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Last month, Google introduced Sidewiki, a feature of the Google Toolbar that allows users to comment on any page on the web. The comments could only be viewed by others who have the toolbar and the feature installed. That was until now.

Google has now introduced a Sidewiki bookmarklet that can be used to read and write Sidewiki entries with Google Chrome, Safari, and other browsers. The bookmarklet is just a shortcut that goes in the bookmarks bar of you browser, and when you click it, it opens up a window showing Sidewiki entries for whatever page you’re on.

When using Sidewiki, an expandable window can be viewed on the left-hand side of the webpage. When expanded, you can see the comments that have been written or contribute your own.

Upon introducing Sidewiki, Google said it uses "multiple signals" based on the "quality of the entry," what they know about the author, and other user-contributed signals like voting and flagging. They say they want to only keep the most relevant entries appearing in the sidebar. Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan says Google gave him a few other factors like:

– Use of sophisticated language
– User’s reputation
– User’s history

Users’ Google Profiles are said to play a direct role in whether or not comments appear. Google ranks profiles in a PageRank-like manor, so the higher you profile is ranked, the more likely your comments are able to appear.

Related Articles:

> Google Turning the Web Into an Exclusive Social Network?

> Integration – The Key to Google as a Social Network

> Want to Get Your Google Profile Verified?

Sprint seems to keep bleeding, keep, keep, bleeding subscribers. After losing 801,000 post-paid subscribers, which is slightly better than the 870,000 that analysts expected, Sprint might need to really change its game to do more than just stay afloat. Consequently, Sprint’s losses for the quarter are a whopping $478 million compared to $326 million YoY. Revenue dropped about nine percent to $8.04 billion. Interestingly enough, Sprint’s prepaid service, Boost, added over 600,000 subscribers thanks to Boost’s $50 unlimited plan. But with its Simply Everything packages including Any Mobile, Any Time, and hardware like the Palm Pre and HTC Hero, Sprint could be looking to shrink its quarterly losses in the future and maybe even see some positive gain.

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Meet AIDA, the Affective Intelligent Driving Assistant. This is a prototype robot that utilizes sensors inside and outside the car to create “a platform comprising of a personal robot and an intelligent navigation system that aims to bring an innovative driving experience.” I don’t own an automobile, so practically every driving experience is innovative to me right now! Rather than traditional destination-oriented GPS navigation, AIDA posits “a navigation system that mimics the friendly expertise of a driving companion who is familiar with both the driver and the city.” Hopefully AIDA won’t complain about my driving the way all my friends do.

“Instead of focusing solely on determining routes to a specified waypoint, our system utilizes analysis of driver behavior in order to identify the set of goals the driver would like to achieve.” That is innovative, and as the video above indicates, AIDA can work to help you efficiently navigate your home city. It still looks suspiciously destination-oriented, and I wonder how much our continued reliance on navigation products is going to make us miss out of serendipitous discoveries, like the mom-and-pop movie theater nearby is showing your favorite B movie, or a big multi-family yard sale is taking place this Saturday. The more we rely on technology to get us where we’re going, the less likely we are to see what’s going on nearby.

AIDA is a product of the MIT SENSElab, the MIT Media Lab’s Personal Robots Group, and the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics Research Lab. The full press release is available.

In the cutthroat (?) world of wall outlet covers that feature built-in gadget holders, this $6 option might just be a contender.

The big draw, aside from low price, is the hinged base that keeps your device’s power cord in place. There’s also a side opening “for easy access to side charging devices.”

Thoughtfully, the outlet covers are available in a standard version and also in a “GFCI” version for use with those special square outlets like you’d find in your bathroom.

According to the product description:

“Featuring a hinged and slotted ‘floor’ for threading cable into the pocket as well as an opening for accommodating side charging devices, the Socket Pocket can handle nearly any cellphone. Additionally, you can use the Socket Pocket to store pens, glasses, and scissors. Available for standard and GFCI outlets.”

