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New touch tablets circling the marketSection: Computers, Mobile Computers, Netbooks, Wireless  Wi-Fi connected touchscreen tablets are finally getting closer to the real thing. Testing out the unproven market niche, two players are getting closer to coming to market from two unlikely sources. Big manufacturers like Apple, Asus, and others have trouble seeing how this market will differentiate itself from a netbook and continue to wait on the sideline. A touchscreen tablet, as currently defined is basically a netbook with no physical keyboard. The operating system has been slimmed down to just a web browser as the primary functions are surfing the web and web applications. The device is meant to be used at home as the ultimate couch computing device. One potential offering is a 12” touchscreen tablet born out of frustration by the tech blog Techcrunch. Realizing the market was not serving this niche, combined with the knowledge that among its readers they had the know-how to build a device, the Crunchpad was developed. Now in its second prototype, the device actually looks pretty good. While not a slim as many would hope or as cheap (headed to $300 retail), the device seems to work. The second, and perhaps more promising is a 7” tablet from a new player in the space, GiiNii. The Movit Maxx is the larger of two siblings that runs on the Android OS, the smaller has the same feature set but only a 4.3” screen (more like the iPod touch). A webcam also makes it into the feature spec. GiiNii up till now was a small HDTV, camera, video camera, and picture frame specialist. They have retail distribution deals with Target, Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Walgreens. Will they pick up this variation on the theme? The company hasn’t named pricing yet, but I was told, “it will be way less” than the iPod touch, so expectations on the 7” put it in the very affordable range. GiiNii says they will know for sure in late summer of this year when the 7” is available. I use my iPod touch for this purpose. I am not sure if a bigger screen would motivate me to buy this with limited functionality over pocket-ability. Which will rule the day when these are released? My money is still on pocket-ability but I hope I am wrong because this concept intrigues me. Product pages: [GiiNii] and [TechCrunch] Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Jan 2009 | 5:50 pm Verizon Wireless Network Extender now shipping to dead spots
Source: CrunchGear | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:27 pm Ethernet cable super soldiers
I love the smell of heated plastic in the morning. It smells like sys admin. Ethernet Cable Soldier [Fresh99 via Oh Gizmo!] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:24 pm Sprint Nextel to cut up to 8,000 jobs (Reuters)Reuters - Sprint Nextel Corp , the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider, said it would eliminate up to 8,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, under a plan to cut labor costs.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:23 pm PSP to Come in New, Festive "Carnival Colors" [Proof Sony 'gets' It]OK, when we were brainstorming new functionality for the PSP, who out there requested four new "carnival colors" instead of a second analog stick? Beginning March 5th, Japan will have access to the...Source: Gizmodo | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:15 pm Hands-On: Password Organizer Too Frustrating to Use
Meet the Logio Secure Password Organizer from Atek, a credit card sized piece of flimsy plastic that couldn't feel cheaper if it had been conceived as a Christmas Cracker novelty. The $30 device was sent to me at the end of last year and today I finally managed to struggle through the blister pack (better constructed than the item itself) to take a first (and last) look. The idea of the organizer is that you keep your passwords in it. This is a good thing. As the package blurb tells us, short, easy to remember passwords are insecure, but longer passwords are of course harder to remember. The organizer stores the details for you in three fields -- website, login and password. The whole lot is protected by a master password, required when you switch the machine on. It sounds fine, but in practice it was too frustrating to even enter one login. But let's move back a little. First, you need to slide in the standard CR2016 battery, supplied (although wrapped in many, many layers of polythene).
The little carrying drawer popped out and headed, along with the battery, under the sofa. I rescued both and fired the thing up. You automatically enter the setup mode, which means choosing a long master password. And that's where the trouble starts. You don't know if you are entering numbers or letters, and you need both for a strong password. As it was just a test, I hit the numbers one through nine in order. It turns out that I actually entered letters. Hmmph. Next you need to calibrate the display contrast, beep volume and so on, until we get to the main screen. There, you enter details as you would on a mobile phone, tapping each button several times to select letters. Thankfully you get a dedicated .com button, but this seems rather pointless, as does the http:// option: it's not like you'll actually be using these urls -- they're just reminders. After that it started to get really annoying. As if the poor input method weren't bad enough, the whole unit creaks and cracks as you use it, and the buttons themselves feel about as long-lasting as a piece of rice paper in a rainstorm. But hey! There are some classy accessories. Number one, the faux-leather case:
A thing of soft, plush beauty, we suspect the reason for the case is to protect your delicate pocket lining in case of the inevitable chip and cog-spilling meltdown. Next is the stylish lanyard strap:
The strap is long enough to encircle your neck, so you can have the organizer with you at all times. On the other end is a fine plastic filament which should be threaded through a hole in the plastic card. My review version came with another little section of filament taped to the end. I assume it is a spare, and appreciate it, although I think the filament will easily outlast the device itself. This piece of tat seems more suited to another era, a time when the sign-up gift from the bank was a credit card sized calculator and you actually got excited by it. Now we have software to do this sort of thing, from the Mac's built in keychain to the excellent paid software 1Password, which costs just $10 more and does a whole lot extra. Oh, one more thing. The Logio holds just 200 logins. While a very low number, even that is too much. Imagine trying to enter all that information using this interface. I think I'll just stick to using my dog's name as my single sign-on, everywhere (note to would-be identity thieves -- I don't have a dog). Product page [Atek] Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:15 pm First close-up shots of the Dell Adamo
In my hungover pursuit for omelettes and smoothies at Dell's CES press release, I was a bit confused about the Adamo. It was true that they displayed an absolutely gorgeous prototype of an ultra-thin luxury laptop, held aloft by the thin, sinewy forearm of an ebony goddess. But the way Dell's guys were talking, it sounded like it wasn't a specific machine, so to speak, but an entire line of luxury laptops: Inspirons for oil shieks. It seems the answer is both: the prototype held up will be the first of an expanding Adamo line of luxury laptops by Dell. And without the bleary-eyed occular effect of too many Casino Royale rum-and-cokes, it is even more beautiful than I had first thought. This looks significantly better than the MacBook Air, in my opinion. Shame it's a PC... and a PC without announced specs or battery life estimates at that. Dell Grants Exclusive Photo Shoot of New Adamo Line of Luxury Notebooks [Bub.blicio.us] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:14 pm ICC Releases New Elpac Power Systems 150-Watt Medical External Power Supply Featuring Maximum Power and PerformanceCHICAGO, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- International Components Corporation (ICC), an established global leader in designing and manufacturing portable rechargeable systems, has...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:10 pm Nerd merit badges beat purple nurples Technogeeks must congratulate themselves in life. No matter how deft a chmodding, the only accolades you can expect to get from the outside world will be delivered in a currency of indian burns and purple nurples, "nerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrd." The logic-based acrobatics of the mind will never socially compare with the pec bouncing and upside-down push-ups of our simian, testosterone-drunk peers. We must reward ourselves.
To the rescue, Global Nerdy, who are releasing a series of Geek Merit Badges for $3.99 each. The first is the Octocat, which rewards Open Source Contribution. No word on future merit badges, but I'm hoping at least one will be for Home Trephining. Nerd Merit Badges [Official Site via MAKE] Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:08 pm Hotwire.com(R) to Pay for Half of all Carbon Offset Purchases by Its CustomersGreat deals on greener travel options are now part of the Hotwire portfolio SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Hotwire.com(R), a leading discount travel site, is...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:03 pm Photobucket and Thumbplay Launch New 'Send to Mobile' Service- More Than 25 Million Photobucket.com Visitors Can Easily Send Photos to Phones With Improved Service Powered by Thumbplay - NEW YORK, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ --...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:02 pm Delay in Analog TV Shutdown Presents ChallengesCongress appears ready to delay the Feb. 17 switchover to digital TV, with more than 6.5 million households thought not to be ready. But that could bring its own problems.Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:01 pm AMD low-power chips headed for HP, Dell servers - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm Mobile VoIP Startups Looking Beyond Cheap CallsWhat do mig33, iSkoot and Truphone have in common? They are all startups that have raised gobs of money from venture capitalists. They all offer mobile VoIP clients. And now, all three are looking beyond...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm LandAirSea GPS Tracking Key to be Featured in Hammacher-Schlemmer CatalogCARY, Ill., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Hammacher-Schlemmer, the long established retailer/cataloger, has announced plans to feature the LandAirSeaSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm HighPoint Solutions Partners with NetezzaAdds New Focus on Data Warehouse Appliances to Business Intelligence Practice KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ --Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm VoiceInterop Completes Expansion of its Command Phone(TM) Solution at a Major International AirportBOCA RATON, Fla., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- VoiceInterop, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Cleartronic, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CLRI) (Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm SPTI-BOLDT Group Argentina Chooses Hughes Broadband Satellite SystemHN System with DVB-S2 and ACM to Deliver IP Connectivity across Argentina for Lottery, Government and Corporate Programs GERMANTOWN, Md., Jan. 26...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm CSC and Terremark Join Forces to Offer Trusted Cloud Services to the U.S. GovernmentFALLS CHURCH, Va., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- CSC (NYSE: CSC) announced today an alliance with Terremark Worldwide (Nasdaq: TMRK), a leading global provider of information...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm Stanley Advances on FORTUNE's List of '100 Best Companies to Work For'Company moves up 14 slots in third year on list ARLINGTON, Va., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Stanley, Inc. (NYSE: SXE), a leading provider of systems...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm Movero Expands Management Team to Meet The Growing Market Demand for Managed Mobile IT ServicesTelecommunications Industry Veteran to Lead Global Sales and Sales Support AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Movero Technology, a leading provider of managed...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm Layers captures layered screenshots (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - Wuomn on Monday announced the release of Layers 1.0, a new screen capture utility for Mac OS X. It costs $19.95 (available now for $15).Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:53 pm Significant Winter Storm to Impact Region - Ozarks First
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:52 pm Apple may file lawsuit against rival Palm - TopNews United States
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:51 pm WebbAlert Is No MoreWhen technology focused video blog WebbAlert, hosted by the lovely Morgan Webb, launched in August 2007, we said it could be a winner. Almost a year and half further down the road, we have to come back...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:46 pm WebbAlert Is No More
Webb will be focusing her efforts on her TV show X-Play, which has expanded to five weekly episodes instead of three, and “make a little time for life itself”.
