Cybersquatting and Social Media

Earthquake Retrofit writes "Brian Krebs has a story about cybersquatting on social networking sites. He cites cases of people being impersonated and reports: 'A site called knowem.com allows you to see whether your name or whatever nickname you favor is already registered at any of some 120 social networking sites on the Web today. For a $64.95 fee, the site will register all available accounts on your behalf, a manual process that it says takes one to five business days. Whether anyone could possibly use and maintain 120 different social networking accounts is beyond my imagination. I would think an automated signup service like knowem.com would be far more useful if there was also a service that people could use to simultaneously update all of these sites with the same or slightly different content.' Is it time to saddle up for a new round of Internet land grabs?" A Schneier blog post earlier this month pointed out a related story about how not establishing yourself on social sites, combined with the frequent lack of validation for friend requests, can provide identity thieves with a tempting target .

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 1:28 pm

Largest Model Rocket In History Launch Appears To Have Been A Success

By Andrew Liszewski Last Sunday we wrote about Steve Eves’ 36-foot tall Saturn V model rocket that he hoped would put him in the record books for being the largest model rocket in history. Well if...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 1:23 pm

Dropbox lets you sync for free

Section: Computers, Networking, Software / Applications, Peripherals, Storage, Web, Downloads, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Websites

dropbox

There’s a fairly new file syncing program in town, and it is getting lots of positive feedback from its users.  Dropbox is an online sync and storage service that is able to be used over Windows, Linux or Mac. 

It relies on Amazon S3 storage, and has both a free and a paid storage service; although the free version does provide you with a more limited amount.  They claim to have over one million members currently, which isn’t bad for a rather recent start-up.

Signing up

When you first sign up with Dropbox and create your virtual machine, it then uploads the “virtual disk” to their site.  The time this takes can vary depending on your upload speed, but once this disk is created, it then gets syced with all of your Dropbox machines.

P2P coming soon

One feature they don’t have yet, but are supposed to be getting is P2P sharing.  This will let users that share the same network share any of their files directly.  They will be able to bypass first uploading them to the Dropbox servers.  As it stands, you can open up your virtual disk from any machine on the network, make any changes you want and sync and save them, and the changes on the virtual machine are able to be seen by everyone.

A word of caution

There is one important thing you will want to take note of before using Dropbox though.  If you make any major changes to a file, you have to wait for it to completely finish syncing before shutting down your computer, or you will lose your changes.  Also keep in mind if you are looking to do an large shared install…make sure there is enough room if you are using the free version (2 GB), you may need to go Paid which gives you 50 GB.

Have you used it? Do you like it?  Let us know your thoughts.

Product Site: [Dropbox]

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



Source: Gadgetell | 26 Apr 2009 | 1:17 pm

Ping An to vote against Fortis-BNP Paribas deal

BRUSSELS, April 26 (Reuters) - Ping An , the largest shareholder in Fortis , said on Sunday it will once more vote against the sale of the stricken financial group's assets to France's BNP Paribas . ...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 12:39 pm

The Economist On Television Over Broadband

zxjio recommends a pair of articles in The Economist discussing television over broadband, and the effects of DVR use. "Cable-television companies make money by selling packages of channels. The average American household pays $700 a year for over 100 channels of cable television but watches no more than 15. Most would welcome the chance to buy only those channels they want to watch, rather than pay for expensive packages of programming they are largely not interested in. They would prefer greater variety, too — something the internet offers in abundance. A surprising amount of video is available free from websites like Hulu and YouTube, or for a modest fee from iTunes, Netflix Watch Instantly and Amazon Video on Demand. ... Consumers' new-found freedom to choose has struck fear into the hearts of the cable companies. They have been trying to slow internet televisions steady march into the living room by rolling out DOCSIS 3 at a snails pace and then stinging customers for its services. Another favorite trick has been to cap the amount of data that can be downloaded, or to charge extortionately by the megabyte. Yet the measures to suffocate internet television being taken by the cable companies may already be too late. A torrent of innovative start-ups, not seen since the dot-com mania of a decade ago, is flooding the market with technology for supplying internet television to the living room." And from the second article on DVR usage patterns: "Families with DVRs seem to spend 15-20% of their viewing time watching pre-recorded shows, and skip only about half of all advertisements. This means only about 5% of television is time-shifted and less than 3% of all advertisements are skipped. Mitigating that loss, people with DVRs watch more television. ... Early adopters of DVRs used them a lot — not surprisingly, since they paid so much for them. Later adopters use them much less (about two-thirds less, according to a recent study)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 12:09 pm

MySpace Hires Former Facebook Exec As New Chief Exec

News Corp’s MySpace has named Owen Van Natta, a former Facebook executive, as its new chief executive.Thirty-nine-year-old Van Natta’s approval to take over MySpace came just two days after co-founder Chris DeWolfe announced his departure from the social networking site.Before he began his work with Facebook, Van Natta served as vice president of worldwide business and corporate development for Amazon.com"I'm thrilled to have the privilege to pilot MySpace in what is sure to be an incredibly exciting and rewarding next chapter for the business," Van Natta said in a statement.The role replacement comes during a time when Facebook and microblogging site Twitter are beginning to eclipse MySpace, which still holds the title of the largest social network in the US.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 26 Apr 2009 | 12:00 pm

Rejecting Disposable Culture - Last Years Model Empowers You to Say No' (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) Last Years Model is a site that empowers tech geeks to hang onto their still-working gadgets instead of buying the newest MP3 player, mobile phone or computer. As the sites creators...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 12:00 pm

Honeywell LifeStream(TM) Products Improve Patient Care by Offering Greater Access to Web-Based Health Information

Honeywell HomMed LifeStream(TM) Connect and LifeStream(TM) View improve workflow and productivity while reducing costs BROOKFIELD, Wis., April 26...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 12:00 pm

Google Maps Typography - Rhett Dashwood Turns Aerial Shots Into the Alphabet (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) This Google Maps typography project is from Australian designer Rhett Dashwood. He compiled the alphabet using aerial shots from actual places found in Victoria, Australia on Google...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 11:39 am

Fortis, BNP, Belgian state agree RPI finance

BRUSSELS, April 26 (Reuters) - Stricken financial group Fortis said on Sunday it had reached agreement with French bank BNP Paribas and the Belgian state on the financing of special purpose vehicle Royal...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 11:34 am

Spread of Bubonic Plague, 1347-1351

Not be all-pestilence, all-the-time, but this graph of bubonic plague spread in 14th century Europe is interesting. Notice how it moved in contiguous bands from its starting point in the south to the more...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 11:21 am

Burlesque Tribute Exhibits - "Bettie Page: Heaven Bound" Celebrates the Pin-Up Icon (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) Bettie Page: Heaven Bound is a new tribute exhibit that celebrates the iconic burlesque legend who passed away last year. As a promotion of the exhibit, celebrities such as Margaret...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 11:20 am

Levitating Coffee Makers - Espresso by Phil Rose Inspires Retro Nostalgia (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) Phil Roses Espresso coffee maker is a wall-mounted model that features retro cues and an illusory levitating design. Phil Rose is an Australian designer who cites sci-fi films and animation...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 10:59 am

Sneakers With Straps & Snaps - Futuristic Footwear From Alessandro Dell'Acqua (GALLERY)

(TrendHunter.com) These are the coolest sneakers in 2009! Designer Alessandro Dell'Acqua's two-tone high-tops are a great melange of 80's design with a futuristic twist. These Alessandro Dell'Acqua...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 10:40 am

Hands-Free Twittering - Researchers Develop Means to Twitter Via Brain Interface (VIDEO)

(TrendHunter.com) Researchers have developed a new way of Twittering using only the brain and a visual interface. The method is especially useful for those with spinal cord damage or other type of physically...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 10:20 am

11 Matryoshka Innovations - From Russian Nesting Doll Couture to Geeky Babooshkas (CLUSTER)

(TrendHunter.com) Matryoshka dolls, also known as Russian nesting dolls, have inspired a number of creative stacking innovations. From matryoshka couture to giant matryoshka invaders, you'll see how...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 10:00 am

Steve Jobs Deposition Text

The text of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' March 18, 2008 deposition is fascinating in a CEO-ish, me-first, don't-trouble-me-with-irritating-questions sort of way. The shorter version: He wanted more compensation...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 9:50 am

Fix the Kindle 2’s light text display

font-hack-01

If you can’t read your Kindle 2 because it’s too light, fear not. This thread shows you how to add darker, non-aliased fonts to your 16-shades-of-gray beauty.

All the hack does is replace the standard fonts with new, darker fonts but many are complaining so this might be just the thing for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Generally, the issue has to do with font smoothing. While on-screen fonts against a contrasting background look great with with font smoothing but on what is essentially a gray background, the fonts look gray. And, most importantly, the blacks are washed out as well, resulting in light text.


Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2009 | 9:20 am

New Material For Fast-Change Sunglasses, Data Storage

sciencehabit writes "'Researchers have developed a material that almost instantaneously (30 ms) changes from clear to dark blue when exposed to ultraviolet light, and it just as quickly reverts to clear when the light is turned off. The new material, one of a class called photochromics, could be useful in optical data storage as well as in super-fancy sunglasses.'" A comment to the article notes some of the potential dangers of quick-change sunglasses.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 9:06 am

Oklahoma City Tea Party Protestor Arrested for Threatening Bloodbath On TwitterTea

An Oklahoma City man named Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, posted threats against the government on Twitter under the name CitizenQuasar including the suggestion that he would kill police if they approached his home. The FBI has arrested him around April 15 in response to the threats, including a final tweet describing himself as "locked and loaded" and ready to "see what happens." Oh, and he has a MySpace page, too. Wired paints the picture of a zealot who might not have all of his screws tight.
"START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!," read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. "After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!," he added five minutes later. Then: "Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps."


Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2009 | 7:53 am

Oklahoma City Tea Party protestor arrested for threatening bloodbath on Twitter

threat_tweats
An Oklahoma City man named Daniel Knight Hayden, 52, posted threats against the government on Twitter under the name CitizenQuasar including the suggestion that he would kill police if they approached his home. The FBI has arrested him around April 15 in response to the threats, including a final tweet describing himself as “locked and loaded” and ready to “see what happens.” Oh, and he has a MySpace page, too.

Wired paints the picture of a zealot who might not have all of his screws tight.

UPDATE - In deference to the non-crazy protesters, I changed the headline.

“START THE KILLING NOW! I am willing to be the FIRST DEATH!,” read a tweet at 8:01 PM that day. “After I am killed on the Capitol Steps, like a REAL man, the rest of you will REMEMBER ME!!!,” he added five minutes later. Then: “Send the cops around. I will cut their heads off the heads and throw the[m] on the State Capitol steps.”

Sadly, he’s doing this in Oklahoma City, which many of you will remember solely for the bombings last decade by similarly enthusiastic anti-government zealots.

Hayden is apparently out at a halfway house right now, pending trial, and there is seemingly little proof that he would have made good on his threats.

Here’s an interesting video from his MySpace page.


Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2009 | 7:48 am

World of Warcraft Comes to iPhone

Well, we had a good run. The Renaissance, going to the Moon, inventing the Snuggie... but all that's done now. World of Warcraft is no longer restricted to home and laptop use. Its grip on humanity will be total. Penny Arcade was remarkably prescient in this case; I wonder who Satan (who is the devil) is working for right now? Could be Apple, could be Blizzard, or maybe he's just freelancing. Now there will be no reason to log off for the poor souls whose evenings are already consumed in questing and raiding.


Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2009 | 7:22 am

Steve Jobs on the value of stock options

On March 18, 2008, Steve Jobs was deposed by the SEC during its investigation of Apple's stock option backdating scandal. The deposition was never made public until Forbes published it on Friday, after obtaining it through a Freedom of Information Act request. (Full deposition embedded below) Jobs explains his reasoning for why he asked the board for mega grants of options for both himself and his top executives, but claims ignorance of the mechanics of how that was done after the board approved the grants themselves. (It was the falsifying of board minutes for a meeting that never occurred, not the backdating per se, that got Apple's former general counsel Nancy Heinen into hot water with the SEC—this deposition was for a case against her). There aren't too many revelations on the legal front in the document. But the document provides the first detailed account of the incident from Steve Jobs himself in his own words. What comes through in the deposition is how Jobs sees himself and his' fierce loyalty to those who work for him. For instance, after selling NeXt to Apple in 1997, his initial reason for acting as a consultant was to get "some of the NeXt people into some jobs where they could help Apple." He himself was reluctant at first to take on the CEO role at Apple because he didn't want the people at his other company, Pixar, to "think I was abandoning them." Then when it came time to reward his "ultra key" executives with one million options each, two of them were from NeXT. While he was taking care of his top lieutenants by trying ti "surprise and delight them with what a career at Apple could be", he was "hurt" that Apple's board didn't do the same for him. So he had to have a little talk with them about swapping his 20 million then-underwater options for 7.5 million new ones, which they did. I've excerpted some of the juicier bits from the deposition after the jump.


Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2009 | 7:19 am

Google Earth helps solve a plane crash mystery

The idea behind Google Earth has always been a powerful one: It allows users to explore places that they either can't or won't go. But with its vast amount of maps and topographical data, it also is a very powerful tool for combing the Earth -- and that can be very useful when you're searching for something. Which is exactly how it helped a grieving family find a plane that crashed, and took the lives of loved ones, that had been missing for over two years. Despite countless time spent searching all the areas in Arizona that authorities and the family thought the plane might have gone down, there had been no luck all this time in finding the plane. Then, something rather incredible happened. A person who had also been involved in the attempts to find millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, found a picture of a forest fire that had been taken the same day as the crash and in what was thought to be a similar area. He alerted the family, which had set up a website to aid in the search. Remarkably, they were able to find the exact area in the picture using the different viewing angles and topographical data of Google Earth.


Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2009 | 7:13 am

Israel's Koor cuts Credit Suisse stake to 2.78 pct

TEL AVIV, April 26 (Reuters) - Israeli holding company Koor Industries said on Sunday it would post a gain of 256 million shekels ($60 million) from the sale of part of its stake in Credit Suisse . ...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 6:52 am

Rising seas threaten renowned French coast

France's Aquitaine coast stretches north from the Spanish border to the Gironde river estuary, encompassing rocky bluffs, giant lagoons, deltas, beaches and Europe's largest dune. Now...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 6:50 am

Nebula Award winners for 2008 announced

The 2008 Nebula Awards were announced last night in LA:
Best Novel: Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
Best Novella: "The Spacetime Pool" by Catherine Asaro
Best Novelette: "Pride and Prometheus" by John Kessel
Best Short Story: "Trophy Wives" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Script: WALL-E Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter
Andre Norton Award: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S. Wilce Solstice Award: Kate Wilhelm, A.J. Budrys and Martin H. Greenberg.
SFWA Service Award: Victoria Strauss
Bradbury Award: Joss Whedon
Grand Master Award: Harry Harrison
Author Emerita: M.J. Engh
Congrats to all the winners!

(Yup, I didn't win -- win some, lose some! Honor just to be nominated. All that stuff. But a giant, heartfelt thanks to Wil Wheaton for attending on my behalf, and to all the writers who nominated and voted for Little Brother!)

2008 Nebula Awards


Source: Boing Boing | 26 Apr 2009 | 6:30 am

The Pirate Google: making the point that Google's as guilty of linking to torrents as The Pirate Bay


When The Pirate Bay was ordered shut down by the Swedish courts because it linked to infringing torrents on the Internet, many people pointed out that Google links to whole mountains' -- whole planets' -- worth of infringing stuff. Now, to make the point, comes The Pirate Google, a Google mashup that finds torrent files: "The intention of this site is to demonstrate the double standard that was exemplified in the recent Pirate Bay Trial. Sites such as Google offer much the same functionality as The Pirate Bay and other Bit Torrent sites but are not targeted by media conglomerates such as the IFPI as they have the political and legal clout to defend themselves unlike these small independent sites."

The Pirate Google (via Everything is Miscellaneous)




Source: Boing Boing | 26 Apr 2009 | 6:26 am

Bringing Up Bill

theodp writes "Over at the WSJ, Bill Gates Sr. describes what it took to turn an unruly 12-year-old into Microsoft's founder and the world's richest man. This included throwing a glass of cold water in the boy's face when he was having a particularly heated argument with his mother at the dinner table. 'He was nasty,' says Libby Armintrout, Bill's younger sister. 'I'm at war with my parents over who is in control,' Bill Gates recalls telling a therapist, who told his parents that their son would ultimately win the battle for independence, and their best course of action was to ease up on him. The rest, as they say, is history. The accompanying Gates Family Album is also worth a look."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 6:05 am

Google Earth Helps Solve A Plane Crash Mystery

proxyThe idea behind Google Earth has always been a powerful one: It allows users to explore places that they either can’t or won’t go. But with its vast amount of maps and topographical data, it also is a very powerful tool for combing the Earth — and that can be very useful when you’re searching for something. Which is exactly how it helped a grieving family find a plane that crashed, and took the lives of loved ones, that had been missing for over two years.

Despite countless time spent searching all the areas in Arizona that authorities and the family thought the plane might have gone down, there had been no luck all this time in finding the plane. Then, something rather incredible happened. A person who had also been involved in the attempts to find millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, found a picture of a forest fire that had been taken the same day as the crash and in what was thought to be a similar area. He alerted the family, which had set up a website to aid in the search. Remarkably, they were able to find the exact area in the picture using the different viewing angles and topographical data of Google Earth.

