A few more tidbits on the Softbank Mobile turnaround, for which helped architect the mobile platform. SoftBank phones have a “Y!”-button which links to Yahoo!-keitai. Yahoo-Keitai! offers a list of official sites, new services (e.g. a new communicator service), and also access to free mobile internet sites through the YAHOO directory, as well as access…
Category: trends
my new publishing technique is unstoppable – but why limit to blog posts? GET Introspection URI scan the list of workspaces for the collection you want to post to GET to Collection URI read the nice [atom] feed POST to the collection URI push an item formatted as [a nice atom entry] GET or HEAD…
Congrats to Opera Mini on its first anniversary. I just installed it on my new SLVR, and the download is an astounding 98k. Why can’t more software be this lean? And yes, Y! search came as the default. -m
The nofollow setting on an outbound link should be a user-editable option, subject to the same community process that all other content on wikipedia already is. (Site guidelines, dispute resolution, restricted editing on certain articles for unregistered users, etc.) By default, links would get nofollow, but over time, they could be ‘blessed’, perhaps after a…
And a few not so open… Q: Does the iPhone (or specifically the desktop-grade Safari browser) make the “mobile web” obsolete? A: The “mobile web”, as we know it today, will become obsolete without any help. Things change. Devices improve. That said, the context in which one uses the web is different, and there will…
(Press release) Starting today, Y! is the exclusive search partner for Opera Mini across more than 100 countries. The release also names “oneSearch”, going live later in Q1–definitely something to keep an eye on. -m
I don’t. If you resolve to do something, don’t wait for a certain calendar date–just do it. -m
This “click-through” license on an Edison-style phonograph cylinder has been making the rounds. But don’t miss the front side: a giant photo of Edison himself, and his name in the largest font possible. As the photo caption says: They really weren’t concerned with artist promotion, I guess. From day one, the record companies have been…
ZDNet Asia offers a rare glimpse inside Yahoo! Mobile, including the code name for a current project I’m involved with. Read on to get an idea why I keep saying to expect big things soon in this space. -m
A brief nod to the east: now Japanese mobile users have the option to switch carriers while keeping their existing number. This development is triggering a new round of competition among the carriers and bringing in a new era of free content, something we take for granted in the U.S. -m
Check out this site from Dreamhost: Files Forever. All files are DRM-free and can be re-downloaded at any time. Expect to see more of this from an unhealthy market that wants to break free from artificial constraints. Currenly in beta and open only to Dreamhost customers. -m
Today Softbank Mobile launched a new mobile service, delivering tons of Yahoo! Japan content, powered by Yahoo! US technology, to Softbank Mobile phones. This is notable for a few reasons: In the past, content of this caliber been inside paid walled gardens in Japan. Opening this up could be the tipping point for a shake-up…
Another example of a small, useful spec defined in a language humans can actually read and understand. It also seems incredibly useful to be able to print basic things without going through the multi-megabyte printer driver madness that everyone else seems to be going for. -m
Another cool thing on the way: this Friday is the first public Yahoo! Hack Day. I’ll be out on the lawn for sure. If you’ll be there–look me up. Since the presentations come rapid-fire at the end, here Chad Dickerson has some tips on presenting in 90 seconds. -m
Spotted via Weinberger. Hiawatha Bray of The Boston Globe writes about Yahoo’s continuing foray against DRM, led by David Goldberg. -m
For the first time today, I momentarily wished that jEdit had a particular Emacs key binding, not the other way around. -m
A must-read posting from Mark Birbeck, who knows a few things about XForms and Web Forms 2.0. He talks about the respective approaches embodied in XForms and Web Forms 2.0, and concludes that the primary difference between them has little to do with simplicity. He goes on to analyze differences in how developers and users…
Most of the censorship stories you hear on the news involve public libraries, but right now I’m writing this from a hospital, which has free wi-fi. Someone providing a service like this has latitude to do pretty much as they please, including censorship, but is it a good idea? The system here evidently consists of…
Interesting, but not surprising. The source article talks about revenue share unhappiness, but that seems like a bit of a stretch for a deal only inked six months ago. There’s some more interesting analysis in there as well. It was the open secret in the industry that both Voda and T-Mobile were beginning to have…
Hmm, this seems like a new feature, auto-installed after my last mail client restart. Unfortunately, there’s no “what’s this?” link for further information. I find it interesting that the scam message wasn’t also labeled as “Junk”. Also, for some reason, the word ‘scam’ feels unexpectedly slangy in this setting. Great feature, I just wish I…
A few pics up on Flickr. Still recovering from travel, more soon. -m
Yes, the devastating two-pronged attack is in full swing. Link. -m
Write up by Duncan Cragg. More and more momentum is building for this meme. -m
According to the authoratative site. Looks like the virtualization markup is getting interesting. -m
A little bit back, Cringely had a brilliant column about billable events and the last mile. Everything the telcos (and others) do these days is primarily aimed at creating billable events. This includes the net neutrality debates. In fact, at&t is so skilled at revenuing, they can generate billable events out of nothing at all….
My earlier nofollow post is now officially the most-spammed blog posting I’ve ever written. All this despite a moderation system–the spammers are getting zero benefit from all this. Deterrent techniques are not working; there will always be some small percentage of “unprotected” sites that the bad guys are happy to exploit. Adding insult, even after…
From mnot: the return of the Link: headers, last seen in RFC 2068, and a new header, Link-Template, which has me salivating over the possibilities. I wonder, will this lead to better libraries for dealing with HTTP headers? Or at least better developer understanding of the benefits of not just taking whatever Apache or Tomcat…
Hey Podcasters out there…post a picture of your mixer on your blog or favorite photo sharing site. As a bonus, you’ll have a “backup” of your settings for future reference. Give it the tag “mixerpic” so we can all find it later. -m