The Internet is in the running for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has confirmed. Championed by Wired magazine in Italy, the nomination has been backed by OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte.

Italian Wired suggests that the Internet should receive the highly regarded prize for helping to advance “dialogue, debate and consensus.”

The nomination from Wired has been dismissed by some as a publicity stunt — and the support of long-time Wired columnist and investor Nicholas Negroponte is hardly surprising. Although currently seeing some success with the One Laptop Per Child program, Negroponte’s past projects have included such dubious endeavors as as Swatch Internet Time.

The award is to be given to the person (or organization) who has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” The creators of the World Wide Web — Tim Berners-Lee, Larry Roberts and Vint Cerf — have been nominated, too.

The final nominations will be now be considered by the Committee with the winner due to be announced on October 8, while the awards ceremony will take place in December.

Do you think the Internet should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? Or should it go to a person or organization? Is Wired’s campaign just a PR stunt? Have your say in the comments below.

Tags: internet, nobel peace prize, Tim Berners-Lee, Wired

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Daytrotter is celebrating its fourth anniversary promoting music discovery of emerging bands with a new business model. Now bands who sign on for one of Daytrotter’s unique daily live sessions have an opportunity to sell high-quality digital recordings for a revenue split using a new in-house payment system that additionally gives artists real-time access to sales figures and statistics.

“We started thinking about how we could help these bands more and make more things happen for them,” Daytrotter Founder Sean Moeller told us. The site will adopt a freemium model in order to preserve access to the Daytrotter service fans know and love; users will still be able to download 128 Kbps MP3s or stream audio from Daytrotter sessions for free, but high-quality Apple lossless versions of the sessions will be available for purchase. Prices will vary, but are expected to be in the ballpark of about $4 for a typical four- to eight-track session, with a Download Manager application handling fast and easy access to the music you’ve ordered.

Nearly 90 bands have already signed on for distribution deals with Daytrotter, and Moeller says talks will be ongoing with the majority of the 1,200-some artists that Daytrotter has worked with in the past. For new bands coming in for a Daytrotter session, the option is open to sell tracks through the site, but isn’t at all mandatory: “It’s a way to give these bands an option. We don’t force bands to sign anything when they come in to do a session; it’s all in good faith,” said Moeller.

The new initiative reflects a rapidly changing music industry as business models shift onto the digital landscape. Moeller noted, “The record label model is really old at this point,” and that as more and more people are turning to blogs as sources of music discovery, why not “cut out the middleman”? This model offers a chance for new revenue streams for bands as well as an opportunity to go beyond an advertising-supported model for Daytrotter. While revenue-sharing specifics were not disclosed, Moeller said labels and bands should expect “a fair split.”

In addition to selling their Daytrotter sessions, artists are encouraged to use the new platform to sell other studio albums, live recordings, and to generally think of Daytrotter as a new partnership opportunity for direct sales. One way to think about the new business model shift is to imagine replacing “the now-gone neighborhood record store with the cool kid behind the counter whose judgment you could always count on,” Moeller said.

For music fans, buying direct through Daytrotter means supporting their favorite bands with a more favorable cut than with services like iTunes, as well as contributing to Daytrotter’s mission of promoting music discovery and giving exposure to up and coming bands.

If you’re already a fan of Daytrotter, what do you think of the new business model? If you’re new to the site, would you feel good about kicking in a few bucks to support emerging artists or are you happy with free streams and lower-quality downloads?

Tags: business models, daytrotter, digital downloads, music, music industry

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If you’re a web developer on the go, you may sometimes find the need to test some code, fix an error, or manage remote files when you’re away from your desktop. If you have an Android device, you’re in luck, as the Market has a smattering of handy free apps that are perfect for the on-site programmer or dabbling hobbyist.

If you’re already using these essential extensions for Google Chrome, and these tried and true add-ons for Firefox to make your developer tasks easier, then these five Android apps should complete your developer set.

1. HTMLeditor

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It doesn’t get any more fundamental than this. HTMLeditor is a simple, lightweight little app that will let you code and test HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. It’s a simple text editor that saves your work to your SD card and previews it in a stripped-down mobile browser. It doesn’t highlight errors, or even render images in the preview, but it still makes for a handy mobile solution.

2. AndFTP

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If you need mobile access to the content on your web servers, check out AndFTP, an extremely robust free utility. Add login information for multiple domains, choose the one you want to access, and the app quickly (over 3G) pulls up your file tree in an easy-to-navigate interface. Using your handset as though it’s a web-connected USB drive, you can upload and download files from your server, manipulate existing files (move, rename, delete), and browse your own device. The app supports FTP, SFTP, and FTPS connections.

3. View Web Source

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If you’re surfing the mobile web with Android and come across something that needs a closer “developer’s eye view,” check out the View Web Source app, which will download the full source code of any web page into a text editor, where you can make changes or notes, and copy/paste it out to an e-mail for later review.

4. Magic Color Picker

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Mulling over some web design ideas while you’re out and about? The Magic Color Picker app lets you browse the wonderful wheel of web-safe colors in your quest for the perfect menu shade or logo hue.

The app gives you color values in multiple formats, including hexadecimal, RGB, HSV, YUV, and HSL, and offers a few choices for ways to visualize your web palette.

The one drawback is that there is no way to bookmark or export the color codes once you find one, so grab the old pen and paper if you need them for later use.

5. HTML Test

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Studying for the next web dev pop quiz at school? Looking to flex your coding knowledge muscles? The HTML Test app will hit you with 20 timed multiple choice questions about our favorite Internet syntax. Answer them all to the best of your ability, then go back through to see how well you did.

If you take the quiz a few times, you may start to see some questions repeat. But it’s great for a quick study break or the impromptu “Code-Off.”

No cheating!

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More web development resources from Mashable:

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- 10 Popular Firefox Add-ons for Web Developers
- 10 Essential Chrome Extensions for Web Developers
- 11 Outstanding Online Resources for Web Developers
- 7 Superb Social Plugins for WordPress

Tags: android, Android apps, apps, code, html, Mobile 2.0, web design, web developer, Web Development, web development series

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Corey Haim, best known as one half of “the two Coreys,” was found dead in his home this morning at the age of 38, apparently from an accidental drug overdose.

The actor was a teen icon and heartthrob in the late 1980s, known for his roles in films like Lucas, The Lost Boys, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream. While his more recent work has been more limited, that hasn’t stopped fans from flooding Twitter and Facebook with responses to this news.

Haim is most prominently known for his work in the The Lost Boys — a coming-of-age story about teenage vampires. The film, which was his first collaboraton with Corey Feldman, has become something of a cult classic, spawning a straight-to-video sequel in 2008, with another follow-up planned. Today, however, it’s a trending topic on Twitter.

Because Corey Haim and Corey Feldman were frequently associated with one another, it’s not surprising that for a brief period of time, “The Goonies” became a trending topic on Twitter as well. However, it was Feldman, not Haim, that starred in that classic.

Facebook groups like “R.I.P. Corey Haim (The Lost Boys)” are also sprouting up.

Haim, who suffered from drug addiction throughout the 1990s and 2000s, gained Internet attention in 2001 when he attempted to sell his hair and teeth on eBay (these auctions were eventually pulled down because they violated eBay’s TOS, which states you can’t sell body parts). He also starred in a reality show called The Two Coreys alongside Corey Feldman for two seasons on A&E.

What was your favorite Corey Haim movie? Let us know in the comments!

Tags: #ripcoreyhaim, corey haim, death

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