Will Speaking

The Pictures team want to get new photos for the aol pictures welcome screen.  Right now, they can rotate 11 images on the front page... So if you have some cool photos that you want million of people to see everyday, send them in to Ed Maier.     Need some soon for the updates! See the employee ones we used for halloween

  See the photos here.

Here is Ed and Hamid's Video (on Uncut Video), plus the virtual goodbye card.  

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From Fred Vu.   Look at the stats that Polls gets : On Wednesday, Polls recorded a banner day: = 54MM web server hits = 52MM polls requests (Q&A and Results) = 11MM  votes. =  812 slow responses!!! = Traffic highlights, 2100+ requests/sec for a period of 10 minutes,    2000+ requests/sec for a period of 20 minutes, 1800+ for 3 hours,    1200+ for 5 hours!!! =  99.95% availability!!! = Analysis based on 2 server logs, average response time was around 73 ms per request at peak hours!!!! This is the result of collective efforts from various teams who are committed to "fix" the system after last year's melt down at ..... 1700 reqs/sec. Kudos to everyone who contributed to this momentary glory :-) At this point, I can safely say the system can handle 2100 reqs/sec with ease, how much headroom it has? We will find out when the next big hit strikes ;-)

Stumbleupon continues to gather users - more by word of mouth than anything else.  It's a great site,  and a great way to discover new content on the web. See details here " 2 million members, site redesign in progress... Mar 19, 9:02pm We're pleased to announce StumbleUpon has just crossed the 2 million member mark! Thanks to everyone for your participation... the more sites you submit and rate the better stumbling becomes for everyone :) In other news, with the help of George and Eric we are in the process of redesigning the look and feel of SU. We've already applied the new design to the Homepage , the new Website and People tabs, and will soon bring it to the rest of the site. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know in the forum . Thanks! -gmc"

In a case of "don't give up your day job", Suzie Austin and team have been very nice and allowed me to post the odd article to the new Pets blogs.     Every now and then, probably late at night, I'll write some whacky entry on the funny things pets do. My pen name for these blog entries is " Alley Cats ". The new pets blog is based on the blogsmith platform, which seems pretty good.  It has a nice way to schedule posts,  so you can have regular posts queued up.    It also offers shared blogging. What's great about Suzie's community team is this: if you have a passion or subject and they have a blog, they welcome AOLers to join in and blog in them.    After a 30 min training session, you are ready to go.    Thanks Suzie and team! See the pets blog - animalhubbub.

Congrats to David, who has been featured on Employee Central and is Community Hero of the Month. "David Schott, a software engineer in Mountain View, volunteers with a mountain rescue unit that searches for people lost or stranded outdoors in California. Read what drives him ."

Happy St Patricks Day.    This blog posting features our very own Leona (and others) discussing what the Irish really think of this day. It's a fun read.  

View full size AOL Local is in beta now.  It's seems very good in my initial tests -- you can rate and review,  see the location on a map and look for the most popular places.   Give it a try.    

AOL Silicon Valley will be one of the sponsors at the Human Race . This year it is on May 12th. We'd like to get some volunteers for helping out the morning of the race. Plus of course an AOL walk and run team. You don't have to run, walking is just fine or just stop by the booth ! More details soon. Save the date - May 12th 2007.

Techcrunch seems to be on a run today. On one hand, it gives AOL Webmail a negative review , and on another it gives the new MyYahoo a great one .   Disclaimer: I use My Yahoo every day.  Have done for years. It's how I read news from various blogs, my news checker, and stock watcher.      I like My Yahoo, so don't want it to change unless it is really better. The old my yahoo seemed to work well - I see at a glance the current news (in the middle), my stocks to watch,  the weather.         The new one has 3 columns now, but the first column is giant. The stocks widget now get wider, since the company name is displayed next to the ticker symbol - and I can't turn it off.  The middle window shrunk. So I can't see my news headlines or RSS feed headlines.  The 3rd column has a giant "Weather" module now, that is bursting with graphics, but really large. I am waiting to see the new MyAOL, since I know ...

AIM Express 6.0 is in production now., across many locales, including the US.     Give it a try. This together with beta webmail make a good combination. http://aimexpress.aim.com

Though work is in progress on the next beta, I think the Webmail team can give themselves a big pat on the back for the new Cayman beta. I've been using it for a week now.  It's fast, it's easy, and it's fast (did I say that already, hmm...). Small features, like the mail count in the browser title bar go along way (Frank pointed that out, and now I'm hooked!).   Please encourage your friends to give it a try.    

View full size  Have you seen this man?  Wanted: His fingerprints are  missing. No, this isn't a new startup or widget. No " techcrunch " exclusive here. It's my fingerprints. I went to get my green card renewed two weeks ago.   The lady taking my finger prints said "What happened to your finger prints?  They have nearly disappeared".  I then looked at my fingers... yes, they do seem a bit faded...   She said if they don't pass the FBI test, I'd have to come back.  And guess what, I got a letter saying I need to go back again.  If I "fail" this time, they do all sorts of police checks.   Not a problem, but what happened to my finger prints?  I haven't tried to file them off, or replace them.   My friends said it's because of all the typing I do....  Maybe... or maybe that "No Crack" hand creme, I've used for 3 or 4 years.  Or maybe like my hair, they too disappear. Now is a goo...

Here's another spin on comments, but much more visual (which I like so much!).... RockYou has launched "Corkboard".  You can embed it on your blog, webpage or socnet page and others can add comments or photos or sticky notes. It's really easy to use.  I really like the simple idea and the syndication (it can go all over the place).   Give it a try.   Simply press " Add Stuff " and you can leave a comment.    What do you think?   - Add Stuff - Get Your Own

Most comments and last updated blogs The new hub for "Blogs" (on peopleconnection) is using API's from the Journals platform to display "Most Commented" and "Last updated" blogs.   This is great - again showing the good use of what API's can do. The last updated list is great way to discover new and updated blogs! Check out the most popular blogs... The new Pets community on AOL The Community Editorial team launched " Animalhubbub.com", a pets channel and blog. It looks great fun, and has a feeling of fun to it.      Very good work,  and could be daily reading for you pet lovers! Go barking or meow at animalhubbub

I've used the beta webmail for the past 2 days.    When I left work, I left the browser up so when I came back in, I wanted to see a) did it eat my memory away,  b) is it still working.  Answer : a)No memory loss, b) Yes, working fine. I can actually see myself getting away from using the good ol' classic AOL Client soon....  My normal routine was 1 week use webmail, 1 week aol 9.0 vista,  1 week open ride.  I stopped using open ride weeks back, so now rotate between AOL 9.0 and production Webmail.  But I'm ready to drop AOL 9.0 now, and stay with the beta.  Some cool features: - When I send an email with the word "attachment" and I don't attach a file,  before sending Webmail tells me "Hey, did you forget to attach a file".  That is a nice, low key feature! How many times have you done this? - The scrolling to view all emails is great - and fast.  I have some pretty large mail boxes, and though some cosmetic bugs,  i...