Erick Schonfeld generated a lot of discussion in the blogs yesterday with a post talking about facebook fatigue and the flattening of the facebook growth curve in the US. But the charts in Erick's... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 12:54 pm
People will increasingly interact with computers using speech or touch screens rather than keyboards, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 12:43 pm
A landlord snooped on tenants to find out information about their finances. A woman repeatedly accessed her ex-boyfriend's account after a difficult breakup. Another obtained her child's father's address... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 12:43 pm
A landlord snooped on tenants to find out information about their finances. A woman repeatedly accessed her ex-boyfriend's account after a difficult breakup. Another obtained her child's... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 12:40 pm
onehitwonder writes "Bad CIOs are a blight on the IT profession, the organizations that employ them and the IT staff who toil under them (usually cleaning up their messes). Yet bad CIOs manage to migrate largely undetected — like the mythic Big Foot — from company to company. In the process, these bad CIOs lay waste to businesses and information systems, destroy staff morale, pillage budgets and imperil shareholder value. To help rid the world of this scourge, CIO.com has compiled a list of behaviors common among bad CIOs that recruiters, hiring managers and IT staff can use to identify them during the recruiting process."
A leaked Pentagon report warns Bush that global climate change is real, coming soon, and will destroy the world with war, privation and massive upheaval:
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.
The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'
A leaked Pentagon report warns Bush that global climate change is real, coming soon, and will destroy the world with war, privation and massive upheaval: A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 12:16 pm
At the risk of wading into hostile territory , I am going to blog again about facebook stats and the rise of our portfolio company Zynga on the leaderboard. Here is the adanomics leaderboard that... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 12:08 pm
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan launched an experimental communications satellite on Saturday as part of an ambitious space program that could help ensure super high-speed Internet access in remote Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:36 am
Oric sez, "The director of a Norwegian museum claimed yesterday to have discovered cartoons drawn by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War." William Hakvaag, the director of a war museum in northern... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:21 am
Oric sez, "The director of a Norwegian museum claimed yesterday to have discovered cartoons drawn by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War."
William Hakvaag, the director of a war museum in northern Norway, said he found the drawings hidden in a painting signed "A. Hitler" that he bought at an auction in Germany...
He found coloured cartoons of the characters Bashful and Doc from the 1937 Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which were signed A.H., and an unsigned sketch of Pinocchio as he appeared in the 1940 Disney film.
By Belleville News-Democrat, Ill. Feb. 23--EDWARDSVILLE -- A rural Edwardsville salvage yard was fined $40,000 by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for environmental violations. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Pat Rubin, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Feb. 23--The Sacramento Tree Foundation is looking for a few good volunteers. The foundation needs 30 people who love trees and who want to see Sacramento's urban forest become as healthy and lush as possible. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Nancy Bowman Staff Writer TROY -- Miami County commissioners voted to proceed with the Casstown sewer project, saying a central service for the village is inevitable and the costs for homeowners are the lowest they'll ever get. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Ventura County Star, Calif. Feb. 23--Rainfall totals in Ventura County are either near or above normal for this time of year. It depends on which agency's data you accept. A little more than a quarter-inch of rain fell at Ventura City Hall during the 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Nancy Bowman Staff Writer FREDERICK -- An effort to annex water starved areas in this community split between two southern Miami County townships has stalled, but not for long, if John Applegate has his way. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Kelli Wynn Staff Writer KETTERING -- There were 3,563 property maintenance complaints filed with the city of Kettering in 2007, according to the Property Maintenance Task Force's 2007-08 Property Maintenance Improvement Implementation Plan. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Steve Bennish Staff Writer Dayton moves to resolve industrial sewage odor problem DAYTON -- The city should tighten wastewater treatment rules on industry as a way to cut long-standing odors that are sickening Moraine residents near the city of Dayton's sewer plant, the Ohio EPA says. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By The Paducah Sun, Ky. Feb. 23--GILBERTSVILLE, Ky. -- -- A Land Between the Lakes Advisory Board meeting 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursday at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park is open to the public. The 17-member board, which provide input and advice to U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By The Kansas City Star, Mo. Feb. 23--Today's problem Northlander Linda Leone found herself in a situation that all homeowners dread: a water-line break. And Kansas City government's response to it frustrated her even more. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By Lawrence Budd Staff Writer CLEARCREEK TWP., Warren County -- County prosecutors are reviewing an agreement between company and government officials to establish a water district to fund a $4.2 million, 2 million gallon water tank near the fuel terminal along Ohio 122. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo Tanegashima, Japan, Feb. 23 Kyodo - An H-2A rocket carrying a high-speed Internet communications satellite was launched at Tanegashima Space Centre in Kagoshima Prefecture around 6 p.m. Saturday. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo Tanegashima, Japan, Feb. 23 Kyodo - Japan's aerospace agency on Saturday launched a rocket carrying a satellite for high-speed Internet communications after a delay of about one week due to a glitch. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
By The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Feb. 23--The name of the new pastor at Grace Baptist Church was listed incorrectly in this column last week. He is the Rev. Vic Carpenter. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2008 | 11:00 am
John's been spelunking in filmstrips from the Goodwill, putting up high-res, color-corrected scans of strips ranging from "a 1935 travelogue of Alaska, A very racial one called "The Jap His Honorable... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 10:46 am
John's been spelunking in filmstrips from the Goodwill, putting up high-res, color-corrected scans of strips ranging from "a 1935 travelogue of Alaska, A very racial one called "The Jap His Honorable Self' and much information about WWII-era Philippines, Marianas, Bon, Bali and Marshall Islands."
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(Thanks, John!)
cli_rules! writes "DailyTech has reported that Jack Thompson has been ordered to explain himself. 'Therefore, it is ordered that you shall show cause on or before March 5, 2008, why this Court should not find that you have abused the legal system process and impose upon you a sanction for abusing the legal system, including, but not limited to directing the Clerk of this Court to reject for filing any future pleadings, petitions, motions, letters, documents, or other filings submitted to this Court by you unless signed by a member of The Florida Bar other than yourself.'"
A lengthy and fun list of Obsolete Skills . Related to phones: -- Calling collect on a payphone -- Cranking a telephone -- Dialing a rotary phone -- Extending the antenna on a cellphone ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 9:54 am
Microsoft Corp. said Friday it won't totally uproot Yahoo Inc. from its Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters if it succeeds in its bid to buy the Web portal company. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 9:31 am
Microsoft Corp. said Friday it won't totally uproot Yahoo Inc. from its Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters if it succeeds in its bid to buy the Web portal company. "In bringing the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 9:30 am
People are more likely to shop than buy with their mobile phones, a market researcher said Thursday, reports TechWeb . "In a survey of 2,000 consumers in the United States and the United Kingdom, ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 9:10 am
Spotted on Fareastgizmo , a haptic input device developed by Misumi designed to be installed on the back of mobile devices. The device allows users to perform operations on the screen with... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 9:03 am
By Evan Ackerman Oops. It’s kinda Saturday, isn’t it? Forgive me, fanatical fans of Fishtank Friday, for foregoing your frequent fishy fun. I blame GDC. Let’s all just pretend that today... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 8:51 am
pha7boy writes "NASA has made a recent award of 171 million dollars to Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia in order to aid the company in developing a feasible space cargo delivery service. 'The US space agency intends to hold an open competition in the years ahead for actual space station cargo-delivery contracts, but Orbital of Dulles, VA, is one of two companies receiving financial help from NASA to develop their proposed systems. The other is Space Exploration Technologies of El Segundo, CA.'"
