Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary was a spectacular waterfront festival! Thank you to everyone who joined us on Sunday, May 27, and to all our partners who helped make the day a memorable one!
Event Production by Foghorn Creative - foghorncreative.com
Video Produced by Michael Coleman - colemanfilm.comGolden Gate National Parks Conservancy - parksconservancy.org
Tuesday, May 29, 2012 0
Monday, May 28, 2012
Netflix announced a major expansion of its Ultimate Fighting Championship®content offering in Canada. Canadian subscribers will now be able to watch a wide variety of recent and classic UFC events, highlights series and the hit reality show "The Ultimate Fighter®" on Netflix's streaming service.
Netflix new UFC content will include a range of fights and shows that feature some of the sports' biggest names including Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Canadians Mark Hominick, Rory MacDonald and Sam Stout, amongst many others.
Popular UFC compilation series will also be added to Netflix, including selections from UFC Best Of, Ultimate KO,100 Greatest Moments, and Ultimate Heavyweights as well as the documentary Bad Blood.
"Canada has a long tradition of support for MMA and we've been working with the UFC for some time to bring their world leading premium content to Netflix," said Jason Ropell, Netflix Vice President of Content Acquisition. "We're thrilled to be able to give Canadian members a much deeper offering of UFC content ranging from classic fights, and popular compilations, to recent events, some as recent as 90 days following their PPV airing."
About Netflix
With more than 25 million streaming members in the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom andIreland, Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is the world's leading internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV programs. For about US$7.99 a month, Netflix members can instantly watch movies and TV programs streamed over the internet to PCs, Macs and TVs. Among the large and expanding base of devices streaming from Netflix are the Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 consoles; an array of Blu-ray disc players, internet-connected TVs, home theatre systems, digital video recorders and internet video players; Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, as well as Apple TV and Google TV. In all, more than 800 devices that stream from Netflix are available. For additional information, visit www.netflix.com. Follow Netflix on Facebook and Twitter.
With more than 25 million streaming members in the United States, Canada, Latin America, the United Kingdom andIreland, Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is the world's leading internet subscription service for enjoying movies and TV programs. For about US$7.99 a month, Netflix members can instantly watch movies and TV programs streamed over the internet to PCs, Macs and TVs. Among the large and expanding base of devices streaming from Netflix are the Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3 consoles; an array of Blu-ray disc players, internet-connected TVs, home theatre systems, digital video recorders and internet video players; Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, as well as Apple TV and Google TV. In all, more than 800 devices that stream from Netflix are available. For additional information, visit www.netflix.com. Follow Netflix on Facebook and Twitter.
About the Ultimate Fighting Championship
Universally recognized for its action-packed, can't-miss events that have sold out some of the biggest arenas and stadiums across the globe, the UFC® is the world's premier mixed martial arts organization. Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, headquartered in Las Vegas and with offices in London, Toronto and Beijing, UFC® produces more than 30 live events annually and is the largest Pay-Per-View event provider in the world. In 2011, the UFC announced multi-year Canadian broadcast agreements with Sportsnet and TVA Sports. The agreements include live events broadcast with additional fight cards and thousands of hours of programming. This includes the longest-running sports reality show on television, The Ultimate Fighter®, which now airs on FX Canada and Sportsnet in an exciting new live format.
In addition to its reach on FOX, UFC programming is broadcast in over 149 countries and territories, to nearly one billion homes worldwide, in 20 different languages. UFC content is also distributed commercially in the United Statesto bars and restaurants through Joe Hand Promotions and in English throughout Canada via Premium Sports Broadcasting Inc. and in Quebec through Interbox. The UFC also connects with tens of millions of fans through its website, UFC.com, as well as social media sites Facebook and Twitter. UFC President Dana White is considered one of the most accessible and followed executives in sports, with over two million followers on Twitter. Ancillary UFC businesses include best-selling DVDs, an internationally distributed magazine, UFC.TV offering live event broadcasts and video on demand around the world, the best-selling UFC Undisputed® video game franchise distributed by THQ, UFC GYM®, UFC Fight Club affinity program, UFC Fan Expo® festivals, branded apparel and trading cards.
SOURCE Netflix, Inc.
Monday, May 28, 2012 1
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Google's attempt to unsettle Facebook only launched officially last September, but a new study suggests that unless something dramatic happens to fire up its userbase, Google+ might not make it past its first birthday.
Admit it: You signed up for Google+ back when it was launched but have pretty much forgotten about it ever since, haven’t you? The curiosity and excitement of the idea of a new social network made it seem like a good idea at the time, but then you realized that you didn’t really want another social network, especially one that your friends weren’t on, and suddenly Google has to deal with surveys like the new one from RJMetrics that demonstrates just how much of a ghost town the new network seems to have become.
RJMetrics’ analysis looked at the public timelines of 40,000 randomly selected Google+ users to track just how successful the burgeoning “social spine” of Google is after Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra announced last month that the network had more than 170 million users (To put that in some context, Twitter claims around 140 million active users). The results suggest that, even if that many people have signed up for the service, they don’t appear to be actually using it. By the numbers:
- The average Google+ post has less than one +1 vote, less than one reply, and less than one share.
