Archive for July, 2009
The Linux Foundation has rolled out an affinity card that will be managed by UMB Financial of Kansas City.
Affinity cards have been around for many years now. They usually bear the imprint of a tax-exempt group, like a college or charity.
The Linux card, bearing the image of Tux the penguin and now available in the U.S., will earn the Foundation $50 when it’s activated plus an unspecified share of the fees.The money will go to community technical events and travel for open source community members to technical events.
Most affinity cards are managed by either MBNA America, which pioneered the field or US Bank of Minneapolis. The Linux card, however, is managed by UMB, a Kansas City company run by Mariner Kemper.
A 2008 profile of the bank in American Banker describes UMB as a family operation — Mariner is the sixth Kemper to run it in its 95-year history — and praises the quality of its portfolio. Mariner’s brother, Alexander Kemper, was CEO of Perfect Commerce (formerly eScout), which now bills itself as a real-time spend management company.
It seems likely that the Foundation was brought the deal by CardPartner, a New York company that has launched over 100 affinity programs in the last year, all managed by UMB, and is pioneering affinity deals with smaller charities like Gilda’s Club New York and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
For those interested, the card offers a 0% teaser rate for six months, no annual fee, and a points program so you can get cash back from participating merchants.
Plus there’s that cute penguin.
Filed under: Developer, Blogging, Web
Launching a new CMS these days is a tough proposition. It’s a crowded field, and distinguishing your product takes some ingenuity. Well, FireRift is one publishing platform that knows how to take a marketing concept way, way over the top. The video commercial for FireRift is like something out of a campy Ronnie James Dio video from the ’80s, with a meteor, glowing eyes, and a couple of wizardly guys charging into each other on a sand dune. It’s totally stylized and totally absurd, but you’re not going to ask, “Oh, which one is FireRift, again?” after seeing it.
I’d like to think our readers want a little more in a CMS than a commercial with some cheeseball special effects, though, so I should also mention that there’s a screencast of FireRift available, so you can see the app in action. It runs through setting up an image/video gallery in FireRift, and the process actually looks well-designed and pretty simple to do.
FireRift – a CMS to rock the ages! originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Zack blogged that someone working at a large incumbent vendor is less likely to disrupt a business. He writes:
ESRI has matched the price Google, Yahoo and other mapping providers have been charging for their APIs. The leading GIS company made its JavaScript API (our ESRI JavaScript API profile) completely free. Now the question is: will anyone care?
Though not much of a player in the geoweb, ESRI has been a mainstay of GIS circles for decades. Its software is used in hundreds of government offices and its Shapefile specification was even adopted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2007.
Now its web product seeks to grab developers of new, web-based geographical applications. ESRI President Jack Dangermond sees this as an opportunity for his company:
“I see the GeoWeb as driving change that is beneficial for both users and creators of geospatial information. We’ll see a whole new creative group of people take these APIs and create new, interesting approaches to mapping. A powerful new generation of Web maps will proliferate and become commonplace to Web users.”
ESRI announced the platform a year ago, but it was only available to users of its ArcGIS Server software. Now ESRI is offering developers of noncommercial applications a chance to receive the same without needing to run a server. Restricting for-profit ventures in API terms of service is common, though rarely enforced.
For current ESRI users, the API is certainly useful. As the company pointed out in its press release, city governments could have internal and citizen-facing versions using the same data.
It’s not as clear for those not already an ESRI shop what it provides over Google, Yahoo or any other mapping provider. However, the most common criticism of ESRI has now been answered. You can use their maps for free. Now, will you?
Hat tip: EAGLE Technology
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Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers
I’ve been using Weave for a while now to stay on top of my browsing syncing chores. While it’s still in beta, Weave has already come a long way since its initial release.
Yesterday, Mozilla Labs debuted version .5. The most noticeable change? Weave now stays out of the way while you’re actively browsing in Firefox, waiting to go idle. On a mostly bare Firefox install (the only other addon I have installed is Personal Menu), Weave .4 caused the occasional performance hiccup. So far with .5, it’s been smooth sailing.
The official blog post also reports improved performance in uploading and downloading – which I also noticed when setting up Firefox on my office system. While I can’t provide an exact time, I’d estimate that it took roughly half the time to sync my profile from scratch as it did with .4.
Weave .5 also supports password and passphrase changes, handling for bookmark tags and smart folders, and adds support for Fennec on Windows Mobile. OpenSolaris users are now able to get in on the fun as well.
If you install Weave and you’re concerned about security, you may want to head to its preferences screen and take the check out of the “automatically connect” box and choose not to remember your Weave password when you sign in next time.
Mozilla Weave gets faster, adds Fennec support on WinMo in .5 release originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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AT&T insists its temporary block of 4chan was about security, that the site was hosting a Dedicated Denial of Service (DDoS) attack aimed at one of its customers.
Others aren’t so sure.
The Inquisitor calls it censorship. Writers at The Daily Kos call it an attack on net neutrality and predict it will backfire before the FCC.
Tristan Louis combines it with the Kindle “1984″ erasure and Apple’s control of iPhone apps, writing “a dark cloud” puts all technology trends into question.
It’s clear this is not a one-off. It is part of a growing trend, corporate attempts to enforce law remotely against property people consider their own.
