Mashable: Latest 13 News Updates - including “U.S. Government Seizes and Shutters Torrent-Finder.com” |
- U.S. Government Seizes and Shutters Torrent-Finder.com
- 5 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch [MASHABLE AWARDS]
- Dealery Gathers All Local Daily Deals on One Simple Site
- For the Person Who Has Everything, Go Online to Give the Gift of Charity
- Consumers Spending More on Tech, Less on Travel This Holiday Season
- We Hold These Tweets To Be Self-Evident [COMIC]
- Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters
- Why You Need an Xbox 360 With Kinect This Holiday Season
- Where Will You Do Your Holiday Shopping: Online or In Stores? [POLL]
- Only 2 Days Left to Nominate for the Mashable Awards
- 4 Social Web Apps for Making and Sharing Your Travel Plans
- 3 Things to Consider When Staffing a Software Development Project
- Appeal Court Upholds Guilty Verdict for The Pirate Bay Founders
- Fake Tsunami Warning Sent from Hacked Twitter Account
| U.S. Government Seizes and Shutters Torrent-Finder.com Posted: 26 Nov 2010 04:54 PM PST      Torrent-Finder.com is down today; the site was apparently seized by government agencies for reasons unknown. In all likelihood, the site was taken down due to intellectual property concerns including copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit goods. The agencies named in the notice include the Department of Justice, the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement arm of Homeland Security Investigations. While torrenting in general is one of the seedier parts of the underbelly of the Internet, Torrent-Finder itself did not host or link to any torrents. Instead, it simply acted as a sort of torrent search engine, returning iframes with other sites that do contain torrent links. If you’d like to see how the site works for yourself, you can check out Torrent-Finder.info, which hasn’t apparently popped up on the government’s radar yet. This technicality was apparently not enough to keep the hounds at bay, however. Currently, the site’s homepage looks like this:
Most troubling of all, however, are statements made by the owner of Torrent-Finder.com. He told the bloggers at TorrentFreak that his site was seized “without any previous complaint or notice from any court… While I was contacting GoDaddy I noticed the DNS had changed. Godaddy had no idea what was going on and until now they do not understand the situation, and they say it was totally from ICANN." What do you make of this site’s seizure by the U.S. government? In the struggle to protect copyrighted works, should the powers that be still have to notify site owners that their websites are in violation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Reviews: Internet More About: file sharing, government, piracy, torrent For more Tech coverage:
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| 5 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch [MASHABLE AWARDS] Posted: 26 Nov 2010 04:25 PM PST   As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Entrepreneur of the Year.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas!
In that spirit, we’ve decided to highlight a few young entrepreneurs who are making waves in the startup world and who are poised to cause disruption in multiple markets before their careers are done. Each has a different background and a different story, but share the same entrepreneurial calling and drive to build something that will last. Unfortunately, we can only include five people on this list, but there are thousands of worthy young entrepreneurs who are changing the world around us, digital and otherwise. We want to hear who tops your list both in the comments and in the nominations for this year’s Mashable Awards. Now, in no particular order, here are five young entrepreneurs to watch. 1. Seth Priebatsch, SCVNGRCalled “The Modern Tech CEO” by CNN, Seth Priebatsch doesn’t look like your typical chief executive. That’s because he’s 21, almost always wears an orange collared shirt and orange sunglasses, and is the founder of SCVNGR, one of the hot startups in the geolocation space. Priebatsch has grown SCVNGR into a company with 60 employees, more than half a million users and countless business partners. And he has accomplished this in just two years. Plus, he’s one hell of a bicyclist. 2. Jessica Mah, InDinero People have been watching Jessica Mah for years. She started her first company at 13, graduated high school at 15 and completed college at 19. That alone puts her on many must-watch lists. That’s not why she’s made this particular list, though. The reason she’s on this list is because she is the co-founder and CEO of inDinero, a self-described “Mint.com for small business.” After completing the Y Combinator program, inDinero raised $1.2 million in seed funding from angel investors, including Dave McClure, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman and David Wu of Intuit. The company is already profitable and continues to grow. Image courtesy of Flickr, Brian Solis 3. Kevin Systrom, Instagram
