SpeedPlexer Blog

Last week, on March 15, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the dot-com domain name. CNN tells us that on March 15, 1985, the first dot-com domain name - Symbolics.com - appeared on the Internet, ushering in the commercial age of the World Wide Web. Once it became simpler to access a website this way, the first 100 sites were up and running in two years, and by 1995, there were 18,000.  Now the internet has grown, with internet speed,  to more than 80 million dot-com domain names, according to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF).

Now, the “@” symbol, (who celebrates it’s 474th anniversary on May 4),  has been officially admitted to the architecture and design collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York.   From it’s murky original usage for inventory, and then more recently in accounting (when it was added to typewriter keyboards), one man took a symbol that was so seldom used that it was open to reinterpretation and made it part of an internet e-mail address.

By giving that once obscure accountancy symbol a new application without distorting its original meaning, that man, Raymond Tomlinson, was deemed to have checked all of MoMA’s boxes in terms of form, function, values, cultural impact and innovation. Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at MoMA sees the fact that it has so many nicknames around the world as proof of its importance, because we care so much about the @ that we’ve started to mythologize it.

The French and Italians have nicknamed it the “snail,” the Norwegians call it a “pig’s tail,” the Germans “monkey’s tail,” and the Chinese “little mouse.” The Russians think of it as a dog, and the Finns as a slumbering cat.

You’ve heard it before, but it usually refers to where your business or home is located.  These days in the tech world it’s about geolocation. And the SXSW conference was the OK Corral of this modern-day shootout. The “location wars” were between two main contenders – Foursquare, who made a splash when it debuted at last year’s festival, with some calling them “the next Twitter”, and Gowalla, an upstart Austin-based company.

CNN explains both services are just a year old, and make their SXSW appearances in the hopes that online trend-setters here will embrace their apps and spread the word after they fan back out across the United States and abroad.

The two rivals let smartphone users “check in” at bars, restaurants and other hangouts and share their locations with friends while earning virtual rewards, and were arguably the biggest topic at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW). Posters around Austin pitted the two parties against each other in a faux boxing match labeled “The Geosocial Showdown.” Their rival parties — both of them well-attended – were across the street from each other creating what Foursquare CEO equated to “spring break for nerds.”

Foursquare has announced partnerships with Starbucks, Bravo and others, while Gowalla has inked a deal with the Travel Channel, some smaller companies and had SXSW-specific partnerships with Chevy and Palm.

There’s talk of internet speed-sters Facebook, Google and even Apple throwing their virtual hats in the ring.

Jay Adelson, CEO of news-sharing site Digg, said partnerships could be key to making geolocation popular. “The idea that maybe if I check in some place I get a free drink or something? OK … now it’s starting to really get interesting. That’s the kind of stuff I think in the next 12 months you’re going to start seeing.”

If you’re looking for more reasons to make sure your internet speed is as fast as it possibly can be, then you want to see what went on at The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference. As one of many articles about SXSW on the L.A.Times Tech blog explains, “The South by Southwest Interactive conference draws thousands of geeks every year who converge on Austin, Texas, to discuss technology, the Internet and the next big thing.”
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But SXSW.com tells us it’s for more than just techies, by offering “the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW® is the premier destination for discovery.”

It began 24 years ago as a music festival and has expanded to embrace the future. They describe SXSW Interactive this way: “An incubator of cutting-edge technologies, the SXSW® Interactive Festival brings together the world’s most creative web developers, designers, bloggers, wireless innovators, content producers, programmers, widget inventors and new media entrepreneurs. Five days of captivating keynote presentations and provocative panel sessions provide hands-on training as well as big-picture analysis of the future of this industry.”

There was also a Trade Show & Exhibition, hands-on gaming fun at the ScreenBurn Arcade, and their 13th Annual Web Awards. The ceremony took place on Sunday, March 14th.  See the winners at their website.  The Interactive sessions ended yesterday, but film is on ‘til the 20th and the music goes on until Sunday, March 21st.

If you want to feel better about not being in attendance this year, read this article on TechCrunch that urges you NOT to go!  But if you want to just learn what happened, check out the L.A.Times Tech blog or SXSW’s Interactive News.

The BBC has a new series called Superpower – Exploring the Power of the Internet. Each episode explores a different aspect of how the world has changed with internet speed, and how we’ll likely never be the same.

The first episode is called On/Off, and in it they connect one remote Nigerian community by putting them online, while taking a South Korean family offline. South Korea is one of the most connected countries in the world, so that promises to be interesting.

In Blogworld, they explore the lives, stories and news from the best bloggers around the world. Virtual Revolution talks about how the web has reshaped our lives. Digital Giants talks to Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales as well as other key players who share their visions for the future of the web. SuperPower Nation finds out what the world is talking about in a unique, multilingual, interactive program. The Power of the Web looks at how disabled people from around the world share their experiences and become empowered by the web.

From their website,  they invite you to share a video about how you see the world, follow them on Twitter, or interact in other ways, including a click on a link to see what the world’s top 100 websites are with their interactive graphic, as measured by the Nielsen company.  You probably won’t be surprised that:

Searches are dominated by Google, MSN/Windows Live/Bing, and Yahoo
Retail: Ebay, Amazon
Social Network: Facebook dominates
Wikipedia dominates the Reference category
Video = YouTube
Blogging = Blogger, followed by WordPress and then Six Apart
Financial = PayPal
Travel = Trip Advisor

You can also check out their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BBCSuperPowerseason to explore their various stories.

“According to the FBI the number of reported laptop thefts increased almost 48 percent over the last two years, from 73,700 to almost 109,000. The number of reported phone robberies jumped 33 percent over the same period, from 60,100 to nearly 80,300… With GadgetTrak’s sneaky defenses, it almost makes you wish your BlackBerry or MacBook gets snatched,” Steven Bertoni of Forbes said.

Yes, GadgetTrak promises that “If your laptop is stolen, our software will tell you where it is, who has it and even what they’re wearing. (Ninjas not included)”.  The Ninjas are figurative, of course, living inside the laptop once you’ve installed the software. But you might be tempted to test them by having a friend make off with your prized possessions, and you might even enjoy it.

The software is designed to take advantage of integrated web cameras and wi-fi. When remotely activated the software will capture photos of the thief as well as well as their specific location every 30 minutes and send it to your email with lightning, or rather, internet speed. The photos also go to your Flickr account. No additional password prompts appear so the thief is unaware the software is tracking them. Muah ah ah!

They have software for PC or Mac laptops, as well as for Blackberry, Windows Mobile and iPhones.  In addition, they’ve got one for removable media and even lost and found tags, for when your device isn’t stolen, just lost, and ready to be returned by a good Samaritan. They’ve even got a data backup solution to ensure your data is safe in the event you laptop is stolen.  They’ve got you covered!