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Daily Top 20 - Superstar Lingerie, Stand Up Funerals, Katy Perry and Quirky Photography (CLUSTER)(TrendHunter.com) Todays top 20 ranges from same-sex wedding cards to a viral regular, Katy Perry, responding to parental criticism. Katy Perry also happens to be the news of the day, largely because...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 4:17 pm Olympic Horse Doping - Norway To Lose Olympic Bronze Equestrian Medal?(TrendHunter.com) Several news reports are emerging after four horses in equestrian events were tested positive for doping. The shocker is the Norwegian team pictured now stands to lose their bronze...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 4:00 pm Hollywood Saints - Megan Fox as Mother Teresa (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Actress Megan Fox plays a very attractive and sexy Mother Teresa in the new movie Teresa: The Making of a Saint. Actually, Megan Foxs character in the movie How To Lose Friends And...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 3:40 pm Reviving Olympic Sports - NBC Stalks Michael Phelps With New Championships Coverage (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The historic performance of Michael Phelps in the Beijing Olympic 2008 Games in China has helped NBC to record ratings. Not wanting to wait 4 more years to ride on Michael Phelpss...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 3:00 pm International Text Messaging Approved in BurmaIt has been reported that mobile phone users in the reclusive country of Burma (Myanmar) can now send SMSs overseas, but only via a government approved website. International SMSs direct from mobile...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:27 pm Red Hat, Fedora Servers CompromisedAn anonymous reader writes "In an email sent to the fedora-announce mailing list, it has been revealed that both Fedora and Red Hat servers have been compromised. As a result Fedora is changing their package signing key. Red Hat has released a security advisory and a script to detect potentially compromised openssh packages."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:04 pm Aceto Corporation Schedules Fiscal 2008 Fourth Quarter Financial Results News Release and Conference CallLAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., Aug.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm Growth ValuesBy ANN BROWN Envision Utah is the standard-bearer for regional planning for growth. It is a model to which our regional community could look for ideas and ideals to assemble our growth picture.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm Pier Angling and the Living is Easy This Week Catch of the Week Catch of the Week Catch of the WeekBy DAMON TATUMDAMON TATEM BEACH, PIER AND BRIDGE FISHING Corolla to Coquina Beach Pier anglers along the northern beaches of the Outer Banks should have good luck this week catching a wide variety of small fish and possibly a few big ones.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm MormonTimes.Com: What's It Like Inside a Mormon Chapel?By From LDS News Services SALT LAKE CITY -- Most first-time visitors to a Mormon church building comment on the number of rooms. Many expect to find one large interior space, such as in many other Christian denominations buildings of worship.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm Police Say Stolen Grader, Loader Found in GarageSPRINGVILLE -- Investigators say they found a stolen road grader and loader parked inside a man's garage. Felony charges are pending against the 37-year-old Springville man after $235,000 worth of equipment was recovered, according to the Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm Peevish About A1 StoriesI am not only insulted but angry that you would publish the headline "LDS see jump in aid needs." Aren't there plenty of other people in other religions who are seeking new jobs, looking for more food storage and trying to get ready for an uncertain future? The other article on the front page is how great Obama is doing here.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm Three Polygamist Sect Members IndictedA Texas grand jury indicted three more people belonging to a polygamist sect's ranch that authorities raided in April, sheriff's deputies said.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm Gas Pricers 'Hosing' UtahnsGas prices in Utah for unleaded on Aug. 16 ranged from $4.03 to $4.06 for unleaded. On the same day, we traveled to Greeley, Colo., where unleaded was $3.79. In Rawlings it was $3.67.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm 3 More Indicted in Texas FLDS ProbeBy Ben Winslow Deseret News ELDORADO, Texas -- One by one, the women of the Fundamentalist LDS Church were called before the grand jury to testify in secret about allegations of crimes within the Utah-based polygamous sect.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm Big Hole Raises Land Value?I guess the reason my property value went up so much is because the big hole in Sugar House is going to be a scenic attraction -- like the big hole on the west side of the valley. From the perspective of a geologist, Bingham Copper, we love you. Bruce P.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:00 pm NASA destroys rocket after failed launch (AP)AP - NASA says it destroyed an unmanned suborbital rocket shortly after a failed launch early this morning from an island off the Virginia coast.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:46 pm 'Iceman' Oetzi's Clothes Suggest Shepherd LifeThe world's oldest intact mummy was not a hunter-gatherer, research shows.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:41 pm AT&T Finds Its Inner Geek, Launches In-Home Services - CRN
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:41 pm Heavy Rain Triggers Destructive TornadoesResearch shows heavy rain is key during the forming of tornadoes.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:38 pm Nintendo Wii Slammed With Copyright Suit - DailyTech
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:36 pm Verizon, Google close to mobile search deal: report (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:22 pm US scientists challenge UK over coal-fired power stationsThe British government risks scuppering a global deal to cut emissions if it presses ahead with a new generation of dirty coal power, says a powerful coalition of US scientists and environmentalistsSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:20 pm Amazon introduces raw block storage - Inquirer
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:17 pm Intel Claims an Advance In Wireless PowerMany readers are sending in coverage of a demo at Intel's developer forum of a wirelessly powered 60-watt bulb. The NYTimes gives background on Intel's improvement to the 'wireless resonant energy link' technology pioneered at MIT, where researchers achieved 50% efficiency of power transmitted several meters via magnetic fields. Intel reached 75% efficiency. Now they just have to make those coils a lot smaller.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:17 pm Tibet album may have spurred China iTunes block - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:11 pm Video: New Contactless Payment Technology Showcased at Democratic National ConventionFirst Data Gives Attendees a Glimpse into the Future of Paying 'On the Go' DENVER, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- During this year's Democratic National Convention...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:00 pm Mycelium RunningMushrooms as solution. Fungi as ninja warriors. That's what this spirited, hyperkinetic book offers. Mushrooms as solutions to pollution (mycological remediation), fungi as a soil supplements...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:00 pm Lockheed Martin Interruption Technology Makes Debut on USS SterettCHERRY HILL, N.J., Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT) Human Alerting and Interruption Logistics-Surface Ship (HAIL-SS) system has successfully...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:00 pm U.S. News Media Group Announces America's Best Colleges: Harvard, Amherst, and Williams Top 2009 Lists- '09 edition features new rankings of Up-and-Coming Schools, Guidance Counselor Picks, and an interactive student center on USNews.com - WASHINGTON, Aug. 22...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:00 pm Verizon, Google Close To Mobile Search DealAccording to the WSJ, Verizon is close to an agreement with Google on a wide-ranging partnership, in what could be a much-needed jolt for the anemic mobile search business. "... The deal under discussion,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:59 pm Vista Partners Updates Coverage on Orbit International Corp. (NASDAQ: ORBT) $8.80 Target PriceLOS ANGELES, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Vista Partners announced today that it has updated its coverage on Orbit International Corp. (Nasdaq: ORBT) following the release of...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:45 pm iTunes blocked in China; Tibet album suspected (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:42 pm SRS Labs to Present at the Kaufman Bros. 11th Annual Investor ConferenceSANTA ANA, Calif., Aug. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SRS Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRSL), the industry leader in surround sound, audio and voice technologies, has been invited...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:35 pm Quote of the Week: On MultitaskingMy quote of the week comes from a comment by Eideteker in this Metafilter thread on multitasking: Multitasking is the art of distracting yourself from two things you’d rather not be doing by...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:33 pm Motorola Releases Next Gen Push-To-Talk on CDMA 1x EVDO Rev ANext Generation Push-To-Talk over Cellular leverages EVDO Rev A to improve call setup performance for discriminating users ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill., Aug. 22...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:30 pm Polish cell carrier stocks iPhone lines with actors - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:27 pm Firefox SSL-Certificate Debate Rages OnBobB-nw points out the ever more raucous debate over the way Firefox 3 handles self-signed certificates. The scary browser warnings have affected a number of legitimate sites (such as Google AdWords and LinkedIn) that didn't renew certs in time. Lauren Weinstein loudly called attention to the problem early in July. "If you visit a website with either an expired or a self-signed SSL certificate, Firefox 3 will not show that page at all. Instead it will display an error message... To get past this error page, users have to go through four different steps before they can access the website, which from a usability standpoint is far from ideal. This way of handling websites with expired or self-signed SSL certificates is bound to scare away a lot of inexperienced users, no matter how legitimate the website is."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:27 pm Intel touts progress toward intelligent computers - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:26 pm Uniform(ity) & Digital Dress CodesJan Chipchase is back in Japan where he lives and has a post on future perfect on what looks like the Ginza business men's dress code: "Visitors to Japan wanting to witness something a little more dense-urban...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:20 pm Crush of users puts Photosynth offline (USATODAY.com)USATODAY.com - Microsoft's new digital photo-sharing site spent most of its first day offline as its servers strained to handle a flood of traffic.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:19 pm AT&T offers in-home tech assistance (USATODAY.com)USATODAY.com - AT&T, taking aim at Best Buy's Geek Squad and other tech services, has launched a 50-state in-home support service for computers, TVs, broadband, wireless and more.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:19 pm Integra Telecom Taps Tollgrade's DigiTest(R) ICE(TM) Test Technology for System Wide DeploymentPITTSBURGH, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Integra Telecom Inc., a facilities-based, integrated communications carrier for business, has selected Tollgrade...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:19 pm The iPhone and RussiaInteresting. According to MacWorld, with the exception of China - where Apple is in ongoing negotiations, Russia remains the largest country in the world without an iPhone distribution deal - so far. But...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:18 pm UK gov't loses 4 million citizens' personal infoAh, Britain: the UK government lost four million citizens' person information last year and they're getting worse, not better. Of course, as soon as they force us all to carry biometric cards that link and log all our personal information, this problem will surely be solved? After all the answer to the difficulty of managing data is to just shovel more data in the hopper, by the shedload, and make sure that the kind of data grows ever-more sensitive and important. Right? Right?The U.K. government has lost the personal information of up to four million citizens in one year alone... And the trend has not stopped - in the latest revelation, HM Revenue Customs, which infamously lost the details of 25 million child benefits claimants last November on two unencrypted discs, experienced 1,993 data breaches between 1 October last year and 24 June.UK gov't loses personal data on 4M people in one year (via /.) Source: Boing Boing | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:11 pm Carbs kill cells that regulate appetiteCarbohydrates don't just screw up your blood-sugar: they release free radicals that kill appetite-suppressing cells. The research is from a Nature article by Dr Zane Andrews, a neuroendocrinologist with Monash University's Department of Physiology."The more carbs and sugars you eat, the more your appetite-control cells are damaged, and potentially you consume more," Dr Andrews said.Killer Carbs: Scientist Finds Key To Overeating As We Age Source: Boing Boing | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:07 pm Zoe's Tale, an Old Man's War novel for young adults by John ScalziA good week for young adult science fiction! John Scalzi's long-awaited debut YA novel, Zoe's Tale, has just hit shelves. This is a young-adult story in the popular and thrilling Old Man's War universe, and it's got all the heart and smarts I've come to expect from Scalzi. Run, don't walk, and get another copy for your kids while you're at it!Zoe's Tale
See also: Source: Boing Boing | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:05 pm Palo Alto Software Announces Marketing Plan Pro Powered by Duct Tape MarketingThe fastest, easiest way to create a marketing plan - is new for 2008 enriched by Duct Tape Marketing. EUGENE, Ore., Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Palo Alto Software (Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:00 pm CCID Consulting: Sales Volume of China's MFPs Reaches 523,100 Sets in 2008Q2, Down 7.8% over 2008Q1BEIJING, Aug. 22 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- CCID Consulting, China's leading research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, and the first Chinese consulting...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:00 pm Team Detroit Continues to Diversify Client Roster Through New Business WinsDEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Team Detroit has been named agency of record for Compuware Corporation. Effective August 2008, Team Detroit assumed creative,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:00 pm Tamil pulp fiction anthology
Sudarshan sez, "The Tamil language, widely spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu in south India, has a large body of pulp fiction. But it hasn't been available to non-Tamil speakers, until now. A new publishing house, Blaft translated a bunch of these stories and published an representative anthology of the stuff. I loved the book myself when I read it (I raved about it on my blog). The book has gone on to be one of the big successes of the year in India, and they're thinking of bringing out a sequel, and similar anthologies for pulp in other languages.
"
The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction
(Thanks, Sudarshan!)
Source: Boing Boing | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:59 am Slim Gaillard's Vout dictionary: jazz hipster argot from the 30s Sean O sez, "Slim Gaillard was a jazz musician/vocalist popular during the late-30s/early-50s. He popularized a 'Hipster's Argot' called 'Vout' which is present in lots of his recordings. These scans are from a promotional leaflet that compile the various words of Slim's dialect. So don't be a bringer-down and get mell-o-roonie, gate." That's strictly solid jack, let me lay a couple gas-meters on you. A babadiy be a babidy ba a babbidy boobie.