OHIO IDOL It's been a while since this part of Ohio has had a reality show contestant to root for, so it should be fun to get behind "American Idol" contestant Garrett Haley, 17, a high school junior from Elida - - a little town of about 1,900 people in Allen County, just a few miles northwest of Lima. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Smartfish Technologies says it has invented the world's first computer keyboard that won't cause wrist injuries. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Joe Rodriguez, The Wichita Eagle, Kan. Feb. 23--St. John's Episcopal Church has had a presence in downtown for 138 years -- a history as long as the city of Wichita. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Risa Richardson, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky. Feb. 23--There is no stained glass or fancy carpet. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Palser, Barb Why major news outlets are giving up on charging for online content In September, NYTimes.com tore down the subscription wall known as TimesSelect, releasing its columnists and much of its archive back to the general population, once again to be blogged, Googled and read by all. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
By Wendy Hundley, The Dallas Morning News Feb. 23--RICHARDSON -- Police have arrested 14 people in connection with a large identity theft ring and illegal drug operation run out of a home in an upscale Richardson neighborhood. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Activists like Brian Bates, who trails prostitute-seeking men, are pointing the cameras on bad behavior in public and posting the exploits online for all the world to shame. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
Richard Branson's space travel venture will add five spaceships in its bid to become profitable in five years. It has collected $31 million in deposits from would-be travelers. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 8:00 am
tuxgeek writes "In the continuing saga of Yahoo resisting a Microsoft buy out, Yahoo is now being sued by its shareholders. 'Two Detroit pension funds have sued Yahoo Inc. and its board of directors, saying they breached their duties to shareholders in trying to thwart a takeover by Microsoft Corp. The lawsuit was filed in Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday by lawyers representing Detroit's police and fire retirement system and general retirement system, as well as 'all other similarly situated public shareholders.'"
Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels over the years: this shot of the brick wall near the rear exit of the London Zoo in Regent's Park. I love the signage from three different eras, and the erupting thick black wires that look like they've been dipped in gutta percha -- it's my favorite kind of London streetscene, walls that have been scarred and repurposed as the technologies of municipal living changed.
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Carissa Knits has a great free pattern for making a hip R2D2 beanie, complete with little wooly monocle turret:
Want a handmade Halloween costume this year? Have a geeky friend whose birthday is right around the corner? Or perhaps you are that geeky friend. That's okay. Be proud of who you are. Shout it out loud without saying a word. Knit this hat and wear it everyday, everywhere.
Philip sez, "John McKeever of Northern Ireland has made a boffo origami tessellation of a Space Invader."
This is a variation of Fujimoto's box-pleated tessellation, folded from a 70 x 52 cm piece of kraft paper. . It's a very laborious way of making a pixel image.
danah sez, "This is a video of students marching seven miles in Texas to cast their votes on the first day of early voting."
Texas Republicans have worked overtime to make it harder for key Democratic voting groups to vote and be represented fairly. The redistricting games they've played are infamous. And for the Prairie View A&M University precincts, they put the early-polling place more than seven miles from the school.
So what did the students in this video do? They shut down the highway as they marched seven miles to cast their votes on the first day of early voting.
djBC, the mashup artist responsible for the amazing, illegal Beasties/Beatles "Beastles" albums, has produced a great albumof authorized mashups, in collaboration with Big D & the Kids Table, called "Strictly Mixed and Mashed." The best work on the CD sounds like vintage Trojan reggae crossed with -- well, a djBC mix.
Link
Pingmag's got a lovely feature on Japanese packaging design that imitates natural materials, such as fake printed cardboard bamboo sheaths, plastic fake "bamboo" bottles, and other natural/plastic hybrid packaging techniques.
Bamboo is naturally divided into sections and here it ingeniously functions as the mould and the container for the jelly as well. Efficient! Amazing! Perfect!
But to temper the delight: There is an extra tool required to make the yokan slip out of its container. This involves additional effort.
In contrast, the plastic replica is easier to open.
More research in the ongoing struggle to understand why French people are skinnier than Americans, despite the chocolate, wine, cheese, pastry and pate: Cornell researchers say it's down to the different cues that French people and Americans use to tell them when to stop eating. The French stop when they're full, Americans stop when the plate is empty (or the TV show ends).
