Le letture dei CoCo v3

iomeneandrei: Ecco Lightning 1.0!

Gusions — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:00:47 +0000

Contemporaneamente all’arrivo di Mozilla Firefox e Thunderbird 8, è stata rilasciata anche la prima versione stabile di Lightning, il famoso add-on sviluppato dal Mozilla Calendar Team, che ci permette di avere e gestire dei calendari sia in locale che in rete attraverso i quali pianificare e gestire attività e appuntamenti.

Come già affermato in precedenza, una delle maggiori novità di questa versione 1.0 è sicuramente la possibilità di gestire i nostri eventi anche in modalità offline, ma non solo: abbiamo un miglioramento della diagnostica per il provider ICS, una nuova UI per il calendario, la correzione di un bug che creava ripetuti crash di sistema ed un miglioramento del sistema di gestione degli eventi. Grazie a questo interessantissimo plugin potremo pubblicare i nostri calendari o su internet o all’interno della nostra rete locale; potremo inoltre gestire i nostri eventi e appuntamenti da remoto e anche in maniere collaborativa.

La versione 1.0 di Lightning è disponibile solo per Thunderbird 8.0 e può essere installata direttamente dal gestore degli add-ons oppure scaricata a questo indirizzo. Possiamo trovare ulteriori informazioni riguardo questo importante aggiornamento a questo indirizzo, con annesse note di rilascio.

Via | Lightining

Ecco Lightning 1.0! é stato pubblicato su Ossblog.it alle 12:00 di venerdì 11 novembre 2011.

iomeneandrei: Mozilla Reinvents Web Video With Popcorn 1.0

Scott Gilbertson — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:51:24 +0000

Video on the web has always been a bit disappointing. After all, it’s pretty much just like television, only smaller. Unlike the rest of the web, video is just as much a passive experience in your browser as it is anywhere else.

Mozilla would like to change that. The company’s effort to bring a more interactive video experience to the web is known as Popcorn.js and it recently reached 1.0 status. If you’d like to play around with Popcorn, head on over to the Mozilla site and download a copy. Popcorn uses HTML5 video features and at the moment works best in Firefox and Chrome.

At its core, Popcorn is about making HTML5 web video into something more than just another television.

While it’s nice to have a way to embed videos without Flash, HTML5 video is capable of much more than just, well, video. It’s HTML, after all. That means it can tap into things like WebGL, or use JavaScript to augment video in real time — annotating videos with information like location, details about the people and topics in the video, subtitles, Twitter feeds, current weather information, links and much more.

Popcorn is simply a JavaScript library that aims to simplify the process of adding external data culled from around the web to your video. To give an idea of what’s possible with Popcorn, Mozilla is showcasing the movie One Millionth Tower, a documentary film about an apartment building and how residents imagine the future. One Millionth Tower premiered online last weekend at Wired.com. If you haven’t seen it yet, head over to the Underwire blog.

One Millionth Tower uses some tricks beyond Popcorn (like WebGL for some 3-D elements), but most of its coolest effects — like the way the environment in the film changes based on the real-time weather conditions and time of day at the Toronto high-rises where the documentary was filmed — are all courtesy of Popcorn.

If it happens to be snowing in Toronto when you watch the film, it will begin snowing in the virtual world of One Millionth Tower. At other points in the film Popcorn pulls outside information from Flickr, Wikipedia, Google Maps and, of course, Yahoo Weather. Pretty much any web service with an API can be plugged into an HTML5 video in real time with Popcorn.

A more mundane but potentially more widespread use for Popcorn is subtitles. Using Popcorn, a set of subtitles attached to a video could be sent on to an online translation tool and converted to whatever language you wanted on the fly. Popcorn could then pipe the translation back into the video. In other words, subtitle your movie once and anyone will be able to understand it.

So how does Popcorn work? Well, Popcorn.js takes the native HTMLMediaElement properties, methods and events — collectively known as HTML5 video — and normalizes them into an API. The API has a plug-in system so developers can contribute and reuse code for common tasks. In fact, Popcorn already has dozens of plugins for most popular web services like Twitter, various maps, Facebook, Processing.js and, of course, all the services mentioned above in conjunction with One Millionth Tower.

In addition to the Popcorn.js framework, there’s also Popcorn Maker, a web-based graphical user interface for creating Popcorn-based videos. Popcorn Maker is the newest member of the Popcorn family and is not yet a 1.0 release. Its goal is to offer the familiar timeline controls you’d expect in video editing software, but at the moment it’s an alpha release and can be a little buggy. Popcorn Maker is powered by another bit of JavaScript, dubbed butter.js, which could be used to add Popcorn editing features to any desktop video editing software, though as of this writing we aren’t away of any popular video editing apps that use it.

To get started making Popcorn movies head on over to MozillaPopcorn.org, grab the source code, read the documentation, check out the plug-ins and try Popcorn Maker. Also note that, if you prefer, Popcorn can be checked out through GitHub.

Homepage photo: jennie-o/Flickr

See Also:

iomeneandrei: Five Best RSS Newsreaders

(author unknown) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 19:58:50 +0000

iomeneandrei: I film della settimana

(author unknown) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

iomeneandrei: ReaderSharer Restores Sharing Options For New Google Reader [Chrome]

Zainab — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:31:55 +0000

The revamped design of Google Reader is now considerably different compared to the classic look, and does not allow you to share like before. Anything that you share is now going to happen via a +1 to Google+. Yesterday, we covered a stylesheet fix for Google Reader that addressed the spacing issue, but if you want the old sharing options back, check out ReaderSharer. It is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to view your shared items and those from the people you follow. It will also display whether an item has been shared or not. Additionally, it, too, reverts the new fonts and spacing of feeds, providing a more all-in-one-package of sorts.

