VOTOS

Aproveitem bem: Leap second means 2006 will arrive late: The new year will begin one second late to compensate for the slowing down of the Earth's rotation, scientists have confirmed.
The so-called "leap second" will be added to the end of December 31.
Leap seconds were first introduced in 1972 to keep "clock time" and "Sun time" in step.

VITAMEDIAS

A vergonha da manchete do Expresso de hoje:
"Foram efectuadas 1980 tentativas de entrevistas. Dos contactados 1254 (63,3 por cento) recusaram colaborar no estudo. A amostra atingida, de 726 entrevistas validadas (?) tem 44,9 por cento [de respondentes] dos 15 aos 30; 36,8 por cento dos 31 aos 49 anos; e 18,3 por cento com 50 anos ou mais, distribuição que obviamente não tem correspondência com a população residente em Portugal Continental. (?) O erro máximo da amostra é de 3,64 por cento."

Já agora, o que esta excelente e balanceada amostra deu foi: 90,1 por cento dos inquiridos revelaram-se heterossexuais, 7 por cento homossexuais, e 2,9 por cento bissexuais. 7+2,9=10 É daqui que vem a manchete, perceberam?
É preciso dizer mais alguma coisa?

TECNOSFERA

Hackers Rebel Against Spy Cams: When the Austrian government passed a law this year allowing police to install closed-circuit surveillance cameras in public spaces without a court order, the Austrian civil liberties group Quintessenz vowed to watch the watchers.
Members of the organization worked out a way to intercept the camera images with an inexpensive, 1-GHz satellite receiver. The signal could then be descrambled using hardware designed to enhance copy-protected video as it's transferred from DVD to VHS tape.
The Quintessenz activists then began figuring out how to blind the cameras with balloons, lasers and infrared devices.

TECNOSFERA

Gender gap alive and well online: A study by the Pew Internet Project found that roughly the same percentage of men and women in the US are serious internet users.
But the research found that men value the net for the freedom it gives them to try new ways of doing things.
By contrast women like the opportunities the net gives them to make and maintain human connections.

VITAMEDIAS

Apocalípticos vs. integrados?
Director da 2: diz que canal pode perder autonomia
2: poderá perder autonomia
'Perda de autonomia da 2 pode mudar-lhe matriz'
Manuel Falcão deixa feito o "trabalho de casa" na 2
Público: Director da 2 despede-se com balanço positivo

ZITE

A lista das listas "best of" de 2005

TECNOSFERA

The Risky Business of Spreadsheet Errors: Spreadsheets create an illusion of orderliness, accuracy, and integrity. [...]
At the same time, faulty spreadsheets and poor spreadsheet practices have been implicated in a wide variety of business and financial problems.

CULTURAS IN VITRO

the best in arts and culture from 2005

TECNOSFERA

Passado:
The Top 10 interesting people in the Blogosphere in 2005:
1. Matt Mullenweg, WordPress
2. Mena Trott, Six Apart
3. Jason Calacanis, Weblogs Inc., (AOL)
4. Michelle Malkin
5. David Krug (aka Liberal Cowboy), Jack of All Blogs & the Team at Go Flock Yourself
6. Nick Denton, Gawker Media
7. Rupert Murdoch, News Corp
8. David Sifry, Technorati
9. Darren Rowse, b5media
10. Frank Warren, Post Secret

The 2005 Search Blog Awards:
* Best Search Engine News Blog: Search Engine Watch Blog
* Best Search Engine Community Blog: Search Engine Roundtable
* Best SEO Blog: Matt Cutts
* Best Search Marketing & Contextual Blog: JenSense
* Best News/Blog Search Engine Blog: Technorati Weblog
* Best Search Engine Corporate Blog: Google

Futuro:
The Blog Herald predictions for 2006:
1. Technorati will be bought
2. SixApart won?t be bought
3. Nick Denton will sell Gawker Media

Uno de cada cinco blogs es falso: Los splogs, o blogs falsos creados para vender un producto, empiezan a convertirse en un serio problema: ya suponen la quinta parte de la blogosfera.

