I'm frustrated. I really love using MySpace, and when it chooses to crap out on me as a result of a 'power failure' on the other side of the country, it leaves me wondering how much faith to keep placing in using the site. Seems like every day there's the threat of a new hack in place, and I've seen plenty of those 'hey check this out' bulletins posted by phantoms using other people's profiles. These bulletins are usually followed 2 hours later by a 'that wasnt me' bulletin of course. Oh, and yes, of course those MySpace trackers are a hoax, just like 'Buxxxom Beauty wants to be your friend' should be trashed too.

Sure, the apologists will say "you get what you pay for" and when it's free you can allow for a certain amount of performance problems (I'm a blogger user and they seem to suffer from the same problem), but when it actually munches your content, that's pretty poor.

As a result of the fallout from the now infamous 'MySpace Blackout of 2006' this weekend (maybe we should call it the 'lost weekend'), unfortunately mine was one of the thousands of profiles affected. When I say affected, I basically mean that all the content was removed, leaving me with the lovely default orange and blue page so familiar to those who have just joined this wonderful social networking experience. The orange and blue I have spent far too many hours of my life trying to remove. Looking at it all optimistically, it forces me to make a new page, which is always great fun, but I'd rather that was my decision!

No message, no mail, no communication at all really, just gone. I check my inbox and there's one of 'Tom's notes regarding "don't worry, we'll sort it all out". Yeah right. Why don't I have any confidence in the fact that will actually happen? Am I supposed to take comfort from the 4 short lines posted there? I mean, given that the site clearly has no back-up plan for power outages at their data center, and users' profiles are obviously not quite as secure as you'd hope they should be, why should I feel reassured by this tiny apologetic little note? As if the overall general performance of MySpace wasnt bad enough (it is so slow sometimes, even at weird points in the day), I'm feeling like there are so many clicks you have to perform to do even some of the most basic of tasks. The user experience is pretty bad in general. Ever tried posting a blog? Why is it a completely different section when the default place for it in your profile is at the top? Why does the navigation move around all the time?

One of the great things about MySpace is how it has increased the level of 'coding' (I use the term at my own risk) knowledge for basic users of the web. This, as a colleague of mine would say "is a beautiful thing". To be able to really do anything remotely intreresting on MySpace, you not only need to be a great code cut and paster, but you also need to be able, on some level, to work with the code, change things around, and remove the bits you want without screwing the whole thing up. MySpace has done wonders for this. However, when you factor in that after you've done all this the code you worked on gets removed - it's more than disappointing.

With all the money and attention being afforded MySpace at the moment (I'm sure someone at NewsCorp was freaking out over the weekend about all this), basic service performance has to be a given, right? We all realize necessary site maintenance has to happen, but just don't mess with our pages!

For all you Mac people out there :

The Secret Diary Of Steve Jobs

Enjoy.

From AdAge.com

An all too familiar story... and I'm sure one we'll not see the last of for some time.
Matthew

Retailer's 'Social' Site May Be too Unhip and Strict to Catch Teen-Apparel Dollars
By Mya Frazier

Published: July 17, 2006
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- It's a quasi-social-networking site for teens designed to allow them to "express their individuality," yet it screens all content, tells parents their kids have joined and forbids users to e-mail one another. Oh, and it calls users "hubsters" -- a twist on hipsters that proves just how painfully uncool it is to try to be cool.

The Hub is where teens can go and register to become 'Hubsters' -- Wal-Mart's ideal of a hipster.

Desperate to appeal to teens with something other than pencils and backpacks during the crucial back-to-school season, Wal-Mart is launching a highly sanitized, controlled and rather unhip site at walmart.com/schoolyourway. Teens are invited to create their own page, "show it to the world and win some fab prizes," including a chance to have their videos appear in a Wal-Mart TV commercial. Wal-Mart's agency is GSD&M, Austin, Texas.

The opening page shows video of four teens -- a bubbly fashionista, a Texas football player, a quirky skateboarder and an aspiring R&B singer from New York -- who are clearly actors reading a script, although the videos are positioned to appear authentic. Within, there are pages such as "Beth's Backyard Club," where you find a picture of her in a strapless prom dress above the approved quote: "I'll school my way by looking hot in my Wal-Mart clothes to school to catch a cute boy's eye. ..."

'Are these real kids?'
The site is an attempt at closing the trend gap Wal-Mart now faces as Target wins more teen-apparel dollars. But if Wal-Mart thought it could win over Amy Kandel, 14, of Columbus, Ohio, it was wrong. "Some of the kids looked like they were trying to be supercool, but they weren't at all, and they were just being kind of weird," she said. "Are these real kids?"

Nor did it impress Pete Hughes, 18. "It just seemed kind of corny to me," he said.

Wal-Mart declined to comment.