If you haven't heard Slim Gaillard's music (as heard in Jack Kerouac's On the Road, no less), go get some and have your lid flipped
Vout-O-Reenee Dictionary
(Thanks, Sean O!) Source: Boing Boing | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:57 am Are images of the early Mickey Mouse still copyrighted?The LA Times's Joseph Menn has a great, well-researched feature article on the history of the copyright for the image of Mickey Mouse as portrayed in the earliest Disney cartoons -- and the theory that Disney made mistakes early on with its copyright registration, placing images of that specific Mickey (not the Mickey we know today) in the public domain. Prominent legal scholars like Peter Jaszi agree, but who will shell out the millions in legal fees to prove it? After all, the company's already threatened legal action against law-students who publish papers investigating the question!Disney's rights to young Mickey Mouse may be wrong (Thanks, Xeni!) Source: Boing Boing | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:56 am Apple's MobileMe plays into hands of spammers - Register
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:48 am MacJournal adds three-pane view (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - Mariner Software on Thursday announced that it is shipping MacJournal 3.1, a new version of it journal and blogging software for Mac OS X. A free update for registered users, MacJournal costs $39.95.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:45 am Hands-on Look At USB 3.0, Spec Details Revealednotdagreatbrain writes "Maximum PC dug up some new information about USB 3.0, got their hands on the new connectors, and even took a look inside the new cables. They learned several new details about the next-gen version of the ubiquitous interface. USB Superspeed will be backward compatible with USB 2.0. The maximum speed of the new spec is 4.8Gbps, which is ten times faster than hi-speed. Five new wires are bundled in the cable, four of them used for data transfer (bi-directional transfer is now supported). More power will also be funneled through the line, so you can charge more devices, faster. The wireless USB is also getting upgraded to version 1.1, and will include ultra-wide band frequency support and Near Field Communication for near-instant swipe-based syncing."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:41 am iTunes Blocked in China; Tibet Album SuspectedItunes Customers in China were unable to download songs this week and an activist group said Beijing was trying to block access to a new Tibet-themed album, "Songs for Tibet," with music by Sting, Alanis Morissette, Garbage and others, and a 15-minute talk by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:36 am Unboxing video and shots of the new Palm Treo Pro - ZDNet
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:35 am 'Eternal Sunshine' director said to be behind Microsoft Seinfeld ... - Computerworld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:23 am For Iran the sky isn't the limit - Plans to send man to space by 2018 - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:01 am Intel Makes Headway on Wireless RechargingBy John Markoff Intel has made progress in a technology that could lead to the wireless recharging of gadgets and the end of the power-cord spaghetti behind electronic devices.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am Thai PM on Three-Day Visit to Japan From 2 SeptemberText of report in English by Japan's largest news agency Kyodo Tokyo, 22 August: Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej will visit Japan for three days from 2 September to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am New Playstation Can Double As PhoneThe consumer electronics giant Sony has announced a new version of its Playstation Portable handheld games console that can be used as a telephone, to go on sale in Europe and the United States in mid- October.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am Small Talk Yeller Bellies Singer Talks of True CountryBy Jason Bracelin By JASON BRACELIN REVIEW-JOURNAL The Yeller Bellies' hellacious, 100-proof foot stomp is more fun than an open bar. Well, almost. Singer/mandolinist Rob "Yeller" Bell sounds off on true country and the best places in Vegas to get loaded.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am Announcing BlinkWeb: The Free Website Builder As Not Seen on TechCrunch -- YetCan a free web site really make money? Until recently, the answer was "not likely." Brad Callen of BlinkWeb.com chose to pioneer a different outcome. So eight months of development and 1,925 programming hours later, free website builder BlinkWeb was born.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am Intel Unveils Consumer Electronics SoCIntel has introduced a purpose-built system on chip for internet-connected consumer electronics products such as optical media players, connected CE devices, advanced cable set-top boxes, and digital TVs.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am This Essential Report on Global Internet Service Providers is Out NowResearch and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/58d621/global_internet_se) has announced the addition of the "Global Internet Service Providers" report to their offering.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am Credit Crunch Survival Guide: Out and About on a BudgetBy Alice Wyllie EATING AND DRINKING Eating out regularly can quickly dent your bank account, so look for pre-theatre menus or two-for-one and early-bird deals.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am AT& T Offers in-Home Tech AssistanceBy Leslie Cauley AT&T, taking aim at Best Buy's Geek Squad and other tech services, has launched a 50-state in-home support service for computers, TVs, broadband, wireless and more. Prices start at just $69 -- and you don't have to be an AT&T customer to use the service.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 11:00 am Face transplant patients happy with the resultsDespite episodes of immune rejection, the second and third patients ever to receive the pioneering surgery say their lives have improved enormously as a resultSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 10:59 am Oracle's Ellison grabs top spot on best-paid list (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Aug 2008 | 9:41 am UK Gov't Lost Personal Data On 4M People In One YearAn anonymous reader writes "The U.K. government has lost the personal information of up to four million citizens in one year alone. The astonishing figures, calculated by the BBC, added up as Whitehall departments slowly released their annual reports for the year to April. And the trend has not stopped — in the latest revelation, HM Revenue Customs, which infamously lost the details of 25 million child benefits claimants last November on two unencrypted discs, experienced 1,993 data breaches between 1 October last year and 24 June." (More below.)Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Aug 2008 | 8:36 am IBM to Purchase Ilog SA for 2.11 Times RevenueBy Anonymous The Deal: International Business Machines has agreed to acquire Ilog SA, a French company, for 215 million euros ($340 million). IBM has agreed to pay ten euros for each ordinary share of Ilog and the US dollar equivalent for each Ilog American Depository Share.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Aug 2008 | 8:00 am Neal Stephenson's new novel, Anathem: sneak peek at glossary
Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon, The Baroque Cycle) has a new novel coming out in just a couple weeks -- Anathem. Some of us here at Boing Boing have been following this one with much obsession. Here's a sneak copy of an abridged glossary of neologisms and language-bending goodies from the book. My favorite Stephensonism here is "bulshytt," which doesn't mean exactly what you think it might. PDF Link to preview glossary for Neal Stephenson's Anathem. Source: Boing Boing | 22 Aug 2008 | 7:51 am Philip Geoffrey Saffman, 77; Caltech professor, leading expert on vortex dynamicsPhilip Geoffrey Saffman, the former Theodore von Karman Professor of Applied Mathematics and Aeronautics at Caltech and a leading expert on vortex dynamics -- the study of how liquids and gases of varying...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am FDA approves irradiating spinach, lettuce to kill germsThe FDA says spinach and lettuce may be treated to kill germs. Consumers worried about salad safety may soon be...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am Undecided voter? There may be no such thingResearchers find that many people who think they are uncertain have unconsciously made up their minds based on deep-seated beliefs. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am California brothers forfeit luxury cars over get-rich sitesIf you've ever thought about jumping on one of those pitches that offers to make you gobs of money with your computer from home (or maybe making gobs of money by creating one of those pitches yourself),...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am Napster investors seek board seats to push for a saleThe three, who own about 1.5% of shares outstanding, say the struggling digital music firm should try harder to find a buyer. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 7:00 am DNS Poisoning Hits One of China's Biggest ISPsSupport Code writes "ZDNet's Zero Day blog is reporting that a DNS server of one of China's largest ISPs has been poisoned to redirect typos to a malicious site rigged with drive-by exploits. The DNS poisoning attacks are affecting customers of China Netcom (CNC) and are using a malicious iFrame to launch exploits for known vulnerabilities in RealNetworks' RealPlayer, Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Snapshot Viewer. In this interview with CNet, Dan Kaminsky confirms that attacks are definitely going on in the field."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Aug 2008 | 5:31 am Report: Google, Verizon near mobile-search pact (CNET)CNET - Google is close to inking a deal with Verizon that would build its search interface into the mobile phone service provider's products, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Aug 2008 | 4:48 am Gear Gallery: Sexy Ultralight, New Camcorders and More : The U110 ultralight we received looks striking, with a scarlet paisley-etched aluminum lid paired with a shiny jet-black keyboard area. As soon as you open it up and power it on, you come face to face with one of the U110's most interesting yet unsettling features: VeriFace recognition. After booting up, the webcam embedded in the bezel starts scanning the room. When it finds you, it superimposes disturbing cross hairs on your eyes in an attempt to recognize you and unlock the PC. If you haven't registered your peepers, the system will hang, so you have to shut it down, turn the notebook away and open it up again to get it to boot. The 11.1-inch display is bright and sharp, though it can look a bit iridescent at close range. The glossy black keys are big and square but the thin membrane beneath the keys is flimsy and deforms as you type. There is a decent set of ports, but the designers couldn't find room for an optical drive. Seriously, we're pretty disappointed. The included external DVD drive looks cool, but you know what would be even cooler? Not needing an external drive at all. For work purposes, the Lenovo is a capable little machine. The U110 excelled in our PCMark tests, far outdistancing most other ultralights. Overall this is a good PC; it just has a few annoyances. WIRED: Charming good looks will attract the Lenovo faithful who are sick of looking funerary. Excellent business performance will silence office critics of your "red PC (Harumph!)." Delightfully light and slim. TIRED: The keyboard, though pretty, is pretty flimsy. Terminator-style face recognition will give you the heebie-jeebies and make you torch all your Schwarzenegger flicks (Especially Batman and Robin). External DVD means one more gadget to tote. Price/maker: $1,800 (as tested), Lenovo
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Lenovo IdeaPad U110 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : Dishing out a hefty helping of HD, the SR12 is a lot of camera, both in your hand and under the hood with its 120-GB hard drive. The upgraded CMOS sensor and Bionz image processor have significantly improved image quality and stomped out even more noise. Sony’s face-detection system, which works snappily for video and the 10.2-megapixel stills, is very effective both up close and at long range. OK, so it makes great video, but what about the controls? For those who fly on manual, the Cam Control Dial is like piloting an F22. Neatly nestled next to the lens, the silver nubbin is a twisty-twirly festival of videographic functionality, providing quick access to manual adjustments of exposure, focus, white balance and aperture. There’s also an “easy” button on board. A quick tap on the little blue button and all you’ve got to do is point the camera in the right direction to get the good stuff. In spite of all this Sony video goodness, the SR12 has one glaring flaw — terribly difficult Mac integration. To get it working you’ve got to have iMovie '08. Previous versions of iMovie don’t have the capability to natively read the AVCHD codec meaning that you had to convert the video to other formats in order to do any post-production. WIRED: Excellent AVCHD video quality got better this time around. Extra-wide 3.2-inch touchscreen LCD is a big bonus. Outstanding sound quality. TIRED: Massive internal hard drive makes it somewhat chunky and a bit of a load to carry. The “easy” button should be bigger and easier to find. And it should be red. Yeah red and all glowy. $1,400, Sony
(Photo by Jackson Lynch for Wired.com) Read our full Sony HDR-SR12 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : With Kensington's Wireless USB Docking Station, the moment you open your Wireless USB (WUSB)-enabled notebook, all your desktop devices are ready to go. We were amazed at how seamless the process is: The station recognized our 20-inch monitor, wireless USB mouse, keyboard and printer. It was as if they were always connected to the notebook. Of course, there are a few gotchas. WUSB is a new standard and some notebooks can't hook up with this docking station. Dell and Lenovo offer a few models, and other companies should be out the gate by this fall. With its plain, geeky looks, the 11.4-ounce antenna-topped station could get lost in a field of wireless routers. But that's not quite enough to put our Battlestar boxers in a knot: The Kensington Wireless Docking Station is a snap to set up and makes mobile computing, well, mobile and hassle-free. You know, the way it's supposed to be. —Michael S. Lasky WIRED: Drop-dead, simple setup and instant wireless connection of all desktop peripherals makes moving a notebook to and from the desk a hassle-free, nothing-to-plug-in experience. Small footprint means no great loss of desktop real estate. TIRED: Still few WUSB-enabled notebooks on the market. Audio handling could be smoother; default requires USB-powered speakers. First generation device is still pricey. $230, Kensington
Read our full Kensington Wireless USB Docking Station review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : This standard-definition lightweight shoots better video and has a much smarter feature set than most of its competitors. In fact, JVC knows that YouTubers can't bear missing the latest police beating or Matthew McConaughey shirtless in the grocery store, so the MS100 is lightning-quick on start up. The 35x optical zoom allows you to capture the crushing blows and bothersome blemishes while keeping a safe distance. Plus, the nifty laser-touch LCD makes you feel like a real cinematographer with speedy access to manual features. While it's nicely appointed, you've got to bridle at a couple things. First, there's no optical image stabilization. But shaky image stabilization aside, the very nature of this camcorder calls into question its usefulness. While neither big nor expensive, there are other, better, ultrasimple run-and-gun camcorders out there. Most are smaller and cheaper, too. With this form factor at this price, the MS100 is kind of stuck in the middle between the svelte flash-based AVCHD camcorders and the shirt-pocket shooters from Flip, Kodak and Creative. WIRED: 35x optical zoom brings the action right to your doorstep. Superb video quality. Formula 1 start-up speed. Easy to use laser-touch LCD. TIRED: No optical image stabilization. Lack of Mac compatibility is inexcusable and utterly perplexing. Three hundred and fifty bones for a camera that's made to record for YouTube? The Flip Mino does the same thing for about half the cost. $350, JVC
