Angry Ex-Employee Lets Loose On SkyGrid

SkyGrid, a new aggregation startup that is preparing to launch a free version of its product, has an angry ex-employee on its hands named Sara Parker.

Parker, a “Process and Documentation Specialist” at the company from August 2008 to December 2008 according to her LinkedIn Profile, says via Twitter that “after discovering baaad things about management team, i gave notice.” The next day, she says, she was fired without severance.

Some of the Twitter messages she wrote are more of a rant than anything. But she does trash her boss, the VP Engineering, as a “notoriously poor communicator” and that his “challenges directly interfered with the quality of the product.”

Normally when we see this stuff, we contact the company and hear a different side of the story. This time, though, the company didn’t return our request for comment, but shortly afterward Parker’s Twitter account went private.

We’re not too concerned about the specifics of Parker’s situation, but this may be a sign that the upcoming product isn’t what it could have been, or that it is being delayed. If anyone has details, let us know.

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

www.SavedByTheBud.com Offers Valentine's Bailout to Cash-Strapped Suitors

Atmel Targets Touch Applications With Introduction of Advanced Touch-Library

South Carolina to Improve College Transfer with CollegeTransfer.net

Allot & Magirus Announce Strategic Pan-European Distribution Partnership

Sync Your Gmail Contacts, Calendar With iPhone & Windows Mobile

Netbooks here to stay: 35 million expected to ship in 2009

Section: Computers, Mobile Computers, Laptops, Netbooks

Lately, it seems netbooks have become very popular, and for good reason.  If you think about it, who does’t want something that is as small and compact as a netbook?  They are way more portable than laptops and are great for someone who travels a lot on business trips.  ABI research claims that the best netbook years have yet to come, and while they are pretty damn popular now, it is interesting how much more popular they think it will become. 

ABI research predicts that 35 million netbooks will be purchased this year, and by 2013, nearly 139 million netbooks will be shipped out to consumers. 

According to ABI, smartphones helped bridge the gap to netbooks, these advanced phones were our first taste in getting a lot of data on the go.  Users of smartphones eagerly awaited the emergence of netbooks, and then jumped on it at the first chance with notable UMPCs such as the Asus Eee. 

As netbooks become more and more advanced, while selling for cheaper prices, it will be interesting to see how popular they become and if, in fact, ABI Research is correct.  For this year and possibly others, it will also be interesting to see whether the netbook can survive in poor economic conditions.

Via [ABI Reseach Press Release]

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

Silicon Valley’s Fork in the Road [Voices]

Could Silicon Valley become another Detroit? It’s hard to imagine as you crawl along the traffic-choked lanes of Routes 101 and 280 between San Francisco and San Jose, past office parks and gleaming campuses still buzzing with energy despite the recent recession-related layoffs and cutbacks. Yet some who work here see trouble on the horizon. These include top executives at HP, who are ringing an alarm bell about what they see as a looming disaster, not just for HP, but for the entire U.S. tech industry. They say that unless we boost government spending on science, technology, engineering and math—STEM, in industry jargon—we will be unable to keep up with countries like China and India. At some point, companies such as Apple (AAPL), Cisco (CSCO), HP (HPQ), IBM (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL) could be eclipsed by foreign rivals, just as Ford (F), General Motors (GM) and Chrysler have been.

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Tribune’s Abrams Fooled by Years-Old Spoof [Voices]

Good to know that with Tribune Co. slogging its way through bankruptcy amid an industry-wide existential crisis, its chief innovation officer, Lee Abrams, is concentrating his brainpower on the stuff that really matters: A pop singer’s phony quote from 10 years ago.

In his latest “think piece,” the free-associative Abrams takes on the issue of “celebrity crimes against humanity,” imploring Tribune journalists not to “feed this machine” by mindlessly reprinting the inanities of famous people.

But one of the examples he uses–of Mariah Carey saying she’d love to be as skinny as a starving child in the Third World “but not with all those flies and death and stuff”–is bogus.

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Web Series Still Struggle to Hold on to Audiences [Voices]

MyDamnChannel’s “You Suck at Photoshop” is a near-perfect series for the web: short, funny and low-budget, it both doesn’t require viewers to commit to a series and actually provides some useful information for those of us who do, in fact, suck at Photoshop.

But the series isn’t immune from the one of the most vexing problems facing producers of Web video: how to build a loyal audience and keep it coming back. In the short history of web series, most have struggled to replicate the TV model where audiences come back–and even build–from the first episode. And retaining audiences is key, given that brands marketing around web video are paying according to that old TV model: for eyeballs.

Online audiences are spotty, fickle and distracted. Even the best web series have trouble getting numbers when they’re not getting front-page promotion on a major video portal such as YouTube or MySpace Video. To illustrate the problem, Ad Age asked web-analytics firm TubeMogul to compile viewing stats for the first eight episodes of 50 of the highest-profile web series: EQAL’s “LG15: The Resistance” to Crackle’s “Hot Hot Los Angeles” to Michael Eisner’s “Back On Topps.”

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Why the Future of News Brands Hinges on Net Neutrality [Voices]

If there’s any one thing that stands to determine the future of news brands, it is the current debate in Washington over net neutrality legislation. Why is net neutrality so important?

It is the building block of the abundance-based economy on the internet.

Changing the cost structure of online publishing would allow the larger organizations to, essentially, raise the cost of publishing back to its former level. If it suddenly costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to publish again, then news brands have their monopoly back, and the ad dollars start rolling in.

Let me explain how this works.

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Daily Crunch: The Foot Edition

Eight “features” point and shoots need to lose
Ministry of Silly Videos: Monty Python on YouTube
Tiny arcade machines for your train set
Meet Postkun, Japan’s cutest mini postman robot
Meet the Tmsuk T-34, a mini robocop on four wheels

Econalypto, Redux [Digital Daily]

With Sprint contributing another 8,000 or so employees to the next Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment report, this seems like a fine time to pay respects to those who’ve gone before them. And there are many. In the past six months thousands of workers have been rightsized and offboarded. Rebalanced and rationalized. “Smartsized.”

Sacked.

A quick scan of the carnage.

• 6,000 let go at Royal Philips
• 1,100 sacked at AMD (AMD).
• 4,000 adjusting to new economic realities at Motorola (MOT).
• 3,000 laid off at Seagate.
• And a few hundred at Oracle (ORCL), as well.
• 1,900 declared redundant at Dell (DELL).
• 5,000 losing their jobs at Microsoft (MSFT).
• 1,000 managers and 5,000 contractors pink-slipped at Alcatel-Lucent
• 1,500 gone at Yahoo (YHOO).
• 12,000 released into the wild at AT&T (T).
• 600 cut loose at Adobe
• 6,000 aligned with the global economic climate at Sun (JAVA).
• And at Nortel 1,300 positions cut on top of the 1,200 previously announced.

Grim isn’t it? Sad thing is, this is just a simple snapshot of what’s been happening in tech. According to the Department of Labor, employers in the states shed 524,000 workers in December, 2.6 million in all of 2008. That makes the last year the worst for layoffs since 1945, when 2.75 million jobs were lost. And that’s frightening, because according to some experts, we’ll get no respite in 2009. “We are very early in the cycle,” Peter Morici, a professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland told BusinessWeek, adding that we’ve so far only seen a sliver of the job losses to come. “We are going to see the fury of the Old Testament for what we have done to the economy.”

Is FriendFeed the Next Conversation Platform? [Voices]

I recently discussed the viability of Twitter evolving beyond a micro community into a standardized platform for macro conversations. It’s certainly the path Facebook is traversing. And, both are making significant progress in the race to syndicate and aggregate the discussions that are important to us within our respective social networks.

There is another emerging platform worth discussing as it is quietly growing into an alternative solution to the disparate communities that are pervasive throughout the social Web.

Ladies and gentlemen, add FriendFeed to your radar for listening, participation, and relationship building.

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Autonomy Receives 2009 Editors' Choice Award From Intelligent Enterprise

Global Warming Irreversible, NOAA Scientist Finds

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

WinMo to remain on Moto

Section: Tech News, Communications, Cellphones

While it looked like Motorola was going to drop Windows Mobile support by letting go of 77 Windows Mobile developers, that’s not the case.  A Motorola spokesperson stated that Motorola will still back Windows Mobile.  Those future Android Moto phones will still have Windows Mobile company.

The 77 weren’t the only people let go; Motorola laid off 3,000 people from its mobile devices division in total.  Like so many companies, Motorola has been hit hard lately.  Motorola took itself from irrelevance to superstar with phones like the Razr.  Who knows where they would have been if the original Moto Rokr, its collaboration with Apple, did not flop.

With Windows Mobile and Android, maybe Moto can get its act together to build something to restore its reputation. 

Read: [NetworkWorld.com]

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

Davos to Connect With the World Through Davos.tel

Cognito Celebrates Record Year With 4,100 Users Signed

Guitar Hero as text adventure

The current management of this rather seedy venue doesn't much care about appearances, apparently. Nonetheless, it's become one of the hottest spots in the area, attracting surly alcoholics from all around. A variety of local acts, the vast majority unrelentingly terrible, play here every Tuesday night. Coincidentally, it's Tuesday night.

The Kyte Dashboard: Like Google Analytics For Your Cell-Phone Videos

Mobile video service Kyte is trying hard these days to please its biggest (paying) customers: music labels and their artists, primarily. Performers such as 50 Cent and John Legend use Kyte to record behind-the-scenes moments on their cell phones and then share them over the web immediately with their fans. To help its customers manage their mobile video channels just as they would any other Web property, Kyte will introduce a new dashboard and management console on Tuesday at a conference in Las Vegas.

The Kyte Dashboard is a bit like Google Analytics for cell-phone video. It is filled with charts showing the number of views for each show, ad impressions, bandwidth usage, most watched shows, and the sites where the embeddable videos are watched the most.

A content view lets users see the individual video lineup for each upcoming show and change it aroubd by dragging and dropping . And the moderation tab lets users accept or reject new videos into their channel from their audience.

Below are screenshots:

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

Emoji icons make there way to the US iPhone, but shhhh

FROM APPLETELL - Emoji icons for the iPhone can be found in the App Store. For $0.99, iPhone users can buy FrostyPlace get a special keyboard, but will the App remain on iTunes for long? MORE »

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The Motorola Museum: 4

In 1981, the first Motorola cellular phone, consisting mostly of a big battery, was marketed almost exclusively to police and emergency services. Few other customers could afford it.

The development of technology that could “hand off” a call from one cell tower to the next was a huge achievement at the time. I like the way the museum curators adjusted the appearance of this display, using Lucite and perforated steel to capture that “modern” 1980s look.

I have a DVD of an early Hong Kong gangster movie in which actors talk into Motorola DynaTAC phones. I wish I owned one. Imagine pulling one of these monsters out of your briefcase during a business lunch.

Bookham Announces New Focus(TM) 200mW High Power Laser

Resident Evil 5 Demo Out for Xbox 360 Gold Members Only (PC World)

The carnage continues: Vudu cuts 15%

Section: Tech News, Video, Accessories, Video Providers

Every company is doing everything possible to survive.  Vudu just shed 15% of its people to stay afloat.  Vudu says that that most of the people cut were “brought on for Best Buy training.“  Well, they’re gone now.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Vudu, the company produces a video on demand set top box.  Video, including 1080P video, can be bought or rented.  The Vudu box costs $299.

You know, if every company keeps cutting people, there aren’t going to be enough employed people to buy tech products. 

Read: [NY Times]
Company site: [Vudu.com]

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

Sentilla Measures Power Use at the Server Level (PC World)

Today on Offworld

Rumor: New PSP to sport touchscreen, possibly but not probably 3G

The various iterations of the PSP have seen success, perceived as only modest success due to the runaway sales of the DS. The PSP 3000 actually had some real changes in it, not unlike the DSi, but some think that a more radical reinvention of Sony’s underappreciated handheld is in the cards.

