Welcome to my series of blog posts on the ABC's of Social Media, a tool that you can use to make you more "hip" in the world of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (just to name a few).  Today's letter is "Y".  Y was a pretty hard letter to come up with social media terms for so I'm going to default to the major way viral videos make it onto the Internet.  With over 5 billion online videos viewed in July 2008, YouTube is definitely a force in social media.

"Y" is for YouTube

YouTube

Pronounced: Yoo-Toob

Founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, YouTube is a video sharing website has made it possible for anyone who could use a computer to post a video that millions of people could watch within a few minutes.  YouTube was acquired by Google on November 13th, 2006 for 1.65 billion in Google stock.  Not too bad for a years work I must say...

So, if for some reason you have never been to YouTube, head on over and get your fill of User Generated Content (or UGC as we like to call it).

It's fairly common knowledge that the Coyote has had trouble catching the Road Runner.  Good old Wile E. has tried since 1948 and has yet to capture his elusive pray but unfortunately for the Road Runner, there's a new predator close on his tail.

For those who don't know, Top500.org is a project that was established in 1993 to assemble and maintain a list of the 500 most powerful computer systems in the world.  They have been compiling a list twice a year since their inception with the help of high-performance computer experts, computational scientists, manufacturers, and the Internet community in general. 

Since November 2005, the Jaguar, housed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been in the top ten and has since slowly been shooting for the top position.  But, by the June 2008 report, a new kid has hit the top of the charts and aims to hold onto that spot and not let anyone else catch him, especially the Jaguar.

The new kid on the block, is The RoadRunner.  Straight out of the cartoons, this behemoth beast is a marvel of computing power.  It was built by IBM and in June was the first system ever to break the peatflop/s Linpack barrier.  Since then, it has been slightly enlarged and has reached a peak 1.105 petaflop/s.  It is based on the IBM QS22 blades which are built with advanced versions of the processor that is in the Sony PlayStation 3.  All of the nodes are connected together with a commodity infiniBand network. 

The Jaguar is a XT5 system manufactured by Cray and is close behind RoadRunner at 1.059 petaflop/s and is expected to pass the RoadRunner in the near future.

We'll see if the Jaguar can do what Wile E. Coyote could not and get him some RoadRunner for lunch.  I'm not counting on it though...

-Joe

I recently blogged about a new type of browser vulnerability called ClickJacking aimed at tricking you into clicking on something you weren't aware you were clicking on.  The idea is that the bad guy hides a button by making it invisible and then "moves" it under you mouse right before you click thus causing you to either submit information, download something harmful, or start a process on your computer such as a webcam.  Luckily there is a FireFox plugin to help protect you from those bad guys.

But what happens when the bad guys move away from the browser and into the polling booths?  As far as I know this hasn't happened yet but according to a team from Rice University, ClickJacking your way into office is entirely possible.

The team of hackers from Rice University conducted a exercise to test the security of touch screen voting machines.  They created an invisible touch-screen button that ensured that one contender would receive 90 percent of the vote.

As reported on MSNBC.com, Dan Wallach, an associate professor of computer science and director of Rice's Computer Security Lab, said his class's exercise reconfirmed his believe that anyone with a little know-how and the right access could easily do considerable damage.  Despite the classroom setting, students said the vote tampering was eye-opening not only because of how straightforward it was to cause damage, but also because of how easy it was to get away with it — despite the scrutiny of other classmates primed to look for mischief.

At least my vote will be safe.  That is, unless they find a way to ClickJack my absentee ballot.

-Joe

Welcome to my series of blog posts on the ABC's of Social Media, a tool that you can use to make you more "hip" in the world of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (just to name a few).  Today's letter is "X".  There aren't many "X" words in relation to Social Media so I opted for a word that is part of the underlying plumbing needed to make blogs and other web 2.0 social applications usable.  Today I picked the infamous XMLHttpRequest.

"X" is for XMLHttpRequest

XMLHttpRequest

Pronounced: Eks-em-el Eych-tee-tee-pee Ri-kwest

XMLHttpRequest, or XHR, is a XML DOM API that can be used by JavaScript and other web browser scripting languages to transfer XML and other data between a web server and a browser. 

XMLHttpRequest is an important part of Ajax development and is used to implement responsive and dynamic web applications.

The XMLHttpRequest concept was originally designed by Microsoft as a server-side API call for Outlook Web Access 2000 and was subsequently implemented in many major web browsers.

A while back I posted about Google's new browser Chrome.  I talked about the new features included and how I believe it will be a force to be reckoned with in the pending browser wars.  What I didn't mention was that by using it, you will actually become smarter!

As reported on TechTree.com, According to results soon to be published by the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, Internet searches can actually help strengthen the aging brain thanks to greater mental "activity" that it undergoes while waiting for the search results and the following "scan". 

Recent research utilizing MRI equipment to monitor the cranial activity of two sets of people showed that for Internet "novices" (those who go online less than once daily), the areas of the brain which were engaged while they were reading remained more or less the same while "regulars" (those who went online at least once daily) had far more areas of the brain that were engaged when they tried Internet searches.

The Washington Post also reported on the research at the University of California Los Angeles studied 24 "novice" and "regular" internet users between the ages of 55 and 76 and found that "by searching the Internet, you may train the brain and it may keep it active and healthy."

So there you go: Use Google Chrome regularly and become smarter!

