Full Complement

The contradictions of adolescence create their own sadness in Andrea Arnold’s tough and brilliant second feature, “Fish Tank.”

By A. O. SCOTT

Torrential rains prompt evacuations and knock out power to thousands. Storms forecast for later in the week could be among the most powerful to batter the region since 2005, experts say.

The first of several powerful storms rumbled across Southern California on Monday, prompting evacuations in mudslide-prone foothill areas, knocking out power for tens of thousands of people and causing havoc on flooded streets and highways.

(author unknown)

Apple Inc. will host a product event on Jan. 27, giving Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs a chance to unveil a long-rumored, touch-screen tablet device for surfing the Web and playing movies and music.(author unknown)

In the immediate aftermath of a 7.0 earthquake that caused an unbelievable amount of destruction to Haiti's capital, Google has been asked by relief organizations and users to show images of what's actually happening on the ground.

In partnership with geospatial imagery company GeoEye, Google has just released a new layer for Google Earth showing post-earthquake devastation. Haiti was first added to Google Map Maker in response to hurricanes that wreaked havoc on the country more than a year ago. Read on for before-after pictures and details.

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The Red Cross has stated that as many as 3 million Haitians have been affected by the earthquake, with as many as 100,000 deaths likely, according to Haiti's prime minister. Since the quake's epicenter was right off the capital city, Port-au-Prince, most of the official buildings, from government officials' residences to jails and hospitals, have been significantly damaged or completely leveled. Google's imagery shows exactly that:

You'll have to install the Google Earth plugin if you haven't already to see this layer.

You can download the KML layer or open the file using Google Maps.

In a post just published by Googlers Dylan Lorimer and Jessica Pfund, they write, "We hope that Google Map Maker can also play a role in disaster relief efforts...Today, we have made this Map Maker data for Haiti available to the UN in its raw form for the earthquake relief efforts. If you have any local knowledge to share, please help us continue to build a better map of Haiti with Google Map Maker."

For a list of ways you can donate money to help suffering Haitians and stay informed on Haiti-related breaking news, check out this post we published earlier today on resources, charitable organizations and news outlets.

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Jolie O'Dell1422121968077431412313742756767274179987066919490006663925311390318817862190709509185832729794698365

Shared by Mike
Great announcement for CMS users.

Google has just announced that its powerfully social Friend Connect features are now available for open-source content management systems Drupal and Joomla.

Google Friend Connect (GFC) allows sites with these CMSes to integrate many social features without having to write any code. The impact of the integration has the potential to be significant, as Drupal in particular is one of the most widely-used content management systems in use on the Web today, powering sites from WhiteHouse.gov and NASA.gov to TheOnion.com and websites for celebrities and musicians like Britney Spears and Eric Clapton. Joomla is used by such institutions as Harvard, MTV and Citibank.

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Friend Connect essentially allows site visitors to become site members by using profile information from services such as Google, Yahoo!, Twitter and more. With user accounts authenticated via OpenID, site administrators can add Friend Connect's social bar, a site members gadget, the Friend Connect comments gadget or recommendations in any part of the site they choose.

In addition to adding social gadgets, Friend Connect also allows site admins to conduct polls, monitor community growth, create and distribute email newsletters, run ads through AdSense, export user data for a site's entire community (as XML or JSON) or create their own apps using the GFC APIs.

"Even site owners without programming experience can add these plugins," writes developer and open-source aficionado Mauro González in Google's Social Web blog post. "Now that Friend Connect is integrated with these popular open source CMS platforms, site owners can make registration easier for users and offer them a set of social features - all without writing a single line of code."

GFC represents an interesting - and perhaps underused - suite of tools in an increasingly competitive space. Many site owners are adding social features to blogs and sites through systems such as JS-Kit's Echo or Disqus, and Joomla and Drupal both have many extensions and plugins to allow for the same kinds of features and functions. Still, making GFC available for the CMSes that power many highly visible sites around the Web might do a lot of good for that product.

