Blogging

YouTube nets a perfect 1:1 gender ratio of users, however your browser history might be another story.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Mike Nolet of blog Mike on Ads has put together a fun little diversion that gives your browser history a quick once over and cross reference it with sites on the Quancast top 1000. Using the gender ratio on each site (according to Quancast) it will cobble together an overall percentage of what sex it thinks you are based on those results.

Not surprisingly most of us in the office, including my colleague Erica Ogg have come up as male, with many tech sites having higher ratios of male users. The tool will give you a complete run down of all the sites that popped up, along with their respective ratios. It’s pretty fun to go through them and see the estimated make-up of each place–you might be surprised.

In case you’re worried about your browsing history being used for evil, Nolet insists he’s not doing anything with the data. Many users have left their true genders and the tool’s guess in the comments below Nolet’s post. The general consensus is that if you visit many popular tech sites you’ll be pinned under the male persuasion. Visiting some sites with higher female to male ratios like TMZ and Livejournal will swing your overall percentage the other direction.

Note: the tool runs a little slow in Internet Explorer, so if you’re having problems switch over to Firefox or Opera.

Read the rest here:
Browser history analyzer figures out your gender

YouTube nets a perfect 1:1 gender ratio of users, however your browser history might be another story.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Mike Nolet of blog Mike on Ads has put together a fun little diversion that gives your browser history a quick once over and cross-references it with sites on the Quancast top 1000. Using the gender ratio on each site (according to Quancast) it will cobble together an overall percentage of what gender it thinks you are based on those results.

Not surprisingly most of us in the office, including my colleague Erica Ogg, have come up as male, with many tech sites having higher ratios of male users. The tool will give you a complete rundown of all the sites that popped up, along with their respective ratios. It’s pretty fun to go through them and see the estimated makeup of each place–you might be surprised.

In case you’re worried about your browsing history being used for evil, Nolet insists he’s not doing anything with the data. Many users have left their true genders and the tool’s guess in the comments below Nolet’s post. The general consensus is that if you visit many popular tech sites you’ll be pinned under the male persuasion. Visiting some sites with higher female-to-male ratios like TMZ and Livejournal will swing your overall percentage the other direction.

Note: The tool runs a little slow in Internet Explorer, so if you’re having problems switch over to Firefox or Opera.

View original post here:
Browser history analyzer guesses your gender

Social networking game network Zynga has received $29 million in funding led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Institutional Venture Partners, and including funding from previous investors Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group and Avalon Ventures.

Zynga, based in San Francisco and started by Tribe social network founder Marc Pincus, also said in a statement that William Gordon, former chief creative officer of Electronic Arts, is also joining Zynga’s board.

The start-up announced an initial funding round of $10 million in January from investors including Union Square Ventures, Reid Hoffman and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

Zynga’s games include poker that allows players to send virtual drinks to friends and Scramble, a word game.

Zynga, which boasts 18 million monthly visitors and 450,000 new users a day, makes money through ads and selling customers add-ons to the games.

Excerpted from:
Zynga gets $29 million VC funding

Java-based massive multiplayer online game RuneScape on Monday is increasing its detail level for all users. It’s the second major graphical overhaul the service has undergone since launching in 2001 and is noticeably better than previous iterations.

Part of that change is the further utilization of the player hardware, which has made considerable improvements over the years due to GPU-intensive operating systems like Windows Vista and OS X Leopard. Runescape HD doesn’t need a $400 graphics card, though it’ll play on any machine with a 64MB 3D Graphics card or an equivalent thereof. Players also need a 1.5GHZ or faster processor with 256MB of RAM. Basically, if you can run iTunes, you’ll be able to play this.

Geoff Iddison, CEO of parent company Jagex, tells me that one other benefit of the graphical jump is that players are now able to play the game in full screen. Previously, they had to view it in a window within their Web browser, which he says killed some of the immersion. Users who are feeling nostalgic can still jump back to the old version at any time, a feature the company is planning to keep around until higher-end hardware has become ubiquitous.

The service pulls in about 6 million unique active users a month with more than a million of those users buying into the $5 monthly subscription service. Iddison says that the percentage of paying members has made the experience possible for the free users, who see on-screen ads to supplement their time. Paying users also get access to approximately 60 percent of the content that free users do not.

I’ve embedded a comparison video of old and new below, although it’s in YouTube, which kills some of the graphical differences.

More here:
Java-based MMOG RuneScape goes HD

My favorite thing about open platforms that allow third party developers to run wild is when those independent programmers actually do. Jeffrey Grossman wrote a free native application called Movies.app that revolves around movie listings and offers everything from from a straightforward, yet sophisticated lookup by movie or theater to a crisp, clear preview on the phone.

(Credit: iTunes)

Grossman wisely included the other essential information that every moviegoer may want or need, including supporting information on IMDB, a lists of popular movies currently in theaters, and another list of shows coming to theaters soon (first up is Dark Knight). There’s also a way to buy tickets on the spot through the iPhone brand of Movietickets.com, and complete Google-powered maps and directions. The only things missing are user reviews and stars for theaters with the best popcorn.

Note: Movies.app currently provides listings for U.S. theaters only. All users may watch trailers and read up on opening flicks.

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Find a silver screen from your iPhone screen