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Pregnant Man (UPDATE) - Baby Pictures and Story (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) The (former) pregnant man, Thomas Beatie, has released baby photos and his story. The baby, born June 29th, was a 9 and a half pound girl named Susan Juliette. Thomas told People,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 3:11 pm Most Bank Websites Are InsecureAnonymous writes "More than three-quarters of bank Web sites have design flaws that could expose bank customers to financial loss or identity theft, according to a University of Michigan study that will be presented this week at the Symposium on Usable Security and Privacy. The study, 'Analyzing Web Sites For User-Visible Security Design Flaws,' examined 214 bank Web sites in 2006. It was conducted by University of Michigan computer science professor Atul Prakash and doctoral students Laura Falk and Kevin Borders."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:46 pm ESCO Technologies Announces Webcast of Third Quarter 2008 Conference CallST. LOUIS, July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ESCO Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ESE) announces the following webcast: Event: ESCO Third Quarter 2008 Conference CallSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:35 pm Scientific Games Awarded New South Wales Instant Ticket ContractRevenue Estimated at $3 Million Per Year NEW YORK, July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Scientific Games (Nasdaq: SGMS) announced it has been awarded a contract as the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:32 pm CIBER Reports Strong Second Quarter 2008 ResultsRevenue Up 19% (12% Organic); Outlook Raised GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CIBER, Inc. (NYSE: CBR), an emerging global leader in IT...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:30 pm Qualcomm outlook falls short of expectations (AP)AP - Qualcomm, the world's largest maker of chips that run cell phones, issued revised earning estimates Thursday that fall short of Wall Street targets.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:27 pm Geeks On Call(R) Launches CallTheGeeks.com(TM)Telephone and Remote Technical Support Portal NORFOLK, Va., July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Geeks On Call Holdings, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: GOCH), a premier...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:15 pm 8x8, Inc.'s Packet8 Virtual Office Small Business Phone System Now Available at Staples.comSANTA CLARA, Calif., July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT), provider of Packet8 ( href="http://www.packet8.net">http://www.packet8.net ) business,Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:15 pm Triumfant Expands IT Intelligence(TM) Platform to Deliver NIST SCAP-Validated Triumfant Compliance ManagerNew Solution Maintains Continuous Compliance, Provides Out-of-the-Box Support for SCAP and a Host of Regulations including FISMA, FDCC, PCI DSS, SOX, HIPAA ROCKVILLE,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:07 pm Facebook Takes The Fast Lane To BoringI agree with Sam Gustin when he says that yesterday’s Facebook Developer Conference in San Francisco was in the end a snoozer, but not because CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed on stage. First of all,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:01 pm Top Ten Fortune 500 Telecommunications Company to Use ProLink Network for Digital Out-of-Home Ad CampaignCompany will Advertise on Golf Cart GPS Screens, Participate in ProLink Network Research Program CHANDLER, Ariz., July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ProLink Solutions, aSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:00 pm i-Vision China -- First to Release CMMB Mobile Multimedia Player on MIDsBEIJING, July 24 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- On July 23, at the China SARFT CMMB Administrative Bureau press conference held with Intel and mobile device manufacturers at the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:00 pm DeviceMine v3.0 - Mobile Device Database Eases Device Fragmentation Challenge for Mobile Content and Developer CommunityPOOLE, England, July 24 /PRNewswire/ -- WDSGlobal has made it easier, and cheaper, for mobile content developers to access its market-leading database of mobile device...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:00 pm iYogi Secures $9.5M in Series B Funding Led by SAP Ventures, With Follow-on Investment from Canaan Partners and SVB India Capital PartnersiYogi, a Direct-to-Consumer and Small Business Technical Support Provider, Paves the Way for Personal Offshoring to Become India's Next Success Story NEW YORK, July 24...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:00 pm Ultra-light Micro Air VehiclesRoland Piquepaille writes "Dutch engineers have built the third generation of the DelFly autonomous air vehicle. The DelFly Micro made its first public flight earlier today in Delft. This micro air vehicle weighs only 3 grams and has a wingspan of 10 centimeters. This very small remote-controlled aircraft carries a 0.4 gram camera. The DelFly Micro, which looks like a dragonfly, can fly for 3 minutes at a maximum speed of 5 meters/second. It could be used for observation flights in difficult-to-reach or dangerous areas."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:57 am British clampdown on illegal downloads (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:47 am E-books spell the end for publishers - VNUNet.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:25 am Google competes with the internetGoogle’s hubris may have finally gotten the better of them. See this from the official Google blog about the launch of Knol, the Wikipedia-About.com-Associated-Content it just officially launched:...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:22 am Recently at Boing Boing Gadgets Recently at Boing Boing Gadgets, we found the best places to buy the worst gadgets, reviewed D-Link's DSM 330 Medialounge, and wondered how someone can retrospectively patent something and then shake down an entire industry.
Joel wants to know if miniature swamp coolers are any good; Brownlee spotted an Algebraic wall clock that implies its own answers; and Rob found a Tetris pain box. There was an aluminum lego key chain; 365 free games; emo Qtips; a carbonite George Lucas; and a terrible, awe-inspiring no-console-required controller game knockoff of Guitar Hero.. There's the Ripple, a sort of poor man's Mac Mini; the ornithopter-cam; the spherical PC' and the bad battery life of handheld PCs.
