Evsion Lab

While Apple And NBC Squabble Like Girls In A Schoolyard, BitTorrent Keeps On Rolling

Posted by Duncan Riley under Uncategorized

NBC Dumps iTunes! Apple Dumps NBC! What ever the headline, one thing is sure: by making it even more difficult to obtain affordable, legal downloads of TV shows, more and more people will be turning to Bit Torrent. In Apple’s case, it’s not really their problem, but with NBC you really have to question the business sense of a company that states it is concerned about piracy, then makes the legal alternative more difficult to come by.

As demonstrated in the image below, NBC shows are in plentiful supply on BitTorrent. I’m sure users will welcome the flood of additional downloaders. NBC shows available via BitTorrent include Scrubs, ER, My Name Is Earl, Heroes and just about everything else.

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Readr: Latest News Feed Aggregator

Posted by Pete Cashmore under Uncategorized

We recently covered 20 Ways To Aggregate Your Social Networking Profiles. Well, make that 21: Readr is a very simple tool that lets you add all your feeds from around the web and list the updates in one place, known as the “News Feed”. Plenty of Web 2.0 services are supported.

It’s very straightforward (similar to Plaxo Pulse), but you’re left wondering if Facebook might just eat everybody’s lunch in this market. Thoughts?

[via go2web2]

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DEL.ICIO.US TOOLBOX: 180+ Del.icio.us Tools and Resources

Posted by Jordan Chark under Uncategorized

Social bookmarking was one of the earliest trends out on the social web, and del.icio.us quickly took the lead. Today, we outline over 180 of the best tools and resources to get the most out of the number one social bookmarking site.

Related: SOCIAL BOOKMARKING: 50+ Social Bookmarking Sites (more…)

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29 Coolest Custom Search Apps Built on Google

Posted by Adam Ostrow under Uncategorized

Google released a Facebook application this week built on the Google AJAX Search API. It didn’t work for long, alas, but there are plenty of developers creating interesting projects using the API, which basically lets you build your own custom search engine. In this article, we take a look at 29 of the neatest applications that have been built to-date. (more…)

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Vcasmo Mashes PowerPoint with Your Videos

Posted by Kristen Nicole under Uncategorized

Japan-based Vcasmo is an online presentation tool that lets you mash your video and images with audio or webcam video.

There are several ways in which you can use this service: combine your PowerPoint presentation with a video of yourself speaking, or mix a voice over with images from your last trip abroad. You can also choose what part of the video you’d like to insert voice-over. The result is a very helpful tool for combining different aspects of media to create an online presentation. The completed product can be embedded in your personal website or blog. This is not primarily an editing tool, however, so you won’t find many options for adding things like text or graphics, and you can’t add videos directly from a webcam.

On the site itself, you’ll find a community of users. You can subscribe to a user, and add them as a friend. View all of the presentations they’ve posted, leave comments and ratings, or add a presentation to your favorites. Adding some editing options, perhaps some text notes that users or the video creator could leave, like Veotag or MyPlick, and some chapter selections could make this even more useful for things like educational videos, which is a primary objective for Vcasmo.

[via webware]

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Like Sands Through The Hour Glass, Another Person Is Claiming To Have Founded Facebook

Posted by Duncan Riley under Uncategorized

The New York Times has discovered a new claimant for the title of founder of Facebook.

Aaron Greenspan, a Harvard classmate of Mark Zuckerberg claims that he created the original college social networking system, before either Facebook or ConnectU were founded.

Mr. Greenspan is said to have established a web service that he called houseSYSTEM in 2003, 6 months prior to Facebook launching. houseSYSTEM was used by several thousand Harvard students and provided similar features to what is found today in Facebook; Zuckerberg was a user of houseSYSTEM. Greenspan is also claiming credit for Facebook’s name: he showed the Times an email dated Sept. 19, 2003 describing the newest feature of houseSYSTEM as “the Face Book.” Facebook initially launched under the name and URL of “TheFacebook” in 2004.

Unlike the founders of ConnectU who are suing Zuckerberg for control of Facebook, Greenspan’s claim so far only extends to wanting recognition by others as being the founder of Facebook.

Update: In related news, Facebook has once again asked a judge to throw out ConnectU’s law suit. More here.

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Who Invented Facebook…And Who Cares?

Posted by Pete Cashmore under Uncategorized

Aaron Greenspan is so important that at age 24, he has already written an autobiography. In it, he explains how he - not Mark Zuckerberg or the ConnectU founders - was the original creator of Facebook, a site now worth many billions of dollars. “This book is partly a search for justice”, he writes of his struggle.

We covered this story back in September 2006, when Greenspan wrote an open letter to Zuckerberg explaining how his original idea for student tools, houseSYSTEM, was being relaunched as CommonRoom. That project hasn’t been heard about again since (the site has only 1,500 users compared with Facebook’s 35 million+), but Greenspan is back, and talking to the New York Times about how Zuckerberg stole his idea for the Face Book,” an online system for quickly locating other students”.

