Source: Gizmodo | 23 Feb 2009 | 10:02 am

Street Fighter IV Tops Two Million - IGN

Herts and Essex Observer

Street Fighter IV Tops Two Million IGN by John Tanaka February 23, 2009 - Street Fighter mania has returned! The home versions of SFIV have combined for total worldwide shipments of two million units, Capcom Japan announced today. Fighter punches its way onto PS3 and Xbox 360 The University of Alabama Crimson White 'Street Fighter IV' (ALL) Sells Two Million Copies WorthPlaying.com Digital Spy - Product Reviews - Kotaku.com - MCV all 17 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Feb 2009 | 9:55 am

paidContent.org - More On Cable And Online Video: Only Part Of The ... - Washington Post

paidContent.org - More On Cable And Online Video: Only Part Of The ... Washington Post Last night when I mentioned online that I was watching Elvis Costello's Spectacle, the quick response from a TV-less friend was how could he find it online? Internet taking piece of cable TV business San Francisco Chronicle Cable providers eye offering TV shows online: report Telecommunications Magazine The Keene Sentinel - Seeking Alpha - Afterdawn.com - KARK all 7 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Feb 2009 | 9:45 am

An Early Look at the NASA MMO

Big Download is running an article with details and screenshots from the MMO under development by NASA. The game makes us of Unreal Engine 3, and it's titled Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond. A demo is planned for later this year, and in 2010 they expect "the first episodic installment of the game" to come out. Jerry Heneghan, founder and CEO of Virtual Heroes, described it thus: "This game is going to be a fresh look at the future circa about 2035. ... The core of the gameplay is going to be people building up their characters and as you move forward, you will have more options unlock with new places to go, new equipment to use and new things to do. We are not so much focused on interstellar flight and all that entails... the gameplay is actually about being in a habitat on a planetary surface and doing things like mining Helium-3 for fuel, operating a hydroponics facility to grow plants and create oxygen and operating robots and vehicles."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2009 | 9:14 am

GSMA Announced the Global Champion of the 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award - CooTek

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Last week at the Mobile World Congress 2009, the GSMA announced the winner of the 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Award.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2009 | 9:12 am

More Consolidation In Europe: GoAdv To Acquire LeGuide.com For €50 Million

After Meetic buying the European operations of Match.com last week, here’s another sign the online media landscape in Europe is changing in the face of a dire economy: pan-European online media company GoAdv will later today announce that it has proposed to acquire LeGuide.com, an 11-year old network of shopping portals operational in 14 European countries, for €50 million (about €64.5 million), and retain all of its staff and offices.

GoAdv currently holds 395,648 shares in LeGuide.com, which is approximately 11.8% of the share capital and 10.8% of the voting rights. The company states that it informed the LeGuide group on 18 December last year that it had crossed the 5% and 10% thresholds in the capital and voting rights earlier that month.

The move would instantly make GoAdv a significant player in the continent’s online and social shopping field, now that it holds cards in terms of content, online marketing and shopping with offices in Ireland (Dublin), France, Germany and Italy. In case you don’t remember, GoAdv acquired Excite Europe in October 2007 and went on to raise €11 million by issuing convertible bonds in the Summer of 2008, prompting TechCrunch UK’s Mike Butcher to predict that they’d go on a buying spree. Turns out he was right.

GoAdv, founded in 2004, says it counted 17.6 million unique monthly users across its network - which includes Excite properties as well as the BetterDeals site network - in November 2008, while LeGuide.com welcomed 14.8 million unique monthly users in December 2008 if you add traffic for DooYoo, a shopping and review site the LeGuide group acquired last year.

With this acquisition, which still needs to be approved, GoAdv is betting hard on the estimated growth of e-commerce and social shopping in Europe for the years to come. Finnish startup Fruugo is currently readying the launch of a ‘new breed’ of social shopping service in Europe, so we’ll be curious to see if it will be able to compete with GoAdv.

Update - in case you’re interested in the financials:

GoAdv will offer shareholders in LeGuide.com the opportunity to exchange their shares in a voluntary mixed public offer according to the following parity: 5 GoAdv shares along with a €45 cash adjustment for every 6 shares contributed in LeGuide.com, i.e. an offer of €15.19 for each LeGuide.com share, based on the 3 month weighted average price of a GoAdv share.

The terms of the voluntary mixed public offer would express a 9.2% premium in relation to the 1 month weighted average price and 28.8% in relation to the 3 month weighted average price of a LeGuide.com share. Taking 12 December 20083 as a reference, the terms of the offer express a 44.7% premium in relation to the 1 month weighted average price and 33.2% in relation to the 3 month weighted average price.

If all the shares in Leguide.com (watered stock) were contributed to the voluntary mixed public offer, this would represent a capital increase of 2,532,390 new GoAdv shares. A shareholder in GoAdv would then be diluted by 28.2%.

Update 2: it’s been brought to our attention that the takeover bid is considered hostile by LeGuide.com, who has stated that it sees little synergies in a combination of both companies for now. To be continued.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 23 Feb 2009 | 9:08 am

A brief history of cellphones

Mat's got a gallery of mobile phones from the last two decades up at Wired.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 23 Feb 2009 | 9:00 am

Tata Communications Partners With Digital Realty Trust for Datacentre(SM) Lease Agreement in the UK

DUBLIN and LONDON, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2009 | 9:00 am

Leading US Service Providers Depend on Spirent Communications to Successfully Deliver Ethernet-Based Business Solutions

One-of-a-Kind Offering Ensures Quality of Service and Quality of Experience Levels, Helps Control Operating Expenses SUNNYVALE, Calif., Feb.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2009 | 9:00 am

India Shatters Monthly Mobile Subscriber Record (PC World)

PC World - India added new mobile phone subscribers at a furious pace in January after telecom service provider Reliance Communications launched a new network.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Feb 2009 | 8:10 am

Is Hulu Driving People Back to Piracy? [Voices]

Hulu caused quite a stir this week when, at the request of rights holders, it shut down Boxee’s access to its streaming video platform. While many discussed the business implications of this move, some are ready to do more than just talk about it. One reader wrote to tell us that he’s gonna stop using Hulu altogether and go back to downloading TV shows via BitTorrent. Lifehacker editor Adam Pash apparently had the same idea, given his post entitled “How to Get Hulu Content on TV Without Hulu’s Help.”

Granted, so far this is all just anecdotal evidence. Chances are the move will cost Boxee more users than Hulu in the near term. However, these aren’t the only dark clouds on the horizon of Hululand; longer ad breaks and old media conflicts could turn people off Hulu-like streaming video platforms. Piracy, on the other hand, is getting easier and easier every day, with torrent sites and other unlicensed platforms just waiting to embrace Hulu renegades. Maybe it’s time to send the following memo to Hollywood: You can still blow this thing.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Feb 2009 | 8:05 am

Untitled Document Syndrome [Voices]

Scenario: you have an idea for something, start a new document in an appropriate app, and then work for hours before realizing you haven’t yet saved the document? Typically, it’s a chuckle — ha, guess I should save this thing. Occasionally, it’s a disaster, because you only realize you hadn’t yet saved your work when the app crashes or the power goes out.

I’ve had the disastrous version happen a few times over the years. What strikes me as odd, though, is that I still catch myself doing it occasionally. I call it “Untitled Document Syndrome”, because when I catch myself doing it, it’s almost always with a new untitled document window, not an existing file with unsaved changes. All subsequent saves after the first one require nothing more than a quick Command-S.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Feb 2009 | 8:04 am

Who’s More Dumb: Facebook or Its Users? [Voices]

Facebook quietly changed its terms of service agreement (TOS) recently. Bloggers freaked, triggering a public uproar that forced Facebook to revert back to the older version and come up with a better TOS agreement.

The Facebook TOS always said, essentially, that the good people at Facebook can do anything they want with pictures and other content you upload. Those goofy pictures you uploaded of you and your high school buddies? Yeah, Facebook owns those.

The old, re-posted version of Facebook’s TOS had a thin thread of user control in the form of an explicit termination of the full license when you delete something. The now-revoked new version took that away.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Feb 2009 | 8:03 am

Tim Armstrong’s “Patch” To Cash In On Death Of Newspapers? [Voices]

With newspapers croaking right and left, American citizens are justifiably wondering what or who is going to fill the local-paper vacuum. To that end, a handful of companies have tried to float new local news models.

So far, most have failed (WaPo’s Loudoun County experiment, for example). Google boss Tim Armstrong, however, seems to be on the right track with his new company, Patch.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Feb 2009 | 8:02 am

Parent of Gamer Asks His Son to Honor the Geneva Conventions [Voices]

Last week, I had lunch with my friend, Hugh Spencer, a writer and designer of museum and public educational exhibitions. He told me an amazing story about his son and games, and I asked him to write it up for Boing Boing:

“This is a picture of my amazing youngest son Evan. He’s 13, he’s holding a game controller and looking at a glowing screen and he’s doing what he does a lot of — diving into digital realms of adventure.

His latest favourite game is Call of Duty - which he plays on-line with his friends. Evan’s wanting to play C of D was something of a challenge for us. It’s rated T and he’s only just a teenager and point and shoot first person games worry me some. Evan is relentlessly reasonable sometimes — he outlined why he wanted to play the game and he was pretty upfront why he knew my “parent-sense” would start tingling. So I had to be reasonable too. I looked at the game. I’ve done a lot of research for military museums so I could tell that the content was accurate — but there was lots of shooting and blowing things up. But there was a fair bit of that during World War II. So it was undeniable that Evan was experiencing history and there was this teamwork factor…

So we compromised. Well, sort of.

Read the rest of this post

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Feb 2009 | 8:01 am

CrunchGear Week in Review: Atlantis Check-In Edition

German “PearC” Apple clones aim to succeed at the Psystar game
Apple’s sales drop, the world gasps
It just takes 70 cents and a day of work to beat biometric airport fingerprint scans
Lost city of Atlantis found on Google Earth?
Are you bored enough to play with paper?

