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Matt Blaze Examines Communications Privacyaltjira writes "Matt Blaze analyzes the implications of a recent Newsweek story on the Bush administration's use of the NSA for domestic spying on communications, and questions whether the lower legal threshold for the collection of communications metadata is giving away too much to the government: 'As electronic communication pervades more of our daily lives, transaction records — metadata — can reveal quite a bit about us, indeed often much more than a few out-of-context conversations might. Aggregated into databases with other people's records (or perhaps everyone's records) and analyzed by powerful software, metadata by itself can paint a remarkably detailed picture of connections, relationships, and other patterns that could never be recovered simply from listening to the conversations themselves.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2008 | 2:48 pm Tick tock ... tick - Extra second added to 2008 - Reuters
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 28 Dec 2008 | 2:04 pm 2008 Intel converts: bigger flock than Apple - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 28 Dec 2008 | 2:00 pm World Debut of PIX-iT Wireless Interactive Ad Set for Times Square New Year's EvePIXELFire Productions' Breakthrough Technology Launches on New JVC HD LED Display SEATTLE, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The technology is about real time, real people and...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 1:30 pm What Carriers Don't Want You To Know About TextingAn anonymous reader writes "Randall Stross has just published a sobering article in The New York Times about how the four major US wireless carriers don't want anyone to know the actual cost structure of text message services to avoid public outrage over the doubling of a-la-carte per-message fees over the last three years. The truth is that text messages are 'stowaways' inside the control channel — bandwidth that is there whether it is used for texting or not — and 160 bytes per message is a tiny amount of data to store-and-forward over tower-to-tower landlines. In essence it costs carriers practically nothing to transmit even trillions of text messages. When text usage goes up, the carriers don't even have to install new infrastructure as long as it is proportional to voice usage. This makes me dream of the day when there is real competition in the wireless industry, not this gang-of-four oligopoly."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2008 | 1:21 pm Haven't you heard? The bird is the word - IdahoStatesman.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 28 Dec 2008 | 1:03 pm Car in a Box Commercials - Audi Q5: Unbox the Box (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Audi takes the idea of things in a box a step further in its animated Audi Q5 Unbox the Box commercial by building the car from the cardboard box. I am not exactly sure how flattering...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 11:39 am Michael Meeks Says OO.o Project is "Profoundly Sick"unassimilatible writes "Michael Meeks, who works full time developing OpenOffice, writes in his blog that the project is 'profoundly sick.' 'In a healthy project we would expect to see a large number of volunteer developers involved, in addition — we would expect to see a large number of peer companies contributing to the common code pool; we do not see this in OpenOffice.org. Indeed, quite the opposite we appear to have the lowest number of active developers on OO.o since records began: 24, this contrasts negatively with Linux's recent low of 160+. Even spun in the most positive way, OO.o is at best stagnating from a development perspective.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2008 | 11:32 am Guilt-Free Reading - Eco-Libris Plants Trees to Offset Book Paper (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) If your reading habits are more 20th than 21st century, you havent made the switch to Kindle and cant quite give up your print addiction, there is a way you can feel a little less guilty...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 11:19 am Crucifix Chairs - Relaxing On the Cross(TrendHunter.com) Christmas is meant to be about Christianity so is there a better way to relax this year than in this amazing chair? According to I Love Bad Things, the Corcovado Lounge Chair leads...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 10:59 am Inked Injuries - Wound and Bullet Hole Tattoos for the Wannabe Badass (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Oh my, these bullet hole and wound tattoos are totally messed up and wrong on every level. Striking and unusual but also just plain wrong. I am sure having a permanent bullet hole...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 10:39 am Delicate Glass Jewelry - Drop of Water Necklaces by Karl Oskar (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) Swedish artisan Karl Oskar has tackled the challenge of creating glass objects, but does so on a small scale with his Drop of Water necklaces. Oskars water drop jewelry designs arent...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 10:19 am What Carriers Arent Eager to Tell You About TextingText messaging is a wonderful business to be in: about 2.5 trillion messages will have been sent from cellphones worldwide this year. The public assumes that the wireless carriers costs are far higher...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 9:22 am 2009: Predictions Across the WebThe end of the year is typically a time for prediction posts. We have our own thoughts on what we expect the future to bring (which we will publish this week), but in this post we'll take a look at what...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 9:00 am Will it Blend iPhone appYou Tube sensation Will It Blend? has been downloaded over 100,000,000 times. These videos were catapulted to superstardom when millions watched Tom Dickson put his iPhone in a blender. Now, these videos...