The uproar over Charter Communications testing out a deep-packet inspection system to deliver advertising to its customers is far quieter than the one that erupted over similar plans by British ISPs, but... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 12:00 pm
NerdMaster writes "Last week nVidia held their Spring 2008 Editor's day, where they presented their forthcoming series of graphics processing units. While the folks at Hardware Secrets couldn't tell the details of the new chips, they posted some ideas of what nVidia is seeing as the future of computing. Basically more GPGPU usage, with the system CPU losing its importance, and the co-existence of ray-tracing and rasterization on future video cards and games. In other words, the 'can of whoop-ass' nVidia has promised to open on Intel."
By Anonymous PITTSBURGH - A CONSOL Energy Inc. mine in Clay County was recently honored for its reforestation efforts. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
Brazilian energy major Petrobras has announced that the consortium it has formed with Shell and Galp Energia has proved the presence of oil in pre-salt reservoirs through a pioneer well in the ultra-deep Santos Basin, offshore Brazil. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Stowe, Gene After more than 30 years of building homes in Goshen and Elkhart County, Adlai Schrock has started a real estate brokerage to sell those homes and others. Schrock, president of Schrock Homes and Schrock Commercial,. has opened the Schrock Realty Group. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Mowad, Michelle Mother Earth has much to be pleased about as hundreds of local businesses and residents gear up to celebrate and advance green efforts in honor of Earth Day on April 22. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Ruff, Kathy For hundreds of years, the protection of communications between clients and their lawyers - including the attorney-client privilege - formed the bedrock of the American justice system. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Bonham, Kevin MINTO, N.D. - City and rural water systems are beginning to blend their products - and their projects - to deliver better-quality water to more people at a price that's cheaper than going it alone. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Bonham, Kevin A group opposed to the planned TransCanada Keystone Pipeline through North Dakota will file an initiative petition this week in an attempt to force the rerouting of a portion of the pipeline. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Overholt, Jason With all the talk of sustainable development in the commercial sector lately, it's easy to see how businesses might be tempted to do a little "green washing" - meaning they exaggerate their green efforts but apply only a weak veneer of sustainability to their products and policies. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Hurley, Becky Christian Sterner knew he was on to something when the largest real estate company in Manhattan decided to use his company, WellcomeMat.com, as its primary Web hosting site. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
GOTEBORG, Sweden, May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascom Wireless Solutions announces today that the Ascom IP-DECT System is approved as a Solutions Incentive Program (SIP) verified solution with the Cisco Unified Communication Manager. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
Streamline Learning Systems Inc. today launched the company's new eLearning website which features innovative pricing tools that give clients instant budget estimates for Streamline custom eLearning projects. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
HELICOPTERS will take to the skies of Coventry and Warwickshire to check for potential electrical dangers. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous The city of New Orleans has launched a redesign of its Web site, www.cityofno.com, which the city touts as having a primary focus on providing information about the hurricane recovery. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
WARWICK Road United Reformed Church in Coventry will host a musical performance in aid of restoring a Wurlitzer organ for the church. The concert takes place at the church, in Warwick Row, on Thursday at 7.30pm. It will consist of music played on the Allen Digital Organ. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 8:00 am
StealthyRoid writes "I'm an anarcho-capitalist, and a huge supporter of property rights, both physical and intellectual. At the same time, I find the current trend of increasing penalties for minor violations, criminalizing civil IP matters, anti-consumer technologies like DRM, and abuse of the legal system by the *AA's of the world really disturbing. You'd think that by now, there'd be a reasonable solution to the problem of protecting intellectual property while at the same time maintaining the rights of consumers and protecting individuals from absurd litigation, but I have yet to find one. So, I pose these questions to the Slashdot community: 1 — Do you acknowledge the legitimacy of intellectual property to begin with? That is, do you believe that intellectual property is a valid construct equivalent to physical property, or do you think it's illusory? If not, why? 2 — If so, how would you go about protecting the rights of intellectual property holders in a way that doesn't require unfair usage limitations or resort to predatory abuse of the tort system?"