"Furthermore, we have found that the heavier a person is -- French or American -- the more they rely on external cues to tell them to stop eating and the less they rely on whether they felt full," said senior author Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab in the Department of Applied Economics and Management, now on leave to serve as executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion until January 2009.
Want to get started sharing your DRM-free MP3s with your friends? Follow our guide in the Wired.com How-To Wiki and you'll be sharing music with your Facebook buddies in minutes.
A federal judge said Friday that consumers may go ahead with a class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. over the way it advertised computers loaded with Windows XP as capable of... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 4:48 am
Stony Stevenson writes to point out that Netscape has finally reached end of line with the release of version 9.0.0.6. A pop-up will offer users the choice of switching to Firefox, Flock, or remaining with the dead browser, but no new updates will be released. "Nearly 14 years after the once mighty browser made its first desktop appearance as Mosaic Netscape 0.9, its disappearance comes as little surprise. Although Netscape accounted for more than 80 per cent of the browser market in 1995, the arrival of Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the same year brought stiff competition and surpassed Netscape within three years."
We can do it. We can mesh our technologies and our cultures. And we'll keep the Yahoo name alive. Those may be the highlights of a letter sent Friday to Microsoft employees by Kevin Johnson, president... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 3:36 am
THE mortgage crisis has put for sale signs in front of houses across the country including so-called McMansions the large, expensive, often tasteless homes that have taken up so much suburban space over... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 3:36 am
In the complex, expensive and emotionally charged world of fertility treatment, doctors are sounding a call to arms to reverse the soaring rate of multiple births. The doctors are responding to an unintended... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 3:36 am
A federal judge said Friday that consumers may go ahead with a class action lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. over the way it advertised computers loaded with Windows XP as capable of running the Vista operating... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 3:19 am
We can do it. We can mesh our technologies and our cultures. And we'll keep the Yahoo name alive. Those may be the highlights of a letter sent Friday to Microsoft employees by Kevin Johnson, president... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 2:36 am
TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp is planning to start buying TV-use liquid crystal display (LCD) panels from Sharp Corp as early as in the next business year that begins in April, a source... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 2:30 am
From superheroes to pirate queens, WonderCon attendees love to dress up as characters ripped from the pages of comics and from the silver screen. Wired.com presnnts a gallery of some of the best costumes seen at San Francisco's comics convention.
fab writes "Italian car designer Leonardo Fioravanti (who worked for Pininfarina for a number of years) has developed a car prototype without windshield wipers. This amazing technological feat is made possible thanks to the use of 4 layers of glass modified using nanotechnology. The first layer filters the sun and repels the water. The second layer, using 'nano-dust' is able to push dirt to the side. The third layer acts as a sensor that activates the second layer when it detects dirt, while the fourth layer is a conductor of electricity to power this complex mechanism. I haven't been able to find an English article, but there is always a google powered translation of the Italian article."
Apple has filed many patent applications relating to multitouch interfaces like that found on the iPhone -- including patents on the "pinch" gesture used to zoom in and out. As other manufacturers bring multitouch devices to market, Apple's patent applications could prove a major stumbling block.
Apple has filed many patent applications relating to multitouch interfaces like that found on the iPhone -- including patents on the "pinch" gesture used to zoom in and out. As other manufacturers bring multitouch devices to market, Apple's patent applications could prove a major stumbling block.
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "Groklaw has examined that 'new leaf' Microsoft turned the other day. PJ has a lengthy analysis of Microsoft's latest promises. To make a long story short, the promises are more of the same stuff and don't help anyone but Microsoft. They only protect 'noncommercial' development and are set up to create a patented standards toll road so that Microsoft can charge competitors to compete. As PJ puts it, 'This is a promise to remain incompatible with the GPL, as far as I can make out.'"
