Ajax Girl

Melbourne based Chinswing, an audio bulletin board, quietly launched with minimal angel funding back in October. The concept is pretty straight forward. Members kick-start a discussion thread by leaving an audio rant under the appropriate category channel (health, computer, etc.) with a relevant title and tags.

The discussion thread is a series of boxes, filled by users recorded comments in the order they are recorded. Each comment box also has space for a few lines of text describing the comment. Developments in each subject channel and individual discussion can easily be followed via RSS, watchlist, and podcast. Threads can be played all the way through linearly or you can start playing further down the thread. This makes for a very simple way to consume the audio, but the linear format robs the system of the meandering sub-threads that sometimes spiral off comments.

In order to post your own comments, you have to download and install a small .msi (Microsoft Installer) file with the recording software included. Considering the the simple play/pause/record features of the client, I would have much rather had the recording program run embedded in flash, like the karaoke service Singshot, or audio mixing site Jamglue.

There have been a couple other stabs at services like this before: the now defunct Audioblogger, Wildvoice, Snapvine, and Evoca. Unlike Chinswing and Wildvoice, Snapvine and Evoca are not destinations for conversations, but instead syndicate their technology as a blog plugin (Evoca) or flash embed (Snapvine). Evoca allows comments to be recorded off your computer or phone, while Snapvine relies on users dialing in by phone.

Being a destination and allowing for only one mode of commenting (audio) may serve to stymie Chinswing’s potential growth. Without the potentially viral capability of their own widget, Chinswing has to build a community around their site from scratch. Their support for only audio comments also leaves out any text commenters that want to pitch in their two cents to the discussion. Video sites like Youtube or audio site like Odeo have gained a lot of user interaction by supporting text replies.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/58878957/

Streampad is a Web-based media player that gives users access to their digital music library from any computer. Similar to Songbird, it streams your personal library from the Internet but it runs completely inside any browser.

Streampad is a free service. Users download a Java desktop application that stores the metadata from all MP3 and AC3 files (protected and unprotected) it finds on your computer, including those that come from iTunes. Then, when that same user logs into Streampad from another computer, they can listen to music streamed directly from their home computer.

“The song is streamed from your own computer when you request it,” said Daniel Kantor, founder of Streampad. “When you run the Java program, it continues to run and act like a Web server so the request is going to your own system. It’s like how a peer-to-peer system would work. As you’re choosing the music, all that info is coming from Streampad, my server, but when you play that music, it comes from your computer.”

So users have to leave their home computer on in order to access their library remotely, which is not preferable for everyone. Or users with an MP3tunes account can store their music on MP3tunes and then log into MP3tunes through Streampad and play music from their “locker.”

There is a social referral aspect to the service but it’s not as good as Last.fm. Basically users can see who is streaming music and what they are listening to. If the file is a public file on the Web, like say for example, a podcast, then clicking on the URL would allow me to listen to what my friend is listening to. If it is not public but I also have it in my library, I can click on the song and Streampad will find my copy for me. If neither of these things are true but I still want to listen to what my friend is listening to, it’s up to me to go out and find it via iTunes, or some other way.

Streampad was created and funded by Kantor using PHP and MySQL as a database. It has been live for a year but Kantor officially launched a version he is proud of in May. There are approximately 5,000 users so far.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/58786881/

Want to become a Level 10 Blogging Advice expert? Then earn some Quest Coins and spend them on cool stuff at Amazon? Check out Amazon’s newest service, Askville.

The site launched moments ago at 2 pm PST. This is a “questions & answer” site similar to Yahoo, Yedda, the recently departed Google Answers and even the rarely mentioned Microsoft QnA.

So what makes Askville different? A few things.

Until a questioned is “closed,” the answers cannot be viewed. So each answer will be a unique response. This prevents cheating (copying/editing other people’s answers and submitting it as their own) and also gives each answerer credit if they submit the right answer, whether they were the first, second, or third person to submit the same answer.

Amazon is also guaranteeing that every legitimate question will be answered - they are using their Mechanical Turk web service and will pay people to answer questions if no other users choose to respond.

Finally, they have a unique scoring system. Questions are tagged, and responders earn experience points for answering based on the quality of the answer (experience points can also be lost for lame or incorrect answers). As responders gain experience points for given tags, they level up for those tags. For an example, see the user who is noted as “Level 1 - Fantasy” for this question.

