itsibts.com

“Microblogging works because of the total control users have over their postings, but it is a hobby that seems to require a significant investment of time which many cannot afford,” the Institute said in a statement.

That said, earlier this year the Oxford University Press studied 1.5 million tweets to see which words were found most frequently on the popular service. Aside from obvious words like “the,” “it,” “and,” and “to,” the organization found that “work”, one of the top words on Jaiku, is also a top term on Twitter. It was included in over 26,000 tweets the organization analyzed and was one of the most-used terms on the site. One of the least-used terms Oxford found in its study was “running.” It was included in just 3,195 of the 1.5 million tweets it researched.

The study from the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology will be available in an upcoming issue of the Personal and Ubiquitous Computing Journal.

Curiously, the Finnish institute chose to examine the also-ran microblogging platform Jaiku. In sifting through 400,000 messages on Jaiku, HIIT found that the most common messages users send out include the words “working,” “home,” “work,” “lunch,” and “sleeping.”

A study from the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology has found that most microbloggers are updating their status with “mundane” messages.

As valuable as the Institute’s finding might be to Jaiku users, Twitter is the dominating force in the microblogging space. The Institute didn’t analyze tweets, making the study less applicable to the entire population of microblog users.

Jaiku is now a shadow of its former self, some two years after it was acquired by Google. According to the site’s About page, it’s “maintained by volunteer Google engineers on their spare time,” after the Web giant decided at the start of the year that a half-dozen products including Jaiku, Dodgeball, and Google Video weren’t contributing to its brand or bottom line. In March, the service was moved to Google’s App Engine. The company also open sourced its code base, putting the future of the service “in developer hands.”

Open source, whether in Mozilla’s (Firefox) hands or Google’s (Chrome), is also challenging Apple and Microsoft to innovate again in browser technology, which, in turn, Apple is enabling, at least, in Google’s case, through its own open-source WebKit technology.

PC users…have long benefited hugely from the existence of Macs. Microsoft and PC manufacturers have cribbed so many of Apple’s good ideas that it’s tough to imagine what Windows machines would look like today if the Mac had never existed.

Strange world, technology. On the ground, there are ideological skirmishes between rival camps of customers. In the boardroom, plots are hatched to ridicule the competition.

Not that these two companies are alone in their curious symbiosis. For example, where would open source be without Microsoft? After all, it is Microsoft that helped to create a standardized hardware platform (Intel) for both “desktops” and servers, which paved the way for Linux, but it is also Microsoft that consistently sets the bar, at least on the “desktop,” that open-source projects strive to meet and exceed.

For all the rancor between opposing technology camps–Microsoft vs. the open-source community, Apple vs. Microsoft, etc.–there’s a lot more symbiosis going on than meets the eye. In fact, it’s hard to imagine Apple without Microsoft, open source without Microsoft, and so on, as Harry McCracken suggests in MacWorld (not online at time of writing).

For years, however, that debt went largely unpaid. The PC platform finally started giving back in 2006, when the first Intel-based Macs shipped and the Mac essentially became a PC–and a really good one at that. Intel’s mammoth investments in chips are sustainable only because its processors end up in most of the world’s Windows PCs. Mac users reap the same technological windfall even though it’s the Windows majority that provides the economies of scale.

Microsoft, in turn, owes a growing debt to open source, and is increasingly getting involved with open source, most recently releasing an open-source software development kit for Bing to help developers write Mac OS X and Cocoa Touch (iPhone) applications. Linux is pushing Microsoft to innovate again in the server and mobile markets, while a host of open-source applications, databases, and middleware challenge it on the Web, “desktop,” and mobile.

Of course, Microsoft also propped up Apple’s waning fortunes back in 1997 with a $150 million investment and, more importantly, a commitment to build Mac versions of Office and Internet Explorer. Without Microsoft’s software on Apple’s machines, they arguably would have been much less palatable to the general public.

