Flickr to map the world’s latest photo hotspots
Starting on Monday, Flickr will unveil a way for Web users to browse photos from tens of millions of geographically located photos loaded up to its site, http://www.flickr.com/. The service, called “Places,” identifies on a global map the latest hot-spots for photo contributions.
Source: Reuters, November 19, 2007
Gartner analyst predicts ‘virtual marriages’ by 2015
Will you marry me (in Second Life)? A Gartner analyst is predicting that 2% of U.S. citizens will get married in virtual worlds by 2015 to people they have never met, and may never meet even after they are married. These online virtual marriages will carry all the same legal implications of marriages that take place in the “offline” world, the Gartner analyst claims.
Source: Jon Brodkin, Network World, November 14, 2007
Carnegie Mellon algorithm identifies top 100 blogs for news
Using a problem-solving method called the Cascades algorithm, Carlos Guestrin, assistant professor of computer science and machine learning, and his students compiled a list of the best 100 blogs to read to find the biggest news on the Web as early as possible (Cascades project). It includes well-known blogs, such as Instapundit and Boing Boing, but also some more obscure ones like Watcher of Weasels and Don Surber.
Source: Carnegie Mellon University news release, November 19, 2007
Student Facebook use predicted by race, ethnicity, education
New research from Northwestern University finds that college students’ choice of social networking sites — including Facebook, MySpace and Xanga — is related to their race, ethnicity and parents’ education.
Source: Northwestern University news release, November 19, 2007
don’t 4get ur pills: Text Messaging for Health
An emerging wave of technology lets consumers get instant health information and receive medication and appointment reminders. Some companies are beginning to capitalize on the concept and San Francisco started a service to spread word on public-health issues.
Source: Rachel Zimmerman, The Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2007 (Public access)
The Columbus, Ohio, police plan to field virtual technology to combat terrorism as early as 2009. The department is working with Athens-based Ohio University to build accurate, interactive models of 30 high-profile city buildings and sites that are likely targets for terrorist attacks or other violent incidents.
Source: Kathleen Hickey, Government Computer News, November 8, 2007
U.K. government reveals its ‘biggest privacy disaster’
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has admitted to losing the details of 25 million individuals, with 7.25 million U.K. families potentially affected. [...] Details on the discs, which were only password-protected, included names, addresses, dates of birth, national insurance numbers, and bank and building society account details.
Source: Tom Espiner, Special to CNET News.com, November 21, 2007
