News Topic - Google
Articles 61 - 70 of most recent articles
Search Every Craigslist Site at Once
Craigslist limits you to searching its classified listings locally. What if you don't care where your stuff comes from as long as you find the right stuff? Using Google, you can scan through all of Craigslist's listings globally in one search query.
Wired News – Jul 22, 2008 12:17 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Craigslist limits you to searching its classified listings locally. What if you don't care where your stuff comes from as long as you find the right stuff? Using Google, you can scan through all of Craigslist's listings globally in one search query.
Wired News – Jul 22, 2008 12:17 AM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Another view: Roboticist Noel Sharkey on Wall-E
I don't believe in the idea of independent thinking robots. Artificial intelligence is about making machines that can appear intelligent to humans, but they are not self-aware. I've been working in artificial intelligence for 30 years, and there is no glimmer of that. I have a robot called eMo, which can recreate human expressions, but I look at WALL-E with envy. Its whole face consists of nothing more than two camera bodies, but the animators have used them to create the whole range of human expressiveness. I would love to have created that. Eve, the more futuristic robot that WALL-E falls in love with, was just as expressive, but I was distracted by its ability to float. I didn't understand it at all as a machine, so that rather ruined the plausibility. WALL-E, on the other hand, was very plausible. Don't forget this is a story set 800 years in the future; a robot that can collect and compact garbage doesn't seem all that unlikely. But why give it a personality, goals and desires? The implication was that WALL-E had developed its character over time, but how? Even if it was programmed as a learning robot, it had no one to learn from. It was abandoned for 700 years, the last inhabitant of a deserted earth. If you left a human alone for that long, they would go completely crazy. There is nothing remotely like WALL-E in robotics, not yet, but the expressive robot is the direction we are heading towards. There's a whole field called HRI - Human Robotic Interaction. The film takes us several steps further and suggests a terminally lazy society completely controlled by service robots. Unfortunately, this really is the direction we are taking. There are robots caring for the elderly in Japan now. I don't want that sort of life. I don't want to be lifted and carried by robots. I wouldn't mind having one in the kitchen, though. · Noel Sharkey is a professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at Sheffield University. WALL-E is on general release.Related StoriesEmily Bell: If Google should falter, how many others will follow?Solve IT: How can I chat to people with different Instant Messenger applications?Paul Lewis on why Bluetooth technology is raising fears about privacyNetbytes: Girl Power blogger takes Singapore by stormMedia: Das Wikipedia - online resource goes into print
The Guardian – Jul 21, 2008 11:06 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
I don't believe in the idea of independent thinking robots. Artificial intelligence is about making machines that can appear intelligent to humans, but they are not self-aware. I've been working in artificial intelligence for 30 years, and there is no glimmer of that. I have a robot called eMo, which can recreate human expressions, but I look at WALL-E with envy. Its whole face consists of nothing more than two camera bodies, but the animators have used them to create the whole range of human expressiveness. I would love to have created that. Eve, the more futuristic robot that WALL-E falls in love with, was just as expressive, but I was distracted by its ability to float. I didn't understand it at all as a machine, so that rather ruined the plausibility. WALL-E, on the other hand, was very plausible. Don't forget this is a story set 800 years in the future; a robot that can collect and compact garbage doesn't seem all that unlikely. But why give it a personality, goals and desires? The implication was that WALL-E had developed its character over time, but how? Even if it was programmed as a learning robot, it had no one to learn from. It was abandoned for 700 years, the last inhabitant of a deserted earth. If you left a human alone for that long, they would go completely crazy. There is nothing remotely like WALL-E in robotics, not yet, but the expressive robot is the direction we are heading towards. There's a whole field called HRI - Human Robotic Interaction. The film takes us several steps further and suggests a terminally lazy society completely controlled by service robots. Unfortunately, this really is the direction we are taking. There are robots caring for the elderly in Japan now. I don't want that sort of life. I don't want to be lifted and carried by robots. I wouldn't mind having one in the kitchen, though. · Noel Sharkey is a professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at Sheffield University. WALL-E is on general release.Related StoriesEmily Bell: If Google should falter, how many others will follow?Solve IT: How can I chat to people with different Instant Messenger applications?Paul Lewis on why Bluetooth technology is raising fears about privacyNetbytes: Girl Power blogger takes Singapore by stormMedia: Das Wikipedia - online resource goes into print
