Wikia’s founder, Jimmy Wales (of Wikipedia as well) announced the new extension of wikia.com, the Wikia Search Engine. Wikia is adding a few new twists on the whole search engine thing though. They will of course use the ranking and algorithm system that companies like Google, Yahoo, and MSN use today, but they will also allow the users to rank the search results by themselves. This will add human intervention to the rankings, and will eventually eliminate link-spam sites and will promote not-so-well-known sites that have good, rich content get searched a lot more.

You will also be able to attach your profile to certain search results that you feel you are an expert in, or show a particular interest in the subject. Users can also create mini-articles that sit on the top of results pages. As with any Wiki, users will be able to edit them as the wish.

But, best of all, the whole engine is Open Source. (more…)

Microsoft’s Xbox Live’s downtime is creating quite a ruckus amongst the gamer community. Microsoft reported that the downtime was the mark of the biggest influx of users they’ve ever recorded. It was a record breaking day. So what? We’re still paying $xx per month to use a service that’s not even available? And besides, when I play games online, the multi-player is hosted right here, locally. So what am I paying for? Microsoft to manage my friends list. Woo… And when it goes down, Microsoft wants to give it’s users a crappy Arcade Game that they would normally probably never even sell in the first place. Thanks MS.

It’s no surprise to me that all of these class action lawsuits are springing up everywhere against Microsoft’s rip-off service. Well I hope everyone enjoys their free arcade game, I’ll be investing in a PS3 for my gaming needs.

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The guys over at touchmods.net have proven it possible to use your iPod Touch as a phone - no lie. Using the iPod’s wifi it can connect to a free SIP- VoIP and make phone calls.. to anywhere. See their proof below.

What’s interesting? Well, aside from the obvious, the fact that it’s free is pretty cool. It’s almost like having the iPhone, but no service plans, and a cheaper device. It still seems a bit unpractical, but cool nonetheless.

I had always thought paying $99.99 for my lighting fast internet was expensive, but recently a woman by the name of Krystyl checked her mail only to find a bill for the amount of $14,062.27, all for her Go Anywhere Sprint Wireless Service. What makes matters worse is she was on a 30 Day Free Trial… for “unlimited” internet access for $59.99 a month. Unfortunately for Krystyl, this wasn’t the beginning of her problems. Just see her YouTube Video:
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I’ve received a few messages from new bloggers or website owners asking about the tax system when it comes to filing with your Google Adsense earnings. Especially now with Tax Season on the horizon. The biggest question most people bring up first is, ‘Do I have to report my Google earnings when filing my taxes?” Very simply put, yes. However, the deductions involved, and the taxes owed to the government varies depending on the user.

In this little informative guide I will give you all the run-down on how taxes are managed with Google Adsense, and other revenue services on the web. I will touch on subjects such as what is taxable, how to determine how you should go about filing, and much more useful information including how to get your cell phone paid for, get some gas money, and get any other expenses like computer purchases covered by the government!

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The 81 year old British Queen Elizabeth had announced this week that she will be posting her traditional Christmas Day broadcast over the popular video viewing site YouTube. The Queen has said that she is always adapting new technologies to try and reach a much wider audience then before. For instance, last year her broadcast was actually a podcast as well.

YouTube is also catering to the royal family, and has set up the royal family channel on their website. http://youtbe.com/theroyalchannel There you can view the original broadcast from 50 years ago back in 1957 on television. She had talked about how the technological world was so fast moving, and that it was a miracle that they could all see her on the ‘tele’.

SeeingYellow has been around for a little while now, advertising the supposed ‘truth’ about today’s colored printers. According to them, all of our modern printers print out code in the form of small, invisible yellow dots onto our documents and photos. They, SeeingYellow, claims that it’s simply because the government needs to track our use for them. If we’re printing money, the fed and Secret Service will be able to tell where we are, and when we printed it.

“When one person asked his printer manufacturer about turning off the tracking dots, Secret Service agents showed up at his door several days later.” Okay, you have to admit, you’re laughing at this point, right?

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Putting Verizon FiOS’ 50Mbps Up / 30Mbps Down to shame is Comcast’s announcement to implement it’s new DOCSIS 3.0 infrustructure in 2008, with 20% system-wide availability by the end of 2008.

It will theoreticly max out at 160Mbps down speed, which is a whopping 20MB/s. That would enable a computer that has a good enough performance level to handle lots of connections from a P2P client to download a full length movie in just a few minutes. It will also mean an Up speed of about 120Mbps or 15MB/s. (If you’re confused about the units, Mbps is Megabits per second,while MBps is megabytes per second. one MB is larger then one M. Bits are commonly used in internet talk because companies like it since it looks like you’re getting much more for what you pay for. Google’s built in unit converter will translate them if you need it. Your query would look like this: 160Mbps to MB (which would be 20.))

What’s surprising however is the sudden announcement to release this new infrastructure and make it so widely available by the end of ‘08. At that rate we would expect full integration by 2010.

Mozilla reported that nearly 500,000 downloads of the FireFox 3 Beta 1 have commenced since it’s initial release earlier this month. (Fun Fact: That’s 3,179,500 MB Or nearly 3.17 TB of FireFox. Phwew, glad I’m not paying that hosting bill!) Mozilla Foundation said they only plan on two more beta releases before they release the FireFox 3 Final Release. One of which will be released by the end of 2007, and the last early in 2008.

The upcoming beta release will implement the upgraded user interface for Vista, Mac OS X, and of course Linux users which will provide a more adaptive look for it’s respective operating system environment.

An estimated 90% of Mozilla FireFox users are infected with that pesky default search setting Search.Myway.com. Some people don’t even know it! However, if you’ve recently bought a Dell, chances are, you have it as well pre-installed.

Why is having this a bad thing? Well, normally firefox is designed to have you enter keywords, and then Google will handle this request and bring you directly to the website that best matches your keyword query. However, MyWay forces you to look at their search results which sometimes will include pesky ads and such. They ADD a middle man, slowing your productivity and wasting your time.

This is a little guide that will help you get rid of the keyword search page in a few simple steps. Not sure if you have it? Type a keyword in the URL bar, such as “Tech”. If you’re directed to search.myway.com, then you’re infected and should read on to the 4 steps that take less than a minute to complete!

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