Been blogging for some time but Web 2.0 has been a bit elusive to me and I always resisted to know more about it.

The excuse: I am not a webmaster!

Well, knowing a bit of the balls and bearings of new web phenomenon doesn’t hurt you. So I am trying to see if I can know what Web 2.0 actually means. I am going through a blog that gives directory of nice Web 2.0 sites. I wish there were how-tos and tutorials too. But as it is a review site I think the design and contents justify the theme of the blog. Nice work!

Based on the the total electricity usage of the readers’ computers as they spend time on the site CO2Stats Project calculates the carbon dioxide emission statistics.

It claims that the internet is responsible for more than 100 billion pounds of CO2 emissions per year. It sure is alarming how we are unknowingly helping in increasing CO2 emission.

Founded by Ph.D. students at Harvard and Yale, The CO2Stats Project has the ambitious goal of making the entire Web carbon neutral!

I don’t believe you can make it carbon neutral but we sure can help in reducing it though.
Here is my widget….

I posted a post about a blog “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs” written by an anonymous blogger. The New York Times has pulled the mask off a blogger known affectionately as “Fake Steve Jobs,” author of “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs,” a satirical blog based on Apple’s chief. Fake Steve is really Dan Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes.

The blog has been around for the last 14 months and nobody was able to pin point the author of the blog. Various news media was determined to discover Fake Steve’s identity. Some thought it was tech columnist Andy Ihnatko. Others thought it was actor Harry Shearer. Still others called out various well-known tech bloggers as the true Fake Steve.

“Well it had to happen,” Lyons, 46, wrote in his August 5 blog post. “Honestly, I can’t believe it’s taken this long. But as you may have heard, I’ve been busted by a newspaper reporter. My cover has been blown.”

news source

It’s going to be 10 years since the blog was born. Well, that is not a kid in the internet term. They’ve roiled presidential campaigns and given everyman a global soapbox. We are approaching a decade since the first blogger – regarded by many to be Jorn Barger – began his business of hunting and gathering links to items that tickled his fancy, to which he appended some of his own commentary.

On Dec. 23, 1997, on his site, Robot Wisdom, Jorn Barger wrote: I decided to start my own webpage logging the best stuff I find as I surf, on a daily basis. The Oxford English Dictionary regards this as the primordial root of the word ‘weblog.’

To mark this Blogiversary, The Wall Street Journal published an article where twelve commentators – including Tom Wolfe, Newt Gingrich and actress-turned-blogger Mia Farrow tell what they think of blogging.

Well, if you want to know more about Jorn Barger you can visit his wikipedia page or visit his blog.
Tags: blog history blogiversary “jorn barger” “Robot Wisdom”

Bear Grylls climbed Mount Everest at the age of 23 in 1998 and became the youngest British climber to scale it. That was a British record. He was not satisfied by the record and he was lured by the highest peak to fly higher and create a new world record!

To the news reporter covering flying over the top of the world Grylls said: “The propeller, oxygen bottle and all the other equipment strapped to my back weighed more than 120kg (264lbs). It took me three attempts to get off the ground but when I was finally in the air, I noticed the crowd of people sitting on the ridge clapping and cheering,” .

“On 14 May 2007, Grylls and his fellow pilot and inventor of the parajet engine, Giles Cardozo, took off from the small Himalayan village of Pheriche, which lies at an altitude of 4,400m (14,435ft) about 20 miles (32km) south of Mount Everest in eastern Nepal,” the news report said.

It is great to see the incredible videos and pictures of the mission in the official mission homepage.

I don’t like talking about politics. That doesn’t fall in any of my interest but still I enjoy reading news. Well, this post is not really a political writing it is rather about internet and its freedom.

I was always told that US is the most democratic country in the world and they enjoy the ultimate freedom. Today there was a news about US Military Blocking Web site Access to its soldiers with funny reasons to back up the ban.

Commander Jeffrey Gordon, spokesman for the Department of Defense, pointed out that the regulation is intended primarily to prevent military Internet connections from being clogged with uploads or downloads of data-rich files such as video clips. The ban is also meant to guard against infiltration by malicious or spying software hidden in files created by hackers.

Gordon says that the bottom line is bandwidth, which is the most important consideration. They have to make sure the network is reliable. Restrictions were imposed on MySpace, YouTube, and other Web sites after a usage study showed they were the most visited by soldiers.

Hey, US doesn’t have sufficient bandwidth for its military! What about other countries?

Banned websites include video-sharing sites – YouTube, Metacafe, iFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi; social networking sites – MySpace, BlackPlanet, and Hi5; music sites – Pandora, MTV, 1.fm, and Live365; and the photo-sharing site, Photobucket. We have to be aware of the malicious or spying software hidden in files too!

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is a satirical blog by an anonymous writer channeling Apple’s chief executive. If you are in ayway (even remotly) interested in Apple product like iPod, Mac computer or looking to get an iPhone you will surely love to read the posts and get a good laugh.

The Secret Diary that started last year with daily stream of unfiltered satirical entries lets techies revel in their never-ending fascination of their own industry, and be entertained at the same time. The guarded identity of the blogger has fueled the guessing game in the industry. Some tech journalists and former Apple marketing staffers are popular choices in the guessing games.

link: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs | news: Businessweek Article

A 4.4 kilometers long cable car that runs from the 2,182m high Whistler Mountain to the 2,440m high Blackcomb Mountain is planned to be completed by December 2008.

The company hired to build the cable car, Doppelmayr of Austria, says it will set two world records, one for distance between two pillars supporting the cable – 3,024 meters – and one for height over a valley – 415 meters.

In the official website there is a very neat presentation highlighting these two record breaking features of the cable car.

As Vancouver and the Whistler-Blackcomb region have been selected to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, this is one of the many new infrastructures being constructed in the area.

Via

Tags: cable car, mountain, winter olympics

You will be amazed by the pictures of clouds and their incredible forms

Mammatus Clouds, or "breast-clouds"

Lenticular Clouds are often mistaken for UFOs

link|Via

In a press release today, Apple announced that they’ve sold 100 million iPods since it was first launched five and half year ago, in November 2001, making it the fastest selling music player. Apple has rolled out 10 different models of iPod spanning across 5 generations.

Apple Press Release

Steve Jobs : “At this historic milestone, we want to thank music lovers everywhere for making iPod such an incredible success,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPod has helped millions of people around the world rekindle their passion for music, and we’re thrilled to be a part of that.”

Via