This is especially relevant as we move into an era of cloud computing, where resources we consider our property are, in fact, dependent upon computing environments owned by others.
It doesn’t matter in this case whether the software in question is open source or closed source. What matters is the remote control of that software exercised by a service vendor, and the legitimacy of that control.
Can people trust clouds, or devices dependent upon clouds, if cloud owners act as judge, jury and executioner, zapping what we consider our own? Wouldn’t a book be more ours, or a simpler, voice-only phone? Should we perhaps only use modems to reach the Internet, and shut the connection when we’re not behind the keyboard?
In the case of 4chan, AT&T’s story is fishy. DDoS attacks come from botnets, not specific sites. While sites may control botnets, and users may launch botnet attacks from sites, those are almost always throwaway URLs today, not popular, well-known sites like 4chan.
Moreover if 4chan were hosting malware then all security professionals should have been made aware of it, and the block should have been universal, backed perhaps by a government warrant.
Corporations are individuals under U.S. law, and subject to legal authority, but they are not law itself. They are not law enforcement agencies. They should not act as such without clear legal authority.
For cloud computing to succeed we need national and international policies that define when companies can act, and how they can act, so those who are acted upon have legal recourse.
Private law enforcement without legal recourse just won’t cut it. The opposite of government is not freedom, but anarchy.
Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters, Web
I’m a huge fan of the AMC TV show Mad Men. My wife and I have gone as far as making ourselves gin martinis to sip while watching the show, though I haven’t yet tried an Old Fashioned. If you’re as much of a fan of the show as we are, check out AMC’s new Mad Men Yourself site.
Just like the site that lets you create a South Park character with the distinctive features you choose, Mad Men Yourself lets you create a stylized version of yourself in the vein of the late-60’s era when the show is set. You have your choice of hairstyles, clothing options, and even accessories, all perfectly appropriate for the period.
While these sites are simply blatant marketing efforts intended to raise awareness for the shows they represent, I think this is marketing at its finest. Give us something fun to play with that lets us associate with the show, and lets us take away a little creation that somehow feels uniquely ours, even though it’s simply one of a set number of overall options. Clever, and a win-win for the user and the network.
Now excuse me while I try to find a way to make myself look a little more like Don Draper.
Mad Men yourself – create your own avatar in the style of AMC’s Mad Men originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Here’s a quick rundown of 4 new APIs recently added to our API directory. The most notable of which comes from UK retailer Tesco which we covered in our report on the World’s First Grocery API (a story that was then picked-up by at The Guardian and later in a light-hearted post on the press coverage from Tesco’s Head of R&D, Nick Lansley: A Bit More Evil). The other additions include an API to access all the documents of the Dutch parliament, another API for sending SMS messages, and an API for a sustainable world that gives you access to the largest international directory of NGOs. Below is more detail on these new additions to our directory.
ikregeer.nl API: ikregeer.nl publishes all the documents of the Dutch parliament since 1995. Get metadata of a Parliamentary, overview of the last Parliamentary, overview of the last alleged Chamber, all documents associated with a politician, all Parliamentary with a certain keyword, all data for a Parliamentary file, list of all keywords, list of all files, and composition of the second room on a certain date.
SMSgol API: This simple API allows website owners to receive and send International SMS text messages, fully customizable and easy to integrate into any website. This API is made under Smsgol.com who currently cover 790+ networks in 220+ countries. Choose whether to send SMS text messages from the smsgol web site or to send text messages from your site with an smsgol widget.
Tesco API: The Tesco API gives you access to the vast grocery and more catalog of the third largest retailer in the world. The initial API is SOAP-based, but a new REST-based API is under development.
Tesco is organising an evening for IT developers to learn how to use the new API and make money from their affiliates scheme for customers who use their applications. Called T-JAM, it takes place in London on 5th August, Take a look at http://www.techfortesco.com/tjam for more info.
WiserEarth API: WiserEarth is a free online community space connecting people working toward a just and sustainable world. WiserEarth includes the largest international directory of NGOs (110,000 records). Organizations and communities worldwide are using WiserEarth groups to coordinate their efforts. The API offers access to organizations (except email addresses), solutions, groups (only the About Page metadata), resources, jobs, and events. Currently only Read access is available. Inquire about Write access.
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One of the great things about Google Summer of Code™ is that it’s a great way to meet other Open Source-minded people. Not only do students get paired with their mentors, but students get to know each other, as do mentors and project administrators.
Last month, Leslie Hawthorn, Cat Allman, and I attended the Google Summer of Code Birds of a Feather session at Open Source Bridge, organized by Jonathan Leto. We had the pleasure of meeting with Google Summer of Code students, mentors, admins, and potential participants to discuss what works, what doesn’t work, and ways the program could be improved. We got some great feedback, and best of all, we had the opportunity to interact face to face with participants instead of solely via email, mailing lists, or IRC! You can see a photo and read more about the meetup on Jonathan’s blog post about the event.
Last week, the Open Source Programs Office outreach team met with more Google Summer of Code participants at our BoF session at OSCON. Our session extended late into the night with some really interesting discussions about how to help students succeed in computer science.
If you would like to know about upcoming Google Summer of Code meetups, please join our meetups mailing list – we’d love to meet you!
by Ellen Ko, Open Source Team