(Photo: Jackson Lynch/Wired.com) Read our full JVC Everio GZ-MS100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : Through some loophole, wormhole or deal with the devil, Gateway has produced a massive desktop replacement that's fast, good and cheap. How fast, you ask? Fast enough to go toe-to-toe with -- and school -- a $4,800 Alienware Area 51 m15x: In our Quake 4 test, the Gateway posted a score of 167.8 fps to the m15x's 167.2. This is partially because the Gateway's 512-MB Nvidia Geforce 9800M is running the show. The FX also has Olympic endurance for larger-class notebooks, going 2 hours, 23 minutes to play a DVD. And that brings us to the cheap part. The Gateway is just $1,400 -- more than three times less than the Alienware and hundreds (and more hundreds) less than most other desktop replacement machines. Sure, it lacks the latest processor (it's got a 2.27-GHz Core Duo), but it has a whopping 4 GB of RAM to help it attack processing tasks and a spacious 200 GB of drive space for your stuff. The big bummer here is the missing Blu-ray drive, which is what is likely keeping this thing so affordable. WIRED: Some of the best gaming performance ever recorded on a PC. Long battery life for a desktop replacement. Comfy and solid keyboard withstands heavy hands. Multimedia controls and slide volume look cool without glowing too brightly. TIRED: No Blu-ray is a letdown for HD-heads, and you can't configure your PC to include the drive. The battery sticks out a bit in the back, and the power brick is monstrous. Power lights on the front, unlike the multimedia controls, are too bright. Price/maker: $1,400 (as tested), Gateway
Read our full Gateway P-7811FX Notebook review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : Alienware prides itself on its tower rigs and desktop replacements, but several of its earlier forays in to the mid-size laptops were disastrous; the branding was intact but the performance wasn't. Not so with the m15x. This 15.4-incher is plenty portable, yet it has all the gaming trappings and the performance to back it up. From the unboxing onward, you can tell that you are paying for the experience as well as the hardware. A baseball cap with an alien head on it, an extra battery, VGA-to-DVI adapter, FireWire adapter and entertainment remote show that Alienware will risk no dissatisfied customers due to lackluster goodies. With specs that include a 2.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, 3 GB of RAM, and a 512-MB nVidia GeForce 8800M GTX, the m15x performs impressively, but not out of this world. It all comes down to the loot; this is a luxury item and there are far more affordable PCs with comparable performance. WIRED: Tip-top business and gaming performance. Lots of included extras for gaming elitists. The solid and handsome design will please gamers, and cool lighting effects will titillate geeks. TIRED: Exorbitant price that only a space tourist could pay without wincing. For all the expense, it's not the very best gaming PC. Dual batteries take a long time to charge up. The Blu-ray drive must be removed to accommodate the secondary battery. Price/maker: $4,880 (as tested), Alienware
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Alienware Area-51 m15x review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : The Archos 605 WiFi is a damn fine portable media player. Now it’s slightly mo' better due to this new GPS accessory, which for $130 adds full-bore street navigation that's on par with a Garmin or TomTom system. Well, a low-end Garmin or TomTom from a few years ago, anyway: This lackluster accessory does not have many of the bells and whistles of modern nav systems, and the one it does have -- real-time traffic updates -- works only in Europe. On the plus side, the software locks in satellite signals faster than NORAD. However, it navigates like a base commander heading home from the officer's club. On several occasions the GPS tried to route us totally out of the way instead of continuing on the road right in front of us. To make matters worse, the software doesn't announce street names, only directions. The GPS Car Holder would look pretty good if this were, say, 2003. And it does get you where you're going, if not always by the fastest or most logical route. At $130, it's a decent deal for current owners, but definitely behind the GPS times. WIRED: Cheaper than a standalone GPS, at least if you already own an Archos 605. High-resolution screen makes maps look mighty purty. Lightning-fast satellite lock. TIRED: The 605 can’t navigate without the car holder, so you can’t go on walkabout. Doesn’t say street names. Requires you to move to Europe if you want traffic features. You have to manually restart the GPS app every time you power on the 605. Price/maker: $130, Archos
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Archos 605 WiFi GPS Car Holder review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : As one of six new Fujitsu offerings equipped with Intel's Centrino 2, the Lifebook A6120 more than makes up for its dull exterior with features that will have prettier laptops quaking in their neoprene sleeves. Opposite its no frills glossy shell resides a gorgeous 15.4-inch LCD capable of brightening even the darkest depths of Mordor. Battery life and performance are equally impressive. The new 2.26-GHz CPU more than did the job when it came to photo editing, gaming and pretty much every other benchmark we threw at it. What's more, we squeezed a respectable four and a half hours of battery life under normal usage out of A6120. In fact, after playing with the Lifebook for a week, we were hard pressed to find anything significant to complain about. Would Fujitsu be well served by spending a little more time and effort on design and shrinking down that plump chassis? Sure. But this reviewer is more than happy to overlook a 1.7-inch waistline as long as it hides enough goodies. WIRED: Great bang/buck ratio. The A6120 starts at only $1,150 and jumps but $200 for a Radeon HD 3470 card and Blu-ray drive. Sharp, beautiful screen is one of the brightest we've seen on a laptop. Screw the chicklet-style keys found on other notebooks: Fujitsu's old school keyboard provides near perfect "clickiness" (to borrow a term from designer Amar Sagoo). TIRED: Small trackpad makes for a less than thrilling multitouch experience. Runs consistently hot -- don't rest it on your lap for long or risk a scorched crotch. While certainly not ugly, design is blander than a plate of lima beans. Price/maker: $1,350 (as tested), Fujitsu
Read our full Fujitsu Lifebook A6120 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : GeTac clearly had utilitarian users in mind with the E-100, which makes for a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to function. On the bright side, this surprisingly light ultramobile PC is military certified to withstand splashes of water, dust, humidity, shock and even freezing temperatures. Even common vulnerabilities like exposed ethernet and USB ports have been sidestepped with a bevy of watertight rubber stoppers. In fact, my review unit was able to smoothly stream South Park episodes while taking repeated tumbles down a flight of stairs. But it was when I looked under the hood that I found kinks in the armor. Mission-critical applications like Office ran at a reasonable clip in a number of bumpy environments, but for the E-100's price I was expecting a little more "oomph." The 100-GB shock-resistant ATA hard drive and 1 GB of RAM tilt the balance a little bit, but honestly, even the unassuming Eee PC comes stock with Intel's newer Atom chips. Mediocre specs aside, this rough and tumble UMPC performs solidly in a number of harsh environments and boasts a host of connectivity options. WIRED: Rock-solid construction, ergonomics and field performance. Responsive 8.4-inch touchscreen looks phenomenal in direct sunlight. Web ready with 802.11b/g, gigabit ethernet and SIM card slot. Waterproof combination SmartCard/PCMCIA slot. Decent battery life at 3.5 hours (WiFi on). 100-GB hard drive has its own heater for cycling up in freezing conditions. TIRED: Too little processing given the amount of buck. Near three grand price tag? Seriously? No option for a solid state drive?! Recessed USB and headphone jacks are a hassle to plug into. Tinny speaker is more of an afterthought. Lose the stylus and you're S.O.L. Looks that only a FedEx driver could love. Price/maker: $2,880 as tested, GeTac
Read our full GeTac E-100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : Most of the new mini-laptops look like toys, educational tools or lab experiments in miniaturization, but the MSI Wind is an actual PC. Packing the latest 1.6-GHz Atom processor and a roomy 80-GB drive, the Wind boasts some legit PC cred. Yes, your iPod probably has more drive space, but 80 gigs was plenty not so long ago, and it's not like you're going to be producing HD video on this thing; it's more of an internet lapdog than a laptop. The 10-inch widescreen can display most fixed-width webpages comfortably, and its keyboard is large enough to house decent-size keys so you can type easily without resorting to Homer's dialing wand. While even some larger laptops are short on ports, the Wind finds room for three USBs, an SD slot and a display connector (take note, MacBook Air!). Of course, it's not perfect. We would have loved to see a DVD burner included, and with all its ports, a mini FireWire would be welcome. Also, don't expect high-end performance from the unit or hearty battery life from its slim, three-cell battery. But if you want a cheap and tiny companion for uploading pictures during a Malaysian jungle trek, or just a little buddy to hang out with you on the couch for IMDB searches, it's pretty hard to be against the Wind. WIRED: Grown-up looks (as opposed to "I want to sit at the big kids' table" found in other netbooks). Full keyboard and the largest screen among mini-notes. Plenty of ports to plug away at. 2.3-pound weight and rounded edges make it simple to pack and lug. TIRED: Lack of a DVD is understandable, but it still makes us cry a little. Hard drive sometimes makes mysterious swallowing sounds. Two-hour battery life is OK, but three would be better. $500, MSI Mobile
Photo: Jon Snyder/ Wired.com Read our full MSI Wind U100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : Behold, the new Eee Box! Like the rest of the Eee bloodline, these varicolored desktop boxes are small, cheap and adorable (think AppleTV or Mac Mini). Intel's 1.6-GHz Atom processor, up to 2 GBs of memory, four USB ports, an SD card slot, 802.11n and Bluetooth are plenty for the Eee Box to hit that elusive "good enough" mark with aplomb. Once again, you'll get your choice of running either Linux or Windows XP. Then there's the size. While it does have a slightly larger overall footprint, it's much trimmer than the Mac Mini. Not only will this elegant 8.5 x 7 x 1-inch box fit anywhere, but you also have the choice of mounting it directly to the back of any extra monitor you happen to have lying around. To be clear, the Eee Box is not for sweaty frag fests or heavy-duty HD video decoding. But if you have a hankering for a killer kitchen PC or just an über-cheap second or third home PC that runs Linux or XP, it simply can't be beat. WIRED: Small, lightweight and cuter than a bowlful of kittens. More than enough processing power for everyday computing. Cheaper than an ounce of Da Kine bud. The option of running Splashtop for preboot access to Skype, web browsing and IM clients. TIRED: Where's the optical drive? No HDMI output, which actually doesn't matter much because there's also no hardware to decode acceleration. By itself, the Atom processor can barely handle 720p H.264 streams, dashing our hopes of this being the ultimate home-streaming box. $300 as tested, Asus
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Asus Eee Box review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : Iomega's own $190 solution for a filled DVR is a 500-GB drive that plays nice with two DVRs in particular: Scientific Atlanta's 80-GB standard definition 8300 and the more recent 160-GB 8300-HD model. We tested the drive out on the latter model and found it more or less did what it promised. It even worked with a neighbor's Series 3 TiVo, which (to its credit) is known for being something of an eSATA slut. Setup in both instances was quick and painless, and involved simply turning off the DVR, plugging in the Iomega drive, and then turning everything back on again. Voila, no more having to choose between Emmanuelle: The Art of Love and the latest episode of Mad Men. WIRED: Reasonably priced. Your grandmother could probably set it up. Instantly adds an additional 300 hours of SD TV, or 60 hours of HD content. TIRED: Only one way to connect the drive to a DVR (that would be eSATA). Limited compatibility, although Iomega claims the drive will work with future SA eSATA-enabled DVRs. No way of controlling what gets stored on the expander drive and what gets stored on the DVR. Transporting DVR'd content to your computer is verboten, and plugging the drive into a computer will automatically reformat it. $190, Iomega
Read our full Iomega DVR Expander Drive review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  :
The Samsung U900, aka Soul, aka Magical Touch, doesn't really have any supernatural abilities. What it does have is a tiny, touch-sensitive OLED nav-pad that is one of the coolest, most efficient touch interfaces we've seen on a handset. The small display (situated below the main 2.2-inch QVGA screen) features icons that morph based on whatever application is currently on the screen. Switch to camera mode and controls for snapping pictures. Toggle to the music player and buttons for fast-forward, rewind, pause and play pop up. The big selling point is the phone's pocketability. The picture quality and dynamic range could be better (LED flash, we're talking about you), but at 0.5-inches thick and 7 ounces, this slider is more svelte than just about every 5-MP cam we've tested. Ultimately, our biggest complaint is that you cannot use the camera without sliding open the phone first. This design protects the lens from dust bunnies and pocket grime, yes, but shooting with a fully open device was a tad awkward at times. WIRED: External microSD slot makes it a cinch to swap cards on the fly. Bluetooth (+A2DP). Competent image-editing suite. Video editor allows you to layer additional audio tracks. Decent facial detection. Haptic feedback can be tweaked to three different levels of intensity or switched-off entirely. TIRED: Bundled proprietary ear buds sound duller than Ben Stein. No Xenon flash. No GPS. No WiFi. Lower-res video clips. Proprietary headphone jack positioned on the side = hard to pocket when phones are plugged in. Noticeable screen glare when outdoors. $400, Samsung
