Source: Gizmodo | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:39 pm

FCC opens up wireless ‘white spaces;’ Assessing winners, losers ... - ZDNet

BBC News

FCC opens up wireless ‘white spaces;’ Assessing winners, losers ... ZDNet - 2 hours ago The Federal Communications Commission has opened up so-called wireless white spaces–unused spectrum between broadcast channels–in a move the agency hopes paves the way for ‘Wi-Fi on Steroids’. FCC approves white space plan backed by Google, Microsoft Mobile Burn FCC Opens New Airwaves to the Public BusinessWeek Inquirer - Washington Post - New York Times - PC World all 500 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:39 pm

3-Axis Level Bubble for Cameras: a random flash of genius from Brando

I don't really know the inner workings of renowned crapgadget manufacturer Brando. I assume, much like Family Guy episodes, their products are composed by a tank full of playful manatees, dunking balls featuring random gadget features through hoops according to their strange under-seacow whims. Most of the time what they come up with is crap, but every so often, they come up with a good one.

And this is that good one: a three-axis bubble mount that fits into the flash bulb socket of your camera. Sure, for most shots outside of wedding and school pictures, mathematically perfect levelness isn't terribly important if you've got the other fundamentals right. But for $11, this could go into your camera bag without a single wince of regret, just in case.

3-Axis Bubble Level [Brando via Oh Gizmo]

Source: Gizmodo | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:36 pm

Online Meltdown Update: AOL Ads Down 6% In Third Quarter [MediaMemo]

More fuel for the online advertising pessimists among you: Advertising revenues at AOL dropped 6% in the third quarter.

This isn’t a total shock. The previous quarter, AOL had only been able to manage 2% advertising growth, and the company had already signaled since then that both its display ad business and its ad network were struggling. But given that these results cover the three-month period that ended September 30th, which only included a couple weeks of flat-out economic collapse, there will be worse news in store for the last quarter of the year.

Total revenues at the unit, owned by Time Warner (TWX), dropped 17%, to $1 billion. The bulk of that is attributable to its declining (down 26%) subscription business, so that number is less relevant — except to whoever may be in the market for one or both parts of the unit, like Yahoo (YHOO). Things would have been even worse, by the way, if AOL’s paid-search business hadn’t ticked up.

Overall results at Time Warner were flat for the year, with revenues of $11.7 billion and earnings of 30 cents per share. CEO Jeff Bewkes also announced that 2008 earnings would be lower than previously forecast due to restructuring charges, but that cash flow would actually be higher than the company had predicted.

Revenues at its to-be-shrunk Time Inc. publishing unit dropped 7%, pushed down by an 8% drop in ad revenue. The good news is that online revenues of $13 million, driven primarily by SI.com, People.com and CNNMoney.com, helped cushion some of the blow. The bad news is that those numbers are down from $19 million in the previous quarter.

Other results:

• Cable: Revenues up 8%; adjusted operating income up 9%.
• Movies: Revenues 9% (The Dark Knight did great, but not as good as Harry Potter, Rush Hour 3 and Hairspray did last year).
• Cable TV networks: Revenues up 7%. Both subscription fees and ad revenues were up.

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:32 pm

Sony updates the PS3 firmware to 2.52

The PS3 firmware just got a teeny-tiny bump that improves the playback quality of some PS3 format software and also fixing a bug concerning text entry via the on-screen keyboard, USB keyboard, or Bluetooth keyboard. Notice a difference yet?

Source: CrunchGear | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:26 pm

Space Invader dog tags

At $9 each, these awesome Space Invaders tags are outrageously expensive for a cutout of vinyl connected to a little string of aluminum pearls. Never the less, a fantastic idea: with the proper engraving, they can be worn as the dog tags of the ragged space marine from the 8-bit Earth invasion to come.

Space Invaders Tags [La Tete Au Cube via Technabob]

Source: Gizmodo | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:20 pm

Clarifi: Your iPhone is Ready for its Close-Up

Griffin, purveyor of fine plastic add-ons for iGadgets everywhere, has released the Clarifi, an iPhone case with a small close-up lens that can be slid into place over the crappy built-in objective.

As things stand, the iPhone's camera is little more than a tick on an internal Apple spec sheet -- if the company could have gotten away with shipping a camera-free cellphone, it probably would have. But despite its limitations, it is at least useful for taking notes, and scanning barcodes. Or is it? The lack of autofocus means that the iPhone camera can't get close up and stay sharp.

Thus, the iClarifi was born. The pitch is that the slide-over close-up lens lets you scan barcodes and snap pictures of text. This is useful for programs like Evernote, which will whisk your pictures off to its servers and return them with optically recognized characters baked in.

The irony is that these kinds of plastic slide-in lenses are extremely old-school. I used to have a little 110 format camera (a Halina, if I remember correctly) which had a switch to flip between the lenses (both of which were poor). By leaving such basic functionality out of the iPhone, Apple remains a darling amongst the third party accessory makers, although for the customer, all these add-ons do is to add-on to the cost. $35.

Product page [Griffin]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:16 pm

Custom painted 3D monitors from the romantic post-apocalypse

Custom painted whatevers are usually garish affairs — the gadget world equivalent of airbrushing a topless Valkyrie mating with a centaur on the side of your a-rockin', a-knockin' roadie van. Still, I really love this custom painted monitor by Smooth Collaborations: it looks exactly like one of the dilapidated green screen monitors I am perpetually running into in my post-apocalyptic Fallout 3 adventures.

It has some added features besides a coat of paint: a 3D mode achieved by putting on a pair of passive polarized glasses. But that's the gimmick I don't care about.

The price is high, but I don't think it is too staggering for a custom 3D monitor:: $749, or in the parlance of the Capitol Wasteland, a bit shy of seven hundred and fifty bottle caps.

iZ3D's custom painted 3D monitors are real eye candy [Born Rich]

Source: Gizmodo | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:01 pm

Video games to become UK's top entertainment form (Reuters)

Reuters - Video games are expected to outsell music and other video products this year for the first time, making them Britain's number one form of entertainment, research by retail experts said on Wednesday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:56 am

Time Warner: Time Inc. Layoffs Will Cost Us More Than $100 Million [MediaMemo]

Time Inc. still hasn’t informed its staff about who is staying and who is going in the upcoming mass firings at Time Warner’s magazine unit. But it has released a bit more detail to Wall Street: The sackings will cost it somewhere between $100 million and $125 million in restructuring charges this quarter.

That will bring total restructuring charges to somewhere between $280 million and $310 million for the year at Time Warner (TWX), the company said this morning — most of the other charges related to the shuttering of New Line Cinema earlier this year. And those charges will knock down previous guidance the company had offered:

Its 2008 full-year Free Cash Flow will total around $5.5 billion. This compares to the prior outlook for Free Cash Flow of at or above $4.5 billion, as updated on April 30, 2008.

Its 2008 full-year growth rate in Adjusted Operating Income before Depreciation and Amortization will be around 5%, off a base of $12.9 billion in 2007. This compares to the outlook provided on February 6, 2008 of a range of 7% to 9%, which did not include any potential restructuring charges. The $280 million to $310 million of aggregate restructuring charges have the net effect of decreasing the expected 2008 full-year growth rate in Adjusted Operating Income before Depreciation and Amortization by more than 2 percentage points.

Its 2008 full-year Earnings per Diluted Share from Continuing Operations will be in the range of $1.04 to $1.07. This compares to the prior outlook of $1.07 to $1.11, first provided on February 6, 2008. In addition to the restructuring charges, this outlook for Earnings per Diluted Share from Continuing Operations includes certain items affecting comparability, which were also not expected when Time Warner first provided its 2008 full-year outlook, such as gains and losses on asset sales, asset impairments and costs expected to be incurred in conjunction with the Time Warner Cable separation. These items, in the aggregate, have the effect of reducing the current year outlook for Earnings per Diluted Share from Continuing Operations by $0.04 per diluted common share.

Full release here.

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:48 am

Newt Gingrich: Kill Sarbanes-Oxley

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, enacted July 30, 2002, was a classic case of a knee-jerk government action that did lots of harm and very little good. The goal was to reform public company accounting rules to avoid future scandals like those that played out at Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, Peregrine Systems and WorldCom. But the practical effect was to kill the initial public offering market in the U.S.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gringrich (listen to my interview with him last May) and David Kralik are now calling for the repeal of Sarbanes Oxley. In an Op-ed piece in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, they outline the many problems created by the act:

• It didn’t prevent insolvencies and accounting shortfalls in companies such as Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, American International Group (AIG) and Merrill Lynch.
• The average company will now take 12 years before it can successfully issue an initial public offering (IPO) (up from 5 years pre-Sarbanes-Oxley) because they do not have enough capital to cover the estimated $4.36 million hidden tax in yearly compliance costs (The initial estimate from the Securities and Exchange Commission was approximately $91,000 per company on average).
• Smaller public companies went private or merged: “In 2006, the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP conducted a survey of 114 public companies on the effects of Sarbanes-Oxley. Twenty-one percent of companies were considering going private, 10 percent were considering selling the company, and 8 percent were considering merging with another company”
• U.S. companies are going public on foreign exchanges to avoid the Act: “In 2005, a report by the London Stock Exchange cited that about 38 percent of the international companies surveyed said they had considered issuing securities in the United States. Of those, 90 percent said the onerous demands of the new Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance law had made London listing more attractive.”
• They also quote Representative Michael Oxley, one of the original sponsors of the bill, who said “Frankly, I would have written it differently…Everyone felt like Rome was burning.”

Why the San Francisco Chronicle? Because Silicon Valley may be the hardest hit region:

In the second quarter of 2008, there were no public offerings of Silicon Valley venture capital-backed companies, a phenomenon not seen since 1978. In the third quarter there was only one. Sarbanes-Oxley has had a direct effect on venture capital. Indeed, if Sarbanes-Oxley is not repealed, then we could see Silicon Valley’s status as a hot-bed of innovation erode and see more and more of the future invented outside of the United States.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:26 am

Olympus Announces Curiously Featured E–30

Olympus has at last filled the big gap between its top-end DSLR, the E-3, and the consumer level E-520. The new E-30 comes in at $1300 for the body only, and — despite some rather schizophrenic feature choices, looks to be a solid camera.

First, the basics. The E-30 has a refreshingly low pixel count of 12.3 megapixels, a 2x focal length multiplier, ISO from 100 to 3,200, 5 fps continuous shooting for up to 12 RAW frames (jpeg numbers are unavailable), Live View and the usual image stabilisation features.

Here come the oddities: First, there is a flip out LCD screen (2.7”), something usually seen on mid-range compact cameras. Not that we’re complaining: Olympus often does weird things, and a flip out screen on a DSLR is one of the more useful ones.

Slightly less explicable is the inclusion of a bunch of fancy shooting modes, where the camera adds special effects to your photos. Called “Art Filters”, their names will tell you everything you need to know: Pop Art, Grainy Film and Pin Hole are probably the worst offenders. Seriously. Who would buy a $1300 body capable of shooting RAW images and then let the camera do this kind of thing to the pictures?

