Iranian moderate candidate criticizes Facebook ban (Reuters)

KDDI au rolls out 8 new (and partly awesome) cell phones

Japanese telecommunications giants SoftBank and Docomo unveiled their summer 2009 line-ups last week and were followed by the country’s No. 2 carrier, KDDI au, today. While SoftBank is to roll out 15 new cell phones this summer and Docomo even 17 presented models, KDDI au showed only 8 new candy bars [JP] in the morning. But some of these are amazing.

Here is au’s complete summer 2009 line-up:

Toshiba Biblio

(cell phone with integrated e-book reader, a 3.5-inch LCD screen featuring a 960×480 resolution, 7GB internal memory, QWERTY keyboard and Opera Mobile 9.5 including AJAX support)

Sharp Sportio Waterbeat

(waterproof cell phone with a 3-inch ASV touch screen (480×854), calorie tracker, weight controller, and other sports- and fitness related functions)

Hitachi Mobile Hi-Vision CAM Wooo

(yes, a cell phone that lets you record video in 720p and at 30fps, and also features microSDHC/HDMI Mini interfaces and a 3-inch IPS screen (480×854))

Sharp SOLAR PHONE SH002

(Sharp’s highly anticipated solar-powered cell phone with a 3-inch AVS screen, a 5MP CMOS AF camera and micro SD card support)

Toshiba T002

(GSM cell phone with slim body specifically designed for women in their 30s to 40s)

Casio G’zOne W62CA

(water proof cell phone with LED light, electronic compass and 2.7-inch WQVGA screen)

Kyocera K002

(extra-slim (10.9mm) cell phone targeted at men in their 30s and 40s)

Kyocera Kantan Keitai K003

(easy-to-use standard cell phone aimed at users over 60)

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

China Sentences Virtual Currency Extorter to Prison (PC World)

Internet star Susan Boyle stuns again with "Memory" (Reuters)

World's Oldest Blogger Dies At 97

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

VASCO Launches DIGIPASS for Mobile Enterprise Security Edition

Susan Boyle Sings Again: “Memory” and a Makeover [BoomTown]

Here are the two answers to the key questions you might have about Susan Boyle’s return appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent” last night: Yes and yes.

As in: Did the Scottish singing (and Web) sensation nail it again? And, does she look better?

Indeed, except for her proclivity to pick purplish songs from crowd-pleasing, but mediocre musicals (which matched her aubergine frock)–this time “Memory” from “Cats”–Boyle was a huge hit offline and online in the semi-finals of the television show.

She quickly made it into the finals, which is no surprise, of course, which are set to take place next Saturday.

Here is the video of Boyle singing that overripe song quite elegantly, as well as her post-song interview:

VimpelCom to Release First Quarter 2009 Financial and Operating Results on Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pentagon Seeks High School Hackers [Voices]

High school hackers, crackers and digital deviants: Uncle Sam wants you.

As part of a government information security review released as early as Friday, White House interim cybersecurity chief Melissa Hathaway likely will mention a new military-funded program aimed at leveraging an untapped resource: the U.S.’ population of geeky high school and college students.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Learning, and Profiting, from Online Friendships [Voices]

A question: If you have 347 followers on the Twitter microblogging service, what are the chances that they’ll click on the same online ad you clicked on last night? Advertisers are dying to know.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Do You Know How #FollowFriday Started? [Voices]

Today is Friday, the most famed day of the week. Why you ask? It’s the end of the workweek and the beginning of the weekend (for some). But, for the Twitterverse, it’s a day where you could see your follower count substantially climb as a result of a grassroots hashtag simply called #followfriday.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Copyright Meets a New Worthy Foe: The Real-Time Web [Voices]

Copyright law wasn’t written with today’s content consumption in mind. The way online video copyright functions is based on a reading of the 10-year-old Digital Millennium Copyright Act that equates video hosting sites with Internet service providers. That law provides a “safe harbor” for hosts who respond to copyright claims by taking down infringing content “expeditiously.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Why Don’t You Love Flock? [Voices]

A few days ago, the social web browser Flock released version 2.5 of their software, integrating Facebook Chat, improving Twitter functionality, and adding a new broadcasting feature called “Flockcast.” As we evaluated the upgrade, a thought occurred to us: this browser should be the epitome of everything we love about the social web and yet the company has seen only moderate success.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

This is Not a Sponsored Post: Paid Conversations, Credibility & The FTC

In the eyes of imaginative and opportunistic advertisers and marketers, bloggers and online influencers are the new celebrities and athletes. Brands are showering them with endorsement deals rich with products, cash, trips, exclusive access to information, and VIP treatment each and every day, creating a new genre of star spokespersons.

Many expert and lifestyle “citizen” bloggers and online weblebrities are creating communities around their personas as they freely and actively share personal and identifiable experiences online, in social networks and also in the real world. Those who can successfully connect their stories to others in and around their peer groups earn trust, visibility and authority - limited only by ambition and ingenuity. They’re rewarded for their presence and ability to point their followers in strategic directions.

These new brand ambassadors are almost the perfect instruments for surreptitiously sparking and cultivating a groundswell of desire within desired target markets.

Consumers look to experts and trusted peers for guidance and insight when making decisions.

But who’s to say that the information they’re receiving from their trusted sources is indeed truthful and honest? Many of these followers are blind to the fact that some of these authorities are actually directly or indirectly compensated for their opinions and insights.

Journalists and reporters on the other hand, most of them anyway, are held to strict editorial guidelines and policies that denounce the practice of receiving products, gifts or compensation in exchange for editorial coverage. There’s at least a line that separates ethical press from advertorials —whether it’s crossed, is another story.

But in the new online world of citizen influence, there’s no line on the horizon—at least not yet. Driven only by loosely defined and sporadically practiced methodologies that promote at-will disclosure and transparency, many brands, intentionally or deliberately, are blurring a consumer’s ability to discern the distinction between partisan and genuine experiences.

The New FTC Guidelines: Even Citizen Journalists Must Disclose Paid Endorsements

That’s all about to change. Under new guidelines proposed by the Federal Trade Commission, brands and bloggers both may be held liable should either the FTC or scorned consumers deem that their actions or claims misguided them, or misrepresented the actual performance or efficacy of the product or service in question..

According to the FTC, the ability for a consumer to exercise better judgment and common sense is indefensible when a glaring absence of disclosure is pervasive.

Earlier this year, The FTC published recommendations to update its guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising and public relations. A new set of guidelines, enforceable by the FTC Act, is due soon.

The Guides, 16 C.F.R. Part 255, are designed to assist businesses and others in conforming their endorsement and testimonial advertising practices to the requirements of Section 5 of the FTC Act. The Guides interpret laws administered by the Commission and therefore are advisory in nature. However, proceedings to enforce the requirements of law can be brought under the FTC Act. The Commission would have the responsibility of proving that a particular use of an endorsement or testimonial was deceptive.

In its review of the proposed guidelines, BusinessWeek observed, “The world’s more ambitious bloggers like to call themselves ‘citizen journalists.’ The government is trying to make sure these heralds don’t turn into citizen advertisers.”

I disagree with BusinessWeek’s observation and so does the FTC.

In a discussion with Mary Engle, the acting deputy director for the Bureau of Consumer Protection, she articulated to me, “It’s not about preventing citizen journalists from becoming citizen advertisers, that’s just not true. We’re acting to ensure that bloggers don’t create a bias in the consumer decision-making process. Consumers just need to know that what they’re reading is technically an advertisement.”

Whether the post is compensated with cash or with free product or rewards, the FTC views them equally. Engle observed, “The real test is whether or not the consumer’s impression or decision would change if they knew the post was sponsored.”

