What it does

You can’t go wrong with a chopstick full of moo goo gai pan, a couple of piping hot eggrolls, and a box of fried rice all soaked in msg-goodness and topped off with a fortune cookie bearing good news. Chinese food is an American tradition. Those in doubt, should have a look around them—there’s the mom and pop Chinese restos with names like Flaming Dragon or House of Sichuan, or the full on chains like Panda Express or Pick Up Stix. But for true connoisseurs of authentic Chinese, finding good stuff is not so easy. That’s why Brian Hui created his site, Chinese Food Map. It started off entirely in Chinese, but has recently branched off into English as well. As its name suggests, it covers Chinese food around the country. You can read reviews or submit your own. Search the map or type in keywords. Join to enjoy full access. It’s free.

In their own words

“Welcome to Chinese Food Map

You can drag the map, or double-click to zoom in.

You can type the address or zip code in the ”Search by Address“ box.

Or if you know the name of the restaurant you are looking for, just type the name in the "Search by Name" box”

Why it might be a killer

Food maps are always a good idea. Chinese Food Map is great for people looking for authentic, good Chinese across the country and it caters directly to Chinese. The multilingual approach is a nice touch.

Some questions

Will Chinese Food Map add more functionality—easier search, tags, categories etc? Will the bevy of exclusively Chinese content scare away non-Chinese speakers?

Updates


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Vodafone, the largest mobile network operator in Europe, has announced the acquisition of ZYB, a company based in Denmark with an eye on content backup as well as social networking. Vodafone intends to add ZYB to its “Total Communications” strategy, in which it seeks to serve customers with an integrated mobile phone and PC experience.The purchase price is reported as 31 million euros, or 48.65 million dollars.

We first mentioned ZYB as it was expanding its business model to encompass items other information storage in the cloud. At that point it seemed to be finding its place among Web services devoted to mobile users whilst maintaining connections to users’ primary information portals: their desktop and laptop computers and full-fledged social networks.

In the months since, ZYB has evidently kept its focus on users’ contact lists uploaded to the Web from their devices, which Vodafone apparently considers a business model quite in line with its own. Vodafone’s Internet Services Director, Pieter Knook emphasizes the importance of the social network that everyday mobile users rely on through the mobile rolodexes of their handsets.

Such logic does certainly make sense in Vodafone’s case, but it is also worth noting the popularity of standalone networks like Facebook (a website Vodafone has partnered with; MySpace, too) as the means by which more and more subscribers of mobile Web services communicate. It is undoubtedly the case that mobile users consider today that the basic services delivered by mobile networks - like 3G broadband access, for example - are mere gateways through which users can venture to preferred websites, entirely independent of their service providers’ influence. So whether Vodafone can exploit the assets of ZYB effectively to offer a networking solution that its subscribers indeed latch onto rather than pass over, is an open question - and one that may likely be answered in short order.

Financially speaking, of course, the investment made in the purchase of ZYB is one that Vodafone can likely consider an afterthought when all is said and done.mashable109:http://mashable.com/2008/05/16/vodafone-zyb/

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

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Broadband Reports points us to a rather unique attempt by Missouri University of Science & Technology to deal with the fact that the RIAA/MPAA are upset with students at the university for using file sharing apps. It's using traffic shaping apps to block access to P2P systems... but, it will give students timed access if they first successfully complete a quiz about copyright issues. You need to get a perfect score (or no BitTorrent for you!) and you get six hours, which they hope you're now using for legal file sharing (though, they don't check). If you want more time, you need to ace the quiz again (the questions change). You can get up to 8 "passes" per month.

It's definitely different... but hardly likely to be very effective. I'd imagine that students who really want unauthorized material will find ways around the block, using VPNs or proxies or something. Also, as Broadband Reports notes in its writeup, students who do get in can download unauthorized material and then share it internally across the network using different systems. But, most importantly, this is (yet again) based on the idea that everyone is being treated as a criminal first. Their may be legitimate academic reasons for using P2P systems, but the Missouri University of Science and Technology won't be participating in many, because it's put up a barrier to usage.

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Aside from gorgeous flight attendants (gah!), Singapore Airlines is now offering iPod and iPhone connectivity to business class passengers on flights between New York and Singapore. Flights between Los Angeles and Singapore will get the same feature some time in August of this year. According to a recent press release,

The integrated 9-pin connection on KrisWorld uses a unique in-flight cable that supports iPod and iPhone via the 30-pin connector, including in-seat power supply and high quality audio. iPod and iPhone will still allow for the announcements and instructions made by Singapore Airlines cabin crew and pilots to be heard even while content is being played. Customers can take advantage of iPhone’s airplane mode to safely use the iPhone through the integrated system.

Each seat features a 15.4-inch widescreen display and noise canceling headphones.

via Coolest Gadgets

What it does

Do you ever look up at the stars at night and wonder who is basking in the sun on some island far, far away from where you are? Daylight Map can help satiate that curiosity tugging at you. Powered by Google Map, this simple website is exactly what it sounds like—a map of daylight. The website displays real-time patterns of daytime and nighttime across the globe. The site also offers added features, such as the ability to see the image of just the city lights at night, which may not have a practical purpose, but is certainly easy on the eyes. There are other features for site visitors to play around with as well, such as the global cloud cover, which is updated every hour to illustrate the most up-to-date cloud movements across the world.