Source: CrunchGear | 23 Feb 2009 | 8:00 am

QOTD [Digital Daily]

QOTD

So the deal is that Evan has to fight according to the rules of the Geneva Convention. If his team-mates violate the Convention then play stops and Call of Duty goes away for a while.

– Writer Hugh Spencer asks is gamer son to ratify the Geneva Conventions

Source: All Things Digital | 23 Feb 2009 | 8:00 am

Google Ocean watchers may have found Atlantis - TG Daily

Telegraph.co.uk

Google Ocean watchers may have found Atlantis TG Daily By Rick C. Hodgin Chicago (IL) - A Google Ocean image of an underwater section of the Atlantic ocean at 31 15'15.53N 24 15'30.53W is drawing wide attention as a possible location of the lost city of Atlantis. Mythical city of Atlantis found through Google Earth? Afterdawn.com Google denies it has found Atlantis Inquirer CNET News - PC Pro - Techtree.com - BBC News all 174 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Feb 2009 | 7:27 am

Epson Introduces Low-Cost Projector Solution Engineered for Flexible Installation - Epson PowerLite G5000

New Epson PowerLite G5000 Offers Ideal Solution for any Auditorium, Classroom or Boardroom LONG BEACH, Calif., Feb.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2009 | 7:00 am

Nuclear duct-tape

When normal duct-tape won't cut it, you need nuclear duct-tape, whose "slate blue color makes it ideal for use in nuclear tape facilities and it is certified for low leachable halogens and sulfur. It also provides sunlight and UV resistance for up to one year without the backing deteriorating or delaminating. This product is especially ideal for applications in the shipbuilding, nuclear power plant and stainless steel industries."

3M Performance Plus 8979N Nuclear Grade 48-Millimeter-by-54.8-Meter Duct Tape, Slate Blue (via OhGizmo!)

Source: Boing Boing | 23 Feb 2009 | 6:59 am

Thank You From Danny Choo!

Danny Choo was a guestblogger on Boing Boing. Danny resides in Tokyo, and blogs about life in Japan and Japanese subculture - he also works part time for the empire.

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Final post on BoingBoing. Would like to thank Joi Ito for the introduction and to Xeni, Mark and the rest of the BB team for having me. It really has been an honor! The biggest thanks goes out to BB readers for putting up with my ramblings for the past two weeks - hope I have not done too much damage ;-) Many BB readers found my FaceBook and Twitter and I would like to say thanks for the add! If you would like to keep up with life from Japan and subculture without having to look at the loud UI at dannychoo.com, you may want to RSS Subscribe (raw feed here) or get updates in your inbox instead. All my articles are also automatically pushed out to my Flickr account and I update my FaceBook and Twitter with the most significant updates too - feel free to add me ;-) I often hook up with readers so if you are in Tokyo then ping me and hopefully we'll go for some sushi or something. I also host an event called Tokyo CGM Night where the top bloggers and YouTube directors in Japan get together with IT folks in the aim of creating Bodacious Harmonious Awesomeness - if you want to meet other bloggers/IT folk or plug your goods or services to potentially millions of users then drop me a line though my LinkedIn. As for the photo - blog a bit about Mac life too and was recently featured in Japans premiere Mac magazine "MacFan" which you can see in the above photo - pics and other magazine coverage in this article. Do or do not. There is no try. Do it today - not tomorrow.

Source: Boing Boing | 23 Feb 2009 | 6:57 am

A Week in Tokyo

Danny Choo is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. Danny resides in Tokyo, and blogs about life in Japan and Japanese subculture - he also works part time for the empire.

---

As a student living back in the UK many moons ago who wanted so badly to live and work in Japan, I know how others in the same position feel like. One of the things I try to do with my blog articles is to give a feel of what life is like in Tokyo and started the A Week in Tokyo series where I document and post extensive photos of my life. Tourist photos are great from time to time but I felt it was important to show the every day stuff too like going to the ward office, going to external meetings, attending events, shopping and what have you. The latest A Week in Tokyo 34 is up and this week includes dinner at the German embassy, live broadcasts, electric costs, recruiting for the fire brigade, Tech Crunch networking meetings and how to make a Mac into a media server for the Playstation 3.

Source: Boing Boing | 23 Feb 2009 | 6:33 am

California appeals court ruling: Okay for minors to buy violent ... - TG Daily

Ars Technica

California appeals court ruling: Okay for minors to buy violent ... TG Daily By Rick C. Hodgin Chicago (IL) - Last Friday, a three-judge panel for The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in California issued a unanimous ruling protecting minors' rights under the Constitution's 1st and 14th amendments. Ruling against age limit on game sales upheld San Francisco Chronicle Violent Video Game Law Ruled Unconstitutional InformationWeek Reuters - Ars Technica - New York Times - The Associated Press all 336 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Feb 2009 | 6:32 am

Windows 7 updates that don’t actually update anything?

Section: Computers, Desktops, Laptops, Netbooks, Software / Applications

The wait is over; Microsoft has some news for all of you out there that are participating in the Windows 7 beta.  Starting February 24th, Microsoft will start rolling out a series of updates for the fledgling operating system that do…absolutely nothing.  You heard me correctly, these will be updates that do not add any new features or fixes to Windows 7, but simply test its ability to handle updates.

Starting on February 24th we will be offering some test updates to Windows 7 Beta (build 7000) computers. We do typically verify update scenarios during a Beta, and releasing these test updates will help ensure that when we need to release real updates, the process will run smoothly. There will be at most five updates. These updates test the Windows 7 servicing infrastructure. They will not deliver any new features or fixes.

On the plus side of things, the February 24th updates will not be automatically installed, but rather notify the users that they are available.  Based on the fact that this is a Beta, Microsoft would probably be much obliged if you would mosey on over to the Windows Update control panel and manually start the installs. Any users who would rather stick it to the man will be able to hide the update prompts by right-clicking each update, and then selecting the “Hide update” option. For anyone who thought that Microsoft was going to stealthily update the Windows 7 Beta into RC1; consider your hopes dashed, at least temporarily.

Read [Microsoft Update Product Team Blog]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 23 Feb 2009 | 6:10 am

Music-swapping Sites To Be Blocked By Irish ISPs

An anonymous reader writes "Irish internet users are to be blocked from accessing music swapping websites, as internet service providers bow to pressure from the music industry. Eircom, the country's biggest internet provider, is to start blocking its internet customers from accessing music swapping."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2009 | 6:08 am

ASE Signs MOU with AMPI

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. (NYSE: ASX; TAIEX: 2311, "ASE" or the "Company") and Advanced Microelectronic Products, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2009 | 6:01 am

SAP Launches Online Resource for Academic Community

SAP(R) University Alliances Community Supports Active Collaboration Among Professors, Students, Customers and Partners Worldwide WALLDORF, Germany, Feb.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2009 | 6:00 am

Spirent Selects Endace for High Speed Ethernet Technology

High speed solutions to be integral part of Spirent's Ethernet Service Assurance portfolio CHANTILLY, Va., Feb.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2009 | 6:00 am

Zine for unpublishable fragments: The Orphan

Brendan sez, "The Orphan is a nascent webzine dedicated to publishing the otherwise unpublishable: marketless short stories, chunks of abandoned novels, beautiful photographic errors, bizarre brilliant blather, even first sentences impossible to expand upon... The net is wide. The first issue features work from Rudy Rucker and David Markson among others."

The Orphan is incomplete, unpublishable, moloch-less, disrespected, bizarre and roundly rejected. (Thanks, Brendan!)

Source: Boing Boing | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:48 am

Tonga Room, San Francisco's magnificent tiki bar: doomed?

The Tonga Room, one of the greatest tiki bars in the world, is under threat now, because the San Francisco Fairmont hotel in which it is housed is slated to be turned into luxury condos (seriously? Is anyone buying luxury condos for anything except scrap copper these days?). Laughing Squid has a great piece on what makes the Tonga so special (here's one thing: it has an actual indoor monsoon several times an hour!):

The last decade has seen nearly $100 million invested in updates to the Fairmont hotel itself which included a $1 Million restoration of the Tonga Room completed in the last few years. So it’s strange that all that history and fairly recent money could soon be bulldozed.

There’s been no explicit statement that the Tonga Room is being destroyed, and no press account that mentions it (except a quizzical commenter on Curbed SF). But clearly the plans for the new condo-ized version of the Fairmont do not include the landmark bar.

Will The Tonga Room Be a Casualty of The Fairmont’s Condo Plans? (via JWZ)

Source: Boing Boing | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:47 am

New Zealand's terrible copyright law suspended, may be dead

Street demonstrations, netwide campaigns, unfavorable press attention and sustained lobbying have moved the New Zealand government to temporarily suspend its new copyright law, which would have required ISPs to terminate their customers' net access on the basis of three unsubstantiated accusations of infringement.

It remains to be seen whether the law is truly dead, but this is an amazing development:

In a surprise announcement this afternoon, prime minister John Key says the government will delay the implementation of the controversial Section 92a of the amended copyright law.

Computerworld spoke to technologist Nat Torkington who attended Key's press conference this afternoon at 4pm.

Torkington says the government may suspend the controversial S92a until the 27 March if no agreement is reached between the parties on how to implement it.

John Key delays copyright law (Thanks, Hayden and everyone else who suggested this!)

Source: Boing Boing | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:42 am

Power Factor correcting gadgets are scams

You know those little gadgets that purport to reduce how much electricity you're using? Scams.

Here's Dan Rutter:

Plenty of people stand ready to take your money for "power saving" gadgets that don't actually do anything at all. There's a plague of these bleeding things. Search for "power saver" and you'll find dozens of them. They usually claim to "stabilise" the mains voltage and reduce "overheating" and/or "power loss", thereby making all of your appliances more efficient and saving you money. And they're supposed to protect you from power surges and lightning strikes and, I don't know, probably tornadoes as well.