But in reality, Microsoft needs Apple needs open source needs Google needs….You get the picture.

Follow me on Twitter @mjasay.

For Firefox, putting tabs on top meshes conceptually with Electrolysis, aka Content Processes, an under-the-covers change that will make each tab a separate computing process. That carries potential performance, stability, and security advantages, but requires more memory.

Mozilla is looking for comment on the designs, which, the browser developer takes pains to note, are “for brainstorming/exploration” and aren’t final.

This Firefox 4.0 mockup shows a very Chrome-like interface.

(Credit:
Mozilla)

(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Specifically, the second Firefox 4.0 mockup shows the browser tabs on top where once there was a window title bar. That’s the same approach that Google picked with Chrome, a view of which you can see below.

The Firefox 4.0 mockups also show a combination button to the right of the address bar that changes behavior depending on what the browser is up to. The button can be used to start loading a page whose address has been typed, to stop loading if it’s in the process of doing so, and to reload it if it’s finished loading.

Last week, Mozilla showed some mockups for the nearer-term Firefox 3.7 that eliminated the browser’s title bar, replacing it with two drop-down menu buttons on the right, just like Chrome has had since its September 2008 debut. The Firefox 4.0 mockups show two options, one similar to the 3.7 ideas, and the other taking another step in the Chrome direction.

An example of Chrome's latest interface.

Of the “more contentious Tabs-on-Top concept,” Mozilla says advantages include that it saves vertical space and removes visual complexity. On the flip side, it’s different, and moving user interface elements confuses people. Also on the negative side, the missing title bar means people see only a truncated Web page title in the tab.

Mozilla has released mockups that show how Firefox 4.0 conceivably might look, and two words spring to my mind: Google Chrome.

In the past three years, over 1,800 customers have migrated from competitive platforms to IBM, and nearly 50 percent of those IBM wins included Linux. IBM doubled their number of Sun customer wins between first quarter and second quarter 2009.

Much of the growth comes from IBM’s close relationship with Red Hat, which allows IBM to play all sides of the fence in terms of OS suggestions to their customers.

While I doubt that Solaris will completely languish long-term under Oracle’s watchful eye (in fact, it may well flourish), there is little question that Sun’s ups and downs in the recent past have made customers look to alternatives.

Despite all the hype associated with a never-ending Linux versus Windows battle, it’s Unix, and specifically Sun Solaris that has felt the most pressure in the server operating system landscape.

This comes at a time when Novell has decided to invest further into OpenSUSE, adding full-time staff to the project team. As The Register noted, it’s a bit shocking that it’s taken this long for Novell to properly fund the effort, but it seems like an obvious time to take advantage of the market opportunity as Solaris and OpenSolaris are potentially on the ropes.

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.

At a recent IBM analyst meeting, Inna Kuznetsova, director, Linux strategy, told attendees that the Linux business is strong and growing.

LendingTree believes that Google is planning to launch the service in late August or early September–basically now–according to the complaint. Google is supposedly going to offer mortgage information and even quotes for home loans. You can already search for home listings on Google Maps, so this would perhaps make an interesting addition.

Google played it coy, telling the Times that “we are currently working on a small ad unit test that will run against a limited number of mortgage-related search queries in the U.S.”

(Credit:
Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)

The New York Times noticed a lawsuit pending between LendingTree, an online mortgage quote service, and a company called Mortech, which helps LendingTree run its site. The connection to Google is that apparently, Mortech is gearing up to sell that technology to Google, which LendingTree thinks is a breach of the deal between Mortech and LendingTree.

Could Google be adding mortgage information to its real-estate search pages?

Add Google Mortgage to the list of potential services that might soon appear on Google’s Web site.

There is an interesting play in Nintendo’s future as the dominance of the DS brings in a new realm of converged game phones that can’t be too far off as game companies realize that the mobile Internet is the final frontier of completely obsessive game play.

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.

