Technology Headlines for August 15, 2008

Forecasters Eye 'Disturbance' Near Puerto Rico - CBS 4

Forecasters Eye 'Disturbance' Near Puerto Rico
CBS 4 - 32 minutes ago
MIAMI (CBS4) ― The National Hurricane Center is checking into an area of disturbed weather near Puerto Rico which could possible be the next named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, but so far the system is nothing more than a mass of disorganized ...
Tropical wave continues to brew, could be depression within 24 hours Palm Beach Post
Storms take aim at Puerto Rico Bradenton Herald
Reuters - WPTV - Reuters UK - WBBH
all 46 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Aug 2008 | 12:27 pm

Dropped calls plague iPhone 3G, and not just in U.S. (USATODAY.com)

USATODAY.com - Spotty wireless broadband connectivity for some of Apple's new iPhones most likely results from a problem with a chipset provided by Infineon Technologies.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Aug 2008 | 12:19 pm

Fliers cheer laptop policy change (USATODAY.com)

USATODAY.com - WASHINGTON - Starting Saturday, some of the nation's airline passengers will not have to remove their laptops at airport checkpoints.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Aug 2008 | 12:19 pm

Treo Pro Briefly Unveiled

Ultraslim New Black Windows Mobile GSM Treo Pro (aka Treo 850) Delivers Most Beautiful & Exciting Palm Smartphone in Years with 3G + WiFi + GPS + Flush Screen & More Following the (sadly) unfounded...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 12:06 pm

Time Warner Cable Box Rental Inspired Antitrust Lawsuit

EmagGeek writes "Matthey Meeds, a real-estate agent, was so irritated about having to pay the monthly rental fee that on Tuesday he filed an antitrust suit against Time Warner Cable and its 84 percent owner, Time Warner Inc. The suit alleges that, by linking the provision of premium cable services to rental of the cable box, the companies have established illegal tying arrangements. 'Time Warner's improper tying and bundling harms competition,' Meeds' lawsuit states. 'Since the class can only rent the cable box directly from Time Warner, manufacturers of cable boxes are foreclosed from renting and/or selling cable boxes directly to members of the class at a lower cost.' I pay Comcast over $25/mo for my two DVRs. I'd love to just be able to buy them or build my own. I can't wait to see how this unfolds."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:43 am

VuPoint Digital Photo Converter

By Andrew Liszewski If you’ve got a shoebox or album full of old photos that you want to digitize, but for some reason don’t want to go to the scanner route, the VuPoint Digital Photo Converter...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:36 am

Digital Ally, Inc. Receives Fifth and Largest Order From West Virginia State Police for 229 DVM-500 In-Car Video Systems

COMPANY ANNOUNCES RECEIPT OF LARGEST SINGLE ORDER FOR DVF-500 DIGITAL VIDEO FLASHLIGHT SYSTEMS OVERLAND PARK, Kan., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Digital Ally, Inc.
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:30 am

DNC Releases New Web Ad: 'Tainted'

Video Highlights McCain's Desperate Decision to Raise Money With Abramoff Crony WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Democratic National Committee today
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:29 am

Making a Film in Your Lunch Break Becomes a Reality

Moviestorm Will Attract a Whole New Generation of Amateur Movie Makers CAMBRIDGE, England, August 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Short Fuze Limited, the award-winning Cambridge...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:20 am

Paymotech SA Announces Launch of the YackieMax International Communications Protocol

Novel Product Offering revolutionizes consumer calling habits FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Paymotech SA (Frankfurt Stock Exchange Symbol: 4PA)...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:05 am

July NPD numbers are here: Once again, PS3 outsells Xbox 360 - CrunchGear

GamePro.com

July NPD numbers are here: Once again, PS3 outsells Xbox 360
CrunchGear - 1 hour ago
By Nicholas Deleon The July NPD numbers have come out, and the PS3 continued its fine June performance, once again topping the Xbox 360 in units sold.
NPD July: Nintendo On Top, Gamers Play NCAA 09 For Xbox 360 eFluxMedia
DS takes gold, Wii silver, PS3 bronze in July NPD GamePro.com
I4U - The Associated Press - Neoseeker - CNET News
all 84 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:03 am

CNET readers share their iPhone 3G stories - CNET News

CNET News

CNET readers share their iPhone 3G stories
CNET News - 1 hour ago
Reception problems with the iPhone 3G are occurring in towns and cities across the US, based on readers' responses this week to CNET News' request for more information about their balky phones.
What's Behind the iPhone 3G Glitches BusinessWeek
Dropped calls plague iPhone 3G, and not just in US USA Today
eFluxMedia - MocoNews - Wall Street Journal - CRN
all 163 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Briefing:

Walt Disney Co. said a former Coca-Cola executive with 20 years of China experience has been appointed head of Hong Kong Disneyland. Andrew Kam has been named managing director of the Hong Kong park, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts said. Originally published by Reuters.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Nigeria Cedes Wetland After Years of Tension BRIEFLY: LAGOS

After fifteen years of political debate and periodic violence, the Nigerian government officially ceded the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon on Thursday, in a ceremony overseen by senior politicians, United Nations officials and a heavy military presence.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Ugandan Civil Society Supports Oil Exploration

Text of report by Gerald Tenywa entitled "Conservationists okay Hoima oil exploration" published by state-owned, mass-circulation Ugandan daily The New Vision website on 15 August Civil society organizations have backed the ongoing exploitation of fossil fuels in western Uganda.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

SEC, Apple's Former Lawyer Settle

By Edward Iwata The former top lawyer for Apple agreed to settle federal charges against her that she helped to fraudulently backdate stock-option grants to Apple CEO Steve Jobs and other Apple executives, regulators said Thursday.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Ex-Apple Executive Fined in Options Case BRIEFING: WASHINGTON

A former general counsel for Apple, Nancy Heinen, has agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle options backdating charges, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday. Heinen also agreed to be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company for five years.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Japan to Send Emergency Flood Aid to Vietnam

Text of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo Tokyo, Aug. 15 Kyodo - Japan decided Friday to provide 18 million yen worth of emergency aid such as tents, blankets and water purifiers to Vietnam, which has been hit by torrential rain and floods, the Foreign Ministry said.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Web Sites and Blogs for Women Bagging Major Ads

By Claire Cain Miller Heather Armstrong's wickedly funny blog about motherhood, Dooce, is more than just an outlet for the creativity and frustrations of a modern mom.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Back-To-School Carnival Sat.

