Why is yawning contagious?

Yawning is an involuntary action that everyone does. It’s also been noticed that yawning seems contagious. However, new research suggests rather than being a precursor to sleep, the purpose of yawning is to cool the brain so it operates more efficiently and keeps you awake. The theory could explain…

The micro-blogging trend

It seems like the micro-blogging [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-blogging] trend is heating up. Social-driven micro-blogging services like Twitter [http://www.twitter.com], Jaiku [http://www.jaiku.com], Pownce [http://www.pownce.com] etc., allow users to send small text-based posts via SMS, IM, email or a web form,…

What has an iPhone got to do with Social Networking?

The latest scoop from the social web is that, both Google and Yahoo are working on next generation social networks. Yahoo is working on a service called Mosh [http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/08/mosh-yahoos-new-social-network-initiative/] (certainly to replace 360 [http://360.yahoo.com/]), while Google is working on Socialstream…

State of Broadband in Australia

There’s more customers per square mile across the entire USA than in Australia, by a factor of twenty or more. Extrapolate that, and it means (roughly) that every kilometer of copper or fibre laid down costs Oz customers [https://www.nilkanth.com/archives/2005/09/23/got-iprimus-broadband/] twenty times…

Online social participation

A nice chart of who participates online, and what they’re doing [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_24/b4038405.htm] – data from Forrester Research.…

How to build a Web 2.0 site for 12k?

Guy Kaswasaki writes about his experience in building and launching [http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/06/by_the_numbers_.html] – Truemors [http://truemors.com/], an online social media site, at a cost of 12k, without any VC backing. And eventually the site receives 260k page views on the first day.…

TV Ad Sound Levels

Have you ever noticed and wondered, why do TV adverts sound louder than the shows they interupt? The volume is the same, but they sound louder, but alas the UK regulator is planning [http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/focus/background_briefings/TV+Ad+Sound+Levels.htm] to try and…

300, Review

Harooh! I was up late, last night, to watch “300 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/]” on DVD. I thought I’d give it a go on the telly first. And boy, it was rocking! 300 (directed by Zack Snyder) is an adaptation of the graphic novel by Frank Miller,…