IGN has it from “several credible sources” (aren’t they all?) that the new PSP will feature a widescreen, multi-touch capable touchscreen. There has to be a better way of saying that. A wide multi-touch screen. Moving on — that would make some sense, as Sony ganked the Wii’s motion controls right away and perhaps now feels it’s time to ape the DS and iPhone.

A survey sent out (captured here) also asked whether people would be more likely to buy a PSP if it had

• GPS
• A comic/book-downloading service
• Dual analog sticks
• Bluetooth
• A full keyboard
• A hard drive
• “The ability to access the internet from any location,” in other words a wireless 3G modem. This one is actually interesting.

It’s all very speculative, of course, but it’s fun to think about. A 3G-enabled handheld game console with a multi-touch screen… there may be some legal issues with Apple.

Apple Awarded Patent For iPhone Interface

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Nightly meditations on 33 1/3

Zune death watch: Revenue down 54%

FROM APPLETELL - Macworld has a report from Microsoft stating that fourth-quarter revenue for the little music player that could (not) was down $100 million from last year, a decline of 54% of the Zune’s market from last year. MORE »

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

Video: Daffodils Wander Lonely as a Cloud, in 'Flower'

Jan. 27, 1967: 3 Astronauts Die in Capsule Fire

1967: Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee are killed on the launch pad when a flash fire engulfs their command module during testing for the first Apollo/Saturn mission. They are the first U.S. astronauts to die in the line of duty.

The command module, built by North American Aviation, was the prototype for those that would eventually accompany the lunar landers to the moon. Designated CM-012 by NASA, the module was a lot larger than those flown during the Mercury and Gemini programs, and was the first designed for the Saturn 1B booster.

Even before tragedy struck, the command module was criticized for a number of potentially hazardous design flaws, including the use of a more combustible, 100 percent oxygen atmosphere in the cockpit, an escape hatch that opened inward instead of outward, faulty wiring and plumbing, and the presence of flammable material.

Regarding the cabin atmosphere and hatch configuration, it was a case of NASA overruling the recommendations of the North American designers. North American proposed using a 60-40 oxygen/nitrogen mixture but because of fears over decompression sickness, and because pure oxygen had been used successfully in earlier space programs, NASA insisted on it being used again. NASA also dinged the suggestion that the hatch open outward and carry explosive bolts in case of an emergency mainly because a hatch failure in the Mercury program's Friendship 7 capsule had nearly killed Gus Grissom in 1961.

So CM-012 was completed as ordered and delivered to Cape Canaveral.

The three astronauts knew they were looking at a potential death trap. Not long before he died, Grissom plucked a lemon from a tree at his house and told his wife, "I'm going to hang it on that spacecraft."

The test on Jan. 27 was a "plugs-out" launch simulation designed to see if the Apollo spacecraft could operate on internal power only. It was considered a non-hazardous test. Several problems delayed the beginning of the test until evening. Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee were strapped into their seats when a voltage fluctuation occurred. Grissom was heard shouting "Fire!" and White followed immediately with "We've got a fire in the cockpit."

It was all over in 30 seconds, perhaps the longest half-minute in NASA's history. Pandemonium broke out as the capsule filled with flames and toxic smoke, and Chaffee could be heard yelling, "Let's get out! We've got a bad fire! We're burning up!" Screaming was heard before the communications cut out. The command module ruptured.

Rescuers were prevented by the flames, and by toxic fumes — their gas masks were faulty — from opening the hatch for a full five minutes, and in any case the idea of rescue was futile. The three astronauts were roasted alive. It took seven hours to remove the bodies. Each had severe third-degree burns and the flames were so intense that the space suits of Grissom and White were fused together.

Investigators determined that the cabin pressure at the time of the fire would have prevented the hatch from being opened, even if White, the astronaut charged with operating the hatch in an emergency, had been able to reach it. Although the exact cause of the fire has never been determined, a review board concluded that the combustible material inside the module almost certainly contributed to its severity.

As a result of the tragedy, the Apollo command module underwent a thorough redesign.

Grissom and Chaffee are buried at Arlington National Cemetery. White is buried at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Source: NASA, Wikipedia

Live Free or Drown: Floating Utopias on the Cheap

Several dozen conference-goers are filing into the Mendocino Room of the Embassy Suites Hotel in Burlingame, a San Francisco suburb, arming themselves with coffee and muffins as they shuffle to their seats. It's the kind of scene that occurs daily—if not hourly—in the Bay Area, where techies and businesspeople forever squeeze into drab meeting rooms to discuss how they are going to change the world. But even by local standards, the attendees gathered here are chasing a dream so grand and exotic it makes the typical Internet confab look like an OSHA seminar. Anyone can build a game-changing social-network platform or a virtual community or a set of open APIs. But the people here want to start a nonmetaphorical revolution by creating their own independent nations. In the middle of the ocean. On prefab floating platforms.

At 9:12 am, Patri Friedman stands up to address the group. A former Google software engineer, Friedman is 32 but comes off much younger, with close-cropped hair and a slightly nasal voice. He is executive director of the Seasteading Institute, the nonprofit he founded in April 2008, and this is the group's first major event. He surveys the room, taking in a cross section of Silicon Valley culture: A white-haired nanotech millionaire in a suit sits next to a grad student in a Transformers T-shirt. If you were to break down the audience into high school classifications, you'd find a couple of hippies and goths, a few hipsters, and several preppies. The rest would definitely be at the nerd table. The male-female ratio is 7 to 1. "This isn't enough to create a whole new civilization," Friedman says. "But this is a seed."

Friedman and his followers are not the first band of wide-eyed dreamers to want to build floating utopias. For decades, an assortment of romantics and whack jobs have fantasized about fleeing the oppressive strictures of modern government and creating a laissez-faire society on the high seas. Over the decades, they've tried everything from fortified sandbars to mammoth cruise ships. Nearly all have been disasters. But the would-be nation builders assembled here are not intimidated by that record of failure. After all, their plans are inspired by the ethos of the modern tech industry, where grand quixotic visions are as common as BlackBerrys, and they see their task not as a holy mission but as something like a startup. A couple of software engineers came up with an innovative concept, then outsourced it to a community and let the wisdom of the crowd improve on it. They scored financing from a top-tier venture capitalist and assembled a board of directors. They will be transparent, blogging their progress. If they fail—which, let's face it, is the most likely outcome—they will do so quickly, in time-honored Valley fashion. But if they succeed, they have one hell of an exit strategy.

Friedman launches into what he calls "my standard rant"—a spiel about government's shortcomings and why they're so hard to repair. In his eyes, government is a sclerotic monopoly that can count on high customer lock-in thanks to inertia and the lack of alternatives. "Government is an inefficient industry because it has an insane barrier to entry," he says. "To compete with governments on existing land, you have to win a war, an election, or a revolution." He points to the democracy that emerged from the American Revolution as the last successful rollout and attributes the subsequent dry spell to the lack of uncolonized space on the map. "We've run out of frontier," he says.

But there's still one virgin realm left, and it covers 70 percent of the earth's surface.

The purpose of the Seasteading Institute—and of this gathering—is to figure out how to make aquatic homesteads a reality. But Friedman doesn't just want to create huge floating platforms that people can live on. He's also hoping to create a platform in the sense that Linux is a platform: a base upon which people can build their own innovative forms of governance. The ultimate goal is to create standards and blueprints that can be easily adapted, allowing small communities to rapidly incubate and test new models of self-rule with the same ease that a programmer in his garage can whip up a Facebook app. "You could roll your own government out of pieces copied from all the societies around you," Friedman says. "Google set my standards for how fast something should grow. This has potential to exceed those standards—if we make one seastead, there's room for thousands."

Illustration: Kate Francis

Friedman's optimism is easier to buy into if you ignore the history of previous would-be nation builders. There was Operation Atlantis, created by Ayn Rand admirer Werner Stiefel in the late 1960s. Stiefel, who made a fortune selling dermatology products, devoted his life to creating a sovereign society with the freest markets imaginable. He started with a ferro-cement boat that made a single successful voyage on the Hudson River. He erected a system of seabreaks near the coast of Haiti but was run off by president Franè7ois Duvalier's gunboats before he could put land on it. He bought an oil rig and tried to anchor it between Cuba and Honduras, where it was destroyed by a storm. Stiefel died in 2006 with little more than a sporadically published newsletter to show for his efforts.

In 1971, real estate millionaire and committed libertarian Michael Oliver dumped large quantities of sand on two coral reefs in the South Pacific and dubbed it the Republic of Minerva, a land with "no taxation, welfare, subsidies, or any form of economic interventionism." Minerva was soon invaded by the nearby kingdom of Tonga, and it dissolved back into the ocean shortly thereafter.

The Oceania city project, a plan for a vast floating settlement off the coast of Panama, emerged in 1993. The founders took out a two-page ad in Reason, a libertarian magazine, promising to free prospective residents from governments "entangled in bureaucracy, corruption, and the free lunch philosophy." The project was disbanded the following year due to lack of interest and funds. "The Libertarian party is small in number and too few members have the financial resources to bankroll their beliefs," founder Eric Klien wrote on Oceania's Web site.

Other projects still exist as hypothetical concepts. There's the Freedom Ship, a mile-long floating tax haven, which will come into being just as soon as its organizers can drum up the $10 billion needed to build it. (They've accused their former president of absconding with the first $400,000 they raised.) The concept of failed aquatic libertarian havens has even entered the pop consciousness, providing the setting for the blockbuster videogame BioShock.

Wayne Gramlich will never move to the middle of the ocean—his wife forbids it. But when the former software engineer, who has been "on sabbatical" since the late 1990s, stumbled across the Oceania Web site about a decade ago, he was both enthralled by the vision and dismayed at the execution. An early Sun Microsystems employee who worked on browser security at the dawn of the World Wide Web, he thought what was needed was a dispassionate perspective—a realistic plan to build floating autonomous countries. "Oceania had a lot of pretty pictures, pretty concept art, but that was it," he says. In 1998 he wrote a modest proposal, SeaSteading—Homesteading on the High Seas, to get beyond the grandiloquence. "Big and expensive projects will have a very difficult time attracting the requisite capital," Gramlich wrote. An engineer at heart, he tried to devise a way to build islands on the cheap. His report outlined how thousands of empty 2-liter soda bottles could be used to create a floating platform.

That sounded like paradise to Friedman when he saw the paper on Gramlich's site. He had always been interested in big-picture socioeconomic theories. The son of libertarian legal theorist David Friedman and grandson of the Nobel Prize-winning free-market economist Milton Friedman, Patri had until then expressed his worldview mainly through his lifestyle: engaging in "radical self-expression" at Burning Man, experimenting with drugs, living in intentional communities with several other families, and maintaining a polyamorous relationship with his wife. His BMW 328i has a customized license plate: FRRREAK.

Friedman had read about money holes like Oceania and considered them too fantastical to bother with. But the relative practicality of Gramlich's ideas appealed to the software engineer in him. Here was a simple kludge for a floating platform that might be affordable. And if it could work, Friedman would love to be among the first settlers to live on the open sea. "My dad and grandfather write about stuff," he says. "What interests me is doing something." He sent an email to Gramlich, and the two discovered that they lived a few miles apart in Sunnyvale, California. In late 2001, they began to collaborate on a new paper on seasteading. They posted everything online, including their notes to each other. (Friedman coded a Perl script that would allow anyone to submit comments on each paragraph.)

Over the next couple of years, Friedman and Gramlich assembled a 150-page book on the logistics of seasteading. Their guidelines were intensely pragmatic, explaining everything from how to fend off barnacles (a "continuous discharge of low-level chlorination") to how to fend off foreign navies ("sea-skimming anti-ship cruise missiles like the Chinese Silkworm are fairly cheap and quite effective"). They described the least far-fetched, least expensive design for a safe seastead they could find—the floating spar. The hypothetical dwelling looks like a giant dumbbell standing on end, with a large steel ballast underwater and a 48,000-square-foot platform suspended above, where 120 people could live. They estimated it could be built for about $3 million. "That's the same price as a nice house in San Francisco," Friedman says. (Their design has since evolved, as shown at above.)

