Voice object #2...

Compare this one to the other and tell me which one sounds better...???... B-)

Audio Intro...

This is a test of a voice object...

No sunspots: 96-year record will fall this week

No sunspots: 96-year record will fall this week

Posted using ShareThis

Wikipedia Testing New Method to Curb False Info...

(AP) -- Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that has drawn some decidedly juvenile pranks, is looking to impose more discipline with new restrictions on the editing of articles. The latest changes come as Wikipedia tries to balance a need for credibility and a desire for openness. While anyone can still edit entries, the site is testing pages that won't register changes until they are approved by an experienced Wikipedia editor. If the site's users respond well to the test run, the new restrictions will apply to all entries for living people in the next few weeks. The idea is to block the kind of high-profile vandalism that has marred some pages. In one of the most recent embarrassments, Democratic Sens. Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy were prematurely declared dead by rogue editors. Still, Wikipedia risks discouraging legitimate editing if restrictions on changes or additions become too burdensome, keeping articles from getting better or keeping up with events. That may be especially true on more obscure pages with fewer active volunteers to approve edits in a timely way. Aware of the risks, Wikipedia has set the criteria for "experienced editor" status relatively low. Users who are registered for a few days can give changes the OK, said Jay Walsh, a spokesman for the nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the site. A more uniform system for filtering changes on Wikipedia represents a step back from the site's original philosophy, which called for harnessing the collective knowledge of volunteer editors without any major restrictions. But it is not the first time Wikipedia has attached some strings. The same flagging process, for example, has been imposed on all entries in the German-language Wikipedia for more than a year. On the English site, too, high-profile pages that are likely to be defaced, such as Michael Jackson's, have been tightly restricted. Some observers believe Wikipedia must continue tightening editing policies if it wants to gain credibility. "I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop," said Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at the Santa Clara University School of Law. Goldman envisions a future Wikipedia curated by a relatively small group of dedicated editors. Under the current model, he said, there simply aren't enough volunteers to catch all errors. "My hope is that Wikipedia still exists and is still considered a useful site," Goldman said. "But it will be at that point a very tightly controlled site. It won't have that veneer of a site that anyone can contribute to. They haven't closed the drawbridge. People can still get in. But it keeps going up and up and up." Separately, the Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment group started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, said Tuesday it is committing $2 million over two years to the Wikimedia Foundation. Omidyar Network's grant will support Wikimedia's goals of bringing free educational content to people around the world and supporting more people to help create that content. It follows last week's announcement of a $500,000 grant from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to make Wikipedia's software more user friendly and to develop training materials to engage new potential volunteer editors. ===eof=== I find Wikimedia to be very helpful for the most part.  I think some sort of policing is needed to protect the system from vandals though. /rbs:.:.: .

Posted via email from rbse's posterous

"Location, Location, Location" Twitter to have geographic coordinates:

"Location, Location, Location" Twitter to have geographic coordinates: http://blog.twitter.com/2009/08/location-location-location.html B-)

Posted via email from rbse's posterous

Search Engine with many media types. Each Summary has a thumbnail, SHARE links, Preview, Save, & Trash options:

Search Engine with many media types. Each Summary has a thumbnail, SHARE links, Preview, Save, & Trash options - http://www.nexplore.com/

Posted via email from rbse's posterous

Twitter cofounder Isaac "Biz" Stone - watch the interview...

August 13, 2009 Twitter co-founder Biz Stone shares lessons learned from the site's recent crash, talks about the growing influence of the brand and speculates on the micro-blogging site's future. Watch the interview: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200908/20090813.html ===eof=== After viewing this interview, I'm confident that Twitter.com is here to stay.  Tweets are a very powerful tool... /rbs:.:.: .

Posted via email from rbse's posterous

1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake Aftershock Map...

Loma Prieta Aftershock Map

Powered by Socrata

===eof===

It looks like a giant volcano to me...

