community

Fetchmob resembles a crowdsourced Kozmo

"There's a third way to shop," Crisson Jno-Charles, the founder of Fetchmob tells me. Like other pickup-gig services--Zaarly, TaskRabbit, GigWalk (story)--Fetchmob is about not going to a store, nor going online to shop, but rather getting someone else to shop for you. Fetchmob lets you post quick shopping jobs that friends or acquaintances can take on.

It sounds a lot like a crowdsourced version of Kozmo, but Jno-Charles sees the service as being more intimate than that or any of the current open-call gig services. He views it as being used primarily by people in close proximity to each other: students in the same dorm, or co-workers on a floor. He thinks people will use it not to make money, but simply because it's what you do when you live with people or work closely with others.

California city to get green prefab housing

Zeta Communities broke ground yesterday on a net-zero housing development in Stockton, Calif., the company announced.

The housing community, which will consist of 22 units, is being developed by the nonprofit group Visionary Home Builders of California.

Zeta Communities is known for its affordable, green prefab homes that are constructed using sustainable or recyclable materials at its factory in Sacramento, Calif. Building 90 percent of a home in the factory will cut construction time by 70 percent, according to Zeta.

In the case of the so-called Tierra del Sol community planned for Stockton, the Zeta prefab homes will be 1,… Read more

Net trade group protests French data retention rules

A trade group that represents Google, Facebook, and other Internet companies active in France is upset over French regulations that require the companies to retain personal data on their users for a full year.

The French group Association of Internet Community Services (Google Translate version) is taking its case to France's Conseil d'Etat, or State Council, on behalf of several Internet companies, which also include eBay and online video site Dailymotion. Launching its appeal with the State Council, which is considered the Supreme Court in France in charge of public law litigation, ASIC is looking to have the … Read more

Papal Mercedes-Benz to appear at Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance

A 1965 Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman landaulet built specially for Pope Paul VI will make its first U.S. appearance at the the 16th annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance held March 11-13, 2011.

The pontiff not only rode in comfort, but also stayed protected in the modded 600. The vehicle featured an individual seat that could be raised and lowered during processions through crowded streets. The car also featured an elevated roof, extended rear doors, and raised floor were also fitted along with other special equipment such as bulletproof glass.

The 600 was likely chosen to be modified for the … Read more

Community solar gets a tryout with major Calif. utility

Southern California Edison announced yesterday it has added seven new community solar plants to its energy repertoire that together generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 8,125 households.

SCE now has a total of 10 community-size solar stations, a network of small neighborhood solar stations, which consist of mainly rooftop solar installations on local buildings, connecting to its grid.

Four community solar stations in Ontario, Calif., for example, consist of 32,950 photovoltaic panels installed on the rooftops of warehouses owned by ProLogis. SCE leased what amounts to about 1.8 million square feet of roof space from … Read more

At 10, highlighting Wikipedia's past and future

With just 20 simple words and two entries, it began: "Hello, world." And "Humor me. Go there and add a little article. It will take all of five or ten minutes."

Written by Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales on January 15, 2001, those four sentences ushered in one of the most widely used and important reference projects in history, let alone on the Internet: Wikipedia.

Tomorrow, Wikipedia turns 10 years old. It's hard to imagine that a tiny, user-created project founded by two unknowns behind the online expert-written encyclopedia Nupedia could have grown into a … Read more

How to remove the Conduit 'Community Toolbar' in OS X

Add-ons to Web browsers are exceptionally popular, but sometimes can result in features being tacked onto the brower's interface that can be annoying at best if they're not used. Many times these add-ons are simple drag-and-drop plugins that can be removed from the various Internet Plug-Ins folders in either the global or user libraries, but at other times the add-ons may use alternative means of loading, which can make removing them less straightforward.

One of these is the Community Toolbar, which is developed by "Conduit" and may be customized by other developers for specific purposes and … Read more

Apache foundation quits 'proprietary' Java process

The Apache Software Foundation has resigned from the Java steering group, claiming that the widely used scripting platform is a proprietary technology under the full control of Oracle.

In a blog post yesterday, the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) developer community said its resignation from the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Committee (EC) followed the committee's approval of the Java SE 7 specification, as proposed by Oracle. The ASF said the specification came bound up with license terms that continued to forbid the distribution of independent, open-source Java implementations.

"This vote was the only real power the Executive Committee … Read more

iPad band gives new birth to Xmas carols

Why should you have to tolerate people with strange eyebrows, woolly hats, and shaving problems turning up at your door and singing badly this Christmas?

Especially when you can enjoy the full power of festive composition brought to you by nice men with iPads, a couple of iPhones, and fingers as dexterous as those of the national knitting champion?

Please welcome the Northpoint Community Church iBand. In a year or two, all rocks bands will look like this. But, for now, with your festive proclivities leaning you towards your relaxed side, please bathe in the band's unique exposition of … Read more

Tease your brain

Brainteasers can be both fun and useful, helping you develop your problem-solving skills and memory while also providing hours of addictive entertainment. Gbrainy is a basic program that contains a variety of different mental challenges, effectively helping you pass time and sharpen your mind. It's not the most attractive program we've ever seen, but it's not bad for what it is.

Gbrainy's interface is plain, especially for a game; there is a handful of colored buttons across the top, but the rest of the interface is pretty drab. User can choose between four different types of … Read more