Don't know what to get the kids in your life for Christmas this year? Well it turns out that little people get the biggest thrill out of getting geeky gifts - particularly gifts you do stuff with. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/17_Christmas_Gift_Ideas_for_Geeky_Kids';digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff';digg_skin = 'normal';So, if you're stuck on what to get your niece, nephew, friend, or even your own little person, take a look at our gift suggestions below.

We have organized them from the least to the most expensive, and give you 17 gift ideas for tweens and teens.

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1. Fizzy Bath Bomb Factory

This kit lets kids investigate the science of fizz by creating their own bath bombs, haunted balloons, and volcanoes using simple ingredients like glycerine, cornstarch, and food coloring.

Recommended Age: 10+
Price Tag: $14.95

2. The Brew Your Own Root Beer Kit

This easy to use kit lets kids brew up 4 gallons of old fashion root beer naturally carbonated with real yeast.

Recommended Age: 8+
Price Tag: $17.95

3. DIY Sour Candy Factory Kit

From sour lollipops to sour gummies, to straight up sour liquids and powders, kids will love every minute of creating their own candy. The activity guide has recipes as well as candy, science, and candy-science facts.

Recommended age: 8+
Price Tag: $19.99

4. Code Breaker Card Game

For the future cryptographer, this code making/breaking card game asks kids to decipher code words used by opponents on the back of cards. Eighteen sets of matching cards are spread face down and flipped over two at a time. One is revealed to all players, the other is kept private, marked for future reference by the player. Opponents need to break codes and swipe matched pairs.

Recommended Age: 7+
Price Tag: $19.95

5. RockStar

RockStar is a hub for connecting up to five sets of headphones to the same MP3 player, making it possible for kids share a music player without having to share earphones.

Price Tag: $20

6. Fly Stick Van de Graaff Levitation Wand

This battery powered wand features a mini Van de Graaff generator that lets kids create the illusion of levitation. By pushing a button on the handle, the static charge built up in the wand causes the 3D mylar shapes to move around.

Note: You have to check out the video below to fully appreciate this toy [Dur: 1 minute 28 seconds]

Price Tag: $26.99

7. Darth Vader Mugshot T-shirt

Sizes: S - 2XL
Price Tag: $29.95

8. See Me Work Auto Stapler

A fully automatic stapler with transparent casing that reveals the secrets behind stapler technology.

Price Tag: $32.00

9. R/C Animated Solar System Mobile

Kids that dream of turning to astronomy when they get older can start now by exploring the wonders of the solar system in their own room. This animated solar system mobile shows the planets in orbit around the sun. A CD and light pointer is included to help guide them around the solar system.

Recommended Age: 7+
Price Tag: $39.99

10. WowWee's FlyTech Bladestar

The Bladestar is an indoor flying machine that includes a navigation sensor to help keep it from slamming into walls and ceilings. Multiple Bladestars can engage in living-room aerial battles.

Price tag: $40
Recommended Age: 8+

11. Guitar Hero and Rock Band Guitars by Aly and AJ

For kids who love Guitar Hero or Rock Band, these guitars are the ultimate fashion accessory. Designed by the teen pop stars Aly and AJ, these guitars work on the Wii and the PS2.

Price: $49.99

12. Bicycle iPod Speaker

For future rock stars, instead of cycling with earphones, keep kids safe with this water-resistant iPod speaker that clamps directly to their bike frame. A handlebar mounted remote control keeps things safe too.

Price: $50
13. The Roll Up Drum Kit

For budding musicians, this roll up drum kit has six sensor pads that plug into the USB port of PCs running Windows XP or Vista. Software is included letting kids choose from six different drum kits, 48 rhythm patterns, eight special drum effects, and eight bass drum loops. Each pad may be programmed with different effects. Kids can record and play their own riffs.

Price Tag: $59.95

14. Customizable Remote Controlled Robot

This customizable, remote-controlled robot kit has 105 interchangeable parts that enable kids to build limitless motorized robots with flashing lights, mechanical claws, and a rolling base. A color-coded, step-by-step manual is included for building four robots, or kids can just make up their own.

Recommended Age: 5+
Price Tag: $59.95

15. Perfume Science Experiment Kit

The Perfume Science Experiment Kit teaches kids how the nose works with their brain to recognize smells. Perfume oils, decorative flacons and other important tools of the trade are included with a full-color manual to help kids design and discover how perfumes are composed.

Recommended Age: 10+
Price Tag: $59.95

16. Electronics Workshop for Beginners

A unique introduction to electronics for kids who follow the story of Robert M-3, a young robot in the year 2069, who is beginning his education in electronics with an apprenticeship to Sirius Armstrong, the chief electrical engineer on an enormous space station orbiting Earth. As kids read about Robert's lessons in electronics, they will conduct experiments alongside him using the Electronics Workshop console.

Recommended Age: 10+
Price Tag: $110

17. Flip Ultra Camcorder

For the filmmaker of the future, the Flip Ultra is considered the world's easiest camcorder to use.

Price Tag: $149.99

We hope this list gives you some inspiration in this busy time.

If you know of any other great gift ideas for kids, please share them with us.

Many thanks to the wonderful folks that inspired this post:

Geeks are sexy
Geek Sugar
Scientific American
Swiss Miss
Think Geek

Forget the implosion of the housing market. Never mind whether the Big Three automakers have been dragging their heels on fuel efficiency and innovation. Set aside financial deregulation and a culture of greed. I now know the real reason for the economic collapse:

It's those damn puppies.

Reports were flooding in this week over Twitter, about workplace after workplace where people couldn't get a thing done because they were entranced by the antics of those little furballs. Productivity must have gone through the floor since that Ustream channel went live.

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It's about time someone took action. I hereby call on every RWW reader to rise up and demand an end to thi-...

Oh, look – they're sleeping! It's so cute!

More Noise to Signal

A rapidly spreading network worm, known as Agent BTZ, has prompted the U.S. army to put the use of USB drives and all removable data storage devices on hold temporarily, according to Wired's Noah Shachtman.