The redesigned Google Reader offers Starred items and Trends option to its left side. With this extension, People you follow and Your shared items options are added back to the new interface. Google also changed the font size and spacing between feeds when in list view, making it difficult to browse through the feeds. Reader Sharer reverts this modification and takes you back to the classic design, allowing you to browse more conveniently.

ReaderSharer also sports +1, Email, Keep unread and Add tags options, which are all found at end of each feed item. This extension adds the sharing button back to the feeds, making sharing content hassle-free once more.

This is a very useful extension, especially for those who found Google Reader’s sharing capabilities highly effective. Install ReaderSharer now and get back on the sharing bandwagon.

Install ReaderSharer For Chrome

iomeneandrei: The End of an Era: Internet Explorer Drops Below 50 Percent of Web Usage

Peter Bright (Ars Technica) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:31:06 +0000

A couple of interesting things happened in the world of Web browser usage during October. The more significant one is that Internet Explorer’s share of global browser usage dropped below 50 percent for the first time in more than a decade. Less significant, but also notable, is that Chrome for the first time overtook Firefox here at Ars, making it the technologist’s browser of choice. [Ed. Note: That still hasn't happened at Webmonkey, but it's very close. See below for more stats.]

Internet Explorer still retains a majority of the desktop browser market share, at 52.63 percent, a substantial 1.76 point drop from September. However, desktop browsing makes up only about 94 percent of Web traffic; the rest comes from phones and tablets, both markets in which Internet Explorer is all but unrepresented. As a share of the whole browser market, Internet Explorer has only 49.58 percent of users. Microsoft’s browser first achieved a majority share in—depending on which numbers you look at—1998 or 1999. It reached its peak of about 95 percent share in 2004, and has been declining ever since.

Where has that market share gone? In the early days, it all went Firefox’s way. These days, it’s Chrome that’s the main beneficiary of Internet Explorer’s decline, and October was no exception. Chrome is up 1.42 points to 17.62 percent of the desktop browser share. Firefox is basically unchanged, up 0.03 points to 22.51 percent. Safari grew 0.41 points to 5.43. Opera has been consistently falling over the last few months, and it dropped again in October, down 0.11 points to 1.56 percent.

Net Applications

In spite of Android sales now outstripping iOS sales, iOS users are far more abundant on the Web. Mobile browsing is currently a much smaller market, with 5.5 percent of Web usage conducted on smartphones and tablets. This small market is also a lot more volatile than the desktop market. Mobile Safari was up by 6.58 points last month to 62.17 points. The biggest single loser was the Android browser, dropping 2.91 points to 13.12 percent. Symbian, BlackBerry and Opera Mini also registered falls, down 2.15 points to 2.55 percent, 0.64 points to 2.04 percent, and 0.27 points to 18.65 percent, respectively.

Net Applications

The trend graph says it all: Firefox’s share is flat, with Chrome driving all Internet Explorer’s losses.

Net Applications

Safari’s long-term dominance in mobile is clear. Also clear is that Android’s sales growth isn’t at all reflected in its Web usage.

Net Applications

The upgrade trends show a familiar story. Chrome users, who for the most part receive updates automatically, switch to new versions quickly and efficiently. Chrome’s “tail” is growing ever longer, though, with about 2 percent of desktop browser users—about 14 percent of Chrome users—using old versions. That number is growing every month, and it appears to be resilient.

Net Applications

Firefox retains its clean split between people on the new, rapid release versions (4-9) and those on the old stable version (3.6). The rapid release users are upgrading fairly quickly, though the cut-overs are neither as rapid nor as automated as those of Chrome. However, almost a quarter of Firefox users are sticking with version 3.6. Until and unless Mozilla produces a stable edition with long-term support, this is unlikely to change.

Net Applications

Internet Explorer, however, continues to see major usage of old versions. Internet Explorer 6 and 7, which aren’t current on any supported version of Windows, are still the version used by 25.4 percent of Internet Explorer users, 13.38 percent of desktop users as a total. These are people that can upgrade to either Internet Explorer 8 (if they’re using Windows XP) or Internet Explorer 9 (if they’re using Windows Vista), but who have, for some reason, refused to do so. Internet Explorer 8 users appear to be switching to Internet Explorer 9 at a slow but steady rate, with the former down about a point, and the latter up by about a point.

The browser usage here at Ars Technica continues to be unusual, with Firefox and Chrome over-represented on the desktop, and Android showing a much stronger performance among mobile user than is seen on the wider Web.

A compelling case can be made that the causes for these two phenomena—Internet Explorer’s decline, and Chrome’s growth—are closely related. They represent the influence of the computer geek.

