Fynspire

ActiveRDF is a library for accessing RDF data from Ruby programs. It can be used as data layer in Ruby-on-Rails, similar to ActiveRecord (which provides an O/R mapping to relational databases). ActiveRDF in RoR allows you to create semantic web applications very rapidly. ActiveRDF gives you a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for your RDF model: you can address RDF resources, classes, properties, etc. programmatically, without queries. Activerdf website Really great tool for building ruby properties from the web.

In celebration of its 10th Birthday, Google has decided to let you take a gander at what Google used to look like in the olden days of 2001.


Happy Googling: www.google.com

Apple has decided to actually give in to the pained cries of their iPhone developers; they have finally agreed to drop the NDA for released iPhone software. It's a timely move, being that many developers were feeling strangled by their inability to share code and innovations with one another.


Perhaps, after the G1 launches, we might start to see Apple making more concessions to their developers.

Here are some good reads:


On TechCrunch:

Microsoft needs to understand that Facebook is the new Outlook.

Even though Apple is an uncompromising overseer, you will keep doing their bidding.

The sweet sound of MySpace Music has a distinct monetary quality.

Facebook is NOT a social network, it is a social utility--so stop playing games!


And over on Silicon Alley, Hank WIllaims tells us what recent U.S. economic troubles mean for the techworld.

Dan Frommer post at Silicon Alley pretty much echoed my own feelings about the new G1 phone. I was pretty disappointed that the new G1 would be launched with an initial price of $180, only 20 bucks cheaper than the iPhone. As I've stated before, I thought the best route for T-Mobile and Google would be for them to avoid positioning themselves as a direct competitor to the iPhone, but rather as a cheaper, more flexible, and more accessible option. Instead they released it as a product in the same price range, with essentially similar features, minus the universally applauded design and UI.


However, as Frommer points out, "The good news: It's early. Remember Apple's first mobile phone project -- the still-born ROKR? Exactly. So maybe Google has an iPhone waiting to surprise us somewhere." By all accounts, the G1 is a fully functioning smartphone with a platform sure to attract the eye of many a developer hungry for some freedom. Google still has plenty of time to shock and awe us, because they succeeded in delivering the essentials.


Eric Schonfeld over at TechCrunch declares that the G1 is "no iPhone, but it's close." Although it lacks the design finesse of the iphone he points out that the G1 does have a handful of features that the iPhone lacks:





Schonfeld and John Biggs from CrunchGear both make the excellent point that the G1 has cemented the idea of a smartphone being a mini-laptop. Biggs writes:





The overall take on Android seems to be cautiously optimistic--not so much about what the phone is, but about the ways that Google could grow. Google and T-Mobile have delivered an impressive phone, that can't help but be overshadowed by the iPhone. In a sense, the G1 manages to be successful by being comparable to the iPhone. Their ability to deliver this makes me hopeful about future phones and the direction of their development.


Update: Wired is not too impressed with the G1.

An interesting study conducted on Second Life found that users interacted more negatively with darker-skinned or obviously African American Second Life avatars.

Apparently only Japan is ready to grapple with the emerging Internet environment. A survey of 42 nations' broadband connections, condcuted by Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and the University of Oviedo's Department of Applied Economics, found that Japan was the sole country deemed to be "future-ready," or capable of sustaining "visual networking, HD video streaming, 'consumer telepresence,' and large file-sharing. These activities will require a download speed of roughly 11.25Mbps and an upload of 5Mbps, which still isn't common in many countries today."



Japan is winning the Internet war.

MySpace is finally allowing users to upload video directly to their site as well as allowing users to "hook up a camcorder, go to MySpace TV, and click the “Record� button to record a video to the site on-the-fly."

They're having a wild time over at the TechCrunch 50 conference discussing (among many other topics) "Youth and Culture."

Most, though not all, of the companies profiled during the session were social networks trying to carve out new ways for kids and tweens, and teenagers to interact with one another through creating avatars, providing gossip, and virtual hangouts.

Here are some interesting posts:

TechCrunch has three Demos they think you should keep your eye on.

Apparently the German government does not approve of Chrome.

And to get out of a sticky legal situation, Apple dug up Kane Kramer and dubbed him the inventor of the iPod. Kramer invented an iPod-like device in 1979, unfortunately it didn't gain much traction and his patent on the item expired. Luckily, Kramer now gets some credit and a little cash as well.