And most likely he did take inspiration from that site, but it’s execution, not the idea, that wins out. At no point, however, does Greenspan say he plans to get embroiled in legal action against Facebook. His bitterness probably isn’t helping him much, though: at 24, he has plenty of time to rethink, launch a good startup and bank at least a few million, and perhaps much more.

Greenspan has yet to find a publisher for his autobiography.

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Google Earth’s Hidden Surprise: A Flight Simulator

Posted by Duncan Riley under Uncategorized

We’ve always known that Google has wanted to challenge Microsoft’s desktop dominance in a number of areas, but to date we didn’t know that extended to gaming.

Hidden inside Google Earth is a secret Flight Simulator that takes full advantage of Google’s extensive satellite imagery.

To access the hidden feature, open Google Earth and hit Command+Option+A (note it must be capital A) or Ctrl+Alt+A if you’re using a Windows Machine.

The Google Earth Flight Simulator comes with two aircraft options, a F16 Viper and the more manageable SR22 4 seater. Players have the option of commencing the game from their current location in Google Earth or can pick from a list of pre-determined runways. Control instructions can be found here.

Overall the game play is fairly simple in terms of control, but the striking difference is flying over real pictures of locations. I took a quick flight from San Francisco International, headed North to the Golden Gate then turn back over the city before heading towards the Valley. It wasn’t perfect, but it was as good visually as the paid Microsoft Flight Simulator, and in terms of actually presenting real objects it was better.

Thanks to Marco for the how-to.

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Update On Netscape.com: It’s Done, Possibly Moving To WOW.com. Big AOL Layoffs Coming.

Posted by Michael Arrington under Uncategorized

We’ve gotten an update on the controversial post we wrote earlier this month on the possible shutdown of the fourteen-month-old old Digg-clone Netscape. Too many AOL execs have had their eye on the Netscape.com domain name, which brings in 3 million or so page views per day. The most likely scenario - The current home page at aol.netscape.com becomes the default page for Netscape.com, and the year old digg-clone moves to a new domain.

We hear that wow.com, a domain previously owned by Compuserve and acquired by AOL, is a potential landing place for the Netscape service. AOL may have different plans for wow.com, however, and the Netscape portal may land somewhere else. Either way, look for a link or module from the old service to remain on the netscape.com domain after the changeover.

We also expect to hear about material layoffs at AOL in the next six weeks, possibly as much as 15% of the 16,000 strong workforce. Next week the senior execs are supposed to be notified of the exact size of the cuts and whether they are targeted to specific business groups or across the board cuts.

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EASTER EGG: Flight Simulator Hidden Within Google Earth

Posted by Pete Cashmore under Uncategorized

Amazing but true: as spotted by Marco, Google has hidden a mini flight simulator within Google Earth. To access it for the first time, hit CTRL+Alt+A in Windows or Command+Option+A on the Mac.

You need the latest version of Google Earth, and I needed to be over the US to get the window to pop up. What you should see in that window is a choice of two planes - the F16 and the SR22. Once you’ve accessed it for the first time, you can return to the simulator by hitting Tools, then Enter Flight Simulator. The controls are keyboard and mouse, and while it’s limited in scope, it’s still a lot of fun.

I think this one may qualify as the “Best Easter Egg Ever!”.

See also: Google Sky

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The Best of “You Know You’re Old When:”

Posted by GuyKawasaki under Uncategorized

Yesterday I posted a story called “You know You’re Old When:” People submitted over one hundred suggestions—many are obsoletely hilarious. Here is an audio recording of my favorites brought to you by the HP iPaq 510 cell phone. Enjoy the weekend!

Scribd Users To Face Backlash After Mass SFWA Takedown Notice?

Posted by Kristen Nicole under Uncategorized

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of American (SFWA) organization has taken it upon itself to issue a DMCA takedown notice for sci-fi reading lists on Scribd, stepping on a lot of toes.

The issue at hand is in regards to the manner in which the SFWA is apparently policing the Scribd community, issuing takedown notices for content they have no representation for. There are several sci-fi authors that are purposely distributing their content for free, to be redistributed through Scribd, that have been affected by the takedown notice issued by the SFWA. This is problematic if the organization is meddling in matters that are unrelated.

As we well know by now, these mass takedown notices can be sent out with little regard to individual cases, and take the approach of dealing with the consequences later. We see it on YouTube with companies like Viacom all the time. And that’s exactly what’s happening now with Scribd. What’s worse, is this makes the willing authors and content owners look like hypocrites, once readers see that their content has been taken down as a result of an SFWA request. A larger issue is regarding the process by which content can be requested for takedown, which is very much unlike any process we see with book stores, newspapers and magazines. Hopefully a better system will be put in place to handle these cases on a more individual basis.