Ars Technica’s unusual usage figures are not surprising when considering its audience: visitors to the site tend to be technologists and early adopters: Ars readers were among the first to switch to using Firefox as their browser of choice, and similarly they’re leading the way with Chrome. While Internet Explorer’s decline, Firefox’s flatlining, and Chrome’s growth have happened faster at Ars than the broader Web, the underlying trends are the same. [Ed. Note: Webmonkey's browser stats are roughly the same as of October 31st. Chrome has yet to overtake Firefox among Webmonkey's perhaps more developer-heavy audience, but it's gaining on Firefox every month. For the month of October 33.4 percent of you were using Firefox, 32.4 percent Chrome and only 16.0 percent Internet Explorer.]

This is perhaps not surprising. Ars has more than its fair share of IT decision-makers, both in corporate environments and home environments (I’m sure that many of us know the perils of being the “computer guy” roped in to fix the problems plaguing friends’ and family’s machine). It might be a few months before a Chrome-using Ars-reading geek starts to recommend it to friends and family, or a few years before he gets approval to roll the browser out across the company whose computers he maintains, but the migration will happen. Technology decisions are usually made by technology people—and technology people read Ars, ditched Internet Explorer for Firefox a few years ago, and are now switching to Chrome.

Firefox appealed to the geek demographic by offering tabs, a wealth of extensions, and active development: geeks enjoy new things to play with, and a browser that’s frozen in time, as Internet Explorer 6 was, holds no appeal. Chrome in turn offered a focus on performance and stability, even more active development, and the cachet of being built by Google. Chrome was also quick to offer obvious but useful things such as built-in, robust session restoration, and a useful new tab page (something Internet Explorer 9 replicated, and which is currently in beta for Firefox). Bundling Flash also removed a potential headache, by ensuring that a potentially buggy plugin was kept current and up-to-date. On top of all this, Google has been vocal in pushing its view of how the Web should work, with the VP8 video codec, the SPDY Web protocol, and most recently, the Dart scripting language.

A browser that doesn’t appeal to this demographic won’t receive the benefit of this kind of on-the-ground advocacy. Mozilla is working to bring some of Chrome’s appealing features to Firefox, with its new development schedule and future features such as tab isolation, and though this is currently causing some headaches—there are continued issues with extension compatibility—Firefox’s market share is for the most part holding steady. Once Mozilla can get rid of the annoying wrinkles and make updates as pain-free as Chrome’s, it might start to win back the attention of the techie demographic. Especially if Mozilla can come up with a viable IT-friendly long-term support option.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is strenuously avoiding this same demographic. Internet Explorer lacks small but significant creature comforts such as resizeable text boxes, built-in spell checking, and session restoration, and while it does offer certain extensibility points, they fall a long way short of those offered by Firefox, and as such, its extension ecosystem is a whole lot less rich. It’s not enough for Internet Explorer to be a solid mainstream browser: the less technically engaged users who switched to Firefox because a trusted authority told them to aren’t going to spontaneously switch back to Internet Explorer, even if it is good enough for their needs. They’re going to wait until their techie friend next fixes their PC and tells them that they should consider switching to Internet Explorer because it’s “better”. Just as they did for Firefox and do for Chrome.

Internet Explorer is still an important browser, with a userbase large enough that few developers can afford to ignore—though sites that don’t need global appeal may well be able to safely ignore Internet Explorer 6—and at current rates it will remain important for a few years yet. But until and unless Microsoft makes its browser appeal to the influential geek demographic, it looks as if Internet Explorer has nowhere to go but down.

This article originally appeared on Ars Technica, Wired’s sister site for in-depth technology news.

See Also:

iomeneandrei: Gmail’s new look

A Googler — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:04:00 +0000

Back in July we showed you a preview of Gmail's new look, and we’ve been working this summer to make even more updates and improvements. Today, we’re giving you an in-depth look at the new design. If you like what you see, over the next few days you’ll be able to switch to the new look by clicking on Switch to the new look in the bottom-right of Gmail.

Streamlined conversations
Conversation view has been completely redesigned to help you read through your email threads. You’ll now see profiles pictures for your contacts, so it’s easier to keep track of who said what. We also stripped out as much as possible so you can focus on communicating with your friends and colleagues.

Elastic density
We know that you use Gmail from a variety of screen sizes and devices, so now the spacing between elements on the screen will automatically change based on the kind of display you’re using. If you prefer a denser view all the time, you can change your density manually in the Settings menu.

New HD themes
Themes have been completely rebuilt to enable us to bring you a new set of beautiful high resolution themes with imagery provided by iStockphoto. We've updated most of the old favorites as well and your theme will be automatically carried over to the new look. Go to the Settings menu to take another look at themes and choose the one that fits you best.

Smarter navigation
The navigation panel on the left keeps your labels and chat contacts in view at all times. It's also more customizable: you can resize the labels and chat areas if you want to see more, or hide the chat area entirely via the chat icon in the lower left. You can also use the arrow keys to navigate around the interface.

Better search
Click the dropdown in the search box to see a new advanced search panel, which makes it easier and faster to find exactly what you're looking for. You can use the same panel to create a filter from any search in just a few clicks.

We’re excited to finally share Gmail’s new look with you. We’ll be bringing these changes to everyone soon, but if you’d like to make the switch right away, we’re rolling out a Switch to the new look link in the bottom-right of Gmail over the next few days.

