Real-life Babelfish: The Translating Telephone

This is nuts. (Skip ahead to 0:40 to ignore the SVP’s rant.) I think that automatic translation like this might be one of the single biggest advancements in technology during our lifetimes. I can see the language barriers crashing down now. It’s also not surprising to hear that this effort is being run through Microsoft … Read more

Proprietary Vendors Want Open Source Sanctions

The Guardian reports that  International Intellectual Property Alliance requested that the U.S. Trade Representative to put countries using open source in government on a “Special 301 watchlist” – a list of intellectual property-violating nations, or “state sponsors of piracy.” The recommendation states: The Indonesian government’s policy… simply weakens the software industry and undermines its long-term … Read more

Why Google Buzz is a huge deal

Today, Google announced the release of their new product, Google Buzz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi50KlsCBio Looking at just the features offered in this video, it appears to be nothing more than a Facebook News Feed clone with Gmail integration. But don’t be fooled: Google Buzz has the potential to totally disrupt social networking as we know it today, … Read more