ducaties: July 2011

Tweeting intensity around Tel Aviv City Hall

Israel does not allow its territory or the occupied territory to be mapped by Google Maps. But we are seeing a rise in Israeli geo-tagged tweeting. Here is Tel Aviv City Hall, where we understand some protests against inflation and a weak economy.

Heavy tweeting in Washington DC in to the night

Heavy tweeting late in to the night in Washington D.C. as the GOP fails to get support in its own House of Representatives for a debt ceiling.

The very useful GeoSay tool allows you to look in on the content of tweeting and other social networks in an area.

Hands on: Windows Phone Mango Twitter integration

QR codes - a quick way to swap bits of information

QR code for URL totalFlux.blogspot.com encoded with RedLaser iPhone app

There are many different ways one can transfer information these days. QR code is yet another way to do just that. What it is essentially is a 2D bar code that anyone with a capable mobile device and the right application can generate as well as scan. QR codes are not exactly a new phenomena since they have been used in the automotive industry to label parts for many years. However, in recent years with the advent of the smart phone QR codes started to trickle into the consumer markets. There are many QR applications available on the iPhone as well as other smart phones. For example I used a free application called RedLaser to generate the QR code at the top of this page on an iPhone. With RedLaser it is a breeze to encode contact information, a URL, or any other snippet of text. If you already own a smart phone today grab one of the numerous QR applications available for your device and see for yourself how easy it is to create your own two-dimensional bar code.

To learn more about QR codes please visit Wikipedia

Before U.S. release, over 5 million Samsung Galaxy S2 phones have sold

"Samsung Electronics has announced that the company sold more than 5 million units of its Galaxy S2 smartphone, according to Yonhap News Agency."

Before U.S. release, over 5 million Samsung Galaxy S2 phones have sold

We have to say we love this machine. If it had a longer life battery we would collectively marry it. Sadly the price you pay for a super thin light mobile phone is limited battery life that makes intensive Web 3.0 Cloud living very hard.

Fujiitsu Toshiba IS12T confirmed as first Windows Phone 7 Mango phone - Recombu

"Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications has officially announced its first Windows Phone 7.5 Mango handset, the Windows Phone IS12T, which has been confirmed for Japan.

The handsets appearance is no real surprise, considering it popped up at the Microsoft partner conference earlier displayed it last month. Billed as ‘Japan’s first water and dustproof smartphone’ it’s also the first rugged handset to join Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 range.

The interface is unmistakably Windows Phone 7 and the handset includes the trio of back, search and menu buttons, but what sets it apart is the colour, it comes in black, but it is also available in dazzlingly bright pink and yellow. We’re not sure quite who it will appeal too, but it certainly which makes a welcome change to the usual array of black/grey smartphones."

Fujiitsu Toshiba IS12T confirmed as first Windows Phone 7 Mango phone - Recombu

Where twitter is hot: urban, tourist and gay

Amsterdam

Soho London

San Francisco near Mission and Castro.

Some things about these numbers are surprising. Amsterdam has more tweeting than San Francisco or London for one. But some are not surprising. Tourists, especially young tourists are heavy tweeters. Urban, liberal areas with large gay populations are heavy users of tweeting.

Amsterdam is an interesting place in so many ways, and the fact it is the highest point of global tweeting is worth further examination.

Twitter and stagnation, tweeting from London on slow GDP numbers

Tweeting from the Financial District on announcement of UK GDP growth has slowed significantly.

Tweeting in a situation like this is very interesting. Certainly we saw the number rise significantly on our clime.me scale to 100. Right now we are very confident that people are tweeting more than normal in London City and near the government.

But the level is still nothing compared to the Oslo attack surge. Today in the City we saw a rise from 65 to 85, on the day of Oslo attacks we saw a rise from 10 to 85 nears the main hospital. People don't need to use twitter in a situation like this. No one has been so impacted by the UK bad economic news that their families will need to hear from them. Nor is there anything very interesting to photograph.

Journalists are probably chatting on the story and traders and government people may be using Twitter to gather information and sample sentiment. But anyone can get the entire story by turning on their TV.

What is interesting is how the rise in the City has translated to a much larger longer rise near the offices of government. This might indicate that twitter is used more in political and government related areas than trading. Bankers and traders will quickly go to their existing systems to deal with the impact of this bad news, but the government is in the business of public spin, and with the UK government facing serious questions of their relationship with News of the World executives bad economic news will be more blood for Britain's aggressive press.

Heavy tweeting coming coming from Tahrir

We are seeing some very high tweeting from Tahrir Square in Cairo. Cairo is seeing a Madrid like camping protest, with rises and falls in tweeting but nothing like earlier this year.

