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Twitterer catches home invader with his pants downWhen a stranger broke into Silicon Valley executive David Prager's house yesterday, he did not call police or reach for a gun - he logged on to Twitter and set up a live video stream. The Sydney Morning...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 12:40 pm Facebook Connect for iPhone debutsFacebook has announced Facebook Connect for the iPhone, which allows developers to add Facebook compatibility to a variety of iPhone apps. The new technology allows apps to share social information via...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 12:32 pm Cops hand out 9,000 tickets to drivers talking on cell phonesAccording to the Daily News, cops handed out a staggering 9,000 summonses in one day to drivers who were caught yapping on their cell phones. During a 24-hour crackdown Thursday, police zeroed in on motor-mouthed...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 12:30 pm Women Skip Math/Science Careers To Have Familieshessian notes a Cornell survey, published in the Psychological Bulletin, of 35 years of sociological studies that concludes that women tend to choose non-math-intensive fields for their careers not because they lack mathematical ability, but because they want flexibility to raise children or prefer less math-intensive fields of science. "'A major reason explaining why women are underrepresented not only in math-intensive fields but also in senior leadership positions in most fields is that many women choose to have children, and the timing of child rearing coincides with the most demanding periods of their career, such as trying to get tenure or working exorbitant hours to get promoted,' said lead author Stephen J. Ceci... The authors concluded that hormonal, brain, and other biological sex differences were not primary factors in explaining why women were underrepresented in science careers, and that studies on social and cultural effects were inconsistent and inconclusive. They also reported that although 'institutional barriers and discrimination exist, these influences still cannot explain why women are not entering or staying in STEM careers,' said Ceci."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2009 | 12:14 pm Space shuttle on target for launch - United Press International
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Mar 2009 | 11:54 am hello from sxsw[Photo courtesy of @caseorganic etc.] This cartoon kinda says it all... [SXSW Link]...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 10:06 am iPhone App Causes Google To Shut Down SMS ServiceAn anonymous reader writes "A few days ago, Inner Fence released a paid iPhone app called Infinite SMS, which let iPhone users employ Google's free SMS gateway to send SMS messages without paying their service providers. The resulting surge in traffic on Google's SMS gateway forced Google to block all third-party applications from using the free SMS feature — including Google's own GTalk client."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2009 | 9:35 am Where in the World is Alan Lewis ?It's coming up to the fourth anniversary of Alan Lewis of scathing Dan Loeb letter fame. Any idea where he is now? I see he was recently at Sourcecap International, but I have no idea if that is still...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 8:19 am Dan Ariely on Bernie MadoffSome useful musings from Dan "Predictably Irrational" Ariely on the Bernie Madoff case's longer-run behavioral implications: And I think that people will begin to over-diversify across...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 8:15 am Simon Johnson on Stephen Colbert.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http://www.comedycentral.com/comedycentral/video/assets/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 7:54 am Vodafone Qatar to launch IPO (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 15 Mar 2009 | 7:48 am Rezzable Expands Virtual Worlds DirectoryBlogging for NWN partner Rezzable, Lazarus Charron expands the metaverse developer's Virtual Worlds Directory with a photographic report on five sims worth visiting. It's the first I've heard about a region...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 7:45 am Wendy Northcutt on The Darwin AwardsAmusing talk by Wendy Northcutt on The Darwin Awards:Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 7:44 am SNAPSHOT - Financial Crisis - 0740 GMT- G20 fin mins promise the IMF money and say will use all their firepower to combat worst economic crisis since 1930sSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 7:40 am Drive-By Economics: Home DepotLets keeping adding to the grassroots economics reporting. What are people seeing out there this weekend? My report: I was at Home Depot in San Diego today and it was emptier than I have ever seen it...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Mar 2009 | 7:35 am Netflix Throttling Instant Video Streamingrsk writes "For the last few weeks I've been experiencing terrible streaming video performance from Netflix on both my Xbox 360 and PC. While my Xbox 360 would at least stream at a lower resolution, my PC cannot seem to avoid 2-hr. buffering times before playback even started. I smelled shenanigans and started digging. With some help finding the debug menu for the streaming video player, I set out to figure out why playback was so slow. It seems that Netflix is significantly throttling Watch Instantly users (on the PC) down to an unusable cap — in my case, 48 kbps — on a per-connection basis."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2009 | 6:53 am Sushi Conveyor video as a single long still image Gregr sez, "Two weeks ago there was a post called 'Sending your video camera around the sushi conveyor'. I ripped the sushi conveyor video from youtube and merged it into a single image (I have permission from the creator of the video). The image captures the entire sushi conveyor video."
(Thanks, Gregr!) Finding good things in iPod's smallest package - Cape Cod Times
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Mar 2009 | 6:08 am Thorstein Veblen, Prescient on Today's MediaVia Joe Costello, a friend and former colleague:While Keynes is all the rage these days, as the way things actually "work" in our society are laid bare for a short period, Veblen keeps popping up in my head. On Stewart v Cramer, I found this from The Theory of Business of Enterprise written in 1915 and as good a critique of 20th century media written, and for anyone who "stickle for truth", remains a major issue to sort for 21st century democracy. I will say Veblen was a funny SOB, certainly intentionally rare for any economist -- though if you look at absurdity as humor most modern economists should have their own shows on Comedy Central. While Veblen was there, the University of Chicago actually knew something about economics:  The current periodical press, whether ephemeral or other, is a vehicle for advertisements. This is its raison d'etre as a business proposition and this decides the lines of its management without material qualification. Exceptions to the rule are official and minor propagandist periodicals, and in an uncertain measure, scientific journals. The profits of publication come from the sale of advertising space. The direct returns from sales and subscriptions are now a matter of wholly secondary consequence. Publishers of periodicals, of all grades of transiency, aim to make their product as salable as may be, in order to pass their advertising pages under the eyes of as many readers as may be. The larger the circulation the greater, other things equal, the market value of the advertising space. The highest product of this development is the class of American newspapers called "independent." These in particular -- and they are followed at no great interval by the rest -- edit all items of news comment or gossip with a view to what the news ought to be and what opinions ought to be expressed on passing events. Source: Boing Boing | 15 Mar 2009 | 5:12 am Original Shakespeare Portrait Discovered, DisputedReader Hugh Pickens sends in news from the NYTimes a few days back of what is believed to be a 400-year-old portrait of William Shakespeare, painted 6 years before his death. No existing portrait, that most experts consider to be genuine, was captured during Shakespeare's lifetime. "It shows Shakespeare as a far more alluring figure than the solemn-faced, balding image that has been conveyed by previous engravings, busts and portraits. 'His face is open and alive, with a rosy, rather sweet expression, perhaps suggestive of modesty,' said a brochure for an exhibition opening in Stratford. The portrait came to light when Alec Cobbe visited the National Portrait Gallery in London in 2006 to see an exhibition, 'Searching for Shakespeare,' and realized that the Folger portrait, whose authenticity had been doubted for decades, was a copy of the one that had been in his family's art collection since the mid-18th century, with the family unaware that the man depicted might be Shakespeare. Scientific studies at Cambridge showed that the oak panel on which the Cobbe portrait was mounted came from trees felled in the last 20 years of the 16th century, pointing to a date for the painting in the early 1600s." For balance, the New Yorker disputes some of the claims in the NYTimes account, and for good measure tosses in another purported Shakespeare portrait from life, this one discovered 3 years ago in Canada.