EU Sues Sweden, Demands ISP Data Retention

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Amazing Snaps Win Princeton Tech Bike Photo Competition

And the winner is… EcoVelo (Applause! Cheers!)

Online photo contests might not have the fancy award ceremonies of, say, the prestigious Webbies, but they do have the advantage of happening out in the open so you can check out all the entries. In the case of Princeton Tec’s Got Lights On Bikes Photo Contest, 300 people submitted their snaps, and most of them are excellent.

The Flickr contest had one simple rule — take a picture of a bike with lights on it. Above you see the Best Overall photo, named “High Voltage”, from the aforementioned EcoVelo. Notably, the bike looks, somewhat spookily, just like mine.

Of course, a contest wouldn’t be a contest without prizes, and the Princeton competition has plenty. Ecovelo won a fixie, the Lager from SE, but the selection of giveaways is enough to keep the Gadget Lab stocked for a week at least. Go check out the group pool. Not only are there some great photos, there are some very nice rides in there, too.

Princeton Tec: Got Lights On Bikes Photo Contest [Flickr. Thanks, Keith!]

Frost & Sullivan Honours Ipercast International With World Content Delivery Networks Hot Investment Opportunity Award

USB Ninja Star Shuriken transforms geeks into killing machines

Are you a geek? Do you like Martial Arts movies? Have you ever secretly dreamed of being a Ninja? Are you not afraid of embarassing yourself, like, ever? Then Tokyo-based crap gadget maker Solid Alliance (which strives to become a Thanko competitor) has something unique for you: A shuriken [JP] (ninja star) for your USB port.

The USB Ninja Star retails for about $100 in Japan and holds 2GB of memory. It’s compatible to Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X, but totally unsuitable for notebooks the way I see it (at least if you don’t use a USB hub).

Geek Stuff 4 U already offers it for every potential Ninja living outside Nippon (for $109.20+shipping). Buy it and you know what you can do next time someone annoys you while you sit in front of your computer.

The World According to Twitter [Voices]

How distorted is Twitter’s view of the world? That question is neatly answered by Topsy, a new search engine that’s like Google, except sorted by the attention-deficit-disorder sufferers who live on Twitter.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Sony Pictures CEO: The Internet Is Still Bad [Voices]

A week and a half ago, Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton made some news for saying that nothing good had come from the internet, period. Plenty of online sites (including ours) took him to task for that, wondering how one gets to be the CEO of a major content company without understanding the internet.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Animating Antitrust [Voices]

A couple of weeks ago, the new Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, Christine Varney, publicly repudiated a controversial report issued in the fall of 2008 by the Bush Justice Department. Free market ideologues responded to Varney’s announcement with a salvo of recriminations.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

OraBrush Wins Bidding War With Hershey Over Facebook “Kisses” Page [Voices]

How much would you pay for a Facebook fan? That’s a question that many are determining as they look at potential Facebook fan page acquisition opportunities.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Daily Crunch: Music Makers Edition

Oh, look, it’s the Scratch Deck: The controller for the Scratch DJ game
Japanese toilet paper “Drop” is the scariest toilet paper you’ve ever seen
Video Review: Bleep Labs Thingamagoop
Hacking your Nike+iPod to open your door
WowWee Hoverpod looks like a shoe, will not cut off small fingers

MySpace's new CEO promises innovation (AP)

ENISA Issues Three Recommendations in Reports on Technologies to Improve Resilience of Communication Networks

Linpus Sets Date With Moblin 2.0 for Netbooks (PC World)

Guatemala: Entrevista Con El Tuitero @jeanfer

CIUDAD DE GUATEMALA: Hace un par de semanas, un usuario de Twitter fue arrestado, encarcelado y multado con el equivalente de un año de salario por haber publicado una opinión de 96 caracteres a Twitter. El tweet estaba relacionado a una crisis política que vive Guatemala actualmente, dada a raíz de alegatos hacia el Presidente Álvaro Colom, su supuesto involucramiento en el asesinato de un Abogado y denuncias acerca de funcionarios públicos del gobierno involucrados en transacciones ilegales y corruptas en uno de los bancos más grandes del país.

Desde entonces, Jean Ramses Anleu Fernández, o @jeanfer como es conocido en Twitter (en la foto), ha sido liberado de prisión. Actualmente está bajo arresto domiciliario mientras el gobierno de Guatemala realiza las investigaciones para presentar cargos formales en su contra. Jean no es realmente una figura pública: es un hombre tímido y tranquilo, que trabaja en IT, con estudios de Ingeniería en sistemas y amante de la lectura. Desde entonces, se ha convertido en un popular héroe de la web, y el mismo Twitter se ha convertido en una fuerza de poder durante los recientes hechos en el país.

El Superintendente de Bancos de Guatemala, Edgar Barquín, desea que Jean enfrente cargos de hasta 10 años en prisión por "Incitar al pánico financiero" mediante el tweet en cuestión. Barquín ha propuesto también varias restricciones nuevas para regular el uso de Internet en Guatemala - por ejemplo, que sea necesario presentar la cédula de vecindad (identificación nacional de Guatemala), en los Café Internet para poder navegar.

Esta semana he entrevistado a @jeanfer acá en Ciudad de Guatemala. Entre algunos detalles, menciona que el Ministerio Público crea una cuenta de Twitter para "seguirlo", durante el interrogatorio realizado cuando su hogar es allanado, para conseguir evidencia. Y mientras estuvo en prisión, dice que sueña con Kafka, y deseó poder convertirse en cucaracha, para escapar. Las palabras finales de la entrevista de Jeanfer son:

"El punto es que este caso representa algo que no debemos perder. Sin libre opinión no hay democracia. Este caso va a sentar un precedente sobre la libre emisión del pensamiento."

He dejado la mayoría de la entrevista intacta, así que es bastante larga (2000+ palabras). Continúa en su totalidad luego del salto. (Gracias a @thevenemousone por su amable asistencia con la traduccion).

@XENIJARDIN: Cómo había estado usando Twitter, y con quién se estaba comunicando?

@JEANFER: Si, lo utilizaba sobre todo para compartir con mi circulo de amigos del grupo de lectores chapines, y otros del mismo ámbito de web e informática. (Continúa...)

@XENIJARDIN: Casi todos los posts de su blog, y todas las imágenes eran acerca de libros. Recuerdo que lo primero que pasó por mi mente al ver su blog personal fue que usted era alguien que realmente amaba los libros.