Photo: Issac Brekken/Wired.com Read our full Samsung SGH-U900 Soul "Magical Touch" review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : The biggest selling point of the new Sidekick is supposed to be the customizable "skins" you can order to replace the solid-color ones (we opted for jet black). But apart from flashy aesthetics, the pocket-friendly 2008 is 0.4-inches shorter and 0.9-ounces lighter than the pricier LX. It also packs features that were sorely missed with the tragically minimalist iD. Most notably, a 2.0-megapixel camera that can also capture video clips (albeit crappy ones). Though the 2.6-inch WQVGA swivel screen’s received a slight -- and necessary -- boost in pixels (400 x 240), the resolution’s still not fantastic. And neither is Bluetooth. We found data transfers not only paused the media player (annoying), but afterward, we had to go back and manually un-pause whatever track was playing (doubly annoying). For the price, though the 2008 is a solid option compared to the LX -- but only if you live and die by instant messaging and you don't mind being seen with Paris Hilton's device of choice in public. WIRED: Spacious, comfy QWERTY. 3.5-mm headphone jack. Surprisingly loud, radically clear music player. Wide screen excellent for web browsing. Solid battery life. Quick video recording/sharing. Comes with two skins (we got black and iridescent lime). Bluetooth with A2DP (great to have, even if it does disrupt tunes). TIRED: Screen retains more fingerprints than the Feds. No flash. No WiFi. Mike captures poor sound when recording video. Only 20-second video clips. Only 512-MB microSD card included. Apps are mostly in the $2.99+ range (except for the janky free Calculator). No 3-G. Price/maker: $150 (with 2-year contract), T-Mobile
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Sidekick review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : Cyclists know it's plum foolish to roll around on two wheels sans helmet, but it can be just as dangerous to bike about at night without a light. A good headlight affixed to your handlebars is just the thing to help cut through the murk and get you to your destination safely. Here we pit two of the top dogs on the market against each other and see which comes out on top. —Eric Smillie This one-watt LED cannon goes the extra mile, and we don't just mean it shoots light a ridiculous distance. Due in no small part to its particularly aggressive blinking mode, accurately called superflash, it didn’t just help us catch drivers' attentions; it had them anxiously craning their necks to check whether we were trying to pull them over. Drawing on only two AA batteries, this baby cuts down on weight but its CREE XR-E diode, coupled with a specially engineered Fraen lens, still pumps out the brightest light of all the lamps we tested -- enough to bounce off signs, license plates, and other reflective materials up to four blocks away, giving us plenty of time to make an impression. All we have to worry about now is whether some cop-hating, GTA IV-overdosing motorist trying to run us down. WIRED: Recessed switch only works if pressed firmly, which means it won’t turn on in your bag while you jostle your way to the bar, leaving you in the dark at closing time. Planet Bike spends 25 percent of its profits on bike advocacy. TIRED: The brightness and reduced weight come at a price: 20 hours of battery life in blinking mode, and only seven on high. Though it installs without the use of a tool, the handlebar bracket is tricky to tighten and slips easily. $50, Planet Bike
Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : While not the sharpest bulb on our handlebars, the WhiteLite HP AA is in it for the long haul. Don’t get us wrong -- just like other 1-watt LED headlamps, this portable, all-in one lamp is more than a glorified blinky. When engineering this light, Topeak got all snippy, cutting the cords to one of its external power-pack lights and reengineered it to accept three AA batteries. Its widely diffused beam covers plenty of surface area and earned our trust by helping us dodge nasty potholes and tree roots on unlit paths. But where this guy really shines is in perseverance, by lasting 30 hours on high and a whopping 120 on flash. WIRED: The mounting bracket screws tight with a finger knob and adjusts five degrees left and right to get a straight aim even on angled handlebars, although it does require an Allen key to tighten. Little red LED signals when batteries are low. TIRED: Blinks come slowly and lack urgency in flashing mode. Pushing the rear on/off push button can rotate the mount and mess up the light angle. Sound like a small problem? It won't be when you look up just in time to face plant into the bumper of a lifted pickup. $60, Topeak
Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.  : The E71 looks more like a Blackberry Killer, but don’t be fooled: This great white hope gives the iPhone a run for its money in a lot of different areas (yes, really). Despite its obvious lack of an oversize touchscreen interface, Nokia wins points for a remarkably trim profile (10mm vs. 12.3mm), decent 3.2-megapixel camera (instead of 2.0), and the fact it's not tied to any carrier (yet). Setting up Nokia's Mail for Exchange program required no IT help or time. QuickOffice let us create, edit and send Word/Excel/PowerPoint files on the fly while we browsed PDFs with Adobe Acrobat Reader. The E71 is stocked with enough apps and goodies to keep even the most overworked road warrior on the ball, but it didn't feel too "business" due to two separate customizable home screens. One is designed to house all of your work apps while the other is geared more toward entertainment with programs for audio, video and gaming. The phone's 2.36-inch, 320 x 240 QVGA display is only slightly smaller than the iPod classic's, and though the resolution can't top the iPhone's, with 15 fps, the E71 is still solid for YouTube clips. Oh, and did we mention the E71's got battery life for days? Yes, literally, three of them. WIRED: Up to 8 GB in an easy-to-access, external microSD slot. Quick and seamless OS. GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth (you name it, it's basically got it). Vivid screen (even in direct sunlight). Textured stainless steel backing prevents slippage. Relatively lightweight (127 grams = six grams lighter than iPhone). Hit any letter on the QWERTY pad and predictive text calls up that section of your address book. TIRED: No standard 3.5-mm headphone jack. 3.2-megapixel camera's optics could be better. LED flash could be way better. N-Gage gaming platform not available. Screen's wide, but not wide enough to do a feature-length film justice. For $500, you could get two 8-GB, 3-G JesusPhones (with $100 left over to put toward AT&T's data plan). $500 (unlocked), Nokia
Photo: Max Buck/Wired.com Read our full Nokia E71 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am Gear Gallery: Sexy Ultralight, New Camcorders and More: The U110 ultralight we received looks striking, with a scarlet paisley-etched aluminum lid paired with a shiny jet-black keyboard area. As soon as you open it up and power it on, you come face to face with one of the U110's most interesting yet unsettling features: VeriFace recognition. After booting up, the webcam embedded in the bezel starts scanning the room. When it finds you, it superimposes disturbing cross hairs on your eyes in an attempt to recognize you and unlock the PC. If you haven't registered your peepers, the system will hang, so you have to shut it down, turn the notebook away and open it up again to get it to boot. The 11.1-inch display is bright and sharp, though it can look a bit iridescent at close range. The glossy black keys are big and square but the thin membrane beneath the keys is flimsy and deforms as you type. There is a decent set of ports, but the designers couldn't find room for an optical drive. Seriously, we're pretty disappointed. The included external DVD drive looks cool, but you know what would be even cooler? Not needing an external drive at all. For work purposes, the Lenovo is a capable little machine. The U110 excelled in our PCMark tests, far outdistancing most other ultralights. Overall this is a good PC; it just has a few annoyances. WIRED: Charming good looks will attract the Lenovo faithful who are sick of looking funerary. Excellent business performance will silence office critics of your "red PC (Harumph!)." Delightfully light and slim. TIRED: The keyboard, though pretty, is pretty flimsy. Terminator-style face recognition will give you the heebie-jeebies and make you torch all your Schwarzenegger flicks (Especially Batman and Robin). External DVD means one more gadget to tote. Price/maker: $1,800 (as tested), Lenovo
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Lenovo IdeaPad U110 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : Dishing out a hefty helping of HD, the SR12 is a lot of camera, both in your hand and under the hood with its 120-GB hard drive. The upgraded CMOS sensor and Bionz image processor have significantly improved image quality and stomped out even more noise. Sony’s face-detection system, which works snappily for video and the 10.2-megapixel stills, is very effective both up close and at long range. OK, so it makes great video, but what about the controls? For those who fly on manual, the Cam Control Dial is like piloting an F22. Neatly nestled next to the lens, the silver nubbin is a twisty-twirly festival of videographic functionality, providing quick access to manual adjustments of exposure, focus, white balance and aperture. There’s also an “easy” button on board. A quick tap on the little blue button and all you’ve got to do is point the camera in the right direction to get the good stuff. In spite of all this Sony video goodness, the SR12 has one glaring flaw — terribly difficult Mac integration. To get it working you’ve got to have iMovie '08. Previous versions of iMovie don’t have the capability to natively read the AVCHD codec meaning that you had to convert the video to other formats in order to do any post-production. WIRED: Excellent AVCHD video quality got better this time around. Extra-wide 3.2-inch touchscreen LCD is a big bonus. Outstanding sound quality. TIRED: Massive internal hard drive makes it somewhat chunky and a bit of a load to carry. The “easy” button should be bigger and easier to find. And it should be red. Yeah red and all glowy. $1,400, Sony
(Photo by Jackson Lynch for Wired.com) Read our full Sony HDR-SR12 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : With Kensington's Wireless USB Docking Station, the moment you open your Wireless USB (WUSB)-enabled notebook, all your desktop devices are ready to go. We were amazed at how seamless the process is: The station recognized our 20-inch monitor, wireless USB mouse, keyboard and printer. It was as if they were always connected to the notebook. Of course, there are a few gotchas. WUSB is a new standard and some notebooks can't hook up with this docking station. Dell and Lenovo offer a few models, and other companies should be out the gate by this fall. With its plain, geeky looks, the 11.4-ounce antenna-topped station could get lost in a field of wireless routers. But that's not quite enough to put our Battlestar boxers in a knot: The Kensington Wireless Docking Station is a snap to set up and makes mobile computing, well, mobile and hassle-free. You know, the way it's supposed to be. —Michael S. Lasky WIRED: Drop-dead, simple setup and instant wireless connection of all desktop peripherals makes moving a notebook to and from the desk a hassle-free, nothing-to-plug-in experience. Small footprint means no great loss of desktop real estate. TIRED: Still few WUSB-enabled notebooks on the market. Audio handling could be smoother; default requires USB-powered speakers. First generation device is still pricey. $230, Kensington
Read our full Kensington Wireless USB Docking Station review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : This standard-definition lightweight shoots better video and has a much smarter feature set than most of its competitors. In fact, JVC knows that YouTubers can't bear missing the latest police beating or Matthew McConaughey shirtless in the grocery store, so the MS100 is lightning-quick on start up. The 35x optical zoom allows you to capture the crushing blows and bothersome blemishes while keeping a safe distance. Plus, the nifty laser-touch LCD makes you feel like a real cinematographer with speedy access to manual features. While it's nicely appointed, you've got to bridle at a couple things. First, there's no optical image stabilization. But shaky image stabilization aside, the very nature of this camcorder calls into question its usefulness. While neither big nor expensive, there are other, better, ultrasimple run-and-gun camcorders out there. Most are smaller and cheaper, too. With this form factor at this price, the MS100 is kind of stuck in the middle between the svelte flash-based AVCHD camcorders and the shirt-pocket shooters from Flip, Kodak and Creative. WIRED: 35x optical zoom brings the action right to your doorstep. Superb video quality. Formula 1 start-up speed. Easy to use laser-touch LCD. TIRED: No optical image stabilization. Lack of Mac compatibility is inexcusable and utterly perplexing. Three hundred and fifty bones for a camera that's made to record for YouTube? The Flip Mino does the same thing for about half the cost. $350, JVC
(Photo: Jackson Lynch/Wired.com) Read our full JVC Everio GZ-MS100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : Through some loophole, wormhole or deal with the devil, Gateway has produced a massive desktop replacement that's fast, good and cheap. How fast, you ask? Fast enough to go toe-to-toe with -- and school -- a $4,800 Alienware Area 51 m15x: In our Quake 4 test, the Gateway posted a score of 167.8 fps to the m15x's 167.2. This is partially because the Gateway's 512-MB Nvidia Geforce 9800M is running the show. The FX also has Olympic endurance for larger-class notebooks, going 2 hours, 23 minutes to play a DVD. And that brings us to the cheap part. The Gateway is just $1,400 -- more than three times less than the Alienware and hundreds (and more hundreds) less than most other desktop replacement machines. Sure, it lacks the latest processor (it's got a 2.27-GHz Core Duo), but it has a whopping 4 GB of RAM to help it attack processing tasks and a spacious 200 GB of drive space for your stuff. The big bummer here is the missing Blu-ray drive, which is what is likely keeping this thing so affordable. WIRED: Some of the best gaming performance ever recorded on a PC. Long battery life for a desktop replacement. Comfy and solid keyboard withstands heavy hands. Multimedia controls and slide volume look cool without glowing too brightly. TIRED: No Blu-ray is a letdown for HD-heads, and you can't configure your PC to include the drive. The battery sticks out a bit in the back, and the power brick is monstrous. Power lights on the front, unlike the multimedia controls, are too bright. Price/maker: $1,400 (as tested), Gateway
Read our full Gateway P-7811FX Notebook review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : Alienware prides itself on its tower rigs and desktop replacements, but several of its earlier forays in to the mid-size laptops were disastrous; the branding was intact but the performance wasn't. Not so with the m15x. This 15.4-incher is plenty portable, yet it has all the gaming trappings and the performance to back it up. From the unboxing onward, you can tell that you are paying for the experience as well as the hardware. A baseball cap with an alien head on it, an extra battery, VGA-to-DVI adapter, FireWire adapter and entertainment remote show that Alienware will risk no dissatisfied customers due to lackluster goodies. With specs that include a 2.8-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, 3 GB of RAM, and a 512-MB nVidia GeForce 8800M GTX, the m15x performs impressively, but not out of this world. It all comes down to the loot; this is a luxury item and there are far more affordable PCs with comparable performance. WIRED: Tip-top business and gaming performance. Lots of included extras for gaming elitists. The solid and handsome design will please gamers, and cool lighting effects will titillate geeks. TIRED: Exorbitant price that only a space tourist could pay without wincing. For all the expense, it's not the very best gaming PC. Dual batteries take a long time to charge up. The Blu-ray drive must be removed to accommodate the secondary battery. Price/maker: $4,880 (as tested), Alienware
