Japanese Rap Duo

I've never been into gangsta rap, I think I was born a little too early to "appreciate" this style of music, but here is a trending YouTube video from Japan that made me sit back and realize just how small this world is becoming. I laughed a bit at the bubble wrap, the bling, the Marge Simpson hair, and Playboy bunny logos. What really bowled me over was the fact that no good gangsta rap video has ever been made with out at least the flash of a piece, er... gun, or whatever the kids are calling them these days, and this video takes the prize in that department. As a geek I did appreciate the iPhone and pimped out Segways :)

Google Hotpot Unleashed World Wide

Google is bringing Hotpot, it's new recommendation service, to the world after a limited release back in November. Hotpot basically allows you to rate restaurants, cafes, hotels and the like so that when you or your friends are searching for such venues Google can provide "trusted" results. The Google special sauce is based on your likes, your friends likes or properties that are similar to those that you or your trusty friends like. Access to the service is made available via the web (google.com/hotpot), google maps (maps.google.com), or your android phone.

Keep an eye out for those Unicorns!

Egypt's Last ISP Goes Silent

Wired's Threat Level blog is reporting the last-standing Egyptian ISP has been shut down prior to today's million man march. "the Noor Group, believed to be the last Egyptian ISP in operation, had provided access to the aviation, banking and financial sectors — including the Egyptian stock market."

“They are completely unavailable at present,” security research firm Renesys wrote of the ISP.

The question now becomes is the efforts of the Mubarak regime to silence communication due to it's desire to stop an organized opposition or is it aimed at stopping news from getting out of the country? Let's hope that this does not breakout into wide spread bloodshed. I hope that neither side sees violence as the solution to this situation.

The question, in this geek's mind, is whether or not we have a basic human right to these services that we've come to enjoy and rely on? Is what Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak doing by cutting off access to these services any different from what the White House might do in a similar situation given the fact that there has been talk of an Internet "Kill Switch" legislation for several years now, and which is apparently being reintroduced soon.

Google And Twitter Team Up For Egypt

According to The Official Google Blog Google, Twitter, and SayNow (a Google acquired company) have worked together to get a new voice to Twitter service up and running for the folks in Egypt. With the Mubarak regime taking down internet access and cellular service in an attempt to quell protester organization through social sites, the companies felt compelled to do something to help the people of Egypt.

We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we acquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there.

Kudos to these tech giants for putting their collective heads together for such an important global cause, in such a timely fashion!

Kudos to these tech giants for putting their heads together and doing something quickly to aid in tis cause!

Is Flickr On The Bubble At Yahoo?

I have a Flickr Pro account for which I pay $25 annually and it gives me great piece of mind. Not that I believe that I am the next Annie Leibobvitz (gender aside) it's simply that I have had a photo disaster. I now find that having more than a backup on a usb drive allows me to sleep at night knowing that I am fully protected on and off site. Most of my photos are set to private and that's the way I want it. For many very good photographers Flickr is the only choice on line, but for most internet users Facebook is rapidly becoming the spot where you upload and share your photos.

This increase in photo sharing via Facebook, combined with Yahoo's recent layoffs and shedding of other web services and properties has caused for much discussion regarding the fate of Flickr. The nytimes.com has quoted Jordan Rohan, an analyst with Stifel, Nicolaus & Company as saying “The Internet is starting to rotate around the axis of Facebook — not everything, but everything social,” Mr. Rohan said. “Yahoo and Flickr don’t really have the gravitational pull that would make Flickr the axis that they once imagined.” 

Doesn't sound promising for Flickr yet I believe that they will remain relevant and apparently so does Yahoo: “Is Yahoo committed to Flickr?” Blake Irving, Yahoo’s product chief, wrote in a message on Twitter. “Hell yes we are!”