There is also a new lens coming, the Zuiko 14-54mm II f2.8-3.5 (28-108mm in old money) which will cost $600. Not cheap, but a pretty wide maximum aperture and a switch to a circular aperture mean that your out-of-focus backgrounds will look Leica-sweet.

Press release [Photography Bay]

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:22 am

Is Stealth Startup Fruugo Stumbling Right Before Launch Day?

Rumor has it that Finnish social e-commerce startup Fruugo is burning through a heap of cash, both hiring and firing employees at a rapid pace and dealing with some disappointed potential customers. Caveat: the service hasn’t even been launched yet.

Actually, Fruugo seems to have delayed its launch date a number of times already, although at this point they’re likely going for a big push at the upcoming SIME conference, arguably Northern Europe’s largest web event. The company has been in stealth mode to date, and has been signing NDAs with just about anyone they come into contact with. Being secretive and claiming that they will ‘do for online shopping what Google has done for search’ has evidently made Fruugo the talk of the town in Finland’s entrepreneurial community, but it’s still unclear what they’re up to exactly.

It’s definitely a serious venture: they’re assumed to be backed by tens of millions of euros, employ a workforce of around 150 people and its board of directors has been joined by people like Nokia’s former CEO (and current Chairman of Shell) Jorma Ollila, and F-Secure Founder/Chairman Risto Siilasmaa. The biggest investors are Washington DC based Queensway Developments and TEKES.

This is what the Fruugo website reveals about the service:

At Fruugo, we’d like to bring retailers and consumers throughout Europe together for a new kind of shopping experience, one where consumers find a better way to shop and retailers find better ways to grow their business. We want to make it easy for consumers to buy the stuff they want, in their own language and using the payment method they prefer – without the hassle of exchange rates, complex shipping costs, taxes, or staying up all night worrying “am I actually going to get my stuff?” We want to help with all that.

Now tech blog ArcticStartups is suggesting something is amiss at Fruugo HQ.

Local serial entrepreneur Taneli Tikka has been adding fuel to the rumors with a blog post last week saying Fruugo is apparently mass-firing up to 33% of their staff and burning around 1 million euros a month, while customers (merchants) are underwhelmed by what they’ve seen so far.

That’s a lot of gossip for a startup that has yet to release a public beta of their product.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:15 am

Qimonda Announces Commercial Production of Its Breakthrough Buried Wordline DRAM Technology

Qimonda AG (NYSE:QI), a leading global memory supplier, today announced the commencement of commercial production of DRAM chips using its new Buried Wordline technology. Qimonda's revenues in October included the first sales of 1Gbit DDR2 chips using 65nm Buried Wordline technology.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:00 am

Al-Othaim Markets Selects Cisco As Preferred Technology Provider

Al-Othaim Markets, a supermarket chain in Saudi Arabia, has chosen Cisco as its preferred technology partner for its information communication technology ICT network infrastructure needs across the country.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:00 am

Web Retailing's Appeal Grows

By Jayne O'Donnell The Gap company's stores have hardly been the hottest spots at the mall in recent months -- or even years.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:00 am

Rediff.Com Goes Mobile With MobileRediff Application

Offering Indian mobile phone users a near web like experience of popular Rediff.com services on their mobile handsets, Rediff.com India's leading online community portal today went live with its mobile client application 'MobileRediff'.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:00 am

IBM India Wins Maersk Contract Extension

IBM has won a contract extension from AP Moller-Maersk to provide IT services to its liner shipping division Maersk Line. Datamonitor estimates the contract to be worth $75m over three years.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:00 am

InternetArray, Inc. Acquires Significant Ownership in Noobis, Inc.

InternetArray, Inc. (OTC: IARY), an Internet development, technology licensing and marketing company, announced that it has acquired a significant ownership in Noobis, Inc., a social media development company.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 11:00 am

Where Your Apple Tax Goes [Voices]

By Nitrozac and Snaggy

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Nov 2008 | 10:30 am

Dreamforce: Salesforce Tools Emerge From Its Own Cloud - InformationWeek

Siliconrepublic.com

Dreamforce: Salesforce Tools Emerge From Its Own Cloud InformationWeek - 5 hours ago CEO Marc Benioff asserts his customers in effect are tapping into a cloud when they run their Salesforce applications from two US data centers over the Internet. Benioff Laughs Off ... InternetNews.com Zoho to Salesforce: Let us onto Force.com CNET News Linux Magazine (subscription) - SYS-CON Media - eWeek - CRN all 216 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 5 Nov 2008 | 9:00 am

Bones Found Near Crash Site Confirmed Fossett's

Trip6 writes "Bones found near the wreckage of the plane flown by Steve Fossett when he disappeared last fall have been confirmed to be Fossett's by DNA analysis. The NTSB is still investigating the crash. Fossett may have been searching for a place to break the land speed record, his next quest."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:58 am

Study: LinkedIn Users Rich (But Still Annoying)

a study by Anderson Analytics confirms what everyone already suspects: LinkedIn users are rich.

Nearly 60% of users have incomes of $93,000 or more. Executives with an average income of $104,000 make up 28% of the 2,000 random users polled for the study. Another 30% are self-identified “consultants” with an average income of $93,000.

People with lots of connections tend to make more money, according to the study - those with incomes between $200-$350k were seven times more likely to have at least 150 connections than lower income users.

The study segmented users into four categories: executives (28%), networkers/consultants (30%), late adopters (22%) (not sure what this is) and “exploring options (20%).

I mostly abandoned LinkedIn long ago, simply because i couldn’t deal with the volume of inbound requests for introductions and other LinkedIn business. It’s a salesperson’s heaven (another word for “consultant” and “saavy networker” is salesperson). Rich people tend to have more connections, says the survey, which makes sense. These poor executives are constantly being bombarded with connection requests.

So if you have something to sell, stop wasting time on Facebook and MySpace. Get yourself on LinkedIn and add a couple of hundred connections. Before you know it you’ll be pulling in $350k.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:49 am

More inside dirt coming in Vista suit? - TechFlash

The Age

More inside dirt coming in Vista suit? TechFlash - 6 hours ago By Todd Bishop on Nov 4, 2008 at 11:04 PM Microsoft is huddling with hardware makers this week to prepare for the next Windows version, but the company's lawyers are still dealing with the legal aftermath of Windows Vista's 2007 launch. Living With Windows 7 PC Magazine First look: Microsoft Windows 7 VNUNet.com Washington Post - CMSWire - InformationWeek - Washington Times all 84 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:43 am

Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*! by Art Spiegelman

Last weekend, I bought a copy of Art Spiegelman's newest book, Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*! It's one of those book that you have to experience tactilely. It's oversized, hardcover, and brilliantly colored. In theory, it's a reprint of a collection of work from his younger years, but the real gem of the book is the introduction, in which Spiegelman looks back across the years to figure out what turned him into the king of Mauschwitz.

Early works that paved the way to Maus are here, too -- a "Maus" strip and the searing "Prisoner on the Hell Planet" --, but in the book's opening meta-autobiographical artwork, the artist exposes how all the pieces fit together in his personal history and explores the wrenching process beneath the panels. One of the most striking pages features a messy collage of early drafts of "Hell Planet," wherein he recounts his mother's suicide. Looking over the page of his old pages, you see the story come to life.

For something of a sneak peek, Slate has an insightful Breakdowns slideshow: "Making Comics After Mauschwitz."

Source: Boing Boing | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:42 am

Virtual world celebrates Obama's win (AP)

AP - From YouTube to Flickr, from Facebook to Twitter, images and sentiments from celebrations across the nation flooded into the Internet's media-sharing sites, just moments after Barack Obama clinched the presidential election.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:24 am

Record Traffic Day At CNN.com: 27 Million Uniques, 276 Million Page Views

CNN emails to tell us they brought in 27 million unique visitors to their site on election day yesterday, a record. Comscore says they averaged just 5 million unique daily visitors in September, so this is more than 5x normal traffic.

The site also generated an astounding 276 million page views. An average day on CNN is about 35 million page views, according to Comscore worldwide stats.

And all that without the Magic Wall and pseudo-holograms that kept people glued to CNN cable channel all day.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:22 am

The US Presidential Election: Open Thread

Yes, We Can. And Yes We Did. What an amazing and historic night. Never have I witnessed so many people, all over the country, expressing such hope, optimism, and pride all at the same moment. If this mood tonight in America is a sign of what's to come, the future might -- in spite of everything -- be better than the last eight years.

What an incredible night to be an American. As I type this in a hotel in San Francisco, I can still hear people screaming and honking car horns out in the streets. I just left a diner with friends, and periodically the joint erupted in spontaneous cheering. Never in my life have I seen anything like this.

Above, flag photo by Siege. Tweeted Warren Ellis: "And that's it. Nice work, America. You got your country back."

Lessig to the FCC. Schneier to Homeland Security. Let the fantasy football cabinet appointment riffing begin.

Here's an open thread. Please discuss.

In related news, Ape Lad says the "H in sunrays" will no longer appear in the Laugh Out Loud Cats.

Source: Boing Boing | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:21 am

Xeni at Web 2.0 Wed 11/4 in SF: Future of Online Video Panel

I don't usually blog about conference stuff I'm doing, but this one's going to be special. I've been looking forward to it for weeks.

Tomorrow at the Web 2.0 Summit, helmed by Tim O'Reilly and BB's own "band manager" John Battelle, I'll be hosting a panel about the future of online video. It's something I've been thinking about, and working on, every single day since we launched Boing Boing tv a year ago.

I am honored to welcome the following esteemed guests on this panel: Timothy Shey (Next New Networks), David Prager (Revision3), Robin Sloan (Current), Greg Goodfried (EQAL), Miles Beckett (EQAL), and Andrew Baron (Rocketboom). I'm really jazzed about the workshop, and the material people are going to share. If you're in town and thinking of coming to Web 2.0, I hope (a) this will convince you to come to the event, and (b) you'll stop by at 1130 for this panel.

The Future of Online Video (Web 2.0 Summit 2008)

Source: Boing Boing | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:18 am

The McCain and Obama Speeches: Gracious Both in Defeat and in Victory [BoomTown]

Both President-Elect Barack Obama and the man he beat in an historic election, Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, both gave the kind of speeches at the end of the last night that make one proud to be part of a country where stark differences still can mean grace can prevail when it's all over.

But don't take my word for it--the Internet makes it possible to consider them again and again.

Thus, here is a video of McCain's concession speech (try hard to ignore the inane booing at the start by some very sore losers in the crowd at the Biltmore Hotel in Arizona, which McCain quickly tamped down), as well as Obama's appropriately calm victory speech in Chicago below it.

They serve as perfect bookends to each other and is an amazing example of how to fight hard without killing each other, which is--in this fractious world--still a modern miracle.

Or as Obama quoted our greatest president (in my estimation, at least), Abraham Lincoln: "We are not enemies, but friends, though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection."

