• Dork Adore round up the best gadgets from CES 2010
• Electric Pig bring the Top 5 computers
• The Guardian’s Bobbie Johnson says size matters as CES
• V3.co.uk have a little post-show recap
• The Telegraph picks their Top 10 gadgets
• T3 give their tech predictions
• Crunch Gear say ‘Goodbye, CES’ with their review edition blog
• PC mag provide a photo gallery of the event
• CNET review portable media at CES

Best of the rest:

• Freesale Unveils 7-inch Smartbook Tablet

• BBC’s Future Squad predict the gadgets of the future

• Are the days of netbooks over? Pocket Lint’s editor gives his opinion

• Technology the BBC loved in 2009

• Guardian’s top 30 apps for the arts

• Engadget reviews Toshiba mini NB305

• Samsung announce four new N-Series netbooks

• TechRadar presents 10 handy URL shortening sites

• Rotten Tomatoes unloaded onto Flixster by News Corp., as reported by TechCrunch

• Dating site expels 5,000 members for Christmas weight gain

• Will 2010 mark the year of the tablet? Telegraph reports from CES in Las Vegas

Tiger’s Been Cheatin:

Tiger Woods voicemail slow jam remix:

Tiger Woods Christmas Song Parody

Tiger Woods: Saturday Night Live spoof

Chinese TV animated reenactment:

It’s fascinating how women and web are portrayed. Shock horror “Figures gathered for The Times by Nielsen, the market research firm, show that just over half of all social-networking users in the UK are women.”

Isn’t that because a large majority of the population are in fact women? – and **further shock horror and perhaps swooning** most women are actually allowed to use computers nowadays; indeed, it’s not just saucepans that us females are familiar with.

I wasn’t getting along with this article from the opening summary of the golden age of the internet: “Social-networking sites, like much of the internet, were once a playground for young men. They were drowning in obscure jargon, long rants and, of course, pornography. But nowadays, it is a growing brigade of thirty- and fortysomethings who are behind their extraordinary growth.”

I’m surprised that the web ever caught on, what with all the pornography, long rants and obscure jargon. How did we ever rescue social-networking from this fathomless pit of male transgression?

Founder of Ladygeek blog, Belinda Parmar, is quoted as saying, “Women have a ‘tend and befriend’ mentality.

“It’s due to the hormone oxytocin. Social media is all about connections,” Belinda continued, “For men its about being in a leadership position, competitive advantage.

“It’s a ‘fight or flight’ mentality down to their levels of testosterone.”

Wow. So the internet is no longer being controlled by pornography-obsessed, ranting men, it’s controlled by the hormonal patterns of women. Hmmm. Maybe long rants and obscure jargon will continue to thrive on the internet after all. Just at a certain time of the month…

Essential viewing for male web users world-web-wide:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCwKbUVyHLY]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7NT3BrrsaQ&feature=player_embedded]

 As Popsci.com reports: “a team of computer scientists at the University of Washington’s Graphics and Imaging Laboratory assembled digital models of three cities - Rome, Venice, and the Croatian coastal city of Dubrovnik - in 3D. Their work builds on the algorithms used in Microsoft’s Photosynth, which were invented at the same lab.

Each video includes clusters of small diamond shapes, which represent each photographer and his or her vantage point.

The team built a new algorithm that proceeds in two steps — first, by matching the photos by what they had in common, puzzle-style, and then by determining the scene and each photographer’s pose. They also designed new software that can more quickly solve the type of large math problems that exist in 3D reconstruction.

It took 500 computer processors 13 hours to match 150,000 photos for Rome’s landmarks, and eight more hours to construct a 3D image of them. Venice involved 250,000 images, which took 27 hours to match and 38 hours to reconstruct. By contrast, using the algorithms on which Photosynth is based, it would have taken 500 processors at least a year to match 250,000 photos.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQegEro5Bfo&feature=player_embedded]

So remember, when in Rome…do as the Americans do: take pictures and you may contribute to large scale 3D images.

Gossiping at the school gate has been stepped up by the government. The children’s secretary, Ed Balls, is launching a new social networking site for parents – a “virtual school gate” for every secondary school in England this week, as the BBC reported today.