Posted by Jason Cornwell, User Experience Designer

(Cross-posted from the Gmail Blog)

iomeneandrei: How to Get 8GB+ Extra Dropbox Space for Free with Google AdWords [Dropbox]

Alan Henry — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:30:00 +0000

iomeneandrei: Google Reader Backlash: 10,000 Users Sign Petition to Save Old Version

Chris Taylor — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 03:18:33 +0000

Now that Google has officially switched to its new version of Google Reader, complete with Google+ integration, the company is facing the righteous fury of a social network it barely seemed to recognize: the Sharebros.

This small but maniacally dedicated community of Google Reader users was able to share stories and comments with each other until Monday, when the new version of Reader forced them to start using Google+. But the Sharebros are not taking the snub lying down.

Since the changes were announced earlier this month, more than 10,000 Sharebros have signed a petition to Google created by Washington, D.C.-based grad student Brett Keller.

“Many of us have been faithful users of your Reader for years,” the petition reads. “It’s central to our daily information consumption. … Reader builds tremendous goodwill from a core group of heavy Internet users, leading us to recommend this and your other services to our friends.

“Eliminating Google Reader or its features (like following friends’ shared items) is short-sighted because you will alienate some of your most loyal users, sparking a vocal backlash.”

Among those loyal users: Iranian activists. Google Reader is the most visited site in Iran, having gained much of its popularity during the “green revolution” of 2009. The country’s government has banned most social networks and blogging services; Sharebros inside the country say Reader has been an extremely useful way to share news and comments under the radar.

Some Iranian users had as many as 7,500 followers on Reader, according to Iranian blogger Amir.

Many Sharebros have taken to Twitter to vent their anger, posting under hashtags such as #OccupyGoogleReader. While there are workarounds for Sharebros to transfer their following to Google+ circles, many indicated they would not be interested in switching.

“Dear Google: taking away my Google Reader functionality will not make me use Google+,” wrote blogger Megan McArdle. “It will only make me mad.”

Even some Googlers joined in sympathy with the Sharebros, such as engineers Kevin Fox (who helped design an early version of Reader) and Mihai Parparita.

Will that be enough to convince Google to give Sharebros an option to roll back the changes? Or does CEO Larry Page’s much-heralded focus on social media mean that the Sharebros must be sacrificed for the greater good of Google+? Let us know what you think in the comments.

More About: Google, google reader, larry page

iomeneandrei: Royal Society opens its archives to the web, is less elitist than the name suggests

Terrence O'Brien — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:06:00 +0000

iomeneandrei: CommandLineFu: Amazing Collection Of Command Line Gems [Linux & Mac]

Justin Pot — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 19:31:29 +0000

Browse an assortment of amazingly useful commands. Whether you’re an veteran system admin or a command-line neophyte striving to discover more, CommandLineFu is a vote-driven collection of commands that serves up thousands of ideas you should have thought of but didn’t.

Some see the command line as Linux’s weak point, the ultimate symbol of a system lacking ease of use. Others know the command line as one of Linux’s best features, giving learned users quick access to features most computer users don’t even know exist. There’s a reason even Mac OS X comes with a full-featured terminal. CommandLineFu is an encyclopedia of exactly those features. A database featuring over 8,000 unique commands, this site can seem overwhelming at first – just like the command line itself. Dig in though, and you will wonder just how you used a computer without the command line.

Sorry, Windows users – the majority of these commands only work on Linux. Some work on Mac OS X as well.

Browsing

Head over to CommandLineFu to get started. You will immediately see the commands submitted most recently.

You can “grep” (read: search) the archive, if you want, or simply click “All Time Greats” to see the most popular commands. Or if you prefer, simply browse the massive tag cloud that makes up this sites right sidebar.

A Few Highlight Commands

Experienced command line users will immediately find things they are interested in, but what about everyone else? Here is a quick list of my discoveries from this site.

Quick, Temporary Web Server

Want to quickly share a file with someone? Set up your own web server in a few keystrokes with this handy command:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

Just like that, your current directory will be shared. Here’s what it looks like in a web browser:

Naturally, you’re going to need to set up your router properly if you want to share with someone outside your current network. A dedicated IP or a service like DynDNS will also be needed. Still, for local file sharing, it’s hard to beat the above command: it’s quick and easy. It worked for me on Ubuntu and OS X.

Run Preview Command As Sudo

This one’s probably only useful for users of Ubuntu, or other systems utilizing sudo. It allows you to re-run the last command you executed as sudo, perfect if you forgot to add that vital preface.

See Your Unread Emails

Want a quick rundown of your unread emails? this simple command can do the trick, provided your email client of choice is Gmail.

It worked for me on Ubuntu and OS X; Linux users should make sure “curl” is installed.

See Your Mounted Devices

A mounted device is any storage drive plugged into your system and working. Need to see a full list of them? Simple.

Watch A Text Version of StarWars

Okay, this one’s not useful. It is, however, awesome. Watch a text-only version of Star Wars, complete with ASCII animated characters:

The code for this is simple:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

3 Different Feeds

Do you want to know every time a new awesome command is discovered? CommandLineFu offers three different Twitter and RSS feeds for just that purpose. Which one you use depends on how frequently you want updates; check them all out here.

Conclusion

This site is awesome. Exploring it can teach you a great deal about not only the command line but also about computers in general.

Did you learn anything cool? Share links to your favorite commands in the comments below, or just list them yourself.

iomeneandrei: Firefox Share Alpha — the next step for fast sharing in Firefox

mixedpuppy — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:42:09 +0000

We’re pleased to introduce the Firefox Share alpha add-on, a spinoff from the F1 add-on you may already be using. Firefox Share is a descendant of F1, but it differs in a few significant ways that we’ll describe below. We’d love for you to try it and send us feedback to improve it.

