WordPress 3.0, the thirteenth major release of WordPress and the culmination of half a year of work by 218 contributors, is now available for download (or upgrade within your dashboard). Major new features in this release include a sexy new default theme called Twenty Ten. Theme developers have new APIs that allow them to easily implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus (no more file editing), post types, and taxonomies. (Twenty Ten theme shows all of that off.) Developers and network admins will appreciate the long-awaited merge of MU and WordPress, creating the new multi-site functionality which makes it possible to run one blog or ten million from the same installation. As a user, you will love the new lighter interface, the contextual help on every screen, the 1,217 bug fixes and feature enhancements, bulk updates so you can upgrade 15 plugins at once with a single click.

For a more comprehensive look at everything that has improved in 3.0 check out 3.0’s Codex page or the long list of issues in Trac.

Source: WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious”
Download: WordPress 3.0

Singapore, December 2, 2009 – Google today announced the launch of Street View in Singapore, allowing users to view and navigate 360 degree street-level imagery of Singapore. Taken by Street View cars along all public roads earlier this year, the imagery includes iconic locations like Orchard Road, Marina Bay and Clarke Quay; cultural areas like Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam; and the heartland like Tampines, Jurong and Woodlands. In addition to viewing the images on your PC, Street View can be accessed on your mobile phone, meaning you now have a virtual photo-based street guide of Singapore in your pocket. See it for yourself at maps.google.com.sg.

First launched in May 2007, Street View is hugely popular worldwide and is available in more than 100 metropolitan areas around the world. Singapore is the first country in Southeast Asia to get Street View and the fourth country in Asia Pacific after Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

In areas where Street View is available, you can access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange “Pegman” icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street. You can check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, get a helping hand with geography homework, or just explore and get to know Singapore better. The coolest way to use Street View is on smartphones so users can do all of this fun stuff on-the-go, anytime, anywhere.

Organisations can also benefit from the Street View technology by putting a business listing on Google Maps for free or embedding Google Maps directly into their websites at no charge. The street-level imagery of their location can help them to promote and increase awareness of their business – whether its a chain of restaurants, a library, a local attraction or even a new hotel. For more tips and videos about using Street View in Singapore, visit maps.google.com.sg/streetview.

Andrew McGlinchey, Google’s Head of Product Management in Southeast Asia said, “Street View has been hugely popular with our Google Maps users worldwide so we’re thrilled to extend our Street View coverage to Singapore. Imagine all the great uses of Street View here, from promoting tourist hotspots to hunting for property to educating students about historic buildings, and of course, getting directions and searching for businesses. Street View will allow locals and visitors to visit places in Singapore they may not have had a chance to experience before.”

Our launch partner, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), is very pleased with Street View’s ability to showcase some of Singapore’s best-loved tourist attractions and hidden gems to a global audience. Said Mr Ken Low, Assistant Chief Executive (Marketing), STB, “STB is very excited by Street View’s marketing potential as it will further raise Singapore’s prominence and reach through the Internet. People unfamiliar with Singapore can now get a first look at our city. The convenience of Google Maps, and the Street View feature, will give people from anywhere in the world a much better idea and picture of what Singapore looks like, and what it has to offer and we welcome private sector initiatives such as these which help us add value to our visitors’ experiences.”

Singaporean businesses and organizations keen to leverage Street View

Many other Singaporean businesses and organisations have already identified significant opportunities for Street View to be used in travel, tourism, house buying and renting, education and helping make small businesses easier to find.

Chris Robb, Managing Director of Spectrum Worldwide, OCBC Cycle Singapore event owner and organiser said, “Spectrum Worldwide and OCBC Cycle Singapore are thrilled to be the first local sporting event to use Google Street View to provide participants with the ability to virtually cycle the routes before event day. Street View will also give OCBC Cycle Singapore supporters an opportunity to find vantage points and see what the cyclists will tackle in March next year.”

Patrick Grove, Executive Chairman, iProperty.com Group said, “We welcome the opportunity to incorporate Street View on our website with the potential of providing a whole new approach for property search in Singapore for our users. Street View could benefit users in selecting the relevant properties to visit by providing detailed visual insights of the surrounding public transport, malls and other amenities. In short, the online property search process becomes less time-consuming, more informative, more efficient and most importantly resulting in smarter decisions made for your dream home.”

