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Nokia cuts phone prices across portfolio: sources (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 Jul 2008 | 11:02 am Steampunk watch-movement jewelry and accessories Watch-Cufflinks is the webstore for Etsy seller Edmdesigns, whose work I've featured here before. There's some really lovely stuff here -- I'm partial to this wingéd watch movement badge. Makes me wish I had more shirts with French cuffs! Watch Cufflinks
See also: Clock-y, steam-y jewelry and such Source: Boing Boing | 31 Jul 2008 | 10:58 am How to configure and deploy the iPhone 3G for business, part 1 - Computerworld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 10:46 am Italian Network Mediaset Suing YouTube For $779M - AHN
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 10:41 am Defiant China hits out at US, stands firm on Internet (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 Jul 2008 | 10:22 am Gamers hit the virtual gridiron early (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 Jul 2008 | 10:18 am Cloud computing goes open source - InfoWorld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 10:05 am Ancient Greeks used "computer" to set Olympics date - Reuters
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 10:02 am Apple looks to Nvidia for chipset support - Inquirer
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:54 am McKinnon vows to fight on - VNUNet.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:51 am Denali Announces Complete Bundle of I/O Virtualization Technology Solution With PureSpec PCI Express Verification IPIndustry-Leading Verification IP Solution Provides Full Specification Support Of PCI-SIG IOV Technology Standard SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Denali...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:30 am Denali Releases ONFi 2.0 Memory Controller and Verification SuitesFlashPoint Platform Supports ONFi 2.0 NAND Flash Technology for PCIe-based Memory Systems SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Denali, Inc., a world-leading ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:30 am Meet Sirius XMSirius has finally completed their acquisition of XM. The company will now be called Sirius XM Radio (duh) and will consist of 18.5 million subscribers. They will have more exclusive programming in addition...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:26 am Ask JackBlu-ray iMac We're looking to buy an iMac, but there's no indication of if or when Apple is going to offer Blu-ray drives. Rachael Johnson JS: It's more than three years since Apple joined the Blu-ray...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:25 am Automated Calls: The Good, the Bad, and the UglyAutomated call providers, politicians, telemarketers, the general public - everyone has something to say about automated calls - here's what you need to know ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:20 am UK's ISP-record industry deal won't stop infringement, but will make it harder for the record industry to cash inThe Guardian's just published my latest column, "Illegal filesharing: A suicide note from the music industry" about the insanity of the latest record-company salvo in the copyright wars, a cozy deal with...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:19 am UK's ISP-record industry deal won't stop infringement, but will make it harder for the record industry to cash inThe Guardian's just published my latest column, "Illegal filesharing: A suicide note from the music industry" about the insanity of the latest record-company salvo in the copyright wars, a cozy deal with British ISPs that will have them spying on and degrading the connections of subscribers accused of infringing downloading:So no, I don't think this is going to have any appreciable effect on filesharing. However, it will succeed in driving music-swapping even further underground, to encrypted protocols and offline hard-drive parties and private swapping networks. These are every bit as efficient at getting music into the hands of kids, but they're a lot harder to monitor and charge money for.Link Source: Boing Boing | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:19 am New Alarm Clock is for Kids but it's the Parents Who are Sleeping inBOSTON, July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- A new award-winning alarm clock for children is keeping kids in bed longer but it's parents who are catching up on sleep. The Teach...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:07 am Ancient T. rex tissue, or just old slime? - Los Angeles Times
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:06 am Give Like a Pro: ScanCafe Creates Easy Gifts Martha Stewart Would be Proud ofSAN FRANCISCO, July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Giving gifts that won't be thrown away or stuffed in someone's closet is a difficult feat for anyone. Yet in today'sSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:06 am Dell tests music player to renew iPod battle: report - Reuters
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 9:04 am Dr. Horrible Not So Horrible, And Its Now On Hulu (Update: And International)Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is a 40 minute musical that stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, a bumbling, video blogging super villain who’s trying to get into the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:45 am Dr. Horrible Not So Horrible, And Its Now On HuluJoss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog is a 40 minute musical that stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, a bumbling, video blogging super villain who’s trying to get into the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:45 am US To Launch Military Orbital SpaceplaneAn anonymous reader writes "Not only is the US readying its first 100% military spaceplane for a November launch, but it's going to push NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission til 2009: 'The USAF and Boeing will launch the X-38B — the first military orbital space plane if you discount the secret military shuttle — on top of an Atlas V rocket in November. They want to test its flying features in space and during atmospheric reentry. And probably its anti-matter rays and nuclear bays and hyperspace engines too (but of course, they are never going to tell you that). However, there seems to be a conflict with the civilian space program which may push one of the Moon exploration missions to 2009.' Screw the moon. We have to defend ourselves against all those alien extremists from Mars!"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:35 am MailSite Fusion 9 vetted for iPhone use (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - MailSite Software on Wednesday announced that it has tested and verified MailSite Fusion 9 for use with the iPhone 3G, original iPhone with upgraded 2.0 software, and iPod touch with 2.0 software installed.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:30 am Socialmedian Launches Open Beta: Personalize Your News FilterAfter 4 months of private, invite-only alpha testing, social news network Socialmedian is now open and available in a public beta. During the last 4 months, Socialmedian has taken its motto of shipping...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:30 am Media not told of censorship plan: IOCBEIJING (Reuters) - The international media should have been told they would not have completely free access to the internet before they arrived to report the Beijing Olympics, IOC press...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:07 am Research and Markets: Wireless Communications Technologies and Solutions: Introduction of Technology for Many NetworksResearch and Markets Laura Wood Senior Manager Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 press@researchandmarkets.com Logo: http://www.researchandmarkets.com Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ 6ea405/wireless_communica) has announced the addition of the "Wireless Communications Technologies and Solutions" report to their offering.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Research and Markets: Examine the BHP Billiton Oil and Chemicals Storage Operation Report: Detailing Valuable Company Information & International TerminalsResearch and Markets Laura Wood Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com Fax from USA: 646-607-1907 Fax from rest of the world: +353-1-481-1716 Logo: http://www.researchandmarkets.com Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ 9a060b/bhp_billiton_oil_a) has announced the addition of the "BHP Billiton Oil and Chemicals Storage Operation Asset Summary Report" report to their offering.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am BRIEF: Butler County Nursing Aide Sues VABy The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Jul.