Given the worm is based on SillyFDC, which has been around for several years and has a low risk factor, the question has to be asked: is this over-kill by the Defense Department?

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According to the report, Agent BTZ spreads by copying itself to USB drives and the like, so that when the drive is inserted into another computer, the worm replicates in a never ending cycle - every time a new drive is detected.

USB drives, as well as all removable storage devices, can run a program automatically on your machine based on the computer's configuration.

While Autorun is featured in Windows OS as a convenience, you do have the option of disabling it, particularly as an unfortunate side effect can be the loading and executing of programs on your PC without your knowledge.

Autorun and AutoPlay

There seems to be a little confusion about the differences between AutoPlay and Autorun so we've defined them here:

AutoPlay

AutoPlay is a Windows feature that lets you choose which program to use to start different kinds of media. You can change AutoPlay settings for each media type.

Autorun

Autorun is a technology used to start any program automatically when you insert various media into your computer. While different from AutoPlay, the result is typically the same: when inserted, a specific program on the external device runs automatically.

While you cannot modify the Autorun.inf file on the external device you plug into your machine, you can stop it from executing on your computer by modifying your registry.

To modify the registry setting, Microsoft has set up a page to help you determine which updates you will need, and then offers step by step instructions on how to disable Autorun. You can find it here.

Even though disabling of Autorun seems a relatively painless process, clearly it isn't enough to soothe the Defense Department or security experts.

Shachtman, in his Wired article asked Ryan Olson, director of rapid response for iDefense whether banning external devices was "a bit of over-kill," and received the answer "I don't know." Although, Olson did offer: "The USB ban should be effective in stopping the worm."

Perhaps the Defense Department should have taken its lead from what has been drummed into home computer users over the years; that is, use anti-virus software and keep your definitions up to date.

What do you think?

In just under eight hours, YouTube will begin celebrating its first live streamed event in San Francisco with a concert and party intended to celebrate its user community

Celebrities, Web celebs and major artists, including the mad scientists from the Mythbusters crew, will.i.am, Lisa Nova, Michael Buckley, and Joe Satriani will be joining the celebrations, and YouTube will be offering three live streams direct from its Live channel.

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While YouTube hasn't made any formal announcements about an ongoing live streaming service, we expect today may bring an end to the rumors in the form of an announcement confirming a statement Steve Chen made to Sarah Meyer earlier this year. When asked: "When are you guys gonna do live video on YouTube?" Chen replied:

Perhaps today is the day.

While there has been much speculation surrounding today's event, Google's ability to stream live today indicates that they've stepped up their efforts in regard to the service. YouTube, now the second largest search engine, has been ramping up this year and its recent efforts to monetize the service, with both Adsense and YouTube embeds clearly point to the importance they now place on the service.

You'll be able to watch online or on your mobile device, but if you want to take part in the action, you'll need to head down to Fr Mason, Herbst Pavillion, San Francisco. Doors open at 4 p.m. and close at 4.45 p.m. so be early if you don't want to miss out. The show begins at 5 p.m. PST.

Update: Thanks to Andrew for pointing out in the comments that tickets are no longer available.

It's time for our weekly summary of Web Technology news, products and trends. On the trends side, we pondered the future of YouTube, analyzed mobile messaging trends, looked into a new search innovation from Google, and more. On the product side, we checked in - one year later - with 10 Semantic Apps we are tracking, celebrated the 1 billionth Mozilla addon, reported on a new Open-Source Media Center, and more. We also have highlights from the Enterprise Channel and Jobwire, our brand new product that tracks hires in tech and new media.

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The Weekly Wrapup is sponsored by SemanticProxy.com:

Web Trends

Is YouTube the Next Google?

Kids no longer learn about the world by reading text. Like the television generation, they are absorbing the world through their visual sense. But there is a big difference. Television was programmed and inflexible. YouTube is completely micro-chunked and on demand. Kids can search for what they need anytime. This is different, and powerful.

True, the current model of YouTube is still raw and still skewed to entertainment. But imagine online video 5 years from now, geared to kids, where entertainment, games, education, travel -- everything for kids -- is mixed and delivered via searchable channels. This would be a big change on the Internet and in the world. Just as we no longer think twice about Googling, kids of the future will be consuming huge volumes of information via video.

Mobile Messaging Reaches Record-Breaking Numbers

Mobile messaging is experiencing a period of record growth, according to some figures released from VeriSign earlier this week. Looking at the numbers more closely, some interesting trends emerge. Those include the use of messaging for social and political change, marketing, such as that done by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's mobile campaign, and the use of mobile messaging for charitable donations. Other sectors experiencing significant increases are the enterprise and financial institutions. In those two areas alone, mobile messaging has seen a 115% increase in only a year's time, and much of that is thanks to the financial industry's adoption of the medium for business to consumer communication.

Google Turning Search Into World's Biggest Wiki

Google put on a full court media push this week for a major change the company is making to its search experience - a new feature called Google Search Wiki will launch soon. The feature will allow logged-in users to change the order of search results and mark up search results pages with notes. Only their own results will be changed - unless they click a link to view all Search Wiki notes on a search's page.

Read the post for an explanation of what the feature will do and a reaction to the announcement from Ward Cunningham, the man who invented the wiki.

College Stops Giving Students New Email Accounts: Start Of New Trend?

Officials at Boston College have made what may be a momentous decision: they've stopped doling out new email accounts to incoming students. The officials realized that the students already had established digital identities by the time they entered college, so the new email addresses were just not being utilized. The college will offer forwarding services instead.

The A-Team

We like to report good news, not just because it makes us all feel good, but because when a company is doing something positive during a downturn, it indicates something pretty interesting about that company. That is why Jobwire reports on new hires when all the other news is about layoffs. In that same spirit, The A-Team will be a monthly wrap-up of all the Series A VC financing rounds in web technology. To close a Series A VC round these days, you have to be pretty special.

Read the full A-Team post for the Qualifying Rules.

SEE MORE WEB TRENDS COVERAGE IN OUR TRENDS CATEGORY

A Word from Our Sponsors

We'd like to thank ReadWriteWeb's sponsors, without whom we couldn't bring you all these stories every week!

