Amazing the number of agencies around that will sell you a mashup report of public information about pretty much anyone you like! Cas in point… Intelius www.intelius.com where you can easily grab a plethora of info including property records, background info, criminal records, phone numbers, SSN records and more… ouch! Of note, if your changing jobs or maybe looking at taking a risky move and joining a startup you might consider running a background check on your soon to be employer or business partner! This could reveal that your “angel” or next “gecko” may have had a couple of bankruptcies in the past or ??? useful stuff… I guess!
Archives for January 14, 2008
Eco-friendly Nokia and sensors research project
I ran into an interesting video clip from CES that shows some of the research Nokia is conducting under the topic of sensors and and environmentally aware technologies, like solar powered sensors etc.. interesting stuff! So what is the sensors project? According to their R&D resource, the project is all about a sensor(s) that enables you to stay connected via a separate sensing device (like a special watch)
The eco-friendly Nokia and the sensor project
I ran into an interesting video clip from CES that shows some of the research Nokia is conducting under the topic of sensors and and environmentally aware technologies, like solar powered sensors etc.. interesting stuff!
Save the date – ArcGIS Server Code Challenge – Feb 29
Developers are reminded that the due date for applications being submitted in the ArcGIS Server Code challenge must be in by Feb 29… yes, there’s an extra day in Feb this year! From ESRI… Developers, including ESRI business partners, are invited to take part in the second-annual ArcGIS Server Code Challenge. Submit your original, ArcGIS Server 9.2 code sample before 5:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, February 29, 2008 for consideration. Good luck! Up for grabs this year is a $15k first prize! See also the ESRI blog – http://blogs.esri.com/info/blogs/codechallenge/
iPhone Treasure Hunt at MacWorld
More social gaming… too bad iPhone doesn’t have GPS!! Details… Macworld Expo attendees and other iPhone owners in San Francisco January 15-17, 2008, can “pling for treasure” with iPling — the fun, free, easy-to-use mobile social expansion service for the iPhone. The company has announced a Treasure Hunt in which many valuable prizes will be awarded to its beta users over three days. Prizes include iPod Touch and Shuffle models, as well as gift certificates to popular online retailers such as the Apple Store, Amazon.com, StubHub, Fandango, and iTunes. New prizes will be released throughout the day for each of the three days of the Treasure Hunt. To receive details on starting times and prizes, contestants need to navigate to http://www.ipling.com/ on their iPhone’s Safari browser and key in TREASURE as a General Tag on their iPling Settings page.
It still amazes me that iPhone didn’t come with GPS…
Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis –
More on the state of the job market (IT sector) … from the author of The 2020 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis, the forthcoming IT workforce shortage is a legitimate worry. Millions of Americans who are unemployed do not have the right talent for the jobs that need to be filled, with many people earning college degrees that are not translating into decent employment. There now are four million jobs empty. He notes this issue… companies are loading up on technology and they want fewer workers to do more.
Kick back and listen to the music – social music for free!
Off topic.. want to drive the person next to your cubicle a little crazy?? Go hit www.social.fm and start a search for your favorite tune.. it’s freaking awesome! The cool part about social.fm is you can become a DJ, search for a favorite DJ, or simply search by artist. You won’t locate every song available but chances are the popular song you seek – and the not-so-popular (like cool 80’s music from Harlequin, Toronto, the HEadpins and other oldie but goodies) will turn up. Listening is totally free, simply keep in the background or download the PC client. Finally, you can also take it on the road with you! The mobile client is a flat $20 (although I still have the free Beta).. it’ a bargain. If you use or think about using a Nokia N95 like me you can combine this with the free Nokia Internet Radio service to have a massive, low cost mobile music solution, anytime, anywhere! See www.social.fm
Pdf+ for S60 3rd edition smartphones
You can reflow the text of a document to make it fit the small screen of a smartphone. You can set column mode to make reading pages using columns of text much easier. You can save your favorite view settings, and you can select which font will be used for standard PDF fonts. Pdf+ displaying a Japanese document (Nokia N95). Pdf+ can display PDF documents in almost all languages. For displaying certain Chinese and Japanese documents you can install a plug-in. When using Pdf+ Pro, you can even print the document, and create PDF files with PdfPrinter, which is part of the Pdf+ Pro package. see http://www.mbrainsoftware.com
mBrain Software releases version 1.20 of PdfPrinter
PdfPrinter is a printer driver, it transforms the generic printer commands generated by programs into PDF commands and stores them in a PDF file. As a result you can create PDF files from most programs that can print. The resulting PDF file can now be backed up, viewed on a desktop PC, stored in your corporate database, emailed to a client, etc. PdfPrinter (for S60 3rd edition smartphones) creates PDF version 1.2 (Adobe® Acrobat® 3.x), 1.3 (Acrobat 4.x) and 1.4 (Acrobat 5.x) files. see http://www.mbrainsoftware.com
A new term – LIP – the Location Independent Professional!
So many new and cool terminology out there these days… how about this one that I just got turned onto from the WHERE blog – LIP – “We few, we proud, we LIPs can be anywhere the Internets will reach, and now, anywhere the cell phone signals will travel.” For more on LIP see, what else… the LIP blog! http://locationindependent.com/blog/