Following the ongoing "Hot" Web 2.0 topic of "commercializing the Web 2.0", this interesting article pops up over @ ZDNet.

If you haven't been following this, let me quickly put you up to date. Jason Calacanis of Netscape and Weblogs Inc. fame came out and said that he was willing to pay Digg's top users $1000 dollars if they started to submit their stories over and exclusively on Netscape.com (which as it is right now works and looks very similar to Digg.com). Basically Jason is willing to pay these "Top-Users" to switch over  to Netscape.com and in the process, he hopes at least,  get some much wanted traffic  and good content.

Going back to ZDNet's article, the article exposes the great popularity and revenues today's top Web 2.0 sites like Digg and Myspace are getting:

While traffic and usage numbers have grown at Web 2.0 properties, the very low ratio of contributing users to non-contributing users has not evolved.

From YouTube, to Digg, to MySpace, Social Web stars are touting enormous traffic and usage metrics.

The traffic overwhelmingly involves non-contributing, and non-paying, users, however, and the usage is not well monetized.

Additionally, the Web 2.0 leaders in traffic and usage are incurring greater infrastructure costs to support the growing non-paying users, and under-monetized usage.

The article concludes that your average user of these site is actually worth 2 doillars. By average user I mean nothing related to the "Top Users" list, which means the type of guy that Jason isn't interested in. Myself been holder of a Digg as well as MySpace account *sighs* can say I am worth 4 dollars. Interesting to say the least..

technorati tags:Web 2.0, Digg, MySpace, Netscape, You Tube, Kevin Rose, Jason Calacanis, ZDNet

As I sat here surfing away on my Mac while listening to my music in iTunes, I started to think how much my library of music has changed with the times. Seems like yesterday have 700 MBs of mp3s was something worthy of noting, nowadays that's barely anything. Looking at the bottom of my iTunes window, I can see the following stats, (excluding podcasts and videos):

1454 items, 7.7 days, 16.21 GB

Wow talk about crazy uh? Man I remember when I had like 30 Mp3s and I as content with that, now look at me. Truth is, I enjoy music, and I believe that enjoying some good music while you sit in front of your computer has become an integral part of the experience

Looking around online I found this pretty cool page that analyzes your iTunes library and then creates a short mix "signature" and uploads it. Pretty cool, I tried it with 50 songs and the results are pretty interesting.

Take a look...er listen to my signature and while you are there try it out yourself as well.

technorati tags:Apple, iTunes, Music, Mp3s, Music Library, Your Music

Two days ago, to add to the things that are quitting on my powerbook, the hard drive decided to go out. Yup, Disk utility adviced to me to start backing up because from this one there wasn't any turning back. So I transfer all the necessary stuff to my other Mac, and well I decided to let powerbook rest. Battery out, two days have gone by and the machine hasn't been turned on, because well, until I replace the HD the machine is practically useless.

Thanks to the crazyness that lies within my best friend he decided to go ahead purchase a replacement Hd and send it to me. Yes the guy is crazy, so now I sit here awaiting the challenge that comes with opening the mac, gutting it, replacing the HD..and putting it back. Challenging, you say? Yes. Doable? Well..I sure hope so..can't be that hard really when you have a site like this that shows you step-by-step what to do.

technorati tags:Apple, Apple PowerBook, Hard Drives, laptop, Laptop problems, PowerBook

In a bold move of once again jumping into the bandwagon, I now have a MySpace profile. Yes that's right...once oppose to it now just a mere number in the vast user population of MySpace service.

I am yet to go and find alll the people that I know and "Add" them as friend. I'm just trying to get a feel for the service, and see what the hype is all about, you know? On that note, why is Tom one of my friends? Damn you Tom and your MySpace Stuff...

technorati tags:MySpace, my Space

The Motorola RAZR just doesn't quit making news; obviously Moto's pride and joy isn't finished making the rounds across the color spectrum just yet. It looks like lime (or pistachio) green is up next, though it's still unclear if this one will even make it stateside. It should be noted that the color really is the only new "feature" we yet know of, but we're sure the hype will follow; new ways to spin the RAZR just keep coming, even with its successor inevitably on the horizon. We'll be interested to see which provider(s) add to their portfolio Moto's darling in yet another color.