NASA's newest outpost in the solar system is a polygon-cracked terrain in Mars' northern polar region believed to hold a reservoir of ice beneath. Hours after the Phoenix Mars Lander... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 May 2008 | 7:12 am
(TrendHunter.com) Now you can customize your TrendHunter.com landing page with over 15 hot layouts. Love pictures? Do you like em big or small? Once you make up your mind, you can save the layout as... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 6:01 am
Thank you to our sponsors, for supporting ReadWriteWeb's mission to provide in-depth coverage of Web apps and trends. To enquire about sponsor slots on ReadWriteWeb, please email us for a Media Kit. We... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 5:38 am
uvLayer allows you to search for videos and organize them in a Minority Report fashion. Do a search for any video and uvLayer will instantly provide you with a handful of videos matching your keywords... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 5:30 am
Sometime around May 16 a bug appeared in PayPal’s subscription payments page that stops people from paying if they live in a different country than the site collecting the money. The original complaint... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 5:23 am
By Izwan Ismail Leading a global technology company is no easy feat. Local boy A.J. Wang, senior vice president and chief technology officer of D- Link Corp, shares his views on his experience and the trends in the industry. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 5:00 am
Part of Route 50 near Avella in Washington County will remain closed until at least today after six railroad cars derailed in the rural area Saturday, emergency officials said. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 5:00 am
By The Associated Press FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Consumers and farmers soon will be on their own when it comes to finding out which pesticides are being sprayed on everything from corn to apples. The U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 May 2008 | 5:00 am
**1/2 (130m | PG-13) Taking a cue from the wildly successful "Spider-Man" movies, director Christopher Nolan ("Memento") delves deeply into Bruce Wayne's psyche in this fresh reboot for the fallen "Batman" franchise. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 5:00 am
***1/2 (139m | PG-13) This may well be the best of all six "Star Wars" movies -- with the caveat that you need to have seen the other five films to truly grasp its significance. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 5:00 am
MICROSOFT is offering its Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 4000 at a discounted price exclusively for Tech&U readers. The retail price for this mouse is RM159 and the special offer price is at RM109. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 May 2008 | 5:00 am
An anonymous reader writes "This video shows a method by which a user can use a Linux distro called BackTrack to gain system access to Windows Vista without logging into Windows or knowing the username or password for any accounts. To accomplish this, the user renames cmd.exe to Utilman.exe — this is the program that brings up the Accessibility options for users without sight or with limited vision. The attack takes advantage of the fact that the Utility Manager can be invoked before the user logs into the system. The user gains System access, which is a level higher than Administrator. The person who discovered this security hole claims that XP, 2000, 2003 and NT are not vulnerable to it; only Windows Vista is."
These guitar-shaped key covers from Gama-Go are a hoot. They're $6 for a set of six in a variety of colors. Link Previously on BB: New Boing Boing t-shirt by Gama-Go! Link ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 4:46 am
Twitter, our favorite tool for self narcissism and the eponymously named San Francisco company behind the service may not have a business model, but it surely has the buzz. Whether it is their new round... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 4:37 am
Twitter, our favorite tool for self narcissism and the eponymously named San Francisco company behind the service may not have a business model, but it surely has the buzz. Whether it is their new round... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 4:22 am
Does Cover Flow work for browsing the Web? Increasingly, I’ve been seeing Flash-based Websites adopt the visual metaphor of Apple’s iTunes Cover Flow as a navigational tool to quickly flip... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 3:40 am
Sculptor Ageli Batle makes elaborate, highly detailed sculptures of everyday objects in graphite that can then be used as gorgeous pencils -- you can write with anything from an antler to an olive branch... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 May 2008 | 3:28 am
Sculptor Ageli Batle makes elaborate, highly detailed sculptures of everyday objects in graphite that can then be used as gorgeous pencils -- you can write with anything from an antler to an olive branch to a callalily or a wing. They write with surprising smoothness and accuracy and are a joy to hold and behold.
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A NASA spacecraft plunged into the atmosphere of Mars and successfully landed in the Red Planet's northern polar region on Sunday, where it will begin 90 days of digging in the permafrost Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 May 2008 | 3:18 am
GOTEBORG, Sweden, May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascom Wireless Solutions announces today that the Ascom IP-DECT System is approved as a Solutions Incentive Program (SIP)... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 May 2008 | 3:00 am
Titus Germanicus writes "If you're thinking about open sourcing a project in the near future, Mozilla might be the perfect blueprint to follow. At last week's Mesh 2008 conference in Canada, Mike Shaver, chief technology evangelist and founding member at Mozilla, and John Resig, a JavaScript evangelist at Mozilla — two of the key figures behind the success of Mozilla's Firefox Web browser — listed inclusivity and transparency as two of the top cornerstones of any community-built project. Shaver said in this interview that because the Web is intended for everybody, the level same openness should be shared with Firefox's open source contributors."
The Phoenix Lander successfully transmits a series of photographs from the arctic surface of Mars. Check out images showing the solar panels have deployed fully, Martian terrain and a lander foot pad.
Mars lander used a heat shield, parachutes and jet thrusters to slow its descent and land safely on the planet Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 26 May 2008 | 12:55 am
Iddo Genuth writes "Precisely at 7:53PM EST, the "Phoenix Mars Lander" touched-down on the desert-like surface of Mars. Since its launch on August 4th, 2007, the spacecraft has covered more than 680,752,512 kilometers, traveling at average speeds of around 120,000 km/hr. Upon arriving at its destination, the Phoenix will begin its exploration of our intriguing neighbor planet, in a mission to help astronomers resolve at least some of the many questions regarding Mars. The key question remains: can the Red Planet support some form of life?" Hella grats to our nerd brethren — you looked great on the Science channel. Yes I'm watching this live. Can't wait to see what happens next. Update: 05/26 03:0 GMT by KD : zof ends a link to the first pictures from Phoenix.
NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has successfully landed near Mars' north pole for a 90-day digging mission. Mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrated after the Phoenix... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 May 2008 | 12:03 am
PASADENA, California (Reuters) - A probe set to make the first studies of another planet's water reached the surface of Mars on Sunday, NASA officials said. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 May 2008 | 12:00 am
Wired.com is on the scene at Mission Control with technicians at the Jet Propulsion Lab as NASA's Phoenix lander makes successful landfall on Mars. Phoenix should start sending back signals and images from Mars on Sunday evening, so check our Wired Science blog for updates.