I’ve embedded the very first and last WebbAlert video below for your nostalgic viewing pleasure.
WebbAlert was one of the few podcasts I ever subscribed too, although I didn’t watch every episode religiously and it would be a stretch to say I’ll actually miss it. How about you? Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:46 pm Bickering Blocks US Mobile Phone Paymentstheodp writes "Imagine a technology that lets you pay for products just by waving your cellphone over a reader. You wouldn't have to if you lived in Japan, where people have been using it for the last five years to pay for everything from train tickets to groceries to candy in vending machines. While nearly everyone who's tried it has liked this form of payment, consumers in the United States won't be able to wave-and-pay anytime soon: The companies that must work together to give the technology to the masses can't agree on how to split the resulting revenue."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:44 pm Skeleton Bicycle Will Give Me Nightmares for Weeks [Spooky Art]I don't know what's wrong with this thing. It's not the metal skeleton that gives me the chills. It's probably the posture. If there are bikes in hell, they are probably like this one. The art piece...Source: Gizmodo | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:40 pm Largest Data Breach? - TMC Net
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:39 pm Yuen’To Music Ball is Great for Listening to Music, Bopping Heads [Speakers]Clearly a product of the deep-sea geothermal vent creature school of cuteness, the Yuen'To Music Ball is an adorable, albeit expensive, powered portable speaker. Unlike most products in this...Source: Gizmodo | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:32 pm Los Angeles Museum of Neon ArtMuseum of Neon Art (MONA) 136 W. 4th Street Los Angeles, CA 213-489-9918 Last month while I was down in Los Angeles I had an opportunity to stop by the Museum of Neon Art, or the MONA as those familiar...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:32 pm PSP: Sony's Candy Colored Consoles
These new "carnival colored" PSPs from Sony should come in a selection box -- they look good enough to eat. The rainbow-hued consoles will go on sale in Japan on March 19th for ¥19,800 ($223). Also available will be a kit, featuring a 4GB MemoryStick, a "private porch" (pouch) and a handosutorappu, which we believe to be a hand strap. The kit will go for ¥24,800 ($279). To celebrate this Japan-only release, let's have some further fun with Google Translate. The PSP-3000 is, apparently, designed "To further reduce image quality". Other essentials include " the guns and diamonds (tentative)" and "the distance investigation - to the truth 23 days". We know that that laughing at machine translations is a low form of humor, but these are great. In fact, we're happy to help "spread more and more the world of entertainment". Press release [Sony via Akihabara News] Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:10 pm First Snowmobile Double Backflip Ever Has Me AAAGHSGHHFGHHWHAT? [Crazy]Are these people out of their probably-illegal-substances-driven minds? A snowmobile double backflip? How many people have been crushed doing this? No idea. But I just love to watch it. The double...Source: Gizmodo | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:52 am Lego Galactica Clusterfrak So Big It Can Probably Crush a Real Cylon Baseship [Lego]I'm fraking being blown away by the last episodes of Galactica, so when I saw this huge Lego clusterfrak of Colonial Vipers and Raptors, complete with a 13-foot BSG hangar, I had to post them. ...Source: Gizmodo | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:36 am Old Hollywood Photoshoots - Winona Ryder Channels Silver Screen Queens for Steven Meisel (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Actress Winona Ryder has been out of the spotlight for a while, but judging by this photo shoot, she may be ready to get back onto the merry-go-round that is Tinseltown. Photographed...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:19 am Canon Liveview DSLRs Messily Hacked to Record Video [Cameras]Because video recording on DSLRs is the Next Big Thing, I think, some 5D Mk II-envying Russian folks have extended the capability to Canon's cheaper liveview-equipped DSLRs. But, unfortunately, there...Source: Gizmodo | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:19 am Microsoft To Kill Windows 7 Beta On Feb. 10 - InformationWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:18 am Yes Or No Watch Makes Everything SimpleBy Evan Ackerman From now on, whenever you need to make a decision, just look at the Decider (actually called “Mr. Jones The New Decider”) watch. Every second, “YES” or “NO”...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:09 am Test Center: How secure is Google Chrome? (InfoWorld)InfoWorld - Google Chrome was built from the ground up to be a more secure Web browser, and Google and its Chromium developers should be applauded for the attention they have brought to browser security. Google deserves much credit for the wealth of security information posted on the Internet and on the Google Chrome blog, and for making Chrome's source code available for anyone to examine.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:00 am Garters on Guys - John Galliano's Gender-Bending Fashion Show (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) I think some of us are so used to this fashion designers extravagant and over-the-top but fun sets that this shocking Mens Fall 2009 show screams: John Galliano! The...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:59 am Meet the Tmsuk T-34, a mini robocop on four wheels
Tokyo-based robot maker Tmsuk and security firm Alacom [JP] jointly developed the “T-34,” a compact patrol and security robot that can launch a net to catch intruders. As this is a Japanese robot, it goes without saying it’s controllable via cell phones. The four-wheeled mini robocop is equipped with a videophone function, making it possible to control it via real-time camera images. The Ni-metal hydride battery-powered T-34 also features an infrared presence sensor, a mic, an LED light and a speaker. But most importantly, it comes with not one but two net launchers. If an intruder comes near the T34, he or she is in danger of getting shot at with a weighted net and tangled. It understands spoken commands the user gives via the cell phone. The T-34 measures 520 x 600×600mm, weighs about 12kg and can move with a speed of up to 10km/h. It’s planned for commercialization in twelve months and is expected to cost around $6,000. Watch the T-34 in action below. Via Tech-On Source: CrunchGear | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:58 am Hybrid Flip-Flop High TopsBy Evan Ackerman Two pairs of shoes is two shoes too many with this pair of convertible high tops that unzip into flip-flops. Seen at the Bread & Butter fashion trade show in Barcelona. [ Reuters...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:57 am Weinbergers wisdomDavid Weinberger at Burda’s DLD in Munich says knowledge, as we’ve traditionally known or referred to it, is singlar, binary, simple, scarce, and settled. Those properties of knowledge, he...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:56 am Multi-Touch Running On Hacked Googlephone
Hacker Luke Hutchison has successfully brought multi-touch to the T-Mobile G1 Googlephone. The video shows that it's a rather clunky implementation right now, but as Luke points out, this is v.1.0:
How does it work? Luke has patched the Linux kernel of the Android OS to tweak the (Synaptics) touchpad driver. As this is a software only modification, we assume that the abilities to sense multiple fingers are built in to the hardware already. You'll also need modified applications to take advantage of the new multitouch capabilities. Luke has provided a browser, a maps application, a photo viewer plus the vector-style demo app you see in the video. Best of all, you don't need to do any hacking yourself. There's a downloadable, pre-patched version of the firmware available, ready to be installed. Proceed with caution -- you could kill your G-1, although you'll probably be fine. Right up until you get sick of the clunky zooming and throw the phone out the window at least. Get Multi-Touch Zooming Support on your T-Mobile G1 TODAY [Luke Hutchison via Boy Genius] Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:52 am Fracture: break your iPhone !I don't usually mention apps that are not yet available at the app store and that I haven't downloaded and tried myself, but Fracture is so uh, explosive - in a Jack Bauer kind of way - and I was lucky...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:48 am Monty Python Sells 23,000% More DVDs Thanks To Free Vids On YouTubeBy Evan Ackerman People have been posting Monty Python clips on YouTube for years… Not to put too fine a point on it but, YouTube users have been distributing copyrighted multimedia content without...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:44 am The End for Microsoft Flight Simulator? - PC World
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:44 am More Validation For Open Source Software: Talend Raises $12 Million
The company says its flagship product, Talend Open Studio (demo video), has seen over 3.3 million downloads so far, and Talend boasts about having 400 paying customers (an increase of more than 300 percent over the past 12 months) and over 100 partners. Talend intends to use the funds (which according to the blog post announcing the deal, were “no small feat” to raise in these economic times) to expand global operations into the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific, and introduce a number of new products in the course of this year. Talend had previously raised two rounds of funding, so this investment brings its total financing to close to $20 million. Talend is not the only venture-backed company trying to disrupt the data integration software market with an open-source product; SnapLogic has raised over $2.5 million for a similar service. London-based Balderton Capital has done a couple of notable investments so far, such as Bebo (the social networking site that was sold to AOL for $850m) and MySQL (the open-source database business, sold to Sun for $1 billion). This is their first investment since they raised a new fund to the tune of $430 million two weeks ago. (Thanks to Marc Brandsma for the tip) Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:40 am Zune plays swan song - Inquirer
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:30 am Internet Population Smashes "One Billion" Barrier In December 2008 - ITProPortal
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:18 am 10" Acer Aspire Netbook Official
Let's see if you can guess the specs. Click through to check your answers: It will come with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 160GB hard drive, b/g Wi-Fi, a six-cell battery, Bluetooth, up to 2GB RAM and a shiny new copy of Windows XP. I'm guessing you got all of those. If you also said optional Wi-Max and 3G connectivity, you get a bonus point. If you further guessed that the Aspire One is "designed for a fast, simple and utterly cool online life" then you were cheating. That comes straight from the press release. Price and launch date are as yet still unknown. We'd guess cheap and soon. Press release [Acer via Laptop Mag] Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:13 am Multitouch Implemented on G1 Android, Unofficially [Android]Whether for fear of patent infringement or as the result of a colossal lapse in judgment, Android didn't ship with multitouch. No worries—the hardware was ready, and the third-party developers...Source: Gizmodo | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:13 am Hey, check out this cool iPhone app ... - Pacific Business News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:10 am Offbeat Guides Launches Affiliate Program; Grab Promo Codes Here
Offbeat Guides, the travel site launched last summer by Technorati founder Dave Sifry, has launched a new affiliate program. Affiliates will make an 8% commission on every purchase driven from their sites; to help get the program started, Offbeat Guides is increasing this commission to 15% through June 30th for affiliates that sign up by January 31st. To join the affiliate program, you can fill out an application here. Offbeat Guides are similar to traditional books like Lonely Planet or Frommers, but are flexible and customizable because they’re built on the fly. After prompting users for their destination and the dates they’ll be visiting, the site scours the web, using a variety of sources to generate travel guides for nearly any city (it also supports regions). The site also has a leg up on traditional guides because it can include time-sensitive information like event listings and find activities based on your interests. Guides can be previewed in the browser for free, downloaded as a PDF for $10, or printed into a full-color guide and shipped within a few days for $25. To mark the launch of the new affiliate program, Offbeat Guides is offering $10 off printed guides and free PDF guides to the first 50 TechCrunch readers who enter the promo code ‘techcrunch10off’. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:09 am Sony adds four new and shiny colors to the PSP lineup (in Japan)
