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Sponsored Post: Connect at home. Connect on the go.This post is sponsored by Verizon. Get Verizon FiOS Internet and Verizon Wireless Service all on ONE-BILL. FiOS has blazingly fast internet speeds, and Verizon Wireless is backed by Americas most reliable...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 7:00 pm Screaming Photography - Scream by Ashkan Sahihi (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Trend Hunter previously featured the unique photography of Ashkan Sahihi from Iran, which captured him kissing strangers. But in addition to making out with strangers, Sahihi,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 2:54 pm Celebrities Attacking Politicians - Lindsay Lohan on Sarah Palin (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson hold no love for governor Sarah Palin. In fact Lohan took to her MySpace blog in an entry called Political Blog to share how she really feels about...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 2:50 pm Take Two shares plunge after EA pulls bid (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:59 pm Take Two shares plunge after EA pulls bidNEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. video game publisher Take Two Interactive Software Inc plunged nearly 30 percent in premarket trading on Monday after larger rival Electronic Arts Inc ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:58 pm In-flight Internet: Web sites, but not phone calls - ZDNet
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:53 pm NASA Eyes Nuclear Reactor for Moon BaseNASA makes plans to power a future moon base with nuclear fission.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:40 pm Chianti: Secret to Long Life, Says Ancient RecipeA centuries-old recipe promising long life is found and its base is Chianti.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:40 pm SQL Injection Turns BusinessWeek Into Viral Replicatormartins writes "The website of popular magazine BusinessWeek has been attacked via SQL injection in an attempt to infect its readership with malware. Hundreds of pages in a section of BusinessWeek's website which offers information about where MBA students might find future employers have been affected."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:33 pm I2 Telecom offers cheap calls via mobile phones (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:27 pm Newspapers cry foul over Yahoo-Google ad deal (AP)AP - The World Association of Newspapers says it opposes a pending deal on advertising between Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. The Paris-based group wants European and U.S. regulators to block the deal on antitrust grounds.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:27 pm Newspapers cry foul over Yahoo-Google ad dealThe World Association of Newspapers says it opposes a pending deal on advertising between Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. The Paris-based group wants European and U.S. regulators to block the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:27 pm WSJ's New Look Is Fresh But Still Not FreeSix years stale (design wise), and nearly a year after being taken over by News Corp, the Wall Street Journal online is undergoing a major redesign. The changes, which go live Tuesday, bring a much-needed modern feel to the site that has been gradually expanding with more free general and lifestyle news but standing firm with its paid business services.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:25 pm SMobile Systems Now Offers Software to Protect Mobile Banking and TradingMobile Security Software To Protect Growing Number Of Busy Bankers On The Go COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- SMobile Systems (Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:21 pm solidThinking Names FISHER/UNITECH its First Value-Added Reseller in the U.S.FISHER/UNITECH to offer the latest in product design flexibility; will promote, sell and support solidThinking 7.6 TROY, Mich., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- solidThinking,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:20 pm Darwin Enhances (i-bind) (R) Platform for Producers who can now Independently Manage a Multitude of Professional Liability ClassesFARMINGTON, Conn., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Darwin Professional Underwriters, Inc. (NYSE: DR) announces a significant system upgrade to its state-of-the-art,...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:17 pm DMZ 5: The Hidden War, a war comic about non-combatantsThe fifth collected volume of Brian Wood's comic DMZ, "The Hidden War," does the least to advance the story of any of the collections to date -- but does more to advance its theme than any book so far...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:14 pm DMZ 5: The Hidden War, a war comic about non-combatants
The fifth collected volume of Brian Wood's comic DMZ, "The Hidden War," does the least to advance the story of any of the collections to date -- but does more to advance its theme than any book so far. And that makes it the best book in the series, if you ask me.
DMZ, for those of you who've missed it, is Brian Wood's brilliant (anti-)war comic, telling the story of Matty Roth, a news-rookie who ends up being the only trusted reporter on the besieged island of Manhattan, the DMZ in an American civil war that has torn the city to shreds. The thing that sets DMZ apart, more than anything else, is its glorification of non-combatants as the true heroes of war. The people who don't want to shoot a gun at anyone, who want to live and love and eat and take care of their children and make art and do their jobs. The true sides to any war are the warriors (of both sides) and the people in their way. The ideological differences between combatants and non-combatants are much deeper than those between the combatants themselves. People who think jihad and the war on terror are both ridiculous have less in common with jihadis and terror-warriors than those parties have with each other. Book five, "The Hidden War," tells the tales of those non-combatants more vividly than any of the other books to date. Skipping between a graffiti artist, a DJ, a reporter, a mob boss, and an eco-warrior, The Hidden War threads these loosely connected stories together into a unitary whole whose message is, "Fight your war somewhere else." It's a powerful message, and one exceedingly well conveyed through the tense plotting and sharp dialog that have established Wood as one of the great comic-writers of the decade. DMZ Vol. 5: The Hidden War
See also: Source: Boing Boing | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:14 pm Cox Communications Receives J.D. Power and Associates' Highest Honor in Regional Residential Telephone Customer Satisfaction for Sixth Consecutive YearATLANTA, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Cox Communications Inc. announced today that it received highest honors in J.D. Power and Associates' 2008 Residential Regional...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:13 pm EA walks away from Take-Two buyout (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:12 pm Inkubook Photo Book Maker Offers Free Books to Microsoft Silverlight Developers, UsersPromotion to Get the Word Out to the Silverlight Community about Inkubook INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Inkubook (Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:10 pm D&E Communications Turns to Aztek Networks to Ensure Community Protection and Maximize NECA SettlementsAztek's solutions enhance service reliability while enhancing settlements. BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Aztek Networks (Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:03 pm KEMET Announces the Sale of Its Wet Tantalum AssetsGREENVILLE, S.C., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- KEMET Corporation (NYSE: KEM) today announced that it has sold its Wet Tantalum assets to a wholly-owned subsidiary...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:03 pm Mercury Computer Systems Introduces the Converged Sensor Network(TM) Architecture for the Next-Generation BattlefieldCompany combines IP networking with signal and image processing in a flexible, standards-based approach that delivers unprecedented information intelligence to the tactical edge ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:03 pm Tide WidgetsTide data, like time and gps coordinates, now flows freely almost anywhere you desire, so there is no reason not to tap into this stream. Plugged into the data I feel more in tune with the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:00 pm Hurricane Ike Forces NASA To Stay Closed All Week - dBTechno
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:57 pm Indian Woman Convicted of Murder By Brain ScanKaseijin writes "Neuroscientist Champadi Raman Mukundan claims his Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature test is so accurate, it can tell whether a person committed or only witnessed an act. In June, an Indian judge agreed, using BEOS to find a woman guilty of killing her former fiancé. Scientific experts are calling the decision "ridiculous" and "unconscionable", protesting that Mukundan's work has not even been peer reviewed. How reliable should a test have to be, when eyewitnesses are notoriously fallible? Does a person have a right to privacy over their own memories, or should society's interest in holding criminals accountable come first?"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:57 pm Everyone but Apple joins new "buy once, play anywhere" group - Ars Technica