Eight New Holland churches will hold a Back-to-School Carnival Saturday to distribute 250 free backpacks, books and school supplies to children in the Eastern Lancaster County School District. The event, for children in grades K-6, will be held mostly outdoors at St.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Missing Links

By Anne Flippin "N" is one of the stories included in Stephen King's collection "Just After Sunset" that will hit bookstores on Nov. 11. Nishere.com (N is here) is an online 25-episode video series - updated every weekday through Aug. 29 - based on one of the short stories.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Best Bet

Pack up the family Saturday and head to Henderson for a visit to the quaint MonteLago Village and an evening concert by saxophonist Kenny G at Lake Las Vegas. The popular musician, who promises a variety of selections from his award-winning albums, performs at 8 p.m.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Minorities To Be Majority In U.S. By 2050 ; The Number Of Whites In The Nation Will Begin Declining In The 2030S.

Fifty-four percent of America will be minorities by the year 2050, thanks largely to Hispanics, and the nation will be substantially grayer, thanks mainly to aging baby boomers.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Arrive Technologies, Inc. Announces Availability of Thalassa Pseudowire Solutions Platform

ROSEVILLE, Calif., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Arrive Technologies, a supplier of highly integrated silicon solutions for PDH, SONET/SDH and Ethernet interoperability announced today the availability of its FPGA-based Thalassa Pseudowire Emulation Platform.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Esko Aho to Join Nokia on November 1, 2008 - Veli Sundback to Retire at the End of May, 2009

ESPOO, Finland, August 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nokia today announced that Mr. Esko Aho, 54, will join Nokia on November 1, 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

[video] David Kutchinski, CEO of Legacy Technology Holdings, Inc., Discusses Reverse Merger on WallSt.net's 3-Minute Press Show

DENVER, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Legacy Technology Holdings, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: LTHO), today announced that the company's CEO, David Kutchinski, is...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Plexus to Webcast Investor Presentation at Citigroup Technology Conference on September 4, 2008

NEENAH, Wis., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Plexus Corp. (Nasdaq: PLXS), today announced it will webcast its investor relations presentation at the Citigroup...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Zebra Technologies Enters Into Revolving Credit Agreement to Support Company Growth

VERNON HILLS, Ill., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Zebra Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: ZBRA) today announced that it has entered into a five-year, $100 million...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

[video] Larry Olson, President and CEO of Peak Resources Inc. Discusses New Research and Development Agreement on WallSt.net's 3-Minute Press Show

CALGARY, Alberta, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Peak Resources Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: PKRC), today announced that the company's President and CEO, Larry Olson
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Advance Nanotech Reports Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results

Reported revenue in line with expectations, representing a 22% increase over first quarter 2008 NEW YORK, Aug. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Advance Nanotech, Inc. (OTC
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

Diguang International Receives Over $1 million Commercial LED General Lighting Contract in Provincial Capital Nanchang

SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Diguang International Development Co., Ltd. (OTC Bulletin Board: DGNG) ("Diguang"), an emerging,...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld - This was a strange week in tech. How strange? Scientists revealed they've figured out how to bend light beams, but major corporations still can't deliver reliable e-mail, mapping, or high-speed wireless services.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Aug 2008 | 10:00 am

Veteran Bigfoot Bounty Hunter Claims Big Find But Even Believers ... - ABC News

ABC News

Veteran Bigfoot Bounty Hunter Claims Big Find But Even Believers ...
ABC News - 3 hours ago
By KI MAE HEUSSNER Three men have scheduled a press conference this afternoon in Palo Alto, Calif., to share the details surrounding what they claim is their "discovery" of a Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, in northern Georgia two months ago.
Update 1: Bigfoot Evidence To Be Unraveled By Two Georgians eFluxMedia
Two Georgians Say They Have Bigfoot’s Body New York Times
CNET News - Times of the Internet - San Jose Mercury News - dBTechno
all 458 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Aug 2008 | 9:55 am

Celebrity Squares: Amanda Tapping talks about her iPhone

What's your favourite piece of technology?Right now it's my iPhone, which I just got last week. And the only reason it's my favourite gadget I don't have the internet on it, I don't have email or anything...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 9:29 am

YouTube Stands Up To IOC Over Free Tibet Video

Ian Lamont writes "The International Olympic Committee has withdrawn a DCMA takedown notice that targeted a two-minute long YouTube video of a Students for a Free Tibet protest at the Chinese consulate in New York. The video shows protesters gathering outside the building at night and projecting images of the Olympic symbol, 'tank man,' Tibetan riot footage and clips of victims of the Chinese police crackdown in Tibet. After receiving the request, YouTube contacted the IOC and asked if it really planned to pursue a claim. The IOC retracted the notice and the video was reposted within hours. Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society praised YouTube for 'going out of its way to do more than it's required to do under the law to protect free expression.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Aug 2008 | 9:10 am

Japanese shares turn up as exporters, ships gain

Japanese shares ended the week higher, as a stronger dollar lifted exporters and shipping-related issues gained on rising freight rates.
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:55 am

Open Forum: Does It Matter To You If The Lindens Love Your Second Life Content?

When I interviewed Von Johin, the avatar bluesman with a record label deal, he mentioned something I cut for length, but subsequently stuck with me. He said a Linden staffer was a fan of his live in-world...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:06 am

T-Mobile to offer first Android smartphone (Reuters)

Reuters - Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGn.DE) T-Mobile USA will be the first carrier to offer a mobile phone based on Google Inc's Android software, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the company's plans.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am

Custom-Designed Process Treats CBM Produced Water

By Jangbarwala, Juzer A recendy completed plant in the Power River basin in Wyoming uses a new method for treating water produced from coalbed methane (CBM) wells.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am

Deadly Jellyfish on Our Beaches ; Visitors to Seaside Resorts Have Been Put on Alert After Potentially- Deadly Portuguese Man O' War Jellyfish Were Washed Up on Devon Beaches.

