Here at Google, we receive a lot of feature requests - and it feels great every time we fulfill one of them. The ability to utilize the power of Google Maps from Flash is one of those requests that has been popping up on blog posts and other forums since the beginning of time or more accurately, the beginning of the Javascript Maps API . Over the past few hours, I ve had the enjoyment of finally seeing this particular feature request - a Maps API for Flash - come to fruition. Tiredness will grab me soon, no doubt. If you re one of the first readers of this post, rest assured that I m unlikely to still be awake: long hours have been worked; pre-launch nerves have jangled. Now it s time to let our baby loose into the world and see how the developer community will embrace it.

So, what do I like about the API for Flash? Smoothness and speed are a big part of it. We ve designed it so that Flash graphics can be used for each tile layer, marker and info window - opening up possibilities like dynamic shading, shadowing, animation, and video. When the user zooms the map, magnification changes happen smoothly and place NAMEs fade in. After the user drags a marker, it gently bounces to a halt. Generally, Flash allows for much greater embellishment, and, well... flashiness. I get excited just thinking about the creative ways developers might take advantage of having a Flash API for Google Maps.

What was one of our main design decisions for this project? We knew that version 1 of any software project is not perfect, so we opted to split the interface and implementation. As a result, you can build against the current version of the API, and as we add enhancements and tweaks, your website benefits automatically from each update. When you wish to take advantage of new API functions, only then do you need to download the latest API and rebuild.

Check out the demo... I am not big on flash, but I like that they are embracing something new....

Google Maps API for Flash

Microsoft plans to offer hardware vendors significant price cuts on Windows XP licenses for low-cost computing products, but the deal will only be available for computers with low hardware specs. This tactic is part of Microsoft s strategy to stifle adoption of Linux by computer manufacturers that are targeting the budget market, where low cost and high flexibility give the open source operating system an edge.
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The popularity of the game-changing Asus Eee PC, which ships with a heavily-modified version of the Xandros Linux distribution, spawned a whole new class of inexpensive computers. Other vendors have entered the market with their own competing products, many of which also use the open source operating system. Windows is a poor fit for such computers, which are designed and priced like budget appliances. Vista requires too much hardware overhead, while Windows XP licenses add extra expense to the budget hardware that can be avoided by using Linux. So as products like the Eee bring Linux into homes and schools, Microsoft has struggled to squeeze into the growing budget hardware niche.

According to IDG, which obtained details about the price cuts from hardware vendors, Microsoft will offer Windows XP licenses for $26 for developing countries and $32 for the rest of the world. In order to qualify for these deep discounts, products will have to be limited to a maximum of 1GB of RAM, 10.2 inch screens, and single-core processors clocked no higher than 1GHz though there are apparently some exceptions . Products must also not have hard drives exceeding 80 GB in capacity and cannot have touch-screen technology.

How about just cut the price period? Up sales... increase $$$ flow!

Microsoft vies for budget laptop market with XP price cuts

Procera Networks will announce today a new standard in deep packet inspection DPI gear: an 80Gbps monster called the PacketLogic PL10000 that is targeted at tier-1 network operators. At up to $800,000 a unit, these aren t cheap, but when you want to throttle, inspect, and shape traffic in real-time on a major network, this is now the fastest thing on the market and by a large margin .

Procera s appliances all run the same software, so the difference between them is in the interfaces and the number of racks the units take up. The PL10000, the company s top-of-the-line offering and provides 5 10Gbps channels and 9 1Gbps channels in a 12 rack unit. It can handle 80Gbps of total speed, but most ISPs will want to keep an eye on traffic moving in both directions, bringing this down to 40Gbps each way.

Throttle 5 million P2P users with $800K DPI monster

A recently-discovered flaw in Gmail is capable of turning Google's e-mail service into a highly effective spam machine. According to the Information Security Research Team (INSERT), Gmail is susceptible to a man-in-the-middle attack that allows a spammer to send thousands of bulk e-mails through Google's SMTP service without fear of detection. This attack bypasses both Google's identity fraud protection mechanisms and the current 500-address limit on bulk e-ma

Doveryai, no Proveryai : Security flaw turns Gmail into open-relay server...

In past discussions with a friend of mine the question was raised about geotagging photos. So today, I set-out to find a working solution for a group of people taking tornado damage photos from a small aircraft.