Experience points also translate into something more tangible - a virtual currency called Quest Coins:

Virtual Currency (Quest Coins) - Askville also has a separate virtual currency called Quest coins which users will earn for various actions, including asking a question, voting on answers, providing answers, etc… We’ve kept experience points separate from Quest coins in order to keep experience points tied directly to how well you answer questions in various topics, while Quest coins will be a currency that will be earned (or lost) through various different actions each user makes throughout Askville. Eventually, users will be able to use their Quest coins on an upcoming site called Questville.com. On Questville, users will be able to participate in contests, exchange coins with fellow users, earn additional coins, and redeem them for other prizes/rewards. Questville.com is scheduled to launch in 2007.

You can’t do anything with Quest Coins yet - the Questville site is just a landing page right now. But given that users will be able to buy stuff with these coins, it will clearly encourage active and intelligent participation on the Askville site. Amazon is leveraging it’s ability to send people actual stuff in a very smart way.

Yahoo could have some competition.

The Askville blog is here.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/58768422/

Want to become a Level 10 Blogging Advice expert? Then earn some Quest Coins and spend them on cool stuff at Amazon? Check out Amazon’s newest service, Askville.

The site launched moments ago at 2 pm PST. This is a “questions & answer” site similar to Yahoo, Yedda, the recently departed Google Answers and even the rarely mentioned Microsoft QnA.

So what makes Askville different? A few things.

Until a questioned is “closed,” the answers cannot be viewed. So each answer will be a unique response. This prevents cheating (copying/editing other people’s answers and submitting it as their own) and also gives each answerer credit if they submit the right answer, whether they were the first, second, or third person to submit the same answer.

Amazon is also guaranteeing that every legitimate question will be answered - they are using their Mechanical Turk web service and will pay people to answer questions if no other users choose to respond.

Finally, they have a unique scoring system. Questions are tagged, and responders earn experience points for answering based on the quality of the answer (experience points can also be lost for lame or incorrect answers). As responders gain experience points for given tags, they level up for those tags. For an example, see the user who is noted as “Level 1 - Fantasy” for this question.

Experience points also translate into something more tangible - a virtual currency called Quest Coins:

Virtual Currency (Quest Coins) - Askville also has a separate virtual currency called Quest coins which users will earn for various actions, including asking a question, voting on answers, providing answers, etc… We’ve kept experience points separate from Quest coins in order to keep experience points tied directly to how well you answer questions in various topics, while Quest coins will be a currency that will be earned (or lost) through various different actions each user makes throughout Askville. Eventually, users will be able to use their Quest coins on an upcoming site called Questville.com. On Questville, users will be able to participate in contests, exchange coins with fellow users, earn additional coins, and redeem them for other prizes/rewards. Questville.com is scheduled to launch in 2007.

You can’t do anything with Quest Coins yet - the Questville site is just a landing page right now. But given that users will be able to buy stuff with these coins, it will clearly encourage active and intelligent participation on the Askville site. Amazon is leveraging it’s ability to send people actual stuff in a very smart way.

Yahoo could have some competition.

The Askville blog is here.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/58768422/

Just a few weeks after Google announced that they would pull the Click to Call service from Google Maps, Anthony J. Cataldo, chairman and CEO of VoIP, Inc., told CEOcast today that his company’s technology is still working with Google.

Click to Call was pulled from Google Maps in late November because too many people were using it to prank local merchants. Cataldo does not mention this on the call, nor does he talk about how the two companies could prevent it. Although Google reinstated the service after they reportedly pulled it, we did not find any safeguards to prevent the problem from happening again. When the service was initially pulled from Maps, Google replaced it with an SMS service.

“We [said] back in January that we had a deal to provide Click to Call services for Google,” Cataldo said in a Webcast. “Google likes to keep its competitive edge and so do we. We’re very excited that Google has chosen our network and is incorporating our technology platform to connect customers and merchants. It has innovative products that expand its reach into new markets and we look forward to working really closely with them to further expand the applications for Click to Call.”

Recently, Click to Call was added to Google in India and Cataldo says that his company is providing the technology there but would give no details on the implementation.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/58729205/

People often talk about being able to walk in the shoes of others. Males wish they could be a female for a day, I want to be a premier league football player for a day, etc.

For the sake of accessibility, how about taking an experiment and turning off JavaScript for a day.

