Your Local Library On Kindle

Cover via Amazon9 To 5 Mac: You'll be able to borrow Kindle books from 11,000 libraries, says Amazon

ReadWriteWeb: Check Out Library Books on Your Kindle: the announcement from Amazon this morning that it is launching a Lending Library "later this year" that will let Kindle owners check out books from their local library..... participation of over 11,000 libraries in the U.S. ..... the ability to actually make margin notes in your library books. You'll be able to take notes, store them privately - in other words, the next library patron won't see them - and then access them again should you check the book out again or purchase it in the future

This is huge. This kind of made my day. Does this mean all of the New York Public Library will be available on Kindle? That is pretty awesome.

Africa's Internet Strides

Image via Wikipedia

The Atlantic: The Coming Battle for Africa's Internet: Seneweb.com ... the unofficial homepage of the nation. .... the Huffington Post of Senegal -- except with far less in the way of competition. Deeply influential in Senegalese media and politics, it's where obscure reports of government waywardness go viral. On a happening day, the site fetches 200,000 unique visits and 1.3 million hits -- astounding numbers in a nation of 13 million, less than a million of whom can even get online. ....... That traffic has traditionally come not from inside Senegal but from all the motley places where West Africans travel for work -- such as Romania ..... nearly every country in the neighborhood has its Seneweb: Ghanaweb is probably the most influential, followed by Côte d'Ivoire's Abidjan.net. ...... "But now, the majority of visitors are in Senegal. The internet has taken off here." ...... as internet access becomes cheaper and more widespread ....... Less than ten percent of Africa's population has internet access ..... expects that number to grow by half every year "for the foreseeable future." ..... 100,000 miles of broadband wiring criss-crossing the world's second-largest continent like the 21st century version of a transcontinental railway. The connections start with undersea cables and extend onshore towards 3G towers within reception range of the continent's growing middle class. ......... 300 million people, each earning between $2,000 and $5,000 yearly -- not always enough to keep a router in the living room lit, but certainly enough to pay off a BlackBerry bill. The service they enjoy, smoother than its American equivalent, runs off towers that are newer and more adaptable to data transfers, which is rendering Africa's telecom transition -- from a continent of voice phones to one of pocket PCs -- more scalable than expected. ....... happening faster and faster than anybody could have imagined ..... every ten percent of a country's population that winds up online powers a percentage point and a half of yearly economic growth ...... the World Bank's offices in Sierra Leone and Liberia, which typically focus on building roads or power plants, have allocated $57 million to support a $300 million project to build a broadband cable reaching out to sea. ..... Currently, most internet access in Sierra Leone and Liberia is only by satellite, which restricts it to those who are both extremely rich and extremely patient. ....... "The impact of mobile phones clearly demonstrates that internet is something that can be transformative for the bulk of the population." ...... the converse is true as well: Africa's population could also be transformative for the internet. ...... Google offers a Craigslist-style site where Africans can shop used goods -- sheep, pool tables, balafons (a xylophone-like West African instrument) ...... Last year, Google unfurled Baraza, a question-and-answer forum for Africans ..... a phone-based bookkeeping service for shopkeepers, for example, which could do much in a part of the world where every salesman records his turnover in a notebook. He also wants to add a Blogger service to Seneweb and to sidestep Google Ads by soliciting African companies to buy banners on his site. ...... "You look at Africa, Brazil, China, India, and right there you have almost four billion of the world's consumers," Herlihy says. "They're only going to be happy using products designed for Americans for so long."

This is so exciting. This is when I was pursuing my IC vision a few years ago. It is happening, and fast. Frees up people like me to go tackle the next big thing: microfinance. We are for profit, high tech Kiva that will do the last mile under its own brand name.

News June 26

Image via CrunchBase

ReadWriteWeb

Google's Semantic Web Push: Rich Snippets
Can Augmented Reality Help Save the Planet?
Google Moves Encrypted Search to New Domain
David Boies Beat Microsoft Once - Can He Do it Again For Salesforce.com?
Traditional Media Outlets Flocking to Tumblr
Salesforce.com Countersuing Microsoft for Patent Infringement
What Not to Wear (When Pitching VCs)
Strategy Roundtable: Three Startups That Can Hit $1 Million
Google Now Distributes Chrome with Built-In Flash Player
Gmail Gets One-Click Microsoft Word Previews

