In the upcoming version of Google Chrome (version 11), Google offered cash for developers who located bugs in the Chrome Browser. Google paid $500 for medium risk bugs and between $1,000 and $3,000 for high risk bugs. In the most recent build of the upcoming Chrome browser, Google fixed 27 bugs that resulted from this crowdsourcing program. Google paid out $16,500 to developers. The list of security fixes and amount paid is available on the Google Chrome Releases blog.

Read Google Pays for Chrome Bug Reports from PC World for more details.

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Google turns to crowdsourcing to improve the map of the United States. Last week, Google announced on their official blog that they have opened the map of the United States to Google Map Maker. Google Map Maker is not new with over 180 countries and regions having been built out. Users have mapped out entire communities, roads, railroads, and college campuses all over the world.

The contributions of Google Map Maker users are reflected in Google Maps and Google Earth so the impact can be huge. The idea of Google Map Maker for the United States is to add value to communities users live in. Google would like you to add local places of interest to the map or fix locations that are slightly off. Mapping your college campus, adding trails, showing parking lots, and adding your favorite pub are all in scope for Google Map Maker.

I added a local business to the map just to see how it worked. The Google Map Maker interface is simple and easy to use and all additions to the maps are reviewed before going live. Check out Google Map Maker live mapping from users around the world. This is a really cool feature.

I wanted to see how active the user community is. I looked up George Washington University on Google Map Maker to get a sense of user activity. There were tons of edits being reviewed.

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The career as a Data Scientist is fairly new. A Data Scientist is a computer oriented scientist with experience in data mining, analysis, visualization and predictive modeling as it relates to very large volumes of data. The primary job of a data scientist is to bring together related and unrelated data and turn it into information to support decisions and exploit opportunities. The Data Scientist is tasked with digging into all of that data, creating relationships to connect it and turning it into actionable information.

By the end of 2010, 1.2 Zettabytes of data will exist in the world. A Zettabyte is equal to 1 billion terabytes. If every man, woman and child everywhere in the world tweeted continuously for 100 years, that would amount to 1 Zettabyte of data.

The skills required to be a Data Scientist are broad and include:

• Computer Science
• Mathematics, Statistics, & Data Mining
• Graphic Design & Visualization
• Hacking

Read my full article titled It's Becoming Cool to be a Data Geek: A Career as a Data Scientist.

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Stardock Fences is a utility designed to organize your Microsoft Windows desktop. Stardock Fences allows you to organize your desktop files, shortcuts and links into shaded sections with similar icons grouped together.

If you are a developer, designer or anyone in information technology, you likely spend a lot of time on your computer. Many of us use the desktop as the dumping ground for files, links, applications and other stuff. We always think we will clean it up later but most of us don't. Stardock Fences has a free version of their desktop software as well as a pro version which retails for $19.95.

One of my favorite features is the auto-layout which organizes all of your desktop clutter into logical sections like Quick Launch, Recent Things, Documents & Files, and Web Links.

Check out my full review of Stardock Fences.

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