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Nokia plans to close Navteq deal within five days (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2008 | 11:45 am EU clears Nokia to buy mapmaker NavteqEuropean regulators cleared Nokia's takeover of U.S. digital mapmaker Navteq on Wednesday, saying the deal would be unlikely to shut off rivals' access to digital maps. Navteq Corp. is...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 11:27 am Blizzard's Fourth Unannounced Project Confirmed - Action Trip
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 11:17 am BioWare MMO on its way to consoles? - CVG Online
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 11:15 am Mattson Technology, Inc. Ships Suprema(TM) Photoresist System to Leading Japanese ManufacturerOrder Expands Installed Base and Broadens Company's Market Position FREMONT, Calif., July 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- href="http://www.mattson.com">Mattson ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 10:30 am Rainmaker to Announce 2008 Second Quarter Financial Results on July 31, 2008CAMPBELL, Calif., July 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Rainmaker Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMKR), a leading provider of sales and marketing solutions combining hosted...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 10:30 am Elbit Systems Selected by Boeing for the US Navy's T-45 Virtual Mission Training System (VMTS)HAIFA, Israel, July 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Elbit Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ:ESLT) announced it has been selected by Boeing to be the supplier for the US Navy's T-45...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 10:07 am European Commission Approves Nokia's Planned Acquisition of NAVTEQESPOO, Finland, July 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced today that it has received unconditional approval from the European Commission for its...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 10:05 am Microsoft overhauls business licensing - VNUNet.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 10:00 am Neopolitan Networks Announces New National Sales DirectorSAN ANTONIO, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Neopolitan Networks, Inc., a leading networking solutions provider, announced the appointment of Steve Cote as national director of...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 10:00 am BPO Management Services Wins Two New Information Technology Outsourcing ContractsCatalog Marketer Spiegel Brands and Shasun USA, One of the World's Largest Producers of Ibuprofen, Have Signed Multi-Year Contracts ANAHEIM, Calif., July 2...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 10:00 am Samplify Systems Announces Distribution Agreement With Tokyo Electron Device Limited, Broadening Availability of Signal Compression TechnologySANTA CLARA, Calif. and YOKOHAMA CITY, Japan, July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Samplify Systems, Inc., a real-time signal compression technology company, and Tokyo Electron Device...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 10:00 am TripAdvisor Honors Top 10 European Castle HotelsUnited Kingdom Rules for Regal Relaxation NEWTON, Mass., July 2 /PRNewswire/ -- TripAdvisor(R), the world's largest travel community, today announced the top 10...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 10:00 am Microsoft Messing with Yahoo AgainAccording to the WSJ tonight -- and I can almost not bear to type these irritating words -- Microsoft is messing with Yahoo again. The story says that Microsoft is working at pulling together a consortium...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 9:50 am Check Out AT&T's Official Pricing And Options For The 3G iPhone - eFluxMedia
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 9:48 am The Scream Aliens Hear From the Earthonehitwonder writes "Astronomers have discovered that the Earth emits awful, ear-piercing chirps and whistles that could be heard by any aliens who might be listening, according to an article up at Space.com. The sounds are created by charged particles from the solar wind colliding with Earth's magnetic field. This article explains more about the sounds and links to an audio recording of it."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2008 | 9:48 am Interview With Barney Pell and Ramez Naam About Microsofts Powerset Acquisition: Integration By End Of YearI spoke with Powerset cofounder/CEO Barney Pell and Microsoft’s Live Search General Program Manager Ramez Naam shortly after Microsoft’s announcement of their acquisition of Powerset earlier...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 9:02 am Machines ruined thousands of ballots in London mayoral electionThe results of the London mayoral elections have been called into question after independent observers cast doubt on the hi-tech process used to count ballot papers. A report today from the Open Rights...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:45 am Calif's hands-free cell law for drivers in effect (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:26 am Rock the Vote, MySpace start competitionDENVER (Billboard) - Rock the Vote and MySpace have struck a deal that combines grass-roots voter registration drives with music promotion and live events.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:25 am Tipit Lets You Transfer Money Over Twitter. Sort of.Tipit, a startup that lets users tip website owners for their content, has launched integration with Twitter. Users can now ‘Tweet’ their tips to websites and Twitter users, even those without...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:13 am Peter Rojas and Ryan Block Partner up in Technology start-upAccording to TechCrunch, Engadgets editor-in-chief Ryan Block will be leaving parent company AOL shortly, sources say, to launch a new startup. "Partnering with him on the new company will be Peter...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:11 am Denver Technology & Business Consulting Firm 3t Systems Announces the Launch of the New Online Store, BuyOnlineOnline Procurement Site Allows Customers the Ability to Leverage Industry-Leading Technology Knowledge 3t Systems, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Celartem Creates New US-Based DjVu Sales and Operations Center in Seattle to Support Its Growing Customer BaseLizardTech Completes DjVu Management Transfer to Parent Company, Celartem Technology Inc. press only: Celartem Technology Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Syniverse Technologies to Host Conference CallSyniverse Technologies, Tampa Investor Relations: Jim Huseby, +1 813-637-5000 jim.huseby@syniverse.com or Media Relations: Diane Rose, +1 813-637-5077 diane.rose@syniverse.com Logo: http://www.syniverse.com Syniverse Technologies (NYSE:SVR), a leading provider of technology and business solutions for the global telecommunications industry, announced today that it will be hosting a conference call to discuss the recently announced consolidation of two large Syniverse customers and its possible effect on Syniverse.