• VisualCV lets you stand out from the crowd when job-hunting.
• Mindmeister is an online mind mapping tool.
• WildApricot is Membership Management Software.
• Crowd Science gives you detailed visitor demographics.
• Glue enables you to connect with friends while browsing.
• Strands provides real-time recommendations of products.
• Direct Media Exchange is a solution for managing ad networks.
• Rackspace provides dedicated server hosting.
• is a visual-based search engine.
• Eurekster is a custom social search portal.
• MediaTemple provides hosting for RWW.
• SixApart provides our publishing software MT4.

RWW Jobwire

IRS Hires its First CTO

While the tech world eagerly waits to see who Barack Obama will appoint Chief Technology Officer of the United States, a similar appointment of more immediate impact to many people has just occurred. Terence Milholland began work this week as the first Chief Technology Officer in the history of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). He enters an IRS that the General Accounting Office said last week suffers from technology so outdated it leaves the agency with inadequate integrity, reliability and security for sensitive taxpayer information.

SUBSCRIBE TO READWRITEWEB'S JOBWIRE FOR THE LATEST NEWS ON JOB HIRES IN TECH

Web Products

10 Semantic Apps to Watch - One Year Later

In November 2007, we listed and reviewed 10 promising Semantic Web apps. A lot can happen in one year on the Internet, so we thought we'd check back in with each of the 10 products and see how they're progressing. What's changed over the past year and what are these companies working on now? The products are, in no particular order: Freebase, Powerset, Twine, AdaptiveBlue, Hakia, Talis, TrueKnowledge, TripIt, Calais (was ClearForest), Spock.

Later in the week we published a list of 10 more Semantic apps to watch.

Mozilla: One Billion Addons Served - Here Are Some of Our Favorites

Mozilla announced this week that it has served its 1 billionth addon download since they started keeping track of these downloads in 2005. Currently, Mozilla's users are downloading close to 1.5 million addons every day. Mozilla has cultivated one of the most active and interesting developer communities around its products and seeing numbers like these will surely give a lot of other developers an incentive to try their hands at developing new plugins for Firefox as well. In the post we list some of our favorite addons, as well as favorites of our community.

Amazon CloudFront: Outlook for CDN Is Cloudy (and That's Good)

Two months ago, Amazon - which has taken to sharing some of its massive computing power with mere mortals as a means of developing additional revenue streams - announced that they were developing a content-delivery network (CDN) to complement their existing Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) offering. This week, they unveiled the beta version of that service, named Amazon CloudFront. Boasting a now-familiar, pay-as-you-go pricing model, Amazon CloudFront promises to make CDN an affordable addition for any site looking to gain more efficient content delivery.

Boxee Raises $4 Million for Open-Source Media Center

These are clearly not the easiest times to secure financing for a startup, but Boxee, which makes an open-source media center application that works on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and the Apple TV, just announced a $4 million investment from Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. Bijan Sabet from Spark and Fred Wilson from Union Square will join the Boxee board. Boxee, which is still in private beta testing, is a media center solution that allows you to play back content from third-party providers like Hulu, CBS, Comedy Central, or Last.fm through a very slick interface.

SEE MORE WEB PRODUCTS COVERAGE IN OUR PRODUCTS CATEGORY

RWW Enterprise Channel

Report: Millennials Will Route Around IT Departments

According to a new report by Accenture, a large number of Millennials (those born between 1977 and 1997), expect their companies to accommodate their IT preferences, including their preferred computers and applications. More than a third of Millennials also indicated that they were dissatisfied with the technologies their employers currently provide.

Email us if you're interested in writing for ReadWriteWeb's Enterprise Channel.

SEE MORE ENTERPRISE COVERAGE IN OUR ENTERPRISE CHANNEL

That's a wrap for another week! Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Every now and again some of us at ReadWriteWeb pop up in video or podcast recordings. Our VP Content Dev Marshall Kirkpatrick moreso than me, as he is based in the US. And Marshall is appearing on an interesting live video show tonight, called Strange Love Live. It will be broadcast live on Ustream at 10pm PST tonight (Friday). Hosted by Cami Kaos and Dr. Normal, Strange Love Live focuses on the latest happenings in online tech - calling on techies around the Portland, Oregon area to provide insight into their areas of expertise. Interesting without being dull, recent topics have ranged from OpenID to WordPress to iPhone apps. We're looking forward to seeing Marshall live tonight! Tune in at 10pm PST.

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Update: We've got the Ustream show embedded below, while it streams live:

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

Recent RWW Appearances on The Interwebs

Yours truly (RWW editor Richard MacManus) was interviewed at Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco by Alison McNeill of bub.blicio.us:

Marshall Kirkpatrick was recently on the popular TWiT.tv show net@night with Amber and Leo. The hosts Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte had a lot of fun trying to pronounce our name - hence the episode title of WeadWiteWeb!

Also check out Marshall's podcast with The Recruiters Lounge, talking about our new product Jobwire, and Jason Cormier's interview with Marshall on Capture The Conversation.

Canadian startup Sayvee will "soon" launch a new service that allows artists to quickly and easily create their own websites to sell their art, build community, support positive political causes and more. That doesn't sound like a show stopper (unless you're an artist in need of a website) but the videos the company made to promote their service are awesome!

We wish everyone put this much care into promo videos - then our jobs watching promo videos would be even more fun. And the serious business of promoting important web startups would overcome one of its most challenging obstacles - getting people to listen to and understand your explanation of some crazy new idea. So check out the Sayvee video we like best below, stop by their site for more and sign up there for notification when the new service is available.

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These guys are going to have a hard time challenging incumbents like Dawanda and ShopWindoz, much less the awesome powers of Etsy. Maybe their whole site will be as cool as their videos though!

Most people quickly answer this question in the affirmative. I certainly do. However, there are people out there who aren't sure. They look at the monthly cost of a SaaS application and compare it to the equivalent licensed product over an extended period of time. Given enough time, you will eventually hit a point when the SaaS product appears to be more expensive. Let's look at it from the perspective of the total cost of ownership (TCO).