Sony Japan today announced the “Carnival Colors” collection of PSP-3000s [JP], which will go on sale in Nippon starting March. The new colors are “vibrant blue”, “radiant red”, “bright yellow” and “spirited green”. I don’t know who came up with these names but Sony didn’t say if the new PSPs will ever make it to the US or Europe. Japanese buyers cann choose between a standard package (PSP-3000, 2200mAH battery) for $220 and a special edition for $60 more. The value pack includes a PSP pouch, a strap, an AD adapter and a 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo. The blue and red PSPs will go on sale in Japan on March 5th, followed by the two other colors two weeks later. Source: CrunchGear | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:59 am Photo Hack: iPhone as Softbox
It turns out that the iPhone's screen gives out light very close to daylight balance, and for lighting noobs it has the advantage over flash in that you can see just what effect you're going to get before you trip the shutter. The Strobist also points us to a purpose made solution from Rosco called the LightPad, essentially a bright, flat LED panel designed for soft video lighting but also ideal for still shooting. It's not just for the amateur, either. Apparently Micheal Mann used a bunch of old laptop screen backlights to light the car interiors in the movie Collateral. These were velcroed to the walls and ceiling, taking up virtually no space, and the exterior street lighting was left to take care of itself. This is Hollywood using low-budget, indie techniques. If any of you have tried any similar hacks, post the photos in the Gadget Lab Flickr pool and link in the comments. Is That a Soft Box in Your Pocket or Are You Just Happy to See Me? [Strobist] Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:47 am Wow. ChaCha Is Raising Another $30 Million
The company raised $6 million in Series A financing exactly two years ago from Jeff Bezos and Bezos Expeditions, followed by a $10 million round by Morton Meyerson and 21st Century Technology Fund. If ChaCha closes the $30 million Series C round, the total capital invested in the company will amount up to a whopping $46 million. In case you’ve never heard of ChaCha, it’s essentially a search engine that lets users ask questions to a real person, called a “search guide”, via a chat interface both on the web and mobile. We’ve called it a dumb idea in the past, and unscalable on numerous occasions, but it’s not the only startup that’s taking a crack at a human-powered Q&A service (Mahalo launched a similar service last month, Answerly is another one). We’ve reached out to the company to confirm that they’re raising more venture capital, as well as the names of the investors. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:39 am Macintosh turns 25 - TG Daily
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:38 am Indymedia Server Seized By UK Police, Againtimbrown writes with word that "On 22 January 2009, Kent Police seized an Indymedia server hosted by Manchester-based colocation facility UK Grid and run by the alternative news platform Indymedia UK. The server was taken in relation to comments on an article regarding the convictions in the recent Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) trial. Seven activists were sentenced to a total of 50 years in prison." The complete story is worth reading; timbrown continues: "I'm posting this as a concerned UK administrator who hosts a number of sites. The message appears to be clear: the UK establishment does not want political content, legitimate or otherwise, hosted from these shores. The message has been noted, however free speech must be supported even where it may not be agreeable."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:32 am Toilet Paper for a Unique and Romantic Valentine's Day Gift?MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga., Jan.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:20 am My Dad's 30 Year Old Calculator Still Going Strong
This is the Casio Memory B-1, a 30 year old calculator which, although it has sustained a few dents and scratches, works as well as the day it was born. And as you can see from the picture snapped via Skype last night, my father, despite being twice the age of the adding machine, still thinks like a schoolboy. Apparently he spent several hours yesterday working out rude words to write on the thing. This calculator is still in frequent use, and why not? Here are the specs:
The display is clearly the best part, a bright and crisp vacuum fluorescent display (VFD). These glowing blue digits are related to both the nixie tube and the cathode ray tube found in older TVs. The Japanese made box also features two real aluminum panels and can be hooked up to the mains via a DC-in socket. I don't know what the best part of this is -- my father's nerdy schoolboy sensibilities, the fact that this retro tech has lasted so long, or the awesomeness that my dad thought it was ok to hijack my conversation with mother by holding the word BOOBS in front of her face. It's lucky she hadn't already started on the day's gin ration, or he might have gotten a whack. In-depth specs [Vintage Technology] Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:18 am FindingDulcinea Launches SweetSearch, a More Selective Search EngineNEW YORK, Jan. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- FindingDulcinea, an online publisher known as the Librarian of the Internet, today announced the launch of SweetSearch, a more selective search engine that will help Internet users get more satisfying search results.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:15 am MySpace & YouTube Choose Videoblogger Winners For DavosDavos Video Submission - Rebecca M. The separate YouTube and MySpace competitions to send one very luck videoblogger to the World Economic Forum conference in Davos, Switzerland are over. Rebecca McQuigg from Los Angeles was chosen to represent the MySpace community. 24 year old Pablo Camacho from Bogotá, Colombia chosen to represent the YouTube community. Their video submissions are embedded above. Rebecca and Pablo receive an all expense paid trip to the conference, where they will video blog their experience. These are brilliant promotions by the two companies. MySpace is new to the event this year, but YouTube’s Davos room at last year’s event was the place to be. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:00 am Lifebooker 2.0 Offers Beauty on a Budget During Tight TimesNEW YORK, Jan.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:00 am Joikusoft and DNA Offer Wi-Fi Access to Mobile Broadband via Mobile PhonesESPOO, Finland, January 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Joikusoft and DNA, a telco from Finland today jointly announced to offer Joikusoft's mobile Wi-Fi HotSpot software solution called JoikuSpot to DNA subscribers.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:00 am CrunchGear Week in Review: I’m Listening Edition
Go Seattle! America’s most wired! Source: CrunchGear | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am National Bank of Kuwait Goes Live With Level Four Software to Drive ATM InnovationLONDON, January 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Level Four, the leading provider of open standards-based ATM software, with Innovation Systems, its business partner in Kuwait, today announced that National Bank of Kuwait, one of the largest banks in the region, has gone live with ATM Developer to deliver greater automation across its network of over 180 ATMs.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am Walmart Tackles Game Time Entertaining With Lower Prices on Party Foods and ElectronicsNew Rollbacks provide for a menu under $50, and $100 savings on select HDTVs BENTONVILLE, Ark., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- To get football fans primed for the big kickoff Feb.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:00 am Kevin Rose: 10 Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers
Ten Ways To Increase Your Twitter Followers:
If you enjoy this content, add me at twitter.com/kevinrose, thank you. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 7:13 am Playstation Store Update: Post Inaugural Edition (January 22 to January 29, 2009)FROM GAMERTELL - Sony’s latest Playstation update includes a chance for players to test their knowledge of the American system. MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Jan 2009 | 6:49 am How Quake Wars Met the Ray TracerAn anonymous reader writes "Intel released the article 'Quake Wars Gets Ray Traced' (PDF) which details the development efforts of the research team that applied a real-time ray tracer to Enemy Territory: Quake Wars . It describes the benefits and challenges of transparency textures with this rendering technology. Further insight is given into what special effects are most costly. Examples of glass and a 3D water implementation are shown. The outlook hints into the area of freely programmable many-core processors, like Intel's upcoming Larrabee, that might be able to handle such a workload." We mentioned the ray-traced Quake Wars last in June; the PDF here delves into the implementation details, rather than just showing a demo, and explains what parts of the game give the most difficulty in going from rasterization to ray-tracing.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2009 | 6:15 am Specialized Systems Integrators Form Alliance to Deliver Next Generation Communication Applications GloballyUniform Communications Fulfillment through Global Alliance Helps Multinationals Remain Competitive PARSIPPANY, N.J., BRENTFORD, England and SINGAPORE, Jan.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Jan 2009 | 6:00 am The Dark Lord of Broadband Tries to Fix Comcast's ImageRobb Topolski couldn't stay awake. All he could manage was three hours at a stretch before passing out. At first, his doctors were baffled, though they would eventually diagnose his condition as a severe form of anemia. But for the time being, no one knew anything except that it was dangerous for Topolski to venture too far from his bed. Topolski was a quality assurance engineer at Intel before going on disability, and he loved playing with new gadgets and software. So in late February 2007, he dragged himself out of the queen-size bed in his Hillsboro, Oregon, home, sat down at one of the three PCs a few feet away, and opened his latest toy, the file-sharing program Shareaza. He was a big barbershop-harmony fan—he'd sung baritone in Intel's One Bit Parody quartet—and he wanted to test the software by searching for some new tracks and sharing the ones on his hard drive: tunes like the Civil War-era hit "The Vacant Chair," and a Tin Pan Alley ode to prostitution, "She Is More to Be Pitied Than Censured." Topolski pointed Shareaza to his music folder. Then he fell asleep. And that's when something strange happened—or rather, that's when nothing happened. Each time he woke up and checked his PC, he discovered there had been no activity at all. Topolski knew that his music tastes weren't exactly mainstream; but still, among the millions of BitTorrent, Gnutella, and eDonkey users out there who could see his files, no one wanted even one of his tunes? He'd search some forums for help, then fall asleep again. After more failed file-sharing attempts, Topolski installed a packet-sniffing application so he could log and review everything coming over his network. He set up an online tunnel with a system administrator he knew in Brazil. Topolski's computer would appear to be surfing from South America, not the suburbs of Portland. That would tell him whether the problem was local. It took him six weeks of short-burst sleuthing to reach his conclusion. In a detailed post on DSL Reports—a site for broadband enthusiasts—under his online name, funchords, Topolski laid out a case against his Internet service provider. Comcast appeared to be blocking file-sharing applications by creating fake data packets that interfered with trading sessions. The packets were cleverly disguised to look as if they were coming from the user, not the ISP. It was as if, in the middle of a phone call to a friend, Comcast got on the line and in the caller's own voice told the friend he was hanging up, while the caller simultaneously heard the same message in the friend's voice. The post generated some discussion but no response from Comcast. It did, however, catch the attention of an Associated Press reporter, who called Topolski to ask about duplicating the tests. Topolski was happy to help and tried to provide all the assistance he could, but he lost touch with the reporter after doctors told him that, in addition to anemia, he had a massive malignant tumor in his colon.  Months later, as he recuperated in the hospital after the tumor was removed, Topolski heard again from the AP reporter. The wire service had conducted its own tests on Comcast's network and the results had been equally damning. The resulting story about Comcast's misdeeds had gone viral. "Oh yeah, I think I kind of heard about that," Topolski said, the sedatives still surging through him. "It was a pretty big deal," the reporter reminded him. "Pretty surprising," Topolski mumbled. "I don't think you understand," the reporter insisted. "This is a really big deal." For Brian Roberts, 2008 was supposed to be the year Silicon Valley crowned him the most important person in its world. In five years as CEO of Comcast, the 49-year-old had turned his father's middling cable TV company into a media behemoth with $31 billion in annual revenue. 
