Chat with as many people as you'd like, and video chat with up to four people at the same time, all in the same place with Orgoo chat.

Like the company’s multiclient e-mail and chat mashup, which I checked out back in September, it’s been designed with simplicity in mind and setup is about as easy as it gets. Users can privatize chat rooms simply by providing a password and can brand the room with a logo or photo from their hard drives.

After a room has been created, it will remain live even after all the members have left–all you need is the permalink and password to return to it later. The implementation reminds me a lot of MeBeam, an instant video-chat service we played with internally but never wrote about.

Orgoo, one of my favorite communication aggregation services, quietly launched a new video-chat service yesterday. It lets anyone create a text chat room with four spots for Web cam video and audio without any sort of registration or software besides Adobe’s Flash plug-in. I gave it a spin earlier today and came away impressed.

In terms of integration with Orgoo’s core service, which will likely open up from its current private beta later this month at the Under the Radar conference, the video chat simply takes up a new tab in between the e-mail and regular text-chat buddy list. It also inherits the right-click contextual menus that are often an overlooked, yet satisfying addition to Flash-based applications.

The video-chat app joins a slew of others including the aforementioned MeBeam, Tokbox, and ooVoo, along with the recently released Yahoo Live.

[via TechCrunch]

Digsby, the application that lets you view your instant-message, e-mail, and social-network accounts through one interface, opened up to the public on Thursday. Download Digsby for Windows from CNET Download.com.

Then there’s Fuser, which lets you view your e-mail and social-networking messages in one place, but doesn’t touch IM. And Orgoo integrates e-mail, IM, SMS (Short Message Service), video chat, and video mail.

(Credit:
Digsby)
The application also has support for popular micro-blogging application Twitter and allows real-time audio and video chat across IM networks through a partnership with TokBox. Oh, and it now offers inline spell check. WooHoo!

Other applications that enable you to manage multiple IM accounts include Trillian and Miranda, but Digsby goes a step further by integrating e-mail messages as well as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace communications.

Digsby first hit the scene in early February. It’s still in beta, but now you don’t need an invitation to use it.

• Employ systems that rank people by trust and reputation. For example, eBay shows how long a person has been a member and how satisfied others are with transactions with that person.

One blogger merely requires people to type the word “orange” into a field. “The vast majority of bots will never do that,” Cutts said.

• Reconfigure software settings after you’ve installed it. A little modification of various settings will throw bots off the scent. “If you can off the beaten path, away from default software installations, you’ll save yourself a ton of grief,” he said.

How? Forthwith, some tips for those who manage their own or others’ Web sites.

“Spammers are human,” Cutts said. “You have the power to raise their blood pressure. Make them spend more time and effort…If spammer gets frustrated, he’s more likely to look for someone easier.”

Matt Cutts, Google's lead engineer for combating Web spam, at the Web 2.0 Expo

• Don’t be afraid of legitimate purveyors of search-engine optimization services. “SEO is not spam. Google does not hate SEO,” Cutts said. “There are plenty of white-hat SEO (companies) who can help you out.”

Registering your Web site at Google’s Webmaster Central site can help find bogus search-engine optimization tricks others may use on your site, such as keywords written in white text on white backgrounds, he added.

SAN FRANCISCO–It’s no secret that spam now pollutes Web sites as well as e-mail in-boxes. But Web site operators can take actions to combat it, a Google expert in the area said Friday.

• Use captcha systems to make sure real people, not bots, are commenting on your site. He uses a simple math puzzle–what’s 2 + 2?–but he also likes KittenAuth, which makes people identify kitten photos.

Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team and an engineer who’s been working on the problem for eight years, offered some tips about combating it during a speech at the Web 2.0 Expo here.

Tom Norton, who works in Hewlett-Packard’s consulting unit, said it remains the early days for businesses, when it comes to Vista.

As for business adoption, Nash said things with Vista are fairly similar to what has been seen with past releases, as large enterprises take time to make sure that their applications are compatible.

“The perception of Vista is a lot better for the people that have used Windows Vista than (for) the ones who haven’t,” Nash said. “At some level, a little seeing is believing.”

