Google Chrome OS: It’s not about Microsoft, it’s about Search (Speed)!

•July 9, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Remember this:

““We’re continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. We are currently experimenting with a javascript enhanced result page because we believe that it may ultimately provide a faster experience for our users. At this time only a small percentage of users will see this experiment. It is not our intention to disrupt referrer tracking, and we are continuing to iterate on this project. For more information on the experiments that we run on Google search, please see: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html.”

and

this:

“Currently AJAX results are just a test on Google.  At this time only a small percentage of users will see this experiment. It is not our intention to disrupt referrer tracking, and we are continuing to iterate on this project and are actively working towards a solution. As we continue experiments, we hope that this test may ultimately provide an easier solution for our customers and a faster experience for our users. For more information on the experiments that we run on Google search, please see http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/04/this-is-test-this-is-only-test.html”

the press release on Google Chrome OS is very telling on Google’s desire to improve search speed:

“We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.”

I think it’s not about Microsoft really. Microsoft’s OS just happens to be in the way of Google for them to have more people search – having a clunky OS just delays people from searching not by the milliseconds but by the minute (sometimes by the hour! okay half-an-hour!)

Kate Torralba en concert à Paris (Attention: La date a changée)

•July 7, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Kate Torralba in Galerie Talmart, Paris, France on July 10 2009

check this out also in Paris Craigslist and on Facebook

Galerie Talmart is on 22 rue Cloître Saint-Merri, 75004 (www.talmart.eu)

—–

Parisians met her a few weeks ago during the Fête de la Musique 2009. Kate is here just for a few more days in Paris and we would love to discover her more through her music.

Front Act: Dennis Astorga

Come for this exclusive performance at the Galerie Talmart this coming Friday at 8 pm. This intimate venue has a maximum capacity of 45 seats so we advise you to reserve ASAP by
calling 01 42 78 52 38 or by
emaling contact@talmart.eu

Entrance fee is 12 €.

See you there!

————

KATE TORRALBA, fashion designer, singer-pianist-songwriter

Kate Torralba’s name rings many a bell in Philippine fashion circles, but she moonlights as one of the most interesting characters in the local music scene. Her solo act, characterized by a soulful, melancholy voice and skillful piano work, has gained her a cult following in the indie circuit.

A former child prodigy trained in classical piano, her first major performance onstage was at a concert in Los Angeles at the age of 9. However, her love for contemporary music had her pursue a different path in her teens, playing for several bands in her hometown Cebu. Most notable of these bands was pop-alternative rock act Hard Candy, sweeping majority of the citations in the first San Miguel Beer Cebu Music Awards in 2000 (including Band of the Year, Song of the Year, Female Vocalist of the Year, Keyboardist of the Year and Listener’s Choice).

In 2001, life took a different turn for Kate with a year-long stint working at the Philippine Senate in Manila, followed by her successful foray into the fashion and retail industry with the Kate Torralba label. But even as a well-known designer, she continued to pursue her music on the side, occasionally gigging with guitar greats Perf de Castro (formerly of RiverMaya and Triaxis), Ian Umali (of P.O.T.), and Mike Villegas (of Rizal Underground and Color It Red).

Her lifelong love for music finally comes into fruition this year. She is currently at work on her first studio album, aptly entitled “Long Overdue”, which will be on independent release in September 2009. With a hodgepodge of influences ranging from Frederic Chopin, Tori Amos, the Carpenters, Joni Mitchell, Nirvana, Sergio Mendes and Aimee Mann, the record will prove to be an eclectic and exciting offering.

——
Kate Torralba, créatrice de mode, pianiste, compositrice-interprète

Kate Torralba, créatrice réputée dans le milieu de la mode aux Îles Philippines, est tout autant connue pour être l’une des plus intrigantes personnalités de la scène musicale locale. Sa prestation sur scène se caractérise par une voix soul et mélancolique, son accompagnement au piano fait preuve d’une extrême habilité. Tous ces talents réunis lui permettent dorénavant de faire figure de chanteuse-culte dans le circuit indépendant Philippin.

Enfant prodige, elle suit une formation de piano classique, et se produit pour la première fois sur scène lors d’un concert à Los Angeles, à l’âge de 9 ans. Devenue adolescente, son amour pour la musique contemporaine la pousse toutefois à poursuivre d’autres chemins, en jouant pour plusieurs groupes dans sa ville natale de Cebu. Elle joue notamment au sein du groupe de musique de pop-rock alternatif “Hard Candy”, lequel se voit attribuer la quasi totalité des récompenses lors des « Music Awards – San Miguel Beer Cebu » en 2000 et remporte ainsi les prix du Meilleur groupe, de la Meilleure chanson, de la Meilleure chanteuse, du Meilleur joueur de clavier de l’année ainsi que le prix du Public.

