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Indians least bothered about risk
It's been a rough few weeks for the Obama administration when it comes to climate change.


Is this version of the zombie apocalypse any fun?


ommwriter_nov09a.jpgBetween Skype, chat, texts, push news notifications and three screens of scrolling feeds, it's easy to get distracted while writing an email or post. If you've misspelled names, forgotten words or hit send prematurely on numerous occasions, then you probably just need to slow down. Rather than resorting to a life in the woods of hermit-like solitude, you could just take a few moments to think with Ommwriter.

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Built by Barcelona-based design agency Herraiz Soto & Co., Ommwriter is a gorgeous Mac download that allows users to block out other applications and focus on their writing. The company originally created Ommwriter for their own internal use but quickly realized the service's consumer appeal.

Ommwriter from Herraiz Soto on Vimeo.

Similar to WriteRoom, users download the writing tool and install it on their desktop. Upon opening it, you receive a distraction-free environment with just a few spartan font choices and an export feature. While WriteRoom offers a CRT monitor-style interface, Ommwriter offers a white Zen-like experience. Keystroke sounds can be replaced by plinking water or what sound like soft footsteps in snow and users can choose to play ambient music or keep their writing space dead silent. If you're the type of person who is married to iPhone editing and a large feature set for word processors, then this is not your tool. But if you just want a few moments to collect your thoughts, then this is a great way to do it. To register for this free service visit ommwriter.com.

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Opposition activists want the U.S. to focus more on human rights, and they fear a nuclear deal with the West will boost the regime's domestic standing.


The other day, a friend of mine got an e-mail from his Internet Service Provider (ISP) about a copyright infringement. He didn’t know what this was all about so he had me take a look at it. What I’d like to do for you now is to break down the letter and address important things about it.


The traditional good news deficit comes from the misguided conviction among some news people that happy endings and serious journalism don't mix. But I'd lay some of the blame with audiences too.


Microsoft Word - Framework for 20 Adoption v6.doc - Powered by Google Docs.jpgWhen you look at Enterprise 2.0, you can see the hype pretty clearly but what is not so evident is how social computing efforts are faring within corporations and large organizations.

That's what's striking about the report from the 2.0 Adoption Council. The group did a web survey of its 100 members with 77 responding. That may seem like a small number to use for any quantifiable conclusion about the state of Enterprise 2.0. But the people who responded lead or help lead Enterprise 2.0 efforts at some of the largest organizations in the world. Thirty-four percent of the respondents work for companies with more than 10,000 employees. Twenty-five percent work for organizations that have more than 100,000 employees.

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These people have solid footing into how social enterprise technologies are being adopted.

Let's get to to the results:

Manufacturing Has Surprising High Adoption

It's not surprising to see high tech companies as leading the way in uses of Enterprise 2.0 technologies. But it's interesting that manufacturing businesses are proving to be adopters. These are companies with roots deep in the industrial age that are showing that they see it as important to bring social computing into the work of its employees.

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No Surprise About Early Adoption

It should be no surprise that Enterprise 2.0 is still in the early adopter phase.

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Budgets Are Healthy

Budgets are less than $500,000 in most organizations but 52 percent of the respondents have budgets between $500,000 and $5 milliion.

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Projects Are Well Under Way

Enterprise 2.0 is not just a concept any more but a reality in the enterprise with 34 percent saying they have multiple projects underway. We are curious about five percent having Enterprise 2.0 technologies fully ingrained into their work places. These must be more service oriented companies that do not rely on deeply entrenched technologies like ERP software.

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Who's Driving The Efforts

We often use terms like "groundswell," to describe the phenomena around social applications in the consumer world. In the enterprise, it's a different story. Adoption is often user driven but management is dictating a lot of the efforts.

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ROI is Hard To Define

The one weakness that Enterprise 2.0 faces is the abstractness of its return on investment. It's important to note, though, that 55 percent of the respondents are very satisfied with their Enterprise 2.0 efforts. Another 26 percent of respondents are somewhat satisfied.

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Conclusion

The 2.0 Adoption Council survey results unquestionably show that Enterprise 2.0 is well becoming a core part of organizations. The challenges will come as more scrutiny is placed on how the organization benefits from Enterprise 2.0. What really is the ROI? We expect this question will answer itself as more advanced analytics provide more detailed views about how the efforts are faring.

A Final Note

In addition to its survey research, The Council has also released its first "how-to" report, "A Framework for 2.0 Adoption in the Enterprise," which gives additional insight into how to successfully implement Enterprise 2.0 technologies within organizations.

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After a series of complications and setbacks, the Large Hadron Collider sees its first particle-particle collisions after a weekend of furious activity. While these weren't at any significant energy, the milestone marks an important step in getting the mammoth machine up and running and filling in the last space on the particle bingo card.


