[via Platform21.nl via Core77]]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:30 pm

Where Have All the Little Plutos Gone?

The far corners of our solar system may be surprisingly sparse, research shows.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:23 pm

Judge Tosses Telco Suit Over City-Owned Network

tsa sends along news of the city of Monticello, Minnesota, which was sued by their local telco, Bridgewater Telephone Company, because the city chose to build a fiber optics network of their own. The judge dismissed their complaint of competition by a governmental organization. Quoting: "The judge's ruling is noteworthy for two things: (1) the judge's complete dismissal of Bridgewater Telephone Company's complaint and (2) his obvious anger at the underfunding of Minnesota's state courts. Indeed, the longest footnote in the opinion is an extended jeremiad about how much work judges are under and why it took so long to decide this case."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:23 pm

CrunchDeal: Crucial 8GB SD card for $9.99 shipped

Note: this Newegg deal is while supplies last so when it goes live at 11:00 EST or 8:00 PST, jump on it fast. An 8GB SD card for 10 bucks is a hell of a deal, especially with free shipping.

via GearDiary

Source: CrunchGear | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:20 pm

Second 'Virgin Birth' Documented in Shark

A female shark becomes pregnant without a male in a second documented case.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:15 pm

Ahead of the Bell: Analyst cuts AT&T estimates

Cowen & Co. analyst Tom Watts cut his earnings estimates for AT&T Inc. on Friday, saying strong iPhone sales were costing the company money through subsidies even as the dire economic climate is...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:13 pm

Green news harvest: Ill winds for carbon trading

When Mahalo launched about 16 months ago, we called it a human-powered search engine and began thinking of it as a Google competitor. But it’s so-called “guide pages” for topics as diverse as the Boston Marathon and Patriotic Drunk Rednecks provide not only links but quick facts, making Mahalo an editor-driven, Wikipedia competitor as well. And with a new site-wide design launching today, Mahalo sharpens its focus on the news cycle and competes more directly with sites like CNN and a multitude of news aggregators.

CEO Jason Calacanis explains how inspiration for the new design came from noticing how a core group of about 10-15,000 visitors refresh Mahalo’s homepage several times a day to check for new featured links, which change 2-3 times per day and direct users to guide pages about current events. The new design enhances Mahalo’s standing as a news aggregator by making these featured items more prominent on the homepage. A new “top news” box (see above) dominates the top left area of the homepage and displays excerpts from relevant guide pages.

But most importantly, Mahalo now features a new “liveblog” system that delivers one liners about world news as it breaks, such as “Man arrested after threatening bar patrons with a chainsaw” and “Brooke Hogan Says ‘No’ to Playboy”. Calacanis recalls how Peter Rojas pioneered the practice of liveblogging at Engadget and suggests that Mahalo is essentially applying the same technique to the entire world. Each post to the liveblog gets placed into a category, such as “Crime” or “Politics”, and most contain at least one link to a related guide page.

While 100 full time editors work to create Mahalo’s 100,000+ guide pages, Mahalo has employed only 4-8 full time employees to work on the liveblog (although they will work collectively around the clock). To spice things up a bit, Mahalo has set up a dedicated liveblog section where you can watch the employees and ask them questions as they work live on Ustream.

Calacanis says Mahalo plans to break out each news category into its own section and give each its own Ustream feed. Later on, we may also see RSS feeds for each category and a proper API to syndicate the liveblog’s news items elsewhere.

Disclosure: We have no financial interest in Mahalo. However, Jason Calacanis is a partner on our annual TechCrunch50 Conference.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:00 pm

Microsoft elaborates on Oslo (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld - Shedding more light on its Oslo vision for model-based software development, Microsoft this week elaborated on plans to preview Oslo technologies, offering codenames and citing the company's DSL (Domain Specific Languages) concept as a lynchpin of the platform.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:00 pm

R-Strap: Sharp Shooting on the Mean Streets

Ron Henry is a man who has clearly spent too much time in front of the mirror, muttering to himself "You talkin' to me?". Check out his kick-ass, quick-draw camera technique:

What's Ron so excited about? The R-Strap, a fast-access camera support. Instead of wearing your camera like a big nerd-necklace, the R-Strap lets you sling it across your shoulder. Because the strap hooks onto the tripod mount on the bottom, the camera is right-side-up when you get it to your eye.

There's more. Ron's company, Black Rapid, also sells a screw-in clip for the tripod bush on your camera or lens -- if you have a quick-release mounting plate for your tripod which has a D-ring, you won't need this. The basic models is adjustable and has the plastic stopper which ensures the camera stays on your hip when you're done, and there are two more: The RS-2 – with extra pockets – and the RS-3 Camo, which is patterned to contrast with regular, everyday clothes.

The straps start at around $50. But we came to this post by way of Lifehacker, which points to a DIY version made from an old laptop-bag shoulder strap, a luggage tag and a screw. I liked the idea, but I already have a strap from an old camera bag, and my camera is already sporting the requisite D-ring from my tripod. Why not make my own?





The hardest part was rummaging through the junk drawer. I dug out the strap which has two plastic clips, one on each end. The real R-Strap has two, but it makes no difference other than that the R-Strap hook is on a swivel mount. As you can see below, the D-ring on the tripod mount is easily big enough to cope.




That's it. The strap holds the camera on my hip, ready to go. I like how it seems to stick out less than slinging the camera over a shoulder with a regular two-point strap. Another advantage is that, if you get the length right, you can use the strap to steady the camera -- pull the camera against the strap and it will tighten as you look at the LCD screen, stopping the wobbles. If you're using a non live-view DSLR, hooking your right elbow into the strap will push it down and shorten it enough to tighten it as you bring the camera up to your eye.

I'll certainly be making a v 2.0 version -- my camera bag needs its strap back and I'd prefer a thinner one anyway. See how well it works in this quick video, complete with cheesy camera-shutter sound effects found as found in the original, and authentic De Niro-style gunplay.






Product page [Black Rapid via Lifehacker]
DIY R-Strap [Instructables]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Oct 2008 | 12:49 pm

Walmart Caves On DRM Removal

cmunic8r99 writes in with an email he received from walmart.com yesterday evening about the pending shutdown of their DRM services (which we discussed a while back). Walmart has reconsidered and won't be shutting off its DRM servers after all. They are still moving to an all-MP3 store, but won't break all the DRMed music its customers have already downloaded; this because of "feedback from the customers."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In three years or so when Facebook finally settles on a business model. Assuming, of course, that it’s a viable one. And that it doesn’t send privacy advocates into paroxysms of angry status updates.

In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg trotted out the old “growth over profits” cliché as explanation for the company’s long-absent business model. “… what every great Internet company has done is to figure out a way to make money that has to match to what they are doing on the site,” Zuckerberg said. “I don’t think social networks can be monetized in the same way that search did. But on both sites people find information valuable. I’m pretty sure that we will find an analogous business model. But we are experimenting already. One group is very focused on targeting; another part is focused on social recommendation from your friends. In three years from now we have to figure out what the optimum model is. But that is not our primary focus today. … Growth is primary, revenue is secondary.”

Yeah. Tell that to the stock market …

[Image Credit: The Onion]

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Oct 2008 | 12:00 pm

Fitbit Raises Healthy $2 Million From True Ventures And SoftTech VC

Fitbit, producer of a sleek little device that clips onto your clothing and tracks your movement throughout the day and night, has raised $2 million from True Ventures, SoftTech VC and several angels in what appears to be the company’s first round of institutional funding.

The device, set to go on sale in early 2009 for $99 a pop, uses the information it gathers about your movement to help you determine how much exercise you’ve been getting and how many calories you’ve burnt. It can also tell you how many steps you have taken and how well you’ve slept, all based on its internal motion detector.

All data gets automatically synchronized to your computer and then the web through a wireless base station, so you don’t even have to plug it in. Once synced, you can view your health reports online.

Fitbit debuted just this September at TechCrunch50 where it was a runner up for the top prize.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch | 10 Oct 2008 | 12:00 pm

First Secure Quantum Crypto Network Up and Running

John Lam was one of many readers to send in news that on Thursday, "at a conference in Vienna, Austria, as reported by the BBC, a European Community science working group built a quantum backbone using 200-km of standard commercial optical fiber running among seven sites and successfully demonstrated the first secure quantum cryptographic key distribution network. In addition, each of the seven links used a different kind of quantum encryption, demonstrating interoperability between the technologies. To paraphrase, the project focused on the trusted repeater paradigm and developed an architecture allowing seamless integration of heterogeneous quantum-key distribution-link devices in a unified framework. Network node-modules managing all classical communication tasks provide the underlying quantum devices with authentic classical channels. The node-module architecture uses a layered model to provision network-wide, end-to-end, provably secure key distribution."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:47 am

Wall Street plunges, continuing devastating losses

The devastating selling continues on Wall Street, with investors again dumping stocks in early trading. The Dow Jones industrials, already down 2,271 points in seven sessions, are down more than 300 after dropping nearly 700.

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:36 am

Mobile gaming firms eye Nokia, Apple boost in 2009 (Reuters)

Reuters - Mobile gaming companies say they will book few new sales from Nokia's N-Gage phones or Apple's iPhone, but are betting on a market boost next year as more phones of these kinds are taken up by consumers.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:33 am

Touch-Screen Eee PCs Coming Early Next Year

Asus continues to stack up Eee PC models like cheap Biros at a trade show, and they're getting cheaper, faster and touch-ier.

Asustek honcho Samson Hu has told Digitimes that the company plans to release a Touch Screen Eee early next year, which gets us all excited: Touch screens have their obvious disadvantages, not least that you need superhuman stamina to wave your arms in the air for long enough to use them, but for occasional use a touch sensitive display could go a long way to compensating for the execrable touchpads found on most netbooks.

Hu also said that Asus is waiting on Intel to make its dual core Atom processor available. As soon as Asus gets hold of them, they'll be stuffed into a netbook and rushed onto store shelves. Last, Asus plans to make an even cheaper Eee, coming in at NT$10,000 (Taiwanese dollars), or just over $300 US.

John Brownlee at BBG observes, "As always, there's a reason to wait to buy a netbook." True, and a typical comment from the exiled writer. I've heard him say a similar thing once before, in a Berlin bar: "As always, there's a reason to wait to buy a round". You owe me a hefeweise, Brownlee.

Asustek planing touch panel Eee PCs [Digitimes via BBG]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:24 am

Goldmine Bug DNA May Be Key to Alien Life - ABC News

Discover Magazine

Goldmine Bug DNA May Be Key to Alien Life ABC News - 4 hours ago By CATHERINE BRAHIC A bug discovered deep in a goldmine and nicknamed "the bold traveller" has got astrobiologists buzzing with excitement. In the deep, a community of one Ars Technica Deep in a Goldmine, an Ecosystem of One Discover Magazine Wired News - GenomeWeb News (subscription) - Science News - The Press Association all 27 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:15 am

Wi-Fi Sneakers for War-Walking

MSTRPLN and Ubiq's concept Wi-Fi shoe brings a new meaning to the term "sneakernet". A pressure sensitive insole detects when you are walking and switches on the WLAN detector. As it is merely a conceptual sneaker, there are very few details. We guess, however, that the LEDs in the tongue indicate signal strength, ad we'd hope that they flash green for an open hotspot and red for an encrypted one.

Obviously, the scope for bad nerd jokes is huge here. Leave your War-Walkin' wisecracks in the comments. I'm sure you'll "stumble" on something good.

