If you know me, you know that I’m a HUGE supporter of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative. Here in Washington DC, Peter Corbett and friends are throwing the Technoliday Party. It’s a holiday party where the proceeds from the event go to support OLPC and the work that they’re doing around the world. Support OLPC and attend the Technoliday Party.
By the way…while you’re getting your check book out to support One Laptop per Child, watch some of the BBC’s awesome videos about OLPC project.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the language of the World Wide Web but it’s been a while since it’s been updated to where the world is today. At the W3C, there is a working group which is looking at the future of HTML.
As we move forward, there needs to be a set of principles which guides the decisions we make. This is why the HTML Working Group published a first public working draft of the HTML Design Principles.
Here’s my summary and translation…
Was anything missed? The HTML Working Group needs your feedback.
While sitting around the breakfast table with my family this Thanksgiving weekend, my dad pointed out something shocking to me that he found while reading the Lansing State Journal’s (our hometown newspaper) editorial page. There was an advertisement for the soft porn videos Girls Gone Wild. (see screen shot above)
I’m shocked that a newspaper would promote something that is so flagrantly offensive and degrading. The publisher of the newspaper should apologize for allowing this to take place.
So one of my favorite shows on TV is Food Network’s Iron Chef America… I was excited for this week’s episode because it was the first for the new Iron Chef Michael Symon. Unfortunately, I missed it.
So now what can I do? Iron Chef America is not on iTunes. It’s not on Hulu. They don’t make it available from the Food Network Web site. I could sit around and hope I magically get it when it’s being re-run but that’s not an option. So what can I do? I could get a boot-leg copy off of Bittorrent… but that just doesn’t seem right to me (call me crazy).
I’m saying that I’m willing to pay money via iTunes for it or I’m willing watch some ads and have it streamed online. Why hasn’t every cable network (including Food Network) seen this reality and started implementing these options? I can’t be the only one who wants this.
The crew over at Flickr have just released a new product, Flickr Places. It aggregates together photos, photographers, and groups around certain geographic areas.
You can type in “Florence, Italy” and seconds later you’ll be flipping through the most interesting or most recent photos for that area. I have to say this is way cool! I’ve already spent two hours tonight just flipping through photos in various parts of the world.
My journeys have taken me to:
I have seen some really amazing photographs. Plus I think I have my next 30 years of vacations planned out. :-p
This reminds me a lot of when I was growing up and my dad and I would surf on telnet. It was a game to see how many different Web sites in different countries we could see in an evening. The Web gave me the ability to see a world beyond my own.
I can totally see Flickr Places being used by people all over the world to get excited about areas or places that they’ve never been before and maybe even make connections with people they’ve never met before.
Also… I could totally see someone seeing a place on the news like Baghdad and wanting to see more photos from that location.
Oh oh oh… there’s one things I forgot to mention. Flickr also has this new map view which displays the keywords of what people are taking pictures of in that region.
Wanna help the advancement of the mobile Web? Test the Web standards compliance of your mobile phone.
All you have to do is run your mobile phone browser through a bunch of test cases. It’s super easy.
Point your mobile phone here – http://www.w3.org/2007/03/mth/harness
Early stage investment firm LaunchBox Digital has opened it’s doors in Washington DC. They’re looking for new entrepreneurs who’re looking for some help make their dreams a reality. This includes investment capital, mentoring, and help with access to the right people. It operates much like Y Combinator.
Being someone who acts from time to time as an advocate for the DC technology community, this makes me very excited. I can’t wait to see what kind of new ideas come out of the LaunchBox Digital 2008 program.
This has definitely gone a long way towards awakening the entrepreneurial spirit in a lot of folks, which is exciting.
So it seems like everyone and their brother is talking about the Amazon Kindle E-Book reader. Well, I’m not a fan yet.
I think the future of e-books is the Apple iPhone. It’s something more people already have. It’s the most popular device with the biggest screen. It has a good battery.
The Apple iPhone is also launching it’s SDK in February. Who’s going to write the e-book reader app come February?
Our friend and father of the Vayner-nation Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV turned 32 today and I want to wish him a BIG happy birthday today.
Drop on over to his video blog and give him some last minute birthday wishes.
I’m experimenting with online video. I see it as one more way that I can connect with people. Expect more soon.
If you have something you wanna say and wanna be on my video show, drop me a note.
Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp's blog 