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Shin-Etsu Chemical Has Developed a Silicone Rubber for Stamps for Micro-Contact Printing TechnologyShin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (President: Chihiro Kanagawa; Head Office: Tokyo), has developed a silicone rubber ideal for a stamp that deposits molecules on surfaces which is essential for micro-contact printing, a key technology of next-generation printable electronics.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Biz BitsMartinez Wal-Mart expansion completed Wal-Mart will mark the conclusion of the expansion of its Martinez store with a grand opening today.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am EDITORIAL: Close the Seaway: The Dangers Posed By Future Invaders of the Great Lakes and the Continuing Failure of Congress to Do Anything Effective Leads to Only One Conclusion: Close It.By Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jul. 2--It's time to close the St. Lawrence Seaway to oceangoing freighters.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Sex Offender Accused of Taking Photos of ChildrenBy Anne Jungen, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Jul. 2--Charges were filed Tuesday against a 58-year-old La Crosse sex offender accused of photographing a group of children. A 12-year-old girl told her mother she witnessed Steve Traister, of 1532 S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Knee High in July -- a Tough Year for CornBy Chris Hubbuch, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Jul. 2--Even after a late start and the wettest June on record, area crops are behind but beginning to rebound. "We'll have knee high by the fourth of July," said Bill Heider, who farms in the town of Hamilton in La Crosse County.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am River Alliance Airs Septic System ReportBy Mark Millican, The Daily Citizen, Dalton, Ga. Jul. 2--CHATSWORTH -- Concerns about septic systems, clean water and the Conasauga River took top billing at Tuesday's public meeting held by Murray County sole commissioner Jim Welch.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Smoking Tied to Hazardous Air Quality in La Crosse County Restaurants, BarsBy Terry Rindfleisch, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Jul. 2--A local study found air quality inside many La Crosse county eating and drinking establishments that allow smoking exceeds hazardous levels.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am EPA to OK New Smog Plan for Dallas-Fort WorthBy Randy Lee Loftis, The Dallas Morning News Jul. 2--The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that it intends to approve Texas' latest smog-fighting plan for the Dallas-Fort Worth region.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am BRIEF: Police Department Wins Re-AccreditationBy La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Jul. 2--The La Crosse Police Department won a three-year re-accreditation Monday after the unanimous vote of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Accreditation Group governing board. The department is one of 16 accredited by WILEAG among the 650 in the state.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am 620 Acres at Blossom Might Go to Park: Acquisition By Trust, Transfer Would Assure Tract Isn't DevelopedBy Bob Downing, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio Jul. 2--A tract of 620 acres at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls might be saved from development. The Trust for Public Land on Tuesday announced plans to acquire the undeveloped property from the Musical Arts Association.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Musicians Try New VenturesA trio of musicians as disparate as Wu-Tang Clan, Peter Gab-riel and MC Hammer have reincarnated themselves as Web entrepreneurs. RZA, a founding member of Wu-Tang, recently worked with Chesspark.com to launch www.WuChess.com, where the worlds of hip- hop and chess converge.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Cisco Announces Investment in Venture Capital Fund to Focus on Russia and CISCisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today furthered its strategy of investment in the Russian technology industry with the announcement of an anchor investment in a venture capital fund that will focus on Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Sberbank Banks on Cisco Unified Communications for New Services and Enhanced ProductivityCisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced that Russia's largest commercial bank, Sberbank has deployed the 17 millionth Cisco(R) Unified IP device sold worldwide.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Orbitz.Com, Ebookers.Com to Become MSN's Travel Provider in the United States and United KingdomCHICAGO, July 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Orbitz.com (http://www.orbitz.com/), the flagship brand of Orbitz Worldwide in the United States, and its affiliated online travel brand ebookers.com (http://www.ebookers.co.uk/) in the United Kingdom, announced today that they have signed a multi-year deal with Microsoft to serve as the online travel agency for MSN.com's travel portal in the United States (http://travel.msn.com/) and United Kingdom (http://travel.uk.msn.com/), respectively.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am La Crosse Tribune, Wis., Steve Cahalan Column: Steve Cahalan: New Owner Plans Changes for Bead ShopBy Steve Cahalan, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Jul. 2--Nicole Kapellas and her mother, Jeannine Kettner, have purchased the Gossamer Wings Bead Shop in the Jackson Plaza shopping center from Cheri Haug, who opened the store in 2002.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am CORRECTING and REPLACING In the Case of a Strike: Do Not Panic -- Strike Survival Guide From LinkedIn Offers a LifelineContact information should read: LinkedIn, Kay Luo, 650-687-3560, press@linkedin.com.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Site Lets Neighbors Complain IncognitoCOLUMBUS, Ohio - Just outside his sealed bedroom window, beyond the chain-link fence that surrounds his next-door neighbor's yard, sit the reasons David Adams says he can't sleep: two bushy-tailed dogs that bark and howl all night.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Civil Liberty Groups Groups Sue U.S. for Data On Tracking By CellphoneThe ACLU and EFF, two civil liberty groups, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government yesterday, seeking records related to the government's use of cellphones as tracking devices. The Washington Post...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am 23 Starbucks Innovations - Sad: Stock Down 60%, 500 Stores to Close (SUPER GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Shelling out $5 for a customized coffee may have seemed ridiculous to past generations, but for those addicted to their daily Starbucks, it makes total sense. Still on the down low...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Internet catfight