Microsoft has been trying different ways to promote Windows Vista, including a special pink edition in Japan that combines Vista Home Premium with Windows Live OneCare.

In the 15 months since
Windows Vista had its mainstream launch, Microsoft says it’s made progress on a number of key metrics: things like application compatibility, availability of drivers, performance, reliability, and battery life.

“I don’t think this is a different phenomenon than what we have seen in the past,” Nash said, adding that it is the case that enterprises are more complex than they were when XP debuted in 2001.

That number, though, can be deceiving. Although the latest versions of most programs work with Vista, many consumers and small businesses use older versions of programs. That adds to the cost of switching to Vista.

“There’s certainly a perceptual gap there,” Mike Nash, a Microsoft corporate vice president, said in an interview Thursday. He pointed to Microsoft research that shows that 86 percent of those actually using Vista would recommend it to a friend.

Nash resists the notion that the answer is providing another extension for computer makers to keep selling Windows XP. Microsoft already extended the deadline for large computer makers once, allowing sales through June 30, as opposed to ending them this past January. The software maker also granted a more narrow extension, allowing XP to be used on ultralow-cost computers through 2010.

At the same time, Norton said some challenges are limiting adoption, including the view that upgrading to Vista is more work, as well as the actual hardware costs that many businesses face in trying to move to the more demanding operating system.

(Credit:
Amazon.com)

“In some cases, we are finding that it is just an anxiety, as opposed to a reality,” he said.

Top executives have conceded that compatibility was not where it needed to be at Vista’s launch. But Nash says things have really changed in the ensuing months.

“We feel that our plan is the right plan,” Nash said. Enterprises with volume license contracts can continue putting XP on machines, while small businesses can buy Vista Business or Ultimate, and have either their computer maker or service provider downgrade them to XP, until they are ready to move to Vista.

Currently, it’s above 90 percent, Nash said, excluding truly old devices like TWAIN scanners and devices that connect to outdated ports. He notes that 99 of the 100 top-selling applications work with Vista.

“I don’t think it’s a convoluted process,” Nash said. “We want to make sure that customers can get what they need.”

Microsoft is going on the PR offensive this week, with Nash trying to make the case to the press that Vista is getting a bad rap.

With, XP, Norton said companies felt that they had less upfront work to do to make the transition and less anxiety about whether line-of-business applications would work smoothly.

While some would argue that the fact that computer makers are “pre-downgrading” Vista machines to Windows XP should prompt Microsoft to grant another extension, Nash said the downgrade option is sufficient to address what Microsoft sees in the marketplace.

But there is one area where the company has struggled to gain ground: how Vista is perceived.

The company tries to track what the odds are that an XP user will find that all the hardware and software they use today will work with Vista.

In terms of absolute sales, Vista has done well. More than 140 million computers have been sold with the operating system. But looking at that figure alone ignores the continued lackluster response that Vista gets from media and analysts, as well as the continued demand from businesses for the operating system’s predecessor, Windows XP.

Microsoft says XP plan “is the right plan”
Nash maintains that the users who really still need XP–businesses–have ways to get the operating system, while it’s time for the rest of the ecosystem to move forward.

As the cloud continues to emerge as a serious option, many people are starting to catch on that there are limits to what can be done outside that particular platform.

Where is the “write once, run anywhere” ideal of Java? Sun should be the next big Cloud vendor–it’s got hardware, virtualization, and Java all under one roof and yet it remains late to the game.

Right now there only a few options if you are a cloud or PaaS provider:
1. Cordon off virtual machines and use VM images (like Amazon.com or Joyent)
2. Allow development on some programming language (like Google App Engine)
3. Force users onto your platform (like Salesforce.com)

The next stage of the cloud is the maneuverability of data regardless of its location or destination.

The applications that are built on top of a particular vendor’s infrastructure are locked into that provider’s way of doing things. I always expect the cloud to be about freedom from vendor control–much like how open source gives control to the users.

But rather than being tied to a particular cloud, DreamFactory works with many of them. Relying on a rich client that runs as a browser plug-in, DreamFactory’s application only needs the cloud for storage. It can use Salesforce, Webex Connect and Amazon EC2. Quickbase support is just around the corner, with Google BigTable hot on its heels. It will even run on your hard drive.