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am State Still Reviewing Hopewell Project: DEQ Doing Tests for Permit That Would Let Ethanol Plant Be BuiltBy Luz Lazo, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va. Jul. 31--The state Department of Environmental Quality is close to making a decision on an air-permit application that would allow construction of an ethanol plant in Hopewell.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am PAEDC Directors Consider Park Development OptionsBy David Ball, The Port Arthur News, Texas Jul. 31--PORT ARTHUR -- Directors of the Port Arthur Economic Development Corporation listened to possible development plans Wednesday for a 7.25 acre site on Texas 73 that may serve as a future industrial park.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am An Old Warhorse, but Still RelevantBy Datuk Mohamed Shariff Abdul Aziz I WOULD like to clarify a few points pertaining to the issues brought up by Datuk Seri Effendi Norwawi in the report "To succeed, put one person in charge" (NST, June 29), and especially his statement on the role of the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) in the agricultural development in Malaysia.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Some Areas More Sensitive to QuakeBy Andy Franks LONG BEACH - Your description of Tuesday's earthquake might be different from your friend's across town, but for a good reason: Geologic surveys show that some parts of Long Beach are more sensitive to ground motion.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Corner LotsShiny countertops and sparkling sinks aren't enough. A truly clean kitchen means safe food practices, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Follow these tips for ensuring safe food handling, storage and cooking.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Delray Beach Woman Urges Residents to Save 'Lady Dog Catcher' From Budget Cuts: Delray Residents Urged to Protest Job EliminationBy Maria Herrera, South Florida Sun-Sentinel Jul. 31--DELRAY BEACH -- For 10 years, Virginia Feldman has roamed the city's streets, trapping and rescuing feral fowl, injured raccoons and stray dogs. But Feldman's job might disappear next year.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Farmers Pass on Rising ExpensesBy Joe Napsha, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Jul. 31--For the past two years, Sewickley Township cattle farmer Regina Carpenter said she and her husband, Derwyn, have absorbed the rising costs of fuel and feed, but they can no longer afford to hold the line this year.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Spill Shows Little Impact on WildlifeNEW ORLEANS - A large fuel spill that has shut down 100 miles of the Mississippi River for four days has had a limited effect on wildlife so far, but officials are worried about fragile wetlands downstream.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Tools of the TradeBy Anonymous Extended-Height Lift Pad Adapter The Model FJ6212 extended- height (EH) adapter enables technicians using any of the company's frame-contact lifts to properly pick up the Toyota Tundra and other light trucks, SUVs and vans.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Daft on NatureONLY half of kids can identify a bluebell, an oak tree or a blue tit, according to a survey published yesterday.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Luna County Stores Prep for Tax-Free ShoppersBy Kevin Buey, The Deming Headlight, N.M. Jul. 31--Anyone with school-aged children knows how expensive it is to send a youngster to school. That's why this weekend is such a boon for the wallet and pocketbook.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Opera Company Finds Plenty of Talent for 'Boheme'By Mark Kanny, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Jul. 31--In one respect, Undercroft Opera is the boldest company in Pittsburgh. It presents great operas using volunteer singers and instrumentalists. Whatever the level of talent and training, none earns his living as a performer.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am New TechnologyBy Anonymous * Google unveils medical records storage plan. Internet search giant Google rolled out its long-awaited Google Health product, which will enable users to upload and store medical records from many sources.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am MPs Urge Curbs on YouTubeINTERNET sites should adopt TV-style "watersheds" to protect youngsters from adult material, MPs have recommended.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Conference CalendarBy Anonymous June 2008 June 26-30, 2008. Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America, Annual Conference. Washington, DC. Contact: 703/524-6686; Web site: http:// www.resna.org. June 28-July 1, 2008.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am Socialmedian Opens to the PublicNEW YORK, July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- socialmedian, http://www.socialmedian.com/, a new social news network that is working on solving the information overload problem, opened its website to the public today.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am User-Centered Policy Evaluations of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act: Evaluating E-Government Web Sites for Accessibility for Persons With DisabilitiesBy Jaeger, Paul T The author examines user-centered evaluations of e-government Web sites for compliance with a policy related to persons with disabilities: the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 31 Jul 2008 | 8:00 am GCI Reports Preliminary Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results- Consolidated revenue of $142.5 million - EBITDAS of $43.4 million - Net income of $3.6 million or $0.07 per diluted share ANCHORAGE, Alaska, July 31...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:50 am Brush Up on Best Jetpack Movies As Real Thing Arrives - Wired News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:47 am Underwater Haute Couture - Songe de Robes Fashion Shoot Without Models (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Raphael Dallaporta's amazing underwater shots of dresses designed by top fashion designers proves that supermodels are really not necessary to showcase designer creations. This is...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:40 am socialmedian Opens to the PublicNEW YORK, July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- socialmedian, href="http://www.socialmedian.com">http://www.socialmedian.com , a new social news network that is working on...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:30 am Want a free laptop with that phone?As mobile operators start giving away devices other than cellphones, experts say, the industry is entering a new phase. The IHT reports. "Like most other operators in Europe, Orange dangles a piece...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:05 am Emergent Trading Solutions Integrates FINCAD Analytics Into Their ModelRoute Execution Management SystemVANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Emergent Trading Solutions has integrated FINCAD Analytics into their ModelRoute pricing and execution management...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:05 am Designer Concept Bicycles - Bike To The Future (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Bicycle: A vehicle consisting of two wheels and a seat powered by a human. HA! Not if you are a designer! Changing the way we look at things is the lifeblood of designers...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am You've got too much e-mailThere's a growing backlash against our growing in-boxes. A new crop of entrepreneurs has sprung up with antidotes -- some of which create more e-mail. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am Astronomical calculator kept track of ancient Olympics, study findsThe inclusion of the Olympic data on the 2,100-year-old Antikythera mechanism provides evidence that for its scientific sophistication, the device also was put to practical use, researchers say. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am Website comment boards bring out the inner vulgarianDespite its power to inform and connect people across cultures and time zones, the Internet all too often discourages, or coarsens, a healthy civic discussion. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am Ancient T. rex tissue, or just old slime?Scientists say material in dinosaur bones is probably just biofilm from bacteria. The finding sparks a strong response from researchers who reported finding T. rex tissue. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am H. Tracy Hall, 88; GE chemist invented process for creating diamondsH. Tracy Hall, the physical chemist who invented the first reproducible process for making diamonds in the laboratory, kicking off a multibillion-dollar industry, died Friday at his home in Provo, Utah...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am TSMC Reports Second Quarter EPS of NT$1.12HSINCHU, Taiwan, July 31 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TSMC today announced consolidated revenue of NT$88.14 billion, net income of NT$28.77 billion, and diluted...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 7:00 am Consider the Phone Company for Tech HelpLand-line phone companies are wading into the tech-support business, seeing it as a way to hold onto customers while developing a new revenue stream. The Wall Street Journal reports. "Land-line phone...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 6:58 am Adwords Broker Local Marketers Raises $4.1MSeattle's Local Marketers has raised $4.1M in a first round of funding from Madrona Venture Group. The startup sells something very, very simple - it manages adwords buys for plumbers, roofers, nursing...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 6:53 am LG's New Blu-Ray Box Includes Netflix Streaming; "Well Under $500" - Washington Post
