At last, Google has some parasites

Some, perhaps including Rupert Murdoch, might find this story uplifting.

While there has been much recent bellowing, whining, and general cat-on-heat griping about Google making money from the fine work of others, now I can report that some are finding ways to make money piggybacking on  Jordan retro 17 the broad spine of Google's engineering.

Two enterprising entities, different in their form but united in their purpose, have attempted to use Google's Street View as a medium for their own com gucci handbags replica mercial messages.

First, there was car rental company AutoShare, the Canadian equivalent Zipcar in the U.S. You know, the folks who are always reserving spots in your favorite parking lot. Well, AutoShare t air max 90 hought it would be fun to ask its customers to look out for its cars on Street View and offer a limited number of them prizes for their vision.

(Credit: AutoShare)

The prize wasn't much: 1 Jordan 16 shoes 00 strong Canadian dollars. But with some astute ad targeting in locations such as Facebook and Google, their "In-The-Wild" promotion seems to have entertained the world-weary citizens of Toronto.

Indeed, the AutoShare Twitter page shows that people got rather excited about looking for AutoShare's 200 cars on Google's public-spirited cameras.

This enterprising thought process was, pe puma running shoes rhaps, topped by Editors. Editors is an indie band (don't most bands have to be indie these days?) from the British town of Birmingham, where the people who claim to be my parents say I was born.

< adidas superstar /p>

To launch their latest album, Editors used a little Flash trickery to hack into Street View, London version, and create their own custom locations where people could enjoy s adidas superstar shoes ome of their really very fine music and even see some of the band's fans. (Video embedded)

Editors were rather clever in choosing locations that were not normally accessible o juicy couture wallets n Street View.

Recently, I wrote about IKEA's wonderful use of Facebook to launch a store in Malmo, Sweden. And I know some people thought one should point out that this  Jordan retro 3 use was not entirely in accordance with Facebook's promotional guidelines.

However, when companies decide that on occasion they'd prefer to use information you thought might be private for commerc gucci sweaters ial gain, when companies ask you to opt out (if they ask you at all) rather than opt in, there are those who might feel that some enterprising uses of, say, Facebook and Google Street View, sho gucci hobo handbag uld be classified as pioneering.

Great commerce, just like great art, sometimes breaks a couple of rules, doesn't it? In fact, Murdoch has done it quite brilliantly on occasion.

Chris M 

 atyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He i 

 s a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Topics: Music, Media, Social networking, Advertising Tags: Google, Google Street View, Facebook, AutoShare, Editors Share: Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Facebook Twitter

At last Google invents something truly brilliant

I know those little Google search ads are supposed to be terribly clever.

And I realize that Google has lots of other highly interesting services, none of which come to my mi air max 90 current nd just this minute because, well, I seem to have done without them until now. They don't move me. They don't make me think "oh, what a fabulous little invention."

Then I heard ab air max tn out GMail Goggles. So brilliant and yet so wonderfully, non-mathematically human.

Someone at Google clearly came into work one morning and said: "You know that girl I met in a bar two nigh white huarache ts ago? You know, the one who turned her back on me...the one I regaled with the one-legged martian and the hermaphrodite pterodactyl joke...yeah, the one who poured her White Russian  huarache shoe over my black satin H&M shirt?...well, I sent her an e-mail last night telling her I loved her."

"Step away from that laptop, sir. Step away from it now."

(Credit: CC 

  Andronicus Max)

The lovely thing about these Goggles is that the Googlies haven't totally sacrificed their mathematical religion on the altar of humanity.

Essentially, if you en nike air max 95 able the Goggles they will ask you several mathematical questions before allowing you to send a late-night Gmail. And you have to complete them within a certain time. It's a little like the  nike air max 97 GMAT (but probably more difficult).

Surely there is not one amongst us who hasn't sent the wrong e-mail when the mind was a little slurry.

Or, perhaps worse, sent the right e nike air max 90 -mail to the wrong person. Come on, admit it, you've once sent an e-mail saying that Gregory Snoggings was a conniving, two-faced son of an ill-bred dachshund TO Gregory Snoggings. Just by  air max tns mistake, Freudian or not.

The Goggles will sit by your side and electronically whisper into your ear: "Step away from that laptop. There's nothing to see here. Certainly not the way you'r new air maxs e seeing things right now. So drink lots of water and go to bed with Winnie the Pooh and Loopy Lou. Tomorrow morning you will be glad we had this conversation."

I would very much like to buy the wise, wonderful nike air max 92  person who invented these Goggles the largest and most refined drink possible.

And, come to think of it, isn't this the week for the Nobel Prizes?

Chris Matyszczyk is an award- 

 winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Topics: Media, Social networking Tags: Google, Gmail, Mail Goggles, Alcohol consumption Share: Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Facebook Twitter

At its best, is open source unbeatable

commentary

When an open-source project is working optimally, can proprietary-software companies hope to compete?