If a little thing you plug into your breaker box or an outlet advertises power-saving or bill-reducing properties, it's snake oil. Reducing your "Power Factor" is meaningless, writes Dan: even if the scam gadgets worked, residences aren't billed for it and ordinary electricity meters don't even record it.

Internet washing machines, and magic rip-off boxes [Dan's Data]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:32 am

In case you hadn’t heard: EA and Spicy Horse announced a sequel to American McGee’s Alice

High res available here

This news is a few days old if you were following D.I.C.E. last week, but in the off chance you hadn’t heard I thought I’d share the news that EA has announced a sequel to their popular Alice title from 2000. American McGee is back onboard with his Shanghai-based studio Spicy Horse to develop the new game. I dabbled with the first game a tiny bit back in the day and I’m thinking of revisiting it now that a new one will be coming out. There’s no date, but it’s being developed for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“This new project is a dream come true for me and the fans who’ve kept the Alice flame alive,” said American McGee, senior creative director at Spicy Horse. “EA gave us creative latitude and support on the original game which resulted in something beautiful and daring. This trip through the looking glass promises to be even more exciting.”

“EA Partners is thrilled to team up with American McGee and Spicy Horse on the next installment of the Alice franchise,” said David DeMartini, senior vice president and general manager of EA Partners. “American McGee’s interpretation of Alice was an instant classic, and EA Partners is ready to help him bring his innovative vision for the franchise to even darker, more exciting places.”

I just wonder if the movie based on the original Alice title will ever see the light of day. Doesn’t really seem like it with the Tim Burton’s film coming out next year.

American McGee via EA

Source: CrunchGear | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:29 am

Kindle 2 ships early

If you ordered Amazon's new reader, it may already be on its way. The official release date isn't until Monday morning. [Engadget]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:25 am

Sony counting on software; Nintendo's new portable (AP)

AP - Real news from the virtual world:
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:21 am

Letter to Obama: What the Car Industry Needs Is A Steve Jobs

Editor’s Note: There are not a lot of fans of the $20 billion bailout of the auto industry outside of Detroit. But if the government is going to get involved, Spark Capital’s Todd Dagres believes it should insist on new leadership.

In an open letter to President Barack Obama, Dagres argues that the car industry needs no less than a Steve Jobs to save it. In fact, he suggests that Jobs himself would be the best person to fill that role if his health allows him to do so. If not, there are other capable leaders in Silicon Valley that might bring much-needed change to the auto industry.

But a product=specific approach is worth considering, even one which results in American car companies no longer building any cars, but just designing them. After all, Apple doesn’t manufacture its own computers.

The letter is below.

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Barack Obama
President of the United States

Dear President Obama:

I am writing you with a suggestion on how to deal with the US auto industry crisis. The recession and the meltdown of financial markets are the catalysts, but the root of the problem is the manner in which these colossal auto companies have been managed. It’s time to face the truth: The people running the US auto companies are officious bumblers, the products stink, and the unions are a parasitic drain on the business. And yet the Government seems content to throw billions of dollars at the problem. How can we bail out the same people that presided over the destruction of the industry? It is painfully clear that they are incapable of producing products that can compete successfully with German and Japanese rivals.

As you well know, if GM and Chrysler fail, the US auto industry will suffer a fatal blow – along with our entire economy. We must find a way to not only save the industry, but also make it competitive in the global marketplace. Cars are part of our national fiber, based on an industry that includes a massive ecosystem of vehicles and parts that stretch across our people and economy. However, bailing out the US car makers and investing tax payers’ money in inferior products is no solution. We must strive for a level of competitiveness in the auto industry similar to that which we have attained in the Information Technology industry. Our country’s leadership in the auto industry lies in developing future cars that are more like computers with wheels than mechanical sleighs addicted to dinosaur juice. The future of the automotive industry will be defined by electronics and software. The good news is that there is no country with more talent and capability in this arena than the United States.

Now the suggestion: Draft Steve Jobs (his health willing) to run a combined GM and Chrysler. After all, who has done a better job developing and marketing products consumers want to buy? Who has been more successful keeping the US ahead of other nations in competitive, technology-based markets? Mr. Jobs has also done right by his shareholders. GM and Chrysler have far too many product lines, most of which are uncompetitive. To compete in the global auto industry, they must develop Macs, iPods and iPhones with wheels. Rather than pouring billions of dollars into these failed companies, why not replace the current management with people capable of changing the way cars are designed, manufactured, powered and sold? I believe Mr. Jobs is the best choice to lead this effort.

As has been widely reported, Mr. Jobs has some health issues and it is possible that he may not be able to dedicate the time and effort required to put the US auto industry back on firm footing. Only Mr. Jobs knows if he is up to the task. If anyone can convince him to take this on, I suspect it’s you. Should Mr. Job’s be unable to take on the position, in my opinion, great technology leaders including John Chambers at Cisco Systems or Craig Barrett at Intel would also be worthy of your consideration. Both are great Americans and capable of leading the charge.

It is time for us to put tax payer money behind an executive capable of transforming the automotive industry. I respectfully submit that neither the current leadership behind these companies nor government officials are the answer. We need entrepreneurs, consumer product savants and creative managers capable of effecting change. We need great leaders who can transform cars into computers rather than horse-less carriages. You were elected to the Presidency based on a mandate for change. Making the necessary moves to transform the US auto industry would be a great way to walk the walk. This challenge is a once in a lifetime opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of jobs, hundreds of billions in future GDP, and prevent further deterioration of our nation’s manufacturing sector. This is the time for great Americans to be called upon to serve. I can think of no better leader than Steve Jobs to support America in this time of national crisis. President Obama, I urge you to seriously consider recruiting Mr. Jobs to manage the revitalization of the US auto industry that is so desperately needed. Thank you for your consideration of this suggestion.

Respectfully yours,

Todd Dagres,
Founder and General Partner,
Spark Capital

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

Source: TechCrunch | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:13 am

Office chair explodes, kills boy

A 14-year-old boy from Jiaozhou in China died of blood loss after the gas canister inside his chair exploded, sending shrapnel into his bottom. The gas is used to operate the hydraulic pillar that raises and lowers seats, but poorly-constructed office chairs have caused similar injuries before, according to China Voice.

Source [China Voice via Livedoor via Anorak via The Daily What via Gizmodo via Geekologie]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:09 am

At-At Walker Boombox

Dear God, yes.

Source [zen77990] (Thanks, Phil T.!)

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:06 am

Googly eye clock

Mike Mak’s Eyeclock is watching you ... well, you know.

Product Page [Mike Mak via Technabob]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:04 am

Frankly Speaking: Facebook fiasco shows how much is out of IT's hands - Computerworld

BBC News

Frankly Speaking: Facebook fiasco shows how much is out of IT's hands Computerworld By Frank Hayes Anonymous says: The Trouble with IT Technology shops like Facebook today is they end up taking customer's for granted. Facebook may still change archiving policy Diamondback Online Facebook remembers your drunk IMs Indiana Daily Student InsideVandy - BBC News - The Flint Journal - MLive.com - TelecomTV all 22 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:01 am

Oscars: It's a Slumdog's Life

The Oscars were short on surprises but long on sentimental favorites as "Slumdog Millionaire" wins Best Picture, etc., and Heath Ledger wins an Academy Award posthumously for his role as the Joker in "Dark Knight."

Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:00 am

Videogame Technology Helps With Disaster Planning

Thanks to disaster-simulation software inspired by videogames, David Friedman has a new family member: Jordan, a yellow Labrador retriever puppy. The software helped emergency workers in Louisiana rescue Jordan -- and 15,000 other stranded pets -- during Hurricane Gustav.

"Going by boat across a flooded field and parking lot, I saw this little yellow thing in a tree floating in the river," Friedman said, a disaster-response coordinator with animal-rescue organization Muttshack. "It was this little yellow puppy."

Volunteers like Friedman patched together an escape route for the animals using a disaster-preparedness simulator called Depiction. Friedman combined his amateur radio skills with simulations he had already created of the Baton Rouge area to map open roads, even without an internet connection. Volunteers picked up animals at 19 locations and coordinated 133 tractor trailers.

It's just one example of how disaster-modeling software can help responders create rescue plans in real time. During Katrina, some emergency workers used Google Earth Pro to map evacuation routes. Others have used MapPoint and XMap in crises.

But according to emergency workers, Depiction is the cheapest ($90, compared to $1,000 and up for other systems) and easiest to customize with local logistical information. The software can integrate aerial images from Google Earth or other sources, spreadsheet data, infrastructure maps and river-depth charts.

Depiction can be used to plan for disasters ahead of time, but it's also useful for collecting and organizing data during a crisis. Citizens can e-mail reports from the field, and emergency workers can feed other data directly into the software to find alternative routes when downed power lines, flood waters or landslides block roads.

"Because it has all these layers of data, with one program I can see all of my resources at once," said Friedman, a longtime emergency volunteer.

It's no coincidence that the software's birds-eye view sounds like something straight out of a computer-strategy game. Depiction founder Mike Geersten hails from Microsoft's games unit, where he was a product planner for Flight Simulator and later train sims.

When government agencies started asking to use Microsoft's simulation platform to depict real-life situations, Geersten saw a business opportunity. But getting the business plan approved within Microsoft was a bureaucratic challenge, so he set out on his own in 2005. He raised $1.5 million in angel funding and has gathered a staff of 14.

Geersten has seen his platform technology used in a variety of ways, and has heard suggestions for more. Depiction has helped Red Cross volunteers evacuate victims and get supplies and rescue teams to rural areas. It has tracked flooding along the Snohomish River. A potential investor imagined it could simulate salmon runs in the San Francisco Bay Area, which are at their lowest level in decades. In the video below, Depiction is used to predict the effect of rising sea levels on Manhattan.