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 31 Jul 2008 | 6:49 am Amazon Payment Systems Take On PayPalBridger writes "Amazon has introduced two new payment systems for merchants and consumers which brings it into a market dominated by PayPal. Google introduced a similar system for merchants and consumers in 2006, also called Checkout, but it has not found favor with online retailers. Auction giant eBay, which owns PayPal, has prevented consumers from using the Google system."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 31 Jul 2008 | 6:45 am Alphabet made out of corpses in Halo Raketentim sez, "The Halo Corpse Alphabet is a rather macabre project with the goal being to represent every letter of the alphabet by the twisted, curved, stretched, and otherwise dead Spartan and Elite bodies from Halo 3. The Halo community was clearly up for the challenge as they miraculously managed to capture every single letter, number, and even some punctuation in the form of screenshots." Halo Corpse Alphabet (Thanks, Raketentim!) Source: Boing Boing | 31 Jul 2008 | 6:26 am Queen Victoria's underwear purchased by weird pervert-collectorsSome of Queen Victoria's giant and comical undergarments were up for auction, but we are not amused.Link Source: Boing Boing | 31 Jul 2008 | 6:16 am Illegal file-sharing: Government attacks BPI over last-minute letterA hardline letter sent by the BPI at the 11th hour threatened to undermine a deal to tackle illegal file-sharing, prompting the government to express its displeasure of the music industry body in a terse...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 31 Jul 2008 | 5:38 am We need alternative sources of bandwidth just like we need alternative sources of fuelTim Wu's new NYT op-ed, "OPEC 2.0," explores the growing carteliztion of bandwidth and its consequences for America, where we already spend nearly as much on bandwidth as we do on heating oil. Tim's got a newish book out about this stuff called Who Controls the Internet?. I've only browsed it so far (way behind on my reading), but it looks like a classic to me.Link (Thanks, Cat!) Source: Boing Boing | 31 Jul 2008 | 5:00 am Report: Google developing VC arm (CNET)CNET - Google is revisiting efforts to create a venture capital arm, according to a report on The Wall Street Journal's Web site Wednesday night.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 Jul 2008 | 4:55 am Microsoft's Open Source Guru Faces Tough Fightcoondoggie writes "Microsoft's Sam Ramji is like a turkey knocking on Thanksgiving's door. Ramji has the unenviable task of stretching his neck out into the open source world as Microsoft's representative. On top of it, his employer has preheated the oven with years of hubris, sleights of hand and broken promises. Ramji's Sisyphean task was evident last week in Portland at the Open Source Conference (OSCon) and will likely be fuel for chatter at next week's LinuxWorld gathering in San Francisco."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 31 Jul 2008 | 4:11 am Nokia to beef up venture fund, expand in China (AP)AP - Nokia Corp. is more than doubling the size of its direct venture investment fund with an injection of $150 million, with a view to putting some of the money to use in India and China.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 Jul 2008 | 4:03 am July 31, 1790: New Nation Issues First Patent1790: Samuel Hopkins of Vermont gets the very first U.S. patent. It covers a process for making potash and pearl ash (potassium carbonate). Under the Articles of Confederation, inventors had applied to state legislatures to obtain monopolies on the use of their inventions. But Article I, Section 8 of the new U.S. Constitution empowered Congress to "promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." Many inventors petitioned and lobbied the first session of the First Congress in 1789 for patents and copyrights, but in the midst of setting up a whole new government, Congress took no action on any of them. At President Washington's urging, Congress passed a patent law the next year, and the president signed it into law April 10 -- seven weeks before Rhode Island ratified the Constitution to become the 13th state. The new law directed patent applicants to file a petition with the secretary of state. He, with the secretary of war and attorney general would grant a patent if they found "the invention or discovery sufficiently useful and important." The application required a written description, drawings and, if practical, a model of the invention. These needed to be sufficient to allow a skilled workman to make and use the invention. Thus, the public would benefit when the patent expired after 14 years. Complete application and document fees for a patent ran $4 to $5 (roughly $100 in today's money) depending how lengthy your specifications were: You had to pay a copying charge of 10 cents per 100 words, because the patents for carbon paper, photography, photocopying and optical scanning were yet to be applied for. (Today's U.S. patent fees, by the way, start at a bargain $75 for a basic application, but rapidly jump into the thousands with fees for search, examination, documents and maintenance.) Hopkins got his patent at New York City (then the national capital) July 31, complete with signature of President Washington. It covered a method of making potash and pearl ash by burning wood ashes a second time before dissolving them to extract potash. Potash and pearl ash were important ingredients in making glass, china, soap and fertilizer. The cabinet officers who made up the patent board, or Commissioners for the Promotion of the Useful Arts, were busy men. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, for one, found many applications to be of minor importance. The board, in fact, issued only two more patents in 1790: one to Joseph S. Sampson for manufacturing candles, and the other to Oliver Evans for flour-milling machinery. The potash process also received the first Canadian patent. The Governor General in Council awarded the patent in 1791 to Hopkins and Angus MacDonnel, a Scottish soldier stationed in Quebec City. Although Hopkins received the first U.S. patent, it wasn't Patent No. 1. That's because the government issued 9,957 patents before starting a numbering system July 13, 1836. On that occasion, U.S. Patent No. 1 went to John Ruggles of Maine for a traction wheel for steam locomotives. Ruggles happened to be chairman of the Senate Committee on Patents. Two years later, the Senate investigated him for alleged corruption regarding a different patent case. He was exonerated. Source: The Patent Office Pony, by Kenneth W. Dobyns 
Source: Wired Top Stories | 31 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Hollywood Has Finally Figured Out How to Make Web Video PayIt's a quintessential Hollywood moment: a star on a soundstage, the focal point of every person and every piece of equipment in the room. The star on this particular January day is Rosario Dawson, the 29-year-old actress who earned her cred as an Uzi-wielding prostitute in Sin City. She's being filmed against a greenscreen in extreme close-up, highlighting her sculpted cheekbones and olive skin. "We've got this joke in vice," she murmurs in a voice that's uncommonly sultry for a police detective. "Love costs 10 bucks. True love costs 20." In her studded black tunic and high-heeled boots, Dawson is apparently Tinseltown's idea of how to clean up the streets. "She looks like she can kick some ass," observes Brent Friedman, the chief screenwriter, who's watching on a nearby monitor. But even though we're in a Hollywood zip code, this is no film or television shoot. The rented space looks more like an oversize garage than a studio soundstage. Instead of the usual army of grips and gaffers, the production is staffed by a skeleton crew. And the parking lot outside? Barely big enough for 20 cars. All of which can mean only one thing: another Web production. Two years after the success of Lonelygirl15 — the groundbreaking YouTube serial that turned out to be not the DIY diary of a 16-year-old girl but the work of three wannabe auteurs in Beverly Hills — Web video has finally captured Hollywood's imagination. Last year, former Disney chief Michael Eisner