Ajax Girl

Facebook is testing virtual gifts - small icons that you can give to other Facebook members to be displayed on their pages in the “wall” section as well as a new gift area. The test is running with members from just a couple of select schools at this time.

The gifts icons were designed by Susan Kare, the designer of the original Mac icons. Gifts can be sent publicly or privately (public gifts will show everyone the name of the giver, private gifts only show the icon). Each virtual gift costs $1, although right now they are free.

In a brilliant marketing move to kick this off, Facebook is donating the February net proceeds from the virtual gifts to charity. After that, they’re keeping the money. I would expect this to be a significant revenue generator for them by year-end.

The reason I say this is because “poking” is already such a big activity on Facebook, where you reach out to other users. When you pay money to do the same thing, it will mean more, and people will be sucked into doing it. If and when Facebook launches premium gifts, people will be buying those, too. I’d also expect them to sell really high end “limited edition” icons as well in limited supplies.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/87886178/

Recent jobs at Crunchboard:

• PR/Sales pros at Lewis PR in SF, SD and Boston
• Web Developer/ Web Design at Addesso Systems in Boston, MA
• Senior Web Developer at Sony in San Diego, CA
• Director, Digital Product Development at NBC Universal in New York, NY
• Manager, Digital Product Development at NBC in New York, NY
• Online Graphic Artist at San Jose Mercury News in San Jose, CA
• Software Development Engineer at Amazon in Detroit, MI
• Lead Quality Assurance Engineer at New York Times in New York, NY
• Senior or Lead Java Developers at Travelocity in Manhattan, NY
• Lead Software Engineer at a stealth startup in San Francisco, CA
• Retail Producer/Project Manager, Signs and Collateral at Apple in Cupertino, CA
• Director of Business Development at eBuddy in San Francisco / Palo Alto

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/87868050/

Tomorrow, Scrapblog, a hybrid media-sharing and online journal site, will be demoing the new version of their Flash-based online scrapbook application tomorrow at the We Media Conference in Miami. The public version of the new product will be out in March. Co-founder Carlos Garcia let me in for a quick look around at the redesign, though, and I liked what I saw. Scrapblog was already a great product. The new version runs more smoothly, has the look and feel of a proper desktop application, and has incorporated more types of media and editing tools.

The new version has the same drag and drop functionality of the original, but more closely mimics a desktop application by following the same menu bar metaphors along with a full screen option. They have also beefed up the editing features a bit without making it too intensive for the web. Users will be able to use “edit” and “properties” toolboxes to control transformations on photo and layers, effects, as well as photo cropping. Transitions between frames have also been added (various types of fades and wipes).

The release will allow users to import photos from more sites sites, such as Webshots, Photobucket, and Yahoo!. They only supported Flickr previously. Audio and video will also be added to the product. Users will have the option of having songs play along with their Scrapblog slide show and embedding YouTube videos into their pages. You will be able to rotate and scale the videos just like photos. Scrapblog also hopes to have the slide shows import into YouTube as well. Scrapbook pages can already be exported into Flickr accounts.

Scrapblog is shaping up nicely and looks to be branching out of the scrapbook niche as it more closely resembles slide show web apps like RockYou, BubbleShare, Slide, Photobucket, and Filmloop.

Scrapblog is currently privately financed through Carlos Garcia’s previous company Nobox.

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/~3/87864152/

And, speaking of conferences, there are a couple of Ajax-related shows happening in London in the coming months.

Our friends over at InfoQ pointed us to the Ajax content they have at QCon, a dev conference this March 12-16 in London. This is one of the first Ajax-rich shows we’re aware of in England; Ajax heavy hitters Alex Russell (Dojo), Thomas Fuchs (Script.aculo.us), Joe Walker (DWR), Bruce Johnson (GWT), and others will be speaking.

The month after that, Ajax2007 happens (Apr. 17 - 18). This show has also got a lot of Ajax names, including Jesse James Garrett and Bill Scott (Rico; Yahoo! Ajax Evangelist); Dion and I will also be there to greet our legion of UK Ajaxian.com fans (i.e., Dion’s family).

So if you’re in the UK, a couple of great chances to network with the Ajax community coming up.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/ajax-in-london-qcon-and-ajax2007

A lot of folks have been pinging us about our plans for The Ajax Experience in 2007. We don’t have the dates set yet, but we are definitely holding another Ajax Experience show. It likely will not be in the spring this time around, in order to give interested folks plenty of lead time to make plans to attend. Look for a firm date in the next few weeks.

You might also have noticed that Dion and I are holding a conference for desktop developers: Desktop Matters, in San Jose Mar. 8-9. Some folks have asked if we’re losing interest in Ajax We think there’s obviously room for both Web and Desktop disciplines. This year’s Desktop Matters show is focused on Java, but depending on how it goes, we’d like to do a larger show next year for desktop developers of all technology disciplines.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/ajax-experience-update-and-desktop-matters

At CrunchGear this week, we have “Apple Vs. World,” an exciting match-up complete with in-depth analysis from both sides of the ring. We examine the gamut of Apple criticisms and commendations in an effort to satiate sympathizers lying in either trench. So be there this week to witness the continuation of the most epic battle in tech.

Only at CrunchGear!

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/87735956/

Did Budweiser steal from a NYC sketch group for one of its Super Bowl ads?

The comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’Know claims that the Bud Light ad in which fist bumping is replaced by face slapping as a new kind of greeting looks more than a little similar to a sketch on the group’s Web site called “The New Thing.” The Whitest Kids are consulting with lawyers. Their rep said, “They are very upset. They are considering their options.”