Help Joel pick out a new gaming PC. Source: Boing Boing | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:15 am Recently at Boing Boing GadgetsRecently at Boing Boing Gadgets, we found the best places to buy the worst gadgets, reviewed D-Link's DSM 330 Medialounge, and wondered how someone can retrospectively patent something and then shake...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:11 am Batman fans get chance to fight with their hero (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:07 am Legacy Holding, Inc. Delivers Second Wetstation to Tyco International, Ltd.FREMONT, Calif., July 24, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Legacy Holding, Inc. (Pink Sheets:LGYH) is pleased to announced the installation of a second DryZone(tm) wetstation for Tyco International, Ltd.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Dow Reports Second Quarter ResultsMIDLAND, Mich., July 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Second Quarter 2008 Highlights - Sales for the second quarter set another Company record, rising 23 percent from the same period last year to $16.4 billion.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Outdoor Library: 'Cutthroat' Book is All About the TroutBy Allen Pierleoni, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Jul. 24--Anglers, here's what you really don't know about the cutthroat trout: just about anything.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Couple Share Love of Parks and NatureBy Ramon Coronado, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Jul. 24--Steve and Marilee Flannery share a passion for the outdoors and wildlife. They ride their bicycles to work when they can, and they wear the same uniform.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Ex-Firefighter's Suit Claims City Ignored HarassmentBy Melinda Rogers, The Salt Lake Tribune Jul. 24--A former Bluffdale firefighter who claims she was assaulted by a co-worker while on duty has sued the city for sexual harassment.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Great Lakes Water Plan Headed to CongressBy John Myers, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn. Jul. 24--Great Lakes residents have spoken. So have their governors and state lawmakers. And now Congress appears poised to make the same claim: Great Lakes water should stay in that region.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am County Kow-Towing to Sun City on InterchangeTo the editor: I read in the Review-Journal last week that the beltway interchange at Lake Mead will be completed next month, but won't open until 2010. I am dumbfounded. Clark County commissioners should re-examine their decision to delay this opening.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am BLM Testing Anti-Dust SolutionBy Patty Henetz, The Salt Lake Tribune Jul. 24--A short-term solution may be at hand to diminish damage to ancient rock art in Nine Mile Canyon, where big rigs serving gas drilling on the West Tavaputs Plateau are kicking up dust laden with corrosive salt. The U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Fishing Between Midnight and Dawn Yields Unique OpportunitiesBy Susan Cocking, The Miami Herald Jul. 24--For inexpensive, late-night entertainment, it is hard to beat party boat fishing on the Sea King in Islamorada. You can escape the daytime heat, catch dinner (or maybe even several dinners) and maybe make some new friends.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Volunteer Work Still Going StrongBy Get Involved By Jeffrey P. Mayor, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. Jul. 24--If you are interested in volunteering at the park this year, visit the volunteer program's blog at rainiervolunteers.blogspot.com. Another volunteer season is in full swing at Mount Rainier National Park.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 Jul 2008 | 11:00 am Ahead of the Bell: Microsoft to brief analystsAs Microsoft Corp.'s top executives take the stage Thursday to outline the software maker's strategy for fiscal 2009, Wall Street analysts will be listening closely for new details about its online business...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 10:25 am Clean Your Keyboard With Magic GooBy Luke Anderson Keyboards are gross and disgusting. Just think about the number of things your hands come into contact with every day. Now imagine how long you spend with your fingers on that keyboard...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 10:11 am Kevin Johnson Leaving MicrosoftA month or so ago I sat down for a strategy briefing from Kevin Johnson, the then-president of Microsoft responsible for Windows and online services. I never did get around to writing what I thought of...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 10:11 am 2-Liter Pour Thing Prevents Messy SpillsBy Luke Anderson I’ve been guilty of spilling a bit of liquid when pouring out of a fresh 2-liter bottle. It’s a skill that most people have mastered, however, those with small children may...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 10:09 am Microsoft Rumbles, Rearms For Online War It Cant Win Without YahooMicrosoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped the ax today, and it landed on Kevin Johnson’s neck. Johnson, Microsoft’s soon-to-be ex-President of Platforms & Services, has been with Microsoft...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 10:04 am Beyond the API: Why Companies Should Have a Presence on All Major PlatformsMuch has been written lately about the rise of the API. Offering a programming interface to an online service is now standard practice amongst this generation of web companies. Through APIs, we get to...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 9:38 am Virtual iPhone keypad button being developedNewlaunches reports on a virtual iPhone keypad, where a virtual button will imitate the vibrations felt when one uses an actually key. Developed by researchers from the University of Glasgow's Department...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 9:20 am China's Baidu.com says profit rises 87 percentBaidu.com Inc., China's leading search engine, said Thursday its second-quarter profit soared 87 percent over the year-earlier period on rapid growth in revenue from smaller advertisers.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 9:19 am Entorian Receives NASDAQ Notice LetterEntorian Technologies Inc. Kirk Patterson, 512-454-9531 Senior Vice President and CFO investors@entorian.com or Investor: Shelton Group - Investor Relations For Entorian Technologies Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Kabira Technologies Joins Cisco(R) Technology Developer ProgramKabira Technologies, Inc., a leader in high performance transaction processing software for global enterprises, today announced that it has been appointed a member of Cisco's Technology Developer Program.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Mayor Wilder Promises Action in Print Shop: Four Employees Had Been Named in Audit Report for Excessive Internet SurfingBy Will Jones, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va. Jul. 24--Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder yesterday promised "appropriate action," including possible firings, following an audit that found excessive misuse of computers at the city's print shop.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Record Business InsiderBy Alasdair Northrop Editor of Insider Magazine A TELEPHONE on wheels saw off a mobile mouse at the Court of Appeal yesterday. Three judges ruled that esure insurance's computer mouse on wheels ads took unfair advantage of rival Direct Line's trademark travelling red telephone.