Comment on The Irresistable Offer by Stuart Reid
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Archive | January, 2010
Old Street View Lawsuit Allowed Another Gasp
About 22 months ago, Google was sued over its Street View program by a couple named Aaron and Christine Boring.  The entire suit was dismissed a little while later.  Now, the Borings have made a small bit of headway with an appeal, but it doesn’t appear that Google has much to worry about.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit is sticking by the dismissal of the Borings’ claims for invasion of privacy, unjust enrichment, injunctive relief, and punitive damages.  The only claim that will be allowed to go forward is one regarding trespassing.
  (Now-Deleted) Street View Shot Of The Borings’ House
The Borings, who originally sought $25,000 in damages, don’t seem likely to get much money due to this, either.  A court document stated, "[T]hey ‘bear the burden of proving that the trespass was the legal cause, i.e., a substantial factor in bringing about actual harm or damage’ . . . if they want more than a dollar."
This looks to be a significant win for Google.  Had things gone another way, the lawsuit could have encouraged all sorts of people to sue the company.  Taken to an extreme, Street View might have met its end as a result.
Yet as things stand, no one can count on getting more than a single dollar, and that’s only if Google’s Street View drivers prove unable to turn back at "Private Road" signs.
Related Articles:
> Street View Spreads To Denmark, Sweden
> Google Headed To Swiss Court Over Street View
> Google Street View Hits Hawaii, Mexico
Sunday Killer Link Love Post #10
Time passes really fast and here is another batch of “Sunday Killer Link Love Post“. I used to write about make money online tips in the past, if you notice or you’re one of the followers in this blog, you’ll realize that I’ve stopped writing about make money online for quite some times, most of the articles were talking about how to improve your blog and bring your blog to the next level.
Frankly speaking, make [...]
Installing Android development environment on Ubuntu 9.04
I wanted to play with writing Android apps on my home Linux computer, which is currently running Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). These are mostly notes for myself, so don’t feel guilty if you skip this post.
- Make sure your system is up-to-date:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
- Install Java
sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
- [...]
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Online Video Viewing Soared In 2009
The media sector performed well in 2009, recovering $200 billion of value, or 63 percent of what it lost in 2008, online content providers and distributors made up more than half of these gains, according to a new report by consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
The largest gains were in China, where the media sector market value increased by 200 percent. The report indicates that the trend toward online media cannibalizing traditional platforms could push the industry toward a "zero-sum game" and increase the pressure on existing companies to sharpen online strategies.
Online video viewing minutes increased in 2009 by 50% in the U.S. and 30% in Spain, with TV shows and movies accounting for around half of these minutes. "These averages, however, mask the full extent of the change among the subset of the population that watches long-form content online," said Robert C. Fox, a Partner in Oliver Wyman’s Communications, Media, and Technology practice.
"In the U.S., for example, among those who watch long-form video online, 15% of their total long-form viewing is online and their linear TV and DVD viewing decreased in 2009. Similarly among all 18-34 year-olds, a key advertising demographic, all forms of viewing other than online and mobile dropped in 2009."
"The pace of growth in online-video viewing is striking," said Mr. Fox. "However, while the platform is still in its infancy, the behavior of today’s online population suggests that much of this growth will come at the expense of traditional platforms. Video could be headed for a zero-sum game," he added.
Related Articles:
> Google To Get More Interactive With Mobile Video Ads
> IAB Releases Ad Unit Guidelines Updates
> YouTube Videos In Adsense Could Drive Clicks
Intel Shows Off Interesting Way to Access Content
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas earlier this month, Intel had a lot of things going on. For one, they introduced a whole new family of Intel Core Processors. They also had a cool proof-of-concept device on display. This was something they call the Intel Infoscape.
Infoscape is a giant display featuring cubes of information, and users can walk up to it and access all kinds of different content – Google News, Tweets, blogs, Flickr images, etc. While on display at CES, the content dealt with CES-related info.
Being a proof-of-concept device, Infoscape is designed to look at different ways of presenting content down the road. The giant cube is powered by Intel’s Core I7 processor, and pulls from about 20,000 different content sources.
The Infoscape displays its content on a double HD screen at 1920×1920 resolution, running at over 100 frames per second. For the event, it was organized into content areas like healthcare, habitat, the environment, communications, transportation, etc.
According to Intel, the device is aimed at exploring how people might access and organize their content in the future. What do you think?
