Clipmarks | ericw's clips

News Corp content to be removed from Google?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:33:49 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: Rupert Murdoch hints that News Corp properties will be become subscriber-based in the near future. Possible game changer, or bad mistake?

Clip Source: news.sky.com

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch has suggested the company's online newspaper pages will be invisible to Google users when it launches its new paid content strategy.

He claimed that readers who randomly reach a page via an internet search hold little value to advertisers.

He is planning to make newspapers like The Times and Sunday Times chargeable online.

Using the robots.txt protocol on a site indicates to automated web spiders such as Google's not to index that particular page or to serve up links to it in users' search results.

He said: "There's not enough advertising in the world to make all the websites profitable. We'd rather have fewer people coming to our websites but paying.

Tags: advertising, fox, google, murdoch

For those that laugh at inappropriate times...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:40:57 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: From a Belgium TV Show in the 80's, Boomerang

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: awkward, boomerang, funny, hilarious, laughing, tv, uncomfortable, video

Connecticut congress plays solitaire during debate

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:55:53 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: Sometimes a picture just speaks for itself.

Clip Source: blogs.courant.com

House Minority Leader Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, far right, speaks while colleagues play solitaire on their computers as the House convenes to vote on a new budget for the fiscal year in the Capitol on Monday [AP Photo/Jessica Hill]

Tags: bored, connecticut, government, politicians, tax dollars, politics

The moral implications of Free Software

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:09:53 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: Questions, not answers, but I've often wondered the same thing myself. It's hard to imagine a rebirth of the subscription model, a time when new web services will actually charge new users for basic features. Especially in this economy.

Excellent article. Found via http://egoldstein.amplify.com/2009/07/07/when-free-works-by-alexiskold/

Clip Source: www.readwriteweb.com

I wondered, what are the moral implications of Free, and what specific impact does Free have on children? For example, what is it like to grow up in a world in which most software is Free? Does Free create a sense of entitlement? Does it lead people to wonder why they should pay for anything at all? Where do we draw the line on what should and should not be free? These questions are not simple and are certainly far from being answered.

Tags: free, technology, web service

The 5 Most Important Numbers in History

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 19:59:14 GMT

clipped by: ericw

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Programme 1: Zero
What's 2 minus 2? The answer is obvious, right? But not if you wore a tunic, no socks and lived in Ancient Greece. For strange as it sounds, 'nothing' had to be invented, and then it took thousands of years to catch on.

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Programme 2: Pi
At its simplest, Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. At its most complex, it is an irrational number that cannot be expressed as the ratio of two whole numbers and has a random decimal string of infinite length.

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Programme 3: The Golden Ratio
Divide any number in the Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55) by the one before it and the answer is always close to 1.618 the Golden Ratio.

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Programme 4: The Imaginary 'i'
The imaginary number takes mathematics to another dimension. It was discovered in sixteenth century Italy at a time when being a mathematician was akin to being a modern day rock star. The puzzle of the day was: "If the square root of +1 is both +1 and -1, then what is the square root of -1?"

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Programme 5: Infinity
Given the old maxim about an infinite number of monkeys and typewriters, one can assume that said simian digits will type up the following line from Hamlet an infinite number of times:
"I could confine myself to a nutshell and declare myself king of infinity".

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5 Numbers Quiz:
What number are you?
So you've read about five of the greatest numbers in the history of the world ever. But which number are you? Play our number game to reveal secrets about your inner self that you never dreamed of.

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Don't miss series 2:
Another 5 Numbers >>>

Tags: math, numbers, history, geek

Robert DeNiro: "I'm a Good Source of Riboflavin"

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:16:11 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: Elmo and Robert DeNiro on Sesame Street. Yes, the things you learn to appreciate and enjoy as a parent.

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Tags: funny, innocent, elmo, deniro, sesame street, cabbage, dog, actor, riboflavin

Twitter hires Google's top designer

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:49:02 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: The web should introduce free agency. Just for the entertainment value.

Clip Source: gawker.com

Twitter, the twee San Francisco messing startup, is all hope, no revenues. That makes it irresistable to Silicon Valley's best and brightest — like Google's top designer, Doug Bowman, whom we hear Twitter just hired.

Why is a designer switching teams such big news? Jason Fried, the influential founder of Web-software company 37signals, hailed Bowman's 2006 hire as Google's "best acquisition to date." Google even created a grand new title for him: "visual design lead." But now Bowman's leaving after less than two years.

Blagojevich signs an autograph for a fan

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:51:23 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: Man, this guy is the gift that keeps on giving.

Clip Source: valleywag.gawker.com

Tags: politics, autograph, hancock, blagojevich, rod, boob, fame

Has Facebook Jumped the Shark?

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:29:01 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: Interesting article, and all of the reader's reactions to the resdeign seem unanimously negative.

Clip Source: valleywag.gawker.com

Has Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg been driven mad by envy? In his effort to redesign his social network in the image of Twitter, he may well end up destroying everything good about it, users say.

But as people get used to the latest changes, they're starting to realize that this redesign is simply, objectively bad.

Facebook actually introduced status updates before Twitter even launched, a fact few people now remember among the wave of Twitter hype. But the sites have long differed in their presentation of updates. Twitter shows all your friends' updates in an undifferentiated fashion; try to go back more than an hour or two, and you get lost in the noise. Until now, an algorithm has ruled Facebook's presentation of updates, so only the most interesting bits show up on a user's "news feed"; not all updates show up, but the vital ones do.

Tags: design, facebook, zuckerberg

Kick the Monster's Ass

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:12:34 GMT

clipped by: ericw

Clip Source: www.break.com

[Video]

Tags: cute, video, kid, monster, child, humor, kick ass

Let's be honest...

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 22:36:01 GMT

clipped by: ericw

Clip Source: talkingpointsmemo.com

Let's state outright a few obvious points. Bringing the presidential candidates and their press entourages back to Capitol Hill won't speed or improve the process of coming up with a good bailout deal. It will politicize it. That's so transparently obvious that it barely requires stating. And of course that is the point.

Tags: mccain, crisis, politics

America's Next Fronteir: The Entrepreneurial Society

Mon, 19 May 2008 16:11:33 GMT

clipped by: ericw

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

The most compelling statistic of all? Half of all new college graduates now believe that self-employment is more secure than a full-time job. Today, 80% of the colleges and universities in the U.S. now offer courses on entrepreneurship;

Without noticing it, we have once again discovered, and then raced off to settle, a new frontier. Not land, not innovation, but ourselves and a growing control over our own lives and careers.

The economy will be much more volatile and much more competitive. In the continuous fervor to create new institutions, it will become increasingly difficult to sustain old ones. New political parties, new social groupings, thousands of new manias and movements and millions of new companies will pop up over the next few decades. Large corporations that don't figure out how to combine permanence with perpetual change will be swept away.

Tags: technology, economy, united states

The most unbelievable gaffe of the campaign

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:37:27 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: McCain addresses supporters in Western PA.

Clip Source: embeds.blogs.foxnews.com

[Video]

Tags: politics, election, mccain, agree, disagree, patriotic, god-loving

Where did Joe go??

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:15:35 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: The hits just keep on coming.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

[Video]

Tags: politics, mccain, gaffe, joe the plumber

Personality Types mapped to U.S. Regions

Wed, 14 May 2008 21:04:04 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: New Yorkers are the most neurotic. My God, what would Woody Allen think?

Clip Source: gawker.com

Tags: maps, psychology, pop psychology, trivia, new yorkers