"European privacy regulators and advocates reacted angrily Saturday to the disclosure by Google, the world’s largest search engine, that it had systematically collected personal data since 2006 while compiling its Street View photo archive"

"Google acknowledged on Friday that it had collected snippets of private data around the world. In a blog post on its Web site, the company said information had been recorded as it was sent over unencrypted residential wireless networks as Google’s Street View cars with mounted recording equipment passed by.

The data collection, which Google said was inadvertent and the result of a programming error, took place in all the countries where Street View has been catalogued, including the United States and parts of Europe. Google apologized and said it had not used the information, which it plans to delete in conjunction with regulators."

Just some quotes from the papers.. Surely all that information collected was just a mistake, that is why it was all collected on those hard drives, you know by mistake, a few gig here, a few gig there, all by mistake, since 2006. That's just 4 years, you know, nothing major.

Well, screw you Google! Time to move back to hating Microsoft people, and using more of that Bing and Live service, because these other guys do not do evil indeed, they just plain are evil.

Edit after more facts
It seems that data collected was in small pieces as some piece of software switches focus a certain number of times per second. It also looks like the amount of data collected is in the number of gigabytes spanning over the years and about 30 countries in which Google cars have been operating.
Taking this into account, a certain number of gigabytes is hard to observe when compared to many terra of information.
My original post seems harsh now...
However, it shows something about the quality of work and precautions of a company the size and influence of Google. They did that horrible play with Google Buzz too.

Hope you enjoyed!
Z.

Internet Explorer market share lost is around 20%, dropping from a previous of 80% to 60%. From these 20% most was gained by Firefox, almost 9%, Firefox reaching almost 25% market share, while other browsers took the rest. Google Chrome took 6.7%, Apple's Safari took 2.5% and Opera gained 1%.

Above graphic from Apple Insider can help you visualize.

As for Tourist Profile data.. most of the visitors are using Firefox, followed by Internet Explorer.
Firefox: 42.79%
IE: 29.85%
Chrome: 16.42%
Safari: 5.47%

Wonder how much influence the European imposed Windows browser choice has influenced this drop.

Have a good day!
Z.

This is about one of my contacts on Flickr, a person who loves photography and makes amazing work, a person who's photographs of the volcano in Iceland that bothered everyone and disrupted the European aviation for days GOT USED WITHOUT PERMISSION BY FOX NEWS.

So how can we help?
If you got advice to give, please do so.
If you got a way to contact the right person from FOX, please share that information (attempts to contact FOX NEWS were fruitless, but the right person to contact may do the trick).
If you experienced something similar, share, it's important to bring these things to other's attention.

Here is a link to the Flickr page with the problem described. I will not post too much, you can visit this page, see the images this person takes and read the story from the original source.
Orvaratli

With hope for better,
Z.

Today I noticed a message from "Twitter" letting me know that two messages could not be delivered.. so I decided to look if the mail did come from Twitter and where it takes me. Please see the image bellow.

See the red marked area with the link inside ? That's no Twitter page!

Nothing much I could do, but advise to be careful about the different e-mails you get and look in the browser bottom bar where you are being taken to, before clicking on that innocent looking link.

Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. - Wikipedia

Have a safe day!
Z.

Mary G. Meeker is an American Wall Street securities analyst primarily associated with the Internet. She is known as "Queen of the Net" after an issue of Baron's Magazine in 1998.

Meeker's work has been recognized in various Wall Street Analyst Polls including those conducted by Greenwich Associates, Institutional Investor, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and The Red Herring.
Her research coverage includes PC software companies such as Adobe, Corel, Intuit, Macromedia, Microsoft, and Symantec. In PC hardware, she follows companies that include Apple, Compaq Computer, and Dell Computer. Her new media coverage includes America Online, Avid Technology, Broderbund Software, Electronic Arts, Maxis, Netscape, and The 3DO Company.

The Mobile Internet with Mary Meeker was one of the hits at Atmosphere, her manifesto being also know as The Mobile Internet Report. She covers a bit of history since the 90s to be able to put in perspective the actual state and estimate the growth and direction of Mobile Internet. She focuses a little on E-Commerce on Mobile platforms, comparative graphics between Desktop Computing, Desktop Internet and the adoption of Mobile Internet and much much more.

Simply watch the embedded video.. it's definitely a very worth 35 minutes of your day, especially if your business deals with technology and even more so if it's Internet and it's Mobile or E-Commerce.

Enjoy!
Z.

On the first day, Saturday, there were only new cars displayed in various areas of the centre and you hop in, play with the gadgets in them and of course if the wallet allows make purchase inquiries. I probably don't have to mention the fun I had jumping from Mercedeses to BMWs, horsepower pumped sedans to two seaters and so on..

But what I want to show and write about most in this post came on the second day of the show, Sunday, because on this day the show has another face to it. Just in case you get bored of all the new cars on display, on this day there is a old timer show, with the Ludwigsburg Marktplatz being filled with cars of times passed, some quite rare, some quite popular and some rather unusual.