Gramlich and Friedman's online tome captured the imagination of like-minded geeks, who peppered it with suggestions and criticisms. It was also brought to the attention of millionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, who shared Friedman and Gramlich's dissatisfaction with land-bound governments. Thiel was a cofounder of PayPal, and he viewed that company as a way to further his libertarian ideals—a way to move money around the world as 1s and 0s without the involvement of nations or their currencies. After selling PayPal to eBay and walking away with a reported $55 million, Thiel started the hedge fund Clarium Capital, which made a fortune earlier this decade by correctly betting that oil prices would rise and the dollar would weaken.

Thiel has invested in Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, and Slide. He has also donated $3.5 million to Aubrey de Grey's Methuselah Foundation, which seeks to extend longevity, and given money to the campaigns of small-government conservatives like Ron Paul.

"Peter wants to end the inevitability of death and taxes," Friedman says. "I mean, talk about aiming high!"

Last April, Thiel pledged a $500,000 investment and installed his right-hand man, Joe Lonsdale, as chair of the Seasteading Institute. "Decades from now, those looking back at the start of the century will understand that seasteading was an obvious step toward encouraging the development of more efficient, practical public-sector models around the world," Thiel said in a statement at the time. Three months after the wire transfer went through, Friedman left his job at Google.

Friedman is quick to acknowledge that not everyone will share his vision. "At first blush, this all sounds kind of crazy, and to see the potential beyond that—that's pretty awesome," he tells his fellow enthusiasts at the seasteading conference. "There's a lot of good craziness in this room!"

But good craziness alone will not make seasteads work, and most of the day is spent discussing the nuts and bolts of creating a floating community. First is the question of structure. "The ocean is a harsh and corrosive environment," Friedman says. In addition to rust and barnacles, there's wave motion, which is disorienting in the best of times and potentially fatal during a storm. The Seasteading Institute hired Marine Innovation & Technology as a consultant to solve these problems. Naval architect Alexia Aubault takes the lectern to describe the results of wave-motion analyses her engineering firm performed. To protect the organization from frivolous infringement lawsuits, she is barred by the institute's lawyer from showing off the refined design until a patent gets filed. (That has since been done.)

And that's just one of the legal torpedoes that seasteaders must dodge. According to the UN's Law of the Sea, the jurisdiction of traditional nations extends up to 200 miles from shore, an exclusive economic zone within which countries can control fishing and mineral rights and police polluters. Friedman hopes there will someday be self-sufficient seasteads that can thrive on the high seas, beyond the purview of any country. But for the near future, he concedes, they'll probably need to remain near shore and operate like cruise ships, which are bound by the laws of the country where they're registered. Most governments won't attack these kinds of vessels as long as they behave. "At this point, it matters who you piss off," he says. (Raymond Peck, a former Reagan administration official, has agreed to do further research for the institute on the Law of the Sea.)

At 11 am, attendees break up into small groups to brainstorm business models. Seasteaders can depend on like-minded benefactors for only so long. Ultimately, these nations will need to pay the bills. Friedman notes that some enterprises—like euthanasia clinics—would incense local authorities, but almost all the ideas attendees come up with would capitalize on activities that skirt existing laws and regulations: Fish farming and aquaculture. Prisons. Med schools. Gold warehouses. Brothels. Cryonics intakes. Gene therapy, cloning, augmentation, and organ sales. Baby farms. Deafeningly loud concerts. Rehab/detox clinics. Zen retreats. Abortion clinics. Ultimate ultimate fighting tournaments.

(Lonsdale has his own ideas. "Bazooka bikini bachelor parties," he says. "You get there and a Lithuanian model hands you a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.")

But in the end, the seasteaders may face an even more fundamental challenge. During an afternoon session, Friedman asks, "How many people here know how to sail?" Few hands go up. He says plans are under way to offer group instruction at discount rates.

The first annual seasteading conference adjourns at 6 pm. A kayaking trip around the bohemian houseboat community just off Sausalito has been scheduled for the following morning, but it is canceled because of high winds.

Forbes Island isn't really an island at all but a 5,000-square-foot, 700-ton sea vehicle decked out with palm trees, a white-sand beach, and a lighthouse. A houseboat designer named Forbes Kiddoo, inspired by the science fiction of Jules Verne, spent five years building it. In 1999, he converted it into a restaurant that today floats near San Francisco's kitschy Pier 39, serving $35 rack of lamb to tourists who watch sea lions flop around on the nearby docks. Tonight, the eatery is hosting the Seasteading Institute's post-conference dinner.

Kiddoo himself ferries the seasteaders from shore to restaurant in a tiny pontoon boat. On the way over, he explains that obtaining clearance for his island was a nightmare. "I had to get city, county, state, and federal permits," he says, shouting to be heard over the bellowing of sea lions. "I had to deal with the ADA, the ABC ... I had to become a merchant marine captain."

Afterward, in the island's bar, Friedman seems happy with how the event went, though he says some of his plans will have to be scaled back. He had wanted to hold a floating festival dubbed Ephemerisle on Fourth of July weekend; it was to be a sort of Burning Man on the high seas, where everything is permitted. But several conference attendees expressed concern about the logistics—and advisability—of a free-floating bacchanal of guns and drugs. He'll still host some sort of gathering to test a few miniature floating-island prototypes but expects it to be held in San Francisco Bay, not out on the open sea. "It'll probably take a few iterations to get there," he says. "But at least we're doing something."

Eventually, the seasteaders move to the Tahiti Room, which has a lovely moonlit view of Alcatraz. Chatter around the table gets louder as the wine flows, but the subject matter remains wonky. "The interesting issues are social and legal," says Mikolaj Habryn, a site reliability engineer at Google. "You'll get slavery. You'll get drug dealing. Maybe there'll be polygamous Mormons. The first people involved will inevitably be those who want to do things they can't do on land, and we have to deal with that." A ship passes, and even though Forbes Island is firmly moored a few hundred feet from shore and separated from the bay by a breakwater, the restaurant sways so much that some diners have to breathe deeply and focus on the horizon to settle their stomachs.

At the other end of the table, Patri Friedman raises his glass to make a toast. "I want to see us all at the 10th Annual Seasteading Conference," he says, implying that he expects it to take place on an actual seastead, not in an Embassy Suites or a floating theme restaurant. "It'll be in a bigger room, there will be a better view, it won't move up and down as much, and there'll be a better wine selection and better things to smoke!"

Friedman is joined by a raucous round of toasts. "To Peter Thiel for financing this!" "To having more women here!" "To being on the water!" "To freedom!"

Friedman wraps it up: "To being crazy in a good way!"

Senior editor Chris Baker (chris_baker@wired.com) wrote about Star Wars continuity in issue 16.09.

Mr. Know-It-All: Hi-Def Etiquette, Facebook Friends-in-Law, Wiki Errors

My only friend without an HDTV has invited me to his Super Bowl party. Hi-def sets have gotten pretty cheap. Is it rude to ask him to upgrade? Building bridges that can withstand anything.

Ask away, but remember that in these financially brutal times, even the gainfully employed are living lean. You might soften your approach and start by inviting your pal over to witness hi-def sports in all their glory. (You do have an HDTV yourself, right?) Maybe he'll see the light and pony up for an HD rig right before the big game. He wouldn't be the first.

But if your friend still resists dropping the cash, don't back out on his shindig. Yes, it's tough to revert to standard-def fuzz if you're accustomed to seeing every blade of grass. But, come on—has the splendor of all those pixels really made you that antisocial? The attraction of the party should be camaraderie, not the quality of the screen.

Joseph Whip of TVPredictions.com puts it well: "While I love HD, I do prefer friendship and human interaction." Plan on soothing the pain by knocking back a few extra beers before kickoff. Once the cheering starts, your technological hang-ups will be quickly forgotten.

When her mother recently friended me on Facebook, my girlfriend freaked and demanded that I defriend Mom at once. Should I comply or hold firm and risk hurting our relationship?

Your darling's dismay seems excessive, but you need to gather some intelligence before taking a stand. There could be a painful backstory here—an instance, perhaps, in which maternal interference ruined a promising romance.

Ask your girlfriend if her reaction is due to past meddling. If she has a tragic tale to relate, reassure her that you won't stand for such shenanigans. Make it clear that you'll instantly defriend Mom if she starts getting up to her old nosy tricks. A Facebook message with the subject line "Wedding Plans?" Buh-bye.

But the request might have less to do with Mom's misdeeds than a feeling that parental presence sucks the fun out of Facebook. "Using Facebook is a little like going to a party, and who wants to go to a party where their mom is standing in the corner?" says E. A. Vander Veer, author of Facebook: The Missing Manual.

By accepting Mrs. Girlfriend into your inner circle, you tacitly agreed to keep things on your profile rated G—or at least PG-13. Your gal simply may not relish the prospect of censoring her Wall posts to you.

If that's the essence of the gripe, gently resist her demand. Explain that preserving your right to Facebook raunchiness isn't worth hurting her mother's feelings. And point out that, hey, it's only Facebook—it's not like you let Mom install a webcam in your bedroom.

There's a serious error in the Wikipedia entry on me—they totally botched my birthplace. I want to correct the mistake, but I know you're not supposed to edit your own entry. What to do?

Congratulations on being deemed notable enough to merit a Wikipedia article. This implies that there are independent news sources out there with biographical information about you. Do these pieces have your birthplace correct? If so, create a note on your entry's Talk page with links to this evidence; with any luck, a Wikipedia contributor will notice it and make the necessary fix. If time is of the essence and you seriously believe the fate of the free world hangs in the balance, go ahead and edit the entry yourself. Just be sure to record everything on the Talk page, to avoid charges of sock puppetry.

Be ready, however, for some back-and-forth if the article's creator has a source for the misinformation. If this contributor won't relent, drop an email to info-en-q@wikimedia.org and explain the situation. Be brief and provide links to reputable sources that have accurate data.

In a worst-case scenario, the erroneous birthplace may have been bouncing around the World Wide Echo Chamber for so long that no linkable news articles have it right. "In cases like this, we suggest individuals try to correct the sources rather than insert unsourced information to our project," says Cary Bass, volunteer coordinator for the Wikimedia Foundation. That means your beef isn't with whoever created your Wikipedia entry but with the lazy journalists who've been flubbing your life's story all along. Rain your fury upon them.

Need help navigating life in the 21st century? Email us at mrknowitall@wiredmag.com.

Get a Clue: Top Crossword Solver Throws Down Geeky Challenge

Tyler Hinman's life changed in ninth grade, when a teacher gave him a crossword puzzle to pass the time in study hall. Hinman, now 24, went on to become the Tiger Woods of word games, winning the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for the past four years. His feverish solving skills leave rivals—and us—dumbstruck. (Search his name on YouTube and you'll find a clip of him tearing through a Monday New York Times puzzle in just over two minutes.) He's also our kind of guy: Hinman earned a degree in IT from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and since June has been flexing his coding knowledge at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. "There's a large group of puzzle people here in the Bay Area," he says. "They're all smart. As Will Shortz is fond of saying, not all smart people solve crosswords, but all crossword solvers are smart." Hinman is gearing up for a possible five-peat at this year's tourney, starting February 27. To help him get in top form, we asked him to create an extra-special crossword (with a geeky twist).

Data Corruption
A puzzle by Tyler Hinman

Instructions
A computer virus infected this puzzle while I was making it, causing some corruption. Answers for eight of the Across clues are a single letter off from the real ones (which are all common, uncapitalized words). In addition, one letter was changed in eight of the Down clues. Circle the faulty Down letters as you work through the puzzle. When you're done, read those incorrect letters in order to uncover another virus I could come down with. Then circle the letters that were victimized in the Across answers and read them all row by row from top to bottom to spell out something that might help protect me from that virus.