Update August 3rd: We are seeing a surge in tweeting at and near Tahrir as Mubarak stands trial.

Tweeting coming from Oslo explosion site

There seems to have been a massive car bomb in Oslo

The area near the University Hospital is seeing very high tweeting.

Apple updates MacBook Air and Mac Mini and rolls out the all new OS X Lion

Today Apple updated MacBook Air and Mac Mini with the latest greatest 2nd generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors that are twice as fast as the previous offerings. The recently introduced Thunderbolt port is now a standard offering too. The new MacBook Air now also sports a very much needed backlit keyboard. Noteworthy updates to the Mac Mini lineup include a twist off base for easy memory upgrades and an integrated power supply - so long the chunky paper weight power supply brick. A new Mac Mini Server is also available with Lion Server edition. All new Macs now ship with the brand spanking new OS X Lion, which introduces over 250+ new features. You can download OS X Lion upgrade from the App Store today for a nominal fee of just $29.99.

All-in-all Apple is on a roll and there is seemingly no stopping them now! Next up iPhone 5 and iPad 3...

Google+ vs. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg's Reaction

Track tweeting at amazing events in UK Commons

Following the Twitter intensity near Parliament in the UK.

We are seeing very intense tweeting from around Parliament as the UK government rocks.

All you ever wanted to know about the Space Shuttle in one cool infographic...

Let's face it, any way you look at it Space Shuttles are awesome! This is probably the most complex and baddest glider ever built. Yes, I know what you are about to say, it's lame that it can only glide but on the other hand do you know of any other glider that can go to fiery hell and back in once piece? I didn't think so. Anyways enjoy this awesome Space Shuttle infographic...

A graphical representative of NASA’s space shuttle.

Source Space.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Hate Groups on Facebook

Facebook Group Islam is of the Devil raises serious questions about how well the massively successful site is taking its moral responsibility.

When Murdoch tells his full site of the recent News of the World collapse you can be certain he will say that he did not know about the phone hacking that took place. Murdoch will claim that basic ethical lapses happened beyond the high level managements view. We may never know if this is true or not. But it seems that Facebook is content to institutionalize allowing the law to be broken on its site out of ignorance.

Though many hate groups on Facebook are hard to discover when the site involved uses a name like Islam is of the Devil one would image a simply search algorithm would find it quickly. Perhaps Facebook has not bothered to put this level of filtering in place. Though we support free speech as much as anyone Facebook is bound by the laws of the United States at the very least. Targeting a religion for attack is a hate crime and not only violates Facebook's ToS but the laws of the United States and California.

Social Networks need to take their duty to users and the law more seriously. Just as recent event in Egypt have shown the power of Facebook as a social movement tool, the certain reaction of hatred and violence must be dealt with. The ball is solidly in Facebook's court right now, can they tolerate digging deeper in to their profits to provide a safe and legal environment?

Apple iPhone 5 - two stunning designs

Two independent designers take a stab at what they think the future iPhone 5 will look like and come up with two very different yet stunning designs. Here they are...

Antoine Brieux's design concept is a complete departure from the all-too-familiar Apple look.

Antoine Brieux's iPhone 5 design

[@ Gizmodo]

In contrast Michal Bonikowski's design builds on top of the existing and proven iPhone 4 and iPad 2 chasis.

Michal Bonikowski's iPhone 5 design

[@ Yanko Design]

Tweeting at Parliament debate on BSkyB

Following the Twitter intensity near Parliament in the UK. Parliament is discussing the Murdoch BSkyB deal, but the bigger issues is the role of Murdoch and his connection to the Tory Leadership via Andy Coulson.

Track twitter intensity from News International office in London

You can track the News International office as the scandal with News of the World and Murdoch's empire unfolds.

Live tweeting intensity from Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia has seen major protests recently for democratic reform. Malaysia, like much of the developing Pacific rim nations is a site of very high tweeting. Social Networks are well established in the country and could provide support for a protest movement. But as we have posted before Social Networks will not make revolts in themselves.

Is Web 3.0 going to kill SQL

"According to database pioneer Michael Stonebraker, Facebook is operating a huge, complex MySQL implementation equivalent to “a fate worse than death,” and the only way out is “bite the bullet and rewrite everything.”

Not that it’s necessarily Facebook’s fault, though. Stonebraker says the social network’s predicament is all too common among web startups that start small and grow to epic proportions."

Facebook trapped in MySQL ‘fate worse than death’ — Cloud Computing News

Perhaps, just perhaps, the entire concept of a database may be simply to static for the new Web 3.0 age?

