Social Media Use by Chinese Migrant Workers
When the third-generation (3G) mobile-phone network was launched in China last year, a vast range of compatible products was marketed towards upwardly mobile, professional, technologically connected people with high consumption power. But the largest social group to subscribe to the 3G network was migrant workers, because their need for storage capacity is surprisingly substantial. These workers are absolutely mobile and typically, they have no other devices on which to store data: 3G technology enables them to store photos, download music, videos and novels, and engage in a host of activities that would have been unavailable to them previously.
The most popular social-media tool used by China’s migrant population is Tencent QQ, China’s largest free instant-messaging service. At any one time, there are more than 80 million users chatting on QQ. With a monthly mobile subscription of five yuan (A$0.85), it is distinctly working class: white-collar professionals tend to stick to MSN.
The workers are most likely to use QQ when they want to meet new friends or catch up with people they’ve met since leaving home. If they want to contact their parents, they’ll usually use their mobile phones. Typically, these workers value the connections they’ve made since leaving home. There is a collective identity: we’re all on the road; we’re all new to the city, which is hostile to us; we don’t really belong here but somehow we’re together.
LukeW | Video: Designing for Today's Web
In my Designing for Today's Web presentation at Webdagene 2010 in Oslo, Norway I outlined several important Internet trends and the impact they have on Web application design. Including: explosive mobile Web growth, increasing numbers of connected devices, and readily available social Web services that provide access to people's identities and relationships.
ArtAngry Birds: Why aren't developers using the Android Market?
uboat.net - Fighting the U-boats - Ships
The USS Guadalcanal
Prepared by Don Baker
USS Guadalcanal CVE-60.
"The Lord looks out for drunks, little children, and the CVEs"
USS Guadalcanal CVE-60
The escort carriers were considered to be thin-skinned, slow, unstable, and unwanted, but the crews fought these "baby flattops" in every theater of WW II with distinction and valor; none more so than in the Battle of the Atlantic against the U-boats. The American CVE sailors had a wry saying; the CVEs were "...two torpedo ships; the first torpedo would go through you and the second would go over you". Admiral D. V. Gallery USN, summarized the shiphandling and seakeeping abilities of the escort carriers as, "...they were barely good enough; but they were good enough". In spite of the acknowledged shortcomings of the ship design, Samuel Eliot Morison, distinguished Harvard professor and WW II naval historian, said of these ships "...the escort carrier groups were probably the greatest single contribution of the United States Navy to victory over enemy submarines".
USS Guadalcanal CVE-60 was the sixth of the Casablanca class escort carriers built by the Kaiser shipyards in Vancouver on the Columbia River in the state of Washington. Fifty of these ships were built within the period of one year using welded construction and prefabrication mass production techniques. With a large balanced single rudder operating in the race from twin screws, the Casablanca's were highly maneuverable, fast for an escort carrier, but noted for their rolling tendencies which gave operating problems in the heavy seas of the North Atlantic. Of the 50 Casablancas built, only 6 were assigned Atlantic duty.
Henry J. Kaiser: The War Years » The Antiplanner
Article: Logitech Revue with Google TV Available This Month for $299
Logitech Revue with Google TV Available This Month for $299
http://mashable.com/2010/10/06/logitech-revue/
. As we learned earlier this week, the Google TV platform will support the Android Marketplace, meaning that any app you enjoy on your mobile device will be playable through your TV. So, anything from Angry Birds to Netflix can be launched from Google TV. Like Android, the Google TV platform is very much open and expandable. Worldchanging: Bright Green: Let's Share: The Growth of Peer-to-Peer Product-Service Systems
From car-sharing to online dress rentals, solutions thatprovide services without requiring ownership offer a means to reduce consumption and environmental impact. There's now growing interest in a somewhat different type ofproduct-service-system: rather than consumers renting services from businesses, several websites are facilitating rentals (or free loans) of products between individuals. Items that someone owns but rarely uses, like tools or obscure kitchen equipment, can be listed online for friends or neighbors to borrow or rent instead of buying elsewhere.
Frenting and Neighborgoods: The Growth of Peer-to-Peer Product Rental/Sharing Systems - convozine.com
A big part of global sustainable design is a reduction in the total amount of stuff that's floating around — especially stuff that people own, use once, and then bury in their garage or closet.
This WorldChanging article touches on fractional ownership programs like http://www.clubsportiva.com/ (exotic cars), but this new breed of peer-to-peer product rental or sharing systems is interesting to me. Sites like Frenting and Neighborgoods allow for direct rental — or sharing — of the kind of expensive equipment and other stuff that's usually purchased with one specific job in mind, and, once it's used, gathers dust. We've all got some of those. And we've all regretted having to buy it because we know we're ahrdly ever going to use it again.
How Facebook Can Become Bigger In Five Years Than Google Is Today
"Remember three years ago
, when Microsoft paid a quarter-billion dollars for 1.6% of Facebook and the exclusive right to run banner ads across Facebook.com? Tell the truth, how many of you thought that was a killer business decision? I can’t say I did at the time. But as that deal is about to expire in 2011, Facebook’s status as a revenue juggernaut is rarely questioned any more.
"In fact, I have been mulling over data from both companies, and I’m ready to declare in public my belief that Facebook will be bigger in five years than Google is right now, barring some drastic action or accident. Futhermore, Facebook will grow without needing to cut into Google’s core business of text ads, which are still 99% of Google’s profits. Even if every single Facebook user performs just as many searches with Google as ever—including Google Instant, mobile search, and YouTube—Facebook will inexorably grow as big as Google is today and maybe bigger, because Madison Avenue’s brands are less interested in targeting than they are in broadcasting to vast mother-loving buckets of demographically correct eyeballs, and Facebook has become the perfect platform for that."
Finally: Instant On PCs?
A 26-year-old piece of software at the heart of PCs is about to get an update that will make for boot-up times of mere seconds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11430069