Socket Pocket- Organize your cell phone while charging [Vat19.com]

Also available at ThinkGeek.

If your pockets are just beggin’ to be filled with an HTC Hero, your options thus far (assuming you’re in the US) have been limited. You could get one through Sprint or wait for Verizon’s Hero-esque Droid Eris – but either of those options means you’re on a modified, round-bodied Hero rather than the angled, chin-tastic Hero that nearly 70% of our readers prefer. You could import one of the original bodied Heros from the UK – but then you wouldn’t be able to get 3G on any US Carrier.

If you wanted US 3G and an original Hero, you were out of luck – until now.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and Defense Secretary Robert Gates meet before the first-of-its-kind National Mental Health Summit in Washington, D.C. on October 21, 2009.

When troops leave the active military after service in Iraq and Afghanistan, many find themselves lost in a blur of reality shows and superficiality—in a world where nothing explodes but tempers, and in a place where the rush of combat is soon dulled by the slow drip of alcohol.  The symptoms of most Veterans might not be so pronounced, but there’s always someone living through this.

For my part, when I returned home in 2004, I sympathized with Martin Sheen in the opening scene of Apocalypse Now—though, in my case, I made post-combat stress look way less cool.  And while I never punched a mirror, I learned quickly that I wasn’t immune from the foundation-shaking effects that war can have on the mind. 

The problem of post-traumatic stress is new for neither Veterans, nor for the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.  However—from “soldier’s heart” after the Civil War to “shell shock” to “combat fatigue”—the services have typically handled PTSD only to the point that it doesn’t boil over into a major social or political problem.  And while that’s been good enough for many, it hasn’t been good enough for America’s combat Veterans.

However, that’s why DoD and VA are now coming together to not only seek practical solutions to mental injuries, but to de-stigmatize them as well.  This week, for the first time, the departments are holding a joint national summit meant to harness “the programs, resources and expertise of both departments to deal with the aftermath of the battlefield.”

In his opening remarks at the event, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki noted that “as a provider of mental health services, VA is challenging all of our assumptions about mental health care.  We are undergoing a fundamental and comprehensive review of our programs to see that our approaches are Veteran-centric, uniform, and accessible.”  But, he continued, “VA does not operate in a vacuum.  Our collaboration with DoD is mission-critical because we share the same clients—the same population—at different stages in their lives.  There can be no ‘seamless transition’ or ‘continuum of care’ without serious and high-quality collaboration between both departments.”

And that collaboration, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates is something that has, thus far been lacking.

As a Veteran myself, of course, I’m happy to see these steps being taken and I’ve been happy to attend.  But much work remains to be done in terms of turning the dialogue at the summit into real change.  I’m confident, however, that we’re now at a point where that can happen—primarily because both Secretaries understand that such change much start at the top with leaders who are willing to set the example. 

Because, in reality, for the ideas from this summit filter down through the ranks, troops must be made to feel comfortable talking about and seeking assistance for these injuries.  And if a company commander or a squad leader says it’s okay, then a young PFC coming off his or her first deployment, will be more at ease. And it is there—in the heart of military culture—where the real solution lies.  Because, ultimately, it is those in uniform who will change the way America—and its military class—views mental injuries sustained in combat. 

Both the military and the nation at large have far to go in terms of treating and de-stigmatizing the mental wounds of war, but any first step in a comprehensive process must include joint efforts on the part of VA and DoD.  And now that Secretaries Shinseki and Gates are driving the dialogue between the medical field and ground combat commanders, that step has been taken. 

We as troops, Veterans, and family members—just need to keep it going.

Brandon Friedman is the Director of New Media at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He is a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Electronic Arts has announced that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will be getting a Limited Edition version too. The good news is it won’t cost you a penn…

Alright, everyone, settle down. I know the Google Maps Navigation stuff is pretty amazing, but let’s not write off the traditional GPS makers just yet. They’re not going anywhere for a while. Your parents and friends will see to that.

