A Review of the Best Robots of 2008 :: Singularity Hub
http://singularityhub.com/2009/01/12/a-review-of-the-best-robots-of-2008/

a lot of these i've seen before, but its pretty awe-inspiring to see them one after another...plus the comments have a bunch more!

Robot innovation continued its relentless advances during 2008. In this post we would like to showcase some of our favorite robots and robot videos of the last year or so.

Robot innovation continued its relentless advances during 2008. In this post we would like to showcase some of our favorite robots and robot videos of the last year or so. This review is heavily slanted to consumer robots and research robots. Perhaps in the future we can do a review of industrial robots. Given the sheer number of robots that are out there we know there will be several excellent robots that we have overlooked in this review. If you know of any really awesome robots or robot videos that we have missed please let us know and we will consider adding them to this post. So without further delay, lets take a look at some of the best robots and robot videos of 2008 (maybe some are from 2007 too), broken down by category: January 12th, 2009 | Published by Keith Kleiner in robotics

Robot innovation continued its relentless advances during 2008. In this post we would like to showcase some of our favorite robots and robot videos of the last year or so. (Singularity Hub)

Funny Sheeit

Sarah Palin Charges: If you want to know why the rest of the world is scared of Americans, consider the fact that after two terms of disastrous rule by a small-minded ignoramus, 46% of us apparently thought the problem was that he wasn’t quite stupid enough. Palin’s unending emissions of baffling, evasive incoherence should have disqualified her for any position that involved a desk, let alone placing her one erratic heartbeat from the presidency. The press strained mightily to feign respect for her, praising a debate performance that involved no debate, calling her a “great speaker” when her only speech was primarily a litany of insults to city-dwellers, echoing bogus sexism charges when a male Palin would have been boiled alive for the Couric interview alone, and lionizing her as she used her baby as a Pro-life stage prop before crowds who cooed when they should have been hurling polonium-tipped javelins. In the end, Palin had the beneficial effect of splitting her party betwe...

wow! is this the first wave of barack obama criticism? note: i don't know who 3/5ths of the people on this list are, but for everyone else, this tells it like it is. some very choice words.

Now, we’ve finally got the final numbers from 2008, and with them, a look at the rankings and trends within the top 20 social networks, according to Nielsen Online. Here are the highlights: - Facebook nearly caught MySpace in traffic. MySpace had 58.4 million unique visitors in December, Facebook had 55.2 million. - Facebook passed MySpace in time per person: 2 hours, 7 minutes to 1 hour, 40 minutes. - The fastest growing sites were Twitter (664%), Tagged (421%), and Ning (303%) - Of the sites in the top 20, three saw traffic declines in 2008: Meetup (-7%), Flixster (-6%), and MySpace (-3%) - Time spent on social networks decreased for 14 of the 20 sites on the list.

There’s little doubt that Twitter was one of the most talked about startups over the past year. But just how much did it grow in 2008? The final numbers are

Os melhores sites do ano

23andMe, I know just three things about her: she's pregnant, she's married to Google's Sergey Brin, and she went to Yale. But after an hour chatting with her in the small office she shares with co-founder Linda Avey at 23andMe's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., I know some things no Internet search could reveal: coffee makes her giddy, she has a fondness for sequined shoes and fresh-baked

save

$399 saliva test that estimates your predisposition for more than 90 traits and conditions ranging from baldness to blindness. The 600,000 genetic markers that 23andMe identifies and interprets for each customer are "the digital manifestation of you Now personal genotyping is available to anyone who orders the service online and mails in a spit sample.

TIME

Foxmarks

機能

Findings from the A LIST APART Survey, 2008

As we did in 2007, A List Apart and you teamed up to shed light on precisely who creates websites. Where do we live? What kind of work do we do? What are our job titles? How well or how poorly are we paid? How satisfied are we, and where do we see ourselves going?

Findings from one of the best non-profit web think-tanks - Stats on working in the web industry.

As we did in 2007, A List Apart and you teamed up to shed light on precisely who creates websites. Where do we live? What kind of work do we do? What are our job titles? How well or how poorly are we paid? How satisfied are we, and where do we see ourselves going? In 2008, 30,055 readers took part in the A List Apart Survey. Once more, data analysts Alan Brickman and Larry Yu crunched numbers this way and that. With a global recession in full swing as of December 2007, we were particularly interested to find out how financially and professionally secure web people felt, and whether there were discernible differences in the way people responded to questions about satisfaction and security in 2008, compared with 2007. This year we also improved our fact-finding on freelance and part-time web personnel. The more things change For 2008, instead of a downloadable (PDF) white paper, we decided to present our findings on the web. Which meant, in addition to compiling and analyzing data and

nice html + css version of graphs.

Some people care about the actual survey, me? I stare at how the tables were structured.