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Bathroom Scale Now Connects To Google Health
We know, we know: many individuals will view this as an invasion of privacy, or at least a potential cause for embarrassment.  Still, you may find it interesting to learn that a bathroom scale is now able to inform Google Health (along with users’ Twitter followers) of a person’s weight.
No one’s kidding around here.  According to an official press release, "[T]he Withings WiFi Body Scale can provide updates to a user’s Google Health profile wirelessly in real-time using its built-in WiFi connection. . . .  [T]he scale will automatically update the user’s weight and fat mass to their Google Health profile."
As for the Twitter integration (which isn’t enabled by default), that’s actually been in effect since November.  It just seemed worth mentioning.
Now, for the ramifications.  The Withings scale costs a somewhat pricey $159, so this development isn’t likely to have any big effect on everyday life.  Still, since it’s not unaffordable, doctors who like the idea of Google Health may start recommending the scale to patients, giving it real traction.
From there, the price of the tech would almost certainly go down, and more models would come out, leading to a greater market share.
Or not.  Internet-connected ovens, washers, and dryers haven’t been overly successful, and there’s no question that the Withings WiFi Body Scale would take a lot more getting used to.
Related Articles:
> Google Wants To Save Your Life (Or Help End It)
> Google, Microsoft Endorse Declaration Of Health Rights Data
> Google Reaccused Of Lobbying Against Privacy Provisions
Delicious Launches New Features, More on the Way
Delicious has introduced some new features. These come in the categories of bookmark display options, tag options, and bookmark browsing.
Bookmark display options have been combined into one place – just to the right of the Tagbar, and just beneath the bookmark count. New features here include a privacy filter, a send recipients option, and an "open bookmarks in" option. The privacy filter allows users to filter bookmarks by "only private" or "only public." The send recipients option gives users the ability to either show or hide display info like @twitter and email addresses. Users can also hide the history of who they have sent bookmarks to. The "open bookmarks in" option gives users the option to open bookmarks in either the same window or a new one.
Delicious has moved the tag options out of the blue action box and into the sidebar where the tags are actually listed. The feature is the same as before, just in a new location.
A new feature called "Browse these bookmarks" comes in the form of a link in the action box that lets users open the first bookmark and display a small frame at the top of the page, where they can paginate forward through the bookmarks.
"We’re still working on the feature and more functionality will be added over the coming months, but based on how useful we’ve found it, we wanted to give you a chance to start using it sooner rather than later," says Simon on the Delicious blog. "We’d love to get your feedback on this feature and suggestions for other features. We know what we want to add to it, but your responses will help us gauge what we should work on adding next."
Delicious has also improved the tag management functionality on its mobile site and fixed over 50 other minor bugs (which they do not specify). Delicious also promises more tweaks and new features by the end of March, but does not give any details.
 
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> A Delicious New Add-On For IE
> Facebook Offers To Share Info From Flickr, del.icio.us
> Search: Del.icio.us vs. Google
Laws Banning Cell Phone Use While Driving Have Little Impact
State laws that ban cell phone use and texting while driving fail to reduce accidents, according to a new study by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI).
HLDI researchers calculated monthly collision claims per 100 insured vehicle years for vehicles up to 3 years old during the months immediately before and after hand-held phone use was banned while driving in New York, the District of Columbia, Connecticut and California.
Month-to month changes in rates of collision claims in places with bans did not change from before or after the laws went into effect.
"The laws aren’t reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk," says Adrian Lund, president of both the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and HLDI.
In New York the HLDI researchers did find a decrease in collision claim frequencies, relative to comparison states, but this decreasing trend began well before the state’s ban on hand-held phoning while driving and actually paused briefly when the ban took effect. Trends in the District of Columbia, Connecticut, and California didn’t change.
"So the new findings don’t match what we already know about the risk of phoning and texting while driving," Lund points out.
"If crash risk increases with phone use and fewer drivers use phones where it’s illegal to do so, we would expect to see a decrease in crashes. But we aren’t seeing it. Nor do we see collision claim increases before the phone bans took effect. This is surprising, too, given what we know about the growing use of cellphones and the risk of phoning while driving. We’re currently gathering data to figure out this mismatch."
 
Related Articles:
> Advocacy Group Aims To Take On Distracted Drivers
> Senators Push For A Ban On Texting While Driving
>Safety Group Calls For Cell Phone Ban While Driving