The fact that the Dreamfactory plug-in runs locally solves a major issue–what happens when you are not connected. It also means you can move from platform-to-platform.

Over at GigaOm I read about Dreamfactory which provides some cloud-agnostic/opportunistic offerings to integrate its own applications with other SaaS vendors.

As I wrote after the Demo conference, I am amazed by what people are doing with Flash and AIR apps. Two apps from Under the Radar, Blist and SlideRocket, are Flash apps. Neither are available to the public just yet, but when they ship be sure to check them out.

There were a lot of good apps at the show, but we selected five that really stood out. Watch the video to learn why, in addition to Blist and SlideRocket, we picked Orgoo, Vello, and Nuconomy as our Best Five apps from Under the Radar.

But is a ’90s sitcom star really the best celebrity to help make Vista cool? Tell us what you think in our poll. And if Seinfeld shouldn’t be the master of the Vista domain, who should be? Let us know in our TalkBack section.

Comedians Will Ferrell and Chris Rock were also considered for the new advertising spots, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported details of the marketing push. The paper said Seinfeld will appear alongside former Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in some ads.

As CNET News reported earlier Thursday, Microsoft has tapped Jerry Seinfeld to star in a $300 million marketing campaign aimed at countering negative perceptions of its oft-maligned Vista operating system.

News.com Poll Seinfeld and Vista, what gives?
Should Jerry Seinfeld be the operating system’s new pitchman?

The comedian, best known for his eponymous NBC sitcom, will reportedly get $10 million for the campaign, which is expected to play off the phrase “Windows, Not Walls,” and to stress the connection between people and ideas.

View results

Rather, I believe Oracle will firmly position (and technologically ensure) MySQL as a Web database. Oracle owns InnoDB, after all, the primary storage engine for MySQL. The scalability upgrade I mention above? It depends upon InnoDB. Oracle, in other words, already has the means to constrain the markets to which MySQL is targeted. Expect it to do so.

Oracle has much to gain–and lose–from MySQL. It’s an exceptionally well-managed company, so my bet is that Oracle will find ways to make MySQL work for it, not against it. I don’t think we’ll see MySQL used as an onramp for proprietary Oracle databases, similar to how IBM uses open-source projects like Geronimo to fuel WebSphere sales.

MySQL 5.4 has just been announced, evaporating the open-source database’s previous four cores per instance limitation. Now, as Betanews reports, MySQL can handle up to “16-processor (”16-way”) support for x86 servers with multiple cores per processor.”

commentary

In other words, MySQL, long the leader in Web-focused database applications, just became a serious contender in the enterprise. It’s unlikely MySQL’s new owner, Oracle, is going to welcome this news.

While Redmonk analyst Stephen O’Grady suggests that MySQL nicely complements Oracle in many ways, he’s also right to note that “the Oracle sales force is going to dislike MySQL even more than the Sun sales force did, as it is a low margin product competing–at least in some sense–with a high margin staple.”

That’s all I could think Monday morning when I came across an amazing panoramic image of the cockpit of an Airbus A380.

You can be sure that as further A380 news comes along, I’ll feature it here. For now, though, just enjoy playing with this image. And try to not get nauseous, as the continuous movement of the panoramic is a little bit vertiginous.

I must admit I don’t understand most of what I see in the panoramic–I would show an image of it here, but as of this writing, I hadn’t gotten permission from the photographer, Gilles Vidal, to do so–but it just looks like one heck of a plane.

And out the cockpit is another A380, just across the tarmac.

(Credit:
Airbus)

This is also one of those great panoramics that lets you move around, zoom in or out, and rotate up or down and so forth.

Wow. I wish I was a pilot.

You know where to apply….

While Unisys won’t confirm that it placed the advertisement, the odds of it being Accenture or another large consulting firm are somewhat remote. But then, so is the location. Imagine getting paid $250,000 to do a great job in a great location.

Not bad for telling people how to give and use free software.

Unisys apparently wants someone to become its open source expert for Asia-Pacific, and is willing to pay a handsome price for it. $250,000 Australian dollars, which works out to roughly $240,000 US dollars.