First Post From The XO (merry xo-mas!)

I've posted a few times about the XO (One Laptop Per Child, Laptop.org). My wife and I jumped at the chance to order one as part of the option for US residences to participate, buying two and having one sent abroad.
Of all my X-mas experiences, I don't recall ever having 1 item I was most looking forward to and waiting for it to arrive by mail. To top it off, it arrived today, Dec 24th, in the afternoon.
It's amazing! Not a laptop replacement (not for the faint at heart, at least) but definitely a gadget worth spending some time with. The idea that this may play the role in the world that it might makes the experience a little sacred.
The keyboard is tiny, almost like a speak-n-spell. The whole thing is unbelievably tiny. But it showed me my neighborhood Wi-Fi signals on a 2-D layout like I've never seen, and made joining connections into a mesh network a snap.
...bottom line, I can't put it down and I'm posting this from it right now.
Hopefully, this can be a huge step forward for mankind.
Merry Christmas.

Dynamic Flash-Display Linking (ala Truman Show)

I posted before about the flash-animated relationship links on a couple of thesaurus websites - they stretch and rearrange and you click through the words like a monkey swinging in the trees (words = trees; you = monkey).
I'm waiting to get some friends set up in YourTrumanShow, but it looks like they've done something similar -- but as a WIDGET (?!).
If you're on YourOwnTrumanShow, ping me so we can link up. I'd like to see this in action.

Ave. US Emails Per Week (~300+300)

This just in from eMarketer. Ouch. No wonder everyone communicates by FaceBook now.

Translation 2.0 (dynamic translation-ish)

I haven't spent much time with it, but Lingro is looking interesting. Online translation needs to catch up with the Web (which is no longer about static pages). This might really have some (useful) legs.
In truth, it's not translating, but embedding dictionary links. But while this isn't real translation, and it doesn't replicate the entire website in a different language, it would surely be very useful for a large population on the earth as they struggle along in 2nd languages.
Maybe a real candidate for XO popularity.
It got a short review here.

Gmail - AOL IM integration

[[Does anyone use AOL IM with any regularity? I'd like to chat with you via my gChat. --andy]]

Interesting integration between AOL IM and Google Chat this week: Wash Post. Google's chat is built on (Denver-based) Jabber, which was conceived to be the ultimate cross-platform solution (and hasn't gotten a lot of traction).
I love this quote:
Yet another reason to evict AOL's software from your computer: You can now use your AOL instant-messaging account in Gmail.
The new help page in Google: link
The WPost says this integration was announced in 2004. Here's a Google employee's blog post on JANUARY 7th, speculating about when it would happen. :-)

Whatdya Call... UGC Candy Store?

Moment of hesitation looking at Break.com, a site with "Videos, Games, Pictures," and "Just Submitted," and "Most Viewed." You know, PhotoBucket meets YouTube.
The hesitation came when I wanted to bookmark it with Delicious.
"UGC, Video, Photo, ContentCommunity, Voting," was Q1. It's Q4: this is mainstream. This is has-been. Heck, it's gross.
Anyone know a good name for sites like this?
'UGC candy store' comes to mind. But it's more like, User Ripped-off Content Sharing Community, since more and more it's not about uploading your own video (broadcasting yourself) like YouTube's original premise.
'FlickrTube Fakers' is maybe a better name. ///