|
|
|
|
Guerrilla Artrepreneurs - Shepard Fairey's Radical Art (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Shepard Fairey is a street artist that has become a hit because of his two-tone print of Barack Obama with single words hope and progress. But Shepard Fairey has a long career as an...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 2:19 pm McAfee to pay $465 million for Secure Computing (Reuters)Reuters - McAfee Inc , the world's No. 2 security software maker, said on Monday it plans to buy Internet security company Secure Computing Corp for $465 million in cash.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Sep 2008 | 1:30 pm Microsoft ups dividend, boosts share buyback (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Sep 2008 | 1:16 pm Review: Apple's second-generation iPod touch - Apple Insider
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 1:16 pm Feds Tighten DNS Security On .Govalphadogg writes "When you file your taxes online, you want to be sure that the Web site you visit — www.irs.gov — is operated by the Internal Revenue Service and not a scam artist. By the end of next year, you can be confident that every U.S. government Web page is being served up by the appropriate agency. That's because the feds have launched the largest-ever rollout of a new authentication mechanism for the Internet's DNS. All federal agencies are deploying DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) on the .gov top-level domain, and some expect that once that rollout is complete, banks and other businesses might be encouraged to follow suit for their sites. DNSSEC prevents hackers from hijacking Web traffic and redirecting it to bogus sites. The Internet standard prevents spoofing attacks by allowing Web sites to verify their domain names and corresponding IP addresses using digital signatures and public-key encryption."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Sep 2008 | 1:11 pm Hubble Astronauts Set for Practice Countdown - Space Com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 1:08 pm FBI searches alleged Palin hacker's apartment - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 1:04 pm Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's KillerSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:45 pm Gogimon Unveils World's First Internet Search ChannelClient Based Software is First to Create Personalized Search Experience Not Found on Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft Live. HERZLIYA, Israel, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ --...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:43 pm Microsoft Takes Its Newest High-Performance Computing Platform to the StreetWindows HPC Server 2008 allows Wall Street firms to deploy quickly, leverage existing resources and scale from workstation to cluster - all in a familiar Windows environment.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:40 pm Microsoft Announces Share Repurchase Program and Increases Quarterly Dividend$40 billion authorized for share repurchase; Dividend increased 18 percent REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. today announced that itsSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:38 pm SSi Consulting Awarded Microsoft Mid-Atlantic Partner of the YearBALTIMORE, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- SSi Consulting, a business management software consulting firm in the Mid-Atlantic region, recently received the 2008 Microsoft...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:38 pm Comcast Discontinues Customers' USENET ServiceAn anonymous reader writes "Comcast has discontinued its provided usenet service, once provided to all its high speed customers. First with the cap put on its customers several years ago on amount of traffic provided as part of the customer high-speed package, as of September 16, the service is no longer provided. Without fanfare, this bastion of the internet is being removed from the mainstream."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:35 pm Netbytes: Is the Wall Street Journal losing the plot?Over the past 10 days, many of those deeply involved in the world's financial meltdown have been hitting one site: The Wall Street Journal. Although it aspires to be America's national paper, it is at...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:32 pm DataPath(R) Receives $1.6 Million Order to Provide Services for SATCOM Terminals Used by U.S. Joint ForcesDataPath Representatives Will Provide Expert Technical Services to Support Forward-Deployed Battlefield Communications Systems in Afghanistan DULUTH, Ga., Sept. 22...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:30 pm JDSU Unveils All-in-One Test Platform for FTTx NetworksThe new JDSU MTS/T-BERD-4000 modular handheld test instrument helps service providers reduce investment and training costs MILPITAS, Calif., Sept. 22...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:30 pm CSC Part of Team Selected by National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationFALLS CHURCH, Va., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- CSC (NYSE: CSC) announced today that it is part of a team led by Diversified Global Partners, LLC, that has been awarded a...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:30 pm AT&T Revolutionizes Home Phone, Bringing Color Touch Screen, Customized Content and Wireless Applications to Traditional Voice CallingInnovative Capabilities, Functionality Redefine Familiar Product DALLAS, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) announced today the introduction...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:30 pm Airvana Names Laura Cranmer Vice President of OperationsIndustry Veteran Will Help Scale Airvana's Operations to Support High-volume Business CHELMSFORD, Mass., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Airvana, Inc....Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:30 pm True Costs of 802.11n Migration Still MisunderstoodSurvey Results Indicate Many IT Professionals Concerned Over Expense of 802.11n Deployment But Uncertain About Nature of Costs WALTHAM, Mass., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire/...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:30 pm Is Kodachrome Fading Away?Avid Kodachrome fans are worried the elaborately crafted photographic film, extolled for its sharpness, vivid colors and archival durability will disappear."Part of me feels like, boy, if only I'd been born 20 years earlier," says Alex Webb, 56-year-old photographer, whose work has appeared in National Geographic magazine.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:25 pm Canon PowerShot G10Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:22 pm Fake Publicity Publications - Dexter Spoof Magazines (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Get pumped for the September 28th season premiere of Dexter by checking out these cool, glossy magazine covers. The worlds favourite serial killer is coming back for a third hit...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:19 pm Which Part Will McCain Play In Stem Cell Research? - eFluxMedia