Product page [Behance via Josh Spear via the DIGG]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Oct 2008 | 11:00 am

Political Video of the Day: Sarah Silverman’s Great Schlep [BoomTown]

Is there anything comic Sarah Silverman will not say?

Apparently not, from this aggressively pro-Sen. Barack Obama video that has become a huge hit on the Web and seen by many millions of viewers.

It’s called “The Great Schlep,” which is also a political advocacy organization she supports.

In it, the viciously funny Silverman plans to blame–I am not kidding–old Jewish grandparents if Democratic nominee Obama loses the Presidential election. And she advises a very clever kind of blackmail as a way to prevent it.

You have to experience her logic to understand–and please be aware that Silverman pulls no punches.

And, if Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin goes on “Saturday Night Live”–as is rumored–to impersonate Tina Fey, BoomTown will get it right up.

Here’s the video (and below it, the other huge hit online spoof video Silverman did about her–um–friendly relationship with actor Matt Damon):

The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Oct 2008 | 10:35 am

Scientists: Virginia Shark's Pup a 'Virgin Birth'

Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark. In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female Atlantic blacktip shark in the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center contained no genetic material from a male.

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Oct 2008 | 10:30 am

Seagate spins plans for solid-state drives in 2009 - Ars Technica

Seagate spins plans for solid-state drives in 2009 Ars Technica - 5 hours ago By Joel Hruska | Published: October 10, 2008 - 05:12AM CT Seagate revealed a few tidbits of its SSD technology roadmap Thursday, though it neglected to explain the important link between Seagate SSD technology and Seagate's SSD lawsuits. HP Taps Samsung SSDs For Virtualization Blade Server InformationWeek Eying solid-state drives, Seagate tries to quell fears CNET News Register - Tom's Hardware Guide - IT Business Edge - MarketWatch all 25 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 10 Oct 2008 | 10:28 am

Hands On with the New Xbox Live Experience (PC Magazine)

PC Magazine - We recently got a chance to grab a controller and play around with the latest in-development version of the Microsoft Xbox Live Experience at a demo here in San Francisco. The highlights? Revamped avatars and a "party system".
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 10 Oct 2008 | 9:51 am

Photos: Blue Screen of Death Gallery

The real takeaway from Royal Pingdom's gallery – "Blue Screen of Death in unexpected locations" – is not that Windows is unreliable, but that it is used everywhere. Even Trent Reznor, who releases songs as Garage Band files, suffered the ignominy of a BSOD on a stage show background projection. Or did he?

Blue Screen of Death in unexpected locations [Royal Pingdom]

Photo: LtRandazzo/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Oct 2008 | 9:46 am

An Ignoble But Much Needed End To Web 2.0, Marked By A Party In Cyprus

In May 2007 I wrote “Times are good, money is flowing, and Silicon Valley sucks” in a post about how, in my opinion, Silicon Valley was ripe for a downturn.

This week, without any doubt, we got that downturn. It was different from the last downturn in that it wasn’t driven by the crazy bullishness of Silicon Valley venture capitalists and investment banks. This time, Wall Street and our government screwed everything up all on their own while we minded our own business and acquired our own instead of going public at crazy valuations.

So what exactly just ended? Easy capital to start. And that means already funded companies are going to tighten their belts in a big way, per the request/demand of venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital, Benchmark Capital and Ron Conway.

The first to go will be the bulging marketing and communications departments at all those startups - the very people who make Silicon Valley such a nasty place to be in the boom times. But as the number of startups dwindle, it won’t be so hard for them to get attention from press and users, so those marketing and PR flaks won’t be missed all that much (of course, the people without jobs won’t be happy).

We’ll look back in later years and think of this most recent boom as the Web 2.0 period, when we were wowed by the magic of user generated content, copyright violations on a massive scale, and neat little widgety things that used Javascript and Flash to turn web pages into pretty close equivalents to the old desktop apps. Of course there were other evolutions as well. Advertising technology has advanced steadily, particularly in tailoring ads to an individuals needs, and tracking them properly. This is the period that social networking as we think of it today was born, and we’ll never be rid of it in our lifetimes.

So why the use of the word ignoble in the title? Well, all this went down at an unfortunate time for a score of Silicon Valley posterboys and girls as they partied 1999 style “the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in October of 2008 for a week of reflections on life, love, and the Internet.” They leave behind an absurd video that would have gone unnoticed a month ago. But this week, with the walls tumbling down, they look like a bunch of jackasses who have no idea what’s going on back at home. And this video will always be associated with the end of Web 2.0.

Goodbye, Web 2.0. I hope I never have to type those words again. Now can we please get back to work? There’s still a ton left to do before we get to Matrix-style virtual reality, the Singularity, and mobile phones with batteries that last a whole day.

Cyprus Lip Dub - Don’t Stop Believing from Brittany Bohnet on Vimeo.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: TechCrunch | 10 Oct 2008 | 9:42 am

WalMart now says they'll keep the DRM servers on forever

After announcing that they'd be shutting off their DRM servers and nuking their customers' music collections, Wal*Mart has changed their mind. Now they've told their customers that they'll be keeping these servers online indefinitely -- which means that they'll be paying forever for their mistaken kowtowing to the entertainment industry's DRM mania.

All those companies (cough Amazon cough Apple cough) that say they're only doing DRM for now, until they can convince the stupid entertainment execs to ditch it, heed this lesson: you will spend the rest of your corporate life paying for this mistake, maintaining infrastructure whose sole purpose is to lock your customers into a technology restriction that no one really believes in. Welcome to the infinite cost of doing business with Hollywood.

Based on feedback from our customers, we have decided to maintain our digital rights management (DRM) servers for the present time. What this means to you is that our existing service continues and there is no action required on your part. Our customer service team will continue to assist with DRM issues for protected windows media audio (WMA) files purchased from Walmart.com.

While our customer support team is available to assist you with any issues, we continue to recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you insure access to them from any personal computer at any time in the future.

We appreciate your support and patience as we work to provide the best service possible to you. As we move forward with our 100% MP3 store, we'll continue to update you with key decisions regarding our service and your account via email.

Thank you for using Walmart MP3 Music Downloads.

The Walmart Digital Music Team

(Thanks to everyone who suggested this!)

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Oct 2008 | 9:42 am

Open Everything event in London on Nov 6

Yishay sez, "On 6 November 2008, London will host an Open Everything event, a global conversation about the art, science and spirit of ‘open’. The conversation will cover, well, everything. Qualifier: the ‘thing’ in question is built using openness, participation and self-organisation. There are people coming to talk about open technology, media, education, workplace design, philanthropy, public policy and even politics. These people want to tell you what they’re doing and find out what you’re up to. And they’d like to have lunch with you. That’s why they’re coming to Open Everything. " Open Everything London) (Thanks, Yishay!)

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Oct 2008 | 9:38 am

Sony, Microsoft Begin Battle of Virtual Worlds

Slatterz writes "Sony and Microsoft are poised to do battle in virtual worlds. The console kids both announced Second Life-style virtual environments at the Tokyo Game Show today. Both games show striking similarities to Linden Lab's creation. Players are represented by avatars which live a virtual life — engaging in relationships, going about day-to-day business."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Oct 2008 | 9:27 am

Sequoia Capital’s 56 Slide Presentation Of Doom

CEO_ALL_HANDS_10-7-08_FINAL - Get more Business Documents

We were able to track down the presentation that Sequoia Capital gave to its portfolio company CEO’s earlier this week (and so did VentureBeat). It’s a long, 56 slide Powerpoint message of doom and gloom in Silicon Valley that we covered yesterday along with an email that angel investor Ron Conway sent to his 130 active portfolio companies.

The final text slide reads “Get Real or Go Home.”

Benchmark Capital jumped on the band wagon today with their own email to portfolio companies. The messages are all similar - companies need to stay ahead of the curve as much as possible. Cut costs now, and raise capital if you can. If there’s someone out there willing to buy you, do it. Etc.

Of course all this negativity helps create the very downturn that venture capitalists are warning their companies to defend themselves against, perpetuating a sort of vicious cycle downward. But that’s ok, sometimes the hedge needs to be pruned. And this is what makes Silicon Valley its ugly, beautiful self.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch | 10 Oct 2008 | 8:52 am

Stringer on how Sony will bounce back: starting by not making the same product twice

It's easy to mock Sony for its lumbering scale, extravagant products and slow development cycle. The thing is vast. It even has its own orchestra, comprising mostly of professional engineers.

In an interview with Charlie Rose, Sony CEO Howard Stringer is candid about Sony's problems, and displays a wit and humility that might come as a surprise to those who wonder why it can't be more like its competitors.

"All big companies settle into vertical silos," he told Rose, recounting the difficulties of cutting fat at a Japanese company. "We have to go into the kind of world that Steve Jobs has developed. We're going to communicate horizontally, because every device will talk to every other device."

People at Sony, he said, didn't even talk to one another.

"You've got to get mad that the iPod beat us," he told employees at a recent company retreat. "You've got to be mad when Samsung's market share goes up."

He knows that his unique status, as a Westerner in charge of one of Japan's most successful companies, is no accident: "I had to be careful, sylistically," he says of cuts. "... but it was easier for me to take ownership of that kind of ruthlessness than a Japanese executive."

In the interview, he often hints that his job is mostly about unifying something that would otherwise unravel. He also hints that Japan's strongly hierarchical business culture is another reason that change is slow. But when it comes to product development, polite inference gives way to a calculated bluntness.

"We also don't need to make it three times," he told Rose. "... We're so big, we make the same thing twice in different parts of the company, and no-one seems to notice."

Stringer once remarked that when he took over at Sony, he found a company that made more than 30,000 products: it's no wonder that its cool and innovative gear, like the recent Rolly MP3 gadget, and OLED televisions, don't seem part of a grand plan, such as can be seen behind iTunes' connections to almost all of Apple's hardware.

Sony, traditionally, doesn't have an ecosystem at all, just a relentless avalanche of new products. It owns a fifth of the music industry and one of the largest Hollywood studios, but you wouldn't know it from the lack of service integration in its gadgets.

All about to change, according to Stringer, who outlined plans centering around the PlayStation, which he said will ultimately link Sony's many products, acting as a hub to channel media to portable products, regardless of who makes them.

"It's a home server, sitting in the home .. delivering this content anywhere. It's in direct competition with AppleTV."

If it seems odd that he'd see Apple's least-successful current offering as its strongest in the long term, it's worth remembering his background: before taking command at Sony, he had decades of experience as a broadcaster in the U.S. But while Sony has its hands in every imaginable pot, including content-over-internet, it knows that it still has to make a success of its big investements: "If I fail to make Blu-Ray successful, it will be on our tombstone as Betamax 2," Stringer tells Rose.

More interesting points from the interview:

• On OLED television displays: 22" model out soon, and you "could wrap the display around your arm."

• He rather suggested that the cat is out the bag on free music, describing it as a commodity like "air or water." This was, however, to make a point: such a situation is never ever going to be accepted with movies, due to the capital wrapped up in making them.

• "The margins on computers are very small, but everything is becoming a computer."

• The Japanese have a marvelous sense of humor, he said, and have always been very welcoming to him, especially the younger generation at Sony.

• "People want, in bad times, to be entertained."

• "Video games have taken the place of external entertainment in the home," for adults and children alike.

• "Spiderman's been good to Sony."

