An anonymous reader sends us to Gizmodo where, to honor the passing from production of the Sony Trinitron, they've done a timeline on the development of television. "After 280 millions tubes sold, Trinitron will be officially dead this month. Few Sony inventions have had the same gravitational pull as their Trinitron display technology... Trinitron became synonym of the best quality TV sets and computer monitors in the planet... Sony became the king of TV, with more than 100 million sets sold by 1994, to later fall under the weight of plasma and LCD technologies."
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - IBM has teamed up with partners in Austria and Poland to offer Microsoft-free personal computers for the eastern European market, IBM said in a statement on... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 10:20 am
I have not seen this technique before, but it sure worked with me. I logged into a brand new web service today and this was my default profile picture. Changing it was the first thing I did. Very... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 10:18 am
By Evan Ackerman Printers are a pain in the butt. I have used printers for one reason and one reason only in the last few years, and that has been to print out airline boarding passes. I would LOVE to... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 10:18 am
By Evan Ackerman I cannot tolerate flaky wireless internet. Without 100% connectivity, I wouldn’t be able to bring you the (ahem) reliably high quality gadget news that I do here at OhGizmo. I have... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 10:01 am
TOKYO (Reuters) - Bat an eyelid to replay your favorite iPod tune with a new Japanese remote control that works in the blink of an eye. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 9:53 am
By Andrew Liszewski Nothing makes you look like you’re ready for business than carrying an attache case. Even if you only use it to hold your lunch, people will still think you’re on your way... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 9:35 am
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - SAP and Intel , the world's biggest makers of business software and microchips, will jointly offer servers pre-packaged with SAP software aimed at medium-sized Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 9:22 am
By Evan Ackerman This isn’t the first time people have put Monster Cables to the test, but some guys over at the Audioholics Home Theater Forum thought it would be fun to perform a single blind listen-off... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 9:19 am
We have two $30 Amazon vouchers to give away today - and both come from our current poll on Twitter (we had intended to make one winner from the SXSW Breakout Apps post, but no further great comments came... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:53 am
This one is so cool we had to take it old-school with the animated GIF! Boss on vacation? Then its time to break out the USB Desktop Dunk, a miniature version of those rapid-fire basketball games you... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:48 am
Tonight at the Graphing Social Patterns, 10 social applications gave demonstrations for the GSP West AppNite. The first six applications were Facebook Apps and the last four were Open Social applications... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:39 am
By Evan Ackerman As you might expect, that headline doesn’t tell anything close to the whole story, but it’s essentially true and dripping with irony. And I like the picture. In a test off... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:38 am
Hugh Pickens writes "Consumers, regulators, and businesses lack objective tools to compare the incidence of identity theft across financial institutions and without such tools, consumers cannot 'vote with their feet' and choose safer institutions. Now a study by Chris Hoofnagle has analyzed 88,000 complaints submitted by victims to the FTC over a three month period in 2006 and found that Bank of America ranked highest of all firms in the study, with an average of 1,117 incidents over a three-month period. AT&T had 763 incidents, followed by Sprint Nextel, JP Morgan, Chase and its Chase and Bank One, and Capital One. When the estimated events are divided by the total deposits, the data show that HSBC, Washington Mutual, and Bank of America have the highest rates of identity theft. Hoofnagle said lending institutions should publicly report information about identity theft events such as the rate of identity theft; the form of identity theft attempted; whether it was a mortgage loan or credit card; and the amount of loss suffered as a result. would help consumers choose safer financial institutions. The full study(PDF) is available from the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology."
