Author: Serkadis

With the western release of Yakuza 3 just barely a month away, Sega has released a brand new trailer to showcase the new features and the pre-order goodies of the game. Watch the vid after the jump.
 

Every so often a flurry of reports come out trying to talk up the concept of “internet addiction,” even if the term is mostly meaningless (and usually drummed up by a small number of psychologists looking to drum up business “treating” the problem). Almost every real study I’ve seen on the subject doesn’t find much behind the concept of “internet addiction.” What they tend to find is that some people, when depressed, tend to spend a lot of time on the internet, but that doesn’t mean that the internet leads to depression. Often, the evidence suggests the relationship goes in the other direction (depressed people tend to lose themselves online, as it keeps them away from the “real world” that’s depressing them). But that makes a less interesting story, so again we’re seeing reports of a new study that “internet addiction” is “linked” to depression. While the article is clear that the causal link is not established, just the way the article itself is promoted, the casual reader may assume otherwise. Also, this particular “study” has pretty questionable methodology, relying on an online survey — something that isn’t known for producing particularly reliable information. On the whole, I don’t think it’s surprising that a segment of depressed people would spend a lot of time online, but it hardly means they’re “addicted” — and focusing on the “addiction” may be the wrong way to treat the real problem of depression.

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With more than 140,000 apps on the iPhone alone, there is a real need for services which help you find the best apps. Apple’s iTunes ratings and genius recommendations only go so far. One startup attacking this problem is French-Israeli AppsFire, which just raised its first angel round. AppsFire was co-founded by former TechCrunch France editor Ouriel Ohayon and Yann Lechelle.

The investors are a group of successful French entrepreneurs (yes, they exist), including Marc Simoncini (CEO of dating site meetic.com), Jacques-Antoine Granjon (CEO of Vente-Privee.com), Xavier Niel (CEO of French ISP Free), and entrepreneur and angel investor Jean-David Blanc (who also recently invested in Square). The amount raised wasn’t disclosed but it is believed to be in the low seven figures.

AppsFire offers a simple utility app which makes it easy to share iPhone app recommendations with your friends. Since its beta launch last summer, more than 10 million apps have been shared, leading to hundreds of thousands of clicks to iTunes. It also highlights apps through its AppStar Awards. Recently, AppsFire started promoting its own short link for iPhone apps, http://getap.ps/, which opens up iTunes on both the iPhone and desktop computers to a specific app’s page. While you are waiting for iTunes to open up, information about the App appears on the landing page, developers who use getap.ps will get analytics on conversions and other stats. This America Life (http://getap.ps/thisamericanlife) and DailyMotion (http://getap.ps/dailymotion) are already using it.

The startup plans to move beyond the iPhone to other mobile devices with growing app markets such as Android and Blackberry. It also recently launched PasteFire, a way to share other things such as Web links, emails, phone numbers, and photos to and from your iPhone. It will start to give users app recommendations based on the content they copy in PasteFire as well. The whole focus of the company is to help people discover new apps and drive more downloads and sales of apps. Competitors include Appolicious, 16Apps, and others.

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Something tells me Kwedit, which launches today, is going to be a hit. It’s a new payment service that absolutely doesn’t guarantee payments. In fact, its unreliability is what makes it so attractive to social game publishers and other people selling virtual goods. It’s also a great way to let the unbanked masses out there pay for stuff without getting sucked in to scamville-type scams. The product is called Kwedit Promise.

Here’s how Kwedit works: they let users take on fake debt instead of paying for virtual goods with real money (or via scammy or legitimate offers). A user promises to pay later. It’s not an enforceable promise, and there is really no consequence if a user doesn’t pay. But there are built in incentives to pay it off, and Kwedit expects some percentage of people to actually do so.

As users take and pay off, or default, on Kwedit promises, a virtual Kwedit score moves up and down just like a real-life credit score.

Users get more credit (err, Kwedit) when they actually pay the stuff they agreed to. And if they don’t pay, the kwedit score goes down and getting more Kwedit becomes difficult. There’s some risk that users will try to sign up under another name to start fresh – but since most of the virtual games are on social networks and tied to established identities, that won’t work very well.