• On being a Welsh-American working for Japanese company: "I am culturally confused. ... I'm a triple threat and a triple disaster, depending on your point of view. ... I'll wake up after my term at Sony with no friends anywhere, except airline pilots."

• A question: does this renewed focus on internal unity at Sony spell doom for Sony-Ericsson, or what?

Video of interview [Charlie Rose; the interview starts at 15:45]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:10 am

The Daily Beast’s Burden [Voices]

By Farhad Manjoo, Technology Columnist, Slate.com

Early every morning, I open my Web browser and load up a half-dozen “aggregator” sites: Techmeme, Memeorandum, Real Clear Politics, Google News, the Drudge Report, and the Huffington Post. This is my first sortie into the day’s news, the way I orient myself to what’s going on in the world now that I no longer subscribe to a print newspaper. After picking clean the smorgasbord of links, I dip into a second set of sites, these pulling in quirkier tales from around the Web: Digg, BuzzFeed, Fark, Hacker News, Boing Boing, and Kottke as well as my personalized Web aggregators at Friendfeed and Google Reader. During the course of the day, I repeat this process often; in my manic hunt for the freshest stuff on the Web, I reload some of these sites 10 or 20 times each.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:04 am

Digg’s Kevin Rose: We’ve Got to Be More Than a Fanboy Hub [Voices]

By Caroline McCarthy, Editor, The Social, CNET

Digg founder Kevin Rose had a message for the audience at the Future of Web Apps conference on Thursday: It’s time to grow up.

“We have to do better,” he said in his talk, called “The Future of News,” and said that it’s time for the social news site that he founded in 2004 to to expand beyond the geek set and get some real-world relevance. “Why click a button and make the number go up by one? Why does that matter?”

Digg, after all, gets more than 30 million monthly visitors, but Rose said that the site only has slightly over three million registered user accounts–those are the people actually “Digging.” That indirectly confirmed what Digg critics hve been saying all along: that it’s reflective of only a tiny and vocal subset of the Web, resulting in a heavy bias toward anything iPhone, anything Linux, anything Barack Obama, and plenty of wacky local news stories.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:03 am

Inside Details of Sequoia Capital’s Doomsday Meeting With Its Companies [Voices]

By Om Malik, Founder and Senior Writer, GigaOm

Last night I reported on a special meeting held by Sequoia Capital for its portfolio companies, warning them about the fiscal hurricane that was going to hit them, and how they’d better figure out ways to survive what could be a big downturn.

There were some gaps in the details about that meeting, but I have since been able to piece together the minutes and what folks there essentially said. Since these are second-sourced details, I cannot say they are a 100 percent accurate, so please view them with a degree of skepticism. Nevertheless, I still feel confident enough to share them.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:02 am

Parents Want to Be “Cool,” Are Using SMS With Their Kids [Voices]

By Jacqui Cheng, Blogger, Ars Technica

Hate on the kiddies and their SMS speak all you want, but text messaging is taking off among the masses. AT&T has released data from two studies it recently commissioned, showing that both families and romantic partners are using SMS more and more to communicate. Parents think texting with their kids makes them cool, while lovestruck texters are finding themselves using SMS to flirt and send romantic notes.

We’ll start with the families. AT&T conducted 1,048 online interviews with parents and 1,022 online interviews with children and young adults to get a feel for their usage patterns.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:01 am

NSA Abused Wiretap Rights: Intercepted, Shared Private Calls of Americans [Voices]

By Mike Masnick, Blogger, Techdirt

Now that Congress has totally capitulated and allowed the administration’s warrantless wiretapping program to go on without question, it should surprise no one that leaks are coming out highlighting how the program is regularly abused to spy on everyday Americans who are calling North America from the Middle East. In fact, two separate “intercept operators” have apparently come forward separately, and talked about listening in on perfectly innocent calls between two Americans–exactly the scenario that the government insisted never happened. Specifically, General Hayden stated that conversations between Americans were not being intercepted: “It’s not for the heck of it. We are narrowly focused and drilled on protecting the nation against al Qaeda and those organizations who are affiliated with it.”

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Dr. George Palade dies at 95; UC San Diego Nobel laureate

Dr. George Palade, the UC San Diego Nobel laureate whose work isolating, imaging and identifying the function of minute organelles within cells prompted the Nobel committee to label him and his co-winners...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

25% of teen girls vaccinated for cervical cancer, U.S. says

The CDC calls the rate 'very good' for a new vaccine such as Gardasil. Earlier data show, however, that only about 1% of Latina teens have received it. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Tech guru Tim O'Reilly challenges next generation to get serious

The entrepreneur, investor and book publisher urges young entrepreneurs and engineers to stop making silly software and start making a real difference in the world. ...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 10 Oct 2008 | 7:00 am

Robotic Suit For Rent In Japan

xTantrum writes with an AP story that begins "A robotic suit that reads brain signals and helps people with mobility problems will be available to rent in Japan for $2,200 a month starting Friday — an invention that may have far-reaching benefits for the disabled and elderly."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Oct 2008 | 6:40 am

India's Infosys cuts growth forecast

Information technology provider Infosys Technologies Ltd. on Friday said earnings in the July-September quarter rose 17 percent, but lowered its annual growth forecast on slowing demand amid the global...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 10 Oct 2008 | 5:10 am

Benchmark Capital Advises Startups To Conserve Capital, Look For Opportunities

Yesterday Sequoia Capital and Ron Conway communicated with their portfolio companies to guide them through troubled times. Today Benchmark Capital joins the fray, with what a source says is an email from General Partner Bill Gurley to their portfolio companies (See our interview with Gurley and new partner Matt Cohler from earlier this year).

Like the advice being given by Conway and Sequoia Capital, Gurley is urging his companies to remain calm, but get tight control of their finances, starting now.

Gurley also says for companies to expect “across-the-board reductions” in valuations, and a tough market for raising money - “Basically, the cost of capital is going way up.” Hedge funds are probably out of the picture for startup financings, he says, and corporate, strategic and angel money will decline.

Gurley also notes that major opportunities will become available to those who “play the game frugally.” He says “The real key is to have a keen understanding of the game on the field and to be the one that adjests swiftly, rather than the one that moves after it’s become blatantly obvious to everyone else it’s time to move.”

The full memo is below.

The recent downturn in the public markets (now known affectionately as “the U.S. 
Financial Crisis”) is obviously on everyone’s mind.   Some of the entrepreneurs and 
executives with which we are privileged to work have reached out and asked what 
this means for private companies, the VC world, and Benchmark.   As such, I thought 
t might be a good idea to send you our thoughts on the current situation, and 
ispecifically what it means for venture backed companies. 

 From a high level, this downturn is different from the Internet bubble of 1999.  First, 
the last downturn started in our backyard.  We were the speculators; this time it is 
someone else.  This means that the “crash on the beach” wont be nearly as severe.  
In the Internet crash, many times the customer was actually another VC‐backed 
company and as such, there was a strong negative spiral.  That said, while this 
downturn might be shallower than last; it could last longer in terms of absolute 
time.  The American consumer is super‐leveraged which wasn’t true before the 
1930’s or the 1970’s.  The overall economy will have trouble gaining momentum 
ith this debt anchor, and my best guess is the contraction is not finished yet.  As 
wsuch, it might take a long, long time before we see glory days  again.  

 Like every major shift in the environment, this one will offer  opportunities as well as 
risks.  JP Morgan was able to buy two great assets as substanti al discounts with 
government assurances, precisely because they played the game f rugally while 
others were more risk seeking.  The real key is to have a keen  understanding of the 
game on the field and to be the one that adjusts swiftly, rather than the one that 
moves after it’s become blatantly obvious to everyone else it’s time to move.  Many 
companies that thrived post 2001‐2003 were simply “Last Man Standing” in their 
ndustry.  It doesn’t sound all that glamorous, but it was the exact right strategy to 
ideploy at the time.  

 It terms of defining our current situation, let’s start with the impact on the actual 
capital in “venture capital”.  The institutions (limited partners) that typically invest 
with Benchmark and other venture funds are not the ones on the cover of the 
financial news everyday.  In fact, these limited partners are typically quite 
conservative and have a very long‐term perspective.  Certainly, new precedents are 
being set every day, so it’s hard to say the word “never” in this environment.  Still, 
e are unaware of any situation where capital availability for  us or any other VC 
wfirm is in question.   

 With that said, I think access to other forms of capital that have recently been 
available to venture backed companies may be dramatically impacted.  As an 
example, one would naturally assume that the hedge‐fund rounds of late‐2007 and 
early‐2008 are no longer available.  Additionally, we would expect that 
strategic/corporate investments, venture debt facilities, and even angel financings 
could all contract considerably.  In all previous economic downturns, this was 
certainly the case. 

 
One would also expect across‐the‐board reductions in follow‐on financing 
valuations.  As financial markets deteriorate three things happen.  First, investors 
get nervous.  As such, they tend to “choke up on the bat” and be more conservative.  
We have already witnessed skittishness on behalf of follow‐on funders, as well as a 
lengthening of the time it takes to complete a fundraising.  The second reason 
valuations will fall is that the public market comparable valuations have fallen 
materially.  This will have a direct impact on exit prices, be they an eventual I.P.O., or 
M&A.  In fact, I was recently at a gathering of corporate development execs, and 
their number one concern was that private company executives have not realized 
that the scoring system was just reset (expectations too high).   Lastly, investors are 
more concerned that a protracted economic downturn will negatively impact each 
private company’s specific results, increasing the likelihood of a revenue or cash 
flow miss.   

 If we leave you with one message it would be this: financings as we know it just got 
a whole lot tougher.  Basically, the cost of capital is going way up.  This is, of course, 
a sweeping generalization.  Some of you have tons of cash, and some of you are 
profitable, so the immediate impact will obviously be less.  That said, if you do need 
to go to the market for capital in the foreseeable future, you should consider that the 
environment will be much less hospitable than it has been for the past 3‐4 years 
which have actually been pretty benign), and that this less hospitable environment 
(could persist for time measured in years not quarters.   

 Another obvious strategy is to extend the runway.  Hopefully, everyone is aware of 
exactly how many “months of cash” they have at their current cash level and burn 
rate.  If you have a method for increasing this runway, we think you should do it, and 
quickly.  .  This serves two purposes.  First, it gives you the opportunity to outlast 
the competition, and second, it puts more time between now and when you are 
forced to re‐enter the capital markets.  One could argue you should draw down your 
bank lines right now.  Why?  When you need the money, the fundi ng source may just 
say no (they did last time).  What are you going to do?  Sue them?  Take away their 
warrant coverage?  So what.  If they get cold feet – you won’t see the cash, I don’t 
are what the term sheet says.  The bottom line is that you should watch “months of 
cash” as your most important variable.  

 Be calm, but pragmatic.  The purpose of this letter isn’t to send everyone off in a 
panic.  It’s simply to convey that the rules of the game have changed.  One key 
problem is that during these market downturns, most people don’t adjust quickly 
enough.  As an example, not hiring heads that were previous TBH isn’t really a 
reduction in expenses.  Also, 10% cuts rarely lead to anything other than multiple 
rounds of cuts, which have a harrowing affect on culture.  It’s easy to mentally 
nderstand this is the right thing to do.  It is ten times harder to make the actual 
udecisions to affect change.  These are extremely hard decisions. 