Mike Dinn, a real estate consultant in Cincinnati, Ohio, believes Depiction will help mitigate the real estate crisis. By plugging in census, employment and other data, he's using Depiction to help banks decide what to do about newly acquired large properties. The software helps him guide developers trying to choose the best building locations.

"Depiction plus my background allows my clients for the first time to see like radar what these market positions are," Dinn said.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:00 am

Games Without Frontiers: 'Flower' Power Blooms in First Climate-Change Game

Spoiler alert: There are many, many very big spoilers for the videogame Flower in this column. Don't read it if you haven't played it all the way through. Or unless you — y'know — want to have it spoiled for you! Your life; your call.

What the hell is Flower about?

People have been arguing about this gorgeous little tone poem since it was released two weeks ago. As many reviewers have noted, the game is very abstract. You control a flower petal, guiding it with a gust of wind through blighted, brown landscapes. As you touch different flowers, you gradually bring the landscape back to life — and trees and grass burst into color.

Later, though, the world that you bring "life" to becomes specifically industrial. For example, when you finish a level, it generates winds that power windmills, creating electricity. Then you're plunged into a dark, murky landscape, where hissing power lines sear your fragile little petals, and corroded-metal electrical towers attack you like diving sharks. When you succeed, you clean up these dark, satanic mills.

At which point I decided, OK, OK, I get it.

Flower is about climate change.

What's more, it may be the first — and only — truly good game about climate change.

When I say that Flower is the first game about climate change, I don't mean that it's the first game to refer to climate change. Plenty of post-apocalyptic games have been set in a near-future world ravaged by global warming — like last year's Fracture, where two warring tribes scrap amongst the ruins of the depleted planet, or the upcoming game Fuel, where Mad Max–style drivers race across a United States complete with global-warming–created tornadoes and floodplains.

But in these games, climate change is merely part of the background. You're not supposed to do anything about it; the damage has already been done. (Indeed, Fuel appears to regard the damage as totally awesome, because it has created such badass racing environments! Woo-hoo!)

What makes Flower different is that it is "about" changing or improving the situation — and making you feel wonderful over how you've renewed life that was destroyed by industrialization.

And what's most remarkable is that Flower manages to do this without being cloying and preachy. Indeed, the game is amazingly subtle.

At first, it doesn't seem that way. On the contrary, Flower pretty much clobbers you over the head with its metaphors. Flowers, flowering grass and wind blowing through renewable-energy windmills = good. Gray urban blight; angry, weird weather; nasty electricity; and corroded old power line towers = bad. Got it?

These allegorical algorithms are about as old as civilization itself. Our literature is full of them: In the Bible, spiritual salvation is regularly characterized as water flowing and trees blooming over dried-up land. T.S. Eliot's masterpiece The Waste Land — with its vision of a corroded, parched world desperate for life — reads practically like a design document for Flower. (Particularly "What the Thunder Said"!) If you've ever read any fairy tales or belonged to any world religion, you've had these dark materials flash-burned into your soul — which is precisely why Flower packs such a kick.

Given how old and venerable these metaphors are, you could argue that the game isn't about climate change at all. It could be merely about the age-old eternal struggle between man and nature, right? Don't litter, kids! And sure, I agree: Flower is a work of art, and works of art have many meanings, including some the creators never intended.

But at the same time, it's pretty hard to jingle these particular cultural tokens around in your mind — violent weather? wind turbines? power generation? — without finding yourself at least thinking about global warming. Climate change is the emotional operating system for modern environmental metaphors; you cannot really get around it. While I found Flower genuinely thrilling, at points the implicit politics felt somewhat like watching the tear drip down the Indian's face in those "ZOMG what are we doing to the environment?" public service announcements from the '70s.

Yet here's the ultimately cool thing: Flower does not, in the end, demonize human civilization. When you begin the game, you start with a bleak, gray-scale vision of a city, where cars stream through the dark streets. At the conclusion of the game, if you succeed in bringing the various blighted fields and areas to color and life, what's your reward? To hang around and glory in those lovely fields of gold?

Nope. In the final scenes you return to the city where you began. Cars still zoom around town, and plenty of overpasses remain — but this time, trees and flowers are abloom amidst the concrete. In Flower, the "saved" world is one where humanity has figured out how to balance its industrial life with the natural world. We get to keep our automobiles and our greenery — our PlayStation 3s and our roses.

- - -

Clive Thompson is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and a regular contributor to Wired and New York magazines. Look for more of Clive's observations on his blog, collision detection.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:00 am

Feb. 23, 1942: Invasion! They're Coming!

1942: A Japanese long-range submarine surfaces off the California coast and uses its 5.5-inch deck gun to shell an oil refinery near Santa Barbara.

The attack, which lasted about 20 minutes, caused little damage to the Ellwood refinery. But it helped to stoke fears, which had existed since the raid on Pearl Harbor 10 weeks earlier, that the Japanese might be preparing a full-scale invasion of the West Coast.

In Philip K. Dick's 1962 novel, The Man in the High Castle, the Japanese not only plan a U.S. invasion, they carry it off. In reality, though the Imperial High Command envisioned nothing of the sort, lacking both the military capacity and a strategic reason for invasion.

Cmdr. Nishino Kozo, skipper of the I-17, was familiar with the Ellwood refinery, having docked there as the captain of an oil tanker before the war. A Parade magazine article in 1982 suggested that Kozo staged the raid on his own initiative, in retaliation for a slight he suffered during a prewar visit to Ellwood.

Whether Kozo took the opportunity to settle an old score is unknown. He never said. (The I-17 was on combat patrol along the Pacific Coast. Five days after shelling the refinery Kozo torpedoed an American tanker off Cape Mendocino.)

Kozo's gunnery display scared the bejesus out of the already skittish Americans. On the night following I-17's shelling of the refinery, trigger-happy anti-aircraft gunners in Los Angeles lit up the night sky with tracer ammunition for a couple of hours after spotting some UFOs. The refinery shelling, in any event, showed the extent to which submarine technology had advanced since World War I.

The B1-class submarine I-17, at 350 feet long and 2,200 tons surface displacement, was by far the largest combat submarine to see service during World War II. By comparison, Germany's largest long-range combat U-boat, the IXD, was 70 feet shorter and displaced barely 1,600 tons when surfaced.

A generation earlier, World War I subs were smaller, carried fewer torpedoes and had a much more limited range.

Kozo was able to take advantage of the fact that in early 1942, American coastal defenses were poorly organized. On the East Coast, German U-boat commanders were discovering the same thing, and with devastating effect on Allied shipping.

Source: Various

Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:00 am

Gallery: From Brick to Slick: A History of Mobile Phones

: Photo: Motorola

It has been more than 35 years since Martin Cooper placed the first call on a mobile phone to his rival at Bell Labs while working at Motorola. Heck, it's been nearly 20 years since Saved by the Bell’s Zack Morris placed a phone call to Kelly Kapowski from his locker. In that time, phones have come a long way.

We now live in a golden age of mobile phones. Or, perhaps more accurately, the end of the age of mobile phones. The iPhone, the G2, the N95, the Bold: These are exceptionally small mobile computers with built-in telephony features.

It has been a long trek from the monstrous, if revolutionary, Motorola DynaTAC to the elegant and refined modern devices that not only allow us to make calls, but also to send e-mails, surf the web, track our movements, listen to music, watch movies and generally handle our varied communications. Please join Wired on a look back at some of the more notable phones that took us from Zack to Android.

Left: Motorola DynaTAC 8000X
Released: 1983
The Model T of mobiles. The device was birthed from a fierce race between Motorola and Bell labs to bring the first portable to market. In 1973, Motorola's Dr. Martin Cooper won that race when he placed the first phone call on an early prototype that paved the way for the DynaTAC.

: Photo: Motorola

Released: 1996
While the DynaTAC may have been the first portable phone, MOTO's StarTAC, was the first that was actually pocketable. The 3.8 x 2.25 x 1-inch flip phone (at the time the smallest ever built) was considered minuscule, and its revolutionary clamshell form factor has been imitated ever since.

: Photo: Hagenuk

Released: 1996
You may think Nokia's 8810 was the first GSM phone with an internal antenna. It wasn't. That distinction belongs to the TCP-6000, released as the Hagenuk GlobalHandy. Toshiba and Hagenuk teamed up to develop the phone, but it never came out in the United States where the GSM standard had yet to be adopted.

: Photo: Nokia

Released: 1998
Although developers and carriers had been skeptical due to reception issues, this dot-com boom-era silver slider proved that a phone with a built-in internal antenna could be a hit with consumers. By bringing the antenna inside, it paved the way for a generation of phones that were not only more portable, but also more durable.

: Photo: herby_fr/Flickr

Released: 2002
With Bluetooth wireless, two-way MMS and simple WAP web browsing, plus e-mail tools, the T68i phone bridged the gap between the Neanderthal phones that ushered in the decade, and the highly evolved smartphones on the market today.

: Photo: Danger

Released: 2002
Prior to the iPhone and G1, Danger's Hiptop — more commonly known as the T-Mobile Sidekick — was a geek's phone of choice, thanks to always-online connectivity, a massive 240 x 160 LCD screen and a flip-open QWERTY keyboard. Just as the BlackBerry and Treo were synonymous with the MBA set, the Sidekick announced your status as a web jockey.

: Photo: Palm

Released: 2003
The Treo 600 was the chocolate and peanut butter of PDAs and mobile phones. Along with the Hiptop and BlackBerry, it ushered in the age of the smartphone. Designed for the mobile business sector, it also had a bevy of fun-loving features, like a 640 × 480 VGA camera, and integrated MP3 player that let you rock out with your spreadsheet out.

: Photo: Motorola

Released: 2004
The Razr was the first must-have mobile. Its slender housing, clean lines, subtle keypad and multiple color schemes created a world where industrial design was on par with industrial function. The phone moved more than 100 million units, a feat MOTO has been unable to reproduce.

