Zagat To Gos carefully compiled restaurant reviews may be ready for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but its delivery is only half-baked.

Zagat To Gos carefully compiled restaurant reviews may be ready for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but its delivery is only half-baked.

Modern newsrooms have to engage in a never-ending conversation with their community. This may sound self-evident, but it can be a tough sell in a newsroom working under high pressure. So how do you get reporters to buy into the proposition that they need to listen to their audience? They need to see for themselves the enthusiasm that the community has for talking back to its reporters.

The people formerly known as the readers have now become readers/writers. In the "good old days" of the print newspaper, we only got a few letters each day. Today, we get hundreds and sometimes thousands of comments on our news articles each day. With the click of a button, readers can easily and instantly post reactions to articles. Furthermore, the readers don't only react to our articles -- they react far more often to each others' comments. The article may start a discussion, but it does not necessarily remain the center of attention.

This interaction gives us more than additional eyeballs; it teaches us new aspects of storytelling. For instance, a news website is sometimes more about telling a story in a way to bring the community together rather than about providing "hard news."

Three recent stories published in Belgian business newspaper De Tijd provide good examples of how a newspaper can adapt to its new role as a community center.

The Story of a New American President

The election day in the U.S. was an election night for the people in Belgium. Of course, our newspaper covered the elections intensely, but we were at a loss for what to do during the night. People who were so interested in the election that they would stay up all night would surely watch for the results on CBS or CNN, so what would be the point of De Tijid scrambling to post breaking coverage on its site? Would it not be better to focus on "the day after" and deliver more value by writing detailed analysis about the results?

We thought it over and realized there was something valuable in covering the election as it happened, but it was something beyond scoops and analysis: We could gather the community and facilitate a conversation. Compare it with a soccer game: One can watch it at home, alone, or experience the magic of being all together with fellow fans in the stadium.

That night, we launched our CoverItLive live-blog application and I commented on the election night with our colleague in New York City. Several other colleagues also made guest appearances that night. Most striking of all, several thousand community members also visited our live-blog/chatroom that night to post comments -- even as they were, indeed, watching the election results on CNN and CBS.

Even though they were technically getting their news from another source, that did not matter. They wanted more than to just hear the news; they wanted to discuss what had happened, share in the joy (of many) and the disappointment (of a few), and hear what other ordinary people had to say about it. We found that as live-blog hosts we didn't have to comment all the time, as chatty community members filled the "dead air." Besides, as soon as you get hundreds or thousands of participants, moderating what others say is sometimes enough to keep you busy.

A Judge Decides

Like so many nations, Belgium has been suffering the consequences of the global financial crisis. The biggest bank of the country, Fortis, had to be urgently sold to the French bank BNP Paribas. Fortis shareholders went into shock as the value of their stocks plummeted and they immediately began to question the government's response in organizing the transaction.

Inevitably, people went to court.

On the week in question, a judge would deliver a very important ruling on the Fortis sale. The event was structured simply enough: The judge would begin by explaining his reasoning, often meandering in one direction and then another, before finally announcing his final decision. In this type of proceeding, it is impossible to know whether the judge's monologue will go on for one hour or four.

We had doubts about whether or not to live-blog the event. Why not just wait for the news of the verdict -- the only hard, fundamental fact that mattered -- instead of having live coverage of the long speech?

Once again, we reasoned that there was a community out there -- tens of thousands of people in the financial sector and, of course, many Fortis shareholders and clients. There are a lot of emotions involved in this case; it is the biggest issue in our De Tijd community. We just felt we had to be there, with our community, being their ears and eyes (other events taught us that even streaming video of an event does not change this).

So some colleagues did the live-blogging (Dutch language), while others moderated the community dialogue (community members could react in real time in the chatbox). There was a lot of moderating to do in this conversation -- more than 10,000 people attended the session! And they had hundreds or thousands of thoughts and questions to share.

At least as impressive were the reactions after the event. We got numerous responses by chat and email, thanking us by chat or email for the live coverage. It was evident this was not only about reporting the verdict. Although the news value of the judge's speech may not have been particularly high, it was evident that this was what the public needed to hear. And, even more, they needed it as an opportunity to be heard.

Who Was First?

On one recent weekend, another newspaper ran a story about a huge bridge loan authorized by the Belgian state for Fortis. The newspaper said the loan had been authorized very discreetly. Our website did not run that story, because the very discreet loan was, in fact, not very discreet at all: De Tijd had broken that same story three weeks earlier.

We decided not to run the "new" story for reasons that should be familiar by now: There was no new hard news. In fact, we considered this a non-event. However, our community was shocked. They heard about the news in the other newspaper and yet saw no mention of it on our site, which is often thought of as the leading source of information on the Fortis case.

People started posting the article in the comments section of the site, complaining that De Tijd was "giving up" the Fortis coverage. Some suggested the journalists "gave up" after pressure from high places.

Suddenly, our newspaper found out that it had limited control about what was published on the site: Even if the editorial staff did not run a story, people would do it themselves by posting it in the comments and, more so, add their own conclusions. Suddenly a non-event had become a news story after all.

The editor in chief reacted (Dutch language) immediately. He told our community that his journalists had no intention of abandoning coverage -- quite the contrary. He explained that the story about the bridge loan was actually an old story, and linked to the story we had published three weeks earlier.

The Monday after we learned that his reaction was by far the most read story of the weekend. There was a lot of "real hard news" on the site, but for our community the discussion about the Fortis coverage was far more important, even though nothing new had happened there.