The family and some volunteers then set out to the area they had pinpointed in the program, using its coordinates. Sure enough, they found the wreckage. While it’s not exactly a happy ending for the families of the two people lost in the crash, Marcy Randolph and William Westover, it does provide closure, Randolph’s family says.

And now the family is hoping to help others do similar types of search and rescue using Google Earth. The family has set up a system called MARSI, which stands for Mapped Archive of Rescue & Search Information. On the website they set up for it, they detail exactly how they were able to use Google Earth’s data to find the missing plane. It’s very interesting stuff. And MAST (The Missing Aircraft Search Team), a team which contributed to the Fossett search, apparently wants to use MARSI for future searches, Liz Johannesen, Marcy Randolph’s cousin, tells us.

These types of stories remind us that while projects like Google Earth may not be the most important to a company’s bottom line, they can provide something much more valuable to a lot of people. Last week, we heard about the woman who got her stolen purse back thanks to Google Latitude. And this week we have this much more important story involving Google Earth. It is nice to see that the technology we sometimes take for granted in a quickly evolving space, actually can help people in a meaningful way.

Below, find some images detailing the search area from Google Maps.

marsi-1

marsi-6

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


Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2009 | 5:04 am

EQ Network Converts Videos To Mobile-Friendly Formats While Inserting Ads

picture-29The web is filled with video content, but there are different formats that don’t always play nicely with all players. The most obvious example of this is the hugely popular Flash format, which does not work on the hugely popular iPhone. EQ Network has an answer for that and other format issues, and wants to offers content owners a way to serve up ads in those video post-conversion.

The company’s Media Delivery Bar can be embedded on a page below any video player. This gives viewers an easy-to-understand option for converting and sending a video to a specific type of device they may want to watch the video on — like an iPhone. You simply enter an email address or cellphone number that you want to send the video to, fill out some quick demographic information, and within a few minutes, the video will arrive in a format tailored to your needs.

The demographic information part is key. That’s how EQ Network hopes to serve up ads to you that are embedded within those videos. Because it knows your sex and age range, these are highly tailored ads that in theory will lead to better returns. But the ads themselves are kind of annoying. Rather than being overlay ads at the bottom of a video, they stop the entire video and make you watch them, similar to what you have to sit through on Hulu videos. Of course, for most of the content that this Media Delivery Bar will be used for, it probably won’t be hit Hollywood content like Hulu has, that people seem to be okay with sitting through some ads to see for free.

But to smaller content providers, EQ Network’s solution could be an intriguing one. “Virtually all companies that we met with confirmed our model and can’t wait to use the bar to instantly deploy their videos without having to ad additional infrastructure or up-front costs,” Equilibrium (the company behind EQ Networks) CEO Sean Barger tells me. That sounds suspiciously optimistic, but testing the solution out, it does work well. I took a web video that wouldn’t play on my iPhone, hit the iPhone button on the Media Delivery Bar, and it formatted it so that it will play on my device.

But the big boys in the field, like YouTube, will continue to go with their own solutions. For example, YouTube reformats all of its Flash videos to the h.264 format to play on the iPhone (and Apple TV). If any one device gets big enough and won’t support Flash for whatever reason, you can be sure they’d do the work reformating the videos to play there as well. Likewise, Hulu would likely choose its own solutions if and when it decides to make its site compatible with devices like the iPhone.

picture-313

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


Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2009 | 4:11 am

Help File: iPhone Speaker Interference - Washington Post


bit-tech.net

Help File: iPhone Speaker Interference
Washington Post
By Rob Pegoraro QWhen I leave my iPhone near the speakerphone at my office, I hear this weird buzzing noise. What's going on? ASignals sent by the phone -- which must periodically have a quick, "yeah, I'm here" conversation with nearby transmitter ...
Opinion: What I want in the next iPhone Computerworld
Why AT&T Wants To Keep the iPhone Away From Verizon Slashdot
Ars Technica - Brighthand - New York Times - The Mac Observer
all 22 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Apr 2009 | 3:43 am

Microsoft names Windows 7 RC1 dates - Register


BBC News

Microsoft names Windows 7 RC1 dates
Register
Stable and completed code for Windows 7 will be released to early adopters during the coming week, with mass availability planned for the following Tuesday.
Windows 7 gets virtual 'XP mode' Computerworld
Windows 7 to have an 'XP mode' CNET News
PC Magazine - PC World - ChannelWeb - VNUNet.com
all 1,388 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Apr 2009 | 3:19 am

Music Copyright In EU Extended To 70 Years

rastos1 writes "The European Parliament extended the copyright in the EU for the performers of musical works from 50 to 70 years. The legislation will be reviewed in 3 years. The European Commission will consider extending the scope to audiovisual works too." So performers will collect for 20 more years from the date of performance; composers' rights already extend to 70 years beyond their deaths. Update: 4/26 at 12:15 GMT by SS: Reader rimberg points out that while the copyright extension was passed in the European Parliament, it is now being held up in the Council of Ministers awaiting further debate on the issue.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 3:04 am

Loltus

10669328375.258970952.IM1.05.565x421_A.562x421.jpg

10723089588.258970952.IM1.03.565x421_A.562x421.jpg

It really cracks me up.




Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 26 Apr 2009 | 2:30 am

Chrysler creditors urged to make concessions

DETROIT (Reuters) - With just days to go for Chrysler LLC to reach agreements to cut labor and debt costs or face bankruptcy, members of Michigan's Democratic congressional delegation said on Saturday...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 26 Apr 2009 | 2:17 am

Blogs rule as Fiji regime cracks down on media

Source: Gizmodo | 26 Apr 2009 | 2:00 am

Steve Jobs On The Value Of Stock Options

On March 18, 2008, Steve Jobs was deposed by the SEC during its investigation of Apple’s stock option backdating scandal. The deposition was never made public until Forbes published it on Friday, after obtaining it through a Freedom of Information Act request. (Full deposition embedded below)

Jobs explains his reasoning for why he asked the board for mega grants of options for both himself and his top executives, but claims ignorance of the mechanics of how that was done after the board approved the grants themselves. (It was the falsifying of board minutes for a meeting that never occurred, not the backdating per se, that got Apple’s former general counsel Nancy Heinen into hot water with the SEC—this deposition was for a case against her). There aren’t too many revelations on the legal front in the document.

But the document provides the first detailed account of the incident from Steve Jobs himself in his own words. What comes through in the deposition is how Jobs sees himself and his’ fierce loyalty to those who work for him. For instance, after selling NeXt to Apple in 1997, his initial reason for acting as a consultant was to get “some of the NeXt people into some jobs where they could help Apple.” He himself was reluctant at first to take on the CEO role at Apple because he didn’t want the people at his other company, Pixar, to “think I was abandoning them.”

Then when it came time to reward his “ultra key” executives with one million options each, two of them were from NeXT. While he was taking care of his top lieutenants by trying ti “surprise and delight them with what a career at Apple could be”, he was “hurt” that Apple’s board didn’t do the same for him. So he had to have a little talk with them about swapping his 20 million then-underwater options for 7.5 million new ones, which they did.

I’ve excerpted some of the juicier bits from the deposition below. Some names were redacted in the original, but I’ve reinserted them in brackets where it is obvious who Jobs is talking about I’ve also bolded some parts for emphasis. (In the transcript, “A” is Jobs).

1. On coming back to Apple and becoming CEO in 1997:

Q: And I guess, just to go back in time then, I want to just try to understand a little bit the transition from having the title consultant to becoming CEO. Could you just describe that transition for me?

A: Well, when Apple bought NeXT, Apple was pretty messed up. It was pretty easy to see. And I was trying to help in my arm’s length role. I was trying to help Apple by getting some of the NeXT people into some jobs where they could help Apple, and that’s pretty much all I was doing.

. . . Q: Okay, Did the board in fact fire [Gil Amelio] the following week?

A: Yes.

Q: And did you take on the role then as CEO?

Jobs: Well, no, I did not. I was very concerned that Pixar was a newly public company with shareholders, employees, and I felt that - - to my knowledge there had never been a CEO of two public companies before. So I felt if I took the job, the Pixar shareholders and employees would think I was abandoning them.

Q. Mm-hmm

Jobs. And I decided I just - - that I couldn’t do that. So I took the title of interim CEO and agreed to come back for 90 days to help recruit a full-time CEO.

Q. How did that recruitment effort go?

A. I failed.

Q. And when you say you failed, is it that you didn’t find anyone that you thought would be suitable to take on the role?

A. Yes. Apple was not in good shape and everybody knew it and the kind of candidates that we were being offered up by the headhunters were not very talented.

Q. Okay. In other words, not the sort of people who could turn Apple around?

A. Yes.

Q. Okay. So after that 90 days, what happened next?

A. Well, it just kind of slid into the fact that I stayed. I kept the interim CEO title for quite some time, a number of years.