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Celebrity Low-Down: Coolspotters.Com Gathers Factoids About The FamousBy Regine Labossiere, The Hartford Courant, Conn. Jul. 24--When most people are not quite sure where to find what they're looking for, they go online and use the Google search engine.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Biz BitsStorm's path clears way for oil price drop NEW YORK - Oil prices tumbled more than $3 a barrel Tuesday as Tropical Storm Dolly grew increasingly unlikely to threaten supply, giving traders one less reason to buy as a strengthening dollar helped keep prices in check.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Lincoln Considers Costs for Upgrading City's Web SiteBy Kevin Barlow, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill. Jul. 24--LINCOLN -- City officials in Lincoln believe it's time for the city's Web site to receive a fresh look.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am La Crosse Tribune, Wis., Steve Cahalan Column: Steve Cahalan: Country Florals Moves to SpartaBy Steve Cahalan, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Jul. 24--Jaleata and Mike Kindt have moved Country Florals from Wilton, Wis., to 620 Industrial Drive, Suite 8, in the Plaza 16 West building along Hwy. 16, on the west side of Sparta, Wis.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Vandalism Inspires Church to Hold Free Party SaturdayBy Steven G. Vegh, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va. Jul. 24--CHESAPEAKE -- Five weeks after graffiti defaced signs announcing the future site of his church, the Rev. Ronnie D. Joyner is inviting the neighborhood to a unity party on Saturday.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Publish Spanish Language Articles Through ArticulosYA.ComFinally there is a Spanish language article site to help web developers and marketers promote their websites. The website www.ArticulosYA.com has launched with the capability to do just that. Each article is allowed a biography which can contain up to two links back to the site of your choice.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Police Director Sues AOL For Critical Blogger's NamePippin writes "Memphis Police Director, Larry Godwin, is suing AOL for the names of the authors of the Enforcer 2.0 blog. The blog is rumored to be authored by a Memphis police officer, and is critical of the department, Godwin, and some procedures. Godwin is actually using taxpayer dollars for this and is interestingly, the complaint is sealed".Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 24 Jul 2008 | 7:46 am Sanyo Develops Contactless Charger for Wii-mote (PC World)PC World - A new charger developed by Sanyo makes replenishing the batteries in Nintendo Wii controllers as easy as placing them in a...Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 7:10 am Victor A. McKusick, 86; Johns Hopkins physician pioneered genetics researchThe doctor linked diseases to specific genes, established one of the nation's first departments of medical genetics and was one of the first to propose sequencing the human genome. He was 86. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am Electronics firms back wireless HD technologySony, Samsung and other consumer-electronics heavyweights are uniting to support a technology that could send high-definition video signals wirelessly from a single set-top box to screens around the home...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am Microsoft sees play as a profit centerThe software giant is expected to spotlight the Xbox and online entertainment as a growth driver. . -- When Microsoft...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am CNN reporter says bad things about the TSA, gets hassled every time he fliesCNN reporter Drew Griffin reported on the TSA's 1,000,000+ name watchlist of "potential terrorists," and now his name seems to have been added to the list. The TSA denies it, but Griffin is held up every time he flies, and the airlines tell his that it's because he's on the list:"Coincidentally, this all began in May, shortly after I began a series of investigative reports critical of the TSA. Eleven flights now since May 19. On different airlines, my name pops up forcing me to go to the counter, show my identification, sometimes the agent has to make a call before I get my ticket," Griffin reported. "What does the TSA say? Nothing, at least nothing on camera. Over the phone a public affairs worker told me again I'm not on the watch list, and don't even think that someone in the TSA or anyone else is trying to get even."Link Source: Boing Boing | 24 Jul 2008 | 6:41 am Attack Code Released for New DNS Attack (PC World)PC World - Attack code has been released for a major flaw in the Internet's DNS software.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 6:40 am Shapeways 3D printing by Internet: 500 free beta signupsPhilips has spun out a new company called Shapeways that does cheap remote 3D printing -- send them a design in 3D and they'll fabricate it out of a variety of materials and send it back to you. It's still in beta, but they've sent me 500 free signups for BB readers -- first come, first served:Link Source: Boing Boing | 24 Jul 2008 | 6:24 am Dismissal of federal Internet suicide case sought - The Associated Press
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 24 Jul 2008 | 6:11 am Illegal downloaders to get warning letter in clampdown by government, ISPs and music industryInternet service providers have struck a deal with government and the music industry to help clamp down on illegal downloading. The deal, to be announced later today, is thought to include an agreement...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 6:06 am Escaped spammer on the loose - Inquirer
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:56 am Amazon shrugs off high gas prices, weak economy (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:50 am Facebook to help some programmers, punish others (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:46 am Nokia, Qualcomm settle long-running dispute (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:43 am Ballmer's memo on Johnson's departure (CNET)CNET - CEO Steve Ballmer's message to Microsoft employees on the departure of senior executive Kevin Johnson and a divisional reorganization. The e-mail was first published by All Things D.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:35 am Crooked Little Vein: Warren Ellis's novel now in paperbackWarren Ellis's fantastic net-perv novel Crooked Little Vein's just come out in paperback -- here's the review I posted of the hardcover last year:Crooked Little Vein in paperback Source: Boing Boing | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:30 am Can ACLU and other advocacy orgs be journalists too?Dan "We the Media" Gillmor has a fascinating editorial up today, "Helping the Almost-Journalists Do Journalism" about the "journalistic" work that organizations like the ACLU are doing in covering stories like the detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and how they're filling a gap left by the traditional press, whose reportage has trailed ACLU's work. He proposes that these organizations can be turned into actual journalistic orgs with the addition of a little bit of journo practice.They’re falling short today in several areas, notably the one that comes hardest to advocates: fairness. This is a broad and somewhat fuzzy word. But it means, in general, that you a) listen hard to people who disagree with you; b) hunt for facts and data that are contrary to your own stand; and c) reflect disagreements and nuances in what you tell the rest of us.Link Source: Boing Boing | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:27 am Haunting photo-essay about photographer's relationship to his elderly father Photographer Phillip Todelano has put up "Days With My Father," a haunting and beautiful photo-essay about his relationship with his elderly father, who has no short-term memory. Link (Thanks, Andrew!) Source: Boing Boing | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:21 am Sony opens up e-book Reader to other booksellers (AP)AP - With the market for electronic books still relatively sleepy, Sony Corp. is trying a new tack: untethering the latest model of its e-book reading device from its own online bookstore.