Exclusive: IAC Finally Kills Off Bloglines

Exclusive: IAC Finally Kills Off Bloglines: "

It’s finally happened. Bloglines,the troubled RSS feed reader owned by IAC, will officially be shut down, the company has told TechCrunch exclusively. The site has had a tumultuous history, so it’s unsurprising that IAC has finally put the platform out of its misery. Bloglines, which is actually operated by IAC Q&A property Ask.com, will be informing users of the news today and will officially be shut down on October 1.

Bought by IAC’s Ask.com in February 2005 for around $10 million, the site has been in jeopardy ever since the launch of Google Reader long ago, compounded by the shift from RSS to realtime news streams. Over the past few years, the site hasn’t launched any new or innovative features to boost usage. While we’ve heard in the past that IAC was considering shutting down the site, the company held off on killing the site permanently and was looking for ways to refurbish Bloglines.

Doug Leeds, President of Ask.com tells us that the reasoning behind closing Bloglines came down to the fact that the market for people who use Bloglines (and RSS readers, he adds) isn’t growing, and is actually shrinking as people shift to realtime news streams such as Twitter to consume content on the web. In IAC’s market research, according to Leeds, there has been a 20 percent decline in people who are consuming RSS feeds as a whole. He says that Ask.com will continue to focus on drive traffic to and enhance its question and answer site.

Google Android Hidden Secret Codes - Tweaking with Vishal

Recently I got a Google Android mobile phone "Samsung Galaxy I7500". While I'm loving playing with it, I also found some interesting secret codes which can enable/disable lots of hidden settings in the mobile phone. These codes can also show many useful information about the phone.

So in this topic, you'll get several hidden secret codes which can be used in any Google Android mobile phone to access things which are not accessible by default.

FYI These codes have been obtained by decoding various .apk files present in the phone firmware.

*#*#4636#*#*

This code can be used to get some interesting information about your phone and battery. It shows following 4 menus on screen:

• Phone information
• Battery information
• Battery history
• Usage statistics

*#*#7780#*#*

This code can be used for a factory data reset. It'll remove following things:

• Google account settings stored in your phone
• System and application data and settings
• Downloaded applications

It'll NOT remove:

• Current system software and bundled applications
• SD card files e.g. photos, music files, etc.

PS: Once you give this code, you get a prompt screen asking you to click on "Reset phone" button. So you get a chance to cancel your operation.

*2767*3855#

Think before you give this code. This code is used for factory format. It'll remove all files and settings including the internal memory storage. It'll also reinstall the phone firmware.

PS: Once you give this code, there is no way to cancel the operation unless you remove the battery from the phone. So think twice before giving this code.

*#*#34971539#*#*

This code is used to get information about phone camera. It shows following 4 menus:

• Update camera firmware in image (Don't try this option)
• Update camera firmware in SD card
• Get camera firmware version
• Get firmware update count

WARNING: Never use the first option otherwise your phone camera will stop working and you'll need to take your phone to service center to reinstall camera firmware.

*#*#7594#*#*

This one is my favorite one. This code can be used to change the "End Call / Power" button action in your phone. Be default, if you long press the button, it shows a screen asking you to select any option from Silent mode, Airplane mode and Power off.

You can change this action using this code. You can enable direct power off on this button so you don't need to waste your time in selecting the option.

*#*#273283*255*663282*#*#*

This code opens a File copy screen where you can backup your media files e.g. Images, Sound, Video and Voice memo.

*#*#197328640#*#*

This code can be used to enter into Service mode. You can run various tests and change settings in the service mode.

WLAN, GPS and Bluetooth Test Codes:

*#*#232339#*#* OR *#*#526#*#* OR *#*#528#*#* - WLAN test (Use "Menu" button to start various tests)

*#*#232338#*#* - Shows WiFi MAC address

*#*#1472365#*#* - GPS test

*#*#1575#*#* - Another GPS test

*#*#232331#*#* - Bluetooth test

*#*#232337#*# - Shows Bluetooth device address

*#*#8255#*#*

This code can be used to launch GTalk Service Monitor.