Unanswered Questions

After these incidents, many colleagues now seem to accept that engaging in conversations with the community is an important part of our role as a newspaper. The community appreciates it enormously, and it is also the sensible thing to do in terms of encouraging visitors to spend more time on the website.

Of course, this current financial crisis limits the amount of time that reporters can spend fostering a sense of community as those working in the newsroom have other jobs to do. So how can we still make sure that we don't ignore community development during these troubled times? Some possibilities we are working on include:

> Considering inviting community members to be moderators or else outsource moderation duties.

> Explaining the rules and guidelines for comments clearly and in a positive way.

> Using well-known symbols to make moderation clearer: We give serious offenders a "yellow card," which means their reactions are no longer published in real time but need prior approval. In extreme cases we give a "red card," banning them. We do not use these cards for someone who only went off-topic, but for people insulting other participants, for instance, or using repeatedly unacceptable language.

> Buying or developing a system wherein community members can rate comments and filter out those with low marks.

Whatever system we go for, it remains crucial that journalists running a story know how the community responds. Reporters should realize that while not every reader of a business newspaper is a CEO or a PhD in Economics, they can still learn a lot from their community just by engaging them in online conversations.

Roland Legrand is in charge of Internet and new media at Mediafin, the publisher of leading Belgian business newspapers De Tijd and L'Echo. He studied applied economics and philosophy. After a brief teaching experience, he became a financial journalist working for the Belgian wire service Belga and subsequently for Mediafin. He works in Brussels, and lives in Antwerp with his wife Liesbeth.

Illustration of social media by Omar Lee for MediaShift.

