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Sneak Peek at Weekend ReadingHere is a sneak peek at some links from my weekly Weekend Reading column over at TheStreet. Despite it being a far from sure bet historically, investors continue to move to physical gold (WashingtonPost)...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 8:31 pm Blessed are the CheesemakersSpectator I: I think it was "Blessed are the cheesemakers". Mrs. Gregory: Aha, what's so special about the cheesemakers? Gregory: Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 8:12 pm Safety Innovations for Firefighters The Life Pebble (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) At the recently held Seoul Design Competition, the safety of brave firefighters served as the inspiration for the grand prize winners Kim Woo-sik and Jun Yoo-ho from Konkuk University...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 7:59 pm 15 Drug-Free Performance Enhancers - Steroid Alternatives for Deuce McAllister (CLUSTER)(TrendHunter.com) It must be frustrating for superstars like football player Deuce McAllister to get caught using steroids, but its far more harmful to the hundreds of players that make their way up...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 7:57 pm Watches with Shutters - The Storm London MK V (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) It is human nature to make simple things complicated. This MK V watch from Storm London is a perfect example of a simple timepiece made impossibly complicated. A conventional wristwatch...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 7:39 pm R.I.P.: The American ConsumerCute graphic from the NY Post:Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 7:30 pm Rearview Glasses Nike Hindsight Extends Peripheral Vision (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Nikes Hindsight glasses are designed to help athletes like joggers and cyclists extend their peripheral vision. The idea is to enable the wearer to see objects behind him without having...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 7:19 pm Cuddly Characters for Abuse Awareness - Piglet and Pooh Tackle Pedophiles (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) I absolutely love this child abuse awareness video which aims to teach children the difference between good touching like hugs from their parents and bad touching of the inappropriate...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 6:59 pm T-Mobile G1’s POP3/IMAP e-mail going haywireSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Web, Google
As with any launch of an intricate smartphone, there are always some problems. However, it is important that the manufacturers of the phone work quickly to solve the problems of their users. Within a couple of days of the official T-Mobile G1 launch, there have been several problems, and now many users are posting on the T-Mobile forums saying they are having trouble accessing their e-mail. Whenever a user tries to send an e-mail, it either doesn’t send or sends as null. In addition, it is nearly impossible to receive e-mail and this isn’t just associated with one e-mail service, it’s practically tied to all of them, except for one - Gmail. Of course, Google would make sure their own e-mail service functions the best. Fortunately, a T-Mobile representative, Will, commented on the forums in effort to calm the people and work with them through this difficult time for T-Mobile. He states that this e-mail problem is being looked into by T-Mobile in high priority, and he goes on to add:
He seems to think that by saying T-Mobile has encountered such problems before, people will be reassured that T-Mobile has fixed it before and they will fix it again. Feel free to let us know if you are encountering any similar problems with your G1. Read [T-Mobile Forums] Via [BGR] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Oct 2008 | 6:48 pm Speakers Designed by Musicians - AeroSystem Home Audio System (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Jean-Michel Jarre, a French composer noted for his contributions to electronic music, presents a new speaker system for music lovers called the AeroSystem iPod Dock and Speaker. ...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 6:39 pm Best Conference Session Title Du JourFrom last week's ABS East conference in Miami, comes this session title: Considerations for New Issuers in an Illiquid Market I'm guessing that session included such topics as "ouch",...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 6:37 pm BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 10-19-2008Section:  We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Oct 2008 | 5:40 pm We get it all: Wind, rain and maybe snow showers - Buffalo News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Oct 2008 | 5:03 pm PHP Gets Namespace Separators, With a Twistjeevesbond writes "PHP finally is finally getting support for namespaces. However, after a couple hours of conversation, the developers picked '\' as the separator instead of the more popular '::'. Fredrik Holmström points out some problems with this approach. The criteria for selection were ease of typing and parsing, how hard it was to make a typo, IDE compatibility, and the number of characters."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Oct 2008 | 3:48 pm Armadillo Aerospace won the Level 1 Lunar Lander Prize - Next Big Future
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Oct 2008 | 3:26 pm MySpace Launches Profile 2.0 With Drag And Drop Interface
This is the next stage in their ongoing effort to make the site more usable for people who aren’t comfortable with a no-rules, add-your-own-html interface. In June they launched MySpace 2.0, which reduced clutter on the site significantly. The new changes give users much more control over their profile. Instead of having to add html and Javascript to the site directly, or using third party profile editors like SnapLayout, users can simply view their profile in a Flash tool that lets them set a variety of templates, drag and drop modules, and customize the site. Users can also set each specific module’s privacy so that only certain groups of friends see it, so work friends can see a different site than college buddies. I’ve been trying out the new tool, you can see my MySpace page here. You don’t have to be Canadian to try out the new profile and editor. Just visit MySpace Canada directly and sign in. You’ll see a link to try the new Profile 2.0 on the home page. Just a note - it won’t work with IE6.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Oct 2008 | 2:59 pm More Android Video Reviews (Barcode Scanners, Skype Client, Drawing)
