Web Development Live

The Wall Street Journal has just accepted Facebook’s request to be online friends.
Hoping to tap into the growing buzz of online social networks, the Journal is adding a feature to its Web site that will allow readers to see which Journal stories are popular among that user’s Facebook friends.
The feature, which goes live early Wednesday morning, is called “SeenThis?” and is powered by a company called Loomia Inc. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Loomia already provides WSJ.com with another feature called “People who read this … also read these stories” which appears on the right-hand side of the text of a story.
News Web sites will commonly feature lists of the most popular stories on the site, as measured by the most views, most e-mailed or most recommended or blogged about.
But by showing articles that were read by viewers who apparently had similar interests, the Journal is hoping to harness some of the magic of successful shopping sites like Amazon.com Inc., which will make recommendations to shoppers based on what other buyers also bought.
Adding the link with Facebook takes the idea a step further, by letting viewers see what stories their own friends are interested in, not only those of the general WSJ.com readership.
Daniel Bernard, general manager for Wall Street Journal Online, said the “SeenThis?” feature will be opt-in only, meaning it won’t start up unless the viewer expressly asks it to, and users can opt out any time.
The application also won’t collect personally identifiable information on which people are reading which articles, just aggregated information on which articles are being read most by those in a readers’ group of Facebook friends or networks.
Loomia’s chief executive, Dave McMurtry, said the Journal was the first media company to fully implement the “SeenThis?” application. General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal and CNET have also signed up to use it.
The module that will be visible on the Journal Web site is something called a “widget” in Internet lingo _ a small, self-contained application that does a specific task.
The user can also add that application on to his or her Facebook page, where it would show users not only which Journal articles are most popular among that users’ friends and networks, but also video and other material from CNET or other providers.
Bernard said the Journal’s goal in adding the fixture was not only to help make the Web page more functional for its existing users but also to try and lure in new users from outside sources such as Facebook.
Other newspapers have also been developing widgets that people can post to their Web sites or pages on online social networks like Facebook in hopes of bringing in more online traffic and spreading awareness of their brand name.
The New York Times offers an online crossword puzzle through Google Inc.’s personalized Web pages as well as a news quiz application on Facebook. Gannett Co.’s USA Today also offers users widgets for various uses, as does The Washington Post Co.

The shorts, collectively called Green Porno, wont cause a stir with the film censors because Rossellini, one of the worlds most recognized faces after decades of modelling and acting, is always fully clothed- in bug costumes.
I never really say anything dirty, Rossellini, 55, said in an interview, before using one choice four-letter word as an example of the language not used in the one-minute clips showing flies, spiders and snailsfornicating.
The intent is to be on the web so it is available to everybody, to reach as far as possible. Its not dirty talk. We talk about sex, but the terminology is not dirty. The film is principally humorous, and if anything else its informative.
The surreal part is the way we develop them visually, she said after a screening in Berlin drew loud applause.
Rossellini flashes a mischievous grin as she explains in her trademark Italian-accented English that flies are highly amorous and have sex many times each day. She then demonstrates by performing some heavy-duty doggy-style sex on another fly.
There are so many wonderful, great things in nature, said Rossellini, who made the films designed for small screens such as cell phones, iPods and laptops for the Sundance Channel.
I hope people will beamused and say Wow, I didnt know that about a fly or a worm.
NO SLOWING DOWN
Rossellini- a frequent visitor to the Berlin Festival over the years - said she had no intention of slowing down and would like to do more directing, especially at the forefront of new cinematic developments.
Filmmaking for the web is completely new, said Rossellini, the daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian director Roberto Rossellini.
Its at the cutting edge. Ive always been interested in experimental film making.
Rossellini, who stumbled into modelling at the relatively late age of 28, said she saw nothing extraordinary about moving to directing at 55, although she was quick to point out that she had roles in three major films due out in the months ahead.
Why would I want to do that? she said when asked if she planned to slow down. I had lots of fun doing Green Porno and will continue acting, modelling and directing. Why stop now?
Rossellini, who was briefly married to American director Martin Scorsese in the 1970s, said it was not always easy having famous parents and a well-known ex-husband. She once complained it might have cost her acting jobs as others were intimidated.
She said the advantages outweighed any disadvantages- and she admits her name and face helped get Green Porno made. The filmmakers label it GP to avoid problems with customs.
The press is always compressing my life into two sentences, she said with a smile. Its always Ingrid Bergmans daughter or Martin Scorseses wife is now acting or directing. Now tell me: what isthe connection?
It all happened over so many years of my life so its less of a connection than the press makes it out to be. I grew up in film, I continue to be in film, I like film, my friends are filmmakers or occasionallya husband was a filmmaker. It certainly didnt hurt at all. If anything, it was helpful.