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The true cost of a licensed product is much higher than just the software. Here are other things to factor in:

• Hardware costs: You have to either buy machines or add your software to existing servers and manage them. If it is a mission-critical application, you will probably need dedicated machines and back-ups.
• Additional software costs: You will most likely need an OS, application server software, a database, monitoring software, etc. Many of these products are open source now, but there are still associated costs.
• Implementation costs: In my experience, the implementation costs associated with a behind-the-firewall solution are always higher than those of a SaaS application. There is simply more to do. You will either pay consultants or use your own valuable resources and time to worry about installing software, integrating it, building servers, configuration, etc.
• Maintenance labor: If you have in-house software, there is going to be some level of effort required to keep it happy. Your IT people will need to take care of it, which will keep them from doing more value-added activities.

Another huge factor here is the ability to get the latest and greatest technology. Once you install software in a data center, it becomes more difficult to upgrade and maintain it (especially if you customize it). In such a case, you will be stuck with old software that you will have to replace in the same time frame described above. In other words, unless you are absolutely sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that your licensed software is going to meet your business needs for 5 years or more, then SaaS might make financial sense.

Let's look at a real-world example. A 100-person company has been sharing files via email and internal servers. The executives have finally concluded they need to join the 21st century and put a solution in place. One option is to implement SharePoint. Here is a rough estimate of what that might cost:

Year 1
MOSS server = $4,500
User client access license = $90
Hosting and maintenance = $5,000
Implementation and developer support = $20,000
Total = $29,590

Year 2 and on
Hosting and maintenance = $5,000
Developer support = $3,000
Total = $8,000

I know of a SaaS solution that has 80% of the file-collaboration functionality of SharePoint but charges $850 per month for 100 users.

Year 1
SaaS fees = $10,200
Implementation support = $10,000
Total = $20,200

Year 2 and on
SaaS fees = $10,200
Total = $10,200

It would take over 4 and a half years before the licensed software became cheaper. By that time, I'm quite sure there would be another solution that could replace SharePoint, and the cycle would start again. We can quibble about the numbers, but you get the point. Plus, the numbers don't reflect that the SaaS solution is likely to improve and innovate faster than the licensed software by a significant amount.

What do you think? Have you done this analysis, and what did you conclude?

Don't trust what you read on the internet? That's no longer the dominant sentiment in the US, according to a new poll by Zogby International. A survey of more than 3000 people performed in the two days after the US Presidential Election found that 37.6% of respondents considered the Internet the most reliable source of news, 20.3% consider national TV news most reliable and 16% said that radio is the most reliable source.

The survey found that most people find all the news biased in some way and there were a number of other interesting findings. It's quite striking, though, that we're at a point in history where the internet is trusted more than TV and the Radio!

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More Numbers

Other results of interest include:

• 72.6% believe the news they read and see is biased


• 88.7% Republican and 57.5% Democrat respondents describe the news media as biased.


• Lest we conclude that the Republican/Democrat split represents sour grapes more than anything else - 39.3% of those surveyed trust FOX News most for the issues they consider most important, followed by CNN with 16% and MSNBC with 15%.

The survey was commissioned by the Independent Film Channel for the IFC Media Project. The full details will be posted on the IFC site later tonight.

Zogby is a reputable polling firm but they have come up with some very interesting results before in other surveys. Last fall we wrote about a Zogby poll in which 24% of respondents said the Internet could serve as a replacement for a significant other and 11% of respondents said they were very or somewhat likely to "implant a device into your brain that enabled you to use your mind to access the internet if it could be done safely." That's a really bad idea.

A Turning Point in History

This fall we wrote about how Google is changing political debate like nothing else ever has before. It may or may not be particular Internet news sources that are trusted by the respondents to this latest poll - it may just be the world of searchable information that makes for a richer and more informed understanding of the news. That's pretty hard to argue with.

Either way, this is an historic turning point. The Internet, the medium most famous for being untrustworthy, at this time when it's more characterized than ever by the ability for anyone to publish, is now more trusted that professional TV and Radio news!

Given both the obvious and documented affinity that young people today have for learning with the Internet - it doesn't seem like TV, radio and newspapers stand much of a chance in the future. Do they?

Just about half a year ago, Google announced a limited beta of Friend Connect, which allows site owners to display OpenSocial based gadgets on their sites and site visitors to sign in to these social gadgets with their OpenID, AIM, Yahoo, or Google accounts.

Amit Agarwal has been keeping a close eye on Friend Connect since it was announced and he assumes that the service could go live pretty soon. Just last week, Google published a new YouTube video geared towards users and now the support site for Friend Connect is available as well.

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Some of the gadgets Google currently supplies are a comment wall and a ratings gadget. Friend Connect will also work with third-party applications built by the OpenSocial developer community. To enable these gadgets, all a site owner has to do is to copy and paste some code snippets into their site's HTML.

Google Profiles Meets MyBlogLog

Lately, Google has started to put a lot more emphasis on its own user profiles, and Friend Connect makes good use of them. Once you join a Friend Connect enabled site, other users will be able to see information from your profile, though you can set your privacy settings to disallow others from seeing your profile pages as well. In many ways, this is quite similar to MyBlogLog.

It's Social, But is it Open?

When Friend Connect was first announced, we were concerned about the direction Google was taking with this implementation of the OpenSocial standards. Also, as we noted in our earlier posts, the Friend Connect apps are displayed in an iframe, which is basically a separate web page inside another web page. Because of this, these apps are black boxes that live on your site, but don't allow the site owners to really leverage the data from these apps on their own sites.

It is interesting to note that the latest Google video about Friend Connect still prominently features Facebook as a supported service, even though Facebook has decided to eschew OpenSocial in favor of its own platform. The help pages for Friend Connect don't feature a list of supported services yet.

Benefits

There are, however, also some clear benefits to using Friend Connect. Through this service, a site owner might be able to create more user loyalty and enthusiastic readers can evangelize your site by publishing their activity on it to their own social network. Visitors will also be able to invite their friends on social networks to join your site.