Kwedit also makes it very easy to pay off promised amounts. Most users won’t have credit cards, so they can’t pay via normal online methods. But users can print out (or save on their phone) a bar code and take it to any 7-11 store in the U.S. for payment. Or they can mail in cash via a pre-printed postage paid envelope (called the Kwedit mailer). And there’s a third way as well – users can ask other to pay the Kwedit for them via “pass the duck.” It’s a social payment feature that sends a message to a friend or family member asking them to pay.

What do I think of this? I think it’s brilliant. Social gaming companies like Zynga have said that they can only monetize a few percentage points of users via direct payments. They try to increase that number via offers, which is a slippery slope towards Scamville. Kwedit falls in between direct payments and offers. And even if users default, the Zyngas of the world aren’t out any cash. They’re just giving away virtual stuff in exchange for the Kwedit, after all.

I have some concern about cannibalism, where a user chooses Kwedit instead of paying directly even though they have a credit card. The company says that will certainly be an issue, but they think that on balance they’ll be a net-positive payment option.

If Kwedit’s early days are successful, look for all the gaming companies to jump on board quickly. And I also think this is a great idea for other virtual goods services – like online music. I’d love to pay for music on iTunes or MySpace music via Kwedit. At some point, we may just be able to. At launch Kwedit is available on 100 social games, and also as an option on Social Gold.

Is Kwedit unreliable? Yep. Is it Brilliant? Absolutely.

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There is a virtual cornucopia, so to speak, of games out there right now, readers. From Mass Effect 2 and Borderlands to Bayonetta and Dark Void, to the constant stream of demos, freeware, and indie games — it’s a good time to be a gamer. We chat about games throughout the day, but we’d like to hear from you guys. Got any recommendations? Think something’s overrated? Looking forward to anything? What are you playing?

Here’s us, to get the ball rolling:

Devin: This week has been a week of smaller indie games, since I was disappointed by the latest Borderlands expansion, Dragon Age is getting boring, and I’m afraid of jumping back into Team Fortress even though I’m awesome at it. I’ve been playing Iji, a Flashback-esque sidescroller, CrimzonClover, an insane shoot-em-up, and Dungeons of Fayte, an incredibly frustrating yet somehow compelling little action RPG. I’m also trying to set new records in SNES Super Mario Kart.

Matt: I’m totally caught up in the Command & Conquer 4 beta right now. I maxed out the NOD class and just started playing as GDI. The game is totally different than the last 47 C&C games, but it’s also great fun so I’m alright with it. I still haven’t gotten around to installing and playing Mass Effect 2, but I expect that I’ll be bored with the four-map beta by week’s end. That’s next.

Dave: It’s all about Halo:ODST. Really enjoying the improved HUD and the new storyline. Add to that some World of Warcraft and Crysis, and you get the idea. Mainly playing ODST though.

Jimin: This baby is a Jupiter 593GL Deluxe. Plays like a dream. If dreams were saxophones. And could play a low A. Oh, you said what games we’re playing. I’ve started a new character on Fallout 3 emulating Han Solo. Give him the Lady Killer feat, max out his Speech skill, pretend Fawkes is a wookie, arm him with Smuggler’s End, and he’ll be sweet-talking his way through the Capitol Wasteland in no time.

John: I’ve been playing Burnout Paradise – but in 3D. It really adds a lot to the game to see your car crash into gates that then swing away from you wildly and seem to spring back in your face.

Greg: I’m hooked on the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo to the point that I’m worried for my health. It’s a very no-nonsense game; the guns are accurate enough that I never feel that bad luck made me miss a shot, and there’s none of those wonky perks that make Modern Warfare 2 feel like Mario Kart. If the full game is as good as the demo, you should probably expect me to disappear for a few days come March 2nd.

Doug: I’ve been splitting time between NBA 2K10 on the PC and Mario Kart Wii, with the scales being tipped ever so slightly in Nintendo’s direction as far as pure playing time goes. Online play is highly addictive but I’m having fun trying to unlock all the goodies in single player mode, too. I never got the hang of using the Wii remote’s accelerometer for steering so I opted to use the classic controller instead. Now, however, I’m using the Wii remote + Nunchuck combo with the best results.