PropertyGuru’s Co-founder and Director Steve Melhuish said, “We are looking forward to having Street View on www.PropertyGuru.com.sg as it offers our users a new and unique way to view the location of properties and save time in their search. It’s an amazing tool that will allow our users to see each property and its surroundings and help them get a real feel for the area without having to physically be there. For those who are looking around to buy or rent a home in Singapore, the search just got easier!”

The winner of the Street View Trike online vote is…

Google and STB also announced the winners of the online poll in which the Singapore public voted for the best tourist attractions to be photographed by the Street View trike. Google received thousands of suggestions and votes over the past month and the top winner in each of the four voting categories are: Chinatown, Pagoda Street and Mosque Street for ‘Cultural Areas’; the Southern Ridge, Henderson Wave Bridge, Hort Park and Kent Ridge for ‘Hidden Gems’; Sentosa’s beaches and trails for ‘Natural Wonders’; and the Quays (Robertson, Clarke, Boat) and the Fullerton for ‘The City’.

And the top spot goes to… Sentosa, Asia’s favourite playground, which received the most number of votes to be hailed as Singapore’s most popular tourist attraction! These top voted locations will get a visit from the trike first while it is here in Singapore. The images it collects will later appear in Street View to help millions of Google users in Singapore and all over the world get a special view of some of Singapore’s famous attractions and inspire them to visit the attractions for themselves.

Privacy features built into Street View

Google has also gone to great lengths to safeguard privacy while allowing all Singaporean users to benefit from Street View. Street View only contains imagery that is already visible from public roads and features technology that blurs both faces and licence plates. In addition, any user can easily flag images for removal that he or she considers inappropriate by clicking on “Report a problem”. Google has consulted extensively with many privacy and community groups around the world in developing these privacy features and safeguards.

For more information, check out Press Release Site.

Singapore, November 19, 2009 – With a daily public transport ridership of 6 million travelling by buses, taxi and trains; and more than 870,000 other vehicles on the roads in Singapore, commuters and motorists can now better plan their trips on Google Maps through a unique collaboration between Google and Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA). Mapping, directions and route planning for various forms of land transport modes – from buses to trains to cars to even by walking – are now all available for free on Google Maps. Transit and traffic information are also available on mobile devices with Google Maps for Mobile, so commuters and motorists can check the latest updates to make route changes on-the-go.

Singapore is the first country in the world to provide this comprehensive range and nation-wide coverage of land transport options on Google’s global online map platform. Today at the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, LTA’s Chief Executive, Mr Yam Ah Mee, and Google’s Geospatial Technologist, Mr Ed Parsons, launched this new service at maps.google.com.sg/transport.

Under this collaborative effort, LTA provided key transit and traffic information such as live traffic feeds and public bus/MRT routes and schedules. Google combined the high quality of LTA’s transit data, and worked with Quantum Inventions, a Singapore company, to integrate traffic data, on the popular and familiar user interface of Google Maps. The integration of LTA’s information on Google Maps complements existing LTA and third-party travel planning tools for commuters.

Whether a private car owner switching to go by bus or MRT, or a public transit rider choosing to drive or take a taxi, or even one of 10 million international visitors each year finding their way around, the Singapore public can now check all of their land transport options to make an informed decision on the quickest, most convenient route and method to reach their destinations. For example, each time a Google Maps user requests driving directions, the user will be given the opportunity to plan the same trip using public transit – a useful option when the driving route is highlighted as red or experiencing heavy congestion.

“In line with LTA’s vision for a people-centred public transport system, we have launched several initiatives to help commuters better manage their travel time, transfers, and make more informed transport decisions. Recent initiatives include PublicTransport@SG which has received good responses of 679,000 average page views monthly,” said Mr Yam Ah Mee, Chief Executive, LTA. “The collaboration with Google is another step in this direction to make it even easier for the public to plan their trips with transit and traffic information on Google Maps, whether travelling to their nearest shopping mall or across the island to their favourite eating joint.”

“Google’s goal is to bring LTA’s accurate, comprehensive land transport information together on a global mapping platform for easy access, search and use on PCs and mobile phones by millions of Singaporeans and Google Maps users around the world,” said Mr Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, Google. “Google Maps seeks to provide users with tools to help them explore the world around them and working with LTA to improve the daily lives of Singaporeans is an example of how Google can partner with government agencies to serve the public on a national scale.”