We’re developing Firefox Share as an add-on so it can evolve in parallel with the rest of Firefox. Firefox Share works with all current Firefox versions.

While Firefox Share is derived from F1, there are changes in the interface and under the hood:

Most obviously, Firefox Share looks different. It’s been styled to integrate with the look & feel of Firefox, so it will look Mac-like on a Mac, Windows-like on Windows, and Linux-like on Linux. It will get prettier and more usable as we continue to iterate.
Firefox Share uses a different architecture than the original F1. F1 used a stateless server as a proxy to communicate between your browser and the service providers, because it was faster to build that way. For a variety of reasons, we’ve now moved to a pure-client-side solution, and the Share-enabled browser communicates directly with the service providers. This will make scaling to lots of users easier for us (no Mozilla servers needed!), and mitigates some security concerns.
We have a plan in place to support a long-tail of service providers, so you won’t have to try and convince us to implement your favorite sharing provider. We want our favorites too! More on that soon.

One other note: Since this alpha has been focused primarily on the re-architecture, we regret that we’ve had to drop a couple of features, including support for LinkedIn, Google Apps, Yahoo, and multiple accounts per service (e.g. multiple Twitter accounts). We hope to add these back over time in upcoming releases. We’ll keep you informed as Firefox Share continues to evolve and moves out of alpha.

iomeneandrei: Creative Commons ha pubblicato la prima bozza di specifiche per LRMI

Federico Moretti — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:00:48 +0000

Creative Commons ha annunciato la disponibilità della prima bozza di Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI), un nuovo standard per l’identificazione dei documenti orientati all’educazione. Il progetto è stato realizzato per adeguare il markup delle pagine web alle esigenze di schema.org, il protocollo di Bing, Google e Yahoo.

In sostanza, LRMI colma le lacune di schema.org sui documenti per la divulgazione scientifica e l’apprendimento. È un set di proprietà da associare alle marcature dei contenuti in HTML5 per migliorare il riconoscimento da parte dei motori di ricerca, sfruttando i Rich Snippet di Google o gli equivalenti implementati da Bing e Yahoo.

Rispetto alle risorse già esistenti, LRMI abbraccia i microdata scelti da schema.org al posto di RDFa. Utilizzando le nuove specifiche, chi crea dei documenti a scopo educativo può usufruire delle funzioni più avanzate dei motori di ricerca. Abbandonando una volta per tutte il sistema deprecato (e inefficiente) delle parole-chiave.

Via | Creative Commons

Creative Commons ha pubblicato la prima bozza di specifiche per LRMI é stato pubblicato su Ossblog.it alle 15:00 di lunedì 24 ottobre 2011.

iomeneandrei: Sarebbe bello se ...............

Attilio A. Romita — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:40:57 +0000

iomeneandrei: Open Data: Wishlist for the Next Year

Rufus Pollock — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:02:29 +0000

In our closing session at Open Government Data Camp, we asked keynoters to reflect on what developments they would most like to see in the next year in relation to open government data and open data more generally. Here’s the resulting list:

Open Government Data as a Right
More Schemas (Knowledge APIs) – keep it focused, let’s not try to boil the ocean
Open Data as a Platform, Not a Commodity
Massive Interconnection Between Open Data Sites
Open Corporate Data (for and by Corporates)
Standards (e.g. for catalog metadata) for Data Portals and Data Hubs
Open Data for Growth – making clear the the connection
Strong international norms for data inventories
Organizational identifiers – Dunn & Bradstreet should be replaced with open data
MiData – getting personal data out of corporates and government back into the hands of the people whose data it is

iomeneandrei: Search Similar Images From Google Using Right-Click Menu In Firefox

Zainab — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:20:29 +0000

Google Image search allows users to search the web for image content, and with ease. Recently, Google added the option to look up similar images, but for that, you either have to enter the image URL, or upload an image from you local file system before the search can be performed. Google Image Search is a Firefox add-on that makes look-up for similar images even easier by letting you right-click any image, and use the context menu to have Google search similar pictures for you. Google will access information about where on the web the image had been used, and it will also filter out all other similar images.

To search an image, just right-click it and hit the Google this image option in the context menu.

Google Image Search displays results in split seconds, consisting of all websites where the image has been used, as well as all Visually Similar images.

Google Image Search is a handy add-on, particularly if you deal with image searches on Google quite often. It can be grabbed at the link provided below.

Install Google Image Search Add-on For Firefox

iomeneandrei: Google+ features are coming to more Google products, starting today with Reader

Jolie O'Dell — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:47:11 +0000

Today, Google is bringing Google+ social features into Google Reader.

The move gives us a glimpse into what the company has planned for its Plus-themed products and, in fact, the future of all Google web tools.

During a long visit to the Google campus this week, we learned that Google+ is more than a social network or a collection of communication tools; it’s Google’s plan to bring social information into everything you do on the web, from shopping to search to email and beyond.

And this expansion (or infiltration, depending on your attitude toward social media) begins today with Google Reader, the company’s RSS feed-parsing product, which itself was in dire need of a major facelift anyhow. We confirmed with a Google rep that, yes, the Reader overhaul today is a perfect example of Google’s intentions with regards to Google+ and the rest of Google’s consumer Internet products.

