Facebook Mapping

Map of the World Drawn Entirely Using Facebook Connections

The above map of the world, drawn by Facebook data structuring intern Paul Butler using connections between 10 million Facebook friends, is interesting enough in itself until you realize that all of the country borders are entirely drawn using Facebook friend connections too. Even if the world was dark and totally unmapped, Facebook could produce a remarkably good approximation of most of its continents’ boundaries, and even the borders of some countries.

It still took some clever math. Butler explains how he did it:

“I defined weights for each pair of cities as a function of the Euclidean distance between them and the number of friends between them. Then I plotted lines between the pairs by weight, so that pairs of cities with the most friendships between them were drawn on top of the others. I used a color ramp from black to blue to white, with each line’s color depending on its weight. I also transformed some of the lines to wrap around the image, rather than spanning more than halfway around the world.

Later I replaced the lines with great circle arcs, which are the shortest routes between two points on the Earth. Because the Earth is a sphere, these are often not straight lines on the projection.
What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn’t represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships. Each line might represent a friendship made while travelling, a family member abroad, or an old college friend pulled away by the various forces of life.”

Note the lack of definition in China and Russia, and the relative hole in Brazil.

Click Here to see full size image or Here to read the complete article.

Pukas + Tecnalia = Surfing + Technology

Surfing is still a sport governed by feelings. The driving forces behind this joint project, PUKAS and TECNALIA, aim to “turn feelings into facts and figures” and provide as yet unquantified data that can be directly applied to improve the features of surfboards, the technical performance of surfers and/or measurement of parameters during competition.

Click Here to go to the website.

Apple iPad 2

iPad 2

Thinner. Lighter. Faster. FaceTime. Smart Covers. 10-hour battery.

“The clones are shaking in their sub-par aluminum cases. Apple continues to dominate with the faster, skinnier and slightly sexier 2011 version of the iPad. This one is 33% thinner than it’s predecessor – even more svelte than the iPhone.  Front & rear facing cameras, a new dual-core A5 processor and HDMI video output at 1080p HD – Apple’s upgraded everything but the price.  Available in black or white.”

Click Here to go to the website.

HEX Watch Band for 6th Generation iPod Nano

As soon as Apple’s 6th generation iPod Nano was announced earlier this year, speculation about using it as a watch began. That happened so fast the announcement event wasn’t even finished before people were buzzing about it. Since then we’ve seen a steady stream of watch strap accessories to match that expectation. The latest is the HEX Watch Band.

The HEX Watch Band features a “Pop-In, Pop-Out” design and integrated control buttons to provide protection to the Nano inside as well as full access to all of the iPod controls. The inline design of the strap is supposed to allow headphone cords to run comfortably straight up the arm or through a sleeve.

The HEX Watch Band comes in 9 colors, pictured above; red, pink, orange, green, blue, clear, black, grey and white. It is available now and will run you $29.95 USD.

Noteslate

NoteSlate is low cost tablet device with true one colour display, real paper look design, long life battery (180h !), together with very handy usage and very simple and helpful interface for pen and paper. This easy, compact and portable gadget is used anywhere you want to make any notes, drafts, sketches, any ideas for future reference. Paper for everyone! Write a note and check it later, save it, or delete it. Maybe send it after. Just one colour is enough to express the basics. Keep your life simple. You will love it. For $99.

Those are some Rad Goggles

Zeal Transcend GPS Goggle

I bet you didn’t know you wanted a heads-up display in your goggles this year. With the going trend of bigger lenses and increased peripheral vision, Zeal has decided you don’t need to see anything off to the sides, while whizzing down a run of trees. What you really need is to be distracted by a heads-up display inside your lens telling you it’s 33 degrees out, you’re on run number 6 & you’ve been traversing all day trying to find fresh powder because your friend Brian swears he knows this stash at Vail where nobody ever goes and….sorry, I was starting to ramble there. Anyhow…if you like more information than everyone else – grab a pair of these.

New Nikon D7000

I am LOVING my new Nikon D7000 camera. Pictures to come!!!

Mediaroom rumors could put Microsoft IPTV on the fast track to success

We’re hearing rumors today that Microsoft’s already hardworking Mediaroom could be putting in overtime in the near future. According to ZDNet, not only is Microsoft working on a Mediaroom client for Windows Phone (aka Rome), but it’s also got a Silverlight-for-Mediaroom project (aka Taos) in the pipeline, with a possible Silverlight-for-Mediaroom STB (aka Santa Fe) also on the way. As if it didn’t already have a heavy workload, the platform is also up for a possible tie-in with Windows Media Center(aka Monaco). All this comes on the heels of chatter that the software giant is considering a new Xbox 360 TV service, incorporating Mediaroom, and news of a Silverlight SOC that could be worked into an STB like Santa Fe. All code names and acronyms aside, it looks like Microsoft is gearing up to give Appleand Google some serious internet TV competition, which means Mediaroom’s going to have say goodbye to happy hour and hello to some serious all-nighters.

Courtesy of Engadget.com

Flashsticks Wood USB Pen Drive

Data storage marries reclaimed fallen hardwood from the forests of Berkshire England. Opposites do attract.  Housing up to 2GB, Flashsticks Wood USB Pen Drive is a breath of fresh air for those with computer storage needs and a penchant toward conservation.