Hopefully the sudden market loss that companies like Garmin and TomTom saw yesterday will wake the companies up and see that they are doing it wrong. They are in the habit of producing 78 different versions of the same GPS. Each model steps you up $20 and adds another feature. It’s a ridiculous business plan and totally opposite what successful companies are doing.

But it’s true. Google dropped a bombshell on GPS makers yesterday with it’s free navigation tool that trumps almost anything currently available. The Android 2.0 app is about as robust as you can get thanks to the always-connected Android OS and almighty Google. You can simply say “Where is the Best Buy in Flint, MI” and it will take you there. All this is free from the “Don’t Be Evil” company, Google.

TomTom has a cell phone navigation solution too. Except theirs costs $100 for the app and another $120 for the car kit and the whole thing isn’t nearly as powerful as Google’s offering. But there are others as well: Navigon sells an app for $100, TeleNav has one for $10 per month, and there are other no-name programs out there for around the same price. Those apps are all dead in the water as soon as Google ports the Navigation app to other platforms.

The standalone GPS will be fine though. It should survive the cell phone GPS onslaught because it generally caterers to a different market. Do you really think your parents could operate an Android phone, let alone a GPS app within it? Some might be able to, but first they will have to be convinced to buy the phone and expensive data service to go along with it.

There is a gigantic market of folks outside the tech/nerd world that have absolutely no interest in smartphones and the high monthly bills that come along with them. These same people might just pick up a GPS at Walmart though and figure out the rudimentary functions over the course of a few months.

Standalone GPS units also have screen size in their favor. Have you actually ever used a cell phone-size screen for navigation while it’s mounted on your dash or windshield? It sucks. I’ve found the screen size to be way too small. Just think about your Dad’s cataract-filled eyes. How the heck is he suppose to follow a route on a 3.5-inch screen? As the recently announced Nintendo DSi LL clearly shows, an extra inch can make a huge difference.

What will likely happen is that the Google app will finish off the already small market for Internet connected GPS units and top-tier models. These are the units that carry a monthly service fee in return for access to basic functions like gas prices, custom routes, and traffic info. This is where the two markets of smartphone users and GPS owners overlap. But this market was already dying due to the rise of the other GPS apps, and Google Maps Navigation will put it out for good.

GPS manufacturers still need to get with the program and cut down their product line. Garmin is notorious for producing a dozen models, each with a slightly different feature set. How about making just three aimed at three distinct price points: $99, $249, and $500. It simply doesn’t make sense to offer so many different models with minimal price and spec differences.

But here’s the thing. Don’t shed a tear for GPS makers. They will be fine as long as they recognize that the market is changing and adapt. If they don’t, it’s their own damn fault.

You’re already careful about what you say on Twitter, right?

I mean, you read my advice on reputation management, so you know not to go around tweeting defamatory tweets in the name of "fun."

Right?

Good, then I never have to worry about you getting in as much trouble as Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs. What did he do? Er, only threw out some gay slurs on Twitter–costing him a one-game suspension and about $600,000 in lost earnings!

Agent Peter Schaffer said the game check and other lost revenue would amount to about a penalty of about $600,000 for the former two-time Pro Bowl player…Coach Todd Haley and first-year general manager Scott Pioli have repeatedly said they are trying to build a new culture and a new attitude for a struggling franchise, which has sunk to the bottom of the NFL and that disloyalty will not be tolerated.

Mashable has the offending tweets–in case you’re interested.

I’ve seen much worse thrown around on Twitter, but this should be (yet another) warning that just because there are few rules in social media, you shouldn’t be reckless with your words.

The next time you go to tweet something ugly, ask yourself if your boss would be mad if he saw your comments? Would your mom be disappointed in you? If the answer is yes, think twice about posting.

Your penalty may not be $600,000, but you could get fired–or worse, a stern talking-to from your mom!

