William Shaw: According to its founder, John Dutchman-Smith, it's a place where masons from other lodges come to meet, and, more importantly, it's a place where the rest of us - including women - can sneak... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:49 pm
I know this is silly but I was enthralled with the Davos toilet in the Congress Center. As soon as you flush, look what happens: Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 12:13 pm
With the DEMO 2008 conference kicking off today, a bunch of tech companies are making announcements. Here are some of the highlights: BitGravity Content delivery network BitGravity is launching its streaming... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 12:00 pm
For any aspiring guitarists out there, here is a site for you. iVideosongs is launching at DEMO today after two years in the making. It offers video tutorials on how to play guitar from world-class instructors,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:59 am
Video is one of the biggest opportunities on the Web, but it is also one of the biggest black holes. Just because someone hits play on a Web video doesn’t mean they watch it all the way to the end.... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:59 am
UK digital media seller 7digital has taken 4.25 million ($8.5 million) in a round led by Sutton Place Managers that included original investor Balderton Capital (formerly Benchmark Europe). 7digital offers... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:55 am
The upside: it’s lower in cholesterol than real toast with real butter. The downside: you can’t eat it. I mean, unless you really want to. Post-it notes and butter both sold separately; you... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:20 am
By Ngoc Nguyen, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Jan. 28--When Robbie Mahlman set out to make a line of chic and organic baby blankets for her El Dorado Hills-based business, she said it wasn't easy to find environmentally friendly fabrics and dyes. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
By Robert Nolin, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Jan. 28--Fort Lauderdale city officials are considering a project that could get them into deep water: dredging the New River. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
By Pam Zubeck, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo. Jan. 28--Accused of spilling sewage into Fountain Creek in violation of the Clean Water Act, Colorado Springs Utilities will be in federal court today to defend itself against a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
BRAZIL'S PANTANAL ON THE WILD SIDE Known as South America's Everglades, Brazil's Pantanal is home to giant river otters, jaguars, marsh deer, tapirs, roseate spoonbills and hyacinthine macaws, the largest macaws in the world. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
PENANG, Malaysia _ Good feng shui _ the Chinese art of placing buildings and everything inside them in harmony with the environment _ depends on how skillfully a designer incorporates the five elements of water, wood, metal, earth and fire. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
Dole Fresh Vegetables Company, a division of Dole Food Company, has converted all of its harvesting equipment in Salinas, California and in Yuma, Arizona over to B20 bio-diesel fuel. Bio-diesel fuel is a domestic renewable fuel for diesel engines derived from natural oils. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
By Dan Howley, Albany Times Union, N.Y. Jan. 28--Pine grosbeaks don't show up around here very often, so Corey Finger of Albany won't soon forget a close encounter he had with some on Thanksgiving weekend. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
OCRACOKE, N.C. _ It was just a few miles off the No. 1 beach in America that the pirate Blackbeard sailed his Adventure into battle against Lt. Robert Maynard's British Navy sloop Ranger in 1718. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
Hirsch Electronics, a designs and manufactures security systems, has appointed Robert Beliles, co-founder of Cisco's physical security initiative and business unit, as its new vice president of enterprise business development. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
PC manufacturer Lenovo has integrated mobility from IP telephony and unified communications provider Avaya on a new range of notebooks and desktops for business users. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
By Masami Mustaza IT can't get any bigger than this. At 21" wide, the HP Pavilion- HDX9013TX has been described by some as the mother of all laptops. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
By Peter Taylor IN ONE corner is Intel, the world's largest semiconductor company, cautious about the outlook for the technology sector but financially healthy and full of fight. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
It's not a new phenomenon for fathers of teenage daughters to dread the day their child will begin to date. However, in this day of the Internet and Social Networking sites, communicating with the wrong guy could mean tragedy. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
THE SITE: www.cheftalk.com WHAT'S THERE: The site is loaded with cookbook reviews, many which include chef recipes. There are recipes from well-known chefs including Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver. There is a cooking forum, which looks interesting. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
Zvents today announced the launch of Federated Local Search, which provides users with a blended, comprehensive local search engine. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
By Abigail Townsend THERE can be few company executives for whom this week's market chaos came as a welcome relief, but it would be understandable if Meg Whitman, eBay's chief executive for the past decade, had been one of them. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