I was lucky enough to find a used GPS unit that was gutted out of an old fleet tracking device. The unit is nice, small, with a voltage regulator for 12volts, a long power cord, and the active ant. for $20 dollars. What a steal! I put that in a rat shack case and it works like a charm.

So with just 20 dollars invested I already had on hand a 20 amp auto switch and inline fuse link so I am set to go.

Here is a step-by-step journey into the world of Geocoding.... Sorry about the any errors... I was really sleepy ... ZZZZzzz

Geotagging on a Shoestring...

It's fairly clear that we won't be happy until we've slathered every nook and cranny of the Internet in some kind of advertising. Not only have ISPs started bombarding users via DNS redirection ads, but Slashdot notes that Network Solutions has started putting ads on neglected user subdomains (or a path that does not resolve to a currently active page on your hosted site).

From The Register:
Earlier this week, a man named Win Betteridge told TechCrunch that Network Solutions pulled this clever little trick with his "social gaming" site, GotGame.com. Betteridge hosts GotGame with "NetSol," and somewhere along the way, he realized that his unused GotGame sub-domains resolved to ad-infested "parking" pages. "For instance, app.gotgame.com resolves to a Network Solutions page with text links, including 'Poker Tournaments' and 'Texas Holdem Games,'" he said.

What, you didn't notice you agreed to this in the 59,000 word Network Solutions user agreement?

From the company that brought you front running of domain registrations....

"Speculation is mounting that Google is plotting the launch of a mobile phone in partnership with computer giant Dell.

"Senior industry sources claim the two companies will reveal their plans at next month's 3GSM telecoms conference in Barcelona, although Google insiders deny an announcement is due in the near future..."

Google and Dell Tipped to Reveal iPhone Rival Plans

Austin, Texas--VIA Technologies, although very popular with Linux ultramobile PC vendors, has never been very open about its own hardware. Until April 8, when, at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit at the University of Texas Super Computing Center here, the company announced that it will start opening up its chip sets to the open-source community.

During the We're Shipping Linux on PCs -- Now What? panel, Timothy Chen of VIA Technologies, said, "VIA hadn't been doing much [in opening up] … it's been hard for the company to embrace open source, but at the end of the month you'll see us opening up."

This announcement drew a round of applause from the audience of Linux executives, leaders and core developers. Driver support for Linux distributions, a nagging problem, can be greatly eased by chip and component vendors opening up their hardware specifications and information.

In concrete terms, VIA will kick things off by launching its VIA Linux Web site by the end of month. On this site, users will find drivers, technical documentation, source code and information for the VIA CN700, CX700/M, CN896 and the new VIA VX800 chip sets. As time goes by, VIA will add forums and support for more of its chip sets.

VIA hopes that by doing this and working with the community, it will be able to create drivers for VIA Processor Platforms that will enable top-notch 2-D, 3-D and video playback. The company will also start issuing regular quarterly releases, which will be in conjunction with kernel changes and major Linux distribution releases. In addition, beta releases will be issued on the site as needed, and a bug report and tracking feature will also be integrated.

"This announcement is the first step in the implementation of our new initiative to better serve the needs of the open-source community," said Richard Brown, vice president of corporate marketing at VIA, in a statement. "We are strongly committed to improving the levels of collaboration with the community and adopting a more consistent approach across VIA Processor Platform technologies."

How sure is Chen that VIA and the Linux desktop are going to take off? During the panel, Chen said that he's made a bet and that "if Linux doesn't take 10 percent of the desktop market share in five years I'll be running the streets of Munich naked."

VIA to open up its devices...

project developing a free Linux distribution for x86-based network appliances has achieved a new release with some intriguing wireless access point features. Zeroshell 1.0.beta8 lets one physical radio support multiple logical SSIDs, each with a different encryption and authentication scheme, VLAN, and function (client/AP).

Free router distro gains wild WiFi features

This is the RFL remote based on the Nordic nRF24L01 2.4GHz chipset. This remote uses a PIC18F2321 to read all the buttons and joystick and has a transmission distance of over 40m. The remote can be completely reprogrammed and modified. The exposed connector brings out the programming pins and the UART on the PIC! Remote is fully FCC certified and uses four AAA batteries. A perfect remote for your next wireless control project!

Ok this is driving me nuts... I have so many ideas for PIC projects it is driving me nuts...

RFL remote based on the Nordic nRF24L01 2.4GHz chipset...