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Alienware Area-51 m15x review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : The Archos 605 WiFi is a damn fine portable media player. Now it’s slightly mo' better due to this new GPS accessory, which for $130 adds full-bore street navigation that's on par with a Garmin or TomTom system. Well, a low-end Garmin or TomTom from a few years ago, anyway: This lackluster accessory does not have many of the bells and whistles of modern nav systems, and the one it does have -- real-time traffic updates -- works only in Europe. On the plus side, the software locks in satellite signals faster than NORAD. However, it navigates like a base commander heading home from the officer's club. On several occasions the GPS tried to route us totally out of the way instead of continuing on the road right in front of us. To make matters worse, the software doesn't announce street names, only directions. The GPS Car Holder would look pretty good if this were, say, 2003. And it does get you where you're going, if not always by the fastest or most logical route. At $130, it's a decent deal for current owners, but definitely behind the GPS times. WIRED: Cheaper than a standalone GPS, at least if you already own an Archos 605. High-resolution screen makes maps look mighty purty. Lightning-fast satellite lock. TIRED: The 605 can’t navigate without the car holder, so you can’t go on walkabout. Doesn’t say street names. Requires you to move to Europe if you want traffic features. You have to manually restart the GPS app every time you power on the 605. Price/maker: $130, Archos
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Archos 605 WiFi GPS Car Holder review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : As one of six new Fujitsu offerings equipped with Intel's Centrino 2, the Lifebook A6120 more than makes up for its dull exterior with features that will have prettier laptops quaking in their neoprene sleeves. Opposite its no frills glossy shell resides a gorgeous 15.4-inch LCD capable of brightening even the darkest depths of Mordor. Battery life and performance are equally impressive. The new 2.26-GHz CPU more than did the job when it came to photo editing, gaming and pretty much every other benchmark we threw at it. What's more, we squeezed a respectable four and a half hours of battery life under normal usage out of A6120. In fact, after playing with the Lifebook for a week, we were hard pressed to find anything significant to complain about. Would Fujitsu be well served by spending a little more time and effort on design and shrinking down that plump chassis? Sure. But this reviewer is more than happy to overlook a 1.7-inch waistline as long as it hides enough goodies. WIRED: Great bang/buck ratio. The A6120 starts at only $1,150 and jumps but $200 for a Radeon HD 3470 card and Blu-ray drive. Sharp, beautiful screen is one of the brightest we've seen on a laptop. Screw the chicklet-style keys found on other notebooks: Fujitsu's old school keyboard provides near perfect "clickiness" (to borrow a term from designer Amar Sagoo). TIRED: Small trackpad makes for a less than thrilling multitouch experience. Runs consistently hot -- don't rest it on your lap for long or risk a scorched crotch. While certainly not ugly, design is blander than a plate of lima beans. Price/maker: $1,350 (as tested), Fujitsu
Read our full Fujitsu Lifebook A6120 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : GeTac clearly had utilitarian users in mind with the E-100, which makes for a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to function. On the bright side, this surprisingly light ultramobile PC is military certified to withstand splashes of water, dust, humidity, shock and even freezing temperatures. Even common vulnerabilities like exposed ethernet and USB ports have been sidestepped with a bevy of watertight rubber stoppers. In fact, my review unit was able to smoothly stream South Park episodes while taking repeated tumbles down a flight of stairs. But it was when I looked under the hood that I found kinks in the armor. Mission-critical applications like Office ran at a reasonable clip in a number of bumpy environments, but for the E-100's price I was expecting a little more "oomph." The 100-GB shock-resistant ATA hard drive and 1 GB of RAM tilt the balance a little bit, but honestly, even the unassuming Eee PC comes stock with Intel's newer Atom chips. Mediocre specs aside, this rough and tumble UMPC performs solidly in a number of harsh environments and boasts a host of connectivity options. WIRED: Rock-solid construction, ergonomics and field performance. Responsive 8.4-inch touchscreen looks phenomenal in direct sunlight. Web ready with 802.11b/g, gigabit ethernet and SIM card slot. Waterproof combination SmartCard/PCMCIA slot. Decent battery life at 3.5 hours (WiFi on). 100-GB hard drive has its own heater for cycling up in freezing conditions. TIRED: Too little processing given the amount of buck. Near three grand price tag? Seriously? No option for a solid state drive?! Recessed USB and headphone jacks are a hassle to plug into. Tinny speaker is more of an afterthought. Lose the stylus and you're S.O.L. Looks that only a FedEx driver could love. Price/maker: $2,880 as tested, GeTac
Read our full GeTac E-100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : Most of the new mini-laptops look like toys, educational tools or lab experiments in miniaturization, but the MSI Wind is an actual PC. Packing the latest 1.6-GHz Atom processor and a roomy 80-GB drive, the Wind boasts some legit PC cred. Yes, your iPod probably has more drive space, but 80 gigs was plenty not so long ago, and it's not like you're going to be producing HD video on this thing; it's more of an internet lapdog than a laptop. The 10-inch widescreen can display most fixed-width webpages comfortably, and its keyboard is large enough to house decent-size keys so you can type easily without resorting to Homer's dialing wand. While even some larger laptops are short on ports, the Wind finds room for three USBs, an SD slot and a display connector (take note, MacBook Air!). Of course, it's not perfect. We would have loved to see a DVD burner included, and with all its ports, a mini FireWire would be welcome. Also, don't expect high-end performance from the unit or hearty battery life from its slim, three-cell battery. But if you want a cheap and tiny companion for uploading pictures during a Malaysian jungle trek, or just a little buddy to hang out with you on the couch for IMDB searches, it's pretty hard to be against the Wind. WIRED: Grown-up looks (as opposed to "I want to sit at the big kids' table" found in other netbooks). Full keyboard and the largest screen among mini-notes. Plenty of ports to plug away at. 2.3-pound weight and rounded edges make it simple to pack and lug. TIRED: Lack of a DVD is understandable, but it still makes us cry a little. Hard drive sometimes makes mysterious swallowing sounds. Two-hour battery life is OK, but three would be better. $500, MSI Mobile
Photo: Jon Snyder/ Wired.com Read our full MSI Wind U100 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : Behold, the new Eee Box! Like the rest of the Eee bloodline, these varicolored desktop boxes are small, cheap and adorable (think AppleTV or Mac Mini). Intel's 1.6-GHz Atom processor, up to 2 GBs of memory, four USB ports, an SD card slot, 802.11n and Bluetooth are plenty for the Eee Box to hit that elusive "good enough" mark with aplomb. Once again, you'll get your choice of running either Linux or Windows XP. Then there's the size. While it does have a slightly larger overall footprint, it's much trimmer than the Mac Mini. Not only will this elegant 8.5 x 7 x 1-inch box fit anywhere, but you also have the choice of mounting it directly to the back of any extra monitor you happen to have lying around. To be clear, the Eee Box is not for sweaty frag fests or heavy-duty HD video decoding. But if you have a hankering for a killer kitchen PC or just an über-cheap second or third home PC that runs Linux or XP, it simply can't be beat. WIRED: Small, lightweight and cuter than a bowlful of kittens. More than enough processing power for everyday computing. Cheaper than an ounce of Da Kine bud. The option of running Splashtop for preboot access to Skype, web browsing and IM clients. TIRED: Where's the optical drive? No HDMI output, which actually doesn't matter much because there's also no hardware to decode acceleration. By itself, the Atom processor can barely handle 720p H.264 streams, dashing our hopes of this being the ultimate home-streaming box. $300 as tested, Asus
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Asus Eee Box review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : Iomega's own $190 solution for a filled DVR is a 500-GB drive that plays nice with two DVRs in particular: Scientific Atlanta's 80-GB standard definition 8300 and the more recent 160-GB 8300-HD model. We tested the drive out on the latter model and found it more or less did what it promised. It even worked with a neighbor's Series 3 TiVo, which (to its credit) is known for being something of an eSATA slut. Setup in both instances was quick and painless, and involved simply turning off the DVR, plugging in the Iomega drive, and then turning everything back on again. Voila, no more having to choose between Emmanuelle: The Art of Love and the latest episode of Mad Men. WIRED: Reasonably priced. Your grandmother could probably set it up. Instantly adds an additional 300 hours of SD TV, or 60 hours of HD content. TIRED: Only one way to connect the drive to a DVR (that would be eSATA). Limited compatibility, although Iomega claims the drive will work with future SA eSATA-enabled DVRs. No way of controlling what gets stored on the expander drive and what gets stored on the DVR. Transporting DVR'd content to your computer is verboten, and plugging the drive into a computer will automatically reformat it. $190, Iomega
Read our full Iomega DVR Expander Drive review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. :
The Samsung U900, aka Soul, aka Magical Touch, doesn't really have any supernatural abilities. What it does have is a tiny, touch-sensitive OLED nav-pad that is one of the coolest, most efficient touch interfaces we've seen on a handset. The small display (situated below the main 2.2-inch QVGA screen) features icons that morph based on whatever application is currently on the screen. Switch to camera mode and controls for snapping pictures. Toggle to the music player and buttons for fast-forward, rewind, pause and play pop up. The big selling point is the phone's pocketability. The picture quality and dynamic range could be better (LED flash, we're talking about you), but at 0.5-inches thick and 7 ounces, this slider is more svelte than just about every 5-MP cam we've tested. Ultimately, our biggest complaint is that you cannot use the camera without sliding open the phone first. This design protects the lens from dust bunnies and pocket grime, yes, but shooting with a fully open device was a tad awkward at times. WIRED: External microSD slot makes it a cinch to swap cards on the fly. Bluetooth (+A2DP). Competent image-editing suite. Video editor allows you to layer additional audio tracks. Decent facial detection. Haptic feedback can be tweaked to three different levels of intensity or switched-off entirely. TIRED: Bundled proprietary ear buds sound duller than Ben Stein. No Xenon flash. No GPS. No WiFi. Lower-res video clips. Proprietary headphone jack positioned on the side = hard to pocket when phones are plugged in. Noticeable screen glare when outdoors. $400, Samsung
Photo: Issac Brekken/Wired.com Read our full Samsung SGH-U900 Soul "Magical Touch" review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : The biggest selling point of the new Sidekick is supposed to be the customizable "skins" you can order to replace the solid-color ones (we opted for jet black). But apart from flashy aesthetics, the pocket-friendly 2008 is 0.4-inches shorter and 0.9-ounces lighter than the pricier LX. It also packs features that were sorely missed with the tragically minimalist iD. Most notably, a 2.0-megapixel camera that can also capture video clips (albeit crappy ones). Though the 2.6-inch WQVGA swivel screen’s received a slight -- and necessary -- boost in pixels (400 x 240), the resolution’s still not fantastic. And neither is Bluetooth. We found data transfers not only paused the media player (annoying), but afterward, we had to go back and manually un-pause whatever track was playing (doubly annoying). For the price, though the 2008 is a solid option compared to the LX -- but only if you live and die by instant messaging and you don't mind being seen with Paris Hilton's device of choice in public. WIRED: Spacious, comfy QWERTY. 3.5-mm headphone jack. Surprisingly loud, radically clear music player. Wide screen excellent for web browsing. Solid battery life. Quick video recording/sharing. Comes with two skins (we got black and iridescent lime). Bluetooth with A2DP (great to have, even if it does disrupt tunes). TIRED: Screen retains more fingerprints than the Feds. No flash. No WiFi. Mike captures poor sound when recording video. Only 20-second video clips. Only 512-MB microSD card included. Apps are mostly in the $2.99+ range (except for the janky free Calculator). No 3-G. Price/maker: $150 (with 2-year contract), T-Mobile
Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Read our full Sidekick review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : Cyclists know it's plum foolish to roll around on two wheels sans helmet, but it can be just as dangerous to bike about at night without a light. A good headlight affixed to your handlebars is just the thing to help cut through the murk and get you to your destination safely. Here we pit two of the top dogs on the market against each other and see which comes out on top. —Eric Smillie This one-watt LED cannon goes the extra mile, and we don't just mean it shoots light a ridiculous distance. Due in no small part to its particularly aggressive blinking mode, accurately called superflash, it didn’t just help us catch drivers' attentions; it had them anxiously craning their necks to check whether we were trying to pull them over. Drawing on only two AA batteries, this baby cuts down on weight but its CREE XR-E diode, coupled with a specially engineered Fraen lens, still pumps out the brightest light of all the lamps we tested -- enough to bounce off signs, license plates, and other reflective materials up to four blocks away, giving us plenty of time to make an impression. All we have to worry about now is whether some cop-hating, GTA IV-overdosing motorist trying to run us down. WIRED: Recessed switch only works if pressed firmly, which means it won’t turn on in your bag while you jostle your way to the bar, leaving you in the dark at closing time. Planet Bike spends 25 percent of its profits on bike advocacy. TIRED: The brightness and reduced weight come at a price: 20 hours of battery life in blinking mode, and only seven on high. Though it installs without the use of a tool, the handlebar bracket is tricky to tighten and slips easily. $50, Planet Bike
Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : While not the sharpest bulb on our handlebars, the WhiteLite HP AA is in it for the long haul. Don’t get us wrong -- just like other 1-watt LED headlamps, this portable, all-in one lamp is more than a glorified blinky. When engineering this light, Topeak got all snippy, cutting the cords to one of its external power-pack lights and reengineered it to accept three AA batteries. Its widely diffused beam covers plenty of surface area and earned our trust by helping us dodge nasty potholes and tree roots on unlit paths. But where this guy really shines is in perseverance, by lasting 30 hours on high and a whopping 120 on flash. WIRED: The mounting bracket screws tight with a finger knob and adjusts five degrees left and right to get a straight aim even on angled handlebars, although it does require an Allen key to tighten. Little red LED signals when batteries are low. TIRED: Blinks come slowly and lack urgency in flashing mode. Pushing the rear on/off push button can rotate the mount and mess up the light angle. Sound like a small problem? It won't be when you look up just in time to face plant into the bumper of a lifted pickup. $60, Topeak
Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. : The E71 looks more like a Blackberry Killer, but don’t be fooled: This great white hope gives the iPhone a run for its money in a lot of different areas (yes, really). Despite its obvious lack of an oversize touchscreen interface, Nokia wins points for a remarkably trim profile (10mm vs. 12.3mm), decent 3.2-megapixel camera (instead of 2.0), and the fact it's not tied to any carrier (yet). Setting up Nokia's Mail for Exchange program required no IT help or time. QuickOffice let us create, edit and send Word/Excel/PowerPoint files on the fly while we browsed PDFs with Adobe Acrobat Reader. The E71 is stocked with enough apps and goodies to keep even the most overworked road warrior on the ball, but it didn't feel too "business" due to two separate customizable home screens. One is designed to house all of your work apps while the other is geared more toward entertainment with programs for audio, video and gaming. The phone's 2.36-inch, 320 x 240 QVGA display is only slightly smaller than the iPod classic's, and though the resolution can't top the iPhone's, with 15 fps, the E71 is still solid for YouTube clips. Oh, and did we mention the E71's got battery life for days? Yes, literally, three of them. WIRED: Up to 8 GB in an easy-to-access, external microSD slot. Quick and seamless OS. GPS, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth (you name it, it's basically got it). Vivid screen (even in direct sunlight). Textured stainless steel backing prevents slippage. Relatively lightweight (127 grams = six grams lighter than iPhone). Hit any letter on the QWERTY pad and predictive text calls up that section of your address book. TIRED: No standard 3.5-mm headphone jack. 3.2-megapixel camera's optics could be better. LED flash could be way better. N-Gage gaming platform not available. Screen's wide, but not wide enough to do a feature-length film justice. For $500, you could get two 8-GB, 3-G JesusPhones (with $100 left over to put toward AT&T's data plan). $500 (unlocked), Nokia
Photo: Max Buck/Wired.com Read our full Nokia E71 review. Check Wired.com's latest Gadget Lab reviews, updated daily. Source: Wired: Gadgets | 22 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am Disgruntled iPhone 3G owner sues Apple over download speedSAN FRANCISCO - A customer sued Apple Inc. over its iPhone 3G, saying it doesn't download Web pages and music at twice the rate of its predecessor, as the company advertises.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am New Star Wars Videogame Unleashes the Force in You image: Courtesy of LucasArtsOn September 16, LucasArts will release Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, the latest addition to George Lucas' science fiction universe. Set between the events of episodes III and IV, the videogame promises to fill the gaps between the two film trilogies, a time period that saw the Empire cement its hold over the galaxy.  image: Courtesy of LucasArtsIn The Force Unleashed, players take on the role of Darth Vader's secret apprentice, Starkiller. Found as a child by Vader on the Wookiee home world Kashyyyk, Starkiller is trained to aid Vader in his quest to destroy the Jedi Order, and together with Vader supplant Emperor Palpatine. The game is set in the nether region between the trilogies and features many entirely new characters, so the game designers had some freedom to establish new events in the Star Wars timeline. But the major events had to be cleared with Star Wars creator George Lucas, and every detail had to be vetted by the Lucas Licensing department of Lucasfilm to ensure that it fits into the continuity.  image: Courtesy of LucasArtsThe Secret Apprentice's appearance is crucial to the character's ethos. He wields the signature red lightsaber of the dark side, and his gaunt, sinister look—complete with tattered clothing, scars—shows that Darth Vader wasn't a particularly nurturing father figure. The character is voiced by the actor Sam Witwer, who bears an uncanny resemblance to his in-game alter ego.  image: Courtesy of LucasArtsAs a Jedi, you'll be equipped with a lightsaber and a growing knowledge of Jedi powers. To put it bluntly, Unleashed is all about the ancient, primal art of kicking ass with the Force. Restrained feelings and a code of honor are fine and dandy for Jedi following the light side of the Force, but Dark Jedi get to have a bit more fun. As the title suggests, Starkiller's strength comes from reveling in bad vibes and unleashing energy with very little restraint. The end result? The glorious obliteration of your enemies.  image: Courtesy of LucasArtsRather than relying on prescripted sequences and events, The Force Unleashed utilizes technologies that create on-the-fly reactions from characters and materials. Something called Euphoria grants characters biomechanical AI, allowing them to react to changes in their surroundings: Force Push a pack of Stormtroopers, and they'll stumble, or attempt to grab a railing or each other for support. Another technology, Digital Molecular Matter, applies that idea to inanimate objects: Force Throw a Wookiee against an object and it will deform or break in a lifelike manner, whether it's a tree, a hunk of metal, or a pane of glass.  image: Courtesy of LucasArtsYou are Darth Vader's secret apprentice: And that means leaving no witnesses. Whether that's a sign of Vader's paranoia or a handy way to introduce a previously unknown character, this means that you'll be eliminating Imperial troops in addition to Jedi. Not a bad way to maintain continuity—and amp up the body count to God of War levels, giving players a chance to try out a range of increasingly powerful Force attacks. Killing everyone guarantees that the secret apprentice Starkiller maintains a low profile. It also explains why he wasn't invited to the Life Day celebration in the Star Wars Holiday Special.  image: Courtesy of LucasArtsNew characters abound: Serving as a sidekick and a bit of comic relief is the droid Proxy, designed to accompany and train the Secret Apprentice. Proxy is equipped with advanced hologram technology and a body that can change shape—taking on the form of enemies, other Jedi, and even Vader himself.  photo: Jeff MintonThe kid's room at the Lucas Licensing department is jam-packed with merchandise offered by Lucasfilm. “It's every parent's worst nightmare,” jokes Leland Chee, continuity database administrator in the licensing department, who is also known as the Keeper of the Holocron. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there existed a Jedi device called the Holocron: a Force-powered hard drive capable of storing vast quantities of information. In our own time, that Holocron exists as a FileMaker database with more than 30,000 entries, and Leland Chee of Lucas Licensing is its Keeper. His job is to ensure that additions to the Star Wars canon adhere strictly to the continuity established by works that have come before it. Unleashed will be joining a book, a graphic novel, and several lines of toys when it arrives, and the licensing department is tasked with adding all of the new lore to the growing compendium of Star Wars knowledge and ensuring that it all fits.  image: Courtesy of LucasArtsIn keeping with the Star Wars saga, The Force Unleashed is ultimately a tale of redemption. Under Order 66 at the end of Episode III, Emperor Palpatine orders the extermination of all Jedi officers in the Grand Army of the Republic. The Secret Apprentice must carry out assassinations, and he eventually encounters General Rahm Kota, a cold, honorable Jedi Master dedicated to the Force. Having survived the Jedi Purge (several Jedi have slipped through the cracks), Kota stirs up trouble by relentlessly attacking Imperial facilities. Their meeting will play an important role in the ultimate formation of the Rebellion.  image: Courtesy of LucasArtsIn Episode IV, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are alive and on amicable terms. There's also no mention of Starkiller or a Secret Apprentice among the Rebels or the Imperials, so how does a Jedi this powerful go unnoticed? The Force Unleashed will be released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 2, DS, and PSP, so no matter your console of choice, you'll be able to figure that one out for yourself.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Aug 2008 | 4:00 am New edition of Make Room! Make Room! I dropped in at the Tor Books offices today and spotted this fantastic new edition of Harry Harrison's novel Make Room! Make Room! (better known for the film based on it, Soylent Green). Now that's a hell of a good-lookin' book. Make Room! Make Room! Source: Boing Boing | 22 Aug 2008 | 3:30 am ScanSource 4Q profit up but outlook falls shortScanSource Inc. , a big distributor of bar code scanners and point-of-sale machines for retailers, said Thursday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit jumped 28 percent, handily beating Wall Street's forecast,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 3:06 am Jail 'Greedy' Scam Victims, Says Nigerian DiplomatAcidAUS writes with this nearly unbelievable snippet from today's Sydney Morning Herald: "The Nigerian high commissioner in Australia says people who are ripped off by so-called Nigerian scams are just as guilty as the fraudsters and should be jailed. Responding to a story in yesterday's Herald, which revealed Australians lose at least $36 million a year to the online scams, Sunday Olu Agbi said Australians had failed to heed repeated warnings not to deal with shady characters on the internet."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Aug 2008 | 2:42 am Aug. 22, 1962: First Nuke-Powered Cargo Ship Docks1962: NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, completes its maiden voyage. In a world terrified by the prospect of nuclear war, the Savannah was meant to demonstrate the peaceful use and positive potential of nuclear power. President Eisenhower conceived the idea as part of his "Atoms for Peace" program in 1955, a time when the United States and Soviet Union were routinely testing increasingly powerful nuclear weapons. Four nuclear-powered merchant ships were eventually built. The Savannah, named for the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1819, was in every sense of the word a showcase. The ship was given a sleek, streamlined design that wasn't really compatible with stowing large amounts of cargo, a fact that would eventually shorten its career. Passenger accommodation was comparable to many conventional liners of the day. There were 30 air-conditioned staterooms, a dining room for 100 people, a swimming pool, a library and a lounge that could be converted into a cinema. But the heart of the Savannah was its nuclear propulsion system, which at $28 million ($203 million in today's money) cost more than the ship itself, a mere $18.5 million ($134 million today). The Babcock and Wilcox nuclear reactor drove Savannah's two steam-turbine engines cheaply and efficiently. In the end, though, it wasn't economical enough to offset the tight forward cargo area and other deficiencies that made the ship too expensive to operate commercially. Its tapered bow not only limited the cargo capacity to 8,500 tons -- well below that of contemporary vessels -- but also made loading difficult, especially as ports became more automated. The Savannah also required a crew of 124, one-third again as large as conventionally powered ships, and those crew members required additional training to work with the propulsion system. The Maritime Administration, which owned Savannah, leased her in 1965 to American Export-Isbrandtsen Lines for cargo-passenger service. But the ship never turned a profit and was laid up in January 1972. The Savannah spent most of the 1970s tied up in Galveston, Texas, where it underwent regular inspections of its nuclear plant. Since then, the ship, which has been designated a National Historic Landmark, has become a museum piece in search of a home. Following decommissioning, the nuclear fuel was removed; the process of cleaning out all remaining nuclear contamination continues in a Baltimore shipyard. When that job is completed sometime in 2011, the Maritime Administration hopes to see Savannah converted into a floating museum. So far, there have been no takers. Source: Various
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Aug 2008 | 1:00 am Intel shows how to send power wirelesslyTHE PROMISE: Using wireless power transmission, one day people might be able to recharge their laptops or cell phones or other gadgets without plugging them into an electrical socket. The technology makes...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:52 am 2008 Is the Coldest Year of the 21st Centurydtjohnson writes "Data from the United Kingdom Meteorological Office suggests that 2008 will be an unusually cold year due to the La Nina effect in the western Pacific ocean. Not to worry, though, as the La Nina effect has faded recently so its effect on next years temperatures will be reduced. However, another natural cycle, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, is predicted to hold global temperatures steady for the next decade before global warming takes our planet into new warmth. If these predictions are correct, there must be a lot of planetary heat being stored away somewhere ... unless the heat output from the sun is decreasing rather than increasing or the heat being absorbed by the earth is decreasing due to changes in the earth's albedo."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Aug 2008 | 12:20 am "Roger! I said oscillate -- not osculate!" Geeky gag cartoon from 1961. (Note the "oscillyscope" on the workbench.) Oscilloscope Humor Source: Boing Boing | 21 Aug 2008 | 11:29 pm The Mainframe World Is Alive, Even For Those Under 40willdavid writes with a link to a report by Jeff Gould at Interop Systems, about the definitely-still-around world of mainframe computing, from which he extracts: "Last week I had the occasion to visit SHARE, the premier mainframe conference, which was held in San Jose just down the road from where I live. Based on what I saw, there is one thing I can tell you for sure, and that is that Cobol is not dead. And neither is the mainframe. When I mentioned to one of my friends that I had been to SHARE, he joked that it must have looked like an AARP convention. But this turned out not to be so. While there were certainly a few 60-somethings strolling around the halls, the under 40 generation was also well represented. What struck me the most was not the advanced age of the people but the relative youth of a lot of the software being discussed." However, it's not all fountain of youth there, either. (Thanks, BDPrime.)Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Aug 2008 | 11:08 pm Intuit has loss in seasonally weak fourth quarter (Reuters)Reuters - Intuit Inc , maker of TurboTax tax preparation software, reported on Thursday that it had a wider loss in its seasonally weak fourth quarter, which ended July 31.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Aug 2008 | 10:56 pm A History of Atari — the Golden Yearssimoniker writes "Over at Gamasutra, Steve Fulton has published a massive 23,000-word history of Atari from 1978 to 1981, encompassing '... some of the most exciting developments the company ever saw in its history: the rise of the 2600, the development of some of the company's most enduringly popular games (Centipede, Asteroids) and the development and release of its first home computing platforms.' Best quote in there for Slashdot readers, perhaps: 'Atari had contracted with a young programmer named Bill Gates to modify a BASIC compiler that he had for another system to be used on the 800. After that project stalled for over a year Al was called upon to replace him with another developer. So ... Al is the only person I know ever to have fired Bill Gates.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Aug 2008 | 10:12 pm Nonprofit Distributes File Sharing Propaganda to 50,000 U.S. StudentsA nonprofit legal organization whose mission is to foster an understanding of the U.S. court system, has distributed 50,000 leaflets to students that erroneously say peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted music is a crime, with a maximum two-year sentence and $25,000 fine. The National Center for State Courts tells Wired.com that the purpose of the literature, which is propaganda at its finest, is "to educate kids."