Since most of you don’t have an Android G1 phone, we are featuring some video reviews from the AppVee crew to show you what you are missing (or not, depending on your point of view). You can watch the first ten video reviews in an earlier post. Below are five more, two of which are on my top ten (ShopSavvy and iSkoot for Skype). One of the most potentially useful set of apps on Android turn the phone into a barcode scanner and let you compare prices on the go. In fact, there are two apps that do this, ShopSavvy and CompareEverywhere. They are currently the No. 2 and No. 4 apps on the Android Market, respectively. Both look through the phone’s camera lens to scan a product’s barcode and look it up in a database to retrieve price comparisons from both the Web and local stores. I tried both with half a dozen packaged foods in my pantry (a can of tomato sauce, a jar of salsa, chicken stock, Nutella, some English muffins, a jar of baby food). This is far from a scientific sample, but CompareEverywhere did a much better job identifying the products. It identified 4 out of 6, whereas Shop Savvy was only able to identify two. CompareEverywhere, however, sometimes got stuck and was not able to capture the barcode, especially for products where the label was not completely flat. I found ShopSavvy to sometimes be to quick on the trigger tryin to capture the barcode beoire it was really in focus. Both services obviously need to improve their underlying product databases, but they are still worth downloading and will no doubt improve over time. Here are AppVee’s reviews of each: CompareEverywhereShopSavvyiSkoot for Skype is a mobile Skype client that turns your Android into a Skype phone. It lets you make Internet phone calls over Skype and IM your Skype contacts. Skype calls go over the data network (WiFi or 3G, whichever is available). It is a must-download for anyone who uses Skype frequently. iSkoot For SkypeBluebrush is a drawing app that lets you make doodles on your Android. The screen is too small to make anything other than squiggles, in my experience, but the app includes a fun social component that lets you draw with others using the Bluebrush on their Android phones. BluebrushFor people who want to make their own shortcuts to their favorite apps, Any Cut goes beyond the customization options that come with the phone itself. Any CutCrunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 26 Oct 2008 | 2:50 pm Hackers Exploit Microsoft BugJust one day after Microsoft distributed a rare emergency security patch, hackers have found new ways to exploit the bug. Security researchers identified a new worm called Gimmiv on Friday, after a hacker had posted an early sample of code that could be used to take advantage of the flaw on the Internet.Since the bug could be used to create an Internet worm attack, Microsoft issued the patch more than two weeks ahead of its next security update. In fact, the software giant said it had already witnessed a small number of attacks that exploited the flaw.According to a New York Times report, the vulnerability lies in the Windows Server service used to connect with other devices on networks. And while the Windows firewall software will block the worm from spreading, experts worry the flaw could be used to spread infections between machines on a local area network (LAN), which are typically not protected by firewalls.Indeed, that's precisely what the Gimmiv worm intends to do, said Symantec’s senior research manager Ben Greenbaum."It is downloaded onto a target machine via social engineering and then proceeds to scan and exploit machines on the same network, using this newly disclosed vulnerability in the Server service," he told the New York Times.Experts believe the worm then loads software that steals passwords.Both Symantec and McAfee said Friday that they had only seen a very small number of attacks based on Gimmiv. However, Symantec reported a 25 percent jump in network scans searching for vulnerable machines beginning Thursday evening. The searches could signal that more attacks are on the way, Symantec said.It’s a scenario that becomes more probable as additional tools are released to the broader public. For instance, sample exploit code was posted to the Milw0rm.com hacker site on Friday, and security experts expect hackers to move the code into easy-to-use attack tools over the next few days.Greenbaum predicts the attack code will soon be used to create botnet networks of infected computers.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Oct 2008 | 2:35 pm Oprah Endorses Kindle E-book ReaderAmazon.com’s Kindle just got a big boost on Friday when the $359 e-book reader received a rousing endorsement by popular media mogul Oprah Winfrey.Calling the Kindle her "favorite new gadget," Winfrey’s endorsement was hinted at during a 24-second video advertisement displayed on Amazon’s homepage. The ad, which was shown directly above a Kindle promotion, directed viewers to Winfrey’s show by saying she would be announcing a "life-changing" device on her show.Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos was on hand during Winfrey’s show as she endorsed the Kindle by calling it the "wave of the future."Although the device is pricy, Winfrey said she viewed it as an environmentally friendly investment.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Oct 2008 | 2:35 pm Modern Methods For Sharing InnovationThe New York Times is running a story about Johnny Chung Lee, a hardware hacker made famous for his projects which modified the Nintendo Wiimote to do things like positional head tracking and multi-touch display control. The article focuses on the suggestion that Lee's use of YouTube to demonstrate his innovations has done a better job of communicating his ideas than more traditional methods could. Quoting: "He might have published a paper that only a few dozen specialists would have read. A talk at a conference would have brought a slightly larger audience. In either case, it would have taken months for his ideas to reach others. Small wonder, then, that he maintains that posting to YouTube has been an essential part of his success as an inventor. 'Sharing an idea the right way is just as important as doing the work itself,' he says. 'If you create something but nobody knows, it's as if it never happened.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Oct 2008 | 2:34 pm New Worm Exploits Microsoft Bug - eFluxMedia
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Oct 2008 | 2:33 pm Awesomely Bad Defense Trinkets, Part IIIn response to an earlier post, Danger Room readers have raided their collections for more examples of defense trinkets -- the good, the bad and the bizarre. Next week, we'll run a contest to pick the best contribution.