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2009 | 4:10 am Today at Boing Boing Gadgets • We took apart the new iPod Shuffle's headphones in search of the rumored "DRM" chip. We found something. • Last-gen inline headphone controls won't work with the new Shuffle, either. • An elderly gent travels in style atop his Z-001. • Don Relyea makes strange art that resembles cities or circuit boards, but is in fact inspired by food, • Behold! A Victorian DeLorean • The HULC Exoskeleton lets soldiers lift more than 200 pounds with relative ease. • The ABL industrial apple peeler has a mean theme tune. • Pick your reference: Pip-Boy, Leela, Dick Tracy. However you slice it, it's an honest-to-god wrist computer. At last! Shuttle expected to launch SundayThe space shuttle Discovery is expected to launch on schedule in Florida after repairs on a leaking gaseous hydrogen vent line, NASA said Saturday. In a news release, Mike Leinbach, the shuttle launch director, said the repairs were a few hours behind schedule.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 15 Mar 2009 | 3:45 am Hot gaming news for the week of 3-08-2009Section:  No need to scour the interwebs for hot gaming news, Gamertell‘s already done that for you! Here’s a look at this week’s top stories…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 15 Mar 2009 | 2:42 am Weekend ReadingSome books and longer articles I've recently been reading or re-reading: The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick's masterpiece (IMO). Chilling alternate history, set in an America that lost World War II to Germany and Japan. The Snowball, by Alice Schroeder, a warts-and-all biography of investor Warren Buffett. His Nebraska-kid schtick hasn't fooled anybody for a long time, but he's even more complicated than we suspected. What Would Google Do, Jeff Jarvis' thought-provoking look at our changing world from a "life is beta" perspective. I don't agree with all of his arguments, some of which strike me as throwing out the proverbial babies with the bathwater, but this book is well worth a read. Severance Package, a noir-squared novel by Duane Swierczynski, about a memorable last day at work. Violent, mordant and an absolutely compulsive read. "The Gatekeeper," a New Yorker article by Ryan Lizza about Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emannuel. Hugely detailed, but has a more suck-up-to-power story ever been published in a magazine that prides itself on serious journalism? Yuck. Source: Boing Boing | 15 Mar 2009 | 2:42 am Meet Ms. Techmeme: Megan McCarthy Explains All [MediaMemo]
Used to be that most of their fulminations generally went unanswered, because: 1) Techmeme creator Gabe Rivera generally keeps to himself, at least in the physical world. 2) Rivera created Techmeme using an algorithm that was supposed to automatically suss out which stories were most important, using a link-based hierarchy similar to Google’s (GOOG). But dudes who are still unhappy with Techmeme (and yes, I mean dudes — with a couple rare exceptions that prove the rule (hello, boss) this is unfortunately a Man’s Man’s Man’s World) have someone they can vent at/to. Meet Megan McCarthy, the former Valleywag writer who Rivera hired late last year to add a human’s touch to the site. Headline for his blog post announcing the move: “Guess what? Automated news doesn’t quite work.” That doesn’t mean that Techmeme has abandoned the algorithm — just that Rivera wants McCarthy tweaking the site, and making sure that important/useful/interesting stories bubble up. Or that’s their argument, anyway. Sounds right to me. If you’re at South by Southwest this weekend, you can chat her up yourself — she’s the very tall, very pleasant woman, who seems to know an awful lot of people. Or you can watch this clip, where she bravely agreed to let me hold a Flip camera in front of her face. Important (at least to some people) addendum to my interview: When I argue that Rivera “favors” certain kinds of coverage, I mean just that — that he’s more interested in, say, Web 2.0 news than he is gadget coverage, and that he’s set up Techmeme to reflect that.
Source: All Things Digital | 15 Mar 2009 | 2:37 am Court Demands Private Facebook DataDefeat Globalism writes in with a Canadian court decision that has ordered a man suing over injuries from a car accident to answer questions about content on his private "friends only" Facebook page. "Lawyers for Janice Roman, the defendant in the lawsuit, believe information posted on John Leduc's private Facebook site — normally accessible only to his approved 'friends' — may be relevant to his claim an accident in Lindsay in 2004 lessened his enjoyment of life. As a result of the ruling by Justice David Brown of Ontario's Superior Court of Justice, Leduc must now submit to cross-examination by Roman's lawyers about what his Facebook page contains. Brown's Feb. 20 ruling also makes clear that lawyers must now explain to their clients 'in appropriate cases' that postings on Facebook or other networking sites — such as MySpace, LinkedIn and even blogs — may be relevant to allegations in a lawsuit, said Tariq Remtulla, a Toronto lawyer who has been following the issue."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2009 | 2:17 am SXSW: AT&T's Spotty Service Frustrates iPhone UsersDropped calls, unavailable service and slow web access from AT&T frustrates tens of thousands of South by Southwest conference-goers trying to Twitter and hook up with friends. The hordes in town for the interactive and film segments of the fest put a strain on AT&T's 3G and Edge networks.Source: Wired Top Stories | 15 Mar 2009 | 2:00 am New iPods have DRM on the headphone interfaceFred von Lohmann from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, "The sharp reviewers at iLounge spotted out a misfeature in the new iPod Shuffle that other reviewers overlooked: third party headphones for it apparently will require an Apple 'authentication chip,' something that is already required for various iPod docks. Yet another example of Apple's DRM hypocrisy. Apparently it's OK for Apple to use DRM to lock in consumers and hobble competition, even as it rails against DRM on iTunes music."Apple Adds Still More DRM to iPod Shuffle Update 2: We took one apart and found a mysterious chip inside the new Shuffle's headphones. Have no idea if it's DRM or not -- Rob. Update: We did a quick test in the gadget dungeon: existing inline headphone control adapters for the iPhone and other iPods won't work in the new Shuffle. -- Rob. Basket Case Insurer Gets $170 Billion from Taxpayers, Still Pays Huge BonusesIn the get-out-the-torches-and-pitchforks category comes this news:
That would be the "best and brightest" sleazeballs who created this train wreck of a company, who were principal culprits in the tanking of the global economy? These people should be drawing unemployment checks, not stealing taxpayers' money. I started a #pitchforks Twitter hashtag a while back, and this is precisely why. (Photo by blhphotography) Source: Boing Boing | 15 Mar 2009 | 1:14 am Scientists Use fMRI To (Sort of) Read MindsNigelTheFrog writes "Researchers in England have used fMRI to map the activity in volunteers' hippocampuses. From these scans, they could pinpoint exactly where they were in a virtual reality landscape. 'Specific parts of each participant's hippocampus were active after that person had navigated to particular places in the room. A few practice rounds provided fodder for creating algorithms for each participant that correlated different brain activity patterns with different virtual locations. The algorithms, the team found, could in turn "predict" new virtual locations, not those used during practice rounds, based on each person's pattern of brain activity.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 15 Mar 2009 | 12:48 am We found the chip inside the new iPod headphones...but is it DRM?
You'd never guess it was there—a tiny chip, barely a millimeter square, hidden inside the headphone module on the third-gen iPod shuffle. If you dismantle the module itself, you still won't see it: it's underneath a board containing a few simple copper traces, itself minuscule, and glued to the plastic. Even the traditional iFixit teardown gallery missed it. We decided to take a closer look after iLounge reported that the third-generation iPod Shuffle's headphones had an "authentication chip" that Apple could use to turn something as basic as headphones into a proprietary licensing scheme. By adding such a chip to headphones, Apple could force third-party manufacturers to pay fees to make headphones for its iPod Shuffle—after all, the device has no controls, so normal headphones are useless. "This is, in short, a nightmare scenario for long-time iPod fans," wrote iLounge's Jeremy Horwitz. "Are we entering a world in which Apple controls and taxes literally every piece of the iPod purchase from headphones to chargers, jacking up their prices, forcing customers to re-purchase things they already own, while making only marginal improvements in their functionality?" Even if someone invented headphones that worked without a licensed chip, that could amount to circumvention of a digital lock: Apple could shut them down using the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, provided the signal sent from the headphone buttons to the iPod itself is encrypted. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann followed up, exhorting gadget reviewers to looks closer: One final thought: why have so many of the reviews of iPods failed to notice the proliferation of these Apple "authentication chips"? 
What we found is a mystery to us: we're not electrical engineers. For all we know, it could be something the FCC made them put in so that it doesn't interfere with whalesong. But it's an honest-to-god chip inside the proprietary headphones required to listen to the latest iPod, and it's hard not to wonder if Apple, with its 70% market share, just tried to eat the headphone industry whole. If so, they've been planning it since at least the last update of the iPod line. According to the product page for the new "Apple Earphones with Remote", the new controls will also work with the most recent iPod Nano, iPod classic, and second-generation iPod Touch. That means that whatever sort of signal is being sent from the new headphones, it's been in the works before the latest Shuffle. And while the new headphones do not work with the iPhone 3G, it can be expected that they will be compatible with the next version of the iPhone. If it's not an "authentication chip", then, what could it be? The current in-line click remote for the iPhone works by dropping the resistance on the second ring of the headphone's TRRS minijack connector, which the iPhone recognizes as a simple on or off. One click pauses. Two clicks fast forward. It is possible the new Shuffle headphones simply send a pulse or other analog electrical signal to the headphone jack of the Shuffle, but we do not have the equipment to determine that ourselves. (Put a multimeter on the second ring of the new headphones, though, and you'll at least be able to see if different button presses causes different resistance, implying the controls work with analog controls, not a digital scheme.) But it is also possible the signals are digital. "Digital" does not mean "encrypted", however. If the signals are not encrypted, then there would be no legal impediment to manufacturers making compatible and unlicensed headphones that work with the new controls. (Either way, regular audio headphones still work, although without controls they're useless on the Shuffle.) If the signals are encrypted, it would mean that headphones with in-line controls compatible with Apple's latest (and future) iPods would have to be made with chips* available exclusively from Apple. Manufacturers attempting to reverse-engineer the simple three-button controls could be prosecuted under the DMCA. Previously: New iPods have DRM on the headphone interface * Labelled in the headphones we have as "8A83E3", not currently listed in Octopart. Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 15 Mar 2009 | 12:35 am Man charged with alleged child porn via PS3 - CNET News
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 15 Mar 2009 | 12:32 am Do you like creating music? If so, check out this phoneSection: Audio, Home Audio, Portable Audio, Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Gadgets / Other, DJ, Lifestyle  Whether you are a DJ, an aspiring DJ, or just someone who loves making music wouldn’t it be great if you could start playing virtual instruments and make music anywhere at anytime? Cell phones can do a lot of tasks these days, yet this is the first phone I’ve seen which is marketed towards people who are good at making music. A cell phone that can play music?Motorola sponsored a group of researchers to create a phone that allowed people to create music, the KRE-8. By using sensors and accelerometers, the KRE-8 can figure out how you are holding and orienting the cell phone, and then it will start playing as a guitar, drums, or violin. This allows you to play your own music and record. Using the touch screen, you can easily move your fingers around to edit the sound. Interestingly enough, you can even broadcast your music as you are creating it using the integrated 3G network to other KRE-8 devices. Other users can choose to add their own beats to your song or just listen to the completed version. In addition, all completed songs that are stored on the wireless network are geotagged, so people know where the songs are coming from. The other interesting aspect of the KRE-8 is everything can be performed by touch. There is, essentially, no need to press any buttons, giving a real-life effect when making music.
Are you sure it’s a cell phone?It seems I didn’t even mention the normal phone features it comes with. I’m sure designer Jose Tomas DeLuna would not be upset by this, because the primary use of the KRE-8 is simply to make and share music. However, when all the extra features are taken away, it still is a normal touch screen phone that can place calls and text message. It doesn’t specify whether it has an Internet browser, but since it runs on a 3G network, it is very possible that it has one. Unfortunately, no word on pricing or availability at this time. If you want to see the phone in action, check out the video below. Read [YankoDesign] Source: Gizmodo | 14 Mar 2009 | 11:00 pm Maldives leader vows to make country carbon neutralThe Maldives will become the world's first carbon neutral country by fully switching to the use of renewable energy within a decade, President Mohamed Nasheed said in an article to be...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Mar 2009 | 10:53 pm Blockbuster Total Access Unannounced Policy ChangeNuclearCodeMonkey writes "Blockbuster Total Access has changed the terms of its user agreement without notice to users. Previously, users could return online (mailed) rentals in-store for free rentals. The next set of online rentals was immediately mailed out. Now, without notice, they have changed their policy so that the in-store free exchanges count against you, and no more online rentals are mailed out until the in-store rentals are returned. No wonder they are closing stores and losing to Netflix! Needless to say I am canceling my account in protest." Update - 3/15 at 11:55 by SS: NuclearCodeMonkey with new information about an email from Blockbuster which clarifies the situation. Read on for his follow-up.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Gizmodo | 14 Mar 2009 | 10:00 pm BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 3-08-2009Section:  We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 14 Mar 2009 | 9:46 pm Scoble’s New Thing: Building 43
More details will be announced on the Gillmor Gang at 3 p.m. Saturday (today, Pacific Time) live at TWiT Live. Scoble will join Steve Gillmor live via Skype from Rackspace’s offices in Austin, Texas. Regarding the name Building 43: “The first time I visited Google they gave me a tour of Building 43. I found it to be a fanciful place where not only did the founders have offices, but they had this fun board in the lobby called “Google’s Master Plan.” VC Steve Jurvetson has a picture of that board here - seemed like a good metaphor for a community that’s for people who are fanatical about the Internet. Make Building 43 open to everyone.” Why Rackspace, a hosting provider? Scoble says he visited the company a year ago and was impressed with their approach to building communities and technologies. It’s also a good fit, he says, because the company has touch points with thousands of other companies (providing hosting and other services). A focus of Building 43 will be visiting and profiling these and other companies, with a look at how they grow over time. I asked Robert how Building 43 will differ from Channel 9, the Microsoft video channel that he started in 2004 that tries to create discussions between Microsoft, its users and developers. His response:
Robert says his personal blog will remain a separate property, but he’ll move it from Wordpress to Rackspace hosting to “make that a showcase for new blogging technology (like the various commenting plugins that let you federate comments to friendfeed, for instance).” Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 14 Mar 2009 | 9:30 pm Facebook fun goes mobile with iPhone applications (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Mar 2009 | 9:25 pm Video: TechCrunch Roundtable In Paris - Where Next For France 2.0?
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 14 Mar 2009 | 9:20 pm Hope For FOSS In Electronic Health RecordsFred Trotter writes "CCHIT is the dominant Electronic Health Record certification body in the US. It is also decidedly anti-FOSS and has been for years. Certification of one kind or another will be required for EHR systems to qualify for funding under the Stimulus Act. If CCHIT is chosen as the certification body, and the current certification strategies continue, it will not be possible to have a funded EHR that is both certified and truly FOSS. Now, however, CCHIT has agreed to meet the FOSS Health IT community at HIMSS 09 to address this issue." We discussed the shortcomings in the stimulus bill as it relates to FOSS a few days back.Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Gizmodo | 14 Mar 2009 | 9:00 pm Spot Runner Is Running On Fumes: Another 60 To Lose Their Jobs
Yesterday was a particularly bad Friday the 13th at Spot Runner, the Los Angeles startup that is trying to Web advertising techniques to TV. The company told employees it would need to go through its third major round of layoffs in less than a year. At least 60 people were told the would be let go, the company confirms. We’ve added the 60 to our Layoff Tracker. This is on top of the 115 employees who lost their jobs last November and the 50 more last August. Throw in natural attrition, and the company, which at one point numbered more than 500 employees, could soon be down to less than 120 people. The layoffs supposedly triggered the WARN Act, which requires companies to give employees 60 days notice for any mass layoff—defined as 33 percent or more of the active workforce. That would suggest Spot Runner currently employs less than 180 people, and after the layoffs take effect will employ less than the 120 mentioned above. Spokesperson Rosabel Tao disputes that math, saying, “As a private company, we do not disclose employee figures but it is out of hundreds.” She also notes that the California WARN Act is more stringent than the federal one and requires notice if 50 or more employees are effected, regardless of the percentage. Tips started coming in to us yesterday. One mentioned that Spot Runner employees were updating their Facebook statuses with references to “suite 2160,” the conference room where the last round of layoffs took place. Tao confirms that most of the layoffs will be coming from the local search and local outbound sales groups, which is the business Spot Runner got into when it acquired Weblistic a year ago. She writes in an email:
Whether or not the company has a future seems to be tied to the fate of “Project Malibu,” a digital ad-buying platform for TV commercials which one former employee characterizes as its Hail Mary pass. Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 Source: TechCrunch | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:47 pm What Does Facebook Connect on the iPhone Mean? A Big Web Brain Explains [MediaMemo]
Which is probably why Facebook’s presentation on Saturday morning was completely full - there wasn’t much else going on. I didn’t get in myself, but I got the gist: Facebook is rolling out its Facebook Connect network/platform/connecty-thingy to the Apple’s iPhone (AAPL). But I don’t quite get what that means. I suspect that’s because, like most other technology rollouts/news/announcements etc., trying to divine the impact 30 seconds after the fact is pretty pointless. You need to see how this stuff is actually used, in real life. That can take days, weeks or months to figure out. But Charlene Li, who gets paid to tell people what this stuff means, helped me out: It’s an incremental step toward social networks’ inevitable migration to mobile. That was easy! Li, the former Forrester social network analyst who has hung out her own shingle at the Altimeter Group, didn’t make it into the Facebook event, either. But we after it was over, we walked into the room where the Facebook event had been held, and talked about it. Meta! We also got a brief cameo from an Austin Convention Center employee. If you want to skip that part, head straight to the 45-second mark in the following clip. But we got a giggle out of it, so in it stays.
Source: All Things Digital | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:45 pm XM Sirius to unveil iPhone appSection: Apple, Audio, Satellite / HD Radio, Web, Online Music/Video
The online access used to be free for XM Sirus subscribers but as of this month now costs $2.99 a month. An Internet only option is not currently available. There is an XM Radio Mobile service available for cellphones. Right now AT&T users can get 25 channels for $8.99 a month, but iPhones are not compatible. Presumably when the new app is released later this year iPhone users will be able to take advantage of the plan, but they would still not be able to access all of XM Sirius’s channels. The company has been struggling lately under competition from services such as Pandora and Slacker, which allow access to thousands of Internet radio stations and the ability to program your own playlists. Both are free to listen to online and reasonably priced music players are available as well. Read [ZDNet] Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:39 pm Old inline iPod/iPhone adapters don't work in new Shuffle Earlier today, Cory spotted iLounge and the EFF's report on Apple's apparent inclusion of hardware DRM in its new headphones -- a measure that would effectively make it illegal to make shuffle-compatible headphones without Apple approval.
If nothing else, the Shuffle's inline control interface definitely isn't the same as that used in iPhones and other iPods. The Griffin SmartTalk inline iPod headphone controls pictured here don't work, for example, in the 3rd-gen Shuffle. They have the same triple-ringed version of the headphone plug and nearly identical functionality, but do nothing. People have asked a few times what happens if you just plug standard headphones into the Shuffle. The answer is that nothing happens at all. However, if you turn the Shuffle off then on again, it will automatically start playing--but with no controls to pause, skip, fast forward or rewind. Interface Zen! Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:32 pm Facebook Announces Facebook Connect for iPhone - eWeek
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:18 pm Hacked street signs come to New York
Peter Ha just spotted this crazy street sign at Houston and Bowery. Someone will probably get nailed for this - NYC doesn’t take kindly to folks meddling with their infrastructure. It will be a silent killing, though - not all loosey goosey like the Boston LED-alien-flipping-the-bird scare. Source: Gizmodo | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:10 pm Web site seeks votes on ghostly picturesA British psychology professor has invited people to submit snapshots of alleged ghosts and let online viewers vote whether they truly defy explanation. The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday that University of Hertfordshire Professor Richard Wiseman's Web site asks visitors whether they think the pictured ghosts are genuine, fake or uncertain. Wiseman said the site had 60,000 hits on the first day and 40,000 the following day.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:04 pm A Very CrunchGear Super-Slow-Mo Reel Using Casio’s Exilim FC-100 We've got one of Casio's Exilim FC-100s for review right now, and of course the first thing we had to do was test out its vaunted super slow motion functionality. I was going to save this little reel for the review, but it was too fun not to share.
Source: TechCrunch | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:01 pm SXSW: Facebook Connect Goes Mobile, Arrives on the iPhoneFacebook announces data-sharing program Connect for the iPhone at South by Southwest Interactive. Developers, start your engines.Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:00 pm SXSW: 'Dead Space,' a 'Deep Media' Case StudyThe current state of the art for videogame marketing can be seen in the roll-out for Electronic Arts' Dead Space, a seven-month media barrage. First, a series of comics, then an interactive web experience and finally an animated movie on DVD.Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Mar 2009 | 8:00 pm US Pentagon Plans For a Spy Blimpnloop writes "The Pentagon is intending to develop a new spy ship — a dirigible. At 65,000 feet it would provide a 10 year, solar power based, unblinkingly intricate and continuous view of the surface via radar surveillance. Because of its altitude it would be safe from surface-to-air missiles and most aircraft. A 1/3-scale prototype, now being designed, is 'known as ISIS, for Integrated Sensor Is the Structure, because the radar system will be built into the structure of the ship. ... 'If successful, the dirigible... could pave the way for a fleet of spy airships, military officials said.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:58 pm Survey: Spring coming early to BritainSpring has arrived in Britain this year, the result of global climate change, a survey of nature watchers indicates. The Daily Telegraph reported Saturday that naturists say they have spotted birds nesting and plants already flowering across Britain despite one of the coldest winters in recent memory, the Woodland Trust says.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:57 pm NASA hopeful repairs will permit Sunday launchNASA still doesn't know what caused a hydrogen gas leak that prevented space shuttle Discovery from flying earlier this week. But officials are hopeful that repairs have solved the...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:54 pm 'Water tribunal' condemns Turkish dam projectsA symbolic environmental tribunal slammed Turkey Saturday over three dam projects on grounds that their construction would destroy natural and historical riches and displace thousands of...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:54 pm Gore optimistic for new climate deal in CopenhagenFormer US vice president Al Gore said Saturday he was optimistic that a global deal to combat climate change would be agreed at a summit in December. In an interview with The Guardian,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:47 pm A very CrunchGear super-slow-mo reel using Casio’s Exilim FC-100
Yeah, it’s pretty much us jumping around like idiots the whole time. Sorry I didn’t have any wine glasses to shoot bullets at! There’ll be cooler stuff for the review. Watch in HQ, the framerate is better. The “thin” video was shot at 1000FPS, but I had to speed it up to make it watchable — it’s really slow. The full frame stuff is at 420FPS, which is a little easier to relate to and has a bigger picture to boot. I’m sorry to say that the quality of the video (size and compression-wise) is pretty awful, but expecting megaslow and HQ video from a point-and-shoot is just greedy. Remember, this thing fits in your front pocket. Totally insane. The music is “Yadnus” by !!!, from Live at KEXP Volume 4. Source: CrunchGear | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:39 pm Hand-painted Mario shoes Allison sez, "These are a pair of hand painted shoes I made one afternoon. I got the shoes for $5 at payless, and already had the paint. I free handed the shoes carefully by painting with a really tiny paint brush that I made. I sealed the shoes afterwards with spray acrylic, and voila!" Hand painted shoes (Thanks, Allison!) Source: Gizmodo | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:15 pm Mayan Legend Discovered In GuatemalaArchaeologists have unearthed stucco panels carved with images of cosmic gods, monsters and serpents in the northern jungles of Guatemala.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:15 pm Studio portraits of Mumbai's itinerant nomadsAvi sez, "Mumbai photographer David de Souza has just put together a collection of amazing studio photos of Mumbai's colorful Nomads." The book, "Itinerants, the Nomads of Mumbai," looks and sounds like a doozy. but doesn't seem to have much in the way of distribution outside of India.The Itinerants of Mumbai (Thanks, Avi!) Source: Boing Boing | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:07 pm SXSW panel: Don’t worry, kids, the news business isn’t going to die