All Things Digital

New iPhone Keeps Apple Top of Class
Going, Going, Almost Gone: Foursquare Poised to Get New VC Funding, After Being “One Inch” From Sale to Facebook
CEO Jim Balsillie: BlackBerry Ready to Play Quantum Leapfrog
Netflix Grabs a Yahoo to Help Run Its Web Video Business
Get ’em, Boies: Salesforce Countersues Microsoft
Coke Takes Out a Free Ad for Twitter Ads
77 Percent of Early iPhone 4 Sales Were Upgrades
Another Surprise at Second Life Creator; Founder is CEO Again
Medvedev’s Silicon Valley Dreams Won’t Happen Overnight

Ars Technica

For 1 billion speakers, domain names officially go Chinese
Reports: most iPhone 4 line-waiters are iPhone upgraders
"Organic" pesticides aren't necessarily "green" pesticides
Win Phone 7 launches in October as an "ad-serving machine"
UK regulator: net neutrality rules bad for consumers
UK paper requires free Web accounts; traffic plunges
US goes after movie pirates in Estonia, counterfeiters in Tanzania

GigaOm

eBay’s Crossroads: Turn Around or Break Up
Apple’s iPhone 4: Is That a Smartphone in Your Pocket?
The Big Shift: The Rise of Cloud Computing
The Wide-open Door to the Mobile Enterprise
Android This Week: Flash 10.1 Arrives; Smartbook Sans Touch
Metrics: Corporate Web Working Effectiveness by the Numbers
Intel’s Bad Bet on WiMAX Pays Off for TD-LTE
Is Facebook’s Social Search Engine a Google Killer?
Hulu Plus Coming to iPad, Xbox Playstation Next Week?

Digits

Here’s What Happens On Facebook During World Cup Games
The Vulcan iPhone Pinch: The Right Way to Hold Your Phone
Tech Tweets of the Week: Everybody was World Cup WatchingDigits Live Show: BlackBerry Struggles to Keep Up with iPhoneIridium Patents Soar Anew in Licensing Deal
China Carrier Hopes to Offer iPhone 4, iPad
Is 3-D Here to Stay?

Bits

Doodle Jump Reaches Five Million Downloads
Studio Ghibli to Make Games
What We’re Reading: Fake PR
What We’re Reading: App Creep
Opening Day: The iPhone 4
Class Action Against Apple and AT&T Is Amended
Yahoo Rolls Out a Renovated Flickr
Motorola, Verizon and Google Unite to Introduce the Droid X
IPhone 4 Reviews: The Pundits Weigh In
What We’re Reading: Life as a Computer
Three Million iPads Sold but Frustration for Some Customers
Opening Day: The iPhone 4
Verizon Sends Out the Droids
Droid or Not, Verizon Still Wants the iPhone
After New Ads, Doubts Grow About a Verizon iPhone
Why Can’t PCs Work More Like iPhones?

Technology Review

Moore's Outlaws
Nanotubes Give Batteries a Jolt
A Private Social Network for Cell Phones
Inexpensive, Unbreakable Displays
Working Toward a Smarter, Faster Cloud
Where Gmail Is Going
Solar's Great Leap Forward
A Simpler Route to Plastic Solar Cells
Hack: iPad 3G
How Wi-Fi Drains Your Cell Phone
Real-Time Search
Mobile 3-D
Engineered Stem Cells
Solar Fuel
Light-Trapping Photovoltaics,
Social TV
Implantable Electronics
Green Concrete
Dual-Action Antibodies
Cloud Programming
America's Broadband Dilemma
Better Batteries
To Market
Biofuels
Solar Power
Tomorrow's Car
A Way to Share Music and Movies from Any Device
Technology Overview: Designing for Mobility
Mobile Data: A Gold Mine for Telcos
Surveillance Software Knows What a Camera Sees
Reinventing the Gasoline Engine
Startup Aims for Perfect Pixels
Drug Targets Lupus by Tricking Immune System
Computer Security
Can AIDS Be Cured?
The Global Broadband Spectrum
Computer SecurityMicroprocessors
Personalized Medicine
Media
Transportation
Electricity
Cloud Computing
Photovoltaics Come of Age
New Quantum Theory Separates Gravitational and Inertial Mass
How To Destroy A Black Hole
How to Prevent Deepwater Spills
How to Prevent Language Extinction
One Tablet per Child
3-D Without the Glasses
America's Broadband Dilemma
Mobile Data: A Gold Mine for Telcos
Q&;A: Buzz Aldrin
An Energy-Saving Air Conditioner
Making Old Muscle Young