The FTC Guides advise that an advertisement employing a consumer endorsement on a central or key attribute of a product will be interpreted as representing that the endorser’s experience is representative of what consumers will generally achieve.

It’s about responsibility and credibility.

But honestly, why chance it?

The practice of paying bloggers and influencers or providing them with free products not only clouds their ability to share an impartial story, but also risks the credibility and trust of brands and influencers among the very people they’re trying to inspire and galvanize.

With or without the new FTC guidelines, the practice of disclosure is not an option when the potential for significantly damaging customer relationships in a very public spotlight is at stake. Unfortunately, such disclosure is not at the forefront of most marketing programs.

Free Products are Gifts that Keep on Giving

Ignorance is bliss, until it’s not…

In 2006, Microsoft introduced its Vista operating system to consumers using traditional and new media. In one of the programs, bloggers of varying levels of influence, received Acer Ferrari notebooks to potentially review and share their experiences of the OS and also the notebook. Initially, it wasn’t made clear to these bloggers that disclosure was encouraged. I saw many variations of the packages and letters. Depending on which version a blogger did or didn’t receive, instructions and intentions were also vaguely communicated. What was commonly perceived and understood by other bloggers and ultimately consumers, was that these expensive notebooks were theirs to keep whether or not they shared anything online. To say it created a blogstorm of controversy would be a gross understatement. The lessons learned here served as precedent for those seeking guidance, but didn’t necessarily translate intro industry-wide standards.

Brands view the practice of sending products to bloggers and online influencers as a natural extension of their product PR campaign. In many cases over the years, companies simply didn’t expect to receive product back from reviewers, whether or not they were employed by a publication bound by editorial guidelines against the acceptance of gifts or free products. Bloggers and online influencers, until the recent FTC attention, were viewed no differently.

Sending free products, according to the FTC, is viewed as compensation, which translates into an advertisement or paid endorsement.

Under the FTC guidelines, disclosure is required in any case where the brand is hopeful of obtaining a published review of the product, when its return, either explicitly or implicitly conveyed, is not expected. This attempts to ensure the protection of all parties against liability or legal action.

Sponsored Posts and Conversations

Whether or not disclosure is evident and forthright, the question really is, whether or not the practice of giving gifts to encourage reviews or outright paying for them is ultimately effective and sound for channeling influence, community building and revenue generation for the long-term.

I am now talking about “sponsored conversations”: outright paying for posts and conversations versus simply sending free product or rewarding influencers with various other incentives and hoping for complimentary posts and discussions in exchange.

A recent report published by Forrester Research defines sponsored conversations as, “A marketing technique in which marketers provide financial or material compensation to bloggers in exchange for their posting blog content about a brand.”

In the report, which is available for $749, Forrester recommends adding sponsored conversations to the corporate marketing toolbox, “Sponsored conversation is controversial; many bloggers believe it threatens bloggers’ reputation for independence. But we think this practice is here to stay. Why? Because bloggers want to get paid and marketers want to pay them.”

According to the FTC guidelines, if there were a financial or other relationship between the advertiser and the endorser that would affect the credibility of the endorsement, that relationship would have to be disclosed under Section 255.5. So, as long as the blogger is clear that the post or conversation is “sponsored,” all guidelines are respected and satisfied.

Wait, what about the brand?

Just because bloggers want to get paid and brands want to pay them, doesn’t make this a no-brainer business practice. Or, put another way, does it actually enhance the product/company brand or the personal brand of the blogger in the long run?

Some of the biggest brands in the world are already experimenting with paid posts including, 1-800Flowers, Black&Decker, Cold Stone Creamery, Dell, Disney, MTV, Sears, Sony Pictures, and TiVo. For example, Kmart recently sent several high profile bloggers on $500 shopping sprees in exchange for “sponsored posts” about their experiences.

I suppose, it’s in the way that you use it . . .

So, let’s examine something of deeper impact and consequence. Every community thrives on interaction rooted in respect and defined by credibility and trust—at least that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

For bloggers to risk or leverage their existing, and more importantly, potential credibility in exchange for blogola is either absurd or shortsighted. It might be simply gratifying and motivating for now. Maybe the bigger picture has yet to come into focus for many bloggers and the act of recognition is enough. And, for brands to either take generations of a brand ’s integrity or shape its new and emerging identification on the backs of bloggers who’ll loan their stature and reputation is brilliantly foolish. In the end, it’s the consumer who holds the power to decide his or her degree of affinity and affiliation or mutiny and backlash.

Integrity and Reputation vs. Buzz and Google Juice

The impending FTC guidelines and whether or not bloggers and brands are at risk of legal punishment isn’t the issue. We just have to deal with it. We can choose as consumers whether or not we want to engage with this content.

The real discussion should center on why a company or blogger should even care to participate. The things we do for money are governed by personal boundaries. As individuals, we define those lines and how clearly we wish to view and abide by them.

If we examine Forrester’s case for sponsored conversations, we’re essentially fueling word of mouth by paying for social or topical authorities to share their views about our company or product brand in their domain. This is important. We’re talking about paying people to write about a company or product on their existing, personally-branded content platform associated with it’s already existing, captive audience. This theoretically sparks Webwide buzz that connects a brand to the community of would be customers who rely upon these personalities and voices in the both the blogosphere and statusphere to make informed decisions.

Seems simple enough, except two things are going to prevent this from effectively promoting the sponsoring brand over time — 1) disclosures read like warning signs; 2) Google is downgrading any blog or site that actively publishes paid content.

Let’s walk down this path a bit farther . . .

As a consumer, when’s the last time you read an advertorial and walked away inspired or informed? Other than the Snuggie or ShamWow, when is the last time you actually watched an infomercial, let alone bought a product or shared it with your friends because of what you viewed?

Perhaps this is the wrong audience for a discussion probing the shrewdness of the typical consumer. But, I bet many of you reading this now are responsible for the direction, visibility, and perception of a brand. So as brand managers, your brand is what the market says it is, tethered to the credibility and stature of the people who collectively voice their thoughts about it (paid and unpaid). In the world of pay-per-posts or sponsored conversations, brand association starts to paint a picture of guilt by association, not necessarily the building of strategic brand presence or resonance.

This is a deeper discussion of reputation and trustworthiness versus funding word of mouth buzz and viral marketing. To simply state that “disclosure” alleviates and resolves all risks involved with sponsoring conversations trivializes the discussion.

Brand Ambassadors and Inspired Communities

Whether we like it or not, many new companies are offering brokered services to facilitate “pay to play” campaigns in Social Media. Concurrently, many brands are also running these programs from within.

Clearly a balance scale exists where integrity and paid buzz are on opposite sides. So the real question is, how do you leverage the laws of perception management in your favor? One way to do so is through traditional public relations.

Identify target bloggers and work genuinely with them on developing a meaningful story that helps and informs their community. Bloggers will write about products and brands they really care about. You don’t have to pay them to do that. It comes naturally.

This is not to say that there is no place whatsoever for paid endorsements on the Web. Obviously paid endorsements work when the platform for conveying paid messages is understood and accepted. Celebrities have effectively pushed products in commercials without tarnishing their brand for decades. Essentially, the difference is the forums and networks in which these paid messages appear and the fact that the celebrities are usually aboveboard about the fact that they are endorsements.

Look to the existing business of paid endorsements to build and manage a campaign that effectively reaches and compels potential customers without the negative attributes that cling to pay-per-posts.

