mostly research stuff
found a very interesting link to the microsoft sandbox at pito salas’ blog…if you’re not familiar with the sandbox, it’s where microsoft displays and showcases some hot at-or-near-prime-time tools (from the site, “This is the place to play with new MSN technologies, look at prototypes, and peek behind the scenes at some of our new ideas”)…uh, in the spirit of full disclosure, please know that i eat all microsoft product , no joke (actually, add to that: oracle’s larry ellison spends more time grooming than zsa-zsa gabor and those legal proceedings show just how much ethics and integrity matter to that guy)…so yeah, checked out 4 very impressive new tools along with a few other items …
these include: the terraserver, 3degrees, netscan, new msn search technology, lookout, and moblogging with microsoft…critical notes follow:
terraserver
i could waste my entire life on this site!…can’t even verbalize, you’ll just have to look for yourself - try finding your own digs… “TerraServer contains 3.3 tera-bytes of high resolution USGS aerial imagery and USGS topographic maps. You can locate imagery by clicking on the map, entering a city or town name in the “Search TerraServer” form at the top of the page, or entering a U.S. street address.”
3 degrees
finally, a company with huge globs of superior gray matter - and serious cash - steps behind online social networking…also, if you check out the ‘meet the team’ page (via ‘411′ up top) both erica and kate are lookin’ very cute, though erica loses a point for a reference to george michael in her notes (sorry, but i gotta just put that out there, looks like she probably owns a lotta wham albums and would therefore get along too well with my ex)
msr netscan
this is like a usenet search tool on olympic quality steroids, “The NetScan system data mines Usenet newsgroups to provide tools to discover new newsgroups, select high quality content from the, evaluate the likely reliability of the information, and, possibly, motivate participants to make valuable contributions by providing a service that can be thought of as a reputation system for communities.”
msn search technology preview
the new-new search engine…and just in time because elGoog blows chunks, and yahoo’s financial promise reminds of my bank account potential from my days in junior high when i was bagging groceries and shaggin’ carts…
microsoft also recently acquired lookout software, which is a search tool for outlook users, but since folks out there might not be using outlook, i’m excluding it from my notes for now…
…and not on that site: microsoft is introducing blogging and ‘moblogging’ in japan (they’ve all got web capable cell phones there, so mobile blogs make a lotta sense…)
conclusion: time to stop picking on microsoft and worry about the real threat to your desktop: google…oh, and add in wal-mart…and kentucky fried chicken too, i suppose…
this blog is mostly safe for work, though i sometimes throw around a 'fuck' or two. you'll find a bunch of my articles from CI Magazine, SCIP online, other research pieces and some other crap. enjoy. there's lost of content here related to getting information about, around, from and through people and organizations...
MikeD
August 10th, 2004 at 3:11 pm
TerraServer scares me a little.
matt
August 10th, 2004 at 4:23 pm
hah hah, you married someone who likes Wham.
Dave
August 12th, 2004 at 12:04 pm
also cool and worth looking at, Project VIBE - a new take on business collaboration ‘in context’ and unusually dynamic…