[via ars technia]

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This Week’s Best Posts

Posted by Gina Trapani under Uncategorized

Lifehacker posts flooding your newsreader? Turn down the volume using either our daily, trimmed-down top stories feed or once-weekly highlights feed. This week's best posts include:

• Partition and Image Your Hard Drive with the System Rescue CD
  "You've just reinstalled Windows from scratch--again--but this time you want to preserve your sparkling clean setup for instant restoration down the road."
• Where the Web Archives Are
  "Some of the most intriguing resources on the web are located in archives--compilations of data that in the past, could only be found by making appointments in dusty libraries."
• Maintain a Consistent Workspace Across Multiple Computers
  "Most likely you use more than one computer in the course of a day--a work computer and a home computer, maybe even a laptop and a desktop."
• Top 10 Ways to Clean Up Your PC
  "Whether it's remnants of that bag of Fritos you ate three years ago lodged in your keyboard or a registry full of broken entries, that old PC of yours could use a little cleaning up."
• Show Us Your Go Bag, Part III
  "You've shown us your satchels, we've seen our fair share of urban assault bags, and this week we're back for the third and final installment of our Show Us Your Go Bag series."
• Ubuntu Founder Mark Shuttleworth on Productivity and Linux
  "Founder of Ubuntu Linux Mark Shuttleworth took time out of his busy schedule to talk with us about email, productivity, travel, web applications, Ubuntu, free software and much more."
• Confident Body Language
  "You can make yourself seem more confident (even if you're not) with a few body language tricks."
• Unsubscribe from Catalogs
  "While most reputable companies make it easy to unsubscribe from their email list, those same companies make it as much of a pain as possible to unsubscribe from their paper catalog."
• Get Reverse Phone Lookups with Sullr
  "Web site Sullr provides reverse phone number lookups with an attractive AJAX interface and Google Maps mashup."
• Make an iPhone/iPod Stand from a Business Card
  "Sick of holding your iPod, iPhone, or other portable video player in your lap like a chump while all the other cool cats in the plane/train/automobile sit their portable devices in a trendy yet elegant stand?"
• Tweak Vista and XP with Xdn Tweaker
  "Windows only: Tweak system settings in both Windows XP and Vista with lightweight freeware application Xdn Tweaker."

VisualTwitter Does the Obvious

Posted by Kristen Nicole under Uncategorized

VisualTwitter is the latest to build on the Twitter API. With this tool you quite simply send an image to your Twitter updates by sending it to me@visualtwitter.com. You’ll need to give VisualTwitter your phone number for validation purposes. You can sign in with your Twitter information. From there, everything is very straight forward. There’s not much community on VisualTwitter’s own website–there’s really no need. You can, however, see the photo stream for users listed on the site. The service plain and simply lets you send images to your Twitter page. My only concern is their use of Twitter’s logo with their own. Questionable?

Other Twitter image services and clones include MobyPicture and Yappd.

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Ross Levinsohn And Jonathan Miller To Announce New Buyout Fund Next Week

Posted by Michael Arrington under Uncategorized

This news has been simmering for a while. When Ross Levinsohn resigned as the President of Fox Interactive Media late last year it was rumored that he intended to raise a large fund to acquire Internet startups. He soon partnered with Jonathan Miller, the former Chairman and CEO of America Online and the two have been out raising capital for the last few months.

They’ve found their partner - $15 billion hedge fund General Atlantic. Details on the amount of capital committed to the new fund are scarce, but General Atlantic issued a press release today announcing that Levinsohn and Miller have become advisors to the fund. The timing is interesting - 5:14 pm EST on the Friday before the long weekend. The press was circling on this story, and the release was obviously made to preempt the news from breaking.

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1.9 Billion Words; Scribd Users Have A Lot To Say

Posted by Nick Gonzalez under Uncategorized

Wikipedia attracted a lot of attention earlier this week when Nikola Smolenski calculated how much paper it would take to print out the English entries in Wikipedia. Smolenski calculated that as of last September, Wikipedia’s English index of informative/controversial articles would fill about 750 400 page volumes. Under the assumption of a 6MB volume, the total site would take up about 2,500 volumes (~15GB).

Today Scribd has released some numbers talking about just how big they’ve gotten as well. Since launching 6 months ago, the site has collected over 178,798 documents. That may not seem like much compared to Wikipedia’s over 5.3 million articles (source) across all languages (as of last September), but Scribd users seem more verbose. Scribd users have uploaded over 1.9 billion words, which would take up over 2,287 of Smolenski’s volumes (13.4 GB). No word on how many of those words are copyrighted.

However, Wikipedia is still obviously the pageview king, drawing over 7 billion pageviews (June) and 42.9 million (Feb) visitors per month, to Scribd’s 3.8 million uniques. Google was responsible for 24% of the traffic, and I imagine the same is true for Scribd. Wikipedia also features highly targeted and edited content to Scribd’s library of reports and rants. Although, unlike Wikipedia, Scribd is helping a lot of people catch up on Harry Potter.

Scribd has had quite a ride since launching over 6 months ago. They sustained a considerable amount of traffic after launch, and eventually went on to raise $3.5 million from Redpoint Ventures. Apparently, easily publishing documents online was not a solved problem.

Here’s a chart of the word growth of both Wikipedia and Scribd:

Note: According to statistics listed on Wikipedia, the site (all languages) has grown from 49,000 words in January 2001 to 1.7 billion words last September (the last reported point). Since the data only goes to September 2006, I extrapolated the growth (yellow) assuming the previous year’s monthly growth rate of 7.7%.

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