- There is an average of twelve days between publicly-viewable posts from users surveyed.
- 30 percent of users who make a public post never make another, with users who make do multiple posts seeing a monthly reduction in the number of public posts on an ongoing basis. According to RJMetrics, “[e]ven after making five public posts, there is a 15% chance that a user will not post publicly again.”
That last point is something that should worry Google. Unpacking it, it turns out that, while there is a 70 percent chance that users will make a second public post, the social stickiness of Google+ starts to fall far behind other social networks soon afterwards: “We typically expect to see the probability of repeat posts shoot up to well north of 90% by the time the user has made several posts. This is basically the “once you’re using it you’re hooked” principle,” writes RJMetrics’ Robert Moore, “[but] with Google Plus, however, this number never crosses the 90% mark. Even after having made five such posts, the chance of making a sixth is only 85%.” Without this number improving, Google+ runs the risk of remaining an also-ran in the social space, and another example of a Google failure when it comes to trying to improve the social nature of their services (Hands up who remembers “Google Wave“?).
It’s possible that the disappointing figures are due to users preferring private posts to public; RJMetrics suggests this as a possibility but points to the disappointing nature of the +1, reply and share figures as proof of the opposite: “These public posts will still be visible to each member’s private networks, and actually could attract +1s, shares, and replies from external users as well. If anything, we would expect our numbers here to be higher than in the general population.” Instead, each post got an average of 0.77 +1s, 0.54 replies and a truly worrying 0.17 reshares.
These figures suggest that Google might want to think about rethinking Google+ in some way, and making it so that the 170,000,000 people who have signed up might actually want to start using it. Perhaps they should theme it around pins. That seems to be what the kids are into these days…
Saturday, May 19, 2012 0
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Target, signaling its growing irritation with its rival Amazon, announced on Wednesday that it would stop selling the online retailer’s Kindle e-readers.
Target, with almost 1,800 stores, is one of the bigger carriers of Kindles in the offline world, though most of the devices are sold at Amazon’s Web site.
Like other big retailers, Target has been trying to figure out how to stop Amazon shoppers from visiting Target stores to check out products, and then buy them online from Amazon. It is a practice encouraged by Amazon; over the Christmas holiday, for example, the company offered a promotion on its Price Check app that gave shoppers 5 percent off any item scanned at a store.
Now that retailers like Target are aware of this so-called showrooming, carrying Amazon’s Kindle is a little “like Starbucks selling Dunkin’ Donuts gift certificates,” said Michael Norris, a senior analyst for Simba Information.
Target warned in January that it wouldn’t sit back.
“What we aren’t willing to do is let online-only retailers use our brick-and-mortar stores as a showroom for their products and undercut our prices,” Target executives wrote in a letter to vendors, asking them to think of new pricing and inventory strategies, according to a note that Deborah Weinswig, a Citi analyst, sent to clients.
A Target spokeswoman, Molly Snyder, confirmed that the retailer had sent the letter.
Target dropping the Kindle, of course, won’t stop Amazon shoppers from checking out other products at Target, but analysts said it would send a message to Amazon about Target’s alliances. Target, for example, will continue to carry Apple’s iPad, Ms. Snyder said, and it is testing expanded displays of Apple products. Target will also sell other e-readers and accessories, from Barnes & Noble’s Nook to rather obscure ones like the Aluratek Libre.
Starting at $79, and selling at $199 for a color version, the Kindle is the dominant e-reader in the market, although Amazon does not release sales figures.
When Target started carrying Kindles in 2010, it was a rare case of Amazon courting physical retailers. At that point, Amazon sold Kindles only on its own Web site.
But physical stores were a big advantage at the time for Barnes & Noble and the rival Nook e-reader. Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest book chain, promoted its hundreds of brick-and-mortar stores as one of its crucial advantages in the e-reader wars. Since introducing the first version of the Nook in 2009, Barnes & Noble has expanded and polished its Nook display areas, emulating the sleek, neutral spaces of an Apple store.
So Amazon took a similar tack and got its Kindle into Target. Later additions included Staples, Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Since e-readers were still relatively new, many consumers wanted to see the product in person before making a purchase. At the time, a Target executive said that shoppers had “overwhelmingly positive” responses to the Kindle.
Now, two years later, analysts say they expect the Target decision to have little effect on Kindle sales. Amazon has “pushed aggressively into the retail stores because they realized that people like to be able to touch things before they buy them,” Mr. Norris said. “It’s probably just a mild annoyance for Amazon unless other retailers follow suit.”
Amazon sold about a million Kindles a week over the holidays. The company declined to comment.
Thursday, May 3, 2012 0
Monday, April 23, 2012
DNS Changer can infect both Windows and Mac systems. Linux users are safe, as are those using iPhones, iPads, Android devices and other systems.
The Trojan in question is called DNS Changer, a piece of malware that was discovered back in 2007 and is estimated to have infected millions of computer worldwide.