Here that is, in living color:

McCain:

Obama:

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:11 am

What We Lose as Search Gets Personal [Voices]

By John Battelle, Blogger, Searchblog

Of all the jobs I’ve had in the past twenty odd years, I’m pretty sure the one that pleased my parents the most was my brief stint as a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, my family’s local paper of record. My mother in particular seemed quite proud to see her son’s work land on her breakfast table each morning. In any case, when I delivered the news I was leaving the Times to help start a magazine focused on technology, Mom wasn’t entirely convinced. “The newspaper,” she declared, “is our social glue. It’s what keeps us all on the same page. Technology is going to destroy that, everyone will end up reading whatever suits their fancy.”

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:01 am

Farm Sanctuary Releases Statement on Passage of California's Proposition 2: "Monumental Victory for Farm Animals"

This evening, Farm Sanctuary, the nation's leading farm animal protection organization, celebrates a landmark victory for farm animals: the passage of Proposition 2 in California.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

ARCADIS Awarded Three GRiP(R) Contracts for the US Army, Worth $33 Million

AMSTERDAM, November 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ARCADIS (EURONEXT: ARCAD), the international consultancy, design and engineering company, announced today that it has been selected to provide performance based remediation services under its GRiP(R) program by the U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

Inside Google’s ‘Unofficial’ Hiring Freeze [Voices]

By David Faber, Anchor and Reporter, CNBC

Google, one of the nation’s great growth engines for employment, has essentially stopped hiring for the last month, according to several executives at the company. A spokesperson at the company says there has been no freeze on hiring, but several executives I have spoken with who have hiring responsiblity said it was made clear to them one month ago they were to make no new hires, including at the secretarial level and they were directed to fill all vacancies with internal candidates. In effect, they term it an unofficial hiring freeze.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

Does Change at Apple Portend New Music Strategy? [Voices]

By Eliot Van Buskirk, Editor, Listening Post, Wired.com

Seven years after Apple snapped up his idea for a portable music player that worked with an online music store, iPod chief Tony Fadell is stepping down to spend more time with his family, as confirmed by Apple in a statement. Replacement Mark Papermaster is a chip expert and soon-to-be-former IBM executive. His tenure could reflect a major shift in Apple’s approach to music.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

Scandal-Plagued Democrat Loses in Fla.

First-term Democratic Florida Rep. Tim Mahoney, dogged by sexual scandal, lost his seat Tuesday. Republican Tom Rooney, a lawyer from Tequesta, claimed victory accompanied by his wife and three sons, The Palm Beach Post reported.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

Livebiznet - A Business Network for Small Medium Business (SMB)

HYDERABAD, India, November 5 /PRNewswire/ -- If you are a small or medium-sized business (SMB), you have good news!! Livebiznet.com, a website where SMBs can network, improve business contacts and increase business visibility has been launched by Core Software, a Hyderabad-based product development company.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

Sun Microsystems Collaborates With Europractice on Landmark Agreement to Advance UltraSPARC CMT for Multi-Core, Multithreaded Processor Design in Europe

Sun Microsystems, Inc., (Nasdaq:JAVA) and Europractice today announced a three-year collaboration to promote OpenSPARC(TM) CMT (Chip Multithreading) technology -- one of the only open sourced multi-core, multithreaded processor architectures -- as a reference design among 650 universities and research institutions across 38 countries in the European region.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

Power On Self Test: Our New President in Nanolithography

Image: ajohnhart

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Nov 2008 | 8:00 am

CNN goes Star Wars, debuts live holograms - TG Daily

dBTechno

CNN goes Star Wars, debuts live holograms TG Daily - 7 hours ago By Wolfgang Gruener Chicago (IL) - This year’s presidential election made history in several ways and it appeared that news networks were also in a competition to show off the most elaborate technology to explain polls and other election events. CNN Employs “Holographic” Technology eFluxMedia CNN conducts interviews via hologram Yahoo! Tech TechCrunch - guardian.co.uk - Gizmodo - All Things D Blogs all 75 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 5 Nov 2008 | 7:11 am

Strapped For Cash, Web TV Startup Mobuzz Starts Panhandling

Mobuzz, one of the more popular online shows to come out of Europe, has run out of money. But instead of bowing out, the site is turning to its users and asking for a €5 donation (or the equivalent in your local currency). The goal? 120,000 Euros by next week, which Mobuzz says should be enough to sustain the site until it can get more funding. If it doesn’t make the cut, the site will be shut down and any donations will be returned.

It’s always nice to see a community come together to support something it enjoys, but Mobuzz and its fans should keep in mind that the site ran out of money for a reason - it’s not like someone came in and snatched it away. So while the guys in the video below can plead about saving the free daily shows that the site has been producing for years, if Mobuzz does survive it will likely see radical changes. Any new investors will want to see the site turn a profit, be it through paid content, increased advertising, or fewer shows.

Also, what’s the deal with the one week notice? It looks like Mobuzz either had a financial deal in the works that fell though at the last minute, or they’re setting a short time limit to give their drive a false sense of urgency (I’m guessing the latter).
Update: Some people who are close to the Mobuzz team say this isn’t an arbitrary time limit and that they’re actually within a week of closing shop. That may be true, but why not start the fund raising effort a few weeks earlier?

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

Source: TechCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 6:54 am

Twitter Launches Groups (In Japan)

Everything awesome always happens in Japan first. Even, it seems, when it involves an American startup. Digital Garage, Twitter’s partner with Twitter Japan, launched Twicco, a site that lets Twitter users create groups and then subscribe to them.

Loic Le Meur got a demo, and the video is below. Twicco is available now in Japanese only, other languages will be available later.

This isn’t much different, at first glance, to Friendfeed Rooms. It’s odd that Twitter will do this via a separate site instead of just treating Rooms as resources that you can subscribe to directly on Twitter. Or maybe they are. It’s all Japanese to me (I’m sure our Japanese readers will be able to clear up the details for us).

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

Source: TechCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 6:21 am

Microsoft Discontinues Windows 3.x

rugatero writes "The BBC reports that, as of last Saturday, Microsoft is no longer issuing licenses for the 18-year-old Windows 3.x. Many here may well be surprised to learn that anyone still has use for the antiquated software, but it seems to have found a home in a number of embedded systems — including cash registers and the in-flight entertainment systems on some long-haul passenger jets (Virgin and Qantas are cited). Considering Linux's credentials as an embedded OS, this news could very well indicate the possibility of more migrations in the pipeline."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:49 am

Customer proves Best Buy's accidental damage warranty is a scam

Read the small print, folks! Best Buy's accidental damage plan covers not the value of a computer, but whichever specifications a store manager deems pertinent.

In other words, your damaged $2,200 Sony TZ ultraportable gets replaced with a $600 netbook. [Consumerist]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:40 am

Termination Fees Are Focus of Sprint Suit - Wall Street Journal

eFluxMedia

Termination Fees Are Focus of Sprint Suit Wall Street Journal - 9 hours ago By ROGER CHENG Sprint Nextel Corp. faces a federal class-action lawsuit over claims that it wrongly charged subscribers $1.2 billion in early-termination fees. Sprint Facing $1.2 Billion Class-Action Lawsuit Over Illegal ETFs eFluxMedia Sprint facing USD1.2bn lawsuit TeleGeography Bizjournals.com - xchange Magazine - FierceWireless - IntoMobile all 29 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:02 am

Freescale Technology Helps Switch On TD-SCDMA Networks in China

Freescale Semiconductor is helping accelerate the build-out of China's Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) networks, leveraging deep industry relationships and a broad technology portfolio for wireless infrastructure equipment.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Election Results Bring Conservation Opportunity and Need for Action

NEW YORK, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Voters in this historic election cast their ballots not only for change, but for a new era of hope for our environment, and the people, birds, and other wildlife that depend on it.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Project Runway: Testing How Tarmac Handles Jet-Plane Traffic

Runways are not like highways. Instead of supporting mere 80,000-pound big rigs zooming by at 70 mph, landing strips must handle 1.2 million-pound planes taxiing at a pavement-stressing crawl. (Jets are going too fast during landing to do any real damage.) To ensure tarmacs can take the abuse, the Federal Aviation Administration maintains the National Airport Pavement Test Facility near Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Soon the FAA will be investigating the effects of a vexing new trend: huge cargo jets with 10-wheeled landing gear, like Russia's Antonov AN-124, that haul stuff like oil field pumps and locomotives. Just setting up the tests is a supersize endeavor. Before laying new pavement, engineers must rework the ground underneath—there's a big difference between, say, clay and sand. Then they layer on 50 inches of concrete or asphalt laced with up to 1,000 sensors. Finally, it's time to rev up the test vehicle (shown above), which runs on rails and uses hydraulics to apply downward force of up to 75,000 pounds—per wheel.

If trials show that the big birds damage runways, airports like Houston's George Bush Intercontinental—which sees at least one Antonov a month—will have a tough decision: Rebuild the runways or tell oil companies to land elsewhere. Now that's pressure.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Nov. 5, 1893: A Design Star is Born

1893: Raymond Loewy, one of the founders of modern industrial design, is born. His vision of streamlining will shape a century.

Loewy's classic designs include the Coca-Cola bottle, the sleek-sided 1929 Gestetner duplicating machine, the Pennsylvania Railroad's streamlined S-1 Locomotive, the World War II Lucky Strike cigarette package, the 1954 Greyhound Bus, JFK's Air Force One, and corporate logos for Exxon, Shell and dozens of other firms.

But wait, there is more: the 1947 line of Hallicrafter radio receivers that influenced home sound-system design through the 1970s, Studebaker's 1947 Starlight coupe, 1953 Starliner coupe and 1961 Avanti — the only auto exhibited in the Louvre — and the interiors of the Concorde and NASA's Sky Lab and Space Shuttle.

His client list is also astonishing: Revlon, Faberge, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Hanes, Levis, Butterick, Bulova, Omega, Mont Blanc, Seth Thomas, Rosenthal, Frigidaire, Formica, Koehler, IBM, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Studebaker, BMW, Jaguar and even the government of the Soviet Union.

It's no wonder then Life magazine selected Loewy as one of the 20th century's 100 most influential Americans.

Loewy served in the French Army Corps in World War I, immigrated to the United States in 1919 and became a U.S. citizen in 1938. He started out as a fashion illustrator for national magazines and department stores, then started his own design firm. His motto: "Between two products equal in price, function and quality, the better looking will outsell the other."

Loewy also originated the MAYA concept in industrial design: "Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable."

Loewy cut a dashing figure in the international set. He had country homes at one time or another outside Paris, in southern France, Mexico, Long Island, New York, and Palm Springs, California, plus posh pied-à-terre in Manhattan and Paris. His firm maintained design offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Loewy died in 1986 at age 92.