A report by US Army Intelligence points to Twitter, GPS devices, and voice changing software as potential “terrorist tools.” Friend of CG, Noah Shachtman, posted the report on Danger Room noting that intelligence services have said that everything from MMORPGs to garage door openers could be potentially dangerous to Americas precious bodily fluids. They note:
Look: Twitter can’t even keep the Fail Whale at bay most days, let alone create a command and control structure for young men and women with a penchant for Anchor Steam beer and trail mix. As Shachtman notes in his piece, this report is good and bad. It’s good in that explores something most Army Intelligence employees probably know nothing about but bad in that it wastes valuable brain time on tools that are pretty much secondary to terrorist aims. Twitter contains no havok-making tools per se and its functionality could easily be recreated using SMS, carrier pigeons, and smoke signals. But at least now a bunch of US Army Intelligence officials probably have Twitter accounts, exposing them to possible surveillance. Information provided by CrunchBase
Source: CrunchGear | 26 Oct 2008 | 1:40 pm MacBook Pro Tradeoffs [Mossblog]When Apple redesigned its laptops earlier this month, most of the attention, including mine, was focused on the entry-level MacBook. That was because of its popularity, and because Apple managed to make over the machine in a way that added some oomph and lots of style while actually making it thinner and lighter and preserving battery life. But what about the MacBook’s big brother, the 15 inch MacBook Pro, a powerful, if pricey, laptop favored by many power users? My verdict on the Pro’s makeover isn’t nearly as favorable, because there were more tradeoffs. But some of the new model’s design features that were a dramatic upgrade on the entry MacBook were already present on the older Pro — an aluminum case, a bright LED screen, and the ability to perform some iPhone-like gestures on the trackpad. And the new MacBook Pro is actually a downgrade from the old model in a few areas. For one, it has grown slightly larger and heavier, with a 4% bigger footprint and a bit more weight (5.5 pounds versus 5.4 pounds for the old one.) These aren’t huge sacrifices, but I believe that when companies strive to redesign laptops without increasing screen size, they should try for smaller and lighter, not the reverse. Much worse is the loss of battery life. When used with its discrete graphics processor, the natural mode for the kind of audience at which the Pro is aimed, Apple claims it will get just 4 hours of battery life, versus the 5 hours it claimed for its predecessor, which also used a discrete graphics processor. That’s a whopping 20% reduction in battery life. To compensate, Apple built in a second, alternate, graphics system, the same wimpier integrated graphics chip that’s used in the lower-end MacBook. Only when you switch to this alternate chip — a clumsy process that involves changing a preference in software — can you hope to retain the old 5-hour battery life. Because I didn’t do a full review of the MacBook Pro for my Wall Street Journal column, I didn’t run my own battery tests on it. But MacWorld magazine did, and the magazine declared that battery life diminished to a significant degree compared with the previous model. In addition, Apple now offers the 15 inch MacBook Pro only with a glossy screen, having removed the option for a matte screen that is often preferred by pros who work heavily with photos and videos, because of the glare and fingerprints it can attract. This glossy-only choice is also present on the MacBook, but it matters less there, because that machine isn’t usually the choice of graphics pros. My bottom line on the new MacBook Pro is that it still provides a satisfying upgrade for power users willing to spend the money to move up from the MacBook or from a less powerful, or similarly powerful, Windows machine running the inferior Vista or XP operating systems. But, for owners of the most recent prior MacBook Pro, the new model’s tradeoffs make an upgrade an iffy choice. Source: All Things Digital | 26 Oct 2008 | 1:37 pm iPhone 3G baseband almost cracked, carrier independence imminentThe wizards at the iPhone-Dev Team have just about cracked the iPhone baseband which means carrier unlock is almost upon us. What does this mean? Sadly, not much. The iPhone is still physically - at least in theory - locked to purchase and activation at AT&T and Apple stores so those heady days of buying an iPhone to crack at home are long gone. It is my suspicion that lots of 3Gs will soon be falling off the back of trucks around the world, especially in Russia and Asia, as folks dedicated to one G.S.M. carrier or the other decide they don’t want to switch. Baseband unlocks essentially cede control of the phone’s telecomm portions to hacked code. Usually it’s impossible to run hacked baseband code but the iPhone Dev folks have patched the baseband without alerting the phone itself, resulting in the Great iPhone Unlocking of 2007 and the future iPhone unlocking of 2008/2009. Source: CrunchGear | 26 Oct 2008 | 1:21 pm Australian Government Ignoring Problems With Proposed Filtershalll7 writes with an update to the proposed Australian national firewall we discussed recently. According to the BBC, "The official watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), has been conducting laboratory tests of six filtering products, and the government plans a live trial soon. ... After its recent trials, ACMA reported significant improvements on earlier studies. The network degradation on one product was less than 2%, although two products were in excess of 75%." Now, Ars Technica reports that "an Australian newspaper has uncovered documents showing that the government minister responsible for the program has ignored performance and accuracy problems with the filters, then tried to suppress criticism of the plan by private citizens." The EFA has a great deal to say in opposition of these plans.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Oct 2008 | 12:07 pm HOWTO Make a purse out of a stack of old books LiveJournaller Penwiper337 set to explore the "librarian side of steampunk" by turning a stack of old crummy hardcover books into a beautiful purse: I had my eye on some attractively bound Reader's Digest Condensed Books (I have no pity for them) that were in the local library book sale, but wanted a little more space than one book could give me. So I made a box-type purse out of three.Book purse (via Craft) Source: Boing Boing | 26 Oct 2008 | 11:01 am Bruce Schneier's election night analysisI'm about to go off-blog until November 17* (I'm off on my honeymoon!) but I'd be remiss if I failed to mention that Bruce Schneier will be doing mathematically oriented election coverage on the Making Light blog on election night. If it wasn't for the fact that I'll (literally) be on a tropical island with nothing higher-tech than a scuba-regulator to hand on that night, I'd be all over it.Dissect the exit polls, debate statistics, ridicule pundits, advance theories, and—hopefully—repeatedly celebrate. So wherever you are, alone in front of the computer, at a party in front of a television, or at one of the zillions of parties around the country, spend the night here as well.Watch the election results with Bruce Schneier—at Making Light