/rbs:.:.:
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Why FaceBook really bought FriendFeed August 11, 2009 | Jim Connolly | Comments 11 So, FaceBook has acquired FriendFeed. This immediately got people speculating as to why FaceBook, with all those hundreds of millions of happy users, would want to buy FriendFeed.  In short - FaceBook didn’t want to buy FriendFeed! FaceBook bought talent - Not a platform FaceBook is huge and has no need to buy in the relatively tiny number of users that FriendFeed has.  So, this was not an acquisition of eyeballs. The FriendFeed software is (as any geek will tell you) awesome; but that’s the problem. Geeks like us LOVE it, but it’s not usable enough for mainstream use.  Although far superior to Twitter technically, FriendFeed lacks the instant usability that sites like Twitter offer. So, I don’t believe FaceBook bought FriendFeed for the platform either. FriendFeed does have one extremely valuable asset though - Talent! In buying FriendFeed, FaceBook has just acquired the services of four extremely smart people; Bret Taylor, Sanjeev Singh, Jim Norris and Paul Buchheit.  Before founding FriendFeed, these guys worked at Google and helped develop services like, Gmail, Google Maps and Google Groups. Their market value is huge and that’s what I believe FaceBook is paying for. In a press release accompanying the acquisition, FaceBook confirms the value it places on FriendFeed’s co-founders - saying they will; “hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams.”  The remaining 12 FriendFeed staff members will also be joining FaceBook, as part of the deal.  At the time of writing this, there’s been no mention as to what FaceBook has paid for Friendfeed. ===eof=== We shall see what Facebook has to offer with this acquisition.  I'm looking forward to the results... RBSe.us .

Posted via email from rbse's posterous

Now posting to all my social networking sites with one email...

This message was sent to post@posterous.com and is distributed to my 3 (currently) social network sites,  Twitter, Facebook, & Blogspot.  You can cut-n-paste to your email once and off it goes to all your social networking sites, it's that easy.  Setup is simple and extensive help is available if needed.  This is, by far, the easiest way to publish... Just email it! Check out http://Posterous.com for yourself. Sincerely, Robert Stretton RBS Enterprises 1.707.444.9650 rbse@yahoo.com http://RBSe.us

Posted via email from rbse's posterous

California Names: County, City, District, Etc. (1270 data points)

This dataset is derived from census.gov datasets. There are 1270 data points to this dataset that lists all the County, City, District, Region, Reservation, Etc., names. Get the names in your state from:
http://www2.census.gov/census_2000/datasets/demographic_profile/

Here is the California dataset for your review:

California Names: County, City, District, Etc. (1270 data points)

Powered by Socrata

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Just in case you were interested... B-)

/rbs:.:.:
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Find Your Car on the "Cash for Clunkers" data-set and get up to $4,500 from the government!!!:

Find Your Car on the "Cash for Clunkers" data-set and get up to $4,500 from the government!!!:

Cash for Clunkers Separated by Make

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I hope this helps you get that money, good luck... B-)

/rbs:.:.:
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"Son of String Art"... Nice Webware... B-)

"Son of String Art" This project uses the pen to make String Art between the blue dots that you can drag around: http://tr.im/v5SW B-)

Solar - Powering the future using Micro-inverters:

A relatively new option for optimizing solar system efficiency is to use a micro-inverter for each individual solar panel, instead of using a single inverter for the entire system. The chief benefit of the micro-inverter topology is that the system will continue to convert energy even when one inverter malfunctions. Each panel having its own micro-inverter has other important benefits as well, including the ability to adjust conversion parameters on each panel using a high resolution PWM (Pulse-Width Modulator).

Clouds, shadows and other environmental conditions can vary the output of individual panels. Equipping each panel with its own micro-inverter allows the system to accommodate its changing load, which provides optimal conversion efficiency for both the individual panels and the entire system.

Micro-inverter architectures also enable simpler wiring, which translates into lower installation costs. Panel and system monitoring is also improved. Large solar panel farms, in particular, require subsystems to communicate with each other to keep loads in balance and plan in advance how much power will be available and what to do with it.

===eof===

With continual advancement and miniaturization, control systems can be put just about anywhere.

/rbs:.:.:
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Why Should I Choose Reusable over Recyclable?