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We all want to get arrested more. It’s just a fact of life. Who doesn’t enjoy the beatings, the filthy back seat of the cop car, all the different varieties of holding cell? But doing real crimes results in lots of boring court time. So how to earn that trip to the station? Well, say goodbye to costly real guns, and say hello to the next generation of cop-baiting: the gun comb.

This versatile accessory guarantees the roughest handling: if they think it’s a real gun, you get shot or tackled. If they recognize that it’s just a gun-shaped object, you’ll be harassed and eventually arrested for some vague violation. It’s win-win!

Nice, right?! Get your gun comb here.

[via Stilsucht, Noquedanblogs, and LikeCool]

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I’m just wrapping my head around CMOS and you spring this on me? This Ricoh CX3 is a 10-megapixel shooter with 720p video recording and “Pets” scene mode. But what the heck is a back illuminated sensor?

DPreviewHas the full release but you’re basically looking at better low-light performance with the back-lit CMOS. I honestly don’t quite get how it works, but it seems to improve low-light performance greatly by reducing the distance light has to travel to the sensor.

* The back-illuminated 10 megapixel CMOS sensor significantly increases shooting performance in low-light scenes.
* The CX3 uses the noise reduction algorithm introduced on the GR DIGITAL III. Performing noise reduction processing on the signal immediately after it is output by the CMOS sensor makes it possible to reduce noise while maintaining resolution, tone characteristics, and saturation.
* The noise reduction level can be specified as Off, Auto, Weak, Strong, or MAX. By specifying MAX, it is possible to do sophisticated variance-estimation type noise reduction processing in which the sensor image data’s noise variance is analyzed and the optimum processing is done for each region.

Here’s a bunch of info on back-lit/illuminated sensors if you’re interested. It seems to move the sensor closer to the lens rather than making it pass through a screen of wires.

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The Locked ON Proximity Sensing t-shirt is a stone cold radar-detecting piece of apparel. When separated from companions, its radar screen stays in scan mode. But get within a few meters of another Locked ON wearer? Target detected, baby.

The decal on the front of the shirt is removable, since you probably wouldn’t want to wash it, and runs on three AAA batteries. Its radio frequency transmission/detection range is about three meters, so chances are your eyes will spot a Locked ON compatriot before your radar will. At least, though, everyone around you will know you two were made for each other—or at least, your shirts were. [ThinkGeek via Techeblog]

The venerable GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is undergoing a significant transformation. The next major release, version 2.8, will introduce an improved user interface with an optional single-window mode. Although this update is still under heavy development, users can get an early look by compiling the latest source code of the development version from the GIMP’s version control repository.

The GIMP is an open source software application for editing raster graphics. It is intended to serve as a free and open alternative to high-end image editing programs for a professional audience. Although the GIMP still has some limitations relative to industry-leading commercial products like Photoshop, it is becoming an increasingly viable solution for professional artists and photographers.

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We have been lucky to get a CDMA TouchPro ROM going for you guys, and here is the info.
The ROM is done by NFSFAN and if it is not the fastest CDMA TouchPro ROM you have ever used then I will tell you my last name . The ROM is a very nice stable, smooth and like I mentioned earlier, faster than my Touchpro2, here is the info:

Important Notes:
*Kernel — 6.5 NK
*Modulated files
*Reduced ULDR Partition
*Enabled Full Kernel Trust Mode
*Super SLIM XIP
*UPX Compression
*SensorSDK v4
*SWP (Spinlock) functions removed (performance)
*OpenVG driver (3d performance)
*Optimized 3D drivers (OpenGL + D3DM)

Brief List of what is included in the ROM:

*.NETCF3.5
*Office Mobile 2010
*Internet Explorer 6
*SQLCEMobile 3.0
*1-Calc 3.2.7
*Advanced Config 3.3
*Bluetooth BPP
*Chess
*File Explorer EXT
*Google Maps
*GPS Viewer
*Hearts
*Teeter
*HTC Diamond Ringtones
*Inbox Menu Extension
*Custom SensorSDK v4 Driver
*AdobePDF
*Microphone AGC
*YouTube
*TouchFLO 3D 2.5
*HTC Album
*Bluetooth Explorer
*Bluetooth Tab Extension
*Java JBlend
*Streaming Media
*PIM Backup
*Pocket RAR 3.90
*MP3 Trimmer
*RSSHub 2.1.1.1107
*SMS Inbox Threading Switch
*PHM RegEdit
*Remote Desktop Connection Mobile
*Microsoft Voice Command
*Windows Live 10.7.61.500
*CapSure 1.11 (Screen Capture Application)
*Total Commander 2.52
*ArkSwitch 1.04 TaskManager (mapped to long press back key)
*WiFi Router

Download this speed demon Here.