The Guardian – Jul 21, 2008 11:06 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Media: Das Wikipedia - online resource goes into print
Sometimes a book spine just isn't long enough - especially when its list of authors runs to 90,000. Due to hit the shelves in September, a published encyclopedia of German Wikipedia entries, the first of its kind, will list in a single volume the 50,000 most commonly searched terms on the German Wikipedia website over the past two years. That means France's first lady, Carla Bruni, Playstation3 or trivia about the US television series House, starring British actor Hugh Laurie, have earned their place among more typical encyclopedia fodder such as politics and geography. The Wikipedia Lexikon has turned into something of "a document of the zeitgeist", said Beate Varnhorn, a director at its publisher Bertelsmann Lexicon. All entries, which include high-profile events such as the 2007 G8 summit in Heiligendamm, have been shortened and checked factually. Dotted with images and photographs, its creators aim to reach people who do not use Wikipedia online. Each Wikipedia entry has a number of contributors, who tweak and add to the information left by other site users, which means an unprecedented list of authors, Varnhorn said. The extensive list of contributors, compressed and separated by commas, will stretch over 30 pages of the 1,000-page tome. With a price tag of €19.95 (£16), €1 from every Wikipedia Lexikon sold will be given to the German chapter of Wikimedia, the non-profit group behind Wikipedia, for the use of its name. The publication reverses the industry trend towards the internet and away from traditional print. Earlier this year, Brockhaus Encyclopedia, the German equivalent of the Encyclopedia Britannica, announced plans to make its 30-volume leather-bound set accessible online. Publishers of the Wikipedia Lexikon insist it is too soon to say farewell to the book format. "Unlike Brockhaus, we think the market for print reference books remains positive," said Varnhorn. "The book is highly flexible, I can use it on the sofa while watching television, at the desk, in the garden or in bed, without having to turn on the computer." German Wikipedia, Germany's sixth-most-visited website, is the second largest in size after its English-version equivalent. It has been estimated it would take at least 750 thick volumes to print all the articles in the English-language version. The sheer size of the articles on the German Wikipedia site proved too daunting for a publisher who planned to convert it into print a few years ago. "It turned out that even on very thin paper, the German Wikipedia would fill an [Ikea] shelving unit," said Arne Klempert, the director of Wikipedia Germany. "In the end it didn't happen." He said the launch of the Lexikon would be closely watched and might inspire similar tomes in other languages - with similarly lengthy lists of authors.Related StoriesEmily Bell: If Google should falter, how many others will follow?Solve IT: How can I chat to people with different Instant Messenger applications?Paul Lewis on why Bluetooth technology is raising fears about privacyNetbytes: Girl Power blogger takes Singapore by stormAnother view: Roboticist Noel Sharkey on Wall-E
The Guardian – Jul 21, 2008 11:04 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Sometimes a book spine just isn't long enough - especially when its list of authors runs to 90,000. Due to hit the shelves in September, a published encyclopedia of German Wikipedia entries, the first of its kind, will list in a single volume the 50,000 most commonly searched terms on the German Wikipedia website over the past two years. That means France's first lady, Carla Bruni, Playstation3 or trivia about the US television series House, starring British actor Hugh Laurie, have earned their place among more typical encyclopedia fodder such as politics and geography. The Wikipedia Lexikon has turned into something of "a document of the zeitgeist", said Beate Varnhorn, a director at its publisher Bertelsmann Lexicon. All entries, which include high-profile events such as the 2007 G8 summit in Heiligendamm, have been shortened and checked factually. Dotted with images and photographs, its creators aim to reach people who do not use Wikipedia online. Each Wikipedia entry has a number of contributors, who tweak and add to the information left by other site users, which means an unprecedented list of authors, Varnhorn said. The extensive list of contributors, compressed and separated by commas, will stretch over 30 pages of the 1,000-page tome. With a price tag of €19.95 (£16), €1 from every Wikipedia Lexikon sold will be given to the German chapter of Wikimedia, the non-profit group behind Wikipedia, for the use of its name. The publication reverses the industry trend towards the internet and away from traditional print. Earlier this year, Brockhaus Encyclopedia, the German equivalent of the Encyclopedia Britannica, announced plans to make its 30-volume leather-bound set accessible online. Publishers of the Wikipedia Lexikon insist it is too soon to say farewell to the book format. "Unlike Brockhaus, we think the market for print reference books remains positive," said Varnhorn. "The book is highly flexible, I can use it on the sofa while watching