The malware intercepts websites visited by the web browser, redirecting the users from the site they had chosen to visit to servers under the control of the cybercriminals. These servers were then used to pushed web ads to the user, earning the criminals millions of dollars in the process.
However, last year the FBI, working in conjunction with the Estonian police, seized the servers used by the cybercriminals and broke up the crime ring behind the operations. However, the servers used by the criminals were kept online so as to not disrupt the web activities of those infected (although they no longer served up ads).
But running these web servers isn’t cheap, and so the plug is being pulled on them come July. Because systems infected with DNS Changer have had key settings changed that redirects all their web browsing through these servers, once they are pulled offline, the internet will disappear for anyone using an infected system.
The DNS Changer Working Group (DCWG), the that’s been maintaining care of the servers since their seizure, has created a website that allows you check if your computer is infected and, if it is, remove the DNSChanger malware.
Back in January of this year the DCWG estimated that some 450,000 systems were still infected with DNS Changer.
The DNS Changer Working Group (DCWG), the that’s been maintaining care of the servers since their seizure, has created a website that allows you check if your computer is infected and, if it is, remove the DNSChanger malware.
Back in January of this year the DCWG estimated that some 450,000 systems were still infected with DNS Changer.
If you are infected there are a whole host of removal tools available. Here is a listing my Favorite:
Monday, April 23, 2012 2
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Apple this week denied any wrongdoing regarding the pricing structure for books sold via iBooks, arguing that its entry into the market helped collapse Amazon's monopolistic hold on the industry.
"The DOJ's accusation of collusion against Apple is simply not true," Apple said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced that it had filed suit against Apple and five other publishers over an alleged "illegal conspiracy" involving e-book price fixing. Apple, as well as publishers Macmillan and Penguin, plan to fight the charges, while Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster have agreed to a proposed settlement.
Beginning in 2009, publishing executives met with Apple during near-quarterly meetings to discuss competition issues, including Amazon's e-book pricing, "as part of a conspiracy to raise, fix, and stabilize retail prices," according to Attorney General Eric Holder.
Apple had a different take.
"The launch of the iBookstore in 2010 fostered innovation and competition, breaking Amazon's monopolistic grip on the publishing industry," the company said in its statement, which was first provided to All Things D and confirmed by an Apple spokesman. "Since then customers have benefited from eBooks that are more interactive and engaging. Just as we've allowed developers to set prices on the App Store, publishers set porices on the iBookstore."
The DOJ, however, alleges that Apple and publishers crafted a deal whereby no other e-book retailer could offer a price lower than Apple. Sharis A. Pozen, acting assistant attorney general within the DOJ's antitrust division, said that publishers reportedly referred to the "wretched" $9.99 pricing scheme for e-books via Amazon, and wanted to force Amazon to up its prices. Pozen quoted former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who reportedly said of the deal: "The customer pays a little more, but that's what [publishers] want anyway."
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 0
Friday, April 13, 2012
But the social network’s $1 billion purchase of Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service, was a Mark Zuckerberg production.
Less than 24 hours after the ink dried on Instagram’s latest financing round — an investment that valued it at roughly $500 million — Mr. Zuckerberg placed a call on Friday to Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s chief executive, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.
Mr. Zuckerberg was blunt: Facebook wanted to buy Instagram. Over the next 48 hours, Facebook and Instagram hammered out the details for a $1 billion cash-and-stock deal, the social network’s largest acquisition to date, the people said. By the end of Sunday, the deal was done and announced the following day.
To toast the occasion, Mr. Zuckerberg wrote a lengthy post on his personal Facebook page, calling the transaction an “important milestone” for the company.
The deal — so large and cobbled together so quickly — underscores Mr. Zuckerberg’s control of Facebook and how he drives the social network’s pace. Unlike some founders, Mr. Zuckerberg has an extraordinary hold on his business. He owns about 28.4 percent of all Class B shares, and through agreements with other investors, he has voting control over more than 57 percent of Class B shares. His power is expected to swell over time, as Class B shareholders sell their stock.
Since founding the company in 2004, Mr. Zuckerberg has always been the soul of the social network. Earlier versions of the site were tagged “a Mark Zuckerberg production.”
But despite his power, Mr. Zuckerberg has not always played a heavy hand in the company’s acquisitions, most of which have been small transactions and “acqui-hires,” in which a company is bought for its talent. Most of Facebook’s recent deals have largely been handled by Amin Zoufonoun, a former Google executive hired last year.
The deal also reveals how important mobile is to Mr. Zuckerberg’s and Facebook’s future. It implies that Mr. Zuckerberg saw Instagram’s meteoric rise as a potential threat, whether as a standalone service or in the hands of one of its rivals like Google or Twitter.
While Mr. Zuckerberg had previously expressed interest to Mr. Systrom in early conversations, the transaction came on the heels of the much-heralded release of Instagram’s app on Android in early April. The app recorded five million downloads in six days.
A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment.
Friday, April 13, 2012 0
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