travels
3 nt bahamas cococay & nau from $20906/30/2006, 16:51 | Cruise Deals from TravelCiti
cruise description: tropical tranquility is closer than you think, with this three-night bahamas cruise aboard the majesty of the seas. enjoy royal caribbean’s private island paradise, cococay — splash in the azure sea, or snooze under a shady palm tree. nau entertains with a bevy of watersports then tempts you with exciting casinos and dance [...]
cruise description: tropical tranquility is closer than you think, with this three-night bahamas cruise aboard the majesty of the seas. enjoy royal caribbean’s private island paradise, cococay — splash in the azure sea, or snooze under a shady palm tree. nau entertains with a bevy of watersports then tempts you with exciting casinos and dance clubs. sink into serenity at the ship’s spa, or have fun in two pools, a cinema, and a nightclub. book this cruise
technology & science
3rd iphone sensor is another proximity sensor06/12/2008, 23:25 | MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors
ilounge reveals that apple has included a second proximity sensor to the iphone 3g to provide more accurate face-detection. this brings the total number of sensors to three (two proximity sensors, one at light sensor).
apple prev...
apple prev...
news & headlines
ubs may reveal u.s. clients' names in probe: report06/06/2008, 11:23 | Reuters: Top News
(reuters) - ubs ag is considering whether to reveal the names of up to 20,000 wealthy american clients as federal authorities intensify an investigation into offshore bank accounts, the new york times said on friday, citing people close to the inquiry. 
internet & programming
what we learned building live.com (or why are we slow)?04/26/2006, 02:29 | Scott's "SiteExperts" Place
over the last 18 months, we have explored how to build a highly-interactive, customizable, and extensible portal. the first iteration was a simple portal on start.com. we created various iterations (start.com/1, start.com/2, start.com/3) which have evolved into the first fully extensible portal on live.com. today, from live.com to the kahuna (mail) beta to msn spaces, and so-on, we are investing heavily in building very rich, interactive experiences. with these investts, we are learning a great deal on the right and wrong ways to engineer rich, interactive web-sites.
underneath all our windows live properties, we share a common framework for how we engineer our client experiences. the framework is very client-centric where we composite most of the page client-side. for example, if you were to view live.com?s html, you will notice that it serves a web-page ?s? and meta-data that describes the content. this meta-data is interpreted by the live.com application and then rendered. this approach is extraordinarily flexible as we can quickly enhance and extend the application without any heavy server lifting. however, as we have learned and is being evidenced by our customers, without care, performance degradation can quickly outweigh all other benefits.
as you examine live.com, and for the technically savvy, explore the underlying browser technology, it is easy to question whether we as microsoft and the industry as a whole are pushing the browser too far. the current crop of rich applications while cool and interactive are starting to fare poorly performance-wise against their traditional brethren. so much so that an often posed question is, where do we go from here? and is it time to reexamine building rich applications?
first, let?s step back and very briefly look at the web versus traditional software. with traditional software, you would go through various design phases starting from specifications, to architecture doentation, to developt, to usality testing, to testing, and eventually to ship. the entire approach had a fairly long lead time (up to years). once released, updating the software was difficult and many times very cost prohitive. this created a very high-bar. the web has removed almost all those barriers. on the web, we can now experit and develop software with near real-time feedback and very fast release cycles.
i view the web 2.0 phenoa as being very early in the developt lifecycle. i am not prepared to dismiss any approach, pattern, or methodology as we are still in the learning phases. in the case of windows live, as we push the browser, we are also learning a great deal. examining performance specifically - when i look at live.com today, i see incredible innovation. we are pushing the limits of extensility (gadgets), reuse (shared frameworks across all our properties), and are taking chances to drive new user-experience standards (look at how we present search results). on the contrary, i also see an application whose performance is starting to be painful to use. the page currently takes a long time to load, especially on the first visit. beyond our user?s feedback (we do read all messages), broader industry pundits are quick to throw in the towel on the entire technology.
we are taking a different approach to this problem. we are challenging ourselves to prove that we can architect a performance driven, rich extensible experience. we are leveraging our gained knowledge shipping the many iterations of start.com and all the beta products we are developing to improve our shared architecture and drive best patterns. using the current live.com as a simple case y, below i ilrate a few of the performance-oriented technical issues that we are working on quickly addressing:
manage your connections carefully
if you were to examine live.com at the network level, a reasonable person would quickly conclude that we are making too many connections. we decomposed this issue as follows: first, we are hitting an ie 6 issue that causes un-cached images applied dynamically via script to download on each reference. this issue typically manifests itself on slower connections ? the time when bandwidth is most at a premium. we are baking a solution to this problem directly into our frameworks so that we pre-cache dynamically applied images before reuse. next, every rss feed and gadget manifest is a unique request. this creates a web-page that is very ?chatty? ? an ajax characteristic that you should work to avoid. we will solve this by intelligently batching multiple requests into a single request (and are exploring even more efficient means for the longer-term)
parsing xml is slow
we have also learned that merely parsing the rss xml can be expensive in the browser. when we parse rss, we are merely translating it into javascript structures to be further manipulated. since our server?s are already normalizing feeds to a standard format, instead of serving the rss feed directly, we are going to translate the feed directly to json (javascript structures). as a simple benchmark, on my fast developer machine we went from 400ms to parse 150k of rss to 15ms to ?execute? the json response.