As we did in 2007, A List Apart and you teamed up to shed light on precisely who creates websites. Where do we live? What kind of work do we do? What are our job titles? How well or how poorly are we paid? How satisfied are we, and where do we see ourselves going? In 2008, 30,055 readers took part in the A List Apart Survey. Once more, data analysts Alan Brickman and Larry Yu crunched numbers this way and that. With a global recession in full swing as of December 2007, we were particularly interested to find out how financially and professionally secure web people felt, and whether there were discernible differences in the way people responded to questions about satisfaction and security in 2008, compared with 2007. This year we also improved our fact-finding on freelance and part-time web personnel.

always nice to keep these around for inspiration on new designs

best fonts. Doesn't hurt that the site itself is easy on the eyes

Bestmodo 2008: The Best iPhone Apps of 2008

[[Mobile]] The Best iPhone Apps of 2008 http://tinyurl.com/9yjcda [from http://twitter.com/badita/statuses/1096746389]

The number of Internet users in the US is nearly static compared to China and India. Wonder what this holds for the future of the Internet?

Best of 2008 Science Fiction Books

OPEN WEB AWARDS: People’s Choice Winners

Mashable 2008

View my * My Posts * Facebook * Twitter * LinkedIn * OPEN WEB AWARDS: People’s Choice Winners December 16th, 2008 | by Pete CashmoreComments peoplechoiceaward1Today we’re pleased to announce the winners of The 2nd Annual Open Web Awards, a multilingual, international online voting competition that covers major innovations in web technology. Through an online nominating and voting process, the Open Web Awards recognizes and honors the top achievements of websites and services in 26 categories.

** Posted using Viigo: Mobile RSS, Sports, Current Events and more **

If we, the people who make websites, want the world to know who we are and what we do, it’s up to each of us to stand up and represent. Last year, 30,055 of you did just that, taking time out of your busy day to answer the sometimes detailed and often thought-provoking questions in the second A List Apart Survey.

If we, the people who make websites, want the world to know who we are and what we do, it’s up to each of us to stand up and represent.

** Posted using Viigo: Mobile RSS, Sports, Current Events and more ** If we, the people who make websites, want the world to know who we are and what we do, it's up to each of us to stand up and repre

"This year’s findings paint a clearer picture of the distinctions between full-time and freelance web professionals: how you work, what you earn, and what you love about the job. "

from the Official Google Blog – a history lesson for us all

inspiration

Today, almost a third of all Google searches in Japan are coming from mobile devices — a leading indicator of where the rest of the world will soon be.

Compare "State of Google" addresses since 2004.

5/07/2009 12:11:00 PM Posted by Sergey Brin, Co-founder

this

Kunagi tulevikus on seda kirja ilmselt päris huvitav lugeda :)

e tells us some things to expect in the next. Computers will be 100 times faster still and storage will be 100 times cheaper. Many of the problems that we call artificial intelligence today will become accepted as standard computational capabilities, including image processing, spe

Enterprise adoption of cloud computing, SaaS, and social media (whatever you want to call it) is accelerating. This is a healthy market, in which vendors are doing well in a tough economy. As we near the end of a year that will go down in history with the words "meltdown," "panic," "crisis," and "depression" attached, it is time to celebrate the winners in this market, enterprise-focused web products that are already doing well and poised for even greater success in 2009. And if these products excite you, we invite you to subscribe to the ReadWriteWeb Enterprise

Entrepreneurship Επιχειρηματικότητα

top 10 best for enterprise web product

Nice to see that AWS and LinkedIn both made this list...

enterprise-focused web products that are already doing well and poised for even greater success in 2009.

Top 15 US-based Newspaper Sites - http://bit.ly/yURGq - The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post... [from http://twitter.com/hadhad/statuses/4168123173]

Along with Windows and Mac downloads, this year was chock-full of free software for Linux users. Read on to see what our readers were eager to grab and install on their free desktops.

The Big Picture - News Stories in Photographs from the Boston Globe

Design and architecture are two adjacent walls of the blogging garret, where we are not only blessed with the writers having a bent towards it but also readers cum customers who make the best of products posted here. Go ahead and enjoy the ride on this designer road, furnished with creative architecture that adds to its beauty.

The 15 Most Expensive Paintings in the World

sci-fi novel tips from editors and reviewers of major magazine

This recommended reading list is a consensus by Locus editors and reviewers with input from outside reviewers, other professionals, and other lists. Essays by many of these contributors are published in the February issue. The list is divided into SF novels, fantasy novels, first novels, YA books, collections, anthologies (original, reprints, and best of the year), nonfiction, art books, novellas, novelettes, and short stories....

An analysis of Obama's victory speech.

linked: A NEW AMERICA http://tinyurl.com/5wqy6t [from http://twitter.com/travispoling/statuses/991273776]

Beautiful. I really enjoyed it.

"Which new or improved app impressed you the most in 2008? Firefox 3 Google Chrome iPhone 2.0 iPhone 2.0 Jailbreak Google Android Digsby XBMC and forks Ubuntu Linux (Intrepid Ibex and Hardy Heron) Gmail Labs, Gadgets, and Themes Rockbox / iPod Linux"

test 1

Presidential Elections - [Exit Poll Data][

Article Tools Print Email Reprints Related AddThis RSS Yahoo! Buzz Matt Harding is a 32-year-old videogame designer who quit his job in 2003 to travel around Asia. Along the way, he recorded and posted a short video of himself doing an elbow-intensive jig in Hanoi.