If we're doing puppy chase scenes, let there be equal blog time here for kitten sparring videos with a dramatic surprise ending. "Kitten Surprise!!!" [YouTube, thanks Coop] Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:52 am Internet catfightIf we're doing puppy chase scenes, let there be equal blog time here for kitten sparring videos with a dramatic surprise ending. "Kitten Surprise!!!" [YouTube, thanks Coop] ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:52 am Celebs Bashing Over Animals - Pamela Anderson Calls Jessica Simpson a B* (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) What does one big breasted celebrity blonde say to another? According to the press, if it's Pamela Anderson speaking about Jessica Simpson, it's that she's a "[bleep] and a #####."...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:40 am A Video Tour of the MSI Wind and Other NetbooksKen E. writes "UK mobile tech site Mobile Computer has posted a nice 10-minute video that gives a tour of the MSI Wind, and shows it alongside the two other Intel Atom-powered netbooks, the Acer Aspire One and Asus Eee PC 901. The site also has photos that show the three netbooks together to give a good idea of the differences in size. The MSI Wind goes on sale today in the UK (a week ahead of the US) for £350 (around $700). Not cheap for a supposedly low-cost laptop, but the MSI Wind looks like the best of the bunch so far."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:38 am Ballmer on Yahoo Deal: The Bankers screwed everything up.Interesting and surprisingly detailed story in the Wall Street Journal tonight about the ongoing (never ending) Microsoft/Yahoo deal. The headline is that Microsoft, apparently not happy with simply destroying...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:31 am Sony's U.S. gadget demand good despite rising costs (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:31 am Apple considering slider-style iPhone?Could Apple have a slider-style iPhone up its sleeve? Asks C/net. That's what The Register thinks, reporting Monday that Apple has shown off prototypes of an iPhone with a hardware keyboard to certain...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:26 am In virtual worlds, child avatars need protecting -- from each otherSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am CHP station surprised by cellphone law complianceSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am IPhone users can't cut the cord on AT & TSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am Tips for online safetySource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am Puppies
This has been an interesting day on Boing Boing. I think puppies would be a good idea right now. "Crazy dogs by david" [MySpace, thanks, #739Anonymous] Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2008 | 6:43 am Microsoft's Plan B for Search - BusinessWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 6:21 am New law on hand-held phones for drivers goes into effect - Seattle Post Intelligencer
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 6:16 am Microsoft seeks allies for new Yahoo move: report (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2008 | 6:06 am NSFnet — 20 Years of Internet Obscurity and Insightcoondoggie writes "The National Science Foundation (NSF) reissued the words that started the Internet revolution 20 years ago today: 'The NSFnet Backbone has reached a state where we would like to more officially let operational traffic on.' That was the email sent to users of the NSF's fledgling NSFnet to announce that the network's backbone had been upgraded to a 'blazing T-1 speed.' NSFnet was created by NSF a few years earlier in an attempt to create a computer network similar to the Department of Defense's ARPANET. When the original six-node, 56 kilobits-per-second NSFnet backbone went into operation in 1986, NSF made the decision to allow any academic, governmental or commercial entity to hook up to this network of networks. Within a few weeks of going online, traffic on the new network began doubling every few weeks. The network's backbone of core 56 kilobits-per-second connections were considered fast, but they were not fast enough to satisfy the demands of all the new users who were coming online, according to the NSF."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2008 | 5:13 am Blockbuster abandons Circuit City bid (CNET)CNET - Movie-rental chain Blockbuster announced Tuesday that it has withdrawn its $1 billion bid for consumer electronics chain Circuit City.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 2 Jul 2008 | 5:10 am Nokia Tries Apple's Tune - BusinessWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 5:05 am News Flash: Adobe Aids Search - BusinessWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 5:05 am US promises to stop treating Nelson Mandela like a terroristGeorge Bush has signed a special bill that allows Nelson Mandela to travel freely to the USA without going through a special process because the DHS classes him as a "terrorist." Nelson C. adds, "Now, if only people who aren't world leaders could get off watch-lists so easily...."A US senator said the new legislation was a step towards removing the "shame of dishonouring this great leader".Link (Thanks, NelsonC!)
See also: Nelson Mandela and the ANC are on the US terrorist watchlist and need waivers to enter the country Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:19 am London Mayoral vote can't be verified due to e-voting irregularitiesGlyn sez,The Open Rights Group's report into e-counting of votes cast in the London Elections is out today. The report finds that:Link (Thanks, Glyn!) Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:16 am Ask Canadian Industry Minister questions about the DMCA at the Calgary Stampede this SaturdayIndustry Minister Jim Prentice -- who has consistently dodged direct questions about his proposed Canadian DMCA -- is doing a live appearance at the Calgary Stampede this coming Saturday.Here's how Prentice's version of the CDMCA spin works: "The Canadian DMCA is a balance. It guarantees a whole bunch of consumer rights, like time-shifting and format-shifting." But you also criminalize breaking DRM, even when it takes away those "guaranteed" rights. "Yes, but no one would use DRM to take those away." But people have. "The market will solve it." Minister Prentice has apparently never heard of what economists call Moral Hazard: "the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk." In other words: if you give the entertainment industry a tool by which they can ban time-shifting, format-shifting, etc, and charge extra for the "privilege" of exercising those "rights," then they probably will.
Are you near Calgary? Planning on going to the Stampede? Maybe you could find Minister Prentice -- preferably while holding a video camera -- and ask him about this.