Even though we’re losing newspapers left and right in the U.S., people ought not be afraid for the future of news, journalism, etc. So says Steven Johnson, author of, among other things, The Invention of Air. Johnson, speaking at a panel at SXSWi, tried to allay the fears of every kid in journalism school—and those of us who recently graduated, lol!—by saying that people need only look at how technology journalism has changed in the pst few years to get a better understanding of how the news will “work” from here on out. Think of it like this: back in the day, where would you have heard about the release of a new Apple product? Most people would have read the latest issue of MacWorld, which, sorry to say, by the time you read it would have been several weeks, if not months, old. “Apple released a new widget on June 1,” as you’re reading the article in the September issue. Nowadays, you can read tech blogs like us here at CrunchGear, or our amigos at Giz or whatever, as the product is being announced by Steve Jobs. Here, technology didn’t destroy the news business, but made it more immediate. The shotgun analysis may seem a little hurried at times, but 9 times out of 10 one of us will have a longer “what does this mean?” post in the following days. The more you know! “Regular,” non-technology news is moving in the same direction. During the presidential campaign last year, you could have visited any number of sites to stay informed. You could have watched debates live on CNN.com (and downloaded them right after on iTunes), could read the play-by-the of the 24-hour news cycle on something like Talking Points Memo or Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish , or could have gotten a Daily Show-esque perspective from Wonkette, which is probably my favorite site on the Internet—or you could wait till the Daily Show itself hit your iTunes subscription iTunes subscription or from TheDailyShow.com . Even the New Yorker has podcasts now! Basically, it’s not that news is disappearing, but rather that it’s changing. Technology fans have been riding the wave for some time, but only now are non-tech fans trying to adapt the Internet to their news-gathering and reporting organizations. Source: CrunchGear | 14 Mar 2009 | 7:00 pm Weekend Update, 3.14.09–Special Roman “Ides of March” Edition [Digital Daily]
For instance, BoomTown was in Rome earlier this week attending a conference on business, brand and innovation that only happens once every seven years–and one of the biggest takeaways? Hardly any Italians have heard of Twitter, and those who have don’t really use it. Well, that, and conversations with Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, and several Italian business leaders. Mark Zuckerberg, though, is most definitely plugged into the white-hot micro-blogging service. This week, he used his Twitter account, plus an appearance on “Oprah”, as a platform to herald the launch of Facebook’s own Twitter-esque homepage redesign. In other news, Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes laid off AOL President and COO Ron Grant and Chairman and CEO Randy Falco. BoomTown interviewed Falco’s replacement, Google (GOOG) ad sales exec Tim Armstrong, who’ll start at AOL as Chairman and CEO on April 7. MediaMemo had the the full memo from Time Warner on the Falco/Grant–Armstrong transition, and also spoke with Boxee CEO Avner Ronen this week. Boxee is the startup that lets you watch Web video on your TV, basically bypassing your cable box. Which is probably why it’s caught up in a cat-and-mouse game with Hulu, the joint venture between GE’s (GE) NBC and News Corp.’s (NWS) Fox that would much rather have you watch TV on the internet instead. Guess who’s the mouse? Still, Hulu is down two networks, ABC and CBS– though presumably the aim is to offer all three. MediaMemo also noted that Google rolled out its behavioral targeting functionality this week, and points out that we all might be hearing a lot more from a man named Rick Boucher in the near future as a result. Behavioral targeting wasn’t the only thing that Google rolled out this week–it also launched Google Voice, the initiative based on the company’s acquisition of voice communications start-up GrandCentral. Digital Daily covered the story. Elsewhere in the telecom world, major Palm (PALM) investor Roger McNamee made some bold (read: crazy) assertions about iPhone users switching en masse to the Pre which later needed to be clarified (read: backed away from) by Palm itself. RBC analyst Mike Abramsky is also bullish on the Pre and its WebOS, but in a less crazy way. He gave it a glowing write-up on Friday. For a product that hasn’t yet been given a price or a launch date, it’s certainly building itself some high expectations. Of course, it’ll need to fulfill them to compete with the ever-evolving iPhone, which for which Apple is having a press event on Tuesday to announce version 3.0 of the device’s OS. Walt Mossberg reviewed the new version of Apple’s (AAPL) ever-evolving iPod Shuffle this week, which has the distinction of being the first mp3 player to “speak.” His verdict was in Wednesday’s Personal Technology column. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt answered questions about using a stylus with the iPhone, and offered an explanation of how to change Apple’s Safari 4 beta so that it looks and works like the previous version. And in this week’s Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret took a look at iSkoot’s Notifier, an app designed to endow basic cell phones with smart-phone-like capabilities. More next week. And beware the Ides of March. Or not. Source: All Things Digital | 14 Mar 2009 | 6:54 pm 5 things to do with an old computerSection: Computers, Desktops, Hardware, Software / Applications, Features, Originals If you’re like me, you probably have an old PC (or two) laying around. It’s a box you think you’ll do something with. Maybe you’ll take the plunge and put that PC in a new case like a toaster or something. Perhaps you are unsatisfied by using that large tower as a side table. Here’s a round up of 5 things you can do with an old PC.  1. Internet/Network video on your TVIf you’ve got a PC that is only a couple of years old, then there’s a good chance you could hook that PC to your television. Grab a copy of Boxee for Linux or Mac OS now or try to get into the Windows alpha. You’ll have a ten foot interface for Internet video in no time. Also, just because Hulu’s bosses have ripped Hulu away from Boxee, you can always just watch the videos via a regular browser. Hulu has made it difficult to watch content on your TV, but not impossible. If you’ve already got videos, music, or pictures on your network, XBMC is a nice alternative to Boxee. XBMC Media Center is an application you could pick up for free for any OS.
2. In-house Media ServerThis might be one of the easiest and most useful thing you can do with an old PC. Odds are you’ve got a couple of DVDs sitting around. Why not create back ups that you can watch and access from any machine on your network? If you’re going to do this, definitely hardwire this computer to your network. Grab a copy of Handbrake and rip your DVDs. If you’re somewhat impatient, you can just rip the media on your faster machine and then transfer the files over the network to your server. I’m suggesting Handbrake over other DVD-ripping tools because it makes a more portable version of the video file that you can take with you on your laptop or phone. Link: [Handbrake]
3. Emulator centralThe hardware on the original video game consoles pales in comparison to modern computers. You should be able to run lots of systems easily even on older machines. NES, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, and lots of MAME games should work well. Grab a live CD and play some Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!
 4. OS surfingWindows XP is good and pretty stable. Change is good. Why not try some other operating systems? Try out any number of Linux distributions. If your computer was built in the last few years, most Linux distros will be able to handle your hardware with few problems. Maybe if you build that server, you could just use something like FreeNAS and just make that old PC a big network storage device.  5. Take it apartIf you’ve never messed with your computer’s guts, why not try it with a machine you don’t care about? For the most part, these skills transfer to newer computers. Ports may change, but the gist is the same. Take out a hard drive, a PCI card, and maybe some RAM. You’ll find it’s a lot easier to take a part a desktop than you originally thought. Source: Gizmodo | 14 Mar 2009 | 6:30 pm 3-D Light System May Revolutionize Fingerprintingcoondoggie writes "The US Department of Homeland Security's Science & Technology Directorate recently awarded almost $420,000 to a Kentucky company to further develop a contactless finger print/biometric system. The goal is a machine that can snap 10 fingerprints in high resolution in less than 10 seconds, without human intervention. This goal is beginning to look feasible. FlashScan3D is working with the University of Kentucky's Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments, and has developed a technique called 'structured light illumination' (WIPO patent description), where a pattern of dots or stripes is projected onto a curved or irregular surface."Read more of this story at Slashdot. Source: Slashdot | 14 Mar 2009 | 6:29 pm Google Mars offering up-to-date imagesThe U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Mar 2009 | 6:26 pm Subvert and Profit Reduces Vote Prices up to 20%WASHINGTON, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Subvert and Profit announced March 13, 2009 new ad content voting prices effective immediately across each of the 18 social network websites...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Mar 2009 | 6:12 pm Why do users put up with terrible cellphone service?
