VizWorld.com

I’m gonna take a step away from our usual content and ask that you head over to the Pepsi Refresh project and vote for the “Make Juvenile Myositis a Memory” project.  I know someone (names withheld for privacy) with a child with JM, and it’s a hard disease for not only the kids but the parents.  With the possible money they could win:

This project will allow the CureJM foundation to continue critical research. Funding the center of excellence will allow JM researchers to combine clinical evaluation with drug research targeted at combating the devastating effects of this disease. Many researchers believe that there is also a genetic predisposition to autoimmune diseases. As such, they feel that a child afflicted with JM is likely to have a blood relative who suffers from another autoimmune disease such as diabetes or arthritis. Continuing to fund this vital research is of paramount importance to fulfill CureJM’s goal to make sure that no child suffers another day with JM.

They’ve in the running for the big reward, the $250.  Just visit their website, or click the badge here to cast your vote.  You can vote every day, and help find a cure.

via Make Juvenile Myositis a Memory | Pepsi Refresh Everything.

Website offtopic

Infographics are popping up everywhere these days, from journals to Television to even sales website.  They are eye-catching and (occasionally) useful, but most they are good examples of graphic design.

Today marks a new feature here on VizWorld: A dedicated Infographics Category.  This category, however, is a bit “special” and unique from the other 3 (Graphics, Science, and Hardware).

• Entries in the Infographics Category will not appear on the homepage, and will not appear in the main Vizworld RSS feed.  There is a special Infographics RSS feed you can subscribe to if you like.
• Every evening there will be a special “Infographics Summary” post that will appear on the frontpage that will show thumbnails & titles of all the day’s graphics, that will appear in all the RSS feeds.

This way, I can put up several infographics with very little editorial or quality control, without spamming the RSS feeds of all you valued readers.  Every infographic will still appear in the Twitter feed if you like, and in the dedicated Infographics RSS feed as well.  Comments are enabled on the Infographics posts, so you are welcome to post any comments on what you like or don’t like about them, and hopefully this new area will become as popular as the rest!

Graphics, Hardware, Science, Website infographics

I wanted to take a minute to thank all of you, the VizWorld Readers, for continuing to visit the site, send in tips, and comment!

Yesterday, Compete.com posted their latest figures and I’m amazed to see how well we’re doing! (We’re the blue line).  Granted, these numbers are statistical and far from the real numbers of traffic on VizWorld, but still a great sign that we must be doing something right to keep you coming back.

Again, thanks for reading and look forward to hearing from more of you!

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Wanted to let everyone know about a few changes you may not been aware of here on VizWorld.  I’ve upgraded to a bigger slice, and tweaked a few server parameters that should both drop page loadtimes and improve performance all around.  Also, I’ve changed the Ad-Serving system to something a little less invasive and easier for me to manage.

Most notably there are a few changes to Comments. After some prodding by ‘Anon’, I’ve modifying how Comments are handled here on VizWorld.  I’ve been using the services of BackType to import tweets, reddit comments, and others as comments here on Vizworld.  Several other major sites do this under the heading of ‘Reactions’, while I left them integrated into the Comment stream.  It proved a bit misleading, so I’ve finally succeeded in making similar changes here.  Comments imported via BackType will not appear in the “Recent Comments” block on the sidebar, nor will they appear by default in the comment thread.  There is a new ‘tab’ labeled ‘Reactions; where you can see all of that traffic, if you like.  Here’s an example:

Also, I’ve integrated the RPX Social Widget.  As you already know, RPX powers the ability for you to login and post comments using your Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, and OpenID credentials (amongst many more).  Now, after you post a comment, you’ll see a popup allowing you to share your comment and a link to the story on your social networks with the simple click of a button.

In addition to that, another change you’ll see coming soon is new Categories!  Primarily, we will still have the 3 big categories of Science, Hardware, and Graphics.  Soon, I plan to create several “Sub-categories” under these three to further describe stories like Infographics, Video Cards, Displays, Algorithms, Research, VFX.  Hopefully this will all keep things more organized and make it easier for you to find what interests you most.

I hope you all enjoy the changes, and keep your eyes opened for several more in the coming weeks.  Post your thoughts in the comments, and try out the new RPX Social Widget features!

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Follow on Google Buzz

While the jury is still out on whether Google Buzz will redefine the internet and social media, or fizzle into the plethora of social media options, the buzz on buzz is too big to ignore.  You’ve probably already noticed the neat little “Buzz This” buttons accompanying posts, and those of you using Buzz can now subscribe to our Google Buzz feed.  Simply head on over to http://www.google.com/profiles/vizworld00 and you can see our latest stories and comment on them right there!

So far the only real “plus” I’ve seen about Google Buzz is that it combines the immediacy of Twitter with the conversation threading of FriendFeed, all the while removing the 140-character limit.  So check it out, let us know what you think.

Website buzz, google, social media, Website

I’ve already updated the source article, but yesterday’s story about the Apple A4 processor being an ARM Cortex A9 & Mali is incorrect, it seems. I’ve been contacted by a very reputable source that it’s something different, although the exact details are being withheld for just a few more days.  They assure me they will publish the information soon, and I’ll share it with you guys then.

Just posting it here for main-page readers and RSS Subscribers.

Hardware, Website apple, arm, ipad

I almost missed it, but last Friday was the 1-year anniversary of VizWorld’s first post! From our humble beginnings, discussing the VFX of Benjamin Button,we’ve grown to the site you see now.  Also, Saturday’s special feature on Education in Second Life marked our 3000th story here on VizWorld, as well as over 2,800 comments.

Thanks to all of you for helping to make us a success, and we hope to see you more in the following year!

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Our coverage of yesterday’s article on PCPro’s impression of Second Life garnered far more attention than we expected, and as such we are going to being our own investigation into Second Life to see what the story is.  However, I’m somewhat new (My last login was 2 years ago) so we need help from you!

We need information from you, the Second Life community, on:

• Where to go
• When to go
• What to check out
• What to avoid at all costs

Also, if you’re up for it, we’ld like some answers to a few questions:

1. Where do you login from (Country), and what time (and specify the time-zone)?
2. About how many people do you usually interact with in a session?
3. If you run an SL business, have revenues been increasing or decreasing?
4. If you run an SL business, has the number of customers been increasing or decreasing?

The actual feature will be a few days out, as we need to gather data on user trends and get a general feel for the space.  One complaint many of you had was that the original author only spent a few hours on a single day at non-peak times.  I hope to do better!  Simply post your answers in the comments (consider it free advertising if you run an SL business), or send them to us directly via the means in our About Page.

So, let us know.. What’s up in Second Life?

Note: I’ll be creating a new user account specifically for VizWorld.  Check back tonight for details necessary to contact me.

Update: Logged in now as “Vizworld Titanium”.

Website feature, secondlife, virtual worlds

Just wanted to let you all know that there’s been a few “under-the-hood” changes here at VizWorld.  I’ve loaded a new Caching system that should improve page-load times significantly, and I’ve made a few changes to the Meebo Bar that should hopefully fix the crashes a few people were reporting yesterday.

So, take a look around and see how things work now.  If you find anything broken or just “not quite right”, post in the comments and let us know!

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Wow.. I just performed some routine monthly maintenance here and noticed that, for the first time since launching, VizWorld.com broke 1-million pageviews for the month of December 2009. Amazing!

We want to thank all of you for helping to end 2009 on such a high note!  Continue to check back as we keep breaking news in 2010.

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