Source: Various

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Bundle Your Music: Tunes, Speakers and 800 Radio Channels

The Sonos Bundle 150 hums your tunes and more than 800 radio channels, including Sirius and Pandora. With hardware so slick and software so capable, you'd almost think it was designed by Steve Jobs.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

The 20th Century's Industrious Designer

: Photo: Courtesy Library of Congress

Industrial designer Raymond Loewy was a giant in his field. He produced innovative designs in every area from fashion to locomotives. If you admire the Streamlined Moderne style of Art Deco, you've probably admired a Loewy design. You like logos? Then, you like Loewy.

That's enough from us. Take a look for yourself.

Left: Loewy poses in a mocked-up designer's office with modern décor, around 1934. At his side is a model of his 1932 Hupmobile, one of the first streamlined automobiles.

: Sketch: Courtesy Library of Congress

Loewy made this preliminary sketch for the Cornell-Liberty Safety Car, designed for the Cornell Aeronautical Research Laboratory and the Liberty Mutual Life Insurance Company, in 1956.

: Rendering: Courtesy Loewy Design

Loewy designed the 1961 Avanti for Studebaker.

: Photo: Library of Congress

Loewy designed this car for Jaguar … or maybe a Mr. Bruce Wayne of Gotham City.

: Rendering: Courtesy Library of Congress

Loewy approached the Pennsylvania Railroad in the early 1930s and told railway execs he wanted to design locomotives. Loewy's T-1 steam engine was the Pennsy's last before switching to diesel.

: Photo: Courtesy Loewy Design

Loewy poses with an early model of his GG1 electric locomotive for the Pennsylvania Railroad, 1935.

: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design

President John F. Kennedy thought the Air Force's paint scheme for the Boeing 707 Air Force One was too royal: He wanted a look that was appropriate for a president, not a king. On the advice of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, the White House contacted Loewy, who redesigned the exterior livery and the interior cabins.

: Sketch: Courtesy Library of Congress

Loewy played around with 18 design ideas for a new Standard Oil Company logo. Loewy OK'd a version only slightly different from the eventual, final version (next slide).

: Credit: Courtesy of Loewy Design

Loewy designed or redesigned well-known logos for scores of corporations.

: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design

Loewy modernized the traditional Coke bottle, as well as designed its new larger sizes and "no deposit, no return" bottles and cans. His countertop dispenser for restaurants and soda fountains is an icon of postwar Americana.

: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design

Loewy simplified the old Lucky Strike cigarette logo and changed the dark green pack to white. The underlying reasons for the change were the American Tobacco Company's desire to attract more women to the brand with a brighter package, and also that the green ink gave off an odor.

However, with the United States entering World War II, the company marketed the move as patriotism, claiming it was made to conserve the metals used make green ink. Advertisements trumpeted the slogan, "Lucky Strike Green has gone to war," and millions of packs were distributed to GIs. American Tobacco didn't forget its plan to market to women, as this ad in Ladies Home Journal makes evident.

: Credit: Courtesy of Loewy Design

With a hemline that low, you would guess this outfit has to be prewar or postwar, because the fashion industry conserved fabric with high hemlines during World War II. As a matter of fact, this Loewy modern black ensemble with matching accessories appeared in Vogue in 1939.

: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design

Loewy created this quasi-futuristic jukebox for United Music Corp. in 1958. You might have selected from a mixed-bag playlist of 45s like these 1958 hits:

"Don't" — Elvis Presley
"Great Balls of Fire" — Jerry Lee Lewis
"Johnny B. Goode" — Chuck Berry
"Good Golly Miss Molly" — Little Richard
"La Bamba" — Ritchie Valens
"Fever" — Peggy Lee
"Poor Little Fool" — Ricky Nelson
"Rebel Rouser" — Duane Eddy
"All the Way" — Frank Sinatra
"26 Miles (Santa Catalina)" — The Four Preps
"A Wonderful Time Up There" — Pat Boone
"Tequila" — The Champs
"Catch a Falling Star" — Perry Como
"He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" — Laurie London
"Twilight Time" — The Platters
"Witch Doctor" — David Seville
"All I Have to Do Is Dream" — The Everly Brothers
"Purple People Eater" — Sheb Wooley
"Yakety Yak" — The Coasters
"Splish Splash" — Bobby Darin
"Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Blu)" — Dominico Modugno
"Rockin Robin" — Bobby Day
"Tom Dooley" — The Kingston Trio
"To Know Him Is to Love Him" — Teddy Bears
"The Chipmunk Song" — The Chipmunks/David Seville
"Jingle Bell Rock" — Bobby Helms

: Photo: Courtesy Hagley Museum and Library

Loewy also created this 1950s Charcoal line china for Rosenthal.

: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design

Loewy designed this classic bedroom set for Mengel Furniture.

: Photo: Gottscho-Schleisner/Courtesy Library of Congress

Loewy looks over a model of Imperial House in 1959, a planned apartment complex for Manhattan's Upper East Side.

: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design

Loewy created this prototype store for a bakery chain in New York in 1937. The white porcelain-covered steel siding and semicircular window endings gives it an air of "Radio Deco."

: Photo: Courtesy Loewy Design

Earth was not room enough for Loewy: He created this model for the living quarters of the NASA Skylab space station.

: Study: Courtesy Loewy Design

Loewy's 1970 study for a NASA space station appears influenced by sets from the 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, though it is a much smaller module.

: Credit: Courtesy Loewy Design

Loewy sifts through his designs for NASA.

: Photo: Courtesy Loewy Design

Raymond Loewy and his daughter Laurence enjoy a moment in 1982. Laurence was a prize-winning journalist who later headed the Raymond Loewy Foundation and served as CEO of Loewy Design. She died Oct 15, 2008, at age 55.

David Hagerman, the new CEO of Loewy Design says, "Laurence hoped RaymondLoewy.org would help introduce a new generation of design enthusiasts to her father."

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Flaming Lips' Freaky, Martian Musical Finally Touches Down

As frontman for the Flaming Lips, Wayne Coyne always makes sure his audience gets the most whiz-bang for its buck. At live gigs, that means trotting around inside a giant hamster ball while dozens of Santas and aliens shimmy onstage. And this holiday season it means a feature film. After seven years, Christmas on Mars, Coyne's sure-to-be cult classic, is ready to touch down on October 28. Shot in his native Oklahoma City, the shoestring sci-fi flick is the story of colonists on the Red Planet who are having the worst Yuletide ever. A Christmas baby—who may be the only hope for humanity—gestates in an artificial womb, but the colony's oxygen and gravity systems are failing. Can the savior be saved? Wired talked to Coyne about his directorial debut.

Wired: Christmas on Mars has been in development since 2001. During that time, all three Spider-Man movies came out. What took so long?

Coyne: People have been comparing it to Chinese Democracy. But I beat Axl Rose, because we've already been showing it. I'm embarrassed when you say it like that, though frankly, only the first Spider-Man was any good. The other two were slammed together in the basement while they were collecting money through the front door. They stopped making art, whereas I kept making art, so that's my defense.

Wired: You play a messiah-like Martian with superpowers. Is one benefit of being the director that you can give yourself the best part?

Coyne: I didn't know what my character was going to be in the beginning. I just said, "Oh, I'll be the alien." I made myself one of the great heroes. Someone's got to do it.

Wired: You've said this movie is a cross between 2001 and Eraserhead. Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch are pretty unstable chemicals to be mixing on a first effort.

Coyne: Lynch felt utterly brave following his obsessions. Do that and your movie will at least please you.

Wired: Is it true some of the screenings have been shut down by the cops due to noise?

Coyne: I did a couple of previews in my yard. I've lived in this neighborhood since I was 11, so the police know me. We made it until the last five minutes of the movie. Then they said, "Wayne, that shit is too loud."

Wired: How loud?

Coyne: We've done extensive enough tests to know that we're on the verge of destroying you. Which is what we want.

Wired: NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander sent back soil tests showing that life could exist on Mars. You packing your bags?

Coyne: What I fear is that 20 years from now, the International Space Station will be complete, they'll want to have some inauguration party, and we'll be one of the bands that plays. It would be cool, but how horrible would that be to sit on top of that rocket, blasting into space with all our shitty equipment?

Wired: You'd let that keep you from becoming the first band in space?

Coyne: Well, when it becomes a real thing—think about space suits. This weird attachment goes up your ass and you gotta piss and shit inside this thing. There's a reality that overrides the blunt fantasticalness. I hate being on a 10-hour flight to Germany, let alone a three-week space mission.

Wired: Aaron Sorkin is working on a Broadway musical based on your album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Does that mean a lot of karate-chop-and-talk hallway sequences?

Coyne: I've thought about that a billion times. He's a smart and energetic guy. With me and him together, it's either all possibilities exist or none do.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Bundle Your Music: Tunes, Speakers and 800 Radio Channels

The Sonos Bundle 150 hums your tunes and more than 800 radio channels, including Sirius and Pandora. With hardware so slick and software so capable, you'd almost think it was designed by Steve Jobs.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

FCC OKs Use of White Spaces to Deliver Broadband

The Federal Communications Commission votes to open up unused, unlicensed portions of the television airwaves known as "white spaces" to deliver wireless broadband service. The vote is a big victory for public interest groups and technology companies such as Google and Microsoft that say white spaces could be used to bring broadband to rural America and other underserved parts of the country.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Obama Wins In Total Rout

Okay, now he won. CNN is projecting 306 338 electoral votes for Obama. McCain just gave his concession speech. We’ll all be eating Obama O’s for breakfast tomorrow.

Obama O’s

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

Source: TechCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 4:30 am

Propelled by Internet, Barack Obama Wins Presidency

Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States Tuesday night, crowning an improbable two-year climb that owes much of its success to Obama's command of the internet as a fundraising and organizing tool.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 5 Nov 2008 | 4:30 am

Listen to why we voted today

Section: Web, Websites

This cool site, sayhear.org has offered up four numbers to call in, one for each party (sorry, it’s only Republican, Democrat, 3rd Party) and one for non-voters.  Folks are anonymously calling in and leaving a simple message that we can listen in on.  It is unbelievably enlightening to hear what chords have struck with other voters in other parts of the country.

For every bitter non-voter there is a passionate voter.  For every passionate voter there are ones voting out of fear.  It is just amazing to listen to this as it feel almost like voyeurism.  I hear anywhere.

Josh Spear says it best when he says “think twitter + politics + audio.” The site is as addicting as it is comforting because at the end of today (assuming no court controversies ala 2000) we’ll have to reach across the aisles, across states and across streets.  The site affirms we are all just people who like to get excited about ideas.  And after an ugly slugfest, it is good to know that in this anonymous site, some honesty and reality still exists.

If you could extrapolate this into an exit poll, Obama is winning by a 7 to 1 margin at 4:30 PM on the east coast.

Give a listen: [Sayhear.org] via [Josh Spear, Trendspotting]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 5 Nov 2008 | 4:25 am

New "MP3 100% Compatible" Logo For DRM-Free Music

Sockatume writes "A coalition of seven UK digital music stores have created a logo for DRM-free, MP3 music. The 'MP3: 100% Compatible' logo allows the stores to emphasize the advantages of the format, namely that MP3 files will run on any device and won't keel over and die as DRM-laden files are wont to. The BPI — the UK equivalent of the RIAA — is backing the scheme, emphasizing that it will also allow users to identify legitimate stores."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Nov 2008 | 3:29 am

Apps concept catching on everywhere: Drobo latest to offer them

Section: Computers, Software / Applications, Peripherals, Storage

You remember Drobo, right?  It’s the cute, little storage robot, now with up to 4TB of storage.  Well, some interesting news surfaced that might make you take another look at this gem: Drobo Apps.

Yes.  With all the ways our phones can become different and more useful devices with 3rd party applications, now your Drobo can as well.  Currently, there are 20 Apps for Drobo.  In what ways will Drobo change?

For starters, how about turning Drobo in to your personal jukebox with Firefly?  Or maybe you want to access data in Drobo remotely?  Or perhaps, you want to limit the size of your back ups with Time Machine?  Fancy a Linux compatible dashboard?  You get the idea.

Data Robotics, the maker of Drobo, isn’t supporting these community sourced applications.  Instead, they rely on the developers and users to find solutions that work with their product.  Data Robotics doesn’t have to guess what users want from their product, they can just sit back and let the market do with it as it pleases.

Currently, the applications are all free.  Whether or not it will stay that way remains to be seen.  Also unclear is if this kind of hands off approach will work for Drobo.  Can companies rely on 3rd party apps to create functionality in their products?  Some argue, the developers will do a better job.  Conversely, some say without the Drobo backing the apps big projects won’t get done and the product will suffer for it.

Either way, it is great to see the community reacting to a great way to control data.

Check out the applications: [Drobo]

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 5 Nov 2008 | 3:15 am

The Visible Woman Stalks The Catwalk

A visible woman in a creation by designer Manish Arora bedecked with Swarovski crystals walks the London runway. Photo credit: Gareth Cattermole. Link.

Source: Boing Boing | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:46 am

Election, Windows 7 share stage in LA (CNET)

CNET - LOS ANGELES--It's a case of divided attention here at WinHEC.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:43 am

Vista showing its worth

Section: Computers, Security, Software / Applications

The latest data released by Microsoft has revealed some interesting truths regarding Vista, XP and security.  Nearly every possible aspect of Vista has been attacked, and it’s been labeled as a failure by many who continue to use XP and campaign for continued support.  However, data released in the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report shows that Vista is in fact less vulnerable to exploits than XP.

The data, which was collected from January to June this year, shows a decline of vulnerabilities from 116 to 77 in a downward trend that mirrors the industry, which, in turn, has a 19% decrease.  Regarding XP and Vista Microsoft found that in computers running XP, Microsoft’s own software contained 42% of the vulnerabilities attacked with third party software making up the other 58%.  However in Vista PCs, only 6% of vulnerabilities were in Microsoft software, and this is due to (according to Vinny Gullotto general manager of Microsoft’s malware protection center) new security technologies.

“Moving onto Vista is clearly a safe bet . . . For us, it’s a clear indicator that attacking Vista or trying to exploit Vista specifically is becoming much more difficult.” - Vinny Gullotto

It is also interesting to note that the Chinese-speaking world is becoming more of a target for attacks, as 47% of the browser exploits were aimed at Chinese computers (or rather those with Chinese as the system language).  This is obviously an unwanted side effect of China becoming a Global superpower.

So what can we learn from this?  Firstly, that Vista is, in fact, safer from attack than XP and that perhaps you should seriously consider upgrading.  Secondly, that the threat from these attacks is decreasing with overall numbers down and more attacks aimed at China and away from the West.

Source [Report] [InfoWorld]

Full Story » | Written by Christian Milsom for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:20 am

AT&T tests limits on subscribers' Web use - CNET News

eFluxMedia

AT&T tests limits on subscribers' Web use CNET News - 12 hours ago In an effort to keep "bandwidth hogs" in check, AT&T is testing the idea of placing limits on how much Internet data its subscribers can transfer each month. Broadband Caps Coming to AT&T PC World AT&T Follows In Comcast's Shoes, Rolls Out Bandwidth Cap Trial CRN Los Angeles Times - TG Daily - Digitaltrends.com - eFluxMedia all 306 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 5 Nov 2008 | 2:03 am

FCC OKs use of white spaces to deliver broadband (AP)

AP - The Federal Communications Commission voted Tuesday to open up unused, unlicensed portions of the television airwaves known as "white spaces" to deliver wireless broadband service.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:59 am

You Will Not, In Fact, Put Anyone's Eye Out

Tracie Egan has assembled the mindboggling: "10 CASTRATION SCENES FROM HORROR MOVIES." Probably, you don't want to click on that NSFW link if you have a penis, but since I don't, I found the whole, incredibly graphic lineup to be pretty fascinating, especially the one with the dog. I guess this is the part where I should say something more, but what do you say after that thing with the Rottweiler? Not much, really.

(Image from "Ilsa, She Woolf of the SS.")

Source: Boing Boing | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:52 am

WinHEC 2008: Bag yes, hard drive no (CNET)

CNET - LOS ANGELES--Attendees at this year's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) will get at least one thing that folks at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference didn't get--a laptop bag.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:48 am

T-Mobile G1 tethering somewhat a reality

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Computers, Desktops, Laptops, Wireless, Gadgets / Other

People often try to “tether” their Internet capable devices to their PCs or laptops in order to get Internet on them on the go.  Many tried with the iPhone, but weren’t very successful.  When the T-Mobile G1 first was announced, one of the main questions was if the G1 could support tethering.  Back when it was announced, not many people thought they could tether their G1.  However, some people began posting in the TmoNewsForums on how to tether your G1 over USB.

Some people are also saying that the process is kind of tricky and success rate isn’t 100%.  I would warn you against trying to tether your G1 to a laptop/PC unless you know exactly what you are doing.  Here are a few steps of the directions to tether your G1.  For a full set of directions, hit the link below.  Be sure to let us know if you manage to get this to work.

• Install the app on your android phone, by clicking here (from your phone browser of course)
  You might have to change your settings to permit apps that don’t come from the Google Market by going to your home screen and choosing MENU > Settings > Applications > Unknown Sources.
• Turn USB debugging on on your phone
  On your G1 go to the home screen, press MENU > Settings > Applications > Development, then enable USB debugging.

Read [Graha Android Proxy] Read [TmoNewsForums] Via [AndroidGuys]

Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:47 am

FCC Approves Unlicensed Use of White-Space Spectrum

sidesh0w was one of a number of readers to alert us to the FCC's unanimous decision approving unlicensed devices to use the white spaces of the spectrum unused by television broadcasters, provided they take certain precautions not to interfere with licensed users. "Denying a tremendous last-minute lobbying effort by broadcasters, the vote on white space devices went ahead as planned today after a several-hour delay at FCC headquarters. When the vote came, though, it was unanimous. For the Democrats on the Commission, the devices are appealing because they offer a potential new avenue for broadband services, while the Republicans are pleased for the same reasons, but love the fact that this is a deregulatory order that focuses on less regulation and more competition."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:20 am

You Are Never Alone When You Have Casiotone For The Painfully Alone

If you need a unicorn chaser after that Sarah Palin erotica, I recommend Casiotone for the Painfully Alone's "White Corolla" video, directed by the awesome and awesomely young Julia Pott, and animated by Pott and Robin Bushell.

Be warned, this video is NSFWIAPTOTOAFYO. That is, Not Safe For Work If Animated Pandas Tearing Off Their Own Arms Freak You Out.

(Via Videos.antville.org.)

Source: Boing Boing | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:19 am

A Full Wall of E-Ink Paper Debuts in Japan

If Wired's Steven Levy threw out his Macbook Air last year because its thin design easily blended with other flat recyclables (like magazines), how do you think an e-Ink paper display will fare when it looks exactly like a garbage bag?

At the FDPI conference in Yokohama this week, the Soken Chemical & Engineering Co. showed a wall of 30 x 30 cm e-ink paper displays that are some of the largest we’ve seen. The whole sheet is made out of acrylic resin (giving it’s papery cheapo appearance) and has a diameter of 0.1 mm. But to me, they’re more notorious for their Safeway stylings.

Soken calls these e-Ink displays “Twist Ball” types because they are made out of rotating fine particles with upper and lower surfaces when voltage is applied (though they’re basically the same e-Ink tech as that in your Kindle). The company used patterned electrodes to control the clock digits on the paper bag display above.

And despite the fact the whole wall on the picture below looks like a bad checkerboard color paper job, it’s covered with all e-Ink surfaces. The company is currently trying to incorporate more than two colors in a display at a time.

Do you guys think we need e-Ink in this type of a display? Or does it seem too flimsy to use? 

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Nov 2008 | 1:11 am

A Waste of Leather, This Modded Netbook Is

People can look pretty sexy in leather, but gadgets rarely do. Wrapped in black leather, an Eee PC 901 is no exception. Creative, yes. Useful? Not really, unless you use your netbook on a bed of spikes.

I'll give you my word that I won't kill a cow to beat Charlie Sorrel in Gadget Lab's netbook hacking contest.

EEEPCNews.de via Gizmodo

See also:

• As Economy Enters Great Depression, Best Buy Sees Great Potential in Netbooks
• Gadget Lab Hackintosh Contest: Installing OS X 10.5.5
• Gadget Lab Hackintosh: Now With Added Sound Output
• Battle of the Winds: Gadget Lab's Netbook Hacking Contest, Round One
• Gadget Lab Catches a Second MSI Wind
• Cheap, Easy-to-Mod NetBooks Are a Hacker's Paradise
• Run Mac OS X on an Eee PC
• OS X Running on Lenovo Netbook
• Tiny Notes Net Big Gains: The Netbook Revolution
• It Lives! Gadget Lab's Netbook Running OS X Leopard

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:57 am

Is This Thing On?

Hi! Susannah Breslin here. Thank you to Xeni for the kind introduction and to the rest of the Boing Boing team for inviting me to guestblog. Surely, it will be a good time.

On this exciting election night, in which all my dreams may be realized at the moment McCain's head explodes, I could not think of a better way to start my tenure here than with some Sarah Palin erotica. First, there was the This Is Not Sarah Palin Inflatable Love Doll. (I know I enjoyed mine.) Then came the haunting specter of "Nailin' Paylin." Still, a question remains. What about something for those Palin obsessed who are a bit more sensitive, those aesthetes? In this spirit, Rachel Kramer Bussel created Sarah Palin Erotica, an online repository of erotic stories about the person I pray will disappear into this good night, leaving in her wake little more than a deflated love doll in my closet.

What makes Sarah happiest right now is that she has the attention of a great many men. If her favorite thing is telling herself she will be the next president of the United States each time she passes a reflective surface, her second favorite thing is to sit in a conference room full of men in their crisp, slightly sweaty dress shirts and designer slacks with their earnestness and condescension and turn away from the table just enough to slowly cross and uncross her legs. She’ll allow her eyes to crinkle, the corners of her mouth turning up slightly and she’ll lean forward just enough for her blouse to part. She’ll watch them and the predictable way their eyes follow the toned muscles of her calves up to her breasts. They’ll clear their throats and adjust their ties and shift uncomfortably in their seats. She knows what they’re thinking—they’re thinking if they play their cards right, they too could be fucking the next president of the United States.

Sarah Palin Erotica

Source: Boing Boing | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:56 am

FCC Approves Use of TV Spectrum For Broadband

In the hotly contested battle for the use of white spaces, the unused portions of the television broadcast spectrum, technology companies have scored a big win.

The Federal Communications Commission today approved the use of new unlicensed wireless devices in the spectrum to provide broadband connectivity.

The decision comes as no surprise since field tests last month showed test devices offered little interference, refuting what some opponents had alleged.

The issue over the use of white spaces by new devices pitted companies such as Google, Motorola and Dell against wireless audio equipment manufacturers and celebrities such as Dolly Parton and pastor Joel Osteen.

Broadcasters and live stage performers feared that opening up white spaces to new unlicensed devices would interfere with the ability to use wireless microphones without any interruptions.

Tech companies are cheering FCC's decision."In many areas in the United States television channels lie fallow because broadcasters only occupy a certain number of channels in every television market," said Motorola in a statement. "By allowing the use of white spaces the FCC is advancing access to broadband services, especially in rural areas where broadband is more limited."

The FCC's approval will allow for both fixed and portable unlicensed devices. The devices must include a geolocation capability and should be able to access over the Internet a database of the current services such as "full power and low power TV stations and cable system headends."

It should also have spectrum-sensing technology, says the FCC. The database will tell the white space device what spectrum can be used at that location.

Also see:
Dolly Parton Vs. Google
Google Founder Lobbies FCC to Free Spectrum
Google Wireless Plan Angers Audio-Equipment Makers
Google Sets Sight on WhiteSpaces Spectrum
FCC To Test WhiteSpace Devices

Photo: (fudj/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:52 am

Bloggers get feisty in the wait for election results (CNET)

CNET - While Election Day involves a good deal of waiting for results, bloggers won't be kept silent until the polls close.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:48 am

Forget The Magic Wall. CNN Now Has Holograms

CNN is cool. In addition to the huge touchscreen “Magic Wall” (which was originally military technology), CNN’s Wolf Blitzer gets to play with Holograms today during their coverage of the presidential elections.

CNN’s Jessica Yellin is the guinea pig, appearing virtually with Blitzer.

I have no idea why Yellin doesn’t just go to the studio instead of being wherever she is, or why they don’t just point a camera at her and bring her into the story in the normal way, and I don’t care. They have a hologram, and if I wasn’t getting on a plane in twenty minutes I’d be watching CNN the rest of the evening.

Update: (Robin Wauters) since Michael’s on a plane, here’s a bit more information about the technology side of all this:

The network has created green-screen virtual-set environments that will be set up in mobile trailers outside the Obama and McCain headquarters and will use a mix of mechanical and infrared camera-tracking technology to create a realistic holographic image of the correspondent on the floor of the “Situation Room” set in New York. The field correspondents will have a 37” plasma monitor showing a return feed of the “Situation Room” set with Blitzer to give them a frame of reference.

CNN Senior VP and Washington Bureau Chief David Bohrman, who has been evaluating the technology at NAB shows for years, has indicated that introducing discreet virtual set elements into a real-world set is something they hope to do more of in the future, e.g. for live interviews.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:47 am

Hot: build your own SSD storage drive

Section: Peripherals, Storage

I really like simple things.  I got this press release today about a DIY (do it yourself) flash hard drive using little more than six SDHC cards.  SDHC cards are simple things.  This tech comes straight out of Germany and almost as good as that is, it sells for just $102 US (SDHC cards not included).

The Flexi-drive S2S is slim and supposedly fast.  The modular design can handle SD cards up to 32GB meaning you can build up to a 192GB drive.  And because it is a flash drive, it is silent, uses little power, and it typically unaffected by shock so its perfect for a drive on the go.  Sweet!

I can hear you asking about speed.  Sharkoon, the manufacturer, tested six 8GB SDHC memory cards with Class 6 speed ratings.  The drive was clocked at reading at 140 MB/s and a write speed of 115 MB/s with HD-Tune.  Respectable numbers for sure.  I wonder how it will fare in the real world.

The drive will be available from retail partners now.

Product page [Sharkoon]

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Source: Gadgetell | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:22 am

Careful With Those Avatars, You May Get A Shakedown Letter

If you are going to use someone else’s artwork for your avatar, stay clear of Takashi Murakami’s stuff or you may be receiving a shakedown letter asking you for $500.

A member of a poker site called twoplustwo named Mephisto uses one of Murakami’s images (And Then, And Then And Then And Then And Then Blue version) as his 80×70 pixel avatar on the site’s forum. That earned him a very nice email, asking him to pay ¥50,000 or kindly stop using the image as his avatar. The email ends with the vaguely threatening message: “Thank you, and I hope you will take this into consideration as I know myself this can get very unnecessary!”

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

Source: TechCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:09 am

FCC clears the Xohm/ClearWire merger

Jeez - busy enough day, FCC? Hot on the tails of the “white space” decision and approving Verizon’s buyout of Alltel, the FCC has cleared the merger of Sprint’s Xohm WiMax service with ClearWire - no doubt coming as a disappoint for some other carriers.

To recap the details announced back in May, Sprint will own 51% of the new company, which will take on the ClearWire name. ClearWire will have 27% ownership, while Google, Time Warner Cable, Brighthouse, Comcast, and Intel Capital will own the remaining 22%.

This is fairly huge news for 4G mobile broadband fans, as this merger essentially lays the necessary foundation for nationwide WiMax. If all goes well, ClearWire should be offering WiMax to half of the US’ population by 2010 - just as AT&T and Verizon are lighting up their competing 4G technology, LTE. When the battle for 4G technology king comes to a head, who will walk away the winner? The consumer, hopefully.

With the new company carrying on the ClearWire name, is the “Xohm” brand dead? I doubt it. When asked about the fate of the name, Xohm representatives have stated that “new management will be given the opportunity regarding how to position the Xohm name in the market”. While it’s not a household name by any means, Sprint has already done a fair amount of work establishing the brand and associating it with WiMax. I’d imagine that they’ll make use of it in the future, if only as a branding for WiMax dongles and other accessories.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:08 am

Customer Reports Shady Sales Tactics at Best Buy

A Best Buy customer reported a photo that purports to reveal a manipulative tactic that the store is using to sell its TV calibration service.

"Robert" sent the photo along with a letter to Consumerist, explaining that Best Buy sells its TV calibration service by placing two identical high-definition televisions side by side — one said to be calibrated and the other not. Robert points out that in the photo, the "calibrated" display on the right is tuned to ESPN HD, while the TV on the left is showing the standard-definition ESPN channel — to exaggerate the benefits of calibration. The photo also shows that the store placed a black box in the corner of the left TV to hide that the ESPN logo doesn't say "HD" next to it.

Assuming the story's true, that's just sad, sad, sad. Anyone with an HDTV knows the HD channels often aren't in synch with their standard-definition counterparts (especially ESPN). This report follows a recent horror story about an assistant manager impersonating a customer to cancel his order. Best Buy should hire a stellar public relations team before the company turns into the next Circuit City.

Personally, I dread shopping at Best Buy: Everything from the greeter who stands at the store entrance to the fact that the cashiers ask to see my driver's license whenever I purchase PlayStation games (e.g. Resident Evil). But enough about me. How do you feel about Best Buy, Gadget Lab readers?

Best Buy Caught Using Sneaky Sneaky Tricks To Sell HDTV Calibration Service [Consumerist]

Photo: Consumerist

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:06 am

Reuse Code Or Code It Yourself?

eldavojohn writes "I began coding for a project that had simple requirements for my employer — Web services and a test application for them. But requirements have been creeping, as they always do. Initially I had decided to use the Spring Framework with Hibernate. And I re-used a lot of libraries that made things simple and quick for me. The new requests coming in involve capabilities beyond those of the frameworks. Now, I used to be told that good programmers write code and great programmers reuse code. It's starting to look like I would have saved myself a whole lot of time if I had written the database transaction using JDBC instead of Hibernate — now that I'm married to this object model framework, some of this stuff doesn't look doable. So what is better for the majority of software projects out there: reuse code, or code from scratch? What elements or characteristics of a problem point to one option over the other?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 5 Nov 2008 | 12:02 am

Unconscious communication as "honest signals"

MIT researcher Alex (Sandy) Pentland used tiny devices called "sociometers" to collect thousands of hours of data about the unconscious speech patterns that can influence the outcome of conversations. For example, the way you talk in an interview -- even if neither you or the interviewer are remotely aware of your tone -- may have a tremendous impact on what the employer thinks of you. We all know this of course, but Pentland has actually studied it scientifically. The value of the sociometers isn't in producing a verbal record of a conversation but rather quantifiable information about more subtle cues like tone and physical activity. Apparently, Pentland was able to use the data, not the words themselves, to accurately predict how a conversation about, say, a date or an investment pitch, would play out. He calls these cues "honest signals," and has just written a new book about the idea, titled Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World. From the MIT News Office:

The features he found that are highly predictive of outcomes, he says, "match the literature in biology about signaling in animals." In fact, Pentland suggests, the non-linguistic channels of communication that are measured by the sociometers may have started among our ancestors long before the evolution of language itself, forming a deeper, more primal way of understanding intentions, coordinating activities and establishing power relationships within the group.

"Half of our decision-making seems to be predicted by this unconscious channel," says Pentland, the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences. "That's exactly the channel that you see in apes" as they coordinate their activities without the use of language... The data gathered from the devices can be used not only to predict the outcomes of specific interactions between people, but even the relative productivity of different teams within a company. "This information is not in the organizational charts," Pentland says. "This human side is missing from all traditional measures" of how groups of people work together.

Honest Signals (Amazon), "Tuning in to unconscious communication" (MIT)

Source: Boing Boing | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:54 pm

Poster art by Jason Munn/The Small Stakes

After GAMA-GO's Greg Long and I finished raving about the fine poster illustrations of Fleet Street Scandal, Greg turned me on to amazing Oakland designer Jason Munn. His Small Stakes studio creates book covers, magazine graphics, and rock posters like those above for Beck, Modest Mouse, The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, and others. Jason Munn/The Small Stakes

Source: Boing Boing | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:29 pm

FCC to probe pricing policies of cable, Verizon (AP)

AP - The Federal Communications Commission has opened an investigation into the pricing policies of major cable operators and Verizon Communications Inc.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:29 pm

'Futurama' Animators Roll 20-Sided Die With 'Bender's Game'

Loaded with Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings jokes, the new animated adventure plunges the Planet Express crew into an especially nerdy galaxy.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:22 pm

Linux Supports More Devices Than Any Other OS

Linux Blog recommends an interview up on the O'Reilly site with Greg Kroah-Hartman, long-time Linux kernel hacker and the current Linux kernel maintainer for the USB driver core. He updates the free Linux driver program announced almost two years ago, which has really caught traction now with more than 300 developers volunteering. The interviewer begins by asking about Kroah-Hartman's claim that the Linux kernel now supports more devices than any other operating system ever has. "[One factor is] the ease of writing drivers; Linux drivers are at normally one-third smaller than Windows drivers or other operating system drivers. We have all the examples there, so it's trivial to write a new one if you have new hardware, usually because you can copy the code and go. We maintain them... forever, so the old ones don't disappear and we run on every single processor out there. I mean Linux is 80% of the world's top 500 super computers right now and we're also the number one embedded operating system today. We've got both sides of the market because it's — yeah it's pretty amazing. I don't know why, but we're doing something right."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:15 pm

TV Networks Use Whiz Bang 3D Tech for Election Day

Major tech networks are using everything from touch screens to super-sized high-def plasma screens to help display election returns, maps and an endless parade of commentators.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:14 pm

TV Networks Use Whiz Bang 3D Tech for Election Day

Major tech networks are using everything from touch screens to super-sized high-def plasma screens to help display election returns, maps and an endless parade of commentators.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:14 pm

For TV Networks, Election Is an Orgy of Gee-Whiz 3-D Tech

As if this election weren't exciting enough already, CNN has plans to sex up its coverage with 3-D holographic projections of its correspondents.

But CNN is not the only TV network relying on whiz-bang technology to help carry the day. After almost two years of mudslinging primaries, debates and endless punditry, the Presidential election is finally here and there's a lot at stake for everyone, including the networks. The main question the TV networks face is this: How they will match the event's historic importance with a presentation that is comprehensive, useful and visually dynamic at the same time?

With gadgets, of course! ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox will use everything from touchscreens to supersized high-def plasma screens to help display election returns, maps and an endless parade of commentators.

Here's a look at some of the new tech you'll see on the small screen on Tuesday.

Virtual Reality and 3-D Design

Fox News is doing things a little bit differently. The network designed two virtual reality studios (one for the Fox News Channel and one for Fox Broadcast) with a giant wall of touchscreens, connected together to provide electoral map results as they are released.

Fox is also taking the 3-D theme into the physical world by attaching large, square displays to hanging cubes in the studio. With mounted projectors overhead, the steady cam will be able to follow the anchors around the studio, as each cube panel, with 1440 x 1440 pixel resolution, follows different races. Nothing too high tech there, but the visual motion it will create will add to the show.

NBC News and MSNBC will be using BrainStorm's 3-D system to combine virtual reality with an innovative camera rig that's only been used in the movies up to now. As seen in the picture at the top of this story, Ann Curry and Chuck Todd will interact with data in a virtual environment where the telemetry of the background changes, allowing for close-up zooming and room-spanning shots. So as Todd inhabits the virtual U.S. Capitol, the angles of its virtual interior will be rendered accurately, as if he was inside for real.

Senior Art Director Tony Franqueira told Wired.com that NBC Artworks designers and animators did all of the concept design, final graphics and sets in-house and that as the virtual sets were being built, directors set up camera shots that helped define the final look of the graphics.

"The design team wanted to make sure this wasn't just an exercise in 'whiz bang' graphics but would actually complement the presentation, not overpower it," he says. 

Virtual Holograms

Star Wars vividly portrayed a vision of 3-D hologram technology. Now CNN wants to bring it to life in its studio, sort of, except with Wolf Blitzer and other correspondents in place of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Blitzer is expected to use the technology to appear to talk to virtual correspondents in the CNN studio, while their physical bodies remain with the Obama and McCain campaigns. It's like a satellite appearance, except instead of appearing on a 2-D screen, it will look like the correspondents are actually on the set next to Blitzer and other anchors (see lead photo of this story).

The 3-D appearance is not an actual hologram projected into the CNN studios, but rather a virtual hologram, inserted into the video by some sophisticated real-time effects processing. To make it happen, the network has built hologram-enabled satellite sets at both campaign headquarters, in Phoenix and Chicago, that are powered by motion capture and camera tracking telemetry from VizRt and SportVu studios (known for camera tracking). At each location CNN will have more than 44 small, fixed cameras and 20 computers. The cameras will take in 360-degree images of whoever is sitting in the middle of the remote studio.

Once collected, the image data will be processed by software and visual effects, which will synchronize the camera angles on the remote correspondents with those on Blitzer, then insert the satellite feed into the main video.

According to David Bohrman, senior vice president at CNN, Mr. Blitzer and the correspondents will be addressing a 37-inch plasma screen in a regular 2-D feed in order to 'see' each other. Since they won't actually be able to see the "hologram," anchors will need a visual cue to keep from walking through the holograms — in this case, a circle on the floor.

Bohrman acknowledges this is a "very tough" project to pull off, but the tests over the last week have proven to him that it can done. "It will look very cool," he says. 

Touchscreens for Everyone

For CNN's David Bohrman, the hologram is a nice cherry on top of the network's tech package, but the real conceptual breakthrough is the 3-D software CNN will use to report the exit polls.

Soledad O’Brien and Bill Schneider will go over changes in demographics as well as Congressional and Senate seats using two 103-inch, 1080p Panasonic interactive plasma screens (valued at $70,000 each) enabled with 3-D graphics. The large setup will allow for side-by-side comparison of lots of data. CNN's chief national correspondent John King will again use the Perceptive Pixel screens he handled during Super Tuesday. He'll also use a 3-D, 6-foot-long wall to show the changes in a virtual U.S. Capitol as election results are released. Expect him to place specific winners in their appropriate slot inside the made-up Capitol rendering.

Fox News, on the other hand, is using the less-is-more approach to its touchscreens. A vertical touchscreen TV will serve as the one "The Launch Pad" center for all news updates. Made by Los Angeles-based RealityCheck, the custom Launch Pad software program provides a call-up menu for anchors to push-through data points or feeds to the other screens, like the 15-x-8-ft. rear projection screen in the above picture. When the information moves from one screen to the next, the graphics will make it appear as if the feeds will "float into the surrounding monitors."

ABC is also getting on the touchscreen bandwagon in a big way. It has bought a lot of Perceptive Pixel screens and have incorporated its graphics software (Discreet Frost) in six weeks (it would regularly take six months to do so otherwise). These screens will display result boards instantaneously and compare results to those in previous elections, going all the way back to 1960.

CBS anchor Katie Couric will also use a touchscreen, though the rumor is that NBC has upgraded the quality from the Elo TouchSystems 26-incher to, you guessed it, a Perceptive Pixel screen. CBS will also use the VizRT graphics software that will run CNN's holographic experiment, but on different platforms (SGI Onyx and O2 workstations, if you're on the heavy technical bent.)

In Public Places, Size Still Matters

If you're in New York, and you for some reason lack a television, the networks have got you covered: There will be several giant displays showing real-time election results in the open, chill November air.

In Times Square, CNN will host a viewing party for spectators, who will be able to see the broadcast on one of the largest high-definition digital displays in the world.  ClearChannel's Spectacolor WiFi-enabled LED digital display is mounted in front of Duffy Square and measures 40 by 40 feet. To get the audio, people on the street just need to dial a number on their cellphones.

Fox will also be moving outdoors, with its News show "Strategy Room" (on 48th & 6th in New York City) and a new 28-foot Astrovision screen (created by Panasonic and similar to the one used at the Republican National Convention).  A Fox News representative promised us that during that show, a Fox news anchor (possibly Shepard Smith) will be playing Rock Band, though not necessarily on the big screen.

The ABC tech team will also be coding its video feeds to three differently sized screens displaying election results on Broadway in Times Square, including the giant SuperSign, and the large Reuters screen. All the info on the screens will be fed by an RSS feed controlled from the main studio. This will allow anchors to publish information straight into the screen with a quick touchscreen command.

NBC will set up its Election Plaza surrounding their 30 Rockefeller Ave. headquarters, and will project a map of the United States into the address' famous ice rink as the results come in.

If you don't happen to live in New York, Clear Channel will broadcast the results to 250 other digital billboards throughout the country. Also, the over 300 taxis in New York and Boston that come with Digital Smart Tops displays will show the results.

HD Feeds Lead to Information Overload

ABC and Fox News are also using the extra real estate of their HD feeds to fill up the screen with even more election information. Expect the biggest political junkies to dig this feature the most.

We spoke with ABC News Creative Director Hal Aronow-Theil who said his broadcast would show breakdowns of the race from ABC, Reuters and Nasdaq along the left border of the screen.

They're doing this despite the fact that some viewers have indicated that too much information on the screen at the same time is not conducive to the best viewing experience. For example, many people thought CNN's second-by-second voter approval-rating device during the last debate made concentrating on the candidates a much more difficult affair.

Still, says Mr. Aronow-Thiel, "we're really not worried about providing too much information."

If you only have one TV and don't want your finger to fall apart from all the channel flipping, DirecTV will have an "Interactive Election Mix Channel" that will feature eight network feeds and a real-time election blog to track it all.

Gadget Lab 2.0: Jose Fermoso's Twitter feed; Gadget Lab on Facebook.

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:14 pm

YouTube’s political blood spilling.  Stealing the election via the net

Section: Video, Content, Web, Websites, Online Music/Video

I came across the chart above thanks to betfair.com.  The chart shows “the most accurate, up-to-the-minute prediction of who will win the U.S. Presidential election based on millions of wagers placed in the world’s largest betting exchange.” Neat stuff.

But look closer and you see a divergence on September 15th (a Monday).  Something happened on this date that reversed both Obama’s downward trend and McCain’s comeback.  So I start digging around for a turning point speech, an event that made everyone sway or something.  I find nothing the candidates did.  McCain phoned a rally in Atlanta.  Matt Damon had a rant publicized about Palin and his uneasy feelings toward her.  But then I found something else:

Could it be that Saturday Night Live’s lampooning of Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin handed this election to Obama?  For many of us that can’t stay up that late anymore, TiVo and YouTube turned this clip into a sensation and set the stage for some of SNLs highest ratings in years.

One could theorize (and I do) that the SNL skit changed the conversation in America from “us vs. them” to a view that makes the McCain ticket a punchline.  No matter what you thought about Palin’s qualifications before SNL, after you just had to giggle.  And judging by the number of views of the partial clip on YouTube (NBC ordered YouTube to take down much of it), a lot of us were giggling.

Surely, SNL made fun of Obama and Biden, but was it Fey’s spot on looks that turned this thing around?  Was it her impersonation?  Would future party candidates be vetted by who looks like them in SNL cast members?  I am not sure I can answer these, but the 9/13 SNL and subsequent online viewing seems to have impacted this election.

Sound off, did SNL and online views of the show give this election to the Democrats?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Check out the updated chart: [betfair]

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Source: Gadgetell | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:08 pm

Working replica Nautilus sub

Pat Regan built a 1/10 scale working replica of the Nautilus from the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. And spear guns. And a diving suit. And a diving helmet. Jason Weisberger has more over at Dethroner. Vulcania Submarine

Source: Boing Boing | 4 Nov 2008 | 11:07 pm

Next-Gen Longevity Drug Works Wonders on Mice

A drug that might be able to treat diseases of aging like Alzheimer's has proven safe in mice for four months, bringing scientists closer to creating longevity drugs for humans.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 4 Nov 2008 | 10:51 pm

IBM's Teri-is-a-Girl-and-Terry-is-a-Boy Patent

theodp writes "The USPTO has granted IBM a patent for utilizing naming conventions to assign gender-based avatars for instant messaging. A user named Teri, IBM explains, would be given a girl avatar, while a user named Terry would be provided with a boy avatar. The three IBM 'inventors' were stymied by users named Pat, who as a result will be assigned a 'generic, genderless human figure image as his or her avatar.' Way to honor that significant-technical-content patent pledge, Big Blue!"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 4 Nov 2008 | 10:29 pm

FCC gives Verizon/Alltel buyout the greenlight

It’s been nearly five months since Verizon announced their plans to buy out Alltel, but they’ve finally leaped the last hurdle. Just minutes ago, the FCC signed off on the $28.1 billion dollar deal (Verizon is paying $5.9 billion, and assuming $22.2 billion of Alltel’s debt.)

The FCC’s stamp of approval doesn’t come without strings attached, however. Amongst other conditions, Verizon will be required to maintain any roaming agreements Alltel has with other carriers for at least four years. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin originally requested that roaming agreements would be honored for two years, and Verizon responded with the offer to honor them for four. This still wasn’t quite enough for some; though the vote passed 5-0, 2 of those who voted yes dissented, feeling that the roaming agreements should be required for at least seven years.

Before the merger, Verizon had roughly 70.8 million subscribers. With Alltel bringing around 13 million new subscribers to their door, this brings Verizon’s total up to approximately 83.8 million, dethroning AT&T (with 74.8 million) from the number one spot.

What does this mean to Verizon/Alltel customers? Well, “the network” just got a whole lot bigger - Alltel customers will soon have an additional 71 million people or so they can call without gobbling up their minutes. Beyond that, both groups gain access to the other’s device lineup, with Alltel customers now able to take advantage of Verizon’s bring-your-own-handset “Open Development” program.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 4 Nov 2008 | 10:06 pm

Apple Hires IBM's Papermaster Despite Noncompete Suit (NewsFactor)

NewsFactor - Apple has hired Mark Papermaster, a 26-year IBM veteran, to lead its hardware engineering team and work directly under Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Papermaster will direct Apple's iPod and iPhone engineering.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Nov 2008 | 9:55 pm

Get more juice out of your iPhone battery with FastMac’s battery extender

FROM APPLETELL - The iV external battery pack for iPhone provides an additional 24 hours of talk time, 750 hours of standby, and 72 hours of audio playback and then some.
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Source: Gadgetell | 4 Nov 2008 | 9:45 pm

The Five Awesomest TV and Movie Spaceships

The best thing about science fiction is its gravity-defying, hyperspace-surfing spaceships.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 4 Nov 2008 | 9:36 pm

USB tethering now possible with the T-Mobile G1

We should probably stress that that the keyword in the headline up above is “possible”. While some crafty gents over at the Tmo News Forums have cranked out a way to let you use the T-Mobile G1 as a USB modem, it’s not exactly the simplest tethering solution we’ve ever seen. Flip some options, install the SDK, install an application on the device, move stuff around, change proxy settings, make brownies, fight crime, play Beethoven’s 9th backwards; it’s pretty deep.

That said, mobile broadband is the best thing ever made, ever. (Ever.) While the first solution for squeezing some broadband juice out of the G1 may not be optimal, everything has to start somewhere. If you’ve got a G1, are in a 3G zone (though it reportedly works with EDGE, if you’re a masochist), and have some time to tinker, give it a shot and let us know how it works.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 4 Nov 2008 | 9:18 pm

Hallmark’s Christmas 2008 Pac-Man arcade cabinet ornament

FROM GAMERTELL - The mini arcade cabinet ornament includes lights and original sounds and retails for $18.50. Check out the full post for a close-up shot…
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Source: Gadgetell | 4 Nov 2008 | 9:13 pm

Sea Turtles To Be Released In Atlantic

Popular sea turtles 'Milton' and 'FeeBee' to strike out across Atlantic, provide valuable tracking dataThursday, November 6, 2008, Dr. Kirt Rusenko, Marine Conservationist, and staff from Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton will release two juvenile loggerhead sea turtles raised in captivity into the Indian River Lagoon near Sebastian Inlet.The loggerheads, dubbed Milton and FeeBee, hatched on Boca Raton's beaches in July 2002 and were part of a sex ratio study conducted by Dr. Jeanette Wyneken of Florida Atlantic University. The gender of sea turtles is determined mostly by the temperature of the sand. Warmer temperatures produce more females, while cooler temperatures produce more males. The study aims to better learn how many males and females are born every year to more successfully determine the health of threatened sea turtle populations. The sex of sea turtles cannot be determined using obvious external characteristics until they are adults.Milton and FeeBee, along with hundreds of other turtles were raised for 2-3 months until they weighed 4 ounces. Then, their gender was determined by examining internal characteristics using a laparoscope. After the study, Milton (male) and FeeBee (female) were raised at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and became ambassadors for their species to the thousands of visitors who come to Gumbo Limbo each year. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission requires that once turtles reach a shell length of 18 inches they be released. The turtles, which have reached this size, will be released in the Indian River Lagoon because loggerhead turtles of this size are typically found in this body of water.The pair of sea turtles will be satellite tagged by Dr. Kate Mansfield of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Captive-raised turtles are rarely satellite tagged, so this release will give scientists a unique opportunity to see if these turtles behave differently than wild turtles. It will also allow the general public to follow the paths of Milton and FeeBee on their journey in the Atlantic Ocean through the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and its site www.gumbolimbo.org.---Image Caption: Dr. Kirt Rusenko and staff from Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton, Fla. will release "FeeBee' and 'Milton,' two juvenile loggerhead sea turtles raised in captivity, into the Indian River Lagoon near Sebastian Inlet. The pair will be satellite tagged by Dr. Kate Mansfield of the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Captive-raised turtles are rarely satellite tagged, so this release will give scientists a unique opportunity to see if these turtles behave differently than wild turtles. It will also allow the general public to follow the turtles on their journey in the Atlantic Ocean. Credit: Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Nov 2008 | 8:59 pm

Patagonian Fungus Provides New Type Of Fuel

Image 1: Colorized environmental scanning electron microscope photo of Gliocladium roseum, an endophtic fungus that produces myco-diesel hydrocarbons. (Photo courtesy of Gary Strobel.)Image 2: Culture plate of Gliocladium roseum, an endophtic fungus that produces myco-diesel hydrocarbons.(Photo courtesy of Gary Strobel.)Image 3: Gary Strobel found diesel-producing fungus in this Patagonia rainforest. (Photo courtesy of Gary Strobel.)
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Nov 2008 | 8:35 pm

Coastal Jobs Coalition Reports That Lobby Group Admitted to Paying Officials to Testify, Travel

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which is actively lobbying state and local officials in Oregon regarding ocean fisheries issues, has admitted to offering payment to current and former elected officials - county, port and city commissioners - from Oregon coastal communities to attend and testify at a hearing of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council this week (Nov 3-7) in San Diego, Calif.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

Gasoline Barge Freed From High Ground

No fuel was spilled when a barge carrying gasoline went aground near the Detroit River's entrance to Lake Erie, said the U.S. Coast Guard. The barge, carrying 3.9 million gallons of gasoline, was freed Monday after spending the night aground, Coast Guard Lt. Wade Hedinger said Monday.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Nov 2008 | 8:00 pm

New Coating Allows Solar Panels To Capture More Energy

Image 2: A new antireflective coating developed by researchers at Rensselaer could help to overcome two major hurdles blocking the progress and wider use of solar power. The nanoengineered coating, pictured here, boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels and allows those panels to absorb the entire spectrum of sunlight from any angle, regardless of the sun’s position in the sky. Credit: Rensselaer/Shawn Lin
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Nov 2008 | 6:33 pm

Scientists Successfully Clone Frozen Mice

Japanese scientists said on Monday they have created clones from the bodies of mice that have been frozen for 16 years.The researchers said it might even be possible to use the technique to resurrect mammoths and other extinct species.Teruhiko Wakayama and colleagues at the Center for Developmental Biology, at Japan's RIKEN research institute in Yokohama, were able to clone the mice even though their cells had burst.The team wrote: "Thus, nuclear transfer techniques could be used to 'resurrect' animals or maintain valuable genomic stocks from tissues frozen for prolonged periods without any cryopreservation." Wakayama and his team created the mouse clones using the classic nuclear transfer technique that involves taking the nucleus out of an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus of an ordinary cell from the animal to be cloned.With the right chemical or electric trigger, the egg will begin dividing as if a sperm had fertilized it."Cloning animals by nuclear transfer provides an opportunity to preserve endangered mammalian species," they wrote."However, it has been suggested that the 'resurrection' of frozen extinct species (such as the woolly mammoth) is impracticable, as no live cells are available, and the genomic material that remains is inevitably degraded."The researchers used mice whose cells were indisputably damaged from many years of being frozen.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Nov 2008 | 6:15 pm

HTC to sell Touch 3G and Touch HD in Taiwan, G1 to land in China in the first half of 2009?

While it’s all still hearsay at this point, Digitimes is reporting that China’s Commercial Times newspaper has sources indicating that HTC might begin pushing the G1 in China within the first 6 months of next year.

HTC is also giving their home country of Taiwan a bit of handset love, albeit not in the form of an Android phone. The Touch 3G was just launched there yesterday, and a report out of the Economic Daily News indicates that the drool-worthy Touch HD is on the way by the end of 2008. So, to recap the Touch HD’s global status: Taiwan’s getting it by the end of the year, Europe’s getting it by the end of the week, and the US is getting it by the end of never.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 4 Nov 2008 | 5:42 pm

Big Reduction of Snowmobiles in Yellowstone Proposed

A new plan would cut snowmobile use by 40 percent in Yellowstone.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Nov 2008 | 4:33 pm

'Bubble' Could Protect Astronauts

Scientists say a "bubble" around a Mars-bound spaceship could protect astronauts.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Nov 2008 | 3:00 pm

Mouse Cloned From Long-Frozen Cell

Researchers create a mouse from a long-frozen cell. Will the mammoth be next?
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Nov 2008 | 2:48 pm

Microbes: Fuel of the Future?

A reddish South American microbe is literally breathing fuel, say scientists.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Nov 2008 | 2:33 pm

Women Carry More Bacteria Than Men

Some bacteria prefer women, suggests a new study. But why?
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Nov 2008 | 2:00 pm

DNA Links Remains to Steve Fosset

DNA tests on two bones found in California confirm they are those of Steve Fossett.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 4 Nov 2008 | 1:52 pm