I can’t tell you how many iPhones I’ve seen in the past 24 hours here at SXSW Interactive. The best, though, is when you see these people cursing AT&T, saying things like, “Why would AT&T beef up its network in Austin when it knows 8 zillion iPhone users will be swarming the city for the next week?” This phenomenon—people being unhappy with the cellphone service, despite the flashy ads promising “amazing speed” and “more bars all over the damn place”—was picked up by the Times. The important thing to take away is that while companies are trying their best to improve cellphone service, there’s several technological hurdles that they have to overcome in order to deliver a truly worry-free phone. The biggest culprit is AT&T, because of the iPhone. While 3G is supposed to be the Best Thing Ever, spotty network coverage continues to annoy people. Coverage may be just fine in San Francisco, but when the phone cuts out on the West Side of Manhattan, as comedian Jim Norton outlined in his latest book, you begin to wonder why, exactly, you’re paying all that money. You might as well be talking into a tin can! There’s a few reasons why your cellphone still stinks. The transition from 2G networks to 3G networks (and the upcoming transition to the various 4G technologies) is a lot harder than simply flipping a switch. And since not every phone uses the more advanced 3G network, the likes of AT&T must keep the older cellphone towers up and running. They’re essentially forced to support an inferior technology when better alternatives (3G) are already available. When it comes to the iPhone, it looks like people are willing to put up with spotty coverage in order to use the Apple device. Guess people can’t live without mobile Facebook and scrolling to unlock! Now would be a good time to remind people that, while cellphones aren’t exactly great, they’re as great as they are. It is what it is, in other words. Source: Gizmodo | 14 Mar 2009 | 5:45 pm Death leaves online lives in limboWhen Jerald Spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father's gaming friends know that he hadn't...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Mar 2009 | 5:31 pm Playfish Announces First Social Game for iPhone and iPod TouchWho Has The Biggest Brain? Enables Friends to Play Together Through Facebook Connect Anytime, Anywhere AUSTIN, Texas, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Playfish, one of theSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Mar 2009 | 5:30 pm Bad Times Spur Entrepreneurship, But There's a CatchThe recession is leading lots of out-of-work folks to try new things, reports the Times:
That's great. Except for one thing, which the article completely misses: You won't find too many people in their middle ages or older in this category. Why? Because they can't get health insurance. America's health-care system makes it all but impossible for an older worker to try something new. Even younger startup owners who are relatively healthy and have insurance are just a half-step from disaster. The insurance industry is in the business of not paying claims whenever possible, after all, and health insurers are working hardest to find ways not to cover people who might get sick even as they deny as many claims as possible from people who've been paying premiums. The day we have national health care is the day that we unleash a wave of entrepreneurship the likes of which we've never seen before. That's one of the best reasons for moving toward such a system. Source: Boing Boing | 14 Mar 2009 | 5:23 pm Facebook’s Dave Morin on the search for a more social Web; Connect comes to the iPhone We're here at SXSW, where Facebook's Senior Platform Manager Dave Morin is speaking about The Search for a More Social Web.
He says that computers have largely been antisocial - it was only with the advent of the computer that we've been playing games with ourselves. Only in the last few years have computers really started to become social. The introduction of Facebook's new real-time has offered a big boost to becoming more social. Facebook's new Pages allows us to follow the actions of our favorite brands and celebrities throughout the day.
Gary Vaynerchuk has begun producing content on a new public profile, and is also offering some of his thoughts. "I wanted more than 5,000 friends, that's really what this allows me to do".
Source: MobileCrunch | 14 Mar 2009 | 5:10 pm Facebook’s Dave Morin on the search for a more social Web; Connect comes to the iPhoneWe're here at SXSW, where Facebook's Senior Platform Manager Dave Morin is speaking about The Search for a More Social Web.
He says that computers have largely been antisocial - it was only with the advent of the computer that we've been playing games with ourselves. Only in the last few years have computers really started to become social. The introduction of Facebook's new real-time has offered a big boost to becoming more social. Facebook's new Pages allows us to follow the actions of our favorite brands and celebrities throughout the day.
Gary Vaynerchuk has begun producing content on a new public profile, and is also offering some of his thoughts. "I wanted more than 5,000 friends, that's really what this allows me to do".
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Mar 2009 | 5:00 pm I am now authorized to use physical force
Source: Ffffound/Deputy Dog. Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 14 Mar 2009 | 4:54 pm Coveroo: The Final Countdown for the Be Less Boring Contest
We’ll pick one winner at random on Monday. Thanks for playing and thanks to Coveroo! Source: CrunchGear | 14 Mar 2009 | 4:51 pm Apple sued over exploding iPod touch, iMac display issues - Apple Insider
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Mar 2009 | 4:49 pm Facebook’s Dave Morin On The Search for a More Social Web; Connect Comes To The iPhone
We’re here at SXSW, where Facebook’s Senior Platform Manager Dave Morin is speaking about The Search for a More Social Web. He says that computers have largely been antisocial - it was only with the advent of the computer that we’ve been playing games with ourselves. Only in the last few years have computers really started to become social. The introduction of Facebook’s new real-time homepage has offered a big boost to becoming more social. Facebook’s new Pages allows us to follow the actions of our favorite brands and celebrities throughout the day. Gary Vaynerchuk has taken the stage. Vaynerchuk has begun to produce content on a new public profile, and is also offering some of his thoughts on the switch from a regular profile to his new Page. “I wanted more than 5,000 friends, that’s really what this allows me to do”. Vaynerchuk says that people are talking too much - this new product on Facebook allows people to listen, which is a key part of interaction. “It also saves me around 40 Emails a day of people asking for my friend requests”. Dave Morin is now speaking about the new home page, which should now be available for everyone (it has been gradually rolled out to users over the last few days). The new page makes it easier to filter through the items in your stream, which is becoming increasingly necessary. Now your stream is giving you more control than ever. Now shifting to Facebook Connect. Facebook Connect allows users to make their identities portable. It allows us to see what our friends are up to - he jokes “If your friend does something on the internet and nobody knows about it, did it actually happen?”. Points out TechCrunch, where comments have become more authentic than ever before because users can log in with real names, which are linked to their Facebook accounts. Also pointing out other Connect-enabled sites like Geni and Joost. Aardvark just launched with Facebook Connect as well. But Facebook Connect isn’t just about the web. He points out Xobni. Also, working alongside with Apple to seamlessly transfer photos to Facebook from iPhoto. Loic Le Meur has just taken the stage to announce the first desktop client with Facebook Connect integration - Seesmic. Now available. Morin has taken the stage once again, highlighting how Facebook is looking to be as open as possible.  One more thing…. Facebook Connect for the iPhone. Facebook Connect is now on the iPhone, allowing iPhone apps to tap into your social graph for the first time. Users can connect across platforms (You can play a game on the iPhone with a Facebook friend using a browser-based version). Launching today: SGN CEO Shervin Pishevar has taken the stage. SGN apps have 10 million installs. SGN has created a new game called Agency Wars (iTunes Link). Gamers can play as CIA, MI6, and more. Can challenge your friends and assassinate them. Leave clues in the real world. iBowl (one of SGN’s popular Wii-like games) supports live gaming. Now you can bowl with your Facebook friends anywhere in the world live. Tapulous’s Andrew Lacy is now speaking about Tap Tap Revenge 2, which just launched last week. It is currently number one on the App Store. The game is now a lot more social, with the introduction of Facebook Connect. Want to increase engagement, by being more social. Patrick O’Donnell of Urbanspoon, a popular restaurant guide with over a million restaurants in its database. The iPhone app, which offers a slot-machine style recommendation engine for restaurants, has seen 4 million downloads and over 200 million ’shakes. Now supports Facebook Connect. Joe Greenstein of Flixster, which is used by around 17 million people per month to get movie recommendations. iPhone app has been out for around 8 months, with 3.3 million users. But there wasn’t a good way to connect what you were doing on the phone with what you had done on the web. Just approved in the App Store with version 2.0. Zynga’s Live Poker, Say 8’s Binary Game, and Whrrl have all introduced new apps featuring Facebook Connect. CitizenSports, Goodrec, limbo. Morin has just annouced a New Round of Funding For fbFund - Just for Facebook Connect, and developers on the iPhone. Q&A Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. Source: TechCrunch | 14 Mar 2009 | 4:39 pm Fermilab Closer To Discovering Higgs Boson 'God Particle'The U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Mar 2009 | 4:35 pm Xeni on the road in West Africa: Blogger and Peace Corps Volunteer Kate Puzey Murdered in Benin (Image: Catherine "Kate" Puzey, from her online photo album.)