Mobile phone is enough 49.2 percent Smartphone 22 percent Netbook 16.3 percent Notebook computer 8.9 percent MID/UMPC 0.3 percent Other 0.3 percent Don’t want to carry anything 3 percent

So, let’s assume that everyone has a phone. When asked “what mobile devices other than a standard mobile phone do you usually carry with you?” the responses are what I would consider aligned culturally with the way Japanese consumers commute as well as the fact that most access the Internet directly on their phones.

Nintendo DS 44.3 percent No mobile devices 39.3 percent
Notebook computer 19.7 percent Sony PSP 16 percent Netbook 4.7 percent Smartphone 3.4 percent

Recent data from japan.internet.com (translated by whatjapanthinks.com) suggests that Japan’s mobile phones offer users enough functionality that 49 percent of the respondents to a recent survey say a “mobile phone is enough” when asked what kind of mobile device they would most like to carry.

In addition to the wealth of services and games, with the character-based typing you really don’t need an iPhone or other smartphone unless you need to access corporate e-mail. While this can also be delivered directly to mobile phones, in my experience most companies don’t allow access unless it’s through a VPN.

And while I don’t expect to see such magical devices in the U.S. anytime soon, I suspect that there is a market for such a thing in Japan.

It’s no secret that Japan has better mobile phones than the rest of the world. The country has also had access to better phone-based Internet services since the launch of NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode service all the way back in 1998.

The app featured President Bush on an analog clock as it counted down until President Barack Obama’s inauguration. When users clicked on the President’s body, it played so-called “truthisms,” clips from speeches President Bush had given about leaving office.

(Credit:
South Park Studios)

In an attempt to highlight–and perhaps make some sense of–a few of the more questioned rejections, I’ve compiled a list of those that caused me to scratch my head.

Pull My Finger was sophomoric, for sure. The app allowed users to “pull its finger.” When they did, it played a sound mimicking flatulence. Apple blocked the application from entering the App Store because it had “limited utility” to the community. It seemed believable. But when one considers that the store is filled with absurd applications, Pull My Finger might have fit in quite well.

In one fell swoop, a Web firestorm erupted. Journalists started questioning why Apple would reject the app. Consumers felt disenchanted. And the Federal Communications Commission decided to investigate.

CastCatcher

(Credit:
Mac-Addict)

Current status: After having some discussions with Apple, a Eucalyptus developer wrote on the company’s blog that Apple had relented and would allow the full version of the app, Kama Sutra and all, into the App Store. It’s currently available for $9.99.

Current status: Although Podcaster is still not available in the App Store, a Podcaster-like application called RSS Player Podcast Client currently allows users to download more than 10,000 podcasts. That said, it doesn’t let users search for podcasts through the app (another Apple request). It costs 99 cents.

Nullriver's NetShare app was here and gone.

South Park won't see the App Store.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET) In a political statement, a group of developers created an application called FreedomTime, to count down the days left until former President George W. Bush has been out of office.

Apple rejected the application on the grounds that it was “defaming, demeaning, or attacking political figures.” That’s an App Store no-no, evidently.

Current status: After realizing that it allows at least several useless applications into its store, Pull My Finger was eventually accepted and offered in Apple’s Store. It’s currently on sale for 99 cents.

Ninjawords

Apple didn’t reject the South Park iPhone app once; it rejected it twice because of “potentially offensive” content included in the app. The application featured several clips from the long-running show. Boing Boing reported that Apple did tell South Park’s creators that it might eventually allow the application into its store, since its policies have evolved in the past. According to the company, it didn’t originally allow explicit lyrics into iTunes, but it now does.

CastCatcher is still in the App Store.

Several developers whose applications have been rejected from the store, which hosts third-party software developed for the iPhone and iPod Touch, have published their correspondence with Apple.

Current status: Nullriver’s NetShare is not available in the App Store and will likely never make its way to the store. Internet tethering is a feature that’s built into the iPhone’s latest system software and will be made available to AT&T customers later this year, meaning that NetShare would be duplicating existing functionality–another App Store no-no.