By Luke Anderson Remember that crazy humping USB dog that everyone seemed to be obsessed with for so long? He eventually got turned into something useful, but that took a bit of extra work as a DIY project... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:35 am
TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp said it would add a Skype Web phone function to its PlayStation Portable later this month in Japan in a bid to boost the appeal of the handheld machine, which is Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:14 am
HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia said on Tuesday it would add support to Microsoft's Silverlight Web video technology to millions of its handsets, in the latest deal between the two technology... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:06 am
Regulatory News: Technip (Paris:TEC) (ISIN:FR0000131708) has been awarded by KNM Process Systems Sdn Bhd a contract to provide assistance in the detailed engineering of the fatty acids methyl ester transesterification(1) unit for a biodiesel(2) production plant to be located at the port of Kuantan, Malaysia. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
BRITISH Polythene Industries yesterday called for the European Commission to consider cutting tariffs on polymer imports. The company, who use polymer for their packaging products, also accused the commission of protecting petrochemical companies based in Europe. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Mar. 4--OAKDALE, Wis. -- A Warrens, Wis., man is hospitalized in La Crosse after a two-vehicle accident Monday afternoon on Interstate 90/94 near Oakdale. Michael D. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Scott Sloan, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky. Mar. 4--A trio of environmental groups sued the federal government Monday in a quest to halt construction of an East Kentucky Power Cooperative plant that the groups say is unneccessary and harmful to the environment. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
The ongoing mortgage crisis is the result of a lot of people making a lot of unwise financial decisions. Homeowners bought more than they could afford at terms they didn't understand. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Reid Magney, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Mar. 4--Pat Stephens, the driving force behind such community events as Rotary Lights, Airfest and Irishfest, was honored Monday with the Chair's Community Service Award at the 140th annual La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce recognition dinner. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Paul Eakins LONG BEACH - This time next year, developers could be breaking ground on a massive commercial and residential project in North Long Beach that is expected to be a catalyst for development there. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Mar. 4--The La Crosse County Agricultural Society is seeking applicants for the 2008 Fairest of the Fair. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
WASHINGTON - An election-year dispute over whether to allow loaded guns in national parks is holding up a vote on a massive bill affecting public lands from coast to coast. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
It's been nearly three decades since California has experienced a full-scale battle in its perennial war over water, but another one may be brewing. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, then-Gov. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
TODAY we are giving you the chance to pick up Kipper on DVD. It is part of our great kids' DVD collection which includes Bob the Builder, Barney, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Wiggles and Fireman Sam. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Simon Young What's the secret behind Google's dominance of the internet? The same secret that makes people pay up to four times more for an Apple Mac than a PC. Its 'secret' is making life easy for its customers/users. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Fiona Morris It may seem a tad late to be forecasting what lies ahead this year, but is it really? January seems to pass in the blink of an eye with many of us making the most of school holidays, then February whooshes by and it's already the third month of 2008. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
HOUSTON, March 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Endeavour International Corporation announced today that the company will host a conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full year 2007 financial results at 9:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time on Wednesday, March 12, 2008. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Search Engine Optimization Journal, a top search engine optimization blog, announced today the one year anniversary since its inception. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Some people make a bunch of silly resolutions and goals at the beginning of a year to cure what they screwed up last year - or at least what was not as good as it could have been last year. Or, if it was good last year, they make a 14 percent (pick a number) goal over what they achieved. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced the expansion of its India R&D operations with the launch of Yahoo! Labs -- Bangalore, its first in India. Dr. Rajeev Rastogi has been appointed as vice president and head of the new lab. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
BlogMarketingJournal.com, an outstanding resource for bloggers who want to increase their blog marketing savvy and traffic to their sites, is very proud to announce the re-design of their site with additional resources. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
MAHWAH, New Jersey, March 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- - The Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers (National Conservatory of the Arts and Business) Selects Radware's Multi-Layer Intrusion Prevention and Denial of Service Solution to Ensure Business Continuity and Security Radware , the leading provider of integrated application delivery solutions for business-smart networking, today announced that the CNAM (the National Conservatory of the Arts and Business), has selected its DefensePro security solution to protect its network, users and activities against known and unknown attacks. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
