Chronicles of Alva

Pownce PWND: Acquired by Six Apart, Then Shut Down

Alva Jean — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:46:32 +0000

Pownce, once thought to be Digg’s Kevin Rose’s answer to Twitter, has been acquired by Six Apart, the makers of TypePad and Movable type. Does this merger of two obsoletes have Web 3.0 potential?

read more | digg story

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Were California Voters right to ban gay marriage? (Poll)

Alva Jean — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:17:38 +0000

Voters in California recently voted for a ban on gay marriage in that state. Did they do the right thing? Vote and see the results, here.

read more | digg story

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Sen. Inhofe gets all Web 2.0

Alva Jean — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:58:05 +0000

The Inhofe web site and blog have incorporated some great Web 2.0 features. There’s a place for bloggers to join the blog roll, and a place for members to contribute blog posts. There are various ways to share the content including e-mail, and a few social book marking and social news sites (Digg, reddit, del.icio.us). There are feeds…

read more | digg story

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Zemanta Reblog…Very Cool!

Alva Jean — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:31:14 +0000

I found this fascinating quote today:

Zemanta can be used either as a browser add-on or a WordPress plug-in. So far I haven’t noticed any significant browser slowdown and I chose that route because my plug-in list already looks like the first five books of the bible.I’m Using Zemanta | Democrat=Socialist, May 2008

You should read the whole article.

Posted in Web 2.0 Tagged: blogging, Wordpress, Zemanta

Google Trounces Web Video Competitors With 5 Billion Views

Alva Jean — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:47:12 +0000

TechCrunch: comScore on Wednesday announced its latest data showing July 2008 Web video views. And although everyone expected Google to beat up on its competitors, the company did so in convincing fashion by serving nearly half of all the videos viewed online during the month.

read more | digg story

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The Future of Copyright: Ruining Privacy and Civil Liberties

Alva Jean — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 19:44:16 +0000

Cato Unbound: “This change has taken place because previously distinct media are now simulated within the singular medium of the Internet, and copyright law simply seems unable to cope with it. Consider radio broadcasting and record shops, which once were inherently different. Their online counterparts are known respectively as “streaming” and “downloading,” but the distinction is ultimately artificial, since the same data transfer takes place in each. The only essential difference lies in how the software is configured at the receiving end. If the software saves the music as a file for later use, it’s called a “download.” If the software immediately sends the music to the loudspeakers, it’s called “streaming.”

read more | digg story

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Fair Use v. Plagiarism/Copyright Infringement (Updated)

Alva Jean — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:03:15 +0000

The A.P. would like to charge by the word for any blogger who wants to use an excerpt from an A.P. article for more than one month. Bloggers don
’t do this. Bloggers typically publish using the “Fair Use” laws.

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Getting that New Converter Box-Trickier than it Sounds

Alva Jean — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:11:25 +0000

The government, in its infinite wisdom (yes, that’s sarcasm), is issuing $40 checks to help with the expense for people who don’t have digital T.V., or cable. The catch is that those coupons have to be used in 90 days, or the coupons expire – and the stores are having trouble keeping the “coupon eligible converter boxes” (CELB’s) in stock.

read more | digg story

Buy.me (Domain Dealers: .me domain names now available)

Alva Jean — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:58:47 +0000

As of today, there’s a new domain name craze. “.me” is the TLD for Montenegro, but has lots of possibilities for domain name speculators worldwide. (hmmm…I wonder if help.me, love.me, bite.me, and youdontknow.me are taken?)

read more | digg story

The Five Best Start Pages

Alva Jean — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:18:24 +0000

Lifehacker: Whether you use it to keep up to date on the latest news or as a launching point for the rest of your browsing, you want to find a solid start page to fit your surfing habits. On Tuesday we asked you to share your favorite start page, and at over 350 comments later, we’re rounding up the five most popular answers.

read more | digg story