A burst of 8 links for you to chew over, as picked by the Technology team
Of Data Scientists, Big Data, the City and Dancers >> Rev Dan Catt's Blog
"You can't just turn your Data Scientist eye onto something and say 'Oh we'll throw this into MapReduce, it'll be awesome', you need to have been part of that data, to have lived it. We don't have Big Data where I work at the Guardian, we have lots-of-data, we look at Big Data out there and attempt to consume the signals. I came from Flickr which had fairly big fast data, the Guardian is positively quaint in comparison (in terms of what it generates). I set myself the task of getting immersed in the flow of news, trying to understand how the organization worked, the signals, the input, the output. The difference between news on a Monday to news on a Friday, the waves that Google and other sites can throw at you and so on. Living in the data, watching its rhythms, the pulse, the flow. I'm getting there, it takes a while, maybe I'm just old :) "To deal with big data you have to have been in it, not a Scientist but as a Dancer."
Malware episode puts Mac users on notice >> Seattle Times
"If you're reading this column, you are likely sophisticated enough to not fall for such nonsense, starting with clicking in the link on the Web page. You might have already turned off the Safari Open Safe Files option, or use a browser like Firefox or Chrome that requires additional steps to install this malware. "But how many of your friends, relatives, and colleagues are going to be this credulous? And Mac Defender is just the first effort to make any impact. Don't be fooled by the fact that in this release you have to enter a credit-card number to be scammed. Future Mac malware will be just like that under Windows, with the potential to install all manner of viruses, like keystroke loggers, spam email programs, and the like."
Very good, well-argued piece with an unavoidable conclusion.
Apple hires the guy who hacked together a better iOS notifications system >> Techcrunch
"Back in February, I wrote that MobileNotifier (a replacement notifications system for jailbroken iOS devices) would be the one thing that would make anyone want to jailbreak — and I stand by it. Months later, my iPhone is still jailbroken, almost solely so that I don't have to go back to Apple's built-in system. "It seems I'm not the only one who was impressed. Sometime in the last week or so — just days before they announce iOS 5, which is expected to come complete with a new (and hopefully less terrible) notifications system — Apple pulled MobileNotifier's developer, Peter Hajas, under their wing."
Expect to see the results later on Monday.
Xbox: now that's entertainment >> The Official Microsoft Blog
"Just for starters, we've sold more than 53m Xbox 360 consoles, and Xbox has been the top-selling console in the last year. There are more than 30m Xbox LIVE members. And more than 10m Kinects have sold to date. Those are pretty big numbers for a device that, until recently, had primarily been purchased by hardcore gamers. But something interesting has happened in the last few years. While people are still playing a ton of video games, 40% of all Xbox activity now is non-game. Put another way, we're seeing an average of 30 hours of video consumption per month per Xbox, a number that is growing fast."
The Myspace sweepstakes drag on - another bid deadline Friday as sale deadline looms >> AllThingsD
"Yes, Myspace is still for sale.
"But, no, no one has yet made a good enough bid – in other words, at the more than $100 million level its owner, News Corp., has sought – to knock out anyone else."
Who'd be the underbidder? Actually, everyone.
Buying apps >> Dilbert
Thanks @rquick for the pointer.
Dynamic Public Transport Travel Time Maps for Greater Manchester >> Mapnificent
This is exactly the sort of thing that we want open data to create.
Apple is definitely working on location-aware iCal >> Cult of Mac
"Got a flight to catch? iCal takes note of your location, combines that with the route to the airport and says, "You've gotta leave in ten minutes if you wanna be there in time." "The system also takes into account current and predicted traffic conditions, public transport schedules, and weather — adding extra time if the roads are clogged or a storm is expected.
"AppleInsider reported that Apple has filed a patent regarding geo-location data in iCal, but we have word that engineers been working for months to implement the system."
Intriguing, because we've seen pretty much the same thing being implemented in Microsoft's upcoming "Mango" version of Windows Phone.
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