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 8:53 am Bush's Electronic Archives Threaten To Swamp National ArchivesColdWetDog writes "The New York Times reports that the soon-to-be-disbanded Bush / Cheney White House threatens to overload the National Archives with close to 100 Terabytes of data. This includes the Barney Cam and even 'formats not previously dealt with.' By way of comparison, the Clinton White House dumped less than a single terabyte into the archives. Of course, Mr. Cheney, always the Good Citizen, tried to help out when he 'asserted this month in a court case that he had absolute discretion to decide which of his records are official and which are personal, and thus do not have to be transferred to the archives.' Glad to see that somebody over there is trying to clean up the cruft for posterity."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2008 | 8:50 am Why Wal-Mart is key to iPhone dominationAs the world's largest retailer (and company), Wal-Mart commands a significant amount of respect. In fact, I think the company is the most important retailer to any company in any industry, let alone Apple...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 8:47 am Lucky Luke iPhone appLucky Luke, one of the most popular and best-selling comic-book series in Europe, has come out with a new book called "L'Homme de Washington" and has launched simultaneously in comic book form, an iPhone...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 8:31 am Cosmic Couples Ready for New Year's Bash - Washington Post
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 28 Dec 2008 | 8:19 am Protestors contest Facebook breast policy - San Jose Mercury News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 28 Dec 2008 | 7:22 am VHS served me well, but I don't think I'll miss it - The Wichita Eagle
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 28 Dec 2008 | 7:09 am XBMC Running On an Atom-Based MIDreborn writes "Someone's got XBMC running on one of those MIDs. This one is a Compal Jax10. It runs Linux and is powered by an Intel Atom processor clocked at 800Mhz along with Intel's GMA500, which is basically a licensed PowerVR SGX GPU. Except for the better GPU (and its screen and keyboard, of course), it is similarly specced as some of the lower-end netbooks. XBMC would make a great portable media player, given its ability to play media off the network and virtually all file formats, but in the end it depends on the price-point of these MIDs. Here's the video."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2008 | 6:08 am Bloggers Lose The Plot Over Twitter Search
For the record, I agree with Loic. Being able to filter search results, if you choose, by the number of followers a user has makes sense. Without it, you have no way of knowing which voices are louder and making a bigger impact. It’s a way to make sense of a query when thousands or tens of thousands of results are returned. Of course, I’m pretty sure I can live without this feature, too. I’m failing to get too worked up over it. But the outpouring of emotion from bloggers is surprising me, and I thought I’d seen just about everything when it comes to blogging. Robert Scoble: “Here’s why it’s a stupid idea: everyone is gaming the number of followers. And, even if everyone weren’t, popularity on Twitter isn’t a good way to measure whether a Tweet is any good or not.” [Ok, but it is a good way of determining how loud that message was] Dave Winer: “I think it’s a bad idea.” Sarah Lacy: “No one could be this nakedly egotistical and self-serving.” [this one was my personal favorite. Sarah is clearly worked up over this idea.] Steven Hodson: “some-one like me with next to no followers wouldn’t even rate showing up in search results even if I started to topic being searched for” [no, only if someone turned that filter on in the search] MG Siegler: “this absolutely would ruin one of the most compelling things about Twitter: That it’s completely democratic.” All this vitriol and angst over a simple feature request - a button to filter search results by number of followers on Twitter search. If people don’t like it, they can not go into advanced search and hit the button. No one is being disenfranchised, the wonderful faux democracy of Twitter won’t be imperiled. And for those of you who just hate the idea, maybe you can have an option to only show messages in search results that are from users with few or no followers. Get it together people. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 28 Dec 2008 | 4:37 am Malaysia uses satellite to fight illegal logging: reportMalaysia is zooming in on forests with a satellite in order to fight illegal logging which its government says is harming the major timber exporting country, a report said Sunday.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 4:26 am Killer Australian shark will not be hunted: policeAustralian authorities said Sunday they will not attempt to hunt down a shark believed to have killed a swimmer, as reports said the victim would not have wanted the predator to die.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 28 Dec 2008 | 4:09 am CrunchGear BFF: You’re doing it wrong
Not what we’re looking for here, folks. BFF is a place for you to post your own content for eventual trickle up to CG proper. Just because it’s an open Wordpress installation doesn’t mean you can foul it up with detritus. Please! Source: Gizmodo | 28 Dec 2008 | 3:01 am Fake iPhone Nanos hit Thailand - Afterdawn.com