Addressing the skeptics about reusable vs. disposable water bottles

By Collin Dunn
Corvallis, OR, USA | Tue Jul 28 12:30:00 GMT 2009

Getty Images / Tsuneo Yamashita

READ MORE ABOUT:
Bottled Water | Disposable | Energy | Green Design | Heating | Plastic | Recycling | Reuse | Schools | Waste Disposal | Water | Zero Waste

Ever heard this one? "I don't need to carry my own reusable water bottle. I'll just recycle this disposable one later." It might sound like a reasonable compromise, but let's not delude ourselves here. Sure, recycling can have a green impact, but it's important to be able to triage one supposedly green action above another. For the skeptical among you, getting lulled into the recycling catch-all can seem like an easy way to be green -- or, in the case of skeptics among us, feel like you're being green. Add to that that it can be easy to confuse greener and green, and it can become quite problematic.

Recycling vs. reuse turns out to be a matter of perception, most of the time. When you think of recycling, you might think of a shiny, efficient factory where old plastic bottles are processed and turned into new bottles at the snap of a finger; old stuff goes in, new stuff comes out, but that's not the whole story; plastic's chemistry, and a couple of other factors, give the reusable water bottle (and other objects with similar lifecycle designs) a big edge. In short, there's a reason that it's Reduce, then Reuse, then Recycle.

How Plastic Recycling Works

Let's take a look at how plastic recycling works. First, we have to consider where the plastic bottle comes from to begin with. It should surprise no one that plastic is a petroleum product, a non-renewable resource; once the oil gets used to make that plastic, that's pretty much all it will ever be -- there's no going back. When it comes time to recycle it, and you drop it in the blue bin and forget about it, but that's just the beginning. Recycling involves essentially re-melting and re-casting the plastic. Though, according to the U.S. EPA, manufacturing new plastic from recycled plastic requires two-thirds of the energy used in virgin plastic manufacturing, recycled plastic isn't often used for the same products over and over again.

But, as any chef who has ever tried to re-heat a Hollondaise sauce will tell you, the quality isn't quite as good the second time around; the same goes for plastic. Plastic is made from a series of polymer chains -- you might remember the term from high school chemistry -- and those polymer chains (learn more about them from Wikipedia) often break during the heating and melting process of recycling. What does this mean to you? Plastic is often downcycled as it is recycled, leading to a lower and lower-grade product; eventually, all it's good for is as another space hog in the landfill. And that ain't green, no matter how you look at it.

How Reusing Plastic Bottles (and Other Stuff) Works

Contrast that with reusable water bottle model: You get one (if you prefer plastic, BPA-free, please) and haul it around with you. Enjoy bottle after bottle of fresh, clean, delicious tap water, while cosidering this number: Tap water has less than one percent of the environmental impact of bottled water. Recycling, and bottled water, and most everything else on the planet, does not exist in a vaccuum; that is to say, it is totally unreasonable to just compare the vessels and leave the contents (and everything else associated with them) out of the equation. There really are a million reasons to ditch bottled water; you can take my word for it or read all our coverage of the topic.

Back to the reusable scenario. Some of you might be saying, "Hey, come on, I reuse all my water bottles, and that's good, right?" It's not bad, but it comes down to a matter of design. Truly reusable water bottles -- Sigg, Nalgene, whatever you like -- are designed for reuse and will stand up to normal day-to-day wear and tear. Disposable water bottles are designed for just that -- disposability -- and, while that can be convenient, there's a big price to pay for the convenience. And I'll pit my two year-old Sigg against your 'reusable' disposable bottle any day.

Bottled water can be a little tricky to avoid entirely, but there's no reason to use it every day, and no reason to think that you can simply recycle your way out of disposability. All of our stuff has to go somewhere, so it's best to keep as much of it with you for as many cycles as possible.

More about plastic recycling and bottled water
Does Recycling Waste Precious Water?
Recycling is Bullshit; Make Nov. 15 Zero Waste Day, not America Recycles Day
Get to Know Your Recyclable Plastics by Number
How to Never Drink Bottled Water Again
Which is Healthier: Tap Water or Bottled Water?

===eof===

There is a lot to read here but it sends home the thoughts that are needed to change the way we do things... Always: Reuse, Reduce, & Recycle, in that order...

/rbs:.:.:
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