All Forces

The unsung hero of web 2.0 has truly been Javascript. Just when it seemed that Javascript’s own weaknesses was starting to make it obsolete, it found new life in the web 2.0 realm through AJAX. Oddly enough it has not been because of a radically new version of Javascrip, it is the same old javascript. Same dog, new tricks. This has been possible in part by some solid libraries being developed by the developer community. Case in point, Prototype, one of the most robust ones that is even used in other libraries. So it is time to dive into this Ajaxian 2.0 world.

Link: Tutorial at sitepoint.com
Link: Prototype Library at prototype.conio.net
Link: JavaScript Library Roundup at edevil

New robotics toy company Ugobe is about to release Pleo, a pet Camarasaurus Dinosaur that walks, listens, and feels. Pleo has dozens of sensors that allows him to relate to humans through a wide range of emotions using artificial intelligence software. If you startle Pleo, he will be surprised. If you play with Pleo, he will play back. He behaves like a newborn pet when first acquired and acts more grown up like as time goes by. I honestly can’t wait for a real size version of a dinosaur 15 years from now. For now, the baby size will go for only $200. Way cheaper than the now defunct Aibo.

Link: ugobe.com
Link: Video at demo.com

Volunteers bring books in the public domain to life through podcasting!
LibriBox is a volunteer, open source, free content, public domain project that offer audiobooks from books that are in public domain.

Link: librivox.org

Displaying the beauty of web 2.0 technologies, Thomas Marban’s creation, popurls.com, lists the most popular links from around the web in one simple interface. Feeds include digg.com, del.icio.us, newsvine.com, flickr.com, reddit.com, tailrank.com, slashdot.com, youtube.com, news.google.com, topic.net and comagz.com. What’s more, the author hints at a customizable option with the words “your pop: stay tuned”.

Link: popurls.com

Ever wondered how your online ego measures up? Head over to egosurf.com where you can do a google, yahoo, msn, del.icio.us and technorati assessment. It’s based on a combination of how many sites link to you and good old fashion search results ranking.

Link: egosurf.org

The cool cats from the WordPress dev team are starting to spill the beans about the upcoming version of WordPress. In an effort to make WordPress more CMS like they are finally giving pages the same love that posts have. Links are now simplified and called Bookmarks. This thing just keeps getting better and better.

Link: www.boren.nu

Tech Crunch has some exclusive screenshots of the up and coming web 2.0 Google calendar named CL2. The features look impressive: Ajax goodies, subscription feeds for desktop integration, event creation, search, sharing, notifications that include SMS and GMail integration.

Link: www.techcrunch.com

This is my latest Apple Swag, a nice black t-shirt with grey words that say ‘I visited the Mothership’, courtesy of my friend George Ariola. Previously he was product manager of Adobe GoLive but now is a technologist at Apple. He was in town last week and we met at the jewish deli and L.A. landmark Canters to catch up on our lives. Apparently this t-shirt is only available at the store in the Apple campus in Cupertino. Thank you George, you rock! The t-shirt has a small white Apple logo on the back and for those of you wondering, I have been to the Mothership so it’s not false advertising.

Most people I know don’t know that iPhoto can be tagged with keywords. Or if they do they don’t know how to use them. They’re not to blame, iPhoto has always had an awkward implementation of keywords. iPhoto 06 improves on keywords but they are still confusing to most users I know. So here’s a quick tutorial on setting up and managing keywords in iPhoto. This tutorial uses iPhoto 06, but it can be implemented in earlier versions that support keywords.

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My favorite radio station is by far KCRW, the poster child of NPR stations. They have an amazing list of eclectic music shows with hand picked music. They have three streams of audio in iTunes radio (live, music, news). They podcast audio of their shows and recently started video podcasting their live performances. This widget will give you an instant display of what’s currently playing on the station.

Link: www.jonsthoughtsoneverything.com