I’ve recently found quite a bit of interesting tech + code stuff online. Feel free to add your own findings below. Here’s my brief roundup:

This week Google released an off-line toolkit for web-apps called Google Gears. So far it works only on IE7 and Firefox 2+ (I believe, correct me if I’m wrong), but it essentially is a browser plug-in that wraps a SQLite database and provides developers a common interface using Javascript for storing and retrieving data locally through their browser. Unfortunately, when installed it can constantly bother the user by requesting permission to download data, unless the user authorizes a particular site. This is an obvious and necessary security measure, but annoying nonetheless. Still, it will be interesting to see what developers come up with using this technology.

Google Maps adds Street View. This is a pretty interesting technology Google has integrated into their browser-based mapping service. Aside from providing a highly detailed on-the-ground view, it raises all sorts of privacy concerns. I’m very curious to see how people will start using this technology.

Facebook’s Developer Platform
A few months ago when there was talk of Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg passing on buyout deals from Yahoo and Google to the tune of about $2 billion I thought he was crazy. With the massive release and opening up of their social network via their API and developer’s platform, Zuckerman makes good on his promise to stick around for the long haul. I’m now wondering if Facebook may have just dealt the fatal blow to all other similar social networking sites. Sure, Myspace probably isn’t going anywhere, with its horrid, yet customizable layouts, but for the discerning developer and socialite, Facebook is the place to be. The depth of the integration Facebook is providing via its developer’s platform is staggering, with applications being able to be fully integrated directly into the Facebook UI.

Microsoft’s Surface
FINALLY! Someone has come out with a table interface for computing tasks. We’ve talked about these sorts of interfaces at the iSchool and I think it’s great, though having more configurable installations with a camera and projector would probably be more useful in the contexts I would love to use it in. Still it’s nice to see that 30 years after the classic desktop + mouse paradigm was developed something new is being developed.