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div class="rxbodyfield"p page="1" class="ArticleBody"When Microsoft, Mozilla, or a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Apple+Inc."Apple/a comes out with a new version of a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Microsoft+Internet+Explorer"Internet Explorer/a , a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Mozilla+Firefox"Firefox/a, or Safari, it makes news -- mainly because most of us use one or more of these three Web browsers. In fact, with the exception of a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/inform.do?command=searchamp;searchTerms=Google+Chrome"Google#39;s Chrome/a (which made a big splash, mostly because it came from Google), most of the alternative browsers out there tend to get lost in the shuffle./pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"And it#39;s too bad, because some of these relatively unknown browsers are good -- and could be better for some users than the ones they#39;re using now. We asked three of our writers to take some lesser-known browsers out for a spin and see how they do./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"b[ Discover the top-rated IT products as rated by the a href="http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/?source=fssr"InfoWorld Test Center/a. ]/b/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"They chose six candidates: Camino (for the Mac), Maxthon (for the PC), OmniWeb (for the Mac), Opera (both the Mac and the PC versions), and Shiira (for the Mac). Which is the best? It all depends on what you need from a browser./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"For example, Camino is for those who want a simple, basic browser, while Maxthon is overflowing with every power feature in the book. OmniWeb offers speed and an interesting approach to tabbing (but, at a base price of US$14.95, is the only browser in this roundup that isn#39;t free), while Opera brings with it a number of features it has pioneered over the years, along with a strong fan base. Finally, Shiira has an interface that is more Mac than Apple#39;s own Safari./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"It#39;s possible that none of these will do what you need better than the browser you#39;re already using. But as we all know, sometimes you have to step outside of the tried and true in order to find something really great./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Check these browsers out -- one of them may work for you./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"strongCamino 1.6.4br//strongCamino, an open-source browser based on Mozilla#39;s Gecko rendering engine, is clearly designed to be a simple, easy-to-use, yet fully functional browser. With a look and feel very similar to Safari and Firefox, almost anyone will find it easy to work with in seconds; I found myself completely at home with Camino from the second I launched it./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"One major difference between Camino and Firefox is that Camino was designed and programmed specifically for the Mac instead of ported over as Firefox was (so it#39;s less likely to a href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicamp;articleId=9099959"quot;feelquot; like a Windows application/a ). In addition, one gets the impression that the developers of Camino didn#39;t try to duplicate all the features of Firefox and focused on the core browsing functionality, which probably results in leaner code overall and thereby increased performance and stability./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Camino isn#39;t big on flashy features. It does have a few that, while not unique, are nice to have. For example, Camino lets you save the URLs for all pages currently opened in tabs as a set that re-opens all of them -- in the same positions. This is a pretty nifty feature if you repeatedly open the same set of pages every morning when checking sites (or if you use a number of Web-based applications every day)./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Beyond that, the features and preferences options are pretty standard browser fare, though I do have to commend Camino#39;s developers for including a Web features tab in the browser#39;s preferences that includes the options to block Flash animations and advertising as well as to prevent Web animations from repeating./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"Given that many Web browsers now try to implement too many features, some of which are better left to separate applications (RSS being a common example, which Camino eschews), I found Camino#39;s straightforward focus refreshing. The approach leads to a simple design that implements the core features in an uncluttered fashion. Combined with the Web features options that put a user in control of just how much distracting Web content he wants to see, I couldn#39;t help thinking that this would be the perfect browser for people like my father -- you know, the type of person who wants a cell phone that#39;s nothing more than a phone./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"Since Camino keeps its feature set small and targeted, I was not surprised to find it to be very stable; it renders content both well and quickly. As with Shiira, Camino handled Flash, scripting and other complex Web technologies very well. When I compared it to Safari, Firefox and Shiira on the Mac, it outperformed those other browsers in rendering some pages. Sites heavy with Flash content and animations, in particular, seemed to load, render and function faster when I used Camino./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"I should note that some a target="_blank" href="http://pimpmycamino.com/"Camino add-ons/a are available. Like the add-ons available for Firefox, these tools offers various capabilities, from backing up bookmarks to changing the look using themes or skins, though the choices for Camino are more limited./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"All in all, Camino is probably not the perfect browser for everyone. If you#39;re looking for a more full-featured browser, you may want to opt for Firefox, Safari, or Shiira. But if you want a stable, simple and no-nonsense Web browser (or one that can easily limit distracting content) Camino is a good choice./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"em-- Ryan Faas/em/pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"strongMaxthon 2.1.4br//strongIf you#39;re looking for a browser that bristles with power features, and don#39;t mind a somewhat unattractive interface and some confusing configuration, then Maxthon is the browser for you. It#39;s got just about every feature built into competing browsers, and many that you won#39;t find anywhere else -- such as a quot;file snifferquot; that makes it easy to download YouTube videos and a pop-up notepad for pasting or dragging text you want to save. Power users will love it. Those who like sleek design will turn away./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"The interface is quite cluttered, with a file menu, Address Bar, Favorites Bar and other toolbars, and stray icons near the top and bottom of the screen. Think of it as the un- a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasicamp;articleId=9114048"Chrome/a . But there#39;s a reason for the clutter: The browser has so many features, they need to fit somewhere. And you can customize the interface, if you like, to cut down on the clutter./pp page="2" class="ArticleBody"Maxthon has far too many features to cover in a short review, but among my favorites is its great tab and window handling. You can, for example, create two side-by-side browser instances, each with their own tabs; you can create tab groups; you can quot;tear offquot; a tab into a separate browser instance and then recombine it; you can assign a shortcut key to any URL and visit that URL just by pressing the key -- and that#39;s just for a start./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"The browser also uses quot;mouse gestures,quot; so that you can navigate forward, backward and so on by moving your mouse in a certain way. It has a great tool for filling out Web forms, a built-in screen capture tool, and an innovative search screen that lets you do a search and then click on tabs in that screen to see the results from various search engines. And there#39;s a CPU Saver mode that minimizes Maxthon#39;s processor use, freeing up your CPU for other tasks./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"All that is to the good, but there are some problems, mostly because Maxthon uses the same Trident rendering engine used by Internet Explorer. For example, click Tools --gt; Internet Options, and you#39;ll come to a familiar tabbed Internet Options screen. In fact, it looks like the screen for changing Internet Explorer#39;s options -- because that#39;s exactly what it is./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"There#39;s far more than all this, and there are a target="_blank" href="http://addons.maxthon.com/en_US"plug-ins available as well/a . You simply won#39;t find a browser with more features./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"In fact, when you make a change to the Maxthon Internet Options screen, you#39;ll also make changes to Internet Explorer. And while this screen has an option for setting your home page, it won#39;t work for Maxthon -- you need to select Tools --gt; Maxthon Setup Center and make your changes there. I contacted Maxthon, and a rep told me that the Options screen is used to control the Trident rendering engine only, and doesn#39;t affect other Maxthon options such as setting the home page./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"Still, if you#39;re a power user, you can get used to those eccentricities. If you#39;re looking for the most features in a browser, live with Maxthon a while, and you may learn to love it./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"em-- Preston Gralla/em/pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"strongOmniWeb 5.8br//strongOmniWeb has been around longer than Mac OS X, dating back to the NeXT platform of the 1990s. Throughout its history, OmniWeb has always been an excellent citizen of technologies specific to the NeXT -- and later, OS X -- platform, and the polish shows through in even minor details./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"Even though OmniWeb was one of the first native browsers to grace OS X, with an interface that has remained top-notch, it has faced rivals such as Firefox and Camino that are powered by speedy Gecko-based rendering engines -- not to mention Apple#39;s own Safari browser, which has been integrated with OS X since 2003. That#39;s kept OmniWeb#39;s browser share limited to a fairly small audience. However, the advances seen in OmniWeb since its rendering engine revamp in 2004 may mean it#39;s time for surfers to give this browser another serious look./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"OmniWeb, now at Version 5.8, is easily one of the best examples of a properly implemented interface on the Mac today. The Omni Group has always taken care to make sure that its products feel like native Mac applications instead of ports from other platforms, and the attention to detail makes using OmniWeb a joy./pp page="3" class="ArticleBody"Some of OmniWeb#39;s best features include extensive (if not zealous) ad-blocking, auto-saved Web browsing sessions and site-specific preferences. From the unique tab drawer -- more on this later -- to support for browsing Web pages using OS X#39;s built-in Speech Recognition, OmniWeb#39;s embrace of Mac-specific technologies wrapped in a clean and uncluttered interface makes the product a delightful browser alternative./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"It renders Web pages quickly, easily on par with the fastest of the competition, right up there with Safari and Firefox. That#39;s significant because rendering speeds used to be a major source of disappointment, something that changed with Omni Group#39;s embrace of Apple#39;s own open-source a target="_blank" href="http://webkit.org/"WebKit/a frameworks. WebKit is used by Apple itself in several of its software packages -- Mail, Safari and Dashboard, to