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:54 pm Best Buy to buy Napster for $121 mln (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:51 pm Guardian column: Googles size mattersMy Guardian column this week is a reprise of the discussion here about Google and its size in the market.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:46 pm Electrolux Kitchen Drawer ConceptBy Andrew Liszewski A few days ago I brought you a clever entry from the 2008 Electrolux Design Lab competition that made it a lot easier for a group of roommates to share, or really not share, the food...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:33 pm Treo 700wx Updater 1.24New Verizon Treo 700wx Updater From Palm Finally Provides Upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional Its still a mystery to me why Verizon has been so slow adopting new Treo smartphone models in the last...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:25 pm Seagate introduces new FreeAgent drives for 2008 - Slippery Brick
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:24 pm Adobe acquires YaWah for undisclosed priceAdobe Systems Inc. said Monday it acquired Denmark-based imaging software provider YaWah ApS for undisclosed terms.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:22 pm The web: fact or fiction, asks Tim Berners-LeeThe web is fast becoming a forum for conspiracy theories, rumour, innuendo and misleading information to breed, according to Tim Berners-Lee, who created it in the first place.He is worried that it was...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:14 pm Berners-Lee Launches New W3 Foundationrobertsonadams tips us to the initiation of the World Wide Web Foundation with $5M of seed funding from the Knight Foundation. From the announcement: "Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, unveils the World Wide Web Foundation. It aims to advance One Web that is free and open, to expand its capability and robustness, and to extend its benefits to all people on the planet." The new foundation's site should have video up soon of Berners-Lee's speech at the kickoff event. The foundation hopes to raise $50M–$100M and will issue grants in Web science, technology and practice, and Web for society. Initial plans will be disclosed early next year.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:09 pm Review: iPhone 2.1 Software - the iPhone Blog
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:07 pm Best Buy to Acquire Napster [Voices]By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron'sBest Buy (BBY) this morning announced a deal to buy online music site Napster (NAPS) for $2.65 a share in cash. That comes to $121 million, or $54 million net of Napster’s $67 million in cash and short term investments as of June 30. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Best Buy said it signed employment agreements with Napster CEO Chris Gorog and other key senior managers of the company to stay on after completion of the deal. Napster had revenue in the March 2008 fiscal year of $127.5 million, with a loss of $16.5 million. Best Buy will use cash on hand to complete the deal. Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2008 | 12:00 pm A notorious spammer is out of jail because of First Amendment ... - DailyTech
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:43 am France's WAN cries foul over Yahoo-Google ad dealThe World Association of Newspapers says it opposes a pending deal on advertising between Yahoo and Google. The Paris-based group wants EU and U.S. regulators to block the deal on antitrust grounds.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:33 am Indian stocks plummet on global financial turmoilIndian stocks plunged Monday amid anxiety about the global financial system on news of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy and the takeover of Merrill Lynch .Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:27 am LinkedIn launches advertising networkBusiness social networking site LinkedIn has created an advertising network that will allow partner publishers to identify LinkedIn users and target them across hundreds of sites.The site has joined ad...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:21 am Hard Choices: iPhone, iPod Nano and Gates-Seinfeld - TechNewsWorld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:03 am World Association of Newspapers fights Google/Yahoo ad dealThe World Association of Newspapers has written to European and North American competition regulators opposing the online search advertising deal between Google and Yahoo.WAN argued that the deal would...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:02 am Cambridge Technology Enterprises Limited to Acquire Protege Software ServicesCAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Rescuers Recover Two More Bodies From Chemical Plant Blast Site in ChinaText of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) [Xinhua: "China Chemical Plant Blast Death Toll Rises To Two, One Missing"] Shenyang, Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Back When There Were Milkmen GaloreTim Herr, who lives in New Holland, sent us this photo of his grandfather Ira H. Herr (1888-1977) standing in front of his 1936 Chevrolet sedan home delivery-milk truck on his farm. Tim also added this fascinating story about the dairy business.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am In Brief: Chemical Leak at Hotel PoolFIREFIGHTERS were called to a chlorine leak at the Holiday Inn hotel, in Bridgford, Stratford. Crews attended at 7am on Saturday, along with the environmental protection unit from Atherstone and a pumping appliance from Nuneaton.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Wildlife HabitatBy Currents Afield The Pennsylvania Game Commission, which loves to exhibit its state game lands and the wildlife habitat work being accomplished on those lands, is offering free tours of some of its game lands. One of the tours was Saturday near Mount Gretna.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Water PlanBy Currents Afloat Residents will have a chance at public meetings across the state to provide input on how Pennsylvania should manage its vast water resources.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am A Day at the BeachBy editorial A RECENT FEDERAL court settlement between environmentalists and the Environmental Protection Agency will be good news for people going to the beach, and it has the added benefit of forcing the government agency to do its job.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Papua New Guinea to Resettle Islanders Facing Rising Sea LevelText of report by Papua New Guinea newspaper The National website on 15 September [by Nelson K. Philip] The Carterets Islanders will be relocated to Tinputz on mainland Bougainville, 10 families at a time.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am China Evacuates 460,000 As Typhoon Sinlaku Approaches Eastern ProvincesText of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) [Xinhua: "460,000 People Evacuated as Tropical Storm Sinlaku Approaches East China"] Fuzhou, Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am An Odd Couple Takes a Bite From the Same AppleBy Alice Rawsthorn Think of a company whose name begins with A - a fictitious name that has nothing to do with what it does - and whose corporate symbol is an apple with a chunk bitten out of one side. You'd probably say Apple, and you'd be right.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am NEC and IBM Form SoC AllianceJapan-based chipmaker NEC Electronics has partnered with IBM to jointly develop next-generation semiconductor process technology.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am HP SPO Rolls Out 'Open Force' Scheme in the Middle East After Successful Worldwide Trial in the RegionHP SPO rolls out 'Open Force' scheme in the Middle East after successful worldwide trial in the region HP Middle East today announced the roll-out across the region of its 'Open Force' scheme following a successful global trial which took place in the UAE and KSA.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Getting Techies Out into the Real WorldBy Franziska Scheven Aka-Aki is trying to put the social into social networking. The German company makes social cellphones that allow members to detect each other via Bluetooth if they come within 20 meters, or 65 feet, of each other.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am You Can Surf, but Please, No TalkingBy Joe Sharkey "The nice thing about a long-haul flight is you've got time to do a lot of different things," said Jack Blumenstein, chief executive of Aircell. True. You can read. You can watch the movie or, on a few airlines, enjoy live satellite television.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am D-Link Keeps Isolated Population ConnectedD-Link, the end-to-end networking solutions provider for consumer and business, is helping bring Internet access to parts of central Texas classified as 'sub-rural' -- communities that are so small and isolated that they are not recognized by the Census Bureau -- by providing routers and managed switches to LiveAir Networks, a technical services company that brings digital microwave Internet service to the region.