* Though I do have some killer book reviews lined up for next week that'll robo-post while I'm gone, and of course my lovely co-editors will still be posting totally awesome stuff here in a merciless torrent of total awesomeness. Source: Boing Boing | 26 Oct 2008 | 10:47 am Gazprom doesn't need loans for investments-paperhas enough funds to complete this year's investmentsSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 10:39 am A Missed Opportunity - Britney On Twitter
Apparently it is true, Britney Spears is on Twitter, and while the transparency of her new media outreach has been questioned, having a celebrity of her magnitude using your service is undoubtedly a good thing. Only, it could have been so much more. You see, for Britney, Twitter is just another stop on the social media PR train — blog, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, et. al. Twitter has had ample opportunity to lock in its disruption by enabling a subscription option for publishers. As a Twitter user you should be able to designate your own service model for those who follow you: free (default), pay only, or freemium. With a pay only model you could set the price someone would have to pay to follow your Twitter stream, could be monthly, yearly, or one-time. For freemium, followers would pay for premium content that the publisher could designate with a leading $ when they post. Twitter could collect some percent of the revenue generated. Why would this work? First, Twitter has created the simplest publishing platform available. SMS is content publishing that *anyone* can do and this opens doors previously closed by technical overhead. Second, Twitter possesses two characteristics that historically have had intrinsic “value” — it is mobile and it is real time. In the entertainment space, this is golden. Third, by charging the people who are consuming the content you achieve some incredible side effects. You don’t hamper growth because your content creators aren’t taxed. In fact, you are giving them a potential business model and the motivation to create great content. Apple has made this happen with the iPhone App Store (even without social hooks). In the process, Twitter becomes a real business with a foundation to draw in the support of mobile carriers and content distributors (like Apple) that could further simplify the billing/transaction process. In the Britney case, her PR team might have realized that there could be real revenue in her Twitter presence. This incentive would create a huge differentiator for Twitter and lead to substantive promotion of her Twitter service. Great paid services will be catapulted by Twitter’s unbelievable network effect (even more so if Twitter would start announcing when users follow other users the way Facebook shows new friend relationships). In the same way that Calacanis and Scoble vie for ever larger crowds of followers, this would be replicated inside the entertainment industry on a larger scale. The bigger these “supertwitterers” become the more opportunity they have open to them. What is it worth to Pepsi for Britney to twitter “drinking a pepsi” to 1M followers? There are content creators that will take this publishing/monetization platform to new and unseen heights. It’s there. Twitter just needs to change the game. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Oct 2008 | 10:34 am LateCrunch - The TechCrunch Party For Euro Startups
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 26 Oct 2008 | 10:31 am Seven Killer Whales Gone From Puget Sound, Feared Dead - AHN
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Oct 2008 | 10:27 am Blogger.com Banned In Turkeypetermp writes "A Turkish court has blocked access to the popular blog hosting service Blogger (Blogger.com and Blogspot.com, owned by Google), since Friday, October 24th, 2008. According to BasBasBas.com, a Dutch blogger based in Istanbul, who alerted readers about the issue: 'It is suspected that the reason for this has something to do with Adnan Oktar, by some considered the leading Muslim advocate for creationism, who has in the past managed to get Wordpress, Google Groups, as well as Richard Dawkins' website [banned].'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Oct 2008 | 10:10 am US Army Intelligence Finds Terrorist Threats in Twitter
A report by US Army Intelligence points to Twitter, GPS devices, and voice changing software as potential "terrorist tools." Friend of CG, Noah Shachtman, posted the report on Danger Room noting that intelligence services have said that everything from MMORPGs to garage door openers could be potentially dangerous to Americas precious bodily fluids. They note:
"Twitter was recently used as a countersurveillance, command and control, and movement tool by activists at the Republican National Convention. The activists would Tweet each other and their Twitter pages to add information on what was happening with Law Enforcement near real time." Source: TechCrunch | 26 Oct 2008 | 9:45 am A New Interface For Historical Content At WorldHistory
The product is still in private beta, but you can get a good sense for what they’ll offer from the demo videos here. Use the map to find a location you are interested in and see historical events that occurred there visually. Set a date range and see just the events during those years. You’ll also be able to add your own ancestors and genealogy information to the site, such as adding an ancestor that fought in a historical battle or other event. If anything, it looks to be a cool way to access Wikipedia data, where much of the content seems to come from. The company also says they are developing an iPhone application that will show you interesting historical events near where you are at any given time. That’s definitely a winner. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Oct 2008 | 9:13 am Monica Martinez of Toronto, Canada Crowned 2008 Yahoo! Rock Paper Scissors World ChampionWins First Ever All-Female Championship Final Match with a Dramatic Throw of Scissors Beating Paper to Win $10,000 Grand Prize TORONTO, Oct. 26...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 8:58 am Wassup ObamaA remake of the famous Budweiser “Wassup” commercials from 1999-2002 is making the rounds at YouTube as a brilliant ad for Obama. It touches on unemployment, health care, the stock market, the war in Iraq and the environment, all in around two minutes. The original commercial is below: Thanks for the tip, TechAlex74. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 26 Oct 2008 | 8:30 am iPhone 3G Almost Cracked, Carrier Independence Imminent
The wizards at the iPhone-Dev Team have just about cracked the iPhone baseband which means carrier unlock is almost upon us. What does this mean? Sadly, not much. The iPhone is still physically - at least in theory - locked to purchase and activation at AT&T and Apple stores so those heady days of buying an iPhone to crack at home are long gone. It is my suspicion that lots of 3Gs will soon be falling off the back of trucks around the world, especially in Russia and Asia, as folks dedicated to one G.S.M. carrier or the other decide they don't want to switch.