Source: Wired Top Stories | 21 Aug 2008 | 10:06 pm Photos of disassembled household appliances Flickr user Brittnybadger has a drop-dead gorgeous set of disassembled household appliances, saying, "this was my senior thesis project at the hartford art school this past year...i took apart used cooking/cleaning appliances, and arranged their interior parts very systematically on a white sheet of bristol board. my intention was to explore the hidden "brains" of these appliances; allowing us to view these everyday objects from a new perspective." disassembled household appliances (via Kottke) Source: Boing Boing | 21 Aug 2008 | 9:59 pm Biodegradable Plastics Are Good for Atmosphere, TooBiodegradable plastic has a hidden advantage: Producing it releases less CO2.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 21 Aug 2008 | 9:38 pm Jar Jar Lollipop? Star Wars Merch OverwhelmsMerch and more merch: Movies, games, comics and novels are the tip of the iceberg. Leland Chee shows off more Star Wars goods, like Yoda skateboards, Wookiee slippers and of course, Darth Tater. Beware the Jar Jar lollipop!
Source: Wired Top Stories | 21 Aug 2008 | 9:00 pm Plot the Galaxy on Wired.com's Star Wars TimelineThe Star Wars empire has expanded to encompass thousands of characters, planets and events. It's the job of Leland Chee and the Lucasfilm continuity geeks to rule on what's official and what's not.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 21 Aug 2008 | 9:00 pm Meet Leland Chee, the Star Wars Franchise Continuity CopOn the wall behind Leland Chee's desk is a portrait of an Ithorian, an alien with a hammer-shaped head that you glimpse briefly in the famous Star Wars cantina scene. In its leathery, foot-long fingers, the Ithorian holds a cube decorated with elaborate metallic tracings, a device known as a holocron. Think of it as a Force-powered hard drive, capable of storing an enormous quantity of information. "It's a piece of Jedi technology," Chee says. "It tells you ... everything." To Star Wars fans, Chee is the Keeper of the Holocron, arguably the leading expert on everything that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. His official title is continuity database administrator for the Lucas Licensing arm of Lucasfilm—which means Chee keeps meticulous track of not just the six live-action movies but also cartoons, TV specials, scores of videogames and reference books, and hundreds of novels and comics. Keepin' it canonical: Leland Chee, continuity database administrator at Lucas Licensing, maintains the Holocron — a vast FileMaker database that's consulted to make sure that any new elements added to the Star Wars franchise fit within the existing mythology.
Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross
For more, visit video.wired.com. Of course, Chee's Holocron isn't a Force-sensitive crystal. It's a FileMaker database, a searchable repository of more than 30,000 entries covering almost every character, planet, and weapon mentioned, however fleetingly, in the vast array of Star Wars titles and products. The Holocron isn't just for fun—when Lucas Licensing inks a deal with a toy company or a T-shirt designer, it vets those ancillary products to ensure they conform to the spirit and letter of the continuity that has come before and will continue afterward. In the past 31 years, Star Wars movies have grossed in excess of $4 billion worldwide. But retail sales of merchandise stand at $15 billion, and 20 percent of that has been earned since 2006, the year after the final film was released. Careful nurture of the Star Wars canon—thousands of years of story time, running through all the bits and pieces of merchandise—has kept the franchise popular for decades. So Chee spends three-quarters of his typical workday consulting or updating the Holocron. He also approves packaging designs, scans novels for errors, and creates Talmudic charts and documents addressing such issues as which Jedi were still alive during the Clone Wars and how long it takes a spaceship to get from Dagobah, where Yoda trained Luke Skywalker, to Luke's homeworld of Tatooine. The Keeper of the Holocron takes this very seriously: "Someone has to be able to say, 'Luke Skywalker would not have that color of lightsaber.'" The screening room at the Letterman Digital Arts Center, Lucasfilm's sprawling facility in San Francisco's Presidio District, is as opulent as you would expect—plush seats, wood panels, crystal-clear projection, and a perfect sound system. So when that classic John Williams fanfare begins and the Star Wars logo appears onscreen in that distinctive font, in that distinctive yellow, it quickens the pulse. It's also when Chee, sitting next to me, tells me that in an early version of what we're watching—a new LucasArts videogame called The Force Unleashed, due out in September—the logo was slightly wrong. "It was off by only a few pixels, but someone in Licensing spotted it and submitted a report." I grab an Xbox 360 controller and soon I'm striding through the corridors of a satellite that orbits the smugglers' moon of Nar Shaddaa, destroying everyone in my path. My character, Starkiller, is the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, sent here to eliminate a Jedi elder ... and leave no witnesses. I deflect laser blasts from militia troops with my lightsaber and then use the Force to hurl a chunk of metal through a window behind them. The glass shatters, and several foes are sucked into the vacuum of space before a safety wall snaps shut. I'm beginning to understand the power of the Dark Side. On the scale of badassedness, obliterating legions of good guys with the Force ranks right up there with leaping Snake River Canyon in a monster truck that can transform into a robot. And it's true that the game's sophisticated physics, combined with clever AI software for characters, means that when you Force-throw a Wookiee into a tree on its home planet, Kashyyyk, the Wookiee writhes realistically and the tree explodes in a botanically accurate cloud of splinters. But that's not what has fans most excited about The Force Unleashed. It's the stuff that happens between the interactive killing sprees: brief cinematic interludes that add new details—new plot points—to the saga. "The game is set between episodes III and IV," says Haden Blackman, who led the development team. Translation: Play it and you'll learn what happened before the original Star Wars film trilogy and after the prequels, two decades that have been shrouded in mystery. Over the course of the game, players will learn the details of the internecine feud between Darth Vader and his mentor, Emperor Palpatine, and the way these two unwittingly created the very rebellion that brought them down. The game has yielded a bountiful crop of tie-ins: a book, a graphic novel, a tabletop role-playing game supplement, and several lines of toys. With no more live-action Star Wars films forthcoming (or so we are told), games from the subsidiary division LucasArts are becoming ever more important in expanding the universe—and perpetuating the story-product ecology. And with every narrative beat and plot point, Chee and his dozens of colleagues with Holocron access are there. "Licensing approves everything," he says. "Text, dialog, art ... It all comes through our office." This is where the work of hundreds of writers and artists gets woven into a vast, internally consistent continuum. The power of the Dark Side: LucasArts' Haden Blackman discusses the story and the technology behind the upcoming game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross
For more, visit video.wired.com. In his 1932 book Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction, T. S. Blakeney used the term canonicity in reference to the mystery novels and short fiction of Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes enthusiasts treat Doyle's work as if the great detective inhabits a coherent and logically consistent universe. Some of the stories written by Doyle were canonical—genuine events in that alternate universe—while others had to be considered apocryphal. (It should come as no surprise that fans would appropriate theological terms. The ecstasy of true fandom can, after all, approximate religion.) Today, canon and its serial-fiction cousin, continuity, are integral to genres like mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi. The giants of the field are known as world-builders as much as writers. J. R. R. Tolkien supplemented his Lord of the Rings series with hundreds of pages of appendices, genealogical charts, even pronunciation and usage guides for the languages he invented. Yet in the multiverse of fictional realities, Holmes's London, Frodo's Middle-earth, Buffy's Sunnydale, and Batman's Gotham are mere planetary systems compared with the grand galactic enterprise of Star Trek. When the original series—known to devout fans as The Original Series—went off the air in 1969, acolytes kept the flame alive. They extended the stories with their own fiction. They created technical manuals. Eventually, the series became a movie, and then another, and then another TV series, and a few more after that. Each new iteration produced more canonical information. Spock's death, Kirk's son, Picard's adventures as a cadet ... eventually, the writers' room on a Trek show became a minefield. "Someone would tell you that a Voyager episode last year mentioned a bit of backstory with the Romulans, and now you can't do this over here," says Ron Moore, a writer and producer on several Star Trek shows who went on to create the new Battlestar Galactica. "You'd argue the validity of that, but they'd be, like, 'No, now it's established.'" 
Lucas Licensing oversees billions of dollars in merchandise—from pillows to Pez dispensers.