Codes to get Firmware version information:

*#*#4986*2650468#*#* - PDA, Phone, H/W, RFCallDate

*#*#1234#*#* - PDA and Phone

*#*#1111#*#* - FTA SW Version

*#*#2222#*#* - FTA HW Version

*#*#44336#*#* - PDA, Phone, CSC, Build Time, Changelist number

Codes to launch various Factory Tests:

*#*#0283#*#* - Packet Loopback

*#*#0*#*#* - LCD test

*#*#0673#*#* OR *#*#0289#*#* - Melody test

*#*#0842#*#* - Device test (Vibration test and BackLight test)

*#*#2663#*#* - Touch screen version

*#*#2664#*#* - Touch screen test

*#*#0588#*#* - Proximity sensor test

*#*#3264#*#* - RAM version

NOTE: All above codes have been checked on Google Android phone Samsung Galaxy I7500 only but they should also work in other Google Android phones.

KT launches tablet PC

KT launches tablet PC: "(Telecompaper) South Korean telecommunications firm KT has unveiled a tablet PC made by local start-up Enspert. The 'Identity Tab' will be available from 10 September, the JoongAng Daily writes. The device runs on Android 2.1, features a 7-inch touchscreen, a 1 GHz processor, and 8 GB of memory. The Identity Tab is priced at KRW 490,000 without a contract or free with a two-year contract at KRW 27,000 per month. Samsung Electronics is planning to release its own tablet PC, the Galaxy Tab, shortly."

Reinvigorate.net Offers Powerful Real-Time Analytics, HeatMaps, And A Touch Of Creepy

Reinvigorate.net Offers Powerful Real-Time Analytics, HeatMaps, And A Touch Of Creepy: "

If you’re running a website — be it a world-famous news portal or a personal blog — there’s a good chance you spend a lot of time poring over your stats. There are of course plenty of services available to help with this, including the hugely popular Google Analytics. But the older systems tend to have lengthy lag times before they’ll generate a report, whereas services like Chartbeat show things as they happen. Given how quickly things spread across the web these days, future is clearly real-time, and today sees the public launch of another powerful analytics service called Reinvigorate.net.

After logging into the site you’ll see an overview page which displays the number of currently actively visitors, active pages, and a graph of your traffic over the last few hours, all of which update in real-time. If you’d like to drill down more, you can jump into a separate Traffic tab, which includes stats like your daily and monthly visitor counts, bounce rates, and a breakdown of how much traffic each page is drawing. At this point the site doesn’t offer much in the way of a real-time visualization of your traffic the way Chartbeat does, but the company says that it’s coming in the future.

Reinvigorate.net also offers heat-maps, which allow you to see where users are clicking across each of your pages. These have been available through other services, like Crazy Egg, but the Reinvigorate team believes it’s the only service to offer both heat maps and live analytics in one package.

The main overview page also offers “Live Visitor Tracking” — a list of the users currently browsing your site, listed by their username. This is where Reinvigorate.net gets a bit creepy. If you’ve integrated Reinvigorate’s analytics tools, you can track the browsing habits of each of your visitors across your site, labeling each user with the name they used to register or to leave comments with. You can use the real-time overview to see who is currently browsing your site, or you can jump to the ‘Detailed Activity tab’ to look back at any user’s browsing history, including they’ve time spent on each page. This information can of course be very helpful for site owners, and it’s been technically possible to do this kind of tracking for quite a while. But most systems don’t make it this easy, and it’s a bit unnerving.

For example, to test out Reinvigorate.net I was given the test account ‘techcrunch’. You can see my browsing history as I bounced around the site in the screenshot below:

The service has an unusual backstory. It was created as a side project back in 2002 by Sean Mcnamara, who was a longtime MediaTemple partner. In 2008, MediaTemple acquired it through its ventures arm mt ventures, and Mcnamara began working on it full-time. The service has only been available with an invite until now, but has still grown to tracking 15,000 sites and 500 million pageviews over the last 30 days.

Reinvigorate.net runs $10 per month for its beginner package and ramps up to a $20/month Pro account, with custom plans available for “ultra-high traffic sites”. If you’d like to try it out there’s a free 14 day trial. Also see Clicktale, which is significantly more expensive (the “small site” plan starts at $99/month).