name a few -- and the Omni Group#39;s adoption of this technology allowed it to focus on designing an elegant user interface instead of worrying about updating its rendering engine with every new Web standard./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"Among the interface niceties is the aforementioned tab drawer. Instead of offering up a layout like its competitors -- with small tabs displayed horizontally near the address field -- OmniWeb shows a resizable window pane attached to the browser. The pane, which can be displayed on the right or left side of the main browser window, previews tabs as mini-Web pages rendered in real time. The real-time page rendering allows you to skip on to other sites when one is loading slowly, while still keeping an eye on the site#39;s progress./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"OmniWeb#39;s user experience is top-notch and Mac-like -- something that can#39;t be said about competitors like Firefox -- but that experience comes at a price. At a time when most Web browsers are free, a license for OmniWeb 5.8 costs $14.95, while an upgrade license from earlier versions costs $4.95./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"Even if you don#39;t want to pay for a browser, I still recommend downloading the software and taking it for a free 30-day test run. The thought of paying for a browser probably won#39;t sit well with those accustomed to free alternatives -- especially since the alternatives themselves are good -- but after using OmniWeb for a few days, you might decide it#39;s worth the price./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"em-- Mike DeAgonia/em/pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"strongOpera 9.6br//strongOpera is a Windows-based browser that has been ported to many different platforms, including most Unix variants such as Mac OS X and Linux/FreeBSD/Solaris; cell phone operating systems, including Windows Mobile, PalmOS, BlackBerry OS, and even the popular Wii gaming station. But despite its ubiquitous nature, Opera has so far only captured 2% of the browser market. That#39;s something of a surprise, because it isn#39;t as though this browser lacks ability or features./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"Version 9.6 for Macintosh is a fast, option-laden browser that represents a formidable entry in an extremely competitive product category. Opera uses its own proprietary rendering engine called Presto to display Web content; this engine is almost as capable at rendering code as the Gecko engine used by Firefox and Camino, and nearly as fast as Safari and OmniWeb#39;s WebKit engine. In fact, there were some sites that Gecko had trouble rendering accurately, but Opera displayed most sites properly./pp page="4" class="ArticleBody"There are many things to like about Opera, including customizable skins, live preview of Web pages when you mouse over tabs and a welcome full-screen mode -- especially useful for recent Windows converts who are accustomed to viewing Web pages using every bit of screen real estate possible./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"One of Opera#39;s standout features is the Speed Dial startup page. Speed Dial lets you customize a page with up to nine different sites, with each site#39;s content displayed in miniaturized format. Clicking on the mini-page brings up the site in a full browser window./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"Another Opera plus is the extensive search engine support built into the browser. As well as the usual suspects like Google and Yahoo, Opera also supports Ask, Wikipedia, eBay, and Yahoo Shopping. Interestingly enough, Opera also supports Bit Torrent searching and downloads, as this browser doubles as a Bit Torrent client./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"Opera also offers support for widgets. Although similar in function to those found in Mac OS X, Opera#39;s widgets are freed from the restraints of the Dashboard, instead floating on the desktop like any application window./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"The Opera interface is a little more cluttered than some of the other browsers I#39;ve looked at, but skin support in concert with the ability to alter interface details means you can customize to your heart#39;s content. With the addition of Mouse Gestures, it#39;s entirely possible to browse pages without using any of the interface elements at all, relying instead on mouse or trackpad swipes to navigate pages./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"The bottom line is that Opera is a good example of healthy competition in the browser market, and the price of admission -- free! -- is certainly worth giving this program a once-over./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"em-- Mike DeAgonia/em/pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"strongOpera 9.6br//strongThere was a time, years ago, when Opera seemed to be giving Internet Explorer and Netscape a run for their money. Now it#39;s the great forgotten browser, rarely mentioned or used./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"And that#39;s a shame. Opera sports a clean interface with easy access to its innovative capabilities, and is a model of simplicity and elegance, with attractive icons and tabs, and plenty of features within easy reach. If you#39;re looking for a powerful alternative to your existing browser, you won#39;t go wrong with Opera./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"Much has been made of browser Address Bar tools such as Chrome#39;s Omnibox and Firefox#39;s Awesome Bar. But no one bothers to mention that Opera has already been there and done that. As with those browsers, type parts of a URL into Opera#39;s address bar, and you#39;ll get a list of likely matches. Better yet, type in search terms, and Opera will do a Google search for them./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"That#39;s just one of the innovative features you#39;ll find in Opera; there are too many to mention them all. What Opera calls quot;Speed Dialquot; is also useful. When you open a new tab, Opera opens a page with space for multiple thumbnails of Web pages. Click on any blank thumbnail and enter a URL, and from then on, when you open a new tab, it will open to a page with those thumbnails. To visit any page, click it./pp page="5" class="ArticleBody"Opera also features an excellent download manager that lets you pause and resume downloads, and then open any files you#39;ve downloaded. For each download, you#39;re also shown information such as where it was downloaded from, where you downloaded it to, file size and so on. There#39;s also a progress indicator showing you current download speed./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"Useful for anyone who fills out Web forms (which pretty much means all of us), is the Wand, which not only remembers passwords and fills them in, but also fills in other information, such as name, address, e-mail address and so on./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"Opera sports many other features as well, such as a quick way to turn off all images on a Web site with the single click of a button, and a way to view every single link on a Web page./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"Opera#39;s main drawback is that it doesn#39;t have add-ins as Firefox does, so you won#39;t be able to extend the browser#39;s features. You can download Opera widgets, but they aren#39;t really add-ins -- they#39;re instead gadgets that live on your desktop./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"Apart from the lack of add-ins, though, you#39;ll find Opera an excellent browser. If you#39;re looking for a great blend of simplicity and features, it#39;s well worth the download./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"em-- Preston Gralla/em/pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"strongShiira 2.2br//strongShiira is a relatively new entrant to the Mac Web browser market. Like Apple#39;s Safari and Google#39;s Chrome, Shiira is based on WebKit./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"One of the first unique interface elements that I noticed was Shiira#39;s PageDock. The PageDock provides the same functionality as tabbed browsing, but with complete thumbnails of every page that is opened./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"At first, I saw this as something that took up valuable screen real estate, but after a little use, I found it to be an invaluable addition to the browser experience -- making it easy to see not only what each quot;tabquot; was (beyond just a name), but also what was happening on each page, which proved particularly nice with any page that sported dynamic content (from Facebook chats to sites featuring animation elements). For those who prefer traditional tabbed browsing, the PageDock can be turned off./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"As I explored Shiira, I noticed that many of its features and interfaces took cues from Apple#39;s Mac OS X interface. There#39;s a button that displays all open pages next to each other like Apple#39;s Expos? feature, making it easy to pick one page to work with. Bookmarks, history and RSS feeds can also be browsed from floating translucent pallets reminiscent of Apple#39;s iLife and iWork applications./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"The preferences dialog borrows heavily from the look of the Mac#39;s System Preferences application. Even the bookmarking tool that Shiira refers to as the Shelf offers column and list views patterned after the Mac#39;s Finder window (as is the customizable window toolbar)./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"All of these made Shiira seem more Mac-like to me than Apple#39;s own Safari browser. What I found particularly nice was that, much like the PageDock, these features all served useful functions rather than just being eye candy./pp page="6" class="ArticleBody"I also found a couple of unusual features that seemed so intuitive that I couldn#39;t believe they weren#39;t more common in other browsers. These include menu items for automatically e-mailing the URL or entire contents of a page with a single click, and a very effective full-screen-mode option that would be perfect for presentations or watching video./pp page="7" class="ArticleBody"As far as performance, I found Shiira to be very solid. It loaded pages of all kinds, rendered Flash animation with no problems, and even beat out Safari and Firefox in terms of rendering speed on a couple of pages (albeit not by a particularly noteworthy margin). The browser was also very stable. All of this is important because, bells and whistles aside, the most important piece of a browser to me is that it can actually surf the Web painlessly and quickly./pp page="7" class="ArticleBody"Unfortunately, I did see some unfinished aspects of this open-source browser. Some of Shiira#39;s preference options seemed unfinished. For example, the RSS feed preferences pane refused to open at all (even so, the built-in RSS reader functioned fairly well -- though being used to full featured stand-alone RSS readers, I#39;m not sure it would be my first choice). In addition, the pane in the preferences dialog called Key Mappings, which should allow users to assign keyboard shortcuts to menu items, does not seem to be implemented yet (though I was able to open the pane itself)./pp page="7" class="ArticleBody"Even so, the combination of good features, Apple-inspired interface and overall performance left me convinced that, with a little more development, Shiira could easily give other Mac browsers a run for their money. Without a doubt, Shiira is definitely worth a look, but be prepared to spend a little time getting used to its interface./pp page="7" class="ArticleBody"em-- Ryan Faas/em/pp page="7" class="ArticleBody"a target="_blank" href="http://www.computerworld.com/index.jsp"emComputerworld/em/a emis an InfoWorld affiliate./em/p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=441148379d17113dca789008e7c0a466p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=441148379d17113dca789008e7c0a466p=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=441148379d17113dca789008e7c0a466 style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