Lime green RAZR in the mix - Engadget Mobile

We can all see Motorola knows how to milk succesful products for what they are worth very well. On that note, they will be introudicing the Lime Green RAZR edition. Not to bad I must say, kinda has that VW New Beetle Green color to it..

technorati tags:Motorola, RZAR, Motorola RAZR, Cell Phones, Gadgets, New Phones

Starting today Microsoft will no longer support its Windows 98, Windows 98 SE and ME users. This termination of support ranges from over-the-phone support to stop providing critical-fixes to bugs within the OSes.

BBC News Website reports:

Products affected by closing down the support system include Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me (Millennium Edition). Analyst firm IDC believes that more than 70 million users will be hit by the change.

[...] The change means that those still using Windows 98 and Me after 11 July could become more vulnerable to many security risks, as bug fixes for loopholes exploited by hackers will no longer become available.

Microsoft claims that they are ending support for these products due to the fact that they are outdated, and because these OSes can expose customers to security risks. Now, I know that Microsoft has to stay a profitable company, providing support for products which are close to 10 years old may not help the cause. That been said they are still plenty of users out there (70 million if read BBC's article) that will be left in the cold. Matter of fact, the University I attend runs I say most of its client terminals on 98, along with some NT4 Domains, a bit of Linux and a computer lab with some OS9 macs. As you can see in some parts of the world, not everybody is running the latest and greatest OS, mostly in part because the hardware specs on the machines aren't up-to-par to start off with.

What Microsoft should do, and call me crazy all you want, is open-source the OSes. Im pretty sure that a community will build around these projects and will keep these OSes up-to-date, in some cases, even doing a better job that the one Microsoft has done.

technorati tags:Microsoft, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 98 SE, Windows, Open Source

Italy, after going to penalty shootout with France, won the 2006 Germany World Cup today. FIFA's Official Site reports:

Italy are world champions for the fourth time after beating ten-man France 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in Berlin's Olympiastadion on Sunday, 9 July 2006. Twelve years after losing to Brazil in the first shoot-out in a FIFA World Cup Final, Italy made up for that heartbreak as all five men in blue converted their kicks to claim world football's greatest prize for the first time since 1982..

I must say it was an entertaining game, worthy match of a final stage between to good teams. Personally, I would've liked France to it home, but Italy won the match faie and square.

Zidane's red car may have weaken the French team's spirit, but then again, Zidane's attitude was not something one expected from a good expierenced international player like himself. France had some chances to finish Italy off, but as we can all see, they didn't happen. Italy played good for the regulatory 90 minutes, duing the extra 30 they seemed tired and they really didn't create many chances for themselves. That been said, I'm pretty sure both teams were looking to define a winner within the 90 minutes, they weren't counting on a penalty shootout.

So there it is, 4 years of waiting gone in a month. Germany hosted a great World Cup, many memorable matches, goals and figures all left in the memory of football fans.  A great  Cup, not many things to say really besides congrats to Italy and let us now look foward to South Africa 2010.

Forza Italia.

technorati tags:World Cup, Germany World Cup 2006, FIFA World Cup, FIFA, Italy, France, Zidane, South Africa World Cup 2010, Germany

Ever wanted to have a lighter music playing app, that justs...well ..plays music? Well if thats your case, XMMS may fit your needs. What exactly is XMMS? According to the official site,

XMMS is a multimedia player for unix systems. XMMS stands for X MultiMedia System and can play media files such as MP3, MOD's, WAV and others with the use of Input plugins.

So what do you need to install this cool little app? You need to have installed and working on your Mac:

• X11 from your Tiger DVD or Restore Disk.
• Developer Tools, again from your Tiger DVD or Restore Disk, or you can get it on line @ http://developer.apple.com/

You have everything installed, OK lets get started.

Go to http://darwinports.com/ and download Darwinports 1.2, you will have to enter your e-mail in order to get the download started, that been said they do have a nice disclaimer:  "Your email address will not be given out or used for unsolicited email."
That makes you feel better right?