Visitors to seaside resorts have been put on alert after potentially-deadly Portuguese Man o' War jellyfish were washed up on Devon beaches. The creatures were found on beaches at Smuggler's Cove, Dawlish, and Salcombe Regis, near Sidmouth.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am

Fishing Report

By Compiled by Mark Taylor mark.taylor@roanoke.com 981-3395 Overview The recent mild weather has certainly made things more comfortable for anglers who want to be on the water during the day.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am

Legal - United States of America, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Appalachian Power Company Project No.: 2210-169 NOTICE OF APPLICATION ACCEPTED FOR FILING, INTENT TO PREPARE AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT, SOLICITING MOTIONS TO INTERVENE AND PROTESTS, READY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS, AND SOLICITING COMMENTS, RECOMMENDATIONS, PRELIMINARY TERMS AND CONDITIONS, AND PRELIMINARY FISHWAY PRESCRIPTIONS (August 7, 2008) Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection.a.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am

Data Lost in Rush to Close Libraries

By Swartz, Nikki Facing massive budget cuts, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2006 decided to close some of its physical research libraries and make the data available online instead.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am

What the Planning Shake-Up Means

The planning changes will give council officers the power to decide on: Householder planning applications Roller shutters and elevation alterations Advertisements Certificates of lawfulness Certificates of appropriate alternative development Listed building consent Conservation area consent Hazardous substance consent Prior approval for house demolitions Prior approval for telephone kiosks Prior approval for agricultural or forestry buildings or operations Requests affecting trees in conservation or preservation areas Hedge removal or retention notices Officers will also have powers to issue a range of planning enforcement notices and initiate legal action.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am

EU Panel: Delete Search Info Sooner

By Swartz, Nikki A European advisory body has determined that there is no reason for search engines to retain search information for longer than six months.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am

New World Tableau: Solange Korobase At The Crucible

"Kiss the Rain", a Tableau taken from Solange's Koinup profile tempts me to explore more. She took the photo, she explains, on a new region called Crucible, which features sheets of rainstorms created...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 7:30 am

Wireless carriers taking longer to answer customer service calls

The average wait time in early 2008 was 4.4 minutes, according to a J.D. Power survey. In 2003, it was 3.3 minutes. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am

Former Apple counsel Nancy Heinen to settle SEC stock-option suit

Heinen agrees to pay $2.2 million in the last civil case resulting from an option-backdating probe. CEO Steve Jobs emerges unscathed. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am

Archaeologists get a glimpse of life in a Sahara Eden

Scientists uncover skeletons thought to be as old as 10,000 years, when monsoon rains created a 'green Sahara.' ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am

Anthrax scientist Bruce Ivins slipped under the radar because of FBI obsession

Records show agents overlooked a series of early clues pointing to Ivins as the source of the 2001 deadly anthrax mailings and that the investigation remained locked on a former Army researcher. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am

Netflix deliveries stuck on pause

The DVD rental service says it should resume shipments today and promises refunds. Netflix Inc.'s DVD queue just...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am

Yahoo names two Icahn candidates to the board

By choosing Frank Biondi Jr. and John Chapple, formerly of Viacom and Nextel Partners, respectively, the Internet company fulfills its promise to settle a proxy fight. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am

Kataka Actuators: Like Stuffing Clowns In A Beetle, Only More Vertical

By David Ponce When we talk about innovation, it’s stuff like this we mean. Danish company Kataka makes some crazy slim linear actuators (for those of you who don’t know what a linear actuator...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 6:36 am

How safe is your area? Met police launch electronic crime mapping trial

The Metropolitan police force has introduced its first trial crime map showing burglary, robbery and vehicle crime for the whole of London.The Met online crime mapping project, which uses data up to the...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 6:36 am

Advanced Analogic Technology: Too Many Excuses, Not Enough Profits

Price of oil slightly lower, markets on the rise at least we're having a little excitement in August. Consistent with our earlier prediction, the staff at tech:stocker don't believe there will be any...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 6:36 am

Nuance offers to buy Zi Corp. for 80 cents a share

Nuance Communications Inc. said it has made an offer to buy Zi Corp. for roughly $40.4 million, or 80 cents a share in cash. That would a 150 percent premium over Zi Corp.'s closing share price of 32 cents...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 6:12 am

iPhone 3G Issues: The Plot Thickens

The iPhone 3Gs problems are a hot topic of discussion these days, with everyone trying to figure out who’s to blame. Is it the fault of the carrier? The software? Or the chips inside the device?...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 6:08 am

BBC's Open Player Claims Not Followed Through

ruphus13 writes "BBC's iPlayer was originally built on Microsoft's DRM-protected technology, and has never really been liked by folks like the FSF. The BBC is trying to play nice, though, recently claiming, 'the BBC has always been a strong advocate and driver of open industry standards. Without these standards, TV and radio broadcasting would simply not function. I believe that the time has come for the BBC to start adopting open standards such as H.264 and AAC for our audio and video services on the web.' This article argues that actions speak louder than words, and this is where the BBC falls short. 'The fact that both AAC and H.264 are encumbered with patent licenses that make their distribution under free licenses problematic flies in the face of this definition. It's good to see a major organization like the BBC switching from closely held secretive codecs to more widespread and documented ones. But it would be even better to see them throw their considerable weight behind some truly open formats.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Aug 2008 | 6:03 am

Why Blogs Need To Be Social

Earlier this week, San Francisco-based web publishing software company Six Apart released the newest version of its flagship product, Moveable Type, and pushed the blogging community into taking the first...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 6:02 am

Confirmed: William Shatner Loves TechCrunch

On May 15 I ordered a personalized autograph on LiveAutographs.com from William Shatner. For $149 I was promised a signed photo with the message I Love TechCrunch along with a video recording of the autograph...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 5:28 am

Cloud Failures Are Serious - Time to Revisit P2P?