Robb Topolski caught Comcast blocking Internet traffic, which prompted an FCC investigation.
Photo: Robbie McClaran Comcast's cable infrastructure made the Internet possible. Sure, the tech metaphor of the moment was the cloud, but—metaphor be damned—Roberts knew that nothing could happen without the pipes. You needed big, fat cables to get all those petabytes of data there and back. And increasingly, those pipes belonged to Comcast. He didn't seek this kind of power. He spent the early part of the decade scooping up cable operations, but that was just to increase Comcast's customer base. Roberts provided packages that bundled TV, phone, and Internet, offering faster and faster speeds and luring away more and more customers from the phone companies, who couldn't keep up. (Comcast is now the third-largest telephone company in the US as a result.) As callers ditched their landlines, they tended also to abandon DSL, which the phone companies made difficult to buy as a stand-alone product. "DSL," Roberts told investors recently, "is the new dialup." Today, the company has 14.7 million broadband Internet customers, making Roberts the largest provider of high-speed access to the home, and sometime early this year he is set to wrest the title of largest broadband provider, period—to homes or businesses—from AT&T. Sure, new technologies are constantly being touted as potential rivals: 4G wireless, municipal Wi-Fi, fiber. But none of them really have a chance. By the end of 2007, 22 cents of every dollar spent on broadband in the US went directly to Comcast. And that figure looks like it's only going to increase; the number of ways to connect to the Internet reliably and at high speed is shrinking, not growing. "There's this magical thinking, both in the tech community and the regulatory community, that competition will solve all problems," says Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. "Well, get over it. The evidence says we're not going from two pipes to three but from two pipes to one." If Comcast is the one pipe that dominates, that's because its main rivals are coming up short. Verizon has spent the past few years trying to steal Roberts' Internet and TV subscribers with a $20 billion fiber-optic project called FiOS, while AT&T has its own $8 billion fiber product called U-verse. But together they cover only about 20 percent of the country, and analysts project that because of costs, they will stall at 40 percent. And reach is only one of their handicaps. In 2008, Roberts launched upgrades that made AT&T's 18-Mbps U-verse seem like a throwback to acoustically coupled modems. Verizon's problem is economics. It costs the company $4,000 to hook up each customer to FiOS, which now offers speeds as fast as 50 Mbps; Roberts spends less than $50 to give one of his customers the equivalent upgrade. As for wireless—supposedly the biggest threat to fat cable wires buried underground—no one really believes it can offer the bandwidth that consumers want at a reasonable price. Still, Roberts doesn't want to be thought of as merely the lord of the world's dumb pipes. He wants to be known as an innovator, a reputation he planned to burnish in 2008. Early last year, Roberts was ready to debut a reborn Comcast, a company that would turn those pipes into magical delivery systems. At the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in early January, he delivered the first keynote ever given by a cable CEO. "We must be the technology leader," he said from the stage, reeling off a list of new initiatives, like a Hulu-style video-streaming feature called Fancast (which debuted about the same time as Hulu) and a new open software platform called tru2way, designed to allow small, third-party iPhone-like apps to be added to any Comcast-connected TV. He promised incredible customer support and the rollout of Docsis 3.0—a new Internet service with speeds that will eventually exceed 100 Mbps. "I believe Comcast is the company you will want to partner with to give consumers what they really want." He ended with a declaration that Comcast was a different company now. "It's a whole new year for Comcast," Roberts said, his eyes darting around the room. "A whole new attitude. It's Comcast 3.0." Roberts truly believed Comcast was ready for tech stardom as the Facebook or Google of 2008. Instead, he got Topolskied. On October 19, 2007, the AP story broke with the headline "Comcast Actively Hinders Subscribers' File-Sharing Traffic, AP Testing Shows." Bloggers called for protests and boycotts; the Electronic Frontier Foundation said Comcast was using tricks formerly used by "malicious hackers." A coalition of Internet law scholars and consumer groups petitioned the FCC to step in. Instead of basking in glory, Roberts found himself at the center of the fight over network neutrality—the attempt to keep ISPs from discriminating between different kinds of traffic and, say, favoring their own video or VoIP services over another company's. It's Good to Be the King: 
New residential broadband subscribers are opting for cable instead of DSL ...
... which has given cable a big share of the broadband market ...
... cementing Comcast's position as the undisputed ruler of cable and broadband.
By blocking BitTorrent—in effect discriminating against those packets—Roberts had opened himself up to accusations that he was a censor and a monopolist who wanted to limit citizens' access to the Internet. He was painted as power-mad, unable to restrain himself. "Comcast will say, 'We're not blocking.' But they're degrading, prioritizing, and filtering, without telling users. And they're planning to do much more of this," blogged Susan Crawford, an Internet law professor at the University of Michigan Law School. Roberts hadn't anticipated the backlash. Subscribers accepted that cable TV was just entertainment, but the Internet felt more essential, like water or electricity, and consumers were starting to think of broadband as a constitutional right. Back in the days of basic cable, consumer complaints were always local and easily contained. But the Internet, as it turned out, was different. This was becoming a nationwide battle over who the pipes belonged to. Comcast had invested billions to build its network. Now its heaviest users were demanding that Roberts effectively hand over control to them. The new Comcast center is the tallest building in Pennsylvania, a 58-story reflective-glass beauty. When it opened last summer, its towering height sent a clear signal that Comcast had arrived. On the 45th floor, Brian Roberts can squint out over all of western Philadelphia, though today it gives him no pleasure. He's still plagued by thoughts of Robb Topolski. "I honestly don't think we're bad people, and we have no evil intentions," he says. "We helped invent broadband." Roberts is 6'2". He is so lanky, his gray suit jacket drapes off his shoulders as if it's still on the hanger, never touching his body. The entire company dresses the same way: formal and dated, like midwestern bankers. His speech is reassuringly calm, a nasal monotone he keeps in check regardless of his mood. Roberts could be a partner at a mid-tier law firm or a senior actuary who shoots hoops on the weekend. Inside the boardroom, his no-style style has made him a favorite of fellow media chiefs. No jockeying for headlines, no flash, no grand competitive vision to match a grander ego. "Comcast has become our top partner, or close to it," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who says he trusts Roberts' intuition and dealmaking skill. When Roberts approached Schmidt about investing in Clearwire, the WiMax company started by Craig McCaw, Schmidt quickly agreed. When Roberts then threatened to pull out during the final stages of negotiations, Schmidt dutifully followed suit. A few days later, Roberts called to say Comcast was back in. Google went back in, too, investing $500 million in 2008. "He works very hard," Schmidt says. "I think many people don't understand how he operates." Rob Glaser, CEO of RealNetworks, contrasts Comcast's style with Microsoft's approach. "If I do business with Comcast and then with a Comcast competitor, I don't wake up with a horse's head in my bed," Glaser says. "Even though Brian is in a position of a lot of power, there has never been a time when he approached that in a venal or reckless way." Yet there's a stunning disconnect between how fellow chief executives view him and what customers think. They see Comcast as arrogant, unresponsive, and overpriced. The company has managed to place last or close to last in just about every survey of customer service. In its annual ISP report, J. D. Power and Associates regularly rates Comcast in the cellar. Harris Interactive, in its annual brand reputation survey, ranked Comcast just ahead of ExxonMobil and Halliburton. Readers of the Consumerist, a shoppers'-rights blog, voted Comcast the second-worst company in the US—after only Countrywide Financial, of subprime mortgage infamy. Roberts remains philosophical about Comcast's poor rankings. Because Comcast is the biggest cable company, he argues, naturally it gets a high number of complaints. The Topolski affair, as far as Roberts is concerned, is all based on a misunderstanding. Every company "manages" its network by restricting and opening access to maintain speeds. Providers have little choice, especially when it comes to P2P, the kudzu of cable. File-sharing eats up a half to two-thirds of his upstream capacity in some places. And because cable is a shared network—with some 300 homes downloading from any one pipe—a few BitTorrent devotees could make everyone's surfing experience feel more like swimming against a riptide. "We manage our network so 99 percent of the people have a great high-speed experience," he says. "You've always had Ma Bell managing its network for things like how you handle voice traffic on Mother's Day. You get a busy signal occasionally." In his heart of hearts, Brian Roberts is still just a cable guy, exactly like his father before him. And there's something about the business that makes executives a little blasè9 about consumer complaints. They've been lambasted for so long, they just don't hear it anymore. Brian's father, perpetually bow-tied 88-year-old Ralph, started Comcast in the early 1960s. Programming cost nothing—he simply took broadcast signals and piped them to homes. Government regulation (unlike for broadcast television) was nonexistent. And expansion was just a matter of finding more towns to wire. Customers complained about price and service—but they never cut the cord. "It's the greatest thing since stealing," one of Ralph's first employees told his friends. Roberts joined the family business in 1981, right out of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He carefully studied how top cable execs worked, then carved out a new role for himself. While others were brash and self-confident, Roberts sought to be quietly persuasive. In 1997, for example, he convinced Bill Gates to sink $1 billion into Comcast, arguing that it would help spread the Internet. It was an amazing deal for Comcast. In return for his investment, Gates got nothing, not even a promise that Roberts—then Comcast's president—would deploy Microsoft's set-top-box software. Nor, for all his cash, did Gates get voting power; Roberts controls his business through supervoting shares (today he owns less than 1 percent of the stock yet commands 33 percent of the votes). "You never hear stories about how someone got the best of Microsoft," says one awed consumer-electronics executive. "Brian Roberts did. And how did he do it? With a velvet glove. He's the Bill Clinton of cable. He charms everybody." Roberts made his biggest move in 2002. AT&T was the dominant player in cable at the time, but after the dotcom bust Roberts sensed weakness and launched a successful $51 billion hostile bid for AT&T's cable unit. Comcast had been a regional player; suddenly