caching and connection managet is essential
network bandwidth and connections are a scarce resource. managing them is essential to providing fast experiences (especially for sequent loads). we are evaluating the optimal approaches for splitting resources across multiple servers to leverage as many simultaneous connections at once (the browser is limited to 2 active connections per ain). we are also reviewing all resources to make sure they are set with appropriate expirations. in general, almost all content should have expiration, even a very short one (e.g., if the user leaves the page and hits the back button, the page should be re-rendered entirely from the cache).
staging the application
one of the ggest challenges with a very rich web-application is deploying the code. the richer the site, the more code that is needed. in the case of live.com today, the entire application deploys before anything renders. however, our underlying framework supports dynamic and prioritized deployt ? we just were not properly leveraging it. we are now focusing leveraging this pattern so that we can ?stage? the application. we will be able to deploy the minimal code necessary to retrieve content and render the page and sequently download features in priority order (e.g., render, then get drag-drop code, then get the rss image rotator code, etc). for features not yet in use or visible, we can deploy those last or even on demand. staging an application is fundatal to maintaining high-degrees of perceived performance.
server versus client rendering
traditional web-pages are generated via the server. live.com and many of our properties are very client-centric where the client constructs the web-page from the user?s meta-data. in general, the first time a web-page loads, a server-generated page will almost always be faster. however, with a properly architected web application, we are discovering that our sequent loads on a client-side generated page (especially when we stage the application) can be much faster than a server-oriented page. this occurs because our client-oriented approach is highly cacheable and loads asynchronously, even off the cache. the only content we need to download is the user?s meta-data. the rest of the page, scripts, and behaviors are cached indefinitely.
this summarizes a few of the performance-driven challenges we are addressing. internally, we have developed a complete prototype that validates we can build a high-performance, scalable version of live.com that load and run near-instantly to within seconds (on broadband). we are working on integrating these improvets into the shipping site as quickly as possible. over the coming weeks and months, expect to see continuous noticeable improvets.
update: beyond performance, the live.com team just posted the goals for the live.com page.
technology & science
microsoft shutters its craigslist compeor06/07/2008, 02:54 | TechWeb
created to compete as a clified ads site, expo was one of several lesser known windows live services that microsoft has shuttered recently.
technology & science
mole marketing : apple - iphone - breakthrough internet device06/20/2007, 09:59 | MOBILE ALLEY
iphone features a rich html email client and safari ? the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device ? which automatically syncs bookmarks from your pc or mac. safari also includes built-in google and yahoo! search. iphone is fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the [...]
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podcast
adam's first death01/03/2007, 22:47 | IFILM War Channel
staff sgt. lingo's heartbreaking recollection from iraq.
runtime: 5 min 12 sec
technology & science
catherine zeta-jones named test woman in cell phone business: poll06/10/2008, 23:24 | Cell Phones etc.
in our recent poll we asked you who was the test mole phone spokeswoman. kate moss for mole, catherine zeta-jones for t-mole or maria sharapova for motorola? well…the results are in: there you have it. the mole phone community has spoken. catherine zeta-jones, the once face of t-mole, has been rated the test mole phone [...]
in our recent poll we asked you who was the test mole phone spokeswoman. kate moss for mole, catherine zeta-jones for t-mole or maria sharapova for motorola? well…the results are in:
there you have it. the mole phone community has spoken. catherine zeta-jones, the once face of t-mole, has been rated the test mole phone spokeswoman. congratulations catherine! your prize is in the mail.
this is a post from cell phones etc. enled:
catherine zeta-jones named test woman in cell phone business: poll | add your comts
technology & science
cell phone fees ok for consumers, not governt06/12/2008, 09:48 | Cellphones - Topix.net
a leading cellular phone company declined to charge the governt the same expensive fees it charges consumers for canceling their contracts early, acknowledging that "the governt will never, never accept ...