launched Prom Queen, a daily 90-second teen drama; Judd Apatow has joined Will Ferrell on Funny or Die, a sort of YouTube for comedy; producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz had a modest success with Quarterlife, a Web show about self-obsessed twentysomethings, only to see it flop on TV. But Gemini Division, the sci-fi serial Dawson is shooting today, will be the first Web series to feature a bona fide Hollywood star. Sure, the YouTube explosion was fueled by amateurs, but it will be showbiz professionals who cash in on Web video. That's because most big corporate advertisers want a safe, predictable environment — not the latest YouTube one-off, no matter how viral. Once the major brands get on board, millions of ad dollars will follow. Which is why when the writers' strike idled most of Hollywood last winter, talent agents fielded calls from clients eager to try their hand. At the same time, the fact that a three-minute clip can be shot for as little as $2,000 means Web video will be more open to ambitious neophytes than television ever was — witness the guys behind Lonelygirl15, who now have a second hit Web series called KateModern and a deal to develop more for CBS. So far, however, this is a gold rush without any gold. Nobody knows how the business is supposed to work — what kind of stories to tell, whether to tell them in 90 seconds or 20 minutes, whether to build a destination site or distribute episodes across the Net, how to generate revenue, how to do it all on a shoestring. The Gemini team is betting they can figure it out. "People ask, 'What's your business model?'" says the director, Stan Rogow, during a lull in the shoot. "And I say, 'This morning's or this afternoon's?' It's only partly a joke." A wiry figure who wears his long silver hair brushed straight back, Rogow is dressed in softly faded jeans and an extravagantly collared white shirt open halfway to the waist, a set of aviator glasses tucked neatly into the V. In an earlier life he was "the king of tweens," the producer who made Lizzie McGuire for Disney and turned Hilary Duff into a star. Gemini Division is the first of eight Web serials he has in the works at Electric Farm Entertainment, the production company he's formed with Friedman, the writer, and Jeff Sagansky, a former copresident of Sony Pictures Entertainment and head of CBS Entertainment before that. Right now they need a distributor, and they've been talking with everyone from NBC Universal to MySpace about putting Gemini Division on their sites. Whoever they partner with would sell advertising and maybe even help fund the production. MySpace isn't offering money up front, but it does sell ads and split the revenue with producers. Eisner partnered with MySpace on Prom Queen, as did Herskovitz with Quarterlife, but Rogow is hoping for a more lucrative arrangement — which is why he has spent half the afternoon squiring around a pair of suits from NBC. The deal he's discussing would put Electric Farm well on its way to recouping the $1.75 million or so it will cost to make the 50 three-minute episodes Rogow plans to shoot. But the deal's not done yet. Meanwhile, Rogow has been talking with Cisco and a handful of other companies about another way to make money: product placement. As a Buck Rogers-style serial set "five minutes in the future," the show presents many possibilities for tech companies. Dawson's smartphone, for instance, is the aperture through which we see the entire series. She talks urgently into the device throughout each episode, sending the feed to someone — we don't know whom — and occasionally holding it up to capture what's going on around her. It's a prominent branding opportunity for any handset maker willing to plunk down the money. Like Prom Queen and Lonelygirl15, Gemini Division is essentially a female first-person confessional — in this case, a confessional about biotech run wild. Dawson plays Anna Diaz, a New York City detective having a crazy fling with a guy who's tall, blond, and ripped. By episode 4, the one they're shooting now, he has spirited her off to Paris for a romantic getaway, but she realizes something isn't right. Like, what's with the orange ring he left around the bathtub? "I really do love Nick," Dawson confides to the camera. "But being a cop, you get cynical. And you learn to trust your gut." For the next scene, two crew members wheel a queen-size bed into place. Justin Hartley, the 6'3" Smallville actor who plays Nick, is lolling on the bed in his boxer shorts, sporting six-pack abs and a bright orange belly button. The script calls for Anna to come out in a sexy black negligee and climb into bed with him. The sound man cues up Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." Everybody laughs. 
Dawson as detective Anna Diaz
Screenshot: Courtesy Electric Farm For Anna, romance has given way to suspicion: first the orange tub ring and now, as she settles reluctantly into Nick's arms, his orange navel. If the camera were to pan a little wider, it would also catch two grips crouching behind the headboard to keep the bed from sliding across the set. Rogow smiles ruefully at the amateurishness of it all. "I think we should keep those guys in the background," he quips. "It's a nice touch." Two years ago,when Lonelygirl15 first showed that a scripted Web-only serial could attract a sizable audience, most people in show business thought of the Web as a promotional vehicle — if they thought of it at all. Then a couple of major players caught the bug. Michael Eisner was one; another was Jeff Sagansky, who was investing in small production companies like the one that makes The Tudors for Showtime. Web video was uncharted territory: no rules, limitless potential. "We're at the vanguard of something that can explode," Sagansky declares a few weeks after the January shoot. A trim 56-year-old, he's seated in his elegantly appointed town house on Manhattan's Upper East Side. "You know TV; it's been around in its present form since Hill Street Blues," the '80s ensemble show that's still the template for most drama series. "But this is all new." Fans of Mad Men, Weeds, and Battlestar Galactica may think television has entered a new golden age, but many in the business see a medium in decline. TV programs used to be made by independent production companies. Now, with few exceptions, a handful of giant media conglomerates own the networks that air the shows, the film studios that make the shows, and the shows themselves. Network suits tell the producers what to do, and when it doesn't work — which is most of the time — they cancel the show. The Web puts power back in the hands of the creators: Producers own their shows and answer only to themselves. If they develop spinoffs for television, videogames, or the movies, they're well positioned to retain control when a property migrates to other media. That's why everyone took note of the deal NBC made last year to air Quarterlife in prime time. For the first time in memory, the producers of a TV show got full ownership and creative control. There's a downside, of course. Top writer-producers in television live like pampered pets, the kind that get caviar for breakfast. To succeed online, they'll have to be as entrepreneurial as anyone in Silicon Valley. Instead of pulling in millions a year, they'll be scrambling for nickels and dimes. No surprise, then, that some of them think of Web video as a sort of farm club for TV: Why spend $2 million to make a half-hour pilot when you can shoot some high-quality Web episodes at $10,000 to $30,000 a pop, post them online to build buzz, string them together to make a series, and then port the whole thing back to television, where the real money is? Quarterlife looked like the perfect prototype. Its episodes even happened to be seven to 10 minutes long, the typical interval between commercial breaks on TV. But while it did OK online, garnering some 6 million views after its November launch, its premiere on NBC drew only 3.9 million viewers — an all-time low for the network in that slot. When it was summarily canceled, Herskovitz was stunned. Not Sagansky. "This is a whole new medium," he says. "To think it's going to fix the old medium is a warped way of looking at things." Not that anyone yet has a recipe for success online. "We know that the Internet is about short-form entertainment," Sagansky says. "And most of it is personally narrated," as Lonelygirl15 was. Other people, Eisner among them, will tell you that Web video isn't about Hollywood stars like Dawson, that this medium is for regular people. But the truth is that nobody really knows what form Web video will eventually take. The technology that has made it possible — broadband Internet connections, more-efficient data compression, ever-cheaper storage and servers, hi-res computer and smartphone screens — could seem ludicrously primitive before long. In 1908, movies were 10 minutes long because that's all you could get on a reel of film, and the actors who appeared in them were anonymous. Movies as we know them were still years away. 