Link
(Thanks, RajSmith!) Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:14 am Google and Creator of ‘Family Guy’ Strike a Deal - New York Times
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:06 am Chaos Communications Congress 25 call for participationFukami sez, "German hacker group Chaos Computer Club (CCC) posted a call for participation for the 25th Chaos Communication Congress 2008 (25C3). The Chaos Communication Congress is the annual four-day conference of the CCC and taking place in Berlin, Germany. The Chaos Computer Club has always encouraged creative and unorthodox interaction with technology and society, in the good tradition of the real meaning of 'hacking'. You can find the preliminary agenda and additional information on the 25C3 website. There is also a blog where news and progress will be published. As always, the date of this event is December 27th to 30th." Link (Thanks, Fukami!)Source: Boing Boing | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:02 am DNA Technology Posts Exponential Speed IncreasesA prominent genetics research facility, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, recently sequenced its trillionth base pair of DNA, illustrating the exponential increases in speed that new DNA sequencers have made possible.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am July 2, 1937: Earhart Vanishes Over the Pacific1937: At 8:43 a.m. local time, the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, steaming off Howland Island, receives this faint transmission from Amelia Earhart: "KHAQQ calling Itasca. We must be on you but cannot see you -- but gas is running low…." She vanishes along with her navigator, Fred Noonan, into the Central Pacific, and they're never heard from again. The disappearance of the celebrated flier remains perhaps the most tantalizing unsolved mystery in aviation history. In the age of Charles Lindbergh and other daredevil fliers, Amelia Earhart became a household name in 1928, after becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. True, it was as a passenger with a male pilot and copilot, but she soloed across the Atlantic in 1932. Although fellow pilots rated her as no better than competent, Earhart parlayed her sex and her absolute devotion to flying into a celebrity that few of her contemporaries enjoyed. And it's not like she wasn't legit: Earhart was the first pilot of either sex to successfully fly solo from Honolulu to the U.S. mainland, reaching Oakland, California, on Jan. 11, 1935. She wrote voluminously about her experiences and worked hard to promote aviation, both to women and to the public at large. By 1937, though, the 39-year-old Earhart was weary of both the celebrity and the flying. Saying she had one last good flight in her, she was determined to make it a doozy: She would fly her specially modified Lockheed L-10E Electra completely around the world. A first attempt, flying westward from Oakland in March, ended either with a blown tire or pilot error as she was taking off from Honolulu. The plane was badly damaged and shipped back to Lockheed in Los Angeles for repairs. For the second attempt, Earhart was joined by Noonan. They altered the flight plan for an eastward journey to compensate for shifting weather patterns, and left Oakland on May 21. From Miami, their route took them south along the eastern seaboard of South America, then a hop across the Atlantic Narrows to Africa. They skirted the southern coast of Asia, crossing the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Australia before arriving in Lae, New Guinea, June 29. They had flown roughly 22,000 miles at this stage and had another 7,000 to go, all of it over the Pacific Ocean. As they left Lae on July 2, the cutter Itasca was already on station off Howland Island, Earhart's next destination, to help guide the plane in. Ship-to-plane radio contact was established, but something -- possibly problems with the radio directional finder aboard the Electra -- undermined communications. Whatever the reason, Noonan was unable to pick up the Itasca's homing signals. Itasca even raised steam for a possible visual sighting, but the aviators were unable to locate either the cutter or Howland Island. Seventy-five minutes after receiving Earhart's last transmission, which included the line, "We are on the line 157/337," the Itasca began searching for the plane. Such was Earhart's stature that President Franklin Roosevelt dispatched nine U.S. Navy ships and 66 aircraft to help in a search that proved fruitless. Nevertheless, various stations around the Pacific reported receiving unidentified signals, leading to the hope that Earhart and Noonan had somehow managed to find land somewhere. None of these reports amounted to anything. Over the years the mystery only deepened, leading to some pretty fanciful theories concerning Earhart's fate, including the possibility that she was captured by the Japanese during World War II and forced to broadcast propaganda to American GIs as Tokyo Rose. Iva Toguri and all the others who broadcast as Rose should have been so lucky. The likeliest explanation for what became of Earhart and Noonan is the logical one: They ran out of fuel, ditched at sea and drowned. They were officially declared dead Jan. 5, 1939. As for Earhart herself, she knew she was taking a big risk for high stakes: "Please know I am quite aware of the hazards.... I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail their failure must be but a challenge to others." Source: Various
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Alt Text: Con Men Lose Their Cool in the E-Mail EraThe online world has improved many things. Classified ads are simpler to search, obscure books are easy to get your hands on for the right price, and if you wish to see any two cartoon characters having sex with each other, you have only to ask. However, I think even the most forward-looking technophile would have to admit that there's one area in which we have gone too far, sucking the humanity out of what once was a vibrant, personal endeavor: the realm of the con man. In the Golden Age of Hucksterism, an unsavory gent might try to sell you a bridge, or a large area of swampland, or perhaps a simple faux-Stradivarius violin. The first step, though, would always be to gain your confidence -- the "con" in "con man." They did this the old-fashioned way, gaining your trust and even becoming your friend through an elaborate set of lies set one on top of another like Roman architecture. And when they departed, taking your money and your ability to trust your fellow man with them, you could take solace in knowing that this was your con, specially concocted for you and nobody else. What do you get now? Form letters from deposed African royalty, handed out impartially like advertisements for prostitutes on the Vegas strip. Dry, clinical warnings of fictional eBay disputes. Mindless, soulless pop-up ads for "antivirus programs" that merely throw up more mindless, soulless ads. The soul of yesteryear's con man may have been shriveled and caustic with disdain for humanity, but at least he had one. Can a computer cackle with glee as it fans its face with a stack of bills taken from your nest-egg account? Well, yes it can, but only if you build it especially for that purpose. Most of today's swindlers won't even take the time to do that. And the stories! It used to be that a con man would leave you with a tale to tell passers-by as you held out your hand for a few meager coins: the Spanish princess in need of a young man to do double