So I was having some graphics issues on my new MBP and after lengthy troubleshooting a Genius decided it would need a new logic board (the problem appeared to be the 9400). It should have been replaced outright as it was only a week old but the unit was perfect otherwise so I didn't argue. I was to leave it for a few days as the logic board needed to be ordered, no big deal. So 2 weeks later (they needed to order a 2nd part) its finally ready (no phone call, I found out by looking it up online) so I head in to pick it up. Much to my disappointment, the graphics glitch is still there, in fact its now worse.

WTF?!? How can a tech seriously do all this work, and then declare it "fixed"? How do you miss be red & blue artifacts on the screen? There goes 2 weeks of work down the drain for nothing. So in the end another machine has been ordered, hindsight is 20/20 but I should have just done this from the beginning. The Genius who helped me was good, he's not the guy who did this "repair" I should add.

Oh and on top of all this, my left fan is now inactive. Great. So when running COD4 for about 5 minutes (to test it out) the right fan was screaming at 6000rpm while the GPU and CPU were over 70 each. I'm not sure if thats normal or not but only running one fan was making me nervous as the one fan was getting louder & the machine was starting to cook a bit.

Hundreds of visitors have called Britain's Lapland 'a joke' after it apparently failed to live up to its advertisement.

Auteur : ITN
Tags : hampshire ringwood matchams leisure park hants christmas grotto lapland blunderland theme park complaints visitors children reindeer santa uk news
Envoyé : 02 décembre 2008
Note :0.0
Votes :0

Anti-government protesters are still occupying Bangkok’s two major airports. Thailand’s tourism officials have estimated that 240,000 passengers are still stranded in the country.

Initial flight schedules have been released for stranded passengers. Tourists who want to leave Thailand are embarking on a bus trip towards Malaysia even if they will have to pass Thailand’s southern provinces, where an insurgency exists.