Google had a bad week in cloud computing, with serious downtime in Gmail, Blogger and Spreadsheet. Back in July it was Amazon that was embarrassed with their S3 outage. If you measure on total downtime,...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Aug 2008 | 5:10 am

Netflix shipping centers slammed by problems (AP)

AP - Netflix Inc. said Thursday that major technical problems over the past three days have severely limited the number of DVDs it could send out.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Aug 2008 | 5:03 am

Dell Latitude's E-Family Values - Washington Post

Times Online

Dell Latitude's E-Family Values
Washington Post - 8 hours ago
Today Dell unveils its new take on the business notebook with its "E" family of laptops. Trying to merge consumer sex appeal with business-savvy notebook features is no easy task--but that isn't stopping Dell from making the attempt.
Dell courts business nomads with new laptops Computerworld
Dell Updates Its Latitude Business Laptops PC Magazine
CNET News - InformationWeek - NewsFactor Network - Wall Street Journal
all 207 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Aug 2008 | 4:47 am

Legal flap over Defcon talk exposes divide on disclosing security ... - Computerworld

OverTheLimit.info

Legal flap over Defcon talk exposes divide on disclosing security ...
Computerworld - 8 hours ago
By Jaikumar Vijayan August 15, 2008 (Computerworld) A court order put a stop to a planned presentation at the Defcon hackers convention by three MIT students who found security flaws in the electronic ticketing system used by the mass transit authority ...
MIT Students Still Not InThe Clear eFluxMedia
Judge Keeps Gag Order Against MIT Sudents After MBTA Hack dBTechno
Register - Product Reviews - Boston Globe - The Associated Press
all 141 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Aug 2008 | 4:11 am

Review: 'Clone Wars' Returns 'Star Wars' to Its Youthful Roots

By embracing the zippy action and childlike view of good versus evil that informed the George Lucas films that launched the franchise, this animated movie delivers escapist entertainment that's perfect for kids.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am

Gallery: 10 Years of Cuddly, Friendly iMacs

: Photo: Apple

Apple released its first iMac on Aug. 15, 1998. The cute, translucent blue, all-in-one PC was easily the most influential personal computer of the 1990s, heralding a return to simplicity and ease of use and briefly sparking an industrial design fad around clear, colored plastic.

It also marked the return of Steve Jobs as the visionary, design-obsessed leader that Apple desperately needed. Its strong sales reversed Apple's dire mid-1990s financial situation and enabled the company to get back on the road to relevance.

Over the years, the iMac's trendsetting arc has continued, with a total of four distinct models (and a close family member), some of which shipped in a handful of flavors.

Here's a look at the evolution of the iMac: past, present and future.

Left: The iMac wasn't Apple's first PC to feature a display and motherboard integrated into the same case; the original 1984 Macintosh (top center) shared a similar form factor. Apple resurrected its quiet, appliance-like qualities 14 years later.

The Power Mac G3 all-in-one (lower left) was the closest Apple ever came to a beige iMac. Released in early 1998, its specs were similar to the iMac's, but were available only to educational institutions.

The haughty design of the 20th Anniversary Macintosh (1997, lower right), foreshadowed later LCD-display iMacs. With a $7,499 price tag ($10,277 in today's money) and limited-edition status, it stood conceptually opposite the universally accessible iMac.

: Photo: Apple

Released in August 1998, the original "Bondi blue" iMac (its color reportedly named after the waters off an Australian beach) blew beige boxes out of the water. Among its novel technical features, the iMac ditched the then-ubiquitous floppy drive in favor of built-in home networking. It also introduced USB to the masses. But the G3-powered computer's greatest innovation lay in its eye-catching appearance. Apple designer Jonathan Ive took PC industrial design to new heights with the iMac's colorful teardrop case. Amazingly, much of the consumer design world came along for the ride.

: Photo: Apple

Bondi blue wasn't good enough. In 1999, Apple introduced five new color schemes for the iMac: blueberry, strawberry, lime, tangerine and grape.

The next time you see an appliance with a translucent plastic case, or available in multiple candy colors, you can thank Apple. Everything from vacuum cleaners to paper towel dispensers to George Foreman grills stole a page from the iMac's design playbook. Apple has since moved on to new design motifs, but the early iMac's influence still echoes in the industrial design world.

: Photo: Apple

Never content to stand still, Apple continued to cycle through various iMac colors until the end of the G3 line in 2003. Along the way, the iMac gained a few significant external changes. While the original iMac contained a fan, later iMacs were convection-cooled -- making them blessedly silent. Apple also replaced the iMac's tray-loading optical drive with a slot-loading model in 1999.

Seen here are two of Apple's most-whimsical designs (top), called "flower power" and "blue dalmatian" (2001). Stretched across, below, is a line of new colors released in 2000: indigo, ruby, sage, graphite and snow.

: Photo: Apple

After revolutionizing the PC design world with the original iMac, Apple struck again: this time with a PC that bore an uncanny resemblance to a table lamp. The company unveiled the radically novel iMac G4 in 2002. It featured a flat-panel LCD display mounted on an adjustable metal arm, which, in turn, connected to a sturdy base containing the computer's other components. Somehow, the design actually worked, though it was not without controversy.

Tiring of the multicolor iMac parade (by then widely imitated), Apple chose a clean, frosty white color scheme for this new PC. Through its lifetime, the iMac G4 was available in three different display sizes (seen here from left to right): 15-inch, 17-inch and 20-inch.

: Photo: Apple

The iMac G4's flat-panel display bumped the computer's price just beyond the reach of the educational market in which Apple traditionally flourished. Apple's solution was to place the iMac G4's guts into an all-in-one PC with a less-expensive CRT monitor. The result was the eMac ("e" for "education"), a critically acclaimed Mac released in 2002.

The eMac shipped in two slightly different cases: The original 2002 design (left), and a 2003-on version (right) with a milky-white appearance and white speaker grilles. Apple sold the eMac until 2006.

: Photo: Apple

With the long-awaited iMac G5 (2004), Apple turned back the clock to a time before swing-arms and released a monolithic flat-panel PC that mimicked the traditionally white iPod in appearance. It was, by far, Apple's most minimalist computer design to date, and it sold in two display sizes, 17-inch and 20-inch (bottom).

The iMac G5 later included a built-in iSight camera, although that model was indistinguishable from the one you'll see next.

: Photo: Apple

In early 2006, Steve Jobs dropped a bombshell: Apple would be migrating to Intel processors across its entire computer line. The switch was shocking enough without any major exterior design changes, so Apple stuck with what worked: a white enclosure nearly identical to the iMac G5 before it. And unlike the original iMac G5, these models contained built-in iSight cameras above the display.