ECOPOL

Virtual Jihad - The Internet as the ideal terrorism recruiting tool: According to Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communications at the University of Haifa in Israel, the number of all terrorist Web sites--those advocating or inciting terrorism or political violence--has grown from a dozen in 1997 to almost 4,700 today, a nearly 400-fold increase. (By comparison, the total number of Web sites has risen about 50- to 100-fold.) The enumeration includes various Marxist, Nazi and racist groups, but by far the dominant type, according to Weimann, is the Islamist-jihadist variety, which accounts for about 70 percent.

VITAMEDIAS

TV na Net como lá chegar? Seja como for, no contexto português, este é um dos espaços que ajuda a manter a serena resistência à demagogia televisiva dos nossos tempos. Dito de outro modo não é verdade que a televisão, seja ela qual for, exista como um dado "natural" ou "inquestionável". Por isso mesmo, discutir as suas opções e efeitos é um princípio essencial para reforçar a democraticidade da paisagem mediática.

TECNOSFERA

The Podcast Shaking Up French Politics: Nicolas Sarkozy, the law-and-order Interior Minister who wants to be France's next President, rarely passes up a chance to speak before an audience. So when Loïc Le Meur, one of the country's most widely read bloggers, proposed doing a podcast interview with Sarkozy, the answer was mais, oui.

VITAMEDIAS

Most outrageous statements of 2005: Pat Buchanan: "Our guys" in Iraq "have got every right to have good news put into the media and get to the people of Iraq, even if it's got to be planted or bought."

ZITE

Fancy Parking: reversing your car into a parking space

TECNOSFERA

Best Tech Moments of 2005
Worst Tech Moments 2005
The Biggest Television Stories of 2005

ZITES

para um Bom Natal:
WizardsofWinter SM (a música é desta banda)
Christmas Zoom
Holiday Wishes Can Come True
A Cats Christmas
Animated Singing Santa Hack
What's the funniest or oddest thing you've ever heard anyone else pray for?

TECNOSFERA

European Universities' ranking on the Web (Webometric indicators are provided to show the commitment of the institutions to Web publication and to the worldwide Open Access to knowledge):
RANKING (EUROPE - WORLD) - UNIVERSITY
125 - 351 - UNIVERSITY OF PORTO
142 - 386 - UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA
146 - 393 - TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF LISBON
207 - 555 - NEW UNIVERSITY OF LISBON
227 - 620 - UNIVERSITY OF MINHO
241 - 653 - UNIVERSITY OF LISBON
342 - 969 - UNIVERSITY OF AVEIRO
383 - 1095 - UNIVERSITY OF EVORA

O empenho na divulgação pública, usando o número de páginas, a visibilidade (ligações externas) e número de "rich files" calculadas a partir de motores de busca: os Estados Unidos lideram, com o MIT à frente, a primeira universidade espanhola aparece em 282, Portugal só em 351...

TECNOSFERA

Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey: A new national surveillance system will hold the records for at least two years.
Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years.
Surveillance UK: why this revolution is only the start: If the police and security services can show that a national surveillance operation based on recording car movements can protect the public against criminals and terrorists, there will be a strong political will to do the same with street cameras designed to monitor the flow of human traffic.