Science Daily

Wet Era on Early Mars May Have Been Global
3-D Models of Whole Mouse Organs Created
Galaxy Encounter Fires Up Quasar
More Variation in Human Genome Than Expected
Cosmic Clocks May Uncover Space-Time Ripples
Living, Breathing Human Lung-On-A-Chip
Plants Can Integrate Information
Higher Methane from Warming 40,000 Years Ago
Was Venus Once a Habitable Planet?
Widespread Glacial Meltwater Valleys on Mars
Mechanism That May Trigger Degenerative Disease Identified
Chemists Find an Easier Way to Synthesize New Drug Candidates; New Method Could Have a Big Impact on Pharmaceutical Business
Novel Radiotracer Shines New Light on the Brains of Alzheimer's Disease Patients
Climate Change Complicates Plant Diseases of the Future
Pleasing to the Eye: Even Brooding Female Birds Are Sensitive to Visual Stimulation
Study Identifies Couples’ Underlying Concerns During a Fight
Coffee May Protect Against Head and Neck Cancers
People Who Suppress Anger Are More Likely to Become Violent When Drunk
Compound Found in Red Wine Neutralizes Toxicity of Proteins Related to Alzheimer's
Teens and Alcohol Study: After a Few Drinks, Parenting Style Kicks in
Small Amount of Common Preservative Increases Toxins from Harmful Bacteria in Food, Study Finds
Freshwater Fish Eyes: Great Home for Parasites
Aggressive Action to Reduce Soot Emissions Needed to Meet Climate Change Goals, Experts Say
NASA Radar Images Show How Mexico Quake Deformed Earth
Biomedical Scientist Concerned About Effects of Oil Spill on Human Health
Adios El Niño, Hello La Niña?
Separation Between Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens Might Have Occurred 500,000 Years Earlier, DNA from Teeth Suggests
3.6 Million-Year-Old Relative of 'Lucy' Discovered: Early Hominid Skeleton Confirms Human-Like Walking Is Ancien
Earth-Like Planets May Be Ready for Their Close-Up
'Ghost Particle' Sized Up by Cosmologists
First Superstorm on Exoplanet Detected
Hubble Captures Bubbles and Baby Stars
Consumer-Grade Camera Detects Cancer Cells in Real Time
Life of Plastic Solar Cell Jumps from Hours to 8 Months
Researcher Develops Green, Bio-Based Process for Producing Fuel Additive
Crack in the Case for Supersolids: Reports of Supersolid Helium May Have Been Premature
Liquid Crystals Light Way to Better Data Storage
'Quantum Computer' a Stage Closer With Silicon Breakthrough
Computer Program Detects Depression in Bloggers' Texts
Supercomputer Provides New Insights Into the Vibrations of Water
Bioengineers Create Simulator to Test Blood Platelets in Virtual Heart Attacks
Engineers Create A Strong But Lightweight Isotruss Bike Using Carbon Fibers
Computer Scientists Develop Program To Decipher Location Of Photograph
Biomedical Engineers 'Arm' Surgeons For Highly Precise Knee Resurfacing With Robot
Interactive Telecommunications Researchers Develop A Device For Plants To Send Text Messages
Cyber Forensic Researchers Make The Call: Crime Scene Evidence Is Quickly Extracted From Mobile Phones
Hop, Jump and Stick; Robots Designed With Insect Instincts
'Quantum Computer' a Stage Closer With Silicon Breakthrough
Curbing Speculation Could Destabilize Commodity Prices
Enterprise PCs Work While They Sleep – Saving Energy and Money – With New Software
Ocean Stirring and Plankton Patchiness Revealed by Computer Simulation
Using Science to Identify True Soccer Stars: Researchers Find a New Approach to Ranking and Rating Soccer Players
Engineer Explores Intersection of Engineering, Economics and Green Policy
Species Distribution Models Can Exaggerate Differences in Environmental Requirements
Bizarre Matter Could Find Use in Quantum Computers
Mathematicians Show Randomly Guessing NCAA Outcome Is Extremely Improbable
Mathematical Physics Explains How Icicles Grow
Children With Home Computers Likely to Have Lower Test Scores, Study Finds
Model Explains Rapid Transition Toward Division of Labor in Biological Evolution
Novel 'Cuckoo Search Algorithm' Beats Particle Swarm Optimization in Engineering Design
Decoding Our Network Communities
Mathematicians Solve 140-Year-Old Boltzmann Equation
Sum of Digits of Prime Numbers Is Evenly Distributed: New Mathematical Proof of Hypothesis
Mathematicians Offer Elegant Solution to Evolutionary Conundrum
Loneliness, Poor Health Appear to Be Linked
Neuroscientists Can Predict Your Behavior Better Than You Can
Signal Like You Mean It: Orangutan Gestures Carry Specific Intentional Meanings, Study Finds
Friendships, Family Relationships Get Better With Age Thanks to Forgiveness, Stereotypes
Winning a Soccer Penalty Shootout: Cheering Convincingly Increases Changes of Success
Gay Men's Bilateral Brains Better at Remembering Faces, Study Finds
Pre-Stored Phrases Make It Easier to Be Part of a Conversation
Abusive Mothering Aggravates the Impact of Stress Hormones
Brain Structure Corresponds to Personality
Exercise May Be an Effective and Nonpharmacologic Treatment Option for Alcohol Dependence

