Draggable timeline of mergers & acquisitions (Google, Y!, MS, Amazon)

A draggable timeline of mergers & acquisitions completed by Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and Amazon.

http://www.shmula.com/blog/timelines/google-microsoft-yahoo/g-y-m.htm
[More on: http://www.shmula.com/415/timeline-google-yahoo-microsoft-amazon ]

Mobile app dev

I was looking for some documentation for developing games for mobile phones. My main focus was to find beginner-level documentation on how to develop games with a very simple interface for two types of cell phones: Sony Ericsson W7xx series and MDA Vario I/II/III. The reason I chose these phones, apart from having access to them, is that they represent the two main trends in today's market: the small-display minimal-features phone for the casual consumer (the W7xx), and the gadget-full phone for the IT professional (the Vario). Here's what I found:

A. Sun Java ME:

1. Sun Java ME Tech Docs [ http://java.sun.com/javame/reference/apis.jsp ];


2. Creating 2D action games with Java ME 2D API [ http://developers.sun.com/mobility/midp/articles/game/ ];


3. Using custom items in MIDP 2.0 [ http://developers.sun.com/mobility/midp/ttips/customitem/ ];


4. Other online references: MIDP 2.0http://java.sun.com/javame/reference/apis/jsr118/
   CLDC 1.1http://java.sun.com/javame/reference/apis/jsr139/ ;


5. Tutorial: Development of Interactive Applications for Mobile Devices
   Monday, September 19 2005Salzburg, Austria [ http://www.medien.ifi.lmu.de/diamd05/ ]: Application development with J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition) (E. Rukzio) (Slides); Mobile Human-Computer Interaction (J. Hamard) (Slides) ;


6. http://www.medien.ifi.lmu.de/fileadmin/mimuc/mmi2_ss06/vorlesung/2006-07-13_f6.pdf
7. Sun Tech Days, Yokohama Workshop: Overview of J2ME and Nokia APIs [ http://www.nokia.co.jp/forum/publish/documents/Tech_Days_Yokohama_Workshop_Session.pdf ] -- nice tutorial, ~100 slides, rather technical
8. Some examples from Don's Mobile blog [ http://www.dbarnes.com/midlet/midlet-title-screen/ ];
9. Developing Java-Based Mobile Games by Mugdha Chauhan [ http://www.developer.com/java/j2me/article.php/10934_3502741_1 ].

B. Microsoft Windows Mobile:

1. Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Documentation [ http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb158486.aspx ]

JavaScript FishEye effect

Implementation: http://dojotoolkit.org/
Distribution: http://download.dojotoolkit.org/release-0.4.3/dojo-0.4.3-ajax.tar.gz
Demo: http://docs.huihoo.com/web/ajax/dojo/dojo-0.2.2-ajax/demos/widget/Fisheye.html
Source code (online): http://docs.huihoo.com/web/ajax/dojo/dojo-0.2.2-ajax/

Example in a WordPress distribution: http://www.tolo.ro/

And some more lectures and interviews

1. Origin of Life -- John Maynard [ part1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=JhXCl-nIOTc part2 http://youtube.com/watch?v=a9sZKy0vtLw part3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=T2CI2TmXpF0 part4 http://youtube.com/watch?v=9rAO8iT2k4Q part5 http://youtube.com/watch?v=TWK9Yn6TRyM part6 http://youtube.com/watch?v=aOP03kHHQq4 ]
2. Feynman interview -- a Horizon video from 1981 made for the BBC [ part1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XgmrMZ0h54 part2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwtbh6wcq78 part3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SfJEdkYVuc part4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRAbke411Zw part5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh285sbO4gQ part6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhXzK5RxvUg ]
3. More physics lectures on Gravitationalist's YouTube [ http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Gravitationalist&p=r&page=1 ]
4. Stephen Hawking interviewed on "Yair Lapid"
5. Stephen Hawking "Origin of the universe" [ part1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=nFjwXe-pXvM part2 part3 part4 part5 ]
6. Roger Penrose "Cyclic Universe Model" [ http://youtube.com/watch?v=pEIj9zcLzp0 ]
7. Steven Weinberg [ http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xq1hbqummvA ]
8. The Dover trial over evolutionism in schools (2007 version :P ) [http://youtube.com/watch?v=yAnIoXPLMdo ]

Linguistics, Politics, and Chomsky

I have recently looked for some of Noam Chomsky's work. I was interested in seeing him in a televised debate, listening to him making live comments, and on reading his published material. Is he a Marxist? Does he embrace only subjects fashionable amongst the pro-left intellectuals? Most interestingly (for me), how skillful is Noam Chomsky in polite political debating? Here is what I found:

1. http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bovall&p=r The Chomsky - Perle debate at Ohio University, 1988 -- on YouTube, 19 parts. In short: Noam demolishes a debile opposition.
2. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=676452061991429040&q=chomsky&total=2117&start=0&num=100&so=0&type=search&plindex=2Noam Chomsky speaks to BBC's Francine Stock at London's St Paul's Cathedral, Dec '02 -- reviews a few of his most important standings.
3. A large archive of taped interviews, http://www.chomsky.info/audionvideo.htm
4. ChomskyTorrents.org [now http://onebigtorrent.org/index.php?cat=13 ]
5. Chomsky at Google Video [ http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=chomsky ]
6. Chomsky at YouTube [ http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chomsky ]
7. Some of Noam's short writing [ http://www.chomsky.info/debates.htm ]
8. Noam Chomsky books (and exerpts) [ http://www.chomsky.info/books.htm ]
9. Some more books, including Year 501 [ http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/year/ ], What Uncle Sam Really Wants [ http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/sam/ ] from U Penn's online book library [ http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/browse?type=lcsubc&key=United%20States%20%2d%2d%20Foreign%20relations%20%2d%2d%201945%2d1989 -- filed under United States -- Foreign relations -- 1945-1989 ]
10. What Shall the Responsible Intellectual Do? With George Steiner. March 23, 1967.

Below I list some famous lectures/debates/published material. Consider it comparison material.

1. A Nobel Prize Lecture -- Nobel Prize for Literature (Harold Pinter, 2005) [ high-res: rtsp://rs.nobelprize.org/lectures/2005/lit/pinter/pinter-lecture-hi.rm?title="Nobel Lecture by Harold Pinter"&author="© Illuminations 2005"©right="© Illuminations 2005" (video) and http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture-e.html (text) from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html ]
2. Some great debates from the International Debate Education Association [ http://www.idebate.org/encyclomedia/category.php?id=4 ], including the Kennedy "Moon Landing" speech, JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."... [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45qCvLkXsM ], the Churchill "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" speech, the Martin Luther King "I have a Dream" speech [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk ], the Malcolm X speech at Oxford U., debate between Sam Harris and Reza Aslan, the Clinton vs. Bush '92 presidential debate, Chomsky vs. Buckley debate, etc.
3. Google Video -- famous speeches [ http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=famous+speeches ]

Ok, that'll be it for now... One more thing: yes, Chomsky had good mastery of the debate skills. In particular, he could switch from a compassionate tone (to describe his standings) to a high-brow intellectual's and oftentimes sharp one (to respond to the opponent).

Wikis and others

1. The must-read in Wiki comparison [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software ] and its companion [ http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/11/04/which_wiki.html ].
2. PMWiki [ http://www.pmwiki.org/ ] is a simple to use Wiki that needs no root access to install, has no database backend dependencies (e.g., no MySQL)... just what one needs for a simple web site.
3. A site with a great selection of PHP-based scripts: http://php.developpez.com/scripts/ .