I have been traveling in the Republic of Benin in West Africa for the last two weeks, and am writing this blog post now from the country's sorthern port capital, Cotonou. Two days ago, a 24-year-old Peace Corps volunteer from Georgia named Catherine Puzey, who maintained a colorful and passionate personal blog, was found dead outside her home in a remote, rural village about a seven hour drive north of here. Her death is understood to have been a murder, though neither the US nor Benin governments have officially declared it so. By coincidence, my travel partner and I passed through that very same village, on that same day. We spent most of the day just 10 km from Badjoudè, where the young Ms. Puzey lived and volunteered as an English teacher for the past two years, and died. Kate, as she was known to friends, maintained a (Blogger) blog here, and a photo album series on Picasa, which was last updated just a few weeks ago. Judging from both, and the comments piling up elsewhere, she was loved intensely by family, friends, and fellow volunteers -- and by the Beninois community that had become her home. This very traditional village is close to the border of Togo, in the northwestern part of Benin. My fellow travelers and I spent most of that day in the nearby village of Alédjo-Koura, a short drive away. The roads in this area are just rough, red, dirt. It is absolutely not an area frequented by tourists or foreigners. It was so strange to realize we'd been so close to the site, so randomly on that day, in such an unconnected place off the beaten path. I heard about the incident when we were en route back to the capital a day later, long after we'd left the area. An AP wire item came out last night, as did one post, and then another, on an ABC News blog. The Peace Corps and the US State Department issued statements, but without details. An investigation is ongoing, I'm told by a source in Cotonou familiar with the case. As Africa goes, Benin really is a stable, peaceful, relatively safe country. Poverty and related health problems are intense and widespread; domestic violence is a big problem. But I'm told that violence of this kind in rural communities is rare, and violence against foreigners, particularly NGO workers or aid volunteers, more so. Earlier today, I spoke to two Beninese men I know here in Cotonou who happen to be from an adjacent village. We'd all been traveling together on the 12th. They said the people in Benin tend to (their words here) "respect foreigners," and the incident saddened and angered them. Translating, roughly: "It's terrible for our community when something like this happens, because the West already thinks badly of Africa and of Africans. One violent act like this, committed by one bad person, means the assistance and development our country so desperately needs will become more scarce, and that fewer volunteers like her, fewer means of support and change, will come." I realized after speaking with them that on the road back to the capital yesterday, our shared car had crossed paths with the string of vehicles carrying government investigators and Benin's security minister up to Badjoudè. Government vehicles, I've learned on this trip, blare out distinctive siren sounds that distinguish them from normal police or fire vehicles. They tend to move in squads for security. We'd passed similar caravans carrying Benin's president Boni Yayi earlier in the week near the Cotonou airport, as he was coming back from a trip to India. Ms. Puzey's blog is a beautiful read. Cleary, she loved this place, and many of the people of the place she called home in turn had great affection for her. I've just sat here for hours in a Cotonou hotel bar, reading her blog posts and poring through her photos. Here is a snip from my favorite entry, about ambient noise in the village -- something I've been very aware of on this trip: I realized some time ago my education here goes way beyond the local language and customs. I’ve become familiar with so many new sounds. I now know the sound of a chicken when it’s being killed, a goat when it’s giving birth, the baby next door when it’s hungry. I know the sound of the tonal repetitions in the local language when two close friends meet in passing; the rumble of the flour grinder two houses down and the hum of a nearby generator; the sound of mice and big lizards running around my ceiling at night and the ruckus that ensues when one chases the other (I always root for the lizard); the sound of the marché across the way from me carrying on well into the night; the deep-throated grumble of cattle as they graze in front of my house; the low clicking orders of their herder; the whining of children versus the baying of goats, though I swear one goat sounds like he’s always saying in a deep grumpy voice “Badddddd!” (I’ve named him Eeyore); all the different bird and insect calls. I’m even learning to discern the voice of each student who, in passing at night, will see me cooking dinner by candlelight and holler out from the dark “Good Evening, Madame Catherine!” This passage, from another post (which includes a mention of her work holding workshops on family planning, conflict resolution and women's health with village girls) really hits home for me now, as I shift from my brief experience of village life here toward a return to Los Angeles: Even in its calmest moments -– say, the minute just before a gorgeous sunrise over the plains -– [Africa] is vibrant and tussled, never at rest, never totally tranquil.My condolences to the friends and family of this beautiful young woman.
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Mar 2009 | 4:00 pm Virtual World Second Life Continues To ThriveSome media reports have suggested the potential demise of the former Internet virtual world of Second Life, but Linden Lab CEO Mark Kingdon claims the former Internet darling is doing better than ever, the American Free Press reported."The reality is that Second Life continues to grow; every second someone joins.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Mar 2009 | 4:00 pm New York Times CEO: We Know What’s Wrong With Our Business. But We’re Not Sure What To Do About It [MediaMemo]
The bad news: It’s 2009, and he doesn’t know what that overhaul should be. Back to the good part. In a thoughtful speech he delivered at Stony Brook University in Long Island last week, Sulzberger did a nice job of laying out how the Times got to the position it’s in now — watching print dollars shrivel up while online dollars trickle in. Can’t argue with any of this:
So what to do? Alas. “It is a little bit like the banking crisis. We know there is an answer out there somewhere, but we are not sure what it will turn out to be.” Sulzberger does say, as his employees have mentioned before, that the Times will probably need to start charging some people some amount of money for its online product. But he also suggests that the bulk of the Times will remain free online, because “we do not want to take any steps that significantly reduces our presence on the Web.” He also makes a vague reference to “the protection of intellectual property”, though I think the paper has recently been demonstrating what that means. And he also insists that the paper won’t give up its print product, because “it is still a popular and profitable medium.” In the end, Sulzberger basically punts: ” What we have learned over the last decade and half is that the Web has very few generally accepted rules for financial success, and they are inevitably overturned by the next digital cycle and next breakthrough algorithm.” The rest of the speech, available here, is well worth reading. But if you’re one of the people who despairs about the paper’s future — or finds delight in the notion of its demise — you may not find anything here that changes your mind. Source: All Things Digital | 14 Mar 2009 | 3:55 pm UPDATE 2-Germany can only pay market rate for HRE - Merkel* JC Flowers partner says Flowers aims to remain stakeholderSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Mar 2009 | 3:52 pm Cisco expected to present servers Monday - The Associated Press
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Mar 2009 | 3:40 pm Female 'Vampire' Unearthed in VeniceThe positioning of a 16th-century skeleton suggests the woman was thought to be a vampire.Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 14 Mar 2009 | 3:40 pm Internet Creator Thinks Web’s Future Is UnlimitedThe creator of the Internet thinks that the speed of development and improvement on the World Wide Web will continue to grow and grow.On the 20th anniversary of his idea to develop the Internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee thinks, "new changes are going to rock the world even more".Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Mar 2009 | 3:40 pm Lance Armstrong: Natural Born TwittererThis guest post is written by Narendra Rocherolle, who was the co-founder of Webshots, a company that he and his partners sold to Excite@Home in 1999 and then again to CNET Networks in 2004. Now as a partner at 83 Degrees, he has been working on several products including 30 Boxes, fbExchange (sold to TMP), and most recently Power Twitter.