Source: TechCrunch | 26 Oct 2008 | 8:24 am Lawmaker questions Google-backed spectrum plan - Reuters
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Oct 2008 | 7:42 am Lawmaker questions Google-backed spectrum plan (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Oct 2008 | 7:40 am Lawmaker questions Google-backed spectrum planWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. lawmaker on Friday joined a growing chorus asking the head of the Federal Communications Commission to explain his plan to open unused airwaves for...Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 7:40 am PC Makers Try To Pinch Seconds From Their Boot TimesSome computers are never turned off, or at least rarely see any state less active than "standby," but others (for power savings or other reasons) need rebooting — daily, or even more often. The New York Times is running a short article which says that it's not just a few makers like Asus who are trying to take away some of the pain of waiting for computers, especially laptops, to boot up. While it's always been a minor annoyance to wait while a computer slowly grinds itself to readiness, "the agitation seems more intense than in the pre-Internet days," and manufacturers are actively trying to cut that wait down to a more bearable length. How bearable? A "very good system is one that boots in under 15 seconds," according to a Microsoft blog cited, and an HP source names an 18-month goal of 20-30 seconds.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Oct 2008 | 7:08 am Future of green is not so black, say someThe deepening economic crisis may appear to be the perfect storm for environmentalism, but many in and around the green movement contend the opposite, seeing in it a time of opportunity.Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 6:56 am Gadget Lab Podcast #51: Apple Takes a Bite Out of the Industry With New Macbooks and Deep Pockets
In this week's Wired Gadget Lab Audio Podcast, Dylan Tweney, Brian Chen, and I talk about the lightning fast and sexy-looking new Macbooks, as well as Apple's surprising financial quarterly report. In addition, we put the seemingly tepid launch of the Google Phone in perspective and explain why the differences between the user demographics of the new handset and those of the iPhone may give the latter an unfair advantage in terms of publicity. Finally, we preview our new Product Reviews website, which we're launching this weekend. After months of heavy (and often sweaty) hard work by the Gadget Lab crew, over 400 reviews are now ready for your enjoyment and close scrutiny. So dig in! If you have any comments about the new site or have some ideas about how we can improve it, please send me an email at jose_fermoso@wired.com, or to Dylan at dylan_tweney@wired.com. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Please remember, if the embedded player above doesn't work, you can download the Gadget Lab podcast MP3 file. Use iTunes? Subscribe to the Gadget Lab Audio Podcast in iTunes. Also be sure to check out the Gadget Lab Video Podcast -- on iTunes and on the Gadget Lab blog.
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Oct 2008 | 6:14 am TABLE-Sun Pharmaceutical Ind Q2 net profit soars(versus the same period a year earlier, in billion rupeesSource: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Oct 2008 | 5:42 am Comcast Takes Wider, Faster Broadband Swing - Multichannel News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Oct 2008 | 4:13 am Belgian ISP Scores Victory In Landmark P2P Casesecmartin writes "Belgian ISP Scarlet scored an important victory in the first major European test of copyright law. The interim decision forcing them to block transfers of copyrighted materials via P2P has been reversed, because the judge agreed with Scarlet that the measures the Belgian RIAA proposed to implement proved to be ineffective. A final decision is expected next year."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Oct 2008 | 4:12 am Sources: SEC identifies "Steve Jobs heart attack" prankster - Ars Technica
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Oct 2008 | 3:29 am YouTube Enables Deep Linking Within Videos
It’s not a big new feature but it’s certainly one that will come in handy: YouTube will now allow you to send users to a specific point in a video by appending a short tag to the end of a video’s URL. It’s pretty surprising that this functionality wasn’t available earlier, as Google Video introduced the same feature over two years ago. YouTube users have been forced to rely on third party services like Splicd to do the same thing. To specify a point, append a tag to the end of your video link with the following syntax: “#t=1m45s” (you can change the numbers before the ‘m’ and ’s’ to edit the minutes and seconds, respectively. Here’s an example: As another nice touch, YouTube will also automatically detect when someone mentions a time in a video comment and add a hyperlink to that point in the video. The feature just went live and there isn’t any easy way to do this though the YouTube UI without manually adding the tag (YouTube hasn’t mentioned it on its official blog yet, either). The YouTube team also has a great sense of humor. As was covered earlier this month,YouTube commentors are now presented with a button asking if they’d like to hear their comments read aloud before they are posted, in the hopes of preventing instances of accidental stupidity (the feature is a response to this now-famous comic). Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Oct 2008 | 1:45 am Distributed.net Finds Optimal 25-Mark Golomb Rulerkpearson writes "Distributed.net's 8-year-old OGR-25 distributed computing project has just proven conclusively that the predicted shortest 25-mark Golomb ruler is optimal. 'The total length of the ruler is 480, with marks at positions: 0 12 29 39 72 91 146 157 160 161 166 191 207 214 258 290 316 354 372 394 396 431 459 467 480. (This ruler may alternatively be expressed in terms of the distance between those positions, which is how dnetc displays them: 12-17-10-33-19-...).' 124,387 people participated in the project and two people found the shortest ruler, one on October 10, 2007 and the other on March 24, 2008."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Oct 2008 | 11:53 pm Brainy Robots To Lead To Longer Unemployment Lines?