Screenshot: Courtesy Electric Farm
Sometimes even Rosario Dawson wonders if people want to see a Hollywood star in a Web serial. "The thing that's succeeded on the Web — besides, obviously, porn — is people themselves," she says over lunch. She's on a break from shooting the DreamWorks thriller Eagle Eye with Shia LaBeouf; soon she'll start rehearsals for Seven Pounds, a Sony film in which she plays a desperately ill heart patient Will Smith falls in love with. "They're putting up their own stuff — really off the cuff, no money involved. So we're taking a huge risk. But it's exciting to be part of something new. Even if we mess it up, we were the first, you know? That's kind of awesome in itself." But if casting Dawson was a break from the nascent conventions of Web video, the format of Gemini Division is not. It isn't just that this is short-attention-span entertainment. It's that, like Lonelygirl15 and Prom Queen and even such TV shows as Lost and Heroes, Gemini Division is designed to involve the audience in ways that more closely resemble videogames than conventional narrative drama. 
Dawson and director Stan Rogow (far right) on the Gemini Division set.
Photo: Roger Deckker That's no coincidence. A seasoned film and television writer, Friedman left Hollywood three years ago for Electronic Arts, where he wrote the best-selling Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and the soon-to-be-released Tiberium. At EA, he had to relearn scriptwriting, because the conventions of TV don't work in interactive media. In a one-hour drama, he explains, "you put the characters together over some beers and let them bring out the plot. It's exposition disguised as dialog." But games dispense with the entire first act, the part that sets the plot in motion. "When the story begins, you're in-world — you have a gun, all hell is breaking loose, and your job as a player is to stay alive and figure out where you are." Web video gets subjected to that same compression algorithm. "We're starting every episode with Anna on the run," Friedman says. "She's already in the second act — the part where everything goes wrong." But Friedman's ambition is to merge television with videogames in a form of storytelling that engages audience members on multiple levels — and not just with the narrative but with each other. So while Anna dodges "sims" (simulated life-forms, with their telltale orange stigmata) and agents from the mysterioso outfit known as Gemini Division, fans will be able to log on to the show's Web site and get transmissions from Anna's partner in the police department. Users will be recruited as Gemini agents themselves, at which point they can talk with other agents — er, users — by webcam. "I think this is where entertainment is heading," he says. "It's where I want entertainment to head, because that's what I want to experience." Rogow and Friedman first tried this approach to storytelling in an earlier Web effort, an animated serial called Afterworld. Developed just after Lonelygirl15 made such a splash, Afterworld was where they met Rosario Dawson. Dawson is a comics geek, and as a favor to a comics writer she knew who was working on Afterworld, she agreed to do a voice-over for one of the characters. Rogow asked her about doing a video series based on Occult Crimes Taskforce, a comic she had helped create. That didn't happen because a film deal was already in the works. But a couple of months later, Rogow called to say they were developing Gemini Division. It had been written for a male lead, but they were thinking of reworking it for her. They would make her a partner in the production and give her a cut of any profits. Dawson had already signed on to play a military investigations officer in Eagle Eye, and her character in Occult Crimes Taskforce is also a detective. "When Stan told me I'd be playing an officer in Gemini Division, I was like, you know, this is going to seem weird." Even so, she liked the idea. She'd been acting for a dozen years, ever since she was discovered on the stoop of her parents' squat on Manhattan's Lower East Side and cast in Larry Clark's Kids. "Normally at this point it starts to get stagnant," she says. "You're worrying about looking older, are they going to like you anymore. But I'm more going, what new can I do? I'd rather put myself into the fray than sit back and go, well, I played it safe." On a sunny afternoon in March, Rogow pulls his black Porsche SUV to the curb, collects a ticket from the valet, and walks briskly into the Creative Artists Agency building on LA's Avenue of the Stars. Perfectly framed in an enormous glass wall is the Hollywood sign, 8 miles away. Rogow is here to meet with Anita Lawhon, the Cisco executive in charge of entertainment partnerships. This is crunch time for Gemini Division, the weeks when everything — advertising, distribution, financing, production — must come together. On a table in the vast marble reception zone sits this morning's Daily Variety. "Changes to Biz Give Town the Jitters," reads the front-page headline. Today, Rogow is focused on how to get that business model working. It's going well — so well that Herskovitz recently met with his CAA agents to learn how Electric Farm is doing it. Cisco is key. Those Gemini Division agents are going to wield some pretty cool tech, much of it — thanks to a deal brokered by CAA — actual products from Cisco: a video surveillance system that sends an alert when someone penetrates the wrong sector; digital billboards that can be reprogrammed on the fly; TelePresence, a teleconferencing system with life-size video so hi-def it makes virtual meetings seem almost real. In the past few weeks, similar deals have been cut with Acura, Intel, Microsoft, and UPS. "In a cold business sense," Rogow confides, "this show is a self-financing marketing vehicle." Settling into an all-white conference room, Rogow tells Lawhon they think it would be cool to show TelePresence on a private jet. "You think Rosario's at a table on the plane talking to people," he explains, "and we pull back and reveal they're not there." Lawhon isn't sure — after all, TelePresence isn't being marketed for private jets, and the goal here is to show Cisco's products as they're actually used. She'll check. "But if you could look at other insertion opportunities ..." "Like putting it in an office? Absolutely." Rogow is thrilled with Cisco's digital signs, which can be remotely programmed to display anything you want — like a coded message for Anna. "Which is, I think, why you really invented it: for superspies to get secret messages in malls," he quips. "We think that's real cool." He's equally happy with the surveillance system, which can send Anna a digital alert on her smartphone. "But we want to make sure we've got the Cisco logo in a prominent position," Lawhon points out. The days when product placement meant going full frontal on a Coke can are supposed to be over, but the client still has to get something in exchange for its six-figure fee. "That's why I love being able to see the script," she says. "That's great," Rogow replies. "I'll have script material for you next week." Prime Time on the Web