Current status: It’s available on your television, and it has won an Emmy, but you won’t find “South Park” on your iPhone because of its “offensive” content. Yikes.

Current status: The events surrounding Google Voice’s absence from the App Store are still unclear. AT&T says it was not involved in an approval decision, and Apple said it didn’t actually reject the application from the store. In a statement, the company said its review of the app is still under way. It doesn’t look like this will be over any time soon.

Pull My Finger
Catalog this under the Apple-needs-to-find-humor-in-apps-to-accept-them category.

Current status: The Nine Inch Nails update was eventually allowed into the App Store after Apple realized its double standard. The full, unedited content is available in the Store.

Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor has embraced technology and the social Web unlike many other artists in the music industry. Perhaps that’s why it was so shocking that his band’s iPhone app update was denied access to the App Store for, what Apple called, “objectionable content.”

After Ninjawords’ developers worked out some design issues, which Apple requested, the company rejected the application again, after finding that the dictionary contained vulgar words that “could be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod Touch users.”

South Park
“South Park” might be an extremely popular animated television show, but it just doesn’t have what it takes to make it into the App Store.

Frustrated programmers have highlighted what they believe to be double standards, strange policies, and flip-flopping among Apple’s App Store guards.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET) If there is a record for the number of times an application can be rejected by Apple, Ninjawords might have a shot. The dictionary app was denied access three times due to “objectionable” words users could find in its dictionary.

Lessons learned

The objectionable content Apple was referring to came from “The Downward Spiral,” a 1994 Nine Inch Nails album, which was played in the app. That album contains explicit mentions of sexual activity.

Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus, an e-book reader app, was denied access to Apple’s App Store after the company found that it allowed users to read the Kama Sutra. The ancient book on sexuality was downloaded from Project Gutenberg, which the app used to acquire books.

Current status: Eventually, Mousa and Apple were able to reach a middle ground, and new versions of the application were allowed into the App Store. CastCatcher 1.4.4 is currently offered in Apple’s store for $1.99.

FreedomTime

(Credit:
R7 Developers) CastCatcher Internet Radio was enjoying its placement in Apple’s App Store until the company decided to release version 1.3. The new iteration was rejected by Apple for a strange reason.

Although that might be enough for some to agree with Apple, it’s worth noting that the same exact album, unedited, was already available in the iTunes Store.

The rejection led to outcry on the Web, as comparisons were drawn between software bundled with Mac OS X and those applications that users can install on their Macs that mimic or improve those bundled applications. To some, there was no difference.

Ninjawords is (finally) in the App Store.

Apple’s rejections of apps accused of infringing a patent or copyright make sense to most industry insiders. But some App Store rejections have raised quite a few eyebrows.

Google Voice
Google Voice is an application that allows users to to assign a single number to their home, office, and mobile phones. It was denied access to Apple’s App Store, along with already-approved third-party applications that used Google Voice to work.

The shock starts here

Apple wrote in a letter to CastCatcher’s developer, Amro Mousa, that the application’s update was rejected because it transferred “excessive volumes of data over the cellular network.” Mousa was a little perplexed by Apple’s decision to suddenly deny the application access to the store, considering that the new version of the app didn’t transfer more data than previous, approved versions. Worst of all, Mousa said, his app was using the same amount of data as competing streaming-radio applications.

Podcaster
Podcaster was an app that allowed users to download their favorite podcasts without using iTunes to do it. After submitting the app to the store, Podcaster developers received notice that their app was denied access because it “duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes.”

But in the end, determining what Apple will allow into its App Store isn’t an exact science. Developers want better direction from Apple on what types of applications will get approved for–and remain in good standing with–its App Store. Until the parameters are clearer, and the approvals and rejections are consistent, they will continue to face the risk of seemingly arbitrary rejection.

Current status: The application was allowed access to the App Store after removing any word that might be construed as objectionable. It’s currently on sale for $1.99 in the App Store.