Photo: Jeff Minton But the many strata of Star Trek books, games, comics, and cartoons haven't been well tended. Some events in the movies and even later TV shows contradict preexisting lore. (A backward change like that is called a retcon, short for "retroactive continuity.") Gene Roddenberry himself, creator of Star Trek, was known to second-guess his own pronouncements about what was and was not canonical. After a while, the retcons and inconsistencies can become off-putting to fans and render once-beloved universes impenetrable to newcomers. One solution: a reboot. Start from scratch, like Moore did with Galactica. Clever preservation of original story elements retains the old fans, and streamlining and modernizing lets newbies spend their hard-earned quatloos, too. To Chee, the orderliness of the Star Wars canon is what sets it apart, what makes it feel more real than all those other franchises. "Look at James Bond," he says. "What's real in the James Bond world? What year does it take place in? It's not grounded in a real timeline." The Star Wars chronology, on the other hand, marks time from the Battle of Yavin, the assault on the Death Star at the end of the original Star Wars. Luke Skywalker was born in the year 19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). It says so in the Holocron. Back in his office, Chee asks his database what else it has on young Skywalker. The result contains scores of fields covering lineage, favorite vehicles, the planet he's from, how to write his name in the Aurebesh alphabet. "Oops," Chee says, blocking the screen with his body until he has minimized the window. "There are things in the Holocron that aren't public knowledge, stuff coming down the pike two or three years from now." He won't say whether those secrets relate to upcoming books, movies, games, or toys. Probably all of them. Merch and more merch: Movies, games, comics, and novels are the tip of the iceberg. Leland Chee shows off more Star Wars goods, like Yoda skateboards, Wookiee slippers, and Darth Tater. Beware the Jar Jar lollipop! Producer: Annaliza Savage, Editor: Michael Lennon, Camera: John Ross
For more, visit video.wired.com. Lucasfilm has to plan ahead and think long term. "We don't reboot. We don't start from scratch," Chee says. "When Chewbacca died, he died." (Poor Chewie yowled his last yowl in 25 ABY, when he was stuck on the planet Sernpidal as it collided with its moon, Dobido, in the novel Vector Prime, the first book in the New Jedi Order series. His death is now canon.) "The thing about Star Wars is that there's one universe," Chee says. "Everyone wants to know stuff, like, where did Mace Windu get that purple lightsaber? We want to establish that there's one and only one answer." Star Wars was the number two toy brand aimed at boys last year, behind only Transformers. But toys account for less than half of the revenue for licensed merchandise. The Lucas Licensing office is positively drowning in other merch. Bedspreads, window blinds, pillowcases, wastebaskets, guitars, chairs, baseball caps, beach balls, jewelry, lunch boxes, cookie jars, and kites all added up to $3 billion in retail sales in 2006 and 2007. That figure includes big-ticket items aimed at adults. An R2-D2 DVD projector. A stormtrooper golf bag. A high-end fashion line created with superstar designer Marc Ecko, including $300 Star Wars jeans and a replica of the poncho Han Solo wore on the ice planet Hoth. There was even a $3,000 suit of Darth Vader-style samurai armor. "We realize that our fans have different levels of disposable income," says Howard Roffman, president of Lucas Licensing, who joined the company a week after the premiere of The Empire Strikes Back, in 1980. "The kids who played with the toys have grown up." 
Leland Chee strolls the San Francisco campus of Lucasfilm.
Photo: Jeff Minton There have been some egregious missteps, like the Jar Jar lollipop. It looks like a plastic bust of the hated character, but push a button and it opens its mouth and sticks out a hideous candy tongue for children to suck on. "The tongue had bumps on it," Chee says, wrinkling his nose. Chee's sense of what is correct in the Star Wars universe has been a lifetime in development. He saw the original movie at the Coronet Theater in San Francisco at age 6. He got his first plastic Star Wars action figures—R2-D2 and that lame C-3P0 look-alike, Death Star Droid—for his seventh birthday and from there steadily enlarged his collection, storing them all in a case shaped like Darth Vader's head (which he still has). Chee even kept the cardboard they were mounted on. "The packaging had great visuals, plus, like, a paragraph of backstory on the character," he says. It's easy to forget that before Star Wars, licensed merchandise was a different, less profitable business. All the big toymakers turned down the rights to make Star Wars action figures; upstart Kenner didn't sign on until a month before the film's release. The earliest product tie-ins were novels and comics—Marvel published an adaptation of the movie a month after it hit theaters, then continued with its own stories. Soon Marvel had smugglers Solo and Chewbacca teaming up with questionable characters like Jaxxon, a furry green creature with big floppy ears who wisecracked like Bugs Bunny. "The idea of continuity was alien at the time," Roffman says. "We let Marvel Comics do the stories they wanted as long as it didn't interfere with the upcoming movies, and they went in some bizarre directions." The first Star Wars novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, was published in 1978, before anyone knew that sequels would be filmed, much less that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia would later turn out to be siblings. "Luke and Leia get ... affectionate," Chee allows. "It's very wrong." The success of the movies led to more products: TV specials, a Saturday morning cartoon show, newspaper comics, a board game, a D&D-style tabletop role-playing game, simple arcade and console videogames. Young Chee bought as much as he could, including the sheet music for the iconic theme song, which he played at his first organ recital. After the release of Return of the Jedi, in 1983, Lucasfilm assumed that interest would wane. But the merch kept selling. And then, Chee remembers, the novel Heir to the Empire was published. "Wait, was it 1990?" he says, tapping a search into the Holocron. "I need to get this date right." It was actually 1991 when Hugo Award-winning writer Timothy Zahn released the novel, set five years after Return of the Jedi. The book spent 19 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and proved to Lucasfilm that even without new movies, it still had a market. "I was in college at UC Davis by then, but that book brought me back into Star Wars," Chee says. Without movies at the core, though, Lucas Licensing couldn't afford to be lackadaisical—no more Jaxxons, no more incestuous flirtations. "We set parameters," Roffman says. "It had to be an important extension of the continuity, and it had to have an internal integrity with the events portrayed in the films." Closely tending the canon was paying off with fans. Essentially, all the new comic books, novels, and games were prequels and sequels of one another. If you wanted to know the whole story, you had to buy them all. Neither Lucasfilm nor its licensees will divulge just how much money Lucasfilm gets for each item; suffice it to say the percentage is substantial. Chee applied for a job as a software tester at LucasArts shortly before Star Wars: Special Edition was rereleased in 1997. The film was an updated version of the 1977 original, with new visual effects and added scenes. (The special edition proved that the canon is vulnerable to retcons. In the most egregious example, an f/x tweak now has alien errand boy Greedo, not Han Solo, shooting first in the cantina duel. This made Solo a more simplistic character.) Chee scoffed at the fanboys who waited in line for three days outside the Coronet to see a movie they already owned on VHS. He had the self-restraint to wait until 5 am on the day of the release to queue up. When Chee got home from the movie, there was a message on his answering machine. He had the gig. "That was the last time I had to wait in line to see a Star Wars movie," he says. At first, his job entailed identifying and logging game bugs. His uncanny command of Star Wars lore and his organizational skills allowed him to rise quickly to the role of lead tester, which eventually led him to work on the 1998 title Behind the Magic. Magic wasn't so much a game as an interactive CD-ROM of Star Wars trivia, a treasure trove of data for überfans that included a timeline, a searchable glossary, scripts, and deleted scenes. Assembling it revealed inconsistencies in the canon. "There were differences in the layout of the Millennium Falcon between the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back," says Blackman, who, in addition to being project lead on The Force Unleashed, also wrote and did research for Magic. "The continuity fix is that Han Solo made some modifications to the ship's interior." Around 2000, Chee moved from LucasArts to Lucas Licensing, where he was tasked with creating an even more detailed version of Magic for internal use. "We had several game-design teams, several comic book writers, and dozens of novelists," Roffman says. "We needed a reference for everyone who was playing in our sandbox." Chee was the perfect person for the job. "I've been amassing Star Wars knowledge my whole life," he says. "My friends were always like, what the heck are you ever going to do with all of that?" Chee's answer: Create a FileMaker doc similar to the ones he had used to track game bugs. He started transferring information from Magic, from binders, and from the stream of new novels and comics. "You don't know how much you don't know until you get here," he says. "Like, I'd never heard the radio dramas." In a forum on StarWars.com, PiccoloKenobi poses a question that we've all wondered about at one time or another: Are the Low Altitude Assault Transport gunships used by the Grand Army of the Republic spaceworthy, or are they limited to traveling within a planet's atmosphere? "LAATs can be sealed to operate in the vacuum of space," Chee decrees in a response post. "But the standard LAAT is not equipped for long-distance space travel." In the world of continuity maintenance, Chee is something of an anomaly. Most geek-friendly franchises rely on volunteerism—while Chee was building the Holocron, fans of other canons were working outside official imprimatur. Babylon 5 has a fan-created database. The Buffyverse has several. In fact, the best source for Star Wars information on the older stuff that Chee hasn't logged yet is an online database created and maintained by a community of fans that Chee views with wary respect. It's called, inevitably, the Wookieepedia. Naturally, some fans chafe at the Lucasfilm pronouncement-from-on-high approach. Take Curtis Saxton, a theoretical astrophysicist at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the UK. Beginning in 1995, he released a series of amateur technical commentaries on TheForce.net, a Star Wars omnibus site, that sent shock waves through the fan community.
A fan-made video critiquing Curtis Saxton's theory of the Endor Holocaust.
Video: The Endor Holocaust
Saxton wasn't writing fan fiction—it was more like fan physics. He started out by estimating the size and power of various Star Wars vehicles and weapons, including the Death Star's planet-destroying superlaser (2.4 x 1032 joules to blow up the planet Alderaan). His numbers didn't jibe with those in the Lucas Licensing-approved tech manuals. But he persisted. And that's what led to the Endor Holocaust. At the climax of Return of the Jedi, Death Star II explodes while orbiting a forested moon called Endor, populated by cuddly creatures called Ewoks. Saxton considered the Death Star's orbit, the power output of its hypermatter power source, and the sheer tonnage of debris its destruction would have generated, then concluded that the climactic battle must have rained death and nuclear winter onto the teddy-bear tribe. He wrote: "The mass-extinction event at Endor is an inevitable physical consequence of the circumstances at the end of Return of the Jedi. As such, it indirectly enjoys canonical status, even though it was not clearly portrayed in the film." In other words, science says the Ewoks are dead. You can't posit the genocide of the Ewoks without igniting a backlash. In the forums, debates raged between self-described Saxtonites and their foes. This willingness of some obsessives to go deeper into the fictional world than its original creators did is a mainstay of fandom. "It goes back to Hugo Gernsback, the father of modern science fiction, who encouraged readers to dig into his stories, expand on them, and critique the science," says Henry Jenkins, a sci-fi fan and MIT media-studies professor. Despite Saxton's heretical notions, he later worked on four official technical manuals. And the notion of an Endor Holocaust has been incorporated into several comics—as foul propaganda spread by Imperial loyalists. But the fact that official Star Wars products even addressed the idea shows how influential writing like Saxton's can be. It's called fanon—fan-generated canon—and it's still a controversial notion to the priesthood at Lucasfilm. "I don't like the term," Chee says. "There's no such thing as fan continuity." Yet even within the Holocron, not all reality is created equal. Chee coded a pulldown menu that lets him categorize entries. S, for example, stands for secondary continuity—early unvetted works, such as The Star Wars Holiday Special. Sure, it introduced fan-favorite character Boba Fett to the continuity. But it also featured Princess Leia singing a carol to celebrate the Wookiee ceremony of Life Day, and Harvey Korman in drag playing a cooking instructor making Bantha Surprise.
Princess Leia serenades Wookiees on their homeworld Kashyyyk. From the quasi-canonical Star Wars Holiday Special.
Video: Star Wars Holiday Special - Leia sings
And then there's the very top level of canon, the inviolable, infallible level of Truth, marked GWL—George Walton Lucas. It's the divine word of the Creator who stands outside his universe and is not subject to the rules that govern it. Lucas approves every important addition to the canon. The ambitious story beats contained in the new game The Force Unleashed were permitted only after he signed off—and spent hours talking to the developers about the relationship between Darth Vader and the Emperor. Yes, he'll accept outside ideas. The novel Heir to the Empire introduced the planet of Coruscant, capital of the Old Republic, which Lucas later incorporated into the prequels. But he also used those prequels to retcon the hell out of Chee's otherwise well-integrated universe. Anakin Skywalker built C-3P0? GWL. Yoda knows Chewbacca? GWL. "George's view of the universe is his view," Chee says with a slightly grudging tone. "He's not beholden to what's gone before." The careful tending of the Star Wars continuity has yielded great wealth, but the key to a productive farm is to leave some fields fallow. A complete Holocron would leave little room for fantasy—for fans who, as Jenkins says, "love unmapped nooks and crannies, the dark shadows we can fill in with our imagination." That's something that GWL understands. For instance, the origins of the Jedi master Yoda, his species, and his home planet are off-limits. The backstory isn't even in the Holocron. "It doesn't exist, except maybe in George's mind," Chee says. "He feels like, 'You don't have to explain everything all the time. Let's keep some mystery.'" But ... what about the Holocron? "We work around him," Chee says. Senior editor Chris Baker (chris_baker@wired.com) wrote about the return of Futurama in issue 15.12.
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In the touching fourth novel set in the Old Man's War universe, Scalzi revisits the events of 2007's The Last Colony from the perspective of Zoë, adopted daughter of previous protagonists Jane Sagan and John Perry. Jane and John are drafted to help found the new human colony of Roanoke, struggling against a manipulative and deceitful homeworld government, native werewolf-like creatures and a league of aliens intent on preventing all space expansion and willing to eradicate the colony if needed. Meanwhile, teenage Zoë focuses more on her poetic boyfriend, Enzo; her sarcastic best friend, Gretchen; and her bodyguards, a pair of aliens from a race called the Obin who worship and protect Zoë because of a scientific breakthrough made by her late biological father.