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 12:15 pm Google continues to push for Yahoo deal - VNUNet.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:33 am Companies joining to push music on memory cards (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:32 am Dangerous Video Art - The Exploding Banana Head (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) William Lamson is a New York-based performance artist. His piece entitled Think globally, act locally involves him wearing a hockey mask with bananas attached; it makes him look like...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:19 am South Korea to Expand Inspections of All Dairy-Based Food From ChinaText of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap [Yonhap headline: "Gov't To Expand Melamine Inspections To All Dairy-based Processed Food"] Seoul, Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Tuesday phone debut is first salvo in Android war - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Preserving Habitat For Wildlife ; Game Commission Tour Near Mount Gretna Shows How Projects Are Helping State Game Lands.By John Mcgonigle Forty interested folks toured State Game Land 145 near Mount Gretna last Saturday to learn how the Pennsylvania Game Commission is managing game lands for wildlife.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am California Coastal Cleanup Day Largest in Event HistoryBy Jeanine Benca An annual clean-up of California shorelines netted a record number of volunteers, not to mention a creepy catch on the beach in San Joaquin County.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Ike Laid Waste to 'Truck Stop' for WildlifeBy Marisol Bello ANAHUAC, Texas -- For hundreds of species of migratory birds heading south this fall and winter, Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge is the last place they can fill up on food and water before making the 600-mile trek across the Gulf of Mexico.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Yucca Fight ReaffirmedBy Steve Tetreault By STEVE TETREAULT STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - No matter what happens with the embattled director of Nevada's Nuclear Projects Agency, the state will not give up the fight against Yucca Mountain, Nevada's senators vowed Thursday. Sens.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Public Television Stations to Air 'THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST: ARE WE RUNNING DRY?' A New One-Hour Documentary About the Water CrisisLOS ANGELES, Sept.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Fireworks Blamed for Deadly Blaze in Chinese ClubBy From news reports A fire at a dance club in this southern city, apparently started by fireworks, left 43 people dead, many of them killed in a panicked stampede as they tried to escape, state media and government officials said.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Break-in at Reservoir Forces Painful Loss of 20 Million Gallons of WaterBy John L. Smith Southern Nevada homeowners who get scolded for over-soaking their sod will cringe at this news.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Snapfish By HP Supports Breast Cancer Awareness With 'Pink Gives' CampaignPALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Snapfish by HP, the No. 1 online photo service, today announced its support for breast cancer awareness with the launch of the 2008 "Pink Gives" campaign.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am IBM Adds iEnterprises CRM to Lotus ConnectionsIBM and iEnterprises have announced the integration of iEnterprises' CRM software, iExtensions CRM, with IBM's social networking platform, Lotus Connections.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Slideshow: Emmy Show Highlights, LowlightsBy Anonymous The Emmy show was a bore, says our TV critic Chuck Barney. Here are some highlights as well as lowlights. (c) 2008 Oakland Tribune. Provided by ProQuest LLC.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Your Life in Haiku: Is That Really Bad?By Damon Darlin Everyone has been talking about an article in The Atlantic called "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Some subset of that group has actually read the 4,175-word article, by Nicholas Carr. To save you some time, I was going to give you a 100-word abridged version.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Some Facebook Users Aren't Fond of Website's New FaceBy Jon Swartz SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook's new face is drawing frowns from some of its users. They're grousing about a spanking new redesign intended to unclutter their profiles on the social network.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am S&C Electric Company and Silver Spring Networks Announce Smart Grid InteroperabilityS&C Electric Company and Silver Spring Networks today announced successful completion of Phase 1 interoperability testing of S&C's IntelliTEAM II(R) Automatic Restoration System with Silver Spring's Smart Energy Network.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am ValCom Scores With $50-Million Merger With America's Auction NetworkValCom, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Anystream and Voxant Merge to Create Integrated Video Distribution PowerhouseAnystream(R) (anystream.com), the global innovator of digital media production and workflow solutions, today announced its merger with Voxant Media (voxant.com), the new media network with over 30,000 worldwide publishing partners.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Smallcap Rapp(TM) to Feature Veridigm, Inc.247MGI, Inc. (OTC:TOFS) ("247MGI") weekly internet radio show Smallcap Rapp(TM) (www.smallcaprapp.com) will feature Veridigm, Inc. (OTC:VRGD) on Tuesday September 23, 2008 at 1:00 PM EDT. VRGD is the owner of MediaPal, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 22 Sep 2008 | 11:00 am Obama Significantly Revises Technology Positionsmethod9455 writes "Barack Obama has edited his official website on many issues, including a huge revision on the technology page. Strangely it seems net neutrality is no longer as important as it was a few months ago, and the swaths of detail have been removed and replaced with fairly vague rhetoric. Many technologists were alarmed with the choice of Joe Biden before, and now it appears their fears might have been well founded."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Sep 2008 | 10:48 am Rock Band Portable Drum Kit From Mad CatzBy Andrew Liszewski I’ll admit that Rock Band was kind of fun for a while, but I haven’t touched the game for at least a few months now. Normally that’s not a problem since it means the...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 10:45 am Music On microSD: I Cant Believe The Labels Fell For ThisForget buying an album on a USB stick, SanDisk just convinced the big labels to release (DRM free, thankfully) music on a 1 GB 15mm x 11mm x 1mm microSD card. And then they convinced Best Buy and Walmart...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 10:31 am Britax Advocate CS Convertible Car Seat Includes Side Impact AirbagsBy Andrew Liszewski Long gone are the days when people would drive with their baby sitting in their laps, thinking it was the safest thing to do. Today’s tots have car seats that rival the harnesses...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 10:31 am Marcus Pearce: Art and illusion at BA 2008The last day of the British Association Festival of Science in Liverpool was dedicated to art and optical illusionsSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 10:29 am Update: Helium Leak Shuts Down LHC For Two Months - eFluxMedia
