20 Years Since Web Invisioned By Berners-Lee

20 years ago today Tim Berners-Lee published his "Information Management: A proposal" and the rest is history. Here is an interesting snip from his modest conclusions:

"We should work toward a universal linked information system, in which generality and portability are more important than fancy graphics techniques and complex extra facilities."

"The aim would be to allow a place to be found for any information or reference which one felt was important, and a way of finding it afterwards. The result should be sufficiently attractive to use that it the information contained would grow past a critical threshold, so that the usefulness the scheme would in turn encourage its increased use."

I think he's more than achieved his goal!

Apple Unveils New iPod Shuffle - Smaller And Talkative

Apple has taken the wraps off of a new iPod Shuffle that half the size of it's predecessor, has 4 GB of storage for up to 1000 songs, and introduces a new feature called VoiceOver. VoiceOver tells you what song is playing and who’s performing it at the press of a button and can tell you the names of your playlists, giving you a new way to navigate your music especially handy during workouts. Perhaps the only drawback, though Apple will argue it is a feature, is that the controls are located on the earbud cord. While this may be a convient spot it necessitates the purchase of new ear buds from Apple, at least at the moment.

Wal-Mart Throughs Hat Into The Digital Health Record Ring

Wal-Mart has made its intentions known regarding digital health records announcing that it will be partnering its Sam’s Club division with Dell for hardware and eClinicalWorks, for software, to offer physicians in small offices an affordable solution. “We’re a high-volume, low-cost company,” said Marcus Osborne, senior director for health care business development at Wal-Mart. “And I would argue that mentality is sorely lacking in the health care industry.” According to the New York Times "Dell will be responsible for installation of the computers, while eClinicalWorks will handle software installation, training and maintenance. Wal-Mart is using its buying power for discounts on both the hardware and software."

Baseball Cards Come To Life With Augmented Reality

Baseball collector card maker Topps is unveiling a new card using "augmented reality". According to the New York Times "Beginning Monday, collectors who hold a special Topps 3D Live baseball card in front of a webcam will see a three-dimensional avatar of the player on the computer screen. Rotate the card, and the figure rotates in full perspective." The baseball card industry has been struggling in the internet age, going from a billion dollar industry to about 200 million is revenues today. These new cards promise to reconnect people with cards by offering an engaging new experience, at least for now. You really should follow the link above and check out the video...

Kepler Telescope Launched - In Search Of Earth-like Planets

NASA launched the Kepler telescope aboard a Delta II rocket on Friday night from Cape Canaveral. The telescope, named after 17th-century German astrophysicist Johannes Kepler, is on a mission to seek potentially habitable planets by staring at approximately 100,000 stars some 600 to 3,000 light years away in the so-called habitable zone. "If one of them has a planet like the Earth going around it and if that planet happens to pass in front of that star, the star will get just a little dimmer, then a little brighter for a while as the planet eclipses it," according to CBC's science correspondent Bob McDonald. Over the past 10 years 300 or so planets have been identified to be orbiting stars outside our solar system, but they are largely gaseous planets like Jupiter. Kepler's mission is to look for smaller Earth-like planets.

Watchmen Photographer Talks about Life On Set

The official still photographer for the Watchmen movie, Clay Enos, talks about his 106 days on set in this Wired video...

Graduate School of Digital Media Being Contemplated For Toronto

Three Ontario universities - Ryerson, Waterloo and the University of Toronto - are contemplating the creation of a graduate school of digital media to be located in downtown Toronto and which could be up and running within two years.

Ryerson President Sheldon Levy said that the idea is to create a centre where industry can bring their most challenging problems in this field and where graduate students can gain real experience, according to the Globe and Mail. The 3 universities are said to already be collaborating in the area of digital media and the 2 years is really required to locate a physical home for the program.

5 Tips For Surviving Halo Wars

The Game Life guys at Wired have put together some strategy tips that might help you to survive the Halo Wars... Check 'em out!

Finalists Named In "Best Job In The World" Contest

Queensland Tourism Minister Desley Boyle received nearly 35,000 applications for what was described as the "best job in the world". Using a viral marketing campaign to get the word out and a contest that offered compensation of $150,000 and the use of an oceanfront home for six months, Queensland has narrowed the field to 50 applicants for the job that involves living in exclusive Hamilton Island for six months and blogging about your experiences their.

“The campaign has largely relied on public relations and social networking activity,” Boyle said after announcing the finalists. “It's captured the imagination of the world and to date it's generated more than $70-million in publicity value.

“Apart from brilliant television, radio and newspaper coverage, the campaign has been the catalyst for special online discussion groups, bulletin boards, blogs and websites, with applicants critiquing their competition, having detailed discussions and swapping ideas and tips,”

Applicants relied on Youtube to post their application videos and Facebook and Twitter to rally support making the experience a truly social campaign.

According to the Globe and Mail "Eleven finalists will be flown to Hamilton Island for interviews before a winner is selected this summer. Queensland tourism officials will select 10 finalists and public voting will determine the final candidate. Voting ends March 24. After the first days of voting, a finalist from Russia is in the lead, followed by Canadian Mitch Moffit, a contestant from Guelph, Ont."

Study Says 60% Of Worlds Population Has Cell Phones

The International Telecommunication Union estimates that by the end of last year there were 4.1 billion cell phone subscriptions globally, representing 6 out of every 10 people on the planet. According to the Globe and Mail "The Geneva-based agency recorded the sharpest rise in mobile broadband subscriptions. The technology, which allows users to access the web at high speed with mobile devices, was available to 3 per cent of people worldwide, increasing to 14 per cent in developed countries." What affect will the global economic downturn have? “In terms of consumer demand and uptake, there will probably be a little bit of slowdown in the growth, but we are not expecting any decline,” she said. “People who have a mobile phone are unlikely to give up on it.” said Susan Teltscher, the ITU's statistics lead.