David Lidsky's Blog, page 4569

Net Propaganda Plans Jump China's Great Firewall

China's Green Dam Net censorship wall looks like it may be about to fracture, with interesting timing: A rare leak has revealed the government officially plans to use the Net itself for propagandizing at home and overseas.

A report on the BBC News, sourced from publications inside China, notes that the Green Dam Youth Escort system has lost its Beijing project team because of a lack of government funding, and a partner team in Henan is also set to shutter for the same reason. Green Dam had...

Banking on Eco Projects With Big Stimulus Dollars

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Illustration by Asaf Hanuka

Can stimulus dollars turn into next-generation green tech?

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Back in the days of the Cold War, the U.S. government launched DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to jump-start military technology. Now the challenges are global warming and energy independence -- and the Department of Energy is tackling the new crises the same way: The Advanced Research Projects Agency -- Energy, or ARPA -- E, is funneling hundreds of millions of stimulus dollars into...

SkypeKit: Easily Building VoIP Into Any Application

Skype's just released its SkypeKit development suite for Mac and Windows. This is good news for developers, who can create different apps with Skype's VoIP powers built right into their code. This, in turn, will only simplify life for chatty consumers.

SkypeKit--an SDK for hooking up to Skype's VoIP systems--was announced a few weeks ago, but at that stage it was largely a curiosity from a consumer's point of view as it only worked for Linux-based software. Today's launch of Mac OSX and...

Squarespace Gets $39 Million for Mysterious Publishing Initiative

Blogging engine Squarespace has just concluded its first external funding round in seven years, garnering $38.5 million in cash from Index Ventures and Accel Partners. The plan is to use it to better "redefine publishing" online. 

Squarespace's founder and lead-programmer Anthony Casalena explains a blog posting that he sees it as critical that companies reinvent themselves "or face extinction." In this case, $39 million will really help Squarespace do a lot of shuffling things around.  

Accel...

Viral Boarder Video From KnifeShow Anticipates AR Gaming

Although we're not quite sure what this video is for, FastCompany is going to use it as a way to augur the future--the 21st-century version of chicken entrails and all of that. It is, I think, a viral from KnifeShow Inc, who mainly film rad dudes who do rad things with boards.

[youtube tVljiwwqwfc:]

The film footage for Gnarcade was finished about a year ago, but the guys have spent so long doing the special effects on the three-minute film that it was only released two days ago. And this, we...

NASA's New Citizen-Inventor Space Challenges Revealed, With Bigger Prize Fund

NASA today revealed its newest batch of Centennial Challenges. As well as pointing to future directions for space science, they're a gentle booster for President Obama's plans to get more people involved in the space biz--including you. 

The Centennial challenges are competitions a bit like the X-Prize that NASA uses to encourage novel thinking about space missions from non-government bodies, and these are the first new ones since 2005. The hope is that the space industry gets a nice...

Can China Turn EV Infrastructure Startup, Better Place Into a Success?

Electric vehicle infrastructure startup Better Place has a compelling
business model:  Better Place-branded EV charging stations allow
drivers to juice up at home and at work, while gas station-like battery
switch stations let users take long trips without stopping to
charge--all for a monthly subscription fee. But if Better Place
ultimately succeeds, it will be because carmakers decide to go along
with the battery switch model.

Renault-Nissan
is already working with Better Place on...

Digital Doctor Appointment Service ZocDoc Poised to Benefit From Obama Health Plans

Visiting a medical professional in the U.S. may be a sleek digitally-assisted affair sooner than you may think: With efforts like ZocDoc's to streamline digital appointment making, and new government funds for e-patient records, it seems likely. 

ZocDoc's system is a Web-based portal to booking a doctor or dentist, from general practitioners down to specialists, via a plain and simple clickable interface. All you need to do is select your requirement, tap in your zip code and make basic...

Zeta Communities Gets a Boost for Net-Zero Modular Green Homes

ZETA Communities isn't wasting any time in rolling out its "net zero energy" modular multi-family homes in California. The San Francisco-based startup, which opened a 91,000 square foot net zero housing factory  late year, is already working on 132 factory-built housing units. The goal is to build 2,800 housing units in four factories by 2013--an objective made significantly easier by a $5 million venture capital investment this week from Black Coral Capital. That brings ZETA's total...

Track Federal Spending on New, $8 Million IT Dashboard and App

Vivek Kundra, the first CIO of the U.S., today relaunched his IT Dashboard, a Web site (and now mobile app) that enables anyone to view the finest details of the federal government's $80 billion IT spending. Kundra told Politico today that he modeled the Web site after a stock portfolio, wanting government officials and the general public to be able to see the spending as an investment. "You can slice and dice data by bureau, investment, line items, and contracts," Kundra said. "This helps...