: Photo: RIM

Released: 2005
Though hardly the first BlackBerry, the 7290 was a killer combo of technology, with quadband GSM, a vivid color screen, Bluetooth and of course the full QWERTY keyboard that brought e-mail and the web right into the palm of your hand.

: Photo: Nokia

Released: 2007
Long before the iPhone, the N95 combined stunning design aesthetics with an incredible smorgasbord of features: GPS, built in Wi-Fi, PC tethering, video camera, FM radio and support for more audio formats than a college radio station.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Released: 2008
The second-generation Apple iPhone added GPS and 3G speed to an already-winning formula. But the real hit was the iTunes App Store: a place where developers could extend the platform to become the near-equal of the desktop computing space. Meanwhile the multitouch capabilities, Safari web browser, and a slightly sleeker design helped this phone find its way into millions of pockets.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Released: 2008
The HTC Dream, released as the T-Mobile G1, was the first phone to run Google's upstart Android operating system. The integrated GPS, application marketplace, flip-out keyboard and background processing made the phone a favorite with the tech set. Though it hasn't unseated the iPhone OS, the new development platform is still growing rapidly.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:00 am

Gallery: From Brick to Slick: A History of Mobile Phones

: Photo: Motorola

It has been more than 35 years since Martin Cooper placed the first call on a mobile phone to his rival at Bell Labs while working at Motorola. Heck, it's been nearly 20 years since Saved by the Bell’s Zack Morris placed a phone call to Kelly Kapowski from his locker. In that time, phones have come a long way.

We now live in a golden age of mobile phones. Or, perhaps more accurately, the end of the age of mobile phones. The iPhone, the G2, the N95, the Bold: These are exceptionally small mobile computers with built-in telephony features.

It has been a long trek from the monstrous, if revolutionary, Motorola DynaTAC to the elegant and refined modern devices that not only allow us to make calls, but also to send e-mails, surf the web, track our movements, listen to music, watch movies and generally handle our varied communications. Please join Wired on a look back at some of the more notable phones that took us from Zack to Android.

Left: Motorola DynaTAC 8000X
Released: 1983
The Model T of mobiles. The device was birthed from a fierce race between Motorola and Bell labs to bring the first portable to market. In 1973, Motorola's Dr. Martin Cooper won that race when he placed the first phone call on an early prototype that paved the way for the DynaTAC.

: Photo: Motorola

Released: 1996
While the DynaTAC may have been the first portable phone, MOTO's StarTAC, was the first that was actually pocketable. The 3.8 x 2.25 x 1-inch flip phone (at the time the smallest ever built) was considered minuscule, and its revolutionary clamshell form factor has been imitated ever since.

: Photo: Hagenuk

Released: 1996
You may think Nokia's 8810 was the first GSM phone with an internal antenna. It wasn't. That distinction belongs to the TCP-6000, released as the Hagenuk GlobalHandy. Toshiba and Hagenuk teamed up to develop the phone, but it never came out in the United States where the GSM standard had yet to be adopted.

: Photo: Nokia

Released: 1998
Although developers and carriers had been skeptical due to reception issues, this dot-com boom-era silver slider proved that a phone with a built-in internal antenna could be a hit with consumers. By bringing the antenna inside, it paved the way for a generation of phones that were not only more portable, but also more durable.

: Photo: herby_fr/Flickr

Released: 2002
With Bluetooth wireless, two-way MMS and simple WAP web browsing, plus e-mail tools, the T68i phone bridged the gap between the Neanderthal phones that ushered in the decade, and the highly evolved smartphones on the market today.

: Photo: Danger

Released: 2002
Prior to the iPhone and G1, Danger's Hiptop — more commonly known as the T-Mobile Sidekick — was a geek's phone of choice, thanks to always-online connectivity, a massive 240 x 160 LCD screen and a flip-open QWERTY keyboard. Just as the BlackBerry and Treo were synonymous with the MBA set, the Sidekick announced your status as a web jockey.

: Photo: Palm

Released: 2003
The Treo 600 was the chocolate and peanut butter of PDAs and mobile phones. Along with the Hiptop and BlackBerry, it ushered in the age of the smartphone. Designed for the mobile business sector, it also had a bevy of fun-loving features, like a 640 × 480 VGA camera, and integrated MP3 player that let you rock out with your spreadsheet out.

: Photo: Motorola

Released: 2004
The Razr was the first must-have mobile. Its slender housing, clean lines, subtle keypad and multiple color schemes created a world where industrial design was on par with industrial function. The phone moved more than 100 million units, a feat MOTO has been unable to reproduce.

: Photo: RIM

Released: 2005
Though hardly the first BlackBerry, the 7290 was a killer combo of technology, with quadband GSM, a vivid color screen, Bluetooth and of course the full QWERTY keyboard that brought e-mail and the web right into the palm of your hand.

: Photo: Nokia

Released: 2007
Long before the iPhone, the N95 combined stunning design aesthetics with an incredible smorgasbord of features: GPS, built in Wi-Fi, PC tethering, video camera, FM radio and support for more audio formats than a college radio station.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Released: 2008
The second-generation Apple iPhone added GPS and 3G speed to an already-winning formula. But the real hit was the iTunes App Store: a place where developers could extend the platform to become the near-equal of the desktop computing space. Meanwhile the multitouch capabilities, Safari web browser, and a slightly sleeker design helped this phone find its way into millions of pockets.

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Released: 2008
The HTC Dream, released as the T-Mobile G1, was the first phone to run Google's upstart Android operating system. The integrated GPS, application marketplace, flip-out keyboard and background processing made the phone a favorite with the tech set. Though it hasn't unseated the iPhone OS, the new development platform is still growing rapidly.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 23 Feb 2009 | 5:00 am

Cablevision: no box, no service

Cablevision is now insisting that you rent a cable box from them, even if you're getting the same old basic analog service we've been plugging directly into the back of the set since forever. [Consumerist]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 23 Feb 2009 | 4:32 am

Something For Those Who Hate Mondays

Danny Choo is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. Danny resides in Tokyo, and blogs about life in Japan and Japanese subculture - he also works part time for the empire.

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What day of the week do you dislike the most?

I ask folks this question from time to time and more often than not, the reply is usually "Monday."

When asked the reason, most would say "because I have to go back to work or school."

Typical answer yet interesting. If one dislikes Monday because of school or work then why does one continue to go back to work or school? I believe that folks like this are probably in the wrong job or studying the wrong course and probably should look for something that enables them to enjoy Mondays - and every other day for that matter. Those who genuinely enjoy work or school probably wont give "Work or School" as the reasons they dislike Monday.

Quality Not Quantity
I watched an extremely moving documentary about a girl called ashley who had a medical condition called Progeria where her body aged 13 times faster than a normal human being. The condition is said to affect 1 in 8 million newborns. A person with the condition normally dies at the age of 13. She just had her 14th birthday and she knew that she was going to die any day. She said that she was prepared to die and that she had lead a great life up until now - it was all about her experiences, the friends she was able to meet and being happy. Living a longer life was not important. The quality of life over quantity was more important.

Death Is A Reality
We watch the news and see people dying left right and center - people being stabbed, run over or just plain dying in everyday accidents. Many folks who see/read about others dying don't usually think much about it - and the folks who died probably didn't think too much about it either.

I was talking to my estate agent at the time we purchased our house - I asked him how I should go about writing my will - he looked at me as if I started to grow horns and said that people don't usually write their will until they are about 60. I was thinking to myself "apart from being a liar, this estate agent is an idiot too."

This may seem the obvious but the thing is, none of us have been given a guarantee that we are going to live until we are golden. One could live in the "safest" part of the world, be healthy and still have their life cut short by a knife, bullet or drunken driver. None of us know when we are going to die but there is one thing that we do know for sure - we all will die someday - could be in another 30 years time, could be tomorrow morning. Death is a reality that we must all understand - its the final piece of our jigsaw puzzle that we all will collect.

(more after the jump)

The Comfort Zone

Now I would like to talk about something I call the "Comfort Zone."

The comfort zone is where one is content with their current situation and I'm going to use an ex colleague who I shall name as Sally as an example. Sally had a job doing what she was good at (web design) and had a small team to manage. She had a good salary and good working hours considering that it was Tokyo.

But she wanted more from her life than just being content - she wanted to be happy. My personal interpretation is that being happy and being content are two different things. Being content fulfills basic human needs of being able to eat and have shelter. Being happy is going a step further and fulfilling the need to live ones passion.

One day, I asked Sally why she didn't start to do something about her situation. She said that she was waiting for somebody to give her an opportunity. When I asked "who", she said "I don't know..."

Sally was in the Comfort Zone and going nowhere fast. Her comfort made it difficult for her to take her own initiative to seek other opportunities.

The Jigsaw Puzzle

Life is a jigsaw puzzle. You don't know whats going to go where, you don't know where the pieces are but you do know that you need to keep looking for the pieces and figure out where they go. All events that happen to you is a piece of your puzzle. if you are stuck in a rut at school or work and keep asking yourself the "what if" question then its a sign telling you that there are no more pieces of the puzzle to be found where you are.

Passion

I could have chosen 15 years-ish ago to stay in the comfort zone content making shoes back in London. I was content but kept asking myself the "what if" question. I knew I wanted more to life but didn't know what it was until I discovered how passionate I was about Japanese culture.

I chose to seek my passion instead - done everything I could to get me closer to my dream including taking a BA in Japanese at London University, working nights after classes at a Japanese restaurant (t'was the Benihana's in Chelsea) so that I could save enough money to travel to Japan every year to absorb the culture. Ended up as a Computer Engineer at Japan Airlines and finally got hired by the Japan office of the scientific journal Nature. I reached my first destination.