In an early press release about Friend Connect, Google stated that this initiative was about helping the 'long tail' of sites to become more social. While we might worry about  some of the details of Google's implementation, this by itself is a worthy cause, and it will be interesting to see how site owners will implement Friend Connect once it becomes publically available.

Does Adobe think they can out-Google Google? Perhaps. The company is involved with Zoetrope, a joint project with researchers at the University of Washington. What they're building is a tool that allows for manipulating the web over time. Instead of the snapshot of the web you see today when googling, Zoetrope will let anyone use keyword searches to discover archived web information and look for patterns in the data found.

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About Zoetrope

As with the Internet Archive, the data in Zoetrope's database is a backup of the entire web, including those pages which have changed over time. But this archive won't be limited to the somewhat inconsistent periodic snapshots of the web's content like the Internet Archive offers. It will encompass everything.

Using the intuitive Zoetrope interface, a user could compare historical changes of various data through time by comparing snapshots of different pages on the web. Analyzing different, changing elements on web pages, side-by-side and over a period of time is downright difficult today - if not impossible. But Zoetrope makes it happen.

The process is done using Zoetrope "lenses" to draw boxes around elements, connect data from one site to another, and pull up charts of relevant data, all while manipulating a slider to scroll back and forth through time. That may sound hard, but if you watch this video, you'll see that it looks surprisingly easy.

For Everyone, Not Just The Computer Savvy

In a way, this project is similar to Google's new visualization API, which lets developers use historical web data to build charts, graphs, gadgets, and the like. However, where Google's tool is aimed at the technically savvy programmer, Zoetrope, on the other hand, is for the average user. Says Dan Weld, a UW computer science and engineering professor who worked on the project, "Zoetrope is aimed at the casual researcher. It's really for anyone who has a question."

As noted in the Washington University article on the project, example uses of Zoetrope could range from the basic: checking historical rankings of favorite players on a sports team, to the advanced: comparing daily air pollution levels in Beijing to number of world's records broken each day in the 2008 Olympics. 

"Your browser is really just a window into the Web as it exists today," said Eytan Adar, University of Washington computer science and engineering doctoral student who's also a co-author of the research paper on the project.

"When you search for something online, you're only getting today's results...This is really a new way to think about storing information on the Web."

The researchers hope to offer Zoetrope for free as early as next summer.

Image credits: Color, Torley; Others, University of Washington

How did Internet Explorer become the number one browser in the world? Simple - it came with every new computer you purchased, pre-installed and ready to go. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/software/Google_Chrome_May_Be_Pre_installed_On_New_PCs';digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff';digg_skin = 'normal';Now it seems Google is contemplating doing the same with their browser, Google Chrome. According to Google VP, Product Management, Sundar Pichai, the browser's beta period will end in January and then they "will probably do distribution deals," he says.

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In an article that ran in yesterday's The Times, Pichai revealed details on what he called Google's plans to make Chrome the browser of choice for the everyday user. A big part of that plan includes distribution deals with computer manufacturers.

"We could work with an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and have them ship computers with Chrome pre-installed," he was quoted as saying. Thanks to the anti-trust rulings that came out of the IE / Netscape battle back in the 1990's, there's nothing to prevent Google from doing deals of their own with computer makers, if they desire.

Once Google has a glitch-free version of Chrome sometime early next year, "we will throw our weight behind it," said Pinchai. "We've been conservative because its still in beta, but once we get it out of beta we will work hard at getting the word out, promoting to users, and marketing will be a part of that." (A link on Google's homepage might help with those marketing efforts, but not as much as we previously thought).

Pichai also noted that versions of Chrome for Linux and Mac computers will become available in the first half of next year which would allow the browser to work on almost 99% of computers worldwide.

Is It Ready?

Just because Google whips off the "beta" label (perhaps making Chrome one of the first products to leave beta with such speed) that doesn't necessarily mean the browser is ready for prime time.

Shortly after its launch, a serious security flaw was discovered in the browser. The exploit took advantage of an underlying vulnerability in WebKit that had already been known about for more than two months. Apple had patched their Safari browser against this flaw back in July, but Google Chrome launched in September with the flaw still in place. Google's overlooking of this risk is concerning.

Also, for some Windows users, it wasn't until the most recent update the scroll-up functionality on their laptop's trackpad even worked (this author was affected and was pinged by several Twitter friends that were, too). And even now Chrome is misbehaving on a pre-beta build of Windows 7. Googling from the address bar no longer works since the upgrade on my test machine.

Before the product goes gold, we at ReadWriteWeb would like to see the browser add support for RSS feeds, a surprising omission in the feature set. As fans of Google Reader, we had hoped to see deeper integration with other Google products in Chrome, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Subscribing via the browser doesn't even work, let alone allow us to subscribe via Google's own RSS Reader.

Still, these problems may only be a patch or two away from being repaired. Hopefully, Google wouldn't release their browser before it's ready, especially if they plan on promoting it so heavily among mainstream computer users, many of whom have already switched over to Firefox and seem to be happy with their selection. For these individuals, Firefox addons are now also a major part of the browsing experience - will people willingly give those up and move to Chrome? We suppose we'll just have to wait and see.

For all the optimism surrounding the potential of computing in the cloud - lower costs, better performance, easier scaling - it isn't a perfect system. No matter how distributed and redundant the architecture or how rigorous the backup system, when it comes right down to it, there's a complex series of hoops through which the data has to jump to travel between the user and where it actually resides on a piece of physical hardware. And when a segment of that process fails, all the benefits of the cloud suddenly seem all the less magical.

Take a recent unfortunate situation for Ylastic, a company that provides a single front-end to manage Amazon Web Services, who was recently an unwillingly participant in one of these cloud bursts.

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Ylastic noticed something strange occurring with one of the Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) Elastic Block Stores (EBS), a service that is "particularly suited for applications that require a database, file system, or access to raw block level storage."

But something wasn't quite right. And over the course of a few hours the story played out via Twitter as Ylastic noticed issues with its EBS instances.