The iMac Core Duo was available in three display sizes (bottom): 17-inch, 20-inch and the iMac's largest display yet, a monster 24-inch LCD.

: Photo: Apple

As 2007 rolled around, Mac fans speculated on what sort of wild new iMac design Apple would unveil next. Then Apple raised the curtain on the iPhone in June, which quickly stole the spotlight from any potential iMac upgrades.

In August 2007, Apple announced a new iMac design sporting an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a thinner form factor, aluminum and glass construction, and a black and gray color scheme similar to that of the iPhone. It's currently the latest in the iMac line, and it's available only in 20-inch and 24-inch display sizes (bottom).

: Illustration: Nuno Teixeira

What does the future hold for the iMac? Frankly, no one knows but Apple. The company's notorious love of secrecy means that it's left to the imaginations of Apple fans to fill in the gaps. And fill the gaps they do -- many with photorealistic computer renderings of Mac concepts; new ones tend to proliferate just before Apple product announcements every year.

Seen here is a fanciful design dubbed the iView by its creator, Nuno Teixeira. It imagines an iMac with a large curved display that would envelop the user and eliminate the need for disjointed dual-display setups.

Strawberry, tangerine, grape, lime, Bondi Blue -- no, we're not talking about Lifesavers, but rather the iMac's 1999 lineup of G3 computers. Sporting a 15-inch screen and 333MHz processor, the 40-pound boxes of colorful joy were more popular in school computer labs than people's homes.

When the iMac adopted the G4 chip in 2002, it ditched its fruity color scheme for a more widely approved silver-and-white aesthetic, looking something like a sexy desk lamp. The iMac G4's most distinguished feature was its highly adjustable swivel flat screen, allowing you to angle it however you wished.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 15 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am

Aug. 15, 1877: 'Hello. Can You Hear Me Now?'

1877: Thomas Edison suggests using the word hello as a telephone greeting. The idea catches on.

Edison invented a lot of things, for sure, but one thing he didn't invent was the telephone. The brass ring for that one goes to Alexander Graham Bell, although Elisha Gray filed his patent for a similar device the same day. But they never called it Ma Gray, did they?

Edison's contribution to the "improvement in telegraphy" was giving us the salutation now used the world over, in one form or another. Bell's famous first words spoken over what we now call the telephone -- "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you." -- were delivered without any greeting at all.

When he did weigh in on the subject, Bell proposed using "ahoy, ahoy," the age-old seafarer's hail. And, in fact, ahoy was the first greeting used, until Edison suggested hello.

At the time, the phone was conceived of as a business machine that would connect two offices with a permanently open line. Some people toyed with the idea of an alarm bell at each end to alert one office that the other office wanted to speak. On Aug. 15, 1877, Edison wrote to a friend who was setting up a phone system in Pittsburgh: "I don't think we shall need a call bell as Hello! can be heard 10 to 20 feet away. What do you think?"

Contrary to some accounts, Edison did not coin the word. Halloo and variants had been used for ages to urge on hunting hounds and to shout to people at a distance. Edison was tinkering with a prototype phonograph in 1877 and used a shouted halloo! for testing. Early gramophones and telephones alike had pretty low signal-to-noise ratios.

Hello itself turns up in a number of places prior to 1877, including Mark Twain's travelogue, Roughing It, published four years before Bell called Mr. Watson. Earlier references to the word also exist, one dating back to at least 1826.

In any case, hello caught on quickly and entered the dictionary in 1883, and when was the last time you had to look up that spelling?

Source: Various

Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am

Gallery: 10 Years of Cuddly, Friendly iMacs

: Photo: Apple

Over the years, the iMac's trendsetting arc has continued, with a total of four distinct models (and a close family member), some of which shipped in a handful of flavors.

Here's a look at the evolution of the iMac: past, present and future.

: Photo: Apple

Bondi blue wasn't good enough. In 1999, Apple introduced five new color schemes for the iMac: blueberry, strawberry, lime, tangerine and grape.

: Photo: Apple

The iMac G5 later included a built-in iSight camera, although that model was indistinguishable from the one you'll see next.

: Photo: Apple

The iMac Core Duo was available in three display sizes (bottom): 17-inch, 20-inch and the iMac's largest display yet, a monster 24-inch LCD.

: Photo: Apple

: Illustration: Nuno Teixeira

Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am

Debian's Testing Branch Nears Completion

DeviceGuru writes "With Debian Lenny (aka 'testing') poised to displace Etch as the popular Linux distribution's 'stable' branch possibly as soon as next month, blogger Rick Lehrbaum loaded the latest preview (beta 2) of Lenny's KDE CD image onto an available Thinkpad, and took it for a spin. How's it coming along? After detailing a handful of issues — and offering solutions for each (except Bluetooth support) — he concludes: 'Other than the need for a few hacks and fixes, my main complaint with it is its inclusion of way too many of KDE's rich set of applications, such as games, tools, etc.' From the looks of it, looks like Lenny might be the new 'Debian stable' soon!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Aug 2008 | 3:10 am

Nintendo to boost drive in Latin American market (Reuters)

Reuters - Japan's Nintendo plans a more aggressive marketing campaign in Spanish to corner Latin America's growing games market and tap growing appetite for fitness and sports titles.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Aug 2008 | 1:06 am

reCAPTCHA Hard At Work, Rescuing Fading Texts

sciencehabit writes "Computer scientists have developed a program, called reCAPTCHA, which is being used in lieu of CAPTCHA by several sites, to help digitize old books and newspapers. The reCAPTCHA takes entries from old and faded texts that optical scanners and digital-text readers have trouble with. So every time you solve that string of crooked letters, you may actually be helping historians digitally reconstruct a page from the 1908 New York Times." The Science Now story links to the longer and more informative article at Ars Technica. (We last mentioned this program last year — and now it's good to get some sense of how well it's working.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 15 Aug 2008 | 1:05 am

Report: US falling further behind on broadband speeds, reach - Ars Technica

The Tech Herald

Report: US falling further behind on broadband speeds, reach
Ars Technica - 11 hours ago
By John Timmer | Published: August 14, 2008 - 08:00PM CT The latest measure of the state of the US broadband market is now available and, like many other takes on the subject, the picture it paints is a bit depressing.
US broadband speeds continue to lag CNET News
DC Area Gets High Marks for Internet Speeds Washington Post
InformationWeek - TG Daily - TMCnet - Sci-Tech Today
all 88 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Aug 2008 | 1:03 am

Cheats of Strength: 10 Next-Gen Olympic Doping Methods

While the International Olympic Committee is busy trying to catch today's performance enhancers, athletes are already looking for the next big boost that will give them the edge in 2012.