As expected, Thailand’s highest Court found the ruling party guilty of electoral fraud. What is the implication of the order? The ruling party is disbanded, the Prime Minister could no longer hold public office, and other party leaders are barred from holding a public office for five years. A caretaker Cabinet is now in charge of Thailand, led by Deputy Prime Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul. Out of 34 cabinet ministers, only 12 have been banned from holding public offices. The remaining 22 can continue to govern until a new Cabinet is ready.

Deputy Prime Minister Chavarat Charnvirakul. Photo credit: Thai Photoblogs

Since the Prime Minister has stepped down already, will the protesters finally leave the airports? No. They do not want to recognize the authority of the caretaker Cabinet. So they remain in control of the airports. The protests continue.

It is clear by now that the airport siege orchestrated by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is supported by Bangkok’s business elite and the military. There is no shortage of food for the more or less 15,000 PAD members in the airports. It was also reported that 5,000 blankets were donated to PAD a few days ago.

Even the police forces are not too determined to disperse the protesters. They seem contented to drop fliers from helicopters onto the Bangkok airports ordering PAD to leave the premises.

In his final message as Thailand’s leader, the ex-Prime Minister declared: “I did my best to administer the country.” Thailand Crisis reacts:

“By traveling to Peru for one week, in full national crisis, to attend a totally useless APEC meeting? By hidding in Chiang Mai, afraid of his own shadow, afraid of the army? Sure he did his very best. Thaksin’s brother-in-law will remain one of the dullest Thai Prime Minister ever.”

While the Court was delivering its decision, government supporters were outside the building. The crowd did not like the Court’s decision. Nirmal Ghosh observes:

“Disbelief, disappointment as dissolution handed down on PPP (People Power Party). Some people are boo-ing. The verdict is photocopied and distributed. One woman snatches it from another and crumples it, throws it on the ground & stamps on it. There is a sense of deflation in the crowd; they seem rudderless.”

The airport chaos is hurting Thailand’s tourism industry, even the economy of its neighbors. But it must be pointed out that ordinary persons, Thais and foreigners, are suffering more. Tourists are stranded; Bangkok residents are losing their jobs, especially those who are working in the airports. Thai Tales had a conversation with a travel agent:

“Today I walked past my travel agent on the way to lunch. She said that she would be paid half her salary this month and that the travel agency could close if the situation continued. But, she said, her plan was to sell iced coffee from a cart if she was no longer a travel agent.

“The fallout may indeed be incalculable, but when it’s people you know, people who make your life a bit easier by being good at their jobs and a bit more pleasant by just being in it, the costs suddenly become measurable and terrible.”

Nomadic Matt, who works in the airport, has lost his job:

“The damage is done though. There will be no high season this year and an expected 1 million people will be out of work because of the drop in tourism numbers (including me as I work at the airport!!!!). No one is going to want to come visit now. Most tourists are canceling their vacations and many that are interviewed just want to leave and never come back.”

To avoid being beaten by partisans, Richard Barrow could not wear red or yellow T-shirts outside his house. Red is the color of government supporters; and yellow is PAD’s color:

“I had to pop out just now in the car to go and run an errand in town. I forgot I was wearing a yellow shirt as today is Monday. I hadn't change after coming back from school. My neighbor was really scared for me and told me that I should go back and change first. Things are getting scary on the streets. Hardly anyone wears yellow these days. And if they do, then only on Mondays. Hardly any teacher at my school wears yellow in case they are associated with the PAD. Some parents told me that they told their children not to wear red or yellow when they go out any more. What my neighbor said to me is true. In particular if I go out late at night. This is how bad it is getting on the streets these days.”

Political cartoons by Sacravatoons

Traffic around the airport has deteriorated. Dreaming of Hanoi writes:

“My day-to-day life has not been affected. Work is normal, as is my social life...Our school is nearer to the airport, and it seemed like there was a mass exodus into Bangkok from that direction. The highway was clogged. We had to hop out of the taxi and walk all the way to Sukhumvit. We then took motorcycles home. This trip usually takes 30 mins, but on Friday night it took over an hour; I’m sure it took even longer for those who chose to sit and wait in the traffic.”

Recognizing that ordinary persons are suffering, Brit in Bangkok criticizes the elite:

“The ones who I feel sorry for though are the ‘average' Thais and not the wealthy Thais that are destroying this country and trying to take democracy away from normal people. Meanwhile, I'm making sure that all my purchases from now on will be from market stalls as much as possible, in an attempt to support every day Thais and not these wealthy as*holes that run this country. The less money these jokers have the better and, from now on, I'm going to make sure they get none of mine.”

Andrew Biggs has a message for both the politcians and protesters:

“What has happened to my beloved Thailand? If you truly love Thailand, you should not be wearing yellow or red. We are past that. It was cute six months ago but it is deadly now. It doesn’t matter if you hate or support the government. Let’s stop this madness. Somchai, resign. PAD, get out of the airport.”

Via Twitter, Bangkok residents are reacting to the latest updates:

Secadra: Protesters still there and the pro-gov aren't happy with the decision. Not much happens in a rush

Charlespulaski: Thai court orders ruling party dissolved What kind of Mickey Mouse Democracy is this? Can they even do that?

Nomadicmatt: Well, once they open up that damn airport, I'll be moving….where should i go?