@JEANFER: Con todo mi corazón. Tengo una bonita biblioteca. En mi casa, en mi dormitorio, en mi estudio, en el baño, en mi teléfono -- cada pared cubierto con libros. Leo varios tipos, pero novelas históricas sobre todo. Biografías, poesía, historia, teología...

@XENIJARDIN: Usted fue uno de varias personas en Guatemala que estuvo hablando acerca de la crisis política de su país en Twitter durante la primera semana luego de que el video de Rosenberg fuera divulgado.

@JEANFER: Si, uno más.

@XENIJARDIN: Y usted publico este fugaz pensamiento sobre el crisis, y el banco. 96 caracteres. ¿Qué pasó?

@JEANFER: Ocurrió que los ultimos días en Guatemala han sido muy convulsionados. Todos hemos estado tratando de saber que es lo que pasa, porque estamos preocupados por nuestra nación. Yo amo Guatemala. Y estuvimos intercambiando la información que conocíamos entre nuestro grupo, con quienes somos muy unidos. Entonces todos hacíamos pensamientos fugaces, mientras ocurrían las cosas.

Ese día en particular, el 12 de mayo, comenzó con las noticias del MP (Ministerio Público) llegando al banco (parte 1 + parte 2). Ocurre antes, pero es publicada a las 10 con 03 minutos. La radio lo informa antes. Mi primer tweet relacionado se da a las 12, después del evento, dentro de un grupo reducido de personas que entienden que mi tweet no es una incitación -- es mas, he utilizado " ", comillas, para especificar lo que alguien mas ha dicho.

Si te das cuenta, mi tweet tiene tres partes. 'Primera acción real' esto es el titulo con que designó a lo que ocurre en torno a todo. Hay una primera acción real. Segundo, "sacar el pisto de Banrural" -- la citación de lo que alguien mas dice. Y por ultimo lo que a mi juicio esa acción real pretende, 'quebrar al banco de los corruptos,' en donde no digo que el banco o sus funcionarios sean corruptos. Pero que quizás otras personas están infiltrando, o no se, pero -- la opinión de muchos en la comunidad.

(Ellos) Toman esa información y hacen ver que lo he dicho, primero, en una audiencia publica; segundo, que se encuentra al alcance de cualquiera, y tercero que lo he hecho como una incitación.

@XENIJARDIN: Así que al principio, solamente algunos amigos habrían visto esto. Pero unos días después, mucha gente fuera de tu círculo social comenzó a re-twittear este último tweet, y recuerdo que, de repente, casi todos los que estaban discutiendo la crisis estaban re-twitteando este mensaje específicamente.

@JEANFER: Si, el día 14. Cuando la comunidad se entera y comienzan a hacerlo -- no a petición mía, no puedo comunicarme con el exterior. Ocurre de una manera espontánea, otra gente lo han amplificado...

@XENIJARDIN: Usted está tratando de decir que no es una persona muy pública.

@JEANFER: Así es. No tengo una personalidad así, de hecho trato siempre de evadirla.

@XENIJARDIN: ¿Cuándo comenzaron los problemas relacionados con este tweet?

@JEANFER: El día 14 cuando (los oficiales) llegan a mi casa, con la orden de allanamiento. Yo me siento asustado por el despliegue policíaco, pero les digo que con todo gusto pasen adelante. Me piden que les señale en donde esta mi computadora y los llevo a mi dormitorio. Me preguntan si tengo un blog y les digo que si. Me preguntan si yo escribí los comentarios, los veo y les digo que si y les explico como se dieron las cosas. Les digo que mis tweets no tienen ninguna intención como ellos lo toman.

Se reúnen por un largo rato, hablan y hablan, que si están los correos dicen. Vuelven y les explico nuevamente que eso solo puede verse si uno decide buscar la pagina de twitter, darse de alta, y decide seguir mi cuenta en Twitter... Y estar al pendiente de lo que digo momento a momento.

@XENIJARDIN: ¿Entendieron ellos lo que es Twitter, a comparación con un blog?

@JEANFER: No. Hay declaraciones en las que el fiscal sale de mi casa indicando a la prensa que han encontrado evidencia en mi computadora de los emails masivos que he enviado desprestigiando al banco. Y la realidad es que SI hay personas mandando emails que condenan a Banrural, o a Colom, tengo copias y yo odio esa clase de mensajes. Saturan el Internet. Cada vez que alguno llega a mi correo lo borro inmediatamente.

@XENIJARDIN: ¿Qué pasó después?

@JEANFER: Fui conducido a la torre de tribunales para que se tomaran mis huellas digitales. Estuve alli al menos dos o tres horas sin saber que iba a ocurrir. Comenzaron a llegar medios y de alli que existan fotos mias en el sotano de la torre de tribunales. Luego llega mi madre y mi hermana para acompañarme.

@XENIJARDIN: Tomaron ellos su computadora, o copiaron información de la misma antes de llevarlo detenido?

@JEANFER: No. Ellos fueron a la fiscalía a crear un usuario de twitter, a buscar mi usuario, seguirlo, y buscar mis comentarios en el timeline para imprimirlos y presentarlos como prueba. Por eso se tardaron como 4 o 5 horas en volver. Me llevan directamente a los tribunales a esperar que mi caso sea conocido por un juez para que decida y como es de tu conocimiento ese mismo día por la tarde el juez define mi situación jurídica.

@XENIJARDIN: ¿Determina entonces el Juez que usted es culpable de "incitar al pánico financiero"?

@JEANFER: (El Juez determina) Que estoy ligado a proceso en primer termino lo cual significa es que el caso debe ser investigado por el ministerio publico, segundo que tengo arresto domiciliario. Luego que tengo arraigo.

Soy llevado al preventivo y puesto en un lugar antes de ser colocado en el sector 1 con otros reos esa misma noche, la noche del 14. En la mañana del día 15 fui trasladado a temprano a la torre de tribunales alrededor de las 7am y confinado en un sitio con otros reos hasta esperar la audiencia de las 11 y 30, en donde se realizo el pago de la fianza por el préstamo que hizo una empresa y que ya representa para mi una deuda. Firme los documentos correspondientes a mi libertad, y pensé que me iba de una vez a casa pero debía regresar al preventivo una vez mas para esperar por el procedimiento carcelario que establece que se sale libre solamente a partir de las 23 horas.