Mapplets increase usefulness of Google Maps

Mapplets are useful mini-applications developed by third parties that can be added directly on to Google Maps Singapore. With just a single click of the mouse, users can customize their Google Maps by adding useful tools created just for Singapore.

The three highlighted mapplets on the left navigation panel on maps.google.com.sg are incidents, ERP locations/rates, and cycle routes (from National Parks Board). The incidents mapplet is based on LTA data and displays real-time traffic incidents, constructions, and road closures island-wide. If the traffic looks sluggish, you can find out what is causing it by clicking on the pin to get additional details such as when and where the incident happened.

Other Singapore mapplets can be found in the My Maps directory including petrol station finder, carpark finder, highway cameras and more.

More Information at the press release site, http://sites.pressatgoogle.com/sgtransport/ or visit Google Maps Singapore to have a feel of it.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. and REDMOND, Wash. – 29 July, 2009 – Yahoo! and Microsoft announced an agreement that will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry. In simple terms, Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.

Pretty interesting agreement terms!

• The term of the agreement is 10 years;
• Microsoft will acquire an exclusive 10 year license to Yahoo!’s core search technologies, and Microsoft will have the ability to integrate Yahoo! search technologies into its existing web search platforms;
• Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing display advertising technology.
• Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers. Self-serve advertising for both companies will be fulfilled by Microsoft’s AdCenter platform, and prices for all search ads will continue to be set by AdCenter’s automated auction process.
• Each company will maintain its own separate display advertising business and sales force.
• Yahoo! will innovate and “own” the user experience on Yahoo! properties, including the user experience for search, even though it will be powered by Microsoft technology.
• Microsoft will compensate Yahoo! through a revenue sharing agreement on traffic generated on Yahoo!’s network of both owned and operated (O&O) and affiliate sites.
• Microsoft will pay traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to Yahoo! at an initial rate of 88% of search revenue generated on Yahoo!’s O&O sites during the first 5 years of the agreement.
• Yahoo! will continue to syndicate its existing search affiliate partnerships.
• Microsoft will guarantee Yahoo!’s O&O revenue per search (RPS) in each country for the first 18 months following initial implementation in that country.
• At full implementation (expected to occur within 24 months following regulatory approval), Yahoo! estimates, based on current levels of revenue and current operating expenses, that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual GAAP operating income of approximately $500 million and capital expenditure savings of approximately $200 million. Yahoo! also estimates that this agreement will provide a benefit to annual operating cash flow of approximately $275 million.
• The agreement protects consumer privacy by limiting the data shared between the companies to the minimum necessary to operate and improve the combined search platform, and restricts the use of search data shared between the companies. The agreement maintains the industry-leading privacy practices that each company follows today.

Source: Microsoft, Yahoo! Change Search Landscape

What is YOURLS?

YOURLS is a small set of PHP scripts that will allow you to run your own URL shortening service (a la TinyURL). You can make it private or public, you can pick custom keyword URLs, it comes with its own API. You will love it.

There’s a WordPress plugin available for YOURLS, making integration with your blog a snap: create short URLs and tweet them automagically as you publish blog posts.

Check out Ozh blog post on the announcement, Introducing YOURLS (Your Own URL Shortener) and its WordPress Plugin Companion.

YOURLS comes with a WordPress Plugin as well and this plugin is developed by Ozh.

YOURLS WordPress Plugin

This plugin, YOURLS: WordPress to Twitter, is the bridge between YOURLS, Twitter and your blog: when you publish a post or a page, it will use your own YOURLS install, either hosted on the same webserver, or another server, to create a short URL for your post and send it to your Twitter account. The plugin also works with public popular services such as TinyURL, tr.im, is.gd or bit.ly.

Check out Ozh blog post on the WordPress plugin, YOURLS: WordPress To Twitter (a Short URL Plugin).

You can follow us on Twitter as well, Ozh and gamerz.

Official Site: YOURLS: Your Own URL Shortener

Here is the quote from Matt:

I’m very excited to announce to everyone that the latest and greatest version of WordPress, version 2.8 “Baker,” is immediately available for download. 2.8 represents a nice fit and finish release for WordPress with improvements to themes, widgets, taxonomies, and overall speed. We also fixed over 790 bugs. This release is named in honor of noted trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker.