No doubt leery of all the problems with MySpace.com, Wal-Mart's site disqualifies any video with "materials that are profane, disruptive, unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially or ethnically-motivated, or otherwise objectionable." That's why "pending approval" notes dominate pages already created and content is limited to a headline, a fashion quiz and a favorite song. Wal-Mart also plans to e-mail the parents of every registered teen, giving them the discretion to pull a submission.

Moreover, the retailer reserves the right to edit the commercial created with the winning video, obviously hoping to avoid the fate of Chevrolet's Tahoe, which allowed consumers to create their own video spots unchecked and ended up with some unflattering results.

Don't expect a subversive, ironic ad
So a subversive, ironic ad by a savvy teen on how her dad's hardware shop closed down after the retail goliath rolled into town would likely be "otherwise objectionable" to Wal-Mart.

The tight controls will work against Wal-Mart's goal to make the site more edgy and will instead cement the retailer's image as a conformist brand, said Tim Stock, a researcher with New York-based Scenario DNA, a research firm devoted to studying Gen Y.

"The second you try to create boundaries and draw a line around content and put a box around content, it becomes something else. Teens aren't searching for what a company deems relevant, but what they deem relevant," Mr. Stock said. "You can't own it. When anyone tries to own it too much, then it becomes a problem. That's the impression I get on this site."

A lot at stake
And there's a lot at stake here. "Wal-Mart really needs this to work," said Irma Zandl of youth-marketing firm Zandl Group. "Over the last year, we have been getting increasingly bad feedback from teen girls about Wal-Mart in contrast to Target -- especially Wal-Mart's apparent lack of cleanliness, messy layout and lack of stylish attire. This attempt at 'we media' is terrific. We'll have to wait and see if it's enough to overcome in-store issues."

But it won't change the shopping habits of Molly Morgan, 14, who goes to Wal-Mart only when her mom does to buy groceries and spends her monthly $150 clothing budget at Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister and Nordstrom.

The Columbus teen doubts she'll submit a video or enter the contests because "it, like, takes a lot of time, and it's not very likely you'll win."

Some of my all-time favorites. I love that you can find all of this stuff on You.Tube.com these days.



Paris Angels : 'Perfume (All On You)'




Adorable : 'Sunshine Smile'




Ride : 'Taste'




Ned's Atomic Dustbin : 'Kill Your Television'




The Wonder Stuff 'Unbearable'




The Wedding Present : 'Kennedy'



The Fall : 'Big New Prinz'




New Order : 'True Faith' (Top Of The Pops 1987)




Marion : 'Sleep' (I was in the audience for this one)

So it's raining tonight in New York City. And when I say raining, I mean like something from The Bible. Like they're bringing them out two by two raining. After many days of just insane heat (which goes nowhere in the concrete jungle except onto the guy's armpits next to me in the subway), it seems like the weather is finally breaking. The heat is incredible in the city. By the time I leave the house for work it's already in the mid nineties. I'm sure if anyone from the south is reading this, I'm sure it'll sound like I'm whining, but whatever, it's hot and I hate it. I would much rather be cold than hot. And it's not like the heat I experienced out in California hot, at least that was bearable. It's humid, sticky, why do I look like I've taken a shower with my clothes on disgusting hot. The air gets trapped between the buildings, and heats up the city like an oven.

The subways are the worst. The heat brings out the rats and bugs like never before. When I got to 23rd street to come home this evening, the station was already flooded from about 20 minutes of solid rain, and the rats and bugs were running out of there like it was a sinking ship. Perhaps in many respects it is. Whilst the cars themselves are nice and airconditioned (apart from the do-wop beggars and poor garbage covered eastern european homeless folks we had today), the actual stations seem so poorly maintained in comparison. They're dark, dirty, and obviously just left to decay. I remember when I lived on 57th street the subway had a big sign on it that said 'recently sprayed with rodenticide'. Rodenticide? What the hell is that? Is that like humanicide? Personicide? I mean, how big are the things these people are trying to kill? It read like they were spraying napalm. God know what you're breathing in when you're down there, but your nostrils go black for sure. I guess the legends about the New York rats are probably true - I feel like I see them on the tracks every day with the commute. They're fearless as well - one day I saw one strolling along the platform like he was just taking some leisurely air before lunch. I hate rats. That scene in 1984 where he has to wear the mask with the caged 2 rats fighting in it always freaks me out.

