USA Constitution is limited by the concept of "enumerated powers". These enumerated and limited powers are further explained through the Madisonian concept of balance of power first between the Federal government, the States and the People. Then between the executive, congressional and judicial branches of the Federal government. Tenthers simply insist that all Federal Government actions, rules and regulations should strictly adhere to the enumerated powers listed in the Constitution. Everything else belongs to the States and the People. Although the expansive and self serving interpretations of the Commerce Clause have all but shattered the Tenth Amendment, the movement is gradually clawing back the liberty of the American People and their Sovereign States. Primarily this seems to be accomplished by the judicial rulings of primacy; where State laws are considered primary to Federal Laws and regulations wherever they come in conflict. This is an interesting approach to cracking the near total Constitutional nullification that expansive interpretation of the Commerce Clause results in. Simply, if the power isn't enumerated and reserved to the Feds, primacy belongs to the State and the People. With this 10th Amendment primacy approach, there is no need to rule as to the Constitutionality of the Federal action and any Commerce Clause claim. The Tenth Amendment truly states the Madisonian Constitutional principle of "federalism". "Powers not granted to the federal government nor prohibited to the States by the Constitution are reserved, respectively, to the states or the people", wikipedia. 10th Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." In Mark Levine's book, "Liberty and Tyranny", he describes our Constitutional way of life as "ordered liberty". The Rule of Law and due process are integral to this concept of ordered liberty. And clearly, the Federal Gestapo tactics used on Gibson guitar are cause for alarm. Maybe i should have named my list "Tenthers"? Or "Ordered Liberty". Or "Liberty and Tyranny", which would be in tribute to the fine work our country's foremost Constitutional scholar, Mark Levine, has done. No matter though. Feel free to contribute by posting your bookmarks and comments to the Diigo "Federal Gestapo" list.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Official Gmail Blog: Faces of Gmail: Sarah Price

Official Gmail Blog: Faces of Gmail: Sarah Price: "Posted by Kathleen Chen, Consumer Operations In this month’s Faces of Gmail we’re profiling Sarah Price, our history-loving, lindy-hoppin..."

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Blog: We The Stupid

We The Stupid: Ann Barnhardt on the National Debt Ceiling SCAM!



If your angry over the National Debt Ceiling Scam, you're not alone. Ann Barnhardt is fist pounding furious in this post at american Thinker. And with good reason. This is going to be a long battle. One thing i do disagree with her on though is where Obama will borrow the money to fund the $2.4 Trillion debt increase. She's right that no country in the world has $2.4 Trillion to lend us. But the Banksters have plenty!

Two weeks ago the GAO released the results of the first time ever inventory of the Federal Reserve Bankster Cartel. They found that the FRBC had created $16.1 Trillion of our money between 2009 and 2010, and passed that money to member Banksters, international Bankster associates, and too-big-to-fail Wall Street gamblers; at near zero percent interest. Combined with the the US TARP bailout, and the AiG - Fannie Mae - Freddie Mac bailouts, the total cost of converting Bankster debt to USA Taxpayer debt tops out at over $23.4 Trillion.

The Banksters are flush with dollars, but what are they going to invest in? It's said that the Federal Reserve owns somewhere between 70%- 80% of the US Treasury issued debt. The way this happens however is that the Federal Reserve first "lends" (at near 0%) created dollars to member Banksters. Then the Banksters purchase the Treasuries at 3.25% and up depending on the payout period per note. In effect, American Taxpayers get to borrow back their own money while paying the Banksters a hefty, risk free handling fee of at least 3.25%.

So, with $16.1 Trillion sloshing around, and not much too invest in, the Banksters really need Obama to borrow $2.4 Trillion, and spend a whole lot more. At some point this ponzi scheme will collapse, but not today. Least ways not until the Banksters can launder that $16.1 Trillion freebi. My guess is that the Banksters would like to turn the $16.1 Trill into 3.25% bonds, and then into land, indentured tax obligations (inter-generational), and investments in debt free third world countries - where the game of new world order begins anew.

Jaded, cynical, but very much awake and aware......
~ge~