@XENIJARDIN: Y ¿Estuvo usted esposado durante todo este tiempo?

@JEANFER: Si, casi todo el tiempo.

@XENIJARDIN: Así que, en el mismo día de su arresto usted es llevado frente a un juez y este le impone a usted una multa equivalente a aproximadamente US $6500.

@JEANFER: Si, al no tener el dinero de la fianza me llevan al preventivo en donde no tengo conocimiento de nada ni de que pasara conmigo, sin poder hablar con nadie.

@XENIJARDIN: La empresa en donde labora eventualmente le presta el dinero para que usted pueda ser liberado.

@JEANFER: Si. Una empresa que deseo mantener al margen. Al día siguiente a las 6am soy incluido entre los reos que serán trasladados a la torre de tribunales, esto es el día 15. Me llevan esposado, debo decir que hubo gente buena en todas partes y estas personas buenas se ocupaban de no ponerme las esposas muy apretadas, ya que me molestaban mucho al tener las manos detrás de la espalda. Una vez allá, mi abogada llega a las 10am y le pregunto que paso, que hay, que vamos a hacer? Y me cuenta lo del préstamo, luego al subir las gradas encuentro a mi hermana y mi madre, que me abrazan al verme nuevamente, pero cuando me ven parece que me ven cansado, y me abrazan y lloran.

@XENIJARDIN: Ellas tenían miedo de lo que le podía suceder.

@JEANFER: Todavía lo tenemos.

@XENIJARDIN: Y como aprendió usted del apoyo de los otros tuiteros?

@JEANFER: Subimos al cuarto nivel y allí encuentro también a mis amigos que me saludan y me abrazan. Al subir a tribunales en un momento que me encuentro esperando entrar con el señor juez y me encuentro divagando recostado en una pared veo a un lado y hay dos muchachos que están con sus rostros demudados. Se acercan a mi y los reconozco como amigos, y dicen que se han enterado, que están conmigo, que abajo hay 17 personas mas. Les pido que no suban y que no los vean, pero ellos insisten en quedarse, y es entonces cuando empiezo a conmoverme Cuando se quedan me siento conmovido -- me dieron ganas de llorar por su acto. Los abrazo y les agradezco. Me dicen que no les importa y que van a subir de dos en dos, y así lo hacen hasta el momento de presentarme ante el juez. Que se quedan como cinco en la audiencia y toman fotografías.

Al momento del fallo me siento en shock por la resolución. No lo puedo creer. Y noto la reacción de otros -- y es igual.

Luego ocurre lo que te he comentado de ir al preventivo, paso la noche allá, vuelvo a tribunales al día siguiente, se paga la caución económica, y debo volver al preventivo por el procedimiento.

A las 11 de la noche recibo el llamado a libertad. Salgo haciendo varias paradas en varios puntos de control en donde soy interrogado sobre mi delito, el juez que resolvió, la sala que resolvió y la razón de mi libertad. Llegó a casa el día 16 a las 00:15.

@XENIJARDIN: ¿Cómo fue cuando usted pasa por la puerta de su casa, regresando nuevamente? ¿Qué sintió?

@JEANFER: Voy a mi estudio, veo mis libros, me pongo mis lentes y le doy gracias a Dios.

Aunque la pesadilla no ha terminado, me siento como cuando uno sale de su país por varias semanas y extrañas a los tuyos. Extrañas tu casa, al perro del vecino, la ventana, el aire. No dormí. Me quede en mi cama, en una cama que tengo en el estudio, con la luz apagada, y los ojos abiertos disfrutando ese espacio que tenia.

En prisión vi una cucaracha -- la vi rondar las paredes. Ir y venir, y luego escabullirse por la ventana a través de los barrotes e irse. Y pensé en el libro de Kafka, ["Metamorphosis"], y quise ser esa cucaracha.

@XENIJARDIN: ¿Cómo han sido los días desde que ha regresado a casa - a servir arresto domiciliario - para usted?

@JEANFER: No duermo bien. Tres horas diarias. No puedo leer otra cosa que no sea esto del caso. Tengo el libro de "Eleanor Rigby" sin poder abrirlo y estaba tan encantado de haberlo conseguido. Cuando trabajo, trato de hacer un block, y funciono. Pero solo por unas cuatro horas. Luego pierdo el focus.

@XENIJARDIN: ¿Hay algún libro que le recuerde esta experiencia?

@JEANFER: "Humillados y Ofendidos," de Dostoyevsky. Ahora trato de hacer mi vida normal en tanto esperamos que la investigación por parte del MP siga. Se ha abierto un plazo de 6 meses para tal efecto. Hemos presentado una reacusación con pruebas como tienen seis meses para buscar todo lo que quieran sobre mi y usarlo en mi contra en este caso para devolverme a prisión.

El punto es que este caso representa algo que no debemos perder.

Sin libre opinión no hay democracia. Este caso va a sentar un precedente sobre la libre emisión del pensamiento.

# # #

Guatemala: Conversation With @Jeanfer, Twitterer Facing Up to 10 Years In Prison for One Tweet.

GUATEMALA CITY: Earlier this month, a Twitter user in Guatemala was arrested, jailed, and fined the equivalent of a year's salary for having posted a 96-character thought to Twitter. The tweet related to an ongoing political crisis in Guatemala sparked by allegations that president Álvaro Colom ordered the assassination of an attorney, and claims made by this attorney that government officials engaged in illegal, corrupt transactions through the country's largest bank.

Jean Ramses Anleu Fernandez, or @jeanfer as he's known on Twitter (at left), has since been released from jail. He is under house arrest while the Guatemalan government pursues charges against him. Jean is an unlikely public figure: a shy, soft-spoken I.T. guy who studies systems engineering and loves books. He has since become something of a popular hero online, and Twitter itself has become a force in the country's current upheaval.

Guatemala's Supervisor of Banks, Édgar Barquín, wants Jean to face charges of up to 10 years in jail for "inciting financial panic" through the tweet in question. Barquín this week also proposed new restrictions on internet use in Guatemala -- for instance, that people who use internet cafés be required to present national IDs ("cedulas") before logging on.

I interviewed @jeanfer this week, here in Guatemala. Among the details he shared: Guatemala's Ministry of Banks created a Twitter account to "follow" him, in the course of interrograting him at his home. And while he was in jail, he dreamed of Kafka, and wished he could turn himself into a cockroach, to escape. Jean's final words in the interview:

The point is that this case represents something we must not lose. Without freedom of opinions and speech, there is no democracy. I hope this case sets a precedent about freedom of thought.