When the problem was finally identified, Ylastic discovered that the data could not be recovered. They were forced to recover from an earlier snapshot, that contained only a subset of the data.

Finally, after recovering what data they could, Ylastic had to go to its customers with the unfortunate message:

Who was at fault? Amazon? Ylastic? Truly, no one. It was simply a combination of issues. A perfect storm in the cloud, as it were. And that perfect storm resulted in data loss for Ylastic and its customer base.

Does this mean we should run screaming from the potential the cloud holds? No, absolutely not. But it's an unfortunate reminder that the system is far from perfect and that those who are relying on the cloud to serve critical aspects of their business should be ever diligent to ensure that the data is being backed up.

For all the technical magic of the cloud, it's still the basics of data management that matter most.

Today, Six Apart is launching three new features for TypePad: enhanced TypePad profiles, a new commenting system, and TypePad Connect, a no-cost combination of services that promises to make participating in and managing communities easier for bloggers on a variety of platforms - not just those offered by Six Apart.

For users familiar with the Six Apart family of products, the profiles will be a welcome step forward from the original TypeKey implementation and the new commenting features offer functionality users have come to expect from commenting systems. But it's TypePad Connect - or more appropriately the vision for what TypePad Connect could be - that makes this announcement interesting.

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So What Is It?

According to Six Apart, TypePad Connect "makes community management easier for bloggers with the ability to track, moderate and respond to comments across multiple sites and blogs from one dashboard or via email." In other words, it's your lifestream and your blog conversations - be they on your blog or someone else's - all in one spot.

At first blush, TypePad Connect may appear to be a reactionary response to services like IntenseDebate, Disqus, and Backtype - possibly even FriendFeed. Services that have all but usurped the conversations that once were the domain of individual blogs.

And maybe in some ways, it is. But there's clearly something else happening here.

If it lives up to its promise, TypePad Connect has the potential to combine both popular lifestreaming features and comment-aggregation features under one user profile. And with an open approach, they could do it in a way that allows users to begin to experience the promise of the distributed social Web.

Vision

When it comes to understanding the social Web, SixApart definitely has vision. The company sprung from the early days of blogging, launching one of the first major blogging platforms. They were the birthplace of OpenID, a single digital identity that has continued to gain support throughout the online community. Members of the company remain deeply involved in a number of efforts driving the social Web today.

This move toward a distributed social presence falls right in line with their previous efforts. Like other services with "Connect" in their names - Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect - TypePad Connect has a grand vision of moving personally relevant content outside the proprietary constructs of specific blogs - or even of Six Apart, itself - and making it useful and accessible to other services.

In other words, the same way that Facebook Connect, for example, offers other sites access to your Facebook profile information - saving you the time of establishing yet another profile on yet another service that replicates the information you already have stored elsewhere - TypePad Connect offers other blogs easy access to your profile. And in return, you get the ability to manage all of the comments you make from one spot. Your profile is no longer beholden to a blog or service, it's available to be distributed.

Embracing the concept of community that has the ability to exist and live outside the walls of a given blog or proprietary product is definitely a step in the right direction. (For that matter, it doesn't take a huge intuitive leap to see the value of having a TypePad Connect profile as the endpoint for an OpenID URL.) TypePad Connect could be another step toward the realization of a truly distributed social Web.

Current Reality

Even in its current beta iteration, the offering has some definite benefits. Things like simplified avatar management, lifestreaming of multiple services under one profile, and comment management features from a central dashboard will be appealing to many existing Six Apart customers and will likely attract new users, as well.

But as with any beta offering, there are some downsides and issues.

Ironically, one of the current issues with TypePad Connect is comment management. Even though comments are not stuck on a specific blog, comments are still stuck within TypePad Connect. Allowing users to export comments is on the roadmap, but in the beta version, all comments are currently being held on the TypePad Connect servers. That's a concern.

There's also the opposite problem: there's currently no way to import comments into TypePad Connect. That means if you're starting a blog from scratch, you'll be fine, but if you're adding TypePad Connect to an existing blog, you're going to have an old comment database and a new one. So you'll be managing two sets of comments.

That said, it's a beta. It's expected to have flaws.

Verdict

TypePad Connect definitely has a vision for a far more grand offering than the current beta. No doubt, pressure - be that pressure from users asking for the functionality or pressure from competitors like Automattic (which has begun to amalgamate the ingredients for a similar offering with Gravatar and IntenseDebate) - necessitated Six Apart moving sooner rather than later.

But when it comes right down to it, it's the vision in which I believe. I think Six Apart has a chance to provide a compelling solution for a common problem, even if they're not quite there yet. And once they begin to get closer to that vision, it could change the way we think about managing our conversations online.

Vision aside, would I implement this solution today? To be honest, I'd be hesitant to adopt TypePad Connect on an existing blog until some of the beta kinks are worked out. But if I were starting a new blog today? TypePad Connect would definitely be in the running for my centralized commenting system - even though I wouldn't be starting that blog on one of Six Apart's platforms.

If you're interested in trying it, TypePad Connect offers native support for Blogger, Movable Type 3.x and 4.x, Tumblr, TypePad, WordPress.org 2.0 and higher. It can also support any other installation with a chunk of javascript. Support for additional platforms are planned once the offering comes out of beta.

Google put on a full court media push tonight for a major change the company is making to its search experience. According to the Official Google Blog and a very unusual email the company sent out to press, a new feature called Google Search Wiki will launch soon.

We're not seeing it yet, but read on for an explanation of what the feature will do and a reaction to the announcement from Ward Cunningham, the man who invented the wiki.

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The feature will allow logged-in users to change the order of search results and mark up search results pages with notes. Only their own results will be changed - unless they click a link to view all Search Wiki notes on a search's page. Very few details are out yet, nothing regarding vandalism, libel, history, messiness, collaboration or other wiki matters. Those are pretty important concerns given that this could become the biggest and most important wiki in the world.

This isn't Google Labs, this isn't a little project off to the side, apparently there's a Google Search Wiki team and they have access to the primary search results page. We expect this to be a very big deal.