Clues

Across
1 "My ___ ran over my dogma" (punny bumper sticker)
6 Cuts into cubes
11 Place to get pampered
14 Shows age, maybe
15 It's symbolized by a crescent and star
16 What some suffer for
17 He passed Aaron in August 2007
18 It may be high-speed
19 Certainly not a smash
20 Nemeses
22 1999 virus that wreaked havoc on email systems
24 Videogame genre
28 Hiker's path
29 22-Across or 4-Down
30 Convert the decimal number 2 to binary and read the result as a decimal number
31 Believers in an indifferent God
32 1996 Olympic torch lighter
33 Firs' relatives
35 Countrywide: Abbr.
37 Early PC virus, also called Pakistani
38 Hula hoop supporters
42 Word before borealis or australis
44 Sweet ___ (baseball nickname)
45 "Can't get out of this one"
48 Frequent Wile E. Coyote tool
50 One of Monty Hall's three
51 Hawaiian entertainer who had 10 children
52 Setting for a [31-Down] Brown book
54 The first computer virus, which infected Arpanet
56 Actress Blanchett
57 Plus
58 Formal self-identification
61 Greet casually
64 Not plus or premium: Abbr.
65 Where antiques are often found
66 How anchovies are packed
67 Dr. ___
68 Lookin' sharp
69 Performed terribly

Down
1 Putin's former grp.
2 Former spokesman Fleischer
3 Fled from the cops, say
4 In 2004, it became the fastest-spreading email virus ever
5 Hood thing
6 Old ___ (historic London theater)
7 "Eh, kinda"
8 It gets a grip
9 Lighten up
10 It extracts ore
11 Dies for chips
12 A toast
13 Walks aren't considered official ones
21 Goad to go
23 South Bend team
24 Beautiful creature, in a fairy tale
25 Child greeting
26 It might carry a virus
27 Dig up
31 See 52-Across
34 Cheers character replaced by Rebecca
36 Wood chop tool
37 Victoria's Secret order
39 2000 virus written in VBScript
40 Pretty bod
41 "Sounds good"
43 Perfect, as a society
45 What a bouncer checks
46 More like a slasher film
47 Tense
49 Group that Weird Al parodied in "Phony Calls"
50 Any one of the X-Men
52 Country star Travis
53 Place to find later
55 It blows in Sicily
59 Command for Dover
60 Like a hailstorm
62 Sot's sound
63 Variety

Meet the King of Crosswords

Tyler Hinman is a crossword wunderkind. The 24-year-old Google software designer is a four-time winner of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. (His first victory, in the 2005 tourney, is recorded in the gripping documentary Wordplay. ) Wired commissioned Tyler to create a crossword with a tech twist and interviewed him as he prepared to go to the 2009 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, where he may score an unprecedented fifth win.

How did you get started with crossword puzzles?
Ten years ago, a teacher gave me a NY Times crossword to do in study hall.

What was it about crosswords that hooked you?
It ties into why I like puzzles in general — the thought of bringing order to something.

Photo: Nancy Shack, courtesy the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament

Since graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, you have gone on to work at Google. What do you do there?
I'm an online operations associate. I make internal tools.

When do you do puzzles these days?
Usually on the bus ride to and from work in Mountain View.

Do you work other crosswords besides the one in the New York Times?
I do the Atlantic Monthly's Cryptic Crossword. I used to do the USA Today puzzle before realizing that I didn't like it much. The New York Sun had a very good puzzle. That paper has folded, but the rest of its puzzles — several months' worth — may continue as an online subscription service.

When did you start competing in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament?
In 2001, when I was 16. I did decently...like 101st out of 310.

What did it feel like when you won the tournament in 2005, becoming the youngest winner ever?
There was elation, a little bit of disbelief. It was a nice feather in my cap, but it didn't change my approach.

You've won every year since then. What's your goal for this year's contest?
Just to have fun. I never really expect to win. I get nervous...but I do my best solving at the tournament.

Today on Offworld

Our day on Offworld started out deep inside gaming's roots, with a look back at a text-only MUD version of Pac-Man, and then, even more gloriously, got news of Champion of Guitars, a brilliant working text adventure version of Guitar Hero, after the parody mock-up we featured earlier in the month.

We also had a whack at Hack-Boy, a single serve site that helps you hack Fallout 3's computers, saw that Metal Gear strategy card-game spinoff Ac!d was coming to mobile phones, browsed through the finalists of the Independent Games Festival's 2009 Mobile competition, and heard news that a downloadable version of Tetris Attack was coming to DS.

Finally, we heard one -- very likely drunk -- Japanese man give us a hilarious play-by-play of Game Boy's Super Mario Land, got sucked into repeatedly watching hypnotic homebrew VJ kits produced for the PS2 and Game Boy Advance, and, best of all, played Legend of Princess (see above), a souped-up raucous sidescrolling arcade version of Legend of Zelda by Noitu Love creator Konjak.

FIM Trims About 100 Jobs, Mostly At Photobucket And Corporate

Fox Interactive Media is eliminating more than just free lunches. News Corp’s digital arm is trimming nearly 100 jobs across several business units, including Photobucket, MySpace, Scout Media, Rotten Tomatoes, and corporate. The total comes to a little under 5 percent of FIM’s domestic U.S. workforce, and about 3 percent of its global workforce of 2,900. We have added the amount to our Layoff Tracker.

Although MySpace employs 1,600 of those workers, a check with sources close to FIM suggests that the vast majority of job cuts (80 to 90 percent) are happening elsewhere. One of the hardest hit business units is Photobucket, where 22 people are losing their jobs. The corporate offices are also absorbing a substantial portion of the layoffs.

In an official statement, FIM acknowledges:

Several of the groups within FIM are eliminating some jobs and repurposing others. It is important to note that we continue to hire in many areas.

Separately, a spokesperson for MySpace notes that, on a net basis, MySpace plans on ending its fiscal year with more people than it currently employs. And other sources confirm that MySpace is still hiring in key positions such as business development, whereas the other FIM business units are not hiring as much or have actual hiring freezes.

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

Source: Gizmodo | 27 Jan 2009 | 4:40 am

IBM and TI feel the heat, lay off thousands

Just so you know it isn’t just the younger players dropping jobs like it’s going out of style, it looks like the blue chips are feeling it, too. IBM’s actually not doing too bad, having hired 20,000 over the last year, but that didn’t stop stagnation from creating 2800 redundancies.

Texas Instruments, which does a lot more than make the excellent TI-series calculators, saw its profits drop 95%, from about $1bn last year’s Q4 to $55m this year. That’s harsh, but at least it’s not a loss, like the beleaguered and possibly doomed AMD’s negative $3.1bn bottom line. Still, a 95% loss in profit isn’t good news, and they’ve sacrificed 3400 jobs on the shareholders’ altar.

If this keeps up, the only people left in this country with jobs are going to be bartenders and Spam factory workers.

Source: Gizmodo | 27 Jan 2009 | 4:20 am

Tettix's Rites, free electronic album "remodeling" Stravinsky

One of my favorite chiptune* musicians, Tettix, has released a new album for download. (I used one of his tracks as the background music to my LEGO Millennium Falcon time-lapse video.) It's called "Rites", and it's ambitious. He explains:

I'm hoping this album will be a bit of a surprise to most of you, it's unlike anything I've done before. The entire album is a remodeling of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" - a ballet that caused riots at its 1913 debut because of a brazen use of dissonance and polyrythms. It was a symphony that changed the very definition of music and I hope I've done it at least some justice. If you're unfamiliar with the original, I highly recommend you check it out (there's full videos on Youtube of the symphony).

The artwork for the album was done by a close friend, Kymia Nawabi. There's a link to her work on the album page, I swear you won't regret clicking it. There are also four wallpapers of the artwork available to download on the album page!

* Or at least chiptunes-inspired; I think he uses Reason, not gaming hardware, and this particular album isn't very chippy at all.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 Jan 2009 | 4:06 am

Tony Morrish Joins Acision as Senior Vice President and General Manager for Europe, Russia and Africa

LONDON, January 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Acision, the world's leading messaging company, today announces the appointment of Tony Morrish as senior vice president and general manager for Europe, Russia and Africa.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jan 2009 | 4:01 am

Avenger Laser weapon knocks UAV out of the air

Gosh, these lasers grow up so darn quick! It seems just yesterday that the Avenger’s predecessor, the Advanced Tactical Laser, was being tested on those cute little Hercules transports. And then all that fussing about the Free Electron Laser!

Pretty soon they’re going to be taking it for its first ride on a 747 — you’re going to want to have the camera ready! And then take out the SD card once you’re done and swallow it because they’re going to need to confiscate your camera, sir. Orders.

Can you say “plausible deniability?” I knew you could!

Yes that is an X-COM screenshot.

Source: CrunchGear | 27 Jan 2009 | 4:00 am

Battle of the Planets Thunderbirds | manga by Artgerm

There's a lot of generally wonderful sci-fi-tinged work in this gallery of 54 "mind-blowing digital paintings", but I'm especially partial to this piece from Artgerm reimagining the Battle of the Planets cast Thunderbirds as a coterie of Storm Shadowesque ninja.

It's this sort of stuff that makes me afraid to ever start giving substantial attention to Deviant Art; I'm worried I'd lose too many hours delving.

Update: Can you tell that I've never seen Thunderbirds nor Battle of the Planets before? (Title fixed.)

Source: Gizmodo | 27 Jan 2009 | 4:00 am

U.S. honey producers question imports

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:57 am

iPhone App review: iShoot

Among the millions of apps being released hourly in the App store, there truly are apps worth buying, and those that not worth wasting a glance at. iShoot ($2.99) is one of the best and brightest among its craptastic peers. One of many turn based tank fighting games, iShoot has proved its worthiness by sky rocketing into the #1 spot almost overnight, with his iShoot lite following close behind with the #1 spot in free apps. Creator Ethan Nicholas has recently enjoyed so much success from iShoot that he quit his day job in order to further his app-development career.

The Good

• Up to 4 players at a time, 1 real and 3 computers, or a mixture of human and comp. players
• Buttery-smooth framerate and zero crashes
• Sound effects providing that satisfying explosion sound as you vanquish your enemies
• 25 unique weapons, ranging from mountains of dirt, to shotguns, to atomic explosions half the size of the screen
• Landscapes from real places, turned into your destruction playground

The Bad

• Occasional slowdown from massive explosions
• Extremely limited options for moving your tank around
• Computer AI is all over place, landing insane hits, and then not hitting you at all
• Repetitive backgrounds feel like you’re playing the same level over and over again

When I first saw this in the App store, I was relieved and happy, because, what with it being in the 2 top #1 spots, I figured someone had finally gotten tanks for iPhone right. And so I happily bought and downloaded it, synced my phone, and played it for an hour straight. My first impressions were that someone had indeed gotten tanks for iPhone right, but as I played on, I began wanting more. After playing for an hour I was left with a slightly bitter, unsatisfactory taste in my mouth. It was like I had been tricked. I felt like I had ordered a coke, and been delivered a diet pepsi. And every time I took a sip of the Pepsi, my mind anticipated the sweet, savory taste of Coke, only to be immensely dissapointed from the Pepsi, over and over again. Despite difficulty changes and different and bigger explosions, someone had tricked me into playing the same thing, over and over again.

Thats not to say there isn’t anything good about the game, it is fun, and it does hold your attention, but when it boils down, iShoot is just a port of one level from a tanks game. Sure the landscape changes, but thats just a Coke sticker on the Pepsi can. If its innovation you’re looking for here, you won’t find it in iShoot by Ethan Nicholas

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:47 am

New Zealand man buys used MP3 player loaded with classified information

Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Computers, Security

A New Zealand man thought he was just buying an MP3 player at an Oklahoma thrift shop, but what he ended up with was much more.  When Chris Ogle hooked the player up to his computer he found it loaded with 60 files, all containing classified information about the US military.  Some of the files had to do with soldiers who had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, others dealt with equipment that had been deployed to certain bases and mission briefings.

To top it all off, the player never worked for Ogle as an actual MP3 player.  He has said he would be happy to turn the device over to the US government if they asked for it, which, as of yet, they have not.

Read [Sydney Morning Herald]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:45 am

New Paint Stops Wi-Fi Stealing Neighbors

You may soon be able stop your packet sniffing, WEP cracking neighbors from stealing your precious internet with Wi-Fi blocking paint. Researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed an aluminum-iron oxide that resonates around the frequencies used by Wi-Fi. This means that it will absorb electromagnetic waves in that frequency.