Most of the positive doping tests in Beijing -- and the IOC president estimates there will be as many as 40 -- will likely be for steroids and the blood-boosting hormone erythropoietin, known as EPO.

But the future of doping could get a lot more complicated. Here are some of the most promising -- or threatening, if you're the World Anti-Doping Agency -- candidates for the next Olympics.

Use your genes to grow more muscle

Manipulating genes to block naturally occurring muscle-growth inhibitors could allow athletes to boost their muscle mass. A lot.

In tests on mice, blocking the protein myostatin gave the mice up to 60 percent more lean muscle mass. Even more promising, Johns Hopkins' Se-Jin Lee recently found that overproduction of one myostatin inhibitor pumps the mice up even more: up to 81 percent in females and a whopping 116 percent in males. Results of human clinical trials are pending.

Complicating the picture, particularly for WADA, is a small number of people with naturally inhibited myostatin who will have to be distinguished from the dopers somehow.

Pop a blood-boosting pill

Who wouldn't love a pill that delivers the same record-breaking benefits of synthetic EPO without the hassle of injections or getting caught?

Clinical trials are under way for a pill that tricks the body into thinking blood-oxygen levels have dropped, causing it to produce more red blood cells, thus improving muscle endurance.

When blood-oxygen levels drop, hypoxia-inducible factor, or HIF, kicks in to stimulate red blood cell production. Once oxygen is back to normal, the HIF breaks down and cell formation stops. The drugs, known as HIF stabilizers, stop the breakdown and keep blood production up.

Some suspect athletes may already be using HIF stabilizers, but the health risks are unknown.

Grow more blood vessels

If you don't mind injections directly into your heart and limbs, vascular endothelial growth factor may be for you. VEGF causes new blood vessels to grow, which in theory could move more oxygen and nutrients between muscles, lungs and the heart with less effort. So more effort could be expended on athletic performance. VEGF gene therapy could potentially help patients with heart and arterial diseases form new blood vessels, keeping them alive and avoiding amputation. But it's not a simple hack, and a failed gene-doping test isn't the only risk. Unregulated VEGF-induced vessel growth appears to also promote tumor growth and metastasis.

Feel less pain, get more gain

Athletes know how to suffer. Raise an athlete's pain threshold, and suffering will occur at a higher level of exertion.

Tests on rats suggest that injecting the beta-endorphin gene into spinal fluid through a spinal tap causes the body to release its own painkilling endorphins. Pain signals get blocked before they reach the brain, without the sleepiness and cloudiness associated with morphine and other painkilling opioids.

Raising an athlete's pain threshold may improve performance, but it may also cause them to ignore warnings of overexertion and injury.

Beef up specific muscles

Say you're a cyclist who wants powerful legs but a light upper body so you don't have to haul the extra weight when riding uphill. Or a tennis player who needs a bit more shoulder muscle. Injecting insulin-like growth factor, or IGF-1, into specific muscles sparks those muscles to grow while avoiding the full-body muscle growth usually associated with IGF-1. Physiologist H. Lee Sweeney at the University of Pennsylvania discovered this while looking for a treatment for muscle-wasting that avoids side effects from unwanted growth, such as cancer and heart enlargement. The targeted therapy may also make IGF-1 harder to detect in a doping test. Sweeney estimates that since his research was published, half of his e-mails are from athletes. He has worked with WADA, but others developing similar techniques may not.

Get more muscles, fewer zits

Want the muscle-building benefits of steroids without the testicle-shrinking, moob-growing, acne-popping side effects? That's the promise of selective androgen receptor modulators.

SARMs bind to specific tissues, such as muscle and bone. Unlike some steroids, they don't indiscriminately also bind to prostate, liver and other tissues. And SARMs come in a pill. No needles or skin patches.

These pills could be a boon to people suffering from muscle-wasting diseases and for athletes concerned about health risks associated with steroids. Sound too good to be true? Perhaps: A test to detect SARMs may be ready before the drugs are widely available. WADA won't tell until they catch an athlete.

Fill up with new blood substitutes

With EPO and blood transfusions increasingly detectable, athletes could return to blood substitutes for an extra hit of oxygen. Several athletes reportedly used substitutes in the past, and one cyclist may have almost died as a result.

Some new substitutes could have similar problems. A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association in April criticized blood substitutes such as PolyHeme and Hemopure for causing heart attacks and deaths in test subjects. But there are alternatives. Oxygen Biotherapeutics claims their experimental substitute, Oxycyte, carries oxygen 50 times more efficiently than natural blood without the risks of older substitutes. And Dendritech patented a blood substitute built from 3-D nanoparticles that the company builds in precise oxygen-carrying shapes. At least some blood substitutes may be easy to detect, but there are rumors the test isn't regularly used.

Take a next-gen EPO

At the Tour de France in July, Ricardo Ricco got caught using a new EPO-like blood booster, CERA, recently released by Roche.

Before CERA was on the market, the pharmaceutical giant cooperated with WADA to have a test ready to trap cutting-edge dopers like Ricco, a sign that WADA is catching up to, and perhaps even staying ahead of, dopers.

Or it's a sign that WADA needs help developing tests to detect each EPO variant, a tall order considering EPO and related drugs make up a $12 billion market. There are also dozens of EPO-stimulating agents available or in the works around the world.

Pump up your muscle fiber

Athletes already have more fatigue-resistant muscle fibers than couch potatoes. But new research shows they may be able widen that gap further by boosting levels of the gene responsible for adding new fibers.

Recently, researchers at the Salk Institute in San Diego found that an existing medication, called GW1516, raises the levels of this gene, resulting in a 68 percent endurance improvement in fit mice.