The second destination was for me to start up a business by the age of 35 which I managed to do. I didn't want to take any venture funding or angel investment so needed to find other ways of building up capital.

As Website Manager at Amazon, I helped with the launch of the Japanese Amazon Associates Web Service API. I built the first ever Japanese AWS powered website and with permission of the Finance Director at the time, all Amazon products on my site had an associate tag.

I set up a sole proprietorship in Japan so that I could declare my earnings and expenses which you can legally do on a working visa - if you are doing stuff on the side then I recommend you to set one up and if you are doing it in Japan then here are the instructions.
Learning about the accounting involved in running a proprietorship brought me a step closer to setting up my own company.

At first I thought it would be great to earn something like 60 USD per month to pay for the phone bills. Didn't see the earnings reach that amount at all and realized that I needed to learn more about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), server side caching and what have you. Through this research and learning, the income from Amazon associates not only started to pay for the phone bill but started to pay for just about everything - bills, food and even covered my wife's salary.

While Amazon affiliate earnings paid for the daily stuff, salary from Amazon was being banked and helped with the 50,000 USD needed to set up a company - at the time, foreigners needed to invest that much (about 5 million yen) to start up a company. The affiliate earnings also helped us buy our current house too. These days you can set up a company with 1 yen but would probably find it difficult to do business when potential clients see how much you invested in your company.

Left Microsoft after spending a year with them as a Product Manager managing some of the Windows Live services to start up my current company Mirai Inc which focuses on licensing a community e-commerce platform called Mirai Gaia.

Many of our clients are Japanese companies in the subculture and entertainment field which makes my current job a dream job - doing something I'm passionate about (building websites) for clients who operate in an area that interests me most.

Life is great and I love my job and life in Japan. You can achieve anything with passion and focus. Destination 2 reached.

Getting To The Point
Given today's technology, one can put wo/man on the moon, split the atom and even replace the keyboard with a single wheel. But what humans have not figured out is how to sell bottles of time on the shelf. Just imagine - you walk into a store and say "Gimme the usual bottle of 1 hour."

Time is not on your side - its a friend for the duration for life but it never sides with you - never be under the assumption that time will favor you.

Self - Our Biggest Enemy
Many people make excuses for themselves like "but I got no time to do X" or "by the time I get home I'm so tired." These people are actually their own biggest obstacle because they build a tall wall of an excuse to do nothing.

If one can make time to eat, poo and pee then one can make time if they are passionate enough to start learning, experiencing, building or meeting. Lets encourage ourselves - not discourage buy making excuses.

The human race is still relatively young and we all have basic needs. One of the needs is to eat.

If you just sat in front of your computer for hours on end, most of you will eventually get up from your desk and seek food.

If there is nothing in the refrigerator or cabinets, you will either call for a pizza or go out to get something.

If all the shops around you were closed, you would travel to another part of town to seek food. You could alternatively wait until the morning when the shops open but you will still go out to get food.

The point I'm trying to make here is that if you really want something, you have the ability to get it.

Some of us have health constraints that may prevent us from easily doing stuff but if you are relatively healthy and can easily move around then you really don't have any excuse to do nothing.

Wrap Up
If you are unhappy with your current line of work and presuming that you work for 8 hours, sleep for 8 hours and use the reminder of the 8 hours for commutation, hygiene, recreation and nourishment consumption, you are spending 33% of your life doing something that constantly fuels that burning question of "what if"- don't fuel that question anymore - go out and do something!

It could be anything from starting to meet recruiters, taking up a new course or activity, research, meeting people with similar interests and so on. I may make it sound plain and simple but in fact it is. Something leads to something. Nothing leads to nothing.

Money is indeed important in this society we live in and I understand that one may need to do something that one may not exactly like to make ends meet. But, one can also be doing something on the side at the same time (learning, experiencing, meeting) in order to fulfill ones real passion. If you truly believe in yourself, your skills and ability, then you will be successful anyway - meaning that if you are going to ditch a well paid job to take a risk of a lower paying position where you can fulfill your passion, you will eventually make it anyway - because its you.

Taking the leap from safe comfortable steady ground into an unknown void is not something that comes easily. Humans basic instinct is to protect itself and places priority on food and shelter and taking risks could affect these necessities.

But life is not just about being comfortable - its about living your passion.

You can spend most of your life doing something you dislike to bring in the money which pays the bills which enables you to go back to work another day to bring in the money which pays the bills...

Life is short. One may not appreciate just how short it is while we are young but really start to understand as we get older. I'm in my late 30's now and am under no illusion whatsoever that I'm going to die at old age - I could die anytime like any of us. I want to ensure that I died while living a life doing what I love most. Don't want to live forever and am happy with the time I've been given - will make sure I make the most of the rest of my life and I hope you do too.

As for me - hopefully you can tell I love Mondays ;-)

Photos in this post taken from my last Kamakura visit.

Source: Boing Boing | 23 Feb 2009 | 4:20 am

AAA Allied Group Selects Tableau Software as Platform for Distributing Reports and Business Dashboards Across the Organization

Deployment reduces need for experts in Crystal Reports, allowing AAA Allied Group to more effectively deploy employees SEATTLE, Feb.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2009 | 4:01 am

Stratos Expands Asia-Pacific Customer Support with New Hong Kong Service Center

New center supports maritime and land-mobile markets throughout region BETHESDA, MD, Feb.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 23 Feb 2009 | 4:01 am

Give your Palm device a webOS-style facelift

Section: Communications, Smartphones, Computers, Software / Applications

I know many people are completely geared up for the new Palm Pre.  The combination of the hardware and the new webOS has people talking about Palm in a good way.  There’s a video that shows a Centro running an OS that looks a lot like the new webOS.

The video shows a person using the Centro with the TealOS which replaces the Palm user interface with a very close approximation to webOS.  Applications appear in a card like interface and they can be launched several different ways.  If you’re interested in giving your Palm device a facelift, the application costs $14.95.  Check out the video below:

Company site: [Tealpoint]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 23 Feb 2009 | 3:20 am

Gnome, KDE, LXDE, IceWM All Working On Android

dooberrymctavish writes "Ghostwalker over at AndroidFanatic has gone and done it again; now he's released clear and concise instructions on how to get X11 server running on your Android device. Not only that, but he has successfully gotten LXDE, and IceWM running at a pace. There is even a photo with the instructions showing the LXDE desktop running right there on the device itself. Apparently, you can also VNC straight onto the phone's new desktop from your PC."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 23 Feb 2009 | 2:56 am

Thummit Scopes Out Twitter To Rate The Oscars In Real Time

Thummit, a startup that evaluates Twitter messages to determine what subject they’re relevant to and if the sentiment is positive or negative, is running a special site for tonight’s Oscars ceremony. The site is currently monitoring tweets regarding dozens of actors and films, allowing users to quickly determine at a glance who is faring the best. It’s tough to tell exactly how well the sentiment recognition engine is working, as all the tweets appear to be shown in a single list without any indication as to whether they were deemed to be positive or negative. But there are definitely some clear trends - for example, Philip Seymour Hoffman has a lowly 10% approval rating, as it seems that many people really don’t like his hat.

For more of the Oscars on the web, check out Betfair, which has real time odds for the winners in each category.

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Source: TechCrunch | 23 Feb 2009 | 2:26 am

Rejected! 10 iPhone Apps That Didn't Make Apple's App Store - PC World

Palluxo! - Mac Dose of All Things Apple

Rejected! 10 iPhone Apps That Didn't Make Apple's App Store PC World Apple has irked more than a few iPhone app developers by rejecting their creations for inclusion in the App Store, sometimes for reasons that seem to have little sense. Iphone users have the attention spans of hummingbirds Inquirer Microsoft, Nokia Add Phone App Stores Twice TechCrunch - Indianapolis Star - CNET News - Ars Technica all 238 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 23 Feb 2009 | 2:11 am

How to Get More Out of Google Docs

Google's document and spreadsheet editing suite is remarkably easy to use, and it becomes even more convenient when you add the ability to launch, edit and save documents from within your Gmail inbox. Here are some tips and tricks for making your Google-powered workspace more productive and seamless.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 23 Feb 2009 | 2:00 am

Multi-Touch Air Hockey: Panasonic's 103-inch TV Modded For Old School Fun

Panasonic has figured out a plan how to sell off its $70,000, 103-inch TVs in a tough economy. Sell them to companies in the business of building other niche applications, and have them put together a gadget that an even fewer number of people can appreciate.

That doesn't sound economically feasible at all, you say. But I bet you didn't take this into account: The plan's begat a multi-touch version of air hockey! Sounds like a great plan to me.

First previewed at the Integrated Systems Europe 2009 show in Amsterdam last week (the European version of CEDIA), Multi-Touch Air Hockey is a venture between Panasonic and U-Touch. The hardware tweak was supplied by U-Touch, adding multitouch-capabilities, and the software was built by London-based ui Centric.

The way you play is by 'holding on' to a virtual air hockey mallet using your fingers, just like you would with the regular grip for air hockey. Already, some people have noted that the mallets don't react fast enough to hand movements and that you probably don't get the same satisfaction from hitting like in the real game.

What's interesting about this is that using a touch screen changes up the spectator tension originally present in the game. Before, you'd watch in the off-chance that a hard-hit disc would spin out of the table and smack someone in the head. Here, players will inevitably use their upper body to put a lot of pressure on each of their touches, which will surely lead to fractured screens and too-excited players plunging through.

At the moment, the touch hockey game will be used as a demo at various functions to show off the technology. It isn't yet on sale.

And to be fair, Panasonic actually has been more successful selling this giant TV in the last year than we're letting on. They've fit in perfectly in various Las Vegas casinos, sports stadiums, and big-company headquarters. So don't cry for them yet, and instead pressure them into building an ever bigger version of the table with their 150-inch TV. Giant touchscreen pong anyone?