Hiring or recruiting influential weblebrities and online experts is not unlike the model for linking real world celebrities to brands through commercials, events, appearances, or other dedicated vehicles to promote the alliance and the story. These campaigns, when conceptualized and executed properly, effectively link the product/company brand to the celebrity’s persona and prestige to convey a relationship that connects to consumers through their affinity to the spokesperson. The idea is to create and host a two-way street that still inspires word of mouth and viral marketing.

For example:

Mozy hired iJustine as an official spokesperson airing content on Mozy.com as well as across multiple social networks including YouTube and iJustine branded properties.

Wal-Mart established Elevenmoms, an expert group of independent bloggers who receive free sample products to review and then freely choose which products to review based entirely on their personal opinion and experience.

Baby-products manufacturer Graco launched the Graco Nation Ambassador Program, a dedicated community of select Graco fans.

Based on the company’s successful foray into influencer relations with its Flex loaner program, Ford is currently trying to spark consumer buzz for its impending launch of the Ford Fiesta by enlisting every day consumers to share their experiences online and in social networks.

In the end, sponsored conversations will continue to receive funding, as brands try to insert themselves into the conversations online. The FTC is simply striving for truth in advertising. The point is that when establishing a paid Social Media campaign, anything that is less than clear, honest, or actively contributing back to the bottom line of the business or to a brand’s resonance is actually taking away from it.

(Photo credit: Flickr/Jennifer Rensel)

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

Cartier to withdraw suit against Apple - WSJ - Reuters

Soft Sailor

Cartier to withdraw suit against Apple - WSJ Reuters May 25 (Reuters) - Cartier International NV said it would withdraw a lawsuit against Apple Inc (AAPL.O) that alleged two applications for the iPhone infringed on the trademark for the luxury brand's Tank watches, the Wall Street Journal reported. Apple changes mind on rejected e-book reader app CNET News smartrend(R) News Watch: Cartier Sues Apple On Friday, Withdraws ... FOXBusiness MacNN - United Press International - IntoMobile - Fudzilla all 103 news articles

Scholarship of social influence

3. Diffusion of information may 'long circuit' the small worlds of social networks. In Kleinberg's presentation regarding the study of the largest internet chain mail (a petition) he described the role of the threshold model of diffusion in which we require multiple receipts of a stimulus (e.g. a chain mail letter) to pass it on, we are more sensitive to our immediate community - our strong links - than to small-world building weak links. This seems to have some relationship with Watt's work on Challenging the Influentials Hypothesis and both his criticism of the disease analogy and his focus on the importance of the network structure, not some magical power of the 'influential'.

Wine Project Frustration and Forking

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

New Modern Warfare 2 trailer revealed - GameSpot

Soft Sailor

New Modern Warfare 2 trailer revealed GameSpot By Randolph Ramsay, GameSpot AU Everything the world has seen thus far of Infinity Ward's upcoming Modern Warfare 2 has been a tease. New Modern Warfare 2 Trailer Finally Premieres 1UP.com Modern Warfare 2 gameplay trailer unveiled Gaming Target TheHDRoom - Talk Xbox - G4 TV - Fudzilla all 32 news articles

Surmounting climate change in the Himalayas - CNN

Reuters

Surmounting climate change in the Himalayas CNN (CNN) -- Dawa Steven Sherpa is leader of Eco Everest Expeditions, aiming to educate climbers about their impact on the Himalayas and highlight the affects of climate change on the region. Climate change making Everest ascent harder: sherpa Reuters India Record Everest Climber To Dedicate Life For Climate Change Bernama Ninemsn - AFP - Barcelona News - Earthtimes (press release) all 180 news articles

Why We Freak Out at Freaks

Note to Ford: Give Us the Focus RS

Adeona Warns of Instability; OpenDHT Mothballed

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Exclusive: Everything There Is To Know About Nokia’s Next Tablet

Move over, Nokia N97. Your bigger, badder, unannounced brother is on the way - and one of our sources at Nokia has just clued us in on all of the details, from worldwide launch targets to hardware specs.

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Exclusive: Everything There Is To Know About Nokia’s Next Tablet

Move over, Nokia N97. Your bigger, badder, unannounced brother is on the way - and one of our sources at Nokia has just clued us in on all of the details, from worldwide launch targets to hardware specs.

Nokia’s next tablet device is designed in the same vein as their N810, albeit significantly more polished. Though it doesn’t appear to have an official name as of yet, it’s referred to internally as “N900″, “Rover”, or “Maemo Flagship”. We’ll be referring to this device as the N900 for the rest of this post, though it’s quite possible that this name will change.

Read the rest of this post >>

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When the Best Game Is the One You Were Never Intended to Play

Exclusive: Everything There Is To Know About Nokia’s Next Tablet

Move over, Nokia N97. Your bigger, badder, unannounced brother is on the way - and one of our sources at Nokia has just clued us in on all of the details, from worldwide launch targets to hardware specs.

While it should be noted that our source on this scoop is new to our tipster family, we’re very confident in the details they’ve provided. All materials they’ve shared seem positively legit, having a number of indicators we’ve come to look for in Nokia documents (though, for the sake of not opening our inbox to a landslide of real looking fakes, we can’t say what these are.) Included in these materials were a number of renders and product shots; unfortunately, we’ve got reason to believe that these images have tough-to-detect security watermarks. For the sake of our source, we can only release the above recreation of one of the product renders - apologies for our artistic shortcomings.

Nokia’s next tablet device is designed in the same vein as their N810, albeit significantly more polished. Though it doesn’t appear to have an official name as of yet, it’s referred to internally as “N900″, “Rover”, or “Maemo Flagship”. We’ll be referring to this device as the N900 for the rest of this post, though it’s quite possible that this name will change.

The N900 is very similar to the Nokia N97 aesthetically, having a 3.5″ touchscreen above a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and many of the same design features. However, the screen of the N900 is significantly higher resolution (800×480 as opposed to 360×640) and, unlike that of the N97, does not tilt up. Additionally, the N900 does not appear to feature the navi-keys found on the slide-out layer of the N97. And, of course, it runs Maemo rather than S60.

Now, on to the meat.

Hardware Specs:

• Update: A few comments inquired about GPS. Our source has since verified that the N900 does indeed have GPS, along with an accelerometer.
• Dimensions: 59.7mmx111mmx18.2mm
• Weight: 180g
• 3.5″ 800×480 (WVGA) touchscreen
• OMAP3430 500/600 Mhz processor (Fun Trivia: Same CPU as the Palm Pre)
• Bands: GSM Quad-Band 850, 900, 1800, 1900. WCDMA 900, 1700/2100, 2100
• 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with dual-LED flash, autofocus, and sliding cover
• Though the renders we’ve seen show two lens-like circles near the screen, we’ve got no word on what’s behind them. However, we feel safe in assuming that its a proximity sensor and a front-facing camera.
• 1GB total virtual runtime memory (256MB physical RAM, 768MB virtual memory)
• Wi-Fi, HSPA
• 32GB internal storage, expandable up to 48GB via external memory
• Keyboard variants: English, Scandinavian, French, German, South European, Italian, Russia
• In the box: Connectivity cable, headset, charger, battery (1320 mAh), Video-out cable, microUSB adaptor, cleaning cloth

Some of the mentioned software features:

• In all of the renders we’ve seen, it appears to be running Maemo 5.
• Multitasking: “Run all of your favorite applications simultaneously”
• Live Dashboard allows all open tasks and unread messages to be displayed in one view
• Browser: Firefox 3 with support for Flash 9.4
• Built-in automatic update software
• Contacts has some sort of status sharing built in, allowing you to share your status, location, and mood. Support for Contacts on Ovi and Google Talk.
• All SMS and IMs accessible from one view
• Cellular voice or VOIP both supported
• Captures video at 800×480 in AVC/H.264
• Image tagging and geo-tagging support
• Nokia intends to have at least a dozen add-on apps available at launch, including a game called “Bounce”, a Jaiku/Twitter app called “Mauku”, and a few widgets.

