Google will pay “up to $10” for collecting data for a local business! This is great, I was very impressed when Google started taking pictures of streets in major cities like New York City (see here). Now Google is taking one step further and adding to it’s large information database, the goal of the program is to essentially expand the popular Google Maps application. It’s $2 for each successful submission that Google approves and $8 when the local business that you canvassed approves of the information being accurate.

“As a Google Business Referral Representative, you’ll visit local businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords. You’ll also take a few digital photos of the business that will appear on the Google Maps listing along with the business information. After the visit, you submit the business’ info and photo(s) to Google through your Local Business Referrals Center, and we’ll pay you up to $10 for each listing that is approved by Google and verified by the business.”

I’m a canvasser for NYPIRG so this job should be easy for me, the only difference between this and canvassing for NYPIRG is that the complete rates will be a lot higher, you will get more “YES” and you get to work when you want! I already knock on hundreds of residential homes a week so this won’t even phase me! I’m not saying this to say NYPIRG isn’t a good job, in fact, it’s the best job I’ve ever had!

So go ahead sign up! Also see the FAQ’s. It looks like anyone can make lots of money doing this!

New stylish sleek design, that’s the description from the visuals of the Apple iMac announced today. I have to say it’s not much different than the mock-ups that were recently rendered. I noticed that Apple is again moving the design away from it’s simple white polish and moving towards the brushed metal and black theme. This iMac almost looks like an iPhone, in fact it looks better than the iPhone. It also comes with an ultra thin keyboard that almost looks like a piece of metal cardboard (this is the new keyboards that have been rumored as well). The new thin keyboard now features a on/off button to it’s top right hand side which is very convenient.

The design is awesome (5 out of 5 stars) but the technology is just as impressive!

Intel Core 2 Duo processor

All iMac models feature advanced dual-core Intel processors along with other improvements that pump up the performance. Learn more

Glossy widescreen display

Your photos, movies, and games will come to life with richer, more vivid colors. Choose from 20- and 24-inch widescreen displays. Learn more

Built-in wireless

Banish the clutter. The latest 802.11 Wi-Fi networking and Bluetooth technologies come standard with every iMac. Learn more

Advanced graphics

New ATI Radeon HD graphics deliver a stunning visual environment with more vivid, lifelike images. Learn more

Built-in iSight camera

The high-quality camera is so neatly integrated, you’ll hardly notice it’s there. Learn more

More storage and memory

Now you have more room for your video and photo collections. And iMac now supports up to 4GB of memory. Learn more

Connections and ports

iMac has all the ports you need for your USB, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800 devices. Learn more

SuperDrive

The slot-loading SuperDrive lets you play and burn your own CDs and DVDs. Learn more

Apple has really taken over the computing market in terms of sleekness and design. Damn I want this so bad. But if I’m going to get a Mac, I’d wait till after October so they can come pre-installed with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Oh and other news, iLife 08 and iWorks 08 has also been announced and is shipping now! Apple fan boys haven’t always been good at guessing how unreleased products will look like, but this time it was pretty close. Take a look at this incredible mock-up!

Mock-up Video

More information about these 3 new products announced today, visit of course, Apple.com.

What a surprise, well not really. SunRocket is shutting down it’s doors and announced Monday that it will begin the process of transporting the current 200,000 subscribers to other VoIP companies. How did this happen? I have no idea, 200,000 subscribers is defiantly sufficient enough to make a profit. Below is a message from SunRocket’s website.

After significant effort by the Company to avoid this result, SunRocket is in the process of discontinuing its operations as you know it. Therefore SunRocket will no longer be able to provide its customers with the phone service that its customers have been accustomed to.

However, two service providers are assisting and offering to provide SunRocket customers the opportunity to sign up for their services. Both providers have agreed to become preferred providers with special pricing for the SunRocket customers to enable them to migrate their telephone service. Of course, there are other providers and each individual customer can make their own decision as to which carrier they wish to transition to.