En 2001, la vie de Kate Torralba prend une nouvelle tournure ; elle occupe pendant un an, un poste au Sénat Philippin à Manille puis fait une entrée couronnée de succès dans l’industrie de la mode et du commerce en créant une collection sous le label Kate Torralba. Créatrice de mode reconnue, elle continue cependant à poursuivre sa carrière musicale et participe de temps à autres à des concerts accompagnée des grands guitaristes tels que Perf de Castro (anciennement membre de RiverMaya et Triaxis), Ian Umali (P.O.T.) et Mike Villegas (Rizal Underground et Color it Red)

Ses rêves musicaux se réalisent enfin cette année. Elle travaille actuellement sur son premier album studio, intitulé pertinemment “Long Overdue” (“Une percée bien tardive”), dont la sortie (sous un label indépendant ou en auto-production) est prévue pour septembre 2009. Grâce à un mélange d’influences musicales passant par Frédéric Chopin, Tori Amos, les Carpenters, Joni Mitchell, Nirvana, Sergio Mendes et Aimee Mann, cet enregistrement promet d’être aussi éclectique qu’excitant.

Hypebot: Xeinge Offers Labels Direct Digital Delivery Platform

•July 6, 2009 • Leave a Comment

repost from HypeBot:

Xeinge, the parent company of WaTunes and Music Expand, has added a proffessional digital delivery platform to its portfolio dubbed Vidyps. The goal is to make direct digital delivery affordable for record companies and distributors amd to help manage and deliver those assets.  iTunes, eMusic, Napster, Rhapsody, MediaNet, and Urfilez are already compatible with the platform. “With Vidyps, we’ve pushed the envelope, making our delivery technology open to any record company or distributor. Now every company has the ability to be able to easily delivery mass amounts of content to their digital media partners with easy usability. We are very excited to be able to offer this technology to other record companies and distributors worldwide. ” said Kevin Rivers, Founder and CEO of Xeinge.

“Vidyps makes delivering your music to the music stores faster, easier, and more convenient. Now any record label who has a direct agreement with a digital service can easily deliver their music contents automatically, using this state-of-the-art technology.” said Vladimir Milicev, Senior Vice President of Technology of Xeinge

BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos wins NetFlix Prize (finally)!

•June 30, 2009 • Leave a Comment

What in the world is BellKor’s Pragmatic Chaos?

They just posted this on their page:

June 26, 2009: Today our team submitted our solution to the Netflix Prize, resulting in a score of .8558, which corresponds to an improvement over Netflix Cinematch algorithm of 10.05%.  This is the first submission in the competition to break the 10% barrier and sets off a 30 day period where all competitors are invited to submit their best and final solutions.”

Congratulations to the BellKor Pragmatic Chaos team!

Just in case you don’t know what the NetFlix Prize is:

“The Netflix Prize is an ongoing open competition for the best collaborative filtering algorithm that predicts user ratings for films, based on previous ratings. The competition is held by Netflix, an online DVD-rental service, and is opened for anyone (with some exceptions). The grand prize of $1,000,000 is reserved for the entry which bests Netflix’s own algorithm for predicting ratings by 10%.”

I’m sure a lot of people can learn a lot from the winning algorithms!

My talk at the Microsoft Best of the Best Developer Showdown @SMX tomorrow

•June 25, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Microsoft Best of the Best Developer Showdown

I’m speaking at RoofCamp tomorrow night!

•June 24, 2009 • Leave a Comment

If you want to join – add yourself at RoofCamp’s Facebook Page
RoofCamp logo

Here’s the Speaker line-up:

Eric Tomacruz, Tao Solutions (15 minutes)
Wiki.Alumni.Net

Jojo Flores, Plug and Play Tech Center
Plug and Play Tech Center – A Startup Accelerator (45 minutes)

Gerry Yu, Mobile Wonders (15 minutes)
Synology Network Attached Storage Solutions

Norbert Aquende, Microsoft (15 minutes)
Windows Mobile 6.5

Eric Tomacruz, Tao Solutions (15 minutes)
Wikimap iPhone App

Paul Pajo, Watunes.com (15 minutes)
Freemium Online Digital Music Distribution Platform

Roofcamp #2 is sponsored by Mobile Wonders, http://www.mobile-wonders.com

White House (finally) Twitters in Farsi / Persian language

•June 24, 2009 • 1 Comment

Coming on the heels of Google and Facebook releasing Farsi/Persian translation tools, The White House, on a verified Twitter account twitters their post in Persian:

“سخنان پرزیدنت اوباما در کنفرانس مطبوعاتی خود دربارۀ ایران، همراه با ترجمۀ فارسی “

Loosely translated that means:

“President Obama’s remarks in his press conference about Iran with Persian translation”

since it points to President Obama’s speech. Here’s an excerpt:

“As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.  The Iranian people have a universal right to assembly and free speech.  If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect those rights and heed the will of its own people.  It must govern through consent and not coercion.  That’s what Iran’s own people are calling for, and the Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government.”