Overall, we see this announcement as indicative of a set of trends: Portable user identities, highly interactive content, portable communities and open-source software.

What do you think: Will more site users be integrating Friend Connect to allow for more social website experiences? Let us know your opinions in the comments.

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Great announcement for CMS users.

Google users will soon be able to upload any file type to Docs (as long as it's under 250MB)—as opposed to the very limited slate of document types currently supported (like images, Word docs, PDFs, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations).

Photo from TechCrunch

Because Google Docs now supports files up to 250 MB in size, which is larger than the attachment limit on most email applications, you'll be able to backup large graphics files, RAW photos, ZIP archives and much more to the cloud. More importantly, instead of carrying a USB drive, you can now use Google Docs as a more convenient option for accessing your files on different computers.

Tech news blog TechCrunch quotes Google Docs product manager Vijay Bangaru emphasizing that this is not the much speculated GDrive, but they appropriately point out that—regardless of what they're calling it—it sure sounds like the GDrive people were expecting. Users will get 1GB of free storage to hold whatever they want, and they can buy more storage space for $0.25 per GB.

Upload your files and access them anywhere with Google Docs [Official Google Blog]

Adam Pash1586194355813271825703295336245857650263024444138310850271701240707889055055821014550250467456371313085426963541454777830799406123732596201717105428352876012327112412739341954944450451820131259760744709518644329432801632040642273346002665000526020689129933728603416815980240276197174785410027110254030017639171491681189711415224804442245350164789855786835813831000396849956029793201444754514215870871097880383623755628661368595698239149916101284528876893276092025834792600499188571736724910897217984917379080138041887580073178590993239099120404658207604945368712019758802862667597077611987933244049921781848519172716476007990141544140937931108831153470277138290726568935344509840009165208222713787019018712092368612674010607554415542832842402049740522684321658180920699316517472721568452455003103380306564139572364166177098899097728359179341096131665487934012212654784644597444844131441274578499865520798434895135874398416309899989488730625079497556655546135631837955137496137462413221769283753463129159717337044532664970607287007781016267614179294598292661432093629955640695827751821164542798170274118267147310476658434115857462493563833510233236115932380650317709188529183183304166912872890307374251189707178757322884503519783795934922251129603427619505561451592776321368295872309896707128195882890072911584581393255930786718069411588567208569540693952840398158354719150549433351841577961006036800207332736129994321451157223290656878227361739817698541537313109376804366398497921074390183086199218480095327076981722942017149983088465224378113571994507238380600700157564398413929206729595798409787301059216535294543891651693347292886879977815461389732735093272092755592358883805280173564019922572866113675887812423099118139349935450094715670107890991197529744307262790675765699161114107293179234117690357352914698071417116385658151876766352026169142918803780181757431421291880900610984554553743498639

The first teaser trailer for Treme, The Wire creator David Simon’s new series, has been making its way across the Internet.

Shared by Mike
Looks promising.

Local Books is a new iPhone App which should be of interest to all book lovers. It’s powered by LibraryThing Local, the LibraryThing member-created database of 51,000 bookstores and libraries around the world.

Local Books is our contribution to keeping the book world interesting. Amazon and other online retailers are great. LibraryThing is great too. But book lovers can’t be happy in a world with fewer and fewer physical bookstores, and a rising threat to libraries. The more we know about this physical book world, the better we can foster it, and the better we can use websites like LibraryThing and Amazon to improve our world, not replace it.

This application is unique – as it draws on the power of a socially-connected and created resources. We have the chance to increase the value of the App too.

I’ve downloaded it – tested – and it works a treat!!