it doubled in size, serving 21 million subscribers. It's now the local cable monopoly in 40 of the country's 50 largest markets. "They were just this little Philly company. Now they're like someone who, in a year, shot up from 5'8" to 6'2"," says Gigi Sohn, president of digital rights lobby Public Knowledge. "They've had to try on a whole new wardrobe and haven't found the right fit yet. They haven't done a good job of handling tremendous growth." PR disasters mounted. One Comcast cable guy fell asleep on a customer's couch; the customer filmed it and put it on YouTube. In Virginia, a 75-year-old woman got so fed up with the company's rude service and unreliable house calls that she smashed up a local Comcast office with a hammer. In the past two years, Roberts has implemented what he calls the Comcast Marshall Plan, hiring 15,000 new frontline technicians and customer service reps. By the end of 2007, Roberts assumed that his consumer-complaint issues were behind him. They weren't. In the old days, cable users might have been mollified, but Internet users were an entirely different breed. The Ames courtroom at Harvard Law School is typically reserved for mock trials. Its 290 seats face a massive desk on a raised dais, where real Supreme Court justices occasionally sit to determine the fate of fake cases. The FCC decided to hold its hearing on Comcast's actions against file-sharing in Cambridge, and on this February day in 2008, the five commissioners took their seats in the courtroom. At a long witness table, one place was set for Comcast, the rest for its critics. Earlier in the day, students, professors, activists, and customers gathered on the front steps of Austin Hall. Some carried signs blasting the cable giant—"No One Owns the Internet," read one—other protestors made impromptu speeches about neutrality. Before the hearing even started, campus cops had to turn people away. An overflow crowd gathered in the basement, where a computer showed a webcast of the proceedings upstairs. "It felt like the days before the Vietnam War," says David Clark, an MIT scientist who is considered one of the fathers of the Internet. Roberts didn't come. Instead, he sent his consiglieri, executive vice president David Cohen. A longtime Pennsylvania political operative, Cohen is stocky and pugnacious, the complete opposite of his boss. Cohen gave an impassioned and unequivocal defense of the ISP's actions. "I'm going to say, on the record, in front of this commission: Comcast does not block any Web site, application, or Web protocol, including peer-to-peer services. Period. Doesn't happen," he said. "What we are doing is a limited form of network management," he added, "during limited periods of network congestion." The response was just as unyielding. One by one, assorted Internet guardians and programmers leaned into their microphones and pointed out the inconsistencies in Cohen's statements. They noted the harm that Comcast was doing, calling it discriminatory and dangerous to capitalism, to America, to the Internet. "If Comcast gains the FCC's permission to block BitTorrent, you can bet that BitTorrent will be the tip of the iceberg," said Timothy Wu, a Columbia Law School professor. Nevertheless, Cohen seemed to really thrill the audience. He wasn't the most exciting speaker, but several times he was greeted with surprisingly enthusiastic applause. Later, it came out that Comcast had hired shills: seat-fillers, who the company claimed were there to save places for Comcast employees. But for some reason those employees never showed up. Comcast needed some other way to defuse the situation, so it put together a partnership with BitTorrent—"in the spirit of openness and fostering innovative solutions," as BitTorrent's president at the time put it—to find ways for the technology to travel in peace with the other packets on Comcast's network. It sounded like reconciliation, but it was only PR. While BitTorrent the company was cofounded by the same programmer who created BitTorrent the technology, it had no actual control over the standard or its users. BitTorrent fans dismissed Comcast's move as just another cynical attempt to fool the government. At the urging of Comcast's foes, the FCC called a second public hearing, this one at Stanford University, where the man who started it all, Robb Topolski, presented his side of the story. Nobody clapped for Comcast this time, because no one from the company came. The public beatings were beginning to hurt. In early fall, the company decided to measure just how bad the damage was by holding a series of subscriber focus groups. Most of the people, it turned out, had never even heard of P2P. In one session, a young man mentioned that he was using BitTorrent to assemble a library of every anime movie ever created. The rest of the group quickly turned on him, accusing him of stealing their broadband. "They didn't bash us; they didn't talk about poor customer service. It was actually pretty uplifting," says one employee who attended. "If you read the blogs on the P2P stuff, you'd think we were Satan." It drove Roberts crazy to see Comcast getting trashed, to have his family's business maligned. Roberts had told the crowd at CES that he wanted to lead the technology industry, to be a senior statesperson. Now self-proclaimed defenders of the Internet were casting him as a heel. "Comcast leadership has an attitude of 'Damn the torpedoes, we're not doing anything wrong,'" Public Knowledge's Sohn says. "Well, the apple rots from the top, from Brian Roberts." In August, the FCC issued a 67-page report that read as if Comcast was the worst company the FCC had ever regulated. Comcast lied about its actions, schemed to prevent oversight, confused customers, and put the future of Net-based innovation at risk. The commissioners doubted Comcast's contention that blocking BitTorrent helped its network. If that were the case, the report asked, why was the company doing it during times of light traffic and in areas where there were few bandwidth-sucking households? Wasn't it possible that Comcast was trying to stop a technology that was a threat to its own video-on-demand cable services? The final verdict was devastating: "In laymen's terms, Comcast opens its customers' mail because it wants to deliver mail not based on the address or type of stamp on the envelope but on the type of letter contained therein," the FCC wrote. "This practice is not 'minimally intrusive' but invasive and outright discriminatory." The FCC didn't levy a fine. In fact, it's still not even clear whether the commission has the regulatory right to punish such behavior. But Comcast couldn't ignore the public spanking (though it's currently appealing the decision). It submitted a report to the FCC detailing exactly how its network operated, from how many homes share an upstream connection (about 100) to the equipment it used to fight P2P traffic (the Sandvine PTS 8210). Comcast swore off discrimination based on any particular technology. And it disclosed a policy that had secretly been on the books for a while but which it now intended to enforce: It would cap subscriber bandwidth at 250 GB per month, enough for a user to download 125 movies in standard definition or to watch 1,750 hours of YouTube. "Was it handled perfectly? You know, it's like anything. I wish we could've done some things differently," Roberts says. "We hit a very raw nerve." In the end, the geeks won. But they may have unwittingly hurt their own cause. Roberts' "concession"—putting uniform, nondiscriminatory caps on usage—will likely mark the demise of the all-you-can-eat Internet buffet. ISPs like Time Warner Cable and AT&T have begun running limited tests of capped service, penalizing consumers for going over arbitrary limits (ranging from 5 to 150 GB). Countries where low caps are already common have found themselves trailing the world in how they use broadband; in Australia, where the average cap is 15 GB, 70 percent of Internet users say they never download or watch video online. When broadband is turned into a scarce commodity, surfing suddenly becomes a domestic negotiation: Is it worth it to watch one more Family Guy episode on Hulu, to run BitTorrent, or to download a movie from Netflix? A recent IDC study found that the vast majority of Internet users have no idea how much data they consume or even how to measure it. It's possible that Comcast's FCC-approved cure, if adopted by all ISPs, will strangle online video and drive consumers back to channel-surfing on cable TV, which would suit Comcast just fine. To be fair, Comcast's 250-GB cap is far above current global standards, and Roberts still may turn out to be an ideal steward of Internet access, but not everyone is willing to wait around to see if he remains so generous. In November, President-elect Barack Obama picked Susan Crawford as an adviser on recasting the FCC. As a Comcast-blasting law professor, Crawford had equated Comcast's actions against peer-to-peer file-sharing with those carried out by the Net censors in China. She called the company's moves "obviously deceitful" and argued for the Feds to break it up. If Roberts thought 2008 was bad, 2009 may be shaping up to be truly horrible. Brian Roberts is learning. And part of his education has come from an employee nicknamed Famous Frank. Last spring, a middle management customer-support executive named Frank Eliason, 36, started Twittering in his free time. Eliason is relentlessly upbeat and hated searching for "Comcast" on Twitter and seeing only slams. He asked for permission not just to defend the company but to actually try to fix the problems. If someone on Twitter complained about, say, an Internet outage, he'd start troubleshooting for them. Eliason—who goes by the online handle comcastcares—had already been gaining attention, and accolades, when one of Comcast's senior executives realized that maybe Roberts should be clued in. She left Roberts a voicemail—voicemail, not email, is the preferred form of communication among Comcast executives. "You're doing what?" he responded in his own voice message. "We're just letting him go at it?" Nevertheless, he did nothing to stop it. Eliason was actively trying to prevent customer complaints from spiraling into angry vendettas. These weren't just regular users, either, but Twitter users, many of whom were likely the same early adopters who love BitTorrent, who complain to the FCC, who might even enjoy building an anti-Comcast blog. Roberts began following the Twitter feed, and he realized that this was ... good. He OK'd adding people to Eliason's special forces team, overruling Eliason's direct boss. Soon, Eliason became a minor Internet celebrity, hence his new nickname inside the company. He was asked to speak at conferences as well as to other companies struggling with similar problems. Thanks to Famous Frank, Comcast began thinking about going even further. The weekend that the company published its response to the FCC—outlining how it managed its network and how it planned to change—one of Roberts' lieutenants suggested something even more radical: having ordinary company engineers go on message boards to answer questions. It was the kind of proposal that violated every tenet of the old cable code of business, and the matter could be settled only at an executive board meeting on the 52nd floor. Roberts, sitting with his back to the window, listened to both sides. Then he declared it was time to be a bit more transparent. He finally got it. He was turning a page. "I think we should do this, but we all have to have thick skins," he said. "People are going to vent. But that's all right." Senior writer Daniel Roth (daniel_roth@wired.com) profiled renegade Wall Street analyst Henry Blodget in issue 16.12. Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Jan 2009 | 5:00 am Zeta Explores What Cloud Computing Means for youPOOLE, England, January 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Accessing files and applications over the internet is changing the way we work and play.