duty as her rescuer and her husband ... the briefcase that held thousands of dollars when it was shown to you, but somehow contained only newspaper once it was yours ... the betting store, bustling with gamblers, all of whom turned out to be in on the scam. The story itself might be worth maybe one-twentieth of the money you lost in your naive ignorance. Today, of course, you're lucky if you get a few run-on sentences about Nigerian royalty. More likely, if you fall for a modern scam, the only tale you'll have to tell is some boring sob story about trying to sell a laptop and getting paid with a cashier's check. How many sympathy drinks can you get out of, "Well, this website asked for my login and password, so I gave it to them"? There's no epic sweep there, no sense of gravitas or adventure. I call upon the grifters, schemers and flim-flam artists of this brave new age to step up their game! Don't just throw a form in my face -- get to know me! Befriend me, then let me in on the opportunity of a lifetime, something so juicy that I'd run off to tell my friends if I weren't concerned that they'd beat me to it. Then finally, with flair and grace, rip my heart out, take my money and tip your hat to me as you depart. Anyone can cheat me, but only you can truly con me. - - - Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to become a rube, a mark and occasionally a dupe.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Drive the World's Fastest RoadsYou've got a sports car that can zoom up to 200 miles per hour, but where can you actually tap into that extra speed? We map the fastest stretches of blacktop across the globe.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Race for Reservations Turns New York's Momofuku Ko Into Net ObsessionNEW YORK -- A hotshot restaurateur's playful menu and populist booking policy have cooked up an online obsession for Manhattan food freaks. David Chang's latest restaurant, Momofuku Ko, opened in March with an egalitarian concept: There's a strict no-VIP policy, and the 12 seats in the tiny eatery can be booked only through an online reservation system. "We wanted to try something different," says Chang. "We didn't want to make it for the elite." But Momofuku Ko's online system has made trying to get a seat at the restaurant a frenzied morning ritual for thousands of obsessive fans. Hopeful diners log on to the restaurant's website each day when the system opens at 10 a.m. They see a series of time slots for that evening's seatings, with green check marks and red x's. If they click fast, they might get a reservation. More likely, they'll get a message reading: "Sorry, someone just grabbed that spot." After about two seconds, that day's reservations are gone. "You have a combination of a white-hot chef opening a new restaurant with very few seats, and a reservation system that no one has tried before," says Ben Leventhal, editor-in-chief of restaurant blog Eater. "It created a lot of excitement." New York is famous for its trendy restaurant scene and the bragging rights that accompany a meal at the latest, greatest eatery. Momofuku Ko's simple booking system short-circuits the common methods used to secure a seat at Manhattan's A-list restaurants -- waiting lists, sweet spots for celebs and good old-fashioned grease for the maitre d's palm. As maddening as it is egalitarian, Momofuku Ko's system appears to be the only one of its kind. With its modest décor and eight-course tasting menu priced at $100, the East Village restaurant might seem an unlikely fixation for New York foodies, who have thousands of fabulous dining options. But Chang, 31, has already won two James Beard awards -- the restaurant equivalent of an Oscar -- and his unique Asian cuisine has drawn near-universal praise since his first two restaurants, Momofuku Noodle Bar and Momofuku Ssam, opened in 2004 and 2006. Momofuku Ko's upscale twist on comfort food features creative dishes like snail-and-ricotta lasagna. The concepts are often so playful that one wonders if Chang isn't making fun: The panna cotta is made from "cereal milk." Yes, that's milk that's been steeped overnight in corn flakes. Whisk it all together, and you've got a flawless frittata of fixation: When Chang recently offered a reservation at a charity auction, the winner bid $2,870. Chang's so hot that would-be diners tried to hack the system before Momofuku Ko opened. Commenters on Eater began guessing at likely URL names and found the restaurant's website while it was still in development. Soon, food blogs and forums started to fill with ideas on how to beat the system. Some realized the odds were better on Sundays, when fewer people logged on. Others figured that cancellations were entered into the system at random times, and began obsessively checking all day long. Others realized the site's clock changes by a few seconds each day, and reset their own clocks daily. Of course, as each strategy was shared online, it lost effectiveness, and nabbing a reservation got even more difficult. "In the first two weeks, if you logged in exactly at 10 a.m., and were quick enough, you were pretty sure to get a reservation," says Steven A. Shaw, executive director of The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, an online portal for restaurant industry professionals. "Now, it's virtually impossible to get in." As the reservations game fueled the hype, enthusiasm turned to frustration. Critics at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times all published rants about the hardships of getting a reservation. Then came the Craigslist ads. "Hire my services for $40, and I will get you seats for 1, 2 or 4 at Momofuku Ko," read one. Food blogs went crazy with speculation that someone had created an automated bot to beat the system. But mercenary reservation bookers work manually, and for one customer at a time. They have aspiring diners send them their login info (after they've already entered their credit card information into the system), and then secure a reservation on their behalf. If this sounds like a massive waste of time, Chang is the first to agree. "I can't imagine why people would spend the time to do this," he says. "It's certainly the most over-hyped restaurant I've seen in a long time."
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Scott Brown's Nostalgorithm for Pop-Culture SensationsOh, X-Files sequel. Like your subtitle says: I want to believe. I really do. But above all, I want to want. And I don't. What gives? I hearted you monstrously in the '90s. And I like knowing a sequel is out there, the same way I like knowing my AOL account is out there: comforting, but I feel no special urge to visit. I'm guessing I'm not the only one. Why is that? Why do some beloved pop fantasies evolve into mini-religions, while others fade like an old pair of Jams? Hollywood doesn't have the answer. They'll green-light just about anything, from a live-action He-Man movie to The Smurfs in 3-D. Our only hope here is science. So I turn to a scientist — my former college roommate Noah Helman. Back in the '90s, he was our dorm's brainy, not-quite-as-hot Scully; I, its stubby Mulder, the believer. We used to watch The X-Files together, in real time, then debate it over warm Squirt. (These were the heady days before Television Without Pity.) Now he's a busy molecular biologist, but he agreed, for the sake of science, to help me determine the perfect "nostalgorithm" — a differential equation that will determine a pop object's nostalgic potential while explaining why a Thundercats movie intrigues, but the X-Files sequel leaves me cold. Let's begin with the simplest factor: Time (t). As any former Giga Pet owner knows, stuff peaks, then gets old. Thus: Popular velocity (ΔPopularity/Δt) = -L x t