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Movies on the Big Screen, Gossip on the Small One Instant Celebrity News Turns Smartphones into 'Walking Television Stations'By Laura M. Holson When Kim Kardashian, famous for being famous, sliced her foot on a piece of glass in a New York hotel room on Aug. 25, the gossip Web site TMZ.com alerted fans over their cellphones. Traffic to the site jumped 10 percent within minutes.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Smartclip Standardizes on Akamai's Open Media Player for Largest German Ad NetworkAkamai Technologies, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am ContractXchange.Com Shows Homesourcing Has Arrived In The UK.Visitors to this year's http://www.callcentre-expo.co.uk/">Call Centre Expo (Birmingham National Exhibition Centre September 17-18) can experience an exciting, close-up view of how the homesourcing of customer service agents works.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Science Factory Is A Discoverer's DreamBy Louis A Butcher Jr The Lancaster Science Factory is captivating. If curiosity really did kill the cat, a feline visitor here would go through all nine lives in short order.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Awards Honor Work on Statins, Bacteria and RNABy Lawrence K. Altman Akira Endo, a Japanese scientist whose discovery of the first cholesterol-lowering statin drug helped extend the lives of millions of people, is one of five winners of this year's Lasker Awards for medical research, it was announced over the weekend.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Third Eye Blind Album Throws Remix Contest for Unreleased AlbumThird Eye Blind is allowing fans to mix and remix songs from Ursa Major before they even hear what it sounds like, on the Indaba music collaboration site. This appears to be the first time a band has intentionally leaked the components of an album in advance of its release.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am HOWTO Make a perfect cup coffee -- the science of ferocious black madness Salim sez, "Professor Mark Miodownik of Kings College Materials Research Group teaches us how to process raw beans to a perfect cup of coffee using every day using a collection of household & DIY implements." This was amazing -- I've always wondered about the chemistry of espresso and coffee roasting -- I've become a total coffee bore since I got serious about my home apparatus, and this has armed me with many useful factoids for understanding the imperfections in the shots I pull. Also, he uses Monmouth beans, which are all we use at home. They are superb. Dr Mark Miodownik - How to Make The Perfect Cup Of Coffee (Thanks, Salim!) Source: Boing Boing | 15 Sep 2008 | 10:51 am HOWTO Make a perfect cup coffee -- the science of ferocious black madnessSalim sez, "Professor Mark Miodownik of Kings College Materials Research Group teaches us how to process raw beans to a perfect cup of coffee using every day using a collection of household & DIY...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 10:51 am Game review: Star Wars: The Force UnleashedThe Force Unleashed is being hyped as the new Star Wars film. Not, perhaps, the biggest selling point considering the quality of the last few movies, but fans needn't worry Unleashed focuses on the fun...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 10:44 am EU proposes to cut tech tariffs under US pressureUnder pressure from the United States and Asia, the European Union proposed Monday to eliminate taxes on imports of newly developed high-tech goods in the hope of avoiding a lengthy and costly World Trade...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 10:40 am Flutter: Its MMS for the iPhone.. sort of.Little known fact: Steve Jobs has a time machine. No, not the OS X 10.5 “Time Machine” backup system. An actual Sherman-and-Mr.Peabody time machine. He doesn’t use it often, because...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 10:30 am Carbon targets too low to ensure a stable, long-term climate, expert warnsScientists may have to turn back time and clean the atmosphere of all man-made carbon dioxide to prevent the worst impacts of global warming, one of Europe's most senior climate scientists has warned...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 10:16 am HP to pitch EDS benefits to financial analystsLooking to challenge IBM Corp.'s hallmark services division in a bigger way, Hewlett-Packard Co. is scheduled to outline its vision Monday for integrating its new $13.9 billion prize, Electronic Data Systems...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 15 Sep 2008 | 10:16 am As Promised–Tina Fey as Sarah Palin as Tina Fey… [BoomTown]
While you might have seen it everywhere by now, BoomTown promised this would actually be the last post of the multitude of video spoofs about Alaska Governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin that have popped up on the Web of late. Thus, here is Tina Fey’s version–which, as I expected, is the best–of Palin on “Saturday Night Live” this past weekend. She is joined by Amy Poehler, who does a perfect slow-burn impression of New York Senator Hillary Clinton. The parody deftly managed to be funny without being sexist–even though it mocked the issue of sexism in politics–although some surely will accuse it of being so. They’re wrong. In any case, the best line was actually Fey/Palin’s interpretation that global warming was “just God huggin’ us closer.” While Palin did not give an official reaction to the much-anticipated comedy sketch, reporters on the campaign trail reported she did watch it and overheard her comment that she once dressed up as Fey for Halloween. Life is truly stranger than fiction. Here’s the video, which will doubtless be one of the most popular on the Internet this week: Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2008 | 9:38 am Testing IT Professionals On Job Interviews?An anonymous reader writes "After having my university degrees, a couple of IT certifications, and over ten years of work experience in the industry, with 2-4 years of verifiable employment with each employer, working with a wide range of technologies, is it reasonable to ask me to take some test on a job interview? The same companies don't ask other professionals (lawyer, accountant, sales, HR, etc.) to submit to any kind of in-house tests when they are hired. Why are IT professionals treated differently and in such a paternalistic way? More importantly, why do IT professionals accept being treated less favorably than members of other professions? Should IT professionals start to refuse to be treated as not real professionals?"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Sep 2008 | 9:15 am Teens view cell phones as essential (CNET)CNET - SAN FRANCISCO - Cell phones have become almost as important to American teens as the clothes they wear, according to a nationwide survey of teenagers released last week.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 9:06 am Drunk, Stupid and On Facebook Is No Way to Go Through Life, Son [Digital Daily]
Of course, by making that information easier to share with friends and colleagues, social networks are also making it easier to share with less “social” entities. Among those are hiring managers, who are increasingly surfing social-networking sites for background info on job candidates. According to new research from online job venture CareerBuilder, nearly a quarter of hiring managers review the social-network profiles of potential employees–22 percent. And of those, 34 percent found material contentious enough to drop a candidate from consideration–discriminatory remarks, trash talk about former employers, and, of course, provocative or inappropriate photographs. Makes you think twice about posting those “innocuous” pictures from Burning Man to your Facebook profile, even if you did look great in silver body paint. It’s worth noting as well, though, that 24 percent of hiring managers surveyed reported finding information that impressed them or influenced their hiring decision favorably. Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2008 | 8:57 am The Entire D6 Interview With Activision’s Bobby Kotick (1 of 3) [BoomTown]We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May. Unfortunately, due to issues too complicated to go into, we have to post all the D6 interviews in several 15-minute parts (I know, I know). But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.
Here’s an interview I did with Activision Chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick about the state of the gaming business. The video of the interview is in three parts. It’s a good week to focus on the gaming industry, since Electronic Arts (ERTS) abandoned its hostile acquisition bid for Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) over the weekend. The move was–in part–in answer to Activision’s recent merger with Vivendi Games, which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, one the most popular multi-player games. That has made Activision (AVTI) one of the gaming industry’s largest companies, due to some of its well-known franchises, especially its hugely popular Guitar Hero, which debuted version IV at D6. In this first video, Kotick talks about the merger with Vivendi, done to inject social gaming DNA into Activision, the popularity of the Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox, better graphical, story-telling and character development in games, gaming on social networks and its business models and the EA attempt to take over Take-Two.
Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2008 | 8:56 am Train collision probe to examine text messages - CNN
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 8:52 am Without Wi-Fi, mini-computers not as magical (Reuters)Reuters - As personal computers go, the new rash of ultra-mini laptops are full of geeky goodness. Light, portable and powerful, they are almost perfect. Almost.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 7:55 am Google acquires Korean blogging company - Inquirer
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 7:09 am Twittering a Funeral–Why Not? [Voices]By Mathew Ingram, Blogger, MathewIngram.com/workI have to say I’m a little surprised by all of the hoopla about a reporter for the Rocky Mountain News posting messages to Twitter during the funeral of a young boy. From the sounds of some of the coverage in other newspapers and on various blogs, you would think the guy had shown up with a camera crew and interviewed the grieving family while they were weeping by the graveside, or done a helicopter fly-by. All he did was type on his mobile during the service, as far as I can tell, and what he posted was nothing but the actions of the mourners and the rabbi. There was nothing inappropriate, nor ghoulish, nor anything that could be seen as an invasion of privacy (reporters were invited to attend). Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2008 | 7:04 am So That’s Who Uses AOL [Voices]By Saul Hansell, Blogger, Bits, The New York TimesIn honor of a redesign of AOL’s home page, we asked Bits readers earlier this week “Who Uses AOL and Why?” So far, we’ve heard from more than 380 of you. The sheer range of opinions about AOL, built up over a complex two-decade history, shows how difficult the challenge is for Bill Wilson, the company’s executive vice president for programming. By far the most common answer to my question was succinctly put by a user who calls himself DonO: “Inertia Rocks.” He and many others have e-mail addresses at AOL.com that they don’t want to change. Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2008 | 7:03 am YouTube’s Seth MacFarlane Channel Looking Like A Hit [Voices]By Michael Learmonth, Senior Editor, Silicon Alley InsiderCredit “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane’s genius, or maybe just YouTube’s distribution clout: his channel, “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy,” has taken the No. 1 spot on YouTube, edging out Tania Derveaux and AtheneWins. MacFarlane’s channel has had more than 3 million views since it was launched earlier this week, and so far has 51,000 subscribers. Good news for MacFarlane, YouTube (GOOG) and Media Rights Capital, which are sharing the AdSense advertising revenue on the deal. Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2008 | 7:02 am HTML 5 Won’t Be Ready Until 2022. Yes, 2022. [Voices]By Scott Gilbertson, Blogger, monkey_bites, Wired.comIf you’re a web developer looking forward to the new tools in HTML 5, the next generation of the language that powers the web, we have some bad news for you–you’re going to be waiting a while. Ian Hickson, the editor of the HTML 5 specification, recently outlined the time table for HTML 5 and, even assuming browser manufacturers embrace HTML 5 when it reaches the final draft stage, that puts HTML 5’s widespread adoption at 2012. Worse, the final proposed recommendation won’t be released until 2022. Yes, you read that right. 2022. Yes, that’s thirteen years from now. Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2008 | 7:01 am Did Amazon Delete Spore Reviews? [Updated] [Voices]By Mike Masnick, Blogger, TechdirtWant to know how not to respond to criticism? By deleting it. Yet, it appears that’s what Amazon has done. Earlier this week we wrote about the controversy of EA’s decision to put cumbersome DRM on the highly anticipated video game, Spore. The response was that thousands of people started posting one star reviews of Spore, noting the problems with the DRM. Things then got worse when people realized that EA had misled customers about the fact that they could only have one user account on Spore. Now, a bunch of people have noticed that Amazon appears to have deleted all of the reviews on the Spore page. This is only going to end badly. When you try to shut down a large group of people who feel wronged, you’re not just whacking the bees’ nest with a stick, you’re setting it on fire with a flame thrower. Source: All Things Digital | 15 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am New 'Star Wars' Game Unleashes the Force, Not the FunStar Wars: The Force Unleashed, a new Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video game, lets you harness the mighty power of the Force to wreak massive destruction. And it's not nearly as much fun as it should be.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am 10 Years of Translated Bin Laden Messages LeakedDragonFire1024 lets us know that Wikileaks has obtained 10 years of messages and interviews by Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. The documents were translated and the messages and interviews were authenticated by the US CIA. "The nearly three hundred page, 'official use only' packet from 2004, translated by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, a division of the CIA, includes interviews with bin Laden from various news agencies and also includes messages he sent directly to the US from the periods of 1994 to 2004. One message includes bin Laden's denial of having anything to do with the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Sep 2008 | 6:27 am "America's financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday." Not the first line you want to read in the top story in every major newspaper on the first day of the week. There it is, though. Today was one of the most bleak days ever in Wall Street's history, and Monday looks like it's gonna suck. The headlines will surely be easy to find; I'm publishing this post mostly just to create an open thread for the BB community to discuss whatever unfolds, and where it all leads. Snip from today's lead item in the WSJ: The American financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. faced the prospect of liquidation, and Merrill Lynch & Co. agreed to be sold to Bank of America Corp. The U.S. government, which bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a week ago and orchestrated the sale of Bear Stearns Cos. to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in March, played much tougher with Lehman. It refused to provide a financial backstop to potential buyers. Without such support, Barclays PLC and Bank of America, the two most interested buyers, walked away. Late Sunday night, Lehman said it intends to file for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.Hang on to your bindles, friends. Here's more on insurer AIG's related meltdown, and here's the article from which the preceding graf was snipped: Crisis on Wall Street as Lehman Totters, Merrill Is Sold, AIG Seeks to Raise Cash (Wall Street Journal). Greenspan today characterized this as a "once-in-a-century" crisis. Referring to smaller regional institutions most vulnerable to consolidation -- commercial banks, not the troubled investment banks at the center of this news cycle -- one particularly pessimistic investor quoted by CNBC predicts "a thousand banks will close" in the coming months. Krugman in the NYT: "Will the U.S. financial system collapse today, or maybe over the next few days? I don’t think so — but I’m nowhere near certain." BB commenter Seg says: Image: Ape Lad's prescient Laugh Out Loud Cats, a sweet illustration not actually created with any of this in mind. Source: Boing Boing | 15 Sep 2008 | 6:01 am Electronic Arts ends merger talks with Take Two (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 5:57 am Social networking coming to revamped Journal site (AP)AP - The Wall Street Journal is borrowing elements from popular Internet hangouts like Facebook as it seeks to boost usage.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 4:52 am Google's Chrome: Don't bet your enterprise on it - Computerworld