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Jan 2009 | 5:00 am Playlist: Ocean Atlas, Dead Dudes on Twitter, Jonathan Coulton, RjDj : The National Geographic Society's giant coffee-table book catalogs and analyzes almost every drop of salt water that ebbs and flows over two-thirds of our planet. The collection features 100-plus beautifully rendered maps of seafloors, currents, surface temperatures, and political boundaries. Dive into stunning photographs of underwater life and essays from people with surnames like Cousteau and Sagan. Beware: Once you start this fascinating voyage, you may get lost at sea.  : Spoiling for an argument? Brushing up on your silly walks? Pining for the fjords? Monty Python's new YouTube channel can help. It may not be exhaustive, but as a response to rogue uploaders, this trove of dozens of high-quality clips is a hell of a lot classier than a cease-and-desist letter.  : It's hard to tell if a Twitter feed from a famous musician is legit or merely the work of a label flack. One dead giveaway: when the tweeter is no longer living. Following the feeds of deceased artists (or at least their die-hard fans) is like visiting old friends. Kurt Cobain (@kurdtcobain) laments the antics of Courtney Love, while Biggie Smalls (@NotoriousBIG) fields disses from Tupac Shakur (@PacIsAlive).  : We got hooked on this hirsute ex-programmer after he uploaded his take on Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back" to the interwebs in 2005. Rocking 20 tracks, including many that debuted on his song-a-week podcast, this live DVD captures JoCo belting out lyrics about delirious coders, Ikea, and why Pluto's moon Charon will always love the despondent former planet. Awww.  : Tune in and trip out with RjDj, an iPhone music app that transforms ambient noises into ear-bending soundscapes. The clattering of keyboards, the rumble of buses, even the ins and outs of your breath are multiplied, pitch-shifted, looped, and twisted on the fly into an aural mosaic. It's like taking a leisurely walk inside Brian Eno's brain.  : Eighty years after explorer Percy Fawcett disappeared while searching for a mythical lost city in the Amazon, New Yorker staff writer David Grann set out to find him. Grann retraces Fawcett's steps (minus the maggots and poison arrows) in hopes of discovering what felled the man who hobnobbed with Lawrence of Arabia, got funding from John D. Rockefeller, and was even (fictionally) rescued by Indiana Jones.  : Laser-etching your MacBook Pro? Permanent and pricey. Instead, spend just $30 on an all-over vinyl decal from Infectious, a San Francisco-based design house that offers scores of original looks. The stickiness lasts for three years, but whenever you're ready for a change, the decals peel right off, residue-free. Bonus: The vinyl is coated in high-gloss laminate that protects your precious baby from wear and tear.  : The National Association of Broadcasters has produced more than a dozen straight-shooting spots about the impending conversion to digital TV — all stuffy, all hinting at anarchy if you don't switch NOW! That's why it's nice to see this spoof: 99-year-old Mae Laborde fumbling with coaxial cables and URLs ("How many W's?"), as Announcer Man guides her through the "simple" process. Available on Hulu, it's a brilliant parody of government incompetence, consumer electronics, and, well, geezers.  : Put your Rubik's Cube skills to good use: This app offers up 3-D puzzles that are actually proteins scientists are trying to understand. Log on and twist, pull, and fold digital models of molecules to mold proteins like insulin into their proper shapes. Mastering a protein's structure is essential for drug targeting, so every puzzle you solve could help solve a medical mystery.  : Samuel L. Jackson again lends his voice to the title character of this manga turned television series turned TV movie, airing on Spike TV. In Resurrection, our hero finds that his previously vanquished foes have returned via the miracle of mad science, and the undead cyborg samurai are out for revenge. The stellar score from Wu-Tang's RZA may as well be a sequel to his Ghost Dog and Kill Bill soundtracks. Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Jan 2009 | 5:00 am Jan. 26, 1983: Spreadsheet as Easy as 1-2-31983: Lotus Development Corporation begins selling its spreadsheet application for Microsoft DOS, called 1-2-3. 1-2-3 was not the first spreadsheet application — it was preceded by VisiCalc. But 1-2-3 quickly became the most popular, helping to boost sales of IBM PCs and PC clones, all of which ran DOS, and facilitating the rapid rise of Microsoft's operating system. VisiCalc was the first killer application for the Apple II computer. It, too, was not only a hit for its maker, Software Arts, but also helped propel Apple to the big time. Software Arts later released versions for the Atari 8-bit computer, the Commodore PET, the TRS-80 and the IBM PC. But those versions came too late to unseat 1-2-3, whose built-in charting and graphing capabilities, plus its support for macros, helped it in short order to begin outselling VisiCalc. Lotus sold $53 million of the software in the company's first year of existence, and 1-2-3 quickly came to dominate the business software market in the mid and late 1980s. Spreadsheet software, which seems commonplace and rather boring today, was a major breakthrough for personal computing. Sure, it made it easy to keep track of columns of numbers, such as sales receipts, paychecks, expenses or even athletic records. But the real power of the spreadsheet was the ability it gave business people to run quick and easy "what-if" calculations. What if we lowered the price of our widgets by $10? What if mortgage rates drop to 5 percent and we refinance? What if we laid off 5,000 workers and shuttered our Kalamazoo plant, then outsourced manufacturing to a Chinese company for less than half the price? Technology pundit John C. Dvorak has lamented the effects of the "what-if society," saying that corporate executives have become slavish devotees of spreadsheet scenarios, failing to make decisions based on what customers actually want. But there's no doubt that the spreadsheet has given companies, both large and small, a far better picture of their bottom lines. For better or worse, that power has transformed American business and the economy. 1-2-3's reign lasted nearly five years, dwindling only when the company failed to make the transition from DOS to the increasingly Windows-centric world of the late 1980s and early 1990s. By comparison, Microsoft Excel was much easier to learn than the forbiddingly austere, black-and-green text screen of Lotus' product, and by 1989 Excel had started to outsell 1-2-3. But something was lost in the switch to graphical user interfaces. While easier to learn, power users lamented the slowness of Excel, which requires you to use a mouse for nearly every action. By contrast, skilled users of 1-2-3 could accomplish complicated computing and formatting tasks nearly instantaneously, with a few quick keystrokes — keystrokes that often became second nature as they disappeared from conscious thought into muscle memory. Lotus founder Mitch Kapor left the company he created in the 1980s and went on to co-found the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990. Since 2003 he has also been the chairman of the Mozilla Foundation. And his company, Lotus, went on to create another incredibly successful business application, Lotus Notes, which is still used by many companies today. Since 1995, Lotus has been a division of IBM. Source: Wikipedia, A Brief History of Spreadsheets, various Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Jan 2009 | 5:00 am AT&T U-verse Voice Launches in JacksonvilleJACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Jan 2009 | 4:01 am Qimonda's Woes Will Zap Gamers, PC and Servers Users (PC World)PC World - The bankruptcy filing by Germany's Qimonda AG last week marks a first for a major technology company amid the current global economic downturn, and it likely won't be the last.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Jan 2009 | 4:00 am Be that guy, get an Obama Coveroo for your gadget
Coveroo is so clever that they’ve unloaded a ton of stickers or whatever they are featuring our 44th President. I beg of you not to be that guy or gal. If you simply cannot resist then pick one up for your BlackBerry, LG, Motorola, Samsung or iPod Touch. Prices range from $20 to $280 for a variety of designs. I’m totally getting this one for my Curve. Source: CrunchGear | 26 Jan 2009 | 3:43 am Record video with any Liveview enabled Canon EOS DSLRI’m not a Canon man, but this appears to be working from the videos that are available on Youtube. Anyone in the audience care to test it out and send us their videos? Some of the chaps say it’s just the computer doing the recording, but the second video is obviously taken by the side of the road so I wonder if he had this laptop with him.
via Canon Rumors Source: CrunchGear | 26 Jan 2009 | 3:28 am The MST3K Crew Reunites For Live Webcastcsn writes "On Wednesday, January 28th at 6:00 PM PST and 9:00 PM EST, the stars of the cult television hit 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' will reunite to do what they do best — heckle bad movies. Join Mike Nelson, Kevin 'Tom Servo' Murphy and Bill 'Crow T. Robot' Corbett as they make fun of the 1950 short film, 'Overcoming Fear,' live over the internet.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2009 | 3:12 am OS 4.6.1.133 out for BlackBerry 8900 Yeah, we're still waiting for our 8900 review unit from T-Mobile even though regular Joe Schmoe can order one over the phone now, but what can you do? If you're feeling frisky and adventurous you may want to try installing OS 4.6.1.133 on your Curve II. We're not sure what the difference is between the pre-loaded OS and this one but I'd think it's a marginal upgrade at best. You never know, though.
Source: CrunchGear | 26 Jan 2009 | 3:10 am Upgrade your BlackBerry 8900 OS to 4.6.1.133
As is the case when unofficial OS upgrades leak onto the Web, tread lightly. If you don’t know what you’re doing then we suggest you don’t do anything, but if you’re the adventurous type then by all means. We haven’t received our 8900 review unit yet so let us know what’s different from 4.6.1. Crunch Network: TechCrunch obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 3:03 am Rotting ancient shipyard in Sydney Harbour: photosPatrick Boland's photo-gallery from the abandoned shipyards of Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour are a love-note to ancient, rotting machines, each more delightful than the last:Cockatoo Island Project: Photography by Patrick Boland Source: Boing Boing | 26 Jan 2009 | 2:42 am Why Google Knol Is No WikipediaThis is only one data point. But at least the Wikipedia entry on TechCrunch doesn’t state that we sell corn and oat cereal, and it wasn’t written by someone whose bio simply reads “Troll“. Other than that, it’s pretty accurate. So much for units of knowledge. Update: Googler Matt Cutts weighs in on the discussion of Knol’s quality, saying that the service is doing fine and that it’s still aspiring to “contain high-quality, authoritative, very informative articles”. Ok then.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 2:29 am Recession-O-Rama Deals for the Weekend 1.25.09Section: Audio, Accessories, Headphones, Video, Portable Video, Computers, Desktops, Gadgets / Other, Peripherals, Displays/Projectors, Printers / Scanners, Web, Websites, Features, Originals  Continuing with our deals for the weekend, here is what caught my eye today: a pair of noise canceling headphones, a laser printer, a flat panel display, and an Archos PMP. Hopefully you can save a little bit of money today if you decide to take advantage of any of these deals.