A few years ago, I kept convincing my friends who needed to disseminate information to a wider audience to use Twitter but they apparently thought that Twitter was a passing fad – well, it’s now apparently an official channel now even for the White House.  When is Malacañang going to have http://twitter.com/malacanang ?

12 Fruits select WaTunes to release SOUNDWAVE by June 25!

•June 23, 2009 • Leave a Comment

12 Fruits Logo

Watunes.com Logo

Fresh from the WaTunes Blog and from WaTunes CEO, Kevin Rivers himself:

“Hey guys,

We are very happy to say that 12 Fruits as chosen WaTunes to release their latest compilation: SoundWave. This compilation will featured 14 bands and 2 bonus tracks. This compilation will be available on iTunes on June 25th, 2009. Great bands including: The Sophmore Beats, Select Start, I Am Empire, Another Option, and more! Be sure to pick up your copy from these amazing bands and spread the word to your fellow community. Here at WaTunes, we’re all about opportunities!”

Check out the SOUNDWAVE promo video below:

You can also check out the SOUNDWAVE announcement on their page:

“The CD will be hitting all tour dates as mentioned before, so don’t be worried because we will get to your area!

If the tour is not hitting your area, you will be missing out not only on our CD but an awesome show! The CD will officially release online (itunes and Shockhound) on June 1st! We will also be selling real copies online through bigcartel.

More information will be posted as in which Hot Topics the CD will hit and where else the CD will be sold! We will be updating this page as much as we can for you.”

Here are the bands on the CD:
Another Option
Rookie of the Year
Select Start
I Am Empire
Vega Under Fire
The Sophomore Beat
The Last Place You Look
Render Me Speechless
My So Called Life
Mr Fyner and the Tech Ed Room
Backdrop
Almost There
A Love Not Lost

Be sure to download the SOUNDWAVE album on iTunes and ShockHound on June 25!

Kate Torralba to play in Fête de la Musique – 21 juin 2009 – Paris

•June 19, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Kate

Heard Kate Torralba play tonight at Saguijo for the POP SHOPPE: Paul Weller tribute and she announced that she will be playing at the   de la Musique on June 21 2009. When and where? According to Kate herself

“…june 21 sunday – ive 2 gigs, 6pm at Place Jose Rizal and then much later in the evening at Galerie Talmart near the Pompidou :) it’s gonna be so much fun! and the Fête is only once a year!”.

So there you go! Fête is also happening in Cebu and Manila this year – so … “Allons tous faire de la musique!”

For the schedule in France and everything about Fête de la musique – go here.

Here’s info about Fête in Cebu and Fête in Manila!

EXTRA: If you’re going to the Glastonbury Festival, you might just see Kate among the 137,500 in attendance!

Kate Torralba at Fete de la Musique in Paris 2009

Kate Torralba at Fete de la Musique in Paris 2009

Debugging Contact Form 7

•June 13, 2009 • Leave a Comment

I’ve recently tried to install the plug-in Contact Form 7 on a the GrungeMag theme from Elegant Themes and here’s the contact form page – but I can’t seem to send email via the form! Any ideas from anyone out there how to repair this? I’ve found one helpful page yet I haven’t really stepped through it and see what I could do. Here are some interesting thoughts from the comments:

“You can use javascript to fire the tracking code to create a virtual page view in analytics, but you cannot properly implement the conversion tracking from Adwords without loading a separate page.    As you can imagine, I was slightly frustrated until I discovered a very quick and simple solution.

Important.. This solution only works if you have/want a designated landing page for all forms you are using with Contact Form 7.

Step 1: Browse to wp-content/plugins/contact-form-7

Step 2: Open the contact-form-7.js file in your favorite text editor.

Step 3: Look for the function:  wpcf7ProcessJson (line 63)

Step 4: Look for the if statement: if (1 == data.mailSent)  (line 90)

Step 5: Insert this line after the jquery (line 92) – location.href=”http://www.yourdomain.com/yourthankyoupage”;

Step 6: Save the file to your server, and test out the form.
Ideally, the author of this plugin will make a change in the next release that allows a custom variable (url) to be stored for each contact form.  But until then.. here’s your fix !!!”

My problem might be related to the solution above but I think Imight have t manipulate one of the files that Contact Form 7 as one comments suggest:

“here it is in non script format

Within the landing page you are directing to, add the below into the header..

openphp $formorigin = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']; closephp

Then, on your landing page use the below code to display different messages depending on which page they came from.

openphp if($formorigin ==”http://domain.com/form1/”)
{ closephp
html p thankyou message for form 1 html close-p
openphp }
elseif($formorigin ==”http://domain.com/form2/”)
{ closephp
html p thankyou message for form 2 html close-p
openphp }
else
{ closephp
html p Content to display if visiting the page from anywhere other than your form page
openphp } closephp
"

Basically replace the openphp, closephp, html p and html close-p with the relevant markup”

So there. I’ll look in to this in more detail later.