This great ROM was cooked by my friend NFSFAN, and as usual you can click his name and donate a little to him because this ROM is great and took him many days for him to have the ROM that was named “The Fastest TouchPro I or II ROM every.”

We all hope you can flash this ROM and enjoy it, but remember HardSPL is a must. Comment your experience, also Do not forget this:

If Device is bricked during the process we cannot be held liable for this.

Filed under: How-tos, iTunes, iPhone, iPod touch

By default, movies and TV shows in the iPod portion of the iPhone and iPod touch play in landscape view. The biggest change with respect to video orientation came about with iPhone OS 2.0, which provided the option for landscape-right viewing (that is, with the volume and silent/vibrate buttons facing up). While most videos could, and should, be viewed in landscape, there are times that call for a portrait perspective — for example, when placing your iPhone into a dock, which is what I do when working out.

Getting your iPhone to play a movie or TV show in portrait mode requires a simple change in the video’s tag, from TV Show or Movie to Podcast. Simply right-click on the file and select “get info “(or you could use the Command-I shortcut). Then, in the “Media Kind” section within the “Options” tab of the video, select Podcast. Now, the videos will show up in both the Podcasts and Videos section of the iPod portion on your iPhone.

Obviously, this isn’t something you’d want to do with every movie or TV show in your library. So, to revert the file back to its old self, you’d want to follow the same process and change the video back to a TV show or movie.

TUAWTricking your iPhone to play TV shows and movies in portrait view originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apparently the dizzying expansion of mobile coverage in India has proceeded a little quicker than the regulatory process there — Indian carriers are in a bit of a tizzy after authorities shut down 300 allegedly illegal towers in a suburb of New Delhi called Noida. The gub’mint says the towers are on private land that’s not approved for commercial use, but the carriers say the move is “arbitrary and uncalled for,” and even “inhuman” because the loss of service means people can’t make emergency calls. That’s a strong card to play — let’s hope this gets sorted out soon.

Indian mobile carriers scramble as illegal towers are shut down originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Matt Battaglia (Freshman – Marist) today signed a letter of intent with Northern Illinois University where he will continue playing football.

“Matt’s a great kid,” said Harper Head Coach Eric Waldstein, “He works every day at practice, in the weight room and the classroom where he has a 3.31 GPA.”

“With great leadership, he was a solid, consistent lineman for us all year,” adds coach Waldstein. “With his attitude, work ethic and playing ability, Matt is the type of player every Division 1 school is looking for.”

The influence that Facebook is having on the enterprise now goes beyond making the corporate world a more Web-oriented place – its impact now goes deep into the code.

Facebook announced this week that it has rewritten the PHP runtime, translating it to C++ (a more machine-readable language) which is then compiled with g++. This is no small feat. Facebook engineer Haiping Zhao said that the rewrite significantly reduced the CPU usage on its Web servers by an average of about 50% depending on the page

The impact of this development on the enterprise will depend on a few factors:

Sponsor

• What kind of community develops around HipHop.
• How willing enterprise developers will be to embrace HipHop.
• How the improved run time will actually benefit enterprise operations.

Community

Facebook has done something remarkable. They changed the foundation for the programming language that powers thousands of Web sites. But for now, the change really only affects Facebook.

Marco Tabini is a PHP developer out of Canada who is helping provide perspective about the impacts HipHop may have. Tabini says the next step is to develop a community that will actively build upon the improvement. If they do that, there is a good chance that HipHop may be adopted by the enterprise community.