With this occasion I got the chance to see outside the museum, the famous Karl Benz single cylinder "Benz Patent Motorwagen", and not just on display, but in motion and lively at that.

Karl Friedrich Benz is the pioneering founder of the automobile manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. Benz, a German engine designer and automobile engineer, is also generally regarded as the inventor of the gasoline-powered automobile.

While working for Benz & Cie. and knowing success with the company, Karl Benz had the opportunity to work on his passion of designing a horseless carriage. His experience and passion for bicycles led him to use wire wheels, unlike the wooden carriage ones, and a tubular steel frame. Between the two back wheels he mounted a self designed engine (4 strokes) which had for that time an advanced coil ignition and evaporative cooling instead of a radiator.

The Karl Benz Patent Motorwagen was built in 1885 and is widely regarded as the first automobile (a vehicle designed to be propelled by a motor). The vehicle was awarded the German patent, number 37435, which Benz applied for on 29th of January 1886, because it was the first automobile entirely designed as such to generate its own power, not simply a motorized stage coach or horse carriage.

This vehicle is special also because in it's third "incarnation", as the Motorwagen Model 3, it became the first commercially available vehicle in the world, being presented under the "Benz Patent Motorwagen" name at the 1888 Paris Expo and being available for sale.

Another particularity of this vehicle is that supposedly the wife of Karl Benz, Bertha Benz, took the first long distance automobile trip in world history. She took the vehicle on the morning of 5th of August 1888, without the knowledge of Mr Benz and drove for about 106km from Mannheim to Pforzheim to visit her mother, taking her sons Eugen and Richard with her.
This trip had the purpose of making her husbands vehicle more popular and to show that they are feasible, but it led to something I find to be more important, which is the idea of having more than one gear. This is because the car had problems going up hill on its own and the passengers or driver had to climb down and help by pushing, which is what Bertha Benz did in order to get to Pforzheim and which led to the later addition of a second gear to the vehicle by Karl Benz.

Hope you enjoyed reading

Cheers!
Z.

Note: this actual vehicle in the photo may be a replica, it's what I tend to believe. I hope to get a chance to talk to the person in the photograph next year and get more details.

Following the ITN channel on Youtube I learned that NASA has released new, stunning, pictures of the sun. These are the very first pictures taken by the new Solar Dynamic Observatory.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which will observe the Sun for over five years. Launched on 11th February 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program.
The goal of the LWS program is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to effectively address those aspects of the connected Sun–Earth system that directly affect life and society.

"The Sun performs for SDO-AIA"

AIA stands for Atmospheric Imaging Assembly. AIA provides full-disk imaging of the Sun in several ultraviolet and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) band passes at high spatial and temporal resolution. There are four telescopes that provide the individual light feeds for the instrument.

"Many different views of the Sun - HMI & AIA"

HMI stands for Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager. HMI studies solar variability and characterizes the Sun's interior and the various components of magnetic activity. It produces data to determine the interior sources and mechanisms of solar variability and how the physical processes inside the Sun are related to surface magnetic field and activity. HMI also produces data to enable estimates of the coronal magnetic field for studies of variability in the extended solar atmosphere.

For more videos on the Sun you can follow this link to their official movies page: http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/multimedia/movies.php

Enjoy!
Z.

In the last period I got to work with a good team of product managers and designers to create a lovely new online presence. It is called "bona puani" and it is a online shop, but not just any shop, it looks good, easy to use and offers a good set of customizable jewellery products made out of silver. I find the idea itself very nice and can think of many situations where one would desire such a product, for example wife, children or girlfriend birthday.

And then they, as in bona puani, managed to get Jasmin Wagner to be the cover. You'll recognize her on the start page and if you want to remember and listen to her songs I'm sure a search for "blümchen" or visit her website http://www.jasminwagner.de/ will do the trick.

Please don't get me wrong, this is no masked commercial for the shop, far from it. It is just the manifestation of a proud fathers love. After all the effort I and the team have put into making the shop it just feels like our baby and, like any other parent, I'm being proud of my child.

Cheers,
Z.

Cineflex - Norwegian sunrise from Leif Johan Holand on Vimeo.

Helicopter: AS350B3 NORD Helikopter, nordhelikopter.no
Pilot: Bjorn Pilskog
Camera system: Cineflex V14 HD
Arial Photographer: Leif Johan Holand, leif@fuglefjellet.no, fuglefjellet.no
Music: "Call to Beroea" by the composer Luke Richards

This shows that Video is just as amazing as Photography! I'd love to get the chance to do some photography in those parts. But in the meantime I am keeping my fingers crossed for Baden Baden in Germany.
If you got some superb shots you took yourself "up north" and want to share.. please do leave a comment. I'm sure everyone will enjoy your Flickr stream or alternative.

I hope you enjoy!
Z.