When you do so you find a lot of major sites that do not work. Many are unusable (links that do not work, layouts that are broken), and some are partially usable.

The few good ones work just as before.

Try it this afternoon. You may have some surprises.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/walking-in-others-shoes-turn-javascript-off-for-a-day

I put myself through graduate school teaching yoga and Spinning so health and fitness is a topic I know a little about. From what I’ve seen, this industry is one of the slower ones to adopt new technology, which is why I was so pleased to find Traineo.

Now, I know that TechCrunch readers may not be the group that gets excited about personal fitness software but before you scream, “Why is this on TechCrunch?” in the comments section, consider that Traineo has been landing some impressive sponsorship deals lately with companies like Biotherm and L’Oreal. There is money to be made in online social support groups so please hear me out on this one.

Traineo is a health and fitness support site where users report their weight, diet, and exercise daily to a group of friends who help monitor and support one another. I hesitate to call Traineo a social network because, unlike MySpace, the goal is not to have as many friends as possible. The goal is to have a select group who you trust to help you through the drudgery of staying in shape.

I’ve tried quite a few of these online programs before with my friends. SELF Magazine had one earlier this year aimed to get us all in shape “just in time for bathing suit season” but the software was pitiful and the social networking aspect was even worse. I’ve also tried MyFoodDiary, which is subscription-based, and PEERTrainer, which I thought required too much work from it’s users. Traineo is free and so darn easy.

Instead of inputting how many ounces of cheese you ate in your burrito, and how much cream you put in your coffee, Traineo allows you to just give an estimation of how you think you ate each day. Based on your age, weight, and goal, it tells you how many calories you should aim for and, at the end of the day, you tell the program if you ate poor, average, fair, or great.

“We’ve really dumbed things down,” said Alasdair McLean-Foreman, one of the founders of Traineo, via IM. “People find it hard enough to stick to a diet/workout routine so the software should be the easiest part otherwise people drop off and lose interest.”

The workout logs are also quite simple. You select from the types of workouts available, tell it how long you did it for, and how intense you felt it was. I told Traineo that I wanted to lose four pounds and the weigh-in lets me give regular updates to track my progress.

Users that are a bit less shy about their progress can join larger support groups, either the sponsored ones, or ones that revolve around different demographics like mothers or tech enthusiasts. Actually, I didn’t find a tech enthusiast group but I started one called TechCrunch. Feel free to join.

Traineo was written by some pretty fit software developers. A number of athletes work for the company, including McLean-Foreman who has represented Great Britain in track and was the Harvard track captain in 2004.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/58679661/

Time’s Best Inventions 2006 has some neat stuff:

Janjaap Ruijssenaars air mattress uses a matching set of repelling magnets, built into the bed and the floor below, to support ~2,000 lbs.

The Wovel snow shovel on a wheel clears snow with a fraction of the effort and is safer on your back too. People in snowy climes will, um, wove it.

Attach radio-frequency-emitting tags to your keys or other easily lost possessions and use Loc8tor to point you in the right direction (within an inch of your item) while the tag itself beeps.

CeeLite’s paper-thin, flexible lightbulb “sheets” are funky. See a video clip of Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers drum kit hooked up with CeeLite panels.

It’s not on Time’s list but here’s another smart gadget idea: Twist & Spout fits virtually any soda or water bottle with a screw-on cap. Use the Garden style to create an instant watering can.

One more: Ecopod is a home recycling center with compaction and collection.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/152-cool-inventions

TonicPoint is a “still in not-really-stealth-but-private-demos-only mode” project that implements a full-featured graphical PowerPoint editor implemented using MochiKit and SVG/VML (no plugins).

Chris Nokleberg has written about TonicPoint and just posted a full screencast of the presentation editor in action.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/tonicpoint-ajax-powerpoint-with-svgvml

PlainSimple

PlainSimple’s journal is a nice minimalist offering from Utah designer Gilbert Lee.

College Humor’s weekly roundup email

College Humor filters through thousands of submissions and offers the top three in its weekly roundup email. The 1-2-3 and out approach is a nice alternative to the clutter filled newsletters that most companies send.

Demetri Martin

In this email, comedian Demetri Martin cuts to the chase.

Got an interesting screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Send the image and/or URL to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/149-screens-around-town-plainsimple-college-humor-and-demetri-martin-keep-it-simple