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 10:23 am Deja Vu Ads - Claire Danes Strikes a Drew Barrymore for Gucci Jewelery (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Gucci is sticking to Hollywood models for its new jewelery ad campaign. After having Drew Barrymore as the face of its previous campaign, the new Gucci Jewelery ads feature fellow...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 10:20 am Apple to recall iPhone chargers - BBC News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 10:18 am SanDisk and Record Companies Launch Flash Memory With Music - PC World
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 9:47 am Palingate? - Agents Swoop On A Tennessee College Dorm Linked To Palin Hackers IP AddressHack into - and then publish - the email account of a major politician, especially one under Secret Service protection and currently running for Vice President, and you had better cover your tracks. Well...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 9:38 am One More Piece in the Collaboration Puzzle - bMighty.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 22 Sep 2008 | 9:22 am Learning From ExperiencesBy Stone, Gretchen Mae Safety culture has become increasingly important for the chemical industry since John Bresland, chairman and CEO of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, started his career in 1966. "I think companies are doing it on their own. It requires leadership at the ton.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 8:00 am Covington: Ashland to Acquire Hercules for $3.3b; Transaction Creates Global Chemical CompanyBy Anonymous ASHLAND Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Hercules Inc. for $3.3 billion in a transaction that will create a major global specialty chemicals company.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 22 Sep 2008 | 8:00 am Kara Visits London (to See the Queen Again) [BoomTown]
Actually, although BoomTown is staying right around the corner from Buckingham Palace in Mayfair, I am in London on my way to the PICNIC conference in Amsterdam later this week, where I will be interviewing some digital leaders onstage. We’re still working on rolling out a version of our D: All Things Digital conference in Europe next fall, so it’s important to get a sense of what is going on here in the digital sector and, of course, what is not. I was here last summer and also in the fall too. This trip, I am slated to visit Mike Volpi of Joost later today to talk about what’s going on at that much-hyped online video site, which is in the midst of rejiggering itself after a rocky start. I will also be paying a call on the fine folks over at the Guardian, including with its PDA digital content blogger Jemima Kiss. The Guardian Media Group, the newspaper’s parent company, is doing some really fast-forward things in the digital arena, including the recent purchase of the paidContent new media news site. And tomorrow, I will be having yet another grilled kipper breakfast at the very tony Wolseley restaurant with Index Ventures Danny Rimer to talk about the start-up market here. Videos, of course, to come. Source: All Things Digital | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:42 am Weekend at Bernanke’s II [Digital Daily]
From the Fed’s announcement:
Extraordinary. The transformation of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley into traditional bank holding companies effectively marks the end of the investment banking industry as we’ve know it. It puts the two firms squarely under the oversight of national bank regulators. And while it will subject them to new capital requirements and additional supervision, it also will allow them to take commercial deposits. And, of course, it will grant them access to the Fed’s emergency lending facilities. Which must be a wonderful thing to have in this time of “rapid and profound change” on Wall Street, as Morgan Stanley likes to describe it. PREVIOUSLY: Source: All Things Digital | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:33 am SanDisk, Music Publishers Push DRM-free SlotMusic FormatStrudelkugel writes "The LA Times and others are reporting the music industry is working with SanDisk to try unrestricted music files on microSD memory cards to improve sales of physical media: 'In addition to music, the slotMusic cards will come pre-loaded with other things, such as liner notes, album-cover artwork and sometimes video.' The important part: 'The music on slotMusic comes without copyright protection, so it can be used on almost all computers, mobile phones and music players — but it won't play on an iPod, which doesn't have a micro-SD memory slot. It has one gigabyte of memory, and the music tracks are played back at high quality.' Could it be the labels have finally recognized that providing features and convenience to customers is preferable to suing them?" Most computers also don't have microSD slots; according to EMI's press release, there will be a "tiny USB sleeve" packaged with each card, and the "high quality" format means up to 320kbps MP3. From the given description, it seems like it would be no harder to transfer the tracks to an iPod (via a computer) than to most other players.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:30 am Computers are the Only Worthwhile Asset Banks Have Left [Voices]By John Naughton, Columnist, The GuardianEvery cloud has a silver lining. Ask the cybersquatters. Even as the short-selling vultures began circling Lehman Brothers, HBOS, Merrill Lynch and co, a legion of entrepreneurs began betting on domain names for hastily merged financial institutions. For example, when Barclays and Bank of America began to emerge as buyers for Lehman, names such as barclayslehman.com and bofalehman.com were promptly registered by enterprising hopefuls. Some of these domains were being offered for sale on eBay last week. For example, www.bankofamericamerrilllynch.com was available at a starting bid of $1,500. ‘With a deal between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch NOW ANNOUNCED’, burbled the seller, ‘this domain name will soon be incredibly popular. This is the only domain name that conveys the full picture, using the name of both firms… This is the most comprehensive and commonsensical domain name available concerning the MERGER OF BANK OF AMERICA CORP AND MERRILL LYNCH & CO.’ The last time your columnist checked, however, the auction had attracted no bidders. Still - nothing ventured, nothing gained. Source: All Things Digital | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:04 am Comcast Discloses Throttling Practices–BitTorrent Targeted [Voices]By David Kravets, Blogger, Wired, Threat LevelComcast came clean with the Federal Communications Commission late Friday, detailing how it throttled and targeted peer-to-peer traffic–maneuvers it has repeatedly denied. The cable concern said it indeed hit “particular protocols that were generating disproportionate amounts of traffic.” The peer-to-peer protocols, Comcast said, include Ares, BitTorrent, eDonkey, FastTrack and Gnutella–vehicles used to transport copyrighted material without the owners’ permission. On Aug. 1, when the FCC ordered it to abandon its throttling practices, Comcast denied that it was blocking any services including “peer-to-peer services” like BitTorrent or engaged in any blocking of services. Source: All Things Digital | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:03 am PlayStation 3 Video DRM: Two Strikes and You’re Out [Voices]By Ben Kuchera, Gaming Editor, Ars TechnicaThe Sony Video Store on the PlayStation Network is filled with a good selection of movies, and you can’t beat the convenience of renting or even buying movies from your couch and watching them on your big screen with your PlayStation 3. Renting movies is a joy on the system–although it would be nice to have longer than 24 hours to watch the content–but what happens when you buy a movie? As one Ars reader found out, and Sony confirmed for us, you have to be careful about what happens to your system once it’s filled with video content: you have one download, one redownload, and that’s it. Source: All Things Digital | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:02 am The Entire D6 Interview With (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 TiVo’s President and CEO Tom Rogers about the iconic but often-struggling pioneer and leader in the digital video recorder market. The video of the interview is in four parts, all of which I will post this week. In this first video, Rogers talks about why he came to TiVo, the need to bring the company closer to the media industry and how being a DVR alone is not enough, battling an image as a “content thief,” finding new ways to get users to watch commercial messages and making a business by selling networks key data about consumer television-watching behavior.
Source: All Things Digital | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:02 am Microsoft is Pushing Seinfeld Away Too Soon [Voices]By Don Reisinger, Blogger, The Digital Home, CNETI’ve been a pretty big fan of Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld ads. No, it’s not because I’m such a Seinfeld fanboy (I am though) or that I enjoy watching Bill Gates perform the robot on cue. Instead, I look at the Seinfeld ads as a way for Microsoft to turn the company’s poor public image into a positive image that will help it finally fix its Vista PR woes. But after buckling under the pressure of “what is this about?” articles, Microsoft has shelved the Seinfeld ads (they may or may not come back) and has instead started attacking Apple by explaining exactly what a PC is. (Editor’s note: Microsoft says the move away from the Seinfeld ads was always planned.) Source: All Things Digital | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:01 am Men Care Online about Sex, Food, Cars, and Gadgets [Voices]By Svetlana Gladkova, Blogger, Profy.comEarlier this week, comScore released results of a study conducted together with Leo Burnett advertising agency to see how male internet users behave online. In the effort to “track the virtual man,” the study was to find out what men really do online. Obviously, the main reason for the study (since it was conducted jointly with an advertising agency) was to see how to better target men with online advertising. So basically the study separated men into 4 categories depending on their approach to life, women and consumption of goods and services available in today’s society: metrosexuals (eagerly adopting the latest and greatest of everything, including personal care products), retrosexuals (preferring to stick to traditional male behavior stereotypes), patriarchs (seeking to protect established values–both off and online–and spending least time online out of all the four categories), and powerseekers (trying to demonstrate their financial and human achievements to everyone and spending the largest amounts of money for online purchases). Source: All Things Digital | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Music labels trying new format: SanDisk's slotMusic mini flash memory cardsThe four major record labels will put their songs on the new format to help boost retail sales. Move over, compact...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Stonehenge may have been an ancient LourdesBritish researchers think pilgrims congregated at the monument to have their wounds and illnesses healed. British...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am Be alert to SEC filingsIf you have certain stocks you follow closely, it's important to keep up with each company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 7:00 am BSkyB battles rivals with broadband adsBSkyB is set to throw down the gauntlet to rivals with an ad campaign claiming it is the only company to offer truly unlimited broadband usage to customers.The company is preparing the campaign after deciding...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 6:05 am SanDisk, record labels announce new music format (CNET)CNET - The ever-shrinking record album--its latest iteration being the compact disc--just got a lot more compact, or shall we say, micro.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 Sep 2008 | 6:01 am Do something for OneWebDayYes, it's Monday - and so I'll understand if you're overwhelmed by feelings of hatred and antipathy to all of humanity. But wait! Here's something to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling: it's OneWebDay - where...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 22 Sep 2008 | 5:36 am FBI Searches Apartment of Tennessee Student Suspected of Palin HackFBI agents executed a search warrant Sunday at the apartment of University of Tennessee student David Kernell in connection with the hack of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's private Yahoo account. According to a witness, several agents arrived at Kernell's Knoxville apartment around 12 am Sunday morning while a party was in progress.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Sep 2008 | 5:23 am Why Google Needs Better Antitrust AdviceThis is a big week for Google. It's new mobile phone software called Android is debuting, and there will be much debate about whether this much hyped project is going to get any traction. But that discussion may get drowned out by another. It seems as if everywhere you turn in the past two weeks, someone is wringing their hands about Google, the monopolist.