In addition to some user interface changes, which will be similar to the kinds of design changes made over the past few months to Google Calendar and Google Docs, Google Reader is going to have some new, Google+ powered social features that will make it easier to share specific posts and news articles from your RSS feeds with specific Google+ circles.

“We’re going to bring Reader and Google+ closer together, so you can share the best of your feeds with just the right circles,” Google engineer Alan Green wrote today on the official Google blog.

“We think the end result is better than what’s available today, and you can sign up for Google+ right now to start prepping Reader-specific circles.”

Green also noted that since some of Reader’s existing social features, such as friending and following, will be duplicated by the new Google+ features, some of the old mechanisms will be retired next week.

And if you don’t like it, Google says you can take your data and … well, do whatever you want with it. Departing users will be able to export their subscriptions, likes, friends and shared and starred items.

“Your data belongs to you, after all,” Green concluded.

Filed under: social, VentureBeat

iomeneandrei: Che giordata per gli italian Open Data

napo — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:29:04 +0000

“Oggi è una data importante” - questa una delle frasi che il ministro alla funzione pubblica e innovazione del governo italiano utilizzate durante la conferenza stampa di ieri (18 ottobre 2011).
Titolo della conferenza stampa “un programma per l’open government”,
Tre i punti con cui questa azione si svolge: open data, g-cloud (government-cloud) e P.A. 2.0.
L’apertura dei dati è stata presentata lanciando il portale http://dati.gov.it ed il concorso http://www.appsforitaly.org.
Attualmente il portale si presenta come un catalogo di 156 dataset di 31 amministrazioni diverse (di tutte quelle che hanno già rilasciato dati nell’ultimo anno e di quelle che hanno accettato l’invito fatto dal ministro nel percorso per arrivare a questo lancio) ed una sezione informativa – Voglio capire di più con diversa documentazione e il link all’Opendata Manual.
Per ora si tratta di un inizio di un percorso, e da parte di chi ci lavora dietro c’è molta sensibilità nell’ascoltare chiunque abbia suggerimenti per migliorare il tutto.
Molte sono le idee in cantiere sia per migliorare il sistema (integrazione con ckan, internazionalizzazione, semantica …) che per favorire lo sviluppo del tema open data in Italia (creare altre versioni della IODL per dare diversi gradi di libertà, individuare azioni per rendere in open data il patrimonio di dati già online dove le licenze non sono presenti…).
Qui maggiori informazioni riguardo l’iniziativa
http://saperi.forumpa.it/story/64349/open-data-pa-20-e-g-cloud-una-strategia-l-open-government-italiano

La giornata del 18 Ottobre ha poi visto anche il portale dei dati aperti del comune di Firenze –
http://dati.comune.firenze.it

Insomma, finalmente il movimento degli Open Data prende forma, ora occorre lavorare molto per divulgare questa cultura. Gli esempi del Piemonte, dell’Emilia-Romagna, dell’ISTAT, di ENEL, di dati.gov.it, delle tante amministrazioni comunali che ci stanno credendo o che hanno fatto qualcosa (Bologna, Faenza, Firenze, Pavia, Udine, Schio, Vicenza, Montecchio Maggiore, Merano … ) non possono essere che considerate delle best practice di riferimento.
Adesso c’è anche il governo italiano, rimbocchiamoci le maniche per proseguire questo percorso.

iomeneandrei: A fresh start for Google presentations

Lauren Kolodny — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:00:00 +0000

Posted by: Steven Saviano, Software Engineer

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog and the Google Docs Blog.)

A year and a half ago, we released completely new document, spreadsheet and drawing editors. Google Docs has been picking up speed ever since with more than 60 new features and millions of new users. Today we’re rounding out the suite by previewing a new version of presentations with faster collaboration and more features.

A collaborative approach
Presentations are made to be shared—whether it’s presenting your thesis to your professors or inspiring colleagues at a conference. And the best presentations are made together, collaborating with others to build a compelling story that captivates your audience. Creating presentations together is easy because you can:

See exactly what others are working on with colorful presence markers
Edit with your team members simultaneously from different locations
Use revision history to see who made changes or to revert to earlier versions
Say hello, start a conversation or share new ideas using built-in chat

More than 50 new features
In the new presentations, we’ve added many of your most requested features, including:

Transitions to move between slides with simple fades or spicier 3D effects
Animations to add emphasis or to make your slides more playful
New themes to create beautiful presentations with distinct visual styles
Drawings to build new designs, layouts, and flowcharts within a presentation
Rich tables with merged cells and more options for adding style to your data

What’s next
We’re gradually rolling out the new presentations. To get an early start, click on the gear icon in your document list, and select Document settings. Then, from the editing tab, check the box to “Create new presentations using the latest version of the presentation editor.” Learn more about getting started with the new presentation editor over at our Help Center.

Many of the new features were built using technologies that are only available in modern browsers. If you’re using an older browser you’ll be able to view, but not edit, the new presentations.

With today’s launch, the Google Docs suite is now built on a single, solid foundation. Now that the groundwork is in place, you can expect more useful and collaborative features, delivered faster than ever before.

neldrago: Un CCD che misura i pianeti

(author unknown) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:13:39 +0000

neldrago: «Il secolo del jazz», quando la musica classica nera cambiò il mondo

Francesco Prisco — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:56:52 +0000

neldrago: Di notte sempre con la luce

(author unknown) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Di notte sempre con la luce - Che cosa vedono gli automobilisti di notte a 50 KM/H ?