So you ask, “why hasn’t this been developed already?” Well, until now most wave absorbing materials have only been able to block frequencies up to 50Ghz, while modern wireless communication uses frequencies above 100GHz. The structure of this new material distorts the bonds between oxygen and iron, allowing for absorption for frequencies up to four times higher than before.

Sounds like some fantastic stuff. So save the trouble of turning your house into a bunker equipped with Faraday cages and just paint your walls with a fresh coat of paint.

[PCWorld via Gizmodo]

Source: CrunchGear | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:30 am

Dopplr And MAXroam Are Now Travel Buddies

Cubic Telecom, the TechCrunch40 company behind the traveler-friendly SIM card MAXroam, has partnered with Dopplr to sell the card through its online store. The Dopplr-branded SIM card will be available for a reduced rate of €45 (down five euro from its normal price).

Both companies have a strong travel focus: Cubic Telecom’s MAXroam allows users to use their unlocked cell phones in over 180 countries, saving around 60-80% on roaming charges. Dopplr offers a social network for travelers looking to meet up with their friends. The site will use your travel schedule to determine when you’ll be in the same area as a friend, and then help you set up a get-together.

While the new partnership may not sound like much, this is actually a big win for MAXroam, which likely has a hard time connecting with business travelers (try doing a Google search for ‘cheap SIM travel’ - there are countless competitors, though most of them work differently). Dopplr’s userbase consists largely of frequent travelers who are likely to show interest in the special SIM cards. They still might be turned off by the specifics of MAXroam’s program (the site offers video tutorials, but it can be a little confusing), but the prospect of saving big bucks is a strong motivator.

We should note that Offbeat Guides, which we covered last night, also has a partnership with Dopplr and is available on the Dopplr store.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:20 am

We're In Danger of Losing Our Memories

Hugh Pickens writes "The chief executive of the British Library, Lynne Brindley, says that our cultural heritage is at risk as the Internet evolves and technologies become obsolete, and that historians and citizens face a 'black hole' in the knowledge base of the 21st century unless urgent action is taken to preserve websites and other digital records. For example, when Barack Obama was inaugurated as US president last week, all traces of George W. Bush disappeared from the White House website. There were more than 150 websites relating to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney that vanished instantly at the end of the games and are now stored only by the National Library of Australia. 'If websites continue to disappear in the same way as those on President Bush and the Sydney Olympics... the memory of the nation disappears too,' says Brindley. The library plans to create a comprehensive archive of material from the 8M .uk domain websites, and also is organizing a collecting and archiving project for the London 2012 Olympics. 'The task of capturing our online intellectual heritage and preserving it for the long term falls, quite rightly, to the same libraries and archives that have over centuries systematically collected books, periodicals, newspapers, and recordings...'" Over the years we've discussed various aspects of this archiving problem.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:11 am

An MMO top-down shooter? Sign me up! Oh, it’s only for Koreans

I’m a huge shoot-em-up fan. I have, at this moment, at least 113 “shmups” installed on my computer (mostly from Shoot the Core and Shmups.com) but it’s rare to see such a high-profile project, must less a massively multiplayer online one. Valkyrie Sky is that rare and extremely pleasant exception, only the problem is it’s only for Koreans — like you have to have a Korean social security number to download it.

Combos, gear, XP, skill trees, it’s all there. It’s like World of Warcraft combined with Radiant Silvergun and Armada.

Mother of God. I believe I just described the perfect game. Why oh why wasn’t I born in Korea?

Source: Gizmodo | 27 Jan 2009 | 3:00 am

U.S. Cellular lands the LG Wine

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Mobile

If you’ve loved to have an LG phone but chocolate is not your thing, how about wine instead?  I mean the LG Wine, a new flip phone which just landed in U.S. Cellular’s mobile phone line up.  There are several reasons why you would probably love the LG Wine, intoxication not being of them of course.

A 2.2-inch LCD display, stylish form factor, and Bluetooth 2.1, are just some of the key features of the LG Wine.  But you will take notice of its large speaker which should mean a decent speakerphone.  The LG Wine has a 1.3 megapixel camera, so it’s no still camera replacement.  If you want to send this photos immediately to your friends and family, you can do so quickly as the LG Wine supports picture messaging.

Since the LG Wine is released under U.S. Cellular, you’ll have access to various wireless data application services enjoyed by other U.S. Cellular customers through Easyedge.  Easyedge lets you download mobile content to your LG Wine including ringtones, wallpaper, and games.  It will also provide you with access to some mobile news and entertainment sites.  The LG Wine also features dedicated hot keys for messaging, alarm clock, and Easyedge.  It provides up to 4 hours of talk time and up to 7 days of standby time.

The LG Wine is available now online at U.S. Cellular site in either silver or red Wine.  It will set you back for only $29.95 after mail-in-rebate.

Product [U.S. Cellular]
Read [PR Newswire]

Source: Gizmodo | 27 Jan 2009 | 2:40 am

Build a postal scale from old discs and scrap wire

Check out this latest Instructable: a DIY postal scale, made solely from small bits of metal and old CDs. What a great way to stick it to the man and not buy one of those high-falutin’ digital postal scales. Of course, accuracy might be a little bit of an issue, but it’s still better then nothing.

[via MAKE]

Source: Gizmodo | 27 Jan 2009 | 2:20 am

Kid’s Science Fair Project Saves Birds From Windows

 

Charlie Sobcov, an eight grader from Canada fell in love with birds on a trip to Costa Rica four years ago. He learned about decreasing bird populations due to global warming and another killer: windows. He found out that 500 million birds are killed by impact with windows annually in the US, Canada and Mexico.

He researched bird vision and learned that they can see ultraviolet light, something we can’t. He then developed a decal in the shape of a flying falcon to stop birds from flying into windows. The decal is covered in fluorescent ultraviolet paint that makes it invisible to humans but visible to birds.

He has already tested it with 40 volunteers from around his city. When asked if he would make and sell it as a product, he said that he’ll consider it once he turns in the science fair project due February.

[CBC via Make]

Source: Gizmodo | 27 Jan 2009 | 2:01 am

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. Reports Record Earnings for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2009

PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE: JEC) announced today its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 ended December 31, 2008.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Jan 2009 | 2:00 am

Tiny statue from the third century CE

This is believed to be a Roman boxer from 1,800 years ago. Well, a teeny marble bust of a boxer anyway. Archaeologists found the statue, just six centimeters tall, in Jerusalem's City of David. From CNN:

The archaeologists (from the Israel Antiquities Authority) believe a merchant family from the eastern part of the Roman Empire most likely passed down the "precious object" through the generations until the fourth or fifth century, when an unfortunate family member had it with him at a public building, perhaps a hostel -- and an earthquake struck...

Two tiny holes in the figurine suggest it was used as a suspended weight together with a balance scale, the archaeologists said.

1,800-year-old marble head unearthed in Israel

Source: Boing Boing | 27 Jan 2009 | 1:50 am

Video: Time-lapse baby squirmings

I'm just as interested in the stuff we make with our gadgets as I am them gadgets themselves, especially when they give us a look at something in a way we'd never have noticed before. Such as! Francis Vachon's time-lapse sequence of his 9-month-old son Charles-Edward playing in his room, squirming around from toy to toy like a little monkey larvae.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 Jan 2009 | 1:49 am

Alaska's Mount Redoubt rumbles

The Alaskan Volcano Observatory says Mount Redoubt is rumbling and an eruption of the 10,917-foot peak could occur within days. Mount Redoubt, located about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage, last erupted between December 1989 and April 1990, the Anchorage Daily News reported Monday. A nearly continuous volcanic tremor was recorded Sunday at stations near Redoubt's summit, prompting AVO to raise the Aviation Color Code to orange and the alert level to watch, the report said. The current activity at Redoubt could be precursory to an eruption, perhaps within days, said a report on the AVO Web site.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Jan 2009 | 1:44 am

Hollywood.com gets social

Section: Web, Web Apps, Websites

Social media is huge right now and the more interactive it is the better.  Having realized this, Hollywood.com has teamed up with Buddy Media and announced the release of a new social app for Facebook and MySpace. 

The application is a branded “top 5” voting application.  Users can vote on their top 5 for everything from celebrity couples to celebrity divorces and more.  Essentially they have built an application to engage audiences while spreading brand advocacy, sort of a virtual street team.

Not only does it allow Hollywood.com to engage users in a new way, it allows them the ability to gather useful data into what topics are popular and how demographic areas place importance on certain things. And users get the fun of letting the world know what their top 5 are.

Source: [Press Release]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 Jan 2009 | 1:33 am

Senate OKs delay of digital TV transition (CNET)

CNET - Overcoming partisan divisions, the Senate on Monday night unanimously voted to delay the digital television transition until June 12.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 Jan 2009 | 1:19 am

Senate Approves 4-Month Delay In Digital TV Switch

DJRumpy sends word that the US Senate has voted to delay the switch to digital TV until June. "The transition date would move to June 12 from February 17 under the bill that was fueled by worries that viewers are not technically ready for the Congressionally mandated switch-over. It would also allow consumers with expired coupons, available from the government to offset the cost of a $40 converter box, to request new coupons. The government ran out of coupons earlier this month, and about 2.5 million Americans are on a waiting list for them."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Jan 2009 | 1:15 am

Senate Pushes Back DTV Transition

Mark your calendars. The deadline for the transition from analog to digital broadcasting has changed.

Broadcasters were set to move to digital transmission starting Feb. 17 but now the U.S. Senate has voted to push it back to June 12 to give consumers more time to make the switch.

The Senate support for the move comes after President Barack Obama suggested delaying the process.

Earlier this month, Congressman Ed Markey warned many consumers could be left in the cold as funding for converter box coupons that can make analog TV sets digital-ready could fall short.

The new deadline could help buy time to bridge that gap.

The House is also expected to vote on a similar legislation and likely extend the expiration date on all converter box coupons to Sept. 15, says the Wall Street Journal.

There are an estimated 300 million TVs in the U.S., of which about 70 million use antennas and require a converter box to switch to DTV.

Photo: (dailyinvention/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 27 Jan 2009 | 1:14 am

You're Gonna Miss Me - a documentary about the musician Roky Erickson

I finally got around to seeing You're Gonna Miss Me, a 2005 documentary about the musician Roky Erickson. Erickson was the leader of the 13th Floor Elevators (here's a 1960s video of the band), a psychedelic group from Austin that was hugely influential to the more well-known San Francisco bands of the era.

The film chronicles Erickson's crippling problems with severe mental illness, which, for a long time, weren't able to stop him from writing and playing amazing songs (Here's a song . In fact, his music just got better and better (Listen to Two Headed Dog from 1980). He finally dropped out though, thanks in a large part to bad family dynamics, and for 12 years he lived in a squalid apartment doing nothing but sitting in a chair listening to all his radios and TVs playing at the same time (to drown out noises in his head?). He lost all interest in music.

The ending is uplifting; it turns out to be a moving documentary about the unselfish love of a man trying to give his brilliant older brother another chance. It's great to see how much better he is doing now, as seen here in this short clip.

You're Gonna Miss Me - a documentary about the musician Roky Erickson

Source: Boing Boing | 27 Jan 2009 | 1:13 am

Report: Steve Jobs Is In The Office Today

Perhaps it’s because I’m stuck in a Munich hotel with the flu, but this most recent round of rumors about Steve Jobs undergoing surgery today is annoying me more than normal. The entire report is based on something someone heard someone else say at a party. That kind of stuff is fine when it’s a funding rumor and the flimsiness of it is disclosed. But we’re talking about someone’s very personal life here - someone who has repeatedly requested privacy. The fact that CNET, taking a few moments away from their Pulitzer Prize winning effort to determine the most hated person on the Internet, jumped on this so eagerly is particularly disappointing.

Our own source, who is significantly more believable than some person at some party, says Jobs is in the office today in meetings and most definitely not undergoing surgery. Does that mean he might go under the knife tomorrow instead? Do we really need to know?