The next day, Friedman is at Electric Farm, in a Santa Monica office park, reworking scripts to integrate the products they've done deals for. There's the Acura TSX, the superspeedy UPS delivery, the search and mapping functions from Microsoft. He's not sure yet what to do with Intel. Maybe slap a powered by intel badge on Dawson's smartphone? "It has to pass the creative smell test," he says, "so we feel we're enhancing the story rather than trying to sell you something." In any case, they'll have to make up a brand for the phone itself: CAA approached several handset manufacturers, but none bit. There's one other way to bring in money: venture capital. Funny or Die was funded by Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley venture firm behind YouTube. VCs like the idea that big Hollywood names can break through the clutter. But VCs also want an exit — a sale or stock offering that will net them the kind of payoff Sequoia got with YouTube. And while many would-be Web producers see venture money as manna from heaven, they haven't yet had to report to a frustrated money guy who doesn't know show business. "There's an old joke," Rogow says, trying to explain why Electric Farm hasn't tried this route. "A filmmaker dies and goes to heaven. Saint Peter greets him at the pearly gates. 'Good news!' he says. 'You can make any movie you want! You can get Beethoven to do the score. You can get Shakespeare to write the script.' The filmmaker gets all excited. 'And who can I have to play the girl?' he asks." Long pause. "'Well,' comes the reply, 'God's got a girlfriend ...'" It's a Saturday afternoon in May. Two weeks earlier, NBC announced the formation of NBC Universal Digital Studio, with Gemini Division and Woke Up Dead, another Web series Electric Farm has in the works, as its first offerings. Now Rogow is back on a soundstage with Dawson — but this time the soundstage is bigger and the operation is far more professional. The last shoot, back in January, was almost too bare-bones to work. The camera's shutter speed was set too slow, causing a motion blur so bad that some scenes needed to be reshot. Worse, Dawson's hair wasn't properly styled — it had big, wispy curls that congealed into unsightly blobs once the green backdrop was pulled away. "Hair turds!" cried Duane Loose, the burly EA veteran who's the show's production designer. Nonetheless, they've put together a couple of episodes. A crew member is playing episode 5 on a computer screen in the corner: Anna Diaz in an abandoned factory in Paris, watching openmouthed as a man in a lab coat inserts a steel rod into Nick's orange navel. Seconds later, a pair of agents bursts in. One gets his arm sliced off by the doc's surgical laser. The other pulls out a weapon of his own and reduces Nick to a boiling puddle of goo. Anna screams: The man she loved is dead — and he wasn't even human! Today they're shooting episode 12. Dawson is on the greenscreen with a tall, well-muscled actor who's wielding the same kind of weapon that killed Nick. Anna is caught in a war between the sims — creatures like Nick — and the seemingly all-powerful Gemini Division, which is bent on eradicating them. Muscle Man plays a Gemini agent who's just puddled a sim that was gripping Anna's throat. Now he's turning away, leaving her as mystified as ever. "I want in," Dawson cries, reaching for his arm — in on Gemini Division, in on why they destroyed Nick, in on whatever the hell is going on. On the sidelines, arms folded across his black Che Guevara T-shirt, Friedman nods approvingly. In fits and starts, the world he's imagined is taking shape before him. Not a game world, not a TV world, but something different: a world viewed through the tiny window of Anna's phone. "That's an intimacy you don't get from television," he says. "And our mantra is, we want to do what television doesn't." Contributing editor Frank Rose (frank_rose@wired.com) wrote about alternate reality games in issue 16.01.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 31 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Julia Allison on her Job In/Security and Going for the Oprah ModelJulia Allison chats with Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson about her recent cover story, Reputation Economics 101 and getting what she wants.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 31 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Playlist: Thumpin' Rmxxology, Reebok's Monopoly Sneakers, Hitachi's Ultrathin HDTV : Somewhere, chart guru Edward Tufte is squirming: This site's homages to pop culture come in the form of perverted infographics. From the map indicating which countries a Flock of Seagulls deem "so far away" (Iran) to a bar graph illustrating the possibilities at the Hotel California (checking out: 100 percent; leaving: 0) and a flowchart for deciding what game console to buy (pivotal question: Do you have any friends?), GraphJam will give you newfound respect for the awesome power of Microsoft Excel. : The closest Chick-fil-A is 45 miles from Wired's offices, so we can't easily enjoy its superlative chicken sandwich. Good thing McDonald's has hatched the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich, a feat of culinary reverse engineering that astonished even staffers from below the Mason-Dixon line with its similarity to the Chick-fil-A original. And there's a Golden Arches right down the street. Yum. : Bust it! Two decades after launching seminal rappers like Young MC, LA label Delicious Vinyl is back with this collection of old-school gems reworked by the likes of Eminem and Peaches — who electrifies Tone-Lôc party anthem "Wild Thing." Not feeling Hot Chip's take on the Pharcyde? Use the included instrumental tracks to make your own rmxx. : All hail Anglo-Franco pop! Having endured the death of both bandmate Mary Hansen and the alt-rock '90s, the reigning royals of postmodern electrolounge return. Eschewing forays into droning avant interludes, Chemical Chords showcases Stereolab at its shortest and sweetest — as the purveyor of pure '60s-tinged bliss. Light up a Gitane, swoon with your sweetheart, and imagine you're drifting among Godard's nouveau stars. : Normally a 47-inch LCD with full 1080p resolution and a 120-Hz refresh rate is thicker than Finnegans Wake. Not this $4,699 supermodel. At 1.5-inches, the UT47X902 is heroin-chic thin, with a video processor that boosts the frame rate from the standard 24 fps to a gorgeous 28 fps. But why does such a beauty have such an ugly moniker? : Truly fit for a player, these '90s-style kicks are sure to be a hot property when they hit stores (and eBay) in late August. Advance to Go, drop $85, and you'll soon be walking on Park Place. : Architect John Lautner's insane engineering, space-age designs, and Los Angeles backdrops have been catnip to filmmakers. Chemosphere, his 1960 flying- saucer house that sprouts out of the Hollywood Hills, played a supporting role in Body Double, while other Lautner homes stole scenes in Diamonds Are Forever and The Big Lebowski. Through October 12, these ingenious buildings get their close-up in this exhibition at LA's Hammer Museum. : The bon mots from Cody, the Oscar-winning writer of Juno, keep coming, this time via Twitter. Her stream of consciousness — "I'm at the Denver airport eating a Pizza Hut grease mattress because I clearly hate myself" and "I went with 'That's a cut!' instead of just 'Cut'; I've always favored the conversational approach" — should tide you over until her next project, The United States of Tara, debuts on Showtime next year. : Kids don't understand you? Send them to film summer school via these reissues of '80s cinematic essentials. Perhaps if they spend a weekend watching Airplane!, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Fatal Attraction (among others), they'll grok your familiarity with jive, nostalgia for "Twist and Shout," and fear of keeping a pet rabbit. Plus: Each disc includes a bonus CD with songs from A-ha and Erasure. Roger, roger. : The Robot Chicken guys got carte blanche from George Lucas to make this 23-minute stop-animation spoof of the Star Wars trilogy. And for good reason: The DVD extras alone are worth the purchase price, with clips of show cocreator Seth Green acting out sketches and countless behind-the-scenes shots of the cast and crew goofing off.