2. On the origins of the 4.8 million-share mega grant to Apple’s top executives:

A. Apple was in a precarious situation in that we’d, you know, had the internet bubble busting, and I thought that Apple’s executive team and the stability of Apple’s executive team was one of its core strengths. And I was very concerned because Michael Dell, one of our chief competitors, had flown Fred Anderson, our CFO, down to Austin, I guess, him and his wife, I think, to try to recruit him. And I was also concerned that [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] two very strong technical leaders, were also very vulnerable.

So I was very concerned that Apple could really suffer some big losses on its executive team with the business environment we were in and the competitors coming after our people.

. . . Well, I talked with the board almost every meeting about, you know, key personnel, because I think that’s the key asset Apple has, is its talent

. . .

Q. All right. And who did you consider to be these ultra key people?

A. [Timothy Cook] who at the time I think was our Executive Vice President of Operations, maybe sales and operations, actually. Fred Anderson, our CFO. [Jon Rubinstein] head of hardware. [Avi Tevanian] head of software.

Who am I forgetting? I think those were the four key ones.

Two of those ultra key people, Rubinstein and Tevanian, came from NeXT. Jobs helped them get hired by Apple after the sale of NeXT in the first place, and then rewarded them down the line with options on one million shares apiece. Today, Rubinstein is competing against Apple in his role as the executive chairman of Palm, which is backed by Silver Lake Elevation Partners, where Anderson is a partner. That’s gratitude for you.

3. On the question of whether Apple was trying to pick a grant date for the options to maximize the return to the executives, Jobs tries to dismiss how important a role that played in the process.

Q. And sort of in this framework of options being, in part, a retention tool, is the idea to try to get a lower price so that there is the potential to maximize one’s profits on the options?

A. You know, this has come up before. I have to tell you, for these options to be worth anything, the stock has to go up so much compared to a dollar or two at the beginning . . . And so if these guys were going to realize the kind of money they could make elsewhere by staying at Apple, you know, they were going to have to make tens of millions of dollars. These guys are really senior guys. Several of them, you know, could be CEOs of a few big companies and a few medium-size companies.

So for them to realize that kind of a gain here, it’s a lot more than a small variation in a strike price.

Nevertheless, with one million shares each, every $1 increase translated into a $1 million gain and a million dollars is still a million dollars. But Jobs wasn’t just rewarding his lieutenants, he was trying to keep them. The “mega grants” were designed to be one big grant instead of smaller grants every year.

4. Jobs explains the reasoning behind his compensation strategy:

One of the things that I felt was that rather than giving them shares once a year, as is common in some companies, I would rather give them four years’ worth of stock upfront. . . . the key thing is if the stock goes up, which we always hope it does, then the golden handcuffs are dramatically increased, which is what I was hoping would happen.

And on the subject of his own grant of 7.1 million options at the time, Jobs says that he negotiated so hard for it because he felt he wasn’t getting the recognition he deserved:

Q. Could you just tell me a little bit about the process of how this all came to be?

A. Well, it was a tough situation, you know. It wasn’t so much about the money, because a very small percentage of my net worth is from Apple.

Q. Okay.

A. But everybody likes to be recognized by their peers, and the closest that I’ve got, or any CEO has, is their Board of Directors. And as we’ve seen in the discussions of the past hour, I spent a lot of time trying to take care of people at Apple and to, you know, surprise and delight them with what a career at Apple could be - - could mean to them and their families. And I felt that the board wasn’t really doing the same with me.

Q. Right.

A. So I was hurt, I suppose would be the most accurate word, and, you know, the board had given me some options, but they were all underwater. They weren’t underwater necessarily because of our performance, but, you know, the bubble had burst in the dot-coms, and here I had been working, you know, I don’t know, four years, five years of my life and not seeing my family very much and stuff, and I just felt like there is nobody looking out for me here, you know.

Q. Right. Okay.

A. So I wanted them to do something and so we talked about it.

Steve Jobs Deposition

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


Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2009 | 1:53 am

Awesome handheld NES with wireless controllers and Zapper

fc2
For the retro gaming fans out there, these clone systems are making a lot of dreams come true. The FC3 system, for example, plays NES, SNES, and Genesis games, for only like $60. And this sweet portable NES, which uses actual NES cartridges, has the added bonus of wireless controllers and a Zapper as accessories. Of course it’s got a TV-out; you’d look pretty silly aiming a light gun at this little thing.

The FC Mobile 2 is the successor to an older, less cool version of the same thing, but the addition of these accessories and a better design make it a serious bargain at around $70. They’re not available just yet, but I have a feeling I’ll be taking a trip to my local Pink Godzilla soon.

[via Technabob and Kotaku]


Source: CrunchGear | 26 Apr 2009 | 1:40 am

Nintendo targets Mother's Day with DS bundle - Afterdawn.com


Slippery Brick

Nintendo targets Mother's Day with DS bundle
Afterdawn.com
Nintendo will target the Mother's Day holiday in North America (May 10, don't forget!) this year with the release of a new DS bundle on May 3. While the company has not officially announced the bundle, it was accidentally available for pre-order on a ...
Your mom wants a lime green DS bundle Slippery Brick
Mother's Day DS Lite Bundle Includes Personal Trainer: Cooking ... Gamasutra
Nintendo World Report - 1UP.com - Vancouver Sun - Mobile Magazine
all 19 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 26 Apr 2009 | 1:30 am

Analyzing (All of) Star Trek With Face Recognition

An anonymous reader writes "Accurate face recognition is coming. Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition, a face recognition start-up spun out from Carnegie Mellon University, has posted a tech demo showing an analysis of the entire original Star Trek series using face recognition. The online visualization includes various annotated clips of the series with clickable thumbnails of each character's appearance. They also have a separate page showing the full data of all the prominent characters in every episode including extracting thumbnails of each appearance." Their software can recognize frontal or near-frontal face instances.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 26 Apr 2009 | 1:09 am

Former AOL Exec Mike Jones May Become No. 2 At MySpace

One thing MySpace has is a lot of holes in the executive ranks. Founding CEO Chris DeWolfe has been hurriedly replaced by Owen Van Natta (our thoughts on that are well known). Cofounder and President Tom Anderson is having “discussions” about “assuming a new role in the organization.” And last month three of the top (and most capable) execs (COO, SVP Product Strategy and VP Technology) left to start their own company. More MySpace execs will soon be leaving, voluntarily or not, as Van Natta fills the gaps and adds loyal lieutenants.

The first announcement will likely be a replacement for the COO spot, who will be the no. 2 exec at MySpace. A number of current MySpace execs are hoping for the job, particularly Jeff Berman, president of sales and marketing. But our understanding is that the COO spot is definitely going to an outsider.

The most likely candidate, we’ve heard from sources, is former AOL exec Mike Jones. Jones’ company, Userplane, was acquired by AOL in late 2006. And Jones worked closely with former AOL boss Jonathan Miller, who is now overseeing all of News Corp.’s digital assets, including MySpace.

Jones is a well respected executive who has proven product experience (something sorely lacking at MySpace). If he joins, he’ll likely become a valuable asset to the company. He’s a smart pick if MySpace can get him, and frankly would have been a much better choice for the CEO spot than Van Natta.

Like Van Natta, though, Jones already has a day job. He left AOL to start Tsavo in August 2008. Tsavo was in the news again this last February.

News Corp. hasn’t responded to a request for comment, nor will they. More surprising, Jones, who is a personal friend, hasn’t taken any of my 15 calls today, or responded to voicemails or emails. That means he is either on an airplane, or he’s avoiding me like the plague. Until we get further confirmation, we’re categorizing this as a rumor.

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


Source: TechCrunch | 26 Apr 2009 | 12:34 am

World of Warcraft on the iPhone heralds end of civilization as we know it


Well, we had a good run. The Renaissance, going to the Moon, inventing the Snuggie… but all that’s done now. World of Warcraft is no longer restricted to home and laptop use. Its grip on humanity will be total. Penny Arcade was remarkably prescient in this case; I wonder who Satan (who is the devil) is working for right now? Could Apple, could be Blizzard, or maybe he’s just freelancing. Now there will be no reason to log off for the poor souls whose evenings are already consumed in questing and raiding.

It appears that it’s actually a more professional implementation of the last version of WoW we saw the iPhone; it’s also a lot like OnLive. The game is being “played” remotely, but the video image is streamed (at about 320×240@5fps from the looks of it) to your iPhone. Not exactly the ideal gaming situation (lag much?) but for grinding it should be more than sufficient (also, that’s what she said).