Major New Improvements
First and foremost, 2.8 is way faster to use. We’ve changed the way WordPress does style and scripting.

The core and plugin updaters in previous versions of WordPress have been such a success we decided to bring the same to themes. You can now browse the entire theme directory and install a theme with one click from the comfort of your WordPress dashboard.

If you make edits or tweaks to themes or plugins from your dashboard, you’ll appreciate the new CodePress editor which gives syntax highlighting to the previously-plain editor. Also there is now contextual documentation for the functions in the file you’re editing linked right below the editor.

If you were ever frustrated with widgets before, this release should be your savior. We’ve completely redesigned the widgets interface (which we didn’t have time to in 2.7) to allow you to do things like edit widgets on the fly, have multiple copies of the same widget, drag and drop widgets between sidebars, and save inactive widgets so you don’t lose all their settings. Developers now have access to a much cleaner and robust API for creating widgets as well.

Finally you should explore the new Screen Options on every page. It’s the tab in the top right. Now, for example, if you have a wide monitor you could set up your dashboard to have four columns of widgets instead of the two it has by default. On other pages you can change how many items show per page.

Download: WordPress 2.8

View: WordPress 2.8 Changelog

Here is a tutorial on how to forward your incoming Hotmail emails to your Gmail account.

1. Go to your hotmail inbox and click on “Options” and then “More Options”
2. Click on “Mobile Alerts for new messages”.
3. Click on Sign up for Windows Live Mobile – it’s free and easy!
4. Select your service provider
5. Enter your mobile number
6. Finish the rest of the sign-up process. Don’t check the boxes for Hotmail alerts and MSN alerts!
7. In the sign-up settings specify to NOT receive any SMS alerts for Hotmail messages. Leave the other settings to stay as specified in your Hotmail account.
8. Finish the subscription. You’ll now receive an activation SMS with a 4 digit code. Enter this code on the activation page. This is the only sms you’ll receive and pay through your mobile carrier.
9. After the subscription visit your Hotmail account with your web browser. Now go to “options”=>”more options”.
10. In the section “Customize your mail” go to option “mobile alerts for new messages” and make sure the option “None. Never send me mobile alerts” is selected. You will never receive any alert sms by setting this option so you will stay free of charges! Press save.
11. In the section “Manage your account” visit “Forward mail to another e-mail account”.
12. Fill in any e-mail address you want your Hotmail to be forwarded to, for instance your Gmail account. Press save and confirm the setting by clicking the link in the e-mail that has been sent to your Gmail account. The setting has now been accepted by Hotmail!
13. Go to Gmail. Click on Settings, go to Forwarding and POP/IMAP
14. Enable IMAP. Save the changes.
15. Click Settings and then Accounts, Select “Add another email address”. Enter your hotmail address here.
16. Your hotmail address should now show up just above the line. Select the hotmail address as “Make default”.
17. Make sure in the option “When I receive a message sent to one of my addresses” has “Always reply from my default address (currently youremailaddress@hotmail.com” is selected.
18. Now go to Hotmail. In your inbox, there should be a message from Gmail; you need to click on a link in that message.

Note: You may still need to login to your Hotmail account to ensure that it is not deactivated due to inactivity.

PS: I am still trying it, so it may or may not work. I am still waiting for MS to send me the 4 digit code. Microsoft CANNOT make it when it comes to online services.

Credits: shiahzy of Hardware Zone Forums

Our very own, sq.com (Singapore Airlines) is on the list but I have no idea whether they registered it or bought it from someone later on.

It takes about 2 years just to get 100 .com domains to be bought up, but now I guess it takes like few hours?

During 1985 I was just 1 year old! Imagine if you have purchases a few 3 letters domains, I think you will be a millionaire by now.