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 31 Jul 2008 | 4:00 am Burlesque Chicken CommercialShane Glines found this funny and well-made chicken commercial on YouTube. I was excited to find this rare commercial produced by José Luis Moro's "Estudios Moro". The studio, run by José and his brother Santiago from 1955 through 1970 produced many animated commercials in addition to the animated series The Cantinflas Show and La Familia Telerin. Source: Boing Boing | 31 Jul 2008 | 3:09 am Toshiba's Former CEO to Join IBM Board (PC World)PC World - IBM's board of directors has appointed Taizo Nishimuro, former president and CEO of Toshiba, to serve on the board from later...Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 31 Jul 2008 | 2:50 am BBtv: Tokyo through the eyes of Shibuya shantytown residents (short film)What would Japan look like through the eyes of a drifter camped in a shantytown near one of Tokyo's trendiest zones? Today on Boing Boing tv, we debut Dowa Mondai: Assimilation Issues, an experimental short film by Bob Jaroc which attempts to provide an answer. The director explains: In the run up to the launch of the 2006 av album Greedy Baby, Plaid (Ed Handley) and myself were on tour in Japan. On a day off in Tokyo I visited a small shantytown in Shibuya I had seen from a train the day before, tucked away in a kids playground. My translator Nick Stone and myself introduced ourselves to a friendly group of people and negotiated permission to pry into their lives and film, in exchange for some food/ cigarettes and wine.Link to Boing Boing tv post with discussion thread, more about this short, and downloadable video. Source: Boing Boing | 31 Jul 2008 | 2:22 am Air Force Looks To Laser-Proof Its Weaponsslugo writes "This wired.com article has probably the coolest laser destruction video you have ever seen. The video shows the Israeli and US Air Force working on laser defense systems. The US Air Force is starting to look for ways to laser-proof its bombs and missiles with spray-on coatings, no less. They think everyone is going to figure this laser thing out sometime and need a defense against what they are already very good at — shooting things out of the sky with a laser."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 31 Jul 2008 | 2:03 am How American Youth Will Screw ViacomViacom posts decent enough results, but tucked in there is evidence that youth-oriented networks VH1 and MTV were not carrying their weight. The fundamental problem could be that the youth demo Viacom has hotly chased after for the last couple decades is a bust.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 31 Jul 2008 | 1:00 am Getting Inked for Tux at OSCONOSCON isn't just a gathering for talks on topics like Creating Location-aware Web 2.0 Applications on an Open Source Geospatial Platform and fightin' words from the stage; it's also an excuse for some interesting social gatherings, like this year's Community Choice awards (organized and sponsored by the corporate overlords at SourceForge, as you might recall, and with Slashdot's own special category), at which, among other festive activities, attendees were offered the chance to get open-source-related tattoos. There are shots of some of these up on the SourceForge Community pages, and — with some overlap — even more in this set at Flickr. (My pasty bicep is the one now adorned with a circled head of a happy Tux ala IBM; I was expecting it to hurt more than it actually did.) Anyone with techie tattoos, please disclose below.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 31 Jul 2008 | 12:32 am Yahoo Offers Compensation For Unplayable MusicDrEnter writes "According to this article, Yahoo will offer some compensation after they turn off their DRM servers and Yahoo Music customers' will no longer be able to access their music. The company said Wednesday it is offering coupons on request for people to buy songs again through Yahoo's new partner, RealNetworks Inc.'s Rhapsody. Those songs will be in the MP3 format, free of copy protection. Refunds are available for users who "have serious problems with this arrangement," Yahoo said. Nice to see them step-up and do something, especially without trading one DRM scheme for another."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 30 Jul 2008 | 11:25 pm How to Stop a FightRound one, fight! Unless you're Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris, the only thing to gain out of fighting is a black eye and a sore fist. Sure, two wrongs don't make a right, but how do you keep your friends and enemies from fighting? We take a level-headed approach.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Jul 2008 | 11:15 pm Jim Al-Khalili: While our scientists struggle with ethics, the Islamic world forges aheadJim Al-Khalili: Stem cell researchers are branded by the Catholic church as playing God, but Iran's geneticists are unhindered by doctrineSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Jul 2008 | 11:07 pm Fears of complications with IVF babies dismissed in new studyStatistics show no link between premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight with assisted fertilisationSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Jul 2008 | 11:03 pm Obituary: Richard LowerObituary: Pioneering US surgeon behind human heart transplant operationsSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 30 Jul 2008 | 11:03 pm India's "$10 Laptop" To Cost $100 After Allnarramissic writes "In case you missed it, India's Minister of State for Higher Education yesterday announced the development of a $10 laptop that will target higher education applications. There were no specifications given for the laptop and the rock-bottom price raised questions about government subsidies. Today, the figure was corrected: It's not a $10 laptop; it's a $100 laptop. Still no specs though."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 30 Jul 2008 | 10:22 pm Rebooting Windows: How To Recover From Vista Crashes (TechWeb)TechWeb - InformationWeek - We've pulled together a passel of little-known software backup and repair techniques so you won't have to reinstall Vista from scratch, if it gets trashed or hits a fatal startup error.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Jul 2008 | 10:18 pm Cloud Computing Dream Team (TechWeb)TechWeb - I'm still sorting through the last bits of my OSCON trip notes, but one striking conversation I had was with Byrne Reese of SixApart about people who violate the end-user licensing of for-pay editions of OSS apps. Do we sic the open source cops on them? I'd like to think not.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Jul 2008 | 10:15 pm Sculptures from sheets, towels, and pillows