Anyway, so it's raining. The problem is, there's nowhere for the water to go. Drainage, the Romans thought of that, right? Why, in what is supposed to be one of the most advanced cities in the world, is there no drainage? Every time it rains, the crosswalks flood, so you cant cross the street without stepping ankle deep into god knows what mixed with rainwater. No matter how new or waterproof my shoes pretend to be, unless you're wearing diving boots, you get wet. Why is it this way? It's an island, right? Shouldn't drainage be easier for an island? I dont get it. And I hate getting caught in the rain in Manhattan. On the way back from work tonight, I stopped off at 23rd Street to go shopping, and I only needed to go one block from the station to the shop I needed. I must have really wanted to get something. By the time I arrived, even with an umbrella (which does no good other than keep your hair dry), I was drenched. My pants had gone that particularly gross 'shiny black' flavor of cotton and were sticking to my legs. How charming. Coupled with the humidity which makes your head perpetually leak, all in it's a wonder I ever really went shopping at all I guess.

Don't get me wrong, New York really is an amazing place to live, but man, you have to put up with a lot of crap. I expect it from some of the folks that live here, but from the elements themselves?! Come on Mike - at least sort the roads out so we don't have to swim across rat infested waters to cross the street!

Found at bbc.co.uk

A sensor implanted in a paralysed man's brain has enabled him to control objects through just the power thought.

The experimental set-up allowed the man, who has no limb movement at all, to open e-mail, play a computer game, and pinch a prosthetic hand's fingers.

The US team behind the sensor hopes its technology can one day be incorporated into the body to restore the movement of paralysed limbs themselves.

The group's study is published in the journal Nature.


It's just wild
Matthew Nagle

Matthew Nagle, 25 at the time of the trial, was left paralysed from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair after a knife attack in 2001. He was the first patient to try out the brain sensor.

A team of scientists inserted the device, called a neuromotor prosthesis (NMP), into an area of the brain known as the motor cortex, which is responsible for voluntary movement.

The NMP comprises an internal sensor that detects brain cell activity, and external processors that convert the activity into signals that can be recognised by a computer.

See how the system works

Although the patient's spinal cord had been severed for three years by the time of the trial, the scientists found that brain cell activity - or neural firing patterns - persisted in the patient's motor cortex.

The electrodes in the NMP were able to record this activity and send it to a computer. The computer then translated the firing patterns into movement commands which could drive computer controls or artificial limbs.

Regained independence

Using the device, Mr Nagle was able to move a computer cursor to open an e-mail, play simple computer games, open and close a prosthetic hand, and use a robot limb to grasp and move objects. He could do this simply by using his thoughts.

Mr Nagle said the sensor had restored some of his independence by allowing him to carry out a number of tasks - such as turning the lights on - that a nurse would normally do for him.

He told the BBC: "I can't put it into words. It's just wild."

Lead researcher Dr Leigh Hochberg, a neurologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, said: "One of the exciting results from the trial is that this part of the brain, the motor cortex, could still be activated voluntarily by this gentleman with spinal cord injury.

"The fact that this activity was still there, despite the injury that had occurred several years ago, is very encouraging for our potential ability to harness those signals to control an external device."

Co-author Professor John Donoghue is director of the brain science programme at Brown University and chief scientific officer of Cyberkinetics, the company that created and trialled the sensor.

He said: "The results hold promise to one day being able to activate limb muscles with these brain signals, effectively restoring brain-to-muscle control via a physical nervous system."

Neuromotor prosthesis (Cyberkinetics)
The sensor is inserted directly into the brain
The team also looked at a second, 55-year-old patient, but said technical issues meant the sensor could not record brain activity.

Professor Stephen Scott, from Queen's University, Ontario, Canada, said in a related article: "This research suggests that implanted prosthetics are a viable approach for assisting severely impaired individuals to communicate and interact with the environment."

But he warned that considerable problems needed to be overcome before this technology could be put into regular use.

He said problems such as the device's longevity, infection risks, and data transfer methods needed to be looked at.

Tested too early?

Professor Igor Aleksander, an expert in neural systems engineering at Imperial College London, UK, said: "I think this is enormously important stuff because there is real potential for helping people that have had severe neural disabilities."

But Professor Miguel Nicolelis, a neurobiologist from Duke University, was critical of the research.

He told the BBC's Science in Action programme that although some positive signs had been seen for one patient, the paper showed that the technology did not work in the second, older patient.

He said: "When you decide, like this company did, to go into clinical trials for an invasive technique the stakes are very high.

"They should have demonstrated something that lasts for a long period of time, that it is reliable and safe, and that it can restore much more elaborate functions. I don't think that this paper shows that.

"I think it was too early to use this kind of technology in this kind of clinical trial."

I don't really know hwo this one passed me by, maybe because of the Steve Martin thing, but I saw the movie 'Shopgirl' for the first time last night. What a fantastic movie. Apparently based on Martin's novel of the same name (note to self, must add to amazon.com wish list immediately), it's about a girl (played by Clare Danes), who works the glove counter at Saks in Beverly Hills. At night she survives Los Angeles and aspires to be an artist. Essentially it's a love triangle story, with a roadie hipster (played by the always sublime Jason Schwartzman - love him in 'Rushmore'), and rich, but lonely businessman (Martin), playing for her attention. I wont give it away who 'wins' in the end, but I still wonder if she really ended up with the right guy.