Robot lovers and outsourcing opponents could soon have something in common: the fear that their jobs are at stake. In the future robots will take over many tasks performed by American workers today potentially leading to increased unemployment, says Marshall Brain, founder of How Stuff Works and author of e-book Robotic Nation. "In theory we should all be able to go on a perpetual vacation as robots do all the work," Brain told attendees in a presentation at the Singularity Summit in San Jose. "Instead because of the way the economy is structured right now, when robots arrive it will have devastating effects on all of us because there will be so many unemployed people." The implications of an increasingly automated economy could be dire for society unless we restructure our economy, he argues. While productivity has risen over the year, worker compensation has not kept pace and there is increasing concentration of wealth, says Brain. Developments in robotics means that technologists could be creating a second intelligent species, claims Brain. "So far no credible evidence to indicate that there is more than one intelligent species in the universe, which is us," he says. "But that changes with the robots." Computational power has significantly increased in the last two decades and is growing exponentially. In 1992, computers could perform about 300,000 operations per second. By 2022, it is likely to jump to a trillion operations per second and by 2042 it could be a quadrillion operations per second, predicts Brain. "A $500 machine that can do that, whenever it happens, combined with vision and natural language processing could change how we look at robots," he says. Potential applications of robots could then be in use as automatons in fast food restaurants, transportation, education, construction and retail among other areas. "We will have robotic cashiers, robotic stocking, sweeping, help and cart retrieval at Wal-Mart," says Brain. To deal with that version of the future, he suggests society should redesign the economy to get the benefits of automation. His solution? Spread the benefit of productivity to everyone by breaking the concentration of wealth, increase pay and reduce the work week. Sounds a lot like socialism, doesn't it? The idea provoked a question from attendees. When industrialization first occurred there were fears of massive unemployment which never panned out. Why will the integration of robots into the workforce be any different? "We didn't create a second intelligent species 150 years ago," says Brain. "Now we are doing that with intelligence that will get better and better."
This is one of the most astounding public bitchslaps you're ever likely to see in the tedious and hard-starched world of corporate telecommunications. Sprint worrying that its "brand" would be sullied by Android is going to keep me in chuckles for the rest of the hour. Sprint: Android not good enough yet [Reuters] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 25 Oct 2008 | 10:30 pm VMware, IDC play virtualization hardball
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 25 Oct 2008 | 9:55 pm October Rocks: R.I.P. GravediggazListening Post offers up more scary Halloween sonics for your inner ear. This time, we bow down to Gravediggaz, the underrated horrorcore supergroup featuring Wu-Tang Clan architect RZA, legendary producer Prince Paul and fearsome rappers Frukwan and the late Too Poetic.
Sprint may be having a lot of problems marketing its own brand in the last few years, but according to Chief Executive Dan Hesse, Google’s Android mobile operating system isn’t perfect either. He told the National Press Club in Washington that he didn’t think Android in its current form is ”good enough to put the Sprint brand on it." One of the hottest gadgets that many people are buying are GPSs. For the past few years, they are always up there in top industry sales yearly. Many new cars support built-in GPSs, but many people would rather purchase standalone units. However, there are many other alternatives to built-in GPSs or standalone units, which I will explore in a moment, but first, let’s take a look at how we got to where we are now.
Before the modern GPS was bornOnly about five or so years ago, many people would carry maps in their cars, in case they ever got lost and needed quick directions to get to their destination. Today, it is hard to imagine having to carry a map in the car with all the technology we have in GPSs and cell phones. But don’t disregard paper maps entirely since they are cheap, never crash, not likely to get stolen, and never run out of battery power. These maps were good at the time, very portable and accurate. However, with all the small lines and words, it can cause quite a headache for the lost traveler. As history as shown before, general maps would soon take a backseat to newer technologies.
Routes via the webCoinciding with when the Internet became popular, a few websites displayed maps as well as traveling directions. Two very famous examples are MapQuest, and Google Maps. Both of these services will provide the user with maps of the area surrounding his/her search, as well as directions to get from one location to another. This proved to be a lot better than carrying around a general map. Once again, this is another very cheap option and fine for those who do not want to explore or do not plan detours. Now, one could effortlessly print out the needed directions, and wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost. This pretty much put the conventional map to rest, however, a few drivers still kept it in the car for those “just in case” instances. This was nice and all, but modern technology was still changing at a rapid pace, and soon websites such as MapQuest and Google Maps would lose their popularity to an electronic device - the GPS.
Fast Forward to the PresentThe modern GPS has been around for several years now, but has only become practical and popular in the past couple of years. The GPS can be found in many forms, whether it is built into a car, a standalone unit, or built-into a smartphone. Each of these present slightly different uses, so it boils down to what and when you plan to use your GPS, which will ultimately dictate which GPS to get. Now, I will talk about the pros and cons to any GPS. One of the main things to keep in mind when purchasing a GPS is what will your primary use of the GPS be, always ask that to yourself when looking around.
GPS in a carMany cars nowadays come with the option in having a GPS installed into the dashboard of your car. This nifty piece of technology will work when you want it to, and you use keypad to enter in the necessary data and it will then devise a route and speak out the directions. Another nice feature is that it will always be in the car. A major problem that many encounter with GPSs is that they often misplace it or someone steals it. However, by being already in the car, makes it nearly impossible to be misplaced or easily stolen. However, having the GPS installed in the car can sometimes be costly and the major drawback is that it can only be used in that car. Let’s say your wife, husband, or child is going somewhere and wants to take the GPS; if it is only in one car, then it is impossible to allow other drives to use it in their own car.
GPS on a phoneMany phones these days come with GPS, however, the better GPSs comes in smartphone, like your BlackBerries, iPhones, etc. Depending on how technologically advanced your cell phone is will dictate how well the GPS works. In most phones, the GPS works very well, considering it’s in a phone. Main uses of GPSs in a cell phone would probably be limited to local directions, and not so much as if you are driving. Again, this GPS is limited to only your cell phone, so you can’t really give your “GPS” to a family member if they need to use it.