In their own words

“DaylightMap shows the pattern of night and day on a Google map, for any area of the Earth, for any date and time. It also allows you to select up to ten locations on the map; in addition to seeing at a glance whether it's daytime there, you can show their local time, sunrise and and sunset times, and length of day. These locations can be remembered for future visits, saved as a bookmark, or sent to other people as a web link. This site can thus function as a graphical world clock, and can be used to show relative times of any future or past event.”

Why it might be a killer

This website may appeal directly to specific users, such as travelers. Although the information is not necessarily conventional, it is interesting. The Google maps offer fantastic images as well.

Some questions

Could more accompanying text further enhance the information displayed in the images? What other users could be particularly interested in viewing this site? What other weather information could be added to make the site full of traditionally useful information?

Updates


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Not the document in question

A new passport-like travel card poses a threat to our Nation’s security because, some security experts say, it’s easily susceptible to counterfeiting. The card, which is the size of a credit card, has two identification mechanism: a photo and an RFID chip. The photo, it seems, can be removed by using a solvent, and the RFID tag could, theoretically, be re-programmed. Worst case scenario is, a “bad guy” can simply swipe out the photo and change the embedded information to show that he’s an upstanding U.S. citizen. Once inside, these experts warns us, who knows what evil they may commit.

It’s partially scare-mongering, yes, but it does highlight how the government operates. Rather than outfit the card, which is scheduled to go into circulation in July, with a tested optical strip, which is more secure but takes longer to process, State chose the quick-to-process RFID tag.

Good to see all that record spending go toward useful projects.

via Drudge Report

What it does

Kurt is alive, people. Or at least his spirit is with AWorldofNirvana.com, a Google Maps and YouTube mashup dedicated to celebrating the beloved 90’s grunge band’s every move. Site visitors select a year, ranging from 1987 to 1994. With each selected year, they are provided with a Google map and an accompanying text list of the concerts played that year. If there is any video footage from that concert, it can be viewed as well, as powered by YouTube. This website is still in its beta phase, hence there may still be mistakes and glitches. However, Nirvana fans are encouraged to not only correct these mistakes, but also contribute their own thoughts and information to the site.

In their own words

“This website is a Google Maps and YouTube mashup. It shows Nirvana's live concerts on a Google map by year, when you click on a concert, the website dynamically pulls videos of that concert from YouTube and shows the first one in the info window. You can play the video in the info window or you can click the [+] icon on the upper right corner to maximize the info window which will show all videos of that concert. Click the thumbnail image and it will take you to the page that plays this video, which also provides the download URL for that video. You can also search for videos directly by keywords, please note that the search engine of this site only provide Nirvana related results, so you don't need to add Nirvana to your search words and searching of other videos might give irrelevant results.”

Why it might be a killer

Dedicated Nirvana fans everywhere will undoubtedly be interested in this site. Although it still needs development, it’s off to a great start. With some tweaking and possible fan contribution, this site has potential to make even Axl Rose have a peek.

Some questions

What other classic bands may fans want to see a site like AWorldofNirvana.com for? What additional media could be added to enhance the selected years? How can the visuals of the site be enhanced?

Updates


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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Nikon is shipping the Coolpix S52c WiFi-capable point-and-shoot camera as expected. The S52c allows you to upload pictures to your Flickr or Nikon's own "my Picturetown" online image repository via WiFi and comes with 6 months of T-Mobile HotSpot access. Camera specs are pretty respectable, including a 9 megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom, 3.0-inch LCD, and optical image stabilization. The Coolpix comes in at $279.95 and should show up at retailers soon. Despite Nikon saying it's shipping now, Amazon says it will ship on or around June 15, so hopefully they're just a little slow on the uptake and Nikon isn't lying through its teeth.

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What it does

The original point of Craigslist was to help people find, trade, and buy things from other people in their local area. Craigslist is a gold mine of information but anyone who uses it regularly will tell you that it is difficult to find deals on multiple cities without actually manually searching from one to city to the next. This is where Craigslittlebuddy steps in, by aggregating numerous Craigslist sites and allowing you to search them all at the same time instead of one-by-one. Keep in mind that the site is intended for products and therefore Craigslittlebuddy won’t be able to help you find that next dream job. If you are looking to buy something however, either enter a key word or a category and then search multiple locations at once. The site is defaulted to select 21 cities but you can change the number and which ones with an easy drop down menu.

In their own words

“The whole point of this site is to help people search multiple craigslist locations at the same time. I frequent a bunch of guitar & bass-centric message boards and noticed that tons of people search "foreign" craigslist locations to find good deals on used guitars and basses. Location doesn't matter — a deal's a deal. The thing is, with craigslist, you're using a location-based service. It's not really geared to help you find an Ernie Ball Stingray in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York at the same time. You'd have to search all the locations individually...”

Why it might be a killer

There are other sites providing similar functionality but Craigslittlebuddy beats them with the ease of selecting multiple cities, the speed of its engine, the cutesy design, and the memorable URL. All of the above make this a site that should grow quickly in reach.

Some questions

Will they be adding the rest of the Craigslist sections like employment? Nowadays, there are a huge number of telecommuting jobs on Craigslist and it would be great for those interested in working from home to be able to search for those types of jobs all in one place.

Updates


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