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NY Tech MeetUp: 02/03/09

• Xtify Xtify Launches Platform to Revolutionize Location Based Services by Offering Location for Free on BlackBerry, Android, Windows and Symbian Phones
• Mobile Commons We make it easy for organizations to communicate with their audience through text messaging and mobile phones.
• Flixwagon With Flixwagon, you can broadcast live video from your phone to the web, keep videos for later, stream to your blog, notify your friends and more.
• OMGICU
  
• Peek Peek is a super thin and stylish device that lets you take your email with you and stay connected.
• viaPlace enables users to view digital information at a geospatial location.
• Coovents find a happy hour in New York via the web or phone
• ... and Jeff Jarvis, introducing his new book, "What Would Google Do?" What Would Google Do? | Newsweek Technology | Newsweek.com the fastest growing company in the history of the world ......

http://nytm.org





There is something about the Barry Diller building that gets me. It feels futuristic.

IAC

555 W. 18th St

New York, NY 10011

I believe I was at the first NY Tech MeetUp at this venue. And today was the last. Nate announced the next MeetUp will be at a bigger place, twice as many seats. I think I am going to miss the huge screen. Tell Barry I said that.

Diller Country, Month 2
Microsoft, Google, Facebook: NY Tech MeetUp Has Arrived

I showed up about seven minutes late. An Indian guy was presenting a device that is a handheld that is good only for email, and hence cheap, you pay $20 a month. After the presentations were over, and each presenter had a corner of the room where they were holding court, after my few minutes with Jeff Jarvis, I went to the stall for the device, and talked to another member of the team, Dan Morel. Dan is not on Facebook.

Between conception to production, it was a year. They are a 20 strong team that has outsourced everything. Someone else did the design for them, of course manufacturing was in China, someone else did the distribution, the marketing. That's agility.

There were a few presentations that had not been listed at the NY Tech MeetUp site, and I asked Nate about it later at the bar, and he said that is because there are several last minute negotiations as to who will be presenting. That's why. Nate succeeded Scott as the Organizer for the MeetUp. This was the first time I saw him in action. I think he did good.


Conceptually Diligent: Web 5.0 Is Repackaging Hello

I am so glad I went to the bar afterwards. This is where you meet people one on one.

I met a MIT PhD on my walk to the bar. He works for the city on computer and date security. Then I found my old friend Mark Chackerian. He is another MIT guy. He works for a company founded by a 1989 Tiananmen star, Chinese guy. I am going to drop by Mark's 444 Park Avenue office to meet his boss. Hi, I am Paramendra, and I am going to win the Nobel.

Euwun Poon was another interesting person I met at the bar. A Cornell Computer Science undergrad, Cornell Law grad, Singaporean, speaks Mandarin, entrepreneurial. And I am thinking, I want this guy on my team.

Facebook deleted my old account with 1500 friends for overuse, so Mark is going to have to become my friend again. And I got two new Facebook friends, if nothing else.

Onto Digital Publishing
Social Networking: Where The Internet Comes Down From The Clouds


February NY Tech Meetup - Mobile Meets Social - GarysGuide.org ...
At NY Tech Meetup! - Amol's posterous
Sanford Dickert, Social Engineer: NYTM - February 2009 - Social ...
Tech and The City - Entrepreneur.com
NY Tech Meetup — January 2009
At IAC’s HQ for my first New Y…
nextNY Blog » February NY Tech Meetup Tonight at IAC Building
Drwn News: At NY Tech Meetup!
NY Tech Meetup-a recap and a look back

I thought the best presentation of the evening was where the guy presented not as the creator of the site, but as a consumer. That role play was interesting. He got the phrase "Nate is haut" on the big screen. That was hilarious.

The NY Tech MeetUp will be at a FIT building, will hold twice as many people - I did email Nate about two weeks back saying, get a stadium, too many people don't get to come - and is supposedly a more convenient location.


innonate / Nate Westheimer Entrepreneur in Residence at Rose Tech Ventures (so part VC, part startuper) + Organizer of NY Tech Meetup 2,267 followers

Next MeetUp: March 2, Monday, at FIT

FIT - Haft Auditorium

27th St & 7th Ave

btw 7th & 8th Ave

New York, NY 10001

NYC Convergence:

NY Tech Meetup Presenters Demo Mobile Tech