1. symbolics.com: March 15, 1985
2. bbn.com: April 24, 1985
3. think.com: May 24, 1985
4. mcc.com: July 11, 1985
5. dec.com: Sept. 30, 1985
6. northrop.com: Nov. 7, 1985
7. xerox.com: Jan. 9, 1986
8. sri.com: Jan. 17, 1986
9. hp.com: March 3, 1986
10. bellcore.com: March 5, 1986
11. ibm.com: March 19, 1986
12. sun.com: March 19, 1986
13. intel.com: March 25, 1986
14. ti.com: March 25, 1986
15. att.com: April 25, 1986
16. gmr.com: May 8, 1986
17. tek.com: May 8, 1986
18. fmc.com: July 10, 1986
19. ub.com: July 10, 1986
20. bell-atl.com: Aug. 5, 1986
21. ge.com: Aug. 5, 1986
22. grebyn.com: Aug. 5, 1986
23. isc.com: Aug. 5, 1986
24. nsc.com: Aug. 5, 1986
25. stargate.com: Aug. 5, 1986
26. boeing.com: Sept. 2, 1986
27. itcorp.com: Sept. 18, 1986
28. siemens.com: Sept. 29, 1986
29. pyramid.com: Oct. 18, 1986
30. alphacdc.com: Oct. 27, 1986
31. bdm.com: Oct. 27, 1986
32. fluke.com: Oct. 27, 1986
33. inmet.com: Oct. 27, 1986
34. kesmai.com: Oct. 27, 1986
35. mentor.com: Oct. 27, 1986
36. nec.com: Oct. 27, 1986
37. ray.com: Oct. 27, 1986
38. rosemount.com: Oct. 27, 1986
39. vortex.com: Oct. 27, 1986
40. alcoa.com: Nov. 5, 1986
41. gte.com: Nov. 5, 1986
42. adobe.com: Nov. 17, 1986
43. amd.com: Nov. 17, 1986
44. das.com: Nov. 17, 1986
45. data-io.com: Nov. 17, 1986
46. octopus.com: Nov. 17, 1986
47. portal.com: Nov. 17, 1986
48. teltone.com: Nov. 17, 1986
49. 3com.com: Dec. 11, 1986
50. amdahl.com: Dec. 11, 1986
51. ccur.com: Dec. 11, 1986
52. ci.com: Dec. 11, 1986
53. convergent.com: Dec. 11, 1986
54. dg.com: Dec. 11, 1986
55. peregrine.com: Dec. 11, 1986
56. quad.com: Dec. 11, 1986
57. sq.com: Dec. 11, 1986
58. tandy.com: Dec. 11, 1986
59. tti.com: Dec. 11, 1986
60. unisys.com: Dec. 11, 1986
61. cgi.com: Jan. 19, 1987
62. cts.com: Jan. 19, 1987
63. spdcc.com: Jan. 19, 1987
64. apple.com: Feb. 19, 1987
65. nma.com: March 4, 1987
66. prime.com: March 4, 1987
67. philips.com: April 4, 1987
68. datacube.com: April 23, 1987
69. kai.com: April 23, 1987
70. tic.com: April 23, 1987
71. vine.com: April 23, 1987
72. ncr.com: April 30, 1987
73. cisco.com: May 14, 1987
74. rdl.com: May 14, 1987
75. slb.com: May 20, 1987
76. parcplace.com: May 27, 1987
77. utc.com: May 27, 1987
78. ide.com: June 26, 1987
79. trw.com: July 9, 1987
80. unipress.com: July 13, 1987
81. dupont.com: July 27, 1987
82. lockheed.com: July 27, 1987
83. rosetta.com: July 28, 1987
84. toad.com: Aug. 18, 1987
85. quick.com: Aug. 31, 1987
86. allied.com: Sept. 3, 1987
87. dsc.com: Sept. 3, 1987
88. sco.com: Sept. 3, 1987
89. gene.com: Sept. 22, 1987
90. kccs.com: Sept. 22, 1987
91. spectra.com: Sept. 22, 1987
92. wlk.com: Sept. 22, 1987
93. mentat.com: Sept. 30, 1987
94. wyse.com: Oct. 14, 1987
95. cfg.com: Nov. 2, 1987
96. marble.com: Nov. 9, 1987
97. cayman.com: Nov. 16, 1987
98. entity.com: Nov. 16, 1987
99. ksr.com: Nov. 24, 1987
100. nynexst.com: Nov. 30, 1987

Source: http://www.iwhois.com/oldest/ via Neowin: First 100 .com domains ever registered

This is really a RETARDED decision by ICANN. I think when they are in need of money, they will just launch a new TLD and companies will have to buy them to protect their intellectual property.

This is just another form of business to them as you can see they are charging $50K to $100K for the new names, which is ridiculously priced.

