MatchMine Takes $10 Million From Kraft Group

from TechCrunch by Duncan Riley

Media discovery startup MatchMine has raised $10 million from original seed investor the Kraft Group.

Boston based MatchMine launches Sunday with a product that is advertised to “unlock a whole new world of music, movies, video and other cool stuff to match the tastes of the original, quirky, one-of-kind inner you.”

MatchMine’s “MatchKey” technology uses demographic information about a user and a ratings system to deliver suggested media, and can also be plugged into third party sites to deliver recommendations. Three sites will support MatchKeys at launch: Peerflix, FilmCrave and Fuzz.com.

Th Kraft Group (not to be confused with Kraft Foods) is best known in the United States for its investments in Gillette Stadium and the New England Patriots.

(via Boston.com)

Mandelbrot Demo using a WorkerPool

from Ajaxian

Nick Edgar started to play around with the Workerpool component and decided to build a distributed Mandelbrot generator:

A UI/administrator task would farm out work (columns in the Mandelbrot set) to different worker tasks, possibly running on different machines. As each worker sent in its result, the UI would draw the column, and respond with more work for the worker. It was a cool example, and looked cool too: due to different machines running at different speeds, you would see the results kind of shimmer in, with faster machines generating the leading edge, and slower machines trailing and filling in the blanks.

He put together a demo using Workerpool and without to compare.

After you start the simulation, click on the toggle button to see how the UI can remain responsive in the Workerpool case. Although you would be foolish to rush to use Workerpool thread for every little thing you do, it is nice to have this in the arsenal for truly long running actions.

some things are better left un-sent

Augustine: if such an error did make it through QA of marketing pieces, suck it up and honor the price for those customers who DO come in to buy the unit. This would lead to such positive and rapid viral spread across the internet that would amplify the intended outcome of the ad in the first place (drive-to-store, plus sales). And, economically speaking, how many more people would jump to buy the 50-inch HDTV between Sept 23 – 29 anyway? So the "costs" are limited, while the positive upside is unlimited.

Instead, by sending this email to "valued Best Buy customers" they have created the exact opposite — they may have limited their costs of selling 50 inch TVs at $1799 but the PR and word of mouth downside is unlimited. And they might have a while longer to continue looking forward to my next visit to their store.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Best Buy <BestBuyInfo@emailinfo.bestbuy.com >
Date: Sep 21, 2007 2:14 PM
Subject: Important 9/23 Ad Correction

As a valued Best Buy customer, we want to inform you of an error that will appear in the September 23, 2007 Best BuyTM ad.  On the front cover we mistakenly listed the price of the 50" Panasonic Plasma TV (TH_50PZ77U- 8501711) at $1799, before $90 savings.  We intended to advertise the 42" Panasonic Plasma TV (TH-42PZ77U-8501757) at $1799, before $90 savings.  Best Buy will not be honoring this price on the aforementioned 50" Panasonic Plasma TV.   We apologize for any inconvenience, and we will offer a $100 Instant Rebate on all Plasma Televisions from Sunday, September 23, 2007 through Saturday, September 29, 2007. This Instant Rebate will be deducted from the price you see in the store, including our regular sale prices.   Thank you for your understanding.  We look forward to seeing you in our store soon.   (c) 2007 Best Buy

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Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings (Jakob Nielsen)

Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings (Jakob Nielsen)

A new research by Jakob Nielsen proves: users rarely look at display advertisements on websites. Of the four design elements that do attract a few ad fixations, one is unethical and reduces the value of advertising networks.

Sparkling Salt

from IDEAS IN FOOD by Aki Kamozawa & H. Alexander Talbot

I had the pleasure of watching brilliance this morning.  Aki came into the kitchen, muttering to herself, and finally asked where our neutral pop rocks were.  In the meantime she had pulled out our togarishi and maldon salt and blended them together.  When I handed her the pop rocks, she added them to the mix and then ground everything into a fine powder.  She had me taste and it was amazing.  I experienced a ton of tastes and sensations in just a few grains. 

Aki had taken inspiration from Oriol Balaguer's presentation at the Star Chefs event, ICC, where he passed around chocolates seasoned on the inside with pop rocks.  The effervescent chocolates seemed to bring a quiet to the audience as chefs chewed and then seemingly melted into smiles and childhood memories.