Eat my dus Jordan 15 shoes t, proprietary sloths

Greg Kroah-Hartman, a prominent Linux kernel developer and Novell fellow, suggests that the answer is no. Speaking to the How Software Is Built blog, Kroah-Hartman makes  puma future cat the case that the pace of Linux development leaves competition in the dust:

[The Linux kernel development team adds] 11,000 lines, remove[s] 5,500 lines, and modif[ies] 2,200 lines [of co puma shoes de] every single day.

People ask whether we can keep that up, and I have to tell you that every single year, I say there's no way we can go any faster than this. And then we do. We keep growing, and I don't see that s Jordan 4 shoes lowing down at all anywhere.

I mean, the giant server guys love us, the embedded guys love us, and there are entire processor families that only run Linux, so they rely on us. The fact that we're Jordan retro 22  out there everywhere in the world these days is actually pretty scary, from an engineering standpoint. And even at that rate of change, we maintain a stable kernel.

It's something that no one juicy couture bracelets  company can keep up with. It would actually be impossible at this point to create an operating system to compete against us. You can't sustain that rate of change on your juicy couture necklaces  own.

Microsoft might beg to differ, as would Apple, but the reality is that neither is updated as often or as extensively as Linux is, which supports a far broader  cheap gucci handbags hardware portfolio than any other operating system in existence.

Linux is pretty incredible. But it's not alone. Mozilla Firefox, Eclipse, and other projects produce best-in-class software at an almost frigh buy gucci bags tening pace.

Can anyone compete with an open-source project at the top of its game?

The answer might well be no, as the top open-source projects are collaborative efforts between multiple companies that poo juicy couture watches l resources and expertise to drive development. And while it might seem reasonable that a single corporation could best open source's seeming "development by committee" approa Jordan 19 shoes ch, the reality is that well-managed open-source projects have none of the inertia that one might expect from a communal approach.

Quite the opposite.

Having said that, very few open-so Jordan retro 13 urce projects actually meet the criteria that enable Linux's success. Most appeal to a too-narrow and too-small population of developers (i.e., single-company projects) to glean the benefits and scal puma sneakers e of Linux-like development.

As such, the proprietary-software companies probably won't have to worry about competing with indomitable open-source competitors. Not most of the time, anyway.

For those that do Jordan retro 12 , however, better stock up on the pumpkin pie. It may be the only thing to be grateful for this Thanksgiving season.

Greg Kroah-Hartman interview discovered via @glynmoody's ComputerWorld blog Jordan retro 6 .

Matt Asay is chief operating officer at Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux operating system. Prior to Canonical, Matt was general manager of the Americas division and vice president of 

  business development at Alfresco, an open-source applications company. Matt brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging o 

 pen-source business strategies and opportunities. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. Topics: Industry news, Development, Number crunching Tags: Linux, open source, Greg Kroah-Hartman, proprietary software, innovation Share: Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Facebook Twitter

At Ceatec 2009, a starring role for 3D

NICT's MSens technology: a practical use for 3D.

(Credit: Scott Ard/CNET)

TOKYO--In the exhibition halls of a gadget trade show, the things that normally jump out are the wacky outfits the female booth attendants are forced to wear, the ma new balance ww811 mmoth wall installations of TVs, and long lines for booth swag.

For better or worse, the enduring image of Ceatec 2009 has been the sight of suit-clad men waiting in twisting queues for the chance to don a new balance cw442  pair of plastic 3D glasses for a five-minute TV demonstration. There are two reasons for that: because the major TV makers here couldn't miss out on the chance to show their prototype models of this trendy techno new balance mr1123 logy, and because there wasn't really much else going on this year.

There isn't yet a final, official count, but this year's show, which started Tuesday and runs through the weekend, so far seems far less new balance mr740  crowded than in years past. Attendees could have been kept away by the sluggish economy, or the inclement weather, including a tropical storm that hit Tokyo midweek. Either way, the general vibe at the Makuhari M new balance mr790 esse has been much more subdued.

In the past Ceatec has been known as the event where gadgets destined for store shelves showed up en masse, the last stop on the trade show circuit before they're packaged  new balance wr768 and ready for consumers during the yearly holiday sales period. However, the 2009 edition was shorter on practical products and very low on new stuff.

As at IFA in Berlin last month and at the Consumer Ele new balance mr1223 ctronics Show in Las Vegas in January, 3D was the dominant theme. Panasonic showed its very-close-to-being-ready 3D plasma TV here this week--this time, though, on a 50-inch set, a size that's far more practical  new balance 977 than the 103-inch behemoth used at expos earlier this year. The 50-inch model, plus some sizes larger than that, will be unveiled along with pricing and shipping information at CES in January 2010. Sony is also read new balance 1123 ying its first 3D TV for the home, which is set to ship sometime next year, though the company wasn't specific about exactly when.

Photos: Ceatec Day 3--mascots, bling, and 3D (of course)

Fello new balance 470 w Japanese TV manufacturers Hitachi, Sharp, and Toshiba also hauled in their own 3D TV demos to the floor of Makuhari Messe, and attendees dutifully lined up to see them, but none of those electronics makers are com new balance 802 mitting to shipping 3D TVs yet, which is very telling.