The Salk researchers are working with WADA on a test to detect use of GW1516. But several other drugs are known to manipulate the muscle-fiber genes, and others are believed to do the same. A test to detect this type of gene doping would need to cover a lot of uncharted territory.

Lastly, use mustard?

Athletes turned off by the latest biotech breakthroughs can try this recipe: Strip down and rub mustard oil all over your body.

While exploring the role skin plays in the production of red blood cells, Randy Johnson's team of researchers at UC San Diego found that rubbing mustard oil on mice caused spikes in natural EPO production, and that led to increased red blood cell levels.

It's unclear how much mustard oil a human athlete would need to enhance performance, or how much mustard oil could lead to strokes and heart attacks.

With all the crazy, complicated doping schemes out there could the journey to the top of the podium simply require a trip to the grocery store?

Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am

Discord With Russia a Worry for NASA - Washington Post

Discover Magazine

Discord With Russia a Worry for NASA
Washington Post - 12 hours ago
By Marc Kaufman NASA's ability to send its astronauts to the $100 billion international space station is in danger of becoming a costly casualty of the Russia-Georgia war.
Experts: Reliance on Russia makes NASA weak CNN International
Georgia, Russia Conflict Creates Problems For NASA dBTechno
BetaNews - Register - Space.com - FOXNews
all 28 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Aug 2008 | 12:46 am

Build a Microblog With Django

The concluding tutorial in the six-part Django series shows you how to build your own link- and blog-logging Friendfeed. So, crack your knuckles, dig in and get coding.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Aug 2008 | 12:30 am

BBtv: Klaus Pierre, French-German Action Hero, works out.

Klaus Pierre, a French/German actor-waiter-whatever, aspires against all odds to become America's next great action hero. In today's episode, he heads to the hills above Hollywood, where scrub brush and aspiring starlets bask in the sun, to work out with a really mean personal trainer. Warning: episode contains cucumber ~~masks~~ masques and pushups.

Link to Boing Boing tv blog post, with discussion, downloadable video, and podcast subscribe instructions.

Previous Klaus Pierre episodes on BBtv:

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 11:46 pm

Next 'Harry Potter' film delayed (CNET)

CNET - Hogwarts fans looking for something to do this holiday season will have to settle for the December release of J.K. Rowling's Tales of Beedle the Bard.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Aug 2008 | 11:44 pm

Netflix Woes Mean a Gap In Shipments

Loopback writes "According to this article on ZDNet, it appears that I'm not the only one waiting for my NetFlix movies. It seems they are being bitten in the rear by their home-grown proprietary inventory management system. 'Netflix has been facing shipping delays and outages in its distribution centers for the last two days and is fumbling to find a fix. The tab is roughly $1.8 million to $3.6 million in revenue a day.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Aug 2008 | 11:42 pm

Yahoo selects Biondi, Chapple as new board members (AP)

AP - Yahoo Inc. said Thursday it will add the former chief executives of Viacom and Nextel Partners to its board of directors as part of the company's deal to ward off a proxy fight with billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Aug 2008 | 11:13 pm

Cyberwarfare Escalates Between Georgia, Russia - CRN

Sydney Morning Herald

Cyberwarfare Escalates Between Georgia, Russia
CRN - 13 hours ago
By Stefanie Hoffman, ChannelWeb Following recent attacks on the Georgian Presidential Website, hackers from both Russia and Georgia are further escalating what some have termed an all out cyberwar by hijacking news and popular Websites each other's ...
Cyberattacks on Georgian Web Sites Are Reigniting a Washington Debate Wall Street Journal
Longtime Battle Lines Are Recast In Russia and Georgia's Cyberwar Washington Post
BetaNews - Register - Atlanta Journal Constitution - Fort Worth Star Telegram
all 547 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Aug 2008 | 11:04 pm

Where on earth are these Microsoft patches? - ZDNet

ZDNet

Where on earth are these Microsoft patches?
ZDNet - 14 hours ago
Lost in the shuffle of this month’s Patch Tuesday barrage is the fact that a critical vulnerability in the ever-present Windows Media Player (WMP) was not fixed “because of a last minute quality issue.
Microsoft Releases 11 Updates for Patch Tuesday, 6 Critical CRN
Microsoft issues massive security update for Windows, Office Computerworld
InformationWeek - Washington Post - TechNewsWorld - eWeek
all 105 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Aug 2008 | 10:47 pm

Using Photographs To Enhance Videos

seussman71 writes with a link to some very interesting research out of the University of Washington that employs "a method of using high quality photographs to enhance a video taken of the same subject. The project page gives a good overview of what they are doing and the video on the page gives some really nice examples of how their technology works. Hopefully someone can take the technology and run with it, but one thing's for sure: this could make amateur video-making look even better than it does now." And if adding mustaches would improve your opinion of the people in amateur videos, check out the unwrap-mosaics technique from Microsoft Research.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Aug 2008 | 10:40 pm

Old IBM Backing Up Growth-Stock Pledge (Investor's Business Daily)

Investor's Business Daily - After 96 years and with more than $100 billion in sales this year, IBM wouldn't be considered a growth stock by some investors. They'd be wrong, say IBM executives -- and the numbers of late.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Aug 2008 | 10:36 pm

Court says copyrights apply even for free software (AP)

AP - In a crucial win for the free software movement, a federal appeals court has ruled that even software developers who give away the programming code for their works can sue for copyright infringement if someone misappropriates that material.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Aug 2008 | 10:27 pm

What Will Linux Be Capable Of, 3 Years Down the Road?

An anonymous reader writes "In a prediction of the open-source future, InfoWeek speculates on What Linux Will Look Like In 2012. The most outlandish scenario foresees Linux forsaking its free usage model to embrace more paid distros where you get free Linux along with (much-needed) licenses to use patent-restricted codecs. Also predicted is an advance for the desktop based on — surprise — good acceptance for KDE 4. Finally, Linux is seen as making its biggest imprint not on the PC, but on mobile devices, eventually powering 40 million smartphones and netbooks. Do you agree? And what do you see for Linux in 4 years?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Aug 2008 | 9:47 pm

30% of Americans Want "Balanced" Blogging

Cutie Pi writes "In a recent Rasmussen poll looking at the public's attitudes toward a possible revival of the fairness doctrine by the Democrats, a surprisingly large percentage of those polled seek fairness doctrine mandates (originally intended for public airwaves) to cover the Internet as well. It is encouraging that a minority of people feel that way, but Democrats say 'hands-off the Internet ... by a far smaller margin than Republicans and unaffiliated voters. Democrats oppose government-mandated balance on the Internet by a 48% to 37% margin. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Republicans reject government involvement in Internet content along with 67% of unaffiliated voters.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Aug 2008 | 9:01 pm

Farting preacher back on YouTube

After an inexcusably long absence from YouTube, the farting preacher is back. (Thanks, Coop!)