At its meeting in Paris, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a not-for-profit organization that oversees the naming scheme for web sites, voted to accept a proposal that will allow companies to purchase new top-level domain names ending in almost whatever suffix they choose.

So, for example, instead of being restricted to sites ending in .com or .org., eBay could have a site that ends in .ebay, or New York City could end its website address with .nyc.

The new naming process will begin in 2009. The first suffixes will probably be given to businesses and other major organizations. Countries are expected to keep their specific suffixes, but, as in the example above, cities could also get individualized URLs, such as .london or .chicago.

In an effort to deter cybersquatters, the organization is likely to charge a hefty price for the new names. Some experts have estimated that the new domain names could cost anywhere from $50,000 (£25,200) to $100,000 or more. ICANN plans to give companies with trademarked names priority for those names.

Source: ‘.wow’: ICANN to allow almost any domain suffix

• Microsoft releases the long awaited Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows Update
• Apple releases Safari 3.1
• Intel officially announced new 6-core processor codenamed “Dunnington” and new Itanium processor codenamed “Tukwila”
• NVIDIA officially launched GeForce 9 – 9800 GX2
• Nokia officially announced N82 in Black
• Engadget played with iPhone Firmware 2.0
• WordPress releases the long awaited WordPress 2.5 Release Candidate 1

Did I missed out any technological news?

I would like to have the chairs and monitors used by Facebook!

Mentioned: Frro Blog
Source: UADDit: Web 2.0 Workplaces

The so-called landrush for the latest domain name suffix – .asia – has begun.

DotAsia, the organisation overseeing the registration, is expecting huge demand for the first domain name extension for the Asia Pacific region.

But some in the industry are concerned about the proliferation of domain name suffixes in recent years.

While others think that the business of buying domain names has become more about protecting brands than promoting them.

Cybersquatting

Work to create the .asia domain began in 2000 with the DotAsia Organisation winning official approval to set up the domain in 2006.

A so-called sunrise period, where companies can reserve domains to match their trademarks, has been ongoing since October.

Now the process has been opened up for anyone to register and the first .asia domains will go live on the internet in March.

Thomas Herbert, a product manager from UK hosting firm and registrar Hostway, believes the nature of buying domain names has changed, largely due to the lucrative businesses of cybersquatting.

Website: DotAsia Organisation
Source: BBC: Domain name for Asia up for grabs

HTML 5 is designed to reflect this, with APIs for drawing two-dimensional graphics, embedding and controlling multimedia, managing client-side data storage and editing parts of documents. Turning to more bread-and-butter stuff, HTML 5 will also make it easier to represent familiar page elements.

HTML 5 is designed to inject more consistency into the ways vendors and end users have gone about building today’s generation of sites. According to the W3C, HTML 5 will: “Improve interoperability and reduce software costs by giving precise rules not only about how to handle all correct HTML documents but also how to recover errors.”

Source: Major HTML update unveiled

And now for the juicy part, here are some new elements that will be available:

• dialog
• figure
• audio
• video
• m
• meter
• time
• datagrid
• datalist
• progress

Full List: HTML 5 Differences From HTML 4

Dont you just love how Facebook has an application for everything possible? Dont you just love wading through your friends Facebook profiles with the simple goal of finding their Wall? Dont you just love how Facebook is looking more and more like MySpace every single day? Fear no more, the Facebook Platform Team has a plan to unclutter profiles: a œprofile clean-up tool. Essentially, the tool will give users the option to move extra profile boxes to an œextended portion of their profile. At the bottom of the profile page there will be a link to œShow Extended Profile which expands the profile for viewing all of the users applications. This should mean a cleaner look, and faster loading pages. Personally, I would much prefer a œhide all 3rd party crap feature, but this move seems to be a step in the right direction.

Finally they have decided to do it, I just hate it when any Facebook Profile has more than 10 applications installed. It just make the loading time increased by 932408932402 times and the chances of crashing your browser by 903248234 times.

They should also have an option called “Disable All Invitations By 3rd Party Applications” in your settings page or perhaps a “Ignore All 3rd Party Applications” in the notifications page.