Badtzrawks: excitement?!?! man, it doesnt seem that PAD will return us our airports loey ah' no sign!!

Noobam: I'm a PAD too but I don't agree with the strike at the airport at all. Esp. with bullshit govt like this

We at Boing Boing are all big fans of GOOD. For those of you haven't checked it out, in print or online, GOOD creates media "for people who give a damn." That's something we can get behind. We've linked to their fantastic articles and data visualizations frequently in the past. So we were delighted when the good people at GOOD approached us about collaborating in some way. Our first dance together is "Boing Boing on GOOD," wherein each week Mark, Xeni, Joel, or I will post a short essay or article to the GOOD blog. We'll take those opportunities to delve a bit deeper into our current fixations and fascinations and connect the dots between groups of posts we've made here. "Boing Boing on GOOD" promises to be a fun experiment and we hope you'll join the conversation! Mark wrote the first piece and it's a doozy, about the science fiction horrors of Botox. Apparently, Botox injections may prevent "people from responding with appropriate anger to things that aren’t good for them." From Mark's essay, titled "I Have No Wrinkles And I Must Scream": I enjoy studying my five-year-old daughter’s facial expressions, because they’re such immediate and sensitive indicators of her emotional state. This morning, when I told Jane there was a stack of hot pancakes on the table, her face lit up with glee. In the afternoon, when she found out her older sister had given our pet chickens names without first consulting her, a dark cloud of anger and disappointment crossed her face. (She got over it in forty-five seconds.) It goes without saying that our internal emotional states drive our outward behavior and emotional expressions. What’s not as obvious is that the path runs in both directions — that is, our actions and facial expressions tell us how to feel, just as our emotions tell us how to act. This effect is known as the facial feedback hypothesis. Charles Darwin, who wrote The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in 1872, understood that an action can cause the experience of a feeling. As William James said of the phenomenon: “We don’t run because we are scared; we are scared because we run.” "I Have No Wrinkles And I Must Scream" (GOOD)...br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=camp;i=5d30215e08174327c8a5fb74d18f3861amp;p=1"img style="border:0;" src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=vamp;i=5d30215e08174327c8a5fb74d18f3861amp;p=1" border="0" //a

We at Boing Boing are all big fans of GOOD. For those of you havent checked it out, in print or online, GOOD creates media for people who give a damn. Thats something we can get behind. Weve linked to their fantastic articles and data visualizations frequently in the past. So we were delighted when the good people at GOOD approached us about collaborating in some way. Our first dance together is Boing Boing on GOOD, wherein each week Mark, Xeni, Joel, or I will post a short essay or article to the GOOD blog. Well take those opportunities to delve a bit deeper into our current fixations and fascinations and connect the dots between groups of posts weve made here. Boing Boing on GOOD promises to be a fun experiment and we hope youll join the conversation! Mark wrote the first piece and its a doozy, about the science fiction horrors of Botox. Apparently, Botox injections may prevent people from responding with appropriate anger to things that aren???t good for them. From Marks essay, titled I Have No Wrinkles And I Must Scream: I enjoy studying my five-year-old daughter???s facial expressions, because they???re such immediate and sensitive indicators of her emotional state. This morning, when I told Jane there was a stack of hot pancakes on the table, her face lit up with glee. In the afternoon, when she found out her older sister had given our pet chickens names without first consulting her, a dark cloud of anger and disappointment crossed her face. (She got over it in forty-five seconds.) It goes without saying that our internal emotional states drive our outward behavior and emotional expressions. What???s not as obvious is that the path runs in both directions ??? that is, our actions and facial expressions tell us how to feel, just as our emotions tell us how to act. This effect is known as the facial feedback hypothesis. Charles Darwin, who wrote The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals in 1872, understood that an action can cause the experience of a feeling. As William James said of the phenomenon: ???We don???t run because we are scared; we are scared because we run.??? I Have No Wrinkles And I Must Scream (GOOD)...br style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=camp;i=5d30215e08174327c8a5fb74d18f3861amp;p=1img style=border:0; src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/ht.php?t=vamp;i=5d30215e08174327c8a5fb74d18f3861amp;p=1 border=0 //a

Der Spielgel profiles a 42-year-old woman who has perfect "episodic memory" "People say to me: Oh, how fascinating, it must be a treat to have a perfect memory," she says. Her lips twist into a thin smile. "But it's also agonizing." In addition to good memories, every angry word, every mistake, every disappointment, every shock and every moment of pain goes unforgotten. Time heals no wounds for Price. "I don't look back at the past with any distance. It's more like experiencing everything over and over again, and those memories trigger exactly the same emotions in me. It's like an endless, chaotic film that can completely overpower me. And there's no stop button." She's constantly bombarded with fragments of memories, exposed to an automatic and uncontrollable process that behaves like an infinite loop in a computer. Sometimes there are external triggers, like a certain smell, song or word. But often her memories return by themselves. Beautiful, horrific, important or banal scenes rush across her wildly chaotic "internal monitor," sometimes displacing the present. "All of this is incredibly exhausting," says Price. An Infinite Loop in the Brain (Via Mind Hacks)...br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=58247d7f3d9f85e93e7b4d6df2dbab87p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=58247d7f3d9f85e93e7b4d6df2dbab87p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=58247d7f3d9f85e93e7b4d6df2dbab87" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/

