Earlier this week TechCrunch wrote about an experimental new homepage that Google has been rolling out to a small subset of users that takes the search giant’s obsession with minimalism to the extreme. The page features exactly two elements: Google’s famous logo, and its search box. That is, until you move your mouse, when a nifty fade effect reveals with rest of Google’s standard navigation options. Alas, most people don’t have the option enabled, and are forced to endure Google.com’s ‘beefy’ 30+ words at all times.
This morning Google Blogoscoped posted a special snippit of code that you can copy and paste into your browser to enable the new minimalist design. But that version falls short of greatness: it includes the “Google Search” and “I’m Feeling Lucky” buttons. For those looking for the ultimate in austere, these buttons are little more than ugly blemishes marring an otherwise perfect design. Fortunately, I’ve gotten my hands on the code for the version of the homepage that excludes the buttons.
To use it, head over to Google.com and paste the following code snippet into your address bar, then hit return and reload the page.
javascript:void(document.cookie=”PREF=ID=2602f2ce49362929:U=7b6893b1882d5a94:TM=1239881060:LM=1254195610:L=0qXJlAA:GM=1:S=CwDGQD20E8U14zDg;path=/;
domain=.google.com”);
*Note that this may not work for all browsers. Leave a comment below stating what ones work/don’t work.
Today, WordPress announced the ability to post new blog posts to Twitter.
If you’re a WordPress.com user, you probably already know about how the service automatically sends your posts to Ping-o-Matic! to help promote them for you.
Today the Publicize feature gets a major addition: the ability to send your posts to Twitter. You can go with the default tweet or customize the message, and override the automatic settings on a per post basis as well.
To enable the new feature, head over to your Dashboard: My Blogs admin page. In the Publicize column, check the Twitter column for each of the blogs you’d like to enable to auto-tweet. You’ll be asked to authenticate each blog via OAuth, after which you’ll see a “Publicize” section at the bottom of the Publish box each time you write a new post.
To override any of the settings for an individual post, just click the Edit link in the Publicize section. You can edit the text of the tweet or turn it off altogether for that post. Note also that the connection settings are per blog and per user, so if you run a multi-author blog each individual writer will have to authenticate to their own Twitter account (or to whatever account is preferred).
So, there you go. Hope I helped.
Google’s UFO Fetish: H.G. Wells Salute…. or A (much) Deeper Meaning?
While I’m on this topic, I would like to thank all the the wonderful people at Flatwoods Days 2009 (Flatwoods, WV; I highly recommend you go. Find out more at FlatwoodsMonster.com) who encouraged me to become interested in the UFO culture, including Alan Caviness, Frank C. Feschino, Jr., and [UFO Magazine's] Alfred Lehmberg.
***
Flying saucers, crop circles, mysterious links, coded tweets (here and here): What’s up with Google’s obsession with UFO mythology? Three times in September, the search engine’s home page featured spooky — or whimsical, depending on your point of view — extraterrestrial-themed graphics, including this Sept. 5 image of a mysterious craft abducting the second “o” in “Google.”
Follow-up images included a UFO hovering above crop circles that spelled out “Google” — no doubt a sign that even extraterrestrials will sell out for a few bucks –
and this flying-craft-with-tentacles picture that fans of The War of the Worlds might recognize right away:
Conspiracy buffs loved Google’s cryptic messages. Many Twitter users speculated that the search giant was attempting to reveal that UFOs were real. “I think they have made first contact [and] are breaking it to us the only way they know how,” tweeted “elmofromok” after the latest image went live.
Alas, UFO buffs were no doubt disappointed last night when Google provided a relatively mundane explanation for its alien fixation. According to a post on The Official Google Blog by site designer Micheal Lopez, the series of cryptic images and riddles was a tribute to science fiction author H.G. Wells, whose 143rd birthday was Sept. 20, 2009.
“Inspiration for innovation in technology and design can come from lots of places; we wanted to celebrate H.G. Wells as an author who encouraged fantastical thinking about what is possible, on this planet and beyond. And maybe have some fun while we were doing it,” Lopez wrote.
Case closed? Not if you’re a true UFO buff (like me). Consider this:
- Why didn’t Google celebrate H.G. Wells’ books that have nothing to do with flying saucers? How about The Island of Dr. Moreau? Plenty of travel site tie-ins there.
- Google’s connection to mysterious flying craft isn’t limited to its H.G. Wells’ tribute. How does the company explain this Google Street View image of UFOs hovering over east London?
- And what’s with Google naming its mobile operating system, “Android”? Aliens build androids, don’t they? Sounds like another subliminal message to me…
OK, I’ll shut up now.
The use of graphics as a tool for educating viewers is a great approach to sharing information. It’s an effective way of composing otherwise boring information and data into an easy-to-consume and fascinating way.
In this article, you’ll discover a variety of infographics and visualizations associated with the internet. You might just learn a thing or two about the web by looking at these awesome artworks!
Click on the image to go to the larger version of each graphic.
1. Web Trend Map is a graphical representation of the top domains and personalities on the web. It maps websites and notable persons onto the Tokyo subway system as train stations with their popularity and success represented by their position and size.
2. Who Participates and What People Are Doing Online is an infographic by BusinessWeek that shows who’s online and what they’re doing. The graphic reveals that the most popular demographic on the internet include persons between the ages of 18-26.
3. Internet Traffic shows the sources of internet activity in 2008. It illustrates that China, constituting 17% of the world’s web users, is the largest source of traffic, with the United States as the second (this may change in 2012 based on growth projections).
4. Online Communities is a satirical portrayal of the communities you can find online, published in xkcd. Communities are represented as countries, with their membership size denoted by how big its country is. Take this information with a grain of salt!
5. Information creation and circulation before and after Twitter reveals how information dissemination is changing with the advent of Twitter, which breaks news and events almost instantaneously, versus up to 2 hours for more conventional news sources.
6. World Map of Social Networks depicts the most used social networking site of each country based on data gathered from Alexa and Google Trends. Facebook is the most popular in the U.S. while Orkut (by Google) is the most prevalent in Brazil.
7. The Life Cycle of a Blog Post is an interactive graphical flowchart on Wired that demonstrates the pathways of how a blog post makes its way from the blogger to the reader, and the intermediary stops along the way.
8. Repetitive Website Intros Examined exposes how the design industry tends to stick to prevailing trends by presenting data on overused keywords, readability and other tidbits of incriminating numbers in website introductions based on the sites on this article.
9. Mobile Web 2.0 is a PDF on Stanford’s site that charts development and usage trends concerning the convergence of Web 2.0 applications and mobile devices, showing a timeline between 1980 to 2010 and important events in the Mobile Web 2.0 evolution.
10. Submarine cables is a map of underwater cable systems around the world, uncovering how much the internet has grown to the point that it warrants a vast quantity of cable systems (98 of them to be exact), and expansion of 28 more of such systems by 2011.
I am still alive 
I am working very hard in school, as this is my first week back. I will post many stories as soon as possible. Please forgive me and still believe in the power of TechWorthy! (oh, and TechWorthy passed 15,000 views!!! 
)
I am starting school again tomorrow (August 26, 2009), so there will be less content on TechWorthy, but the content I can provide will be awesome, I promise.
Wish me luck in my new year of adventures and excitement. 
The Apple store had been down for quite a while today, and lo and behold when it was reinstated Mac OS X Snow Leopard became available to mankind – that is to say you can now pre-order a copy. The major update to OS X, aka 10.6, will start shipping next Friday August 28, as had been rumored by websites like Macenstein and MacRumors since last Thursday.
As our MG Siegler wrote a while back on TechCrunch:
OS X Snow Leopard is going to sell for only $29.99, as Apple is considering it mostly a performance upgrade over OS X Leopard. But the performance improvements are expected to be significant, and the footprint of the install has been significantly reduced (due mostly to the fact that it’s Intel-only).
The price is actually $29, but the real question is: are you buying?
There are numerous ways to be scammed nowadays. Pyramid schemes, ‘too good to be true’ investments and of course the good old internet. There are literally millions of websites that will gladly take your money, personal info, bank details and a host of other things from you and then skedaddle.
Today, I’m going to talk about the top 5 email scams that litter inboxes all over the world.
Now, given the fact that 90% of e-mails sent world wide can be regarded as spam, undoubtedly a large proportion of that spam will be scams trying to get your hard earned money. Fortunately, given the huge amount of inactive email accounts most of this spam will go unopened and will lie dormant forever.
But some of it is opened in offices, schools and homes all over the world. They deceive you into thinking they are something they are not. Here are five email scams you should watch out for.
The Bank
When opening a bank account of any kind you are informed beyond any doubt that the bank will never, ever, send you an e-mail asking for your information. Why would they? They already have it. But millions of people still reply to e-mails asking for just that. These e-mails will normally have a professional layout and will have originated from a domain very similar to the banks in the hope that when you see the e-mail address you assume it is from the bank.
Popular ones include telling you your bank card is about to expire and they need your information or there is a sum of money on the way to you and they need your information to process the transaction. Don’t believe a word. They want your details to rob you of every cent you have.
Nigerian Inheritance
Ever got a poorly written e-mail from a bank manager in Africa (or just about anywhere else for that matter) telling you that a rich guy died along with all his family in a plane crash and he wants to transfer money to your account? These kinds of email scams are called “419 emails” or Nigerian scams.