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:19 am Radialpoint parental filter/Virgin Media blocks Open Rights Group, EFF Glyn sez, "The Open Rights Group's websites front page and the portions of the EFFs website (Deeplinks blog, Our work and Press room) are being blocked by Radialpoint Parental control software. We would be interested in knowing what other software out there also blocks the EFF and ORG." This is the software used by Virgin Media, the cablemodem ISP in the UK, for parents who want to screen their kiddies from all that is moist and pink. Link (Thanks, Glyn!) Source: Boing Boing | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:18 am Do you remember your first Google?Siva sez, "For the book he is writing called The Googlization of Everything, Siva Vaidhyanathan wants to know:"Do you remember the first time you used Google? When was it? How did you hear about Google? What was you first impression? Please use the comments over on The Googlization of Everything to tell me stories. As Mudbone (Richard Pryor's character) used to say, "you only remember two times, your first and your last."Link (Thanks, Siva!) Source: Boing Boing | 24 Jul 2008 | 5:14 am Nokia, Qualcomm settle long-running disputeThe legal salvos between Nokia Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. stopped months ago, part of what officials at the wireless industry heavyweights described as a truce in a long-running battle that spanned three...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 4:40 am Inside Apple's iPhone SDK Gag Ordersnydeq writes "InfoWorld's Tom Yager takes a closer look at Apple's iPhone SDK confidentiality agreement, which restricts developers from discussing the SDK or exchanging ideas with others, thereby leaving no room for forums, newsgroups, open source projects, tutorials, magazine articles, users' groups, or books. But because anyone is free to obtain the iPhone SDK by signing up for it, Apple is essentially branding publicly available information as confidential. This 'puzzling contradiction' is the 'antithesis of the developer-friendly Apple Developer Connection' on which the iPhone SDK program is based, Yager contends. 'You'll see arguments from armchair legal analysts that the iPhone developer Agreements won't stand up in court — but those analysts certainly won't stand up in court on your behalf.' Anyone planning to launch an iPhone forum or open source project should have 'a lawyer draft your request for exemption, and make sure that the Apple staffer granting it personally commits to status as authorized to approve exceptions to the iPhone Registered Developer and iPhone SDK Agreements,' Yager warns."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 24 Jul 2008 | 4:40 am FCC appears likely to approve Sirius-XM mergerA majority of the commission reportedly is ready to approve the $3.9-billion deal if the nation's only two satellite radio operators agree to new conditions. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 4:32 am Researchers Create Highly Predictive BlacklistsGrablets writes "Using a link analysis algorithm similar to Google PageRank, researchers at the SANS Institute and SRI International have created a new Internet network defense service that rethinks the way network blacklists are formulated and distributed. The service, called Highly Predictive Blacklisting, exploits the relationships between networks that have been attacked by similar Internet sources as a means for predicting which attack sources are likely to attack which networks in the future. A free experimental version is currently available."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 24 Jul 2008 | 2:32 am Surprise in the post for illegal music downloadersThousands of parents will learn of their children's illegal downloading habits when warning letters arrive at their homes in a battle against internet piracy. A government-backed drive is targeting the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 1:19 am How to Promote Yourself, Boost Your Geek Cred, and Be the HeroLearn from the pros the secrets to beating out the most popular kid in school to become class president, Tweeting your readers to tears, or creating a fan base for whatever your endeavor may be.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 24 Jul 2008 | 1:00 am How to Set Up a Velvet Rope on FacebookGot some killah party pics from that bender in Maui? Wanna share them with all your buds on Facebook? Think again. Here's how to avoid those potentially career-ending images from getting into the wrong hands.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 24 Jul 2008 | 1:00 am How to Impress the Rubes and Win at the CarnivalMidways are notorious hives of scum and villainy. Impress the rubes by emerging triumphant.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 24 Jul 2008 | 1:00 am How to Be Understood at ComicConLearn how to speak in various native tongues at the annual geekfest known as ComicCon.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 24 Jul 2008 | 1:00 am Next Generation CPU RefrigeratorsIddo Genuth writes "Researchers at Purdue University are developing a miniature refrigeration system, small enough to fit inside laptop computers. According to the researchers, the implementation of miniature refrigeration systems in computers can dramatically increase the amount of heat removed from the microchips, therefore boosting performance while simultaneously shrinking the size of computers."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:50 am Defense firms split $6.9B parts dealThe Air Force has awarded a $6.9 billion contract for spare parts to a variety of contractors for all of the service's managed weapons systems.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 24 Jul 2008 | 12:24 am Attack Code Published For DNS Vulnerabilityget_Rootin writes "That didn't take long. ZDNet is reporting that HD Moore has released exploit code for Dan Kaminsky's DNS cache poisioning vulnerability into the point-and-click Metasploit attack tool. From the article: 'This exploit caches a single malicious host entry into the target nameserver. By causing the target nameserver to query for random hostnames at the target domain, the attacker can spoof a response to the target server including an answer for the query, an authority server record, and an additional record for that server, causing target nameserver to insert the additional record into the cache.' Here's our previous Slashdot coverage."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Jul 2008 | 11:38 pm 2nd Century AD bust looks like Elvis Neatorama found this photo of a 2nd Century AD bust that bears a resemblance to The Hillbilly Cat. Roman Elvis (Neatorama) Source: Boing Boing | 23 Jul 2008 | 11:24 pm Cancer Center Warns of Kids' Cellphone RisksThe director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute issues an unprecedented warning to faculty and staff Wednesday: Limit cell phone use because of the possible risk of cancer, especially for children. The advice is contrary to many studies, but Dr. Ronald B. Herberman says he's basing his alarm on early, unpublished data.