television, at the desk, in the garden or in bed, without having to turn on the computer." German Wikipedia, Germany's sixth-most-visited website, is the second largest in size after its English-version equivalent. It has been estimated it would take at least 750 thick volumes to print all the articles in the English-language version. The sheer size of the articles on the German Wikipedia site proved too daunting for a publisher who planned to convert it into print a few years ago. "It turned out that even on very thin paper, the German Wikipedia would fill an [Ikea] shelving unit," said Arne Klempert, the director of Wikipedia Germany. "In the end it didn't happen." He said the launch of the Lexikon would be closely watched and might inspire similar tomes in other languages - with similarly lengthy lists of authors.Related StoriesEmily Bell: If Google should falter, how many others will follow?Solve IT: How can I chat to people with different Instant Messenger applications?Paul Lewis on why Bluetooth technology is raising fears about privacyNetbytes: Girl Power blogger takes Singapore by stormAnother view: Roboticist Noel Sharkey on Wall-E
The Guardian – Jul 21, 2008 11:04 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Internet: Peace breaks out in Yahoo leadership row
The struggling internet company Yahoo has struck a pact with its billionaire critic Carl Icahn by giving the hedge fund activist a minority presence on its board to avoid a potentially tempestuous showdown at a shareholder meeting next month. Facing crumbling support among Yahoo investors, Icahn yesterday abandoned his efforts to overthrow the leadership of the embattled Silicon Valley company and force its sale to Microsoft. Instead, the 72-year-old Icahn & Co hedge fund manager is settling for an offer of three seats on Yahoo's board. One director will stand down and the board will expand from nine to 11 members. Wall Street analysts greeted it as a qualified victory for Yahoo's founder, Jerry Yang, who has pressed hard to maintain its independence and who waged an energetic campaign to discredit Icahn. Roy Bostock, Yahoo chairman, was "gratified" to reach a deal. "We look forward to working productively with Carl and new members of the board on continuing to improve the company's performance and enhancing stockholder value." The pact ends a vitriolic two months in which Yahoo and Icahn have traded stinging accusations. The showdown arose after Yahoo turned down a $47.5bn (£23.8bn) takeover offer from Microsoft, angering investors who have grown impatient with its failure to keep up with Google as a leader in lucrative online searches. Lobbying shareholders for support last week, Yahoo characterised Icahn as a short-term corporate agitator who was merely interested in a quick profit. It dug up remarks from the billionaire last year in which he described technology companies as "hard to understand" and admitted he had rarely focused on them. In turn, Icahn compared Yahoo directors to Alice in Wonderland. He won over high-profile backers, including the oil tycoon T Boone Pickens and star fund manager John Paulson, renowned for making billions by predicting the sub-prime mortgage crisis. As Yahoo's annual meeting on August 1 approached, the prospect of a hastily compiled slate of Icahn's friends running the company appears to have been too much for institutional shareholders. The balance tipped on Friday when Yahoo's second-biggest investor, the fund management firm Legg Mason, decided to support the existing leadership. Scott Kessler, an equities analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York, said the upshot amounted to a defeat for Icahn. "The writing's not only on the wall but on an agreement for all to see," he said. In spite of the deal, Kessler said, there would be pressure for a shake-up in recognition of discontent among a sizeable minority of investors. "Jerry Yang's been back in place for a year and a lot of people think he is not the right person for the job. It wouldn't surprise me if there were some management changes to come," said Kessler. Icahn will take one of the board seats handed to his group under the deal, which is subject to approval by investors. In a statement, the New York-based financier said a sale of the firm or of its core search business should be given "full consideration". But striking a conciliatory note, he continued: "I believe this is a good outcome and that we will have a strong working relationship going forward." By mid-session on the Nasdaq exchange, Yahoo shares had slid 63 cents to $21.82. Microsoft was willing to pay $33 a share and Yahoo has shunned several attempts by it to reignite talks, opting for a controversial tie-up with Google, in which the two pool resources for some online searches and share the ad revenue. This infuriated the advertising industry, which sees it as anti-competitive. Backstory The billionaire hedge fund manager who has been niggling away at Yahoo doesn't own a personal computer. Carl Icahn, 72, whose fortune is estimated at $14bn (£7bn), made his name by seizing control of the airline TWA in 1985. His targets have included Texaco, Time Warner, Nabisco, Motorola and Blockbuster. Brought up in Queens, New York, he runs his Icahn & Co hedge fund from offices overlooking Central Park. He is ruthless, once remarking that there was no place for sentiment in business: "If you want a friend, get a dog."