Lucasfilm Ltd and the Warner Bros film studio said they would release the movie on August 15, ahead of the American debut of an animated TV series of the same name on Cartoon Network and TNT.
I felt there were a lot more Star Wars stories left to tell, Lucas said in a statement.
I was eager to start telling some of them through animation and, at the same time, push the art of animation forward.
The six-film Star Wars series is one of Hollywoods most lucrative franchises. It started with the initial Star Wars in 1977 and ended with 2005s Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.
At the time of Sith, Lucas said he would not make another Star Wars movie, but has said he was in development on the animated TV show.
Lucas had said he thought he might go back to making artistic films, although he never said exactly what he had on his mind.
The Star Wars movies tell about battles for intergalactic superiority in space, and Clone Wars promises more of the same stories - only in animation.
Key characters such as Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala will be joined by new heroes like Anakins padawan learner, Ahsoka.
Lucasfilm said each episode on TV would be like a 30-minute mini-movie with Jedi Knights battling villains such as Count Dooku and General Grievous.
Lucas company also began showing web-only documentaries telling of the development of Star Wars: The Clone Wars on the website www.starwars.com.

By mid-afternoon the dairies had been cleaned out of the cookies and Mayell, 21 at the time, was back at the bakery that week to cook up another storm. He sold 5000 cookies the first week. The first years sales hit $240,000 and in the following years sales kept doubling.
Cookie Time was on the road — and has not really looked back since growing from zero to $19 million turnover in 25 years.
Mayell takes pride in the survival of his snacks business when so many food products come and go.
He has introduced new products which have flopped, but his chocolate chip cookie has had a 25-year shelf life that few would have predicted and made him a millionaire at 32, a couple of years off his youthful goal of 30.
The tale of this small business made good is one not of luck but of hard graft, setting goals and focusing on achieving them.
Mayell, one of the countrys best known entrepreneurs, chewed through a lot of petrol back then, visiting 71 dairies, 70 of which said they would try selling the cookies. He approached more than half a dozen bakeries before he found one which would rent him space at night. He has been grateful since to baker Paul Horniblow who gave him that break.
The idea came from the United States where Mrs Fields hot chocolate chip cookies had taken off and Mrs Fields stores were popping up all over the show. Every self-respecting American mum had a chocolate chip cookie recipe and Mayell asked one of his friends there to send him one.
He had been working over there promoting and marketing skiing and saved $10,000 which he used to try two other failed entrepreneurial ideas before having a crack at the cookie business.
Months later, Mayell was joined in the business by younger brother Guy.
The firms frontman, Mayell describes their partnership as complementary. He has his head in the clouds while Guys got his feet on the ground. It has worked well for them.
A couple of times during our history we were actually technically insolvent and it was only through the good grace of suppliers that we kept going.
Mayell enjoys the storytelling. Believe it or not, the famous chocolate chip cookie was seen as a health food when it was launched in 1983 because it contained fresh eggs and flour.
What was the secret of success for a small business which has become almost an institution in the snacks market?
Mayell says firstly the quality of the product is one of the key reasons for its survival. The cookies have just the right amount of chocolate and are made of ingredients you would have in your cupboard at home. They contain no artificial flavourings or preservatives and it shows in a superior taste, he says. Price is way down the list of considerations. The cookie had to be delicious to succeed.
In 1983 there was little in between a chocolate bar and a pie or a filled roll that could be bought at a dairy or a service station. His chocolate chip cookie filled a gap. Although sweet, it was seen as a food whereas a confectionery bar was not.
Selling them in a glass cookie jar, blown on the West Coast, placed on the dairy or service station counter was a stroke of marketing genius. It made the product look international in 1983. The cookies were the right idea at the right time.
For a food business distribution can be tricky, especially if the distributor is selling competing products. Cookie Time overcame that by developing a system of franchised distributors dedicated to Cookie Time products. The 45 distributors get a cut of the sales to retailers. Each week they visit between 100 and 150 customers to replenish stocks which means the product remains fresh.
Over the years Cookie Time has launched dozens of new products but none comes anywhere near the success of the original chocolate chip cookie, except for One Square Meal, a health bar introduced in 2005.
I think that product could carry on for 20 years. It was eaten by a lot of sports people. But the original cookie remains the top seller for Cookie Time.
Other products introduced over the years were Christmas Cookies, which sell in buckets, distributed by students. The buckets of cookies sell for $14. Christmas cookies were the solution to the worrying fall in sales they noticed each December, with sales not getting back to normal until April. They put that down to less buying of cookies and similar food in the summer and came up with the Christmas product.
Mayells restless energy saw him successfully tackle IT products. Several years ago he set up another company, TeleMessenger, which has developed IT services. One is Aristotle, a web and phone-based personal development programme he launched with his wife Melanie in 2005 which will call you up each day if you want and encourage and cajole you as well as play you inspirational messages from prominent people.
Mayell is into personal development and goal setting to achieve what you want in life and is a firm believer that out of crises come solutions which can prove beneficial for a small firm.
In 1987, four years after founding the business, he took 18 months out to travel, including completing a personal development course in the United States where he met Melanie, also from Christchurch. During that time Guy ran the business and paid him $600 a week as a way of buying 50% of the business.
His second IT business is Springdoo which allows you to send a voice message via email and was sold to a British buyer last year and is listed on Britains alternative share market.
Another, Santacall, is a service aimed at children and families where a pre-recorded and voice-prompted Santa asks children over the phone what they want for Christmas, records their replies and then sends the recording to parents. This Christmas, Santacall recorded 20,000 requests.
Theres no thoughts of selling up though hes had about half a dozen approaches to buy over the years, seriously considered one but the price was not good enough.
On a really good day we could have sold the company for a couple of million, he says.
Business owners will, like he did, go through phases of waning enthusiasm for a business they have created.
The firm celebrates its 25th with a party next weekend with events and cookies at 1983 prices at the Templeton factory, 15km south of Christchurch.