If you’re not drooling yet, you should probably get your salivary glands checked. If you are, you’re probably getting curious about availability. Don’t worry, we’ve got details on that, too.

This documents all specifically and repeatedly mention “TMO” launch targets. We’ve never seen this stand for anything besides T-Mobile in this context, and everything still makes perfect sense after swapping out every instance of “TMO” for “T-Mobile”. As such, we assume that is what they mean.

Target launch dates, as of the beginning of this year:

• T-Mobile International: July 2009
• T-Mobile USA: August/September 2009
• Middle East, Asia, South-East Asian Pacific: July 2009
• Europe: October 2009

Though these were the dates set forth in the document, our source does indicate that they’ve heard a number of rumblings that the device would see delays.

There’s not much more to uncover about this guy (beyond the price and the final name, be it that they don’t go with N900), but we’ll fill in any blanks as the information comes in.

[Huge thanks to Helsingissa for coming through with this info!]

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

In Istanbul, Cameras To Recognize 15,000 Faces/sec.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sonic The Hedgehog Races Onto The iPhone. But Do Its Fake Buttons Slow Him Down?

The iPhone is quickly becoming the platform of choice for nostalgia-inspiring classic games, with releases like Myst and Wolfenstein now landing on a regular basis. The latest addition, and the one that may strike closest to home for those console gamers of the early 90’s, is Sonic The Hedgehog. The game is now available for a reasonable $5.99, and you can download it here.

Now, I’d consider myself a pretty experienced gamer, and there are few games that I feel more attached to than the original Sonic the Hedgehog series. At a time when most popular games consisted of hopping and bopping on enemy baddies at a leisurely pace, Sonic brought something new to the table: speed. Sonic could race across the screen at a breakneck rate, clearing entire levels in under a minute or two (if you knew what you were doing), with the framerate keeping up the whole way. And he had an edgier attitude to boot, making him substantially cooler than the colorful plumbers representing that other gaming company. So does the iPhone edition do justice to its console predecessor?

To be honest, I was ready to bash the game when I first saw it. I’m not a fan of the control scheme some developers are adopting to port these classic games, which typically consists of a virtual joypad in the bottom left hand corner of the screen with a few virtual buttons on the right side. Visually the buttons successully mimic the gamepads of yore, but they lack any tactile feedback at all, which gets frustrating when you’re trying to dodge bullets or leap from cliffs and you accidentally hit the wrong button.

Fortunately, Sonic doesn’t suffer too badly. Make no mistake, the controls are far from perfect, and I’d prefer a gamepad to a glass screen any day, but Sonic’s simplicity keeps it mostly playable. This is primarily because the vast majority of the time you’re going to be holding down the right arrow button, with occasional quick taps to the left, so your thumb doesn’t have to do much hunting. But while the controls are acceptable, the game suffers badly from lag - an oddity given that Sonic was originally supposed to show how fast the Genesis was. It’s unclear if this is something that could be fixed with a software update or if the iPhone’s RAM and CPU simply can’t keep up with the blue hedgehog, but the gameplay definitely suffers. I found myself plummeting onto deadly spikes far more often than I should have been, and I’d like to think most of those falls weren’t due to rusty thumbs.

In any case, I think the game is worth a download, particuarly if you were a fan of the original. That said, I’m hoping that if Sonic is a hit for Sega, developers don’t take it as an indication that they should be porting every game in their archive with this virtual joypad setup. Because frankly, it often stinks, and is only passable in this case because of Sonic’s basic control scheme. Sega has apparently built an iPhone emulator using the joypad that would allow them to pump out these games at a rapid fire pace, and at this point I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Fortunately the iPhone 3.0 software update will allow for the release of actual joypads that can plug into the phone, which would make it a device that could really do these classics justice.

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

Source: Gizmodo | 25 May 2009 | 12:00 am

Protecting oceans vital in warming fight

Governments seeking to stop global warming must give a higher priority to protecting marine ecosystems, scientists said Sunday in Washington. Meeting at the International Marine Conservation Congress, the scientists stressed that because the oceans act as a vital carbon sink absorbing much of the ever-increasing supply of carbon emissions, maintaining their health is a prerequisite for battling climate change, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a Swiss environmental group, said in a release.

Source: Gizmodo | 24 May 2009 | 10:50 pm

Microbes 100M Years Old Found In Termite Guts

viyh writes with coverage on MSNBC of the discovery of ancient microbes fossilized in the gut of a termite. "One hundred million years ago a termite was wounded and its abdomen split open. The resin of a pine tree slowly enveloped its body and the contents of its gut. In what is now the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, the resin fossilized and was buried until it was chipped out of an amber mine. The resin had seeped into the termite's wound and preserved even the microscopic organisms in its gut. These microbes are the forebears of the microbes that live in the guts of today's termites and help them digest wood. ... The amber preserved the microbes with exquisite detail, including internal features like the nuclei. ... Termites are related to cockroaches and split from them in evolutionary time at about the same time the termite in the amber was trapped."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 24 May 2009 | 10:13 pm

How TechCrunch turns the screw

Photo: Joi Ito.

TechCrunch's strategy is brilliant: Publicly accuse a company of misbehavior knowing that the claim is possibly false, hoping to reveal a larger truth through controversy. When this happens, run a followup admitting the earlier mistake as part of an aggressive move to shift focus to the bigger picture.

This weekend offers the perfect example. Last.fm tracks the music listened to by its users, and the RIAA sues people who listen to it. A few weeks ago, on the slimmest evidence, TechCrunch accused Last.fm of revealing user data to the RIAA. The claim was false. Now, however, it reports that Last.fm's parent company, CBS, did in fact make the RIAA disclosure, having gained the data itself by lying to staff at its last.fm subsidiary.

Here's what we believe happened: CBS requested user data from Last.fm, including user name and IP address. CBS wanted the data to comply with a RIAA request but told Last.fm the data was going to be used for "internal use only." It was only after the data was sent to CBS that Last.fm discovered the real reason for the request. Last.fm staffers were outraged, say our sources, but the data had already been sent to the RIAA.

Techcrunch's fresh attack on Last.fm is utterly ruthless: in the headline, it demands that Last.fm deny this, knowing full well that Last.fm cannot speak for CBS, the real villain of the piece. Forcing last.fm to bear the brunt lets TechCrunch portray its earlier mistake as reflecting an "underlying truth," which Last.fm omitted, rather than Techcruch's own propensity for premature accusation. But it also puts the pressure on last.fm to do something--anything--to burn its parent company in efforts to exculpate itself.

While everyone else enjoyed a holiday weekend, Last.fm kept its cool and TechCrunch kept hounding it.

What's interesting is how it circumvents expectations of journalistic proprietry to get to stories that others can't. People don't seem to understand that Doing Good Work isn't necessarily the arbiter of success. TechCrunch didn't even bother to contact Last.fm before the latest piece. But why would it?

This is what its critics think: "Techcrunch will eventually go too far and get sued for libel. Ha! And that will be the end of TechCrunch."

No, it won't. The part that critics miss is that many publications have paid their dues under relentless legal fire. Britain's Private Eye, for example, is a scurrilous satirical mag that has been sued for libel more times than I've had hot dinners. Florida tabloids have budgets to settle their errors: eventually, it results in spectacular success. If John Edwards were president, the Enquirer could have sent him into abdication faster than a dozen Deep Throats. This is why tabloid journalism is worth it.

Mike Arrington isn't afraid of lawsuits. What could energize him more than being attacked? With every carefully-measured payload of pious abuse, he practically begs his targets to sue him or fuck off. And there's nothing anyone--least of all CBS's rattled and wheedling lawyers--can do about it.

But it'll be fun to see them try.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 24 May 2009 | 10:03 pm

Russian Company Considers Facebook Investment

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that a Russian Internet group, Digital Sky Technologies, offered to invest $200 million in Facebook, which would value the social networking site at $10 billion."Facebook is a private company, so as a matter of policy, we don't typically share details about our financial plans or comment on rumor and speculation," the company said in a statement.Russia's Digital Sky Technologies did not comment on the report.Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's Chief Executive, told the Reuters Global Technology Summit that, "If there's an investment to be done on very good terms, we will consider it if for no other reason than to have more buffer if we want to do something in the future.""Some of the rumblings that people are reporting on, are just different conversations that have happened, but there's really nothing new to talk about there," he added.The report said that Digital Sky Technologies, which owns a stake in Russia's Mail.ru Web site, offered an investment of $200 million in the company's preferred stock, which values at $10 billion, and an additional $100 million to $150 million investment in the company's common stock, which values at $6.5 billion.In 2007, Facebook was funded by Microsoft Corp.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 May 2009 | 9:50 pm

Chinese Water Project Forces 330,000 People To Move

State media said on Sunday that close to 330,000 people in central China are to be evicted from their homes due to a reservoir being built that will form part of a massive water diversion project.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 24 May 2009 | 9:40 pm

Facebook block ahead of Iran vote hampers youth (AP)

AP - Iran's decision to block access to Facebook — less than three weeks before nationwide elections — drew sharp criticism Sunday from a reformist opposition hoping to mobilize the youth vote and unseat President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 May 2009 | 9:24 pm

The Case for Working With Your Hands

Matthew B. Crawford, motorcycle mechanic and author, has a great piece in the NY Times Magazine that adapts his book Shop Class as Soulcraft:

High-school shop-class programs were widely dismantled in the 1990s as educators prepared students to become "knowledge workers." The imperative of the last 20 years to round up every warm body and send it to college, then to the cubicle, was tied to a vision of the future in which we somehow take leave of material reality and glide about in a pure information economy. This has not come to pass. To begin with, such work often feels more enervating than gliding. More fundamentally, now as ever, somebody has to actually do things: fix our cars, unclog our toilets, build our houses.

When we praise people who do work that is straightforwardly useful, the praise often betrays an assumption that they had no other options. We idealize them as the salt of the earth and emphasize the sacrifice for others their work may entail. Such sacrifice does indeed occur -- the hazards faced by a lineman restoring power during a storm come to mind. But what if such work answers as well to a basic human need of the one who does it?

...Seeing a motorcycle about to leave my shop under its own power, several days after arriving in the back of a pickup truck, I don't feel tired even though I've been standing on a concrete floor all day. Peering into the portal of his helmet, I think I can make out the edges of a grin on the face of a guy who hasn't ridden his bike in a while. I give him a wave. With one of his hands on the throttle and the other on the clutch, I know he can't wave back. But I can hear his salute in the exuberant "bwaaAAAAP!" of a crisp throttle, gratuitously revved. That sound pleases me, as I know it does him. It's a ventriloquist conversation in one mechanical voice, and the gist of it is "Yeah!"

Previously:

• Female Mechanics calendar: 21st century Rosie the Riveters - Boing ...
• A tinkerer's blog - Boing Boing
• Boing Boing Video: Revisiting TechShop, as Portland Site Launches ...
• Fortune article on DIYers - Boing Boing
• Robert Pirsig interview - Boing Boing

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 24 May 2009 | 9:21 pm

TiVo.com gets an impressive makeover

TiVo has featured online scheduling and DVR control for a while, but it wasn’t anything special as it could only preform simple tasks. Not anymore. The website just got a refresh in the style of the TiVo Beta Search and is now loaded with features. In fact, there isn’t much that the new site can’t do.

One of the biggest, and best, updates to the new site is the one click episode and season recording options. Previously users would have to navigate away from the original site for these options. Not anymore. Simply click the button, and the show will be recorded or a Season Pass scheduled.

Speaking of the TV listings, the new full screen mode is a welcomed upgrade. It now displays 50 stations without a page refresh and a snap to use.

There is so much more too. The new site can control Internet downloaded shows, view/edit the To Do List, and can easily switch between controlling different TiVos. I, for one, will use the site more. In fact, it’s kind of easier to use the website now instead of navigating through the TiVo’s menu tree. Well done, TiVo.

Source: CrunchGear | 24 May 2009 | 9:20 pm

City of Vancouver Adopts Open Standards

rbrander writes "Vancouver, Canada's third-largest city, has adopted a policy of 'open standards, interfaces and formats' for all public data. They will also consider open-source software on an even footing with proprietary for all new software purchases. Fifteen of the fifteen people who signed up to speak to city council on the topic spoke in favor. Their only criticism was, 'can't you do more?' with one advocating that free and open source software be given preference, not equal footing."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 24 May 2009 | 9:03 pm

Apple and Cartier Resolve Legal Tussle Over iPhone App

Source: Gizmodo | 24 May 2009 | 9:00 pm

Pre warning: other micro-USB chargers won’t work

According to Palm's little accessory guide here, non-Palm micro-USB charging solutions won't work. What the hell? I can't just plug it into my computer? That Touchstone dock is cool, but I don't want to have to carry it everywhere I go. Besides, weren't we supposed to all be moving towards a unified charging solution? I guess like with all highly-anticipated products (like Android, or the President), we have to be ready for some letdowns along the way.

Source: CrunchGear | 24 May 2009 | 8:41 pm

Pre warning: other micro-USB chargers won’t work

According to Palm’s little accessory guide here, non-Palm micro-USB charging solutions won’t work. What the hell? I can’t just plug it into my computer? That Touchstone dock is cool, but I don’t want to have to carry it everywhere I go. Besides, weren’t we supposed to all be moving towards a unified charging solution? I guess like with all highly-anticipated products (like Android, or the President), we have to be ready for some letdowns along the way.

Let’s hope it’s just a fib to sell more of Touchstones. There’s more Palm accessory stuff here, and plan info etc, so if you’re curious and the grill is still warming up, go do your thing.

[via Gear Diary]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 24 May 2009 | 8:41 pm

Honor service members this Memorial Day through Map the Fallen

Section: Web, Websites, Google

You can pay tribute to those who died while serving the country by going online to the new Google Earth layer known as Map the Fallen.  With this interactive map, users can view stats about how, when and where the service member died.  The map is made up of individuals who died since the war in Afghanistan began.

Lines are drawn on Map the Fallen between the approximate location of the death of the soldier to his or her hometown.  Links are provided as well for memorial sites and photos provided by family and friends.  Map the Fallen runs off of a timeline, so that the deaths are arranged chronologically starting with October of 2001.  There is also a search feature that allows visitors to search for the service member by name, gender, age, hometown and location of death.

Developers of the project hope that it will be a reminder of the true meaning of Memorial Day while providing important stats to individuals that may not know the status of someone that went away to war in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Site: [Map the Fallen]

 

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 24 May 2009 | 8:31 pm

Eucalyptus ebook reader app allowed on iTunes

Proving that the best way to publicity for your iPhone app is to have one of the prudish worrywarts that attend Apple's iTunes proving grounds ban your application, the ebook app "Eucalyptus" has been sheepishly led into the App Store after all. Good news all around the the developer, who now is left with only the challenge of explaining to the public why they should pay $10 for an ebook app when Stanza is available for free.

