Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Amazon’s $100,000 Startup Challenge

aws-startup-challenge.png Anyone out there with a great idea for building a startup around Amazon Web Services can enter a $100,000 challenge that Amazon is sponsoring. Amazon's collection of Web infrastructure services include hosted storage (S3), compute cycles (EC2), computer-to-computer messaging (SQS), payments (FPS), and an on-demand workforce (Mechanical Turk). AWS has already attracted more than 265,000 developers. And some of the services are growing at a nice clip. For instance, S3 has gone from storing 800 million files in July 2006 to 5 billion files in April 2007 to 10 billion now in October. So usage of S3 alone has doubled since last April. Companies like Zillow already base their Websites on Amazon's back-end infrastructure. Amazon wants to get a lot more.

The $100,000 will be split in half between $50,000 cash and a $50,000 credit for Amazon's infrastructure services. The winner will also get an investment offer from Amazon. The deadline for applying for the prize is October 28.

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How To: Transfer AIM Messages to Your Cell Phone

aim-to-sms%20forwarding.pngRely on AIM as your nerve center of workplace communication? You can forward instant messages to your cell phone whenever you're not signed on using the Mobile AIM Service. All it takes is an AIM username and password (that is, you don't have to use the AOL Instant Messenger program as your chat client; you just need an account). After you register, your AIM profile will change to "On JiveTalk" whenever you log out of AIM on your computer and all new IMs will be forwarded to your phone via SMS (that means you'd better have a good SMS plan if you expect to receive a lot of mobile IMs). To unregister your phone, just send a dummy SMS message to 265021. For more details, check out their IM Forwarding Users Guide (PDF alert).

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Telephony: Get Free VoIP In-Calling Anywhere with GrandCentral and Gizmo Project

free-gizmo-inbound-calls.pngIf you've got an account with the Google-acquired one-phone-number-to-rule-them-all web application GrandCentral and a free dial-in number from the popular Skype alternative, Gizmo Project, you can use the two together to get unlimited free incoming calls. One major benefit of this is that—while Gizmo Project limits you to a Nevada area code with your free number—GrandCentral offers a wide range of call-in area codes for free. That means that no matter where you and your computer are, your friends and family can call your GrandCentral number and you'll continue to get free calls through Gizmo. It's always cheap for you and—if they're in your GrandCentral area code—cheap for the person making the call. GrandCentral's Gizmo support isn't exactly new, but I suspect that whenever Google decides to re-open GrandCentral's doors, a lot of users will want to jump on it.


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Clone Your Computer on a USB Drive - Why Carry That Heavy Laptop

take your computer on a USB drive If you are working across multiple computers that are not connected to each other, you probably use the good old USB drive (or external hard drive) to store and carry your Office documents, Photoshop drawings, personal pictures and other multimedia files.

Perfect. Now imagine a situation where you have all required data on the USB drive but the computer you are currently working on (say in the cyber café or a friend's place) doesn't have the necessary software programs that are required to view or edit those files.

That computer neither has Microsoft Office for creating PowerPoint presentations or Excel sheets, nor Photoshop and AutoCAD for you to edit those important CAD drawings. Even the media player is missing so you cannot watch your personal video and music collection that you have been carrying in the pocket.

What if you could carry all your favorite software applications (and their settings), Office files, emails and everything else with you on a portable drive? You just plug-in that drive into the USB port of any computer and start working as if that was your own PC.

Well, your dreams can come true with Mojopac from Ringcube - an absolutely brilliant tool that very-easily clones your existing computing environment onto any USB Drive. And if you have an iPod or a USB based cell phone or Digital Camera, Mojopac will work just fine so you have one less device to carry.

To get started, you connect the USB drive to the main computer (that has the stuff you need most) and install the free Mojopac software. What you then see is a fresh Windows XP environment without any software. Now install all the applications (and even games) that you want to carry around– they are not installed on your computer but on the USB drive.

Once you are done, eject the USB drive and plug into any Windows computer.  All those programs and documents can now run off the USB drive. Mojopac will also save your application settings and software preferences as you move around computers.

Mojopac uses the resources of the host computer but runs entirely on the USB drive without modifying anything on the host. Once you eject the USB device out of the friend's computer, there are no traces left – not even your web browsing history. Nothing less than magic.

Mojopac Freedom | Mojopac Video Demo


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Anti-counterfeiting treaty turns into maximum copyright free-for-all


Copyfightin' law prof Michael Geist tackles the Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a new global treaty proposal that has expanded to cover all the bad stuff that we're more used to seeing from the World Intellectual Property Organization (which bears the same relationship to bad copyright law that Mordor has to evil in Middle Earth), like prohibitions of breaking DRM and the use of public money spent to police the private interests of a few giant corporations.

Unlike WIPO, ACTA is undertaken without input from those pesky consumer rights groups and developing nations, and without the need to come to consensus.

Despite the absence of any independent data (indeed, there is evidence that some numbers have been fabricated), politicians are easily convinced that action is needed since the lobbyists often come armed with compelling props (exploded batteries, unsafe toys) and no one actually supports counterfeiting. Of course, the issue is not whether you are for or against counterfeiting, but rather whether the proposed reforms have anything to do with health and safety or significant economic concerns.
Link

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