Le Prove di:

scarsa (schlechte), nessuna (keine) e perfetta Visibilità (Sichtbarkeit) vengono fatte in rapporto a: illuminazione ( Beleuchtung), catarifrangenti ( Reflektoren ) e abbigliamento chiaro ( Bekleidung hell)
Conclusione: la luce dà sicurezza (Licht gib Sichereit)

neldrago: tshirt wifi

sandrostracuzzi — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:00:54 +0000

Wi-Fi T-shirt - Click here for more home videos

neldrago: Ma quale web 3.0?

(author unknown) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:43:00 +0000

neldrago: Tetrapak. Adesso si può ufficialmente riciclare.

nospam@example.com (LDN) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 06:43:00 +0000

Dobbiamo ammetterlo.
La Tetrapak sta facendo un enorme e complesso lavoro per migliorare la propria immagine con la finalità di dimostrare che il suo prodotto - leader assoluto nel mondo per il settore packaging di prodotti liquidi - sia ecocompatibile.
Del resto in molti avevano urlato contro questo colosso multinazionale e qualcosa doveva essere fatto.

Non nascondiamo il nostro imbarazzo [e lo è ancora oggi, capirete alla fine del post, perché ...], quando di fronte alla raccolta differenziata, il tetrapak si trasforma in un vero e proprio dilemma.
Dove buttarlo?
In quale contenitore di raccolta differenziata deve finire?
Spesso la conclusione sbrigativa porta irrimediabilmente a metterlo nel posto sbagliato (a nostro discapito possiamo però aggiungere che la cittadinanza non sempre viene aiutata dalla propria amministrazione pubblica che non è chiara sulla destinazione di questo materiale).

[Per i meno giovani]
Vi ricordate le confezioni di latte a forma di tetraedro?
Tetrapack=tetraedro

Preso atto, l'azienda svedese, fondata nel 1951 da Ruben Rausing, ha cercato di prendere le redini in mano, lanciando una campagna di sensibilizzazione non comune e stringendo accordi con moltissimi comuni italiani grandi e piccoli per avviare una corretta campagna di riciclo dei propri contenitori.
Ma facciamo un salto indietro e diciamo subito che cosa è il tetrapack.
Il tetrapack è la risultante di tre diversi materiali. Carta, alluminio e polietilene.
Proprio per la medesima multi-natura dei materiali utilizzati, ne ha spesso ostacolato il suo riutilizzo.
Ebbene, sappiate che dal riutilizzo composto del polietilene e dell'alluminio si ottiene l'Ecoallene.
Continua a leggere "Tetrapak. Adesso si può ufficialmente riciclare."

neldrago: Bici senza parole

(author unknown) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 07:55:29 +0000

neldrago: Da domani la Terra è in rosso, le risorse dell'anno esaurite

Simone Muscas — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:45:26 +0000

Potrebbe sembrare un calcolo cervellotico, ma la sua analisi merita particolare attenzione. Da domani il pianeta Terra sarà in debito ed inizierà a consumare più risorse di quelle che la natura fornisce in modo rinnovabile. Il 23 settembre infatti sarà “l’Earth Overshoot Day” , quella che viene definita l’ora della bancarotta ecologica.

Nessun “Millennium Bug” o “Fine del mondo da calendario Maya”, tutti continueremo a vivere come sempre, con la differenza che lo faremo chiedendo un prestito al futuro, cioè togliendo risorse alle generazioni che verranno. Il nostro budget disponibile per quest’anno è finito e i dati a proposito sono davvero preoccupanti.

Partiamo dal passato. Nel 1961 metà della Terra era sufficiente per soddisfare le nostre necessità. Il primo anno in cui l’umanità ha utilizzato più risorse di quelle offerte dalla biocapacità del pianeta è stato il 1986, ma quella volta la scadenza era appena il 31 dicembre, ancora nei limiti. Solamente dopo 9 anni, nel 1995, già a partire dal 21 novembre, la quantità di risorse andava oltre la capacità degli ecosistemi di rigenerarsi. Nel 2005 l’Earth Overshoot Day è caduto il 2 ottobre.

Quest’anno la data è stata anticipata al 23 settembre, che tradotto in percentuale significa che vengono consumate risorse per quasi il 40% in più di quelle offerte. Secondo le proiezioni delle Nazioni Unite, di questo passo nel 2050 si arriverà alla scadenza anticipata del 1° Luglio, ovvero si avrà bisogno di un secondo pianeta per soddisfare i capricci insostenibili degli esseri umani.

I responsabili di questo scempio ecologico sono naturalmente i paesi più industrializzati. Dai dati emerge che se tutto il mondo avesse lo stile di vita degli Stati Uniti ci vorrebbero 5,4 terre, mentre con quelli del Regno Unito e Germania si scenderebbe rispettivamente a 3,1 e 2,5 terre. Il dato per L’Italia è di 2,2 pianeti, ci servirebbe cioè Marte e un quinto di Venere per continuare a portare avanti le nostre scellerate abitudini.

Trasferimento su Marte? Pazzie a parte, la ricetta è sempre la stessa: virtuosismi negli stili di vita, diffusione di energie sostenibili, politiche ambientali eco-compatibili. Avremo le capacità per invertire questo trend? E proprio il caso di dire: ai posteri l’ardua sentenza.