Welcome to my series of blog posts on the ABC's of Social Media, a tool that you can use to make you more "hip" in the world of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (just to name a few).  Today's letter is "W".  The "W" words Web 2.0, Widget, and Wiki stand out but I'm going to go for something a bit more serene - the Walled Garden.

"W" is for Walled Garden

Walled Garden

Pronounced: Wawld Gahr-dn

With regards to the internet, a Walled Garden refers to a browsing environment that controls the locations the user is able to access.

Wikipedia defines it as:

A walled garden, with regards to media content, refers to a closed set or exclusive set of information services provided for users (a method of creating a monopoly or securing an information system). This is in contrast to providing consumers access to the open Internet for content and e-commerce. The term is often used to describe offerings from interactive television providers or mobile phone operators which provide custom content, and not common carrier functions. Another use of the term refers to quarantining malware-infected computers which exhibit symptoms of botnet activity in a way that the user can still access tools to disinfect the machine, usually with a Web browser. Yet another example is where an unauthenticated user is given access to a limited environment for the purpose of setting up an account - after they have done so they are allowed out of the walled garden. Some walled gardens are created and maintained by the use of firmware upgrades that wall-out alternatives (eg. Apple iPhone hacks).

Welcome to my series of blog posts on the ABC's of Social Media, a tool that you can use to make you more "hip" in the world of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (just to name a few).  Today's letter is "V". "V" brings us vlogs, VIOP, and video but I'm going with something a bit more clinical.  Today's word is Viral.

"V" is for Viral

Viral

Pronounced: Vahy-ruhl

For something to be viral, means that it is able to replicate itself or convert other objects to copy itself when those objects are exposed to it.

In the context of Social Media, examples of things that can be viral are marketing, advertising, and video.  As defined in Wikipedia:

Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of pathological and computer viruses. It can be word-of-mouth delivered or enhanced by the network effects of the Internet. Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. Viral promotions may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, or even text messages. The basic form of viral marketing is not infinitely sustainable.

They say that the average consumer tells three people about a product they like and eleven people about a product they did not like.  Viral marketing is based on this natural human behavior by targeting folks with a high social network reach and creating viral messages that appeal to that user base causing a high probability of being passed along.

Welcome to my series of blog posts on the ABC's of Social Media, a tool that you can use to make you more "hip" in the world of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (just to name a few).  Today's letter is "U".  For "U" we have URL and upload but I'm going to go for something a bit more "social".  Today's word is UGC, short for User Generated Content.

"U" is for UGC

UGC

Pronounced: Yoo-Gee-Cee

User Generated Content, or UGC, refers to media content that is created, produced, and shared publicly by end users.

From Wikipedia:

The term entered mainstream usage during 2005 having arisen in web publishing and new media content production circles. Its use for a wide range of applications including problem processing, news, gossip and research reflects the expansion of media production through new technologies that are accessible and affordable to the general public. All digital media technologies are included, such as question-answer databases, digital video, blogging, podcasting, mobile phone photography and wikis. In addition to these technologies, user generated content may also employ a combination of open source, free software, and flexible licensing or related agreements to further reduce the barriers to collaboration, skill-building and discovery.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, has defined three central characteristics for User Generated Content:

• Publication Requirement - content that is published in some public context.
• Creative Effort - content that requires a certain amount of creative effort to create.
• Creation outside of professional routines and practices - content that does not have a institutional or commercial market context.

Welcome to my series of blog posts on the ABC's of Social Media, a tool that you can use to make you more "hip" in the world of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (just to name a few).  Today's letter is "T".  The letter "T" brings us words Taxonomy, Trackbacks and Transparency but I'm going for something a little more fairytale-ish.  The word for today is Troll.

"T" is for Troll

Troll

Pronounced: Trohl

We all know that the mythical Troll was a race of creatures from Norse mythology who found their ways to living under bridges with a certain Three Billy Goat Gruff.

A Social Media Troll isn't far from it's more common historical Troll.  In this case, a Troll is someone who is both obsessed and annoyed with, and deeply offended by, everything a certain writer posts on their blog and likes to write hateful and often hurtful replies to your posts.

Moderation features may allow you to limit what they comment, but you don't have much control over their posting on comments on other sites, or on their own blogs, and pointing back to your site.

We aren't sure why these types of folks exist, but obviously they are not happy people and they have WAY too much time on their hands.

Google takes aim at your last place of ad-free solitute - Gaming.

Ads, you know what they are.  You are surrounded by them day in and day out.  Whether you are watching TV/movies, browsing a website, reading email, or reading your favorite blog, they are there to greet you.  In the past, we've always had at least one place we could go to escape the assault of ads on our life - gaming.  Well, you better enjoy it while it lasts because Google aims to take that refuge away from you with it's Google In-Game Advertising initiative.

Whether you are a marketer wanting to extend the reach of your video ads, drive your brand, or reach the new generation of social gamers Google has you covered with it's AdWords In-Game ad campaigns.

Or, if you are a publisher that would like to join a network tailored for web-based games, access campaigns from the world's top brands, fill up 100% of you remnant inventory, and filter out unwanted ads, then they have you covered as well with AdSense for Games.

So, next time you login to FaceBook to kick back with a few rounds of Scramble or Pathwords, be on the watch out for some embedded ads for your viewing pleasure.  Google knew how much you were missing out on them during your game play and they aim help you out in the very near future!

Enjoy the ads folks!

-Joe