[via TouchArcade and MacRumors]



Source: Gizmodo | 25 Apr 2009 | 11:15 pm

Blackwell Launches Print-On-Demand Trial In the UK

krou writes "In Dec. 2006, we discussed the Espresso Book Machine. Well, on April 27 the bookseller Blackwell will launch a three-month trial of the machine in its Charing Cross Road branch in London as a 'print on demand' service for shoppers in an effort 'to consign to history the idea that you can walk into a bookshop and not find the book you want.' When the trial begins, it will be able to print any of some 400,000 titles; Blackwell's overall goal is to extend this to a million titles by the summer, and to spread out more machines to the rest of its sixty stores once it works out pricing. Currently, they charge shelf price for in-print books, and 10 pence per page for those out of print (about $55 for a 300-page book), but are analyzing customer behavior to get a better pricing model. Says Blackwell chief executive Andrew Hutchings: 'This could change bookselling fundamentally. It's giving the chance for smaller locations, independent booksellers, to have the opportunity to truly compete with big stock-holding shops and Amazon ... I like to think of it as the revitalization of the local bookshop industry.' Their website notes that in addition to getting books printed in-store, in future you will be able to order titles via their site. (They also mention that one of the titles you can print is the 1915 Oxford Poetry Book, which includes one of Tolkien's first poems, 'Goblin's Feet.')" You'll also be able to bring in your own book to print — two PDF files, one for the book block and one for the cover.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 25 Apr 2009 | 11:14 pm

Video: Recording analog audio to a floppy disk


How cool is this? My friends and I have fun tinkering with audio gear every once in a while, but this awesome hack is beyond anything I would have thought up. By taking apart a drive, mating it with a tape recorder, and doing a few other really cool things, this talented hacktress has made 3.5″ floppies capable of holding about 15 seconds of analog audio.

Due to the the way the thing is writing, there’s bleed between the tracks, so you hear stuff from a second behind, a second ahead, etc. The effect is really freaky; she plays “Still Alive” and it’s just recognizable. With something a little simpler, maybe a single instrument, it’d be killer.

[via Hack a Day]


Source: CrunchGear | 25 Apr 2009 | 11:00 pm

Owen Van Natta’s Infamous Tenure At Project Playlist

One of the many unsavory aspects of the hiring of Owen Van Natta as the new CEO of MySpace: the rewriting of recent history around Van Natta’s involvement in Project Playlist. The communications group at News Corp. (MySpace’s parent company) is busy spinning Van Natta’s departure as a simple transition from one job to another, but that’s far from the truth. Nor does their story take into account the sad state of the company that he ran for just a few months before leaving for greener pastures.

Here’s how News Corp spins this: This is a natural changing of the guard as a CEO of a small startup takes a bigger job. There was an orderly transition, and Project Playlist has a new CEO with great experience. Nothing to see here, please move along.

Here’s the real story: Van Natta joined Project Playlist in November 2008, just about five months ago. He told investors and employees he was in for the long haul. And he hired an executive team under him that came with his promise that he’d lead the company to a win. Bob Pittman invested in the company, he told recruits, which is true. But he also let rumors that the company raised $20 million in new funding fly. In fact the company raised much less than that. And Van Natta also underplayed the problems with labels, suggesting that deals were imminent and the litigation was going to be settled. And now that Van Natta has abandoned the company, they’ve had to scramble to find someone to run the company. That’s why John Sykes, who was already a board member, was forced to step in.

In fact, we’ve heard, Van Natta’s playing down of the music label litigation led directly to the downfall of the company. The labels complained to MySpace and Facebook and threatened to sue them as well if they didn’t ban Playlist from their social networks. Both companies backed down quickly, and Playlist lost their main channels of distribution. MySpace banned them on December 19, Facebook followed on December 23. If Van Natta had made fewer bold statements, sources close to the labels say, those threats against MySpace and Facebook may have never been made.

Project Playlist traffic has plummeted since Van Natta took over the company. In October 2008, the month before he joined, 704,000 people visited the site from the U.S, according to Comscore. In March 2009 it had fallen to just 234,000. Page views also fell dramatically, from 9.6 million in October to just 6 million in March. Here are the traffic charts (unique visitors on top, page views below):


If Van Natta hadn’t ruffled so many feathers at the labels with his promises that litigation was nearing settlement, it’s likely the pressure on MySpace and Facebook would never have materialized, say sources, and traffic would have continued to climb.

At this point Van Natta likely wants everyone to simply forget about his infamous tenure at Project Playlist and focus on his more recent jobs at Facebook and Amazon. He doesn’t list the company on his LinkedIn profile at all (although he’s had five months to update it).

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.


Source: TechCrunch | 25 Apr 2009 | 10:43 pm

BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 4-19-2009

Section:

title

We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does!  Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…

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



Source: Gadgetell | 25 Apr 2009 | 10:42 pm

Windows 7 Version Expected Next Week

Microsoft Corp announced Friday that its much anticipated next-generation operating system, Windows 7, will be available starting next week.This version, known as a release candidate, is the last major pre-release test version of the software, which they hope will repair the reputation damaged by its predecessor, Windows Vista.Microsoft hopes to once again be known as the world’s pre-eminent software makers after Windows Vista was previously so poorly received.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Apr 2009 | 10:40 pm

“KissPhone” concept - really?

kissykissWe’ve seen some strange concepts in our time, but this has to be one of the weirdest and most unlikely. This concept KissPhone is probably going to stay imaginary, since it’s the most ridiculous thing in the galaxy. Capture the movement, warmth, and “sucking force” of a lover’s lips and transmit it in real time to a pair of robo-lips? Yeah, I see a market for that. It’s called crazy people.

Sure, teledildonics will be taking off in the next couple years, and you can already get… er, reproductions of famous orifices. But even being able to purchase a replica kiss from Natalie Portman in the kiss store won’t make this sucker worthwhile. It’d be fun to put two of these things together, though and watch them go at it. Hmm, that actually sounds pretty creepy.

You can see more on the KissPhone and other concepts at the inventor’s website.

[via Gizmag]




Source: Gizmodo | 25 Apr 2009 | 10:00 pm

Computer worm ‘Conficker' is doing its dirty work - Christian Science Monitor


Javno.hr

Computer worm ‘Conficker' is doing its dirty work
Christian Science Monitor
Pentagon and other agencies are preparing to defend against cyber attacks. Meanwhile, here are ways to protect your computer. By Michael B. Farrell | Staff writer/ April 25, 2009 edition Internet security experts say that the computer worm known as ...
Conficker Hype a 'Problem,' Says FBI Cyber-Chief PC World
Conficker Remains Mystery at RSA Security Conference eWeek
VNUNet.com - SecurityFocus - KPHO Phoenix - MyFox Washington DC
all 121 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Apr 2009 | 9:37 pm

Jury-rigged kite photography for the crafty among you

kite
Do you have an extra digital camera lying around that you wouldn’t mind sending hundreds of feet in the air? Got a couple hours and a lot of thumbtacks to spare? Well, this DIY project is for you, then. It’s a very complicated way of mechanically triggering your camera while you’re away — say 100 feet down at the end of a long piece of string.

To be honest, I don’t think anybody is going to be recreating this extremely complicated thing exactly, but if it’s already set my bleary mind running on possible alternative mechanisms, you can bet the DIY types will be blasting out a new prototype in an hour or two.

I don’t know why so few (if any) consumer cameras support time-lapse photography, but that would really simplify things. I was sure the Exilim EX-FC100 would have it somewhere, but even that wondercam won’t do it.

[via Lifehacker]


Source: CrunchGear | 25 Apr 2009 | 9:36 pm

Future of Financial Mathematics?

An anonymous reader writes "Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a famous 'Quant,' has long been a strong critic of the use of mathematics and statistics in the financial markets. He has been very vocal in his books The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness. In his article on edge.org, he says 'My outrage is aimed at the scientist-charlatan putting society at risk using statistical methods. This is similar to iatrogenics, the study of the doctor putting the patient at risk.' After the recent financial crisis, wired.com ran an article titled 'Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street' in which the quant David Li and his Gaussian Copula were crucified — we discussed it at the time. Now, I've recently been admitted to a graduate program of good repute in Computational & Applied Mathematics. There is a wide range of subjects in which you can pursue your PhD, one of them being Financial Mathematics. I had a passing interest in it for quite some time. In the current scenario, how advisable it is to pursue a PhD in this topic? What would my options be five years down the line? Will the so-called 'quants' still be wanted by the banks and other financial institutions, or will they turn to more 'non-math' approaches? Would I be better off specializing in less volatile areas of Applied Mathematics? In short, what is the future of Financial Mathematics in light of the current financial crisis?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 25 Apr 2009 | 9:19 pm

Twitter Has a Great Week - PC World


Straits Times

Twitter Has a Great Week
PC World
Boy, did I pick an interesting week in which to join Twitter: First I join up (@twailgum) last Thursday. The very next day someone named Oprah Winfrey goes out there and steals all my thunder.
Twitter more of a siren in March, says comScore BetaNews
The Global Twitter Phenomenon RedOrbit
Washington Post - Wired News - CNET News - National Geographic
all 298 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Apr 2009 | 9:13 pm

Windows 7 reveals XP mode AKA the IT guy’s wet dream

vxp_12

So there’s going to be an XP mode in Windows 7. What does that mean? For users of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate - sorry, lower-end users! - you will get a full copy of Windows XP that will run under a virtual processor. However, instead of creating a new desktop environment, the XP mode will bring the application up as a window inside Windows 7. This means you can run applications like IE 6 “natively” without booting a virtual machine.