By The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. Jan. 28--The community is invited to a gang and safety summit Tuesday at Lister Elementary School. The summit will be from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the school at 2106 E. 44th St. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
By Byron Acohido The Chinese Year of the Rat begins next week. In the cyberunderground, it is already shaping up to be the Year of the Clever Rat, as crooks scurry to perfect ways to steal data and commit fraud. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 Jan 2008 | 11:00 am
Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has acquired Norwegian platform application development provider Trolltech for $153 million. Trolltech is the developer of Qt, the cross-platform application development... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 10:48 am
By Evan Ackerman You don’t think about it much, but generally, when stuff falls over, it doesn’t get back up. Off the top of my head, I can think of two exceptions to the rule: Weebles, and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 10:41 am
LG Electronics has partnered with Paramount Pictures to showcase the Korean company's high-tech mobile phones in the upcoming Hollywood movie Iron Man . Digital Chosunilbo reports. "Set to open... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 10:23 am
scim writes "Intelligent speculation has led one knowledgeable observer to believe the satellite recently announced to have failed is a radar satellite named USA 193. According to an earlier story on the satellite: 'The experimental L-21 classified satellite, built for the National Reconnaissance Office at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, was launched successfully on Dec. 14 [2006] but has been out of touch since reaching its low-earth orbit.'" The ArmsControlWonk story leads off with what purports to be a photo from the ground of USA 193.
The next generation of computerized aids for the blind and visually impaired will be mobile, according to Associated Press , describing a smart phone that snaps a picture of a $10 bill and a few seconds... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 9:46 am
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said it had signed deals with 10 music labels to add content to its PlayNow service, which lets users download music via their mobile... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 9:15 am
Wired's running a gallery of photos of the work of Christopher Conte, an artist who is also "an artificial limb designer and hobbyist robotics engineer." He builds lovely cyberpunky fantasies that we've featured here before, and Wired's photographer did a great job capturing them.
Link
Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels over the years: a sign in a cafe in the Vienna airport declaring the 500 Euro note invalid. This is the most valuable note in the world I'm wrong -- there are Swiss and Latvian notes that are more valuable -- learn something new every day! -- part of the answer to the logistical question of transporting lots of black-market money around, and it's natural that it would end up a counterfeiter's dream. There was talk of embedding anti-counterfeiting RFIDs in the bills, but I can't tell if that ever went through -- certainly, it seems like a genuinely bad idea to make it possible to remotely detect which wallets are worth stealing. The sign was laminated (hence the poor quality of the photo), and it made me wonder about the secret life of the world's most valuable note.
Link
'Thin film' formula is less costly but must boost its energy output to compete with traditional silicon. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 8:00 am
The company and others are pushing heavily into creating virtual worlds for children, eyeing subscriber revenue and brand recognition. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 8:00 am
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc on Monday launched a new switching product aimed at large data centers, and forecast strong sales despite worries of a... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 7:02 am
DesScorp sends a link to a TechCrunch interview in which GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney answers questions of interest to techies. Included are questions on H-1B visas, Internet taxation, venture capital taxation, alternative energy, and carbon emissions. Finally, we learn that Romney is a PC guy, and get a summary of what's on his iPod.
A project which aims to reduce childhood obesity by encouraging children to play on the Nintendo Wii console has been dismissed by campaigners as a gimmick. Schools... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 6:33 am
SARASOTA, Fla., Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Teltronics, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: TELT), a world class manufacturer of high quality, dependable communications... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 6:30 am
The number of people looking for a new job via the internet has increased by 50% over the past year, according to a new report. But jobseekers are logging on to fewer... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 6:25 am
"Metafilter" Matt Haughey just finished migrating one of his blogs to a new back-end, and the experience has left him with a lot of smart thinking about what the perfect blogging tool should be like:
There really should be a standard of some sort that blog CMS companies can agree on for export and import. Users of blog engines shouldn’t be hostages to their applications. Data exit and entry is problematic in everything I’ve used and it’s a shame. Blogging is supposed to be fun and I prefer to be agnostic about what tools I’m using, so it’d be nice if I could change blog engines every three months without too much friction. I won’t even go into how every engine has its own URL scheme — it’d be nice if I could keep my permalinks forever, even as I change blogging apps.