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 23 Feb 2009 | 1:58 am

Friedman Misses the Point and Economic Reality of Silicon Valley

Thomas Friedman is a very smart man and a very good writer. He’s certainly sold more books than I ever will. But in reading his latest column arguing $20 billion in bailout money should go to VCs not auto companies, one thing was crystal clear: This man doesn’t live in Silicon Valley. Has he even ever visited?

I totally agree we shouldn’t be bailing out “loser” companies and industries. Car companies should be going bankrupt, and their stockholders and bondholders should lose their money for betting on an industry that clearly wasn’t adapting and was spending like drunken trust fund kids. (Trust me, they’re worse than sailors.) Yes, the inevitable job losses will be hard to absorb. But these companies will fail eventually, so you’re really just stalling when it comes to the pain, and inevitably dragging out the recession longer—especially in areas like the rust belt that were hurting before the recession hit.

My above views are precisely why I live in Silicon Valley: A place that not only lacks an artificial reverence for an old stodgy company, it actually celebrates when a younger, nimble startup takes it down. How, could Friedman get why the Valley continually creates strong multi-billion dollar companies and then turn around and propose a government subsidy for us? Investments in agencies like DARPA are one thing, but government subsidies are crutches for non-performing industries. And hit by the recession or no, Silicon Valley doesn’t want or need that crutch.

Before we get into the economics of his argument, let’s start with the facts. Friedman writes, “Call up the top 20 venture capital firms in America, which are short of cash today because their partners — university endowments and pension funds — are tapped out, and make them this offer: The U.S. Treasury will give you each up to $1 billion to fund the best venture capital ideas that have come your way.” Um, venture capital firms are not short on cash. Far from it. The precise problem with the venture industry is too much cash in fact, especially given increasingly paltry returns.

Yes, investors in VC firms are pulling back and some are even reportedly defaulting on capital calls. But this is after a bubbly run-up where a boutique industry exploded. In the last fifteen years, the amount of money pouring into venture capital has more than doubled. Look at returns: The industry is having a hard enough time investing $30 billion a year. Another $20 billion from the government? Are you kidding?

What’s more, there was never a shakeout in venture firms after the year 2000 crash—it’s only now working its way through the system. So the firms that may be finding themselves short of cash? Those are our own version of the “loser” firms – to borrow Friedman’s phrase—that should be shaken out of the venture economy. Not only do the top 20 venture firms have plenty of money, the top 100 firms could find a way to raise more capital if they needed to. But odds are they don’t, because funds work in multi-year cycles, and not everyone is forced to fundraise in 2009.
In short: The core assumption to Friedman’s argument just isn’t reality. And call me crazy, but if you are throwing my tax dollars after an industry, shouldn’t the so-called “need” be based on– oh, I don’t know– an economic reality?

Point two: Venture capitalists don’t want a bailout. As stated above, they don’t need the money, and startup rule number one is you don’t give away equity for something you don’t need. Friedman proposes VCs would give the government 20% of the proceeds from an IPO or acquisition and keep 80% for themselves. [UPDATE: Apologies, watching Oscars and accidentally swapped the percentages! 80% for taxpayers, 20% for VCs. More of a sucker's bet.] He ignores carve outs for employees and founders in this equation, which cuts down the VC take further.

Given how rare it is to have a bona fide Google-style home run these days as many of the core tech markets that have been the golden geese of venture capital mature—why on earth would a venture capitalist give up 20% of the next Facebook over a silly little thing like needing more capital? As a Facebook (and more recently Twitter) well knows, no matter what the market is doing a scorching-hot startup can always find money. Bailouts are by nature adverse selection: The only people that would take the government up on this deal are companies who are the GM-versions of startups and venture firms.

Friedman further says in the column that “Bailing out the losers is not how we got rich as a country, and it is not how we’ll get out of this crisis.” Agreed. But what country got rich by bailing out winners? Is that even a concept that makes sense? I can’t imagine a greater a waste of shareholder money than giving it to people who don’t need it and aren’t asking for it. At least when it comes to the car companies, we’d be (temporarily) saving jobs.

Most shocking to me, Friedman invoked one of the most repeated Valley mantras to prove his point when he wrote, “Some of our best companies, such as Intel, were started in recessions, when necessity makes innovators even more inventive and risk-takers even more daring.” Mr. Friedman: Read the second half of your own sentence again. The reason recession-born companies are so inventive and daring is because founders are forced to work within constraints, precisely because it is harder to raise capital. Nothing kills a great idea like too much cash. Unless it’s a flood of too much taxpayer cash, because then we all lose.

I think all taxpayers should be grateful that President Barack Obama spends more time in the Valley than Thomas Friedman. I know I am.

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Source: TechCrunch | 23 Feb 2009 | 1:54 am

I Survived the Bush Administration (t-shirt)

I survived the bush administration t-shirt, $16 from Print Liberation (via Constant Siege).

Source: Boing Boing | 23 Feb 2009 | 12:54 am

The Death of Plasma

Jose Fermoso at the New York Times writes that Pioneer's killing-off of Kuro, its next-gen Plasma TV line, rings the technology's death knell.

It was a dramatic fall for a company that just one year ago had CES abuzz with its newest plasma TV, the so-called “Ultimate Black” Kuro. ... The Kuro’s tech was impressive because it reduced light emissions from black areas of the screen to such a degree that at its maximum brightness, the contrast ratio was “almost infinite.” The result was a plasma display with the most vibrant, colorful images yet.

But even at the hype’s peak, problems in the plasma industry were apparent.

If you bet on LCD surpassing Plasma hard and fast, you won.

Pioneer’s Kuro Killing: A Tipping Point in the Plasma Era [NYT]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 23 Feb 2009 | 12:35 am

Microsoft Asks For a Refund From Laid-Off Workers

An anonymous reader writes "The large print giveth, the small print taketh away. Microsoft, which recently laid off 1400 employees, is now claiming that some of those lucky schmoes were inadvertently overpaid on their severance package. A letter from the company, which was subsequently circulated on the internet, states: 'We ask that you repay the overpayment and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to you.' Microsoft has confirmed the authenticity of the letter, but it's not known what the amounts in question are, or how many of the 1400 were affected."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2009 | 11:50 pm

Official "SCRABBLE Word of the Day": Dildo

Over at Hasbro.com right now on Sunday afternoon, the official "SCRABBLE Word of the Day" is, er, "DILDO." For 7 points. Click image above for screenshot of full Web page. Scrabble Crossword Board Game (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)
UPDATE: Well, they've since changed the word to "Triply," but the screenshot of "DILDO" on the Hasbro.com Web page will live on in perpetuity here.

Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 11:44 pm

Yahoo Media Unit to Get a Reorg Too! [BoomTown]

Besides the more massive management reorganization that new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz could announce this week, as BoomTown reported on Friday, the Internet company’s powerful media arm might also see a drastic shift in management structure even sooner.

According to several sources inside the company, U.S. Audience SVP Jeff Dossett (pictured here) has been working on the changes for a while, part of an overall change in how Yahoo (YHOO) makes and delivers content. The new organization could be announced this week too.

Under a plan being considered, the media unit will be split into three parts: Vertical programming, network programming and search monetization.

It is not clear under this new set-up if Yahoo will keep its more traditional structure of having powerful general managers, each in charge of its big properties.

But that seems likely to be scaled back, at the very least, since the shift in management comes after some major recent changes in the way content is made, as was also reported here last week.

Already, the media group’s product development for all its major properties–such as News, Sports and Finance–is set to be moved to a central global product development organization at Yahoo’s HQ in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Until now, such development has been mostly done by individual media properties, many of which are located down south, in Santa Monica.

The argument for the shift posits that centralizing the product development of a Yahoo media offering drives efficiencies, saves money, eliminates redundancies and accelerates growth across the world.

Those who do not like the idea think it is wrong to separate the development of a product from the programming because the two are intricately dependent and need to be tweaked delicately.

Dossett will remain overall head of media efforts, but there is a lot of speculation inside the group about who will head the three new parts of media unit. But that is still being worked out by Dossett and his boss, U.S. head Hilary Schneider, and is still not decided.

But several inside sources said that vertical programming is probably a lock to roll up under current Sports GM Jimmy Pitaro.

Former “60 Minutes” producer and News GM Neeraj Khemlani seems be the most likely candidate to head network programming, but that is not yet complete.

And Tim Mayer–who is now VP of search monetization and distribution–would probably remain in his job, with perhaps even more monetization duties added.

Source: All Things Digital | 22 Feb 2009 | 11:28 pm

The Oscars: The Party’s Moved Online [Digital Daily]

This year, the Oscars ceremony will remain decidedly low tech: There won’t be any live online streams where you can watch the 81st Academy Awards.

Because it’s easier to monetize eyeballs directed at television screens rather than computer monitors, your choices are limited to broadcasters ABC in the U.S. and Sky in the U.K.–and a big, fat nada for those who receive neither.

But seriously, who watches the three-hour-plus televised Oscars anymore anyway? Not many, apparently: Last year’s ratings were the lowest in history. This year, besides seeing if a probably singing-and-dancing Wolverine Hugh Jackman can entertain where so many before have failed, learning if your Best Picture prediction hit the mark, or even hoping to catch Christian Bale “Bale out” (a term meaning to unleash an F-bomb-laden tirade–it’s even defined in the urban dictionary now) some poor unsuspecting red carpet usher, there’s not a lot of buzz around the event.

No, like any other big entertainment or sporting event, the awards ceremony itself is but a small part of the experience. The real fun goes on around the Oscars, in Web site predictors, mobile apps and other interactive technology.

Tracking the Winners

Sites like Awards Daily put up Oscar predictions, including a table gathering the guesses of a group of its writers and readers (caution: It might cause glazing-over of the eyes).

But Awards Daily also has tracked the other awards the Oscar nominees have won in the past year, including the Golden Globes and BAFTA. This will provide some helpful research for when you go to fill in your Oscar ballot at the New York Times, where you can compete with others and have your card scored in real time. And Yahoo, conducting a poll, shows the movies favored to grab the little golden man by percentage of user votes.