Reaction from the Inventor of the Wiki

We asked Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki, what he thought about Google Search Wiki. This was his first reaction.

I think it looks pretty sharp. It's simple and powerful - it will respond well to scale. I'm surprised that they called it a wiki. When I heard they wouldn't call a wiki a wiki [Jotspot was renamed Google Sites -ed.], then I decided I wouldn't call my searches Googles. Now that they are calling a wiki a wiki, I guess I'll call my searches Googles again....or should I call them wikis?

I can't tell if they have a wiki there or not, it might just be a forum. Collectively editing thoughts is what leads to the unique wiki behavior and I didn't see that demonstrated in the video.

They are going to get a lot of data. They obviously have the ability to wield information, let's just hope that we will all benefit. I don't think it's obvious that we all will benefit - but I guess I have enough trust in the behavior of a large number of people.

Photo of Cunningham by Joi Ito

There's a new story in Triple Canopy about The Liberty Dollar, an alternative American currency started by Bernard von NotHaus that experienced a grassroots backing among some shoppers and merchants, until the Feds shut it down. Unlike the "real" dollar, Liberty Dollars are in fact...

...warehouse receipts for actual gold and silver. Needless to say, the Federal Reserve isn't too happy about these types of things and the FBI raided the Liberty Dollar warehouses and offices in '07 and seized and froze just about everything they had. No one involved has been charged with an actual crime. The DOJ has issued a statement saying that the use of Liberty Dollars is a Federal crime.

In 2003, Libertarian writer Vin Suprynowicz called the Liberty Dollar a multi-level marketing system. After the raids, von NotHaus quit the Liberty Dollar business and founded the "Free Marijuana Church" in Hawaii.

Triple Canopy interviews the people and players behind the Liberty Dollar , and if you read it you'll learn some things about what it means to be money that you never knew before.

Bullion With A Mission [Triple Canopy] (click the + sign on the landing page to move forward in the story) (Photo: Julia Sherman)

Mea culpa. It sounded like a good idea, but the "people-powered" comparison shopping site we wrote about, beatmyprice.com, got one of our readers scammed when she used it in a non-savvy fashion. Rebecca ordered a PS3 from the sketchy-as-hell looking "omexelectronics.biz" for $260. After she ordered it with her Discover Card, she got an email telling her to complete the transaction via Western Union instead. She did so. Big mistake.

After they picked up her money, she got another email saying that the PS3 is shipping out of Spain and is stuck in the UK because DHL will only allow a minimum of 5 devices of this type to be shipped from Europe to the USA. They're ever so sorry but now they want Rebecca to Western Union $1040 for all 5 PS3s.

Rebecca isn't about to do that and is demanding her money back. In all likelihood, she never will. Once money is sent via Western Union, it can be picked up anywhere in the world as long as they have the control number. Once picked up, there is no possibility of a refund or cancellation.

Unfortunately, some of the "people" who chose to "power" Beatmyprice.com are scammers. I feel really bad about one of our readers getting scammed of one of our posts. Everyone needs to be aware of the following caveats when shopping online:

• Never give money to a stranger via Western Union.
• Only buy things online using a credit card.
• Never just go by the lowest price you find. As we warned in the Beatmyprice post, if you haven't heard of the retailler, check out their reputation first.

—- On Mon, 11/17/08, Rebecca Hatfield wrote:

From: Rebecca
Subject: Fw: Western Union: Pickup Notification.
To: omexelectronics@yahoo.com
Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 7:39 PM

I just received this notice from Western Union saying that my payment was picked up. I would like to request a tracking number please. Thank you.

—-

From: Omex Finco
To: Rebecca
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 4:11:35 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Western Union: Pickup Notification.

Ms Rebbeca.

Yes your payment has been picked up and also, this is to inform you that your Order has been shipped out of Spain and it's presently in United Kingdom, DHL refuse to shipout 1Unit of the Brand New PS3 Sony Playstation 3 , They said the Minimum Unit that can be allowed to enter into your Country is 5Units due to the new president elected and for this reason any consignment that is below 5 to 10 kgb will not be allow in FOR SECURITY REASON BEST KNOW TO YOUR GOVERMENT and your consignment is just 1kgb, So for this reason My Company shipped out 5Units of the Brand New PS3 Sony Playstation 3 to you.

We used another Private Shipping Company to deliver the PS3 Sony Playstation 3 to you, The name of the Company is GLOBAL PRECIOUS SERVICE ( www.glopre-int.com ) The Tracking Code is ready, So the shippers will shipout once the balance of the payment is confirmed.

The balance amount to send is $1040, The PS3 Sony Playstation 3 will enter U.S.A by Tuesday Evening once the payment is confirmed tomorrow.

Note the custom officer in respect and in hold of your consignment is Mrs Caroilne Smith and you are free to contact her if you wish to. You can call her on +447031939379.

We are truely sorry for the delay

Thanks for your Understanding.
www.omexelectonics.biz

—- On Mon, 11/17/08, Rebecca wrote:

From: Rebecca
Subject: Re: Fw: Western Union: Pickup Notification.
To: omexelectronics@yahoo.com
Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 11:05 PM

Absolutely NOT.

YOU will refund my money! YOU will wire me the cost of the merchandise PLUS the Western Union fee! YOU will send me an MTCN number confirming that you are wiring me 294.00 OR ELSE I will post in AS MANY PLACES I CAN FIND ON THE WEB THAT YOUR WEBSITE IS A SCAM WEBSITE and I will detail how this transaction went.

You have 24 hours to get me an MTCN number or else I will start spreading the warning people NOT to make purchases from your website.

—-

From: Omex Finco
To: Rebecca
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 5:32:32 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Western Union: Pickup Notification.