Japan's environment minister on Sunday urged wider support for a "sectoral" approach on the second day of climate talks amid calls for rich nations to set clear emission cut goals by 2020. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 May 2008 | 11:54 pm
Billionaire J.R. Simplot, the spud king of America whose wealth also helped create one of the world's biggest computer chip makers, died Sunday at his Boise home. He was 99. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 May 2008 | 11:20 pm
Billionaire J.R. Simplot, the spud king of America whose wealth also helped create one of the world's biggest computer chip makers, died Sunday at his Boise home. He was 99. Ada County Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 May 2008 | 11:13 pm
marcan writes "The Homebrew Channel is a tool that can be installed on any Wii (no hardware mods required) that lets you run unsigned homebrew software from an SD card, or upload executables via WiFi or a USBGecko. We've tried to make it friendly for users with a simple GUI, and powerful for developers with direct upload features and reloading which we hope will make testing less painful. The channel can be installed using a DVD if you have a modchip, or using an exploit in Zelda: Twilight Princess which only requires an SD card (or any future hack or booting method). Once installed, it simply shows up as a Channel on the Wii Menu, just like any official channel. Hopefully, this and other recent developments (such as the upcoming devkitPPC r15 toolchain, much improved and with many bugs fixed) will help make the Wii an appealing platform for DIY software. And yes, it also runs Linux."
Although Google's motto is "don't be evil", the setting couldn't more closely resemble a Bond villain's lair. Amid rolling Hertfordshire countryside, a country house hotel is playing host to the company's... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 May 2008 | 11:02 pm
AFP has a good summary of the pre-touchdown jitters the Phoenix Mars Lander crew is living through. The spacecraft has been under way for 10 months. If the landing goes according to plan — and only about half of the three dozen such attempts have — mission controllers at the University of Arizona will receive radio signals from the Martian surface at 23:53 GMT. Here's the Mars mission home. You can (in theory) track the lander here, but at the moment the JPL Solar System Simulator is "experiencing technical difficulties."
PASADENA, Calif., May 25 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed in the northern polar region of Mars Sunday to begin three months of examining a site... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 May 2008 | 9:31 pm
PASADENA, California (Reuters) - A robotic probe careening toward Mars was perfectly positioned for a landing at the planet's frozen north pole on Sunday, where it will search for water and Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 May 2008 | 9:25 pm
As summer travel approaches and drivers face $4-a-gallon gas, other auto costs are creeping up too: oil changes, parking fees, car rentals and bigger mechanic's bills. AAA estimates the cost of owning and operating a car in 2008 is up a couple hundred dollars from last year.
FiReaNGeL alerts us to a huge development in virology and microscopy: by using a specialized microscope that only illuminates a cell's surface, scientists at Rockefeller University have watched, in real time, hundreds of thousands of molecules coming together in a living cell to form a single particle of HIV-1. A video is available on Rockefeller's front page. "By zeroing in at the cell's surface, the team became the first to document the time it takes for each HIV particle, or virion, to assemble: five to six minutes. 'At first, we had no idea whether it would take milliseconds or hours,' says Jouvenet. 'We just didn't know.' 'This is the first time anyone has seen a virus particle being born,' says Bieniasz, who is an associate professor and head of the Laboratory of Retrovirology at Rockefeller and a scientist at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. 'Not just HIV,' he clarifies, 'any virus.'"
circletimessquare writes "The New York Times has a gushing portrait of Shigeru Miyamoto. His creative successes have spanned almost 30 years, from Donkey Kong, to Mario (as well known as Mickey Mouse around the world, the story notes), to Zelda, to the Wii, and now to Wii Fit — which according to some initial rumors is selling out across the globe in its debut. The article has some gems of insight into the man's thinking, including that his iconic characters are an afterthought. Gameplay comes first, and the characters are designed around that. Additionally, his fame and finances and ego are refreshingly modest for someone of his high regard and creative stature: 'despite being royalty at Nintendo and a cult figure, he almost comes across as just another salaryman (though a particularly creative and happy one) with a wife and two school-age children at home near Kyoto. He is not tabloid fodder, and he seems to maintain a relatively nondescript lifestyle.'"
Ant writes in with news that an amusement park in the UK is trying out a ban on smartphones and PDAs, with the intent to enable families actually to have fun together. The press release says that from May 25 to June 1, adults found using a PDA will be asked to drop it off at a "PDA Drop Off Zone" — no word on what happens if they refuse. But both the Sun and BoingBoing, which picked up their brief story, strike a more ominous note with the claim that "special wardens" will confiscate the devices. If the experiment is deemed a success the park may make the ban permanent.
When Martin Barbre got his first look three years ago at a system that would drive his tractor for him, he didn't buy the device -- or the premise that it would cut costs on his farm. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 May 2008 | 6:04 pm
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.
These guitar-shaped key covers from Gama-Go are a hoot. They're $6 for a set of six in a variety of colors.