The virtual machine will also offer a desktop interface but applications you install under XP will show up in the Windows 7 start menu, an interesting move. The XP app will, in short, appear as a Windows 7 app with a bit more loading.

vxp_18

Why is this happening? Mostly because Vista has long been seen as a plaything and not a serious option for IT departments. By adding an XP mode the final argument - “It’s not XP!” - against Windows 7 is dead. I’ve played with Wn7 and am looking forward to it and, as a former IT guy, I can state unequivocally that this is a big deal.


Source: CrunchGear | 25 Apr 2009 | 8:53 pm

Detroit hydrogen buses may go regional

U.S. officials say tests of hydrogen-powered buses at the Detroit airport are designed to see if they can eventually be connected to regional mass transit.

Source: Gizmodo | 25 Apr 2009 | 8:30 pm

The Circus Widens In Aftermath of Pirate Bay Verdict

MaulerOfEmotards sends along an in-depth followup, from the Swedish press, of our discussion the other day about the biased trial judge in the Pirate Bay case. "The turmoil concerns Tomas Norström, the presiding judge of The Pirate Bay trial, who is suspected of bias after reports surfaced of affiliation with copyright protection organizations. For this he has been reported to the appeals court (in Swedish; translation here). The circus around the judge is currently focused on three points. First, his personal affiliation with at least four copyright protection organizations, a state the potential bias of which he himself fails to see and refuses to admit. Secondly, Swedish trials use a system of several lay assessors to supervise the presiding judge. One of these, a member of an artists' interest organization, was forced by Mr. Norström to resign from the trial for potential bias. The judge's failure to see the obvious contradiction in this (translation) casts doubts on his suitability and competence. Thirdly, according to professor of judicial sociology Håkan Hydén (translation), the judge has inappropriately 'duped and influenced the lay assessors' during the trial: 'a judge that has decided that "this is something we can't allow" has little problem finding legal arguments that are difficult for assisting lay assessors to counter.'" Click the link below to read further on Professor Hydén's enumeration of "at least three strange things in a strange trial." On a related note, reader Siker adds the factoid that membership in the Pirate Party exploded 150% in the week following the verdict. The Pirate Party now surpasses in size four smaller parties in Sweden, and is closing in on a fifth. Political fallout could ensue as soon as June, when an election for EU parliament will be held.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 25 Apr 2009 | 8:19 pm

4 Things to Consider Before You Try to Join the Amish

Maggie Koerth-Baker is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. A freelance science and health journalist, Maggie lives in Minneapolis, brain dumps on Twitter, and writes quite often for mental_floss magazine.

I know, I know. The recession blows. The job you may soon lose* is stressful and unpleasant. And beards are more popular these days. But before you abandon your fast-paced lifestyle for a quieter, more-cow-filled one, I recommend consulting my book, Be Amazing. There are a few things you need to think about.



1) Can You Tell the Difference Between Amish and Mennonite?
You're never going to endear yourself to your new neighbors if you can't tell 'em apart from their theological cousins down the road. Historically the older of the two sects, Mennonites believed in plain, unadorned living and adult baptism, making them not all that different from the other Christian groups that popped up in Germany and Switzerland in the 17th century. But, around 1693, one of their members, a guy named Jakob Amman, started to get a little rowdy. Amman traveled around the countryside preaching a more hard-line version of Mennonism that called for, among other things, a return to traditional clothing, avoidance of worldly grooming trends like moustaches, mandatory un-cut beards, and the public shunning of excommunicated church members. Taking their name from Amman's, his new followers called themselves "Amish."

Over the next few hundred years, both groups did their fair share of theological off-shooting. Today, there are numerous sub-groups of both Mennonite and Amish, making it difficult to pin them down with generalities. However, in most cases, the easiest way to tell the two apart is to look for a family car--most Mennonites drive them, most Amish don't. But, just because they enjoy a faster mode of travel doesn't mean the Mennonites are ostentatious about their automobiles. In fact, it's common practice to cover any Detroit-installed chrome with black paint, just to let the world know they aren't trying to be flashy.

2) Do You Know the Best Place to Move?
Obviously, your city digs will have to go, but contrary to popular belief, the geographic epicenter of Amish life is not Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Turns out, several counties in east-central Ohio are actually home to the largest Amish community in the world--population 29,000, and growing. Each Amish family has an average of 7 children, so their numbers have seemingly doubled every 20 years since outsiders started keeping records in the 1940s.

3) Can You Find Where the In-Crowd Hangs Out?
Earn your dirt-road cred by taking a shopping trip to Spector's. This department store in Middlefield, Ohio caters to Amish customers. Since 1937, they've dealt in things like quilting supplies, fabric, and the other necessities of Amish life that can't be easily made on the farm. And with several locations around the state, it may well be the world's first Amish-centric chain store.

4) Will You Be Able to Buy a Farm?
It's harder than it sounds. There are two things working against you. First, that whole population growth issue means that every generation sees even more young men in need of a farm of their own. The other problem, however, comes from the outside. Across the country, the rural areas the Amish inhabit are rapidly becoming exurbs, and what was once farmland is being sold to make way for subdivisions and Wal-Marts--making raw land, even when it is available, prohibitively expensive. In Lancaster County, for instance, 100 acres cost as much as $1 million in 2007. Things may be a bit easier now, though, what with the bursting of the real-estate bubble. So, if you can get your hands on some good farmland, do be ready to build a lot of barns. You probably already know that Amish construct their own, and their neighbors', in massive 24-hour barn raising parties. But, because many Amish groups don't believe in using "worldly" devices like lightning rods, those hand-built barns often end up having to be re-hand-built.

The Electric Amish really are a band, and you should listen to their music.

*ETA: Thanks for the heads-up on my grammar brain-fart. It's Saturday. My brain takes the day off today.










Source: Boing Boing | 25 Apr 2009 | 8:04 pm

Gadgetell Review: Amazon Kindle 2

Section: Gadgets / Other, Green, Lifestyle, Reviews

Gadgetell Review: Amazon Kindle 2

This is a guest post by Merlyn Akhtar.  Merlyn Akhtar is a tech-savvy person who isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty with hardware.  One of the first upgrades she performed was installing a 2X CD-ROM drive in a PC in her early teens back when Prodigy was an awesome ISP.

Using the Kindle in the real world

I commute almost an hour and a half each way by train every day, so I’ve got plenty of time to fill with reading.  I’ve been lugging around Harry Potter Book 6, the 2-3 inch thick hardcover edition.  On a train, it’s not the easiest thing to read.  Time to test out the Amazon Kindle 2.

Unfortunately, the Harry Potter novels are not yet available for the Kindle, so I picked out another book.  Even in a case (which costs extra, unfortunately) it took up little room in my bag and added little weight. 

Reading on the train with the Kindle was so much easier than with my hardcover.  It can be a tight squeeze in the seats with little elbow room, so being able to hold my “book” and turn the “page” with one hand was definitely a benefit over my hardcover book.

Apparently, the world is unfamiliar with the Kindle

At work, I was surprised to find that many of my co-workers, most of them engineers, had not heard of the Kindle.  They all wanted a chance to hold it and read from it and they had plenty of questions about its features. 
Like me, they seemed to enjoy how easy on the eyes the text was and how small and light the unit is in the hand.  They were even more intrigued by the free lifetime 3G and built-in web browser.  They were throwing out topics left and right for me to look up in Wikipedia and even had me load up my e-mail account. 

The small, but might,y unit definitely piqued their interests.  It was hard to stow the unit away until the end of the day - it almost makes you want to read more.  My train ride home was again a joy - at least the reading part.  The Kindle almost makes you forget its in your lap or in your hand.

The Good:

Portability:  The Amazon Kindle 2 travels easily - it’s not only physically small, but also rather a lightweight way of carrying a library.

Reading is a dream:  The screen is very easy on the eyes.  It really is a near-paper like experience and you can adjust the text size for personal preference.  Plus the battery life is about 2 weeks if the wireless connection is off.

Get connected:  The Kindle 2 comes with free 3G wireless access for life.  Combine this with the built-in web browser and you have an encyclopedia and dictionary at your fingertips wherever you’ve got 3G.