Let Steve Jobs do his job and live his life. Just because you can write a story doesn’t mean you have to.

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Source: TechCrunch | 27 Jan 2009 | 12:32 am

MTV and Comedy Central in your car

Section: Audio, Satellite / HD Radio, Video, Content, Video Providers

Man, your car has everything: GPS turn-by-turn directions, awesome stereo system, DVD, almost every gadget you can think of.  But does it have MTV or Comedy Central?

AT&T and RaySat Broadcasting have announced that, via the AT&T CruiseCast service, MTV and Comedy Central will be broadcasting directly to your car.  The satellite television and radio service will be broadcasting 22 TV channels to include not only MTV and Comedy Central but Nickelodeon, Noggin, and more as part of MTV’s mobile channels.

Originally debuted at CES 2009, the 22 TV channels and 20 satellite radio channels available on AT&T CruiseCast will contain a variety of sports, news, family programming, music and more.

AT&T CruiseCast is made possible due to satellite technology getting much smaller.  It uses a small antenna that sits on the roof of your car similar to those used with XM Satellite Radio, but larger.  The antenna is attached to a small receiver in the car which then attaches to monitors.

Source: Press Release

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 Jan 2009 | 12:23 am

Catapult Toaster Makes Toast Of Old Fashioned Rivals

London-based designer Ivo Vos is an illusionist. He has created concept ideas for everyday products that push the limits of what they can do.

Vos' latest series called the Brunch involves adding a splash of gadgetry and precision to familiar household appliances like the toaster, teapot and place mat.

Take his toaster. Vos has drawn up a device that allows the user to set the degree, angle and the force with which the toasted bread can be catapulted on to the plate when done. It brings "knowledge, skill and anticipation to the toasting of a slice of bread," says Vos on his site by way of explanation. 

As for degree of browning of the toast and how long it will take to get done, those are the kind of mundane details best left to your Black and Decker.

There's also a teapot that records the height from which you pour the tea and cutlery that looks near-indistinguishable when placed on a specially designed place mat.

The products are all concepts so don't hold your breath for them to be available soon. And stop dreaming about them else you may just have to eat some burnt toast in the morning.

[via GearCrave]

Photo: Ivo Vos

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 27 Jan 2009 | 12:19 am

SUSE Studio — Linux Customization For the Masses

apokryphos writes "Novell just released the first alpha of SUSE Studio (screencast), which provides an easy way to customize your own Linux distribution with the software and configuration you want. Among other things, you can spin a Live CD, a USB image, or create a VMware image. It builds upon the already established openSUSE Build Service and KIWI imaging system."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 Jan 2009 | 12:19 am

Palm Treo Pro now for sale at Best Buy for a whopping $699

Best Buy is ready to take orders for the Palm Treo Pro for those not willing to wait for the Sprint-subsidized model. It’s going to take a special (read: loaded) gadget freak to plop down seven large on a WinMob phone that’s backordered until the middle of February which is when the phone is rumored to launch on Sprint anyway. Granted, that person might be purchasing the phone outside of contract and will have to spend that much anyway. If that’s the case, the Palm Treo Pro seems to be available for immediate in-store pickup at most locations. Run, Palm fanboy, run!

Best Buy via AOL

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Source: MobileCrunch | 27 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am

Texas Instruments Cutting Staff 12 Percent; Sees Big Q1 Revenue Drop [Voices]

By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily

Texas Instruments (TXN) this afternoon said it will cut its staff by 12 percent, including 1,800 layoffs and 1,600 voluntary retirements and departures. The company will take about $300 million in related charges. TI said total saving from the latest cuts and the restructuring of its wireless business late last year will total about $700 million after all reductions are completed in Q3.

Meanwhile, the company posted slightly better than expected results for Q4, with revenues of $2.49 billion and non-GAAP profits of 21 cents a share, beating the Street at $2.37 billion and 12 cents.

For Q1, however, Texas Instruments sees revenue of $1.62 billion to $2.12 billion, which would be down 15 to 35 percent sequentially from Q4. The company sees EPS for the quarter ranging from a loss of 11 cents a share to a profit of three cents, including charges of three cents a share for restructuring. Back those out, and you get a range of loss of eight cents to a profit of six cents. The Street has been expecting $2.1 billion and four cents.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 27 Jan 2009 | 12:00 am

140it: Condense Ur Text For Twitter When It Won’t All Fit

While Internet slang and abbreviations have become second nature for some technophiles, many of us have trouble converting our words into the pseudo-gibberish sometimes required to make long messages fit into the 140 character limit set by Twitter. 140it, a new service put together over the weekend by the guys behind Yipit, is looking to help. The site will instantly convert whole sentences into condensed text, making common substitutions (like ‘r’ instead of ‘are’), using bit.ly to shorten links, and swapping company names for their StockTwits symbol. The service does its best to retain coherence, cutting extra spaces first and only cutting vowels as a last resort, according to one of its founders.

While there are a few other services like TweetShrink and Twonvert that do the same thing, those sites require you to visit their homepages - something that is easy to forget and usually more trouble than it’s worth. 140it offers a bookmarklet that will immediately make the conversion as you enter your Tweet on the Twitter homepage (see the video below for a demo).

I personally detest using abbreviations unless they’re absolutely necessary (they make my head hurt). But in those cases when I just can’t make everything fit, 140it will come in handy.

140it Demo from Vinicius Vacanti on Vimeo.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:59 pm

Netflix 4Q profit up 45 pct, defying recession (AP)

AP - Netflix Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit climbed 45 percent to surpass analysts' estimates Monday, propelled by the widening appeal of its relatively inexpensive DVD rental and Internet streaming service during a budget-crimping recession.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:51 pm

Gadget Lab Podcast #60: Presidential Tech

President Barack Obama dominated the headlines last week with his inauguration as the 44th U.S. chief executive. But that didn't stop the gadget world turning -- in fact, much of the week's gadget news centered on whether Obama will get to keep his BlackBerry (he will , with some reservations) and what other wired or tired tech the White House has.

In this week's podcast we also discuss Apple's surprisingly good holiday sales, and the company's inexplicable refusal to take netbooks seriously. We also review the INQ Facebook phone and the Asus Eee PC 1002HA, a netbook with a 10-inch display.

This week's crew includes Dylan Tweney, Danny Dumas, Priya Ganapati and Brian Chen, with audio production by Fernando Cardoso.

If the embedded player above doesn't work, you can download the Gadget Lab podcast MP3.

Use iTunes? Subscribe to the Gadget Lab Audio Podcast in iTunes. Do it now!

Like video? Aim your browser at the Gadget Lab Video Podcast — available on iTunes and the Gadget Lab blog.

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:47 pm

IBM to cut more than 2,800 jobs: union (AFP)

AFP - US computer and software giant IBM Corp. is planning to cut more than 2,800 jobs, a labor union representing the firm's employees said Monday.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:39 pm

GateHouse, NY Times Co. settle copyright lawsuit (AP)

AP - A settlement has been reached in a closely watched lawsuit brought after The Boston Globe's Web site began posting headlines and lead sentences from another publisher's site, a court official said Monday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:30 pm

Overclocked AMD Processor Is Cool At 6.5 GHz

The extreme sport of overclocking computer processors has set a new record by pushing the limits to which a processor chip can be cooled and then clocked to pump up its performance.

A group of enthusiasts with some help from liquid nitrogen and liquid helium cooled the AMD Phenom II X4 processor to near absolute zero temperature and overclocked it to a mindboggling 6.5 GHz. That's more than twice the 3 GHz clock speed of the best CPU available currently from AMD and a huge step forward from the default frequency of 1.8 GHz for that chip.

The group brought about 132 gallons of liquid nitrogen and helium and cooled the die to below 385 degrees Fahrenheit (-232 degrees Celsius)

With the chip down to this temperature, they pushed the clock to run at 6.5 GHz, an achievement they call a world record for an quad core processor.

Watch the video for the details:

Photo: (AaronAge/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:29 pm

Best Buy API Aims To Expand Store's Reach Online

surely_you_cant_be_serious writes "Best Buy has opened up proprietary product catalog data in its online store through an open API. Through the Remix API, Best Buy can track how many people are using its information, while users can check to see where a certain product is available without visiting Best Buy's site. Web developers and bloggers can also sign up to become an official Best Buy affiliate. If approved, they can get a small percentage of a sale if someone makes a Best Buy purchase through their site."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:28 pm

US considering law to require audible shutter noise for camera phones

Any frequent user of public transportation has probably seen it: Cute girl gets on the train/subway in a skirt that’s just a little bit too short. Within minutes, some creepy guy starts pretending to “play a game” on his cell phone, oblivious to the fact that his narrow squint and carefully positioned arms flag his voyeuristic image snapping intentions immediately.

A new bill has just been introduced to Congress, purposed with combating these on-the-go invasions of privacy. Called the “Camera Phone Predator Alert Act“, it would require all camera phones to make an audible and unsilenceable shutter noise. Similar laws are already in place in South Korea and Japan, so many manufacturers are already accustomed to such regulations.

[Via Phonescoop]

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Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:24 pm

Mozilla Gives $100,000 Grant Towards An Open Video Format For The Web

The Mozilla Foundation is putting its weight behind an effort to create an open video format on the Web. It is doing this by giving $100,000 in grant money, to be administered by the Wikimedia Foundation, towards the development and support of Theora, an open-source video codec. More importantly, it is also building support into the Firefox Web browser for both Theora and Vorbis, an open source audio codec.

Many other video codecs and encoders require licensing fees or come with restrictions. Mozilla hopes to change this over time. Although I suspect the Theora video codec is inferior to other technologies, as long as it can improve over time, it could eventually become a serious contender to MPEG-4 or Windows Media Video (WMV).

Evangelist Christopher Blizzard explains why Mozilla is backing open video in a long and windy post:

Although videos are available on the web via sites like youtube, they don’t share the same democratized characteristics that have made the web vibrant and distributed. And it shows. That centralization has created some interesting problems that have symptoms like censorship via abuse of the DMCA and an overly-concentrated audience on a few sites that have the resources and technology to host video. I believe that problems like the ones we see with youtube are a symptom of the larger problem of the lack of decentralization and competition in video technology - very different than where the rest of the web is today.

In my mind there are two things that help drive that kind of decentralization:

* You should be able to easily understand how something moves from a computer-readable format to something that is presented to a user. For example, turning HTML into a document, turning a JPEG file into a picture on the screen or using HTTP to download a file.
* You must be able to implement and deliver that technology without requiring anyone’s permission or license. In reality this means that it should be available on a royalty-free basis and without encumbered documentation.

In the video world, there are some formats that fit the first quality: Some formats are documented, understood and even widely deployed. But more often than not they are subject to to per-unit royalties, large up-front fees and creating content in those formats (the encoders) are often so expensive as to be prohibitive to all but only the deepest-pocketed corporations or well-funded startups. And there are very few video formats that meet the second. This is not the kind of decentralization that made the web thrive. It is quite the opposite.

Beyond the compression algorithms, what is especially exciting about Theora is that as an open-source project it might be easier for it to eventually evolve into a format that can more easily interact directly with other documents and data types on the Web. Videos should include more hyperlinks, for instance, and become part of the very fabric of the Web rather than an exception, which is still how it is treated today.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:24 pm

Expert: Playtime can be used for learning

Children's playtime is a fundamental way youngsters can learn, an education professor in Illinois says. University of Illinois Professor Anne Haas Dyson said unstructured playtime in preschool and kindergarten may actually stunt a child's development. In a statement, she said playtime for children is a fundamental avenue for learning.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:21 pm

QOTD [Digital Daily]

QOTD

The financial market and economic conditions that have developed this past year are truly unprecedented. I hope two years from now when I write this letter I can look at this section as a reflection of something that was short-term and that has passed, but I think the effects of the crisis will last beyond that….If you take a longer timeframe, such as five to ten years, I am very optimistic that these problems will be behind us. A key reason for this is that innovation in every field–from software and materials science to genetics and energy generation–is moving forward at a pace that can bring real progress in solving big problems. These innovations will help improve the world and reinvigorate the world economy.”