 Noise Canceling HeadphonesNewegg.com has a pair of Sennheiser PXC 250 Noise Canceling Headphones for only $59.99. They usually sell for $99.99, so with this deal you get an instant savings for $40, plus free shipping. These headphones come with “NoiseGuard” technology to filter out ambient noise, and it comes with a little carrying pouch, so it is very portable.  Laser PrinterNewegg.com also has Brother’s HL-2140 Laser Monochrome Printer on sale for $60. This printer normally sells for $110, so you are saving $50 instantly. It features a 10,000 page duty cycle, so it can handle whatever printing job you need to be done, it stores up for 250 sheets of paper, and prints with a resolution up to 2400x600 DPI. This deal ends tomorrow, 1/26.  Flat Panel DisplayThe next deal we have for today is Samsung’s 2233BW 22” Widescreen Black Flat Panel LCD Monitor, which Dell is selling for $147 after $50 Coupon discount as well as an additional $30 rebate, and comes with free shipping. To redeem your $50 coupon, use the code BSM43ZP409G1BJ at the check out. This flat panel display comes with a 22 inch screen, a brightness of 300 cd/m2, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, and a max resolution of 1680 x 1050. The $30 rebate expires on January 31, so you might want to get on this deal relatively soon.  Archos PMPAmazon is selling the Archos 605 WiFi PMP for 48% less than its retail price of $399, for $209. It comes with a 4.3 inch touchscreen, 160GB hard drive, ability to stream content from your computer or Internet to the TV, through your wireless home network. It can even act as a DVR by being able to record your favorite TV shows. No word on how long this deal will last for. That’s all we have for this weekend, stay tuned for more great weekend deals next weekend. Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:46 am Speaker system built into mannequin Here's Bob Turek's MP3 player speaker system, built into a mannequin. speakers, fiberglas mannequin, hand built stereo amplifier Source: Boing Boing | 26 Jan 2009 | 1:01 am So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gadgetell posts for the week of January 18, 2009Section: Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:32 am End of the World Dated Again: 2012 [Sunday Cartoon]newVideoPlayer("/2012passion.flv", 506, 423,""); No, the end won't happen because of the LHC. And it won't be a doomsday asteroid either. The answer: Sheep. At least one of them. The date: 2012....Source: Gizmodo | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:30 am Bill Gates' Plan To Destroy Music, Note By Notetheodp writes "Remember Mr. Microphone? If you thought music couldn't get worse, think again. Perhaps with the help of R&D tax credits, Microsoft Research has spawned Songsmith, software that automatically creates a tinny, childish background track for your singing. And as bad as the pseudo-infomercial was, the use of the product in the wild is likely to be even scarier, as evidenced by these Songsmith'ed remakes of music by The Beatles, The Police, and The Notorious B.I.G.."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2009 | 12:09 am We-Vibe Heralds New NASA's Technology-Based Mystery Sex Toy [Nsfw]We-Vibe is a 60-gram sex toy designed to "fit between two people" while making love. Apparently it's being a hit, and now its creators want to use an unknown NASA technology for their next hit: I...Source: Gizmodo | 25 Jan 2009 | 11:30 pm HTC phone turns into a GPS when dockedSection: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones  There are a lot of phones out there, so phone manufacturers have to come up with gimmicks to make their phones stand out. HTC’s Touch Cruise has a pretty interesting gimmick. When you place the phone in a dock, the phone automatically goes into GPS mode. It’s actually a pretty convenient feature considering you don’t have to look for an icon somewhere on the phone to change functions. HTC also touts a feature called “HTC Footprints” which automatically geotags your photos so you don’t have to wonder “Where was I when I took this photo?“ The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.1 with HTC TouchFLO, has a 2.8-inch touch screen, 3.2 megapixel camera, and music and video players built in. Overall, it’s a pretty stylish looking phone that makes you wonder what HTC was thinking when they designed the G1. Read: [PCMag] Full Story » | Written by Iyaz Akhtar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Jan 2009 | 11:15 pm 1951 Article Promises 'Helicopters for Everybody' (So Long As You're Male) [Retromodo]Boing Boing stumbled across this fascinating look at the future of helicopters from an 1951 issue of Mechanics Illustrated. All these babies required to operate was a single seat, small motor and,...Source: Gizmodo | 25 Jan 2009 | 11:00 pm Nate Robinson confirms Xbox Live identity during real-life basketball game
So in last night’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Robinson apparently made a special salute before shooting free throws in order to prove to someone on Xbox Live that it was really him playing Call of Duty: World at War. In a 2007 interview, Robinson told SportsGamer.com,
So whoever Robinson was recently playing Call of Duty with told him to make some sort of secret salute before his first round of free throws during Saturday’s game, which he did. So let this be a lesson to everyone. If someone on Xbox Live says that they’re famous, believe them wholeheartedly – even if they claim to be a woman but sound like a man or claim to be a girl but sound like a man or claim to be a young man but sound like an older man. That, or have them do something weird on live TV. [via Kotaku] Source: CrunchGear | 25 Jan 2009 | 11:00 pm Quantum Camera On a Silicon Chipstefanparvu14 writes "Physicists in Switzerland and California have developed a new type of camera capable of imaging quantum correlations between pairs of photons. The details are presented in the current issue of the open-access publication New Journal of Physics. Unlike a conventional camera with a CCD imager, this camera is composed of Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) pixels implemented on a high-performance CMOS chip. One of the authors has provided more background for the non-physicist. Apparently, it could be used to verify the existence of Bose-Einstein condensates that are now starting to be produced in new ways."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2009 | 10:51 pm BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 1-18-2009Section:  We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Jan 2009 | 10:42 pm Mad Magazine going quarterly
Editor John Ficarra said in a statement, “The feedback we’ve gotten from readers is that only every third issue of Mad is funny. So we decided to just publish those.” Quarterly issues will see a slight bump in pages, from 48 to 56. Mad Kids and Mad Classics will, unfortunately, be shut down entirely. This is just conjecture on my part but it may be that Mad uses the extra time between issues to flush out its online presence since, you know, the internet is kind of a big deal nowadays. New York Times [via Slashdot] Source: CrunchGear | 25 Jan 2009 | 10:00 pm Edit-Approval System Proposed For English-Language WikipediaAn anonymous reader writes "A group of powerful Wikipedia insiders are pushing for FlaggedRevisions which will require a 'trusted user' to approve of edits before they go live on the online encyclopedia. There is also opposition but with support of founder Jimbo Wales it is likely to go through. The German version has tried the system, leading to three-week delays between edit and publication. The English wiki with its higher number of anonymous editors per trusted user is expected to suffer longer queues if FlaggedRevisions is implemented on all articles. This comes just a few days after Britannica announced that readers will be allowed to suggest edits and have them reviewed within 20 minutes. Will we see the day when Britannica can be edited almost instantly while editing Wikipedia requires fighting bureaucracy, patience and the right contacts?" Note that, according to the quote from Jimmy Wales in the linked article, this system would only be used "on a subset of articles, the boundaries of which can be adjusted over time to manage the backlog."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2009 | 9:43 pm Unchecked Global Warming Will Expand Dead ZonesLarge extinction events Together with senior scientists Steffen Olsen oceanographer at Danish Meteorological Institute and Jens Olaf Pepke Pedersen, physicist at National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Professor Shaffer has performed projections with the newly-developed DCESS Earth System Model, projections that extend 100,000 years into the future. He adds that "if, as in many climate model simulations, the overturning circulation of the ocean would greatly weaken in response to global warming, these oxygen minimum zones would expand much more still and invade the deep ocean." Extreme events of ocean oxygen depletion leading to anoxia are thought to be prime candidates for explaining some of the large extinction events in Earth history including the largest such event at the end of the Permian 250 million years ago. Series of changesSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jan 2009 | 9:15 pm Hot gaming news for the week of 1-18-2009Section:  No need to scour the internet for hot gaming news, Gamertell‘s already done that for you! Here’s a look at this week’s top stories…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Jan 2009 | 9:09 pm Best Blog Posts of 2008?Ed Note: Boingboing's current guest blogger Steven Johnson is the author of six books, most recently The Invention Of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution and the Birth Of America, for which he is currently on book tour. He's also the co-founder of the hyperlocal community site outside.in.
I have the distinct honor of editing this year's edition of Best Of Technology Writing, which has in past years featured many BoingBoing regulars. We're putting together the final submissions, and while we have a great supply of magazine writing to choose from, the blogosphere pile seems a little thin to me. So I thought it might be a nice end-of-year exercise for all of us to think back on the blog posts from 2008 that most intrigued and inspired us. Slightly longer posts will be more likely to make it into the collection, but who knows -- perhaps there's a particularly momentous tweet that deserves a place in the 2009 book. Obviously, posts that originated here at BoingBoing will have a special place in my heart. So feel free to share amongst yourselves in the threads below: what was the most memorable blog post you read last year? Surely, some of you remember last year...? Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jan 2009 | 9:01 pm Best Buy’s 32-inch 1080p HDTV & 80GB PS3 combo for $1,1000 is better than nothing (but only just)
It’s not quite a price cut, but it’s the next best thing. Walk into your local Best Buy and you should be able to pick up a 32-inch 1080p LCD Sony Bravia and an 80GB PS3 for $1,100. That’s about $300 less than you’d pay for the two items separately. My concerns: a 32-inch TV is a little on the small side (unless you’re in a dorm room or something), and, to pick one out of a hat, you can buy a 42-inch HDTV for just $100 more on Newegg; I’m sure you can find better deals within two seconds of using Google. And that’s not meant to disparage the PS3 in any way, but, given Sony’s current situation, I think it’s gonna be a little while before we see a proper ($50+) price cut. Source: CrunchGear | 25 Jan 2009 | 9:00 pm Australian family caged, detained, starved and deported by US customsAn Australian family who traveled to the US to visit a dying relative were accused of attempting to illegally immigrate by US Customs and Border Patrol officials, who caged them, detained them, starved them overnight, and then sent them back on the next flight to Australia. The US consulate's only comment? "We reserve the right to refuse entry to visitors to the United States."A reminder to the US CBP: what you do to foreigners, their governments are apt to do to Americans. When you treat foreigners this way, you put Americans who go abroad in harm's way. Mercy dash family denied entry to US (Thanks, JK!)