That’s when Systrom co-founded Instagram. Originally working on an app called Burbn, Systrom and co-founder Mike Krieger pivoted to build one of the iPhone’s most popular photo apps. Now the company’s hiring to keep up with growth and raising a new round of funding. Keep an eye on this one. 4. Brian Wong, KiipAfter graduating college, Brian Wong (now 19) created FollowFormation, an app to help organize Twitter users and give people an easier time figuring out who to follow. Not long after, he was working in business development for Digg. Today, Wong is the co-founder of Kiip (pronounced “keep”), a venture-backed stealth startup focused on in-game mobile advertising. While skipping four grades and raising $300,000 in angel funding don’t equate to startup success, they are definitely signs that Wong is driven to excel. 5. Brian Chesky, AirbnbBrian Chesky is one of the three co-founders of Airbnb, the popular marketplace for living spaces. He also serves as the company’s CEO. The Y Combinator-backed startup recently raised $7.2 million from Sequoia Capital and Greylock Partners. Two specific things have put Chesky on the map and on this list, though. The first was his commitment earlier this year to clear out his old apartment and live off Airbnb for at least six months. While we haven’t verified that he’s still living solely off of Airbnb, the commitment and confidence in his company is still amazing. The second thing that caught our attention was his amazing talk at Y Combinator’s Startup School. In his 30-minute talk, Chesky explained the story of how he and his co-founders struggled to keep Airbnb afloat, even resorting to selling limited edition novelty “Cap’n McCain’s” and “Obama O’s” cereals to survive. What’s Your Pick?Who was your entrepreneur of the year? Let us know in the comments or nominate him or her for a Mashable Award. The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas) In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances. Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week) Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information. Thanks to our sponsors: Mashable Awards Gala Partner:
Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to nearly 100 million spectators in 300 cities on five continents. In 2010 Cirque du Soleil, will present 21 shows simultaneously throughout the world, including seven in Las Vegas. For more information about Cirque du Soleil, visit www.cirquedusoleil.com Mashable Awards Online Partner:
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Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog.
Join us on Facebook to learn how to enter Dynadot's I Can Haz iPad Giveaway! Dynadot is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and web host where you can register the perfect domain name affordably, reliably, simply and securely. Whether you are a blogger, business owner, or planning on creating the next best Internet meme you need a domain that represents you. Let Dynadot help you establish your web identity today.
Mobile Future is a broad-based coalition of businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals interested in and dedicated to advocating for an environment in which innovations in wireless technology and services are enabled and encouraged. Our mission is to educate the public and key decision makers on innovations in the wireless industry that have transformed the way Americans work and play and to advocate continued investment in wireless technologies. Our "Mobile Year in Review 2010" animation proves a glimpse into the most notable breakthroughs in the wireless industry this year.
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The Aro system automatically learns what's important in your life—the people, places, dates and organizations you care about most. In your communications, Aro automatically identifies people, places, events, dates,organizations and locations. From any recognized term, Aro offers quick action menus to speed up your day. The unique Aro experience is powered by advanced web services: next generation natural language processing and semantic data analytics services. Aro gives you the power to see through the clutter and focus your mobile life.
Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog. Mashable Awards Gala VIP Lounge sponsor:
Influxis specializes in the deployment of creative streaming solutions. Services include large scale deployment, mobile streaming, turn-key applications, and enterprise support with custom network options. With the unique combination of a worldwide network, knowledgeable developer support and nearly a decade of streaming media experience, Influxis is an essential partner to businesses, advertisers, developers, educators, and others who seek expertise in innovative streaming. Mashable Awards After Party Sponsor:
Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Gelpi Reviews: Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Google, Internet, Mashable, Mint, Twitter, iStockphoto, instagram More About: Brian Wong, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, Indinero, Jessica Mah, Kiip, mashable awards, mashable awards 2010, scvngr, Seth Priebatsch For more Startups coverage:
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| Dealery Gathers All Local Daily Deals on One Simple Site Posted: 26 Nov 2010 03:26 PM PST   The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Quick Pitch: Dealery brings together daily group deals from multiple sources in one convenient place Genius Idea: Local, daily deals are the new hotness in the world of startups. Groupon is the king of that scene, and it’s spawned dozens of clones. Additionally, many larger, older web companies such as Yelp and Amazon have taken to offering their own daily deals. Dealery recognizes that checking multiple sources to find the one deal that’s right for you is a time-consuming pain; their product brings a multitude of daily deals near you together in a simple and convenient interface. Dealery presents its users with a single-page “cheat sheet” for their city. Users can quickly scan the day’s top deals, view the source of the deal, the total savings for that deal and the time remaining to purchase the deal. As founder and CEO Limor Elkayam told us in an email, “People don't want to spend a ton of time looking for great deals, and we make it easy for them to always find one.” The startup is sourcing its deals from sites including Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe and a slew of other sites and services. The site also allows for side-by-side comparisons of different deals. Here’s a look at the Dealery dashboard, with the various sources of deals highlighted:
Right now, supported cities include Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Washington D.C. and Seattle. Dealery plans to add more locations soon. Having a single, real-time dashboard to quickly viewing and monitoring hot local deals is a boon for bargain-hunters; it’s also not a bad business idea, given the popularity and growth of this vertical. Dealery gets a revenue share from each deal, either a flat fee for each deal bought or a percentage of that sale. What do you think of Dealery so far? Is this a service you’d use to keep tabs on daily deals from multiple sites? Let us know what you think in the comments. Image courtesy of mmewuji. Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
Reviews: Yelp More About: daily deals, dealery, groupon, shopping, startup For more Startups coverage:
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| For the Person Who Has Everything, Go Online to Give the Gift of Charity Posted: 26 Nov 2010 02:40 PM PST   When you’re struggling with that one person on your list — the fellow or lady who has everything he or she could want and is consequently impossible to shop for — there is one typically overlooked option that’s much more thoughtful than a gift care and more useful than a tchotchke, flowers or food: philanthropy. Giving someone the chance to participate in a charitable donation is a gift you can both feel good about, a gift that will never go to waste. And with the Internet at your fingertips, it’s easier than ever to make a donation on someone else’s behalf and let them know about that gift. Here are a few gift options that embody the axiom, “It is better to give than to receive.” DonorsChoosePerfect for: The person who teared up during a screening of Waiting for Superman.
DonorsChoose is quickly becoming a popular gift choice among the tech crowd. Twitter gave away DonorsChoose gift cards at their Chirp conference earlier this year, and startup investor Fred Wilson is running a DonorsChoose campaign throughout the month of November. This charity connects potential donors to classrooms in need. Teachers have the opportunity to post projects on the site, such as buying supplies, books or equipment, and donors can choose projects that mean the most to them. Alternatively, donors can choose to donate to the most urgent project. You can choose the donation amount and let DonorsChoose notify the recipient with an email, or you can let DonorsChoose send the recipient a physical gift card. Habitat for HumanityPerfect for: The person who always gives a few dollars to homeless strangers in need.
Habitat for Humanity is a charitable organization well-known for its construction projects that help house homeless and at-risk families currently living in unsafe or unsuitable dwellings. The houses built by Habitat volunteers are decent and affordable for low-income families. This organization operates in the U.S. and all around the world. When you make a donation as a gift, Habitat will send your recipient a personalized e-card or physical card notifying him or her of your donation. Heifer.orgPerfect for: The foodie on your list, or the person who loves cooking for a crowd.
Heifer.org is a charity dedicated to ending world hunger. The organization says it gives hungry families “a hand-up, not just a hand-out” by giving them livestock and training in areas like animal husbandry, allowing these families to become self-reliant. Heifer.org also built paying it forward into its system; each family agrees to give one of its animal’s offspring to another family in need. At first glance, the Heifer.org gift catalog reads like something from FarmVille, but these animals are real. You can give all or a share of animals like cows, goats and camels; for a smaller pricetag, you can give a trio of rabbits or a flock of ducks. After you make your donation, Heifer.org will let you create a printable gift card or e-card to send along to your own gift recipient. Other Charity Gift CardsPerfect for:The big-hearted, strong-minded person in your life. There are a slew of sites online that will let you send generic charitable gift cards to anyone on your holiday list. TisBest lets you send a gift card to whomever you like; the recipient then goes to the TisBest website and gets to choose up to three organizations to receive the funds. TisBest’s selection of charities includes more than 250 organizations, ranging from the ASPCA to the Wikimedia Foundation. GiveNow cards from Just Give allow you to choose from more than a dozen e-card designs or send a traditional card to your recipient. The amount you put into the GiveNow card can be spent by the recipient on the charity of his or her choice. You can see the charities supported in the Just Give Guide. Charity Choice offers you and your recipients a lot of options. If your recipient is new to philanthropy, you can select the American Express Reward card, of which 10% goes to charity and the rest can be spent on other merchandise. You can select plastic gift cards, printed cards or e-cards, good for redemption online at one of Charity Choice’s more than 100 partner organizations. You can also choose a specific charity yourself. Do you think charitable donations make a great gift for those impossible-to-shop-for people? Let us know what you think — and how you plan to give to others this holiday season — in the comments. Images courtesy of Flickr, Mubina H (lead image), bucklava (Heifer.org image), dbspringer (Habitat image) and superkimbo (DonorsChoose image). Reviews: Flickr, Internet, Twitter More About: charity, charity gift cards, donors choose, donorschoose, gift, holiday shopping, philanthropy For more Social Good coverage:
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| Consumers Spending More on Tech, Less on Travel This Holiday Season Posted: 26 Nov 2010 12:52 PM PST   Consumers in a recent study said they plan to spend more on gadgets and electronics during the 2010 holiday season than they did last year. On the flip side, a large percentage of the same consumers also said they’d be spending less than they did in 2009 on travel. According to data gathered by electronics marketplace Retrevo, gadgets in general, but especially tablets, are topping holiday wish lists. Retrevo polled 1,000 U.S. consumers in October to gather the data. Retrevo found that the recession is factoring into spending choices this year, and no vertical in the study suffered more than travel. Between 17% and 23% of consumers polled said they’d spend less on things like clothing and electronics this year, but a full 28% said they planned to spend less on travel. This seems understandable to us; while visiting family or going on vacation can make for memorable holidays, travel can also quickly become one of the most big-ticket items in a holiday budget, making it a prime candidate for the chopping block. On the other hand, many of these consumers said they’d actually planned to spend more than they did in 2009 on certain items. This is the area where electronics saw the biggest lift. Around 165 of the respondents said they would spend more on gadgets than they did last year.  Another interesting finding of the study was that tablets are shaping up to be this year’s most popular gadget. When asked what devices they planned to purchase, more consumers said they’d buy an iPad or other tablet than any other type of device.  How will you be budgeting your shopping this holiday season? Let us know in the comments. Image courtesy of Flickr, suratlozowick. Reviews: Flickr More About: gadgets, retrevo, spending, stats, trending For more Tech coverage:
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| We Hold These Tweets To Be Self-Evident [COMIC] Posted: 26 Nov 2010 12:32 PM PST If Twitter had been invented in 1776 instead of 2006, the American Revolution would have been so much more… what’s the word… awesome.   This comic was illustrated by Kiersten Essenpreis, a New York-based artist who draws and blogs at YouFail.com. For more laughs, check out our previous Mashable Comics. More Comics from Mashable:
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| Thanks to Mashable’s Socially Savvy Supporters Posted: 26 Nov 2010 11:36 AM PST
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| Why You Need an Xbox 360 With Kinect This Holiday Season Posted: 26 Nov 2010 11:15 AM PST   This post is part of the Mashable 10, Mashable’s gift guide of the 10 hottest gadgets that that our editors think should be on everyone’s wish lists this holiday season. To view all 10 posts, please visit this link.  Recommending a gaming console is about as healthy as walking into a minefield. For such a novel activity, gaming can be as polarizing as politics and religion. Nevertheless, I’m going to take the risk and make this recommendation, because what’s a holiday gift guide that doesn’t have a gaming representative? The Xbox 360 first hit shelves in November of 2005. The oddity of recommending a five-year-old console isn’t lost, but the reality is this: the Xbox 360 might be the same platform that it was back in 2005, but it is not in the least bit the same console. In 2010, the 360 not only made a huge update to its core hardware, it also added a peripheral that has the potential to hugely revolutionize the console gaming industry. For a device that just celebrated its fifth birthday (basically the equivalent of about 50 in electronic years), the Xbox 360 is still clipping through the crowd like it’s the new kid on the block. Titles and MultiplayerBoth the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 are hovering around 200 exclusive releases, and while the vast majority of these games aren’t legacy titles, the 360 has Halo, Gears of War, Fable 3 and the entire Mass Effect franchise. (Yes, PlayStation 3 will be getting Mass Effect 2 in January 2011, but it doesn’t have the first game in the series — so unless you’ve played part one elsewhere, you’ll only get the full experience on Xbox 360. The biggest titles going for Sony’s console are arguably, the unquestionably amazing, Uncharted series and, the epically delayed, Gran Turismo.) Another deciding factor is the multiplayer experience, and Xbox Live wins this category outright. In my almost sad amount of experience, multiplayer gaming on the PlayStation Network has never rivaled that of Xbox Live. Modern Warfare 2 is practically a different game on Xbox Live, and for any gaming experience focused so heavily on multiplayer, that matters a lot. Motion Gaming Comes to BothThat brings us back to motion gaming. For the time being, PlayStation 3 might have the two best motion titles in The Shoot and The Fight, but, compelling as they may be, they showcase the entirety of the PlayStation Move experience — i.e., connecting a wand to game movements. It’s fun, but it exists as more of a technological progression from Duck Hunt, which was released for the NES in 1984, than a truly disruptive new gaming technology. Kinect, on the other hand, is by no means perfect, but it has revolutionized the player-to-controller dynamic, connecting players to game movements, by turning their bodies into controllers. This alone could be the basis of my recommendation. It’s not. The promise of Kinect, along with the excellent franchise titles (including 2010’s Alan Wake) and a superior multiplayer make the Xbox 360 the best gaming console out this holiday season. Don’t forget that it’s also a highly functional streaming device, with support for Netflix and Pandora now and Hulu Plus coming soon. Taken as a package, the Xbox 360 with Kinect becomes not just a gaming console, but a versatile addition to your home theater system. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, hatman12 Reviews: Pandora, iStockphoto More About: hulu plus, mashable 10, motion gaming, netflix, pandora, playstation 3, video games, video streaming, Xbox 360, Xbox Kinect For more Tech coverage:
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| Where Will You Do Your Holiday Shopping: Online or In Stores? [POLL] Posted: 26 Nov 2010 10:37 AM PST   I have to admit, when I walked up to Best Buy two days ago and saw two eager consumers already waiting by the front door in a camping tent, I felt a tiny bit smug. This year, I had chosen to forgo Black Friday retail madness — and indeed, all retail madness — by skipping in-store shopping and looking for comparable deals online. By Wednesday, November 23, I had already picked up the last of my holiday gifts from Amazon.com, all with minimal expense, all without waiting in a single line, all without punching some lady to snag the last Tickle Me Elmo, and mostly without paying any sales tax. In fact, some folks are quite intrigued by the fact that most shoppers on Amazon.com, Overstock.com and other online retailers end up paying no sales tax. As long as the company doesn’t have a presence in their state, shoppers pay only the item’s marked price plus shipping. However, many others — some of my own family and loved ones among them — are choosing to wake up at ungodly hours and spend massive amounts of time on their feet to do in-store shopping. The reasons for this aren’t entirely masochistic, either; they might be paying tax, but they’re also saving huge amounts of money on shipping. Whether you’re a Black Friday traditionalist, out of bed at 4 a.m. to hit the mall, or a Cyber Monday enthusiast, shopping from the comfort of your own pajamas, how do you plan to do your holiday shopping this year? Vote in the poll below, and tell us your reasons in the comments. Image courtesy of Flickr, allerleirau. Reviews: Flickr More About: black friday, retail, shopping For more Business coverage:
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| Only 2 Days Left to Nominate for the Mashable Awards Posted: 26 Nov 2010 10:18 AM PST
Nominations will close at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, November 29. The top five nominees with the most nominations (subject to editorial policies and official rules) will move forward to the "Final 5 Voting Round" starting Wednesday, Dec. 1. If you haven’t nominated yet, now’s the time. There are 25 categories open, for which you can nominate a person, company, organization, app, device, gadget, video, URL or technology. We’ve recently added four new categories, including Most Influential Social Good Champion sponsored by Yahoo!, Best Social Media Customer Service sponsored by Blackberry , Best Internet Meme sponsored by Dynadot and Best Mobile App sponsored by Mobile Future. Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Mashable Awards Gala in Las Vegas!
The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas) In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances. Date: Thursday, January 6, 2011 (during International CES Convention week) Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information. Thanks to Our SponsorsMashable Awards Gala Partner:  From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is now a global entertainment organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has more than 5,000 employees, including more than 1,200 artists from close to 50 different countries. Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to nearly 100 million spectators in 300 cities on five continents. In 2010 Cirque du Soleil, will present 21 shows simultaneously throughout the world, including seven in Las Vegas. For more information about Cirque du Soleil, visit www.cirquedusoleil.com Mashable Awards Online Partner:  Have you ever wished for your own personal gourmet chef? The Fresh Diet is like having a Cordon Bleu chef prepare your meals in your own kitchen. There’s no cooking, cleaning or shopping – just fresh prepared delicious meals, hand delivered to your door daily! Whether you want to lose weight or just want to eat healthy, The Fresh Diet can help you meet your goals. The best news, we’re giving away a FREE week of The Fresh Diet every day on our Facebook page. Just click here to become a fan and you could be the next winner. Join now! Mashable Awards Partner:  Join us at the 2011 International CES®, the global platform for inspired ideas and innovation. With 2,500 exhibitors, CES continues to be the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow and always reflects the dynamic consumer electronics industry. The International CES is not open to the general public and all attendees must be in the CE industry to be eligible to attend the show. Register FREE for the 2011 CES with priority code MSHB, an exclusive promotion for Mashable readers. Mashable Awards Silver Sponsor, After Party and Category Sponsor:  About Research In Motion (RIM) Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:  Mobile Future is a broad-based coalition of businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals interested in and dedicated to advocating for an environment in which innovations in wireless technology and services are enabled and encouraged. Our mission is to educate the public and key decision makers on innovations in the wireless industry that have transformed the way Americans work and play and to advocate continued investment in wireless technologies. Our "Mobile Year in Review 2010" animation proves a glimpse into the most notable breakthroughs in the wireless industry this year. Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:  Win an iPad! Join us on Facebook to learn how to enter Dynadot's I Can Haz iPad Giveaway! Dynadot is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and web host where you can register the perfect domain name affordably, reliably, simply and securely. Whether you are a blogger, business owner, or planning on creating the next best Internet meme you need a domain that represents you. Let Dynadot help you establish your web identity today. Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:  Yahoo! is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is proud to sponsor this Mashable Award because Yahoo! is focused on connecting individuals to a community of millions so they can change the world together. That's How Good Grows at Yahoo!. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal. Mashable Awards Gala Silver Sponsors:  Aro Mobile is an intelligent mobile experience that includes better email, connected contacts, smarter calendar and improved browsing. The Aro system automatically learns what's important in your life — the people, places, dates and organizations you care about most. In your communications, Aro automatically identifies people, places, events, dates, organizations and locations. From any recognized term, Aro offers quick action menus to speed up your day. The unique Aro experience is powered by advanced web services: next generation natural language processing and semantic data analytics services. Aro gives you the power to see through the clutter and focus your mobile life. Mashable Awards Gala VIP Lounge Sponsor:  Influxis specializes in the deployment of creative streaming solutions. Services include large scale deployment, mobile streaming, turn-key applications and enterprise support with custom network options. With the unique combination of a worldwide network, knowledgeable developer support and nearly a decade of streaming media experience, Influxis is an essential partner to businesses, advertisers, developers, educators and others who seek expertise in innovative streaming. Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Internet, Mashable, Twitter More About: CES, digital media, mashable, mashable awards, open web awards, social media For more Social Media coverage:
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| 4 Social Web Apps for Making and Sharing Your Travel Plans Posted: 26 Nov 2010 09:31 AM PST   The Business Travel Series is supported by Philips ChargeOn, a wire-free mobile phone charging system that gives you up to 4 hours of additional talk time when you’re on the go. To learn more about Philips ChargeOn, visit its website here.
Within the past year, though, websites and apps for sharing travel plans with potential travel mates, whether they be friends or strangers, have become a bit more commonplace, and frankly, useful. Early on, these sites suffered from a lack of network effect — with only a few of your friends sharing their travel plans, the services don’t exactly provide much value. Within my own network, I’ve noticed an increasing adoption of travel sharing sites, like TripIt and Dopplr, and these services have definitely become more useful for me as more of my friends start using them. It’s important to note that many of these sites have other handy features that make them useful whether your network is fully engrossed or not. Check out the four online resources for sharing travel plans outlined below, and let us know which ones you’d add to the list in the comments. 1. TripIt TripIt is a great way to organize and share your travel plans. Its biggest advantage over many other services is the ability to pull in travel data and organize it in a way that’s easy to understand, plotting out important trip details, such as flight, hotel and car rental information. Even more impressive, it shows you the information in the order that you need it — departing flight time, arrival time, car rental details, hotel location and so on, throwing in other useful resources, such as local maps. TripIt added a new feature a few months ago that automatically imports travel, hotel and airline confirmation e-mails from a user’s Gmail or Google Apps account to the service’s web and mobile apps. This automation makes managing and sharing trip itineraries easier than it’s ever been. In the past, users only needed to forward travel confirmation e-mails to TripIt (plans@tripit.com) and it would parse the information into its system — now, even that step is unnecessary. Oh, the joys of technology! You can set TripIt to automatically share your travel plans to your TripIt network, LinkedIn, Facebook or via a badge that you can embed on your blog. If automatic sharing isn’t your idea of fun, manual sharing is also available, and you can change between those settings on a per-trip basis if necessary. In either case, the shared details of a trip are limited to the city you’ll be in and when — more specific details are kept private. Through the network tab on the website — or via the iPhone, Android or BlackBerry apps — users can see where their contacts are. 2. Dopplr Dopplr is