Female surfing has made huge strides as a sport and the best girl surfers will kick your butt out of the line up. Some of these girls are so good that they don't need a wetsuit - they surf in nothing but a bikini ... a small bikini.


A deal struck by the Detroit-based GM in June to sell its Saab unit fell apart Tuesday, according to news reports, threatening an end to the Swedish manufacturer of niche automobiles.


Version 5 of the popular Mac virtualization package, Parallels Desktop, has hit the streets, and Ars puts it through its paces. Gaming performance, Windows 7, content creation, Linux—it's all here, plus the inevitable comparisons to the most recent VMware Fusion release.


The last three years have seen a significant drop in the cost of housing in the United States, bringing prices back down from once astronomical levels.


A Florida man called 911 seeking a police escort to the Miami home of the rapper Lil Wayne. The man called 911 twice and requested a police escort to drive him 345-miles south to Miami so he can see rapper Lil Wayne’s concert.


A crucifix over the blackboard. An image of the Virgin Mary presiding over a classroom full of students. These pervasive Catholic symbols, still present in some Spanish public schools, may soon become things of the past.


Mix salt water with fresh water and there you have it: instant carbon-neutral energy. The process is called osmotic power, and a company called Statkraft has just opened the world’s first osmotic power plant in Norway.


Seen on a car window in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco!


Those that are even remotely familiar with American history may recall that Benjamin Franklin advocated for the turkey to be the national bird. He lost.


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Hurd hails 3Com 'convergence'

Comment  Well, it looks the enterprise slammed on the server spending brakes a lot quicker and a lot harder than smaller outfits this fall.…

Offloading malware protection to the cloud

Did you know 2/3 of Americans are overweight and more everyday are becoming obese? This infographic explains why America is the fattest country in the world.


Auctioneer Christie's says the 22-inch skeleton was the one used in the climactic scene of the 1933 movie in which the giant ape climbs New York's Empire State Building.


Former running mates Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash are leading the charge in this year's NBA MVP race.


This documentary short ventures into Australia’s outback in search of the aboriginal youth gangs of Wadeye, all of which have taken their name, dress, and overall attitude from the 1980’s and 90’s golden age of heavy metal. The Judas Priest Boys battle the Slayer Mob and the Metallica Gang. Seriously.


Some musicians seem to have the unique ability to stay thin despite living on beer, drugs, and road food — while others just keep getting fatter.


Cool, I didn't know Entertainment Weekly was doing Mad Fold-Ins!


Flying firmware

Amazon is boosting the Kindle's battery life and adding native support for PDF documents with a free firmware upgrade for the e-reader.…

Web threats: Why conventional protection doesn't work

Besides being able to fold down to a previously-unattained size, the bike can go from fully extended to fully folded in just 20 seconds. We expect it would take a bit of practice to get it down to 20 seconds, but it’s still possible. When it’s fully folded, the rider can simply pull it along behind him.


logo_nincha_nov09.jpg Get your mind out of the gutter. This isn't about distributing your crude weekend photography, it's about being able to upload content outside the parameters of basic community categories. While we all know that YouTube is for video, Flickr is for photography and LinkedIn is for career-related content, it's hard to tell where we should be sharing our important but uncategorizable content. Nincha is a stealthy little community that just may infiltrate the community sharing space.

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Like many other social sites, Nincha lets you upload photos, create polls, share bookmarks and review products. However, some additional types of content include job and classified listings, code snippets, recipes, events and business cards. Rather than offering a basic light blogging tool, users are encouraged to comment on each others' submissions and favorite the community's best content. From here you can follow others and share your uploads via email, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Digg and text message. While it's too early to say which types of content will dictate the tone of this community, its obvious there are advantages to this type of social sharing.

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Rather then just adding your code to GitHub or your own website, you can share snippets of code to your favorite social profiles with a better chance of recruiting new programmers and contributors. Additionally, the text message feature means that you can avoid sometimes finicky services like the Bump iPhone app and send your business card directly to an iPhone users' contact book. And finally, if you know your pecan pie recipe is going to be a Thanksgiving hit, you might as well tweet it out now and save yourself the trouble of forwarding it to others. Nincha is offering us the chance to share the content and links we need without confining us to specific file formats. The first 1000 lucky ReadWriteWeb readers can try the service at http://nincha.com/signup/readwriteweb_8xqg1b.

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I'm glad to see any movie where the two main characters are of different races and enjoy peace and harmony together, even while all hell is breaking loose around them. That's true with both The Blind Side (to a certain degree) and Ninja Assassin (to the nth degree).