The super-high resolution shots that Google were taking of Sydney this Australia day are now online on Google Maps:

Queenscliff Bay, Shark Bay, Bondi Beach, Manly Beach, Luna Park, North Bondi, A Helicopter, Tall Ship, Fort Denison, Circular Quay.

Unfortunately they couldn’t get photos of everywhere they wanted due to air traffic control restrictions, and some people aren’t happy with the results.  Because they plane either couldn’t go where it was going to, or got there later there probably won’t be as much of the deliberate showing off that was expected. Although there is some.

Dell computers launched Dell IdeaStorm, a forum where you can suggest improvements to the Dell product line and vote on other’s suggestions.  There’s no real surprise about what the top five suggestions are:

1. Pre-Installed Linux | Ubuntu | Fedora | OpenSUSE | Multi-Boot
2. Pre-Installed OpenOffice | alternative to MS Works & MS Office
3. linux laptop
4. NO EXTRA SOFTWARE OPTION (clean Vista install)
5. Have Firefox pre-installed as default browser

These are the same things that people have been asking Dell to do for ages, and it looks like this time they may actually be listening.  The question on my mind is: Does this have anything to do with the departure of Kevin Rollins.  If Dell is now going to embrace their customer base rather than just putting them through Hell they may be able to restore some of the shine to their reputation in the tech marketplace.

Tom Werner has opened up the new Gravatar site to a public beta.  For the uninitiated a Gravatar is a Globally Recognised Avatar, i.e. an image that can be used anywhere you are.  So, for sites that implement it, if you comment on a blog, or post in a forum your Gravatar image will be used.

The site is completely new. It’s a much simpler site than previously, in fact as far as the users area is concerned, it’s really only one page: My Gravatars.  From this page you can add and remove email addresses and images.

If you already had one setup before, it will show that, otherwise after signing up, you can add a new one. 

The standard, free account only allows for one email and image.  There is also a paid service (US$10 / year) which gives you:

• Unlimited emails on your account (free accounts only get one)
• Unlimited gravatars on your account (free accounts only get one)
• Access to all future premium features for the duration of your subscription (and there will be plenty)!

There is also a page with a pretty comprehensive list of ways to implement the Gravatar API, including the WordPress Gravatar plugin that I use on this site.

It’s a good redesign.  Tom has avoided the recent trend towards gratuitously blinging up sites with clutter, and he’s used a nice AJAX interface that makes administering the Gravatar pretty smooth. If you haven’t before, I recommend you sign up now & get yourself gravatared.

Recruit.net has just launched it’s Australian job search site.  Their listings seem to come from a combination of the major job sites like MyCareer & Seek as well as listings directly from advertisers & companies.  It’s a nice looking site with a fairly decent interface, but that’s not what’s interesting.  What I found on their site was their Job Index Trends.  By filling in the form you can compare the trends of job listings for the keywords you enter and the cities and/or regions you select.

So you can see the difference between the major programming languages. Java is still killing everything else in Australia, but the .NET languages are gaining, while Java is dropping.  Also as that graph shows, if you take .NET as a whole, it’s outstripped Java.

For this one we’ve got the job listing trends for the various major database systems.  Surprisingly enough (well, surprising to me anyway) Oracle is still a fair way ahead, with SQL Server coming in a not-too-far-off second.  However this may be misleading, because I’ve seen a fair few listings that want SQL Server, but just refer to it as SQL.

Now before anyone jumps up and down about their favourite language/db not ranking highly enough, it should be noted that this data is by no means:

• comprehensive,
• peer-reviewed or
• indicative of language/db quality or even usage in the industry

They’re just some interesting stats, especially for those in the job market, or for prospective employers looking to see what the market is doing.  Also it’s a great example of a company providing data to the community for free as a service.