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Sep 2008 | 4:29 am Sept. 15, 1916: All Disquiet on the Western Front1916: The tank makes its debut as a battlefield weapon, attacking the Germans as part of a British assault near Bois d'Elville, or Delville Wood, on the Western Front. The crude, 14-ton monster that breasted the German trenches that day was the culmination of an idea 145 years in the making. The concept of an armored assault vehicle dated back to 1770, with the first appearance of the caterpillar track. A precursor of the modern tank -- a steam-powered tractor -- was actually used by the British army during the Crimean War. Only a few of these vehicles were built, though, and they carried no offensive weapons of their own. In 1899, Frederick Simms developed an engine-driven "motor war car." It was armor-plated and carried two Maxim machine guns, making it more akin to the armored car than to the tank as we know it. Simms offered it to the British army, but was turned down. In the run-up to World War I, the British High Command remained indifferent to the concept an armored assault weapon, preferring to concentrate on infantry and cavalry. But the tank (or "landship" as it was then known, because it was regarded as a kind of land-based warship) had some influential advocates -- including First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, whose Landship Committee kept the idea alive. In fact, the first tanks were manned not by army personnel but by naval ratings and officers, since the Royal Navy was already responsible for the operation of armored cars on the Western Front. The Sept. 15 attack at Delville Wood was made by a D1 tank, commanded by Capt. H. W. Mortimore. It was followed up by a larger attack at Flers-Courcelette, which employed 15 tanks. The British had intended to commit every tank they had -- 49 in all -- to this assault, but only 22 of them reached the front line without breaking down, and seven of those failed to start as the attack commenced. The Germans were profoundly shocked by the tanks' sudden appearance and fell back, but they quickly rallied. They soon discovered that while small-arms fire and machine guns had little effect against the armor, artillery could knock the tanks out with relative ease. And the Germans had very good artillery. The tankers themselves found the machines difficult to operate. Visibility from the viewing slits was poor, and the machines were not only prone to breaking down but were very cumbersome: They crawled along at less than 1 mph and got hung up rather easily in the trench works. Nevertheless, the British managed to reach some of their objectives at Flers, which impressed the brass back at headquarters. Even the subsequent German counterattack, which forced the British Expeditionary Force to break off its offensive on Sept. 22, didn't dampen Gen. Douglas Haig's enthusiasm for the new weapon. He ordered the construction of 1,000 more. By 1918, the British had produced around 2,800 tanks. The French, meanwhile, built 4,000 tanks of their own, and used them in an infantry-support role. They proved just as unreliable as the British models, although they achieved some success when used in mass attacks. The United States built 84 tanks, while Germany put a mere 20 tanks into the field during World War I. At the end of the war, both the French and British seemed to lose their appetite for tanks and did little to advance the technology during the 1920s and '30s. Across the Rhine, however, those who had been most affected by the new weapon began to study its potential use for the next big European war. Source: Firstworldwar.com
Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Home-Brewed Biodiesel Goes Prime-TimeHome-brewed biodiesel may be ready to move from your neighbor's garage to prime time. No longer is the practice limited to a few mechanically inclined hippies with old converted electric water heaters. Now anyone can order up their own bio-brew kit online. "We are testing some products now to make sure they work at the level of quality our customers expect," said Go Green Home Stores spokesman Dennis Healy. "We're really looking forward to having these products in our store." And Go Green's interest in mass-marketing a processor comes on the heels of a decision earlier this year by Northern Tool, the Sears of professional-grade tools, to put biodiesel processors for home brewers in its catalog, for $3,000 to $13,500. The Collective Biodiesel Project estimates that home brewers, who filter used vegetable oil from restaurants and then mix it with lye and methanol to create their own biodiesel, produced 450 million gallons of fuel last year. Some brewers say they got tired of waiting for alternatives to petroleum to come from big biz and set out to change their own habits. In Europe, home-brewed biodiesel from both virgin and waste vegetable oil was so common that in 2002, police in Great Britain set up a "frying squad" to seek out and ticket chips-scented cars using the cheaper, tax-free cooking oil. In the United States, a dozen or so niche manufacturers, such as Home Biodiesel Kits, already sell kits to home brewers who want to go beyond converting an old electric water heater. But the fact that home-brew equipment will be available at a major retail outlet rather than merely at niche sellers signals that companies believe there's demand and have faith in the safety and reliability of the equipment. Biodiesel has two distinct faces. Big, young biodiesel companies are rising stars on angel-investor and venture-capital circles' lists of emerging alt-fuels. Their biodiesel tends to be what home brewers call virgin fuel -- made from fresh, new vegetable oil. Most of it is sold to companies and agencies large enough to have their own fleets and pumps. And there's also the flourishing underground of brewers. From neighbors running reactors in garages, like Jules Dervaes and Hans Huth, to a Piedmont, North Carolina, cooperative that has grown to 500 members in four years and made a million gallons last year, home brewing is well-established. Dervaes and his family have turned their home in Pasadena, California, into a green "best practices" lab. They began brewing bio about four years ago, using an open source manual on how to build a converter from an old electric water heater. Dervaes makes about 30 gallons once a month from restaurant waste oil he gets for free. His family has a standing relationship with neighborhood restaurants glad to be rid of grease they'd otherwise have to pay to have hauled away. "It's a big win for everybody," Dervaes said. "We're off the [petroleum] oil grid, the [vegetable] oil is being used twice, and the fuel is being made locally, not hauled around the world." Restaurant owners like Lucas Manteca of Cape May, New Jersey, are delighted to participate, even if there are a few problems. Manteca and his wife own three Quahog's Seafood Shacks and give away about three 55-gallon drums a week. It's great," Manteca said. "Before this, we were paying for the oil pickup, and they were just destroying the oil." "Restaurants are such a huge source of waste, a lot of trash and oil and water, but it can be difficult and expensive to try to do things the right way," he added. "This is just easy and right." But with rising oil prices, waste oil has become a commodity. The New York Times reported in May that restaurants in at least 20 states have had oil stolen. Waste-management companies looking for an edge over their competition, opportunistic thieves and home brewers have all been caught with their hands in the grease barrel. "There's a lot of talk about grease wars where people do nasty stuff to get the grease," said Leif Forer, one of the founding members of the Piedmont co-op. "The waste oil used to go to rendering companies that got paid to pick it up and then sold it 'back to the animals' for pet food and livestock feed. They're not happy with us." The co-op started six years ago in a community college class taught by Forer and co-founder Rachel Burton. They made their first batch in Mason jars, and graduated to the kitchen blender. "Eventually we designed and built our own processor. At the end of the day, the process and mechanics are the same as the Mason jar," he said. "Now we have two plants, and we can make biodiesel in a continuous stream." The co-op currently makes more than 120,000 gallons a month, far more than its 500 members consume. "We got tired of waiting for a corporate solution and found a short-term answer that makes sense on a local scale," Forer said. "We'll settle for that until better fuels and technologies come." While there have been few problems with home brewing, last month a garage biodiesel experiment ended when a chemical blast blew the front off a home in Surprise, Arizona. After the explosion, the assistant fire chief worried aloud that home brewing might mean more explosions. But Hans Huth, another biodiesel home brewer who posted a do-it-yourself guide in 2006, says home brewers haven't had many problems -- fewer than with the commercial plants. "Obviously, you have to be careful!" Huth said. "You are refining a fuel you intend to burn." Besides instructions on how to build and run a processor, Huth's manual includes information on local regulations and permits. "Good information will keep us safer," he said. "If we start causing problems, the regulators -- and I work with regulators -- will have to come in and tighten it up. As a community, that makes things difficult." At his day job with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Huth is helping solve an international grease problem: sewage spills in Nogales, Arizona, caused by sewers across the border in Mexico that are jammed by grease from restaurants. He's helping build a biodiesel converter in Mexico. "It looks like we'll be able to use the facility to generate enough biodiesel to fuel the Rio Rico Fire District," Huth said. "Once you start doing this, it becomes insidious, and you find yourself looking around saying, 'Where else can we go to get biodiesel?'" The growth of home brewing from a few garages to mainstream recognition has its problems. For one, Huth says diesel cars, once the bane of used car lots, are now much harder to find and are selling for more money. Forer, who's just returned from a national conference of biodiesel brewers in Golden, Colorado, also sees the arrival on the big stage as both a blessing and a curse. "We have a consulting business, and we teach classes, and we're selling a half million gallons a year so we can use the money for other green projects," Forer said. "But we're closing in on the point when demand exceeds supply, and that might mean trouble."
Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Wall Street on the RopesBrace yourself for a mad, mad, mad, mad Monday. The slow-motion meltdown picks up momentu as one crippled investment bank reportedly agreed to be acquired, a second failed to find a buyer at any price, and a third major financial firm was forced to seek capital and sell a jewel asset it had sworn to keep just a few months ago.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am EA, Take Two End Acquisition TalksElectronic Arts will not make a proposal to acquire rival Take Two-Interactive Software, the company said Sunday. EA first made a $2 billion, $26 per share offer for Take-Two in February. When the Grand Theft Auto maker's management rejected the offer, EA turned hostile, buying up as many shares as it could for the offer price. EA continued to extend the tender offer, but withdrew it last month, entering into private talks with Take-Two.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Titans of War: Tanks Reshape the Battlefield : Photo: Robert M Schalk/U.S. NavyThis week marks the anniversary of the first use of the tank, one of the 20th century's most-iconic weapons. To honor this game-changing milestone we're taking a look at past, present, future and those tanks that might have been. During the First World War, infantry and cavalry assaults proved suicidal in the face of barbed wire, machine guns and modern artillery. By 1916 it was a bloody stalemate with neither side able to advance, until the British unveiled a new secret weapon: the tank. Combining firepower, protection and mobility, the tank made warfare mobile again and did away the trenches of WWI. The tank could make strategic advances faster than ever before. The Germans were the first to master this technique, which they called blitzkrieg or "lightning war." WWII saw German tanks roll across most of Europe by 1940. Many now argue the heavy tank is an industrial relic, made obsolete by smart bombs and guided missiles, unsuitable to urban counter-insurgency. But with new types of armor, new weapons and new electronics, the tank looks set to dominate warfare well into the 21st century. Left: Present: U.S. Abrams M1A2Considered by many to be the finest tank in the world, the Abrams M1A2 is the mainstay of the U.S. Army. It has advanced armor and a 120-mm gun with a computerized control system capable of scoring a first-round hit against a moving target several kilometers away. The most-controversial feature is the engine, a jet turbine capable of driving the 68-ton tank at over 40 mph -- but with a gas mileage reportedly as low as one-third of a mile per gallon.  : Photo: Tony Nicoletti/Daily Record Present: UK Challenger II
The British rival to the Abrams, the Challenger also mounts a 120-mm gun and has a more conventional diesel engine. Its armor is legendary: During the invasion of Iraq, a Challenger with damaged tracks was hit by eight rocket-propelled grenades and one guided missile without injury to the crew. The vehicle was back in action within six hours. Only one Challenger II has ever been destroyed in action, by friendly fire from another Challenger.  : Photo: Francois Mori/APPresent: Israeli Merkava Mk IV
The Israelis arguably have more experience than anyone in modern tank warfare -- experience that is embodied in the indigenous Merkava series. Unusual features include a light mortar capable of firing high-explosive and smoke rounds in addition to the main gun. It places a high priority on crew survival, with the engine set in front of the crew compartment as additional protection. Recently, however, casualties from anti-tank missiles during the 2006 war in Lebanon have triggered a debate over the armor's efficacy.  : Photo: Associated PressFuture: Russian "T-95"
The Russians have a long history of producing highly effective tanks, but cash shortages since the end of the Cold War have made matching Western technology difficult. Recent official statements indicate that the Russian military will introduce a new generation of tanks ¬-- speculatively known as the T-95 -- for 2010. The new model is believed to have an outsize gun in an unmanned turret, but there is no reliable information about whether the "T-95" even really exists, and it may be more hype than reality. At left, Russia's Black Eagle tank -- another prototype for future use -- moves during a demonstration at the Ground Equipment Omsk-99 weapons show in the Siberian city of Omsk, Tuesday, June 8, 1999. The show attracted potential buyers from more than 40 nations.  : Image: U.S. Army Future: U.S. Future Combat System
The U.S. Army's next generation of manned and unmanned vehicles is known as the Future Combat System, with the XM1202 Mounted Combat System being the nearest to a battle tank. At less than one-third of the weight of the Abrams, the MCS can be carried by a Hercules or C-17 aircraft. Heavy armor gives way to an "active protection system," which intercepts incoming missiles and rockets. But with costs spiraling -- $300 billion to equip just a third of the Army -- it has become a political hot potato, and both Obama and McCain have talked about slashing funding.  : Past: Leonardo da Vinci's "Tank"
War chariots have existed since the earliest times, as well as various wheeled protective enclosures used to approach fortifications. Leonardo da Vinci sketched a number of war machines: In 1499 he devised a moveable barricade to defend the city of Pisa. His plan for a prototype "tank" was a wheeled shelter driven by crank handles, with cannons pointing out in all directions. "There is no company of men at arms so great that they will break it," Leonardo boasted in a letter to his employer, the Duke of Milan.  : Photo: Lt. Ernest Brooks/Imperial War Museum Past: Mark 1 'Mother'
HG Wells wrote about "Land Ironclads," the land-going equivalent of battleships in 1903. The British Army built the real thing during World War I. The secret new contraptions were referred to as "water tanks for Russia" -- hence the name "tank". The Mark 1 had a crew of eight (four were required for steering) and was armed with two six-pounder guns and two machine-guns. It moved at walking pace, but the new caterpillar tracks were an effective way of getting through the mud and craters or no man's land. German troops were reportedly terrified of them.  : Image: Tank Museum GuidePast: The Liberty/ MkVIII
The first American-made tank was the Liberty or Mark VIII, an evolution of earlier British designs, produced immediately after WWI. It was bigger than earlier models and heavier at 37 tons. The greater length meant it could cross wider trenches, then seen as one of the tank's most important roles. It was armed with two six-pounders and seven machine guns, and required a crew of 12. At five and a quarter miles an hour it was easy to outrun, but tanks soon became more powerful and faster.  : Photo: Corbis Might Have Been: German Maus Panzer VII
The Germans used a succession of bigger and bigger tanks during WWII, from the six-tone Panzer I to the 68-ton Panzer VI "King Tiger." The logical extension of this trend was the Maus, a 185-ton monster armored like a battleship. This type of vehicle is wildly impractical -- few bridges could cope with that sort of weight. But Hitler liked the idea, and a considerable amount of resources were poured into building several prototypes which were near to completion by the end of the war. At left is the Panzer VI, already massive and cumbersome.  : Photo: Mark PellegriniMight Have Been: U.S./German MBT-70
Another project that never took off was the MBT-70, a German-American cooperative venture for a 1970s' supertank packed with the latest gadgets. It featured a combined gun/missile launcher, pneumatic suspension, which could "hunker down" or rise over obstacles, and a separate rotating pod in the turret to keep the driver facing forward. Both countries eventually decided the MBT-70 was too complex and too expensive, but to tank enthusiasts it remains a fascinating might have been.  : Photo: Cato EdvardsenMight Have Been: S Tank, Sweden