When Lance Armstrong sat down with John Battelle at the Web 2.0 Summit last November, he had been twittering for about 10 days and was jokingly asking that “shoe guy” to send some followers his way. Now four months later, even Richard Rosenblatt, CEO of Demand Media and the guy who helped get Lance into Twitter, has been surprised by how much @lancearmstrong has taken to the platform: twittering and twitpic’n about training, races, travel, family, food, movies, and his mission to grow the fight against cancer. For those of you interested in more than 140 characters, Lance took some time out to discuss his new habit. Q: You started using Twitter back in November. You are now closing in on 300,000 followers and you tweet more times per day than most people brush their teeth. Can you point to a couple of factors that have resonated with you making Twitter part of your daily routine? Lance Armstrong: Well, 140 characters fits my personality well. I’m not much for small talk so 140 gets me that. I see long drawn out emails and I delete them. It also brings a certain transparency to my life that others may have never seen or realized. Lastly, it works great for talking about the thing I care about the most (behind my family) and that’s fighting cancer. Twitter builds grassroots movements quicker than anything I’ve ever seen. Q: Can you give an example of something that you were about to tweet but did NOT? Lance Armstrong: I try to keep it positive. There are plenty of times I felt like crushing someone for what they say or did but I avoid it. There’s plenty of negativity on the web as is so they don’t need me adding to it. Try to be careful with pics of my kids/family for obvious security reasons. Other than that, it’s basically an open book. I also will not tweet anything that someone asks me to. It’s my page so therefore I dictate what goes there. They want to tweet it then tweet from their page. It has to be 100% authentic. Q: One thing your critics can not argue with is your success as an extraordinary marketer and personal brand manager. This may sound silly but I’ve heard you described as a “natural” when it comes to Twitter. Can you talk about how you approach building “you” as a brand? Lance Armstrong: Um, hell, I have no idea. Again, I think people are smart. They know when they see something real. I talk about what’s happening “now” and it’s always the real scoop. I’ve been around too long to BS people.
Q: The theft of your time trial bike recently created huge buzz in the twitterverse. Was there an awareness by you (and Trek) that the theft was an incredible marketing opportunity? Lance Armstrong: They (Trek) were devastated. They thought I would be livid and while I was pretty seriously pissed, I told them to chill. The story was on the front page off cnn.com, espn, etc. Hell, it was on perez hilton. For a week or so it was the most talked about bike on planet earth. Bummer to get it ripped off but it was not bad for them. They make bikes as easily as you and I go for a walk. Still, you gotta be pretty dumb to steal a “one of a kind” bike. Q: Have you had any issues or push-back from your Twitter usage (e.g. friends telling you to put the blackberry away! Or moments when you catch yourself thinking you should be twittering something when in fact you should just be experiencing it)? Lance Armstrong: Nah, again it’s short and I type fast. Most tweets I send people don’t even notice. Q: Your Twitter stream depicts a relentless schedule that sounds downright exhausting. Are you traveling/doing more this year than you have in past seasons leading up to the Tour de France? Lance Armstrong: Most definitely. Again, a great thing about the service is that people (fans, journalists, my fellow competitors) realize my life is quite different than theirs. Between my kids, my foundation, travel, training, and racing, it’s a big life. Q: Finally, for the readers out there making the pilgrimage to Austin for SxSW Interactive, would you name 3 restaurants they don’t want to miss? Lance Armstrong: Chuy’s, East Side Cafe, and the Salt Lick. There’s also Uchi, Hula Hut, Eddie V’s, and Fonda San Miguel.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. Source: TechCrunch | 14 Mar 2009 | 3:26 pm Sick, Hurt Cows Not Allowed Into SlaughterhouseSickly and hurt cows will not be permitted to walk into U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Mar 2009 | 3:15 pm Star Wars v. Battlestar Galactica: A rhetorical exemption of accepted normsWe posit that a confluence of fantasy universes will create a singularity so dense with cultural meaning and freighted with masturbatory value that it would cause the average sci-fi fan to release his (always his) bowels in a rush of hot shame. Discuss. From the YouTube page:
Source: CrunchGear | 14 Mar 2009 | 3:11 pm Presently.com, First Professional Microblogging Community LaunchedMicroblogging for serious business and corporate users, improves signal-to-noise ratio over general purpose sites, adds features demanded by professional users AUSTIN, Texas, March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Agile Web 2.0 development company Intridea, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Mar 2009 | 3:00 pm 'Monsters From the Id' Says Earth Needs ScientistsA cinematic ode to '50s sci-fi flicks mashes rubber monsters with brainy interviews, and sends a positive message: Space exploration is cool.Source: Wired Top Stories | 14 Mar 2009 | 2:50 pm Researches Find Nanocups Brim With PotentialLight-bending metamaterial could lead to superlenses, invisibility cloaksResearchers at Rice University have created a metamaterial that could light the way toward high-powered optics, ultra-efficient solar cells and even cloaking devices.Naomi Halas, an award-winning pioneer in nanophotonics, and graduate student Nikolay Mirin created a material that collects light from any direction and emits it in a single direction.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 14 Mar 2009 | 2:44 pm Discovery Gives Clue To Control Of Mass Gene ExpressionThe discovery in common brewer's yeast of a new, infectious, misfolded protein -- or prion -- by University of Illinois at Chicago molecular biologists raises new questions about the roles played by these curious molecules, often associated with degenerative brain diseases like "mad cow" and its human counterpart, Creutzfeldt-Jakob.Susan Liebman, distinguished university professor of biological sciences, and postdoctoral research associate Basant Patel propagated the new prion from a normal yeast protein called Cyc8.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Mar 2009 | 2:38 pm UCSC Joins NASA In Tech-Education Partnership - MSNBC
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Mar 2009 | 2:07 pm Scientists Plan First-Ever Land Crossing Of Northwest PassageScientists preparing to explore Mars are also planning another trip: history’s first-ever land vehicle drive through the notorious Northwest Passage, which they say will provide data about climate change and man’s impact on other planets beyond Earth.The experts will make their trip in a customized armored Humvee vehicle, which will provide data about the ice thickness in the waterway through Canada's high Arctic, according to Pascal Lee, the expedition’s leader and chairman of Mars Institute.The team also seeks to discover what happens to microbes left behind by humans as they explore remote areas, based on concerns from some scientists about the potential impact of such journeys in space."It's not just about protecting men from Mars.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 14 Mar 2009 | 1:45 pm Two Dancing With The Stars celebs hurt - RTE.ie
Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 14 Mar 2009 | 1:34 pm
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Favorite blogger pastime: Carping about 
Despite receiving $170 billion in federal aid and recording a staggering loss for the last quarter, insurance giant American International Group is doling out tens of million of dollars in bonuses this week to senior employees.
A week ago 
Maybe it’s because the Web 2.0 bubble has deflated. Or maybe it’s because the remaining Web 2.0 companies have figured out that it’s best not to make try to make noise at the same time everyone else does. But so far, South by Southwest has been blessedly light on rollouts/news/announcements, etc.
Satellite radio provider XM Sirius has confirmed that they plan to release an app that will allow iPhone users to access the service via Internet streaming. What is not clear is whether access will require a full account or if there will be a stand alone service. 
Charmayne sets the subjects of David’s photos back into movement through poetic inspiration. Her writing reminds us of the mythical dimension of itinerant life, which is present in every civilization. Sedentary societies have indeed always had an ambivalent relationship to the people of the wind, as Japanese villagers call them. Itinerants have been perceived in turns as indispensable trading partners, threatening agents of change and as objects of desire. David and Charmayne’s images and words bring to life some of the multiple avatars of that nomadic spirit that all of us carry deep inside and which refuses to leave.
In Silicon Valley, it’s hard to believe that not everyone follows each shiny new thing on the Web, tracks OS versions as intently as Battlestar Galactica’s storyline, and remains jacked-in pretty much 24/7. But it’s been known to happen.
Good news for everyone who’s been insisting that the New York Times (NYT) needs a radical overhaul in order to survive the digital era: CEO Arthur Sulzberger Jr. agrees with you.