Via | Repubblica.it
Foto | Flickr

neldrago: SemantiFind Clarifies What You're Searching For [Featured Firefox Extension]

Gina Trapani — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:00:00 +0000

neldrago: Il diritto d'autore è un modello che non funziona più

PG — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 09:00:16 +0000

Un recente studio sostiene che il sistema attuale del diritto d’autore non funziona più. Continuando così sarà impossibile seguire un modello di sviluppo e progresso, e non sono da parte del mondo dello spettacolo, ma anche in materia di biotecnologie.

Quando si parla di “proprietà intellettuale” non parliamo solo di musica e film, ma anche di tanti altri settori. Il modello che usiamo oggi è basato su ipotesi formulate decenni fa che andavano bene allora, ma non adesso, perchè impediscono il progresso di vari settori della scienza, compresa la medicina e, ovviamente, l’informatica.

Come possiamo notare, l’industria della musica è governata da poche associazioni che detengono un certo potere sul diritto d’autore, rifiutandosi di sperimentare nuove forme di business. Lo stesso si può dire dell’industria cinematografica, ostile alle nuove tecnologie e a forme di condivisione.

E, anche se ha poco a che fare con l’informatica, il diritto d’autore impedisce anche alla medicina di evolversi. Basti pensare ai numerosi brevetti sui farmaci, e alle cause intentate da alcuni governi contro le case farmaceutiche per abbassare i prezzi dei farmaci contro l’AIDS.

Il Partito del Pirata Internazionale (una coalizione internazionale di tutti i Partiti del Pirata nazionali) è in prima linea nella lotta contro il copyright, e chiede un cambiamento nella formulazione dei brevetti. Ma è ovvio che non si tratta di una cosa semplice. E, nonostante l’evidenza, sembra che difficilmente cambierà qualcosa nel panorama del diritto d’autore.

Via | Torrentfreak.com

neldrago: Settimana europea della mobilità 2008

(author unknown) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Dal 16 al 22 settembre 2008 si terrà la settima edizione della Settimana Europea della Mobilità (European Mobility Week) sul tema “Aria pulita per tutti”.

L’Assessorato Ambiente e Territorio del Comune di Palermo, ORSA e Coordinamento Palermo Ciclabile – FIAB, in collaborazione con Italia Nostra Sezione di Palermo, VII e VIII Circoscrizione del Comune di Palermo, AMAT, AMIA, FIPE Confcommercio Palermo, Rangers d’Italia, Legambiente Palermo e FIAT Center Palermo, si fanno promotori di una serie di iniziative finalizzate alla riduzione dell’uso dell’auto privata, privilegiando modi alternativi e sostenibili quali il trasporto collettivo pubblico, il carsharing e incentivando l’uso di mezzi a basso impatto ambientale come le biciclette e i veicoli elettrici e a metano.

Leggi il resto del programma

Le letture dei CoCo v3

iomeneandrei: Ecco Lightning 1.0!

iomeneandrei: Mozilla Reinvents Web Video With Popcorn 1.0

iomeneandrei: Five Best RSS Newsreaders

iomeneandrei: I film della settimana

iomeneandrei: ReaderSharer Restores Sharing Options For New Google Reader [Chrome]

Related Articles:

iomeneandrei: The End of an Era: Internet Explorer Drops Below 50 Percent of Web Usage

iomeneandrei: Gmail’s new look

iomeneandrei: How to Get 8GB+ Extra Dropbox Space for Free with Google AdWords [Dropbox]

iomeneandrei: Google Reader Backlash: 10,000 Users Sign Petition to Save Old Version

iomeneandrei: Royal Society opens its archives to the web, is less elitist than the name suggests

iomeneandrei: CommandLineFu: Amazing Collection Of Command Line Gems [Linux & Mac]

Browsing

A Few Highlight Commands

Quick, Temporary Web Server

Run Preview Command As Sudo

See Your Unread Emails

See Your Mounted Devices

Watch A Text Version of StarWars

3 Different Feeds

Conclusion

iomeneandrei: Firefox Share Alpha — the next step for fast sharing in Firefox

iomeneandrei: Creative Commons ha pubblicato la prima bozza di specifiche per LRMI

iomeneandrei: Sarebbe bello se ...............

iomeneandrei: Open Data: Wishlist for the Next Year

iomeneandrei: Search Similar Images From Google Using Right-Click Menu In Firefox

Related Articles:

iomeneandrei: Google+ features are coming to more Google products, starting today with Reader

iomeneandrei: Che giordata per gli italian Open Data

iomeneandrei: A fresh start for Google presentations

neldrago: Un CCD che misura i pianeti

neldrago: «Il secolo del jazz», quando la musica classica nera cambiò il mondo

neldrago: Di notte sempre con la luce

neldrago: tshirt wifi

neldrago: Ma quale web 3.0?

neldrago: Tetrapak. Adesso si può ufficialmente riciclare.

neldrago: Bici senza parole

neldrago: Da domani la Terra è in rosso, le risorse dell'anno esaurite

neldrago: SemantiFind Clarifies What You're Searching For [Featured Firefox Extension]

neldrago: Il diritto d'autore è un modello che non funziona più

neldrago: Settimana europea della mobilità 2008