TECNOSFERA

Cumbre de la blogosfera española: se debatieron asuntos como la relación entre publicidad y blogs, el uso de la blogsfera como herramienta de comunicación o la conveniencia de contar con un blog corporativo

VITAMEDIAS

ABC 20/20, TV4 Sweden receive top awards from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists for 2005: The 20/20 report documented the systematic sexual exploitation of girls and boys by United Nations peacekeepers and civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo. [...]
TV4 won [...] for its hour-long documentary "The Broken Promise," which exposed U.S. government involvement in the "extraordinary rendition" of two Egyptian citizens from Sweden to Egypt.
[2005 Winners & Finalists Summaries]

CONTAMINANTES

Pedido de Natal: a Pacheco Pereira para disponibilizar "online" rapidamente o seu texto no Público de hoje, "Os direitos do Estado e os nossos". Começa assim:
"Do mesmo modo que se verificaram abusos com as escutas telefónicas, está-se a verificar o mesmo tipo de abusos com o fisco e está toda a gente caladinha. Há medo nessa caladinha atitude, culpa e medo. A mim não me interessa a culpa, mas sim o medo."

Em troca, prometo ler a "lista de boas e más coisas no jornalismo português".

TECNOSFERA

Porque é que o Google vai ter mais referências aos sites AOL após Time Warner to Sell 5% AOL Stake to Google for $1 Billion?
Google has agreed to give AOL ads special placement on its site, something it has not done before. Until now, Google prided itself on its auction system for ads, which treated small businesses on an equal footing with its largest customers. [...]
Google will also provide technical assistance so AOL can create Web pages that will appear more prominently in the search results list. But this assistance will not change computer formulas that determine the order in which pages are listed in Google's search results.
Google will also make a special effort to incorporate AOL video programming in its expanding video search section and it will feature links to AOL videos on the video search home page. These links will not be marked as advertising.
An executive involved in the talks said Time Warner asked Microsoft to give AOL similar preferred placement in advertising and in its Web index and that Microsoft refused, calling the request unethical.

CONTAMINANTES

UK Children want money the most:
The best thing in the world, according to under-tens
1. Money and getting rich
2. Being famous
3. Football
4. Pop music
5. Animals
6. Families
7. Computer games
8. Holidays by the sea
9. Nice food
10. God

Drunk people were seen as the "worst thing in the world" followed by smoking and litter. War, disease, and shopping also made the top ten.

VITAMEDIAS

TIME Persons of the Year (desde 1927)
Reuters Pictures of the Year

TECNOSFERA

New video craze hits the internet [vlogging] + Through His Webcam, a Boy Joins a Sordid Online World [online child pornography] = ?...

TECNOSFERA

Os Prémios BLoPEs (um BLoPE é um BLOgue em Português ou Espanhol na área da Educação) pretendem divulgar e incentivar a utilização da importante ferramenta que é um blogue na área da Educação.

CULTURAS IN VITRO

Taboo Tunes Gallery - Music Censorship: graphic examples of the various ways that new forms of music and youth culture have been attacked by intolerant people over the years
[aqui há mais...]

TECNOSFERA

BlogSafety.com, where teens, parents, teachers and adult bloggers can learn about the benefits of safe blogging.

TECNOSFERA

Wikipedia, the Free Online Encyclopedia, Ponders a New Entity: Wikiversity
It's not clear exactly how extensive Wikiversity would be. Some think it should serve only as a repository for educational materials; others think it should also play host to online courses; and still others want it to offer degrees.

VITAMEDIAS

Unveil the fraud

TECNOSFERA

A pedido do Blasfémias, aqui ficam os votos europeus da sessão que aprovou a directiva para a retenção de dados.
A favor: PPE/DE, PSE
Contra: GUE/NGL

Ou seja, dos 24 deputados nacionais, apenas Ilda FIgueiredo, Pedro Guerreiro e Miguel Portas votaram contra.

Nota: Os partidos europeus estão aqui, os eurodeputados portugueses neste endereço.

Nota 1: Ireland is set to challenge a newly adopted EU directive on data retention at the European Court of Justice, arguing that the issue falls outside EU competence.

Nota 2: Curioso o silêncio quase total sobre este assunto nos media portugueses...