I've left most of the interview intact, so it's long (+2000 words). Continued in entirety after the jump. Special thanks to @thevenemousone for assistance with translation.

@XENIJARDIN: How were you using Twitter, and who were you mostly communicating with on Twitter when all of this happened?

@JEANFER: 
I used to chat among a circle of Guatemalan friends in a book club I belong to, and others from the same social group who were interested in the web, and information technology.

@XENIJARDIN
: Nearly all of your blog posts were about books, too. I remember thinking when i first saw your personal blog that you were clearly a person who loves reading books.

@JEANFER: 
With all my heart. I have a beautiful little library in my home. In my house, my study, my bathroom, even in my phone -- every wall is covered in bookshelves. I read lots of different kinds -- but historic novels are my favorite. I read biographies, poetry, history, theology...

@XENIJARDIN
: You were one of many people in Guatemala who were talking about the political crisis on Twitter in that first week after the Rosenberg video was released.

@JEANFER: 
Yes, one of many.

@XENIJARDIN: 
And you posted this one fleeting thought about the crisis, and the bank. 96 characters. What happened?

@JEANFER: 
What happened was that these past days in Guatemala have been extremely turbulent. We have been trying to figure out what is going on, because we are worried about our country. I love Guatemala. So, we were exchanging the information we knew among our groups, with people we knew and were close to. We were all sharing fleeting thoughts as things were happening.

@JEANFER: That day in particular, May 12th, started with news of the MP (Public Ministry, government body charged with investigations) arriving at the bank (background here and here). My first tweet related to this matter is made at noon, after that happened. The only people following me were a small group of friends who understand that my tweet was not an incitation. I even used quotation marks, to specify that this was overheard dialogue.

If you notice, my tweet has three parts. "Primera acción real" (First real action) is the title I use to designate what is happening around the whole #escandalogt issue. This was the first real action that had taken place after Rosenberg's video surfaced. Second, "sacar el pisto de banrural" (withdraw the money from Banrural) - is the quotation of what someone else is saying. And lastly, what I thought that first action meant to do: "quebrar al banco de los corruptos" (bankrupt the bank of the corrupt). Notice that I didn't mean that the bank or their officials are or were corrupt, but that maybe other people were infiltrating within the bank... I don't know. This was the opinion of many people in Guatemala.

[The officials who arrested me] took this information and claimed firstly, that I've said it at a public hearing; secondly, that this information is at anyone's reach; and lastly, that it is meant to be an incitation.

@XENIJARDIN
: So at first, just a few friends would have seen this. But within a couple of days, anyone who was discussing the crisis was also retweeting it.

@JEANFER: 
Yes. When the online community finds out about what happened with me, they start retweeting this en masse -- not on my request, since I could not communicate with the outside world [after I was detained]. It happened in a spontaneous way, and other people have amplified the message...

@XENIJARDIN: 
You're not a very public person, you're saying.

@JEANFER: 
Exactly. I am just not like that, in fact, I try to avoid situations like these.

@XENIJARDIN
: When did the problems related to this tweet begin?

@JEANFER: 
It all starts on May 14th, when [the officers] arrive at my house with the search warrant.

I feel somewhat frightened by the number of policemen that arrived, but told them they may come inside, and search for whatever they need to. They ask me to show them where my computer is, and I take them to my bedroom. They ask me if I have a blog, and I answer that I do. They ask me if I wrote the comments, I look at them and say that I did, and then I try to explain. I tell them repeatedly that my tweets have no intention to incite.

They go and meet privately for a while, and they talk and talk, mentioning something about emails. They return and I try to explain once again that [the tweet] can only be seen if you decide to go to the Twitter site, create an account, and follow my account on Twitter...

@XENIJARDIN
: Did they understand what Twitter was, as opposed to a blog?

@JEANFER: 
No. There are recorded declarations in which the attorney is outside of my house, explaining to the press that they have found evidence in my computer of mass emails I have sent that have damaged the bank's reputation. And actually, there ARE indeed people sending this kind of emails, condemning Banrural or Colom. I have received a couple myself, and I hate this kind of messages as they are nothing but spam. Every time a message of this kind gets into my inbox, I delete it immediately, as most people do.

@XENIJARDIN
: Then what happened?

@JEANFER: 
I was taken into the Justice Court so my fingerprint records could be taken. I was there for at least two or three hours, without knowing what was going to happen. Some media started to come in, which is why there are pictures of me in the basement of the Justice Court. After a while, my mom and my sister arrived.

@XENIJARDIN
: Did the authorities take your computer, or copy information from your computer, before taking you into detention?

@JEANFER: 
No. They returned to their offices to create a twitter account (@ubag03), look for my Twitter account, follow me, and search my timeline of tweets to print and present them as evidence. This is why it took them 4-5 hours to return. Then, they take me directly to the Court to wait for my case to be heard by a Judge so a sentence can be made. As it is known publicly, that very same afternoon a Judge defined my current legal situation.

@XENIJARDIN
: The judge determined that you were guilty of "inciting financial panic"?

@JEANFER: 
The Judge rules that I am to be subjected to a process, which means that firstly, the Public Ministry must investigate the case and secondly, that I am under house arrest. Then it means I am in confinement, and I cannot leave the country.

I am taken then to the "Preventivo" [the local Guatemalan prison], and placed temporarily before being put in sector one with other prisoners that night, on the 14th. Then, on the 15th, I was transported back to the Justice Court at around 7am and confined in a place along other prisoners to wait until the hearing happened, which did at 11:30am. My bail was paid with the help of a loan made by a local company, which now represents a debt for me. I signed all documents I need to in order to ensure my liberty, and thought I was going to go home, but instead I had to return to the prison one more time and wait, since the prison procedure states that prisoners can only be released after 11pm.

@XENIJARDIN
: And you were handcuffed the entire time?

@JEANFER: 
Almost the whole time, yes.

@XENIJARDIN
: So within a day of being arrested, you're taken before a judge, and he fines you the equivalent of about US $6,500?

@JEANFER: 
Yes. Since I didn't have the bail money right away I am taken into the local prison, where I have no clue of what is going on or what will happen with me, and I have no chance to speak to anyone.

@XENIJARDIN
: Your employer eventually loaned the money so you could be released.