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Jul 2008 | 10:30 pm Google's Knol, Expert Wiki, Goes LiveBrian Jordan and other readers sent in word that Google has taken the wraps off Knol, its expert-written challenger to Wikipedia. (We discussed Knol when it was announced last year.) Wired has an in-depth look. Knol's distinctions from Wikipedia are that authors are identified by their real names (and verified), and that they can share in ad revenue if they choose to. The service initially features a lot of medical articles, which is interesting considering that Medipedia also launched today. This medical wiki is backed by Harvard's and Stanford's medical schools.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Jul 2008 | 10:23 pm If You Wanna Sell Plug-In Hybrids, You Gotta Make 'Em SexyPlug-ins may be our best chance to save the planet, but many consumers aren't convinced. Automakers need to sell buyers on the technology -- and amp up the cars' sex appeal.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Jul 2008 | 9:53 pm Ubuntu Is Hyper-Active At OSCONruphus13 writes "Ubuntu and Canonical have been very active at OSCON this year. They showcased a new distro, announced improvements to their code-hosting platform, and made Mark Shuttleworth available for a couple of talks and panel sessions. Quoting: 'Ubuntu Netbook Remix, a complete distribution designed to run on Atom-based Netbook PCs. The main difference that sets it apart from its big brother Hardy Heron is the Ubuntu Mobile Edition (UME) Launcher, a user interface created specifically for use on the teensy screens and keyboards of today's popular ultra-portable computers.' Canonical also announced Version 2.0 of Launchpad, their code-hosting platform. Enhancements include 'a planned API that'll allow third-party applications to authenticate, query and modify data in the massive Launchpad database, without a user needing to manually access the system via a browser.' Mark Shuttleworth went on to state that Linux's market share will grow when it has better eye-candy than Apple's."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Jul 2008 | 9:41 pm Band features two keyboard-playing chickens In the late 1990s, Jeff Simmermon formed a band with two chickens as members. This is his story. The keyboard players in my band were spacier than Sun Ra, more abstract than John Coltrane and brought more sheer, squalid anarchy to the stage than GG Allin and the Sex Pistols combined. When they weren’t playing music they were either feeding, fighting, or shitting on the floor – and they managed to do a lot of that onstage, too. But they didn’t just act like barnyard animals, they were barnyard animals: the keyboard players in my band were two chickens named Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline.Brainless Barnyard Keyboards: The Short Saga of Royal Quiet Deluxe, Chicken Band. (If you just want to hear what the music sounds like, listen to "Royal Quiet Deluxe" here.) Source: Boing Boing | 23 Jul 2008 | 9:32 pm Which Open Source Video Apps Use SMP Effectively?ydrol writes "After building my new Core 2 Quad Q6600 PC, I was ready to unleash video conversion activity the likes of which I had not seen before. However, I was disappointed to discover that a lot of the conversion tools either don't use SMP at all, or don't balance the workload evenly across processors, or require ugly hacks to use SMP (e.g. invoking distributed encoding options). I get the impression that open source projects are a bit slow on the uptake here? Which open source video conversion apps take full native advantage of SMP? (And before you ask, no, I don't want to pick up the code and add SMP support myself, thanks.)"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 23 Jul 2008 | 8:54 pm Paws off the gray wolf for Wyoming Game and Fish - The Torrington Telegram
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Jul 2008 | 8:16 pm Intel CEO Calls for 10 Million Plug-In Conversions Within Four YearsAndy Grove's called for 10 million vehicles to be converted to plug-in hybrids within four years and laid out some ideas to help get us there.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Jul 2008 | 8:00 pm Security Matters: Lesson From the DNS Bug: Patching Isn't EnoughDespite the best efforts of the security community, the details of a critical internet vulnerability discovered by Dan Kaminsky about six months ago have leaked. Hackers are racing to produce exploit code, and network operators who haven't already patched the hole are scrambling to catch up. The whole mess is a good illustration of the problems with researching and disclosing flaws like this. The details of the vulnerability aren't important, but basically it's a form of DNS cache poisoning. The DNS system is what translates domain names people understand, like www.schneier.com, to IP addresses computers understand: 204.11.246.1. There is a whole family of vulnerabilities where the DNS system on your computer is fooled into thinking that the IP address for www.badsite.com is really the IP address for www.goodsite.com -- there's no way for you to tell the difference -- and that allows the criminals at www.badsite.com to trick you into doing all sorts of things, like giving up your bank account details. Kaminsky discovered a particularly nasty variant of this cache-poisoning attack. Here's the way the timeline was supposed to work: Kaminsky discovered the vulnerability about six months ago, and quietly worked with vendors to patch it. (There's a fairly straightforward fix, although the implementation nuances are complicated.) Of course, this meant describing the vulnerability to them; why would companies like Microsoft and Cisco believe him otherwise? On July 8, he held a press conference to announce the vulnerability -- but not the details -- and reveal that a patch was available from a long list of vendors. We would all have a month to patch, and Kaminsky would release details of the vulnerability at the BlackHat conference early next month. Of course, the details leaked. How isn't important; it could have leaked a zillion different ways. Too many people knew about it for it to remain secret. Others who knew the general idea were too smart not to speculate on the details. I'm kind of amazed the details remained secret for this long; undoubtedly it had leaked into the underground community before the public leak two days ago. So now everyone who back-burnered the problem is rushing to patch, while the hacker community is racing to produce working exploits. What's the moral here? It's easy to condemn Kaminsky: If he had shut up about the problem, we wouldn't be in this mess. But that's just wrong. Kaminsky found the vulnerability by accident. There's no reason to believe he was the first one to find it, and it's ridiculous to believe he would be the last. Don't shoot the messenger. The problem is with the DNS protocol; it's insecure. The real lesson is that the patch treadmill doesn't work, and it hasn't for years. This cycle of finding security holes and rushing to patch them before the bad guys exploit those vulnerabilities is expensive, inefficient and incomplete. We need to design security into our systems right from the beginning. We need assurance. We need security engineers involved in system design. This process won't prevent every vulnerability, but it's much more secure -- and cheaper -- than the patch treadmill we're all on now. What a security engineer brings to the problem is a particular mindset. He thinks about systems from a security perspective. It's not that he discovers all possible attacks before the bad guys