Panasonic acknowledged that the standards for releasing 3D movies on Blu-ray are not yet complete, but said they will be soon, and that the company is c new balance 925 ommitted to the standards. But some of Panasonic's competitors are not completely convinced 3D at home is a sure bet. A Toshiba representative here said the company is "still waiting to see if there is demand" for 3 new balance 620 D in the home. And with good reason--it's still not clear that consumers are going to go for 3D at home just yet, both because it would mean likely buying yet another new TV and because watching those TVs requires w new balance 1223 earing very silly-looking plastic glasses with active-shutter lenses.

3D and the floating mirror
Besides TVs, Ceatec also featured other cool applications using 3D outside of the home and movie theater. new balance 659 

The Japanese government's National Institute of Information and Communication Technology, or NICT, was running a demonstration called Multisensory Interaction System (MSens), which had a line almost as long new balance 760  as many of the TV demos. In this, 3D was used to enhance reality for specific tasks. It worked like this: An image of an ancient mirror with an ornate design on one side was displayed in a monitor. The image was re new balance 622 flected onto a piece of glass in front of a user standing at the monitor so that the mirror appeared to float in front of him. But the user could then take a stylus that would allow him to "feel" the surface of the  new balance 644 mirror. As the tip moved across the bumpy surface (which in reality is being held in midair and not touching a solid surface), the stylus would rise and fall with the peaks and valleys on the mirror's surface.

< 

 p> The idea would be to use MSens for product testing, design, and possibly even learning things like surgery. NICT also brought a separate demonstration that showed surgery in 3D, making observers feel as if they w 

 ere right in the middle of an operation. It was fascinating, but also something you'd need a medical degree to use--and probably a strong stomach too.

While those have practical purposes outside of pure ente new balance 927 rtainment, it's still 3D TVs that are getting all the attention here. Sometimes, as at Sony's booth, that attention is even coming at the expense of other products. When asked why there were no organic light-emittin shop new balance g diode (OLED) TVs at its booth this year as in years past, a Sony representative said simply, "because we're focusing on 3D."

Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, 

  as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica 

 . Topics: Gadgets Tags: Ceatec 2009, 3D, Panasonic, Sony, TVs, NiCT Share: Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Facebook Twitter

Astronaut doesn't change his undies for a month

I know science thinks it can do everything.

I know robots will soon be ordering us around like wait staff at the Ritz.

< 

 p>But I am gravely concerned about an experiment that has been going on up there in space.

Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who returned to earth Friday, had been on the International Space Station since  juicy couture necklace March. And, well, I don't know quite how I am to put this, but he didn't change his underwear for a month.

I know what you're thinking. We're both thinking the same t gucci men t shirts hing.

Not even in the the darkest, most slovenly days of our student youth did we wear the same pair of knickers for 30 days. Around seven days was our limit. Then we'd at least manage a hand wash in a si adidas adicolor shoes nk.

But here was the intrepid Wakata, prepared for the sake of all our futures to don anti-static, flame-resistant, odor-eating, bacteria-killing, water-absorbent underpants. Yes, water-absorbent.

Will we only have two pairs in the drawer one day? Or even one?

(Credit: CC Mike52ad/Flickr)

I know that there was a lady astronaut a little while ago who wore diapers on a long car journey, but this is s juicy couture suit urely couture from another realm.

The London Times quoted Wakata as saying, pre-landing: "I haven't talked about this underwear to my crew members."

This is quite unde juicy flip flops rstandable. I rarely talk about my underwear to my clients. Not even my underwear clients. However, wasn't just the occasional merest stink caused by this novel eco-friendly fash black puma sneakers ion show?

"I wore it for about a month and my station crew members never complained, so I think the experiment went fine," he said.

Well, now, in polite society one doesn't normally comment when a fel puma shoe low worker suffers something of a digestional malfunction, so how can Wakata be sure that his fellow astronauts weren't furtively making sniffy remarks about certain odors emanating from his person?

I know you'll be wo juicy boots ndering what astronauts normally do with their soiled undies. Firstly, they take them off. Then they pack them up with the trash, which they shoot into outer space on human-less Russian ca adidas adicolor rgo ships. On the way, the dirty undies are cremated.

But here's the thing with Wakata's undergarments: the Japanese space agency, Jaxa, which designed them, has no firm idea just how well they performed th replica gucci shirts eir task.

Which makes two pulsating thoughts thud around my cranium.

One: what if the anti-static, flame-resistant, odor-eating, bacteria-killing, water-absorbent qualities didn't work so well? E juicy couture totes specially the last two. What effects might imperfect performance have on poor Mr. Wakata's inner well-being?

And two, I must do the washing.

Chris Matyszczyk is an awar 

 d-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Topics: Random Tags: Space, Space travel, underwear, Science, experiments, Jaxa, Koichi Wakata, Endeavor, International Space Station Share: Digg Del.icio.us Reddit Facebook Twitter