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 28 Dec 2008 | 2:42 am RIAA's Request For Appeal Denied In Thomas CaseNewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The RIAA's request for permission to appeal from the decision setting aside its $222,000 jury verdict has been denied by District Court Judge Michael J. Davis. In a brief, 6-page decision (PDF) the Judge dismissed the RIAA's arguments that there is a 'substantial ground for a difference of opinion' on the question of law presented, whether the Judge had erred in accepting the RIAA's proposed jury instruction that merely 'making files available' could constitute an infringement of the plaintiffs' distribution rights. He likewise dismissed their argument that granting permission for the appeal would 'materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation,' since (a) depending on the outcome of the trial, plaintiffs might not wish to appeal from the judgment, and (b) no matter how the appeals court rules on the 'making available' issue, the case will still have to continue in the lower court, since even if the RIAA wins on the 'making available' issue, the Court will still have to address the constitutionality of the large jury verdict, which may result in a new trial." Link To Original SourceRead more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 28 Dec 2008 | 2:40 am Throbbing Gristle's Gristleizer audio effects unit
Seen above is an original Gristleizer, the custom audio effects unit that helped define the industrial sound of Throbbing Gristle (TG) in the late 1970s. TG co-founder Chris Carter made the device in 1977 based on a design printed in Practical Electronics magazine and sold in kit form by Phonosonics. (Cloned Analog Gear posted a PDF of the article.) Apparently, Carter is a quintessential maker. From an interview with him at Planet Origo: When I was about 12 years old I was given a "Young Scientist" electronics kit that included instructions and parts to build a basic radio, a small amp, a flashing lamp and so on. Which I really enjoyed making. I then subscribed to Practical Electronics magazine and spent my pocket money buying electronic components to build the monthly projects. By the late sixties I was building synth circuits such as oscillators, filters, amps etc. from scratch....Chris Carter's Gristleizer (Throbbing-Gristle.com), From Which the Gristelizer Came (Matrixsynth), Interview: Chris Carter (Planet Origo) Source: Gizmodo | 28 Dec 2008 | 12:30 am Study Abroad For Computer Science Majors?sbilstein writes "I'm currently a sophomore studying computer science with a penchant for international travel. While I do realize that the internet precludes the need for us geeks to travel farther than our desks, I'd still like to take a few courses taught in English or Spanish (the two languages I'm fluent in) somewhere outside of the country. The trouble is I can't go to just any school, because like any other engineering degree, I have to take technical courses every semester. So I need a school with a something at least similar to a computer science program in the states. Has anybody here from the US studied abroad while doing computer science? Was it worthwhile? Or anyone from outside the United States recommend a university program?"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 27 Dec 2008 | 11:55 pm Holiday report: E-commerce dips, electronics plummet
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 Destructoid | Wii Rock Band 2 DLC Coming in 'Early 2009' 1UP.com - By Kris Pigna, 12/27/2008 While it was promised way back in September, downloadable tracks for the Wii version of Rock Band 2 did not, after all, make it in time for the game's launch last week. DLC for Rock Band 2 Coming 'Early 2009' Wii Rock Band DLC Clarification |
FROM GAMERTELL - Frank Miller offers his take on Will Eisner’s comic book super hero, The Spirit, starring Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson and Scarlett Johansson. Click through for Gamertell’s review of the movie… MORE »
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Despite layoff season, companies around the US continue to hire–including New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Indiana. (Here at TechCrunch, we need a Rails Developer to add some fancy new features to CrunchBase.)
Some of the jobs currently on CrunchBoard:
International readers can check out our British and French job boards as well.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A call was made by the Frenchmen on Friday with a cell phone, but the battery died before rescuers could track them down. However, the rescue crew deployed to find the two 22-year-olds spotted the light from an MP3 player from their helicopter. Crazy, right?
FROM GAMERTELL - Going hands-on with Microsoft’s newest iteration of Xbox 360s that feature the Jasper chip, the supposed cure to the infamous Red Ring of Death… MORE »
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Section:
We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Anyone who buys into the FriendFinder Networks IPO won’t just be buying a piece of a debt-ridden, money-losing collection of porn sites and social networks. They’ll also be buying a piece of a car the company bought from one of its founders, and now values at $95,000.
I still haven’t heard back from FriendFinder Networks or Andrew Conru, who appears to be the founder who sold his company his car in 2006. But MediaMemo readers tell me the car in question is a Ferrari 360 Modena, similar to this model on sale, via eBay (EBAY), at Excel Auto of Boca Raton, Fla. (click image to enlarge):
I thought this car might actually be the same one that FriendFinder owns, since it says the car in question is being held for sale, and because FriendFinder is also based in Boca Raton. But a manager at Excel tells me that’s not the case.
Disclaimer: I need to note that while I appreciate the tips MediaMemo readers have passed along, they remain unconfirmed. So it could be that FriendFinder owns a different kind of car that it purchased for $125,000 two years ago and now values at $95,000.
The bigger question: Why would FriendFinder buy a Ferrari (or any other kind of car) from its founder a couple of years ago? And what has it done with it since? Did employees of the month get to take it for a spin? Has it been mothballed? Did it sit parked in front of the company’s HQ as an incentive to work harder and longer?
As always, if you’ve got thoughts on the matter, you can comment below, or reach me directly at peter@allthingsd.com. If you want to be completely anonymous, you can use the blind tip box here.