The Guardian – Jul 21, 2008 11:04 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
The struggling internet company Yahoo has struck a pact with its billionaire critic Carl Icahn by giving the hedge fund activist a minority presence on its board to avoid a potentially tempestuous showdown at a shareholder meeting next month. Facing crumbling support among Yahoo investors, Icahn yesterday abandoned his efforts to overthrow the leadership of the embattled Silicon Valley company and force its sale to Microsoft. Instead, the 72-year-old Icahn & Co hedge fund manager is settling for an offer of three seats on Yahoo's board. One director will stand down and the board will expand from nine to 11 members. Wall Street analysts greeted it as a qualified victory for Yahoo's founder, Jerry Yang, who has pressed hard to maintain its independence and who waged an energetic campaign to discredit Icahn. Roy Bostock, Yahoo chairman, was "gratified" to reach a deal. "We look forward to working productively with Carl and new members of the board on continuing to improve the company's performance and enhancing stockholder value." The pact ends a vitriolic two months in which Yahoo and Icahn have traded stinging accusations. The showdown arose after Yahoo turned down a $47.5bn (£23.8bn) takeover offer from Microsoft, angering investors who have grown impatient with its failure to keep up with Google as a leader in lucrative online searches. Lobbying shareholders for support last week, Yahoo characterised Icahn as a short-term corporate agitator who was merely interested in a quick profit. It dug up remarks from the billionaire last year in which he described technology companies as "hard to understand" and admitted he had rarely focused on them. In turn, Icahn compared Yahoo directors to Alice in Wonderland. He won over high-profile backers, including the oil tycoon T Boone Pickens and star fund manager John Paulson, renowned for making billions by predicting the sub-prime mortgage crisis. As Yahoo's annual meeting on August 1 approached, the prospect of a hastily compiled slate of Icahn's friends running the company appears to have been too much for institutional shareholders. The balance tipped on Friday when Yahoo's second-biggest investor, the fund management firm Legg Mason, decided to support the existing leadership. Scott Kessler, an equities analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York, said the upshot amounted to a defeat for Icahn. "The writing's not only on the wall but on an agreement for all to see," he said. In spite of the deal, Kessler said, there would be pressure for a shake-up in recognition of discontent among a sizeable minority of investors. "Jerry Yang's been back in place for a year and a lot of people think he is not the right person for the job. It wouldn't surprise me if there were some management changes to come," said Kessler. Icahn will take one of the board seats handed to his group under the deal, which is subject to approval by investors. In a statement, the New York-based financier said a sale of the firm or of its core search business should be given "full consideration". But striking a conciliatory note, he continued: "I believe this is a good outcome and that we will have a strong working relationship going forward." By mid-session on the Nasdaq exchange, Yahoo shares had slid 63 cents to $21.82. Microsoft was willing to pay $33 a share and Yahoo has shunned several attempts by it to reignite talks, opting for a controversial tie-up with Google, in which the two pool resources for some online searches and share the ad revenue. This infuriated the advertising industry, which sees it as anti-competitive. Backstory The billionaire hedge fund manager who has been niggling away at Yahoo doesn't own a personal computer. Carl Icahn, 72, whose fortune is estimated at $14bn (£7bn), made his name by seizing control of the airline TWA in 1985. His targets have included Texaco, Time Warner, Nabisco, Motorola and Blockbuster. Brought up in Queens, New York, he runs his Icahn & Co hedge fund from offices overlooking Central Park. He is ruthless, once remarking that there was no place for sentiment in business: "If you want a friend, get a dog."
The Guardian – Jul 21, 2008 11:04 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Dear Open ID: You Deserve Better
The nascent identity management service OpenID is suffering from half-hearted adoption by web heavyweights Yahoo and Google, and from publishers' unwillingness to move away from traditional, more-restrictive user-registration models.
Wired News – Jul 21, 2008 8:30 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
The nascent identity management service OpenID is suffering from half-hearted adoption by web heavyweights Yahoo and Google, and from publishers' unwillingness to move away from traditional, more-restrictive user-registration models.
Wired News – Jul 21, 2008 8:30 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
Scholar Finds Archaeological Sites by Googling
An archaeologist unable to travel to war-torn Afghanistan turns to Google.
Discovery Channel – Jul 21, 2008 5:42 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology: Science
An archaeologist unable to travel to war-torn Afghanistan turns to Google.
