Joi Ito, a shrewd Japanese/American venture capitalist, has written a great little blog-post about why he's not so hot to invest in the "mobile Internet." Basically, when a heavily regulated, big stupid phone company controls your "internet," then your ability to innovate and do cool stuff and make money is entirely predicated on the regulator's or the stupid phone company's willingness to allow that to happen. So if you're making money by disrupting something that matters to the phone company or one of its entrenched partners, forget about it.
The reason that we have vibrant startup driven innovation is because the Internet is open by nature. Anyone can participate without asking permission and anyone can compete with anyone else at every layer of the stack. This DNA of open and free competition (except for the occasional semi-monopoly) is what allows startups like Google to come in and displace incumbents. If it weren't for the Internet, I'm positive that the telcos would have determined that it was the most efficient that THEY design and operate the "online directories"...
In 2006 in Japan, mobile advertising was only $330M vs Content (Ringtones, Song-tones, Games) at $2.2B and Commerce at $4.7B. (http://www.johotsusintokei.soumu.go.jp/whitepaper/eng/WP2007/2007-index.html) Although all of us are experimenting with advertising and advertising is increasing on mobile, the overwhelming percentage of money spent on mobile devices goes to paying for and the collection of payments for a small number of not so innovative products from a small number of providers.
bobwrit sends us to Wired for a look back by the author of HyperCard, Bill Atkinson. Quoting: "HyperCard is a programming environment that can create applications as diverse as utilities and games by linking 'cards' arranged into 'stacks.' Commands are executed through a natural-language scripting language called HyperTalk... The software has been phenomenally successful and highly influential. But Atkinson feels that if only he'd realized separate cards and stacks could be linked on different people's machines through the Net — instead of cards and stacks on a particular machine — he would have created the first Internet browser."
Text of report by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) [Report by reporters Li Bin and Xu Song: "Wen Jiabao Granted an Interview to Chinese and Foreign Reporters in Wenchuan, the Epicentre of the Sichuan Earthquake"] Chengdu, 24 May (Xinhua) -Wen Jiabao, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee, premier of the State Council, and general commander of the State Council Anti-Quake and Disaster Relief Headquarters [AQDRH], granted an interview to Chinese and foreign reporters in the morning on 24 May when he returned to Yingxiu Town in Wenchuan, the epicentre of the earthquake in Sichuan. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Mary Giunca, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C. May 25--"Would you come back to the farm?" Nearly 40 years ago, Edgar Miller's dying grandfather asked him that question. Miller asked for time to think. He was 25. He was ready to get married. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Rachel Hatzipanagos, South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 25--DELRAY BEACH -- Redevelopment plans for Atlantic Plaza in downtown Delray Beach are stirring up once again. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Matthew Eisley and David Bracken, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C. May 25--We asked readers to tell us what steps they think need to be done to make sure the Triangle is better prepared when the next drought hits us. Here are some of the ideas. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Laqueta Perry, The Paducah Sun, Ky. May 25--The body of Brenton Hooper, the 14-year-old who drowned near the banks of the Ohio River at the foot of Broadway, was found Saturday morning. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Journal-World, Lawrence, Kan. May 25--Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Timothy Sandefur will speak on property rights at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Dole Institute of Politics. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Paul Hammel, Omaha World-Herald, Neb. May 25--EWING, Neb. -- For nearly a century, the sandy soil around Goose Lake concealed a secret: Freed black slaves once had struggled to settle the harsh plains. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Ihosvani Rodriguez, South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 25--HOLLYWOOD -- Getting rid of trash, leasing a boat slip at the city's marina and renting out the nearly completed Charnow Park at the beach will all be more expensive, since commissioners approved new fees last week. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Jeffrey Tomich, St. Louis Post-Dispatch May 25--NORMAL, Ill. -- Crude oil is around $130 a barrel. But some central Illinois landowners see a different energy crisis. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Heidi Freeman, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C. May 25--The Downtown Arts District Association Community Center, 526 N. Liberty St., has opened an exhibition of collaborative works by Norton Barnhill and Davita Galloway. "Color Collision" will be on view through June 28. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Katharine Dale, The Charlotte Observer, N.C. May 25--Before he was called to Providence United Methodist Church, senior pastor Ken Carter's life was marred by tragedy. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Matt Campbell, The Kansas City Star, Mo. May 25--Union Station last week sold its 100,000th ticket to its exhibit of skinless human bodies from China. Officials say they are on a pace to meet their goal of 250,000 tickets sold by the time "Bodies Revealed" ends Sept. 1. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Winston-Salem Journal, N.C. May 25--The Orchard-Keepers: Cherry Orchard Theatre will hold auditions at 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in room M208 of Scales Fine Arts Center at Wake Forest University. Available roles: two men, ages 40-70, and one woman, age 40-50. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