do; it's more that he anticipates potential types of attacks, and defends against them even if he doesn't know their details. I see this all the time in good cryptographic designs. It's over-engineering based on intuition, but if the security engineer has good intuition, it generally works. Kaminsky's vulnerability is a perfect example of this. Years ago, cryptographer Daniel J. Bernstein looked at DNS security and decided that Source Port Randomization was a smart design choice. That's exactly the work-around being rolled out now following Kaminsky's discovery. Bernstein didn't discover Kaminsky's attack; instead, he saw a general class of attacks and realized that this enhancement could protect against them. Consequently, the DNS program he wrote in 2000, djbdns, doesn't need to be patched; it's already immune to Kaminsky's attack. That's what a good design looks like. It's not just secure against known attacks; it's also secure against unknown attacks. We need more of this, not just on the internet but in voting machines, ID cards, transportation payment cards ... everywhere. Stop assuming that systems are secure unless demonstrated insecure; start assuming that systems are insecure unless designed securely. --- Bruce Schneier is chief security technology officer of BT, and author of Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Jul 2008 | 7:00 pm IPhone 3G Users Complain About Network IssuesComplaints are mounting among iPhone users about the quality and consistency of AT&T's third-generation (3-G) data network. In Gadget Lab.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Jul 2008 | 6:46 pm IPhone 3G Users Complain About Network IssuesComplaints are mounting among iPhone users about the quality and consistency of AT&T's third-generation (3-G) data network. In Gadget Lab.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 23 Jul 2008 | 6:46 pm The Broadband Boom May Be OverAT&T reports a measly 46,000 broadband subscribers added during the second quarter, down from nearly half a million in the first quarter. The numbers imply that broadband growth has come to a screeching, painful halt. The news doesn't bode well for other broadband providers.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Jul 2008 | 6:38 pm The Coffee Fix: Can the $11,000 Clover Machine Save Starbucks?It's 10 am on a Thursday, and the line at Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco snakes out the door. Inside, an espresso machine hisses like an angry tomcat as customers order their cappuccinos. But the real action is taking place a few steps away, where a scruffy barista stands at a stainless steel contraption, introducing the coffee he's about to serve to his rapt audience. "The Honduran is sweet," he says, "with a refined acidity and an excellent finish." He lets one perfectly measured scoop of fresh grounds shimmy deep into the machine, then goes to work, twiddling knobs, pushing buttons, and whirling a whisk in a chamber at the top of the silver box. Forty-five seconds later, he sets down a single cup of custom-made coffee that's Jessica Alba hot, Bill Gates rich, and as unique as a snowflake. No foam. No caramel. No whip. Just beans and water — pushed through a cool little machine called the Clover — for a pricey $4 a pop. The Clover coffeemaker debuted in a handful of cafés in 2006 and was promptly hailed as the best thing to happen to coffee lovers since the car cup holder. With an $11,000 asking price, the Clover has become a fetish object among the coffee-obsessed. Long queues signal its arrival in new cities, and self-described "Cloveristas" post videos on YouTube demonstrating the machine's flashy brewing process. There are more photos on Flickr paying homage to this shiny gadget (700 and counting) than actual Clovers in existence (roughly 250 worldwide). Writer Mathew Honan tries out the Clover machine at Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco.
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The Clover also wowed Howard Schultz, founder and CEO of Starbucks. Last year, Schultz stumbled upon the machine in New York City when he had spotted a line of people standing outside a tiny joint called Café Grumpy. He tried a sample and declared it "the best cup of brewed coffee I have ever tasted." In March 2008, Starbucks announced the acquisition of the Coffee Equipment Company — the Seattle-based startup that manufactures Clovers in a converted trolley shed. His hope is that the Clover will bolster Starbucks' bottom line. Chalk up some of the excitement — and the equipment's hefty price tag — to artisanal tech. A robotic hybrid of a French press and a Dirt Devil, the Clover is the first coffeemaker that lets the user program three key variables: dose, water temperature, and brew time. (Example: 37.5 grams of Brazilian Fazenda São João at 204 degrees for 43 seconds.) After the coffee steeps, a piston mechanism extracts the liquid from spent beans, resulting in a fresh cuppa in less than a minute. A filter platform pops a hockey puck of grounds out of the top, where it's easily wiped away. An Ethernet port connected to an online database is designed to let users save favorite recipes for specific beans. Made of stainless steel and copper, a single Clover typically takes several hours to assemble by hand. Fast, fancy, and idiot-proof? No surprise that Starbucks is all over the Clover — the company has been rolling them out since last summer. Half-caf nonfat toffee-nut latte lovers, get ready for a real cup of coffee. I'm a coffee achiever, as that old ad campaign goes. I own two French presses, a stainless steel Cuisinart grinder/drip, a retro De'Longhi espresso machine, an Italian Vev Vigano moka pot, and a Vietnamese drip that I purchased in old Hanoi for making ca phe sua nong. My San Francisco neighborhood has five coffee shops within a five-block radius: four mom-and-pop operations and a Peet's. But compared with David Latourell, CEC's 42-year-old resident coffee expert, I'm a Sanka-slurping rube. Latourell and I are standing in the middle of CEC's cupping room, a tasting area next to the company's small Seattle factory. The Clover is specifically designed to bring out the nuances of high-end coffees like Los Delirios, which comes from a Portland, Oregon, company called Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Los Delirios is a blend of Caturra, Typica, and Bourbon beans grown near Esteli, Nicaragua. Actually, it's on a micro lot located at 13° 22'45.99"N x 86° 28'50.45"W, between 1,050 and 1,450 meters above sea level, according to a manila "origin" card that comes with each bag of beans. Underneath the farm's GPS coordinates are flavor descriptions that read in part, "violets and black cherry, baking chocolate, and chocolate covered raisins." Latourell hands me a cup of Los Delirios coffee made in the Clover. We both take slow, even sips. "I'm picking up a little chocolate," he says with a toss of his shoulder-length hair. I sip again, summoning every taste bud. I just taste — well, coffee. Delicious, sure, but coffee. Like wine and, more recently, chocolate, a quality coffee bean must reflect a certain terroir — the climate, soil composition, and elevation of its place of origin. At least in theory, this gives a bean its unique and desirable flavor. Whether or not your average caffeine fiend can tell a Guatemalan Maragogype bean from a Honduran Catuai is debatable, but terroir explains how Stumptown can sell bags of beans for $40 a pound (about 10 times the price of commercial-grade coffee) and cafés can charge from $3 to $7 for a single cup of joe. "For $7, you can get a bad glass of wine," says CEC cofounder Randy Hulett. "Or you can get one of the best cups of coffee in the world." 