@JEANFER: 
Yes, a company whose name I would like to keep out of the public eye.

On May 15th, the day after, I was among the prisoners to be transported to the Justice Court. I was handcuffed, but I must say that there are very nice people everywhere and someone there helped loosen the handcuffs, because they were hurting me a lot when I had my hands behind my back for so long.

Once in Court, my lawyer arrived at 10am and I ask her about what is happening, and what are we going to do. She tells me about the loan. Then, I go upstairs, and there, I encounter my mother and sister, who embrace me when they see me once again, but cry when they see how tired I look. They cried and hugged me.

@XENIJARDIN
: They were afraid for you.

@JEANFER: 
We are still afraid.

@XENIJARDIN: What happened after you were detained? How did you find out about all of the support for your case on Twitter?

@JEANFER: 
We all go to the fourth floor, and I find some friends that came to support me, and they hug me as well.

When I go up, there was a moment in which I was waiting to go into the hearing, and I'm just leaning on the wall.

I look next to me and I see a couple of guys with concerned faces. They come closer, and I suddenly recognize them as some of my Twitter friends, who say that they have found out about the whole situation and that they are supporting me, that there are 17 more people just like them downstairs.

I ask them (as a precaution to them) to not come up and be seen, but they all insist to stay and stick with me. This is when I began to feel extremely touched by all their actions.

When they told me they were staying, I felt so touched - I wanted to cry when I saw what they were doing. I hug them and thank them, and they say that it's not a problem, and that they will be taking turns to come upstairs in pairs, which they do until the time my hearing with the Judge began. About five of them stay for the hearing, and take pictures of the process.

When the Judge ruled his sentence, I was in shock. I could not believe it.

And then, I noticed other people's reactions in the courtroom - all the same as mine. After this, I go back to the prison as I mentioned earlier, spent the night, go back into the courthouse the next day, pay the bail, and go back once more to the prison as the procedure states. At 11pm on May 15th I am finally released. I leave the prison making several stops in various checkpoints, in which I have to answer questions about my felony, the Judge that gave the sentence, the courtroom that resolved the issue and the reason for my being released. I finally arrive home on May 16th at 1:15am.

@XENIJARDIN: 
What was it like when you came home? What were you feeling?

@JEANFER: 
I go back to my study, see my books, put on my glasses and thank God.

Although the nightmare is not over, I feel like one does when you leave the country for several weeks and miss your home. You miss your house, the familiar smells, the sound of your neighbor's dog, your window, air.

I didn't sleep. I stayed in my bed, a bed I have in my study, with the lights off and my eyes opened, enjoying this space I have.

When I was in prison, I saw a cockroach - I saw it crawl through the walls, come and go, sneak through the window's bars and leave. And I thought about Kafka's book, [Metamorphosis], and I wanted to be that cockroach.

@XENIJARDIN
: What have the days since you came home -- to serve house arrest -- began been like for you personally?

@JEANFER: 
I don't sleep well. About three hours a day. I can't read anything that is not related to the legal case. I have the Eleanor Rigby book, unopened -- before all of this happened, I was so excited I had finally obtained a copy.

When I work, I try to make a mental block and not think about all of this, and I work. But only for about four hours at a time. After that I lose focus.

@XENIJARDIN: 
Is there a book that this experience reminds you of?

@JEANFER: 
Humiliated and Insulted, by Dostoyevsky.

Now I try to live my life normally while we wait for the investigation by the Public Ministry to continue. A six-month period has been established for them to do so. We have presented a challenge with evidence, but they still have six months to search anything they want about me and use it against me in this case, in order to put me back into jail.

@XENIJARDIN: 
Why should people care what happens in your case?

@JEANFER: The point is that this case represents something we must not lose.

Without freedom of opinions and speech, there is no democracy.

I hope this case sets a precedent about freedom of thought.

# # #

DemandTec Named Finalist for VICS Collaborative Commerce Achievement Awards

UK Tory MP added a servant's wing to his house at taxpayers' expense

A Tory MP called Sir John Butterfill from Bournemouth West, Dorset used his expense account to add a servant's wing to his country house. At first he denied that these people were servants, calling them his "gardener and his wife," but later, he said, "the mistake I made was that, in claiming interest [from the expenses allowance] on the home, I didn't separate from that the value of the servants' ... er the staff ... wing. I claimed the whole of that and the whole of the council tax related to that."

He will repay £40,000 to cover the tax, after designating the property to the inland revenue as his main residence but designating it to the Commons authorities as his second home, allowing him to claim allowances.

As for the servants' quarters in Woking, Butterfill will be handing back £20,000.

Together, it will cost him a mere £60,000 to leave Westminster with a clean bill of health at the general election.

Manga collector faces 15 years in jail because some of his comics included sexual images of children

The 39-year-old office worker was charged under the 2003 Protect Act, which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack "serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." Handley's guilty plea makes him the first to be convicted under that law for possessing cartoon art, without any evidence that he also collected or viewed genuine child pornography. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison...

"This stuff is huge in Japan, in all of Asia," Lunning says. Handley, she adds, "is not a pedophile. He had no photographs of child pornography."

Handley remains free pending a yet-to-be scheduled sentencing date. Mike Bladel, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa, declined to state what kind of sentence the government would seek, but claimed there were hundreds of obscene panels in the seized manga...

"He was a prolific collector," says the lawyer. "He did not focus on this type of manga. He collected everything that was out there that he could get his hands on. I think this makes a huge difference." U.S. Manga Obscenity Conviction Roils Comics World


Source: Boing Boing | 28 May 2009 | 5:12 am

Cambridge study: DRM turns users into pirates

A long and deep study of user behaviour in the UK by a Cambridge prof confirms that when an honest person tries to do something legal that is blocked by Digital Rights Management technology, it encourages the person to start downloading infringing copies for free from the net, since these copies are all DRM-free.

Akester's new paper, "Technological accommodation of conflicts between freedom of expression and DRM: the first empirical assessment," does pretty much what its title implies. Akester spent the last few years interviewing dozens of lecturers, end users, government officials, rightsholders, and DRM developers to find how DRM and anticircumvention laws affected actual use...

Everybody that Akester spoke with had some problem of their own. Film lecturers, who are allowed to put together clip compilations under UK law, still can't (legally) bypass the CSS encryption on DVDs.