– Microsoft chairman Bill Gates says the economic recession service pack is still a ways off.

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Jan 2009 | 11:02 pm

Virgin Mobile releases Susan G. Komen Pink Flare because cancer sucks

Though you may not have noticed, we’ve been trying to avoid writing about pink phones around here. Not because we have anything against them (and we know you love them, ladies), but there are just so damn many of them as of late. “X company is releasing Y phone again.. but in pink!” Now, figure out how to make that into 2 paragraphs - then do it 10 more times in a month. But when someone pushes a pink device with hopes of fighting cancer, we’ll break our unspoken moratorium because, well, cancer sucks.

Doing their part to fight the big bucket of horrible that is breast cancer, Virgin Mobile has teamed up with Susan G. Komen to release the Pink Flare. It goes for the same $30 bucks that the original (and identical, besides color) LG Flare went for when it launched in March of last year, but this time around 5 of said 30 bucks go towards breast cancer research. Good on you, VM.

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Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:48 pm

A.I. and Robotics Take Another Wobbly Step Forward

CWmike writes to tell us that artificial intelligence and robotics have made another wobbly step forward with the most recent robot from Stanford. "Stair" is one of a new breed of robot that is trying to integrate learning, vision, navigation, manipulation, planning, reasoning, speech, and natural language processing. "It also marks a transition of AI from narrow, carefully defined domains to real-world situations in which systems learn to deal with complex data and adapt to uncertainty. AI has more or less followed the 'hype cycle' popularized by Gartner Inc.: Technologies perk along in the shadows for a few years, then burst on the scene in a blaze of hype. Then they fall into disrepute when they fail to deliver on extravagant promises, until they eventually rise to a level of solid accomplishment and acceptance."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:39 pm

New Bill Asks For Cameraphones To Go Clickety Clack

Smile, say cheese and hold that pose till you hear the 'click'. A new bill introduced in the Congress by New York Republican Rep. Peter King requires mobile phones with digital cameras "to make a sound" when a photograph is taken.

The move is part of the 'Camera Phone Predator Alert Act' and the idea is to ensure privacy and safety of the public, especially children, claims the bill.

"Congress finds that children and adolescents have been exploited by photographs taken in dressing rooms and public places with the use of a camera phone," says the draft of the bill, which was introduced earlier this month.

If enacted the bill would require any mobile phone in the US to make a sound "audible within a reasonable radius of the phone whenever a photograph is taken with the camera in such phone." A mobile phone manufactured after the date the bill is enacted will have no way of disabling or silencing the sound.

The idea is not as astounding as it seems.Japan already requires all cameraphones including the iPhone to make an audible noise when taking a photograph.

But chances this bill will pass in the U.S. in its current form? Near zero. It has no co-sponsors and hasn't seen much traction. But if it does, be prepared for clicktones to be the next big thing after ringtones.

Photo: (curiousyellow/Flickr)

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:12 pm

Climate Change Could Choke Oceans for 100,000 Years

Climate change could alter the ocean so drastically that it would be oxygen depleted for 100,000 years, reducing its ability to sustain fish.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:10 pm

NSA Whistleblower: Grill the CEOs on Illegal Spying

Did credit card companies voluntarily share consumer transaction records with the National Security Agency on a massive scale? Former NSA analyst Russell Tice says bank and credit card industry CEOs should be called to answer in Congress.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:05 pm

Baby Got Beat: Music May Be Inborn

Babies' brains have the same reaction to musical beats that adult brains do, suggesting that a feel for music is innate. Previously, scientists suspected musical understanding was an offshoot of language that was learned in the first few months after birth.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:00 pm

WTF? A Gaming Notebook That Costs Under a Grand

Think you have to sell a kidney just to afford a top-notch gaming notebook? You don't. King of cheap laptops, MSI, offers its GX630, a gaming lappy that costs under a thousand bucks.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:00 pm

WTF? A Gaming Notebook That Costs Under a Grand

Think you have to sell a kidney just to afford a top-notch gaming notebook? You don't. King of cheap laptops, MSI, offers its GX630, a gaming lappy that costs under a thousand bucks.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:00 pm

March of Penguins Turning Into Trail of Tears

Emperor penguin populations could face near extinction if global warming continues to shrink their sea ice habitat.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 26 Jan 2009 | 10:00 pm

Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 8 RC1

mikemuch writes "IE8 has left beta as of noon Pacific time today. The development team now considers the browser platform- and feature-complete, but won't say how long until it goes gold. PCMag.com got an early look and has posted a full review of Internet Explorer 8 RC1. The release candidate differs only slightly from Beta 2, most notably in tweaks to its InPrivate Browsing feature, aka porn mode. That feature has been decoupled with InPrivate Filtering, which blocks third-party content providers from creating profile of your browsing habits. RC1 also improves on performance, especially in startup time, but still trails Firefox and Chrome in JavaScript speed. Protection against the relatively new threat of 'clickjacking,' where a site tries to get you to press buttons underneath a sham frame page, has also been added — the first browser to include such protections. Versions for 32-bit and 64-bit Vista, as well as for 32-bit XP are available, but Windows 7, which will ship with IE8, is stuck with an older beta for now."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:51 pm

British Airways to allow cell phone service on flights

Tis’ true, sir. Starting in the fall, BA will allow passengers on business-only flights from the Square Mile to JFK to use data services on their mobile. Passengers will not be allowed to make phone calls, initially, but BA will assess the successfulness of allowing passengers to send and receive text messages and e-mails first. They’re actually going to let the passengers decide whether or not phone calls will be permitted.

If this is going to be a business class-only flight, can’t they just retrofit some phone booths in the back for these blokes? No word on pricing, yet.

In case you didn’t know, Emirates has been offering the same service with voice calls since last March. Not sure how well it’s doing considering the price, £2/minute. Ryanair will offer the Full Monty on at least 10 of its planes if and when the regulators give it the OK.

Air France, Qantas, TAP Air Portugal, Kingfisher, Air Asia, Oman Air and Royal Jordanian are other airlines who have already begun testing or will test the service.

Telegraph via MobileBurn

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Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:35 pm

Plant Growth Increased By Bacteria

Findings have implications for increasing biomass for the production of biofuelsThrough work originally designed to remove contaminants from soil, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and their Belgium colleagues at Hasselt University have identified plant-associated microbes that can improve plant growth on marginal land. The findings, published in the February 1, 2009 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, may help scientists design strategies for sustainable biofuel production that do not use food crops or agricultural land.“Biofuels are receiving increased attention as one strategy for addressing the dwindling supplies, high costs, and environmental consequences of fossil fuels,” said Brookhaven biologist and lead author Daniel (Niels) van der Lelie, who leads the Lab’s biofuels research program. “But competition with agricultural resources is an important socioeconomic concern.”Ethanol produced by fermenting corn, for example, diverts an important food source — and the land it’s grown on — for fuel production. A better approach would be to use non-food plants, ideally ones grown on non-agricultural land, for biofuel production.Van der Lelie’s team has experience with plants growing on extremely marginal soil — soil contaminated with heavy metals and other industrial chemicals. In prior research, his group has incorporated the molecular “machinery” used by bacteria that degrade such contaminants into microbes that normally colonize poplar trees, and used the trees to clean up the soil. An added benefit, the scientists observed, was that the microbe-supplemented trees grew faster — even when no contaminants were present.“This work led to our current search for bacteria and the metabolic pathways within them that increase biomass and carbon sequestration in poplar trees growing on marginal soils, with the goal of further improving poplar for biofuel production on non-agricultural lands,” said co-author Safiyh Taghavi. In the current study, the scientists isolated bacteria normally resident in poplar and willow roots, which are known as endophytic bacteria, and tested selected strains’ abilities to increase poplar growth in a controlled greenhouse environment. They also sequenced the genes from four selected bacterial species and screened them for the production of plant-growth promoting enzymes, hormones, and other metabolic factors that might help explain how the bacteria improve plant growth.“Understanding such microbial-plant interactions may yield ways to further increase biomass,” van der Lelie said.The plants were first washed and surface-sterilized to eliminate the presence of soil bacteria so the scientists could study only the bacteria that lived within the plant tissues – true endophytic bacteria. The plant material was then ground up so the bacterial species could be isolated. Individual strains were then supplemented with a gene for a protein that “glows” under ultraviolet light, and inoculated into the roots of fresh poplar cuttings that had been developing new roots in water. The presence of the endophytic bacteria was confirmed by searching for the glowing protein. Some bacterial species were also tested for their ability to increase the production of roots in the poplar cuttings by being introduced during the rooting process rather than afterward.The resultsThe scientists identified 78 bacterial endophytes from poplar and willow. Some species had beneficial effects on plant growth, others had no effect, and some resulted in decreased growth. In particular, poplar cuttings inoculated with Enterobacter sp. 638 and Burkholderia cepacia BU72 repeatedly showed the highest increase in biomass production — up to 50 percent — as compared with non-inoculated control plants. Though no other endophyte species showed such dramatic effects, some were effective in promoting growth in particular cultivars of poplar.In the studies specifically looking at root formation, non-inoculated plants formed roots very slowly. In contrast, plant cuttings that were allowed to root in the presence of selected endophytes grew roots and shoots more quickly.The analysis of genes and metabolically important gene products from endophytes resulted in the identification of many possible mechanisms that could help these microbes thrive within a plant environment, and potentially affect the growth and development of their plant host. These include the production of plant-growth-promoting hormones by the endophytic bacteria that stimulate the growth of poplar on marginal soils.The scientists plan to conduct additional studies to further elucidate these mechanisms. “These mechanisms are of prime importance for the use of plants as feedstocks for biofuels and for carbon sequestration through biomass production,” van der Lelie said.This study was funded by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research within DOE’s Office of Science, by Brookhaven’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development Fund, and by the Flanders Science Foundation and the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders, both in Belgium.---Image 1: Poplar plants at 1 (A) and 10 (B) weeks after being treated with endophytic bacteria (strain S. proteamaculans 568) compared with control plants. The inoculated plants show increased root and shoot formation, particularly after 10 weeks.Image 2: These images confirm the presence of endophytic bacteria (labeled with green fluorescent protein) on the surface of a poplar root (A, arrows), and in the interior of a poplar root shown in cross-section (B) and lateral sections (C and D).
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:23 pm

Netflix: What Recession? Q4 Beats Estimates, 2009 Looks Strong [MediaMemo]

Here’s another company that looks to be resistant to the recession and may even be benefiting from it: Netflix (NFLX) says it did very well at the end of 2008 and predicts a gangbusters 2009.

The company predicted that it would have 10.1 million to 10.3 million subscribers by the end of March, and 10.6 million to 11.3 million by the end of the year. Those numbers trump consensus expectations of 9.6 million and 10.3 million, respectively.

The rest of the company’s guidance was also strong: Netflix beat expectations with its predictions for Q1 and full-year revenue and earnings per share.

The company had already tipped its hand about its Q4 results when it told investors that it had “a remarkably strong quarter,” so those numbers aren’t that important in Wall Street’s eyes. For what it’s worth, the company posted earnings of 38 cents per share on revenues of $359 million versus expectations of 34 cents a share and $354 million.

“Consumers embraced the Netflix experience in near record numbers last quarter,” said CEO Reed Hastings, “with growth in our core DVD offering and growing momentum with internet streaming.”

Investors have been betting for quite some time that Netflix would be able to weather a recession, and even thrive during one, as consumers hunker down in front of their flat screens instead of spending money on more expensive entertainment. And they’re also hopeful about the strides the company had made toward delivering movies via broadband–a technology that so far flummoxed rival Blockbuster (BBI).

I’ll be listening to the company’s earnings call, which begins at 5 p.m. Eastern time, and will update this post if there’s anything particularly illuminating.

