Tonight the next major version of Yahoo! Messenger (9.0) was released. This release has been a long time in the making, with an extended beta period to help shake out as many bugs as possible. Check out the Messenger blog for the long list of feature improvements. One unique addition is the Pingbox, a Flash widget you can embed on your blog, MySpace page, etc. Visitors to your site can use it to have an IM conversation with you directly, without the need for signing up or logging in. It should be a safe way to host anonymous conversations like…
Today the new “Programming Q&A” site Stack Overflow launches. With the large tech crowd that follows founders Joel Spolsky (Joel on Software) and Jeff Atwood (Coding Horror), this new site should have no problem building an audience of its own. According to the About page: Stack Overflow is a programming Q & A site that’s free. Free to ask questions, free to answer questions, free to read, free to index, built with plain old HTML, no fake rot13 text on the home page, no scammy google-cloaking tactics, no salespeople, no JavaScript windows dropping down in front of the answer asking…
No, it’s not “red state” vs “blue state”. It’s the NFL’s allocation of regional game broadcasts on the two main broadcast networks (Fox and CBS). The site NFL TV Distribution Maps has the (unofficial) word on which games are shown where each weekend. The maps won’t tell you why your city gets a game you don’t care about, but at least you can see what a hodgepodge it is. (Via The Map Room)
IMG_5117-01 Originally uploaded by pbernosky. Girl Talk performed to an eager crowd at this year’s open hackday: Open Hack 2008. (Look for tag openhack08). Speaking of hacking, check out Any Baio’s analysis of Girl Talk’s latest album: Girl Turk: Mechanical Turk Meets Girl Talk’s “Feed the Animals”. He uses Amazon’s Mechanical Turk in an interesting way to analyze the track contents.
This coming September 12-13, Yahoo! is hosting its second open Hack Day at the main campus in Sunnyvale. This year’s title is “Open Hack 2008“. If you’re interested, check out the teaser video and sign up on the Hack Day site.