The truth about Obama....

Increase you conversion rates with Invesp optimization service.

Top 10 Most influential marketers of 2008

Chris Hughes

"Developers hate it when a new version of a language doesn't work with the code written for older versions of that language, but for van Rossum, the radical upgrade was necessary. The language was becoming ever more weighed down by multiple ways of doing the same task, and ways of doing tasks no one ever actually did."

Typically, each new version of the Python programming language has been gentle on users, more or less maintaining backward compatibility with previous versions. But in 2000, when Python creator Guido van Rossum announced that he was embarking on a new version of Python, he did not sugar coat his plan: Version 3.0 would not be backward-compatible. Now that the first release candidate of Python 3.0 is out, with final release planned for later this month, developers must grapple with the issue of whether to maintain older code or modify it to use the new interpreter.

After conducting a college band and watching Palin deliver a commencement address to a small group of home-schooled students in June 1997, Wasilla resident Philip Munger said, he asked the young mayor about her religious beliefs.

Hahahahahahahaaaaaaa.... *phew*... Hahahahahahaha!

Huffington Post on the neanderthal Palin

barack, obama, joe, klein, time, interview, democrat, democratic, politics, president, race, white, house, race, campaign, 2008

Joe Klein's perspective on Barack Obama

not an interview but the journalist talking about it...still pretty good. Liked the sync of the word "maturity" and his wedding ring at the end, kinda cool.

Mon Feb 09, 2009 at 08:58:22 PM PDT According to Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D) (PA-11), in mid-September of 2008, the United States of America came just three hours away from the collapse of the entire economy. In a span of 2 hours, $550 billion was drawn out of money market accounts in an electronic run on the banks.

Nevermind, this is apparently false. http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2009/02/11/kanjorski-and-the-money-market-funds-the-facts

Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D PA-11)

According to Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D) (PA-11), in mid-September of 2008, the United States of America came just three hours away from the collapse of the entire economy. In a span of 2 hours, $550 billion was drawn out of money market accounts in an electronic run on the banks. Rep. Kanjorski: "It would have been the end of our economic system and our political system as we know it."

About as funny as God's facebook page!

"I see you staring at me from across the water"

Spaceflight 12-2008

Results

Awesome Balloon Experiment 2

Content Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1

Col·lecció de "xapes" per a la campanya presidencial de Barack Obama

That's a whole lotta Barack 'n' Roll

An exhaustive collection of Obama buttons. It's certainly believable that it's a complete collection. Lots of good/interesting design here

hilarious slideshow...

Hilarious

joe "six pack" biden trains for the debate

I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.

I know firsthand: She's a master of the nonanswer.

For tonight: a preview if you will.

Hey, at least they're calling her "diva", not "bitch".

Aide calls VP nominee a "diva" and says she's only looking out for herself.

More infighting is just helping the Obama campaign that much more (like they need it!), the RNC is going to need to pull another Watergate to get through this one.

"She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone," said this McCain adviser. "She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. "Her lack of fundamental understanding of some key issues was dramatic," said another McCain source with direct knowledge of the process to prepare Palin after she was picked. The source said it was probably the "hardest" to get her "up to speed than any candidate in history."

She's off the reservation!

Sara Palin: Even McCain is sick of her.

"Her lack of fundamental understanding of some key issues was dramatic," said another McCain source with direct knowledge of the process to prepare Palin after she was picked. The source said it was probably the "hardest" to get her "up to speed than any candidate in history."

We sat down with Microsoft to hear the company’s side of the Vista story.  What lessons have been learned following the worstWindows launch in the company’s history? Is Microsoft doing enough to regain PC users’ faith?Way back in January 2007, after years of hype and anticipation, Microsoft unveiled Windows Vista to a decidedly lukewarm reception by the PC community, IT pros, and tech journalists alike. Instead of a revolutionary next-generation OS that was chock-full of new features, the Windows community got an underwhelming rehash with very little going for it. Oh, and Vista was plagued with performance and incompatibility problems to boot.

I think this article sums up how i felt abt vista too..

McCain had to pay people to make calls for him...

"Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents."

Some three dozen workers at a telemarketing call center in Indiana walked off the job rather than read an incendiary McCain campaign script attacking Barack Obama, according to two workers at the center and one of their parents. Nina Williams, a stay-at-home mom in Lake County, Indiana, tells us that her daughter recently called her from her job at the center, upset that she had been asked to read a script attacking Obama for being "dangerously weak on crime," "coddling criminals," and for voting against "protecting children from danger." "They walked out," Williams says of her daughter and her co-workers, adding that they weren't fired but willingly sacrificed pay rather than read the lines. "They were told [by supervisors], `If you all leave, you're not gonna get paid for the rest of the day." The script coincided with this robo-slime call running in other states, but because robocalling is illegal in Indiana it was being read by call center workers.

events of 2008, People Who Mattered etc

No surprise here.