Here’s Citi (C) analyst Mark Mahaney’s helpful “cheat sheet” if you want to evaluate the results on your own (click to enlarge):

[Image Credit: jeknee]

Source: All Things Digital | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:15 pm

Newborn Babies Feel the Beat

People are born with an ear for music, suggests new research on newborns.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:00 pm

Midnight Commander Development Revived

richlv writes "Popular Unix console file manager Midnight Commander has experienced a stall for the last few years. Most distributions (including the conservative Slackware) shipped patched packages or snapshots. Despite that, everybody had a favorite bug or two — either inability to specify ssh connection port, or problems with interrupted FTP sessions. Or maybe copying of larger datasets. Or maybe the infamous 'shell is still active' message, which often brought unexpected changes of current directory with it. Whatever it was, we either cursed it every time, or learned to live with it. It seems that finally something many were waiting for has happened — there's some activity on mc development. Check out the new homepage, and let's hope revival is both healthy and lengthy."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 26 Jan 2009 | 9:00 pm

Sears upsells plasma television "recharging" service (Hint: no such thing)

I just bought a Plasma TV from Sears. I declined to buy the $300/3 yr protection plan because of the price. Sears called me at home a few days later. The sales lady asked my why I chose a Plasma TV instead of an LCD. I thought this odd, but just answered the truth - there was a deal on this TV. She then told me a personal anecdote about her friend who repairs Plasma TVs who told her that Plasma TV's needed to be recharged every 5 years for a cost of $500 or so. She then tried to sell me the protection plan that would cover this service (the same one I declined before, which would expire before the 5 year recharging date anyway). I declined, ended our call, then got on the internet and discovered rather quickly that this is a myth about plasma tvs that lots of salespeople are propagating.

I am certain that there are people buying these protection plans to cover their plasma tv's future "recharging" which they will discover never happens.

lolwhut?

Sears Calls Several Days After Purchase To Upsell Unnecessary Protection Plan With Lies [Consumerist]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:56 pm

'Rogue' Googlephone App Raises Questions About Android's Open Policy

An Android phone app that claims to optimize use of the memory on HTC's G1 phones has drawn the ire of some G1 users who allege it's a rogue application capable of wiping the data off the phone and sending spam to contacts.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:55 pm

Fast Action Needed To Meet Key Climate Change Threshold

A new report released Monday finds that global temperature increases driven by climate change could be kept within the crucial 2-degree threshold if the world acts quickly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 70 percent by 2030.Temperature increases beyond the 2-degree threshold would threaten severe environmental consequences, such as rising sea levels and the melting of polar ice caps, scientists say.However, governments and scientists are growing increasingly concerned about whether such a goal is achievable in light of the slow progress in reaching a global consensus on the issue of curbing emissions.But the report, authored by consultancy McKinsey and supported by ten organizations including energy firms Royal Dutch Shell, Enel and Vattenfall, says it is not too late to avoid dangerous climate change."Achieving the deep emissions cuts required to keep global warming below the 2 degrees limit is possible but difficult," wrote McKinsey director Tomas Naucler.The report said a worldwide investment of $686 billion would be required by 2020, and $1,065 billion by 2030, to reach the goal.  Nations could offset much of the costs by reducing their costs for coal, oil and gas, the report said, resulting in a net cost of less than 1 percent of GDP.The report, which comes just one month after the European Union agreed to aggressive moves to reduce carbon dioxide, coincides with renewed optimism that U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:53 pm

Mouse netbook introduces DVD burner into depressingly standard equation

[netbooktextexpanderscript]1.6GHz Atom processor, 160GB hard disk, 1GB RAM, 10.2-inch (1,024x600) display, and Windows XP Home Edition.[/netbooktextexpanderscript]

And thus my post would usually write itself. But hold on a minute, lazy blogger! Mouse's latest netbook, the LB-5100W, comes with a built-in DVD burner.

God help you, Mouse Computer, if you make me edit my Text Expander netbook script. I am a lazy, lazy blogger.

This Netbook has an onboard DVD burner [Crave]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:51 pm

The many watches of Barack Obama

There's an absolutely fascinating biopsy over at On the Dash in which President Obama, as a horological entity, is split up the gullet, his innermost cogwork guts examined for hidden tourbillions.

Watch nuts (and I mean it oh-so-lingeringly, oh-so-affectionately) have poured through the stock photo archives, watching for the telltale piece on Obama's left wrist for each shot. I find their obsession remarkable and laudable.

I think there's something interesting in microcosm here about Obama's great strength as a public figure, a leader: his ability somehow to be an identifiable, sympathetic fellow man to so many disparate groups.

My admiration for Obama is not knee-jerk liberal worship — I like him quite a bit, but I found his campaign promises depressingly nebulous, his campaign irritatingly messianic and his most slavish campaign followers fervent to the point of idiocy — but this admiration is largely inspired by Obama's ability to get as introverted, as obsessed with the minute mechanical mannerisms of time as amateur horology enthusiasts to embrace him in their arms and ask, "What watch are you wearing?"

Or, for that matter, smartphone obsessives to wonder about his Blackberry? Who ever cared what watch Bush wore? What phone he used?

This quality of spiritual identifiable-ness won't make Obama a good president by itself. I have no idea if he will be, in fact, and would not care to speculate on it... although he couldn't possibly be worse than Bush. But this sympathic quality of Obama's does make him an exemplary politician, not in the weasely sense, but as a representative of humans. It's not why I worship him — I don't — but it's why I like him. And it's certainly nice to like a president again.

Barack Obama's TAG-Huer [On The Dash]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:34 pm

Internet ‘Wiki’ Could Develop California’s Green Chemistry Regulations

Taking an innovative approach to involving the public, Cal/EPA’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is launching a “wiki” to gather comment on how to build California’s Green Chemistry regulations.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:32 pm

Obama Takes Action Against Bush’s Climate Change Policies

In signing two executive orders on Monday, US President Barack Obama made it clear he plans to make key changes to former President Bush’s environmental policies.Less than one week after taking office, President Obama began by addressing policy for tighter controls on emissions.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Jan 2009 | 8:02 pm

Antarctic Creatures In Danger From Rising Temperatures

Researchers have found evidence to suggest that many creatures common to Antarctica may be threatened by even the slightest temperature increase. The creatures, such as Antarctic sea spiders, limpets or sea urchins are among the least studied on the face of the earth.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Jan 2009 | 7:35 pm

Scientists study developing chicken hearts

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Jan 2009 | 7:25 pm

AT&T gets into the femtocell game with 3G MicroCell

Following on the heels of Sprint and Verizon, AT&T is set to launch its own femtocell -  3G MicroCell - giving its customers (who pay for a 3G MicroCell plan) unlimited minutes while connected to any MicroCell at home, business, or otherwise.

MicroCell is essentially a personal miniature cell tower that connects to AT&T’s network via your existing broadband connection in order to boost and expand weak network coverage.  It has an advertised range of up to 5000 square feet, works with any AT&T 3G device, provides a secure connection, allows for seamless call hand-over (i.e. uninterrupted transition from MicroCell to AT&T cellular network), and can handle up to 4 simultaneous voice or data users at a given time.

As usual, we don’t have any pricing or release information, yet.

[via PhoneNews]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 7:19 pm

Were LEGO Space minifigs based on 2001?

While perusing the gorgeous "HAL Project" web site, full of simulations, screensavers, animated desktops, and audio samples from the seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey—for my money, Orson Welles' finest film*—I had a flash of duh: Are the original LEGO Space minifigs in red, blue, and yellow because of 2001? (I've asked LEGO, but that might be a hard one for them to track down.) [via ★]

* It's a tie between 2001 and Porky's.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 7:16 pm

Twistable, stretchable electronics created

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 26 Jan 2009 | 7:11 pm

Reverse periscope for eye-to-eye video webcams

A rather sloppy but effective hack that allows you to video conference while maintaining eye-to-contact through a homemade cardboard reverse periscope mounted on the screen.

This comes from a German, which makes sense: as a race, the Germans value direct eye-contact so much that you literally can not have a beer without clinking glasses and staring each and every single person in the room in the eye for superstitious fear of "seven years of bad sex."

I think this superstition should be revised to only be seven years of bad sex between the two people who fail to look one another in the eye during a toast: I'm willing to sacrifice seven years of quality sex with the uggos if it'll get my beer down my craw faster.

Here's Looking At You, Kid [Datenform via MAKE

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 6:16 pm

LG’s ultra modular VX9600 Versa coming next month

Well, consider me surprised. Even with pics of the hardware making their way out last week, my brain had haphazardly decided that the Versa was still a good number of moons away.

Not so, according to BoyGenius‘ Best Buy spies. If the date in the inventory system is more than a best guess by a random blue polo jockey, we can expect the Versa to hit the shelves in all of its detachable gamepad/keyboard/speaker glory on February 22nd. It also re-re-re-confirms that it’s for Verizon, if the leading “VX” in the model number didn’t do it for you.

(Dear Versa: Please don’t suck. Love, Everyone who likes the idea of modular components)

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 6:08 pm

How OLEDs work

This is a simple run down of the benefits of OLED over LCD and Plasma that ran on the Science Channel... I'm guessing sometime ago, since the creator of OLED, Kodak's Steven Van Slyke, describes the era of "42 inch OLEDs" as being five years away, and there are already comfortable prototypes at that dimension.

That all said, it's still a good overview of OLED aimed at the layman, and does a fine job of explaining how the technology works and how the energy crisis of the 70's lead to the high-def flatscreens of the double oughts.

[via Treehugger]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Jan 2009 | 6:03 pm

Warning: Android app MemoryUp appears to be malware

Word on the Interstreets today is that Android Market app - MemoryUp - is giving users much more than they bargained for.  Instead of optimizing users’ G1 memory (as advertised), the now suspected malware app is doing the exact opposite - causing lots of Android headaches in the form of memory wipes, contact disappearances, OS crashes, adware, and spam galore.

In other words, unless you enjoy punishing your G1, we highly recommend that users avoid MemoryUp all together.

[via phoneArena]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 5:54 pm

Sony Ericsson C903 shows its backside

We caught the Sony Ericsson C903 (previously known as “Frances”) showing off its frontside last week, and now we’re getting a sneak peak of this not-yet-announced Cybershot’s rear.

As you can tell by the side-by-side above, Sony Ericsson’s taking the “Camera” part of “Cameraphone” pretty seriously, with the backside designed to fit right alongside their traditional Cybershot point-and-shoot line. Is that a flash we see? If so, it certainly doesn’t look like a crummy LED-powered lighter - looks like the C903 is matching the Xenon flash found on the C905.

[Mobile-Review via SEMCBlog]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 5:27 pm

Cell Phone Shipments No Longer Growing

Are cell phones no longer a growth business? At least in the fourth quarter, cell phone shipments actually declined. According to Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff, shipments from the top five cell phone manufacturers (Nokia, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola) dropped 13 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2008. Unit shipments decelerated from 14 percent growth in the second quarter to 2 percent growth in the third quarter, and then finally went into negative territory in the fourth quarter.

Shipments for the top five started decelerating sequentially (quarter-over-quarter) in the third quarter, when they were down 2 percent, and then were down 4 percent sequentially in the fourth quarter. The deceleration is likely to continue through 2009.

Even Apple saw a 36 percent quarterly decline in sales of iPhones (4.4 million in the December quarter versus 6.9 million in the September quarter). And RIM’s Blackberry Storm sold only 500,000 units its first month, despite a $100 million marketing campaign.

As a result, Apple and RIM have about 3 percent market share between them, down from 4 percent in the third quarter, estimates Modoff. Still, that’s half of Motorola’s 6 percent share.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 26 Jan 2009 | 4:30 pm

Ocean Dead Zones Could Approach Mass Extinction

Projections show that ocean dead zones could reach massive levels.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 26 Jan 2009 | 4:22 pm

Reptile Becomes Dad at Age 111

A captive New Zealand tuatara is a new father -- at the ripe old age of 111.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 26 Jan 2009 | 2:56 pm

Manners Lowered Brits' Chances of Survival on Titanic

British Titanic passengers had a higher fatality rate than others.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 26 Jan 2009 | 2:46 pm

Zeus Cult Sacrificed Animals on Mountaintop Altar

The ancient followers of Zeus took worship seriously, suggests new evidence.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 26 Jan 2009 | 2:15 pm

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