Illustration: Jameson Simpson
Clover, From the Grounds UpClover looks like just another countertop coffee machine. But peek under the hood and you'll find an innovative brewing system. Here's how it works: 1. A barista selects dose, water temperature, and steep time. 2. A piston pulls down the filter platform while freshly ground coffee is poured into the chamber. 3. Hot water flows into the chamber. 4. The barista briskly stirs the grounds with a whisk, and the water and beans steep for several seconds. 5.The piston rises, creating a vacuum that separates the brew from the grounds, then lowers, forcing the joe out of a nozzle below. 6. The piston rises to the surface again, pushing up a disc of grounds, which are squeegeed away. Then there's the top-shelf stuff. Stumptown sells beans from Nicaragua called Las Golondrinas for $80 a pound. On the international market, Esmeralda Special, a rare kind of Panamanian bean, can go for $130 a pound wholesale. And consider Kopi Luwak, also known as catshit coffee: It's an Indonesian bean that's eaten by a civet cat, then "harvested" from the animal's dung. (The bean's bitter flavor is apparently greatly improved by passing through a cat's digestive tract.) A single cup of Kopi Luwak at the Peter Jones espresso bar in London goes for $100, and a pound of the beans can cost as much as $600. If you're going to pay that much for beans, of course, you want to have the right machine. Back in the cupping room, Latourell fires up the Clover and goes to work on a second cup of Los Delirios: He measures out 46 grams of beans, grinds them, and then slides them into the recessed chamber on top. Next, he programs a new brew time and temperature, raising the heat from 205 degrees to 207 and increasing the brewing time from 45 seconds to 50. As the hot water rushes into the chamber from a topside nozzle, Latourell stirs the blend with a metal whisk, being careful not to break the stream, which would cool the water. "The temperature has a massive effect on the extraction of chemicals that affect flavor," he explains. I take a swig. Bang, there it is: chocolate. Scharffen Berger, eat your heart out! A few tweaks and I have a new beverage. And it's not just the chocolate flavor; the mouthfeel and acidity are completely different from the first cup. All Latourell did was adjust the brew time and temperature and add 6 grams of beans. Taste-testing it against the earlier brew, I wouldn't have guessed they were the same bean. I'm starting to become a Clover convert. 
Photo: RJ Shaughnessy
Brewed coffee is awful.That's what Zander Nosler thought back in 2001, when he was developing a commercial coffeemaker for — of all places — Starbucks. The bespectacled, rail-thin product designer had previously spent 18 months at Ideo developing everything from sunglasses to medical supplies. As he tinkered with a revolutionary single-serve, push-button brewing machine targeted for the workplace, he realized that most makers were as stale as the coffee. "I got to see firsthand how coffee was better by the cup," Nosler says. "The coffee coming out of those glass office pots is wretched." (Starbucks later called the prototype the Interactive Cup.) When the project was finished, Nosler kept thinking about the single-brew concept. He soon decided he could do better, making a superior brewer that wasn't one-size-fits-all. By 2004, Nosler had cooked up a business plan. He recruited other Stanford alums, including Hulett, 34. Within a year, the team raised half a million dollars from friends and family and set up shop inside an old trolley shed a few minutes north of downtown Seattle. The Coffee Equipment Company was born. For months, the group reworked the design. They abandoned the office market in favor of cafés, ditched the grinder, and shrunk the countertop footprint. By spring 2005 they had the first Clover prototype. Code name: Chalupa. Made of particleboard, with its guts bolted crudely on the outside, it looked like Mr. Coffee designed by Dr. Frankenstein. But to roasters wanting a high-end single-serve option, it was gorgeous. CEC demo'd a final prototype that October at a local party and sold three units before they were even built. When Clover debuted at the Specialty Coffee Association of America event in 2006, Nosler was mobbed. "People saw us walking in and began chanting, 'Clo-ver, Clo-ver!'" he says, his eyes wide at the memory. To the little indie guys, Nosler was a god. While interest in CEC was percolating, Starbucks was crashing. Its share price had dipped from nearly $40 in 2006 to around $19 in January 2008. The company that brought macchiato to the masses had lost its way — and a chunk of its profit margin. Was Starbucks in the market of selling coffee drinks or fancy milk shakes? Cappuccinos or compact discs? Was it competing with Peet's or Mickey D's? After just three years, CEO Jim Donald was on his way out, and Schultz, Starbucks' founder, retook the helm. On Valentine's Day 2007, Schultz wrote an internal memo (later leaked to the press) lamenting the state of the company. "I'm not sure people today even know we are roasting coffee," the missive read. "You certainly can't get the message from being in our stores ... At a minimum [we] should support the foundation of our coffee heritage." Schultz announced that Starbucks would return to its roots. No more vacuum-sealed bags of beans or breakfast sandwiches (the smell of bacon and eggs overwhelmed the coffee aroma). Starbucks would once again grind beans in the store. It would introduce new blends and better espresso machines. But most important: It was going to road-test a little machine that Schultz had discovered a few months before on a walk through New York's Chelsea district. "In my 25 years at Starbucks, the Clover machine unquestionably delivers the best cup of brewed coffee I have ever tasted," Schultz later gushed to his stockholders. "And we want to share this experience with our customers." Starting in summer 2007, Starbucks discreetly purchased and installed a few Clovers at stores in Seattle and Boston. It sold a cup of Clover-made coffee for as much as $3.05, about a dollar more than Starbucks' regular brew. The early reviews were glowing. As one Yelper put it, "If you're a coffee snob who normally scorns Sbucks and its burnt offerings, you might try the Clover pressed coffee at this location and be pleasantly surprised." After roughly six months of successful trials, Schultz proposed buying Clover's maker, the Coffee Equipment Company. "We thought Starbucks wanted to take us out on a few dates," Nosler says of the deal. "But they wanted to go steady." Michelle Gass, a senior VP of global strategy for Starbucks, is slightly less romantic: "Frankly, we just