Aki's seasoning blend brings a whole new approach to salt and spice blends added to dishes at the last moment.  The addition of the pop rocks adds motion to the dish.  The spices and the interplay of textures and motion creates a much more complex blend of well, anything we choose.  While today we have sparkling spiced salt tomorrow could be carbonated coffee crumbs and the next day popping pistachios.

Design Concept: Portable DVD Player with Sexy-Flexy Display Transforms Into Mini-Theater

from Gizmodo by Charlie White

Here's a wild-ass looking portable DVD player (PDP) that reminds us a lot of that player we showed you last month that looks like a butterfly knife . This concept takes that design a few years into the future, looking like it's about the size and unpocketable shape of that crazy iPhone clone Intel was flaunting the other day. Like a transformer, it twists around and gives you a turntable on which to spin the DVD while you unravel its sexy flexible OLED screen to feast your eyes.

Designer Yeon-shin Seung says he plans to use Sony's full-color flexible organic electroluminescent display on this device because of the screen's thin and lightweight form factor. Here's hoping that he doesn't use the ancient DVD format is a playback medium, eschewing that old fossil for a dual-format Blu-ray and HD DVD player.

Hey, this looks like it would be a perfect companion on a transpacific flight, that is, if the batteries can hold out for at least three movies' worth. But wait a second. By the time this actually comes to market, if ever, you'll be able to stream Internet video from your airplane seat and everywhere else, so physical media will be irrelevant. Oh well, timing is everything. [Yanko Design]

Seoul Semiconductor’s 420-lumen LED puts the sun to shame

from Engadget by Evan Blass

We’re not really sure if Seoul Semiconductor is completely accurate in the assertion that its new 420-lumen (peak) LED is the world’s brightest at 8-watts, but considering that we were pretty impressed by the company’s 240-lumen model late last year — and the fact that even the most blinding LED-based tactical flashlights rarely exceed 200 lumens — this still seems like a fairly notable development. We should start seeing commercial products sporting these mini-suns sometime before the end of the year, so now might be a good time to check up on your insurance plan’s optical coverage.

DRM violates Canadian privacy law

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

The University of Ottawa’s Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic has just released a huge, deep report on the privacy implications of various DRM systems. They examine 16 different systems in depth and conclude that DRM is a grave threat to personal privacy.

Our assessment of the compliance of these DRM applications with PIPEDA led to a number of general findings:

• Fundamental privacy-based criticisms of DRM are well-founded: we observed tracking of usage habits, surfing habits, and technical data.

• Privacy invasive behaviour emerged in surprising places. For example, we observed e-book software profiling individuals. We unexpectedly encountered DoubleClick – an online marketing firm – in a library digital audio book.

• Many organizations take the position that IP addresses do not constitute “personal information” under PIPEDA and therefore can be collected, used and disclosed at will. This interpretation is contrary to Privacy Commissioner findings. IP addresses are collected by a variety of DRM tools, including tracking technologies such as cookies and pixel tags (also known as web bugs, clear gifs, and web beacons).

• Companies using DRM to deliver content often do not adequately document in their privacy policies the DRM-related collection, use and disclosure of personal information. This is particularly so where the DRM originates with a third party supplier.

• Companies using DRM often fail to comply with basic requirements of PIPEDA.

PDF Link (via Michael Geist)

$130 Zunes — $10 Woot credit mocks Apple

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

If the $150 white Zune was too rich to Woot, then how does 30GB for $130 sound Zune boy? Yup, $129.99 to be precise, which leaves you with half of the 2 cents required to sound-off in the comments. In a tip of the hat to their customers (and a mocking poke at Apple), Woot’s “Emergency Open Letter” offers a $10 Woot credit for anyone who purchased at the higher price. My my, how consumer expectations are changing.

BenQ launches uber-quiet MP622 / MP622c projectors

from Engadget by Darren Murph

Although BenQ prefers to market its MP622 and MP622c projectors to the suits, we see no reason these bad boys can’t be carted home after the nine-to-five for a little fun. Both DLP units sport a 1,024 x 768 (XGA) resolution, a 2,000:1 contrast ratio, ultra-quiet 26dB noise level whilst running in economy mode, and a sexy “midnight black high gloss exterior.” The MP622 offers up 2,700 ANSI lumens while the MP622c musters just 2,200, but you’ll find VGA / S-Video / composite video inputs on each to compliment the audio in jack and integrated speakers. Word on the street puts these two units on store shelves later this month, with the MP622 ringing up at around $999 and the MP622c costing $849.

[Via FarEastGizmos]