Ajax Girl

Those familiar with Paris-based RadioBlogClub were greeted with a service outage this morning. You may remember it from the comments in our coverage of the web iPod emulator, Blogmusik, which is also down. The music streaming service’s traffic has busted the seams of their old web server and they’re moving on to a beefier one. It’s easy to see why. A quick glance at the Alexa stats shows them in Pandora’s ballpark.

While the original intent of the site is to provide easy song streaming embeds for music bloggers, I have a feeling RadioBlogClub is so popular because it’s also an easy way to get free music. The service works by acting as a hub, linking the music stored on various members websites (kind of like the inverse of HypeMachine). Bloggers feed the site links to their music by running their songs through a converter before uploading them to their site. The converter changes MP3s to the site’s RBS format and registers the songs with their database. All the songs registered on the site can be played individually or in user generated playlists on the main site or in embedded widgets like the one below.

While the site streams and doesn’t explicitly promote downloading, sites have already popped up to enable them. This is the same lesson YouTube learned when we released our own YouTube movie downloader and got slapped with a take down notice.

It hits home on the same content control problems we’ve ranted about before. Any content streamed to your system can be captured and DRM systems have a bad habit of getting cracked. Bill Gates is understandably dissatisfied with the state of DRM and Steve Jobs publicly called for the its death. The music (TV/Movie) industry needs a new revenue model fast (not a music tax). We like Amie Street’s model so far, especially their free Barenaked Ladies album.

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/~3/101797135/

Google just announced integration of their instant messaging service, Google Talk, with Google IG, their personalized home page. The widget plugs into your Google Personal Home Page as an integrated buddy list and IM window. The new widget can be added to your page here.

Google’s integration with it’s own widget platform puts it ahead of the personal page giant Yahoo, which hasn’t integrated with it’s own konfabulator widget platform. Yahoo widgets have also been tough for others to wrangle. Netvibes’ Universal Widget API won’t include the platform in its first iteration.

The widget isn’t just a copy of the Gmail version, it also has some of its own cool new features. Compared to popup message windows in the Gmail version, the widget’s conversations open up tabs instead. The new widget will also will also intelligently parse Picassa and YouTube links, displaying the content embedded right in the conversation.

Here’s Google’s run-through of the new functionality.

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/~3/101773264/

I think I’d rather fight the MPAA and RIAA than piss off the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They’ve absolutely destroyed Michael Crook, the man who placed a fake Craigslist sex ad and then published as many personal details as possible about the people who responded. Crook got the attention he wanted, including a spot on Fox News.

A number of websites posted an image of Crook from that Fox news spot, and Crook responded by sending out fake DMCA takedown notices. The EFF sued Crook on behalf of one of the sites to receive the notice, 10zenmonkeys.

Crook settled the case, and was required to record this video apology. He is also being required to take a copyright law course.

Crook is clearly a loser, has destroyed the lives of many people who responded to his bogus Craigslist ad, and deserves this kind of humiliation. But it also seems to me that the EFF may be getting a tad over zealous in its desire to defend our right to violate copyright and other intellectual property laws, and needs to take a step back and consider if the oppressed are now becoming the oppressor. In requiring the creation of this video, it seems to me that they’re lowering themselves to the same level as Crook. The guy has been completely humiliated in public now, which makes for great content, but the EFF needs to be careful in how far they go. Defending individuals against huge multi-corporation entities is one thing. Destroying human dignity is something else.

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/~3/101741387/

Microsoft announced the acquisition of Tellme this morning, confirming the two week old rumors. The Price, previously rumored in the $800 million range, is undisclosed. The WSJ says “up to $800 million” and Gigaom is saying “over $800 million but below a billion dollars.” My bet is that GigaOm has the better information. The core Tellme executive team is staying on board.

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

Source: TechCrunch
Original Article: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/101723078/

Symbian Series 60 users should take a look at MyStrands mobile, a compelling music sharing app that creates social playlists - you and your buds can share music - and discovery though tags and search. It even supports multiple languages so you and your friends in France can share your Serge Gainsbourg playlists.

The service accesses a collection of six million songs, so hopefully there’s something out there for you, and connects directly to your MyStrands page.

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/~3/101691951/

Some of the recent activity at our internal 37signals Campfire chat room:

It’s all over now, baby blue

Jason F.	goldmine time: http://www.threadlesskids.com/
Ryan S.
Jason F.
Jason F.	How could you not buy that one?
Ryan S.	lol
Jason F.
Matt L.	reminds me of that mitch hedberg joke:
Matt L.	A friend said he wanted to show me a picture of when he was younger. Every picture is of you when you were younger. “Here’s a picture of me when I’m older.” “Son of a bitch. Let me see that camera.”
Jason F.	that was a good one. RIP.
Ryan S.	lol “let me see that camera”
Ryan S.	i wonder if we’re gonna be seeing more and more of this pale blue on the web
Ryan S.	threadless uses it all over. gmail uses it well
Ryan S.	it seems like the new grey of interface chrome

Lens steps

Draft

Ryan S.	major hotness:
Ryan S.
Ryan S.
Ryan S.	(http://www.draft.jp/)
Jeremy K.	Love the ‘DRAFT’ font
Ryan S.	totally
Jeremy K.	.jp must be a typographer’s dream
Ryan S.	ha

Furniture with a face

Ryan S.	nice site: http://www.bravespacedesign.com/index.php
Ryan S.	i like the link: “Who Are These People”
Ryan S.	with lots of background
Ryan S.	furniture usually doesn’t come with a face
Sam S.	heh, tetris-shaped shelving
Ryan S.