job & training
adding google maps to site06/06/2008, 20:24 | ScriptLance Projects
technology & science
pocket tunes 4.1 for windows mole06/03/2008, 06:00 | Smartphone Thoughts
"new in 4.1! sync your itunes playlists with your windows mole device. (currently only available for windows mole) automatically or manually synchronize your music and playlists from itunes on your pc. pocket tunes supports all unprotected music files in your itunes library. of the music you have purchased music from the itunes store, pocket tunes will only play itunes plus tracks."
have a huge itunes library? wish you could sync it to your windows mole device? according to the pocket tunes website you can. you can access millions of songs via scriptions services, listen to internet radio, listen from your storage card, and even view album artwork. there is a 15 day trial which is good because it's 37.95 if you decide you want to buy. there is also a 15 day money back guarantee if you decide to try it or buy it, let us know what you think. 
have a huge itunes library? wish you could sync it to your windows mole device? according to the pocket tunes website you can. you can access millions of songs via scriptions services, listen to internet radio, listen from your storage card, and even view album artwork. there is a 15 day trial which is good because it's 37.95 if you decide you want to buy. there is also a 15 day money back guarantee if you decide to try it or buy it, let us know what you think.
motors
kevin walters has been appointed as the new coach05/21/2008, 18:07 | Motoring news @ FemaleFirst
walters is set to join the perpignan super league club in october, replacing mick potter who will leave for st helens at the end of the season. walters, who had a brief spell with warrington in 2001, has plenty of experience in his homeland, making 315 appearances in australia's national rugby league.
technology & science
cable company ivr crimes01/01/1970, 02:00 | Call Center CRM News Blog
i got my online version of the asrnews and was interested to read about two cable giants: charter and comcast, and the fact that asrnews tested their ivrs and found that the data customers feed in to the system is...
i got my online version of the asrnews and was interested to read about two cable giants: charter and comcast, and the fact that asrnews tested their ivrs and found that the data customers feed in to the system is not used for cti screen-pop purposes. basically, charter and comcast are using their ivrs merely to annoy customers at the front end.
said the newsletter, "this month we tested charter communications. no cti. they gather id information from the caller and then throw it away. comcast does the same thing. these folks should either implet cti of get rid of their ivr that is doing nothing other than irritating callers."
tes
i got my online version of the asrnews and was interested to read about two cable giants: charter and comcast, and the fact that asrnews tested their ivrs and found that the data customers feed in to the system is not used for cti screen-pop purposes. basically, charter and comcast are using their ivrs merely to annoy customers at the front end.
said the newsletter, "this month we tested charter communications. no cti. they gather id information from the caller and then throw it away. comcast does the same thing. these folks should either implet cti of get rid of their ivr that is doing nothing other than irritating callers."
more high-quality customer service from the cable companies. how could it get any worse? they play a eardrum-shattering screech tone into customers' ears as payback for daring to try and get in touch with customer service?
you can find asrnews' online newsletter at http://www.asrnews.com/asrnews/backissue/asrn0208.htmtes
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internet & programming
custom list: other sites11/01/2007, 17:07 | Scott's "SiteExperts" Place
other sites
a short o about my inolvet helping define and create web technologies.
a web developer community i have been hosting for 8 years.
if you can't remember my url and need to get back - just remember weblogging. http://weblogging.com!
technology & science
an integrated exploration approach to visualizing multivariate particle data01/01/1970, 02:00 | Computing in Science and Engineering
the authors describe a data exploration system that visualizes time-varying, multivariate, point-based data from gyrokinetic particle simulations. by using two interaction modes, their system lets researchers explore collections of densely packed particles and discover interesting aspects, such as the location and motion of particles trapped in turbulent plasma flow.
poblogs
day 110.1 - beer gl nucleus the center of the beer universe. very interesting crystal beer gl. i've included a second po that shows a flashback abstract. june 05 200806/06/2008, 20:56 | SmugMug's all-time most popular photos
banjon
day 110.1 - beer gl nucleus the center of the beer universe. very interesting crystal beer gl. i've included a second po that shows a flashback abstract. june 05 2008
podcast
napoleon02/04/2008, 20:02 | IFILM Commercials Channel
napoleon speeds his tiny car through the streets of france, and he couldn't be happier!
runtime: 32 sec
nature & wellness
best fuel for your workout06/18/2008, 01:46 | MSNBC.com: Fitness
fit list personal trainer kathy kaehler suggests food choices for before and after exercise.
laws & rights
inmate s dead after brazen escape01/03/2008, 05:43 | CNN.com - Law
ss were fired wednesday morning at maryland's laurel regional hospital, not far from the nation's capital, law enforcet sources told cnn. 
technology & science
etymotic research ety8 in-the-ear bluetooth earphones01/01/1970, 02:00 | WIRED Gadget Lab
[rating: 8/10] [retail: $299] [ etymotic.com ]