President Barack Obama's Inaugural Speech in Tag Cloud Form
I always love tag clouds. They're a very good way to get a visual sense of the content of a speech. Just in case you do not know, a tag cloud is an array of words in an image, or textual display, where the words that are said most often are listed in the center, and in bigger fonts. There are many tag-cloud generators across the net. If you plug the transcript of Obama's speech into a tag-cloud generator, you will get an output like this:
President Obama’s inauguration, as seen from space
The other day I wrote about how the GeoEye-1 satellite would be taking images of President Obama’s inauguration from 423 miles up — in space. This could have only worked on a clear day, so that clouds weren’t blocking the view. Good news: It was a clear day, and the pictures (above and below) look great.
The pictures show the view from the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the surrounding areas. See those things that look like ants? Yeah, those are people — millions of them.
The GeoEye-1 is also known by some as the ‘Google Satellite’ because Google has the rights to use some of its images for its Google Earth and Google Maps products.
[Photos: GeoEye Satellite Images]
(Via VentureBeat.)
Twitter Discloses Reason For Several High Profile Account Security Breaches: Support Tools Compromised
Several high profile twitter users' accounts were breached this today. Barack Obama, FoxNews, BritneySpears, RichSanchezcnn, LeoLaporte and others were all taken over. Some of the posts made by the hackers on these accounts varies from funny (FoxNews announced that Bill O'Reilly is Gay, RichSanchez said he was high on coke) to scams, (Barrack Obama offered prizes if you take a survey). The post from Biz over at Twitter is below:
Monday Morning Madness
This morning we discovered 33 Twitter accounts had been "hacked" including prominent Twitter-ers like Rick Sanchez and Barack Obama (who has not been Twittering since becoming the president elect due to transition issues). We immediately locked down the accounts and investigated the issue. Rick, Barack, and others are now back in control of their accounts.What Happened?
The issue with these 33 accounts is different from the Phishing scam aimed at Twitter users this weekend. These accounts were compromised by an individual who hacked into some of the tools our support team uses to help people do things like edit the email address associated with their Twitter account when they can't remember or get stuck. We considered this a very serious breach of security and immediately took the support tools offline. We'll put them back only when they're safe and secure.
Reacting Quickly and Fixing the Problems
In addition to this Monday morning madness we're coming off a wacky weekend where lots of folks were tricked into participating in a Phishing scam aimed at Twitter users. In both cases, our on-call team was able to attend to the matter quickly and prevent too many people from being affected. Our support team is definitely going to have a busy week because we reset a bunch of passwords just to be on the safe side.
Could OAuth Have Helped?
We plan to release a closed beta of the open authentication protocol, OAuth this month but it's important to note that this would not have prevented a Phishing scam nor would it have prevented these accounts from being compromised. OAuth is something we can provide so that folks who use third party applications built on the Twitter API can access to their data while protecting their account credentials.
Once again, Rumors of Steve Job's Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
Update:
Statement by Apple’s Board of Directors
It is widely recognized both inside and outside of Apple that Steve Jobs is one of the most talented and effective CEOs in the world.As we have said before, if there ever comes a day when Steve wants to retire or for other reasons cannot continue to fulfill his duties as Apple’s CEO, you will know it.
Apple is very lucky to have Steve as its leader and CEO, and he deserves our complete and unwavering support during his recuperation. He most certainly has that from Apple and its Board.
The rumors and questions can now be put to rest. Steve is OK. Yes, he has some health issues but, according to what his doctors say, they are not serious and he should be back to normal by spring. The issue, describes as a "hormone imbalance" has been causing him to lose weight all year, but they know how to treat it and he expects to be back to normal by late spring. This will not affect his being CEO of Apple. I, for one, was a bit surprised by this. I knew that if his health issues were serious, he would have disclosed it already due to legal issues with shareholders. Given that he held off this long, he really was reticent to do so because, since it isn't serious, it really is a personal privacy matter for him and I respect that. Steve's letter below:
Letter from Apple CEO Steve Jobs
Dear Apple Community,For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.
Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.
I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.
As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.
Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.
The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.
I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.
So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.
Steve
Something Exciting at Macworld After All?
According to Andy Ihnatko via Twitter he has "...dug up the coolest top-secretest Apple news of the year. I haven't seen a RUMOR about this".
When the big news hit from Apple that the Stevenote this year wasn't going to be a Stevenote at all, but rather, a Keynote by Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller, most of the non-tech community (or anti-apple tech community....the microsoft neckbeard types) jumped to conclusions that it was due to Steve Jobs's health. I, like many others, am in agreement that it isn't about that at all. More likely it's just Apple not wanting to be stuck to structured deadline and all of the intense pressure that comers with it to wow us all every January. Also, one other thing struck me that everyone else seemed to overlook....who's to say that Steve Jobs wont be there and wont be on stage after all? Phil Schiller does the keynote...so what? What is to stop Phil from coming out, speaking for 30 minutes about Snow Leopard and going over a few hardware updates etc etc and near the end of the Keynote, Steve Jobs walks out and says, "Surprise! One More Thing..."
Which brings me back to the subject of the information that Andy Ihnatko has came across. Andy further posted about it on his blog today.
For all my laziness this morning, I did manage to have a full day. Was picked up from the airport by a pal, had a Mexican lunch that couldn’t be beat, copped a free ride to my hotel, realized to my delight that I wasn’t nearly as wrecked a I thought I’d be (after a 2 AM departure and no sleep except what I got on the plane), so made a quick trip back to Japantown for an assault on the Way Cool Stationery Store At The Mall, copped a quick nap and then met another pal for a dinner of tapas that coudn’t be beat, followed by a quick tour of the Castro.And there was even a small bit of Business. I now have a piece of information that will put a big damned smile on the face of any Apple fan. Just a big, fist-pumping expression of glee.
No, I can’t tell you what it is.
Yes, I’m just a big no-fun jerk.
See, before I was told this thing, I agreed to go off the record. Then I was told that thing, and I immediately said that I took back what I said about going off the record because this was just too damned cool. But…a promise is indeed a promise. I wouldn’t even be saying this much if I hadn’t cleared it first.
Ok Andy, you have me on the edge of my seat now.