The Heart Of The Dragon

Gmail Motion! Stay In Shape While Sending Email

It's time for Google to unveil another great new program, and what an awesome one it is! Check it out, now you can control gmail with your body:

Beyond the incredible technological advancements there are only a few easy moves required to learn and you'll have the side benefit of getting in shape while you send and read your mail. 

By the way Google, I'm still not happy about be overlooked for the Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (G.C.H.E.E.S.E.)  program in 2007!

Messenger Sends Back First Image of Mercury

NASA scientists have received their first images of the planet Mercury captured from the orbiting Messenger probe. Messenger is equipped with two cameras and other sensing equipment which is hoped to shed light on the planets make up and history. The first photo, number 1 of 7500 expected to be sent back to Earth over the coming year, makes Mercury appear as though it is our own moon; baron and pocked by many collisions.

The mission website provides a great deal of information regarding the mission, the scientific portion of which will begin on April 4th.

The Challenges Of Being Social In A Time Of Unrest

What is a website to do when it's become a platform for public outcry and organized opposition? When you are a social site that is being used by both government supporters and reform activists alike you have some tough decisions to make.

Flickr, it seems, has found itself at the center of an ethical quandary. The photo sharing giant owned by Yahoo has taken down photographs uploaded by an Egyptian blogger and human rights activist because the photos violated their terms of service. It seems that  Hossam el-Hamalawy posted the head shots of Egyptian State Police officers to Flickr in the hopes of making his countrymen aware of their identities and keeping them out of the new post revolution government. The problem is that el-Hamalawy did not take the photos himself but rather gained them through a raid on a State Police headquarters by revolutionaries.  Flickr removed the photos saying that el-Hamalawy did not take them himself and was therefore not the rightful owner, this is a violation of their terms.

While I sympathize with the plight of the Egyptian people and understand fully what Mr el-Hamalawy was attempting to do in identifying figures known to be associated with a corrupt regime, I don't think it is Flickr's place to act as middle man in a political debate. They did the only thing that they could do, stick to their terms of service. Perhaps Wikileaks would have been a more appropriate platform for Mr. el-Hamalawy's cause.

Thoughts?

Source: NYTimes.com

Listen To Biz Stone Explain How Twitter Was Named

Having an entrepreneurial side, I always love hearing how others founded their projects or the thinking behind their brands. While checking out a new service that I've discovered called Audioboo I came across this recording of Biz Stone talking about the naming of Twitter. Enjoy! 

More on audioboo later...