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:59 pm

Acrylic ribcage necklace

Etsy seller UntamedMenagerie has a wide variety of intricately cut acrylic jewelry, but I'm best fond of this ribcage, entitled "Thoracic." Thoracic (Thanks, Alice!)

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:52 pm

'ITunes Tax' Back From the Dead in California

The proposal for a so-called "iTunes tax" in California was widely criticized and promptly shot down this spring. So why is it back on the table? One state assemblyman reintroduced a bill that would levy an additional tax on digital download purchases, potentially driving more paying customers to use file-sharing sites.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:40 pm

Toaster for your PC

CrazyPC's latest 5.25" drive-bay gizmo is a toaster for your PC. No more suffering with the indignity of raw bread, nor the insufferable pain of going to the kitchen. Um, might wanna be sure your heatsink is below it, and that your fan is up to snuff. Or invest in water-cooling. CrazyPC 5.25 Inch Bay Toaster

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:34 pm

Bike helmets that look like hats

Yakkay's bike-helmets look like hats -- just slip a cover on (they come in beanie, sunhat, peaked cap and a couple other varieties, and in many colors) and pedal your way to sartorial splendour. Yakkay (via A Whole Lotta Nothing)

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:30 pm

Ted Chiang short story in StarShipSofa's Aural Delights podcast #37

I'm a devoted listener of StarShipSofa's Aural Delights science fiction podcast. The most recent episode (No. 37) has a short story by Ted Chiang called "What’s Expected Of Us," and I think it's comparable to the work of Jorge Luis Borges.

"What’s Expected Of Us" is about what happens after the introduction of a little toy called The Predictor. It looks like a car-door remote. It has one button and one LED. It does one thing, and one thing only: without fail, its LED flashes precisely one second before you push the button.

Chiang's exploration of the consequences of such a gadget packs the same kind of philosophical wallop that makes The Mind's I (Hofstadter and Dennett) one of the most mind-altering books I've ever read.

Cory gave me a copy of Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others, a thought-provoking collection of short fiction.

Starship Sofa Aural Delights

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:27 pm

Every New Car Will Be a Hybrid By 2020

The Toyota Prius is just the beginning. Every car will have a hybrid drivetrain within 12 years, and it will talk to other cars and the road to make you a safer, happier driver.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:15 pm

Slashdot's Disagree Mail

I am responsible for reading most of the help requests sent to Slashdot. Most of the mail I get in a day is what you would expect, comments and concerns about postings, user accounts and Slashdot itself. There are a very special group however that get passed around the office due to the inordinate level of anger, lack of understanding and just plain weirdness they possess. Through the years I've collected many and still get such gems on a regular basis. We thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite rants, ramblings and ruminations with the rest of you. I give to you the first of many installments of Slashdot's disagree mail. The names have been changed to protect the idiot — hit the link below to drink it in.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:11 pm

No Keys? No Worries! How to Hot-Wire Your Car

Did your key break off in the ignition? Maybe the kids flushed your keys down the toilet as a prank? Whatever the trauma, you'll never be stranded again if you learn how to hot-wire your ride. It's risky, and you'll want to keep your registration nearby in case the cops show up, but at least you'll have your wheels back.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:10 pm

Ocean Dead Zones Going Global

Like a disease, low-oxygen "dead zones" are spreading in the world's oceans.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Aug 2008 | 8:00 pm

New Jordan Crane prints

Jordan Crane, one of my favorite illustrators, has just posted two new prints. He says, "They're both a little more extravagant than usual, 6 and 7 color instead of the usual 3 or 4." The boat and sea-monster, shown here, is just perfect. A Bike and a Boat

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 7:53 pm

Google Reader Lets You Pick Your Friends, Closes the Gap With FriendFeed

A new feature in Google Reader lets you choose which of your friends get to see your shared RSS items. With this enhancement, Google's service becomes more than just an RSS reader, as it more closely competes with FriendFeed and other popular "lifestream" web apps.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Aug 2008 | 7:30 pm

Feud Over JavaScript's Future Ends, New Proposals Push It Forward

Several of the web's heavyweights -- Apple, Mozilla, Microsoft, Yahoo and Google among them -- have been debating which direction to take ECMAScript, the programming language which serves as the basis for JavaScript and powers much of the interactivity on the web. The group has come to an agreement and started a new initiative called the Harmony Project to further enhance the language.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Aug 2008 | 7:15 pm

Man jumps on eggs without breaking them

There are many things to like in this 1974 BBC news segment about a gentleman jumping on eggs. (via Arbroath)

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 6:30 pm

Doll houses covered in dust

Artist Maria A Lopez created her "dust houses" for her Masters in art in Philadelphia -- cardboard dolls' houses covered in vacuum cleaner dust.

Childhood memories mixed with the stories of others gave context to the project. Houses that represent the "American dream". Generations that lived and inhabited the space but only their dust is left to see. Dust as a witness of the living. Only memory.
The pieces are doll houses covered with vacuum cleaner dust. The architecture of the houses is carefully selected to match them with familiar urban landscapes.

dust houses (via Make)

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 6:03 pm

The robot’s biological brain is made up of cultured neurons which are placed onto a multi electrode array (MEA). The MEA is a dish with approximately 60 electrodes which pick up the electrical signals generated by the cells. This is then used to drive the movement of the robot. Every time the robot nears an object, signals are directed to stimulate the brain by means of the electrodes. In response, the brain’s output is used to drive the wheels of the robot, left and right, so that it moves around in an attempt to avoid hitting objects. The robot has no additional control from a human or a computer, its sole means of control is from its own brain.

A robot with a biological brain

Source: Boing Boing | 14 Aug 2008 | 5:56 pm

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