a service that enables members to share travel plans with their networks and exchange tips on places to stay, eat and explore. There are multiple ways to input your travel data into Dopplr, but none of them are as simple as TripIt’s automation feature. You can direct message @dopplr on Twitter, forward flight and hotel confirmation e-mails to trips@dopplr.com, or import trips from Google Calendar, Apple iCal or Yahoo Upcoming. Dopplr automatically shares your travel plans (only location and dates) with the network that you cultivate on the service — you can find friends through all the major social networks and e-mail services. Connecting to Facebook, XING and FriendFeed, or embedding the Dopplr blog badge, also allows you to share travel plans among other networks. Dopplr differentiates itself with its tips system, where users can recommend restaurants, hotels and attractions in cities across the world. From the website or the iPhone app — though no longer available for download — users can access these tips to enhance their traveling experiences. Because each trip has a landing page, users can easily scroll through other Dopplr members’ recommendations and plan accordingly. A user’s network appears in the “fellow travellers” tab on the website, where your networks’ travel data can be visualized via Google Maps or a simple reverse chronological list of your friends’ current whereabouts. 3. Bumped.in Bumped.in is an online travel service that believes “traveling doesn’t have to be lonely.” It focuses on social media serendipity, connecting travelers on the same path. Rather than sharing your travel details with friends and family, you’re sharing your itinerary with complete strangers. So why not get to know a fellow commuter or traveler? After signing up and creating a profile, you can add plane and train trips to get started. Trips can be entered as one-time trips or recurring commutes. Bumped.in then tells you which other users are traveling your route or in close proximity. From there, you can browse their profiles and connect through messaging. Cultivating a network helps out. You can begin by connecting to Facebook to find friends already using the service. The Facebook connection also allows you to share travel logs on your Facebook wall to let your friends know what you’re up to next. The big idea behind Bumped.in is to make travel time more bearable by enabling users to connect with fellow travelers who may have similar interests. 4. Globetrooper For the adventurous travelers out there, Globetrooper is a traveling site worth checking out. Like Bumped.in, Globetrooper focuses on connecting strangers with similar interests, but in this case, the service is specific to traveling interests. It enables users to create and post trips in search of ideal travel partners, organizing trips into broader categories — including backpacking, mountaineering, bicycle touring and food/wine touring. When creating a trip, users can enter information about the dates and costs and get more specific in the description field. The creator also rates the trip on difficulty, culture shock, remoteness and risk factors and has the option to add a photo. All of these details help prospective traveling mates determine if the trip is a good fit. Each trip appears on its own trip page with all of the details, which also include a comment section for travelers to chat and connect. For those interested in traveling but without specific plans, there is also the option of browsing existing trips, such as those pictured above. Users can browse by category, country or period of travel. Series Supported by Philips ChargeOn  The Business Travel Series is supported by Philips ChargeOn, a wire-free mobile phone charging system that gives you up to 4 hours of additional talk time when you’re on the go. To learn more about Philips ChargeOn, visit its website here. More Travel Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of Flickr, deeleea Reviews: Android, Dopplr, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Google Calendar, Google Maps, LinkedIn, TripIt, Twitter, XING, gmail More About: bumped.in, Business Travel Series, dopplr, globetrooper, List, Lists, travel, Travel Lists, travel planner, travel planning, traveling, trending, tripit For more Tech coverage:
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| 3 Things to Consider When Staffing a Software Development Project Posted: 26 Nov 2010 07:50 AM PST   Brett Miller is the president of Custom Software by Preston (CSP). For more than 10 years CSP has impressed clients with highly effective software solutions and teams of multi-talented software engineers. There are multiple approaches you can take to staffing when it comes to IT projects. You can deal directly with full-time or freelance/contracted employees, or you can outsource using local or offshore development firms. Determining which of these methods of staffing software development projects is right for your company can be a challenging endeavor, and three opposing characteristics of business need to be considered: cost, risk and convenience. Each of these three concepts demands extensive consideration in the specific context of the project and the organization as a whole. Below is an overview of what you need to consider and the pros and cons of each option for IT staffing. ConvenienceFirst and foremost, you must decided whether to work with individuals or development companies. Regardless of if you’re working with developers in-house, or remotely, or if they’re full-time or contracted, the first decision you need to make is whether you want to work with individual developers or companies that specialize in outsourced development.