Standalone GPSStandalone GPSs are the most popular form of GPSs. They range from inexpensive models, to some really high-end and expensive models. Again, we need to consider what will be the primary use of your GPS. Standalone units typically come with a nice sized touch screen, 3.5-4.3 inches, Bluetooth, and Points of Interest (POI). Such models would probably sell for under $200. As we get more advanced, we can find units that play audio/video, and come with traffic updates. Various models even come with gaming support. Gaming support coupled with audio and video playback are always nice to have on a trip as they can keep your kids in the backseat occupied. The nice thing with these units is that you can easily lend your GPS to family members if they are going somewhere. The major con here is that you have to take your GPS wherever you go. If a thief sees your GPS in your car, they will be able to grab it easier. Also, it is easy to misplace as it isn’t on your cell phone or built in to your car.
What to consider when purchasing a GPSNow, we know all the different types of GPSs out there, but we have to think which kind is better suited to fulfill our navigational needs. There is nothing set in stone that you have to follow when buying a GPS, rather you have to use common sense and think about what you need. For families that travel a lot, I would recommend getting a standalone unit. The nice thing about this is that you can easily give it to a family member, it comes with a bunch of handy features, and it’s pretty cheap depending on what features you want.
For the lone travelerFor a single person who travels a lot on their own, I would recommend getting a GPS for your car, although you can opt in getting the standalone unit. The good thing about having it built-into your car is that you will never lose or break it due to mishandling the actual device. Since you wouldn’t give it away to family, and you would only drive one car, there is no point getting the standalone unit.
Is a phone ever good enough?For the GPS in the phone, I don’t think that that kind of GPS is good enough for any person. I believe it is something nice to have, but can’t take the place of a car GPS or a standalone unit. Let’s say you are walking in an unfamiliar city, then it is nice to whip out your phone and find out where you are and where you have to go. However, if you travel a lot by car, then it is always nice to have a real GPS, whether it be built-in or standalone, to use.
Repurpose that laptopThere is one last GPS option I’d like to talk about - Microsoft Streets & Trips. Basically, this is a program by Microsoft that adds GPS functionality to a PC or a laptop. For about $80, you can opt to get a GPS receiver built-into the program. This would work well on a laptop, so you can bring it with you on trips and it can act like a GPS. While this is certainly cheaper than most GPSs (assuming you already own a laptop), you would have to take into account bugging your expensive laptop on all car trips and hoping a sudden stop doesn’t send your laptop crashing down.
Final Thoughts:I hope this guide can provide you with some insight when you decide to purchase your first or next GPS. If you think I missed any important information or have any questions, feel free to let me know in the comments. Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Oct 2008 | 8:00 pm Vulnerability in G1 publicized by security researchers
Google has already fixed its distribution version of Android, but until T-Mobile pushes out an update people are still technically at risk. But if you’re going and visiting random links from emails all the time, maybe you deserve to have a keylogger secretly installed on your Googlephone. Update: T-Mobile is working on it. They say: “Google is working on a browser software patch for Android. We are coordinating with Google on a plan to soon deliver this update over-the-air to customers’ G1 devices. For people currently using the phone, we do not believe this matter will negatively impact their experience with the device.” Well then! Nice work by all parties involved. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Oct 2008 | 7:57 pm Space Is The Next Frontier for Esther Dyson
If you have a couple million dollars, are a technology visionary and wondering what your next challenge will be? Consider a chance to take a spin around the earth. Technology heavyweights are fast queuing up for an opportunity to blast off into space. Following in the steps of former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi and video games developer Richard Garriott, Silicon Valley luminary Esther Dyson is the latest to start training for a space flight. Dyson who is an investor in Space Adventures, a company that aims to open space flight for private citizens, will not be flying anytime soon but will be training as a backup for Simonyi who will be heading on his second space trip next year. "The training is going to be exciting, wonderful and horrible," she said at the Singularity Summit conference in San Jose Saturday . "I am going in with some trepidation because I don’t know what’s really going to happen. But at the same time I wanted a change." Dyson will be part of a small elite group. Simonyi who lead the development of key Microsoft Office applications became the fifth space tourist when he took his first space flight on April 7, 2007, on board the Soyuz TMA-10 along with two Russian cosmonauts. Following a successful ten-day trip, Simonyi signed up for a second flight for next year. On Friday, game developer Garriott returned from a 12-day visit to the International Space Station as a working tourist. Dyson will be piggybacking on Simonyi's upcoming trip for her training. "The experience SA (Space Adventures) sold was not just Charles' ride on the Soyuz rocket, but also the entire ground experience for some 50 of his friends," she wrote in a Flickr note. "Space travel is today accessible only if you have the millions," she told audiences at the conference. While Dyson may not have the $1 billion net worth estimated for Simonyi, she's an industry visionary. Dyson's invested in companies including Flickr and Powerset among others. In 2004, CNET bought her company EDventure Holdings, which was known for its newsletter Release 1.0 and annual conference.