Although this is just a short list of many applications that have been denied access to the App Store, there’s a common thread among the rejections: Apple wants nothing to do with apps that can be found “objectionable,” have functionality similar to Apple-built features, or might conflict with a contract it has established with AT&T or other partners.

Ninjawords’ developers were desperate to get their app into the store, so they removed as many objectionable words as possible within a reasonable time frame. Their app was rejected again for containing fewer, but still some offensive, words.

Freedom Time takes on former President Bush.

At first, the application was made available in the App Store for $9.99. But Apple promptly removed the application from its store. NetShare’s removal is suspected to be related to wireless carrier AT&T’s agreement with Apple over use of its data network.

Current status: FreedomTime is still not available in the App Store. In its place, a Web site has been built to countdown the number of days former President Bush has been out of office.

NetShare
Prior to the release of the iPhone 3GS, one of the most requested iPhone features was tethering, or using the phone’s wireless connectivity to connect another device to the Internet. Nullriver’s NetShare application provided the modem-like functionality last year.

In a letter sent to Eucalyptus developers, Apple said that the app was denied because it gave users access to “objectionable” material. If the developers removed the Kama Sutra from its book listings, Apple would have allowed the app into the Store.

“You are invited to attend an exclusive webcast event where Oracle CEO Larry Ellison will unveil an innovative new product, the world’s first OLTP (online transaction processing) database machine with Sun’s brand new FlashFire technology,” the invitation said. “Don’t miss this opportunity to learn firsthand how the partnership between Oracle and Sun can benefit your business now and in the future.”

Oracle isn’t letting a pesky EU investigation stand in the way of its planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Oracle is of course a software company, and one of its biggest challenges in acquiring Sun will be embracing hardware as well, even if it’s in some subordinate role that mostly serves as a delivery vehicle for the software. Hardware still takes immense resources to design, qualify, test, manufacturer, and support to compete on the level of IBM and HP.

Notable here is that Oracle is helping preserve the value of the asset it hopes to acquire. As Illuminata analyst Jonathan Eunice observes, Oracle is trying to counteract IBM and Hewlett-Packard programs to steal away Sun customers who might be hesitating over Sun’s current limbo and its inevitable future changes.

Tuesday’s event telegraphs that Oracle does indeed care about Sun’s hardware. So do marketing missives proclaiming that Oracle plans to spend more money developing both servers with Sparc processors and Sun’s Solaris operating system than Sun does today.

Oracle doubtless is frustrated by the EU’s intransigence, which centers on the open-source MySQL database software that competes with Oracle’s own core database product. But it’s doing the best it can to keep Sun’s hardware business alive.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Larry Ellison, the software giant’s chief executive, is joining Sun’s server chief, John Fowler, to show off some new Sun hardware running Oracle’s software on Tuesday. The companies are touting their “partnership” with a jointly branded “Exadata” system shown in a Webcast invitation sent to press and published by both Oracle and Sun.

Sun has been working on systems that take advantage of solid-state drives (SSDs), which use flash memory to store data rather than traditional hard drives with rotating platters that can store data in tiny magnetic patches. One advantage of such systems is that it’s easier to retrieve data scattered in different locations over a drive, which can make reading and writing data faster. However, flash drives cost much more per gigabyte to store data than traditional hard drives.

Oracle is touting its alliance with Sun.

The Bank Information Center points out that when developing countries begin to work on greenhouse gas emission reductions, it will be more difficult and expensive because of their extended use of fossil fuels.

The organization found that although The World Bank increased funding for renewable energy (by 11 percent), it dramatically increased funding for fossil fuels (by 102 percent) last year. “The bank’s continued lending focus on fossil fuels commits many developing countries to fossil-fuel based energy for the next 20 to 40 years,” said Heike Mainhardt-Gibbs, a consultant with the Bank Information Center.