(Here's a starter: Amazon, makers of the Kindle ebook device, as well as a free iPhone ebook reader, recently acquired Lexcycle, makes of Stanza. So if you'd like to support an independent developer until his company is acquired...)

Source: Gizmodo | 24 May 2009 | 8:00 pm

BPA Leaches From Polycarbonate Bottles Into Humans

Linus the Turbonerd sends in the bulletin that BPA, a toxic chemical used in the production of polycarbonate, the plastic composing hard, clear water bottles, has been found to leach out of such containers, directly into the water that their users consume. "In addition to polycarbonate bottles, which are refillable and a popular container among students, campers and others and are also used as baby bottles, BPA is also found in dentistry composites and sealants and in the lining of aluminum food and beverage cans. ... 'We found that drinking cold liquids from polycarbonate bottles for just one week increased urinary BPA levels by more than two-thirds. If you heat those bottles, as is the case with baby bottles, we would expect the levels to be considerably higher. This would be of concern since infants may be particularly susceptible to BPA's endocrine-disrupting potential,' said Karin B. Michels, associate professor of epidemiology at HSPH and Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 24 May 2009 | 7:52 pm

Honoring the fallen on a Google Earth map - CNET News

Post Chronicle

Honoring the fallen on a Google Earth map CNET News by Dong Ngo Each Memorial Day we honor the men and women in uniform who have paid the ultimate price for the freedom we enjoy. Traditionally, this is the day many people visit cemeteries and memorials, especially the Arlington National Cemetery. Interactive map tool creates online memorial to US, coalition troops CNN 'Map the Fallen' Uses Google Earth to Show Soldier Deaths Hard OCP CBS News all 12 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 24 May 2009 | 7:45 pm

Free Apps roundup for this week

FROM APPLETELL - It was another great yet relatively quiet week on the app store. This time I have a few really useful apps; one that syncs your RSS feeds between devices and one that lets you store and view files on your device.
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 24 May 2009 | 7:23 pm

Mattel Mindflex game available for pre-order

Hey, Mike. John here. Remember that weird telekinesis game you liked from CES this year? It’s available at Amazon for pre-order, so go ahead and pick it up. It’s going to cost $99 and I personally think it’s garbage but I know you and the TC team were into it so go ahead and buy it. When I’m in town for WWDC I’ll school you all in Jedi mind games. “This is not the blogger you’re looking for.”

via i4u via Giz

Source: Gizmodo | 24 May 2009 | 7:00 pm

Google Earth Raises Discrimination Issue In Japan

Hugh Pickens writes "The Times (UK) reports that by allowing old maps to be overlaid on satellite images of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, Google has unwittingly created a visual tool that has prolonged an ancient discrimination, says a lobbying group established to protect the human rights of three million burakumin, members of the sub-class condemned by the old feudal system in Japan to unclean jobs associated with death and dirt. 'We tend to think of maps as factual, like a satellite picture, but maps are never neutral, they always have a certain point of view,' says David Rumsey, a US map collector. Some Japanese companies actively screen out burakumin-linked job seekers, and some families hire private investigators to dig into the ancestry of fiances to make sure there is no burakumin taint. Because there is nothing physical to differentiate burakumin from other Japanese and because there are no clues in their names or accent, the only way of establishing whether or not they are burakumin is by tracing their family. By publishing the locations of burakumin ghettos with the modern street maps, the quest to trace ancestry is made easier, says Toru Matsuoka, an opposition MP and member of the Buraku Liberation League. Under pressure to diffuse criticism, Google has asked the owners of the woodblock print maps to remove the legend that identifies the ghetto with an old term, extremely offensive in modern usage, that translates loosely as 'scum town.' 'We had not acknowledged the seriousness of the map, but we do take this matter seriously,' says Yoshito Funabashi, a Google spokesman." The ancient Japanese caste system was made illegal 150 years ago, but silent discrimination remains. The issue is complicated by allegations of mob connections in the burakumin anti-discrimination organizations.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 24 May 2009 | 6:43 pm

School newspaper archives go online, embarrassing student writing and shenanigans become permanent record

Here's the latest privacy rupture: old school newspaper archives are showing up online, getting indexed, and becoming part of the permanent googlable record for the people who wrote for them and the people who appeared in them. This is the latest installment in an ongoing story -- for example, when DejaNews (now Google Groups) put Usenet's archives online, the material we thought we'd written in a no-archive medium became part of our googlable past. Soon, face-recognition will put names on every photo on the web, and then, look out!

As the papers have begun digitizing their back issues, their Web sites have become the latest front in the battle over online identities. Youthful activities that once would have disappeared into the recesses of a campus library are now preserved on the public record, to be viewed with skeptical eyes by an adult world of colleagues and potential employers. Alumni now in that world are contacting newspapers with requests for redaction. For unlike Facebook profiles -- that other notable source of young-adult embarrassment -- the ability to remove or edit questionable content in these cases is out of the author's hands.

When Terrence J. Casey, then the Collegian's editor, got Ms. Dobo's request, he referred to a policy put in place by previous editors: The Daily Collegian does not remove any editorial content from its Web site. However, if there is a factual inaccuracy in a story, the editors will run a correction or an update as needed.

Lyle, a graduate of Emory University who asked that his last name be withheld because he is in the military, got pretty much the same response from The Emory Wheel, where he served as opinion editor for three years before graduating in 2005 and joining the Marine Corps. Lyle had sounded off on domestic politics, the wars, and economic policy in a column that is preserved in the paper's Web archives. "If any of my Marines were to end up Googling me, I'd feel uncomfortable with them knowing my own politics," he said. "As a rule, politics and the military don't mix."

Alumni Try to Rewrite History on College-Newspaper Web Sites (via /.)


Source: Boing Boing | 24 May 2009 | 6:42 pm

Sunday CrunchDeals: 500GB external drive for $50, refurb TomTom for $60, and more!

CrunchDeals abound today as retailers feverishly drop prices in an attempt to keep people from going outside on a long weekend. Here’s a tidy list for you to peruse at your leisure. Enjoy…

Seagate External Hard Drive 500GB for $49.99 at Office Max [via dealspl.us]

Refurb TomTom ONE 130 GPS for $59.99 after $20 MIR at Amazon [via dealnews]

Guitar Hero Metallica (Xbox 360) for $28.88 at BrandsMart USA [via dealspl.us]

Insignia High-Definition Digital Camcorder for $99.99 at Best Buy [via dealnews]

Garmin Nuvi 205 GPS for $79.99 at Kmart (add to cart to get discount) [via FatWallet]

PlayStation 2 for $88.88 at BrandsMart USA [via dealspl.us]

Dynex 32-inch LCD TV for $299.99 at Best Buy [via dealnews]

Sony BRAVIA 40-inch LCD TV for $799.99 at Best Buy [via FatWallet]

Craftsman Front Propelled Rear Bag Lawn Mower for $249.99 at Sears [via dealnews]

Acer 20″ Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD Monitor for $99.99 at Best Buy [via dealnews]

Source: CrunchGear | 24 May 2009 | 6:31 pm

What’s the real cost of switching to Sprint for a Pre?  Find out at BillShrink.com

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Email / IM, Smartphones, Gadgets / Other, Household, Lifestyle, Miscellaneous

If you’re like many of us here at Gadgetell, you are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Palm Pre on June 6.  You may also be wondering if you can even afford to dump your current wireless provider and make the jump to Sprint with the Pre.  BillShrink.com will lay out the cold, hard numbers on what it will cost you to switch providers without much effort on your part.  The site also takes your current cellphone plan and usage patterns and compares them against other available plans to see if there is a better fit for you.  Keep in mind that the Palm Pre may only have certain plans available when it’s rolled out on the 6th of June, 2009. 