Lecturers who don't know how to bypass the DRM are faced with an unappealing choice: those "unable to extract a clip from a commercial DVD lodged in their library collection are forced to tailor the content of their lectures to the VHS materials at their disposal. They contend that this happens frequently, given that most commercial DVDs are DRM protected."

Landmark study: DRM truly does make pirates out of us all


Source: Boing Boing | 28 May 2009 | 5:07 am

When In Doubt, Change Your Name: Meet Fuse Capital

Velocity Interactive Group, a venture fund managing around $1.4 billion in investments that was known as ComVentures until November 2007, has changed its name to Fuse Capital. Separately, the fund is announcing the formation of a new venture fund with Best Buy focusing on digital media investments. The size of the new fund is not being disclosed.

Fuse Capital was rocked in March when partner Jonathan Miller left to head up News Corp.’s newly formed Digital Media group.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 28 May 2009 | 5:06 am

Topsy: a search-engine whose results come from highly trafficked Twitter links

Rishab sez,

Here's something neat - all the links posted by @Boingboing on Twitter, and for each link, all the things people are saying about them on Twitter. Its a result page from Topsy, a new site that lets you search through what people are saying about things. Topsy sees the Internet as a stream of conversations between people. It ranks each search result based on how much people are talking about it, and the influence of the people discussing it. Like Cory Doctorow's Whuffie, Topsy computes influence as something you can earn and spend. It does this based on how much you talk about other things and people, and how much other people talk about you. Of course @Boingboing is "Highly Influential" on Twitter (which is all Topsy's index has, for now).

Topsy (Thanks, Rishab!)


Source: Boing Boing | 28 May 2009 | 5:04 am

Nominations open for IP3 awards: achievements in Internet protocol, information policy and intellectual property

Art sez, "Public Knowledge is asking for nominations for its annual awards for achievement in intellectual property, internet protocol and information policy. We're sure Boing Boing readers would have lots of good ideas."

It's that time of year again: time to nominate individuals for our annual IP3 awards. As you may know, each year, Public Knowledge selects three individuals to receive the IP3 Award. These winners are people who have advanced the public interest in each of the three "IPs:" Intellectual Property, Internet Protocol, and Information Policy. Previous IP3 winners have included everyone from EFF lawyer Fred von Lohmann and Virginia Congressman Rick Boucher to the band OK Go and Gnarls Barkley member DJ Danger Mouse. Be sure to nominate your picks by June 22nd and look out for list of winners in October.

Nominations Now Open For the 2009 IP3 Awards (Thanks, Brad!)


Source: Boing Boing | 28 May 2009 | 5:03 am

Data Breach Exposes RAF Staff To Blackmail

Yehuda writes "Wired reports, 'Yet another breach of sensitive, unencrypted data is making news in the United Kingdom. This time the breach puts Royal Air Force staff at serious risk of being targeted for blackmail by foreign intelligence services or others. The breach involves audio recordings with high-ranking air force officers who were being interviewed in-depth for a security clearance. In the interviews, the officers disclosed information about extra-marital affairs, drug abuse, visits to prostitutes, medical conditions, criminal convictions and debt histories — information the military needed to determine their security risk. The recordings were stored on three unencrypted hard drives that disappeared last year.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 May 2009 | 5:02 am

Cthulhu violates a Parsec science fiction award

Brad sez, "At this year's Balticon, Earl Newton left his Parsec award for best video podcast unattended just long enough for the star of Calls For Cthulhu (the runner up for said award) to defile it in the most humorous puppet-on-inanimate-object way possible."

Calls For Cthulhu - Balticon Sex Scandal (Thanks, Brad!)


Source: Boing Boing | 28 May 2009 | 5:01 am

My Lyrical Technique Will Leave Your Body Weak: D7 in Quotes [D7 Highlights]

This year’s D conference, as did last year’s–has had its share of memorable lines. A selection of some of the better ones below:

“I’ve always said that if we described Twitter in three sentences, the first two would be about not putting too much fidelity on it, and the last sentence would be ‘we don’t know.’”

– Twitter co-founder Biz Stone

“We just want everyone to get along.”

– Twitter co-founder Evan Williams on claims that the company will someday kill Google

“It is a product that has changed the face of wireless communications.”

– AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson makes obeisance to the Apple iPhone

“Would I like to see the [Palm] Pre on our network some day? Of course I would.”

– AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson

“People in the music industry, we’ve had a horrible record of shooting ourselves in the head.”

– Ticketmaster Entertainment CEO Irving Azoff states the obvious

“You can’t take nine women and make a baby in the month; there is a process.”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz

Down 15 percent is the new flat. I mean, isn’t it? C’mon.”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on the econalypse

“Do you want me to say something naughty now?”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz to Kara Swisher

“Are you leading up to ‘I’m too old and too stupid to know what the Internet is?’ Cause by the way, Walt is 61 and I’m only 60. So… f— you.”

— Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz brings down the house with the f-bomb

“They’d have to have big boatloads of money.”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz names Yahoo’s selling price to Microsoft

“He drew arrows everywhere. It looked like a Dilbert cartoon.”

– Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on the org chart that company co-founder Jerry Yang drew for her while wooing her for the CEO job

“I don’t see the benefits of a tablet over a notebook.”

– RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis

“That was pretty cool.”

– Walt Mossberg reviews the unreleased Nokia N97 from the D7 stage

“The people who fired you [from AOL] were later fired, so that must feel great.”

— Kara Swisher to Jon Miller, chief digital officer of News Corp.

“I’m sorry we’re starting late. Carol Bartz just trashed my hotel room.”

– Kara Swisher

“I wouldn’t have bought it.”

–Mark Cuban on YouTube

“‘First come the innovators, then come the imitators, then come the idiots.’ That’s where we are on the Internet.”

–Mark Cuban quotes Warren Buffet

“There’s always going to be someone trying to rush the fat kid to the head of the buffet.”

– Mark Cuban on a potential bandwidth crisis

“When someone in the government wants you, it’s not a good place to be. You don’t want to be someone’s skin on the wall.”

— Mark Cuban on his legal problems

“So what have you been up to besides dancing and fighting the government?”

– Kara Swisher to Mark Cuban

Source: All Things Digital | 28 May 2009 | 5:00 am

Infinite bookstore video

Jeff Vandermeer sez, "My video narrated by a visitor supposedly lost for days, showing just how ridiculously large and multi-faceted the Chamblin Bookmine is. Using stop-gap photos I recreated my path through the bookstore in Borgesian fashion. With incidental music by The Church. In a day and age when most bookstores are dying, this organic behemoth, which changes every day due to the volume of incoming and outgoing books, is still going strong..."

