Whenever I meet someone who finds out that I work on the directions team for Google Maps, the first question I’m asked is often “So when’s Google Maps going to add biking directions?” We’re big biking fans too, so we’ve been itching to give you a concrete answer. I don’t want to keep the good news a secret any longer, so the answer is: right now!

Today we’ve added biking directions and extensive bike trail data to Google Maps for the U.S. My team has been keeping close tabs on all the public support for biking directions that’s been steadily coming in, but we knew that when we added the feature, we wanted to do it right: we wanted to include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes. So that’s exactly what we’ve done.

Let’s say you want to bike to work, or maybe you want to drive less and spend more time outdoors. Biking directions can help you find a convenient and efficient route that makes use of dedicated bike trails or lanes and avoids hills whenever possible. To find biking directions, select “Bicycling” from the drop-down menu when you do a directions search:

So, how does it work? Well, I’m based in Seattle, along with the rest of the biking directions team. The city is notoriously hilly, but also has some great trails and a strong cycling community. Let’s say I’m trying to get from Golden Gardens to a friend’s house in Montlake:

This route avoids hills (phew!) and puts me on the Burke-Gilman trail for most of the journey. When I need to get off the trail to cross town, biking directions makes sure to keep me on bike-friendly roads and avoid some of the city’s busiest intersections. The time estimate for the route is based on a complex set of variables accounting for the type of road, terrain and turns over the course of my ride. If I decide that I want to stop at Woodland Park Zoo along the way, I can click on the blue path and drag it to my desired route — just like with driving directions — and we’ll still customize the journey for cycling suitability. Over on the Lat Long Blog, you can read more about all the unique tweaks and calculations factored into our routing algorithm.

We’ve also added information about bike trails, lanes and recommended roads directly onto the map. This can help you get a better sense of your route, or let you find trails nearby for a recreational ride. When you’re zoomed into a city, click on the “More” button at the top of the map to turn on the “Bicycling” layer. You’ll see three types of lines appear on the map:

• Dark green indicates a dedicated bike-only trail;
• Light green indicates a dedicated bike lane along a road;
• Dashed green indicates roads that are designated as preferred for bicycling, but without dedicated lanes

Thanks primarily to our partnership with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, we now have more than 12,000 miles of trails included in biking directions and outlined directly on the map. We also have data on bike lanes and recommended streets for 150 cities across the country. We’ll continue to add new trail information and encourage riders to send feedback (biking directions is in beta, after all) and route information for inclusion via the “Report a Problem” tool. When Map Maker is available in the U.S., all riders will be able to directly contribute their local knowledge about trails, bike lanes and suggested routes.

We know that many of you have been anxiously awaiting this feature, so head over to http://maps.google.com/biking to try it for yourself and then hop on your bike!

Urban Teacher Center is an innovative teacher preparation program that supports dedicated individuals to become outstanding teachers. Our applicants make a four-year commitment, including a one-year residency followed by a three-year teaching commitment. Our residency year is based on the medical model:  residents complete a structured clinical experience in an urban elementary or K-8 school. Residents also engage in a rigorous Master’s of Education program. We are looking for candidates who do NOT have any background in education.

We are reaching out to campus and advisor leaders who may be able to share our work with colleagues and students, and who can help us grow an applicant pool for our year one cohort. We are looking for individuals who have completed their undergraduate degree by June, 2010; who have a minimum 2.75 GPA, and who have demonstrated leadership potential. Applicants should have a high degree of interest in public service, and in dedicating themselves to improving conditions for urban youth.

UTC is unique for several reasons. First, our residents work together in teams of 4-6, and are placed as teacher teams as well – a direct response to the isolation we see so many of our best teachers facing. Second, our residents receive superb preparation in conditions that mirror the conditions they’ll face as teachers. Third, our teachers are expected to improve student performance. UTC is the first program in the nation that will link a teacher’s ability to improve student learning with program completion.

To learn more, please go to our website:  www.urbanteachercenter.org. attached is a one-page flier for distribution. Feel free to also reach out to us directly with any questions at this address. Our final deadline is April 16. Thank you for helping us identify strong candidates who want to make a real difference for children who need and deserve the best teachers in the nation.

From the Apple Knowledgebase:

PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD), MacBook (all models), MacBook Pro (all models), MacBook Pro (17-inch) (all models) and MacBook Air

The battery calibration for the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) and any model of MacBook or MacBook Pro has been updated because of a new battery released with this computer. With these computers, follow these steps to calibrate your battery:

1. Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook’s battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter while the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, the low battery warning dialog appears on the screen.
4. At this point, save your work.  Continue to use your computer; when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep.
5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
6. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Tip: When the battery reaches “empty”, the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond “empty”, to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. At this point, with the safe sleep function introduced in the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) computers, the computer’s memory contents have been saved to the hard drive. When power is restored, the computer returns itself to its pre-sleep state using the safe sleep image on the hard drive.

Semantic search tools seek to improve the accuracy of web searching by considering context (or meaning) of terms as they occur in desirable web documents. Instead of Google’s PageRank to predict relevancy, semantic search tools use the science of meaning in language to produce relevant results for users. The goal on semantic search is to deliver information in context rather than have to sort through lists of loosely related keyword results. Some authors regard semantic search tools as a set of techniques to retrieve knowledge from richly structured data sources which enable technologies to articulate domain knowledge at a sophisticated level. Semantic tools on the web are likely to rely on metadata to describe documents and bring them together in information retrieval. This language will help to describe and retrieve documents much like what we encounter in medical databases. Metadata is defined as ‘data about data’ and the major standard in the field is Dublin Core. For more background, see the Semantic Media wiki.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

• Cognition Search
• Duck Duck Go
• Exalead
• Evri.com
• Factbites
• Hakia
• Kosmix
• Lexxe
• Powerset
• SenseBot
• Swoogle
• Semager
• Swingly
• Standle
• Semandeks
• Sindice
• TrueKnowledge
• Truevert
• URLClassifier Service
• Yebol

Oct 17 2008 12:01pm EDT

From the Scorched Earth Files:

Andrew Lahde, manager of a small California hedge fund, Lahde Capital, burst into the spotlight last year after his one-year-old fund returned 866 percent betting against the subprime collapse.

Last month, he did the unthinkable — he shut things down, claiming dealing with his bank counterparties had become too risky. Today, Lahde passed along his “goodbye” letter, a rollicking missive on everything from greed to economic philosophy. Enjoy. READ THE LETTER HERE