While looking for web standards coding tutorials on YouTube for a friend, I came across this hilariously interesting rap video by a guy named Poetic. The rap is entirely about the benefits of following proper web standards. His flow is really average but listen to the lyrics, I think all front-end web designers/developers will identify with this one.
I came across a report tonight from ChannelWeb.com, based on Nielson Web analysis, that 60 percent of Twitter users quit the site after one month. After the recent hype from Ashton Kutcher and Oprah Winfrey, it remains to be seen if Twitter will have the long-term benefit from the recent surge of new users.
In the next few months, it will be interesting to see if the site retention for Twitter improves.
Earlier this week I was stuck on the Metro rail due to a train malfunction one stop away from my destination. After ten minutes of just sitting there looking at the ground trying not to make eye contract with strangers, I decided to pull out the “old spare time killer”, my cell phone. Currently I am caring around the HTC mogul my provider is Sprint and I go with the unlimited data plan, it doesn’t make much since to me to have a smart phone and have to worry about data charges. But anyway the mobile version of the online video site, YouTube has never worked on my phone; however I hadn’t tried for awhile so I returned to the site via my Windows Mobile phone to check to see if YouTube mobile had been updated. I had no luck viewing YouTube videos from its mobile website, but I was pleasantly surprised with a download link for a YouTube application for Windows Mobile users. Read more »
Over the past couple of weeks, I have come across a number of articles suggesting that YouTube and Facebook are not making as much money as people would expect.
First, Credit Suisse reported that YouTube will lose an estimated $470 million in 2009. Half of YouTube’s expenses ($711 million) are towards the high bandwidth costs. Google is hoping that online advertising will eventually turn the site into a profit, but one has to wonder if they will ever reach that goal.
On a similar topic, last month Business Week reported that Facebook was looking for an estimated $100 million in credit financing to help pay for the rising server costs. Currently, Facebook has an estimated 275 million users and is registering close to 1 million users per day. Last year, Facebook was estimated to be worth $15 billion, but with the company looking for credit financing, the estimate is probably slightly inflated.
It appears that some of the popular web 2.0 sites are having some issues with the high IT operations costs. In the late 90’s, the popular business model for upstart websites was online advertising, but after 10 years, is it still an effective business model as the main source of revenue? Evidence seems to suggest no.
Last week, it was reported that a 14-year-old girl who posted nude pictures on MySpace was charged with Child Pornography, even though she is a minor.
Last Year, a 17-year-old boy posted nude pictures of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend.
Because of the increased popularity of social networks (e.g. Facebook, MySpace), a small number of teens are using this medium for posting inappropriate content, mainly nude pictures.
Read more »
The Conficker Worm is back and scheduled to attack Windows based computer systems on tomorrow April 1st! Microsoft is so desperate that they are offering $250,000 to anyone who can stop the spread of this virus. If the worm infects your computer it creates a “zombie computer” which can be controlled by the virus’s creator. Once the virus is on your computer it supposedly will prevent your computer from being able to access websites that provide security updates such as Windows Update. Rick Ferguson, Senior advisor at Trend Micro, when asked if this computer virus might be a prank said, “The people behind this worm are very skilled programmers and very well informed, these are very skilled cyber criminals.”
About two months ago a co-worker and friend of mine told me about a news article I’m sure most of you have read by now, about a 13 year old girl who sent over 14,000 text messages in one month. I will admit at first I brushed it off and thought, “big deal that’s what kids do these days”. But recently I began dwelling on it, thinking how out of control it was. 14,000 text messages? Wow can you say carpal tunnel syndrome in the making? She must have even texted people that were right next to her or in the same room. Just thinking about this story made me wonder about the generation that it is right after mine, the “millennials”.
Read more »
Today, I came across an article from TechCrunch reporting that 94% of
Facebook users do not like the Twitter-like interface. Personally, I
find that the new interface is too focused on status messages, which
sometimes can be very interesting and insightful but other times can be
annoying.
I will occasionally come across status messages such as “I’m sick this
morning. I must have eaten the wrong burrito! ” They are funny the first
time around but become stale very quickly.
It will be interesting to see if Facebook keeps the new layout or gives
users the option to use the previous layout if preferred (best option).
Apple Insider reported on today’s announcement from Apple Computer Inc. on the upcoming iPhone 3.0 update that is scheduled to be released later this summer. The iPhone update includes the long awaited MMS and copy & paste features. The update will be free for iPhone users, while iPod Touch users will have to pay a $9.95 fee to download.
Apple has posted the complete presentation online in Quicktime format.
Soon to be iPhone competitor, Sprint Palm Pre is scheduled to be released this spring.
Recently I was having a discussion with a fellow web developer on what is becoming a classic argument, as a web designer/coder is it taboo to use Adobe Dreamweaver? The guy that I was discussing this with is one of those, “I’m a web designer who codes from scratch with amazing standards and breaths awesomeness from my nostrils, blah blah” type person. You know the type of person who was hit with some magic wand and now knows everything about web design, past, present, and future. My biggest concern came when a family friend who is still in college (studying information systems) sat with us listening to our whole debate.
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