Think about how data transactions have changed. Say 10 years ago you might fill out a form or write an email, a task that might take minutes or even up to an hour, and then press sent or submit. This would post data back to a web server and you would be happy to wait for a few seconds.

The old world was dominated by big pieces of data collection, often in large structure data forms, followed by few posts to a data store.

SQL databases for fine for this.

But today the size of write tasks are becoming smaller and smaller. Tweets are 140 characters or less, likes, 1+ or retweets are button presses. As our devices become smaller and more mobile the amounts of data posts are getting smaller and smaller. We are moving more more to an always on Internet dominated by likes, tweets, check-ins, and winks.

What is needed is more agile rapid data models. The traditional overhead heavy SQL database was fine but today we are looking at Social Graphs connecting tens of millions of people many of whom may make dozens of small transactions to the data model. And with mobility comes the cult of real time. People are not ready to wait 10 minutes for their data to propagate all the global servers in a Grid or cluster.

Tweeting intensity at Andy Coulson police interview

Twitter intensity a West End Central Police Station, 27 Savile Row, Westminster, London W1S 2EX where Andy Coulson is being interviewed by the police over News of the World hacking scandal. London always has massive numbers so its hard to see anything.

BBC News - Facebook adds Skype video chat feature

"Facebook has announced a partnership with Skype to add video chat to the social networking site.

The move is likely to be seen as a shot across the bow of Google, which recently launched a Facebook rival, Google+, also featuring video calling.

This is not the first time Facebook and Skype have teamed up - they already share some instant messaging tools.

Skype is in the process of being bought by Microsoft, which is a major shareholder in Facebook.

The new video-call service was launched by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who also revealed that the site now had more than 750 million users."

BBC News - Facebook adds Skype video chat feature

Well we have Skpe and we have Facebook. It might be nice that the link between the two will now take 1 second rather than the traditional second. But it is possible now just to open Skype and Facebook and go between the two. So merging them is a quick win but for most advanced user it really offers little. In fact given the excellence of the Google+ Facebook will have to do much more than just add more Microsoft services to impress us.

Track intensity of Tahrir square tweeting here

You can use our Clima.me tool to track the intensity of tweeting coming from Tahrir Square in Cairo. There are plans for a large demonstration July 8th.

New Media goes to war with Murdoch's old media

In a stunning development, and what can only be considered a major turning point in the development of New Media, Murdoch has stated that he will close down the News of the World, the UK's largest selling newspaper. Just when you imagined that MySpace was a major failure, Murdoch has lost the jewel in his UK media empire. It will be interesting to see is campaigns using social media can reduce Murdoch's power even more.

RupertMurdochPR RupertMurdochPR

I will sack/sue any journo who says I profited off deaths of kids, terror victims and weeping SAS widows. Even if I did. And I did #notw

5 minutes ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

It is almost a cliche to say that New Media services like twitter are in a kind of war with older media like cable and newspapers. But a direct war like what we are seeing today is something new.

redscotia52 Denise Morton

Write to Hunt and Cameron @Number10gov to stop #Murdoch's #media takeover! #hacking #notw #milly avaaz.org/en/murdoch_mes…

Users on Twitter are directly attacking British paper News of the World after it was disclosed that News of the World reporters have tapped the cellphones of murder victims and terrorist victim families in the UK. In one case the family of a dead teen ager were lead to believe she might have been alive and checking her phone when News of the World 'journalists' deleted messages to make room for new voice mails (we are not making this story up). We are now hearing that police were paid off by News of the World and even police phones were hacked.

ukradar ukradar
@EastbourneWilko #NOTW Murdoch is like a dying elephant the expiration will be a long process. So there is a lot of time to go yet.
2 minutes ago

The social network is attacking on two fronts. Firstly a Twitter campaign is targeting firms doing business with News of the World. In a larger attack people are trying to pressure the government to delay Murdoch's take over of cable provider BskyB. Last we checked an online petition had almost 100,000 signatures today.

Marshajane Marshajane Thompson

People giving away the sun and times @ Stratford station this morning - most people saying no #notw #youcantgiveitaway

3 minutes ago Favorite Undo Retweet Reply

This story is extremely interesting in what it tells us about media in the Internet age, and about how layers of media technology may find themselves more and more in direct confrontation.

Follow the hashtag #NOTW for more information.

But it is essential to see this as more than a one sided battle. Older media also has a stake. Many papers are not owned by Murdoch. An interesting development is Peter Oborne's piece of the Telegraph calling out the Prime Minister on his contacts with the New of the World crowd. The piece was scathing in its attack on the still young Tory leader and the piece went viral on the web. Waking up this morning we found that almost a half dozen contacts had sent the same link to us via Twitter, Facebook and email.