SEATTLE, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Online real estate broker Redfin Corporation today released Redfin Listing Metrics, a dashboard for Redfin's listing customers to analyze neighborhood inventory trends and recent sales, and to compare their listing's online traffic to that of other listings in the neighborhood. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Lawmakers question the national security implications after Northrop and Airbus beat out Boeing's bid. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Microsoft Corp. said Monday it would begin selling Web-based programs to smaller customers, countering a challenge from Google Inc. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
An atomic-powered craft, being built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and scheduled for a 2009 launch, aims to settle once and for all whether the planet has ever been suitable for life. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Recently a group of Southland Muslims undertook the hajj -- Islam's ritual pilgrimage to Mecca. With moments of peace and chaos, the trip was an experience they won't forget. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
Kicked out of sleepy Nile fishing hamlets lost forever to Sudan's oil boom, villagers in the south curse a refinery for causing forced relocations, for spreading disease and ravaging the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 7:47 am
Pollution, slums and an invasion of foreign fish species are threatening the Philippines' largest lake, one of the nation's major fish farming regions, according to a study published... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:45 am
China will build its largest offshore wind farm in the southern province of Guangdong, state media reported Tuesday, in a bid to alleviate looming power shortages. The... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:32 am
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Mar. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pharsight Corporation (Nasdaq: PHST), a leading provider of software, strategic consulting, and regulatory... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:30 am
SAN DIEGO, March 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Iomega Corporation (NYSE: IOM), a global leader in data storage and protection, today announced the new Iomega(R) REV(R)... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 6:30 am
An anonymous reader writes "With the time approaching when we'll be changing our clocks again, the Wall Street Journal is running a timely article on a study done by a UC-Santa Barbara economics professor and a Ph.D. student. The study unambiguously concludes that Daylight Saving Time not only doesn't save any energy, it actually wastes energy and costs more. The study used energy company records from Indiana before and after that state mandated DST for all of its counties, and calculated that the switch cost Indiana citizens $8.6M per year. 'I've never had a paper with such a clear and unambiguous finding as this,' the professor said."
My second novel Eastern Standard Tribe has been published in German by Heyne, under the title Upload. As with the German edition of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (published as Download), they've released the German text under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Given that Heyne's a division of the mega-publisher Bertelsmann, this is pretty cool news -- especially considering that the CC release was their idea!
An international manufacturer of solar energy equipment plans to turn a plot of desert real estate into its North American hub for production, giving New Mexico officials hope that the state can become... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 5:07 am
Newly released secret documents reveal Giant Lance, a Nixon-Kissinger plan to win the Vietnam War by bluffing the Soviet Union with nuclear bombers aimed for Moscow.
The Soldiers Egg Cup from Boys To Men Gifts allows you to stage a tabletop war for unfertilized chicken ova. Perfect with Toasty Soldiers, natch.
Link
(via Cribcandy)
John sez, "Night Shade Books has made the entire text of Butcher Bird available as a DRM-free download, in a wide variety of formats. Kadrey is the author of one of the quintessential cyberpunk novels, Metrophage (which you can also read online.)"
Spyder Lee is a happy man who lives in San Francisco and owns a tattoo shop. One night an angry demon tries to bite his head off before he's saved by a stranger. The demon infected Spyder with something awful - the truth. He can suddenly see the world as it really is: full of angels and demons and monsters and monster-hunters. A world full of black magic and mysteries. These are the Dominions, parallel worlds full of wonder, beauty and horror. The Black Clerks, infinitely old and infinitely powerful beings whose job it is to keep the Dominions in balance, seem to have new interests and a whole new agenda. Dropped into the middle of a conflict between the Black Clerks and other forces he doesn't fully understand, Spyder finds himself looking for a magic book with the blind swordswoman who saved him. Their journey will take them from deserts to lush palaces, to underground caverns, to the heart of Hell itself.
Sortova writes "For many years now I've been maintaining OpenNMS, a free and open source network management framework published under the GPL. A couple of years ago it came to our attention that a company called Cittio was using OpenNMS as part of their proprietary and commercial network management application. I talked with Jamie Lerner, the Cittio founder, and he assured me that Cittio was abiding by the GPL. However, we were recently contacted by a potential client who was also considering Cittio's Watchtower, and it appears that they are not disclosing that they are using GPL'd code or at least not in the clear and concise fashion required by the GPL, including the offer of source code for all of the code they are including and any changes being made to that code. Since the copyright for OpenNMS is held by a number of commercial companies, the Software Freedom Law Center is not able to help us defend or even investigate a potential violation. I was curious if anyone here on Slashdot had experienced anything similar or has any advice?"
A number of readers wrote in to make sure we know about Microsoft's change of heart regarding IE8. The new version of the dominant browser will render in full standards mode by default. Developers wishing to use quirks mode for IE6- and IE7-compatible rendering will have to opt in explicitly. We've previously discussed IE8's render mode a few times. Perhaps Opera's complaint to the EU or the EU's record antitrust fine had something to do with Redmond's about-face.