Schwartzman's character I could take or leave, I mean, he played the same old hipster dufus you see around every Williamsburg or East Village bar - a real 'type'. It was really nice to see him on the road with Sun Kil Moon (hey, you're not fooling me by calling yourself 'The Hot Tears' just for the movie). Martin's character is fascinating though, and for many reasons, one I can certainly identify and empathize with. Whilst he handles much of his relationship with Mirabelle in an ultimately destructive manner (especially the gift giving I think), there's somehow a warmth to him which expresses itself through his awkwardness and the fact that he even asks her out in the first place. I think the way the movie portrays Martin's loneliness is handled very effectively, and not in some kind of sentimental Hollywood way (which it could easily have been). I had always really thought of Martin as pretty much the goofball everyone know him for from Saturday Night Live and some of those pretty bad movies that followed, but I think this is the first time I've really thought 'Wow, he can really act'. I guess he writes nowadays, but I only found that out yesterday! I hate that and love it all at the same time - something you feel you should always have known, and that everyone else already does, but to you it's your own little revelation.

Anyway, highly recommended and certainly 'DVD-worthy' (wanting to buy it is the mark of all great movies). It'll make you cry because it hits so painfully close to home, and be happy to be alive and with the one you love all at the same time. God bless movies on demand.

JUNE 26, 2006 ( from www.emarketer.com)

MySpace is roaring up the charts, reaching number seven in US unique visitors last month.

By Debra Aho Williamson - Senior Analyst

Can 51 million people be a fad? The executives at News Corp. and MySpace certainly hope not.

Last month, MySpace racked up visits from 51.4 million unique visitors in the US, according to comScore Media Metrix. That represents 30% of the entire US Internet population and doesn't include traffic from international markets, where MySpace is making an ever bigger push. MySpace was the seventh most visited site on the Internet last month.

Traffic to MySpace dwarfs that of the next most visited social networking site, Classmates.com, according to comScore Media Metrix.



(The sites comScore includes in its list of social networking sites are open to debate: YouTube and Flickr seem more like applications than networking sites, while LiveJournal and Xanga are blogging sites.)

As MySpace seeks to add a search engine partner, the stakes only get larger. MSN, Google and Yahoo are all expected to compete for the right to provide search technology to those users. Right now MySpace's search engine is woefully inadequate. With billions of pages and thousands of new users added every day, the need for a better solution is strong.

"The popularity of social networking is not expected to wane in the near future," said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. "This is a phenomenon we're seeing not only in the US, but also around the world."

One thing that marketers and media are watching closely is the level of loyalty that users feel toward social networking sites. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, MySpace has the highest user retention: 67% of visitors in April 2006 had been at the site the previous year. Other sites such as Facebook and Xanga showed less loyalty.



Can other social network sites compete with MySpace at this point? While the site will continue to add members at a rapid pace, eMarketer expects that there will soon be a proliferation of so-called "vertical" social network sites focusing on smaller audience slices such as mothers, sports fans and Hispanic people.

These sites will obviously have much less reach than MySpace but could offer a more finely targeted advertising opportunity for marketers.

Want to learn more about advertising on social network sites? Sign up to be notified when eMarketer's report Marketing on Social Networks is published in July.

Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)

On Thursday, AOLs Netscape property will no longer be just another portal - its being converted into a Digg-killer. I was briefed on the new site by Jason Calacanis last week. As of tonight, he owns the Netscape property at AOL. The new site will run at beta.netscape.com for now, converting over to the main Netscape.com property soon.

Its not exactly a Digg clone (home page screenshot here). Submitted stories are voted on in much the same way, and the more votes a story gets the higher it appears in a category home page or on Netscape.com itself. However, the top few spots in each category and on the home page are determined by an anchor - essentially an editor choosing from stories moving up the ranks.

There are 30 topical channels, from Art & Design to Women. Eight full time and eleven part time editors will manage the site, determining both the top stories as well as staffing a 24×7 chat room where users can discuss stories in real time.

The fact that AOL is launching the new service under the Netscape brand instead of building out a new property says how serious they are about the space. According to statistics provided by AOL, Netscape serves a whopping 811 million monthly page views - far more than Digg today.

Putting this kind of audience in front of a Digg like service could spell trouble for many sites that ultimately make it to the top of the site. A Digg or Slashdot story can send tens of thousands of visitors to a site in a matter of minutes or hours. With Netscape, this effect could be many times larger - possibly resulting in outages at sites headlining the new service.

There are a number of other notable features of the new Netscape. Story submissions can be tagged by the submitter along for easier search in the future. Every category, user and group of friends has their own RSS feed. Also, category anchors will follow up on many stories and post their own editorial content on those stories