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Sep 2008 | 5:09 am How Asus Recovery Disks Ended Up Carrying Software CracksAnthony_Cargile writes "We all now know about Asus shipping illegal software cracks and confidential documents/source code on their recovery DVD (and in the system root), but this article tells exactly how it happened. It's even more careless than you think, and most likely an accident."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Sep 2008 | 4:18 am Publishing's crises (incompletely) explainedBoris Kachka's long feature on NY publishing's crisis in New York Magazine is a sad but important read. But Kachka puts a lot of emphasis on greed and foolishness and media and bookstore consolidation, while ignoring the largest contraction in book-sales since the heyday: sales through non-bookstore venues like Wal-Mart and the local grocery store.Historically, these outlets have sold more books than bookstores, and were a vital induction system that coaxed people who didn't (yet) love books into the bookstores. When these chains went national, they demanded national distributors to stock them from coast-to-coast. The result: a huge shift in the way these shelves are stocked: once stocked by local distributors who chose from a very wide range of titles and hand-picked the right books for each little grocery store and pharmacy, now they are supplied by a national database totalling somewhere around 100 titles. The consolidated distributors demand gigantic discounts from publishers -- and even so, they go bankrupt with dismal regularity, often with FBI arrests of top execs for corruption. So yes, there was a lot of foolishness in book-publishing, yes, some writers got stupid advances, yes, mergers and acquisitions have left many publishers without a coherent vision or command structure. But when 51 percent of your sales disappears and is replaced by a lottery system where a couple dozen titles get nationwide distribution to non-bookstore customers and everything else is pushed into a ditch, surely that must count for something. The advances you don’t hear about have been dropping precipitously. For every Pretty Young Debut Novelist who snags that seven-figure prize, ten solid literary novelists have seen advances slashed for their third books.The End (single-page view, may expire), The End (obnoxiously split into nine separate pages) (via Beyond the Beyond) Source: Boing Boing | 22 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Wired.com Photo Contest: FallThe air is turning cold and crisp and the sun is becoming a recluse, which herald the subject of our next photo contest: Fall. Use the Reddit widget below to submit your best Fall photo and vote for your favorite among the other submissions. The 10 highest-ranked photos will appear in a gallery on the Wired.com homepage. Sure, the fiery leaves are always a crowd-pleaser, but we want to see more. Show us the legions of our greatest resource headed back to school. Show us giant gourds, ghouls and ghosts, and hay mazes. Uncanny headless horsemen amongst skeletons of trees, and autumnal feasts that stretch as far as the eye can see. Fit Fall into a frame and show us what it means to you. The photo must be your own, and by submitting it you are giving us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. Please submit images that are relatively large, the ideal size being 800 to 1200 pixels or larger on the longest side. Please include a description of your photo, which may include exposure information, equipment used, etc. We don't host the photos, so you'll have to upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you're using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, please provide a link to the image directly and not just to the photo page where it's displayed. Using an online photo service that requires that you login will not work. If your photo doesn't show up, it's because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Check it and make sure it ends with the image file name (XXXXXX.jpg). Please bookmark this page and check back periodically over the next two weeks to vote on new submissions! Also, check out the winner's galleries from our previous contests: Holga, Red, Self-Portrait, Night, Macro, Transportation, and Black and White. Vote on fall photos submitted by other readers.
Show entries that are: hot | new | top-rated. Submit your Fall photo. Submit your fall photo.(No more than one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.)
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Top 10 Wired.com Reader Portrait Photos, Decided by You : While a portrait can be one of the most difficult types of photo to do well, our readers have once again demonstrated their superior taste by selecting these 10 photos from our portrait photo contest. Jason Lee takes home the gold with his photo "Kayla" at left. Mr. Lee will be receiving a subscription to Wired magazine and a digital picture frame for his desk. Since we had so many great photos that we thought should've received more votes, we've also compiled a Wired.com Editor's Choice Portrait Photo Gallery. Our next twice-monthly photo contest is fall. As the world packs up shop for winter, we want to see what signifies fall for you. Check out the contest page for more information. Left: Kayla Photographer's comment: "Just a simple portrait of my younger daughter.”  : Building Contractor Photographer's comment: This man stopped by while I was visiting with my friend, Sajid. I remember that he was a building contractor (and a rather busy one considering the 2005 earthquake), but I never caught his name. This is just one of those faces you absolutely have to photograph. Fortunately, my friend was able to translate posing instructions for me, since I don't speak Pari or Urdu.”  : Under the Overpass Photographer's comment: "On the streets of Houston."  : Sam Stanley Kubrick Photographer's comment: "Portrait of my middle son in the garden riding his toy bike whilst wearing my motorbike helmet. Looks very 2001: A Space Odyssey."  : Marble Mayhem Photographer's comment: "She's wearing a really soft Russian rabbit hat."  : Filthy Habit Photographer's comment: "A smoker in a pub doorway, in Dublin."  : smoke'n hot... Photographer's comment: "My friend kriss and I were hang'n out and she was in need of a light …. This photo was taken using the natural light emitting from the molotov.. no added light from another source ... 1/80 f./5 1600 iso shot with a canon 20D in my driveway."  : Commute Photographer's comment: "Nikon Digital"  : Rafa Photographer's comment: "I took this image of Raphael, my nephew. We were quite bored, and decided to take some photos. The little guy is so photogenic."  : The Dream Photographer's comment: "A photo project for JieXin, the dancer you see in the photo. Somewhat of mid-night dream sequence. Colours by Lightroom. No photoshop. Nikon D300, 50-mm 1.8, natural light."