Selection:  I found Amazon’s Kindle Store to have an affordable selection of books, magazines, and newspapers with plenty of free stuff, too.  I actually found popular titles available to purchase, like the Twilight series.

The Bad:

There is nothing that I outright could not stand about the Kindle, but there are a few things that I would like to see tweaked for Kindle 3.

The In-Between:

Price:  Initially, I had this in the “Bad” column, but I took a step back and really considered why Amazon priced it where they did - $359.99.  So, you get free 3G for life with a built-in web browser AND the capability to replace shelves upon shelves of books plus receive multiple newspapers and magazines all with one compact device. 

You really get so much more than a simple e-reader, however, Amazon is marketing it as basically that - a simple e-reader for books.  Naturally, the everyday consumer is likely to cringe at the $359 price tag for what is touted as such a simple device.  Even I have trouble swallowing the $359 and I know that the Kindle is pretty powerful.  I think you’ll see the Kindle popularity rise if Amazon lowers the price to somewhere between $199 and $299.

Screen size:  While the look of the text on the screen is easy on the eyes, I would like to have more screen real estate.  Even with the smaller font sizes, the pages felt a bit cramped and I found myself moving through pages pretty quickly - too quick for comfort.

One font style choice:  For an even more personalized experience, I would like to see the option added to have different viewing fonts, in addition to just text size.  In the alternative, publishers should be able to choose the display font for their works.

Navigation:  The joystick is a bit awkard, as is the right-handed next page button.  If you’re a quick reader, you’ll find yourself hitting that “next page” button a lot.  It could definitely be made more comfortable via texture and the amount of pressure to click.

The Crux:

As someone who loves to read and who loves gadgets, too, I don’t want to give this back.  Even knowing all that the Kindle can do, I can’t get past the price tag.  Therefore, I must be satisfied with simply placing it on my wishlist - right at the top, of course.



Source: Gizmodo | 25 Apr 2009 | 7:30 pm

Interest grows in big New York Times stake -WSJ

NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Several potential bidders are interested in buying Harbinger Capital Partners's 20 percent stake in The New York Times Co , The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2009 | 7:21 pm

Interest grows in big New York Times stake -WSJ

NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Several potential bidders are interested in buying Harbinger Capital Partners's 20 percent stake in The New York Times Co , The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday...
Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Apr 2009 | 7:21 pm

First Android/ARM Netbook To Cost $250, Maker Says

ericatcw writes "There was a flurry of excitement earlier this week when the first Google Android netbook, the Skytone Alpha 680, was spotted by Slashdotters. Now, Computerworld has scored an exclusive interview with Skytone's co-founder. Among many tidbits, he reveals that the Alpha 680 builds upon the success of last year's $180 Alpha 400, which shipped 100,000 units, mostly in Europe under names such as Elonex OneT; that the new Alpha 680 will weigh 1.5 pounds, 25% less than the first Eee 701 netbook; that its ARM11 chip (basically the same as the one used in the iPhone) can handle YouTube video; and that he hopes to have Chinese manufacturing partners producing the $250 Alpha 680 within 3 months."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.


Source: Slashdot | 25 Apr 2009 | 7:18 pm

Twitter’s Real Edge: It’s not Scary

joybeharWhen I was writing my last book, I used to go run at the gym for about an hour every morning to clear my head. The TVs were always set on ABC, so I’d zone out to either “Live with Regis & Kelly” or “The View”–two shows I’d never watched before.

I was always struck by the constant fear mongering about the Internet, particularly on “The View.” It seemed every day there was a story about pedophiles patrolling MySpace, ex-wives putting retaliatory dirty-laundry-airing videos on YouTube and 20-somethings getting fired because of college keg party pictures on Facebook. The message to housewives was loud and clear: DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS USE THESE HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE SITES!

Yesterday after a pretty brutal morning, I found myself sitting on the couch, flipping channels for a little background noise and settling on my old jogging buddy “The View.” Mainly because Lil’ Wayne was the guest and the combo of my favorite saucy rapper and ultra-right-winger Elizabeth Hasselbeck sounded TiVo-worthy. It was the first time I’ve watched the show in at least a year.

Imagine my surprise that Joy was texting away on her Blackberry while on air, and a conversation about a study that showed good friends could help you live to 100 years old immediately brought up Twitter. “This is why I am on Twitter,” Joy said, “We’re all on it now except for Whoopi…We like to have all these friends. It’s like a community of people who are interested in you.” Nods all around. Turns out– as I learned from “The Soup” on Friday night–they’ve been talking about it all week, as has every other Oprah-wanna-be. Yes, even Tyra. (See video below.)

Wait a minute, ladies. Wait. One. Minute. You’re telling me that you are blasting your every move out to a bunch of strangers’ mobile phones, and there’s no fear of stalkers, crazed fans or psychos? Not even from Elizabeth? I had to check to make sure I was really watching “The View.”

It’s easy to dismiss this as yet more celebs jumping on the Twitter bandwagon. But that masks the really remarkable thing Twitter seems to have pulled off. It has seemingly side-stepped the whole fear-of-technology mania that usually plagues most social media sites as they start to tip mainstream. There was that little report about terrorists using it and that was pretty much it. Throughout 2007 I heard these same ladies make the argument that spending all this time on MySpace and Facebook was eroding kids’ abilities to make friends. Now just two years later, the same people are equating Twitter with real world friendships. What gives?

Is it that everyone has finally gotten used to the idea of real world and digital friendships overlapping? I doubt it. Because you still hear fear mongering with a lot of the other sites. There’s just something about Twitter that’s less scary. And that may prove its biggest strength and differentiator.

I think part of it is how simple the site is to use, the flexibility of using it via the web or mobile, and the relatively low barrier to that “a-ha!” moment. You know, the mini-endorphin rush you get from knowing what your friends are doing at any moment, or for a celebrity, hearing from fans in a more direct, more immediate way then you could before.

But that’s only part of it. I think the key to Twitter’s mainstream celeb success has been the asynchronous, non-committal nature of the site. As Facebook and MySpace grew, we all experienced that social pressure akin to seeing someone on the street that you know, but don’t want to talk to and wondering how you can politely avoid them. Most people who indiscriminately add “friends” just because they asked don’t wind up really using Facebook to connect with actual friends, because they don’t want to over-share photos, contact information, or videos with “friends” who are essentially strangers.

But on Twitter, the personal information is contained by the restraints of the site itself. It’s just short text updates, unless you chose to link to a picture or video. People feel like they know you, while you actually give up very little personal information. You get intimate connections with as many people as you want, but on your own terms. People can follow you, without you following them. You can still see what people you aren’t following are saying about you and respond, or not. And you can add someone for a bit, then unfollow them, frequently without them noticing while they still follow you.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn CEO and uber-Web 2.0 angel a few weeks ago. He pointed out that lifecasting never took off in a big way because it was originally conceived as video. Many people don’t want to show that much of their lives, and most friends just don’t have the time to watch. It’s not that people don’t care, it’s just that sometimes we’re not great editors. We tend to think we’re more interesting than we really are.

But Twitter is noncommittal, bite-sized lifecasting in a manageable text form. It’s similar to how I refuse to check one long rambling voice mail, but I’m happy to scan hundreds of texts or emails. Hoffman compared it to the difference between watching a vacation movie of your friend sitting on a boat in the water for an hour, versus reading one 140-character Tweet that your friend was sitting on a boat enjoying the sun.

Ironically, the asyncronicity of Twitter was hotly contested by a lot of early adopters who pressured the Twitter team heavily to change it to an auto-follow model. Evan Williams & crew always held out, convinced it was of key importance to how the site would grow and scale. Looks like they were right.

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



Source: Gizmodo | 25 Apr 2009 | 5:45 pm

Man receives unexpected bill of $62,000 for downloading a movie

Section: Video, Content, Portable Video, Video Providers, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Broadband Cards, Mobile

Wall-E

One problem with wireless carrier contracts are the fine print, which often makes it hard for the customer to understand.  When this occurs, the customer is very confused about the contract and often do something they end up regretting.  A man named Alberto called into CNN’s Clark Howard explaining that he purchased Wall-E for his nephew to watch while in Mexico.  Of course, this constitutes as roaming and Alberto was slapped with a $62,000 bill, just for the movie. 

Before he phoned in to CNN, he asked the carrier to reduce the bill, because $62,000 is a bit ridiculous.  Instead of decreasing the bill to something that could be paid off, it was reduced to $17,000, what it cost the carrier in bandwidth.  As you can imagine, Alberto must have been pretty furious because all he tried to do was entertain his nephew, and all of a sudden he’s dug himself a big hole.  Going back to what I said before, contracts say roaming charges will add up to a lot, but in a big contract, it is easily overlooked.  This is a classic example of wireless carriers preying on unsuspecting customers. 