 You may know that I am involved with Zillow.  They did a survey of their users to 
ask what they thought was the current impact on home prices across America.  The 
average answer was that homes in America were down 20‐30% in value.  The 
survey then asked what the user thought had happened to the value of their own 
home.  Miraculously they thought their own home had retained value against the 
odds!  Surprised?  It is human nature.  As most of you read thi s, you will be thinking 
in the back of your mind why your company is different than the average company 
like these homeowners) and why you are the exception that doesn’t need to take 
(action right now.  This could be a rationalization. 

 Recently, I spoke with an entrepreneur who as a CEO during the dot‐com crash and 
oversaw a headcount reduction from 130 to 28 (through two major layoffs), and 
eventually back to profitability and an IPO.  If you think a 10% layoff is tough, 
imagine laying‐off 78% of your employees.  It is one of the hardest things I have ever 
seen anyone do.  I recently asked him how that experience has shaped the way he 
ould advise people on running a startup.  He had a list at the tip of his tongue 
(included now): 

1. You don’t realize how fast things spin out of control. There are self‐
reinforcing negative affects in a downturn.
2. Don’t spend money until you have to
a. Don’t move out of your office until you are sitting on top of one 
another 
b. Don’t hire any incremental employee until you just can’t stand it 
c. Don’t get more capacity in your data center until your site is going down     
3. Better to be “late to the party” than to be early and run out of money
4. Line item review of the budget every month (legal, accounting, everything)
5. Not just a CEO mindset, but a company mindset
a. Everyone must buy into the process
b. But in a calm way - not run for the hills
6. Create 2 or 3 different burn scenarios - know at any point in time how many months of cash is left.
 
I include this mainly because it highlights a “very high bar” in terms of frugality.  
It’s one thing to say you don’t “waste money” and another to live as lean as you 
possibly can.  As mentioned before, in market downturns, frugality is not only a 
virtue, but also it could be the difference between survival and failure.  
 Many great companies emerged from the 2001‐2002 time‐frame.  Companies 
built during tough times typically have incredible focus, great cultures, and a 
true desire to compete and win in all environments.  For many, this downturn 
period could be opportunistic: a real chance to differentiate yourselves from the 
other players in the market.  However, it is imperative to understand that the 
environment has just shifted to one where differentiation will  likely be defined 
not by aggressiveness, but rather by adaptability.  

  

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors

Source: TechCrunch | 10 Oct 2008 | 5:01 am

Browse the Artifacts of Geek History in Jay Walker's Library

The View From Above Looming over the library is an original Sputnik 1 satellite, one of several backups the Soviets built. At far left is a model of NASA's experimental X-29 jet, with forward-swept wings. "It's the first plane that a pilot can't fly—only computers can handle it," Walker says. On the top of the center shelves are "scholar's rocks," natural formations believed by the Chinese to spur contemplation. Behind the rocks is a 15-foot-long model of the Saturn V rocket. Nothing quite prepares you for the culture shock of Jay Walker's library. You exit the austere parlor of his New England home and pass through a hallway into the bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride. Stuffed with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects—on the walls, on tables, standing on the floor—the room occupies about 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels. Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) Hey, those books appear to be bound in rubies. (They are.) That edition of Chaucer ... is it a Kelmscott? (Natch.) Gee, that chandelier looks like the one in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. (Because it is.) No matter where you turn in this ziggurat, another treasure beckons you—a 1665 Bills of Mortality chronicle of London (you can track plague fatalities by week), the instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket (which launched the Apollo 11 capsule to the moon), a framed napkin from 1943 on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II. In no time,...

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Flash and Awe: A Better Stun Grenade Protects the Good Guys

Say you're a SWAT cop about to rescue hostages, or a soldier trying to extract your buddies from a terrorist hideout. You can't just charge in with guns blazing, so you throw the bad guys off with a nice stun grenade: It creates a deafening bang and a mighty flash without lethal shrapnel. Sounds great, but the force of the explosion can still injure the very people you're trying to save. A couple of years ago, Sandia National Laboratories, which has been developing stun grenades for decades, found a solution to this problem — the fuel/air distraction device. Traditional "flash-bangs" work by igniting a mixture of aluminum and potassium perchlorate. Pull the pin and a few seconds later the cocktail explodes from inside its housing. But yank the pin on the new stunner and a gas starts combusting, which pushes out and ignites a cloud of powdered aluminum. The result is what you see on the test stand above: a blinding burst of light accompanied by a boom of up to 170 decibels — about as loud as a shotgun — but very little blast pressure. Sandia has licensed the device to Defense Technology (a subsidiary of arms maker BAE Systems), which hopes to bring it to market by year's end. There's never been a safer time to be held against your will. For more, visit video.wired.com.

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Oct. 10, 1861: The Journey Begins for Nansen

1861: Fridtjof Nansen is born. He will become a towering figure in Arctic exploration, the natural sciences and international diplomacy. Nansen, born outside of Oslo, Norway, grew up hard and fit … and intellectually curious. He developed an early interest in science and studied zoology at the university before shipping aboard the Norwegian sealer Viking in 1882. He made extensive observations of the Greenland fauna, especially bears and seals, and returned to serve for six years as zoological curator at the Bergen Museum — meanwhile earning his doctorate by defending the neuron theory as it pertains to the central nervous system. But Fridtjof Nansen also returned with a passion for the Far North and an unquenchable thirst for adventure. Nansen returned to Greenland in 1888, skiing from east to west across the interior's massive ice fields. The trek yielded new scientific information about the frozen island, but it also served as a dress rehearsal for Nansen's attempt, in 1893, to reach the North Pole. Sailing into the Arctic Ocean aboard his purpose-built ship, Fram, Nansen realized it would be impossible to reach the pole in any way but by foot. He left the Fram in the pack ice at 84 degrees 4 minutes north latitude and, accompanied by Hjalmar Johansen, struck out for the pole with skis, dogs, sledges and kayaks. On April 9, 1895, the two men reached 86 degrees 14 minutes north latitude before turning back. It was, at the time, the farthest north any explorer...

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

10 Hottest New Bike Gadgets for Gearheads

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com Cyclists are often overlooked in the gadget-lust category because their gear usually doesn't involve a screen, but no one craves the newest gizmo more than a biker with money to burn. The litany of bike models, the sophisticated engineering and the personal stat analysis also attract avid data addicts who appreciate product legacy and innovation. Here at Wired.com, we have more than a few resident pedal pundits who love to accessorize. Click through the gallery to see the latest bike gadgets and apparel that got even our empty wallets salivating. Left: Quarq Bicycle's new Power Meters allow you to measure pretty much any stat imaginable from your bike rides. The Quarq CinQo is compatible with your Garmin Edge 705, their own Quarq Qranium or the new iAreo, giving access to power, heart rate, speed, distance, torque and altitude. The Qranium computer runs on Linux and comes with 512 MB of memory. Quarq says they are lightweight, waterproof and come with a user-changeable battery. The system runs about $1,200, plus the price of your crank of choice. : Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com The Pinhead prototype Bubble Lock is seen here with one wheel lock, a seat-post lock and a headset lock. Pinhead's disc-locking system allows you to carry around one key for all your bike parts and avoid elaborate lock jobs. Just turn the key on your wheels, seat and the bubble-shaped U-lock, and you're set. This convenience will set you back $75, with the...

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 10 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

10 Hottest New Bike Gadgets for Gearheads

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Cyclists are often overlooked in the gadget-lust category because their gear usually doesn't involve a screen, but no one craves the newest gizmo more than a biker with money to burn. The litany of bike models, the sophisticated engineering and the personal stat analysis also attract avid data addicts who appreciate product legacy and innovation.

Here at Wired.com, we have more than a few resident pedal pundits who love to accessorize. Click through the gallery to see the latest bike gadgets and apparel that got even our empty wallets salivating.

Left: Quarq Bicycle's new Power Meters allow you to measure pretty much any stat imaginable from your bike rides. The Quarq CinQo is compatible with your Garmin Edge 705, their own Quarq Qranium or the new iAreo, giving access to power, heart rate, speed, distance, torque and altitude.

The Qranium computer runs on Linux and comes with 512 MB of memory. Quarq says they are lightweight, waterproof and come with a user-changeable battery. The system runs about $1,200, plus the price of your crank of choice.

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

The Pinhead prototype Bubble Lock is seen here with one wheel lock, a seat-post lock and a headset lock. Pinhead's disc-locking system allows you to carry around one key for all your bike parts and avoid elaborate lock jobs. Just turn the key on your wheels, seat and the bubble-shaped U-lock, and you're set. This convenience will set you back $75, with the as-of-yet unreleased Bubble running some additional coinage.

And if you need a frosty beverage, the locking key doubles as a bottle opener. You gotta love those Canadians.

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

With slogans like "protect your junk," "only the finest ingredients for your goods" and "lube 'em or lose 'em," you know dznuts is having fun with their product.

According to the company, the formula is designed to prevent chafing and infection on a man's most sensitive parts, which can become rather friction-heavy during endurance rides. Key ingredients include tea tree oil, evodia and masterwort, and dznuts claims to use organic products whenever possible.

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Daniella Reichstetter, Gyrobike CEO, is hoping training wheels are a thing of the past. If she has her way, in the future all the youngsters will be using a Gyrobike front wheel on their first bicycle. The Gyrobike wheels give greater balance to the rider, presumably stripping away the current learning staples of road rash and humiliation that are integral to a child's development. What's our world coming to?

The Gyrobike wheels will come in both 12- and 16-inch versions, sell for less than a hundred bucks and will be available in early 2009. The company claims its technology makes riding a bicycle with the wheel installed at 2 mph the same as riding a normal wheel at 10 mph.

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Industry Nine is marrying its handmade road hubs to a set of handmade Edge Composites carbon-fiber rims for a lightweight, super-strong road-wheel experience. The spokes and hubs come in a vast array of colors and are purported to have one of the quickest freewheel engagements in the industry.

And who doesn't love the hot retro-styling? These will run a cool $2,400 and should be available for Christmas.

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Assos is showing its new ss.lady jerseys for all the bike chicks looking for something high-tech for 2009. They will come in seven colors including, from left, Piton, Struzzobaby and Fidji. You read that right Struzzobaby. They come with kangaroo pockets, an MP3 pocket and they're cut specifically for the ladies. They'll set you back $179.

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

This is the Campagnolo Super Record 11 rear derailleur, shifting your rear wheel through 11 glorious "shark's fin" tooth profile gears. It goes to 11. That's one more. If you think 10 gears is already ridiculous, this will stupefy you. If you think moderation is only for cowards and fools, you must buy this immediately. Pick it up for around $500.

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Harlot's Hawkeye Shorts are light, airy and extremely comfortable. They're also handmade in the United States and have a 4-way stretch panel in the crotch. Unfortunately, the flawless camouflage pattern makes your thighs invisible, giving the appearance of your torso floating mysteriously above your bike.

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Lezyne's 10-function multitool weighs in at a mere 84 grams, includes a T30 chain-ring bolt tool and runs about 100 bucks. It is about as high-end as you can get in a multitool.

: Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Nineties eurotrash styling is back as Briko reissues its original gogglelike shades previously known as the Sprinter, under the new name X-peed. So hot. The X-peed comes with a strap system and is scratch- and impact-resistant. Seen here in shiny Pacific blue and yellow, these will go for about $100.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 10 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Flash and Awe: A Better Stun Grenade Protects the Good Guys

Say you're a SWAT cop about to rescue hostages, or a soldier trying to extract your buddies from a terrorist hideout. You can't just charge in with guns blazing, so you throw the bad guys off with a nice stun grenade: It creates a deafening bang and a mighty flash without lethal shrapnel. Sounds great, but the force of the explosion can still injure the very people you're trying to save. A couple of years ago, Sandia National Laboratories, which has been developing stun grenades for decades, found a solution to this problem — the fuel/air distraction device. Traditional "flash-bangs" work by igniting a mixture of aluminum and potassium perchlorate. Pull the pin and a few seconds later the cocktail explodes from inside its housing. But yank the pin on the new stunner and a gas starts combusting, which pushes out and ignites a cloud of powdered aluminum. The result is what you see on the test stand above: a blinding burst of light accompanied by a boom of up to 170 decibels — about as loud as a shotgun — but very little blast pressure. Sandia has licensed the device to Defense Technology (a subsidiary of arms maker BAE Systems), which hopes to bring it to market by year's end. There's never been a safer time to be held against your will.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 10 Oct 2008 | 4:00 am

Linux 2.6.27 Out

diegocgteleline.es writes "Linux 2.6.27 has been released. It adds a new filesystem (UBIFS) for 'pure' flash-based storage, the page-cache is now lockless, much improved Direct I/O scalability and performance, delayed allocation support for ext4, multiqueue networking, data integrity support in the block layer, a function tracer, a mmio tracer, sysprof support, improved webcam support, support for the Intel wifi 5000 series and RTL8187B network cards, a new ath9k driver for the Atheros AR5008 and AR9001 chipsets, more new drivers, and many other improvements and fixes. Full list of changes can be found here."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Oct 2008 | 3:58 am

Wallet Feeling A Little Light? Check Out The Expense Tracker

With the economy slipping closer to rock bottom every day now, many of us are going to have to start cutting back on our day-to-day expenditures. Cue Voice2Insight’s The Expense Tracker, an online expense tracking system that makes entering every transaction as easy as calling a phone number and saying a few words.

Most expense trackers require users to input their daily transactions from their computers, which is time consuming and requires an impressive memory (or very organized receipts). Voice2Insight’s system allows users to call a designated number, where they’re prompted by an automated system to state the amount they’ve just spent and what category the transaction would fall under (for example, I might say “Groceries, $50″). And if you forget to leave one of the voice messages, you can manage your account from the computer as you would with a traditional system.

The service costs $15 a month ($10 if you buy six months at a time), which may be too steep for some people. I think The Expense Tracker would probably be better off adopting a model similar to Mint, offering ads for targeted financial products based on spending habits. Then again, paying for the service may make users feel obligated to use it religiously (some people swear by expensive gym memberships for this reason).

Other companies in the expense tracking space include Expensify and ShoeBoxed.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch | 10 Oct 2008 | 3:26 am

Yahoo Shareholder Asks Microsoft To Re-Bid At $22. Good Luck With That.

Private equity fund Mithras Capital, which holds 1.9 million shares of Yahoo (about 0.14%), will propose to Microsoft that they buy Yahoo at $22 per share, Reuters reports. Microsoft would then unload Yahoo’s Asian assets adn non-search businesses, take $3 billion worth of cost savings and some tax benefits, and end up with Yahoo’s search business for $10.3 billion.

Microsoft is obviously thrilled to see this kind of corporate chaos at Yahoo, although they are unlikely to even respond to the proposal. Yahoo, as usual, looks like amateur hour as their shareholders conduct (or try to conduct) negotiations behind their back.

Mithras Capital partner Mark Nelson said he will send a letter proposing the deal to Microsoft and Yahoo this evening.

Meanwhile, Yahoo was down another 8.1% today, to $12.65, from yesterday’s close of $13.76.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: TechCrunch | 10 Oct 2008 | 3:10 am

Cool photoblog: elders with style

Ari Cohen says: "We have started a blog of our own that documents street style and fashion of the mature and wizened. Our aim is to take photos of elders with a unique sense of personal style that has developed with age. We noticed so many amazingly dressed older people in New York and are having a great time getting to know them, hearing their stories and capturing a bit of their style to share with others." Advanced Style

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Oct 2008 | 2:11 am

At home with a Flaming Lip

In today's New York Times "Home & Garden" section, a visit to the Oklahoma City compound of Wayne Coyne, singer and guitarist for the amazing psychedelic pop band The Flaming Lips. His residence consists of four adjacent houses, one for living, one for storage, and two guest houses. From the New York Times (photo by Paul Hellstern):

“It’s our firewall,” Mr. Coyne said, standing under a pecan tree in the fenced-in courtyard surrounded by the houses. “It staves off the crack dealers..."

Seen from the street, it resembles a do-it-yourself version of a Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie House; inside it feels mazelike and eccentric, qualities the couple have tried to enhance with color. (J. Michelle) Martin-Coyne painted an upstairs bedroom “breathless blue,” she said, after a sky blue shade of nail polish, and her art studio across the hallway has a pink rubber floor.

She was showing off the contents of her studio, including a collection of vintage children’s lunchboxes and an old jukebox she got from her grandfather, when Mr. Coyne reappeared. Glancing around, he said, “We’re maximalists; Michelle and I both have the junk gene...."

The house is less a quiet sanctuary than a full-time Flaming Lips headquarters: a place where band members crashed in the early days; where rehearsals still take place in a cramped back room; and where Mr. Coyne can work up visual elements for concerts (like the mirrored disco balls sitting in an open-sided shed in the yard). On this particular day, the band’s roadies were in a workshop behind the house building a “500-pound human brain,” a Halloween display designed by Mr. Coyne (and actually made of lightweight foam). “There are still kids who think we showed off a dead guy,” Mr. Coyne said, referring to the year he put a bloody, life-size rubber man on the porch.

At Home With Wayne Coyne

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:47 am

Tim Biskup show in Paris, Oct. 11

Tim Biskup has a new show in Paris and the paintings (and packaging!) look terrific.

O/S (Operating System)
New Paintings, Sculptures & Prints
October 11th - November 16th
Addict Galerie
14/16 rue de Thorigny
75003 Paris - France.
T: +33(0)1 48 87 05 04
T: +33(0) 971 41 45 39
info@addictgalerie.com
www.addictgalerie.com Opening reception: Saturday, October 11th (open to the public)

With Tim Biskup's new collection of sculpture/painting combination pieces he presents the duality of his recent work in a neatly organized fashion. Each of the twelve pieces in the exhibition are self contained units which include an original painting packed into it's own shipping crate along with an elaborate pedestal that can be assembled using parts that come inside the crate as well as the crate itself. These "systems", as the artist calls them, constitute a fusion of Biskup's aesthetic style and his conceptual theories. The pieces are intended to represent the interconnection between art itself and the peripheral elements that allow it to exist. As a metaphor, the "systems" ask the question of weather the peripheral elements actually add to or distract from the the artwork being presented.

Also included in the exhibition is a large scale serigraph, "Tree Of Life". This 30-color print depicts the artist's familiar Cyclops character, known as "Helper", perched among the branches of a lush tree, surrounded by flora and fauna and wielding an ax. Biskup has said that the character is a symbol of mankind corrupted by his own sense of spiritual knowledge. The image was originally created as the cover of "American Cyclops" a catalog of artwork from an exhibition of the same name that took place at Iguapop Gallery in Barcelona in July of 2006.

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:35 am

US Financial Quagmire Bringing Out the Scammers

coondoggie contributes this snippet from NetworkWorld: "You could probably see this one coming. With all of the confusion and money involved you knew there would be cyber-vultures out there looking to cash in. Well the Federal Trade Commission today issued a warning that indeed such increased phishing activities are taking place. Specifically the FTC said it was urging user caution regarding e-mails that look as if they come from a financial institution that recently acquired a consumer's bank, savings and loan, or mortgage. In many case such emails are only looking to obtain personal information — account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers — to run up bills or commit other crimes in a consumer's name, the FTC stated."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 10 Oct 2008 | 1:22 am

New Zealand's copyright minister starts screaming when asked whether it's fair to cut people off from the Internet on the basis of three unsubstantiated accusations of copyright infringement

Mark sez, "Colin Jackson is a well-known IT consultant in New Zealand and former President of InternetNZ. Colin attended a meeting with the Minister in charge of copyright on Monday to talk about a proposal to kick people off the internet on the basis of three unsubstantiated accusations of copyright infringement, and she lost her temper and yelled at them."

The meeting was set down for 45 minutes from 3:45. When it opened, Judith Tizard spent 30 minutes telling us why the change had to be made. She began by strongly expressing her anger that we had complained to her at this stage in the proceedings. None of us, she said, had been to see her before this on this topic. When we protested that we had worked with the Select Committee, which had removed this provision - and balanced it with one which made licence holders liable for false accusations - she said that this was completely inappropriate of the Select Committee, because Cabinet had already decided this was going ahead. We should not have been surprised, we were told, that this provision was reinserted by the government at the last minute before the bill was passed. (It’s worth noting here that Judith has been to the two New Zealand Foo Camps and was engaged roundly on copyright both times.)

She set forth strong views about how the launch of Sione’s Wedding had been ruined, about how studios in Auckland were running out of work, and about how artists were mortgaging their homes to make films and music and were not making any returns on their investments, all, she said, because of Internet piracy...

When we suggested that natural justice would imply that it was unreasonable to withdraw Internet access based on an accusation, she reiterated her position that something had to be done and that ISPs had to do it. ISPs, she said, need to negotiate with the licence holders to put in a regime to prevent copyright infringements. The licence holders’ associations had assured her that they would not be unreasonable.

In response to being told that it is technically impossible for ISPs to tell what people are doing, Judith said that it had been done for child pornography and that ISPs need to apply the same standards. It was pointed out that the state defines objectionable material, possession of which is a crime, but there’s no equivalent definition for copyright, infringement of which is a civil matter to be determined by courts.

Of all the unreasonable and awful proposals to come out of the entertainment industry, none is so bad as the three-strikes rule, a rule that would leave everyday people vulnerable to having the connection that brings them freedom of speech, of assembly and the press, the link that connects them to family, school, work and government, terminated because someone, somewhere made three accusations of copyright infringement, without having to offer a shred of evidence.

I think there's an easy answer to this: a three-strikes rule that cuts both ways: so yes, we'll cut off anyone who's thrice-accused of copyright infringement, but we should also permanently terminate Internet access for any corporation that makes three improper or incorrect accusations: once Sony or Warners or what-have-you make three bogus accusations, they have to do all their sales, marketing, production and communication by phone and fax. Forever. Ministers: why we changed the Copyright Act (Thanks, Mark!)

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Oct 2008 | 12:36 am

Punks need socks in Indiana

D. T. Friedman of the nonprofit OxenFree in Indiana writes:

I’m the Resource Coordinator for a non-profit organization that works with homeless and indigent teenagers, as well as teens who are in bad home situations. OxenFree is a really fantastic program that engages at-risk teens through punk rock music, and provides support in a drug-free and alcohol-free environment.

The reason I’m invading blogs today? My job with OxenFree is to receive requests from the phenomenal people who run the program, and to figure out a way to fill them. My current assignment is…SOCKS. And I have to admit, I’m a bit at a loss. Socks are not a large-volume item at clothing centers (people usually just wear them out instead of donating them), and they’re surprisingly expensive. Homeless teenagers, especially hitchhikers, go through socks like you wouldn’t believe. My friend Margie can no longer afford to keep stocking her “free socks” drawer by herself, and asked me if I could try working my magic.

So, would you be willing to help me sock my punks?