Hello,

Today we begin a new chapter in the history of phpBB. After five years, over 200,000 lines of new and altered code, and many a long night phpBB Group is very proud to announce the release of phpBB3 “Olympus”.

phpBB has changed considerably since work on its second major release began. People have come and gone but this day would not have been reached without the hard work and dedication of all our group members, past and present. The phpBB community, all of you, also deserve a large pat on the back for continuing to support this project. Whether it be through writing mods, creating new themes, spreading the word or simply using phpBB to build new communities, our thanks to you too.

So again we say with great pride and many thanks to all those who’ve helped us reach this point – enjoy phpBB3.

Thank you.

Source: phpBB3 Gold Released
Download: phpBB3 “Olympus”

I think it is a little too late, I have switched from phpBB2 to SMF 1.1 and now I am a happy user of SMF.

Features:

• Improved Tabbed Browsing
• Spell Checking
• Search Suggestions
• Session Restore
• Web Feeds (RSS)
• Live Titles
• Live Bookmarks
• Pop-up Blocker
• Streamlined Interface
• Phishing Protection
• Automated Update
• Protection from Spyware and more….

Download: Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 (Win32) (en-US)

Source: Neowin.net – Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Beta 1

So far the list of confirmed available aliases is:

1. Country (Domain)
2. ARGENTINA (LIVE.COM.AR)
3. AUSTRALIA (LIVE.COM.AU)
4. AUSTRIA (LIVE.AT)
5. BELGIUM (LIVE.BE)
6. CANADA (LIVE.CA)
7. CHILE (LIVE.CL)
8. CHINA (LIVE.CN)
9. DENMARK (LIVE.DK)
10. FINLAND (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
11. FRANCE (LIVE.FR)
12. GERMANY (LIVE.DE)
13. HONG KONG (LIVE.HK)
14. INDONESIA (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
15. IRELAND (LIVE.IE)
16. ITALY (LIVE.IT)
17. JAPAN (LIVE.JP)
18. KOREA (LIVE.CO.KR)
19. MALAYSIA (LIVE.COM.MY)
20. MEXICO (LIVE.COM.MX)
21. NETHERLANDS (LIVE.NL)
22. NORWAY (LIVE.NO)
23. PAKISTAN (LVE.COM.PK)
24. PERU (LIVE.COM.PE)
25. PORTUGAL (LIVE.COM.PT)
26. RUSSIA (LIVE.RU)
27. SINGAPORE (LIVE.COM.SG)
28. SOUTH AFRICA (LIVE.CO.ZA)
29. SWEDEN (LIVE.SE)
30. SWITZERLAND (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
31. THAILAND (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
32. TURKEY (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)
33. UK (LIVE.CO.UK)
34. USA (LIVE.COM)
35. VIETNAM (WINDOWSLIVE.COM)

Signup is still somewhat buggy as it is being rolled out so just bear with it.

Regarding the transition from @hotmail.com to @live.com, a pretty straightforward process is given on the new Windows Live site at http://www.windowslive.com/freshstart. Although you can automatically migrate your Hotmail inbox using TrueSwitch, anything else tied to your Live ID such as your contacts, Space, Xbox Live Gamercard etc cannot be automatically moved across due to legal and privacy issues. You can manually move across your contacts by exporting and importing into Windows Live Messenger, but unfortunately that’s it. There’s some useful tips if you do want to migrate though.

Source: Register your @live.xx email now!

More Details: @Live.com Registration is opened, other @live.* too!

The application simply displays my live site traffic (users online) and the latest post for my GaMerZ.WordPress blog. The file is placed in the WordPress plugins folder but it does not need to get activated. If anybody wants the source code, just drop me an email.

GaMerZ.WordPress Facebook Application

- GaMerZ.WordPress Facebook Application Install URL
- GaMerZ.WordPress Facebook Application URL

Here are some links to help you get started:
- Facebook PHP Client Library
- Step-by-step Guide to Creating a Facebook Application
- Facebook Developers Wiki

IDN has, by the standards of the Internet, a long history; it was originally proposed in 1996 (by M. Duerst) and implemented in 1998 (by T.W.Tan et al). After much debate and many competing proposals, a system called Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) was adopted as the chosen standard, and is currently, as of 2005, in the process of being rolled out.

In IDNA, the term internationalized domain name means specifically any domain name consisting only of labels to which the IDNA ToASCII algorithm can be successfully applied.

Source: Wikipedia

I didn’t even know that existed till one of my users emailed me about it. Cool stuff here man.