Starturtle sends along an Engadget article on the demise of the Microsoft SPOT Watch. We've discussed related devices a few times in the past; here's a picture of one. "After a long, painful, nearly anonymous ride on the wrists of a select few uber-geeks, Microsoft's finally throwing in the towel on one of its longstanding pet projects: the SPOT watch. The writing's been on the wall for some time; the applications and content available to the watches haven't been updated in ages, and indeed, the entire line of Abacus Smart Watch 2006 models — the only type being recently offered — has been discontinued and out of stock for a few months. For what it's worth, MSN Direct's program manager is quick to note that the underlying technology most certainly isn't going away."
Auburn University researchers have built a rechargeable microscope illumination system for NASA scientists who are using it during Antarctic expeditions.Professor Vitaly Vodyanoy and research assistant Oleg Pustovyy of the AU Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology built the patent-pending Ilumna 120 to help NASA scientists observe microscopic life in areas where there is no electricity. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 12:43 pm
An anonymous reader points out a story in the Huffington Post about the status of funding for election voting systems. It contains an interesting section in which Chris Riggall, a spokesman for Premier (formerly Diebold) acknowledged that less money is spent making an electronic voting machine than on a typical ATM. The ironically named Riggall also notes that security could indeed be improved, but at a higher price than most election administrators would care to pay. Also quoted in the article is Ed Felten, who has recently found some inconsistencies in New Jersey voting machines. From the Post: "'An ATM is significantly a more expensive device than a voting terminal...' said Riggall. 'Were you to develop something that was as robust as an ATM, both in terms of the physical engineering of it and all aspects, clearly that would be something that the average jurisdiction cannot afford.' Perhaps cost has something to do with the fact that a couple of years ago, every single Diebold AccuVote TS could be opened with a standard key also used for some cabinets and mini-bars and available for purchase over the Internet."
Third-party Internet advertisements on unused Web pages can often create security vulnerabilities outside the control of Internet service providers, according to research presented at a security conference last weekend.Dan Kaminsky, director of penetration testing for Seattle-based computer security consultant IOActive Inc., described the problem. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:51 am
Microsoft Corp. is looking ahead to a strong fiscal 2009, with or without Yahoo. The software maker gave Wall Street a first peek at guidance for next year indicating that strong... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:49 am
By Luke Anderson It always fascinates me that you can take something, make it look old and it's suddenly cool because it's "retro." Aside from the ability to create mix tapes, there wasn't anything cool... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:04 am
By Luke Anderson Most USB hubs you see are pretty standard, as they are a plastic shell (that may or may not look like something cool). They come in two categories; powered and unpowered. The former requires... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:02 am
By Luke Anderson When I was a kid I loved Batman, heck he's still pretty cool in my book. I tried a few times to make my own Bat Signal by taping some paper to a flashlight, but it just never really worked... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:01 am
Headburro Antfarm is a man (man gizelle?) on a mission. "Fused with my animal spirit guide by my backpack and the nature forces known as The Elders," he writes in his bio, "I am charged with wandering... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:01 am
Text of report by Moses Koech entitled "Row over vaccines' institute" published by Kenyan opposition newspaper Kenya Times website on 25 April The ministries of livestock development and of agriculture are embroiled in a protracted wars over which ministry should be in control of the Kenya Veterinary Vaccine Production Institute (KEVEVAPI). Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Steve Tetreault By STEVE TETREAULT Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Nevada won a Yucca Mountain ruling at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Laura Smitherman, The Baltimore Sun Apr. 25--Maryland regulators are considering exemptions for a proposed Calvert County power plant and other generators from a regional auction of carbon credits that is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Steve Tetreault By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - A bill that has been prepared in the Senate envisions two temporary storage sites for nuclear waste - one in the East and one in the West - as a precursor to recycling highly radioactive reactor fuel rather than sending it to Yucca Mountain. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Sara Spivey STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - A strategy to divert floodwaters away from neighborhoods at the base of Sunrise Mountain picked up support in Congress this week. Sens. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Patrick Garmoe, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn. Apr. 25--Thursday turned out to be a soggy day for planting pine saplings. But Jeremyia Calmes, 7, a first-grade student at Grant Elementary School, didn't mind. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Sammy Fretwell, The State, Columbia, S.C. Apr. 25--Federal prosecutors sued the Norfolk Southern railroad company Thursday over pollution that settled in a creek after a deadly 2005 train crash in Graniteville. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By C. Douglas Nielsen There was a time when the once-wild West seemed vast and endless - but no longer. The throngs of people who once passed through on their way to and from the West Coast have now decided to stay. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Matt Stiles, Houston Chronicle Apr. 25--A landlord whose north Houston apartment complex was closed by city inspectors over unsafe conditions last year has paid a $100,000 fine, officials said Thursday. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Zacks Equity Research highlights Arch Coal, Inc. (NYSE: ACI) as the Bull of the Day and CEMEX, S.A. (NYSE: CX) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Tractor Supply Company (Nasdaq: TSCO), Anadigics (Nasdaq: ANAD) and Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL). Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By John Markoff Signs of a consumer slowdown abound in the United States but Apple customers appear not to have noticed. Buoyed by unusually strong Macintosh sales, the company grew notably faster than the rest of the computer market worldwide in the first three months of the year. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
A grand total of 45,000 pounds of old, unusable and potentially dangerous computer equipment was safely and properly disposed of at the Dalbey Education Institute's community recycling event. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
HP has renewed its infrastructure outsourcing services contract with Sara Lee for an additional seven years, under terms of which it will extend management of operations from 10 countries currently to more than 35. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c89895) has announced the addition of "On the Edge: A Comprehensive Guide to Blade Server Technology" to their offering Kiran Mani oversees marketing and strategy for the IBM Systems & Technology Group across the ASEAN/South Asia region. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By The Hartford Courant, Conn. Apr. 25----Ben-ami Kadish, a former U.S. Army employee, was arrested Tuesday on charges he provided classified military documents to an employee of the Israeli Consulate between 1979 and 1985. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Dawn Chan; Nurul'Aini Nuraqilah Ismail THE definition of 3G is supposed to be ultra fast connection and high speed Internet browsing. But FUNG, of Petaling Jaya, says that the 3G services provided by Celcom was disappointing. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
By Sarah Ovaska, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. Apr. 25--RALEIGH -- Wake County's two presiding judges want magistrates to justify misdemeanor bail above recommended amounts after research found the figure is often set high, especially for blacks. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2008 | 11:00 am
Instructables have just published their latest installment in their series of HOWTOs inspired by my forthcoming novel Little Brother, a young adult book about kids who use technology to wrest liberty from... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:50 am
Instructables have just published their latest installment in their series of HOWTOs inspired by my forthcoming novel Little Brother, a young adult book about kids who use technology to wrest liberty from the Department of Homeland Security. This week, it's HOWTO block or kill an RFID chip.
-The easiest way to kill an RFID, and be sure that it is dead, is to throw it in the microwave for 5 seconds. Doing this will literally melt the chip and antenna making it impossible for the chip to ever be read again. Unfortunately this method has a certain fire risk associated with it. Killing an RFID chip this way will also leave visible evidence that it has been tampered with, making it an unsuitable method for killing the RFID tag in passports. Doing this to a credit card will probably also screw with the magnetic strip on the back making it un-swipeable.
-The second, slightly more convert and less damaging, way to kill an RFID tag is by piercing the chip with a knife or other sharp object. This can only be done if you know exactly where the chip is located within the tag. This method also leaves visible evidence of intentional damage done to the chip, so it is unsuitable for passports.
-The third method is cutting the antenna very close to the chip. By doing this the chip will have no way of receiving electricity, or transmitting its signal back to the reader. This technique also leaves minimal signs of damage, so it would probably not be a good idea to use this on a passport.
-The last (and most covert) method for destroying a RFID tag is to hit it with a hammer. Just pick up any ordinary hammer and give the chip a few swift hard whacks. This will destroy the chip, and leave no evidence that the tag has been tampered with. This method is suitable for destroying the tags in passports, because there will be no proof that you intentionally destroyed the chip.
By Evan Ackerman Over on BotJunkie this week, we kicked things off in style and watched some video of a cute little DIY CrabFu SwashBot take on an equally cute kitty in a battle of weirdness, got a little... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:48 am
Ape Lad sez, "Every time I see this it makes me smile: ballet dancers performing to the Pixies' 'Where is my mind.'" Link (Thanks, Ape Lad!) Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:43 am
A Denver TSA employee who brought a handgun to the airport and passed it around the metal detector is still on the job. The TSA won't say if he's been disciplined -- or how -- for doing this stupid thing that would land any of the rest of us in Gitmo for a decade's worth of stress-positioning. Of course, we can't expect TSA screeners to be held to the same legal standard as the rest of us -- since they work for the security administration, then everything they do, by definition, must be good for security.