The Stridsvagn 103 of "S Tank" was an innovative 1950s Swedish design with no turret. The gun was fixed in the hull, and was raised and lowered using the suspension. The crew of three included a rear driver who faced backward; the S-tank could be driven in reverse as fast as forward, keeping the gun pointing at the enemy. In tests the S-tank performed well compared to British and American tanks of the time. It was finally retired in 1997 without ever having seen action.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Titans of War: Tanks Reshape the Battlefield: Photo: Robert M Schalk/U.S. NavyThis week marks the anniversary of the first use of the tank, one of the 20th century's most-iconic weapons. To honor this game-changing milestone we're taking a look at past, present, future and those tanks that might have been. During the First World War, infantry and cavalry assaults proved suicidal in the face of barbed wire, machine guns and modern artillery. By 1916 it was a bloody stalemate with neither side able to advance, until the British unveiled a new secret weapon: the tank. Combining firepower, protection and mobility, the tank made warfare mobile again and did away the trenches of WWI. The tank could make strategic advances faster than ever before. The Germans were the first to master this technique, which they called blitzkrieg or "lightning war." WWII saw German tanks roll across most of Europe by 1940. Many now argue the heavy tank is an industrial relic, made obsolete by smart bombs and guided missiles, unsuitable to urban counter-insurgency. But with new types of armor, new weapons and new electronics, the tank looks set to dominate warfare well into the 21st century. Left: Present: U.S. Abrams M1A2Considered by many to be the finest tank in the world, the Abrams M1A2 is the mainstay of the U.S. Army. It has advanced armor and a 120-mm gun with a computerized control system capable of scoring a first-round hit against a moving target several kilometers away. The most-controversial feature is the engine, a jet turbine capable of driving the 68-ton tank at over 40 mph -- but with a gas mileage reportedly as low as one-third of a mile per gallon. : Photo: Tony Nicoletti/Daily Record Present: UK Challenger II
The British rival to the Abrams, the Challenger also mounts a 120-mm gun and has a more conventional diesel engine. Its armor is legendary: During the invasion of Iraq, a Challenger with damaged tracks was hit by eight rocket-propelled grenades and one guided missile without injury to the crew. The vehicle was back in action within six hours. Only one Challenger II has ever been destroyed in action, by friendly fire from another Challenger. : Photo: Francois Mori/APPresent: Israeli Merkava Mk IV
The Israelis arguably have more experience than anyone in modern tank warfare -- experience that is embodied in the indigenous Merkava series. Unusual features include a light mortar capable of firing high-explosive and smoke rounds in addition to the main gun. It places a high priority on crew survival, with the engine set in front of the crew compartment as additional protection. Recently, however, casualties from anti-tank missiles during the 2006 war in Lebanon have triggered a debate over the armor's efficacy. : Photo: Associated PressFuture: Russian "T-95"
The Russians have a long history of producing highly effective tanks, but cash shortages since the end of the Cold War have made matching Western technology difficult. Recent official statements indicate that the Russian military will introduce a new generation of tanks ¬-- speculatively known as the T-95 -- for 2010. The new model is believed to have an outsize gun in an unmanned turret, but there is no reliable information about whether the "T-95" even really exists, and it may be more hype than reality. At left, Russia's Black Eagle tank -- another prototype for future use -- moves during a demonstration at the Ground Equipment Omsk-99 weapons show in the Siberian city of Omsk, Tuesday, June 8, 1999. The show attracted potential buyers from more than 40 nations. : Image: U.S. Army Future: U.S. Future Combat System
The U.S. Army's next generation of manned and unmanned vehicles is known as the Future Combat System, with the XM1202 Mounted Combat System being the nearest to a battle tank. At less than one-third of the weight of the Abrams, the MCS can be carried by a Hercules or C-17 aircraft. Heavy armor gives way to an "active protection system," which intercepts incoming missiles and rockets. But with costs spiraling -- $300 billion to equip just a third of the Army -- it has become a political hot potato, and both Obama and McCain have talked about slashing funding. : Past: Leonardo da Vinci's "Tank"
War chariots have existed since the earliest times, as well as various wheeled protective enclosures used to approach fortifications. Leonardo da Vinci sketched a number of war machines: In 1499 he devised a moveable barricade to defend the city of Pisa. His plan for a prototype "tank" was a wheeled shelter driven by crank handles, with cannons pointing out in all directions. "There is no company of men at arms so great that they will break it," Leonardo boasted in a letter to his employer, the Duke of Milan. : Photo: Lt. Ernest Brooks/Imperial War Museum Past: Mark 1 'Mother'
HG Wells wrote about "Land Ironclads," the land-going equivalent of battleships in 1903. The British Army built the real thing during World War I. The secret new contraptions were referred to as "water tanks for Russia" -- hence the name "tank". The Mark 1 had a crew of eight (four were required for steering) and was armed with two six-pounder guns and two machine-guns. It moved at walking pace, but the new caterpillar tracks were an effective way of getting through the mud and craters or no man's land. German troops were reportedly terrified of them. : Image: Tank Museum GuidePast: The Liberty/ MkVIII
The first American-made tank was the Liberty or Mark VIII, an evolution of earlier British designs, produced immediately after WWI. It was bigger than earlier models and heavier at 37 tons. The greater length meant it could cross wider trenches, then seen as one of the tank's most important roles. It was armed with two six-pounders and seven machine guns, and required a crew of 12. At five and a quarter miles an hour it was easy to outrun, but tanks soon became more powerful and faster. : Photo: Corbis Might Have Been: German Maus Panzer VII
The Germans used a succession of bigger and bigger tanks during WWII, from the six-tone Panzer I to the 68-ton Panzer VI "King Tiger." The logical extension of this trend was the Maus, a 185-ton monster armored like a battleship. This type of vehicle is wildly impractical -- few bridges could cope with that sort of weight. But Hitler liked the idea, and a considerable amount of resources were poured into building several prototypes which were near to completion by the end of the war. At left is the Panzer VI, already massive and cumbersome. : Photo: Mark PellegriniMight Have Been: U.S./German MBT-70
Another project that never took off was the MBT-70, a German-American cooperative venture for a 1970s' supertank packed with the latest gadgets. It featured a combined gun/missile launcher, pneumatic suspension, which could "hunker down" or rise over obstacles, and a separate rotating pod in the turret to keep the driver facing forward. Both countries eventually decided the MBT-70 was too complex and too expensive, but to tank enthusiasts it remains a fascinating might have been. : Photo: Cato EdvardsenMight Have Been: S Tank, Sweden