Japanese electronics maker Pioneer Corp. is reviewing its plasma display business, a company official said Tuesday, while Japanese media reports said the company plans to stop producing them. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 2:37 am
An 1890 Scottish cantilever bridge made of modern steel is hailed as a triumph of Victorian engineering, and stands today as one of the world's greatest spans.
Wall Street closed narrowly mixed Monday as investors wrestled with record-high commodities prices and data that pointed to a continually weakening economy. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 1:38 am
bfwebster writes "Space.com has an article talking about the efforts to observe the arrival of the Phoenix lander on Mars this coming May using current Mars orbiters. This community will likely be intrigued to see the ways in which NASA is using existing landers and orbiters to prepare for, and then monitor, that landing. This includes using the landers Spirit and Opportunity to simulate transmissions from Phoenix as a testing procedure in advance of the actual landing; using the Odyssey orbiter as a high-speed data transmission link from Phoenix to Earth during the landing; and using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Express orbiter as backup data stores for Phoenix data transmissions during the descent. How long until we get a terabyte solid-state dataserver (running IPv6, natch) in orbit around Mars?"
Intel Corp. lowered its profit forecast for its fiscal first quarter Monday, blaming the shortfall on a steeper-than-expected drop in prices for memory chips. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 12:40 am
I HATE being addressed by machines. We have a microwave that says, Enjoy your meal! when the bell goes off, even if you have only warmed up a cup of coffee. I tell the microwave to shut up, though not... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 12:37 am
MALTBY, Wash. Five luxury homes in a subdivision marketed as built green near here were destroyed or severely damaged by fire early Monday, and evidence at the scene suggested the fires might have been... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 4 Mar 2008 | 12:36 am
Scott Jaschik writes "At Hunter College, professors are debating the ethics of a course in which an industry group paid for a class to develop a fake student who would write a fake blog to discourage other students from buying knockoff products. The controversy involves both commercial interference with academic freedom and the ethics of 'guerilla marketing.'"
eldavojohn writes "Over concerns for lack of an anti-phishing mechanism for Safari, Paypal is telling its Mac users to use another browser. An author from Ars Technica reveals that he has been using Camino and has fallen victim to a Paypal related phishing scam via e-mail so this story must hit home for him. 'Currently the Apple browser does not alert users to sites that could be phishing for your info, and it lacks support for Extended Validation. PayPal is, of course, a popular site among phishers in their neverending search for personal information, user IDs, and passwords. While it's not entirely fair singling out Safari (other Mac browsers like Camino also lack this support), it is perhaps at least a helpful reminder of the threat.'"
An informal, loosely organized alternative to the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California was low-key -- but just as devoted to big, world-changing ideas.
Making the leap to Linux? Trick out your freshly installed desktop OS with the free software programs listed in our guide. In a few steps, you'll have a machine worth leaving Windows or Mac OS X behind for.
Our friend Mister Jalopy has launched a blog about his enchanting store in Los Angeles, Coco's Variety. You can buy some of the things he sells in the store via PayPal.
Coco's Variety sells flyswatters, glass 5 gallon water bottles, headache remedies, oil cloth by the yard, used bicycles, California souvenir tablecloths, Kit Kat Klocks, gum ball machines, Mexican Cokes in glass bottles, squirt guns, tote bags adorned with hula girls, Lodge cast iron frying pans, old American made tools, baskets for your bicycle, wood matches, reverse osmosis purified drinking water by the gallon and fancy Jadeite cake plates for fancy cakes on fancy occasions.
RemyBR writes "Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a smart video goggle system that records everything the wearer looks at, recognizes and assigns names to objects that appear in the video. Advanced programs then go back and create an easily searchable database of the recorded footage. Designed to function as a high-tech memory aid, these 'Cyber Goggles' promise to make the act of losing your keys a thing of the past, according to head researcher professor Tatsuya Harada. 'In a demonstration at the University of Tokyo last week, 60 everyday items -- including a potted begonia, CD, hammer and cellphone -- were programmed into the Cyber Goggle memory. As the demonstrator walked around the room viewing and recording the various objects, the names of the items appeared on the goggle screen. The demonstrator was then able to do a search for the various items and retrieve the corresponding video.'" Add in facial recognition technology and this would make for a great aid at conferences and family reunions.