Emails to the SunRocket customers are currently being sent with more detailed information on how to sign up with the two service providers. The email address of the SunRocket customers that is on record is the address being used to send emails to the customers.

We realize this is a very difficult and uncertain period for the SunRocket customers. With these two preferred providers, the customers will have the opportunity to transfer telephone services.

An affiliate of Sherwood Partners, LLC is managing the process as the Assignee for the benefit of creditors.

Creditors to SunRocket will receive a notice within the next 30 days in regards to the general assignment and for the filing of claims in the liquidation process of SunRocket.

With SunRocket as a competitor out of the way, it means good news for the other VoIP companies. Currently, Vontage, Packet8 and ViaTalk have contract buyout specials targeting former SunRocket customers. They all look like pretty awesome deals but at this point it’s either impress or loose potential customers.

Problems and hassles include number porting if you want to keep the same phone number as you had with SunRocket, most likely you’d want to do that because customers had ported that number from their landlines and have had it for many years. The FCC regulations make porting a long process and said to take about 4 weeks for porting to complete. When I switched from Verizon to ViaTalk, porting took about a month. Until then, I had a temporary number which was inconvenient. I personally think that Google could have acquired it and prevented them from shutting down seeing as how they recently acquired GrandCentral, a startup telephony service.

So in a nutshell, SunRocket is gone, make way for new customers VoIP world!

Wow, great, finally something awesome in the video gaming world besides the actual release of Rockstar’s GTA IV, which I think will be the hottest GTA ever! You know how they have the crazy radio stations on GTA the game? Well now you have a chance to be one of those crazy callers on Laslo’s talk show.

What you have to do is call this number: 212-360-2368 and wait for the beep and start to record your own little random things to say. Once that’s done, Rockstar will screen all the calls and pick out the ones they feel is the most funniest and random calls of all and put them in the actual video game coming out this November for Xbox 360 and soon after for the PC.

So yeah, go ahead and give them a call, tell them whats wrong with American society, bitch about the girl next door, yell the guy down the block out for kicking your dog!

Just 3 days late to report the release of the iPhone. Going through Digg and other social networking sites, I’ve learned a lot about the news surrounding the release of the iPhone. Heard of some places being sold out but Apple did a good job with it’s stock supplies. Other AT&T retailers forcing buyers of the iPhone to also purchase at least two accessories or else no sale, what a gimmick! A report on Fox news about this lady who purchased her way to being first on line to buy the iPhone only to get there and learning that store policy is only one per customer. Her plan was to buy like a couple and make a profit on eBay. Stupid women!

Anyway, about the iPhone itself, I don’t think it’s that hot at all. I mean, it has many cool things such as the full HTML browsing, Google Maps, YouTube videos, and iPod features but it’s also lacking in other areas which a phone should have like full Bluetooth features and not just for the headset. I also saw the PCWorld Stress test for the iPhone and the unit is pretty sturdy, I was dropped a couple of times on the cement floor and it has a virtually scratch proof screen which is nice unlike the iPod predecessors.

This is iPhone version 1.0. Imagine the future iPhones. I mean look at the iPod 1st generation, and look at the 5th generation, this is history in the making right here!

Overall Average Good Rating From Apple.

Wow, so I was just on Digg today after coming home from work and I found out that Google Maps now has Street View technology. This is awesome technology! You can click anywhere on Google maps at certain big cities like NYC or LA and they would have a 360 degree view of the street at the exact location where you clicked! You really do have to check it out for yourself to understand how great this is.

This is probably in Beta stages now even though it wasn’t mentioned because the images generate kind of slow and I’m sure Google is working on that to fix that issue. But anyhow, WOW, this is so great! It also looks like these images were pretty recent which is defiantly cool for digital mapping technology.

Haha, I wonder how long they took to canvass the areas! Check it out here!