Discovery Channel – Jul 21, 2008 5:42 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology: Science
Google Issues Lame Response to Android SDK Gaffe
Google errs on the conservative side by offering its new Android SDK to only the 50 winners of the Android Developer's Challenge. My guess is that Google's Android mission going forward will be full disclosure of the SDK and its overall open source development practice. - Google made a critical faux pas last week when it sent out a new Android SDK (software development kit) to only the 50 winners of the Android Developer's Challenge. How very un open source of it!But it might have even erred more greatly in responding to the issue as a spokesperson told me July 1...
eWEEK.com – Jul 21, 2008 4:36 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology: Wireless
Google errs on the conservative side by offering its new Android SDK to only the 50 winners of the Android Developer's Challenge. My guess is that Google's Android mission going forward will be full disclosure of the SDK and its overall open source development practice. - Google made a critical faux pas last week when it sent out a new Android SDK (software development kit) to only the 50 winners of the Android Developer's Challenge. How very un open source of it!But it might have even erred more greatly in responding to the issue as a spokesperson told me July 1...
eWEEK.com – Jul 21, 2008 4:36 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology: Wireless
Ex-Google Angels: Sharing the Wealth
They struck it rich, and now they may want to help your company do the same.
TheStreet.com – Jul 21, 2008 4:23 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Business: Investing
They struck it rich, and now they may want to help your company do the same.
TheStreet.com – Jul 21, 2008 4:23 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Business: Investing
Netbytes: Girl Power blogger takes Singapore by stormBlogging looked like fulfilling Andy Warhol's prophecy that everyone would get their 15 minutes of fame. Xiaxue, however, has been famous for five years, and has turned into a full-time professional blogger, attracting around 300,000 visitors per month. Singapore's National Library Board has added her to its electronic archives. She may have passed her peak - marked by her Best Asian Weblog award in the 2005 Bloggies - but there's no sign of this lippy former student/waitress going away. Xiaxue ("snowing") has described herself as "just a normal girl who got rather lucky". Her real name is Zheng Yan Yan, aka Wendy Cheng, and she's now 24. She started blogging in April 2003, and could easily have sunk without trace. Instead, she became, briefly, a celebrity blogger for The Straits Times newspaper, a Maxim columnist, and co-starred in a sort of reality TV series, Girls Out Loud. She now does a fortnightly series, Xiaxue's Guide To Life, which runs on Munkysuperstar's web-based TV channel, clicknetwork.tv. There are quite a few on YouTube. If you want to know about blinging your long nails with crystals, getting a tongue piercing, losing weight, cooking live crabs, shopping for slutty clothes or fitting out your totally pink Princess Room on the cheap, Xiaxue is your girl. She'd be an ideal Big Brother contestant. Part of Xiaxue's appeal is that she's offensive, by Singapore standards. "Singaporean (Chinese) guys," she wrote, "like girls who keep quiet and nods in agreement to everything they say, rather than a girl who speaks up for her own opinions. They like girls who are weak, diminutive and vulnerable, not girls who are strong and can protect themselves." They must also dress modestly and be virgins. Xiaxue - perhaps corrupted by reading California-based Sweet Valley High books - is the opposite of this Singaporean ideal. She's bitchy, swears, wears "chio" (pretty but provocative) clothes, writes in intimate detail about things like panty liners, and flaunts her American boyfriend, Mike. It provokes hundreds of comments. She also generates controversy by attacking other bloggers. One famous post dealt with the Top Seven Most Disgusting Bloggers in Singapore, including Xiaxue. She attacked herself for being a fake, short, fat and ugly. "She is so hao lian [arrogant] of her stupid angmoh [caucasian monkey] boyfriend," she wrote. "SPG!" Sarong Party Girl: the ultimate insult. Some of Xiaxue's posts are labelled as advertorials: she's paid to write about products, review restaurants etc, and she also got a free "nose job". Since she's always writing about the things she does and the products she buys, these aren't much different from her usual slang-packed, heavily illustrated (and skilfully photoshopped) posts. You can take it or leave it. As you'd expect, most of Xiaxue's readers - around 70% - live in Singapore or Malaysia. For the rest of us, she's a virtual tourist spot, providing an uncensored, unmediated and somewhat voyeuristic peek into a different society. Every nation should have its own Xiaxue, and perhaps they do. We just don't know about them.Related StoriesEditorial: High waterOnline POKER marketing could spell the NAKED end of VIAGRA journalism as we LOHAN know itEmily Bell: If Google should falter, how many others will follow?Solve IT: How can I chat to people with different Instant Messenger applications?Paul Lewis on why Bluetooth technology is raising fears about privacy
The Guardian – Jul 21, 2008 1:37 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Technology
New Campaign Raises Child Safety Concerns Over Google's 'Street View'
Read full story for latest details.
PR Newswire – Jul 21, 2008 1:37 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Top Stories: Press Releases
Read full story for latest details.
PR Newswire – Jul 21, 2008 1:37 PM [GMT] ¦ comment?
found in Top Stories: Press Releases