More details from the LibraryThing Blog:

How You Can Help. Even with 51,000 venues, not every bookstore and library is in LibraryThing. If you know of one that’s not in there, go ahead and add it. If you represent the bookstore or library in question, you can “claim” your venue page, and start using LibraryThing to connect to your customers or patrons. Even if they’re all there, most are still missing something—a photograph, a phone number, a good description, a Twitter handle. Events—especially indie bookstores and libraries—are a particular need. It’s a virtuous cycle. The better we can make the data, the more people will find the application useful, and the more people who will make it better

Features include:

• Search for venues (bookstores and libraries) as well as events near your current location using the iPhone’s built-in location features.
• Search for venues and events at any location or by name.
• Venues can be sorted by distance, name, or type.
• Venues are color coded, following the maps on LibraryThing Local (colors correspond to the colors used on maps in LibraryThing Local).
• Each venue has a detail page with a map. Tap it to jump to the iPhone Maps application.
• Venues often sport a description, clickable website and phone number links, events, and a photo.
• You can favorite locations and events, and there’s a “Favorites” list where you can find them.(1)

Check it out on iTunes.

Spotted in the BookBench at the NewYorker and  promoted on  Twitter  by @librarythingtim - of course

New Here? Want to never miss a post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get each post delivered right into browser or email. Thanks for visiting!

Posted in Reading & Literacy, Social Software Tagged: books, iPhone App, LibraryThing Looks promising.

I'm exploring the concept of noise to signal and thought I might try a regular podcast/vodcast that provides quick tips to improve your noise to signal ratio.

So in the spirit of play and exploration here is episode 1.

As always, comments, suggestions, tips and critiques are welcome.

Jack Dorsey, founder and chairman of Twitter.com, sits down to answer questions about Twitter, Foursquare and his latest venture, Square, an on-the-go credit card payment platform.

By NICK BILTON

Technology now makes it possible for friends separated by distance to watch TV shows together and then talk about it on Skype.

By ASHLEE VANCE17816029897345670628

Educators say they know the children best and can build programs that will succeed.

A plan to let outside groups bid for control of dozens of long-struggling and new local campuses has unleashed a formidable competitor: Groups of teachers from inside the Los Angeles Unified School District are vying to take charge of their schools.

(author unknown)

In the Chicago Tribune, Julia Keller explains why all the year-end lists are a tiresome exercise: “What annoys and disappoints me, though, is the chilly retrospective nature of such lists. They drain all of the blood from the critic’s job. They require a cold, methodical calculation of passions long past. They’re about yesterday’s yearning. Compiling them is a bit like trying to remember why you used to be in love with so-and-so.” (Thanks, Laurie)

It shouldn't have taken outside pressure for the district to act on teacher evaluation and Fremont High. But at least it responded constructively.

Editorial: It shouldn't have taken outside pressure for the district to act on teacher evaluation and Fremont High.(author unknown)

The Department of Education, preparing to give hundreds of millions of dollars in grants, estimated how long it should take each state to prepare its proposal: 681 hours.

By SAM DILLON

Anti-malware testing group AV-Comparatives.org not only gave Microsoft Security Essentials a top rating for malware removal, but now they've given it their best ranking in their performance test as well.

AV-Comparatives.org ran a series of real-world tests running through common scenarios like downloading, extracting, copying, and encoding files, installing and launching applications, and they also ran through an automated testing suite as well. Once the dust had settled, it became clear that not only is MSE one of only three products that both blocks and removes malware well, but it's also very light on system resources.

Out of all the products tested, Microsoft Security Essentials was the best-performing free antivirus solution, and one of only two that received "very fast" on each of the real-world tests, earning it their top award: an "advanced+" ranking. We've been telling you for a while that you don't need to pay for Windows security, and now with MSE ranked alongside the top paid apps in both malware removal and performance, you might want to consider making the switch.

Hit the AV-Comparatives link for the full report in PDF form, or check out the PC Mag story for the overview—if you can deal with some irritating in-text ads.