Please i will not take such word from you anymore SCAM how and when have you getting to just conclusion,listen we are real and qualify legit company you can go as far as doing what you wish to do,the deal btw our company and you is too open that any one esle can come in to judge for us,it was not our fault and i went as far as expalining to you but it seem you are not giving me any litening ears trying to take judgement into you hand which may turn out to a total lost to you at the end of the transaction and if you wish to have your money back that will not be any problem ok but you will need to give sometime to us to get read of these off.i have explained to you as a brother here and you keep been hard on me,get the 5 consignment you have just pay for on,but i am begging you pay just for two now and all total you payed for will be three and when ever you have money for the remaining two balance you can do so,but seem to be too hard on me.

So what do you want me to do now?mrs rebecca

—- On Tue, 11/18/08, Rebecca wrote:

From: Rebecca
Subject: Re: Fw: Western Union: Pickup Notification.
To: omexelectronics@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 12:02 AM

As the merchant, it is your responsibility to research the customs policies in the countries through which the merchandise must go to make it to your customer. I don't appreciate being threatened with a total loss at the end of this transaction. I've already lost. I basically gave you $294.00 for nothing.

I will not be sending you any more money and I have contacted my credit cards to let them know not to make any unapproved transactions. As I said before, I'm going to report OmexFinco.biz as a scam to anyone and everyone who will listen. Unless you can get me my money back.

—-

From: Omex Finco
To: Rebecca
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 6:35:03 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Western Union: Pickup Notification.

With this word if you wish you are not comfortabale with my ideal here i am sorry about it

(As the merchant, it is your responsibility to research the customs policies in the countries through which the merchandise must go to make it to your customer)

But Madam why not for this time give to me a listening ears.i am not threateneing you but if all this hot you at the same time i am sorry but madam the true still remain on what i am tell you please i am begging you let try to have second thinking and i belt you this will be our long lasting relation in business,your ps3 are in UK under the care of mrs caroline smith,please i will beg you in the name of god to call her tommorow morning.so you will see all iam telling you is real, let see you have your ps3..

point of correction madam rebecca we are not SCAMM company ok.stop such words you are my customer and is my duty to treat you nice.

please bear with us all the cost

—- On Tue, 11/18/08, Rebecca wrote:

From: Rebecca
Subject: Re: Fw: Western Union: Pickup Notification.
To: omexelectronics@yahoo.com
Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 12:46 AM

I don't care who has the PS3s at this moment. I only ordered ONE of them. I'm not calling anyone tomorrow because I'm not going to throw away any more money on this.

It doesn't matter if what you are saying IS true. I can't afford to pay any more money. I could barely afford what the single PS3 cost. You won't see a penny more out of me.

—-

OK MADAM,SINCE YOU WISH NOT TO ACT ACCORDILY WITH WHAT I WISH WILL HELP ACHIVE OUR AIM HERE,THEN YOU WILL NEED TO GIVE OF SOMETIMES AND RESOLVE THIS ISSUE.

THANKS."

(Photo: joka2000)

Whoever came up with the name "courtesy overdraft fee" is one smart cookie. They figured out a way to let you do something you don't want to do, charge you a fee, and make it sound like they're doing you a favor. WaMu is one of the few banks that let you...

...opt-out of "courtesy overdraft fees" so that if you use your debit card and don't have enough money for what you're swiping it off, they will actually decline your card. However, you have to remember to never swipe as credit, only as debit.

Reader Jon thinks he's got it figured out. Opt out of courtesy overdraft screwing, and then ask for a debit-only card. "Voila," he writes, "you have a checking account and debit card immune to shady courtesy overdraft fees." However, since Chase now owns WaMu, I'm betting you have to already have a WaMu account for this to work.

(Photo: thekateblack)

Alert: You Cannot Send A Drawing Of A Spider As Payment
Furniture Store Employee Wants You To Know There's Something Wrong With Your Salesperson
Woman Loses $400,000 To Nigerian Email Scam
World's Most Conscientious Customer Completes Botched Software Purchase Over A Year Later
This Is Not A Good Method For Transporting Shopping Carts

TracFone is a pre-paid wireless cellphone company that people enjoy for its low cost and hate for its customer service. The problem comes from their globally outsourced and non-integrated call centers. Problems don't get solved. Emails go unreturned. Problems get stuck in infinitely recursive loops. Here's a typical story from reader Susan, "I asked them to escalate this to a supervisor. Three days later, I get a response saying that they have investigated the problem and I should call their support line. When I called the support line, they had no details of any prior communication and no way to resolve the problem. So I am back at step one. " Luckily for you, she found the numbers to escalate complaints up to the corporate level and got it solved: 1-800-876-5753 or 1-800-339-9345.

Some bored people who hate that Saved By Zero commercial as much as you do have mashed it into a trailer for The Ring. Hooray.

[via Buzzfeed]

Michael Vick, the allegedly herpetic former NFL quarterback and dog lover, has filed paperwork detailing the decent into financial ruin that lead to his bankruptcy filing in July of this year. Vick blew through $17.7 million dollars in two years preceding his Chapter 11 petition. If that sounds like a lot of money in a short amount of time, consider the fact that Vick has been imprisoned since November 2007. For those of you looking for some insight into Vick's attitude towards money, the Smoking Gun points out that one of his check memos reads, "chump change."

The check was made out to Vick's mother, Brenda Boddie, for the sum of $1,000.

Michael Vick's "Chump Change"[The Smoking Gun]

Imagine going to the doctor for a severe migraine and ending up with your right arm amputated. That's what happened to Diana Levine when her doctor injected her with Phenergan, it seeped out of the vein into an artery, and gave her gangrene.

Vermont courts found that Wyeth hadn't given adequate warning to doctors and patients that one particular injection method, the one used on Diana, greatly increases the risk of gangrene. Wyeth is trying to use Federal preemption to win the case, arguing that patients is that consumers can't sue a pharma company if the drug has been approved by federal regulators. The case, Wyeth v. Levine, is before the Supreme Court. The Alliance for Justice has made a 22-minute documentary about Diana Levine so you can learn more about her story. Watch it in its entirety, inside...

Access Denied [Alliance For Justice]
PREVIOUSLY: Big Pharma Goes Before Supreme Court To Get State Lawsuits Banned

Readdress your gripes! Walmart will have a new CEO, Mike Duke, starting Feb. 1. [