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Top 10 Wired Portrait Photos, Decided by Us : Though Wired.com readers selected 10 excellent photos in our portrait photo contest, we here at the photo department like to fight for the underdog. Here are our 10 favorite submissions that we think deserved more attention. Our next bi-monthly photo contest is fall. As the world packs up shop for winter, we want to see what signifies fall for our readers. Check out the contest page for more information. Left: Pondering Life Photographer's comment: "I took this photo with a small handheld digital camera of this man in a Japanese park.”  : Young boy in the Dominican Photographer's comment: "Young boy in the Dominican."  : Filmmaker in Tux Photographer's comment: "One of my favorite photos from a friend's wedding. (Though this was not the guy getting married.) This was taken with a Polaroid SX-70. The shutter was open long enough to capture a separate flash."  : Erica loves to drink Photographer's comment: "Erica loves to drink."  : Embedded Photographer's comment: "Snapshot in the South American Andres. Nikon D80, 50mm Vintage F mount lens."  : My parents Photographer's comment: "My father and my mother having a discussion."  : Polaroid Self Photographer's comment: "Polaroid self-portrait in the oldest still-running diner in town."  : Alessi Photographer's comment: "A night out eating ice cream.”  : Infrared Shadows Photographer's comment: "Mamiya C220 Mamiya-Sekor 80mm f/2.8 TLR lens efke IR 820 120 film (IR modified) Vivitar 285HV flash."  : lost head recaptured Photographer's comment: "lomo action sampler, duomo milano"
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Sept. 22, 1791: Faraday Enters a World He Will Change1791: Michael Faraday is born. In his 76 years on the planet, the chemist-physicist will make fundamental contributions to our understanding of electricity and magnetism, advise governments and establish lasting institutions of scientific education. Faraday came from a working-class family and had to go to work after rudimentary schooling in reading, writing and arithmetic. But genius won out. Faraday became a bookbinder's apprentice in his teens and continued his education by reading the books he was binding. An article on electricity in the Encyclopedia Britannica inspired him to buy some equipment and conduct some experiments himself. Faraday joined London's City Philosophical Society in 1810 to hear the lectures there and participate in scientific discussions. Then, in 1812, a client of the bookbindery gave the earnest young man tickets to hear a series of lectures by pioneering chemist Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution. Thirsty for knowledge, Faraday took copious notes. He organized them, added illustrations and bound them into a book. Faraday secured an interview with Davy, presented him with the bound copy and asked to be hired as a lab assistant. Davy was impressed but had nothing open at the moment. True to his word, however, he did hire Faraday the next year … at about $10 a week (the rough equivalent of $135 in today's money). A few years later, Davy asked his assistant to follow up on the work of Danish scientist Hans Christian Oersted, who had just discovered that an electrical current would deflect the needle of a magnetic compass. Faraday theorized that magnets created force fields, and he designed an experiment that significantly one-upped Oersted in 1821. Faraday suspended a wire above a magnet. When he passed a current through the wire (whose bottom end hung in a dish of conductive mercury), the wire rotated around the magnet, following lines of magnetic force. It was a prototype for the electric motor, using electricity to create motion. It just needed to be scaled up. The discovery was a sensation -- perhaps a little too much of one. Davy, a scientific rock star of his day, was envious. He accused Faraday of stealing the idea from him and tried to block the young man's election to the Royal Society. Davy backed off but never withdrew the charges. Faraday became a Fellow of the Royal Society and lab director at the Royal Institution in 1825. Faraday decided to tread gingerly and shied away from electrical experimentation. He worked instead on analytical chemistry and the compression of gases, discovering benzene in 1825. Davy died in 1829, perhaps from the after-effects of his frequent inhalation of nitrous oxide and other gases, including carbon monoxide. That gave Faraday free rein to resume his work on electricity. He discovered electromagnetic induction in 1831. Reversing his effect of using a magnet and electricity to create motion, he used a magnet and motion to generate electricity. No messy, voltaic cells needed, it was the progenitor of steam, hydro and diesel generators. Faraday plumbed the mysteries of electrochemistry in the 1830s, coining such words as electrode and ion, and establishing the laws of electrolysis. But wait, there's more. In 1845, he suspended a heavy piece of glass between the poles of an electromagnet, watching the glass twist into alignment with the magnetic field. Other materials produced the same result, which Faraday named diamagnetism, the propensity of a nonmagnetic substance to create an opposing field in the presence of externally applied magnetism. He also discovered the magneto-optical effect, also called the Faraday effect, that very same year: A magnetic field can rotate polarized light. All this work -- integrating magnetism, electricity, chemistry and light -- eventuated in Faraday firmly establishing the field theory of electromagnetism, a foundation of modern physics. Remembering his own education through public lectures, Faraday founded the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures on scientific topics. They've gone on since 1825, interrupted only during World War II. They've been on television since 1966 and are now supplemented by interactive online features. Faraday also served as a science adviser to British governments for more than three decades. He worked fervently for the electrification of lighthouses. Faraday's name is honored in the scientific world not only by the Faraday effect and the Faraday cage apparatus, but by two electrical units of measure and a physical constant. The farad is the humongous unit of capacitance, equal to one coulomb per volt. Because the unit is so huge, you usually see capacitance measured in micro-, nano- or picofarads. The faraday is a unit of electric charge that can electrolytically deposit one mole of an element or univalent ion. It's equal to Avogadro's number multiplied by the charge of a single electron, or approximately 96.4853 kilocoulombs or 26.8015 ampere hours, and is also known as Faraday's constant. Source: Royal Institution, others
