Wiki-journalism

If you're not familiar with Wikipedia, where have you been? It's a user-defined encyclopedia where anyone and everyone can add or edit content at will. Sounds like an experimental social disaster in the making, but surprisingly, it works quite well.

Esquire magazine's A.J. Jacobs was writing an article on the brilliance of Wikipedia, and he ended up having a pretty clever idea of his own: Write a crummy article, post it on Wikipedia and let the users rewrite it.

The result? It's a pretty good read. It's also well-written, clever and informative. The 'Wiki' experiment proves to be successful, yet again. Check out the article for yourself.

Hasta la Vista

Microsoft just launched the Windows Vista preview page in promotion of their upcoming operating system, set to replace Windows XP. And the big news?

Fast On and Off: A Windows Vista computer starts and shuts down as quickly and reliably as a television, typically within 2 to 3 seconds. Windows Vista processes login scripts and startup programs and services in the background so you can start working right away.

Since the new file system got scrapped from Vista, it's become more and more clear to myself and others that Vista could be more along the lines of the scorned Windows ME than the stable successor, XP. I'm sure Macintosh and its new Intel-based machines will be watching very closely.

Free ticket to the Opera

My second-favorite browser, Opera, made a surprising move this week - it's free. The browser was formerly ad-supported, with an integrated banner ad in the previous "free" version of the browser. Users who wanted to rid themselves of the ad could pay an upgrade free to get the full version.

So why the switch? Wouldn't an ad-free browser mean no profits? Not if Google played a part in the decision. See, Google pays Opera for people who use the built-in search feature in their browser. Apparently Mozilla Firefox, my current browser of choice, has a similar deal. But Firefox has always been free.

Interesting moves on the part of both Opera and Google. It will be interesting to see if the change makes Opera stake a larger claim in the escalating browser wars.

Who wants AOL?

Remember a few years ago when America Online was so big, it merged with Time Warner? Crazy times. And while the whole "AOL Time Warner" deal might seem like a terrible one in retrospect (just ask Time Warner), rumors are flying about their pending sale. But who's going to step up?

The New York Times was talking last Thursday about everyone's favorite software giant, Microsoft, making a bid. But now CNET reports that Google could beat the big MS to the punch. And why, do you ask? The $380 million in revenue Google gets from AOL every year.

Microsoft's goal in all of this is probably to expand their Web horizons. Despite making msn.com the home page for every Internet Explorer browser, it's still not the most popular Web site on the 'Net (that title goes to Yahoo!) - which must be a major disappointment for Bill Gates and company. Merge MSN with AOL's Web portal, however, and the story may be different.

If the reports are true, somehow I don't think this will be the first time we see a scuffle between Microsoft and Google. As for now, let's see how this AOL deal plays out.

Gaming overload

The last 24 hours have proved to be quite informative for videogame fanatics. The Tokyo Game Show (Japan's E3 equivalent) kicked off yesterday with the announcement of the Xbox 360 launch dates in America, Europe, and Japan. And that would be Nov. 22, Dec. 2, and Dec. 10, respectively.

I'm still debating whether or not I want to pick one up. $400 is a bit steep for a console.

But the big news of the event thus far is the debut of the Revolution controller, which can be seen here, via IGN. For those of you who haven't been following, Nintendo has been telling fans for months that the new controller to their upcoming console, codenamed Revolution, is so revolutionary (imagine that!) that it couldn't be shown off to the public, for fear that other console makers might steal their ideas. Gamespot defines the controller as similar to a TV remote control, but adds that Nintendo says it's a work in progress. And IGN points out the controller's formerly well-guarded secrets: 3D pointing and tilt sensitivity capabilities.

Very, very interesting. Not what I was expecting. But as with any controller, I can't really form an opinion on it until I get to touch it myself. But I will say that the 3D pointing capabilities could potentially be great for first-person shooter games, which, until now, have worked best with the PC's mouse-and-keyboard combo.

Retro Active

Wow. You know it's bad when something makes me feel old.

But that's just how I felt when I was forwarded to the Browser Emulator (via dejavu.org). It re-creates Web sites as they would have been displayed in Netscape Navigator 1.0, Internet Explorer 2.0, Hot Java, and even Mosaic (Netscape 0.9b). To no one's surprise, it's difficult to find a site that displays properly. But if you've been on the 'Net as long as I have, it'll give you a feeling of nostalgia.

Gosh. I remember running a 2400 baud modem in our 386 system with a 200 megabyte hard drive. We had Prodigy BBS service before it even connected to the Internet. When the Internet finally hit Prodigy, you had to pay something like a dollar per minute to connect to it. I even remember leaving the computer on for two days to download an upgrade to Prodigy's software.

I think, back then, our computer ran on coal. And I had to walk uphill both ways to school.

iTuned Out?

Apple's got a "big" announcement tomorrow (Wednesday) regarding the new line of iPods. As has happened before (much to the dismay of Steve Jobs), the secret is out.

Apple's not just launching one new product, but two, according to Kevin Rose.

New Products:
- Cingular will announce an iTunes compatible phone - the "Rocker"
- New 2GB ipod called the "Nano" - it will sport a color screen and will be much smaller and thinner than a mini. Price = $199

ThinkSecret goes even further, claiming the iPod Mini will move to a flash-based hard drive, and will sport a color screen.

Yawn. While the Mini news is exciting, as a flash-based MP3 player will have a better battery life than a hard-drive based player, we've been hearing buzz about the iTunes phone for months. And the Nano? As if Apple needed another MP3 player on the market, with the 1GB Shuffle and 4GB Mini. Apple already has a commanding market share in a market that's already over-saturated with choices. Jobs and Apple should focus on replacing current, outdated MP3 players (like they're doing with the Mini) instead of cornering a non-existent portion of the market. Really, who was holding out for a 2GB player?