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A deadline for Google Inc to turn over documents in Viacom Inc's $1 billion copyright lawsuit against the Web search leader has been extended by two months by a federal Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 12:20 am
Microsoft Corp. said Friday it won't totally uproot Yahoo Inc. from its Sunnyvale, Calif. headquarters if it succeeds in its bid to buy the Web portal company. "In bringing the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 Feb 2008 | 12:11 am
Microsoft says if it buys Yahoo, it would maintain a presence in Silicon Valley, but falls short of guaranteeing all current Yahoo employees their jobs in Mountain View -- or anywhere, for that matter.
Scientists at two national laboratories are launching an effort to create new computers capable of completing one million trillion calculations per second.
A legal attack on the Recording Industry Association of America is suffering a setback after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing the recording label's lobbying arm of racketeering. The suit sought to represent "thousands" of individuals the lawyers claim were falsely sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement.
Facebook's popularity in the UK may have reached its peak, figures suggest. The social networking site saw its first drop in UK users after 17 successive monthly... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Feb 2008 | 10:36 pm
Dark matter structures spanning hundreds of millions of light years that may form the "skeleton" of the cosmos have been uncovered by astronomers. The mysterious... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Feb 2008 | 10:36 pm
Mark writes "Big Blue inadvertently revealed details about its new z10 Enterprise Class mainframe set to launch on Feb. 26, as well as details on z/OS v1.10, a new version of the mainframe OS due out in September. 'According to an internal IBM document obtained by SearchDataCenter.com, the z10 Enterprise Class will come in five different models and feature 64-way chips, compared with the 54-way z9 mainframes and earlier 32-way models. In a conference call last month, IBM CFO Mark Loughridge told investors that the z10 would have 50% more capacity, which indicates that it will probably tap out at around 27,000 million instructions per second (MIPS) at the top end, compared with about 18,000 MIPS on the previous z9 Enterprise Class.'"
An anonymous reader writes "National Geographic has a fascinating article on the God Particle, which can help explain the Standard Model and get us closer to explain the Grand Unified Theory. The obligatory Star Wars-angle summary is even better: 'CERN's scientists, the fine people who brought us the W and Z particles, anti-hydrogen atoms and hyperlinked porn web pages, are now hard at work building the Large Hadron Collider to discover something even cooler: the Force. Yes, that Force. Or like physicists call it, the Higgs boson, a particle that carries a field which interacts with every living or inert matter.'"
eldavojohn writes "How much would you pay to be the leading video media technology right now? Is $400 million too much? Sony didn't think so and this article speculates that's how they won the Hi-Def format war. 'With billions of dollars in global sales at stake, experts had predicted the Toshiba-Sony battle would go on for years - not unlike the 1980s battle of videotape formats between VHS (Matsushita) and Betamax (Sony). That war lasted a decade, leaving Sony battered and humiliated. So how did this epic battle come to such an abrupt end? The answer lies in part with the bruising Sony experienced with Betamax, which, like Blu-ray, was also the better product on paper.'"
Three videogame vets think way outside the box during the Game Design Challenge, pitching concepts for getting dolphins, dogs and bacteria into the game.
The role-playing game Forumwarz takes an offensive but deadly funny approach to lampooning the poor grammar, childish humor and bad manners of the web's underbelly. Players accumulate points by wreaking havoc on a series of fake websites, insulting others as they go.
The nation's intelligence community launches a program to see if it can detect terrorists playing in virtual worlds and games like Second Life and World of Warcraft. The project hopes to study what normal people do in online games in order to later detect people who want to kill for politics, not fun.
M-Audio's MixLab is a perfect start for wannabe DJs: It lets you drag and drop tracks into two virtual on-screen decks. From there, you can take the tunes and run with them.
Want a handmade Halloween costume this year? Have a geeky friend whose birthday is right around the corner? Or perhaps you are that geeky friend. That's okay. Be proud of who you are. Shout it out loud without saying a word. Knit this hat and wear it everyday, everywhere.