Der Spiegel profiles a 42-year-old woman who has perfect episodic memory People say to me: Oh, how fascinating, it must be a treat to have a perfect memory, she says. Her lips twist into a thin smile. But its also agonizing. In addition to good memories, every angry word, every mistake, every disappointment, every shock and every moment of pain goes unforgotten. Time heals no wounds for Price. I dont look back at the past with any distance. Its more like experiencing everything over and over again, and those memories trigger exactly the same emotions in me. Its like an endless, chaotic film that can completely overpower me. And theres no stop button. Shes constantly bombarded with fragments of memories, exposed to an automatic and uncontrollable process that behaves like an infinite loop in a computer. Sometimes there are external triggers, like a certain smell, song or word. But often her memories return by themselves. Beautiful, horrific, important or banal scenes rush across her wildly chaotic internal monitor, sometimes displacing the present. All of this is incredibly exhausting, says Price. An Infinite Loop in the Brain (Via Mind Hacks)...br style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=58247d7f3d9f85e93e7b4d6df2dbab87p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=58247d7f3d9f85e93e7b4d6df2dbab87p=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=58247d7f3d9f85e93e7b4d6df2dbab87 style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

Posted by Dennis Sellers

Though Friday, Nov. 28 (“Black Friday”), is being reported as a disappointment for most retailers, Apple has apparently bucked that trend. According to an Silicon Alley Insider report, Mac sales were “better than expected,” according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who adds that iPhone sales were “as expected.”

div class="rxbodyfield"p page="1" class="ArticleBody"Consumer electronics giants Apple, Dell, Motorola, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Samsung have been slow to get serious about climate change, and are notably lagging behind, according to the latest edition of the Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics./pp align="right"a href="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" target="_blank" /img src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/idg.us.info.rss/news;pos=imu;tile=6;sz=336x280;skey=patch_management;pkey=security;ord=123456789?" width="336" height="280" border="0" alt="" align="right"//a/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Many companies still show little engagement with the issue, which is a disappointment, according to Greenpeace International Climate amp; Energy campaigner Mel Francis./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"b[ For more on technology and the environment, see Ted Samson#39;s#160;a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/?source=fssr"Sustainable IT blog/a#160;| Stay ahead of advances in technology with InfoWorld#39;s a href="http://weblog.innfoworld.com/yager/?source=fssr"Ahead of the Curve blog/a and a href="http://www.infoworld.com/newsletter/subscribe.html?source=fssr"newsletter/a. ]/b/pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"quot;They are basically lagging behind on what we need for a good climate package. They haven#39;t demonstrated any real commitment to cutting their own CO2 emissions, or to lobbying politicians to get a good deal post-Kyoto,quot; said Francis./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"quot;They assume that growth in their business also must therefore mean growth in their CO2 emissions. At Greenpeace we think that#39;s not necessarily true,quot; said Francis./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Greenpeace would like to see a lot more action going forward. quot;We are simply asking them to become climate leaders. They need to put their words into action and follow through on the claims they#39;re making,quot; said Francis./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Still, there are a few exceptions: Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Philips and Sharp support the level of cuts in greenhouse gases that science requires, according to Greenpeace./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"In its latest a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/Guide-Greener-Electronics-10-edition.pdf"Guide to Greener Electronics/a, Greenpeace gives Philips marks for committing to making absolute reductions in its own greenhouse gas emissions from the product manufacture and supply chain, which HP has done as well./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Both Philips and HP have also committed to making cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from their own operations. Nokia has done the same, said Francis./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Its overall ranking -- which takes into account company policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change -- is topped by Nokia (Greenpeace likes its take-back program and use of renewable energy), followed by Sony Ericsson and Toshiba./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Philips and HP are in the bottom half of the list: good energy policies aren#39;t enough, and both companies must improve how they handle e-waste, said Greenpeace./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Motorola, Toshiba and Sharp made the biggest moves up the chart, while the companies falling down the ranking are the PC brands Acer, Dell, HP -- and Apple, although it still gets a thumbs-up for improving its score, by better reporting on the carbon footprint of its products./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Apple#39;s new iPods are also are now free of both PVC and brominated flame retardants, according to Greenpeace./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"In general, the PC manufacturers need to improve the handling of e-waste./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Dell and Acer also need to reduce their use of toxic chemicals, said Greenpeace. Dell loses points for withdrawing from its commitment to eliminate all PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants by the end of 2009./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"The use of toxic chemicals has in the past been a focus area for Greenpeace, but here there has been some positive movement. Consumer electronics companies have been allies to Greenpeace as it has tried to reduce the use of toxic materials and get legislation passed, according to Francis./pp page="1" class="ArticleBody"Nintendo remains in last place in the ranking, although it is taking small steps to remove or monitor the presence of some potentially toxic additives in the plastics it uses, Greenpeace said./p/divbr style=clear: both;/ a href=http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=3d5a2a8d5875e9ced762198a01efe167p=1img alt= style=border: 0; border=0 src=http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=3d5a2a8d5875e9ced762198a01efe167p=1//a img src=http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=3d5a2a8d5875e9ced762198a01efe167 style=display: none; border=0 height=1 width=1 alt=/

As a child, I truly believed that at this point in my life I would be living in a space-dome community with a flying car and a robot maid. I can even remember the utter disappointment of realizing that most of the things I read in my dad’s back issues of Popular Science magazine would never see the light of day. nbsp; nbsp; Until we all are living in outer space with flying automobiles and robot servants, we can pass the time with these 45 vintage illustrations of a space age tomorrow.