Last week, I blogged about Chris's TalkShoe interview with Phil and Kaja Foglio, now he reports, "it went very well, was an hour and a half long, and is available in two mp3s of about 45 minutes each. If BoingBoing readers would like to suggest other guests for me to interview, I'd be delighted to have your suggestions and will try my best to get them on the show."
Link
(Thanks, Chris!)
Nitesh Dhanjani and Billy Rios are security researchers who penetrated the "phishing underground" -- the ecosystem of scam-artists who run rip-off phishing sites and the toolsmiths and fences who supply them and vend the identities they steal. The conclusions are fascinating: first, phishers sell on the stolen identities to more sophisticated crooks; second, phishers steal from each other -- phishware is riddled with back-doors installed by other phishers to phish the phishers; finally, phishers are dumb and unsophisticated, doing nothing more technical than unpacking a directory on an exploited website, lacking even the competence to spot the backdoors in their tools.
The number of backdoors we saw was staggering. The servers serving the phishing sites had backdoors, the code used in the phishing kits had backdoors, the tools used by phishers had backdoors. Phishers aren't afraid to steal from regulars people and they are also not afraid to steal from other phishers. Some of the backdoors were meant to keep control over a compromised server, while other simply stole information that had been stolen by other phishers! We came across several forums where phishers, scammers, and carders basically identified other phishers, scammers, and carders that had scammed them. These shady characters may work with each other but they sure don't trust each other, that's for sure.
MAHWAH, New Jersey, January 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Radware (NASDAQ: RDWR), the leading provider of integrated application delivery solutions for business-smart... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 6:01 am
SEATTLE, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Isilon(R) Systems (Nasdaq: ISLN), the leader in clustered storage, today announced a partnership with Riverbed Technology, the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 6:00 am
IRVINE, Calif., Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the latest release of syndicated research by MRI (Fall 2007), Entrepreneur magazine has the highest composition of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 6:00 am
BALTIMORE, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- K-NFB Reading Technology, Inc., a company combining the research and development efforts of the National Federation of the Blind and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 6:00 am
SEATTLE, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Isilon(R) Systems (Nasdaq: ISLN), the leader in clustered storage, today announced the release of its new IQ clustered storage... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 6:00 am
A revamped online file-sharing service that promised to offer unlimited, free music downloads from all the major record labels hit an apparent snag Sunday after one denied it had given the service permission.... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 5:19 am
Chris Danielsen fidgets with the cell phone, holding it over a $20 bill. "Detecting orientation, processing U.S. currency image," the phone says in a flat monotone before Danielsen snaps a photo. A few... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 5:19 am
Nigel Eccles, a news junkie and former online betting site employee, wanted to try pursuing both interests at once. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 5:07 am
Video on the Internet has gone from being the next big thing to the current big thing. But murky YouTube videos are just the start -- there's a lot of room for improvement. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 28 Jan 2008 | 5:04 am
If the U.S. economy tips into a recession, don't count on the technology business to be a safe haven, experts say. In fact, tech high-fliers like Google and Amazon may be particularly vulnerable to recession.
Relying on a law against advertising child porn, federal authorities win a mandatory 15-year sentence against a Kazaa user for sharing kid porn online. One official describes the crackdown as an "innovative" use of the law, in a case now moving to the U.S. Supreme Court.
An anonymous reader sends us to Net-Security.org for an interview with security researchers Nitesh Dhanjani and Billy Rios, who recently managed to infiltrate the phishing underground. What started as a simple examination of phishing sites turned into an extraordinary tour through the ecosystem that supports the business of phishing. In the interview they expose the tactics and tools that phishers use, illustrate what happens when your confidential information gets stolen, and discuss how phishers communicate and how they phish each other.
With the EU set to enact a ban on animal testing for cosmetics in March 2009, companies are searching for tech alternatives. One team of researchers has developed a small glass chip that may provide a cheap, efficient replacement for some types of animal testing.
