I’ve recently found quite a bit of interesting tech + code stuff online. Feel free to add your own findings below. Here’s my brief roundup:

This week Google released an off-line toolkit for web-apps called Google Gears. So far it works only on IE7 and Firefox 2+ (I believe, correct me if I’m wrong), but it essentially is a browser plug-in that wraps a SQLite database and provides developers a common interface using Javascript for storing and retrieving data locally through their browser. Unfortunately, when installed it can constantly bother the user by requesting permission to download data, unless the user authorizes a particular site. This is an obvious and necessary security measure, but annoying nonetheless. Still, it will be interesting to see what developers come up with using this technology.

Google Maps adds Street View. This is a pretty interesting technology Google has integrated into their browser-based mapping service. Aside from providing a highly detailed on-the-ground view, it raises all sorts of privacy concerns. I’m very curious to see how people will start using this technology.

Facebook’s Developer Platform
A few months ago when there was talk of Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg passing on buyout deals from Yahoo and Google to the tune of about $2 billion I thought he was crazy. With the massive release and opening up of their social network via their API and developer’s platform, Zuckerman makes good on his promise to stick around for the long haul. I’m now wondering if Facebook may have just dealt the fatal blow to all other similar social networking sites. Sure, Myspace probably isn’t going anywhere, with its horrid, yet customizable layouts, but for the discerning developer and socialite, Facebook is the place to be. The depth of the integration Facebook is providing via its developer’s platform is staggering, with applications being able to be fully integrated directly into the Facebook UI.

Microsoft’s Surface
FINALLY! Someone has come out with a table interface for computing tasks. We’ve talked about these sorts of interfaces at the iSchool and I think it’s great, though having more configurable installations with a camera and projector would probably be more useful in the contexts I would love to use it in. Still it’s nice to see that 30 years after the classic desktop + mouse paradigm was developed something new is being developed.

So torn!

Via Drawn!

Frankly, I’ve never gotten into the whole Cute Overload phenomenon, probably because my interests run towards fewer vertebrae (preferably none) and more legs. What I do find fascinating is that people are actually thinking about the linguistic implications of lolcats and other image macros. For instance, Anil Dash observes that lolcats images have a consistent grammar:

Incorrect kitty pidgin jumped to my attention the first time I saw a reference to Dune being used with a lolcat image. The caption on the linked version of the image, “The spice must flow.” is fine, if not particularly cat-like. But the caption on the version I saw first was much more verbose: “I are dunecat. I controls the spice, I controls the universe.” Besides being an awkward attempt at overexplaining the punchline (I’ve never read Dune or seen the film, but the joke is obvious) this was just all wrong. The fact that we can tell no cat would talk like this shows that kitty pidgin is actually quite consistent.

Via Language Log and n8

The Washington Post is carrying a fascinating story about the emotional bonds US Armed Forces form with their robots. From the article,

“Ours was called Sgt. Talon,” says Sgt. Michael Maxson of the 737th Ordnance Company (EOD). “We always wanted him as our main robot. Every time he was working, nothing bad ever happened. He always got the job done. He took a couple of detonations in front of his face and didn’t stop working. One time, he actually did break down in a mission, and we sent another robot in and it got blown to pieces. It’s like he shut down because he knew something bad would happen.” The troops promoted the robot to staff sergeant — a high honor, since that usually means a squad leader. They also awarded it three “purple hearts.”

And later in the article, possibly even more fascinating:

“I’ve been a proponent for a long time of painting a mouth and eyes on the Global Hawk,” the Learjet-size surveillance bot, says retired Col. Tom Ehrhard, a former chief of the Air Force’s “Skunk Works” — its strategy, concepts and doctrine division. “It looks like a blind mole. Give it some character. Make it easier for humans to deal with — more animate. Humans are social animals. Make that other thing part of your family, your social structure. Try to animate and make either fearsome or lovable your implements of war.”

Pretty amazing stuff, brings to mind all kinds of thoughts about evolving ethics that I should probably channel into what I’m supposed to be doing instead of blogging.

Via collision detection

Late, late story, but Matt and Ian of Mac Hall fame are back with a new web comic, Three Panel Soul, showing off a much wider range of Ian’s artistic ability. Sadly, the news comes with a scary addendum: Matt was fired from a government contract job for just talking about guns at work after the school shootings at Virginia Tech. He then made a comic about it, which got him a visit by the police. You can read more about it at Fleen.

Via Penny Arcade

This is really exciting. Essentially, several natural history institutions around the world are attempting to assemble a web-based encyclopedia of all life on Earth, with both scientists and the general public in mind. The video is an intoxicating bit vapor cooked up by a design firm, but the money and the people behind the project seem real. I have dreamed about something like this for a long time. I can’t wait for it to be real.

The video also has some really interesting phylogenetic tree visualizations. I never though about navigating a tree in a tilted perspective view like that. Very cool.

Gentoo Linux:
You live in the CS computer labs and you want everything you install to be compiled with GCC’s -O2 flag. It will take 14 hours to install and another 4 days to figure out why your sound card isn’t working. (Hint: It’s cuz you forgot to compile it at install time, genius.)

RedHat:
Your boss told you to install it.

Slackware:
Pssshaw! Package management systems are for the weak. You don’t care that you can hose your glibc libraries six ways to Sunday or that it takes 2 days to install MythTV (and its dependencies) from source, you’re a Real Man(tm)!

Ubuntu:
You’re so Web 2.0 that it hurts. Now that it’s okay to bash Apple (cuz, dammit, they delayed 10.5 for the iPhone!??!?!), you need to rock a new OS to maintain your alpha-geek status. So you install what all your cool blogger friends have been hyping… and OMG, it has a Terminal just like OS X!

Puget Custom Computers has built a mineral oil cooled computer! Apparently, unlike its vegetable oil filled predecessors, it’s more attractive and doesn’t become all rancid.

So I was perusing links on moss graffiti when I came across this great masters design project called Flow, a kitchen design in which (among other things) drips from drying dishes water potted herbs, and food scrabs get composted in a little worm box. Makes me wish my kitchen had enough light for herbs. Maybe I should just start drying my dishes on my roof…. Here’s a shot of a prototype:

Via Heavy Petal, by way of The Affected Provincial’s Almanack