Wireless broadband is coming of age, making rivals of companies such as Nokia, Google, Microsoft and Apple, who previously could afford to coexist relatively peacefully.
Mobile networks are now capable of delivering the internet as smoothly to a mobile phone as to a PC, with the clunky handsets, stuttering downloads and network jams of the recent past almost forgotten in many developed markets.
And the scramble to capitalise on that opportunity will loom over all other business at next weeks Mobile World Congress.
Web, web, web %26ndash; if you aint walking on to the stand hand in hand with a web guy you aint no one, said Ben Wood, chief analyst at UK-based telecoms and IT research firm CCS Insight.
The outcome of the struggle to win the mobile web will not only be crucial for the combatants but will decide how the mobile web is experienced by billions of people.
At the fair, visitors will be on alert for sightings of prototypes of the Gphone %26ndash; phones built on a Google open software platform that will help it loosen up the market and extend its online advertising power into mobile search ads.
Chip designer ARM Holdings, for one, will show Googles so-called Android platform in action at the four-day fair that starts in Barcelona on Monday, a source close to the company has said.
Google rival Yahoos alternative strategy of refining its mobile search and teaming up with operators to make it more visible to consumers, will also come under scrutiny, especially as it mulls a $US45 billion ($NZ58 billion) bid from Microsoft.
Nokia is expected to give more details of its own push into internet services, including gaming and music and video sharing offerings that it started to roll out last week.
Ive heard people say many times that this is the year the mobile webs going to happen. . . but this year Im getting a different feeling, said Paul Nerger, an executive at dotMobi, which registers mobile domains and helps build mobile sites.
Its a question of when we get to critical mass. I think its this year.
While interlopers like Google muscle in on mobile services, traditional service providers, the telecoms carriers, risk being left behind despite having funded the networks that are now coming to maturity and making the mobile web a reality.
Hundreds of billions of dollars spent on third-generation (3G) licence auctions at the start of the century left the likes of Deutsche Telekom AG and France Telecom hobbled by debt and nervous about future grand ventures.
Some, like Japans NTT DoCoMo Inc and US-based Sprint Nextel Corp, have been quick to offer music or video services but most %26ndash; especially in Europe %26ndash; have been preoccupied with stemming fixed-line customer losses.
Their difficulties have led them to resort to cost-saving measures such as sharing networks, creating problems for their network infrastructure suppliers %26ndash; a situation which has been exacerbated in recent months by fears of a US recession.
John Chambers, chief executive of networking equipment group Cisco Systems Inc, has twice spooked investors by warning of a slowdown in orders from the US and Europe, most recently this week, sparking a tech stock sell-off.
Alcatel-Lucent was the latest to confirm the gloomy outlook of infrastructure vendors, saying on Friday it saw flat markets all year or slight growth at best.
I dont think its just a blip, said Margaret Rice-Jones, chief executive of network consultancy Aircom. I do think a fundamental shift has occurred in the industry.
Handset makers know they are not immune either, as shown by Nokias change of direction despite its 40 per cent market share.
Citigroup analysts, in a report this week on the potential impact of a recession on US cellphone makers, said unit sales could fall 5 per cent this year in a worst-case scenario where US economic weakness spreads to Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Bottom line, no vendor is immune from a recession, they wrote, though their base assumption was for 10 per cent growth.
As the need to distinguish their products becomes more urgent, smaller cellphone makers, in particular, are expected to show bigger ranges of fashion phones next week, experimenting with fabric or metal and with increasingly high specifications.
Apple, which only launches new products at its own events, will not take part in the fair, but many attempts to replicate the iPhones most desirable feature %26ndash; its highly responsive touch-screen interface %26ndash; are expected.