Stony Books, a bookstore that overcharges on text books for Stony Brook University students have new competition on the net! Facebook’s Marketplace is a new service that allows anyone from their own school network to sell, buy, request items such as textbooks. Too bad Stony Books had bad customer service all this time, maybe students will go back if they were nicer. Go Facebook! It’s like an effective local eBay. No more shipping! Whoo!

Here are some comments from Stony Book goers on Yahoo!:

I called Stony Books to find out their price on an organic chemistry textbook. A man picks up the phone and replies its ” 100 something.” I ask ” Do you know the exact price?” And he replies I don’t know its “100 something.” He can’t use his own time to find out the price. And not only that he sounded very rushy and rude as if he wanted to hang up the phone as soon as possible. They may have cheap books, but don’t expect quality service from them.

The books are excellent, however, the staff is rude. I had accidentally purchased a book not listed with the class (I gave them the course number, they gave me the stack of books). I realized the next day, but they refused to take the book back. The sales person called me a liar, laughed in my face, walked away from me whenever I tried to speak, and made rude comments about me being “arrogant.” I mailed a complaint which was never answered.
Make sure you check over your list before you leave, and don’t trust them to give you the right books. I have never been spoken to like this before in a store, and I will never use them again.

I hope you run out of business Stony Books, no more buying our used books for a little more than nothing!

UPDATE!!***
Stony Books sends me an email that looks a little like this:

Tony,

We would like you to take this entry off. We will do fine. If you have any problems, contact us directly about it.

Stony Books

HAHAHAHA!

Gmail is again and again proving itself to be the best web based email service since email was introduced to the world! This time, they have a Gmail Free Paper version of your email that can be sent to you through snail mail.

Everyone loves Gmail. But not everyone loves email, or the digital era. What ever happened to stamps, filing cabinets, and the mailman? Well, you asked for it, and it’s here. We’re bringing it back.

A New Button
Now in Gmail, you can request a physical copy of any message with the click of a button, and we’ll send it to you in the mail.

Simplicity Squared
Google will print all messages instantly and prepare them for delivery. Allow 2-4 business days for a parcel to arrive via post.

Total Control
A stack of Gmail Paper arrives in a box at your doorstep, and it’s yours to keep forever. You can read it, sort it, search it, touch it. Or even move it to the trash—the real trash. (Recycling is encouraged.)

Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe
Google takes privacy very seriously. But once your email is physically in your hands, it’s as secure as you want to make it.

I checked for the feature but as of now, it is still something to look forward too!

APRIL FOOLS! 

China as some of us know it has a restricted internet. Many websites are blocked from internet users in China because of the information available to the public the Chinese government do not want their citizens to see. I was shocked when I checked my own website URL and discovered that my website, my personal blog, is being blocked in China! I don’t promote anti-communism! Why!!?

This explains why my web tracking script, ClusterMaps did not pick up many visitors from China. At first, I thought it was because I didn’t reach out to the Chinese audience because my website was English but as a web developer, I also know that “if you build it, they would come”, yet not many visitors access my site from China. I think this is wrong and it should change but it is only getting worst as more and more sites are being blocked.

To check if your URL is blocked in China, visit GreatFirewallOfChina.org.

How about changing your DNS servers so it can block porn and other unsafe websites from being accessed on your computer? It can be done with ScrubIT! It works just like OpenDNS where you have to configure your DNS servers.

If you want to configure it manually, the DNS servers to use are:

67.138.54.100 and 207.225.209.66

“ScrubIT is a FREE recursive DNS server that regulates what comes into your home or business. ScrubIT “scrubs” the internet so you don’t have to be concerned about what your family members or employees will be confronted with.

We currently profile several million websites and by default block out any pornographic, phishing, and many other potentially harmful sites. Users who wish to customize which sites are blocked and allowed may sign up for our BETA and customize their ScrubIT experience.”

The service is of course free. See more about ScrubIt here!