Clay Shirky talking at TED about Social Media

Well worth a watch for a in-depth analysis of the topic

What makes Google Chrome So Fast

A great series of technical presentations on the three key techniques that haven given Google Chrome it's incredible speed:-

• DNS pre-resolution
• V8 JavaScript engine
• DOM bindings and more

AS3 Performance Testing Harness by Grant Skinner

Another tool in your toolbox in the quest for super quick applications. Keep up the great work Grant!

Performance test has been updated with support for synchronous tests and integration with unit testing and test driven development

Flash on the iPhone

Flash on the iPhone is here......  Get the overview at Adobe Labs

And here is a link to Mike Chambers excellent presentation on how it all works

Recommended read - Flash & Flex Developers Magazine

Bi-monthly and FREE magazine - the leading source of Flash/Flex practical knowledge. Each issue contains articles, tutorials, listings, codes, promotional offers that may give you many benefits! Check the issues.

The 6 tribes of Homo Digitalis

UK's mobile and broadband provider TalkTalk have up with the University of Kent to conduct the first Digital Anthropology Report, in search of homo digitalis. The aim was to go beyond traditional research methods and get a true understanding of how technology fits into people’s lives, by looking at people’s attitudes and behaviours to technology and communications more generally.

There are some people who think that modern technology is always a bad thing, damaging human relationships and causing us to spend more time in front of a screen and less time face-to-face with other people. On the other hand, the technology behind the screen allows us to stay in touch with people who were previously very difficult or wholly impossible to reach.

They found six distinct “clusters” of consumers, which we called our Six Tribes. Download full report

Google to Retire Gears for HTML5

According to Mashable in a statement to the L.A. Times via email, a Google spokesperson confirmed that Google is shifting its focus away from Gears toward HTML5, and encourages developers to do so, too. This means that while they’re looking forward to a time when users can enjoy an offline-supported Web experience courtesy of HTML5, they’re “letting the sun set on its Gears project.”

Part of the shift in focus pertains to Google’s Chrome browser. While Google Chrome for PC includes Gears, the Mac version (which should be released any day now) won’t support the program. Apparently, there were technical issues that would make using Gears in Chrome for Mac problematic, especially since Gears isn’t compatible with the Snow Leopard operating system.

The following is the original statement from Google, as well as a subsequent assertion made after the L.A. Times published their story:

“We are excited that much of the technology in Gears, including offline support and geolocation APIs, are being incorporated into the HTML5 spec as an open standard supported across browsers, and see that as the logical next step for developers looking to include these features in their websites.”

“We’re continuing to support Gears so that nothing breaks for sites that use it. But we expect developers to use HTML5 for these features moving forward as it’s a standards-based approach that will be available across all browsers.”

Check out thefuntheory.com from Volkswagen, it's brilliant!

The Fun Theory.com from Volkswagen is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.

Three fabulous videos:-

Influential Islamic Finance Conference

More than 1,200 industry decision-makers from over 50 countries are preparing to meet in Bahrain at the 16th Annual World Islamic Banking Conference (WIBC 2009).  This year's conference, to be held from December 6-8, will focus on new strategies for new economic realities and WIBC 2009 has set the stage for discussions that will shape the post-crisis landscape as Islamic banks grapple with the need to manage risk, seek new growth markets, deliver on market expectations as well as remain competitive.  The theme of WIBC 2009 reflects this fresh outlook that the leading Islamic financial institutions are currently adopting as they compete in an increasingly challenging landscape.  Read this rest of the article on Gulf Weekly

Reserve Bank Of India opposes mobile banking

It is seen that there is strong opposition from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the home ministry has forced the government to drop the idea of a cost effective, convenient and efficient mobile-based model of financial services that allows transfer of funds outside the banking system. The RBI is concerned that regulating the system will be difficult and it would cause uncontrolled credit creation outside the banking system. The home ministry is concerned about the misuse of the facility from a security consideration.

But then Telecom industry which was abuzz till now with mobile banking coming in, and telecos were happy that they could reach out to more no. of people through this service and provide banking system for more people across the country, but then I guess that will never happen now, as RBI and the home ministry is opposing the move.

Check out the discussion on toostep.com