How to find a better wireless deal

When you first go to the site, select “Cell phone plans” to get started.  You have the option of estimating your cellular usage information or importing your last cellphone bill.  The import option provides a more detailed breakdown of your usage, which the site displays using some colorful pie charts and bar graphs.  You get a breakdown of your usage on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, as well as a breakdown of your popular contacts by number and by carrier.

All that juicy usage data gets churned into a list of plans (voice plan plus any needed add-ons) that will give you the coverage you need at a better price.  Well, most of the time - you might already have the best plan for you.  The results can be filtered by compatible phones, plan type (standard and prepaid), and carrier. 

Each plan is assigned a ShrinkScore (savings + signal strength).  The “savings” score takes into account the amount of time left on your current contract and applicable cancellation fees.  You’ll see your total savings over the new contract period, which is usually 1 or 2 years, and how much you’ll pay a month.  The “signal strength” score takes into account the average signal strength for each carrier in your work and home locations.  If you are really into the details, you can click “How is this calculated” for every plan presented to see how the monthly price is arrived at, how the plan’s coverage compares to your average usage, and the “Commute score,” which rates signal strength for your daily commute.

How this will help you decide about Sprint

If you are lusting for the Palm Pre, but you’re not with Sprint, this site will help you see the real costs of making the jump.  Just click the Sprint option to see only the Sprint plans in your results.  You’ll easily be able to see if Sprint plans will save you or cost you in the long run.  The site isn’t clear on whether the price of the phone is included, so you’ll need to take that into account.  Another bonus of using the site is that you’ll save time by not having to go through all the plans and options on Sprint’s website and comparing it to your own carrier.

Save on gas and find a better credit card, too

While you’re at the site, you can also check out Gas Advisor Beta and Credit Card Advisor.  Gas Advisor finds you a good deal on gas based upon your work and home locations, the make and model of your car, and how much you put into your tank at one time (i.e., $10, full or half tank).  Credit Card Advisor takes your top three spending categories, whether you pay offf your bill each month, and what type of reward program you prefer, then shows you what cards might earn you more rewards and give you lower interest rates. 

One last thing

You can create a free account at BillShrink.com so that you can receive e-mail updates when the site finds a new deal for you.  The site’s tools make finding out ways to save money really easy, and even a little bit fun.  Even if you’re not thinking about switching to the Palm Pre, I still recommend taking a look.  You might be surprised to find a more cost-effective plan, or a better deal on gas, that will keep a few extra dollars in your pocket. 

Site: [BillShrink]

Source: Gizmodo | 24 May 2009 | 6:00 pm

Online magazine tries to be a lab for media future (AP)

AP - The Web edition of a cover story from Fortune this spring took a sharp turn from what you might expect at a 79-year-old magazine.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 May 2009 | 5:59 pm

Calculating Password Policy Strength Vs. Cracking

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Roger Grimes offers a spreadsheet-based calculator in which you can key in your current password policy and see how your organization's passwords might hold up against the number of guesses an attacker can make in a given minute. The calculator includes results for four different password entropy models, and is based on length, character set, maximum age, whether complexity is enabled, and the number of guesses per minute an attacker can attempt. As an example, Grimes assumes an eight-character password, with complexity enabled, a 94-symbol character set, and 90 days between password changes. Such a policy, typical for many organizations, would require attackers to make only 65 guesses per minute to break — not at all hard to accomplish, Grimes writes."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 24 May 2009 | 5:35 pm

Recession suddenly humbles high-tech sector (AP)

AP - The $1.6 million red Bugatti crouches in the showroom, flanked by Lamborghinis, Bentleys and a Rolls-Royce all polished to a shimmer. The nearby potted plants, however, are dusty and wilting. With super-luxury car sales here just half of what they used to be, they had to cut something.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 24 May 2009 | 5:11 pm

Kid keeping a lending library of banned books in his her locker

Javier sez, "A teenager asks Yahoo! Questions whether maintaining a lending library in his school locker is illegal (as opposed of merely in contravention of school regulations). A school friend asked to borrow off him The Catcher in the Rye, one of the books in the banned list, and one thing led to another..."

This happened a lot and my locker got to overflowing with the banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to a good use. I now have 62 books in that locker, about half of what was on the list. I took care only to bring the books with literary quality. Some of these books are:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
His Dark Materials trilogy
Sabriel
The Canterbury Tales
Candide
The Divine Comedy
Paradise Lost
The Godfather
Mort
Interview with the Vampire
The Hunger Games
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Animal Farm
The Witches
Shade's Children
The Evolution of Man
the Holy Qu'ran
... and lots more.

Anyway, I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it's the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on. So I'm doing a good thing, right? Oh, and since you're probably wondering "Why can't you just go to a local library and check out the books?" most of the kids are too chicken or their parents won't let them but the books. I think that people should have open minds. Most of the books were banned because they contained information that opposed Catholicism. I limit my 'library' to only the sophmores, juniors and seniors just in case so you can't say I'm exposing young people to materiel they're not mature enough for. But is what I'm doing wrong because parents and teachers don't know about it and might not like it, or is it a good thing because I am starting appreciation of the classics and truly good novels (Not just fad novels like Twilight) in my generation?

Give that kid a medal and a full-ride scholarship to the best library school in the country, please!

Is it OK to run an illegal library from my locker at school? (Thanks, Javier!)


Source: Boing Boing | 24 May 2009 | 5:09 pm

Hot gaming news for the week of 5-17-2009

Section:

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…

• Gamertell Interview: Author Micheal Scott on promoting books through Gaia Online
• Apple App Store gaming update for the week of May 11 - May 17, 2009
• Side by Side: A comparison of Nintendo’s DSi and DS Lite game systems
• Gamertell Review: TV Station Manager for PC
• E3 2009: Here’s why OnLive won’t be attending E3

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 24 May 2009 | 4:42 pm

Google working on picture-based captcha to save us from ourselves

You’ll recall that, about a year ago, we decided to make captchas—those things you find on Web sites at login that require you to decipher and type words or numbers—our raison d’etre. Two days later we stopped caring (though it is incredibly annoying to have to deal with a captcha, as you see up there, when trying to log into my router—is a spammer or other evildoer going to bother with my dumb router?). So imagine my delight this morning when I read that Google is hard at work developing a new type a captcha, one that, hopefully, won’t drive us crazy anymore.

Rather than having you decipher words and numbers, Google’s new captcha has you interacting with pictures. Let’s say you’re trying to log into animalsthatremindyouofcelebrities.com For the captcha, the Web site would serve you a row of upside-down pictures, maybe of a tree, a car and a bird. Your job, as a human being trying to log into the site for a quick laugh, would be to select and flip the picture of the bird; it is an animal site, after all. (This is obviously easier accomplished with a touchscreen phone like the iPhone or Palm Pre.) Once the bird has been flipped, you’re in.

It sounds a heck of a lot easier than some of the other captchas I run into on a daily basis. More than once have I tried to log into a message board or whatever, failed to correctly interpret the captcha, then said, “oh, forget it, I’ll just go somewhere else.”

(Unrelated: if Newcastle goes down, how long till they get back into the Premier League? My guess is never: the club is a shambles, and they’ll be kicking around the Championship for a little while. That’s if they do, indeed, go down today. It’s 12:30pm as I write this and nothing has been decided yet.)

In short, I abhor captchas; may Google reinvent the whole concept.

Enjoy your weekend!

