Speak to Tweet – http://twitter.com/speak2tweet
All eyes have been on Egypt this week, and when it looked as if access to internet providers for the Egyptian people had been cut off, Google and Twitter joined forces so that Egyptians could use their phones to leave a voice message. These messages were then sent to the Twitter account ‘Speak to Tweet’ Now these messages are being translated by a team of volunteers and journalists.
Read the Google Blog Post : ‘Some weekend work that will (hopefully) enable more Egyptians to be heard’
Facebook Commenting
Earlier this week, Facebook announced that they are preparing to launch a commenting system for blogs comparable to that offered by services such as Disqus.
However, a similar feature was launched in February, 2009. The Facebook Developer’s blog post from 2009 says:
‘With the Comments Box, Facebook users on your site can comment on your content, post those comments to their profiles, and share them with their friends on Facebook. The Comments Box allows non-Facebook users to make comments on your site as well. And via our APIs, you can access related comments made on Facebook as well to bring the conversation together. ‘
The improvement of this existing commenting system will take its functionality much further, and may work much more like smaller commenting startups such as Disqus and Echo.
What is unclear is whether Facebook will allow users to log-in with ids for multiple web services. Currently it looks as if users will be able to use their Facebook or Twitter ids. On the other hand, Disqus currently allows users to log in and post comments using a Disqus id, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and also OpenID. Will the new facebook system be this accommodating? I do not want to force visitors to my blog to log in using just one or two particular services, so I will be continuing to use the Disqus plug-in.
Science Link! Calcite Cloak of Invisibility Coming Soon?
Last week I linked to the Kymera Wand Remote, and this week Harry Potter fans will be pleased to find that an invisibility cloak is not far behind. Well, it may be a little way off yet, but for the first time scientists have made an object large enough to be seen with the naked eye invisible. Behold! The Paper Clip of Invisibility!
Animation:
I love the style of the animated short ‘Madagascar, Carnet De Voyage’. Here is an extract:
Madagascar, carnet de voyage, extrait… from bastien dubois on Vimeo.