don't want anyone else to have it." Starbucks is willing to share custody, however, of the 250 machines already out there, plus maintain and repair them, but it won't sell any more Clovers to independent cafés. The company has already pulled the plug on CloverNet, the online database that tracks sales, maintenance, and brewing preferences for Clover owners. Clover's early adopters are outraged to see their coffee machine become part of the Coffee Machine. "We made the decision to purchase the Clover to support this small independent manufacturer," says Stumptown owner Duane Sorenson, who bought the first Clover in the US. "When we found out that CEC was sold to Starbucks, we made the decision to sell our Clovers." Nosler shrugs off the criticism: "Everyone has their favorite little band that they've watched change as it signs with bigger labels," he says. "But I can defend to anyone that selling to Starbucks was absolutely the right thing for us to do. Starbucks has a larger market than all the independent roasters and specialty shops combined. I'm a product designer first, a coffee guy second. I love coffee; I'm passionate about it, but I want to make products, plural. Having a gigantically hungry customer is appealing on a lot of levels. It was the best of all possible paths for us — and the coffee industry as well." By the end of 2008, there will 80 machines installed in upscale urban markets across the country. Next year, Starbucks plans to remodel those stores with the Clover as their centerpiece. "Other than espresso, there's been no innovation in brewed coffee to speak of," Schultz says. "Now we're driving new traffic because of the Clover." Then there's that other counter where the Clover is destined to end up — the one in your kitchen. "The Clover is a commercial machine," he says, "but there's potential to create more consumer-based opportunities, specifically at home." Today, you buy a $10 bag of Starbucks French Roast to take home. Soon, you might buy a $40 bag and use your very own Clover to brew it. 
Photo: RJ Shaughnessy
Coffee snobs are skeptical. "Clover will differentiate them from the Dunkin' Donuts, the McDonald's," says Tony Konecny, an industry consultant who runs the coffee blog Tonx.org and was one of the first to see a Clover prototype. "But it comes down to the coffee." The machine is only as good as the beans you put in it. Which is a problem for Starbucks, a chain that purchases coffee in mass quantities and can't deliver fresh bags of beans as quickly as the indie cafés. Then there's quality control: "By the time the customer experiences it, the beans have been blended and have been sitting in a bag for six weeks. Anything special about the coffee is lost." A few days after my cupping room challenge, I'm standing in line at a hilltop Starbucks in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood — one of Clover's beta sites. I do a taste test: a cup of Clover coffee versus brewed coffee. A young barista tells me they're out of the first two specialty coffees I request and suggests instead Starbucks' everyday blend, called Pike Place. During brewing, the barista stirs the grounds into the Clover with a clunky rubber spatula — not a metal whisk — and pours the concoction into a crummy paper cup. I smell, I sip, I inhale. I can't tell which cup of coffee is which — and neither is anything special. Is it the beans? My palate? After a few minutes, I finally pick it out: This coffee tastes a little bit like hype. Mathew Honan (mhonan@gmail.com) offers tips on Twittering in our How To: Self Promote package. Source: Wired: Gadgets | 23 Jul 2008 | 6:00 pm Lost in Space? Not With Lunar GPSA lunar navigation system is in the works to help future explorers keep their bearings.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jul 2008 | 5:25 pm Blog: Pinwheel Galaxy's Ring of FireLooking for life in the universe? Here's one place you can skip.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jul 2008 | 5:25 pm AT&T reports iPhone 3G sales double that of original iPhone - Ars Technica
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Jul 2008 | 4:48 pm From Garbage to Gas Tank: Trash as BiofuelCan you run a car on trash? Yes, and within two years, say biofuel companies.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jul 2008 | 4:39 pm Dinosaurs Diversified Over Time, Not SuddenlyDinosaurs had already evolved into many different species before the Cretaceous.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jul 2008 | 4:39 pm Sony Joined WHDI Group - Sony Insider
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Jul 2008 | 4:06 pm Mini: Prices will rise as inventory dwindles - AutoWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Jul 2008 | 2:54 pm Shrimp-Like Fossil Confirms Antarctica Was WarmerA fossil found in Antarctica's dry valley shows the continent was once much warmer.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jul 2008 | 1:45 pm Gulf Dead Zone Grows Bigger Than EverAn oxygen-depleted dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico is hundreds of miles wide.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 23 Jul 2008 | 1:08 pm As Summer Heats Up, An Ode to the Man Behind ACSummer's indispensable invention is the product of Willis Haviland Carrier's mind. It's too bad his branding didn't catch on: Te called his air-conditioning rig "the Weathermaker."Source: Wired: Gadgets | 23 Jul 2008 | 1:00 pm Bike Multitool Packs a Big Kit Into a Tiny PackageThe sturdy Topeak Hexus includes 16 different bicycle repair tools in one compact package, making it an excellent choice for on-the-road repairs.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 23 Jul 2008 | 12:27 pm
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Beta users can sign up via http://www.shapeways.com/beta
Warren Ellis's first novel, "Crooked Little Vein" is about what you'd expect from the Internet's most gonzo celebrant of the kinky, deviant, gross, hard-boiled and manic. Like Hunter S Thompson with an Internet connection, Ellis's hard-boiled detective story veers into hilarious gross-out turf from the first page, when a heroin-addicted presidential chief of staff charges the narrator of the book to retrieve a holy relic. The relic is a record of the "true" constitution of the United States, containing the mystical spell that Benjamin Franklin composed after killing an alien who had been sodomizing him in a hotel room in Paris. The book -- bound in the alien's skin -- has the power to restore America to colonial morality, banishing its Internet-era perversions. But first it must be retrieved from its current owner -- whomever has inherited title from the hooker to whom Nixon gifted it as a hush-up bribe.