“Even though Facebook’s imprimatur is certainly enough for people to take notice of HipHop, it’s important to keep in mind that, in its current format, this tool is promising but not ready for prime time–not because the tool itself is not production-quality (after all, Facebook is already using it to handle 90% of their traffic), but because there is no ecosystem around it. If you’re running 1,000 servers, using HipHop is going to be mighty difficult without some sort of deployment tool–and no such tool exists at the moment. Therefore, Facebook’s biggest challenge, having overcome the nontrivial hurdle of making HipHop work technically, is going to be that of fostering a community around it to ensure its growth outside of the company’s systems.”

But this should not be overly complex. With HipHop, Facebook created a drop in replacement that Web developers may make without any significant changes to its existing codebase. Tabini says that if it takes off, the impacts may be significant:

“HipHop could be massively destabilizing to the PHP marketplace, because it is designed as a drop-in replacement to stock PHP; in other words, in most cases it will not be necessary to make significant changes to an existing codebase in order to make it work with HipHop. Flipping this concept around, site owners now have every incentive to write code that is compatible with HipHop, thus giving Facebook significant power over the future direction that PHP takes, since it can dictate what works and doesn’t work–and this is potentially going to affect what even the small company does.”

Resistance

The enterprise developer community is dominated by Java and .NET developers. Java is a heavyweight technology. Historically, Microsoft has had a significant hold on the enterprise, primarily due to the hegemony of Microsoft Office, and the enterprise community has scoffed at PHP. Will they be more open to HipHop? We wonder if the term itself may be a cultural barrier for developers. We love the term and think it represents the youthful, modern transformation that is happening in the enterprise. Companies are moving to Web oriented architectures that embrace the open Web. APIs are becoming more important as companies see the importance of connecting with external applications.

Further, PHP is a language for developing Web applications. That seems like reason enough to adopt it. The enterprise is moving to the Web. They’ve been following what Facebook is doing. It makes sense the enterprise would also follow the lead Facebook is taking with HipHop.

Operations

If the impacts really are what they appear to be, the efficiencies alone will create an impetus for adopting HipHop:

Warren Benedetto, a Web developer with Transfusion Media says that, “If it truly is 50% faster than PHP, then it will save companies a ton of money on hardware resources.”

He continues, “This also allows enterprises to seriously consider PHP when they otherwise may not have. A lot of enterprises stick to Java and .NET because of PHP’s perceived (and actual) performance flaws. If HipHop can raise PHP’s performance to the levels of these other languages, it can remain on the table as an option. Then other companies get the same benefits of PHP that Facebook has reaped — more programmers, cheaper salaries, faster development, etc.”

Conclusion

This is a long term transition. Facebook impacts the community then it may affect not just the direction of PHP but of the enterprise as well.

Discuss

Filed under: Sedan, Performance, Videos, Porsche, Luxury

Porsche has been on a bit of roll with its advertisements. The ‘Roots in Racing. Not posing.’ spot said it all and the recently released Family Tree ad for the Panamera makes a case to purists that the automaker’s first production sedan is indeed a proper Porsche.

To pull it off, Porsche trotted out 50 different models from its storied past, 22 professional drivers, 160 crew members, a supporting cast of camera vehicles (Cayennes, natch) and a duo of helicopter pilots to provide those gorgeous overheads shots. All of it was orchestrated by Radical Media’s Jeff Zwart, the same man behind last year’s Hyundai Genesis Coupe Super Bowl spots. It’s an impressive look behind the scenes and you can check out both the making of video and the results after the jump.

Continue reading Video: The making of the Porsche Panamera Family Tree ad

Video: The making of the Porsche Panamera Family Tree ad originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Etc.

Tired of the endless posts regarding the Toyota recall? We’ve got a solution. If you’re looking for a recall-free version of Autoblog, it’s here. Just click these oddly colored words and you’ll get your daily dose of automotive news, reviews and information mercifully free of ThrottleGate coverage. Enjoy!

Toyota Recall-free Autoblog is here! originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Aftermarket, Classics, Performance, Chevrolet

As we walked among the custom hot rods and muscle cars of the Grand National Roadster Show this past weekend, there was one particular car that caught our eye. It wasn’t so much the exterior of the ‘57 Chevy that commanded our attention, although the two-tone silver and gray paint job did look quite attractive. It was more the massive dual turbos lurking underneath the hood that causes us to walk over and take a closer look.