Help with sock donations (Thanks, Mary!)

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Oct 2008 | 12:23 am

Gaiman's Graveyard Book video tour finishes, book hits #1 on NYTimes YA bestseller list

Last week, I wrote about Neil Gaiman's video book-tour for his new young adult novel, The Graveyard Book. Gaiman read a different chapter at each day's tour-stop, and videos of the readings were posted, in sequence, to a website, so that you could follow along and hear Gaiman (a virtuoso reader) perform the full text of this wonderful book.

Seems like it worked. The Graveyard Book is now number one on the New York Times's Young Adult bestseller list. And deservedly so: Gaiman's combination of The Jungle Book's elegant and sweet structure and style with a genuinely creepy setting and situation (Bod is abandoned in the graveyard as a baby after his parents are murdered by a serial killer; he is raised by the graveyard's ghosts, who go back to pre-Roman times, and who give him an eclectic education and rescue him when he goes astray) is utterly inspired, and beautifully executed.

This is a book that is especially fabulous when read aloud -- a perfect bedtime book for your little monsters. Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book -- video tour, The Graveyard Book on Amazon

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Oct 2008 | 12:20 am

Dream Captcha for spam-free sleep

Jeff, an artist, created the Dream Captcha to mashup the traditional dream-catcher and anti-spam gunk -- as a result, his dreams are free of spam:

Dream Captcha is a play on the idea of a traditional Ojibwa dreamcatcher and the technology of CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart).

So the idea of the dreamcatcher is something I’ve been exposed to since I was a young kid. In elementary school we learned how to make them. When I went on school trips to historic Waterloo Village in New Jersey, we saw them on display. After reading the entry on dreamcatchers in Wikipedia, it was interesting to read that they’ve become somewhat “tacky and over-commercialized due to their acceptance in popular culture”. I’m definitely from a generation that saw it as part of popular culture, kind of like it was the thing-to-do to wear a ‘holy rosary’ as a necklace.

Then there’s the idea of Captcha. Silly trivia: I went to Carnegie Mellon University where the Captcha technology was developed. Don’t you love that? As Wikipedia defines it, a Captcha “is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer”. You’ve probably encountered a Captcha before. You’re at a website, about to fill in a comment, and then the website asks you to type the letters you see in a box—the letters are all squiggly and distorted. Basically, a robot can’t read those letters, but a human can, so hurray, the site isn’t overloaded with spam and porn and whatnot. However, the Captcha technology isn’t limited to squiggly letters, and in fact, is readily deciphered by newer robots today.

Dream Captcha (via Neatorama)

Source: Boing Boing | 10 Oct 2008 | 12:14 am

BlackBerry Bold in Trouble? Orange UK Suspends Bold Shipments

Telecom service provider Orange in U.K. is reportedly suspending shipments of Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold phone due to "software issues."

Following reports of glitches in the device across different carriers, Orange is waiting for feedback from RIM regarding a fix which could take up to weeks, according to a internal Orange statement posted on Mobile Tech Addicts website.

The statement, which is reported to have come from an anonymous tip off, did not reveal the alleged issues with the device but it raises questions whether the Bold could be facing similar problems in the U.S. and if that could be holding up the carrier certification for the phone.

"If true, it is a bit of surprise that this should happen to RIM which has a reputation for delivering rock solid devices," says Neil Strother, an analyst with Jupiter Research. "But now that they are coming out with new models rather quickly, there is a lot of software integration that could go wrong."

In May, RIM announced the launch of BlackBerry Bold, a full QWERTY keyboard device with 2 megapixel camera, 3G, WiFi and integrated GPS. The device was expected to debut in summer but so far there has been no news on the U.S. launch of it.

The Bold is available in 20 other countries but there has been much speculation that AT&T, the carrier most likely to introduce the device in the U.S., is facing problems with 3G reception on the phone.

RIM was not immediately available for a comment.

Meanwhile, the company announced on Wednesday its latest phone, a touchscreen device called Storm.

So is the BlackBerry Bold too old now for a U.S. release?

Yes, unless RIM can get it out by the end of the month.

The Bold will be battling other phones for consumer attention in a weak economy this holiday season.

The company's own device, the Storm is scheduled for a launch ahead of Christmas and the much anticipated T-Mobile G1 phone based on Google's new Android phone will be available in stores starting  Oct. 22.

That could put the Bold in a tight spot unless it markets itself largely as a device for business users.

"Not everyone necessarily wants a touchscreen device," says Strother. "The Bold may satisfy folks who want a hard keyboard and want RIM's proven email capabilities."

It may be exactly what RIM is counting on.

Also see:
BlackBerry Bold Exhibits Same Network Symptons as iPhone 3G

Photo: BlackBerry Bold (malyousif/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 10 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am

Wuh Oh: Orange UK halts BlackBerry Bold sales, citing “quality issues”

According to a leaked internal memo, Orange has pulled the BlackBerry Bold from the shelves due to “reports of software issues”.

Originally expected to hit AT&T here in the states months ago, the Bold has faced delay after delay. Could these issues be the reason for the endless postponement?

The full text of the leaked memo:

Internal Orange Statement on the Bold:”Following reports of software issues with the BlackBerry Bold handset across a variety of mobile operators, Orange has decided to act in the interest of its customers by suspending shipments of the device in the UK. We are currently awaiting feed back from RIM as to when an industry wide fix for these issues will be in place, and expect this suspension to be an interim measure.We apologise for any inconvenience this issue may cause you.”next steps BlackBerry/RIM are doing everything they can to resolve this issue and will be completing full testing and validation to ensure future handsets do not have any quality issues. This may take a couple of weeks so it’s up to us to do what’s best for our customers.

[Via MobileTechAddicts via MobilityToday]

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Oct 2008 | 11:54 pm

Permanent Links For US Legislation Documents

dizzymslizzy writes "With prompting from the Sunlight Foundation's Open House Project, the US Library of Congress announced today that its online database THOMAS will now generate persistent URLs, known as legislative handles, for legislation documents. As Free Government Info says, 'it is certainly nice to be able to link to legislation with a persistent link! But it would be much better if one could click to create a link rather than following a 600-word description of how to link on another page.' Still, this is a definite step forward for the Library of Congress and for government transparency. From THOMAS: 'Legislative Handles are a new persistent URL service for creating links to legislative documents from the THOMAS web site (http://thomas.loc.gov). With a simple syntax, Legislative Handles make it easy to type in legislative links to bibliographies, reference guides, emails, blogs, or web pages. Legislative Handles, for instance, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.110hconres196, are a convenient way to cite legislation.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 9 Oct 2008 | 11:46 pm

New Chips Poised to Revolutionize Photography, Film

For the first time, professional-grade single-lens reflex cameras are gaining the ability to record high-definition video. That capability, photographers say, has the potential to transform both still photography and moviemaking -- and it's largely thanks to advances in the semiconductor technology used to make the image sensors inside these cameras.

"I think this is the holy grail for news photography," says Randall Greenwell, the director of photography for the Virginian-Pilot, a newspaper in Virginia.

Greenwell says photojournalists are already shooting both stills and video, but using separate equipment for each medium, which is awkward, cumbersome and requires additional training. With a single camera that can do both stills and video, he says, the job of the new-media journalist will be greatly simplified.

"With that kind of flexibility, it's going to be a real game changer," Greenwell says.

While compact digital cameras have had video-recording capabilities for years, the image quality provided by these cameras has been disappointing because of their small image sensors and comparatively poor, miniaturized optics. High-end video and movie cameras produce top-notch HD video and their interchangeable lenses give filmmakers the creative control they crave, but the cameras are big and expensive. Even the RED ONE, a super-high-definition movie camera that records digital video that's comparable in quality to that of film stock, rings up at about $17,000. That's a bargain compared to movie cameras, but it's still a lot of dough for most people.

By contrast, the 21-megapixel Canon 5D Mark II, which shoots 1080p HD video, will cost $2,700 (plus the cost of lenses) when it becomes available later this year. The 12-megapixel, highly rated Nikon D90, which records 720p HD video and is available now, costs even less: a mere $1,300 gets you the body plus a basic zoom lens.

Both cameras deliver extremely high visual quality for both still and moving images -- and just as important, they allow photographers to use a wide complement of interchangeable lenses, from macro lenses for extreme closeups of insects to long telephoto lenses for shots of offensive plays on the other end of the football field. That's important to pro photographers, for whom lens choice is a critical component of the creative process.

"The single biggest difference between still photography and a movie, aside from motion, is lens choice and depth of field," says Vincent Laforet, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who is part of a Canon marketing program, "Explorers of Light."

Laforet also touts the Canon's ability to capture images when there's not much light, an impression confirmed by other photographers. "That you can actually capture in available light is going to be a big difference," says Greenwell.

Laforet predicts that this low-light sensitivity will lead moviemakers to dispense with expensive, bulky, and obtrusive lighting equipment, shooting their movies entirely with available light.

In addition, the new cameras are small compared to professional video cameras, enabling photographers to shoot in a variety of situations with relative ease. Laforet, for instance, shot a demonstration video using the Canon camera over the course of a weekend, incorporating shots that required him to lean out of the open door of a helicopter.

The key to the Nikon's and Canon's incredible image quality lies with the large image sensors they contain. Whereas a typical compact camera might have an image sensor measuring about 5mm by 7mm, the sensor on a "full frame" SLR like the Canon 5D Mark II is the same size as a frame of standard camera film: 24mm by 36mm. That's a more than 24-fold increase in image area. (The Nikon D90 uses a smaller 16mm by 24mm sensor, but even that is 11 times the area of a compact camera's imaging chip.)

 

The increased size of the SLR's sensor allows each individual pixel to be larger, reducing the amount of "noise" in the image and increasing the amount of light each pixel is able to capture. The result: Dramatically better images, even at the same or lower number of megapixels, especially in low light.

A larger sensor also means it's easier for photographers to control the depth of field. Compact cameras have short focal-length lenses to match their small sensors. The laws of optics dictate that these lenses have a large depth of field.

"As image sensor size decreases, effectively you are getting more and more depth of field," says Chuck Westfall, a technical advisor at Canon. For point-and-shoot cameras, that's convenient, because it's harder to get an accidentally out-of-focus snapshot. But for creative photography, being able to control the depth of field is essential. That's how you get those portraits where a person's face is sharply in focus, while the background is pleasantly blurred.

So why has it taken so long for digital SLRs to add video-recording capabilities? The answer has to do partly with the physical design of SLRs, and partly with the type of imaging chips used.

Inside every SLR is a flip-up mirror that directs light either to the viewfinder or to the image sensor, but not both at the same time. In order to record video (or provide a live image on the LCD), the camera has to "lock up" the mirror, blocking the viewfinder. The pros who until recently defined the digital SLR market were initially loathe to do that because of the better optical quality afforded by the viewfinder.

"The viewfinder is arguably the best way to see your picture as you compose it, and it also offers the best, most stable platform for shooting SLR pictures," says Steve Heiner, a senior technical manager at Nikon.

But perhaps the most critical component of the new generation of cameras is the imaging chips inside.

For most of the past decade, consumer cameras have used a kind of imaging chip technology known as charge-coupled device (CCD). Recently, a competing imaging technology known as complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) has come to the fore, largely because of its lower power requirements. CMOS chips appeared first in SLR cameras aimed at the high end of the market and have only recently started appearing in point-and-shoot cameras, which are still dominated by CCD technology. What drove the transition to CMOS was the large sensor size of SLRs.