Petitioners in Scotland are seeking a pardon for one Helen Duncan who was jailed for nine months in 1944 for holding a séance in which she revealed that a certain warship had sunk. The military had kept the news secret in order to keep morale up. Another petition aims to pardon all victims of Scotland's "witchcraft legislation." From the BBC News:
Although not convicted for being a witch, Mrs Duncan was jailed for pretending to use witchcraft.
The crime of being a witch was abolished by the 1735 Witchcraft Act.
Roberta Gordon presented the signatures to Frank McAveety, convener of the public petitions committee, at Holyrood.
Mrs Gordon, who has been a medium for more than 28 years, said: "I feel that at the time the country was paranoid about security with D-Day coming up and the evidence used against her wasn't accurate. Link
And from Scott Horton's analysis at the Harper's Magazine site:
It looks like prosecutors faced a dilemma. The medium actually did discover a tragedy that the Government wanted to keep secret from the people. And there was no legal tool available to silence her. So they turned to the witchcraft statute in order to lock her away. (Let’s hope the Bush Administration doesn’t get ideas, but these days it hardly has need for a witchcraft statute, it already has plenty of them.) Link(Thanks, Vann Hall!)
Paleontologists have unearthed the fossilized remains of a one-ounce primate in Mississippi, providing new information on what North America was like 55 million years ago.
mattnyc99 writes "Last week we discussed Popular Mechanics' reporting from MIT, but missed one of the coolest breakthrough of all, something scientists have been working on quietly as Detroit spends money elsewhere. The Lab for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems has been doing some mega-efficient work with ultracapacitors, which store drastically less energy than a battery but have essentially none of the drawbacks — especially via carbon nanotube arrays. Automotive experts say the new research is enough to start replacing batteries in hybrid cars, and plug-in vehicles might not be far behind. From the scientist who thinks ultracapacitors are potential competitors for the pack in his Toyota Prius: 'I try to contain myself, because it hasn't been proven yet, but it could be a real paradigm change.'"
I've written about ultra-realistic baby dolls before. A woman named Faith "reborns" unusual looking ones called Ooaks and offers them for "adoption" on eBay. Link(Thanks,
Kirsten!)
Looks like someone had a li'l nip 'n' tuck over the weekend at Metroblogging. I love it when a favorite site-of-sites like this gets even better, automagically.
Phil sez, "MinnPost has a neat article written by the wife of John Borger who has just donated his collection of more than 40,000 comic books (including the entire runs of Watchmen and The Sandman) to the University of Minnesota. She writes about how comics and superheroes are a part of their family culture and about how emotional discussions got about how the comics might fit into their wills. The article includes a short video interview with the couple and a gallery of some of his comics and memorabilia."
There's no debating the logic of donating the comics. They'll be far safer in the high-security, fireproof library. And besides, I keep telling John, books are meant to be read, not sit in our basement. People will be able to study John's books in the Andersen reading room, as long as they leave their packs outside, use only a pencil or a computer to take notes, and wear white cotton gloves while handling them. That's a far cry from the days when my son read his copies in the bathtub.
After John had made all the arrangements to donate the books, I visited their final resting place. A delightful young woman took me to the lowest cavern, which is two stories high and the length of two football fields. This is where the books are kept at the optimum 62 degrees Fahrenheit and approximately 50 percent relative humidity, in acid free boxes on shelves lit by lights on timers like the knob you turn in a hotel bathroom for a sunlamp. Collections appraised at more than $100,000 carry the donor's name.
Can you tell the difference between music that passed through a pricey Monster stereo Cable, and a coat hanger? A reader forwarded us a post from the Audioholics Home Theater Forum and its author says no. He says his brother ran an experiment on him and four other audio aficionados listening to a new CD from a new group blindfolded. Seven different songs were played, each time heard with the speaker hooked up to Monster Cables, and the other time, hooked up to coat hanger wire. Nobody could determine which was the Monster Cable and which was the coat hanger. The kicker? None of the subjects even knew that coat hangers were going to be used.
DIzzIE reviews an 1886 book titled Danger! A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations. The Veil Lifted, and Light Thrown on Crime and its causes and Criminals and Their Haunts. Facts and Disclosures which was made available on Project Gutenberg a couple of days ago.