The Chamblin Bookmine: A Bibliophile's Fevre Dream... (Thanks, Jeff!)

Source: Gizmodo | 28 May 2009 | 4:30 am

Is Playing a DVD Harder Than Rocket Science?

dacut writes "After successfully repairing the Hubble Space Telescope, astronauts aboard the shuttle Atlantis found themselves with a free day due to thunderstorms which delayed their return. They attempted to pass the time by watching movies, only to find that their laptops did not have the proper software, and Houston was unable to help. No word, alas, on what software was involved, though we can assume that software/codec updates are a tad difficult when you're orbiting the planet at 17,200MPH."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 May 2009 | 4:21 am

Server Revenue Declined Sharply in Q1, IDC Says (PC World)

PC World - A precipitous fall in worldwide server shipments triggered a sharp decline in revenue for server makers during the first quarter of 2009, IDC said in a survey released on Thursday.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 28 May 2009 | 4:20 am

Best Buy Bets on Digital With New Venture Fund [MediaMemo]

It’s easy to see that big box chains like Best Buy will need to figure out a digital strategy at some point. It’s less clear how exactly they’ll do it. But the consumer electronics giant thinks one way is to throw a bunch of money at the problem: It is bankrolling a digital media fund that will be managed by Velocity Interactive Group, the venture fund headed by digital vet Ross Levinsohn.

Neither company will disclose how much money Best Buy (BBY) is putting into the fund, so it’s difficult to gauge how big a deal this is, or isn’t. But we do know that the retailer has already shelled out $121 million for Napster, so presumably it’s ready to spend that much again, at least. Another sign Best Buy is serious about this whole digital thing, or at least wants to signal that it is: Multiple sources tell me it has created a position for a chief digital officer, and is searching for one now.

The deal also signals that Velocity, the firm that Levinsohn created with former AOL CEO Jon Miller, will continue on even though Miller is now heading up digital operations for News Corp. (NWS), which owns this Web site.

Miller took Velocity partner Jorge Espinel with him when he joined News Corp., but Levinsohn, who earned his reputation when he helped News Corp. buy MySpace (following this?), but Levinsohn will be staying on. Oh, and for good measure, Velocity is changing its name to Fuse Capital. Presumably there’s a good reason for that, but the press release below doesn’t spell that out.

VELOCITY INTERACTIVE GROUP CREATES NEW DIGITAL MEDIA FUND WITH BEST BUY;
MARKS LAUNCH OF STRATEGIC EQUITY MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE FOR FIRM

Velocity to Change Name to Fuse Capital
Los Angeles – May 28, 2009 – Velocity Interactive Group, a leading venture capital firm in digital media and communications with more than $1.4 billion under management, today announced a strategic partnership with Best Buy that includes the launch of a new digital media fund.  With Best Buy as the sole limited partner, the fund will seek to leverage the scale and scope of the multinational consumer electronics retailer to help drive growth and enhance performance of the portfolio companies.  The fund will focus on strategic digital media investments as a complement to Best Buy’s current digital media and emerging technology investment activity.  Separately, Velocity is also announcing that it will change its name to Fuse Capital.
The new fund is designed to focus on investments in digital media companies that will help create the next generation of leaders in categories such as music, video, games, and personal media management, as well as other areas that leverage the touch points and reach of Best Buy.  As part of the relationship, Fuse will work closely with Best Buy on digital media strategies and support the company’s existing digital assets.
The Best Buy partnership marks the launch of Fuse’s expansion into strategic equity management. The focus of the strategic equity management initiative is to become partners with global corporations that seek to augment their digital strategic initiatives with the knowledge and expertise of an investment firm dedicated to digital media and communications.  Fuse’s portfolio will benefit from the partnerships with these global corporations which enable them to jump-start and launch with critical mass, greatly improving the likelihood of success.  Fuse’s decision to change its name from Velocity to Fuse Capital reflects this strategic focus.
“This strategic initiative is a natural extension and evolution of our capabilities, given our firm’s extensive strategic, investment and operational experience in both emerging companies and large corporations across digital media,” said Ross Levinsohn, managing partner, Fuse.  “As for our first partner, Best Buy is the preeminent retail leader in technology and entertainment products and services, and is exceedingly well positioned to take advantage of the massive shifts occurring across the media and commerce landscapes.”
“This partnership is another example of how we strive to be at the forefront of consumers’ entertainment and digital lives,” said Mike Vitelli, executive vice president, customer operating groups, Best Buy.  “We are pleased to be working with Fuse and look forward to working with them to lead the market transformation in digital media.”

Source: All Things Digital | 28 May 2009 | 4:03 am

Homebrewed CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires

Intel’s fabrication plants can churn out hundreds of thousands of processor chips a day. But what does it take to handcraft a single 8-bit CPU and a computer? Give or take 18 months, about $1,000 and 1,253 pieces of wire.

Steve Chamberlin, a Belmont, California, videogame developer by day, set out on a quest to custom design and build his own 8-bit computer. The homebrew CPU would be called Big Mess of Wires or BMOW. Despite its name, it is a painstakingly created work of art.

“Computers can seem like complete black boxes. We understand what they do, but not how they do it, really,” says Chamberlin. “When I was finally able to mentally connect the dots all the way from the physics of a transistor up to a functioning computer, it was an incredible thrill.”

The 8-bit CPU and computer will be on display doing an interactive chess demo at the fourth annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, California, this weekend, May 30-31. It will be one of 600 exhibits of do-it-yourself technology, hacks, mods and just plain strange hobby projects at the faire, which is expected to draw 80,000 attendees.

The BMOW is closest in design to the MOS Technology 6502 processor used in the Apple II, Commodore 64 and early Atari videogame consoles. Chamberlin designed his CPU to have three 8-bit data registers, a 24-bit address size and 12 addressing modes. It took him about a year and a half from design to finish. Almost all the components come from the 1970s- and 1980s-era technology.

“Old ’80s vintage parts may not be very powerful, but they’re easy to work with and simple to understand,” he says. “They’re like the Volkswagen Beetles of computer hardware. Nobody argues they’re the best but we love them for their simplicity.”