SUGABABE Heidi Range and her TV presenter boyfriend Dave Berry are inseparable after moving in together. He is hosting the Vodafone TBA show in Edinburgh when the girls perform there next week - and we've got VIP tickets and phones to give away. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Heidi Freeman, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C. May 25--Associated Artists of Winston-Salem will present its "Spring for Art" fundraiser at 7 p.m. Friday. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Heidi Freeman, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C. May 25--Piedmont Craftsmen will celebrate "45 Years of Inspired Design" from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Sawtooth Building, 226 N. Marshall St. The exhibition includes works in a variety of media by more than 65 member artists. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Tom Stieghorst, South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 25--Air travel this summer promises to be as crowded as last year and more expensive, as airlines offset fuel costs by cutting flights and packing fliers on fewer planes. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
By Ryan E. Smith, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio May 25--For a growing number of Americans, caught in the icy grip of the economy and strapped for cash, there's just one question. Wanna trade? It's an ancient concept that's returning to favor with some help from the Internet. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 11:00 am
The number of mobile phone users worldwide soared to over 3.3 billion by the end of 2007, equivalent to a penetration rate of 49 per cent, the International Telecommunications Union said in a report this... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 10:05 am
Inside Steve's Brain is a book about Steve Jobs, written by Leander Kahney. It's a fascinating look at the thought processes and inspiration behind Apple's products and branding, with a particular and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 9:59 am
Far from being rbsh, it is actually gr8 for society. Experts believe that new forms of communication such as mobile phone texting, email and instant messaging are helping us stay in touch with each other... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 9:46 am
pacroon writes "StatoilHydro is building the world's first full-scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, and testing it over a two-year period offshore of Karmøy, Norway. The company is investing approximately $80 million. Planned startup is in the fall of 2009. The project combines existing technology in innovative ways. A 2.3-MW wind turbine is attached to the top of a so-called Spar-buoy, a solution familiar from production platforms and offshore loading buoys. A model 3 meters tall has already been tested successfully in a wave simulator. The goal of the pilot is to qualify the technology and reduce costs to a level that will mean that floating wind turbines can compete with other energy sources."
Can your cell phone tell if you're happy or overworked? Researchers at MIT think it can do that and more--separate the rich from the poor, the sick from the healthy, even the outgoing from the introverted... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 9:16 am
By Clark, James XIO Strategies' survey assesses the adoption of technology in the DOD supply chain. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 May 2008 | 8:00 am
A three-legged NASA spacecraft was closing in on Mars Sunday for what scientists hope will be the first-ever touchdown near Mars' north pole to study whether the permafrost could have... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 May 2008 | 7:30 am
Is Microsoft’s vision to compete in search and reinvent itself as an advertising company nothing more than an attempt to get back into its familiar position as Top Gun? Should Microsoft, Google and... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 7:29 am
French parachutist Michel Fournier will try early Monday to break a skydiving world record by plunging from a balloon into thin air 40 kilometers (25 miles) above Canada's vast western... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 May 2008 | 7:27 am
Dekortage writes "As previously discussed here, the health-products giant Johnson & Johnson sued the American Red Cross over use of the ubiquitous 'red cross' logo. J&J has now lost. The presiding judge said Johnson & Johnson's claim against the organization was doubtful because the manufacturer entered into a brand-sharing promotional agreement with the American Red Cross in 1986 — not to mention that the two organizations agreed to share the logo way back in 1895. Sounds like J&J may need to crack open some Tylenol and Band-Aids."
With planet Earth engaged in a heated race against global warming, "carbon capture and storage" has brought a ray of hope, and a Norwegian gas platform is leading the way. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 May 2008 | 5:08 am
jfischet writes "Back in 2005 a Slashdot user asked this question and the responses were helpful — but I'd like to ask again to see what has changed in three years. I'd like to know what this community thinks is the best choice of smartphone for remotely administering Linux/UNIX boxes via SSH."
As NASA's Phoenix lander approaches Mars, Wired.com is on the scene at Mission Control with technicians at the Jet Propulsion Lab. Slated to touch down on Mars on Sunday afternoon, Phoenix should start sending back signals and images from Mars on Sunday evening.
Thanks to everyone who tested on Friday, as well as to all of SourceForge's netops crew, our corporate overlords at SourceForge for paying the bill, and of course all the engineers on Slashteam- Jamie McCarthy, Tim Vroom, Chris Nandor, Chris Brown, and Scott Collins, we are now running on the new iron in a cage in Chicago. We'll run a story in a few days about the ridiculously overpowered new hardware we have now, but now is the part of sprockets where we dance.