Comments

I know that my grammar is not ideal, though I really do strive to get the basics right. There are times, however, when I feel that the strict “rules” that are put forth by grammar go too far. If the text makes the point in a way that people can understand, what is the problem? On top of that, there’s the utter snobbishness with which some (no, not all!) grammar aficionados put down anyone who makes a silly mistake. I have no problem with someone letting me know about a typo or a grammatical problem in a friendly and useful manner — but all too often the message is delivered in the tone suggesting that making such an elementary grammatical error suggests that I obviously never made it out of the second grade. So I’m glad to see an English professor taking on the grammar nazis.

Salon is running a review of a new book by English professor Jack Lynch, called The Lexicographer’s Dilemma, which argues that grammar nazis should chill out. Grammar rules are mostly to make people feel elite, not to make them any clearer, according to the book. Again, I have no problem with basic grammar rules for the sake of clarity, but focusing too much on the rules over the clarity is a mistake, and it’s nice to see at least some “experts” agreeing.

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Digital images are now part of all our lives and we encounter them almost everywhere. Today, we have right at our fingertips both the technology and the ability to produce and edit pictures with insignificant effort. There are hundreds of applications that can help you change anything about a graphic file and all you need to do is reach out and pick the right one for you. Many utilities try to do it all and offer you an exhaustive tool for all purposes but often fail because of lack of attention insofar as details are concerned. Then again, once in a while, you come across a piece of software focused on one task but so good at it that you’ll keep and use it for a long time.

When it comes to converting images, the range of available apps is nearly limitless even though the possible uses and facilities they can supply are roughly the same. The difference is made by the price you have to pay for such a piece of software, by the complexity of features and quality it provides. If you’re on the lookout for a utility that can work with several picture files and formats at once with high processing speed and great looking output, you may want to take a closer look at Moo0 ImageTypeConverter. It offers you, in a small package, all the capabilities of a much larger and complex application with the great advantage of being free of cost.
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Look at the AP, trying to stir up controversy where none exists. I’m sure by now you’ve seen the leaked Modern Warfare 2 footage (the video is down right now) that shows a terrorist situation inside an airport. The AP (and HuffPo) is making a big deal out of the fact that you can shoot civilians inside the airport. And? Are they trying to go with that weak argument, “Oh, violent video games make people violent”? How can people still believe that?

Let’s face facts: Modern Warfare 2 will be the biggest game of the year, no doubt. It actually pains me to write that, seeing as though I was sorta “meh” toward the first one. (I just don’t like modern warfare setting. How about an FPS that takes place during the American Civil War, or from inside the trenches of the Somme? Now that would be interesting.) As such, it’s not as if gamers are going to see this footage and say to themselves, “Well! This crosses a line! I’m now going to deny myself a genuinely fun gaming experience because the AP thinks it’s too violent!”

What probably will happen is some guy who’s a casual gamer at best will hear about all this controversy, then, as he’s doing his holiday shopping at Wal-Mart, sees the game and says, “Hey, that’s that terrorist game. Let me check that out.”

Bam, more money in Activision’s pocket.

Never mind that the game is rated (here in the U.S.) M, for players 17 and older. If you cannot distinguish between real life and video game silliness by age 17 then you probably have bigger problems.

Who’s up for one more shot of the HTC Droid Eris? One of our connects wrote us in and dropped this photo on us. They also said, “Overall the same as the Sprint Hero but for some reason it seems faster, slightly thinner and taller.” Otherwise it “seems the same” and is running Android 1.5. We already told you the Droid Eris will be powered by a 528MHz Qualcomm CPU, and while it won’t ship with Android 2.0, well, you know where we’re going with this…

UPDATE: Updated with better shot!

Thanks, PhenomenalONE!

That’s right, I’m going to be that guy since CrunchGear is maybe one notch above a random message board. As I suspected, Ron from Ron and Fez, is in Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony. (Apparently East Side Dave is in another upcoming Rockstar game. Let’s speculate which one!) His voice is in the game (continuing the trend of XM 202 guys being in the GTA games), and I’m going to spend my evening tonight trying to find it. The sad part is that I’m not even lying. I literally have nothing better to do with my time.

I’m writing this around noon ET, and Lazlow, one of the big shots at Rockstar, and for whom I’d burn my house down for the chance to interview, is on Ron and Fez on Sirius XM telling crazy stories about Oklahoma, and about how he hired a homeless dude to be in the game. One of the guys on the streets of New York who bang on buckets and whatnot.

Is this news? Only in the loosest sense of the word. Hopefully R&F fans will get a kick out of it.

Other news nuggets Lazlow dropped:

• The PC version of Episodes from Liberty City doesn’t have a release date. Actually, let me rephrase that: there’s no word on any possible PC version of the game, with Lazlow citing PC piracy as a possible reason for the delay. In short: don’t expect a PC version any time soon.

• Lazlow said that using big name voice talent (Sam Jackson in San Andreas, for example) isn’t necessarily the way to go, since they’re not necessarily draws. What draws people to games like GTA is the game world, the game experience. No one is saying, “Hey, Sam Jackson is in that game, I’m going to buy it now!” Doesn’t happen.

That’s about it. Enjoy your day~!

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Seamark Asset Management Ltd (SM.TO) and Growthworks Ltd have agreed to merge and form a mid-sized diversified asset management company, Seamark Chief Executive Brent Barrie said on Thursday.

The new company will be called Matrix Asset Management Inc, headed by current Growthworks President and CEO David Levi. Under the agreement, Halifax, Nova Scotia-based Seamark and Growthworks will be subsidiaries of Matrix.

The new company will combine Seamark’s investment management services to institutions and high net worth individuals with Growthworks record in venture capital and managing retail mutual funds.

The combination will improve profitability for Seamark shareholders and allow for long-term growth, said Stephen Rankin, Seamark’s chairman.

Seamark’s lightly traded stock was down 1 Canadian cent at C$1.34 on the Toronto Stock Exchange at midday.

($1=$1.07 Canadian) (Reporting by Rod Nickel)

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On Tuesday President Obama announced the largest single power-grid modernization investment in U.S. history.  Under the Recovery Act, the Department of Energy is funding 100 grants totaling $3.4 billion to help companies, utilities and cities build a nation-wide smart grid.

Yesterday, I was in Houston, Texas – the Energy Capital of the World – visiting CenterPoint Energy Houston. CenterPoint is a regional utility that received $200 million of this grant to spur its deployment of a smart grid to improve efficiency and help area consumers manage and control their electricity usage. Investments like this one will create jobs, save energy, and empower consumers to cut their electric bills, as I explained in this video:

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These grants are just some of the many ways federal agencies are working together to bring about a new energy frontier.  I also announced a Memorandum of Understanding with eight other federal agencies that will expedite the siting and permitting of electric transmission projects on federal lands.

Ken Salazar is Secretary of the Interior

LONDON (Reuters) – Hedge fund Och-Ziff (OZM.N) has emerged as the buyer of TPG’s [TPG.UL] stake in British department store chain Debenhams PLC (DEB.L) after the U.S. buyout firm made its exit from the business earlier this week.

Och-Ziff, one of the world’s largest hedge fund managers, said in a regulatory filing on Thursday it now owns 11.52 percent of Debenhams. The fund is also a shareholder in Peacocks, the British privately owned budget retail chain.

TPG sold its entire stake of more than 120 million shares — about 9 percent of Debenhams stock — earlier this week to a single unnamed hedge fund, a source said, netting the firm almost 100 million pounds ($164.4 million) and marking its exit from the business it refloated in 2006. [ID:nLS81759]

Prior to the transaction, Och-Ziff held some 18 million shares indirectly in Debenhams, according to the filing.

Och-Ziff declined to comment.

($1=.6081 Pound) (Reporting by Simon Meads; editing by Simon Jessop)

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