VITAMEDIAS

Behold Kong, King of Dayton, Ohio ou descubra as diferenças entre isto


e isto

VITAMEDIAS

Hold the Presses: The Story on China's Media Sector Is Still Evolving: The Chinese government's recent crackdown on free speech, particularly on the Internet, does not provide an accurate picture of the country's media industry, according to Zhengrong Hu, a professor at Communication University of China, who spoke recently at Penn's Annenberg School of Communication. The media industry, like Chinese history itself, is evolving sporadically, he said -- "one step forward, two steps back," but forward nonetheless.

CONTAMINANTES

You really can find identities of top patent holders [in U.S.]:
1. Shunpei Yamazaki, Japan, 1,432 patents. Yes, it seems to be true: The top individual holder of U.S. patents is based at Tokyo tech research firm Semiconductor Energy Laboratory. For decades, the popular assumption has been that Thomas Edison is the all-time patent king with 1,093 patents. Yamazaki blows away Edison, and he is still inventing and getting patents.

[ver também "Search for the most prolific inventors is a patent struggle"]

CONTAMINANTES

Buzzwords 2005: A Glossary: some terms you need to know, to navigate the next meeting or sharpen a pitch:
Curate
Heuristics
Thoughtless acts
Storytelling
Customer journey
Social network mapping
Ethnography
Informed intuition

TECNOSFERA

El Congreso rechaza imponer el uso de software libre en la administracón : La definición de lo que es o no es software libre, y si esta cuestión debe resolverse en una ley, ha sido uno de los asuntos a debate.

French open-source plan draws ire: discussion groups are abuzz with news of the French government's plan to ban open-source software.
The problem is that there is no such plan. But the French do have some proposals to revise copyright law, changes that could affect programmers.

Linux adoption continues to pick up speed overseas

TECNOSFERA

Wikipedia: "A Work in Progress": The online encyclopedia's founder Jimmy Wales talks about the steps being taken to foil fraudulent entries

TECNOFERA

A veloz sociedade da informação: E.U. Parliament votes to force "data retention" on telecom, Net firms
This is in short what we will get now:
- retention of telephone and internet connection data (including email addresses) and location data for mobile phone calls
- no harmonisation of the retention period (6 to 24 months but longer is allowed: Poland wants 15 years)
- no harmonisation of cost reimbursement for the needed investments on the providers' side
- no limitation to certain types of crimes for which access is allowed
- retention of unsuccessful call attempts
- no independent evaluation
- no extra privacy safeguards
- follow-up committee without representation from civil rights organisations [...]

the UK council presidency had pushed so hard after the London bombings that this directive will enter the EU history as the one which took the shortest time ever from the first Commission draft to the final vote (less than three months - normally they need years). [...]
More information, including recordings of the EP debate, is available at http://wiki.dataretentionisnosolution.com.

TECNOSFERA

O mais esquisito nesta história de que "Computadores da Câmara não acedem a blogues" é como é que o vereador responsável dos recursos humanos sabia que "um pequeno grupo de funcionários "não fazia mais nada do que andar todo o dia a ver blogues"."
Foi por observação directa - o que significa que ele ou alguém por ele "não fazia mais nada do que andar todo o dia" a olhar para os funcionários - ou usava algum programa informático para detecção de acessos?
Neste caso, os trabalhadores sabiam previamente que eram vigiados? O registo desses dados foi notificado à Comissão Nacional de Protecção de Dados?
[cheguei à notícia nos Marretas via Atrium]