Mahdis Keshavarz was just on a boat trip in the Middle East. Whenever she returned to her room, the cleaners made amazing sculptures from sheets, towels, and pillows. Click the images to see them larger. (Thanks, Rachel Maguire!) Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2008 | 10:00 pm Esquire: hack our e-paper magazine cover! In October, Esquire will publish its 75th anniversary issue with a cover made from eInk's electronic paper. Over at Boing Boing Gadgets, Joel interviews deputy editor Peter Griffin about the tech and its hackability. (Seen here, not the actual magazine but a BBG mock-up.) Esquire to geeks: hack our e-ink magazine cover (BB Gadgets) Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2008 | 9:37 pm Review of Sun's Free Open Source Virtual Machinegoombah99 writes "After snapping up virtualization company InnoTek at the beginning of the year, Sun has recently released VirtualBox as a fully functional and highly polished free GPL open source x86 Virtual Machine. It can host 32- or 64-bit Linux, Windows XP Vista and 98, OpenSolaris and DOS. It runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix platforms. The download is just 27MB. A review of it on MacWorld, showing HD movies playing inside windows XP on a mac, demonstrates performance visually indistinguishable from VMware. Like its competition, it can run other OSes in rootless, rooted, or seamless modes display modes (where all the applications have their windows mixed at the same time). Each VM instance can only run single core (though I/O is multi-core), and it does not yet support advanced windows graphics libraries however, so some gamers may be disappointed. Slashdot discussed the InnoTek acquisition earlier.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 30 Jul 2008 | 9:33 pm TSA destroys the RepRap's first childThis year's OSCON was treated to a chance to see the first RepRap "progeny." RepRap is a deluxe 3D printer that is capable of printing copies of itself.On the way back, the TSA opened the case it was in and destroyed the printer. On the return journey from OSCON, baggage handling found themselves outclassed. Instead of simply smacking the box around a few times as had happened on the outbound trip, the TSA dismantled the custom hard-case for the RepRap by removing the 16 bolts securing the top panel rather than undoing the 8 bolts marked "Open".Link (Thanks, Steve!) Source: Boing Boing | 30 Jul 2008 | 9:30 pm New YouTube Audio Compression Stymies UploadersGoogle's wildly popular YouTube recently changed something about its audio-compression algorithm, making some newly uploaded music sound truly awful.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Jul 2008 | 9:21 pm Next space tourist spending bulk of fortune to fly (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 30 Jul 2008 | 8:50 pm Dual Boot Not Trusted, Rejected By Vista SP1Alsee writes "Welcome to our first real taste of Trusted Computing: With Vista Enterprise and Vista Ultimate, Service Pack 1 refuses to install on dual boot systems. Trusted Computing is one of the many things that got cut from Vista, but traces of it remain in BitLocker, and that is the problem. The Service Pack patch to your system will invalidate your Trust chain if you are not running the Microsoft-approved Microsoft-trusted boot loader, or if you make other similar unapproved modifications to your system. The Trust chip (the TPM) will then refuse to give you your key to unlock your own hard drive. If you are not running BitLocker then a workaround is available: Switch back to Microsoft's Vista-only boot mode, install the Service Pack, then reapply your dual boot loader. If you are running BitLocker, or if Microsoft resumes implementing Trusted Computing, then you are S.O.L."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 30 Jul 2008 | 8:28 pm Workings of Ancient Calculating Device Decipheredpalegray.net writes "Scientists have discovered new meaning behind the functions of the Antikythera Mechanism, which has been referred to as the oldest known analog computing device. In addition to providing a means to calculate the dates for solar eclipses, the device apparently tracked the four-year cycles of the Olympiad. From the New York Times article: 'Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument's back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 30 Jul 2008 | 7:40 pm British UFO Hacker Gary McKinnon Is Coming to AmericaThe House of Lords shoots down the final appeal of a British hacker who penetrated U.S. military computers looking for a UFO coverup, despite his complaints that he might be sent to Guantanamo.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Jul 2008 | 7:33 pm 'FailWhale' Gives Frustrated Twitterers Something to Smile AboutA symbol of failure turns into a cultural rallying cry for Twitter users.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Jul 2008 | 6:55 pm World's First Computer Displayed Olympic CalendarThe ancient world's most complicated machine, the Antikythera Mechanism, plotted the movements of the stars -- and Greek athletes.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 30 Jul 2008 | 6:53 pm Hidden Van Gogh Double-Painting RevealedNew X-ray tech reveals a hidden portrait beneath a Van Gogh landscape.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2008 | 6:02 pm Seven-Square-Mile Ice Chunk Breaks Off ArcticA massive sheet of ice broke from the north coast of Canada's Ellesmere Island.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2008 | 5:23 pm Blue Sharks Beat the Odds, by Tasting BadThe foul taste of blue shark meat may be the declinig species' saving grace.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2008 | 4:02 pm BLOG: Of News Cycles and Six-Legged DeerWhat does a six-legged deer have to do with earthquakes? Larry O'Hanlon muses.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2008 | 3:41 pm Robot Baby Programmed to CuddleA robotic baby and other devices are designed to appeal to emotion.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2008 | 2:07 pm Did Supercontinents Drive Oxygen?The shaping and breaking of supercontinents may have given life a boost.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2008 | 1:41 pm People Who Live in Town Slim DownA new study finds a direct link between neighborhoods and lower body weight.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 30 Jul 2008 | 12:41 pm Huge Order for Intel OLPC Rival 'Classmate PC'Portugal has placed an order for 500,000 "Classmate PCs," Intel's answer to the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. The single order for Intel's machine nearly matches the sum total of all OLPCs XO orders -- 600,000 through May.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 30 Jul 2008 | 11:02 am GeekDad Podcast 24: Blu-ray Nightmares, Tron and Dangerous PlaygroundsWired.com's GeekDads are back talking about their Blu-ray nightmares, the new Tron movie and whether or not the dangerous playground equipment of yore really was more fun.Source: Wired: Gadgets | 30 Jul 2008 | 10:00 am
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Comment by John M. Asara, Ph.D.
A pair of her bloomers, a chemise and a nightdress went under the hammer at Mackworth in Derby for 13,500 pounds ($27,000).
Like energy, bandwidth is an essential economic input. You can’t run an engine without gas, or a cellphone without bandwidth. Both are also resources controlled by a tight group of producers, whether oil companies and Middle Eastern nations or communications companies like AT&T, Comcast and Vodafone. That’s why, as with energy, we need to develop alternative sources of bandwidth.
