If you’re interested in beta testing the upcoming Windows Home Server, Microsoft has opened registration for the second beta release.  To be able to run the beta you’ll need to have at least 2 computers, one of which you can dedicate to Home Server. Minimum specs are 512+ MB RAM, 80+ GB hard disk space, 1+ Ghz Processor and can boot from a DVD drive. You’ll also need a broadband connection. 

To enter, fill out this form.

[via Hanselman]

File this one under why-didn’t-I-think-of-that?

Moxia Energy, a renewable & portable energy company, have come up with a line of batteries that are rechargeable by USB called USBCell.  That is, they have a built in USB plug that will draw the power to recharge itself.

Currently there is only a AA version available, but they claim that they will soon have AAA, C & D sizes available, as well as 9V and phone batteries. 

The AA are a sealed Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery, and surprisingly, weigh about the same as a standard battery.  In fact at 22g they’re 6g lighter than the Energizer NH15-1700 rechargeable, but also 400mAh less capacity, but 1300 mAh should be fine to power most devices that require AAs.

They charge to 90%+ charge in about 5.3 hours on USB, and then pulse charge after that.  If you absolutely need it to be full, a standard 250ma NiMH battery charger can be used (~7 hours). 

If you buy from their website they have free delivery to Europe, USA, Canada, New Zealand and most importantly, Australia. There are a few local retailers carrying them in the UK, but not in Australia or anywhere else for that matter yet. Probably will be soon though.

They sell for £11.49 in the UK (about AU$28.70). You can get a standard pack of 4 rechargeable NiMH batteries here for about AU$16. So for now you’re looking at about AU$14 per USBCell battery as opposed to AU$4 for a normal rechargeable NiMH. I imagine this price will drop though as demand increases and more retailers pick them up.

[via Web Worker Daily]

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.

With deference to Ted Stevens, Yahoo has released a service they’re calling Yahoo Pipes.  It’s a visual editor for creating mashups using sources from other websites.  It’s kind of difficult to explain what you do, Jeremy Zawodny has a good post on it, but the best thing to do would be to go have a look at the examples and then give it a go.

There’s also an extensive article by Tim O’Reilly, who thinks this new service is revolutionary.

Yahoo!’s new Pipes service is a milestone in the history of the internet. It’s a service that generalizes the idea of the mashup, providing a drag and drop editor that allows you to connect internet data sources, process them, and redirect the output. Yahoo! describes it as “an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator” that allows you to “create feeds that are more powerful, useful and relevant.” While it’s still a bit rough around the edges, it has enormous promise in turning the web into a programmable environment for everyone.

So. Very. Cool. You have the ability to drag & drop modules onto the pipe. You not only draw from RSS feeds but also submit form requests and then pass the response from that to another module for further processing.  Then the whole thing can be output as a feed or HTML.  Filter the internet, generate results from what you want in the way you want to.

There are somewhat similar services out there, like GData & Swivel, but this is amazing, you need to check it out.

Apparently this has been happening since last year & I just didn’t hear anything about it.  The Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) is going to be merged into the Federal Attorney General’s Office by July 2007.  All staff & authority relating to policy have already been moved over, the remainder of the functions to be merged by 1 July 2007.

Despite public perception, and it’s name, the OFLC was/is not responsible for the actual classification of films, computer games and some publications.  That is done by the Classification Board and subsequntly reviewed by the Classification Review Board.  The legislation for classification is set down by an agreement between the Federal Government and the states and territories. Also the classification boards are not responsible for regulating the Internet, radio or television, this is covered by the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and governed by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.  Music is covered by the Recorded Music Labelling Code of Practice [pdf] jointly managed by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and the Australian Music Retailers Association (AMRA).

Confused yet?

The OFLC is basically an administrative support agency for the other two classification boards.  Makes sense that this would be rolled into the Attorny General’s ’s office; I can’t see why we need yet another layer of bureaucracy.

The Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment Bill 2006 [pdf] outlines the changes:

• facilitate the abolition of the Office of Film and Literature Classification
  fold OFLC’s administrative and policy functions into the Attorney-
  Department
• remove agency management powers and financial responsibilities from
  the Classification Board
• ensure the Convenor of the Classification Review Board and the
  Classification Board have equivalent functions and powers regarding
  Boards, and
• streamline the film classification process by fast-tracking the classification
  additional content released with already classified or exempt films.

 Sounds good, but whether it results in any practical changes to policy & procedure remains to be seen.