FiReaNGeL commends to us a study by Penn State researchers looking at the effect of video game play on creativity. "[Subjects] were asked to play a popular video game, Dance Dance Revolution, at various levels of complexity. The students took a standard creativity test after playing. The researchers also took readings of the players' skin conductance and asked players if they were feeling either positive or negative after the game... [T]he study appears to indicate that after playing the game, happy or sad people are most creative, while angry or relaxed people are not. The findings suggest that either high or low arousal is key to creativity. In other words, medium amounts of arousal are not conducive to creativity."
Photographer Phillip Toledano's shoots of bankrupt offices were meant to be archaeological exercises, but the signs of life interrupted make them as ghostly as the frozen statues of Pompeii. Link ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 2:24 am
Photographer Phillip Toledano's shoots of bankrupt offices were meant to be archaeological exercises, but the signs of life interrupted make them as ghostly as the frozen statues of Pompeii.
Link
(via Neatorama)
Joss Whedon fans have already organized a campaign to stop his new show, Dollhouse, from being cancelled, even though the first episode won't air for another eight months. Whedonistas have witnessed so... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 2:20 am
Joss Whedon fans have already organized a campaign to stop his new show, Dollhouse, from being cancelled, even though the first episode won't air for another eight months. Whedonistas have witnessed so many kick-ass TV shows cancelled by callous goons from teeveeland, they're girding their loins for the inevitable fight and not waiting around for the disappointment before working up a good head of bitter outrage. Good on 'em! Preemptive strikes are just defense as practiced by precogs.
DollhouseForums' trailblazing leader Nathan posted the following as a call to arms: "After seeing some of my favorite television shows get canceled in the past -- as well as the 'save this show' campaigns that followed -- I had the idea that a fan campaign BEFORE the show begins may be the best thing to do."
A Facebook fan page dedicated to the online campaign already has nearly 1,500 members.
Well before this city was destroyed by an earthquake 32 years ago, the coming disaster was loudly preceded by strange animal behaviour and other bizarre signals that survivors wish they... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 May 2008 | 2:16 am
John sez, "I painted the bedroom of my old apartment to look like a scale replica of Bubble Man's stage from MegaMan 2. The project took me three months to complete and was 'unveiled' to my roommates... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 2:13 am
John sez, "I painted the bedroom of my old apartment to look like a scale replica of Bubble Man's stage from MegaMan 2. The project took me three months to complete and was 'unveiled' to my roommates for a Christmas party in 2006. I measured, stenciled, painted, and touched up every detail entirely by hand."
Link
(Thanks, John!)
HTC rolled out an update this morning for European TyTN II devices, bumping them up to WinMo 6.1 and making some tweaks for the sake of display performance. No word yet when the update will come stateside... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 1:48 am
Most television studios have caught up with the web and made their shows available online, either with their own websites or with an aggregate effort such as Hulu. However most studios are still far away... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 May 2008 | 1:44 am
Roland Piquepaille alerts us to work by US and Israeli researchers who have developed software that can identify the subject of an image characterized using only 256 to 1024 bits of data. The researchers said this "could lead to great advances in the automated identification of online images and, ultimately, provide a basis for computers to see like humans do." As an example, they've picked up about 13 million images from the Web and stored them in a searchable database of just 600 MB, making it possible to search for similar pictures through millions of images in less than a second on a typical PC. The lead researcher, MIT's Antonio Torralba, will be presenting the research next month at a conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.
Old technology has a noble history of refusing to die. For decades, vinyl has defied the march of the compact disc. Radio was not killed by television. Nearly every desk in every office in the land is... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 May 2008 | 11:07 pm
From over 130,000ft, the ultimate parachute jumper, Michel Fournier, will break the sound barrier while on his way down Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 May 2008 | 11:05 pm
Emily Gould lay panting for breath on a bathroom floor in the throes of a panic attack. It was as if she could hear millions of voices, but they were not inside her head. Instead, her defences were overwhelmed... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 May 2008 | 11:01 pm
An anonymous reader writes "My housemate uses an aggressive P2P client, that when in use makes the Internet unusable for everyone else connected to the network. After hearing about various ISPs shaping traffic to reduce P2P traffic, I was wondering if there was a solution for managing P2P traffic on a home network. I have a Linksys WRT54G available for hacking. Can Slashdot recommend a way to reduce the impact of P2P on my network and make it usable again?"
Excerpt from a blog written by an "exotic dancer" named Grace, in Texas.
Rose was putting lotion on her face when she told me about the abortion. She was brief and matter-of-fact. Maybe I was supposed to ask more questions. The dressing room is not a tearful-hugs-sisterhood rah-rah-girlfriends kind of place. It's a zone of suspended emotion, mostly. It's where you go to get out of the whole chatty, google-eyed gushing sex kitten thing that you do out on the floor all the time. Even the girls on their cellphones breaking up with their boyfriends every day during shift change sound clinical and practiced. The only real raw emotion there is from girls who aren't making money, crouched by their lockers hissing curses into little piles of singles.