If you reply and begin talking to them they will shower you in promises and may even up the amount of money you’re going to get. Then, before the transfer can be made they’ll ask you for a few thousands dollars to cover their expenses. More like their holiday next summer.
Phishing Email Scam
These e-mails will often appear to come from sites you actually use, such as PayPal. If they find your profile they send you an e-mail that looks exactly like one from the site. They will redirect you to a bogus site which, once again looks just like the actual website. Once you sign in all of your info will go straight to them meaning they can do what they wish with your money.
Virus E-Mails
Many people who want to scam you will create programs and spy applications that will send them your bank details as soon as you use any online monetary service. They normally skulk around in the attachments of e-mails. Many scammers will find a funny picture or video and will send it to as many people as they can.
They are getting into the mindset of your typical office worker who will forward the e-mail to all his/her family, friends and co-workers. When these email scams are successful, scammers can often retrieve thousands of peoples details. Think about it. If they send it to one person who then sends it to thirty, each of these people will again send it to all their contacts. Hundreds of peoples’ details all in a very short space of time.
Lottery Email Scams
These have a low forward rate and as such require a lot of work by the low tech scammers. They will tell you that you have won a substantial amount of money in an e-mail address raffle or something similar. They tell you that you must reply to the e-mail, just like the inheritance e-mails.
Eventually, you will be asked for a few thousand dollars to cover fees. Don’t fall for it. This is the real world and you don’t just win a $3 million prize in a raffle you never entered.
My advice to combat the above e-mails which are very popular comes in two forms:
- Be aware that any e-mail asking you for any information such as account numbers, passwords or account verification long after you signed up is fraudulent. Legitimate companies will almost never contact you to ask for such information.
- Install protection software such as Norton 360 3.0, McAfee Security, or Avast! Professional. They can be costly but so can having your bank account drained. Remember: you get what you pay for, so when it comes to security and protection, get the best that there is, not the free stuff. Now don’t get me wrong, a few free programs are as good as the paid versions, but for the very best protection possible, choose one of the above paid products.
Requirements: a Mac and a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch
Have you ever wanted to rearrange your applications on your iPhone, but ended up messing up pages of apps? Well, now there is a solution for that, and it’s called Movement. Created by Jeff Steieler, Movement essentially lets your rearrange all of your applications on your iPhone or iPod Touch, straight from your Mac. Seems too good to be true, right? Of course, there’s a catch. It requires a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch. MG Siegler wrote about iTunes 9 a few weeks ago on TechCrunch, with the possibility of app organization, but it’s all up in the air right now, so if you don’t want to jailbreak your device, wait until iTunes 9 is released, then come back to this.
Overall, Movement is very cool. It provides a tool that many iPhone and iPod Touch users want, but under a cost of jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod Touch. Movement is developed by indie Mac developer Jeff Stieler.
Oh, and according to a comment left on the above video:
Danny,
Sorry, but I have no intent to attempt an app like Movement on Windows.
I am using a lot of mac-only interface code, and it would take me a significantly longer time to implement on Windows.
Take care.
-Jeff
I guess the many Windows users with a jailbroken device will just have to wait for iTunes 9 (or until a brave and determined coder/developer makes a version for Windows, which is somewhat unlikely).
Intel has acquired software company RapidMind in an effort to push development of programs that can exploit the power of Intel’s multicore processors, the company said Friday.
The chip maker plans to integrate RapidMind’s data-parallelism products into Intel offerings. Intel already offers compilers, middleware and other tools that enable programmers to execute tasks across multiple threads and cores.
RapidMind, based in Waterloo, Ontario, offers a platform that allows developers to scale application performance in processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. The platform also taps into the power of multiple cores in graphics processing units.
Intel declined to comment about the acquisition price, but said it plans to retain much of RapidMind’s staff.
“We will retain most, if not all, of their employees,” said Bill Kircos, an Intel spokesman. “These guys are highly respected experts in data parallel programming.”
Intel has been snapping up software companies as it tries to provide tools that can adapt software better to its hardware. The company in June bought Wind River, which offers software design tools and operating systems, for US$884 million. It recently acquired Cilk Arts, which provides tools to maximize application performance on multicore processors.
“RapidMind proved itself to be an innovative company with advanced technology for helping software developers with data parallel programming for multicore processors and accelerators. Their joining Intel will let us do even greater things together,” wrote Intel’s James Reinders in a blog entry.
Reinders referred to the integration of RapidMind’s platform with Intel’s Ct parallel programming model, which will provide the basis to scale the execution of tasks across multicore and multithreaded chips.
“Product plans for Intel Ct technology are on track for beta before the end of the year, and the integration with RapidMind products will come in phases after the first beta is available,” Reinders wrote.
Intel will continue to service existing RapidMind customers, Reinders wrote.