CrunchBase Information

Media Temple

Information provided by CrunchBase

"

Google, Facebook To Microsoft’s Paul Allen: Your Argument Is Invalid

Google, Facebook To Microsoft’s Paul Allen: Your Argument Is Invalid: "

The entire Internet (aka Facebook, Google, Apple AOL, Facebook, eBay, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo, and YouTube) has just been served with a vague and vast patent violation suit from Microsoft’s co-founder Paul Allen. As patent suits are notoriously unpopular, the response from tech pundits has been apprehensive. Now the companies named are starting to punch back, a representative from Facebook told TechCrunch, “We believe this suit is completely without merit and we will fight it vigorously.”

A representative from Google also commented on the validity of the suit.

“This lawsuit against some of America’s most innovative companies reflects an unfortunate trend of people trying to compete in the courtroom instead of the marketplace. Innovation — not litigation — is the way to bring to market the kinds of products and services that benefit millions of people around the world.”

According to the WSJ, “Mr. Allen, a pioneer of computer software, didn’t develop any of the technology himself but owns the patents.”

In the suit, Interval Licensing LLC, a company owned by Allen, lists violations of four decade old patents (6,263,507, 6,034,652, 6,788,314, 6,757,682) that seem to cover basic operations of almost any Internet company including Google, Facebook and Microsoft who unsurprisingly is not listed by Allen as a defendant — especially patent #657. It also seems as though patents #657 and #314 are exactly the same.

• Patent #507 “Browser for Use in Navigating a Body of Information, With Particular Application to Browsing Information Represented By Audiovisual Data.”


• Patent #657 “Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device.”


• Patent #314 “Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device.”


• Patent #682 “Alerting Users to Items of Current Interest.”

“Defendant Facebook has infringed and continues to infringe one or more claims of the ’682 patent. Facebook is liable for infringing the ’682 patent under 35 U.S.C. § 271 by making and using websites and associated hardware and software to provide alerts that information is of current interest to a user as claimed in the patent.”

“Defendant Google has infringed and continues to infringe one or more claims of the ’682 patent. Google is liable for infringing the ’682 patent under 35 U.S.C. § 271 by making and using websites and associated hardware and software to provide alerts that information is of current interest to a user as claimed in the patent.”

Earlier this month TechCrunch’s Vivek Wadha wrote about why patents in the technology industry are somewhat absurd.

“But in software these are just nuclear weapons in an arms race. They don’t foster innovation, they inhibit it. That’s because things change rapidly in this industry. Speed and technological obsolescence are the only protections that matter. Fledgling startups have to worry more about some big player or patent troll pulling out a big gun and bankrupting them with a frivolous lawsuit than they do about someone stealing their ideas.”

Paul Allen might have just provided us with the most extreme proof of Wadha’s argument yet.

10 Sites to Play with Colors and Create Color Palettes of Your Own

10 Sites to Play with Colors and Create Color Palettes of Your Own: "

In a way, it’s good that we can just enjoy colors without understanding them. They are actually quite complex. Okay, we use it match clothes or our home décor. But then, contrasting colors can set off one another — two contrasting colors can clash. Then there are the complementary colors that can flatter each other. You can reduce some of the complexity by using color palettes.

If you are a web designer, or want to be one or you simply like to match different colors to see how they look; play around with these online color palette generators.

A color palette in its simplest definition is a range of colors that’s used to make a graphic or a colored work visually consistent. Take the example of our own website which has been designed with a color combination that’s uniform across the site. An example of a specific palette is the web safe color palette (a set of 216 colors) that makes them appear the same across browsers and OS.

ColoRotate

ColoRotate helps to mix and match colors in 3D. The flash-based website lets you browse the already created color palettes or adjust them according to your tastes. You can use the color diamond (or use the slider mode) to play with different color combos and create new palettes. The joysticks make for easy adjustment of color, contrast, and tint, or for toggling foreground and background colors. The palette preview also has a dropdown that allows for various vision deficiencies.

COLOURlovers

Call this a community for color lovers. Or a ‘colorful’ community because it is all about creative people sharing color palettes and patterns. The website is well organized with sections like Channels (which showcases color usage for weddings, home, fashion etc), and Trends (an index for what’s happening with color in different media). But for more hands on work, check Tools where you can create palettes and patterns. You might be interested in Themeleon which lets you create custom themes for your Twitter profile.

kuler

One of our readers suggested the Adobe tool in our How to Search for the Perfect Color Scheme post. You can create cool variations from an image or from the color wheel. If you hit a white wall, you can browse through the many color themes with cooler names already on the site. Try out Pulse where you can browse through thousands of color themes with just a click on a histogram or the color wheel. You can straightaway copy the color values to your clipboard.