Meanwhile, “Colbert Report” host Stephen Colbert gave his own predictions earlier last week using what he calls DaColbert Code (as in the DaVinci Code). His ability to “see patterns” consists of using a word/name association game. For instance, starting from last year’s Best Actress Marion Cotillard, he arrives at a Kate Winslet prediction through a series of phrases, including “rice pilaf,” “Clockwork Orange” and “Malcolm X.” Hey, everybody’s got a system, so nobody said it had to be a good one.

And for the truly devoted, or those who are just more interested in the fashion than the films, People.com has put up a Predict-a-Gown photo quiz. Will Cameron Diaz wear the White Valentino or the Black Oscar de la Renta? You see, these are the critical questions we need to be asking, and only the good folks at People were brave enough to ask them.

Mobile and Web 2.0

iPhone’s App Store has some popular Oscar apps like the “Awards: Oscars Edition” and “Hollywood Trivia: The Oscar Quiz,” which provide all sorts of fun interactive functionality in ballots, games and history. See a list of the top apps at VentureBeat.

Meanwhile, if you want to tap into the Bollywood fanbase, especially inspired by the many nominations for “Slumdog Millionaire” this year, go to Saavn.com, which is hosting a Bollywood-Facebook widget. The widget tracks the Facebook status updates of users talking about the Oscars.

And of course, what Web 2.0 party would be complete without Twitter? Use either #Oscars or #aa09 when searching for relevant updates. You can also subscribe to @watchwithcomics, a group of comedians who will be live-Twittering the event. One recent update there was “10 People Who Would Be Better Hosts than Hugh Jackman,” which included “Wolverine” and “Mini-Chris Brown and Mini-Rihanna.” Wow, these guys aren’t joking around.

Source: All Things Digital | 22 Feb 2009 | 11:18 pm

Oldest-ever British surveillance footage

Chris sez, "Here's the latest issue of the journal Surveillance and Society, including an article that I wrote on the earliest use of film surveillance by British police, in 1935. Five minutes from the film itself is available through the Blip TV feed from that page, or through a link alongside the actual article. The other articles in the issue (notably Dietmar Kammerer's on the history of CCTV in Germany) are also worth a read, mind."

Table of Contents (Thanks, Chris!)

Source: Boing Boing | 22 Feb 2009 | 10:58 pm

Cory Doctorow Calls Death To Music, Movies, Print

An anonymous reader writes "Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow depicts an unfortunate near-future for a handful of media industries being transformed or killed by the Internet. Predicting a large-scale transformation of the music, movie, book, and newspaper industry, Doctorow says, 'The Internet chews up media and spits them out again. Sometimes they get more robust. Sometimes they get more profitable. Sometimes they die.' While the Internet has the potential to help the dying book industry, for example, Doctorow predicts the 'imminent collapse' of the American newspaper industry because advertisers are uninterested in spending money on the remaining offline readership, such as senior citizens, who prove less valuable."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 22 Feb 2009 | 10:37 pm

Texas using infant blood for research

Blood taken from Texas infants to test for a range of birth defects is being stored for medical research, officials said.

Source: Gizmodo | 22 Feb 2009 | 10:00 pm

Hot News: The AP Is Living In The Last Century

A case between the Associated Press and All Headline News is moving forward based on a 90-year-old legal doctrine which may no longer be applicable in the Internet age. A federal judge ruled that the AP can sue AHN for stealing its “hot news.”

The AP’s beef against AHN appears to have more merit than when it tried to go after bloggers for merely linking to its stories without changing the headlines. AHN itself sells news feeds and headlines to other Websites, newspapers, and digital signage companies. The AP alleges that AHN simply copies the AP’s headlines and news without permission and without paying a syndication fee, and then resells those headlines and news stories as part of its own feeds with all AP accreditation stripped out.

If that is what happened, it does sound like pure theft. But rather than simply sue AHN for copyright infringement, the AP is also invoking the “hot news” doctrine, which treat news scoops as a form of property. Hot news is defined as time-sensitive news that is gathered at a cost, which a competitor then reproduces, free-riding on the original news-gathering organization’s efforts. The Prior Art blog has a good discussion of the legal history (sentence bolded for emphasis):

The “hot news” doctrine that The Associated Press now wants to enforce is actually a product of a much earlier AP litigation. “Hot news” originates in a lawsuit that AP brought 90 years ago against a competing news service, International News Service (INS), which was owned by Hearst and later became part of United Press International (UPI). “In 1918, INS was unable to provide its clients with news stories from the war zones because, having been accused of violating wartime censorship restrictions, it was barred from use of the British and French mail and cables,” writes the AP in its brief against AHN. INS solved that problem by grabbing early editions printed in AP newspapers and sending them to its own clients. INS even bribed employees of the AP and AP member newspapers to get AP’s news before it was published.

Ultimately, the Second Circuit found that AP had a property right, separate from copyright, in the news that it sold, “arising from the labor and expense involved in its gathering and disseminating that news.” This right could only be used against competitors and only lasted as long as the news had commercial value. The case then went to the Supreme Court, which voted 5-3 in favor of the AP’s “quasi property” and upheld the 2nd Circuit decision.

Let me repeat that bolded part: “This right could only be used against competitors and only lasted as long as the news had commercial value.”

Basically, the judge says the AP can try to prove AHN stole it’s “hot news”. But what constitutes “hot news” in an age of instant communications? And how long does it last. In 1918, “hot news” traveled by mail and telegraph. It could last hours or even days. Today, a true scoop lasts for about a minute. The AP would have to show instances of articles where not only the AP broke the news, but was the only outlet to get the original story—something rarer and rarer when anyone can publish news over the Internet.

It also raises some troubling questions. Is the AP going to start suing bloggers or news aggregators who take an AP headline and excerpt and rebroadcast it to the world, even with a proper link and attribution? And what happens when the AP is scooped by bloggers, which happens every day. Should bloggers sue the AP? Will people who break news on Twitter claim scoop status, and sue all the bloggers and news outlets who pile on afterward? It could get pretty messy.

Hot news is a concept best left in the twentieth century. Lawsuits like this one just brings home the point that the AP is more concerned with defending its antiquated business model than with moving forward and adapting to the realities of today’s information flows.

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Source: TechCrunch | 22 Feb 2009 | 9:56 pm

Management shakeup at Yahoo imminent

Section: Business News, Web, Websites

Yahoo has had a lot of issues recently.  Google virtually has the search engine market cornered and Yahoo is looking to catch up.  Yahoo has tried all kinds of things like acquiring plenty of web services without much of a return. 

Carol Bartz took over as Yahoo’s CEO last month and is wasting no time trying to right the ship.  It is expected that Yahoo management will change significantly this week with a reorganization of management that would be similar to Autodesk.  Bartz was the CEO of Autodesk before taking on Yahoo.

Yahoo’s corporate structure is currently a strange matrix which means there is no direct chain of management.  Workers report to multiple people to get work done.  That sounds a bit like an “Office Space” kind of mess.  This matrix structure is expected to get the boot and be replaced with new chiefs like a COO or CTO. 

While at Autodesk, this management system helped grow the company substantially.  This reorganization at Yahoo could be the start of some progress.

Read: [All Things Digital] via [PC World] 

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 22 Feb 2009 | 9:48 pm

Video Exclusive: First look at Boost Mobile’s new “Unwronged” TV spot

Boost Mobile recently unveiled their $50 unlimited plan that includes nationwide talk, text, web and walkie-talkie. With that new plan comes a marketing blitz and what Boost calls the Unwronged campaign. The first ad in this campaign was kind of revolting, but I’m not keen on hirsute women. Check out the exclusive “Coroner” spot that’s set to air starting tomorrow after the jump. I guess these are better than the George Washington spots.

Source: CrunchGear | 22 Feb 2009 | 9:47 pm

Say Goodbye to Hollywood: Gawker Valleywags Defamer [MediaMemo]

Here’s what should be the last step in Nick Denton’s slimdown of his Gawker Media empire: The blog network is taking its LA-based Defamer site and rolling it up under its central Gawker title. The site’s existing writers will leave, to be replaced by other Gawker writers and a new hire.

This is the second time Denton has folded up one of his sites and tucked it into his Gawker flagship–last fall he did the same thing with Valleywag, his Silicon Valley gossip title.

Given that Denton had previously put Defamer up for sale, it’s not a stretch to conclude that there wasn’t a ravenous appetite for a standalone Hollywood gossip site with decent if declining traffic (Quantcast puts Defamer’s monthly unique visitors at one million. I had previously looked at Gawker Media’s own stat page and concluded that February traffic was down from a year ago, but Denton points out that February isn’t over yet–which means that this week’s Oscar traffic should boost those numbers a bit).

Denton’s spin: “Ultimately, the brand was worth more to us–as a section of the Gawker site.” Gawker Media is now down to nine sites, from a high of 15.

The big picture: Web publishers are increasingly trying to aggregate eyeballs at fewer sites, in order to cater to marketers who want to buy one title instead of spreading their dollars around at smaller pubs.

Denton’s post explaining the move is here. Money quote: “Fortunately, the three Defamer writers have decent employment prospects even amid the great media die-off–a testament to their talents.”

Source: Gizmodo | 22 Feb 2009 | 9:00 pm

Exclusive: First look at Boost Mobile’s new “Unwronged” TV spot

Boost Mobile recently unveiled their $50 unlimited plan that includes nationwide talk, text, web and walkie-talkie. With that new plan comes a marketing blitz and what Boost calls the Unwronged campaign. The first ad in this campaign was kind of revolting, but I’m not keen on hirsute women. Check out the exclusive “Coroner” spot that’s set to air starting tomorrow after the jump. I guess these are better than the George Washington spots.

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