The site uses Google’s data which is extremely extensive, making its data probably more accurate than Alexa’s - the top competitor for this data.

I don’t know their exact formula for determining popularity, but it probably has to do with unique visitors and pages visited.

If you think about how people use the different sites, this makes sense. I use LinkedIn extensively for business networking (Go here to connect to me there). I go there daily and probably click through 5-20 different pages to do what I need to.

With Wikipedia, I tend to go there for a single purpose and probably don’t visit more than 2-3 pages at a time. I definitely don’t go there every day.

What LinkedIn has done has created a compelling Web 2.0 experience with a tremendous amount of “stickiness”.

It seemed that many of my posts contained hidden links and iframes that I never put there. Somebody hacked the site, which makes me want to cut out their lungs with a dull spoon.

I am not sure how this happened, so I assume the vulnerability may still be there. I have changed my passwords to the site, and will continue to monitor. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

That being said, the information provided by Google was pretty poor, and I would have appreciated more detailed information in order to fix my site since they were blocking my readers.

The encryption on the RFID tags on British passports was broken in less than 48 hours. Anyone who could read an RFID tag off a British passport could forge it - convincingly.

New advances in antenna technology make it possible to read passive RFID tags from as far away as 600 feet. Imagine walking into the international terminal of an airport with such a receiver. You could collect thousands of IDs, store them, and then work on breaking their encryption by brute-force in your spare time.

Of course, simply copying RFIDs is child’s play.

The real problem will come from customs officials who may be tempted to scrutinize a passport less closely because it has a valid RFID chip. People like to rely on safety mechanisms that they’d like to believe will keep them safe.

I don’t believe that RFID chips embedded in passports are anything more than a temporary stopping mechanism that, once overcome will make the US passport less secure.

I recently spotted a cool product advertised in Popular science that I wanted to purchase. The manufacturer has a very nice web site which shows how the product works, how it’s installed, etc.

In order to purchase the product I then have to enter my zip-code to find a local dealer. I hate doing that, but OK. I get a list of local dealers and click on one of their web sites. It is a virtual clone of the manufacturer, offering me the same basic information. OK, I don’t need that. Now, in order to get any pricing information I have to fill in a form with all of my contact information. This is where I, and a lot of potential customers drop off.

I’m not ready to purchase the product yet, and I don’t want salespeople to call me or a mountain of printed information mailed to me. Even if I did want the product now, I want to order online.

I am guessing that many companies who do this lose more customers than they gain from their web site.

I am a big fan of being really upfront with pricing information. I don’t trust you if I can’t get that information without giving you my contact info.

What if the manufacturer site acted as a portal? You could place the order directly at their site and it would be fulfilled by the local distributor. Then, during checkout, you could select options for installation and the distributor could contact you - if you wanted.

I understand that some products, which must be installed, require an estimate. Just give me a ballpark range or list the parts price and ”+installation”. 

The site is open, and membership is free. I’ve added  most of the features you’d expect like blogging, IM, making connections, job board posting, forums, and finding great user created content. It’s like facebook, but focused on a professional community.

I encourage you, if your work or interests touch on this technology - go and sign up.

Instead of just a web of human-readable pages of text, imagine if the info on the web could also be easily parsed for meaningful data. The data could be both human and machine readable, with meaningful relationships easy to discern.

Microformats are one way this is already happening. The technology for using semantic web data is still in its infancy, and more standards need to be developed.

As an example, imagine a standard way of tagging medical research on the web. An application could be quickly developed to look for patterns in large amounts of research. Organizations like the CDC could use such a tool to keep ahead of emerging epidemics.

One of the main advantages Silverlight has over Flex is that it is multi-threaded (note that this could be a disadvantage if you don’t code properly). This means that highly performant web applications that rapidly update and receive tons of streaming data may perform better in Silverlight than in Flex.

Most web applications do not update quickly enough that this would matter, save for real time stock or news tickers.

With the same speed of data streaming in, Silverlight was able to update faster, and with less taxation on the CPU. Both Flex and Silverlight can handle a huge number of updates per second, and of course updates to the display are ultimately limited to monitor refresh rate and human perception.

One of the major advantages Flex has over Silverlight is visual display. Flex descended from Flash, an engine built for animation and graphics. It’s animation smooth, graphics clean, and gradients smooth.  I personally find Flash CS3 to work a lot smoother than Expression Blend 2.5 March 2008 Prieview Edition. However, Blend 2.5 is still in Beta, so I will judge when I see the release edition.

JavaFX is severely lagging behind all engines.  You also have to be a Java programmer to design apps, because no good visual tools exist (although there is a declarative language for UI so one may not be far behind). However, a friend who just returned from JavaOne 2008 gave me some the lowdown on a very cool feature of JavaFX:

With JavaFX, you can write an app that lives in a browser, can be torn-off onto the desktop, the browser can be closed, and the app is still running. This is a pretty impressive feat, that could have many uses.  I’d like to see it in action.

I should note that Flash Player 10 has just been released in Beta. It incorporates a lot of cool things including hardware based graphic acceleration. I haven’t tested it yet. Also look for the project codenamed Adobe Thermo - which will help with the design of Flex applications. It’s not yet in Beta.

How does this business transformation happen?

With RIA technology properly applied your business can: 

RIA technology includes front-end tech such as Flash, Flex, Silverlight and Ajax combined with a smart back end.

If you know anyone who could use a UI expert with technical expertise in Flash / Flex / Ajax / JSP and (currently learning) Silverlight - please send them over to my public profile on linkedIn here : http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnm. They can contact me through linkedIn.

I’m currently in Boston, but may be moving around soon, which is why I think telecommuting is the best possible option for me. 

A heat pump heats and cools basically the same way your refrigerator does. It uses compressors to exchange heat with the air. They run on electricity alone (negating the need for fossil fuels), and are way more efficient than propane , oil, or straight electric heat. Up until Hallowell, the systems could only be used in Southern climes and required an outdoor air temp of at least 30 degrees F to operate.

So Hallowell created a patented process so these units can pull enough heat from the air, even when the outside temperature dips to -30. They are from Bangor, Maine after all.

So what makes these things so revolutionary on the user experience front? They are entirely constructed from existing, readily available HVAC parts. That means your installer or repairman doesn’t have to go get a PhD. , and that if it breaks you don’t have to freeze all winter waiting for parts.

I’m reminded of the auto industry which has specialized everything, so that i had to order and wait days for a cover for a light for my Toyota. In contrast, this heat pump has been called the equivalent of open source green technology.

One of the big problems with the adoption of green technology has been the cost and complexity barriers. This system is supposedly much less expensive than geothermal heat pumps, and the ease of installation and availability of parts mitigates those barriers for many.

Want to save the world with new technology? Make it user friendly!