Airport documents show that the security office suspended Crabtree’s badge for 30 days as a result of the incident, but a TSA spokeswoman cited privacy rules when asked if Crabtree received any formal punishment.
A Denver TSA employee who brought a handgun to the airport and passed it around the metal detector is still on the job. The TSA won't say if he's been disciplined -- or how -- for doing this stupid thing... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:41 am
Liliputing has done a fantastic roundup of the existing and forthcoming micro-notebooks, the Eee and its successors and competitors. There's a lot of interest in these things in my household -- we're all sick of shlepping around shoulder-tearing laptops and the idea of a 2.5 Lb, sold-state submicro tablet is pretty attractive all 'round, especially if it goes for a couple hundred bucks.
Link
(via Gizmodo)
Liliputing has done a fantastic roundup of the existing and forthcoming micro-notebooks, the Eee and its successors and competitors. There's a lot of interest in these things in my household -- we're all... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:37 am
Sophisticated protein-sequencing techniques have been used to prove that modern birds are descended from dinosaurs Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:32 am
TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd said it has no plan to cut the prices of its Wii console and DS handheld players this year, underscoring its confidence in continued demand for the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:27 am
China will join up with the US Chicago Climate Exchange to establish a carbon emission market in the city of Tianjin near Beijing, state media reported Friday. Tianjin... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 10:20 am
A conference for people have been turned into "micro-celebrities" by the internet is opening in Cambridge, Massachusetts Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:50 am
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top court has interrogated a death penalty defendant via a video link for the first time since a key legal reform aimed at cutting wrongful executions, Xinhua... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:44 am
Japan's Toshiba Corp. said Friday its net profit plummeted a staggering 95 percent in the January-March quarter due to losses related to its exit from next-generation video HD DVD... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:43 am
X-Men fan Everett Bradford has constructed a wrist-mounted flamethrower designed specifically to emulate Pyro, a superhero with the ability to control (although not create, hence the flamey little wrist... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:36 am
esocid alerts us to news that scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have created a microbe capable of making cellulose, which can then be turned into ethanol. The bacteria use sunlight as an energy source, and the cellulose can be harvested without destroying them. Quoting: "The new cyanobacteria produce a relatively pure, gel-like form of cellulose that can be broken down easily into glucose. 'The problem with cellulose harvested from plants is that it's difficult to break down because it's highly crystalline and mixed with lignins [for structure] and other compounds,' Nobles says. He was surprised to discover that the cyanobacteria also secrete large amounts of glucose or sucrose, sugars that can be directly harvested from the organisms."
The world's first cloned dog will become a father next month in the first breeding of cloned canines, South Korean researchers said Friday. Snuppy, the cloned Afghan hound,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 9:02 am
MELBOURNE, Fla., April 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Directors of Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS), an international communications and information technology... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 8:17 am
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc is working to rewire the dozens of services across its site so that users can manage all information about themselves in a single place and share it with Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 8:16 am
DALLAS, April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NYSE: TXN) today announced establishment of the Engibous Prize, $150,000 in annual awards to the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 8:00 am
Wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson AB on Friday said its first-quarter profit fell 55 percent, which was better than expected, and the company's shares soared more than 25 percent. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:38 am
Wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson AB on Friday said its first-quarter net profit fell 55 percent, mainly due to costs related to recent acquisitions as well as research and development. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:38 am
Celebrity Squares: Funnyman Gordon Kennedy reckons his Sky+ box means that he'll never be forced to watch Top Gear again Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:16 am
Court rules that women who say their eggs were stolen may pursue their cases against the University of California. The decision reverses a 2006 ruling that said too much time had passed. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
Northrop Grumman Corp. shares surged 4% on Thursday as first-quarter sales rose modestly to $7.7 billion, excluding a one-time charge, and operating earnings improved across all of its businesses. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
The naughty Internet pictures spark concern about the star of Disney's lucrative 'Hannah Montana' franchise. When... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Apr 2008 | 7:00 am
jagermeister101 tips us to news that Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings production team have officially selected Guillermo del Toro to direct the upcoming Hobbit film and its sequel. del Toro's resume includes films such as Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy, and Blade 2. This confirms rumors which began after the controversy between Jackson and New Line Cinemas was resolved last year.
Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, points out a story about the Russian government's interest in expanding anti-extremism laws to include the blocking of websites and ISPs. The laws would match those already in use for the country's print media. Russian internet users may soon be forced to deal with the same issues facing Chinese citizens. Quoting: "An official at the Russian prosecutor's general office, Vyacheslav Sizov, told the Russian-language newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta that any web site that is determined to host what he terms 'extremist material' would be blocked from being accessible from within the Russian Federation. Given the Putin government's history with the media, 'extremist material' may be very broadly interpreted as any content unfriendly to the interests of the Russian government."
Heather sez, "A new painting & print from the fabulous Suzanne R Forbes is on Etsy. $10 of each print purchase goes to the EFF. "
Miss Eva G posed for me in her SOMA loft, dressed in her own fabulous steampunk finery, with an antique crossbow she brought back from China. The painting took several sittings with Miss E and then many hours of work painting in the detailed background. She is defending early implements of the computer revolution, Jacquard punch cards and IBM cards, a CDV of Ada Byron, and Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No. 2. An apple core represents Turing, eaten up by the intolerance of his era.
Also prominently displayed are so
me wonderful modern creations- The Steampunk Laptop by Datamancer and the Steampunk Flatpanel and Keyboard by Jake Von Slatt- who were kind enough to allow me use their work in the painting. The packet-sniffing rat under the desk is a nod to the EFF’s most recent victory; the EFF logo appears among the luggage stickers on the trunk. I added the bullet shells at the last minute when I learned that Miss E. is a crack shot.
Hugh Pickens writes "Researchers report that brain activity can be used to predict the likelihood of someone making an error about six seconds in advance, with gradual changes starting as much as 30 seconds ahead of time. The team used an imaging machine to scan the brains of a group of volunteers who performed a task in the presence of distracting information. When performing correctly the volunteers' brains showed increased levels of activity in those parts associated with cognitive effort, as would be expected. However, these areas gradually became less active before errors were made and at the same time another set of regions in the brain became more active. These regions are part of a so-called "default mode network" and show increased use when people are resting or asleep[PDF]. While imaging machines are far too big and complex to be used in workplaces to monitor the brain activity of people engaged in important tasks, the team hopes to correlate errors to changes in electrical activity in the brain with electroencephalography (EEG), using electrodes placed on the scalp. If EEG features can be found that correspond to the change in brain activity, then a hat that gives warning of an imminent mistake might one day become reality. We've previously discussed similar studies of brain activity."
Geek get-togethers like Web 2.0 Expo draw technologists in droves. But if you really want to get ahead of the curve when it comes to developing for Web 3.0, head to a sex conference.
Eight Americans suing the government over repeated stops at the border can see whether they have been put on the government's terror watch list, a court ruled last week. The court ruled against the government's invocation of national security and the plaintiffs will be the first to learn whether their names are on the 800,000-name list.
Nina Paley's colorful, full-length feature blends an ancient Hindu story, playful modern animation and tunes by a 1920s jazz singer. But perhaps the most amazing part of this unlikely mashup is that she created it alone in her home office.
Find out the delightful components that make up your typical cigarette: castoreum, culled from secretions in glands located near a beaver's genitals; acetophenone, a prime component of tear gas; and, gamma-heptalactone, which efficiently keeps nicotine in your bloodstream longer.
See how designers at Nokia, Ford, Apple and Microsoft create ultra-realistic 3-D models of their product concepts using HyperShot, developed by award-winning Henrik Wann Jensen.