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 25 Oct 2008 | 7:38 pm iT*nes censoring s*ng t****s
A database problem is censoring unexpected song titles including titles using the words h*t, k****r, t**n. Also affected are c***s***er, s**t, p***ya**s, and “Your Mother Spends Her C*****d D***k W***e*****y P****l” by P***y and the A**l Glands. Apple intends to fix this problem as soon as they f***ing get around to it. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Oct 2008 | 6:57 pm Sprint CEO: “By gosh if that Android ain’t a lump of you-know-what”
He also doesn’t like kids walking on his lawn, hates the farm subsidies given to big producers, and genuinely misses real movies like Hud and A Night to Remember and none of this mamby pamby crap they’re playing now with robots and ghosts and what not. He wants his pickled eggs and a beer now, dammit. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Oct 2008 | 6:52 pm Increasing Greenhouse Gases Cause ConcernCarbon dioxide is only one of the greenhouse gases that make scientists stay up at night. Methane and nitrogen trifluoride are increasing which makes scientists worry about increasing global warming. Methane is the greatest threat.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Oct 2008 | 6:40 pm Call the family in, tell them to sit down, and break the news: Devs get iPhone 2.2 beta 2 and new Snow Leopard builds
As for Snow Leopard you’ve got a new Finder written in Cocoa (tell your Uncle he can stop working on his version), Exchange integration (tell your Pa he can stop working on his version), and the cousins will be disappointed to find out that it has an ImageBoot function that may or may not boot images. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Oct 2008 | 6:36 pm SEC Says Teen Could Be Behind Job's Health RumorsSteve Jobs, Apple CEO, did not have a heart attack, according to the SEC.Apparently, the the source of this news was an 18 year old teenager who made the story up.The story made the price of Apple shares decrease from $106.50 to $94.65. The firm lost market value of approximately $9Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Oct 2008 | 6:25 pm Learn lighting with Nikon from two top photogs
Viewers of the Guide to Creative Lighting will become familiar with lighting concepts to improve their photographs. The focus will be on Nikon’s Creative Lighting System, various wireless flash units that can be placed wherever your creative mind desires. The DVD guides you though work in the studio and on-location, teaching techniques that inspire photographers to expand their comfort zone. You will also learn about light color, quality and placement, and dig deep into specifics of Nikon’s Speedlights.
The DVD comes out Saturday, November 1 and will cost about around $40.
See the photographers’ websites:
Full Story » | Written by Heidi Crossman for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Oct 2008 | 6:25 pm Terrorist 'tweets'? US Army warns of Twitter dangers (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Oct 2008 | 6:22 pm Amazon Rainforest Tree Diversity Defies Simple ExplanationImage 1: This palm is one of more than 1,100 tree species in a 25 hectare area. Credit: Renato Valencia, PUCEImage 2: The Yasuni, Ecuador forest dynamics plot of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador is one of the most diverse forests under study in a global network of forest plots. Credit: Renato Valencia, PUCESource: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Oct 2008 | 5:20 pm Appletell review - Flick Bowling for iPhone/iPod touchFROM APPLETELL - The controls in Flick Bowling for the iPhone/iPod touch are minimal, and the features are scant, but it’s one of the best games available for showing off your iPhone and having fun doing it.
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Oct 2008 | 5:00 pm Amoebas Guided To Prey By Protein CompassMolecular switch shared by humans may also help immune cells locate infection sitesAmoebas glide toward their prey with the help of a protein switch that controls a molecular compass, biologists at the University of California, San Diego have discovered.Their finding, detailed in this week’s issue of the journal Current Biology, is important because the same molecular switch is shared by humans and other vertebrates to help immune cells locate the sites of infections.The amoeba Dictyostelium finds bacteria by scent and moves toward its meal by assembling a molecular motor on its leading edge. The active form of a protein called Ras sets off a cascade of signals to start up that motor, but what controlled Ras was unknown.Richard Firtel, professor of biology along with graduate student Sheng Zhang and postdoctoral fellow Pascale Charest tested seven suspect proteins by disrupting their genes. One called NF1, which matches a human protein, proved critical to chemical navigation.NF1 turns Ras off. Without this switch mutant amoebas extended false feet called pseudopodia in all directions and wandered aimlessly as Ras flickered on and off at random points on their surfaces. “You have to orient Ras in order to drive your cell in the right direction,” Firtel said.In contrast, normal amoebas with working versions of NF1 elongate in a single direction and head straight for the most intense concentration of bacterial chemicals, the team reports.The biochemical components of the system match those found in vertebrate immune cells called neutrophils that hunt down bacterial invaders, suggesting that the switch might be a key navigational control for many types of cells, Firtel said. “The pathway and responses are very similar and so are the molecules.”The US Public Health Service funded this work.Video (available here) pits mutant against normal amoeba in a race toward the scent of bacteria. A glow-tagged protein that binds only to the active form of Ras lights the leading edge of the normal cell as well as the misguided pseudopodia the mutant extends in random directions. ---Image Caption: Green lights activated compass protein at the leading edge of an amoeba hunting for food. Credit: Firtel lab/UCSDSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Oct 2008 | 4:33 pm
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MySpace continues to clean up the look and feel of its site with the launch of a new profile and editor. It’s not ready for mainstream U.S. use yet, so they’ve unleashed it on Canadian users for testing (anyone can try it out though, see below).
This guest post is written by 
What’s a good strategy when about 1,000 developers and startups converge on one point? Throw a Techcrunch party of course. So it was with some relish that we threw an end of conference networking event for startups following the 
History buffs and students are going to like 
Nikon users get in line. Everyone’s about to get enlightened. A new training video titled “A Hands-on Guide to Creative Lighting” is on its way for Nikonians of all experience levels.
Two very knowledgeable photographers lead the training: Bob Krist and Joe McNally. Both have done work for National Geographic and have a close relationship with Nikon. Both are multi-award winners, authors/photographers of best-selling photography books, and have shot for major magazines and companies. Both men also teach seminars and workshops. It is without question these men know their stuff. Who better to learn from than masters of the craft?
The instruction here is more focused than what Nikon offers in the “Learn & Explore” section of their website. At the 