"The power consumption of a CMOS is so much lower [than CCD] at the full frame size that this is the only way you could come up with a reasonable battery life," says Westfall.

But CMOS chips initially had trouble delivering live video images due to overheating, the need to come up with a way of resampling images on the fly (converting them from the sensor's maximum capacity to the smaller resolution of HD video) and other problems.

It wasn't until 2006 that Olympus first offered a digital SLR with a "live view" option, which kept the imaging chip in constant use while delivering a live image to the LCD. The feature proved popular, and other manufacturers soon followed suit.

Once they'd added live view, it was a small step for manufacturers to add the ability to record the video coming off the sensor instead of merely directing it to the screen on the back of the camera.

Now, experts say, CMOS imaging technology is developing much faster than CCD, partly because CMOS imaging chips are built with the same basic processes used in producing other kinds of semiconductors, like memory chips and processors. CCDs, by contrast, are less familiar to the majority of semiconductor engineers.

And thanks to Moore's Law, the power and speed of semiconductor technology keeps increasing exponentially. That means CMOS image sensors are getting better and better, incorporating more sophisticated noise compensation, shrinking the size of the gaps between each light-gathering pixel that are devoted to wiring and other electronics, and adding image and video processing features to the chips themselves.

"I'm amazed myself at how quickly the tech developed a life of its own and how fast it's evolving," says Eric Fossum, an entrepreneur and engineer who developed the type of CMOS imaging technology used in most modern cameras while he was a researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the early 1990s. "It's kind of mind blowing to me."

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Oct 2008 | 11:35 pm

IBM sells $3.9 billion in corporate bonds (AP)

AP - IBM Corp. sold $3.9 billion in bonds on Thursday, a sign that the stalwarts of the corporate world are still finding lenders.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Oct 2008 | 11:13 pm

TunesRemote brings remote iTunes control to Android

If there was ever any question as to how many days we’d have to wait after the release of the first Android handset before someone would crack out an iTunes remote application, we’ve now got the answer: Zero.

By reverse engineering the same Digital Audio Control Protocol (DACP) used by the official iPhone Remote app, a developer named Jeffrey Sharkey has already managed to whip up a fully featured Android solution, dubbing it TunesRemote. No modifications to iTunes are necessary - just pair your Android handset with your iTunes Library, and away you go. As you can see in the video up above, TunesRemote already supports browsing and switching through songs, song scrubbing, and album art. As an awesome little perk, it appears that you can use the Android notification bar to check which song is currently playing from any application, or quickly jump to TunesRemote in just a click or two.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Oct 2008 | 11:06 pm

SonicSwap Puts Your iTunes Library On The Web For Streaming And Sharing

Since the launch of YouTube’s API and the release of Seeqpod, we’ve seen many sites emerge that allow users to create playlists of their favorite songs that can be streamed free of charge. Unfortunately, this can be a tedious task - oftentimes users are forced to recreate the playlists they already have in iTunes because the sites lack an upload function. SonicSwap, a startup that launched this week, has addressed this issue by creating a free streaming music site that can monitor a user’s iTunes music library, adjusting playlists in real time and effectively giving users access to their entire iTunes library from any computer.

The site features an interface that is nearly identical to iTunes (CEO Dan Skilken says that his artists redrew the familiar icons, but it’s tough to tell). Users can access their playlists on the left side of the screen and the main panel on right has a list of songs, with the video/music player controls at the top. The site pulls audio and video through the YouTube API, and while it comes up with a few false matches (playing back bad cover versions or karaoke), in general it is speedy and accurate.

To use the use the dynamically updating feature, users download a SonicSwap plugin that is available for both Mac and Windows. The plugin monitors songs that are currently playing as well as changes in iTunes playlists (including Smart Playlists), and frequently updates the user profile on the site. If you’re not comfortable installing a plugin, you can also upload your iTunes Music Library.XML file, but you’ll have to manaully do this each time you want to sync your SonicSwap library with iTunes.

Users can make their profiles public, so anyone can access their music library, or they can restrict it to only friends (or just to themselves). And in the next few weeks the site will roll out a widget that allows users to embed entire library and playlists as widgets into their blogs and social networks. The site generates revenue by driving traffic to iTunes and Amazon’s online stores.

For those that aren’t interested in uploading their playlists - with a plugin or otherwise- SonicShare is still worth checking out. It has a very well done interface, and seems to work just as well as its competitors, which include Songza, Favtape, and Streamzy. Another site that focuses on playlists is UPlayMe, which has created a playlist-centric social network.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Source: TechCrunch | 9 Oct 2008 | 11:03 pm

Review: Motorola's New Cameraphone Not Quite Picture-Perfect

Motorola Motozine ZN5

Oh snap! There's a new cameraphone on the block — and this skinny, pixel-packin' newcomer's got Nokia and Sony Ericsson squarely in its sights.

As the unlikely lovechild of a sweaty fling between Motorola's engineers and Kodak's imaging wizards, the ZN5 aims to give cameraphone mainstays like the N82 and the K850i a serious run for their money.

And on the hardware front, this 5-megapixel pocket shooter does just that. Not only does the unit feel velvety smooth in the hand — thanks to a slightly concave back that gently cradles your index finger — but it's made to weather the inevitable phone fumblings with grace and style, too. Featuring a rubberized base and a smokin' dark grey metal body, the ZN5 flat out runs circles around the plasticy competition.

Combine that with relatively artifact-free images, a high-res 2.4-inch screen plus the ability to save pictures with TIFF lossless compression (instead of JPEG), and you have yourself a solid first entry in the cameraphone arena.

Unfortunately, once you get past the handset's formidable design jujitsu, the ZN5 does little to raise the cameraphone bar. While photos were clear and natural, we found they were considerably dimmer than those produced by our cameraphone fav, the Nokia N82 — even after using Kodak's PerfectTouch tech.

There are also plenty of rough edges Motorola and Kodak need to smooth out if they want to give Nokia and Sony Ericsson anything to worry about. In particular, our review unit was plagued by an overzealous xenon flash, which, when used in close proximity to a subject, tended to wash out faces (and even parts of the background) in a sea of blinding white light.
Turning off the flash doesn't help matters, either. The cameraphone's low light performance (sans flash) was abysmal. And despite optimized settings for precisely these kinds of conditions, nighttime shots were noisier than a My Bloody Valentine show.

Equally, disappointing is the ZN5's video implementation. While the handset flaunts a TV out and lets you shoot in two resolutions (176 x 144 and 128 x 96) at 15 fps, the footage we shot made YouTube videos look like the pinnacle of high-def splendor.

A fairly bare bones photo editor rounds out the phone's feature set, allowing ZN5 users to apply basic effects to saved photos, including image rotation, mirroring, cutting and resizing. Essentially, there's nary a feature here you can't find on similarly equipped cameraphones.

Don’t get us wrong: None of these quirks are necessarily deal breakers. But at 500 bones, we'll admit we were hoping for some big brains to accompany the ZN5's banging body. In the end, Motorola didn't need to shoot the moon, but it did need something a step above other cameraphones that have been on the market for a year or more now. Unfortunately, the ZN5 is not that phone…yet. —Bryan Gardiner

WIRED Access camera mode with a flick of the lens cover. Skinny, with curves in all the right places, the ZN5 is one of the most attractive cameraphones out there. Big, beautiful 2.4-inch screen. Backlit keypad is simple and elegant. Flip the phone sideways in camera mode, and dedicated camera and gallery shortcuts buttons magically illuminate. Panorama mode lets you stitch together multiple horizon shots into one sweeping mega image. 3.5mm headphone jack lets choose your own soundtrack while snapping up a frenzy.

TIRED Indexed zoom (4x) is clunky and makes noisy images downright deafening. Disappointing low light performance. 15 fps looks craptastic even on the ZN5's screen. WTF! Moto's still cramming the MicroSD card behind the battery.

$500, Motorola

(Photos by Jonathan Snyder for Wired.com)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Oct 2008 | 11:00 pm

Landscape Keyboard for iPhone Mail Is Here, Sort Of

Something that I've never understood about iPhone is its inability to type e-mails in landscape mode. It drives me crazy, and it's incredible Apple hasn't changed that yet with a software update. An independent developer has come to the rescue with his app TouchType, which addresses that very problem.

The $1 app, brought to us by Michael Schneider, opens a landscape keyboard, where you can type an e-mail message. You'd then hit the e-mail button in the upper-right corner, which directs you to your Mail app, automatically loading the message you've typed. It's as simple as that.

Unfortunately since iPhone runs on a closed platform, Schneider couldn't fully integrate the function into the Mail app itself. But until Apple gets a clue about this plainly obvious shortcoming, TouchType is the best solution we'll have to settle with.

Very odd that Apple didn't reject this application on the grounds of "duplicating" preexisting features, ain't it?

Download Link [iTunes via BoyGeniusReport]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Oct 2008 | 10:45 pm

New Chips Poised to Revolutionize Photography, Film

New professional-grade digital SLRs equipped with high-definition video features stand on the forefront of a revolution for film and photography.

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Oct 2008 | 10:35 pm

New Chips Poised to Revolutionize Photography, Film

New professional-grade digital SLRs equipped with high-definition video features stand on the forefront of a revolution for film and photography.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 10:35 pm

Final Glance: Internet companies

Shares of some top internet companies were down at the close of trading: Akamai Technologies fell $.50 or 3.6 percent, to $13.53.
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 9 Oct 2008 | 10:26 pm

Despite IBM profits, a tech gloom still looms (AP)

AP - Even after IBM Corp. surprised Wall Street with a healthy profit in the third quarter and a reaffirmation of its earnings outlook for the rest of the year, the broader technology sector dived again Thursday. There's just not enough of what lifted IBM to go around.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Oct 2008 | 9:32 pm

Teen-Friendly 'Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe' Feels Wrong Somehow

Say goodbye to the gore goodness of the good ol' days -- the upcoming iteration of the classic fighting game will be toned down considerably. Sure, the potential audience will be wider, but is nothing sacred?

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Oct 2008 | 9:23 pm

UTStarcom Knick thankfully branded as Quickfire

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but “Knick” just seems like such a weird name for a mobile device. Well the UTStarcom Knick, which MobileCrunch briefly knicked a couple of weeks ago, is officially going to AT&T and will be branded as the Quickfire.

Yeah! That’s more like it! It sounds like when a cowboy pulls a gun out of a holster and shoots it really fast! Alright! Pew, pew! It doesn’t sound like a lone member of an underperforming New York sports team anymore. Pew, pew, pew!

According to PhoneNews, the Quickstar will likely launch later this month for $99 with a two-year contract.

Features include quad-band GSM/EDGE, dual-band UMTS/HSDPA, GPS, 320×240 display, stereo Bluetooth, 1.3-megapixel camera (stills and video) and the POLARIS web browser.

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Oct 2008 | 8:15 pm

How to Convert Vinyl LPs to MP3s

Got stacks of Stax soul? A trove of treasures from Treasure Isle? It's remarkably easy to convert those old vinyl sides to play on your iPod. All you need is a turntable, a good audio cable and some free software and you'll be reliving vinyl's glory days in crystal-clear (and wear-free) digital sound. Got extra tips? Log in and contribute.