Mail.app vs. the clipboard

Wild eagles

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/280-fly-on-the-wall-pale-blue-lens-steps-draft-furniture-with-a-face-mailapp-vs-the-clipboard-and-wild-eagles

The Sun Web Developer Pack isn’t a sexy name, and having ‘Sun’ start it out often doesn’t help a technology…. but there is some good technology here.

The Sun Web Developer Pack helps you to leverage emerging web technologies and techniques to create interactive and dynamic web applications for the enterprise. This toolkit is a collection of technologies for Ajax, Scripting and REST-based services development supported by a NetBeans plugin that simplifies the design and development of Rich Internet Applications.

If you look past the marketing-speak you see that Sun has packaged technology such as Project jMaki and Project Phobos.

jMaki is a lightweight, client/server framework for creating JavaScript-centric Web 2.0 applications. You can use jMaki when developing with PHP, Portlets, Facelets, Java, and JavaScript.

Do you see that? Since when did Sun create something that lets you develop with PHP

Phobos is a lightweight, scripting-friendly web application environment that runs on the Java platform.

Phobos allows you to write with JavaScript on the server side, which can be very powerful indeed.

There are a vast number of demos available including interesting mashups.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/sun-web-developer-pack

We mentioned Fresh Logic Studiosand their OO JavaScript framework before.

Now they have created a simple Bug Tracker using their tools.

It is very lean and allows you to do most tasks inline.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/fresh-logic-studios-bug-tracker

Ok, we’re really close now. Here comes an especially useful Highrise feature: Email-in.

Highrise and email play well together
Highrise isn’t an email program. You don’t compose emails in Highrise. But Highrise likes getting emails. It likes helping you clear your inbox. It likes getting an email from you and doing something useful with it.

Your own dropbox
Every Highrise user get an email dropbox when they create their account. A dropbox takes this form: dropbox@12345678.subdomain.highrisehq.com. The “12345678” is a unique PIN. When you send, cc, bcc, or forward emails to that address, Highrise knows they are from you. Then Highrise goes to work.

Email to notes
Notes are an important part of Highrise. Notes from phone calls, meetings, conversations, prospects, etc. When something happens with a person that’s important to your business (or group or organization) you create a note in Highrise on that person’s page so you have a historical record of that conversation or interaction.

Lots of those interactions happen via email. A client sends you an important email or you get a new business lead via email. Maybe your attorney sends you something via email that you want to make sure you keep around.

When you get an important email from someone that you want to log in Highrise, just forward that email to your dropbox address and Highrise will attach it to the right person’s page in your Highrise account. And, if that person doesn’t already exist in your Highrise account Highrise will create that person on the fly for you. Sending email from new people to Highrise is one of the easiest ways to actually create people in Highrise.

Email to tasks
Another crazy useful feature we built into Highrise is email-to-task functionality. This allows you to turn any email you receive into a Highrise task. You can also make tasks in Highrise by just sending Highrise an email. Often times you’ll get an email that’s asking you to do something. Just forward it to Highrise, Highrise will make it a task, and you can delete it from your inbox. Here’s how it works:

You can append one of five different identifiers to your dropbox. +Today, +Tomorrow, +ThisWeek, +NextWeek, +Later and Highrise will turn that email (or just the subject of a blank email) into a task. You can read about Highrise Tasks in a previous post.

Highrise does send some emails
While Highrise is not a webmail or email application, it does send a few emails out. When you assign someone a task they get an email letting them know it was assigned. When a task assigned to you is due you’ll get an email (or an SMS to your mobile phone) letting you know it’s time to get that thing done. We have plans for daily (“What’s due today?”) and weekly (“What’s on your plate this week?”) email as well, but those will have to wait for a future version.

We hope you like it.

Sign up to have a chance at a Golden Ticket
We’ve begun issuing “golden tickets.” Golden ticket holders will have access to sign-up for Highrise prior to the public launch. To sign up for a chance at a golden ticket, be sure to sign up for the Highrise announcement list.

Source: Signal vs. Noise
Original Article: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/320-preview-7-highrise-plays-well-with-email

GvaScript (pronounce “gee-vascript”) is a javascript framework born in Geneva, Switzerland (GVA is the IATA code for Geneva Cointrin International Airport).

It is built on top of the prototype object-oriented javascript framework (http://prototype.conio.net) and offers a number of extensions and widgets, such as keymap handling, application-specific events, autocompletion on input field, and a tree navigator

Documentation:

• GvaScript.Autocompleter: autocompletion on form input fields
• GvaScript.ChoiceList: Dropdown list of choices with navigation
• GvaScript.fireEvent: application-specific events
• GvaScript.protoExtensions: Extensions to prototype.js
• GvaScript::Intro: A javascript framework born in Geneva.
• KeyMap: Manage maps of handlers for key events
• TreeNavigator: Navigation in a tree structure

Despite living on CPAN this is all just pure JavaScript…. it just happens to use Perl for some build actions.

Source: Ajaxian
Original Article: http://ajaxian.com/archives/gvascript