In the current New Yorker, anthropologist Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse, looks at the vengeance practices of tribal societies in New Guinea. While Diamond was conducting field work in the New Guinea Highlands, he was driven around by a young man named Daniel Wemp of the Handa clan. The two got to talking and Daniel recounted how he avenged the death of his uncle who had been killed by the neighboring Ombal clan. The tale is amazing, insightful, and gets you thinking about our own, er, taste for revenge. From the New Yorker article, titled "Vengeance Is Ours":
The war between the Handa clan and the Ombal clan began many years ago; how many, Daniel didn’t say, and perhaps didn’t know. It could easily have been several decades ago, or even in an earlier generation. Among Highland clans, each killing demands a revenge killing, so that a war goes on and on, unless political considerations cause it to be settled, or unless one clan is wiped out or flees. When I asked Daniel how the war that claimed his uncle’s life began, he answered, “The original cause of the wars between the Handa and Ombal clans was a pig that ruined a garden.” Surprisingly to outsiders, most Highland wars start ostensibly as a dispute over either pigs or women. Anthropologists debate whether the wars really arise from some deeperlying ultimate cause, such as land or population pressure, but the participants, when they are asked to name a cause, usually point to a woman or a pig. Any Westerner who knows the story of Helen and the Trojan War will not be surprised to hear women named as a casus belli, but the equal importance of pigs is less obvious. However, New Guinea Highlanders, whose main food staples are starchy root crops like sweet potato and taro, are chronically starved for protein, of which the island’s dark, bristly pigs traditionally furnished the only large source. As a result, pigs are prized symbols of prestige and wealth. Peaceful competition and ostentatious displays involve pigs, and they are also used as currency for buying women. Pigs are individually owned and named, and, as piglets, they are sometimes nursed at one breast by a woman nursing an infant at her other breast.
A typical Highland village is a cluster of huts housing between a few dozen and a few hundred people plus their pigs, traditionally surrounded by a fence, and situated a mile or a few miles from the next village. A village’s pigs are taken out to forage during the day, and are prone then to wander into people’s vegetable gardens, breaking down or digging under fences erected to keep them out. A single pig can root up and ruin an entire garden in a few hours. If the intrusion happens at night, or if the offending pig is not caught in the act, it is virtually impossible to prove which particular pig was responsible.
That was how the Handa-Ombal war began. An Ombal man found that his garden had been wrecked by a pig. He claimed that the offending pig belonged to a certain Handa man, who denied it. The Ombal man became angry, demanded compensation, and assaulted the Handa pig owner when he refused. Relatives of both parties then joined in the dispute, and soon the entire membership of both clans—between four and six thousand people—was dragged into a war that had now raged for longer than Daniel could remember. He told me that, in the four years of fighting leading up to Soll’s death, seventeen other men had been killed.
coondoggie brings news that NASA has announced it will team with Machine-to-Machine Intelligence Corp. to produce small satellites, called 'nanosats,' weighing between 11 and 110 pounds. The satellites will work together in 'constellations' and facilitate networking in space. According to NASA's press release, it will 'develop a fifth generation telecommunications and networking system for Internet protocol-based and related services.' We've discussed miniature satellites in the past.
My old pal Rodney Ascher has curated a show in Los Angeles of strange, provocative, creepy, and downright freaked-out narrative photography. For example, Rodney created "The Fumigator Series" (above left), which he describes as "a rightwing fantasy inspired by vigilante movies of the 70's and 80's and action/adventure paperbacks like The Executioner, the Enforcer, The Death Merchant, and the Penetrator." Others shot fake movie stills and dramatic tableaus, like the one seen here above right created by The Blacksmoke Organization. The exhibition, Photo Fictions, runs until May 17 at the Show Cave. Link
The Red Ferret's had a little experiment with a dual-SIM conversion kit for GSM phones -- pop it into one of the many compatible handsets and you can flip back and forth between two different carriers. I have a British and a US SIM that I switch between, depending on which continent I'm on, so this could be pretty handy.
The only thing I’ve noticed so far is that the offline mode doesn’t seem to be really offline with this thing in, because my battery now runs down a lot faster in offline mode than it used to. It’s no biggie, I’ll just switch the phone off or take out the twin SIM on flights, but it’s something to watch out for. It may just be a peculiarity of my setup, of course.
The other thing that’s not really clear from the site is the compatibility of handsets. The site has a long list of compatible handsets on it, which includes a lot of standard 3G and other phones, but even though the Nokia 6110 Navigator I upgraded wasn’t on the list, it still worked fine. So maybe it’s a matter of taking a gamble if your handset is not listed? Oh and remember you’ll need a phone with a back cover which bends enough, or has enough room to cope with the extra SIM.
Ian Lamont writes "Yahoo has announced it is further opening its Web platform to developers and moving closer to a Facebook-style social networking concept. Yahoo CTO Ari Balogh made the announcement at the Web 2.0 Expo, and said that while Yahoo already has open APIs for some services, it will expand the open API concept to other areas and make it more consistent for developers, while boosting the 'social' aspect of its services for its members. Analysts don't expect this to increase Microsoft's interest in Yahoo!. In fact, recent comments from Steve Ballmer suggest that Microsoft will give up entirely."