Off its peak, we see exponential decay in Popular Velocity over time:
Translated crudely from the calculus, this simply means pop properties have expiration dates, like Lunchables or Tom Cruise. Or The X-Files, which has been off the air for six years now and was in steep decline four years prior to cancellation. And fan love doesn't steadily decline — it plummets as exposure (E) reaches an unhealthy level: Popular velocity =
Ergo: even worse news for The X-Files, one of the '90s more overexposed phenomena. But as Noah points out, non-awesome pop objects are primed to become awesome again. The X-Files is solidly non-awesome — so perhaps a popular re-awesomeness awaits it, è la Grunge, Trump, and Steel? Perhaps — but probably not this month. While what's old is eventually new again, it takes about a generation (tgen = 20 years) for kids to pick up what their parents discarded. And so:  Which gives us a swooping, hilly graph (see figure, above) and strands The X-Files movie in that sad little valley: 10 years off its peak popularity in 1998 — when the first film opened and attempted, unsuccessfully, to convince us that bees are scary. According to our formula, the proper release date for this X-Files movie is 2018 — not 2008. (That date satisfies the math but also halves David Duchovny's smolder-quotient.) But time and generational reclamation aren't the only factors. (If so, where's that big-budget Airwolf movie?) There's also niche: Paranormal procedurals like Medium are milking the X meme, along with Lost, which regularly pits science against faith, but without the smoky will-they-or-won't-they (all due respect to authors of Jack/Locke yaoi fan-fic). What about the resurgence of Star Trek less than a decade after its cancellation? Space westerns must be the exception. I ask Noah about these additional factors, and he asks me for a grant. Who needs him? I can blitz my way through this:  The graph for this one looks, well, kind of like Airwolf barebacking KITT. And I'm not sure it explains anything. But it has left me strangely, counterintuitively jazzed for this upcoming X-Files movie — all this reminiscing makes me want to catch up with Mulder and Scully and, hell, even Flukeman. This is the point where Noah throws his TI-73 at my head and pronounces me hopeless. Maybe no amount of ratiocination can capture the messy heuristics of true devotion. Maybe bees are scary. Is $10 really too much to pay to find out? Probably, but I'm doing it anyway. What can I say? I want to believe. Email scott_brown@wired.com.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am EPA Reaches Goal On Data Center Study1sockchuck writes "After initially struggling in its effort to find data center operators willing to share data about their energy usage, the EPA extended the program by a month and has managed to recruit 215 facilities to participate in its program to help the government develop an Energy Star program for data centers. An EPA official says there are no plans to regulate the data center industry."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2008 | 3:12 am Sprint's YouTube Payola: User Instinct In Your Videos, And We'll ... - Washington Post
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 2 Jul 2008 | 2:45 am TV Viewers' Average Age Hits 50 Years OldAnt writes "Variety reports on a recent study that says TV viewership's median age is outside the 18-49 years demographic: "The broadcast networks have grown older than ever — if they were a person, they wouldn't even be a part of TV's target demo anymore." These totals exclude DVR users, and apparently the oldest since they started tracking it. Of course you know what the means... TV is for old people! The internet has confirmed it.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 2 Jul 2008 | 1:08 am Tainted Tie-Ins: Worst Movie Games Ever : Ever since they first fooled around in the Atari era, movies and videogames have had a troubled relationship. Movies based on games -- like Super Mario Bros. and Postal-- deliver pure cinematic dreck, yet somehow games based on movies up the crap ante. Slapped together on tight development schedules by B-list teams, movie tie-in games rarely crawl out of the hole of mediocrity. Quite frankly, they dream of being mediocre. Adding insult to injury, they sell enormously well. The NPD Group reported in June that the PlayStation 2 Iron Man game was May's seventh best-selling U.S. game. Here's our list of the 10 worst movie-to-game translations in history, with input from a Wired.com reader poll. If it seems heavy on retro games, just remember that things used to be a lot worse.
Raiders of the Lost ArkAtari 2600 owners who ripped open their Christmas presents in 1982 were probably doubled over in glee at the prospect of jumping into the fedora of America's sweetheart, Harrison Ford, and going on an adventure as Indy. Instead, what they got was a game that we might charitably describe as "ahead of its time" but after a drink would call "ridiculous." Not only were the graphics completely inscrutable -- can you even tell which of these abstract objects is supposed to be Indiana Jones? -- but the game was impossible to understand unless you pored over the instructions. Woe betide you if they ended up in the trash bag with the wrapping paper. "Indecipherably bad graphics, unintuitive 'gameplay' (if you can even call it that) and the worst possible control scheme ever," writes commenter Sakimori.  :
Star Wars (Namco version)A long time ago (1987) in a galaxy far, far away (Japan), the development house behind Pac-Man decided to try its hand at creating a Star Wars game for the 8-bit Nintendo system. For the most part, it's a mundane side-scrolling game in which Luke hacks away at enemies with his lightsaber and dies a lot. But you know that things have gone horribly awry when he enters the Jawa Sandcrawler after about five minutes of gameplay to find Darth Vader, who transforms into a scorpion. No, really. Luckily for everyone involved, this game was only released in Japan.  :
Back to the FutureScrewed up though it was, Namco's version of Star Wars was more or less faithful to the movie insofar as Luke Skywalker does, at times, use a lightsaber. If we were to apply the same sort of thinking to the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Back to the Future, we would necessarily determine that the film starred a young man who spent all his time being assaulted on the street by killer wasps, girls with razor-sharp Hula-Hoops and men wearing pink. Back to the Future's controls were so shaky that players felt like they were as drunk as the people who programmed it. Even the jump to 16 bits didn't help the series. "Shonky controls and mediocre graphics were just the start of this atrocity that really did seem like it had traveled through time from the past," wrote an anonymous Wired.com reader about Back to the Future III for Sega Genesis. Back to the Future was just one of the flood of execrable movie-to-game releases foisted on an unsuspecting public by the thankfully dead Acclaim Entertainment. (We'll see them again before we're finished with this dreadful expedition.)  :