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Games Without Frontiers: The Game of Politics Is Ready for Its UpgradeI won the White House for Barack Obama last week. And for John McCain, too! I was playing The Political Machine 2008, this year's big sim-election title, and had a blast slinging mud and pandering. Playing as Obama, I stormed around the coasts, promising clean coal and running ads blasting McCain for supporting the war, and soon I was kicking back in the Oval Office. Playing as McCain, I played precisely the opposite cards in the red heartland, and won that race as well. And as I turned off the computer, I thought -- wow, you could regard The Political Machine as the supreme indictment of American Democracy. Because for all its cartoony graphics, the electioneering feels quite realistic. Almost too realistic. And you wind up worrying: Is real-life politics just a game, too? As we move ever closer to Nov. 4, pundits constantly complain that the presidential campaign has become a farce of scorekeeping -- with the candidates, media and consultants treating it merely as a horse race. Why aren't we talking about issues? they moan. Isn't democracy supposed to be about more than just pandering to the crowd? In one sense, the pundits are completely right. There's something enormously depressing about watching the electioneering devolve into such nanoscale pettiness as the "lipstick on a pig" argument, or the choruses of "drill, baby, drill." We're facing down some of the hugest social crises in a generation -- climate change, a worldwide economic meltdown -- yet we're faced with campaigns dominated by who's racking up more daily points: Who attacked? Who deflected? Modern political campaigns even borrow directly from the linguistics of game-playing: The candidates are engaged in a "horse race." But let me suggest another way to look at it. Maybe American democracy really is a game -- and maybe that's the best thing about it. What, after all, is a game? A game is a set of rules that gives players a set of goals but also constrains their behavior in striving for those goals; it architects their behavior in an interesting and hopefully enjoyable way. A really well-designed game is "balanced" and self-correcting. In a game of pool, for example, if you take an early lead by sinking a ton of balls, you quickly discover that -- whoops -- the game gets harder because your opponents' balls block all your shots. In MMOs like World of Warcraft, different classes of players do different things; as a result, no one class can run roughshod over all others. In comparison, what's a democracy? Much like a game, it's just a bunch of rules -- written down on a piece of paper (er, a "constitution") -- that constrain everyone's behavior in an attempt to architect a productive, happy and peaceful polity. And, again like a game, if it's well-designed, it's self-correcting. One reason to admire the U.S. democratic system is its neat balance of power. On paper, anyway, the branches of government -- executive, legislative and judicial -- are co-equal, so each can prevent the others from causing too much mischief. When it comes to elections, some sparsely populated states were weighted higher -- given extra senators and congressmen or Electoral College votes so that, again in theory, they wouldn't be run roughshod over. American democracy is strikingly gamelike in its design. Yet the thing is, the game is clearly in need of a redesign. When you play Political Machine, you quickly realize -- much as real-world candidates do -- that you're mostly worried about the small handful of vote-rich "swing" states, like Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. I won even though I almost completely ignored population-rich New York, California and Texas. This is, of course, because of the superweird Electoral College system. It's a design choice that made a lot of sense 200 years ago, but makes increasingly less sense as time goes on and America becomes more of an urban, coastal country. The software of American democracy was designed to run on hardware -- a particular population distribution -- that no longer exists. If American democracy actually were a game, like Halo, players would call it unbalanced -- and cry out for a solution. Or to put it another way: The software of U.S. democracy needs a patch. It needs some tweaks that force politicians to consider the whole map. Plenty of electoral thinkers have suggested reweighting the Electoral College, or maybe even scrapping it. Assuming this were politically possible, it would require some sober meditation on design. For example, to ensure that low-population states don't get completely overlooked politically in the new regime, you might want to include new safeguards for them -- such as a couple extra senators or representatives. Even so, you'd want to be very, very careful as you proceeded. As any videogame designer knows, changing even one tiny part of a system -- making the rifles more lethal in Call of Duty, or gravity slightly more powerful in a racing game -- can send the entire thing spiraling into chaos. The same goes with democracy, in spades. But the point is, thinking about American democracy as a game is not necessarily a bad thing. Quite the contrary: It might be the best way to fix it. - - - Clive Thompson is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a regular contributor to Wired and New York magazines. Look for more of Clive's observations on his blog, collision detection.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 22 Sep 2008 | 4:00 am Recently at Boing Boing Gadgets Recently at Boing Boing Gadgets, we looked at simple cellphones, complicated paperclips, and the small list of places where T-Mobile's Androidphone will get fast cellular internet.
Joel finds a replica of his teenage mobile fun bar on sale for two grand, beautiful airplane models made from trash, and kitchenware made from leaves.
John likes Shuttle's shoebox PC with a built-in LCD screen, speakers in the shape of official iPod earbuds, and a cheap 5-megapixel slide scanner from Ion Audio.
