Shared by Jamie
Important info!

Spend a few quality moments with the Facebook you know and love; the social networking site this week will start rolling out its revamped profiles.

Visitors to www.new.facebook.com will have the opportunity to test out the "new, cleaner, and simpler design," according to a spokesman. It will be a phased rollout, so not everyone will immediately see the changes, but Facebook urged users to check back in over the next few days and play around with the new features.

For starters, the left-hand bar on the start page that currently features a search box and links to photos, groups, events, marketplace, and certain applications will be moved to the right side of the page and integrated with notifications and friends' status updates.

The most obvious change on the profiles themselves will be the addition of tabs. Instead of having a person's wall, personal information, photos, and applications spread throughout the profile, these four features will now be found behind tabs located near the top of the page. Users can also add their own tabs for specific applications.

More details and screen shots after the jump.

Facebook will also alter the way users can interact with applications, the sometimes maddening add-ons that can quickly clutter a profile. The revamped Facebook will provide the option to interact with an application before it's added to a profile and select where it is placed on that profile, if at all, Facebook said.

The publishing function will also be added to the Wall tab to enable users to more easily add photos, upload videos, or write notes. Users can also add content to friends' pages from their own profile via publisher.

The social networking site will also update its "stories" function and allow for more information to be added to a wall or news feed.

Users "have the ability to adjust the size and prominence of stories and can choose between having one-line stories, short or full stories," according to Facebook. "One-line stories are one sentence long, while short stories include thumbnail photos or content and full stories display large, noticeable images."

The revamp does not include any changes to Facebook's privacy policy, the company said. Users can still "choose what information they put in their profile, including contact and personal information, pictures, interests and groups they join," Facebook said.

New right-hand bar on start page:

Tabbed section on profile page:

Basic info moved to left-hand side, underneath main photo:

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Our Iceberg Is Melting - Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

What part of your childhood do you miss the most?
Submitted by Maretta.

Oh my, that's an easy one. The naps!!!!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I thought this would auto-update from my shared Google Reader items. But I guess not. Hmm. 

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Tiger the puppy

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

If you're anywhere east of the Mississippi (with a few notable exceptions), Friday probably won't be a great day to breathe. Sorry. Someone had to break it to you. Though the air is cleaner than it was decades ago and cars are now loaded with pollution reducing controls, run a gasoline powered internal combustion engine in the presence of sunlight and heat, you're going to get high levels of ozone.

If you're scoring at home--Ozone in the stratosphere, good. Ozone at ground level, bad.

With the federal government's AIRNow.com, there's finally a single point to go for air quality reports and forecasts. With national reporting based on established national standards, air quality can finally be compared. That makes AQI forecasts more useful.

From AIRNow.gov: "It tells you how clean or polluted your outdoor air is, and what associated health effects might be a concern for you. The AQI focuses on health effects you may experience within a few hours or days after breathing polluted air. EPA calculates the AQI for five major air pollutants regulated by the Clean Air Act: ground-level ozone, particle pollution (also known as particulate matter), carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide."

With the Olympics almost here and all the buzz about China's less than stellar air quality, I went to the page of international links to see how things were going. Dead link! Is it just me, or is that a bad sign? At least the Hong Kong info is still up.

AIRNow.gov asks you to look at the observed and forecast Air Quality Index as a yardstick. I suppose you can, if you're willing to think of the first 3.6" as good and the next 32.4" bad. That's because on the AQI's 0 to 500 scale, only 0 to 50 qualify as good! More than likely this site will just verify what you already know on days when you wish you could just hold your breath and wait for some better air to blow in.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Shared by Jamie
Maybe I love Bill Gates!

Filed under: OS Updates, E-mail, Microsoft

Have you ever had one of those days when you can't seem to get your computer to do anything you want it to? Say you want to download Windows Movie Maker, so you go to the Microsoft web site, check out the download page, and simply can't find it anywhere. When you do finally find it after performing a search, the page times out before you can download it. And once you've finally managed to get it on your PC, the installation process is excruciating.

It turns out you're not the only person who has trouble getting Windows to do what you want it to. The above scenerio is described in great detail in an email Bill Gates sent in 2003. This letter was released to the public along with a huge pile of other communications as part of the antitrust litigation Microsoft's been involved in for the past few years. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has posted the text of the entire email, but here are a few of our favorite parts:

• Gates seems infuriated that it takes so long for Microsoft web pages to load
• He had no idea why he would have to use Windows Update to install additional software before he could install Windows Movie Maker
• His computer was unuseable for 6 minutes while applying updates
• He asked why he should have to reboot his machine, which he reboots every night

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Shared by Jamie
WANT. No, NEED!

(Credit: Meritline)

It's the rare notebook that doesn't have Wi-Fi, but not all models offer Bluetooth. Though not a critical feature, the short-range wireless technology is handy to have for things like cordless mice and cell-phone tethering (i.e., using your phone as a modem). Meritline has a ...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Shared by Jamie
This might almost be enough reason to get an iPhone.

It seems that Apple and AT&T aren't the only companies reaping the benefit of the iPhone 3G's massive success. Internet radio site, Pandora, which was among the first companies to offer a download from iTunes 7.7's new app store, has managed some pretty impressive stats as well, over the last couple of days.

The Pandora iPhone app, which lets users stream music for free from the comfort of their iPhone or iPod Touch, has secured the number four spot on the list of downloads, receiving a new iPhone listener every two seconds since its launch on Friday, according to the company.

At present, the app has streamed some 3.3 million tracks, with 200,000 new stations creatied, becoming Pandora's busiest weekend since launch.

Pandora's CTO, Tom Conrad dropped us a note to let us know that they're currently plugging away on the app's followup.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend