Source: Gizmodo | 18 Dec 2008 | 6:30 am

Philips Releases New Lineup of Tiny MP3 Players

Following up on the small and simple design pledge we heard last week from Philips, the company today released a couple of MP3 players small enough for stocking stuffing.

But is the audio quality good enough to take attention away from more popular tiny music players, like the iPod Shuffle? After a few hours playing with one of these bad boys, the GoGear Spark, my first thought is that it's not a bad alternative due to the OK audio. It's certainly cheaper and surprisingly tough. As for the other players, they each have their own thing going on.

The Spark (at right) comes with a nice 1.5-inch OLED display, options at 2GB-4GB (for $50-$60, which is less per gig than the shuffle), and uses Philips FullSound EQ tech for improved sounds.

I put it through a jazzy-rock-rap play list, and the beats had a surprising amount of depth. But the feature that I liked best was that the screen is used for navigation (as a giant button, not a regular touchscreen), and clicking through the songs is pretty satisfying. Without any external buttons, the screen takes up most of the tiny space.

The other one of interest is the GoGear LUXE player. It has the transparent color LCD-style that we saw a couple of years ago from a Sony music player that shall remain nameless. This one, though, is refined and sparkly (see above). It also comes with FullSound, which means that a music output is refined by "performing 10 million operations per second to analyze and re-compute the music signal." The key feature, though, is the ability to sync it with any phone to make a switch to incoming calls (it has a clip-on Bluetooth mic), without losing your place in a beat or without removing your headphones. I've yet to test this one.

The LUXE will be available at 2GB and 4GB, at $90 and $100, respectively, when it's released in January.

Lest we forget, there's one last player, the Raga. Basically, it is a sporty, straight mash-up of the 2004 iPod Minis, in an iPod shuffle body and isn't notable by any means. So the one thing it should have going on is a lot of insecurity compared to the others. The company, however, will market some armbands and other accessories to go with it. 

Source + Photos: Philips

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2008 | 6:27 am

Researchers Test Whether Sharks Enjoy Christmas Songs

Scientists plan to test whether sharks enjoy listening to Christmas pop songs, after US research showed fish could recognize melody. Chris Brown, senior marine biologist at the Loch Lomond aquarium, said seasonal music would be played through walkthrough underwater tunnels where they can be heard by dozens of nurse sharks, black-tip reef sharks, and ray species. Experts will then monitor the sharks' reactions to different songs. We'll play everything from Kim Wilde and Mel Smith's Rocking Around the Christmas Tree and Merry Christmas Everybody by Slade to Wham's Last Christmas. We may find they prefer something softer like White Christmas by Bing Crosby," Brown said. Thank you for answering this question science.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2008 | 6:24 am

HOWTO build a Linux-based supercomputer out of Playstation 3s

Madeline sez,

This is PhysOrg's post regarding the scientists at the Cluster Workshop, a group funded by the National Science Foundation, Sony, IBM, and some others, that formed a supercomputer out of PlayStation 3's last year. Now the developers have written a guide on how to build your own (at http://www.ps3cluster.org), including downloadables and directions on how to run your new supercomputer on Linux.

Researchers typically rent the use of supercomputers to simulate experiments, but with these they can build their own for about $4K, saving cash and freeing up time for additional experimentation. Moreover, with guides like these floating around, communities can build their own: imagine every major city running its own sims on agriculture, employment, energy infrastructure, virus transmission...with your own supercomputer, the sky's the limit.

Scientists Write Guide to Build Supercomputer from Sony Playstation 3

Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:58 am

Flowchart: should you make a flowchart?

A nice complement to yesterday's post on XKCD's flowchart of how to read flowcharts -- here's Thinkin' Lincoln's flowchart on whether you should make a flow-chart.
Flowchart =====> Comics (Thanks, Miles!)

Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:57 am

HOWTO Make a DNS dead-drop

Landon Fuller figured out a nice application for Dan Kaminsky's DNS hack -- using DNS servers on the public Internet as "dead drops," with messages stashed on them that can only be retrieved by people with the secret:

In each DNS query, 7 bits are reserved for a number of flags, one of which is the Recursion Desired (RD) flag. If set to 0, the queried DNS server will not attempt to recurse -- it will only provide answers from its cache.

Combine this with a wildcard zone and it's possible to signal bits (RD on), and read them (RD off). To set a bit to 1 the sender issues a query with the RD bit on. The wildcard zone resolves all requests, including this query. The receiver then issues a query for the same hostname, with the RD bit off. If the bit is 1, the query will return a valid record. If the bit is 0, no record will be returned.

So, it's easy to signal a single bit, but what if you want to share more than 1 bit of data? This requires both sides to compute a list of records -- one record for every bit of data we wish to send. In my implementation, I chose to do this with a pre-shared word list and initialization vector (IV). Given the same word list and IV, both sender and receiver can independently compute an identical mapping of words to bit positions. The sender can then signal the '1' bits, and the receiver can query all bits.

The DNS Dead Drop (via Schneier)

Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:51 am

Small car safety in crashes improves - Reuters

ABC News

Small car safety in crashes improves Reuters - 8 hours ago WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Automakers have improved the safety of small cars just as they become more popular with consumers, but some new models still have mixed performances in crash tests, a safety group said on Wednesday. Video: IIHS: Small Cars Making Strides in Safety AssociatedPress Small Cars Improve in Crashes Wall Street Journal ABC News - The Associated Press - United Press International - OCRegister all 383 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:50 am

Ancient cemetery found in Syria

Archaeologists have dug up a large ancient cemetery in the middle of the Syrian desert, providing a glimpse into life and death in the 19th century B.C. The necropolis discovered near the Syrian oasis of Palmyra about 125 miles northeast of Damascus, has at least 30 large burial mounds, ANSA reported Wednesday. ''This is the first evidence that an area of semi-desert outside the oasis was occupied during the early Bronze Age,'' said team leader Daniele Morandi Bonacossi of Italy's Udine University, who believes the burial site dates from the second half of the third millennium B.C. ''Future excavations of the burial mounds will undoubtedly reveal information of crucial importance." The team of Italian and German experts, which concluded its 10th annual excavation in central Syria in late November, found the elaborate cemetery along a stretch of an old Roman road marked with stones bearing Latin inscriptions with the name of the Emperor Aurelius, who put down a rebellion led by the Palmyran queen Zenobia in 272 A.D.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:45 am

Take-Two posts quarterly loss, issues warning (CNET)

CNET - Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software posted a wider quarterly loss on Wednesday and forecast a sharp drop in sales revenue for the current quarter.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:40 am

Yahoo to anonymize logs after 90 days

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Kevin Bankston discusses the news that Yahoo! will radically reduce the retention period for its logs, anonymizing them after just 90 days (compared with Google's 9 months). It's a pretty radical development: for years, I've been skeptical of claims that tech companies would compete on privacy, issuing press releases that said, in effect, "Use us, we're less snoopy and creepy than those guys!" But here we are -- the company whose data-retention and palsy relationship with the Chinese Politburo put a campaigning journalist in jail is now saying that it's going to sanitize its logs on a quarterly basis. Kevin's got a reality check:

Unfortunately, it's hard to gauge the true privacy impact of this policy change until we know exactly what steps Yahoo will be taking to anonymize the data. The devil's in the details, and if Yahoo's anonymization process isn't robust enough, this new logging policy may end up being more privacy PR than privacy protection. Fully anonymizing IP addresses and cookie data can be tricky, and even if that data is thrown away completely, there's still the possibility of individuals being identified based on the content of their search queries, as AOL's search data spill demonstrated.

So, as Yahoo finalizes its policy plans, it should take a look at EFF's newly-revised Best Practices for Online Service Providers, which recommends a range of techniques to strongly anonymize online user data. Hopefully, we'll see the details of Yahoo's plan soon, as well as new announcements from other search engines trying to keep up in this accelerating privacy competition. Internet users have long trusted search engines and internet portals like Yahoo and Google with the privacy of their most intimate and sensitive data, and we're glad to see those companies finally vying to earn that trust.

Yahoo To Anonymize Logs After 90 Days, Compared to Google's 9 Months

Update: Christopher sez, "You note that Google currently 'anonymizes" logs after 9 months. That is not true, due to the fact that they do not attempt to mask cookies until the 18 month mark. Removing some tiny portion of an IP address from the logs is worthless, if cookies can be used to match up new log entries and older log entries."

Source: Gizmodo | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:03 am

Adobe breathes AIR for Linux (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld - Adobe Systems is extending on Thursday its AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) technology to Linux desktops.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:01 am

Dec. 18, 1997: Tokyo Bay Tunnel Opens

1997: An expressway across Tokyo Bay opens to traffic. It includes 3 miles of bridge and a 6-mile tunnel under the busy waterway.

The Trans-Tokyo Bay Motorway, or Tokyo Bay Aqualine, had been 31 years in the planning. The idea was to link Kanagawa Prefecture on the west side of the bay to Chiba Prefecture and the Boso Peninsula on the east. The structure would provide an alternative to taking an hour-long ferry ride or driving more than 60 miles through the heart of congested Tokyo.

Construction began in 1989. It eventually cost more than $11 billion.

From the east, motorists drive over a long trestle, then an arched high-rise bridge that comes down on Umi-hotaru, an artificial island with a parking garage, restaurant and tourist facilities. If you don't want to stop awhile there to enjoy the novelty of it all, the expressway then descends into a tunnel that runs 200 feet below the surface of Tokyo Bay.

The tunnel was built by digging with a tunnel shield, rather than the newer method of sinking precast sections. With an inner diameter of 39 feet, the four-lane tunnel is the widest underwater shield tunnel for motor vehicles. To improve seismic safety in earthquake-prone Japan, engineers used long bolts to connect the segments of tunnel lining and took special care to make the structure impervious to seawater.

A smaller island, called Kazenoto, contains vertical ventilation shafts that come up from the midpoint of the tunnel. Just in case ships can't see the two 300-foot towers rising from the circular isle, a shock-absorbing wall protects the island from collisions.

The tunnel's western end surfaces near Tokyo International Airport, between Yokohama and central Tokyo. Automobile drivers pay 3,000 yen (about $34) to cross.

The Aqualine Bridge-Tunnel is not the only one of its type. The United States has three, all in Virginia, including the first one: the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, completed in 1964. Canada has one under the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. Denmark has one, Sweden has one, and an international bridge-tunnel links those two countries.

Two international bridge-tunnels have also been proposed in the Middle East: one from the tip of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula across the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba to Saudi Arabia, and another across the mouth of the Red Sea from Djibouti to Yemen.

Source: Various

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:00 am

Gallery: The Curious Case of Reverse-Aging Brad Pitt

How did they do that? Wired deconstructs the special-effects magic behind the new film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:00 am

Brainy Trainer: Workout Monitor Tells You When to Chill

A wristwatch-style pulse monitor reports your recovery time in addition to your heartrate. It's easy to read and, at $350, pretty stylish, too.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:00 am

Brainy Trainer: Workout Monitor Tells You When to Chill

A wristwatch-style pulse monitor reports your recovery time in addition to your heartrate. It's easy to read and, at $350, pretty stylish, too.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 18 Dec 2008 | 5:00 am

Joost Just Gives Up On P2P Altogether

Joost’s two year old online video service was a pretty darned smart idea when it first launched.

Instead of streaming video through the Joost website, users would download a Mozilla-based client and watch it there instead. The user experience could be more tightly controlled. And more importantly, the Joost client had built in person-to-person file sharing. That meant Joost had lower bandwidth bills. It also meant that Joost didn’t need to worry about overloading servers while showing live events - users would just grab the stream from others automatically.

But Joost bet wrong, as the whole world, led by YouTube and then Hulu, got comfortable with Flash as the delivery method for video. Showing video on Flash meant users could deep link to specific videos, and also embed stuff they liked on their own sites. With the benefit of hindsight it all seems sort of obvious.

Joost adapted, though, giving users the option of an all-Flash site in September. Some international users would still be required to use the software to reduce bandwidth costs, and the company was hoping U.S. users would eventually install it, too.

Today they announced they’re discontinuing the software application altogether, but they aren’t saying why. It’s clear that Joost’s strategy has been fluid over the last few months as they try to figure out a way to compete with the much more successful Hulu. It’s honestly not clear that they really can. Joost doesn’t offer anything particularly unique or compelling to users over competing sites with proprietary content (Hulu with Fox and NBC, TV.com with CBS).

Joost raised a big $45 million round of financing way back in 2006. It’s not clear how much of that is left. If they want to succeed they’re going to have to do something pretty radical.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2008 | 4:44 am

Innergie and Green Plug join forces to make the mCube90G

Section: Audio, Accessories, Video, Accessories, Communications, Accessories, Computers, Laptops, Gadgets / Other, Green, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous

Innergie, perhaps best known for their small power adapters, has recently announced that they will be marketing a newer, greener power adapter by joining forces with Green Plug.  Now, Green Plug has made something called Greentalk which is a sort of protocol between the power socket and the device requiring the energy.  This protocol is designed to withdraw only the required amount, so it won’t be wasting a lot of energy. 

Coming in CES 2009, Innergie will have their mCube90G on display for the public to see its unique features.  A cool feature is here that it comes with a detachable part that can be used to charge electronics within a car or airplane.  In addition, the main part of the device is capable to “power virtually any electronic product, dynamically matching each device’s power need”.

P.S. Tang, Senior Director of Innergie, had this to say about their latest product and Greentalk:

“Innergie was attracted to Green Plug because the open systems power interface provides for connectivity to an unlimited range of consumer electronics products. In the future, when more CE products adopt the royalty-free open systems power interface, powering these devices will be much more convenient thanks to Greentalk, the digital collaboration power protocol. Greentalk also enables innovative power companies like Innergie to build new power applications that are not possible without the ability of CE products to collaborate with power adapters. We’re delighted to offer this inaugural implementation of Greentalk technology and to showcase the mCube90 powering a full range of CE devices.”

On the flipside, Frank Paniagua, Jr., CEO and founder of Green Plug, had this to say:

“Of all the universal power supplies on the market, the Innergie mCube90G is by far the most stylish and versatile. All of us at Green Plug were thrilled with Innergie’s decision to incorporate the Green Plug Universal Power ProtocolTM into its next generation product. The availability of the mCube90G is another reason for CE device makers to migrate to the free, open systems power interface for their products.”

As I’m sure you know from your own experiences, charging many of our electronic devices can often become a hassle because of the specific ways in which they require energy.  With an efficient product like this one, it would make charging electronics a lot easier.  In addition, Green Plug has plans to make a site that will allow the general public to choose which products they would to be most energy efficient, or as they put it, “Green Plug-enabled.“  Hopefully, Green Plug will be implement their protocol in many devices making the electronics industry overall more green. 

It will be interesting to see how the public likes or dislikes this product come CES.  I would imagine it to be available shortly after the trade show is complete.

Read [Business Wire] Read [I Want My Green Plug]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2008 | 4:22 am

Scientists Find Hole In Earth's Magnetic Field

Velorium writes "The Earth's magnetic field has been found to have two large holes that are making Earth's surface vulnerable to solar winds. Despite what scientists originally thought, these holes allow 20 times the normal amount of solar particles through when they are facing away from the sun. This is the opposite of what the scientists had first speculated."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2008 | 4:19 am

Toshiba rocks world with 512GB SSD

That’s a lot of gigs! Until just now, 256GB was the upper limit on SSD capacity, and chances are it’s the size you’ll be getting in your laptops and such over the next year — they’ll be available in April but probably super expensive. Toshiba, however, has decided that 256 is not enough, and has doubled the capacity of its 2.5″ drives to a massive 512GB, which rivals HDDs in size, if not in price. I have to say, the read and write speeds aren’t looking too shabby, either.

The 1.8″ form factor drives have been bumped to up to 256GB, which means you may be seeing some seriously spacious media players soon (likely expensive as well). I’ll be checking this out personally at CES in January.

[via Akihabara News]

Source: CrunchGear | 18 Dec 2008 | 4:12 am

How to save money while feeding your need to game

FROM GAMERTELL - Do you need help budgeting for yourself or your gamer?  Here are five tips to consider when you’ve worn out your current library of games… MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2008 | 3:37 am

Mobile RFID Reader Brings Big Brother To Your Pocket

For the lovable on-the-go security informants in your family, the first portable RFID printer is now available as a great last-minute gift. And nothing says "Merry Christmas" and "We Trust You and All of Your Decisions, Honey" like an RFID tag machine.

Zebra Technologies' new RFID mobile thermal printer makes labels that facilitate quick item tracking and allow you to encode them on the fly on your laptop.

The rugged rig, code-named RP4T, prints easy bar code labels, UHF smart labels, and documents up to four inches wide. It's also wireless and has a small LCD that serves as a battery monitor and label tracker.

The thermal transfer bar code labels are necessarily rugged and are capable of withstanding years of weather treatment. Using the software made available by Zebra, users should be able to track their wares through long distances.

But if you thought this entertaining gadget was only the stuff of niche markets and easy puns, think again.

The U.S. Army's Product Manager Joint-Automatic Information Technology division recently partnered with Zebra’s RFID technologies for a contract worth $75 million for integration with their RFID technology. The deal calls for 'dual wireless connectivity, multi-language support, and easy integration into existing IT platforms' and will use the tiny RP4T's big brother, the RZ400, as the main hardware RFID driver.

So if you and your family feel like the world is just not intrusive enough and you need to know where every single thing you own is at all times, this RFID reader is a fine option.

Photos courtesy of Zebra Technologies.

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2008 | 3:21 am

SnapTell: One Of The Coolest iPhone Apps Gets Even Better

SnapTell, the awesome iPhone app that lets you take a photo of nearly any CD, DVD, book, or video game to get instant product reviews, has just released an upgrade that introduces a number of useful new features.

Most significant is the addition of local and online price comparisons through TheFind, which allows you to get a quick look at what the item you’ve photographed is going for at local retail stores as well as on online sites like Amazon. It seems to work fairly well, though I wish it had a more comprehensive price listing (a query for one of the Harry Potter books found only one online price, though it did find the book at a number of local stores). You can download the app on iTunes here.

The upgraded app also includes a number of UI changes (the ‘take photo’ button is now centered, as opposed to hidden up in the corner of the screen), and seems generally snappier.

Since launching a month ago, SnapTell has seen over 200,000 downloads and has been as high as #16 on the free apps list (which is frankly lower than it probably should be). And while a large portion of users are probably just trying out the app for the novelty of image recognition, SnapTell says that around 35% of its installs see repeated use, and that it has a 15% click-through rate to online stores.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2008 | 3:05 am

Dell adds Windows XP, Ubuntu options on Inspiron Mini 12

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops

Dell has added a few new options when it comes to the operating system on the Inspiron Mini 12.  Previously the Mini 12 was available only with Windows Vista.  Now, users can now also choose between Ubuntu 8.04.1 or Windows XP. 

As for pricing, the Ubuntu based model begins at $499, and the Windows XP model begins at $549.  Of course, either of those will increase depending on overall configuration.  Some of the options that are available is an upgrade in processing power from the standard 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor to the 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor along with either a 40, 60, or 80GB hard drive.  While XP is now an option, Windows Vista is still available and comes at the same price as the XP configuration.

[Laptop Mag]

 

 

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2008 | 2:44 am

Pentax’s albino K2000 looks like a Stormtroopercam

The same aesthetic that works for Canon’s L-series and Rocky Road ice cream seems to be doing all right for Pentax as well. The K2000 is a solid camera, and this unique look could take a few people off the fence.

The real question (if you care so much about how your camera looks, you poseur) is how non-black-and-white lenses will look on it. Pentaxes are great because there’s a huge variety of lenses, but if they all look dorky on your white body (I’m talking about your camera’s body), what’s the use?

Source: CrunchGear | 18 Dec 2008 | 2:30 am

Friends and Family Have a New Way to Just Drop In [Personal Technology]

Digital-picture frames have started to take off as a way for people to show off their stashes of digital photos in rotating slide shows. A growing number of frames even connect to wireless home networks so they can easily be refreshed with photos stored online and on PCs.

But keeping those types of digital-photo frames up-to-date with new pictures demands more technical skill than many parents and grandparents are likely to have. It requires, for example, rudimentary knowledge of how to configure a home Wi-Fi network or shuttle storage cards between a frame and a digital camera. Still, digital frames are a great way to keep generations in touch with, say, a far-flung child’s latest ballet recital or a football game.

Just in time for the holidays, the wireless carrier T-Mobile is selling a digital-photo frame that makes it easy to set up and to keep fresh. While I found the Cameo excels in its simplicity, it comes with a number of annoying drawbacks and a pricing model that will limit its appeal. It sells for a reasonable $99.99 in T-Mobile stores, but carries a hefty $9.99 monthly fee.

Still, Cameo is an exciting first edition of a product.

First, its strengths. The picture frame is as easy to operate as a cellphone, containing some of the same technical innards of a wireless handset. And each Cameo has a unique phone number, just like a cellphone, that lets anyone who knows the number to “dial” it up — sending messages containing digital photographs instead of voice calls.

Setting up Cameo is as easy as taking it out of a box, screwing a stick into the back to prop up the frame and plugging it into an electrical outlet. The Cameo has a seven-inch color display and one of the more attractive borders I’ve seen on a digital photo frame: imitation black leather with white stitching.

Users themselves can manually load images onto the frame from a PC by connecting it through a USB cable or by inserting a miniature storage card from a digital camera.

Cameo can receive pictures wirelessly two ways. The owner of the frame hands out the Cameo’s phone number to friends and family members, who then send pictures to the frame that were taken with the cameras standard on most modern cellphones. This method uses MMS, or multimedia messaging service, a communications standard normally used to share pictures and other media between cellphones.

Cameo owners also can give out an email address for their picture frames that is based on their Cameo’s phone number, allowing people to email images that they’ve downloaded to their computers from digital cameras.

The first time the frame receives a picture from an email address or phone number, Cameo asks the frame owner to push a button on the back of the frame to place the sender on an approved list. After that, all images from the approved source appear automatically on the frame — a method that at least keeps random people’s photos from popping up in grandma’s living room.

There’s a wonderful unpredictability to how Cameo works. Imagine all of the kids and grandkids in a sprawling family room in different locations being able to send snapshots to each other. This is possible now with photo-sharing sites like Flickr, but those typically require going to a Web site. Images on a Cameo just show up without warning on your kitchen countertop, living room or office desk.

I handed out my Cameo number to some colleagues and was delighted when their cameraphone pictures began trickling into my frame, including a shot of the New York neighborhood in which one of them lives, and an image of another colleague ice skating.

The Cameo’s screen, featuring 720×480 pixels, isn’t the highest-resolution digital photo frame on the market, but the pictures looked fine to me. You can do a slide show for any number of images, chose a fade-out or other transition, change the order of the photos and alter the display speed — holding a single image for up to an hour.

Unfortunately, the frame has a skimpy 64 megabytes of memory, and storage capacity isn’t expandable. There is enough room for only about 200 photos at maximum size. Once it’s full, you have to make room by manually deleting photos.

Another problem is that the frame currently is available only to existing T-Mobile cellular subscribers.

By far, the biggest turnoff is the monthly fee for the cellular service that delivers the pictures to the frame. There’s no limit on how many pictures can be sent to a Cameo under T-Mobile’s cellular plan, but $120 a year is a steep price.

The carrier says it will consider other pricing options in the future. Until it does, it’s going to be tough for most people to buy the Cameo, even for a beloved family member.

Walt Mossberg is on vacation.

Write to Nick Wingfield at nick.wingfield@wsj.com

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2008 | 2:18 am

Today on Offworld

Today on Offworld, as Nintendo released its 100+ game list of DS and Wii titles expected through Spring of next year, we whittled it down to the essential 11 Offworld-ian titles to be excited for. We also discovered that area/code's Chain Factor (one of our top web games of 2007) had been ported to the iPhone as snap7, listened to Merry Pixmas, a fantastic new chiptune Xmas album, and read Jim Rossignol's latest Ragdoll Metaphysics column on the Ten Things That Made Him Glad To Be A Gamer In 2008. Elsewhere, we saw that Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill were also coming to the iPhone, heard another good holiday song with The Doyouinverts' Gears of War parody 'A Happy New Gear', saw a slightly slurred Burt Reynolds in the movies, flipped wistfully through the 1983 Sears Wishbook again, saw Spore's DRM debacle coming to half a close, at least, and heard reports that certain job recruiters have been told not to hire World of Warcraft players.

Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2008 | 2:05 am

What Restrictions Should Student Laptops Have?

An anonymous reader writes "We're a school district in the beginning phases of a laptop program which has the eventual goal of putting a Macbook in the hands of every student from 6th to 12th grade. The students will essentially own the computers, are expected to take them home every night, and will be able to purchase the laptops for a nominal fee upon graduation. Here's the dilemma — how much freedom do you give to students? The state mandates web filtering on all machines. However, there is some flexibility on exactly what should be filtered. Are things like Facebook and Myspace a legitimate use of a school computer? What about games, forums, or blogs, all of which could be educational, distracting or obscene? We also have the ability to monitor any machine remotely, lock the machine down at certain hours, prevent the installation of any software by the user, and prevent the use of iChat. How far do we take this? While on one hand we need to avoid legal problems and irresponsible behavior, there's a danger of going so far to minimize liability that we make the tool nearly useless. Equally concerning is the message sent to the students. Will a perceived lack of trust cripple the effectiveness of the program?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2008 | 2:05 am

Analyst: Wii sales “under threat” from recession

Industry Analyst Piers Harding-Rolls:

These new, non-enthusiast and more mainstream console gamers view many Wii and DS games as experimental and discretionary luxuries. As the recession bites, Wii and DS games are likely to fall from the shopping lists of some of these consumers.

I say thee nay! People have felt the bite on their wallet for a good half a year now if not more, and in case Piers didn’t hear, Nintendo sold two million Wiis in November. The games industry appears to be more resilient under recession conditions than, say, the blogging industry (*sweat*). Sure, spending is down in almost every sector, but there’s no reason to think that the Wii is going to be the fall guy for the economy.

Source: CrunchGear | 18 Dec 2008 | 2:00 am

Today on Offworld

Today on Offworld, as Nintendo released its 100+ game list of DS and Wii titles expected through Spring of next year, we whittled it down to the essential 11 Offworld-ian titles to be excited for.

We also discovered that area/code's Chain Factor (one of our top web games of 2007) had been ported to the iPhone as snap7, listened to Merry Pixmas, a fantastic new chiptune Xmas album, and read Jim Rossignol's latest Ragdoll Metaphysics column on the Ten Things That Made Him Glad To Be A Gamer In 2008.

Elsewhere, we saw that Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill were also coming to the iPhone, heard another good holiday song with The Doyouinverts' Gears of War parody 'A Happy New Gear', saw a slightly slurred Burt Reynolds in the movies, flipped wistfully through the 1983 Sears Wishbook again, saw Spore's DRM debacle coming to half a close, at least, and heard reports that certain job recruiters have been told not to hire World of Warcraft players.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 18 Dec 2008 | 1:46 am

OLED Christmas tree: festive and efficient

Among the landmarks for OLED development, making a Christmas tree out of them probably isn’t high on a lot of researchers’ lists of priorities. Still, it’s a good demonstration of luminance and a very timely proof of GE’s inroads on OLED technology. With all the work being done on new illumination tech, we’re going to be looking at a display revolution over the next couple years.

It also really drives home the point on just how nerdy GE engineers must be.

[via HardOCP]

Source: CrunchGear | 18 Dec 2008 | 1:30 am

Pandora streaming radio now available for Windows Mobile

Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Communications, Cellphones, Mobile

Pandora has recently announced support for select Windows Mobile devices.  Unfortunately, the handsets that are supported are limited to just the HTC Touch and the Motorola Q9C.  Users of either of these handsets can browse over to www.pandora.com on their mobile browser to install the app. 

Pandora is free to download and free to use.  Personally, I would say it is the best music streaming service available.  For those unfamiliar, Pandora allows you to create customized stations that are based on an artist or song of your choice.  Hopefully, Pandora will continue to expand upon their supported device list.  In the meantime, Windows Mobile users can now begin to listen on the go.

Via [Mashable]

 

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2008 | 1:28 am

Apple at CES Instead of Macworld? Probably Not

Apple won't be showing up for Macworld Expo after 2009, and some are speculating the corporation might instead make appearances at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Why? In a nutshell, BusinessWeek's rationale is Apple could steal some of Microsoft's thunder at CES. And iPods and iPhones have "up-ended the consumer electronics industry," so Apple would have a huge impact at CES. Valid points.

But here are our thoughts: No way is that going to happen. Apple made it clear when pulling out of Macworld that it was over trade shows, and the corporation wouldn't undercut such a statement by participating in one of the largest trade shows in the world.   

"Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers," Apple said in a press release.

Besides, why would Apple ditch Macworld, a show where the corporation stood in the spotlight, for a bloated carcass like CES? That'd just be counterproductive and a huge mess for a company that likes to keep stuff simple; Apple would be throwing itself into a "bag of hurt."

Apple doesn't need to show up at CES to punk around Microsoft, either. Apple's "Get a Mac" commercials are proving so strong that Microsoft is struggling to fight back with its $300 million campaign.

So as much as we'd like to see Apple at CES, we don't think it's happening. Each year, Apple will likely hold a few more press conferences than normal -- but don't count on running into Steve Jobs at the Blackjack table.


Might Apple Be Ditching Macworld For CES? [BusinessWeek]

Photo: mdumlao98/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Dec 2008 | 1:23 am

Mac OS X Netbook Compatibility Chart

Who needs Psystar?

Apple says it's had "pretty interesting ideas" for a Mac netbook, but it's everyday users who've already taken action. Due to their similar technical underpinnings, most of the popular netbooks can run OS X, but there are plenty of caveats: non-functioning components which lack drivers and need to be replaced—or which simply can't be gotten to at all.

Unfortunately, the Googles are choked with info, and much of it's out of date. I'd like to maintain a one-look chart to help people figure out out if their netbook (or one they've got their eye on) will run it well enough to their needs.

The short answer: get an MSI Wind or Dell Mini 9. Thanks to new WiFi drivers (direct download), the Wind runs the whole show out the can.

Now, I'm 100 percent sure this first version has errors and omissions: post updates and corrections to the comments (or to me at rob at boing boing).

If you're thinking about making yourself a Hackintosh, know that it's still not a no-brainer. For starters, standard OS X disks won't work: you'll need to grab a hacked version of it from the tubes. This contravenes Apple's EULA, even if you own a legal copy. The following guides also generally require an external DVD drive and familiarity with the terminal.

How To Guides:
Running Mac OS X on a Netbook: Guide, Tips, Tutorial, Walkthrough [Ditii]
Run Mac OS X on an Eee PC [Wired]
OS X For the Eee PC 901 and 1000H [Mac Eee]
Install OS X on the MSI Wind [Make]
Guide to Installing OS X on a Lenovo Ideapad s10 [Netbook Tech]
OSX on a Samsung NC10 [Wired]

Again, corrections and updates are most welcome!

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 18 Dec 2008 | 1:22 am

Watercooler Brings Content From Every Major Television Network To Its 16MM TV Fans

The race is on between sites like Hulu and Joost to bring video content to the web, but as this content becomes more ubiquitous it will be the sites that go beyond basic video streaming that will ultimately be able to differentiate themselves. Watercooler, a development house behind several hundred community-based social network applications, is one company that is positioning itself well for this upcoming face-off. The startup has built up a community of 16 million registered users spanning its TV-centric applications on MySpace, Facebook, and other popular social networks, and has now signed deals with Hulu and Joost that make it one of the first sites on the web to offer content from every major TV network.

Watercooler launched its apps over 18 months ago (long before getting rights to any video content), offering an array of applications that allowed TV fans to interact in an environment focused on their favorite shows. Each application offers discussions, games, and other social content relevant to a specific show (for example, you can find the Addicted To Heroes app here on Facebook). But recently, Watercooler has made strides to take these social communities to the next level.

In October the site signed on Hulu to provide video for its applications, and last week the site launched its own video portal, TVloop. Today, Watercooler has added Joost to its list of partners, which means it now has full length content from Viacom, CBS, Fox, NBC, ABC, and the CW - a feat that CEO Kevin Chou says is the first on the web.

Watercooler isn’t offering every piece of content from these networks - instead, it only presents shows that have corresponding Watercooler applications (though the hundreds of apps available encompass most popular shows). And Chou says that the company isn’t setting out to take on the likes of Fancast or Hulu, but is instead looking to offer a complete package merging both a social community and the video content itself. Other sites may be able to match its video library, but building a thriving social community of 16 million (a third of whom are active on a monthly basis) is not something that will be easily reproduced - Chou says that competitors like Mesmo and TV.com still have only a small fraction of those numbers.

Another video portal looking to differentiate itself is Sling.com, which features integration with Sling’s popular video-streaming devices (you can see our initial review of the site here).

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

Source: TechCrunch | 18 Dec 2008 | 1:08 am

Huawei Android phones coming later than previously expected

Wuh oh - Looks like China’s Huawei Technologies might have spoken too soon when they announced that they’d have an Android-powered phone ready in the first half of 2009.

According to CNET, a Huawei spokesman has confirmed “that their first Android smartphone is scheduled to launch in the third quarter of 2009.”

Now, I’m not exactly known for my mathematical wizardry, but I’m pretty dang sure that the third quarter isn’t a part of the first half of 2009. Huawei officially joined the Open Handset Alliance a little over a week ago - might chumming around with the likes of Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and HTC be giving them reason to spend a bit more time polishing up their first release?

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 18 Dec 2008 | 1:07 am

NASA Space Shuttle, $48m shipped

A little more than you were probably planning on spending this holiday season, but… if you’re in the market for a slightly used space shuttle and have the space for it (climate control is a must), you’re not going to find it for any cheaper than this. Even on Craigslist. Sorry, main engines are not included (available separately for $400,000-$800,000).

The shuttle itself is actually going for $42m (OBO) — where they really get you is the shipping: $6m at the minimum for piggybacking on a custom jumbo jet to your local airport. Why can’t they just drop it in from orbit?

[via PhysOrg]

Source: CrunchGear | 18 Dec 2008 | 1:04 am

InPlay unveils WriteSense digital pen technology

InPlay Technologies, developer of human interface devices for computing and communication products, introduced its latest endeavor - WriteSense digital pen technology - in a press release earlier today.

The patent-pending technology couples active RF pen input with capacitive touch systems (an iPhone’s screen, for example) thereby:

eliminat[ing] the need for a separate electromagnetic digitizer by communicating directly with the capacitive touch sensor, resulting in a smaller three-dimensional form factor and a cost effective solution.

Currently, most capacitive touchscreens have little-to-no support for use with a stylus or fingernail.  InPlay’s WriteSense pen looks to solve this problem by allowing manufacturers to:

…integrate WriteSense into the existing capacitive touch architecture already being adopted for mobile devices. The active digital pen enables the precision, accuracy and speed of pen input, and the ability for advanced features based on InPlay’s unique digital architecture. Unlike most pen input systems that utilize analog communication, InPlay technology uses digital stream communication bringing stronger performance and enhanced feature capability.

Don’t have any idea what the hell “digital stream communication” might be? Don’t worry, neither do we. As long as it works and doesn’t melt our iDevices, no reason to get too worked up by the marketing fodder lingo. Furthermore, as an iPod touch user, I’ve never once wished I could use a stylus as an input device.

On the other hand, this sort of technology would be useful in a tablet PC/UMPC/MID or any other capacitive device that is intended for use with handwriting programs or other applications requiring more accuracy.  The company says that WriteSense will be commercially available in mid 2009.

[via GottaBeMobile]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 18 Dec 2008 | 12:40 am

Bike-powered rim shot for your cycling-related puns

Check out this preview of the Make: television program coming in January to public television. Paul Da Plumber from Cyclecide has made a bicycle-powered rimshot from recycled materials. Now if only he would make that into an attachment for my bike!

I’m sure we’ll be seeing more Make: previews as their television debut approaches.

Source: CrunchGear | 18 Dec 2008 | 12:36 am

Scans of vidgames from 1983 Sears catalog

Over at Boing Boing Offworld, Brandon gets nostalgic (as did I) after looking at scans of the 1983 Sears Wish Book catalog pages of videogame systems. "What fun life was: the 1983 Sears Wish Book's game wares"

Source: Boing Boing | 18 Dec 2008 | 12:35 am

Lenovo’s IdeaPad S9 netbook now available in the US

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops

Lenovo has just announced the US availability of the IdeaPad S9 netbook.  However it does not seem like it will attract the same attention as the slightly larger S10 has found.  As for features, the S9 has an 8.9-inch display with a 1024 x 600 resolution, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 512MB RAM and a 4GB SSD.  In addition it is running Linpus Linux Lite and weighs in at 2.4-pounds. 

Another important item to point out is the overall measurements, (more on this to follow) which come in at 9.8 x 7.2 x 1-inches.  The IdeaPad S9 also features Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Ethernet, Bluetooth, a 0.3-megapixel webcam, stereo speakers, two USB ports, built in card reader, ExpressCard slot and a VGA output.

Now getting back to the importance of the dimensions, the IdeaPad S10 is measuring in at the same overall size and it also shares many of the features of the S9. The S10 comes with a 10-inch display and still has the same processor and RAM.  The main difference between the two netbooks is in terms of storage and operating system, as opposed to the 4GB SSD and Linpus found in the S9, the S10 has an 80GB hard drive and is running Windows XP.

Another potential fault of the IdeaPad S9 comes in relation to the pricing, it is retailing for $344.99, which is a decent price, until you see the IdeaPad S10 is now as low as $349.  For just a few dollars more you can get an operating system that more people are familiar with, more storage and a slightly larger display—all in a casing that is the same overall size.

[Laptoping]

Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 18 Dec 2008 | 12:30 am

2008 among Earth's warmest since 1850

This year is stacking up to be Earth's 10th warmest in 158 years of record keeping, U.N. officials said Wednesday in New York. The U.N.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Dec 2008 | 12:21 am

Beejive IM for iPhone to go on sale tonight at midnight

As the proud owners of some of the most callused thumbs you’ll ever see, we’re pretty fond of the landscape keyboard and overall stability offered up by Beejive for the iPhone. What we’re not so fond of, however, is the $16 dollar price tag.

For the sake of the folks out there looking to give away copies of BeejiveIM as e-stocking stuffers (and, presumably, as an effort to maintain their #4 Paid Social Site app rank through the holidays), they’ll be cut just shy of 20% off of the app from tonight at midnight pacific until December 27th. At $12.99 it’s still not cheap - but if you were considering it at $16, now you can nab it up and grab yourself a bonus 99¢ app or three while you’re at it. Even better, throw the three dollars you saved into the air and pretend you’re in a low-budget rap video.

[BeeJiveIM iTunes link]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 18 Dec 2008 | 12:17 am

Start Saving To Buy Your Space Shuttle Now

stoolpigeon writes "With the retirement of the shuttle drawing near, NASA has begun to plan for museums that may want a used orbiter of their own. The Orlando Sentinel reports that NASA issued an RFI to U.S. educational institutions, science museums and other organizations to see if they would be interested in the orbiter while also able to cover the estimated $42 million cost of 'safeing' the shuttle and transporting it."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 18 Dec 2008 | 12:16 am

Your Report Card Is Your Stock Price? Guess Sirius Is Making Straight $.13’s… [Digital Daily]

Your report card is your stock price.”

– Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin, August 2007

In November of 2007, shares in Sirius XM (SIRI) were trading at $3.94. Today they’re at $.13. Suffice to say, the company’s shareholder meeting tomorrow will be a critical one for the struggling satellite radio outfit and for CEO Mel Karmazin, who’s presided over its more than 85 percent decline in–some might say destruction of–shareholder value. And now, with $1 billion in debt coming due in 2009, and Sirius in serious danger of being delisted, Karmazin faces the uniquely difficult task of convincing ornery shareholders to back a reverse stock-split measure. If they do, the company will be able to put off that Nasdaq delisting notice that’s clearly been in the offing for some time now.

But it’s going to be a tough sell. Already, a number of investors are vehemently opposing the idea, among them, the Save Sirius coalition, which is pursuing legal action against the satellite broadcaster and its leadership for alleged violation of fiduciary duties.

Source: All Things Digital | 18 Dec 2008 | 12:01 am

Foodista Tries To Prove That More Cooks In the Kitchen Will Produce A Better Recipe

How many cooks does it take to produce the perfect recipe? I’d say one, a really good one. Barnaby Dorfman thinks that 1,000 cooks can come up with a better recipe than any single chef, and earlier today he launched Foodista around that premise. It is a Wikipedia for food. Each recipe can be collaboratively edited and improved. Scrumptious photos for each dish are pulled in from Flickr, and descriptions are pulled in from Wikipedia itself. You can add or remove ingredients, see the edit history, or add a comment to each page.

The site is well-designed and was put together by Dorfman and two other co-founders on their own dime. It will have to overcome some pretty stuff competition from both established sites like AllRecipes and the Food Network, as well as new cooking sites like Cookstr (read our review) and Open Source Food.

But Dorfman thinks he can do better than all of those sites by collecting better data and organizing it in a smarter way. Foodista borrows not only from Wikipedia, but also from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), part of which Dorfman used to run when he was at Amazon a few years ago. Every recipe, ingredient, cooking technique, and kitchen utensil links to every other mention of the same thing throughout the site. Dorfman says:

We are taking a structured-data approach to cooking.

Getting the data model right makes it easier to find related recipes along any given dimension. It also will open the door to lots of cool features down the road, like figuring out the nutritional value of each recipe. The entire site, by the way, is built entirely on Amazon Web Services (EC2, S3, and SimpleDB).

The biggest issue facing Foodista is whether a collaborative approach to cooking can ever work. The entire premise of the site is that 1,000 contributors can somehow come up with the perfect recipe. But as any foodie can tell you, many times there is no standard recipe for a dish. There are always variations, which is what makes cooking interesting. Your mother cooks chicken soup differently than mine.

As Dorfman was telling me about his site the other day, I looked up the recipe for cassoulet. One of the ingredients was curry. This is a French dish. Curry might make it taste better (although, I doubt it), but it doesn’t belong in the one standard recipe that Foodista presents. Dorfman simply took it out. I’m not sure who won that argument. Me, for pointing out a flaw in a recipe, or Dorfman, for showing how recipes could become better over time.

The problem is they could also become worse over time, or simply devolve to a bland consensus. Why not allow variations? Dorfman is not opposed to that, but what he wants to avoid is to have “50 cassoulet recipes, and they are all the same.” Fair enough, but let’s at least start with the best recipes.

A few spot checks don’t give me a lot of confidence that all of the recipes are quite yet up to snuff. For instance, take the entry for cioppino, a seafood stew usually made with white wine. The recipe lists both red and white wine, which is just wrong on so many levels. It’s like cooking with a rosé.

My other issue with the site is that it pulls random photos of the dish in question from Flickr, which do not show the recipe you are trying to prepare. This was the case with the cassoulet entry. It showed a picture with a big duck leg confit, which is a key ingredient. But that ingredient wasn’t listed in the recipe (I added it). The reason cookbooks come with big pictures is because food is visual and, for the cook, it helps to visualize what you are trying to create. That means the pictures and the recipes have to match.

These are minor quibbles. I’m sure the wiki cooking hordes will prove me wrong in the end.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:54 pm

Comment of the day

Following our post about an old book warning of the dangers of electrocution, it was pointed out that modern wiring, with its circuit breakers and ground fault interruptors and what-have-you, makes many of the scenarios technically unlikely. Enter Kwillets:

We need new, sustainable ways to electrocute ourselves with solar and wind power.

Bravo! You win a hairdryer and a bathtub.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:49 pm

Video: teenagers tear up some bluegrass

I've posted a few times over the years about Greg Fleischut, an insanely-talented teenage musician I know. For the last two years, Greg has been gigging around San Francisco with his indie rock band Audiophiles, but his mom just dug up this video from two years ago that reveals Greg's acoustic roots. At the time, Greg was visiting with a couple musician pals in Massachusetts -- Etienne Cremieux and Eric Oliver -- and, of course, they got to jamming, with Etienne on mandolin and Greg (left) and Eric (right) on geetar. It is absolutely incredible, like speed metal bluegrass. The boys were 15 at the time.

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:39 pm

'Timecrimes' Director Masters Creepy Sci-Fi on a Shoestring

With the simplest of props and a masterful script, Nacho Vigalondo crafts a convincing and compelling time-travel story.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:31 pm

World Coal Reserves Could Be a Fraction of Previous Estimates

The world could have far less coal to burn in the coming decades than previously estimated, according to a new model from a Caltech engineer. The new data could transform the climate models that scientists use to estimate future global warming.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:30 pm

Toshiba Launches Industry's First 512GB Solid State Drive and Next-Generation SSD Family Using 43nm MLC NAND

IRVINE, Calif. and TOKYO, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba Corp. (Toshiba) and Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:30 pm

People want access to their media everywhere

Section: Computers, Networking, Wireless, Web, Online Music/Video

Media viewing via the computer is becoming ever more popular.  Why buy a DVD when you can (legally) download a movie off many websites now?  The same goes for music and other forms of media.

The problem is viewing your stored media from a different source that is not your home computer.  According to a survey done by Parks Associates, a market research company, 33% of broadband households are looking for ways to view their stored media from outside of their house.  In other words, they are looking for some type of remote access viewing.

With this new demand for remote access, service providers will need to supplement their packages with networking plans.  Parks Associates predicts that over 50 million households worldwide will take advantage of this networking plan by the year 2012.

This is a big project for service providers and developers right now because of the ever growing popularity of downloaded media.  We can only sit and watch what developers are doing now to improve upon this demand.  Hopefully, in the near future, we will be able to view our media from anywhere.

Read[ PR Newswire]
Via[Parks Associates]

Full Story » | Written by Jessica Moen for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:23 pm

Samsung and Westinghouse PR rep goes crazy after being asked not to spam bloggers

At this time of year, tech writers are inundated with spam from CES attendees. Some of them pay attention to what beats writers actually cover, but many shovel their PR to the entire god-damned list. PhoneScoop, which covers cellular telephones, received a missive from Samsung and Westinghouse PR rep Lois Whitman, pitching televisions. Their request for this not to happen again was polite enough. Lois' response, however, was an exercise in madness:

"I don’t need you to tell me what is right or what is wrong.

I have been in the CE business for 42 years

I have seen nasty people like you melt away faster than a snowball going up hill in the rain

I am waiting for an apology

Maybe we can meet at CES for a hug or a slug

P.S. I just visited your web site. I would hardly call your blog a
publication."

Read the full thing at CrunchGear: PR and the fine art of not being crazy [CrunchGear]

Photo: Lois Whitman

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:20 pm

How To Build a Homebrew PS3 Cluster Supercomputer

eldavojohn writes "UMass Dartmouth Physics Professor Gaurav Khanna and UMass Dartmouth Principal Investigator Chris Poulin have created a step-by-step guide designed to show you how to build your own supercomputer for about $4,000. They are also hoping that by publishing this guide they will bring about a new kind of software development targeting this architecture & grid (I know a few failed NLP projects of my own that could use some new hardware). If this catches on for research institutions it may increase Sony's sales, but they might not be seeing the corresponding sale of games spike (where they make the most profit)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:18 pm

LinkedIn founder updates resume, reclaims CEO job (AP)

AP - After taking a back seat for nearly two years, LinkedIn Corp. founder Reid Hoffman is reclaiming the CEO's job and bringing in former Yahoo Inc. executive Jeff Weiner to help steer the online professional network through its next phase of growth.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:14 pm

Cloudlet Plugin Brings Tag-Based Search To Google; Yahoo

Simple and useful, exactly the way I like ‘em: Cloudlet effectively brings tag-based search to Google and Yahoo in the form of an add-on for the Firefox browser (except for the latest 3.1 beta). That’s about all it does, and it does it well.

You really have to try it before you judge it, but as far as I’m concerned it’s a winner even if experimental and still in beta. It basically inserts a context-aware tag cloud into the traditional search interface to help you navigate through your search queries swiftly and intelligently. You can filter by keyword tags, but also by websites and even domain name extensions, and turning it off is as easy as clicking your mouse. The add-on even works on Google News both for source and location tag clouds, and enables you to filter down by author in Google BlogSearch.

You can watch a demo video here, but I kindly recommend you to turn off sound, unless you’re into Eastern European classical music.

It looks a whole lot like Tweetag, which does the same for searching Twitter, and also reminds me of Quintura, an alternative search engine platform that is centered around tag clouds for navigation.

I’ve been switching back and forth between Chrome and Firefox ever since Google came out with its own browser (it’s all about the speed, baby), but these extensions are exactly what’s stopping me from going with Chrome altogether.

Cloudlet was developed by the International Software & Productivity Engineering Institute (INTSPEI), a research organization with offices in New York and Kiev (Ukraine).

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

Source: TechCrunch | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:09 pm

An unconventional use for the Wii Nunchuck controller

Wow, this is pretty sweet. Oomlout, creaters of the OAWR and SERB robot projects, are using a Wii Nunchuck to control their SERB robot. Too bad it’s not wireless.

If you’re curious about Oomlout’s work, you can check out their website or their photostream on Flickr. From their website, you can find out how to make your own one of these bots, and purchase a kit for $175. Christmas present, maybe?

Source: CrunchGear | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:00 pm

LinkedIn’s Hoffman Takes Back CEO Title, as Nye Departs and Weiner Enters [BoomTown]

Well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur Reid Hoffman (pictured here) will become CEO of LinkedIn again, taking on the job he had for nearly four years after founding the business networking company in 2003.

Hoffman replaces current CEO Dan Nye, who has resigned and will leave the company in mid-January. He came to LinkedIn almost two years ago and was positioned then as the person who was going to eventually be taking LinkedIn public.

More interesting in the shift is the appointment of former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner as interim president, overseeing day-to-day operations at LinkedIn.

Weiner has been an executive-in-residence at both Accel Partners and Greylock Partners (a LinkedIn investor) since he left Yahoo earlier this year.

He will remain at those venture firms during the transition, even though he will be working at LinkedIn too. At Yahoo (YHOO), Weiner was EVP of the Network Division, which included all of its consumer-facing units.

In an interview earlier today, Hoffman portrayed the changes as friendly, praising Nye’s efforts as top exec, noting the company’s growth from eight million members to 33 million, reaching profitability, and its $53 million in funding in June at a $1 billion valuation.

But, Hoffman said, “We came to the decision that I needed to be working full time, driving the vision.”

Nye (pictured here) noted the recent hiring of Google (GOOG) exec Dipchand “Deep” Nishar as VP of products, which he spearheaded, was an important moment. Hoffman had been in charge of products.

“I wanted to grow this company into a world-class operation,” he said. “Now, Reid needs no friction, so he can move quickly and do what’s necessary for the next phase.”

Weiner (pictured here) said he was looking forward to getting back into operations, after playing an advisory role recently. “I have been really impressed with the company the leadership team has built,” he said. “I see a lot more potential going forward.”

Although it has raised $100 million in total, LinkedIn has not been immune to the recent economic weakness across Silicon Valley. It recently did some layoffs too, and has been focusing much more on increasing the number of revenue streams it has.

Below is a video interview I did with Weiner in June of 2007, when he was still at Yahoo.

And, below that is another I did with Nye, nine months after he first got to LinkedIn, in which he talks about his plans for the company. (Yes, that is a Hawaiian shirt, and Nye does give Yahoo advice in it.)

Weiner:

Nye:

Source: All Things Digital | 17 Dec 2008 | 11:00 pm

Management Shakeup At LinkedIn: Reid Hoffman Takes Back CEO Role, Jeff Weiner As Interim President

Big changes at fast growing professional social network LinkedIn this afternoon. Founder Reid Hoffman has retaken the CEO role, which he relinquished to former Intuit exec Dan Nye in early 2007. Nye is leaving LinkedIn in January, although the company says he will stay on as an advisor.

Former Yahoo executive Jeff Weiner is joining the company full time as interim President. Weiner is currently an Executive-in-Residence for venture capital firms firms Accel Partners and Greylock Partners, and he will maintain a loose relationship with the firms, he says. Weiner left his position at Yahoo in the early summer.

Last week the company grabbed a Google executive, Deep Nishar, to take over Hoffman’s current role as head of the products group at LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has raised $103 million in venture capital to date and has 11.2 million monthly worldwide visitors according to Comscore (October 2008).

What’s not clear is why all this is happening. LinkedIn says their revenues continue to grow dramatically - up 900% over the last two years (although they won’t say what their actual revenue is). When Hoffman stepped down as CEO in 2007 he said the company needed a different leader to grow it further. Now, he says Nye has done that job and it’s time for him to take back the reins.

The addition of Weiner is also quirky, and may explain the changes. Weiner was likely expecting a CEO role as his next job. He’s now second to Hoffman. Perhaps the company is using the interim period to see how he can handle himself leading the company. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Weiner take the CEO job at LinkedIn sometime in 2009, or else leave the company.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:58 pm

Muntadar "Shoe-Tossing Iraqi Guy" al-Zaidi: Jailed, Beaten, Status Unknown

I've been posting some funny internet ephemera related to the Bush Shoe-Tossing Incident over the last few days, but what's since happened to the 28-year-old Iraqi journalist who hurled his loafers at outgoing American war criminal George W. Bush is not funny. There are concerns al-Zaidi may have been tortured or abused. He is in jail with little or no information available about his present condition or whereabouts. Boing Boing community manager Teresa Nielsen Hayden writes,

Muntadar Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George Bush, needs to be rescued.

According to his brother Durgham Zaidi, Muntadar Zaidi is in the heavily fortified Green Zone compound in central Baghdad where the US embassy and most Government offices are housed. He’s being held there by Iraqi forces under the command of Muaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser.

“He has got a broken arm and ribs, and cuts to his eye and arm,” Durgham said.

Three things the entire world knows:

1. Bush dodged both shoes with impressive speed, and didn’t seem upset.
2. It was a symbolic act of contempt, not an attack.
3. If Muntadar Zaidi had intended harm, he wouldn’t have been throwing shoes.

One more extremely important thing the whole world knows: It may have been a serious expression of contempt, but it was also funny.

Free Muntadar Zaidi now! (Making Light)

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:51 pm

Student Show Off Interactive Inventions

Image 1: Creating sound with a music generator called "Music to My Gears." (Melani King photo)Image 2: Ryan Kaufman and Sean Carey test drive their "Ergo Desk." (Melani King photo)Image 3: "Digital Shadow," a fun TUI project with a serious subject — online privacy. (Melani King photo)
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:49 pm

GM Puts the Volt's Engine Factory on Hold

General Motors says its finances are so bleak it has no choice, but it says the Volt's development continues as planned.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:45 pm

Scientists try to let the blind `see' fish (AP)

AP - As brightly colored fish dart in and out of the rocks scattered in a small aquarium, a bewildering melody follows each of their movements.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:40 pm

Consumer Group Calls on Google to Match Yahoo!'s Data Retention Policy, Offer Additional Privacy Guarantees; Warns That Personal Data Remains on Search Companies' Servers

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Dec.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:36 pm

'Spear Phishing' Increasing

A new study by Cisco Systems Inc., found an increase of personalized spam that lures victims to fake Web sites so criminals can steal their personal information.Online identity thieves create these fake e-mails using stolen lists of email addresses or poached data about their victims, such
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:30 pm

Power Generating Floor in Train Stations Light Up Holiday Displays

A piezoelectric power mat installed outside a popular Japanese train station is introducing commuters to the usefulness of self-generating energy.

The 90-square-centimeter, 2.5-centimeter-thick mat at the Shibuya station in Tokyo, Japan, generates electricity every time a person steps on it, lighting up a Holiday light display on one of the station's wall. It also powers an LED board that updates, in real time, the total amount of electricity created. It is estimated that 2.4 million people pass through the huge Shibuya Station every day.

The piezoelectric mat creates a voltage of energy by applying a charge between the material sheets at the moment of impact, or what some call 'applied mechanical stress.' The power is stored inside the capacitors and sent to the displays. 

According to planner Yoshiaki Takuya from Soundpower Corp., the company that created the mat, a person that weighs about 135 lbs generates 0.1 watts in the one second they usually take to step on the tile. "But when they are covering a large area of floor space and thousands of people are stepping or jumping on them," Tayuka says, "then, we can generate significant amounts of power."

The mat is a joint project between the Shibuya Ward government and Soundpower to bring about greater public support for clean energy initiatives, while also offering the company a good research opportunity.

At another large Tokyo train station, special floor ceramic tiles have also been installed in front of ticket turnstiles to trigger small vibrations stored as energy.

The ceramic tiles are supported by rubber sheet layers that absorb the vibrations.

Because it's estimated that 400,000 people use this second station every day, the company hopes the pedal power will, at least, generate enough electricity to cover the amount used by the turnstiles and a few LED signs in the station.

Photos: AFP/Getty, ASCII, Soundwave

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:29 pm

Nvidia's Ion Set To Turbocharge Netbooks

Lightweight netbooks are pretty little devices to have around but their wallet-friendly price tag comes at a cost. Netbooks today can do little beyond basic internet surfing. That's set to change, says Nvidia.

The company is planning to launch a CPU-GPU combo that would combine Intel's Atom processor and Nvidia’s GeForce 9400M motherboard graphics processing unit (GPU) into a new platform called Ion.

Ion, which is likely to debut in the first half of 2009, can potentially offer graphics and video performance that is ten times better than just an Atom-processor based device, says Nvidia.

The platform will also be powerful enough to go beyond Windows XP and run Vista and potentially even  Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 7.

An Ion-platform machine will generate less heat than a current Atom system, while offering battery life that is about the same, says PC World.

Clearly this is the next evolutionary step for netbooks. While netbooks score on price, size and weight, their limited processing capabilities render them almost useless for some time-killing activities such as playing some World of Warcraft or watching crazy animal videos on YouTube without the machine stalling several times.

Companies other than Nvidia are also taking note of this limitation. AMD is planning to release Yukon, its CPU-GPU combo for netbooks, next year.

It is likely Nvidia's Ion will hit the market first. It could be a little more expensive than just Atom-based machines but it's a price most consumers should be willing to pay.

Photo: Nvidia Ion (Masaru Kamikura/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:28 pm

2,100-Year-Old Antikythera Device Recreated in Working Form

coondoggie writes "A new working model of the mysterious 2,100-year-old astronomical calculator, dubbed the Antikythera Device, has been unveiled, incorporating the most recent discoveries announced two years ago by an international team of researchers. The new model was demonstrated by its creator, former museum curator Michael Wright, who had created an earlier model based on decades of study."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:26 pm

Susie Bright: My Little Chat with Playboy Today

This morning, I got a note from the "Playboy Advisor" - yes, the man who, for every generation, knows how to tune your stereo, tie a Windsor knot, and find the g-spot with a blindfold on:

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Hi Susie,

Our new issue, on newsstands next week, includes a list I compiled of the "55 Most Important People in Sex" of the past 55 years.

I wanted to see if you might like to respond with a letter to the editor that addresses anyone you feel is ranked too high or too low -- and/or argue for anyone who isn't on the list but should be.

We plan to publish responses in the April issue. Thanks for considering it.

Chip Rowe
Senior Editor
Playboy Magazine

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Hi Chip,

You should be on the list. So should I!

I'm sure you can guess; your list pissed me off - it has way too many sad pin-up girls, who are only there because of some Svengali in their lives, not because of their own efforts or sexual initiative. There's not a single man of that ilk on the list.

And how about Terry Southern?...

I do like the many scientists you included, because people will be amazed to know their achievements. The real question is, who does one have to sleep with to get on the list?

Susie

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(Keep reading -- there's much more after the jump!)

S,

You actually were on the short list, but let's just say I lost some arguments about the final 20.Tell me two or three names of women you would have included!

Chip

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Okay... Where is Simone de Beauvoir, Shere Hite, or Pat Califia? Joani Blank, Anais Nin, Pauline Réage?

Don't get me started!

Then there's gay liberation. How can we imagine sexual revolution without it? Kinsey was bisexual. Dan Savage deserves a place near the top.

S.

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Wonderful! In my defense, the list is limited to last 55 years; de Beauvoir's most influential work, The Second Sex, was from 1949- and Nin is best known for her erotic diaries from the 1930s, although they weren't published until the 1960s, so you have me there. Story of O was 1953, although that's certainly close enough. Dan Savage and Southern, those are good.

Chip

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Señor,

Okay, I actually chewed over those elder entries! Beavoir almost single-handedly led French feminism in 60s & 70s, w/out being a prude, like Steinem.

And Anais made the decision to release Delta of Venus, et al, on 70s , when they had greatest impact

The best known names are always dead, sadly. I can't wait for my posthumous PB tribute!

SB

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Susie,

Good points. Can I add that comment about Beauvoir?

Here's the list:

1 Alfred Kinsey
2 Dr. John Rock
3 Hugh Hefner
4 Alex Comfort
5 Marilyn Monroe
6 Monica Lewinsky
7 The Rolling Stones
8 Timothy Berners-Lee
9 Peter Dunn and Albert Wood
10 Madonna
11 Helen Gurley Brown
12 Charles Ginsburg
13 Ruth Westheimer
14 Elvis Presley
15 Masters and Johnson
16 Howard Stern
17 Ed Meese
18 Brigitte Bardot
19 Estelle Griswold
20 Bo Derek
21 Catharine MacKinnon
22 Vladimir Nabokov
23 Anita Bryant
24 Farrah Fawcett
25 Erica Jong
26 Barney Rosset
27 Germaine Greer
28 Christine Jorgensen
29 Pamela Anderson
30 Frank Sinatra
31 Nancy Friday
32 Jenna Jameson
33 William O. Douglas
34 Philip Roth
35 Charles Keating Jr.
36 Candace Bushnell
37 Dr. Mary Calderone
38 Beverly Whipple
39 Alberto Vargas
40 Potter Stewart
41 Linda Lovelace
42 Mike Nichols
43 Betty Dodson
44 Dr. David Reuben
45 Ian Fleming
46 Lenny Bruce
47 Gloria Steinem
48 Robert Mapplethorpe
49 Danni Ashe
50 J. Edgar Hoover
51 Gay Talese
52 Rock Hudson
53 Bernardo Bertolucci
54 Dell Williams
55 Rudi Gernreich

(Susie Bright is a guest blogger)

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:20 pm

Yahoo To Cut Back Personal Data Storage

Yahoo is planning to cut the amount of time it stores personal data gathered from Web surfing by three months, making its retention policy the shortest among peers, the company said on Wednesday.The popular Internet company said it will "anonymize" the computer addresses of its users within three months in most cases, from a prior standard of 13 months.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:07 pm

Retro HOWTO: Keyboard Art

I have no source!

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:03 pm

Congratulations to our HP Magic Giveaway Winner

Section: Features, Contests

Everybody on the Dabbledoo team wants to congratulate Brian Darnell, the winner of the HP Magic Giveaway.  He will be sharing his good fortune with the Stone City Christian Academy.  We hope you and the school can put this fantastic gift package to good use.  Also, a big thank you to the all the vendors behind the HP Magic Giveaway. 

Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:00 pm

Jobs Won’t Deliver Keynote Address At Macworld

Image Caption: Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs delivers the keynote address at the Apple Worldwide Development Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on June 9, 2008. He unveiled the new iPhone. (UPI Photo/Terry Schmitt)
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Dec 2008 | 10:00 pm

Photo of young Obama

Is this a photo of our next president? I hope so!

UPDATE: Yep, it's him. (Thanks, Florian!)

Source: Boing Boing | 17 Dec 2008 | 9:57 pm

'Hobbit' Fossils A New Species

Researchers compare cranial features using 3-D modelingUniversity of Minnesota anthropology professor Kieran McNulty (along with colleague Karen Baab of Stony Brook University in New York) has made an important contribution toward solving one of the greatest paleoanthropological mysteries in recent history -- that fossilized skeletons resembling a mythical "hobbit" creature represent an entirely new species in humanity's evolutionary chain.Discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, controversy has surrounded the fossilized hominid skeletons of the so-called "hobbit people," or Homo floresiensis ever since. Experts are still debating whether the 18,000-year-old remains merely belong to a diminutive population of modern-day humans (with one individual exhibiting "microcephaly," an abnormally small head) or represent a previously unrecognized branch in humanity's family tree.Using 3D modeling methods, McNulty and his fellow researchers compared the cranial features of this real-life "hobbit" to those of a simulated fossil human (of similar stature) to determine whether or not such a species was distinct from modern humans."[Homo floresiensis] is the most exciting discovery in probably the last 50 years," said McNulty. "The specimens have skulls that resemble something that died a million years earlier, and other body parts reminiscent of our three-million-year-old human ancestors, yet they lived until very recently -- contemporaries with modern humans."Comparing the simulation to the original Flores skull discovered in 2003, McNulty and Baab were able to demonstrate conclusively that the original "hobbit" skull fits the expectations for a small fossil hominin species and not a modern human. Their study was published online this month in the Journal of Human Evolution.The cranial structure of the fossilized skull, says the study, clearly places it in humanity's genus Homo, even though it would be smaller in both body and brain size than any other member. The results of the study suggest that the theorized "hobbit" species may have undergone a process of size reduction after branching off from Homo erectus (one of modern day humanity's distant ancestors) or even something more primitive."We have shown with this study that the process of size reduction applied to fossil hominins accounts for many features seen in the fossil skull from Flores," McNulty said. "It becomes much more difficult, therefore, to defend the hypothesis that the preserved skull is a modern human who simply suffered from an extremely rare disorder.Public interest in the discovery, analysis and implications of Flores "hobbits" has been high ever since 2003, inspiring several television specials (including a recent episode of "NOVA" entitled "Alien From Earth") and other media attention.While the debate over Homo floresiensis will continue, McNulty believes this comprehensive analysis of the relationship between size and shape in human evolution is a critical step toward eventually understanding the place of the Flores "hobbits" in human evolutionary history."I think the majority of researchers favor recognizing this as a new species," McNulty said about the categorization of Homo floresiensis. "The evidence is becoming overwhelming, and this study helps confirm that view."---Image Caption: Homo floresiensis. Courtesy Ryan Somma - Wikipedia
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 9:53 pm

Spectacular Space Photo of Christmas Tree Star Cluster

The Christmas Tree Star Cluster makes for an awesome photo as shown in an image from the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The bright blue stars, set against a swirling red gas background, are reminiscent of ornaments on a tree.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Dec 2008 | 9:30 pm

Official Wrongfully Influenced Endangered Species Decisions

Image Caption: The Siberian Tiger is a subspecies of tiger that is critically endangered, 3 subspecies of tiger are already extinct. Courtesy Wikipedia
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 9:05 pm

“Screw You Yahoo” Says Former Consultant

Michelle Chappel, who created the video above, writes in to give us her view of the fall of Yahoo from an insiders perspective:

I have a news tip about a topic you’ve covered: the Yahoo layoffs.

I’ve been a consultant/contractor at Yahoo three different times. It’s one of my favorite companies to work for–including AltaVista, Google, TiVo, and eBay–because the people are so nice there! Here is some background information on what it was like to be at Yahoo right before the fall, as well as a recount of my experience on “Layoff Day.”

The fact that Yahoo would be having another round of layoffs was first announced at a company-wide meeting an hour before Yahoo threw a huge Oktoberfest party in which beer, bratwurst and German chocolate cake were served to everyone on campus. A week later we received sparkling wine and cupcakes to celebrate a recent Developer Network (YDN) success. Many people were curious as to why so much money was being spent on these parties, not to mention the upcoming Christmas party, because Yahoo was in such dire straights.

The layoffs were preceded by a massive re-org. Suddenly we were having lots of meetings with people we’d never worked with before. The rumor going ’round was that if you were a manager with fewer than 5 reports, you’d either be demoted, or fired. One woman who lost all her reports packed up her desk weeks in advance of layoffs because she couldn’t take the pressure anymore. She’d always seemed so sure of herself before. A couple of others told me they secretly wished they’d be let go because they were sick of all the changes at Yahoo this past year. One girlfriend admitted she was very angry about it all, and that Jerry Yang had screwed up. But most people at Yahoo stayed quiet… and tried to be good… and extra dutiful… to save their jobs.

Towards the end, some of us were asked to submit reports again and again, and we all knew it was so that the powers-that-be could determine who would stay and who would go. Some people just stopped working altogether because there was nothing to do. We were pretty sure folks were going to lose their jobs on December 10th because all the classrooms had been booked on that day. But at meetings right before Thanksgiving, the date “December 10th” wasn’t even placed on timelines on whiteboards. It was as if nothing was going to happen, even though we all knew layoffs were inevitable. The VP of my division sent LinkedIn invites to all his reports in late November, so we figured that meant he was going to be asked to leave. But we weren’t sure because he was such a stellar boss. It made no sense. It was a crazy time.

On the day Yahoo was having layoffs I recorded a music video called “S**** You Yahoo”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gn4soId0EM&fmt=22

It broke my heart to watch friends and co-workers worry about whether they’d lose their jobs. I wanted them to know they’re not alone, encourage them to have hope, and maybe even make them laugh a little. The video even proposes an out-of-the-box solution to our trying economic times. I used your layoff tracker and Yahoo piece (12/10/08) for the statistics in it. (Best to watch it in HD so you can read the signs.)

I hope this background information is interesting to you, and that you enjoy the music video. This song is not just about Yahoo, it’s about all companies having layoffs right now. It would be terrific if you’d consider doing a story on this to help raise people’s spirits during this economic downturn.

Happy Holidays!
Michelle

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

Source: TechCrunch | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:57 pm

LUCA Was Original Ancestor, Not Adam And Eve

Here's another argument against intelligent design.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:57 pm

Are Power And Compassion Mutually Exclusive?

The fact that many cultures emphasize the concept of “noblesse oblige” (the idea that with great power and prestige come responsibilities) suggests that power may diminish a tendency to help others. Psychologist Gerben A.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:41 pm

Gadgetell Review: Flip Mino HD

Section: Video, Accessories, Portable Video, Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous, Imaging, Camcorders, Reviews, Features

Quick Review

What is it?

• The Flip Mino HD is a tiny, pocketable, HD camcorder by PureDigital.

What’s Cool:

• Very easy to use.
• Form factor makes it easy to carry around.
• HD video quality is okay.

What’s Not:

• Shiny surface is a fingerprint magnet.
• Low light performance is not as good as the Kodak Zi6.
• Limited to built-in memory / No port for SD or microSD card.

The Crux:

• The Flip Mino HD is fine for what it is, a pocket HD camcorder.  The Kodak Zi6 may be a better value, but the Mino HD is smaller and a slicker looking device with decent quality footage.

Out of the box

When you open the box, you remove another box.  This second box is very iPhone-like and presents the Flip Mino HD like a fine piece of technology.  You’ll get the camera, a fabric case, wrist strap, and a composite cable to hook up the camera to a television.  Unfortunately, there are no component cables to watch your footage in HD on your television.

Camera hardware

 
The camera looks slick with its black and silver color scheme.  The screen on the Mino is about the same size as the screen on the iPod nano first generation at 1.5 inches.  Speakers flank the screen and most of the camera controls are located under the screen.

The power button is on the side and is somewhat recessed to prevent accidentaly turning on the camera in your pocket.  There is a TV out on the other side of the camera.  The top of the device features the flip out USB connector.  There is no USB extension cable included.  The bottom of the case sports a tripod connector which is always nice.

There is 4GB of built-in memory and no expansion slots for a SD or microSD card.  PureDigital claims that you can get about an hour of 720P video with the built-in 4GB.

Performance

Using the camera is very easy.  Turn it on and the touch sensitive buttons light up.  To record, hit the big red button.  There are no modes to choose from—all videos are recorded at 720P and 30 fps.

The viewfinder/display tells you how much time the built-in memory can record.  The small screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio, but all video is in the 16:9 format.  When recording or playing back video on the device, there are black bars on the top and bottom of the display.  Flip fills up those black bars with information like battery life and time remaining.  Since the text is on the black bars, they are easy to read even on the small screen.

Video quality is decent.  You will not replace a $600 HD camcorder with the Flip Mino HD, but you will have high resolution videos that are just fine for sharing with friends and family.  Like any camera, lighting is key to video quality.  The colors are a little washed out and the microphone is a bit weak on the Mino HD, but it does the job. 

The Mino does not have any image stabilzation, so a steady hand is important.  The built in tripod socket can be helpful for this. 

Wrap up

The Flip Mino HD is very easy to use.  Since there is just one shooting mode, you won’t be fiddling with menus and settings.  The small screen does a fine job as a viewfinder and can be used to see what you just recorded.  It would have been nice if there were component cables included to easily watch HD video on a television.

The camera goes for $209 on Amazon.com at the time of this writing.  The price is a little high compared to the Kodak Zi6.  The Flip Mino HD is a very slick looking device with good enough performance that it may win over more fashion concious users.  If you are indifferent to the looks, the Kodak Zi6 is a better value.

Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:30 pm

The Psychology Of Crying

We’ve all experienced a “good cry” — whether following a breakup or just after a really stressful day, shedding some tears can often make us feel better and help us put things in perspective.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:25 pm

One in Six Use Only Cell Phones at Home

One-sixth of Americans forego landlines in favor of cell phones, alone.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:10 pm

Fat cells may help treat CNS disorders

A Japanese study suggests mature fat cells called adipocytes might become sources for cell replacement therapy in treating central nervous system disorders. The study's lead researcher, Yuki Ohta of the Institute of Medical Science at St.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:10 pm

Ancient burial site found in Syria

Italian researchers said an ancient necropolis has been uncovered outside a Syrian oasis. A team from Udine University said the burial site near Palmyra contains at least 30 large burial mounds and is believed to date back to the third millennium B.C., the Italian news service ANSA reported Wednesday. ''This is the first evidence that an area of semi-desert outside the oasis was occupied during the early Bronze Age,'' Morandi Bonacossi told ANSA.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 8:07 pm

Study: Flora not flourishing in tropics

Canadian researchers say they've determined extinction risks for plants growing in the Earth's tropical regions are higher than previously thought. University of Calgary Assistant Professors Jana and Steven Vamosi studied plant extinction risks in areas close to the equator. The tropics contain many ancient species of plants, leading many to consider tropical species as less susceptible to extinction, said Steven Vamosi.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:56 pm

Oil Not the Climate Change Culprit — Coal Is the Real Bad Guy

New climate change projections presented Wednesday at the American Geophysical Society meeting support the idea that oil is not the worst global warming culprit. Coal is the real bad guy, and emissions are just a blip in comparison.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:54 pm

WiSci Event Tonight: Fossil Cities in the Distant Future

Wired Science live event TONIGHT in San Francisco: Reporter Alexis Madrigal will be interviewing geologist Jan Zalasiewicz about what the human race's mark on the planet will look like 100 million years from now. Join us from 7 to 9 p.m. PST at Swissnex, located at 730 Montgomery Street.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:39 pm

Sprint opens their location-based platform to third party developers

This morning, Sprint is announcing a partnership with WHERE and WaveMarket to allow third-party developers to make location-aware sites, WAP, SMS campaigns, and mobile applications for Sprint customers.

Currently, getting a location-aware application onto a Sprint feature phone requires a hefty amount of certification, at the cost of a good amount of time from both Sprint and the developer. WHERE and WaveMarket work around this by offsetting the location tasks to their standardized Web-based APIs - pass the request details to the appropriate partner, they’ll prompt the user for permission to detect their location, and proceed accordingly.

To the user, that means an onslaught of third-party applications are theoretically on the way.

To developers, that means it’s now a whole lot less painful to tie location-based functionality into your endeavors - no more dealing with certification or the constant worry of a security exploit landing on your lap.

WHERE’s word on what’s now possible:

Location-based search
Provide pinpoint geographical accuracy for yellow page and business searches, without requiring users to report their current location. Works on any device.

Location-based marketing
Deliver geographically-targeted marketing campaigns via SMS, WAP, and IVR/Voice. Prompt consumers to visit the closest retail location, based on GPS accuracy.

Location-based people finding
Locate people who belong to your social network or organization, with opt-in permission and authorization rules.

Location-based content tagging
Tag text messages, photos, or video based on the user’s current location.

For more info, dig into the links below:

WHERE Developer Portal
WaveMarket Developer Portal
Sprint Applications Developer Home Page

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:32 pm

Gadgetell - Dirt Devil: Sweepstakes Winners

Section: Features, Contests

After 12 days, we are glad to announce the “Dirt Devil’s 12 Days of Cleaning Sweepstakes” winners.  All in all the contest received nearly 85,000 entries during the 12-day entry period, 12 of which were Gadgetell readers.  Below is a full list of Gadgetell winners who have or will receive a KWIK vacuum.  Congrats!

• Day 1: Marie Emmi
• Day 2: Yolanda Kerns
• Day 3: Cheryl Dutter
• Day 4: Mark Iwasaki
• Day 5: Nancy Newman
• Day 6: Danny Fowler
• Day 7: Dave Tyner
• Day 8: Patricia Cox
• Day 9: Bryan Thoma
• Day 10: Mary Pancake
• Day 11: Jessie Alford
• Day 12:  Kate Usher

Full Story » | Written by Adam Berger for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:19 pm

Obama’s Inauguration expected to overwhelm DC, mobile networks

In 33 days, President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the USA.  What does this have to do with mobile?  Well, with a ginormous-sized crowd expected to attend Obama’s inauguration, a spokesman for the CTIA warns that cellular phone systems around the National Mall in Washington, DC could be overloaded under such conditions.

According to CNN:

Sprint and Verizon are two wireless carriers in the D.C.-metro area spending millions of dollars to add capacity to their cell sites ahead of Obama’s inauguration.

In an effort to better accommodate the increased network use, Sprint will utilize COWs (Cellular On Wheels) and COLTs (Cellular On Light Trucks), equipment generally reserved for national disasters, to assist with the heavier than normal volume.

Still, there is a major concern that the increased cellular traffic will interfere with critical/emergency communications.  However, first responders will be provided with a priority access code enabling them to push their high-priority calls through.

If you were planning to mobi-cast Obama’s speech to friends and family via your cell, I’d suggest you reconsider and bring a video-capable camera to capture the historic event instead. Also, as a general rule of thumb, text messaging may be more effective on an overwhelmed network.  Check back for my post-inauguration mobile conditions follow-up, as I will be one of the hundreds of thousands of crazy people in attendance on Jan. 20, 2009.

[via CNN]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:15 pm

Yahoo to Anonymize User Data After 90 Days

Yahoo announced it would begin forgetting what users do on its site after 90 days pass in order to better protect their privacy. The move makes Yahoo the leader among giant search engines, and shows that continued pressure from European regulators is changing how internet giants handle your personal information. But will Yahoo's attempt to make itself more privacy friendly than Microsoft or Google help or hurt the ailing tech company?

Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Dec 2008 | 7:14 pm

Earth's Magnetic Field Flawed

Breaches in Earth's magnetic field may be the norm during the coming solar cycle.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Dec 2008 | 3:18 pm

Saturn Moon Revealed as Watery World

Enceladus hosts vents that open and close and jets that eject water vapor and ice.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Dec 2008 | 2:32 pm

U.S. 'Death Map': Heat Deadlier Than Storms

Extreme heat is among the worst natural threats in the United States.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Dec 2008 | 2:20 pm

Pic of upcoming Motorola phones that at least look hot

2009 is a new year for Motorola. The firm’s sales are tracking down, the RAZR might be dead - hopefully - but these four upcoming phones look uncharacteristically good. Little is known beside about the mobiles besides what can be gathered from the pics. The branding indicates that they are Verizon-bound and at least three of the four are touchscreens. And none of the phones have the dumb RAZR-ish names. Each one, including the Flash above, has a normal, fully-spelled product name. Hopefully these devices will breath new life into the dying mobile phone maker. We only have one question, though? Any of these powered by Google’s Android?

More pics after the jump.

Calgary

Inferno

Rush 2

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:50 pm

King Tut's Father ID'd in Stone Inscription

An ancient Egyptian stone bears an inscription revealing King Tut's father.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:10 pm

Internal Wal-Mart memo indicating price, release date; It’s not $99, folks

A Wal-Mart communiqué is showing that the iPhone3G will sell for $197/$297 and not $99 hoped by some despite Amy Poehler’s crack reporting. (video after the break) The 8GB and 16GB versions, with their $2 discount, will go on sale December 28, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. Will there be a line of soccer moms and dead beat dads waiting to get their dirty hands on the Wal-Mart iPhone? If so, we better get some sweet pics.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 17 Dec 2008 | 1:02 pm