This will all be hashed out come December when representatives from over 180 countries meet in Copenhagen to work on a new treaty that addresses global warming. Within this international agreement, countries will look at what is doable and possible to lower greenhouse gas emissions while still trying to get energy to the world’s poor.

Katherine Sierra

But another third of the $7.6 billion put forth was given to fund traditional fossil fuels. This is what skeptics generally point to when criticizing The World Bank’s initiatives and intentions. The nonprofit Bank Information Center, for example, released a study in February on how The World Bank’s energy financing is being felt by developing countries

(Credit:
The World Bank)

The event fell on the heels of an article Sierra wrote for The San Francisco Examiner last week, where she explained what The World Bank, an international financial institution that loans money to developing countries, intends to do regarding climate change and the world’s poor. Last year, The World Bank gave almost $7.6 billion for energy financing, a third of which went to renewable energy and energy efficiency. Projects included putting in rapid bus transport in five major cities in Mexico and working on smart grids in Turkey.

SAN FRANCISCO–How will a shift in carbon reduction play out with the world’s poor? This is an issue The World Bank is grappling with as it prepares for the international climate change summit in Copenhagen this December.

However, being the ninth-largest coal deposit in the world–with 186 billion tons of coal, Pakistan’s “government is very favorable to using cleaner coal technologies,” Khan said. “Sometimes we don’t give enough credit to governments of developing countries.”

“There are areas in Pakistan that have 12 to 14 hours of blackouts per day,” said Khan. If the shortest way to fix that problem is through burning coal, he explains, that’s what governments will do.

Along with higher temperatures, climate change is causing rising sea levels, shifts in rain/snow patterns, and an increase in weather-related natural disasters. Although the impact is worldwide, people in developing countries get the brunt of it with severe risk to their agriculture, food, and water, Sierra said.

On top of being more vulnerable to climate change, countries in the developing world have a shortage of infrastructure. According to The World Bank, 1.6 billion people in the developing world still do not have access to electricity, and those who do may have only intermittent service.

The World Bank says the fossil fuels they are funding are increasingly clean coal technology and natural gas, which is the cleanest fossil fuel. “We want hospitals with refrigerators, schools with light bulbs,” Sierra said during her talk, “if you look at any projections, they tell us under any circumstance we still need fossil fuels.”

“We took a major step a couple years ago because we felt we weren’t doing as good a job as we should have in integrating environment into our programs,” said Sierra. “We actually merged our infrastructure practice with the environmental and social practices.”

Katherine Sierra, the vice president for sustainable development at The World Bank, and Awais Khan, the director of KPMG’s Clean Tech Venture Capital Practice, spoke on this topic Tuesday here at the Commonwealth Club.

(Credit:
General Electric)

ScanWind makes a drive train that eliminates the need for a gear box in a wind turbine. Direct drive turbines typically add cost to turbines but they are gaining use in small turbines and other places where low maintenance is required.

GE invested in the technology specifically for use in offshore wind turbines. “(Reliability) is particularly important for the growth of the offshore wind industry, where project economics are strongly affected by turbine design and reliability,” Vic Abate, vice president of renewable energy at GE Energy, said in a statement.

General Electric filled out its offshore wind turbine portfolio by buying ScanWind, which makes direct-drive turbine components.

With many of the best locations for land wind farms spoken for, offshore wind farms offer some of the best wind power potential. There are a handful of offshore wind farm proposals in the U.S. including the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts and a project off the coast of Delaware.

GE on Monday said that it has completed the acquisition, which was valued at a about $18.5 million. ScanWind, which is headquartered in Trondheim, Norway and has a design center in Karlstad, Sweden, is now testing 11 turbines off the Norwegian coast.

Citing industry estimates, GE said that offshore wind is projected to balloon from an installed base of 1.5 gigawatts in 2008 to 30 gigawatts by 2020, driven by European renewable energy mandates and falling wind power prices. A typical nuclear or coal power plant has a generating capacity of about one gigawatt, or 1,000 megawatts.