Color Scheme Designer

Color Scheme Designer is an online color tool that makes it real easy to design the color scheme of your website or blog. Decide on the type of color scheme you want your site to be based on and then pick and choose the colors from the color wheel. Each color scheme presents the primary colors and their complementary colors. You can get a feel from the preview and also adjust it according to text, light and dark backgrounds. Check out our thorough review on Color Scheme Designer.

Colr

Using your mouse and the site’s random Flickr image (or your own), you can generate color schemes. You can pick and drop colors to further fine tune your scheme. You can also fetch colors from websites by giving a URL.

Toucan

The color palette editor is one of Aviary’s online tools. You can choose up to 20 colors per palette using color combos or an uploaded image. You can import images from Flickr, Picasa, Tumblr, and Facebook. Import from a URL is also provided but I was getting an unknown error with it. Toucan also lets you check and preview the final palette using a dropdown with color deficiency options.

Color Palette FX

If you want to create a color palette from an uploaded image, Color Palette FX is one of the simpler tools going around. Upload a JPEG or PNG and the palette gets made for you. Sort palettes by hue, saturation, brightness, or color frequency and then export them to your graphical application.

Colorjack

The online tool starts off with numerous color blocks which you can mouse over and expand the palettes to edit them. Other tools include Color Galaxy (set of 27 color databases), Color Sphere (for the right color schemes and harmony), Color Studio (create your own colors), Color Conversions Library, and more.

Color Explorer

Color Explorer comes with a quiver full of digital color tools. You can pick a color along with its minute variations. You can browse through common color libraries that have samples of popular print colors as well as RGB colors. You can pick a base color and match colors around it and automate it using the various algorithms given. But what could be of real value are the color analysis and conversion tools that help to match your palette to the prevalent standards and different color systems.

Genopal

Just like the last web tool, Genopal too gives a color designer a choice of tools like a palette creation tool from images and words. The fun and interesting one is a recoloring tool which lets you apply color to any uploaded image. For example, Pic2Graphics lets you transfer ‘color mood’ between two images.

Because our eyes can sometimes lie to us, these online color palette tools help to mix ‘n match and tryout a lot of options before you settle down on the right one. Which is the color tool of your choice? Let us know.

A beleza do JUMPBOX

Estou ressucitando (ainda estão na UTI, mas tenho esperanças) minhas habilidades técnicas para Administração de Sistemas e Programação.  Há algum tempo atrás, tomei a decisão de só ser nerd para meu proveito próprio e não para outros.  Estava cansado de administrar projetos que simplesmente não iam para frente por motivos "não-técnicos", mas isso é história para outro POST...

Bom, alguns anos depois, a vida do desenvolvedor ficou muito mais fácil.  IDEs avançados fazem com que simplesmente não precisemos lembrar sequer da sintaxe de comandos... ehehehe... mas isso TAMBÉM é assunto de outro POST...

O POST de hoje fala como montar uma infra básica de desenvolvimento, pré-produção e porque não produção também em ambientes virtualizados.

Tudo começa com o Jumpbox.

Jumpbox é um site que se especializou em montar máquinas virtuais pré-configuradas com uma série de pacotes e que podem ser ativadas com um VMWare Player básico, mas que também podem rodar "out-of-the-box" num ambiente EC2 da Amazon.

Basicamente, isso significa que você pode desenvolver seu sistema do jeito que você quiser.  Terminando o desenvolvimento e homologando a coisa, você manda TUDO (sistema E ambiente) para um ambiente virtualizado como o EC2.  Pense que você também pode construir muito rapidamente um ambiente de produção usando a imagem de sua máquina virtual.

Tudo muito fácil, tudo muito simples, tudo muito rápido.

Estou baixando umas máquinas virtuais e vou postando aqui os desenvolvimentos.

Por enquanto, visite Jumpbox.

Highly recommended... :)