In his new book, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation, Charles Barber proposes rejecting multinational drug peddlers and healing ourselves with cognitive and dialectical behavioral therapies.
The fashionable London street becomes the first anywhere to be lit by gaslight. Within a few years, all the major cities in Europe and North America are similarly lit.
dnormant writes in with a note about QTrax, a 5-year-old startup that just announced deals with all the major labels to provide free, ad-supported music downloads. The new wrinkle is that, though the free tracks come encumbered with Windows Media DRM, QTrax claims that they will be playable soon on iPods. Wired's assumption is that the company is on the verge of a deal with Apple to allow use of its FairPlay DRM in place of Microsoft's. (Apple hasn't licensed FairPlay to anyone so far.) The AP coverage of the story assumes that QTrax has found a way around FairPlay on the iPod, and if so, that its solution will break the next time Apple updates iTunes.
The Secret Headquarters comic book emporium in Los Angeles is having an art show by Ryan Heshka titled Radio Science Funnies, Inc. It opens Friday February 1st, 2008.
New comic book inspired paintings by modern master Ryan Heshka feel familiar in an old timey and eerie way. The illustrations of monsters, pin-up girls, robots and dated comic books feel almost discarded or better yet, found among the dusty items of an estate sale. It is clear that Heshka has been inspired by pulp magazines, science images and old advertisements but he manages to go beyond these influences to deliver us to a striking new world of delicately distorted and painted dreams.
Heshka has painted for BLAB!, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Wall Street Journal, Barrons, Popular Science, Dreamworks SKG, Fast Company, PC World, Smart Money, Esquire, Harper Collins, and Newsweek.
The artist will attend the opening from 8pm to 10pm.Paintings will be available for sale / viewing online starting Thursday the 31st of January.
Secret Headquarters will feature Heshka's one-of-a kind original works of art through March 5th, 2008.
When my four-year-old daughter saw my new cork-lined Elan Form from Griffin Technology, she said, "You got new clothes for your iPhone!"
And a dandy duds they are. The poly carbonate case, lined with cork, snaps on tight, and during the week or so I've used it, it's yet to pop open accidentally and reveal its nether parts to the public. It lists for $29.99.
Link
From "CONFIDENTIAL," a series by photographer Alison Jackson. From the intro:
Alison Jackson creates films, photographic images and sculptures about our fixation with fame and celebrity culture. These Mimeses use look-a-likes of celebrities and public figures to create a photographic or filmic image, which challenges the observers' perception of reality by creating a false reality.
Reverse Gear recommends a long and interesting article over at The Atlantic in which Walter Kirn talks about the scientific results that support his claim and his own experiences with multitasking: that it destroys our ability to focus. "Multitasking messes with the brain in several ways. At the most basic level, the mental balancing acts that it requires — the constant switching and pivoting — energize regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination and simultaneously appear to shortchange some of the higher areas related to memory and learning. We concentrate on the act of concentration at the expense of whatever it is that we're supposed to be concentrating on... studies find that multitasking boosts the level of stress-related hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline and wears down our systems through biochemical friction, prematurely aging us. In the short term, the confusion, fatigue, and chaos merely hamper our ability to focus and analyze, but in the long term, they may cause it to atrophy."
In "God's Eye View," Sydney-based art collective The Glue Society portrays four major Biblical events as if captured by Google Earth: "Cross, Moses, Ark, Eden."
Creative Review blog says the group "is aiming to produce further works using the same satellite imagery next year but this time relating to mythological occurrences and major historical events." Link.
The Xoxo Reader writes "A new filing in the Autoadmit Internet defamation lawsuit (previously discussed here on two occasions) reveals how the plaintiffs' lawyers have attempted to discover the identities of the defendants, who posted under pseudonyms on a message board without IP logging. The defendants had posted links and excerpts of several Web pages that mention the plaintiffs, including a Washington Post article, a college scholarship announcement, and a federal court opinion. Now the plaintiffs are asking those Web sites for logs of everybody who accessed those articles in the hours before the allegedly defamatory content was posted. (All the more reason to read the web through Google cache!) The plantiff's motion for expedited discovery includes copies of the lawyers' letters to hosting providers, ISPs, and others. It also includes replies from the recipients, many of whom point out that the lawyers' requests are technically impossible to fulfill. No matter; the plaintiffs are asking the court to issue subpoenas anyway. This thread contains a summary of the letters in the filing."