Rob picked a traditional model over the fancy Sorapot teapot, wondered about mundane Mary Worth tackling technology, preferred an even-smaller Shuttle PC, and wondered why anyone would spend $830 on a warranty for a $1200 laptop.
We posed questions. Can you deal with unpowered push mowers? Do you see much difference between all these thin 'n' light laptops? Is there irony in the notion of spending $25 buying a wallet with the words "Think Twice" printed on it?
Marvin takes a look inside Steve Jobs's Brain Slices.Source: Boing Boing | 22 Sep 2008 | 1:54 am Debating "Deletionism" At WikipediaIan Lamont writes "In a strange turn of events, the Wikipedia entry for Deletionpedia — an online archive of deleted Wikipedia articles — is now being considered for deletion. The entry for Deletionpedia was created shortly after the publication of an Industry Standard article and a discussion on Slashdot this week. Almost immediately, it was nominated for deletion, which has sparked a running debate about the importance of the Wikipedia entry, Deletionpedia, and the sources that reference it. For the time being, you can read the current version of the Deletionpedia entry, while the Wikipedia editors carry on the debate."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 22 Sep 2008 | 1:38 am Comcast's Throttling Plan Has 'Disconnect User' Optionnewtley writes "Comcast's new people, not protocols scheme may mean high speed for some, but by no means all. It's also created a draconian 'disconnect' option for use against anyone who fails to toe the Comcast line. But, says Robb Topolski, the Net protocol expert who originally uncovered Comcast's blatant efforts to control its customers, the plan does offer key take-aways, telling P2P users on Comcast how to do what they do without the risk of corporate interference."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Sep 2008 | 11:51 pm Radio soap opera makes Scilly Isles residents famousResidents of Britain's most southwesterly outpost have earned the role of international soap stars. A weekly radio soap opera written, performed and produced by people who live on the Isles of Scilly is...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 Sep 2008 | 11:07 pm Google makes handset debut with rival to iPhoneGoogle will make its long-awaited debut in the mobile phone handset market tomorrow when it launches in New York, with its first network partner T-Mobile, the first device that runs its Android operating...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 Sep 2008 | 11:02 pm New Diablo 3 Images; Design Wins Over DarknessKingofGnG writes "The new Diablo III screenshots highlight the strong chromatic variations existing between the dungeons and the various stages ... It appears obvious, however, that all those details enriching the scenes, the crumbling parapets of the paths within the dungeons, the plants and the ragged drapes lightened by candles, would lose the best part of their raison d'etre if put in monochrome palettes inclined to black."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Sep 2008 | 10:40 pm Mozilla Nixes Firefox EULA RequirementLess than a week ago, Mozilla asked (and Canonical relucantly agreed, in development versions of Intrepid Ibex) that users be required on first use to agree to a EULA before using Firefox. This drew lots of criticism, and Mozilla agreed that the requirement was flawed. Now, according to a story at Groklaw, the EULA requirement's been done away with. From the Groklaw article linked: "Bottom line: Now, you can install and use Firefox without having to agree to a EULA. The services have been separated out. If they were opt in instead of opt out, I'd be happier, but this is acceptable to me. There may be further tweaks, I understand, but I think it's time to acknowledge that Mozilla is behaving very well indeed now and demonstrating a desire to get this right."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Sep 2008 | 9:33 pm Top 8 Large Hadron Collider VideosThe Large Hadron Collider has become fodder for tons of viral videos. Some are hilarious, others are informative, and the best are somewhere in between. Check out some of our favorites.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 21 Sep 2008 | 9:00 pm IT Workers Cushioned From US Economic DownturnDontLickJesus writes "According to the AP, technology has been the least hardest hit by the U.S.'s recent economic downturn. Quote: '"Overall technology employment is up in America and the wages associated with it are up," said John McCarthy, a vice president with Forrester Research.' The article goes on to say that companies realize the worth of their [IT] staff. This paired along with a recent article regarding the value of data centers when selling a company leads one to believe that the business world, while historically not fond of IT workers, is showing its true opinion of the sector."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 21 Sep 2008 | 8:22 pm New Post Web section to send readers elsewhereThe Washington Post is launching a new Web section linking readers to the best of political coverage -- even scoops by rival newspapers.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 21 Sep 2008 | 7:58 pm Is the rich-hued Kodachrome era fading to black? (AP)AP - It is an elaborately crafted photographic film, extolled for its sharpness, vivid colors and archival durability. Yet die-hard fan Alex Webb is convinced the digital age soon will take his Kodachrome away.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 21 Sep 2008 | 7:24 pm Mogwai's Brathwaite Howls About 'Hawk', CDs, BushScotland's rock legend Mogwai has a new disc called The Hawk is Howling touching down on Monday. But that deafening buzz in your ears is most likely coming from the quintet's set at All Tomorrow's Parties New York, which wraps Sunday.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 21 Sep 2008 | 3:57 pm Israel Unleashes First 'Skunk Bomb'Last month Israel used a new weapon against unruly demonstrators -- a foul-smelling water-spraying device that demonstrators say smells like sewage and is hard to get rid of, even after a shower.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 21 Sep 2008 | 12:53 pm
|
Six months ago, the nation had five independent investment banks: Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs. That number soon dwindled to four. And then to three. And by last week’s end, only two investment banks remained. Now those two are gone as well. The Federal Reserve Board hammered the final nail in the coffin of independent investment banks Sunday evening, 