What we discovered was one heck of a sleeper. In fact, the car is actually nicknamed “57 Sleeper” by its owner, Tim Kerrigan, founder of Red Line Oil. Built by Dominator Street Rods of Tracy, CA, this ‘57 Chevy is packing a twin-turbo, 540ci V8 with… drum roll please…1589 horsepower and 1508 pound-feet of torque. The car is built on an Art Morrison chassis and features other goodies like Wilwood brakes, custom 3-inch headers, and Schott Performance wheels. You can see the car in detail in our high-res gallery below.

Photos by Drew Phillips / Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.

Custom 1957 Chevy is the ultimate 1589 horsepower sleeper originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Daily U-Turn: What you missed on 2.3.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google has been working over the past year to make Google Apps, its bundle of productivity applications like Gmail, work better with smartphones. Now it’s announcing several new features that may be crucial to winning over enterprise IT administrators.

Most of Google Apps’ previous smartphone features were focused on convenience and ease of use, such as synchronization with the iPhone and Windows Mobile. Those are the kinds of things that make an employee want to use Google Apps, but don’t do much to alleviate IT concerns about control and security.

That’s where these new features come in. With the remote wipe, for example, if an employee loses their phone, the company could erase all of their work emails, from the same dashboard that administrators use to manage the rest of their Google Apps accounts. I don’t think any of the features announced today are being unique to Google, but they’re definitely something users have been asking for.

The new management features should go live tomorrow for premier and educational users. For now, they work on iPhones, Nokia E phones, and Windows Mobile devices, but I’d be surprised if Google doesn’t add support for Android and BlackBerry devices as well.

Here’s the full list of features:

• Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices
• Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity
• Require a device password on each phone
• Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords
• Require passwords to include letters, numbers and punctuation

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Factual, an online data management company, was founded last fall by Gil Elbaz, whose previous company, Applied Semantics, was bought by Google as core technology to the search engine’s unique AdSense ad-serving system.

VentureBeat has obtained the text of a blog post by Elbaz going up later today at the Factual Blog, in which Elbaz will announce seed funding that includes two big-idea funders, Andreessen Horowitz and Idealab.

Here’s the post in full:

Gil’s Corner: An Update From Gil

Hi all,
First off, Happy New Year! (A little late for that, I know… but better late than never).

I wanted to give you an update on the business side of Factual and some exciting new developments.

Since our launch in October 2009, we’ve been very busy at our offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai — expanding the company, fine-tuning the product, launching new features, and learning from our ever-growing community. Factual tables are already demonstrating the power and usefulness of our large-scale open data platform. For example, Creative Commons tweeted about the 4 million record website data table which showed who is using CC licenses.

After we launched Factual, I set out to garner support from a targeted list of industry luminaries who believe in Factual’s mission to build a powerful open data platform used and supported by an enthusiastic community. And today, I’m very happy to announce that we’ve attracted a group of early-stage investors that will guide us as we work to refine our product, hire exceptional employees, and tackle exciting new markets.

Our investors are an A-list group of accomplished internet and media pioneers. They include:
Andreessen Horowitz – Founders, Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz
Bill Gross – Founder/Chairman, Idealab
Danny Rimer – Index Ventures
Esther Dyson – Founder, EDventure Holdings
Founder Collective
Gunderson Dettmer
Lee and June Stein
Mårten Mickos, former CEO of MySQL
Miramar Venture Partners
Richard Rosenblatt – CEO, Demand Media
Scott Kurnit – Founder, About.com
Thomas Lehrman – Founder, Gerson Lehrman Group
Tom Unterman – Founder, Rustic Canyon Ventures

We are looking forward to working with this astute group of advisors and gleaning their insights. Of course, this means that the Factual team will be working twice as hard in 2010 — to not only meet and exceed the expectations of our investors, but to achieve our goal of bringing greater transparency, accuracy and openness to data. One of my resolutions this year is to tweet and blog more, so you should be hearing from me on a regular basis.

Thanks again to our group of investors. Let’s make 2010 the year of “open”!

Factually yours,
Gil

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