Next time you plan to travel abroad with the intention of accessing Internet via phone or data card, remember you can opt in purchasing an international roaming plan, so you don’t have to pay any insane fees.  Whether or not Alberto will be able to escape his $17,000 bill is not yet known.  But I’m sure he has learned fast from his mistake, and will definitely not travel without planning ahead again.  Check out the conversation between Alberto and Clark Howard below. 

Via [Ars Technica]

Embedded video from CNN Video

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



Source: Gadgetell | 25 Apr 2009 | 5:34 pm

Hollywood Calls RealNetworks DVD Copying a Threat - eWeek


ABC News

Hollywood Calls RealNetworks DVD Copying a Threat
eWeek
By Nicholas Kolakowski Hollywood titans argue that a DVD ripper by RealNetworks presents a huge threat to film studios' revenue and have taken the software company to federal court over the issue.
Judge seals courtroom in MPAA DVD-copying case CNET News
Real, MPAA Face Off in Court Over realdvd PC Magazine
ZDNet - PC World - ChannelWeb - Afterdawn.com
all 553 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Apr 2009 | 5:23 pm

Hot gaming news for the week of 4-19-2009

Section:

title

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…




Source: Gizmodo | 25 Apr 2009 | 4:00 pm

Yahoo Demolishes GeoCities 10 Years, $3.6 Billion Later - eWeek


PC World

Yahoo Demolishes GeoCities 10 Years, $3.6 Billion Later
eWeek
By Nicholas Kolakowski Yahoo announced that it will shut down GeoCities, one of the company's longer-running units, later in 2009.
Geocities to close after 15 years of aesthetic "awesomeness" Ars Technica
Now closing: GeoCities, a relic of Web's early days CNET News
PC World - PC Magazine - Los Angeles Times - Reuters
all 371 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 25 Apr 2009 | 3:30 pm

WHO: Swine flu has pandemic potential

A swine flu virus that has killed at least 68 people in Mexico has the potential to become a pandemic, international health officials said Saturday.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2009 | 3:28 pm

Waledac botnet starting new spam campaign

Section: Computers, Security

spammer Security experts are warning that the Waledac botnet is being a fresh wave of spam.  This new variant spreads its Trojan, also named Waledec, by spam messages about a program that claims it will let the user spy on people’s text messages.  Recipients are directed to an URL to download it. The program is fake and installs the Trojan instead.  Here are some of the subject lines used to distribute the malware:

Can your love life be re-ignited?
Are you sure in your partner’s faithfulness?
Now, It’s possible to read other people’s SMS
We will tech you to be the master of making love art
Just type the phone number and read SMS
Do you want to test your partner?
Have more fun and pleasure in your intimate life
Now, you can read any SMS messages from any mobile phones
Keep a spy eye on your Girlfriend’s mobile
What’s Your Hall of Shame
Are you redy to know the truth

This latest spam campaign is obviously targeted at suspicious and/or untrusting people.  Waledec is the botnet believed to be behind the Conficker worm as well.  That worm has infected over 15 million computers around the world.  Rumors spread that it would drop a huge payload on April 1st, but that turned out to be untrue, although it has called into its control servers and updated itself at least once.  Some experts believe one gang controls both while others say it’s more likely two groups of cybercrooks are working together.

In addition to the new SMS spyware spam, Waldec sends out spam designed to exploit headlines and major holidays.  At present it sends about 7,000 spam messages an hour, which puts it far behind Rustock and Xarvester, which send out a whopping 25,000 spam messages an hour.

Since Waledec keeps reinventing itself to keep from being detected by anti-virus programs, it’s crucial that you and your employees avoid clicking on links in emails and that your company’s spam filters are kept updated at all times.  Researchers say the phrase “no honor among thieves” no longer applies to the world of cybercrime as more and more gangs team up and combine their resources.  This makes them more powerful and ultimately, more profitable, so beware.

Read [SpamFighterNews]

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



Source: Gadgetell | 25 Apr 2009 | 3:24 pm

Henry Jenkins and Babylon 5's Straczynski live, MIT, May 22

Media scholar Henry Jenkins and Babylon 5 creator Joe Straczynski are doing a double-header at MIT on May 22, and it's open to the public. Sounds like a hell of a way to spend an evening.
Previously known best for his role as the creator of the cult science fiction series Babylon 5 and its various spin-off films and series. Straczynski wrote 92 out of the 110 Babylon 5 episodes, notably including an unbroken 59-episode run through all of the third and fourth seasons, and all but one episode of the fifth season.

His early television writing career spans from work on He-Man, She-Ra, and The Real Ghostbusters through to The New Twilight Zone and Murder She Wrote. He followed up Babylon 5 with the science fiction series Jeremiah.

Straczysnki also enjoys continued success as a comic book writer, working on established superhero franchises, such as The Amazing Spider-Man, Supreme Power and Thor, as well as his own original series, such as Rising Stars, Midnight Nation, The Twelve, and The Book of Lost Souls. He is also a journalist, publishing over 500 articles in such periodicals as the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Writer's Digest Magazine, and TIME Inc.

He was one of the first television producers to actively engage his fan community online and has consistently explored the interface between digital media and other storytelling platforms.

2009 Speaker: J. Michael Straczynski (Thanks, Andrew!)



Source: Gizmodo | 25 Apr 2009 | 3:00 pm

Swine flu may have killed 60 in Mexico

Swine flu in Mexico City closed schools and other public venues, made nearly 1,000 people ill and killed up to 60 people, public health officials say. A swine flu outbreak in Mexico City has closed schools, museums, libraries and theaters with nearly 1,000 people now ill, said public health officials. The flu strain, which killed scores in Mexico during the last few days, appears to be the same as one observed recently in California and Texas, the Word Health Organization said Friday. An increasing number of people were wearing face masks in Mexico City as the public was warned to avoid large groups and body contact, including shaking hands and kissing, the Voice of America reported Saturday. The World Health Organization has sent experts to the United States and Mexico to monitor the situation, the VOA reported. WHO is not at the point of declaring a pandemic, said spokesman Dr.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2009 | 2:24 pm

Hydrogen Protects Nuclear Fuel In Final Storage

When Sweden's spent nuclear fuel is to be permanently stored, it will be protected by three different barriers.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2009 | 1:12 pm

Attention torrent shoppers: Windows 7 RC1 is now available

Section: Computers, Web, Downloads, Web Browsers, Websites

windows7rc

Well if you are the pirating sort, maybe you can make use of the handy dandy new The Pirate Google Bay site, since you can now nab Windows 7 RC1 (Build 7100) on your favorite torrent site.

Many were watching and waiting for this release, and it’s now been leaked, with an undisputed authenticity.  Although, as with any time you are on torrent sites, you do want to watch out for fakes.  Apparently not too much is wildly new and different since the public beta, but if you are looking to get a feel for the performance, you’ll want to check this build out.

I hear that the full build string is “7100.0.090421-1700″ and you’ll want to check the file hash of the x86 (32-bit) ISO file with HashTab against the following to make sure you don’t have a fake.  Not saying you should go find it on a torrent site or anything though. *ahem*

CRC32: E8A1C394
MD5: 8867C13330F56A93944BCD46DCD73590
SHA-1: 7D1F486CA569EFFFFB719CFB48355BB7BF499712

However, all is not totally nice and rosy in Windows 7 land.  Two researchers at the Hack in the Box security conference, which is going on now, have announced an “unfixable hack” to Windows 7.  It seems they have come up with a way to get in and control a W7 computer during boot up, by using a small 3KB program called VBootkit 2.0.  This is a follow-up to a Vista hack a lot like it.  It sticks itself on the system memory and skips the hard drive totally, which makes it next to impossible to detect.  Once there, the hacker could pretty much do whatever they want.  Get in any files, change passwords, whatever.  And then, poof!  Disappear like they were never there.  The drawback for the hacker, and the good thing for the rest of us, is that this one can’t be done remotely.  Better hope your hubby or wife isn’t mad at you and very tech savvy.

via: crunchgear

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



Source: Gadgetell | 25 Apr 2009 | 1:08 pm

A Small Victory For Endangered Gray Whales

Conservation groups advocating the protection of critically endangered gray whales say they have cause to celebrate.After extended talks with Russian gas and oil companies, the groups say they have managed to win agreements from several firms to end seismic drilling work in order to give the struggling whales a chance to breed undisturbed.The energy companies’ agreement to suspend work comes on the heels of recent research studies that demonstrated how their methods of extracting fossil fuels had affected the breeding behavior and lifecycles of the rare marine mammals.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2009 | 1:05 pm

Kenyan Preserve Spots First Albino Buffalo

Officials at Kenya’s majestic Hell’s Gate National Park announced on Friday that park rangers had recently sighted an albino buffalo calf, the first of its kind ever found in the country.“This is the first time that an albino buffalo has been found in our parks and it’s a great day
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Apr 2009 | 12:45 pm