The underlying questions to ask here are simple: Do you want to manage the small details of the project? Do you have the time, expertise and desire to handle this responsibility? Or, would you rather use your time for something else and leave those details up to an expert? RiskRisk management is about assessing (and minimizing) the likelihood of delays or failures. Minimizing the effects of unforeseen difficulties is also critical. Basically, you want to reduce the likelihood of anything that affects the bottom line. Throwing money at a project does not always guarantee the best outcome, however, being prepared to commit to the appropriate budgeting often does. In other words, a company that is prepared to fund success is more likely to achieve that success. You can minimize risk by performing due diligence when selecting a company or individual to work with, clearly defining the project scope, expectations and milestones in any development contracts, and allocating enough money to hire competent developers. CostThe most talented technical candidates do demand higher hourly rates, but as indicated already, their expertise reduces risk and the number of required project hours. Spending additional money also allows the convenience of implementing the exact approach your company desires, while at the same time potentially simplifying the candidate selection process. The underlying question here (related to convenience) is how much time do you want to dedicate to finding the most qualified talent? How confident are you in being effective in the selection process? Does your budget line up wth expectations? Benefits and Drawbacks of Each ApproachLet's take a deeper look at some of the benefits and drawbacks of each method of IT staffing: 1. In-House Employees(Moderate Convenience, Moderate Cost, Moderate Risk)
2. Contractors Through Staffing Company(High Convenience, Moderate Cost, Moderate Risk)
3. Direct Freelancers(Low Convenience, Moderate Cost, High Risk)
4. Outsourcing(High Convenience, High Cost, Low Risk)
5. Offshoring(Moderate Convenience, Low Cost, High Risk)
ConclusionRemember, this is a balancing act between the factors of cost, risk and convenience. No one goes into an IT project expecting it to fail, but the fact is, many projects do fail. Properly handling risk management, decision making and cost control demands flexibility and advanced planning. Thoroughly understanding the options available and potential risks when staffing a software project will help ensure the most effective results. Let us know in the comments your experiences with any of these options for IT project staffing. More Business Resources from Mashable:
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, jamesbenet Reviews: iStockphoto More About: freelancers, hiring, it, it staffing, List, Lists, offshoring, outsourcing, risk management, small business, software development, staffing For more Business coverage:
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| Appeal Court Upholds Guilty Verdict for The Pirate Bay Founders Posted: 26 Nov 2010 06:39 AM PST   After being found guilty of copyright infringement and sentenced to large fines and prison terms, the founders of the popular BitTorrent tracker the Pirate Bay have appealed their verdict. The result: another “guilty” verdict and slightly reduced prison sentences, but even larger fines. Originally, the four founders of the Pirate Bay were all sentenced to one year in jail, and a collective fine of $3.6 million. Now, the Swedish Appeal Court has announced its decision: Peter Sunde’s sentence was reduced to eight months in prison, Fredrik Neij must serve 10 months, while Carl Lundström’s sentence was reduced to four months in prison. All of them must pay a share of a new, $6.5 million fine. The fourth founder, Gottfrid Svartholm, was not present at the court hearings due to medical circumstances and is therefore not included in the verdict, but his case will be reviewed at a later date. The collective fine has grown to $6.5 million because the appeal court has accepted the evidence of losses as a result of file-sharing, presented by plaintiff companies, “to a greater extent than the district court.” The Pirate Bay founders haven’t commented on the new sentence. Since none of them are involved with the actual Pirate Bay site any more, the verdict probably won’t affect it in any way. More About: bittorrent, Carl Lundström, copyright, Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, piracy, the pirate bay, trending For more Tech coverage:
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| Fake Tsunami Warning Sent from Hacked Twitter Account Posted: 26 Nov 2010 05:54 AM PST   The Twitter account of Andi Arief, the disaster management adviser to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has been hacked and used to send a fake tsunami warning, the local media reports. “Besok jakarta tsunami,” which translates as “Jakarta tsunami tomorrow,” was one of the messages sent from the account. Since Arief is a frequent Twitter user and an authority on disaster management in Indonesia, you can imagine that tweet sent ripples of fear through the Internet, especially after the recent devastating tsunami that caused more than 100 deaths in Indonesia. Arief soon regained control of his Twitter account, which he announced with this message, saying his account is now “back to normal.”  Still, this is another example how dangerous Twitter can be, especially as it becomes more and more mainstream. It is a great tool for disseminating information, but it can also be used to spread false information which – such as in this case – can be extremely dangerous. In the past, we’ve seen many similar examples of high-profile Twitter accounts being hijacked by hackers, the most famous examples being Britney Spears, Jason Mraz and one of the accounts belonging to the New York Times. [The Jakarta Globe via Naked Security] Reviews: Internet, Twitter More About: hack, social media, tsunami, twitter, warning For more Social Media coverage:
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