Decide for yourself by watching both clips. [via The Apiary]

At The Whitest Kids site, one member wrote, “Hey! Budweiser just ran an ad during the SuperBowl that is a rip off of our ‘New Thing’ sketch. This has happened to us a couple times before but this one is pretty blatant. So suck it Budweiser. Drink Coors.” Later on, a member of the group says, “There’s more to the Budweiser story than just random coincidence, which we’ll probably post about in the next day or so.”

Some commenters aren’t buying it though: “Relax! my friends and I have been doing something called ‘slap club’ for years (way before your skit). I’m not saying they didn’t see your skit but seriously though, it’s not that original to begin with. I’m sick of people whining everytime something like this happens. Don’t do the, unfortunately, american thing and waste your time complaining or ‘seeing what kind of legal action to take’ but rather put your energy into the thing you love and think of new material.”

What do you think?

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/258-budweiser-ad-a-ripoff

Profile of Jonathan Ive

“We try to solve very complicated problems without letting people know how complicated the problem was. That’s the appropriate thing…The way the parts [of the iPod shuffle] fit together is extraordinarily tight. I don’t think there’s ever been a product produced in such volume at that price, which has been given so much time and care. I’m really excited by that, and even if you can’t articulate its value, at some level I hope that integrity is obvious.”

Gore-Tex is "fostering ongoing, consistent, breakthrough creativity"

“Bill Gore threw out the rules. He created a place with hardly any hierarchy and few ranks and titles. He insisted on direct, one-on-one communication; anyone in the company could speak to anyone else. In essence, he organized the company as though it were a bunch of small task forces. To promote this idea, he limited the size of teams — keeping even the manufacturing facilities to 150 to 200 people at most…[One employee says,] ‘Your team is your boss, because you don’t want to let them down. Everyone’s your boss, and no one’s your boss.’”

2008 candidates and blogs

“Barack Obama was the only one of these candidates that had a way for bloggers to grab the code needed to embed his video into a post or web site…Being on the internet means something different in this election. Having a site isn’t enough any more. These candidates will need to microchunk their messages, and make them available broadly. They need to be reaching audiences not just through The New York Times and CNN, but via blogs and iPods as well. More than anything, they need to reach out to people and talk to them directly without all of the spin.”

Bill Gates' Vista PR lap falling flat?

“When put in this context Microsoft just seems so big and slow and old, hidebound by 30 years of culture and organizational silos that seem impregnable. And it appears that Vista – the product, the PR, the marketing approach – is the result of such an organization. At times brilliant, very heavy, complicated and expensive. This is not a product for today. This is a product for an era when the desktop ruled. And that era is long gone.”

The most underappreciated appliance in your kitchen: the broiler

“If I’d told you I had an appliance that could brown like a grill, was as convenient as your oven, and cooked most food in less than 10 minutes, you’d buy it. But you don’t need to.”

Coming soon: Chief Experience Officers

Adaptive Path interview with Lou Carbone: “When you look at the organizations of the past, [they were like] bus drivers driving buses along the prescribed route, [with a] certain number of stops to make and doing the same routine over and over again. And the customer really came along for the ride. Today, [when it comes to] doing business, the model is considerably more like taxis. We’re not even sure what the customer needs until the customer communicates [it to us] and we can anticipate what they want. Then what we end up doing is snapping together a set of capabilities to deliver the experience that they want. And that’s very, very different.”

Did Viacom lose out on $48 million because of YouTube?

“Video content on a site such as Comedycentral.com commands as much as a $40 CPM. If an ad at a $40 CPM was sold against each of the 1.2 billion streams Viacom claims the 100,000 unauthorized clips represent, that’s a missed revenue opportunity of as much as $48 million.” [via DF]

Jimmy Kimmel on avoiding meetings

“The fewer meetings the network asks for, the better things are going, I think. We’re down to just the bare minimum of meetings with the ABC executives, so I think things are heading in the right direction. Though I’m sure I’ll do something stupid and everybody will be mad and then there will be a lot of meetings again. Really, my main goal on a day-to-day basis is to avoid meetings at all costs.” [tx TK]

Why is change so hard?

“Of course, radical change often isn’t possible in business situations. Still, it’s always important to identify, achieve, and celebrate some quick, positive results for the vital emotional lifts that they provide. Harvard’s Kotter believes in the importance of ‘short-term wins’ for companies, meaning ‘victories that nourish faith in the change effort, emotionally reward the hard workers, keep the critics at bay, and build momentum. Without sufficient wins that are visible, timely, unambiguous, and meaningful to others, change efforts invariably run into serious problems.’”

Elevator pitch inspiration: classic TV show intros

“It can be challenging to boil down what you do into a short blurb…For inspiration, I suggest paying attention to the 30-second narrations at the beginning of TV shows.” [via CPU]

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/257-sunspots-the-appropriate-edition

Picnik is another web-based image manipulation tool that uses Flash to do the heavy lifting.

The UI is simple, and it does a lot of the little things that you want to do.

Coupled with the desktop widget Image Shackle I really can do the simple things with simple tools.

Here is a screencast of Picnik in action.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/picnik-web-based-image-manipulation-gets-better

DWR’s annual Champagne Chair Award finalists await your vote. This is my favorite design competition because it’s entirely about embracing constraints.

If you’re curious, here are the the finalists and winners from each round.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/256-champagne-chair-finalists