TECNOSFERA

Finding News Faster: using RSS feeds, blogs and podcasts in research

VITAMEDIAS

Ainda a A ERC e os blogs (resposta oficial, mérito do Luís Santos, negrito meu):
1) "permite que o diploma legal em causa seja aplicado a outras entidades que não apenas aquelas enunciadas nas diversas alíneas do artigo 6º dos Estatutos.";
2) "a aplicação das normas jurídicas contidas naquele diploma dependerá, em grande medida, do esforço interpretativo que lhes for dedicado pelo Conselho Regulador da ERC e pelos tribunais." [que, no último caso, já se estão a esforçar...];
3) com "respeito ao espírito da proposta de Lei apresentada pelo Governo (e, posteriormente, alterada e aprovada pela Assembleia da República), a redacção da alínea e) do artigo 6º visou abranger as pessoas jurídicas que se dedicam a disponibilizar conteúdos de comunicação social";
4) "a proposta de Lei apresentada pelo Governo pretendeu excluir, de forma notória, as comunicações electrónicas de conteúdo privado e de conteúdo não comercial (como, em regra, serão os ?blogs?)";
5) "enquanto não assumirem uma linha editorial definida, através da sujeição das opiniões nele vertidas a um tratamento uniformizador, de cunho editorial, os ?blogs? não serão enquadráveis";
6) "a não inclusão directa numa das alíneas do referido artigo 6º não obsta a que as entidades responsáveis pelos conteúdos difundidos pelos ?blogs? não possam vir a ser abrangidas por decisões da ERC, desde que o respectivo Conselho Regulador ou, em caso de recurso judicial, os tribunais considerem que os conteúdos em causa se enquadram no conceito de ?actividade de comunicação social?."

Percebem ou continuam confusos?...

VITAMEDIAS

Pulitzer Prize Will Now Include Online Entries: The new guidelines will apply to the 2006 awards, which cover work published in 2005, reports The Associated Press.
The Public Service category has allowed online entries since 1999 allowed an online presentation to be part of entries. But now, 13 other journalism categories will consider online content for the first time.

VITAMEDIAS

Lá como cá: Selling their souls: Daily newspapers fail to focus on what they're good at -- local news -- and instead pander to pop culture
Television and celebrity coverage is a waste. People who prefer television simply watch more television -- they don't and won't read papers. Why chase them? Granted, the public can't get enough celebrity gossip, so many dailies behave as if they wish to be People magazine. Problem is, People is better. Besides, all that celebrity gossip comes through the same mills and is available on countless Web sites and TV shows.
Papers should stick to local information and original reporting. That's what they're good at. And that's where they do the most good.

TECNOSFERA

PI and coalition call on European Parliament to reject data retention [Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on the Retention of Data Processed in Connection with the Provision of Public Electronic Communication Services and Amending Directive 2002/58/EC]:
1. This Directive invades the privacy of all Europeans.
2. The proposed Directive is illegal.
3. The Directive threatens consumer confidence.
4. The Directive burdens EU industry and harms global competitiveness.
5. The Directive requires more invasive laws.

TECNOSFERA

Search Terms Are a Witness for the Prosecution: Whether they should be allowed to or not, search terms can help prove a case.
Petrick's Google activity was introduced at trial to convince the jury of the timeline for Petrick's murderous activity, said [assistant prosecutor Mitchell] Garrell.
It helped; the jury found Petrick guilty of first-degree murder after just two hours of deliberation Tuesday.

CONTAMINANTES

Small town community comes together for paralyzed man: A Bethel man is now on his way to Portugal with the hope he will be able to walk again.
[...] Cisco Fernandez will have an experimental surgery with stem cells, a procedure not done here in the United States.
[Já em Janeiro era um "bom negócio"...]

TECNOSFERA

2005, el año del 'boom' de los 'weblogs' en España

Bridge Girl triumphs in blog competition: A travel diary about bridges has won the title of Australia's best blog in a competition aimed at identifying excellence in the local blogging community.

CULTURAS IN VITRO

BlawgWorld 2006: Capital of Big Ideas: A Journey Through 51 of the Most Influential Legal Blogs (Blawgs)

VITAMEDIAS

Best Rejected Advertising

ZITE

Google Maps video

ZITE

Worst Job Ever

ZITE

18 Tricks to Teach Your Body: 18. Read minds!
Your own! "If you're giving a speech the next day, review it before falling asleep," says Candi Heimgartner, an instructor of biological sciences at the University of Idaho. Since most memory consolidation happens during sleep, anything you read right before bed is more likely to be encoded as long-term memory.