Performance Tests [AV-Comparatives]
AV-Comparatives Rates Anti-Malware Performance [PC Mag via @edbott]

The How-To Geek15861943558132718257060024871007386084971727942687028383935501691995718300562139126839342295144170361234012268220435142702595720410793355061165348474052205012420334405773326375762705371939227037554894116201934407012911590617849444010074106114953040201314051275049921490218858101460526020689129933728613563339679820519642129994662211816502630427597297476365285711913482730873359426134555894370499844681463393392100533540101841422037389216633061310189151013615580020816975951581550312913321108716956098152531115465106660251188960768871855677007749249747026281078100039684995602979321808721202413151830318200868081260858008137773935521517279541566920170174385517905607795983942705045016170929910343403391724648930048027777012315960462974086961151526491234909959500453117174799041012904742896169143992538099957340534799472150319813880924933010609547997811298842579126079546870817720480182180875346379720116816357411726166793096449481309939970320028188919075176411802883511522766227535173790801380418875801392287282387466477908451352140543018244071679455034568969941597871179711404761115891094396692817410157512884444074819141462447812479044147605656938687852462182014930883317010143240821520413070359401209180481870193022787177497135532531505131032590899854843570517578880990157451686151338073897752061210456657050527349660816540268912066877021037562039042356223241641011462900266671509472433369893834066158308797765140688611615502934838020427117374452542464592333102078427231812278551185604053422210171700797911657523351029148468174700932288060204689481973594752010718074582478465457121942412445607533870159176364659587479810212485682117879641083764966101125464830441111302287445039408625815719524137557164612788549688276811568155171164586501902624493686781295210020546872840525417021057359739891774714005791336967819374323027364789883425543721631265864963028737116853681601155291940011491200007459861071516524500395599856516161936234940141385172453997751916843390564758562387643607613138093715769182001

A Stanford economist challenges the notion that colleges have become more selective.

By REBECCA R. RUIZ

In 2009, the average U.S. Internet user spent 13 hours per week online. This number is down slightly from last year. Thanks to the large interest in the presidential election and the financial crisis, the average Internet user was online for roughly 14 hours per week in 2008. According to a new poll from Harris Interactive, users between the ages of 30 to 39 are the most active Internet users. On average, this group is online for 18 hours per week.

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Overall, the average time online for U.S. Internet users has gone up from seven hours in 1999 to close to nine hours in 2003 and up to 11 hours in 2007. We should note that these numbers only include adults. According to Nielsen, which looked at all U.S. Internet users, the average usage per week is closer to 17 hours.

98% of All Computer Users in the U.S. are Online

The number of adults who are online has not changed since 2007. In total, 184 million adults regularly surf the Internet at work, home or school. While the number of adults who are online has not changed, the number of adults who access the Internet at home has increased from 66% in 2005 to 76% in 2009. Ten years ago, only 56% of all adults accessed the Internet from home. In total, 98% of all computer users are now online.

While users between 30 and 39 are the most active Internet users, those between 25 and 29 are the most likely to spend more than 24 hours per week online. 25% of 25- to 29-year-olds surf the Net between 24 and 162 hours per week - sadly, Harris Interactive doesn't tell us how many of these users actually spend every minute of the week online.

Online Shopping

With regards to online shopping, Harris found that 50% of adults bought something online in the last month. Not surprisingly, 30- to 39-year-olds are the most active online shoppers.

How High Will These Numbers Go?

Given how popular online video and social networks have become over the last few years, chances are that the average number of hours spend online will continue to grow slowly over the next few years. U.S. Internet users who watch TV online watch close to 18 hours of online video per week already. In the U.K., the average Facebook user spends close to three full days per year on the site. Without doubt, however, there will be a natural limit to how much time per week people will spend online.

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Frederic Lardinois165258009690625655010449446877460236490210343252642961152572

When you sync your iPod/iPhone in iTunes 9 and you've got space left, check off the "Automatically fill free space with songs" box on the Music tab to use every last free megabyte. As David Chartier at The Finer Things in Mac site notes, there's no way to see what songs iTunes pulls and adds there for you. I'd like to think it uses some sort of smarts to determine what songs you haven't synced that you should have. Either way, nifty feature for quickly filling up your player without having to check off playlists manually.

Popular URL shortener bit.ly debuts a new service, bitly.tv, which shows off the most-linked videos through their service.Harrison Hoffman