People are urging Philip Kaplan to restart his FuckedCompany site that gathered so much attention earlier this decade. Clone sites are popping up to fill the void during this down market, and people sort of see the world of dead and dying startups as Kaplan’s territory.
He strongly considered re-starting the site and even had a former Valleywag writer lined up to do the hard work. But on second thought, he said, that era is dead for him. He’s going to focus on the positive instead.
Thus the beginning of his newest service, Kaplan Index, which he tells me will launch in the next few weeks. The site is quiet on what exactly the service will do, but does say “Get recognized for your skills in 2009,” which tells me it’s got something to do with finding people a job.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Besides the funny names and bad spellings, one hallmark of Web startups over the past few years has been the creative use of logos. Often you know a startup by its logo more than by its name, especially if it is for a Web app whose site you don’t actually visit that often. Instead, the logo appears as a favicon in your browser address window, or as an icon on another site.
How well do you know your Web 2.0 logos? Take this quiz to find out. There are 33 logos. See how many you can name. Most of them are easy, but there are a few tricky ones thrown in.
Check out the other quizzes at Quizable while you’re at it, like “Name That Villain” or “Football Haircuts.”
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Best Buy and Circuit City are entering new semantic territory by renaming regular 31.5-inch TVs “32 class,” a suggestion that anything between perhaps 29 and 35 inches fits into this vaunted category.
Matt Richtel also found evidence of 19 Class TVs (18.9″) popping up and got a fascinating explanation from Sony:
We also started using the word “Class” to describe the size of the television if the screen size was not, in fact, exactly the size at which that television is classified,” a company spokesman, Brian Lucas wrote in an e-mail message.
The marketing whizzes at Sharp and Samsung in Asia didn’t return calls (”(United States-based public relations representatives said they were having trouble getting information from the companies they represent).”) They blame manufacturing issues for the discrepancy.
While I’m totally down with saying a 31.5-inch TV is 32-inches - hell, there’s a little black band around most TVs anyway - this categorical renaming smacks of Soviet-era dissembling. Could Pyongyang be defining Samsung’s naming conventions “for the glorious good of the people and the Dear Leader?” We may never know.
All the boys at CG love them some netbooks - I'm content with my mini-model AKA the iPhone - but apparently the rest of the world is snapping them up as well. Om notes that 17 of the 25 top-selling notebooks on Amazon were sub-$500 netbooks, something I'm sure the laptop manufacturers love.
All the boys at CG love them some netbooks - I’m content with my mini-model AKA the iPhone - but apparently the rest of the world is snapping them up as well. Om notes that 17 of the 25 top-selling notebooks on Amazon were sub-$500 netbooks, something I’m sure the laptop manufacturers love.
Think about it: laptop sales were stagnant/falling between 2005 and 2007. Every laptop was a one-off iteration of the last - a little faster, a little bigger, a few more lights. I recall especially an Acer line famous for having blue lights. Not, specifically, a hot update.
Then netbooks came along. You got OLPC - the cute little Valley status symbol - and then the rest of the manufacturers finally figured out what to do with all the low-powered embedded systems they were, or weren’t, selling wholesale: the plopped them into netbooks.
Om said it best: the race to the bottom has begun.
Remember the ill-fated Google-killer Cuil? Named ‘Cuill’ and very much in stealth mode for the first part of the year, they finally emerged end of July 2008 with a ‘massive’ search engine that would rival the most popular search engines of our time with an enormous index, an innovative interface and some nifty features.
Rival, it never did. The launch of the search engine was nothing but a classic PR trainwreck, with much hype and little to show for. Cuil failed to deliver good enough results to drive anyone to change their search behavior, and quickly became the subject of backlash and criticism because of their poor performance and indexing methods that actually took websites down in the process. Last time we reported about Cuil, was when their VP of Products (and AltaVista founder) Louis Monier quietly resigned from the startup.
With the end of the year approaching, I took a peek at how they’re doing traffic-wise out of sheer curiosity. After all, with no less than $33 million in funding and a founding management team consisting of ex-Google search experts, something had to give, right?
Well, no. Cuil isn’t performing well any way you look at it, and I can only imagine how nervous the startup’s management team and investors must be by now. Based on the numbers and graphs we gather from Google Trends, Alexa, Compete and Quantcast, you could even say search engine traffic is nearing rock bottom. Apart from that, a Cuil search for ‘TechCrunch’ still displays a Gmail logo rather than our own.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors
AppleInsider has received photos of an iPhone nano clone that copies the original iPhone almost perfectly but in a considerably smaller form factor.
Rest assured that if a nano does hit the streets come MacWorld, it won’t look like this misshapen homonculous. I’ve been consistently wrong about Apple recently - I was sure the 3G would have a front facing camera - but I doubt the nano is going to make it to stores this year unless Apple truly has some magical factories that can turn out low-cost miniaturized devices in a down market.
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Wow. 