[H]ere are a couple ways commentators have described it:
the two shysters coauthored a book entitled In Danger, or Life in New York: A True History of the Great City's Wiles and Temptations. They explained in the preface that it was published in the interest of justice and to protect the innocent from the guilty, but what they actually turned out was a primer on every type of crime -- blackmail, house burglary, card sharping, safecracking, shoplifting, jewel thievery and, of course, murder.
It became an immediate best-seller, with bookstore owners noticing a lot of traffic in their shops by persons who did not appear to be frequent book buyers. The book became required reading for every professional or would-be lawbreaker, from streetwalkers to killers. More and more when Howe and Hummel asked a new client, "Who sent you?" the stock reply was, "I read about you in the book."
(Frauds, Deceptions and Swindles, Carl Sifakis, 081604422 p. 89)
In 1888 [note that, as aforementioned, an edition of the same tome was actually first published two years prior], Howe and Hummel published In Danger; or Life in New York. A True History of a Great City's Wiles and Temptations, a purported exposé of the New York City underworld. Giving explicit and detailed information about how pickpockets, shoplifters, thieves, and even murderers conducted business [emphasis added], their "exposé" was essentially a how-to manual for would-be criminals. Their book attempted to drum up business by flaunting their success at thwarting the courts and returning their criminal clients to the streets, claims that many Americans believed.
(West from Appomattox, Heather Cox Richardson, 0300110524, p. 240)
Now, while it is certainly true that the tome covers shoplifting, blackmail, gambling, slumming, and much more, I would nonetheless stop short of calling it what it originally sounded like -- a 19th century Steal This Book or Fuck the System. Indeed, one has to wonder if the above authors even bothered reading the tome in question, as murder is only mentioned in passing on rare occasions throughout the book (unless, of course, the aforementioned authors happen to be 'pro life' crazies, as there is indeed a section on abortion). Instead, the book disproportionately deals with cases of upper class infidelity and other bourgeois tripe. Yet, while I was thus initially disappointed with the tome after the false hopes instilled by the afore-quoted descriptions, the book is nonetheless quite a valuable asset, and definitely worth a read (though like, say, the bulk of Marquis de Sade's work, it is overwhelmingly dry in parts, necessitating that one persevere to get to the juicy center).
My second novel Eastern Standard Tribe has been published in German by Heyne, under the title Upload. As with the German edition of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (published as Download), they've released the German text under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Given that Heyne's a division of the mega-publisher Bertelsmann, this is pretty cool news -- especially considering that the CC release was their idea!
The Soldiers Egg Cup from Boys To Men Gifts allows you to stage a tabletop war for unfertilized chicken ova. Perfect with Toasty Soldiers, natch.
Link
(via Cribcandy)
Spyder Lee is a happy man who lives in San Francisco and owns a tattoo shop. One night an angry demon tries to bite his head off before he's saved by a stranger. The demon infected Spyder with something awful - the truth. He can suddenly see the world as it really is: full of angels and demons and monsters and monster-hunters. A world full of black magic and mysteries. These are the Dominions, parallel worlds full of wonder, beauty and horror. The Black Clerks, infinitely old and infinitely powerful beings whose job it is to keep the Dominions in balance, seem to have new interests and a whole new agenda. Dropped into the middle of a conflict between the Black Clerks and other forces he doesn't fully understand, Spyder finds himself looking for a magic book with the blind swordswoman who saved him. Their journey will take them from deserts to lush palaces, to underground caverns, to the heart of Hell itself.
I've written about ultra-realistic baby dolls before. A woman named Faith "reborns" unusual looking ones called Ooaks and offers them for "adoption" on eBay. Link (Thanks,
Kirsten!)
Can you tell the difference between music that passed through a pricey Monster stereo Cable, and a coat hanger? A reader forwarded us a post from the Audioholics Home Theater Forum and its author says no. He says his brother ran an experiment on him and four other audio aficionados listening to a new CD from a new group blindfolded. Seven different songs were played, each time heard with the speaker hooked up to Monster Cables, and the other time, hooked up to coat hanger wire. Nobody could determine which was the Monster Cable and which was the coat hanger. The kicker? None of the subjects even knew that coat hangers were going to be used.