Source: CrunchGear | 24 May 2009 | 4:40 pm

Atlantis, crew land in Calif. after Hubble mission - The Associated Press

Washington Post

Atlantis, crew land in Calif. after Hubble mission The Associated Press EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - Space Shuttle Atlantis and its crew of seven returned to Earth on Sunday, ending their exalted Hubble Space Telescope repair mission in California after stormy weather prevented a return to NASA's Florida home base ... Video: Space Shuttle Atlantis finally lands KXAN.com An Even Better Hubble New York Times Reuters - The Tech Herald - FOXBusiness - The Southern all 3,916 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 24 May 2009 | 4:00 pm

AOL Hopes New Leadership Will Spur A Turnaround

AOL’s hiring of former Google executive Tim Armstrong is the company’s latest effort to salvage it’s future after suffering a decade of dwindling profits, The Associated Press reported.While AOL's operations still make money, the company’s legacy business, its dial-up Internet service, continues to suffer and its newer online advertising service has been slow to catch on.Time Warner, which AOL bought in 2001 for $147 billion, is looking into formally separating itself from AOL by spinning its Internet division off into a standalone business.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 24 May 2009 | 4:00 pm

CrunchDeals: Asus EeePC 900 netbook now only $150

In case you missed the earlier CrunchDeal on an Asus EeePC 900 netbook, here’s your chance to snatch one up again. Woot! now has the 8.9-inch netbook on the main site for $150. Pick between white and black and be on your merry way.

Asus EeePC 900 Netbook [Woot!]

Source: CrunchGear | 24 May 2009 | 3:31 pm

Mister Jalopy's bike sale at Coco's in Los Angeles

Mister Jalopy is having a bike sale at his store, Coco's in LA this weekend:

This time last year, we hardly had any bikes to sell. We were new to the game and almost all the bikes we had came from garage sales. Since then, we have become considerably more efficient at buying bicycles. More trade-ins, more collectors, more scrap pickers, more junk stores saving bikes for us. And, fortunately, for our customers, we are overloaded. Remembering the days when we were so hungry for bicycles, I am poor at moderating acquisition.

Well, it has come to a breaking point. We have too many bikes to ever finish. We are tripping over them. And my personal bicycle collection has swelled so that I need to sell some of my really, really good stuff.

What will you find at Coco's this weekend? About 100 bikes.

20% off our bicycles that have been completely refurbished. We never negotiate on the prices of our refurbed bikes as we have so much money sunk in them. So, this alone is uncommon.

Bike sale at Coco's in Los Angeles


Source: Boing Boing | 24 May 2009 | 3:25 pm

iPhone becoming a requirement for more and more college students

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation, Lifestyle

For a couple years now, several schools have been offering up iPhones to incoming college Freshman.  Will specific phone technology be the next standard thing on the “required” list for students soon?

One of the latest schools in the US to make owning either an iPhone or an iPod touch an actual course requirement is the University of Missouri.  All journalism majors have to have one according to the school.  The school maintains that they will be a minimum requirement for course work, and will be used to deliver orientation info to freshman, and also send out other course materials.  These course materials will be able to be downloaded from the iTunes University, which is a free part of the popular iTunes store.

Some other schools that either give them out, or include their use in the program are Harvard University, Abilene Christian University, University of Maryland, Stanford University, University of Maryland (College Park), and Oklahoma University.

Now, Japan has caught on as well.  And they are using it to make sure that people get to class.  Are you watching Big Brother?  Around 550 people-both students and staff- are going to be getting free iPhones through SoftBank.  This is all part of the University’s Mobile & Net Society Education and Training program.  Or, you could say it’s all a part of wanting to make sure they know where you are at all the time, given what they are using it for.

Aoyama University administrators will be using the phone’s GPS hardware to determine if a student is on campus, and if they are being good boys and girls and attending class.  I guess doing it the old fashioned way of taking attendance is so passe.  They do say they will also be using them to send assignments and low-level tests through the iPhone. 

OK…now this just raises the question…are they going to turn off that handy-dandy little GPS function when the student isn’t at school…or do they get to follow Johnny all through his date for the evening?  The program is set to all systems go for this Fall.

What do you think?  Would you want one if it was given free if you knew the school was using it to track you around campus?  Your thoughts?

via:intomobile

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 24 May 2009 | 3:08 pm

Android 1.5 Cupcake Now Available For T-Mobile USA - infoSync World

UberGizmo

Android 1.5 Cupcake Now Available For T-Mobile USA infoSync World By Sindre Lia, 24 May 2009 According to AndroidGuys, T-Mobile G1 users in the US can now perform an upgrade to Android 1.5 Cupcake manually. Rogers HTC Dream review Boy Genius Report Google Android 1.5 Cupcake Working on my G1 GlobalPost GigaOm - Fone Arena - Mobile Magazine - Gizmodo.com all 31 news articles

Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 24 May 2009 | 3:08 pm

Plastics industry releases anti-cloth-bag FUD study

The Canadian Plastic Industry Association commissioned a study concluding that using cloth bags is bad for your health because they're full of bacteria (and certainly not because using cloth bags is bad for the profitablity of Canadian Plastic Industry Association members!). They hired an ex-health regulator (Dr. Richard Summerbell, Director of Research at Toronto-based Sporometrics and former Chief of Medical Mycology for the Ontario Ministry of Health) to say that cloth bags put you at risk of "skin infections such as bacterial boils, allergic reactions, triggering of asthma attacks, and ear infections". Of course, it's bullshit, and the regulator who traded his credibility for a consulting fee should be ashamed of himself.

Um, yeah except that coliform isn't an indicator of really anything in a shopping bag. It's a great indicator of water quality, but not great for food (coliforms are all over the place, including on produce). And mean relatively nothing.

The lack of real data is probably why it was reported in CFU/ml (a water measurement -- pretty hard to tell what a ml of a shopping bag represents). The most telling data was that no generic E. coli or Salmonella was found.

Are reusable bags really a food safety concern? (via Consumerist)


Source: Boing Boing | 24 May 2009 | 3:02 pm

Gamertell Review: Nintendo’s DSi handheld game system

FROM GAMERTELL - Slap a couple digital cameras on it, build in a couple extra apps and add a lowercase “i’ to the end of the name and, yeah, you can make an even better game system…
MORE »

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 24 May 2009 | 2:17 pm

Is Your iPod Worth Dying For?

Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Communications, Mobile

A 16 year old in Tampa thought so.  According to police she was walking across a busy road when she dropped her iPod, not realizing it until she reached the other side.  She immediately ran back into the road to retrieve it and was run over by a truck.

She’s now at a local hospital in stable condition and being treated for a broken leg.  Smart?  Hardly.  No piece of electronics is worth risking your life for.  It’s a good example of how distracted and downright careless our gadgets can make us. 

I’ve seen teens walk out into the middle of a busy intersection while texting, totally oblivious to the world around them, as a pedestrian myself I’ve nearly been run over a couple of times by someone so involved in the conversation they were having on their cell phone that they never bothered to notice the light had turned red and the walk signal was on.  Of course I never got an apology, just angry stares and the occasional one finger salute.

Just 2 weeks ago in Boston two MBTA trolleys collided because one of the conductors was busy texting his girlfriend and never saw the red light.  He sent 50 people to the hospital.  Even worse, another train operator whose priority was texting rather than doing his job caused a derailment that killed him and 25 others.  When are people going to learn?

We’d like to know what the kind of stupid or dangerous things you’ve seen people distracted by gadgets do.  Leave a comment and share your best stories!  They may even make it into a future article.  In the meantime, play it safe and stay alert out there!

Read [CNet]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 24 May 2009 | 1:39 pm

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