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Oct 2008 | 8:15 pm

How to Convert Vinyl LPs to MP3s

Got stacks of Stax soul? A trove of treasures from Treasure Isle? It's remarkably easy to convert those old vinyl sides to play on your iPod. All you need is a turntable, a good audio cable and some free software and you'll be reliving vinyl's glory days in crystal-clear (and wear-free) digital sound. Got extra tips? Log in and contribute.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 8:15 pm

'Acoustic Smog' Threatening Whales

The underwater cacophony made by large ships is killing whales, say scientists.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2008 | 7:21 pm

Review: Tiny flash drives improve their security (AP)

AP - Flash memory drives, the size of your thumb, are dirt cheap and offer gigabytes of storage. It's tempting to fill one of them with important computer files, clip it to a key chain and hit the road.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Oct 2008 | 7:15 pm

Oobject Gallery: Monstrous Harvesters

Inspired perhaps by BBtv's look at Brazilian coffee picking machines, Oobject gathers a selection of the world's largest and weirdest harvesting machines.

15 monstrous harvesters [Oobject]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 7:03 pm

Banana clip tray makes ice bullets

For $13.25 plus shipping you can create ice cubes that look like AK-47 rounds. (Today was a good day.)

Ice bullets cube tray catalog page [Find-me-a-gift.co.uk via Serious Eats via UberReview]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 6:58 pm

T-Mobile G1 gets its first user review

Not tethered by the likes of embargoes and bravely challenging the heavy hand of their employer, a T-Mobile employee (Update: They work for a T-Mobile Master Dealer, not corporate) who doubles as a member of the AndroidCommunity forums has posted a user review of the T-Mobile G1.

Fortunately, the giddiness of being one of the first in the world with the G1 didn’t keep “kaziko” from being objective in his review. On the upside, he mentioned that the phone starts up quickly (relative to other HTC handsets), is surprisingly lightweight, has a solid keyboard, and that the call quality and speakerphone volume were satisfactory. On the downside, it “has a big memory leak somewhere” which slows things down until the device is reset, even after which point it “doesn’t run as smoothly as you would think”. He also notes the lack of a virtual keyboard or accessible file system, difficulties getting .mpg and .wmv files to play, and that the handset gets “extremely hot” while charging. (Update: Kaziko has since revised his review - see comments)

To help pacify the barrage of questions that began after folks realized they’d found someone with a G1, Kaziko has also been maintaining a Q&A.

With just under two weeks to go before the first round of pre-orders are fulfilled, expect the reviews to begin pouring in over the next few days.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Oct 2008 | 6:41 pm

MacBook in Oct. 14 event ad is 13.3", aluminum, and not the MacBook Air

It's hard to tell from the gloomy marketing shot, but the Apple logo is about 1.5 inches wide on my MacBook Pro. From that, this machine would appear to be under 13 inches wide, which would suggest a 13.3" diagonal. The edges, however don't look at all like the MacBook Air.

I miss the 12" PowerBook. You do too. Is this a happy moment, or rose-tinted pixtacles?

Maybe! For reference:

Apple announced October 14 notebook event in Cupertino [Ars Technica]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 6:40 pm

Fun new DIY kit: Adafruit's "Drawdio" musical pencil

Our friends at Adafruit have released a fun new kit called the "Drawdio" — adapted from the original Drawdio design by Jay Silver – which lets you create a pencil that makes noisy almost-music via the variations in the resistance of graphite pencil lead. It's $20 plus shipping. I just ordered one so I can recreate my middle school notebook sketches to literally hear the music of the anime spheres.

Drawdio product page [LadyAda.net]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 6:07 pm

T-Mobile to launch the Samsung T919 “Behold”

Looks like T-Mobile is finally bringing the F480 Tocco to their lineup - albeit with a bit of a name change. It’s now the Samsung T919 “Behold”. Fortunately, though we don’t know all that much about this one’s insides, we know the important bits: it’s got a full touchscreen display, a 5 megapixel camera with flash, Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, and according to it’s FCC papers, AWS HSDPA (3G), Bluetooth, and assisted GPS.

While this handset would have cost three or four hundred bucks just a year or two ago, the price of this one is a solid sign of the impact on the market made by the likes of the iPhone and the G1. According to TmoNews, the T919 will set you back just $149 (after rebate, presumably) when it hits retail on November 10th.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Oct 2008 | 5:48 pm

Video: Embryo's First 24 Hours

Watch the first-ever video of the first 24 hours of an embryo at the cellular level. A zebrafish embryo goes from a single cell to 20,000 cells that have begun to organize into specialized tissue.

Wired.com

Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Oct 2008 | 5:40 pm

MSI Wind U120 netbook in pictures

This here is the MSI Wind U120, a modest upgrade to the popular netbook that I will from here on out refer to as "Business Wind", because I find it amusing to think of a breeze that is tired of all these kites and paper airplanes and would really like to get some work done.

The major upgrade in the Business Wind is better connectivity: a 802.11n Wi-Fi chipset and a — grr – 3.5G cellular modem with swappable SIM slot.

MSI's new Wind U120 pixellized [Fuzilla.com (Home, I believe, to the gadget world's first "Slobodan". Welcome!)]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 5:23 pm

8-megapixel LG KC780 made official

As they so sneakily mentioned they would do in last week’s Renoir announcement, LG has announced the 8 megapixel KC780 slider phone.

When the promo shots of the KC780 were leaked back in September, rumor had it that LG had been internally boasting that their 8 megapixel handset was the slimmest of the bunch. Seems like the Samsung Pixon may have just barely nabbed the title from them, coming in just 0.1mm slimmer than the 13.9mm KC780.

If the press release is any sign, expect the KC780’s camera to be the dominant feature on the handset. The only non-camera specs mentioned are the 2.4-inch LCD, and Bluetooth - then they go on for a page or two about the Schneider-Kreuznach lens, smile detection, the ability to shoot up to ISO 1600 for low light shots, built in image stabilizer, and “DVD-resolution” video recording.

No price is set just yet, but I’d imagine that it’d do a bit less damage to your pocket than any of the touchscreen-totin’ 8 MP entries. Europeans will be gettin’ it in November, after which it’ll migrate to India, Thailand, Hong Kong, and China. Doesn’t look like this one will be making a tour of the Americas.

Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies

Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Oct 2008 | 5:03 pm

Apple Likely to Launch New Notebooks Next Week

Apple sends out press invitations to a special event next week, where it is expected to launch sub-$1,000 Mac notebooks.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 3:43 pm

Review: A few hours with Galcon, the first killer game for iPhone

I've had high hopes for games on the iPhone, but for the most part the examples we've seen so far have been mostly pap, amusing but inessential bagatelles. And then there is Galcon.

Galcon isn't an iPhone-exclusive game — a desktop version is available for all three major desktop OSes for $20 — but it translates perfectly to a mobile device, offering modestly epic space strategy battles that can be completed in under a minute or two of play.

Gameplay is simple: To win, destroy your enemy. To destroy him, capture his planets with your tiny wedge spaceships. The larger the planet you hold, the faster more ships are produced. I've seen the desktop version described as "arcade RISK" and it's a description that holds.

But you can't discount the "arcade" part. Part of what makes Galcon work is the speed at which you play. That makes selecting which action to take next — throw all your fighters at a big, juicy planet; hold back to build up more defenses; go for an unoccupied planet or wage war against an enemy stronghold — occur under the time pressure of interface needs. Which is to say: you can only swipe from your planet to another target planet so quickly, leaving you only half-a-second or so to typically judge your next move. That might irritate some, but in my short time playing I've found it encourages flexibility in strategy. One wrong move may lose a war, but with entire battles taking place in just a minute or two, it's easy to hone new strategies without forgetting the lessons of previous scraps.

There was some grousing when Galcon first hit the iTunes App Store over its price. Ten bucks is a fair chunk, especially when version 1.0 didn't even include sound. But developer Phil Hassey is up to version 1.4 now, which has added a variety of single-player variants, music and sound effects, a color-blind mode, a player ranking system, and a splendid multi-player mode that lets you go up against up to three other players at once. (Wi-Fi only, I believe; I couldn't make it work over 3G.)

Plus he's dropped the price to $5. Give this man your money. He's working for it. And there's a free demo now. You have no excuse.

I squealed a bit about Galcon to Brownlee a couple of days back. He bought it but didn't catch the bug. "Too easy," he sighed. I asked him if he had actually raised the difficulty level at all from the game's default settings. He hadn't, which was his understandable mistake, but one that doesn't expose Galcon's nuance. I'd ask anyone that gives it a whirl to crank up the difficulty up to a level where you actually start losing matches. It's only then that the tactical possibilities of Galcon begin to show themselves. When you're matched up with an enemy of nearly equal skill — especially easy in multiplayer, although the single-player A.I. is just fine — those simple routs start turning into protracted, desperate, staggering interplanetary genocides that start to show you how much Galcon has to offer.

Galcon (Full Version) [iTunes]
Galcon Lite (Free Version) [iTunes]

After the jump, a sample game I just played, annotated with screenshots — just in case all that praise I just slopped on Galcon wasn't enough to get you to try a free demo.

Update: What do you know: You can play the desktop version of Galcon for free in your browser at Instant Action. (Windows only for now.)

Here's the menu screen, where I select a moderate difficulty and the basic "Classic" game that pits me against a single computer foe.

You bet your ass I'm ready. One of the first things I tend to do is switch the percentage of units each planet squirts out up to 75% when I'm busy capturing planets. And today I've been trying after that to go all in with 100% attacks. It works...sometimes.

Of course I forgot to switch this at all this game because I was busy taking screenshots.

I've grabbed a few local planets and am trying to build up my fleets. I probably should have skipped the smaller ones, even if they often are easy to capture.

The first dust-up! That yellow bastard is going for my outer rim — and because I stretched myself so thin capturing planets I don't have much to mount a defense.

He grabbed one of my big producers, but two can play at that. It seems that going after enemy planets is more important than building an early empire, but I haven't played enough both ways to be sure.

Got it! And my largish attack force automatically garrisons itself on the planet I just captured, providing a decent defense. I even snagged back my other planet before it had time to build up defenses.

But that's a pretty big fleet coming my way. And "4" and "6" aren't much of a defense.

Yeah, so...I'm getting trounced. Yellow's fleet sizes remain consistently larger than mine, so I've gone toward grabbing stray planets just to keep alive — a desperate move.

"'Believe in yourself and the power of positivskrrrrshhhhh.' Transmissions from BFE-xr9 have ceased."

This would be the point in a multiplayer game where I would start sending out lone ships to various worlds just to stay alive for a few seconds longer.

Tell my wife I loved her. Oh, she's dead, too.

This entire battle took place in about sixty seconds. Even I — the wussiest, coddled gamer out there — am completely fine with losing a game of Galcon, because all it means is I can try out my new strategies again in seconds.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 3:06 pm

Bug-Powered Fuel Cells Could Run on Waste

Bacteria that break down cellulose and other waste are outfitting fuel cell prototypes.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 9 Oct 2008 | 2:47 pm

The cutest MP3 player today

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 2:43 pm

Waterproof mouse receiver with GPS

GlobalSat's BR-355 is a waterproof GPS mouse receiver, accurate to 5 meters and unusually small. It boots in under 45 seconds, according to the spec sheet, and has USB or RS232 connections, a built-in antenna, and blinkenlights to indicate how good its fix is. Check out the discussion at MP3car: "DAMN!!!! DAMN!!! DDAAAAUUUUUUMMMMMM!!!!!"

They're $50 at Amazon.

Waterproof mighty mouse [Navigadget]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 9 Oct 2008 | 2:20 pm