Four short links: 29 May 2009

Freedom for OS X -- Mac app that disables networking for up to eight hours so you can get work done without Internet distractions. Technology workarounds for meatware bugs. (via Joshua-Michèle Ross). iPhone Casts a Giant Shadow on the Web -- 43% of mobile web traffic is from iPhone users, as measured by "the world's largest purveyor of ads... http://tinyurl.com/n8cssh

Maker Faire Opens Saturday

Maker Faire is here again, our fourth annual event in the Bay Area. Once again, you just won't believe how much there is to see and do at Maker Faire. Makers were busy today setting up on Friday. In the morning, we had 400 kids visit the fairgrounds for a backstage tour and a chance to spend time with dozens... http://ping.fm/3QM6Z

Ignite Show: Hillel Cooperman on the Lego Undrground

Some people never grow up. Some people wait to have children so that they can become kids again. When Hillel Coopermans's young ones were four he began his family's Lego collection. This led to whole rooms being devoted to the hobby, to eBay auctions, and Leog conventions. In this week's Ignite Show Hillel takes us through the Lego Underground.... http://ping.fm/JaX4r

Amazon Hosts TIGER Mapping Data

Last week at Ignite Where Eric Gundersen of Development Seed made a significant announcement for geohackers looking for easy access to open geodata. Amazon will be hosting a copy of TIGER data on EC2 as an EBS (Elastic Block Storage). Eric stated that this happened during the Apps For America contest in 2008 when they need open geo data... http://ping.fm/yAvnI

Google I/O in Pictures: Google Culture at Work

I had a few miscellaneous notes on Google I/O that I wanted to share, including a few anthropological observations best made with pictures. I thought it was really interesting that there were more registration lines for Academia than there were for general admission. Google knows the same truth as Apple, that students are the future. They are making it really... http://ping.fm/iWoqt

Ignite NYC IV & The First Ignite Film Festival This Monday

On Monday, June 1st we will be kicking off Internet Week with an Ignite at the New World Stages. Tikva Morowati and I are co-hosting. Ignite NYC IV is proudly co-presented by the team at Web 2.0 Expo, a conference and expo bringing together the best and brightest in the Web 2.0 universe to show the world how the... http://ping.fm/oFaU3

Google Wave: the Early Days

After the press conference following this morning's keynotes, I was part of a small group conversation with Lars Rasmussen, head of the Google Wave team. He told the story of how they pitched Sergey Brin on the Wave project. "We'd worked on our message," he said, "and we boiled it down to this: 'We think we have an idea that... http://ping.fm/7g9XP