Nausicaä Kiki IppatsuThis is another game that only saw release in Japan, but its worldwide impact has been tremendous. The developers at Tokuma Shoten, tasked with creating a game based on animation legend Hayao Miyazaki's breakout smash Nausicaä, turned a film about nonviolence and environmentalism into a vapid shooter. As the story goes, Miyazaki was so enraged by the game that Studio Ghibli never had anything to do with videogames ever again. Sure enough, no game projects have ever been released for any of the studio's later films, like Princess Mononoke or the Oscar-winning Spirited Away. Maybe that's all for the best.  :
Friday the 13thYes, it's another inscrutably bad movie-to-game translation courtesy of our good friends at Acclaim Entertainment. You all remember Friday the 13th, that horror film about camp counselors who throw knives at Yetis that burrow up from beneath the Earth. At least the Back to the Future games kept epileptic Marty McFly constantly moving toward the goal. Making a failed attempt at nonlinearity, Friday the 13th mostly left players to wander around the identical screens that made up the virtual version of Camp Crystal Lake, listening to exactly four bars of the worst sonic torture ever devised until they died. Technically it was possible to finish the entire game in three minutes, and we feel terribly sorry for anyone who spent the time to learn how. "I'm not sure if I've ever seen anyone do anything besides run around and die," writes reader (not the real) Bob Dole.  :
Seven Samurai 20XXWired.com reader Fnord called this PlayStation 2 game "a generic-to-bad brawler game that was trying very hard to be Ninja Gaiden, shoehorned and chopped and hammered into something that tried to resemble the plot of one of the best movies ever made." We simply call it an atrocity. Akira Kurosawa wasn't even five years in his grave, and already his son Hisao was whoring out his classic films to the highest bidder, allowing Japanese pachinko-maker Sammy to turn Kurosawa's samurai masterpiece into a campy futuristic fighting game. It's embarrassing to even say this game's title out loud, let alone play it.  :
Total RecallFor all of Acclaim Entertainment's sins of the 8-bit era, perhaps none was so unbelievably ham-fisted as Total Recall. Turning R-rated films into games for children had to have been hard work, but that still doesn't explain why the gameplay of Total Recall consists of a gorilla that is supposed to be Arnold Schwarzenegger being kidnapped by bearded midgets in pink jumpsuits, dragged into alleys and kicked in the knees. To death. Everything about this game is hilarious, except for the fact that children spent actual money on it back when the dollar was worth something. Also, there was no three-boobed alien hooker.  :
Street Fighter: The Movie: The GameQuick, what's a worse idea than turning Street Fighter II into a live-action movie? Turning said live-action movie into a videogame. Hey guys, there already is a Street Fighter videogame, and it's awesome. We don't need one starring Raul Julia. But Raul Julia we get. Isn't it amazingly sad that this talented actor's final appearance is in a videogame where he (his stuntman, actually) gets to serve as a punching bag for a squad of B-list actors? Besides Jean-Claude Van Damme and Kylie Minogue, there's also Ming Na, and seeing her jump around in a tiny China-doll dress shouting horrifically mangled Japanese catch phrases more than makes up for how preachy Mulan was. Bonus points: When Street Fighter: The Movie came to the PlayStation and Sega Saturn, it was so bad that it wasn't even published by Street Fighter creator Capcom. Instead, it carried the logo of -- you cannot make this stuff up -- Acclaim Entertainment.  :
Enter the MatrixEvery now and then, there's a movie game that is supposed to change everything we know about movie games. This is inevitably followed by the backlash that results when these massively hyped projects turn out to be just as crappy as their predecessors. Reviewers agreed that the only reason to play Enter the Matrix would have been to watch the extra footage from the Matrix Reloaded shoot, a desire that simply watching Matrix Reloaded should have cured. Otherwise, it was an utter mess. Even sadder? In a past life, lead designer David Perry was responsible for one of those rare-as-a-unicorn good movie games: Aladdin for the Sega Genesis.  :
E.T. the Extra-TerrestrialWired.com readers might not have enjoyed the Raiders of the Lost Ark game, but Steven Spielberg liked the Atari 2600 title enough that he asked its designer, Howard Scott Warshaw, to design a game based on his upcoming film E.T. In time for the film's release. Which was six weeks away. Faced with an impossible deadline, Warshaw sequestered himself away in his Atari office, emerging just a month and a half later with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. It's not the single worst videogame ever created, but it lives in infamy as the videogame industry's first high-profile disaster. Again, let us look back at children opening their presents one fine Christmas morning in 1982, and watch as they attempt to maneuver E.T. around the game screen, only to fall into a pit that they cannot escape from, no matter how many times they try. Repeat until tears are flowing steadily and Mom takes the game back to the store. There are many urban legends about E.T., and all of them are true. Atari manufactured 4 million copies of the game and found itself stuck with 2.5 million leftovers, which it buried in a New Mexico landfill. But E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial remains one of the best-selling Atari 2600 games of all time, proving the old adage that people will, in fact, buy any videogame with a movie license on the cover, no matter how terrible.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2008 | 1:00 am Peter Kindersley on the safe way to process chickens ...The feather-stripping system can leave even organic poultry bathed in bacteria. Felicity Lawrence reports on a farmer with a healthier alternative.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 2 Jul 2008 | 12:12 am How to Plan a Solar Eclipse ExcursionThe next total eclipse of the sun happens on August 1, 2008. But if you want to view it in all of its mind-expanding glory, you'll have to trek to the middle of the Gobi desert in central Asia. That's a long way to travel for three minutes of celestial eye candy, so follow our guide to get the most out of your journey.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2008 | 12:00 am Get Started Building Websites With DjangoDjango is sweet music to the ears of many a Webmonkey who want to build websites quickly and cleanly. The speedy web framework is responsible for such websites as Pownce.com and WashingtonPost.com. Making a website with Django is easy, and we'll show you how in this tutorial.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 2 Jul 2008 | 12:00 am PC Repair In Texas Now Requires a PI LicenseJohnnyNapalm writes "In some shocking news out of Texas, PC repair will now require a PI License. Surely this stands to have a substantial impact on small repair shops around the state if upheld. Never fear, however, as the first counter-suit has already been filed."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 1 Jul 2008 | 11:59 pm Microsoft deal steps up rivalry with GoogleMicrosoft turned up the heat on Tuesday in its technological rivalry with Google as it announced the purchase of a private Silicon Valley company that has developed one of the most promising, and controversial,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Jul 2008 | 11:44 pm Computer games: Games buoy HMV while CD sales sinkRunaway sales of computer games such as Grand Theft Auto IV and the Wii Fit helped boost HMV's annual profits as it reported gains in market share yesterday. The CD, DVD and games retailer, which also...