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jan 2009 | 8:41 pm GateHouse Media case against NYTimes goes to trial (AP)AP - On one side is GateHouse Media, one of the nation's largest publishers of community newspapers. On the other is The New York Times Co., the parent company of The Boston Globe and its Boston.com Web site.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 25 Jan 2009 | 8:36 pm $6 Billion Proposal For High-Speed Internet Grantswitherstaff writes "House Democrats have proposed $6 billion in Internet investmentsas part of a sweeping economic stimulus bill that the full House is expected to vote on next week. The $6 billion is considered a down payment on efforts Obama will make in this area over the next several years. Of course let's not forget the $200 billion broadband scandal that the large telecommunication companies have been paid but never delivered on."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2009 | 8:32 pm GoStereo headphones double as speakersSection: Audio, Headphones, Portable Audio, Speakers
The “Tune In Tune Out” headphones run about $50, which isn’t bad given the face you’re getting a pair of headphones and a pair of speakers for that price. It’s amazing no one has thought of this idea (or put this idea into action) sooner. Having a pair of speakers on your headphones could be great for times when you want to share a track with several friends at once or even for times when you want to take your headphones off for a second, but still be able to listen to your music. Read [CNET] Full Story » | Written by Emily Price for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 25 Jan 2009 | 8:12 pm Cooks Must Be Inventive On Antarctic Research BasesOn Antarctic research bases, chefs rely on imported and often frozen food in order to feed crewmembers.The 1959 Antarctic Treaty sets aside the continent as a nature reserve devoted to peace and science and bases have, over the years, stopped eating fresh wildlife.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jan 2009 | 8:05 pm Lucy Exhibit Receives Lower Than Expected AttendanceOfficials from the Seattle Science Center paid millions to show the fossil remains of one of the earliest known human ancestors, but the exhibit failed to produce the expected returns.President Bryce Seidl said on Friday the Pacific Science Center faces a half-million-dollar loss resulting in layoffs of 8 percent of the staff, furloughs and a wage freeze only halfway through the five-month exhibit.The museum spotlighted the 3.2 million-year-old fossilized partial skeleton of a species with chimplike features that walked upright.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jan 2009 | 8:03 pm "Nuclear Archaeology" Inspires Replica of Hiroshima's Little BoyJames Cho writes "Through a decade of painstaking reverse engineering, trucker John Coster-Mullen built the first accurate replica of the Hiroshima bomb. His work yielded a new history of the first nukes, 'Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man,' with historian Robert Norris saying, 'Nothing else in the Manhattan Project literature comes close.' Philip Morrison, one of the physicists who helped invent the bomb, deemed it 'a remarkable job.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2009 | 7:21 pm Affluence, The Social Network That Makes Your Life Better … If You’re A Millionaire
Unlike its most famous competitor aSmallWorld (there’s also Diamond Lounge and Qube), Affluence doesn’t require you to be invited in order to be eligible to become a member. No, you can simply register, free of charge. That is, if you can demonstrate you have a minimum household net worth of $3 million or a minimum annual household income of $300,000. Or if you have 5 other people who qualify tell Affluence that you are upper class enough to become a member of the virtual country club; that should do the trick as well. Once you get into the network, Affluence promises to make your wealthy lifestyle even better, offering you access to a dedicated “Concierge” who will assist you in spending your money on the right luxury hotels, restaurants and nightclubs, make sure you attend the most exclusive parties and events across the globe, and gives you access to a proprietary luxury print magazine called Affluence Magazine. It’s a social network, so you also get to mingle with other millionaires and billionaires. I didn’t get in, but I’m pretty sure you can’t attack other socially elite people with virtual zombies (I’m still digging for confirmation on that). All kidding aside, I’m convinced there’s a genuine need for this type of service, and ultimately it’s the personal experience of the members that counts. Some day, I hope to tell you what that personal experience feels like. Until then, you can take a look at the screenshot below, which shows the profile of Affluence’s President and CEO Scott Mitchell.
Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 25 Jan 2009 | 6:30 pm Twitter Has Done News. Now It’s Doing Global Charity Events
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 25 Jan 2009 | 6:27 pm Social Networking Spurs Activism Against RepressionThe New York Times Magazine is running a story about the rise in political activism in Egypt through sites like Facebook, which allow citizens to gather and share ideas in ways they otherwise aren't allowed. A state-of-emergency law has been active in Egypt since 1981, which, among other things, "allows the government to ban political organizations and makes it illegal for more than five people to gather without a license from the government." As affordable internet access has spread throughout the country, the government is having a much harder time keeping wraps on the ideas of dissidents. Blocking access to the sites isn't a good solution for the government, because many non-dissidents use it for mundane communications. As Harvard's Ethan Zuckerman puts it, "...doing so would alert a large group of people who they can't afford to radicalize."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 25 Jan 2009 | 6:16 pm Internet TVs Broaden Viewer’s Entertainment OptionsA new generation of Web-connected televisions may play a key role for the recording industry in reaching its ongoing goal of expanding digital music into household living rooms.And if the buzz at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is any indication, Internet access may soon become as critical a feature to TV buyers as screen size and resolution. Web-connected TVs from companies such as Sony, Vizio, Samsung and LG generated significant interest at the CES show in Las Vegas in early January.While efforts to bring Internet connectivity to TVs are nothing new, this year electronics makers are pitching their ability to bring a wider range of entertainment options to consumers. The largest draw is enhanced video programming, since connected TVs would not need a separate box to download movies or other videos.However, music isn't far behind. Rhapsody, whose service is already offered via TiVo DVRs, recently inked an agreement with TV maker Vizio to integrate its music subscription service into the manufacturer's new Connected HDTV models, which will be available this fall. The agreement would enable owners of Irvine, Calif.-based Vizio TVs to access Rhapsody without a separate device. Intel and Yahoo have partnered to launch TV Widgets, which allows users to access Web sites and online services through their TV as they watch other traditional programming. Access to Web sites like MySpace will come preloaded into the connected TVs this fall.And providers of digital music are in discussions with cable operators to make their services as accessible as other premium channels, such as HBO. However, such an agreement would require extensive negotiations between record labels and cable operators to ensure monthly costs are kept down.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Jan 2009 | 5:05 pm FriendFeed Hits Nearly One Million Visitors; Grew Tenfold In The Past Six Months
While 2008 was Twitter’s hockey-stick year, Twitter’s little brother FriendFeed is also beginning to show hockey-stick tendencies in its growth. According to comScore, FriendFeed attracted 950,000 unique visitors worldwide in December. That’s a tenfold increase since June, when comScore counted only 93,000 unique visitors worldwide (and nearly double since September, when it was 550,000). Twitter.com, by comparison, which is raising money at a $250 million valuation, has four times as many visitors (4.35 million worldwide in December). While recently there was some debate about whether Twitter has passed Digg, the real question might be whether FriendFeed can ever catch up to Twitter. At the very least, these numbers suggest that FriendFeed has global appeal. ComScore counts only 172,000 unique U.S. visitors in December. Update: Two counterarguments. 1. A large percentage of the content on FriendFeed are merely repostings from Twitter (see comments). So you could argue, and many do, that FriendFeed is simply riding on the coattails of Twitter and will never actually catch up. 2. This comScore data merely measures unique visitors and does not necessarily correlate with the number of users on FriendFeed. If FriendFeed gets a lot of its traffic from Google and other search engines, for instance, then those visitors would not necessarily be registered users (although they might become users once they discover the site). Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Source: TechCrunch | 25 Jan 2009 | 3:40 pm Hospital fetish restaurant in LatviaMarilyn points us to Hospitalis in Riga, Latvia, a hospital themed restaurant where, "the food is served in syringes, flasks and operating-room dishes, and customers can be tied up in straight jackets." The waitresses all wear fetish-nurse outfits and Milla-Jovavich-in-Fifth-Element red wigs:Hospirestaurant - Hospital Themed Restaurant in Latvia (Thanks, Marilyn! Source: Boing Boing | 25 Jan 2009 | 2:57 pm Paper Jam Boy! Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 25 Jan 2009 | 2:13 pm Gene's Past May Improve Rice's FutureWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - In an effort to improve rice varieties, a Purdue University researcher was part of a team that traced the evolutionary history of domesticated rice by using a process that focuses on one gene. Scott A.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jan 2009 | 1:50 pm Hearing With Your FaceThe movement of facial skin and muscles around the mouth plays an important role not only in the way the sounds of speech are made, but also in the way they are heard according to a study by scientists at Haskins Laboratories, a Yale-affiliated research laboratory.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Jan 2009 | 1:45 pm
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Wow, here’s a new one. Apparently Nate Robinson of the New York Knicks plays quite a bit on Xbox Live and constantly has trouble trying to prove to fellow gamers that he’s really Nate Robinson.
This April will bring the 500th issue of 
Over the next 24 hours, officers questioned the Thornleigh taxi driver and his aged-care worker wife, patted them down and searched their luggage before sending them to a detention centre in a caged van. They were then taken to a hotel with other detainees at 2.30am to sleep with armed guards by their bedside before being woken at 4.30am and put on a flight back to Sydney...
Here’s an interesting take on your traditional stereo speakers. The GoStereo headset is a pair of stereo headphones you can use to listen to music off your traditional MP3 player or iPod, except this pair of headphones has a special twist, they double as speakers. The headphones have external speakers on the back of each earpiece so you share your tuneage with those around you.
It’s not the first social network that caters to wealthy people only, and it won’t be the last: 