Frequent Slashdot contributor Bennett Haselton writes in today with a nerd-oriented review of "Untraceable," which opened in theaters last Friday. Read on for Bennett's take on what the movie gets right — a surprising amount as these movies usually go — but be warned, his review contains spoilers.
James Hardine writes "Following an announcement this week that the infamous Japanese Monju fast-breeder nuclear reactor would be re-opened with a new plutonium core, Wikileaks has released suppressed video footage of the disaster that led to its closure in 1995. The video shows men in silver 'space suits' exploring the reactor in which sodium compounds hang from the air ducts like icicles. Unlike conventional reactors, fast-breeder reactors, which 'breed' plutonium, use sodium rather than water as a coolant. This type of coolant creates a potentially hazardous situation as sodium is highly corrosive and reacts violently with both water and air. Government officials at first played down the extent of damage at the reactor and denied the existence of a videotape showing the sodium spill. The deputy general manager, Shigeo Nishimura, 49, jumped to his death the day after a news conference at which he and other officials revealed the extent of the cover-up. His family is currently suing the government at Japan's High Court."
The Surrealist's London Evening Standard Headline Generator randomly assembles sensationalist newspaper headlines out of photos of newsagents' signs -- they're all-too-plausible, too!
Link
(Thanks, Stevew!)
Chroniton brings us a story about research into DNA which has shown that free-floating DNA strands are able to seek out similar strands without the assistance of other chemicals. From Imperial College London: "The researchers observed the behaviour of fluorescently tagged DNA molecules in a pure solution. They found that DNA molecules with identical patterns of chemical bases were approximately twice as likely to gather together than DNA molecules with different sequences. Understanding the precise mechanism of the primary recognition stage of genetic recombination may shed light on how to avoid or minimise recombination errors in evolution, natural selection and DNA repair. This is important because such errors are believed to cause a number of genetically determined diseases including cancers and some forms of Alzheimer's, as well as contributing to ageing."
dgan brings us a NYTimes piece about the development of speech recognition for common gadgets. Companies such as Vlingo and Yap are marketing their software to cellular carriers to give consumers a hands-free option for tasks like finding directions and text messaging. Quoting: "Vlingo's service lets people talk naturally, rather than making them use a limited number of set phrases. Dave Grannan, the company's chief executive, demonstrated the Vlingo Find application by asking his phone for a song by Mississippi John Hurt (try typing that with your thumbs), for the location of a local bakery and for a Web search for a consumer product. It was all fast and efficient. Vlingo is designed to adapt to the voice of its primary user, but I was also able to use Mr. Grannan's phone to find an address. The Find application is in the beta test phase at AT&T and Sprint. Consumers who use certain cellphones from those companies can download the application from vlingo.com."
Wired's running a gallery of photos of the work of Christopher Conte, an artist who is also "an artificial limb designer and hobbyist robotics engineer." He builds lovely cyberpunky fantasies that we've featured here before, and Wired's photographer did a great job capturing them.
Link
The number of backdoors we saw was staggering. The servers serving the phishing sites had backdoors, the code used in the phishing kits had backdoors, the tools used by phishers had backdoors. Phishers aren't afraid to steal from regulars people and they are also not afraid to steal from other phishers. Some of the backdoors were meant to keep control over a compromised server, while other simply stole information that had been stolen by other phishers! We came across several forums where phishers, scammers, and carders basically identified other phishers, scammers, and carders that had scammed them. These shady characters may work with each other but they sure don't trust each other, that's for sure.
When my four-year-old daughter saw my new cork-lined Elan Form from Griffin Technology, she said, "You got new clothes for your iPhone!"
The Surrealist's London Evening Standard Headline Generator randomly assembles sensationalist newspaper headlines out of photos of newsagents' signs -- they're all-too-plausible, too!
Link
(Thanks, Stevew!)