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Jul 2008 | 11:21 pm Ebay fakes: Is it still possible to bag a real bargain?Nearly 13 years ago, 28-year-old software developer Pierre Omidyar had an idea for an online auction site. Under the title AuctionWeb, he offered a broken laser pointer for sale to the highest bidder...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Jul 2008 | 11:13 pm Fertility: Doctors find test to predict chances of IVF successNew technique achieves 70% accuracy, giving patients more realistic assessment of outcomeSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 1 Jul 2008 | 11:11 pm Lawyers to Judge: Hans Reiser May Be 'Mentally Incompetent'Lawyers for Linux programmer Hans Reiser suggest he might be mentally incompetent in a recent court filing. The court filing is likely to delay Reiser's sentencing next week for killing his 31-year-old wife, Nina Reiser. She vanished after going to his Oakland Hills house in 2006.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 1 Jul 2008 | 11:08 pm 9 Reasons Why Developers Think the CIO Is CluelessEsther Schindler writes "Finally, a Forrester analyst who understands the attitudes of software developers. Mike Gualtieri identifies nine behaviors managers need to steer clear of or risk being labeled "clueless" — from control freak tendencies to being a vendor puppet. My favorite, however, is point #8: "the CIO collaborates to death," in which Gualtieri opines, "And, if you never watched Star Trek then you shouldn't even be a CIO.""Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 1 Jul 2008 | 10:51 pm Buzzball human hamster toy The Buzzball is a human-sized, motorized hamster ball. Laughing Squid has more info and a video. Looks like great fun! Buzzball (Laughing Squid) Previously on BB: • Woman lives like hamster Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jul 2008 | 10:05 pm What Happens When You Reply To ALL of Your Spambednarz writes "For Tracy Mooney, a married mother of three in Naperville, Ill., the decision to abandon cyber-sense and invite e-mail spam into her life for a month by participating in a McAfee experiment was a bit of a lark. The idea of the Spammed Persistently All Month (S.P.A.M.) experiment — which fittingly started on April Fool's Day — was to have 50 volunteers from around the world answer every spam message and pop-up ad they got. Mooney was game, especially since McAfee was giving a free PC to all participants. She told her story to Network World."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 1 Jul 2008 | 9:54 pm Oracle reveals BEA roadmap (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - Oracle presented on Tuesday a comprehensive roadmap for its recently acquired BEA Systems middleware technologies, making BEA's application server Oracle's strategic Java container and pledging continued support for BEA customers.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Jul 2008 | 9:20 pm A Year of GPLv3javipas writes "GPLv3 and LGPLv3 were released one year ago, on 29 June 2007. Palamida, who tracks Open Source projects, has made a study of the current situation of these licenses along with AGPLv3, which was released later, in November. The number of projects that have made the transition to these licenses has grown over the last months, and it seems than AGPLv3 has captured a great interest lately. Black Duck Software, a company that tracks Open Source projects too, has made its own study with similar results, and although GPLv3 and its variants have a good adoption rate, the interviews published on the Palamida site (Stallman, Chris Di Bona) show that the acceptance of GPLv3 has still a long way to walk."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 1 Jul 2008 | 9:02 pm Alliance Aims To Welcome Macs into Enterprises (NewsFactor)NewsFactor - Five software companies announced Monday that they have created the Enterprise Desktop Alliance to help welcome Macs into Windows-based enterprises.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Jul 2008 | 8:55 pm Citibank ATM breach reveals PIN security problems (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Jul 2008 | 8:39 pm Bayreuth's Wagner festival will offer opera online (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Jul 2008 | 8:27 pm Ten Perfectly Pure GadgetsOver at BB Gadgets, John posted their list of "perfectly pure gadget," which he describes as gizmos that don't need any additional technological advancement. From the entry on the mousetrap:Ten Perfectly Pure Gadgets (BB Gadgets) Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jul 2008 | 8:18 pm Adopt-a-Star To Fund ResearchTravis writes "An international collaboration of astronomers is taking a unique approach to funding their research, through an 'adopt-a-star' program. Preparing for the launch of NASA's Kepler satellite next February, the group will help characterize thousands of stars that the mission will be searching for evidence of Earth-like planets. For a small donation, early adopters get a certificate by email and updates when any planets are found around their adopted star."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 1 Jul 2008 | 8:14 pm Psychedelic-inspired "well being" lastsResearchers from Johns Hopkins report that most of the subjects in a 2006 study of psychedelic drugs still rate their trips "as the most, or one of the five most, personally meaningful and spiritually significant (experiences) of their lives." Related research in the Journal of Psychopharmacology lays out guidelines for running experiments involving hallucinogens. From Physorg.com:The two reports follow a 2006 study published in another journal, Psychopharmacology, in which 60 percent of a group of 36 healthy, well-educated volunteers with active spiritual lives reported having a "full mystical experience" after taking psilocybin...Spiritual effects of hallucinogens persist (Physorg.org, thanks Nick Philip!) Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jul 2008 | 8:10 pm Monster founder sets sights on online obituaries (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 1 Jul 2008 | 7:18 pm Robot superhero plushies Amy Jenkins is a multitalented crafter who has prototyped an entire line of terrific robot plushies called Lucha Robots. This is what happens, she says, "when robots create their own Super Heroes." She sells various handcrafted wonders at amybean.etsy.com. From her Flickr page: This catalog hosts the entire collection of Mexican Wrestling Robot toy prototypes called Lucha Robots.Lucha Robots on Flickr, Amy's Cozy Rampage blog Source: Boing Boing | 1 Jul 2008 | 7:00 pm Apple, AT&T Reveal iPhone 3G Videos, Pricing DetailsApple and AT&T today released more information on the upcoming iPhone 3G, including pricing details and rate plans from AT&T, and a video guide to iPhone features from Apple.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 1 Jul 2008 | 1:31 pm
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What the guillotine is to the French, the mouse trap is to unhygienic Americans. A spring-loaded mousetrap is (usually) a clean way to kill a mouse. But spring for a non-lethal trap out of the kindness of your heart and when you release that mouse, you'll see it poking out of your Cheerios the next morning. Try a glue trap, and you'll hate yourself for years as you torture a cute, fuzzy animal to death. And poison is a painful crapshoot.