Listeners to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio program Search Engine, gathered the information necessary to allow the CBC's President to lobby the Chinese ambassador to Canada to have the service unblocked by the Great Firewall of China:
Thanks to their efforts our show broke this story, which was picked up throughout the country and resulted in the CBC's President appealing to the Chinese Ambassador to end the blockage at once. Today the news is out that the CBC, along with Wikipedia and the BBC, is back online.
This was a great display of citizen journalism in action. Our China-based listeners alerted us to the blockage, then confirmed it throughout China by working the message boards. We tapped other listeners in the area through our Facebook page, and every one of them responded, testing our sites and others. Through that we were able to establish that the blockage was limited to China and didn't occur in neighbouring countries, which helped rule out technical failure as a cause.
Several of the people who helped us have requested anonymity (one is an Olympic torch-bearer and wants to keep the job!). We've decided to keep all of you anonymous, but you know who you are, and we're appreciative. Thanks!
Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, is releasing a new license with the upcoming fourth edition of Dungeons of Dragons. Publishers can create compatible D&D products, but only if the companies no longer publish any games which are distributed via the Open Gaming License.
This would be like saying that developers could not run programs on Vista if they publish -any- programs under a GNU license. Keeping up with the D&D 4th edition "GSL" license situation might be important, because it could very well be a precedent.
Update: The license itself has not been released, but the linked article below contains links to message-board postings from senior Wizards of the Coast employees that seem to validate this view of the license.
Josh Fink brings us a CNN story discussing evidence found by researchers which indicates that humans came close to extinction roughly 70,000 years ago. A similar study by Stanford scientists suggests that droughts reduced the population to as few as 2,000 humans, who were scattered in small, isolated groups. Quoting: "'This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history,' said Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence. 'Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA.'"
Discover the latest in gym add-ons, items sure to make your workout seem all the less painful. Wired reviews a new Australia-made smart bra with straps that dynamically adjust while working out, the Avacore cooling shoe and Omegawave Sport sensors which measure your heart-rate variability, ECG and slow-wave brain activity by way of sensors you attach to your body EKG-style.
Microsoft's Q3 falls 11 percent from a year earlier, when Vista pre-sales pushed up revenues. Net profit is 47 cents per share vs 50 cents; analysts had forecast 44 cents.
An anonymous reader writes "The bill to ban genetic discrimination in employment or insurance coverage is moving forward. Is this the death knell of private insurance? I think private health insurance is pretty much incompatible with genetic testing (GT) for disease predisposition, if said testing turns out to be of any use whatsoever. The great strength of GT is that it will (as technology improves) take a lot of the uncertainty out of disease prediction. But that uncertainty is what insurance is based on. If discrimination is allowed, the person with the bad genes is out of luck because no one would insure them. However, if that isn't allowed, the companies are in trouble. If I know I'm likely to get a certain condition, I'll stock up on 'insurance' for it. The only solution I can see is single-payer universal coverage along the lines of the Canadian model, where everyone pays, and no one (insurer or patient) can game the system based on advance knowledge of the outcomes. Any other ideas? This bill has been in the works for a while."
Distracting backgrounds, the glistening sheen of a sweaty brow, the demonic gaze of red-eye. Get rid of those unwanted flaws in your photos in a few simple steps using sub-$100 consumer-level software.
The Tissot T-Touch is more than just a watch. It can tell temperature like a thermometer, altitude like an altimeter, barometric pressure like a barometer, and even boasts a iPhone-like touchscreen.
The Tissot T-Touch is more than just a watch. It can tell temperature like a thermometer, altitude like an altimeter, barometric pressure like a barometer, and even boasts a iPhone-like touchscreen.
-The easiest way to kill an RFID, and be sure that it is dead, is to throw it in the microwave for 5 seconds. Doing this will literally melt the chip and antenna making it impossible for the chip to ever be read again. Unfortunately this method has a certain fire risk associated with it. Killing an RFID chip this way will also leave visible evidence that it has been tampered with, making it an unsuitable method for killing the RFID tag in passports. Doing this to a credit card will probably also screw with the magnetic strip on the back making it un-swipeable.