The Guardian reported:

The new social networking site – which will enable parents to communicate in a system based on the Netmums website for new mums – was ordered by the children’s secretary, Ed Balls.

Those considering a school for their child will be able to contact the parents of pupils already learning there to find out more about it.

Parents will be able to share advice and information about education, contact teachers and check whether children are telling the truth about the amount of money they need for lunch, the homework they have been set and coursework deadlines.

The scheme has raised concerns over parents spreading gossip about teachers. While the platform may be a good way of parents staying connected to school activity instead of relying upon their incommunicative children, it raises questions about whether social media is enhancing or curbing social skills?

Here are my ideas for other social networking platforms (some of which already exist):

Girls Night Online

Forget the girls’ night in, just go online and chat about all the fun and gossip that could be had

Over the hedge

Remove the need to chat to your neighbour by signing in. Forum topics could include ‘Have you seen the size of Mrs. Lines’s knickers hanging on the washing line?’, ‘Was it you who stole my milk?’, ‘Isn’t it terrible the post arrives so late?’ and ‘When is the next bin day?’ Try NeighboursUnited or LocalConnections

Virtual club doorway

The perfect space to swap people-watching observations and jeer at queue pushers – why bother with the hassle of going out at all?

Students’ ‘morning after the night before’

Discuss last night’s antics with the rest of your housemates from the comfort of your bed, without even having to brave-face it to the scummy kitchen table.

Beyond web accessibility, this proves that technology is fast adapting to the needs of all users.

Adverts, pop-ups, flashing images: web clutter. Sometimes visiting a web page is more like attending a virtual fairground than accessing information. But I’ve discovered a new way get straight to the core of web page content: Textise.

A clever little web tool. Textise has many uses -

• It can improve accessibility for the blind and partially-sighted.
• It creates pages that are better for printing when it’s just the words you’re after.
• It allows safer navigation to suspicious web-sites.
• It can make cluttered pages easier to read.
• It can show you what a search engine sees when it scans a web page.
• It can show you what a screen reader sees when it processes a web page.
• It can help with web research.

As ijaar.com points out, Textise has other uses too: “Your friend sent you a link but you are not sure if it is safe to open at work? Well, Textise can help you to make it relatively safer to check out.” You can even get Textise as an add-on for Firefox.

It seems for the all the internet’s tech-savvy advances and interactive flash content, sometimes there’s a need to go back to basics and get straight to the point – straight to the important information.

Moreover, Textise highlights the importance of web accessibility, not only for increasing SEO – as discussed by Creare Group in their vlog (below) – but in making websites useable by people of all abilities and disabilities; those with partial-sight, or even those prone to seizures from flashing effects, rely upon web tools and software to use the internet.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an7Y_0nB3h4]

Other tools include:

Screen reader – reads out text using synthesized speech

Screen magnification – increases size of print for partially-sighted

Speech recognition – accepts spoken commands to the computer

In 1999, the Web Accessibility Initiative was set up, led by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and they produced Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0). Unfortunately, the WAI guidelines have been criticised for being out of step with today’s technologies and techniques for creating and consuming web content.

Joe Clark has even produced WCAG Samurai: an unofficial set of errata in reponse to the WCAG 1.0 shortfalls.

The need to address the disparity between web accessibility and the advances in technology is discussed by Brian Kelly from UKOLN (a national centre expertise in digital information management based at the University of Bath, UK) in his talk titled ‘From Web Accessibility To Web Adaptability’ given as part of RNIB’s Techshare 2009 conference last week.

Brian Kelly coined the term Web Adaptability, which attempts to support the  “interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others”

[slideshare id=1881012&doc=web-adaptability-090819092258-phpapp01]

More than using Textise for ease of printing web pages and ensuring safe navigation (or disguising surfing the web during work hours), this web tool proves that web accessibility is something that should be incorporated into all web sites and pages to bring the latest technology up-to-date with equality achievements beyond the World Wide Web.

You have been Textised!

Semantic web technology will be used to reconnect Colombians who have been displaced by the country’s conflicts involving armed guerrilla groups or drug cartels, as the BBC reports.

The technology’s ability to understand large amounts of data – and make connections – is a big step for the world wide web.