The Stridsvagn 103 of "S Tank" was an innovative 1950s Swedish design with no turret. The gun was fixed in the hull, and was raised and lowered using the suspension. The crew of three included a rear driver who faced backward; the S-tank could be driven in reverse as fast as forward, keeping the gun pointing at the enemy. In tests the S-tank performed well compared to British and American tanks of the time. It was finally retired in 1997 without ever having seen action. Source: Wired: Gadgets | 15 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Microsoft Says IE8 Phoning Home Is "Pretty Innocuous"CWmike writes "Microsoft has defended the IE8 tool that suggests sites based on URLs typed into its address bar, saying that the browser 'phones home' only a limited amount of information to Microsoft and that the company discards all user IP addresses almost immediately. Company managers also contrasted IE8 Beta 2's 'Suggested Sites' feature with the 'Suggest' feature used by Google Chrome, saying that Microsoft's requires the user's explicit permission before it's used. They did acknowledge a bug that prevents the request from reappearing when users reinstall the browser. Cyra Richardson, a Microsoft principal program manager on the IE team, said: 'Suggested Sites is connected to the browser's history, and it's not looking at each of the keystrokes. IE only captures the URL as it is navigated [to], when that URL goes into your history.' Nor does Suggested Sites log and transmit cookies to Microsoft's servers, as does Google Suggest, Richardson said. 'The data we log is actually pretty innocuous.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Sep 2008 | 3:53 am 3M Launches First Pocket ProjectorAn anonymous reader writes "Popsci.com has a writeup on 3M's new pocket projector, the 3M MPro 110, set to launch on September 30. 'In a dark room, it could project a big enough image to be the ultimate cheap-o home theater. The projector will sell for a mere $359. It doesn't have a speaker, so you'll have to get that separately. But really, how good could a microscopic speaker jammed into this thing sound, anyway?'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:31 am MySpace Music to start with major ad sponsors (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Sep 2008 | 1:29 am Successful Moonlighting For Geeks?Lawksamussy writes "Having just bought a really old house that's on the verge of falling down, I'm now trying to find a way to pay to fix it up. I have a great job in software development that pays the bills, but I'm looking to earn some extra cash in my spare time. Whatever I end up doing has to be reasonably lucrative (or at least have the potential to be so), not require any specific time commitment, and be doable equally well from home or from a hotel room. I'm also keen that it should be sufficiently different to my day job to keep my interest up, so the most obvious things like bidding for programming projects on Rentacoder.com, or fixing up neighbors' PCs, aren't really on. Above all, it should appeal to my inner geek, otherwise my low boredom threshold will doom it to failure before I even start! So, I wonder if any of my fellow Slashdotters run little part-time ventures that they find more of an inspiration than a chore... and if they are willing to share what they do and perhaps even how much money they make doing it?"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 14 Sep 2008 | 11:33 pm Sarah Palin: spammer and digital secrecy scofflaw. Above, snapshot of a rally organized by "Alaska Women Against Palin" this weekend. Some 1500 people are said to have participated, making it possibly the largest single political protest in the state's history (here's video). Buried on page 4 of a 5-page New York Times article on Sarah Palin's political history in Alaska: [L]awmakers in April accused her of improperly culling thousands of e-mail addresses from a state database for a mass mailing to rally support for a policy initiative.Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes (NYT) Image courtesy Mudflats blog. Source: Boing Boing | 14 Sep 2008 | 10:31 pm David Foster Wallace an Apparent Suicidesnydeq passes along the news that David Foster Wallace was found dead Friday at his home in Claremont, California. Wallace's wife found her husband had hanged himself when she returned home at 9:30 PM Friday. The novelist, essayist, and humorist, best known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, was 46. Wallace had been awarded a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" in 1997.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 14 Sep 2008 | 10:21 pm Mozilla Demanding Firefox Display EULA In UbuntuTRS-80 writes "Users of the upcoming Ubuntu release, Intrepid Ibex, are being confronted with an EULA the first time they launch Firefox. Mark Shuttleworth says 'Mozilla Corp asked that this be added in order for us to continue to call the browser Firefox... I would not consider an EULA as a best practice. It's unfortunate that Mozilla feels this is absolutely necessary' and notes there's an unbranded 'abrowser' package available. Many of the comments say Ubuntu should ditch Firefox as this makes it clear it's not Free Software, hence unsuitable for Ubuntu main, and just ship Iceweasel or Epiphany, the GNOME browser." A few comments take Canonical to task for agreeing to Mozilla's demand to display an EULA without consulting the community.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 14 Sep 2008 | 9:09 pm Large Hadron Collider's Hacker Infiltration Highlights VulnerabilitiesThough the Large Hadron Collider's infiltration by hackers did not disrupt the $6 billion project, experts warn that its computer systems are vulnerable -- though at least their exploitation won't destroy Earth.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Sep 2008 | 7:26 pm NYC tap water in bottlesJay sez, "A new bottled water company is selling NY tap water in bottles and filling up people's empties as a way of spreading the word that tap is good, it's better for the environment than shipping bottles in from Fiji, it's fun, it's blablabla. You get the idea."For my money, NYC tap water is delicious. TAPDNY (Thanks, Jay!) Source: Boing Boing | 14 Sep 2008 | 6:46 pm Rescuers Searching for People Left in Hurricane's WakeThe effort is on to help the 140,000 who ignored Hurricane evacuation orders.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Sep 2008 | 6:22 pm Get well soon, Teresa!Teresa Nielsen Hayden, our fantastic comment moderator, took a funny turn on Thursday night; which turned out to have been a very unfunny (but thankfully minor) heart attack. She's doing well, recovering and comfortable, if bored, while awaiting some more test results. A few of you have written to us to get updates -- Teresa's husband Patrick has a quick update on Making Light:Meanwhile, is she okay? Sure; mostly bored. Lutheran Medical Center is a good hospital, but they’re still a hospital, all hurry-up-and-wait, vagueness about what to expect next, and long delays, particularly over a weekend. Since hospitals aren’t really a great place to leave valuables unattended, houseguest Elise Matthesen and I have been bringing her computer to her every morning and taking it home at night. She does have a net connection, but don’t count on her for instant responses to inquiries; for the moment, anything urgent should probably be bounced to me.Get well soon, Teresa -- we couldn't do this without you! Either a heart attack, or a Greek of the same name Source: Boing Boing | 14 Sep 2008 | 5:36 pm MySpace + McDonald's + Toyota = iTunes?Rupert Murdoch's social net giant is expected to announce on Monday that McDonald's, State Farm Insurance and Toyota have agreed to advertise on the new music venture, which already boasts the backing of News Corporation as well as three of the four monolithic major labels.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Sep 2008 | 4:23 pm
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The best thing about social networks is also the worst thing about social networks: They make it easy for us to share information about ourselves.
Year after year, bottled water companies have told us that their water was somehow healthier or better for us than our own water. They spent billions of dollars on marketing to make us believe that we needed exotic water, in sleek packaging, from far away Arctic glaciers, tropical islands, and European volcanoes.