Once the disk image has downloaded, the installer will automatically start. Accept the license agreement and just go right ahead and install it on your Hard Drive. Please note that during the installation process DarwinPorts downloads some necessary stuff from the internet, so don't panic if you see the progress bar halt when its "Finishing Installation". Depending on your Internet speed, you may not even notice the downloading taking place... I did, because my Internet speed sucks..:(

Right, so you installed successfully DarwinPorts, what now? Open up a terminal window (Do a Spotlight search for terminal, or go to the Utilities folder within your Applications folder). and once you have terminal up and running do the following command:

sudo port -d selfupdate

Enter your password, and just wait a bit..shouldn't take long.

Ok, now to install XMMS. Using the same terminal window, or open a new one if you already close the terminal, run the following command:

sudo port install xmms

You may or may not need to re-enter your password, hit Return and watch the magic happen. It may take a while to download and then compile/build and install all necessary components, put that Intel Core Duo on your MacBook Pro to the test..and just have patience..

Once it finish, and you will know because you will be greeted with these words..

--->  Activating xmms 1.2.10_2
--->  Cleaning xmms

Open up X11 by going to /Applications/Utilities. Go to the Applications menu up-top and select Customize menu.

Set it up as you see on the picture. The shortcut is up to you, in this case pressing Command + 1 will activate XMMS, again what you put under Shortcut is entirely up to you.

Run XMMS by doing your shortcut of choice, and look XMMS, congrats you made it! But..we are not done yet. Close it and go here:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15314

Download the file unzip it to your desktop, open a terminal window and..

cd Desktop <hit Return>
cd xmms_osx_plugin-1.0 <hit Return>
./configure <hit Return> ..and wait a bit..
make <hit Return> ...and wait a bit..
sudo make install <hit Return> ...enter your password..and yes..wait a bit..

Right, so everything should be nice and set, time to finally configure XMMS.

Open X11, yet again and do your shortcut of choice for XMMS. Once XMMS is up and running hit Ctrl + P this will bring XMMS' preferences pane up. Click the box under Output Plugin as to see all the options available. Select  OSX Driver 1.0 from the 3 available. Hit OK.

Hit L and Select your MP3 file of choice and enjoy. XMMS also works with Shoutcast streaming radios, just point XMMS to the playlist .pls file on your Desktop.

What's missing? Well for one, XMMS will not play your AAC encoded music, so take that in account prior to trying this out. Although they are plugin available, I have been unsuccesful to get them to compile and work under OSX.

Finally, take in account that everything that was done here was done using OSX 10.4.7, and a PowerPC PowerBook 12-in. G4. I believe that intel powered mac users should have no issue with any of the stuff here, but then again I could be wrong.

technorati tags:XMMS, Apple OSX, OSX, DarwinPorts, Unix, Mp3 Applications, X11

These five boxes provide links to help distribute any of Void's posts within today's biggest "Web 2.0 social sites". Each box links to a different service, starting with del.icio.us followed by Digg, Newsvine, reddit, and finally Technorati.

Using these links you can, quickly and easily, help distribute any of the content here at Void with your favorite social bookmarking site of choice.

Share anything good you find you here, its just a click away ;).

technorati tags:Web 2.0 Sites, del.icio.us, Digg, Newsvine, Technorati, reddit, Blogging

Should you be living under a rock this past month or so, you may not be aware that the biggest sporting event is taking place right now, the 2006 Germany World Cup.

Coming close to its end, this World Cup has had the biggest audience watching it than any other previous installment.

The international draw of the FIFA World Cup was illustrated by the fact that more people in China tuned into the England-Paraguay match than the entire populations of the two countries put together. The match was broadcast in China at 9pm in the evening, attracting 62.9m viewers

From Argentina to Zimbabwe everyone seems to be hooked on the biggest football (soccer for the US) event that happens every four years. I can only wonder how many spectators the final taking place this Sunday will draw.

Source: http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/060627/1/8cg5.html

technorati tags:World Cup, Germany World Cup, FIFA World Cup 2006