Rose and I sat in front of the mirror and put our powder on. It seemed quiet, although it never actually is, with the stage music piped back here and the DJ on the mic hawking five-dollar you-call-em shots. Some people would be saying things right now, because some people show how much they care by saying things. Some people would want to know if she was still with her boyfriend and what does he think and are you OK and where are you getting it done? And maybe those people would be better than me in situations like this. I tend to try to show how much I care by saying as little as possible.
I wish I could let her know just by the quality of the silence that if she needs anything from me it's hers. We're not best friends or anything. Sometimes we sell dances together. Men like to see us entertwined, her slim frame and and spectacular breasts, my pale skin and substantial hips. I love the warmth of her skin and the light gold freckles she's powdering over now so meticulously.
On the floor, she is silly and bewitching, daffy smile and clownish gestures set off against the essential elegance of her -- her classical face, that serious lode of smoky black hair. She seduces me again and again, like she seduces everyone. I love Rose. But of course, there is no Rose. I don't really know this girl next to me, the girl who's legal name is in my phone. If I knew her, I would say more.
After a nearly 10-month journey, a NASA spacecraft will land softly Sunday on the northern polar region of Mars, if all goes as planned. The Phoenix Mars Lander is set to touch down in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 May 2008 | 9:55 pm
I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "A Brooklyn man has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement by a federal jury in Virginia. He now faces up to five years in prison, a quarter-million-dollar fine, and three years of parole, not to mention the 'full restitution' he has to make to the RIAA. The charges against him stem from his role as 'Dextro,' the administrator of one of the Apocalypse Production Crew's file servers — APC being one of the release groups that specialize in pre-release music. While he's the 15th member of APC to be charged under the US DOJ's Operation Fastlink, he's the first to be convicted. He will be sentenced on August 8th. For those wondering when infringement became a criminal matter, you can thank the NET Act, which was signed into law in 1997 by Bill Clinton."
esocid writes "Conventional electrically-powered laser diodes used in everyday consumer goods like DVD players are currently based on inorganic semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, and related alloys. Plastic laser diodes offer the promise of covering more of the light spectrum than their counterparts, from near ultraviolet to the near infrared. Yet despite over a decade of research worldwide, plastic laser diodes have not yet been demonstrated because there haven't been any plastics that could sustain a large enough current while also supporting the efficient light emission needed to produce a laser beam. Now researchers at Imperial College London, publishing their findings in Nature Materials in April, are studying a plastic related to PFO (polydioctylfluorene), a blue-light emitting material; by making subtle changes in the plastic's chemical structure they have produced a material that transports charges 200 times better than before, while actually increasing its ability to emit light efficiently."
Craig Ferguson snuck into Taiwan's abandoned hyper-futuristic San-Zhr Pod Village, a rotting, curvilinear housing complex that has been cursed since its inception, killing and injuring some of its construction crew.
Link
(Thanks, Nicholas!)
The Huffington Post just appointed former RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen as its new political director. Rosen presided over the RIAA's total and utter failure to come to grips with the Internet, the period in which the record industry rejected every single overture of money in exchange for licenses to its catalog from venture-backed P2P companies, choosing litigation over cash, and leading to a world in which the majority of music consumption online is illegal and doesn't give a dime to the record industry.
Nevertheless, Rosen is also an old-time political hack, epitomising the wing of the Democratic party that has progressive politics on every issue except the Internet: they're all for freedom, except for when it comes to that magic wire that delivers freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech in one package. As far as that wire goes, one Police Academy or Brittney Spears download is grounds for termination of access to the net (and confiscation of every cent you can lay claim to).
But Rosen, 50, has had a long career in politics that spans beyond her 17 years at the RIAA, and it's her network of contacts and know-how that Huffington wants to tap into as The Huffington Post grows.
"Hilary really knows Washington and its political players intimately, and everyone on [The Huffington Post's] team in Washington loves her," said Arianna Huffington in an interview.
Coral reefs in the disputed Spratlys island chain in the South China Sea are either dead or dying due to destructive fishing, a study by Philippine biologists has said. Use... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 May 2008 | 6:30 pm
Eight giant pandas were flown Saturday from quake-ravaged southwestern China to Beijing, where they will be housed at a new zoo exhibit built for the Olympic Games, state press said. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 May 2008 | 6:20 pm
Plans by Italy's Silvio Berlusconi to deal with the rubbish piling up on Naples streets ran into trouble Saturday, as locals clashed with police in a bid to stop the opening of a new dump. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 May 2008 | 5:14 pm
Information technology stocks overtake the financial sector for the first time since the bubble broke. But soaring oil prices have the energy sector running a close third.
DollhouseForums' trailblazing leader Nathan posted the following as a call to arms: "After seeing some of my favorite television shows get canceled in the past -- as well as the 'save this show' campaigns that followed -- I had the idea that a fan campaign BEFORE the show begins may be the best thing to do."