To connect the parts, Chamberlin used wire wrapping instead of soldering. The technique involves taking a hollow, screwdriver-shaped tool and looping the wire through it to create a tight, secure connection. Wire wraps are seen as less prone to failures than soldered junctions but can take much longer to accomplish. Still, they offer one big advantage, says Chamberlin.

“Wire wrapping is changeable,” he says. “I can unwrap and start over if I make a mistake. It is is much harder to recover from a mistake if you solder.”

Chamberlin started with a a 12×7-inch Augat wire-wrap board with 2,832 gold wire-wrap posts that he purchased from eBay for $50. Eventually he used 1,253 pieces of wire to create 2,506 individually-wrapped connections, wrapping at the rate of almost 25 wires in an hour. “It’s like a form of meditation,” he wrote on his blog. “Despite how long it takes to wrap, the wire-wrapping hasn’t really impacted my overall rate of progress. Design, debugging, and general procrastination consume the most time.”

The BMOW isn’t just a CPU. Chamberlin added a keyboard input, an LCD output that shows a strip of text, a USB connection, three-voice audio, and VGA video output to turn it into a functioning computer. The video circuitry, a UMC 70C171 color palette chip, was hard to come by, he says. When Chamberlin couldn’t find a source for it online, he went to a local electronics surplus warehouse and dug through a box of 20-year-old video cards. Two cards in there had the chip he needed, so he took one and repurposed it for his project.

The use of retro technology and parts is essential for a home hobbyist, says Chamberlin. Working with newer electronics technology can be difficult because a lot of modern parts are surface-mount chips instead of having through-hole pins. That requires a wave soldering oven, putting them out of reach of non-professionals.

After months of the CPU sitting naked on his desk, Chamberlin fashioned a case using a gutted X Terminal, a workstation popular in the early 1990s.

“Why did I do all this?” he says. “I don’t know. But it has been a lot of fun.”

Check out Steve Chamberlin’s log of how BMOW was built.

Photo:  Wire wrapped 8-bit CPU/Steve Chamberlin

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 28 May 2009 | 4:00 am

Chevrolet Volt Reaches Another Milestone

General Motors starts building Chevrolet Volts that look like the Chevrolet Volt.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 May 2009 | 4:00 am

Gallery: Oddities From NASA's Massive Image Archive

:

NASA probably has one of the biggest, most impressive collections of photo images on Earth. Its archive is full of the expected -- shuttle launches, space walks and celestial objects — that never fail to inspire awe.

But while browsing this photographic buffet, the Wired.com photo desk uncovered some other nuggets, too, strange and often amusing images that inspire smiles, if not awe. From jet-shoes to astronaut food, we've chosen some of the best or you.

Left: The sombrero-topped hombres picture here are the Apollo 11 astronauts being swarmed by thousands at a 1969 parade in Mexico City during the world tour that followed their trip to the moon. The tour was meant to show the United States' willingness to share its space knowledge, and its space heroes. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins visited 27 cities in 24 countries in 45 days.

:

NASA has long been at the forefront of technology, even as far back as 1947, before it was NASA. Here's how things looked at the Langley Research Center in Virginia, where women performed mathematical computations for the male staff.

:

This impressive looking projectile leaving its hangar at Michoud Air Force Base in New Orleans in 1977 was the first external tank for the space shuttle. If nothing else, it proved NASA need not feel ashamed in the boys' room of the global space community. It contained two tanks, one for liquid hydrogen and the other for liquid oxygen.

:

This is what passed for dinner in the Skylab space station, circa 1970. Unappetizing as the food may appear, it was a major improvement over the fare served up to astronauts on previous missions, thanks to the all-in-one heating and serving tray. Gone were the days of squeezing liquefied food from plastic tubes. Each member of the Skylab crew could choose his preferred purees and prepare them just so.

:

Ham was the first chimpanzee launched into outer space. He was captured in Cameroon and eventually bought by the U.S. Air Force. He was the cream of the crop of 40 potential astrochimps. On his 16-minute flight in a Mercury capsule, he proved that astronauts would be able to perform tasks in space by pressing levers nearly as quickly as he could on Earth. After his flight, Ham retired and lived for 17 more years at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and then later at the North Carolina Zoo. He died in 1983 at age 26, which is relatively young. Chimps average 45 years in the wild and can live more than 50 years in captivity. Ham is shown here in a fetching space suit in 1961 at Kennedy Space Center.

:

The guy in this photo is using jet shoes to propel himself around in a wheeled apparatus to mimic the zero-gravity conditions of a spacewalk. A description of the contraption was presented at an engineering conference in 1966: "Called OMPRA (One-Man Propulsion Research Apparatus), the device will provide a gimbals system for rotational freedom, a quick response vertical servo for this translational freedom … and a versatile maneuvering unit." The photo was taken in 1967 at Langley Research Center in Virginia.

:

No, it's not Lawrence of Arabia's troop of bodyguards. The seven original Mercury astronauts used parachute pieces to make hats and clothes during a 1960 training exercise in the Nevada desert. The idea was to prepare the men to survive in the event of an emergency landing in the wilderness. Pictured here, from left to right, at Stead Air Force Base: Gordon Cooper, Scott Carpenter, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, Virgil Grissom, Walter Schirra and Donald Slayton.

:

The Apollo 11 astronauts peer out from an odd-looking mobile quarantine facility aboard the USS Hornet as President Richard Nixon gives them a verbal high-five for their successful moon landing. Pictured from left to right: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.

:

The Launch Control Room at Cape Canaveral teems with identically clad NASA flight controllers and engineers in this 1965 image. The object of all the concerned faces seen here was SA-8, the first NASA mission to launch at night. The Pegasus II satellite, designed to detect micrometeoroids (tiny space bits that could potentially damage spacecraft), was successfully deployed.

:

This transformer-esque contraption was the NASA 952 Lunar Landing Training Vehicle, seen here in front of a wind tunnel at Langley Research Center in 1969. A sister vehicle crashed at Ellington Field in Texas and this thing never went operational. The surviving vehicle is now on exhibit at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

See Also:

• Gallery: NASA Spacecraft Will Explore Outer Solar System
• Gallery: NASA's Most Amazing Extraterrestrial Vehicles
• Gallery: NASA's Most Embarrassing Goofs
• Gallery: The Space Suit Makes the NASA Astronaut
• Gallery: Inside NASA's Mars Mission

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 May 2009 | 4:00 am

Handcrafted CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires

An exhibit at DIY festival Maker Faire is sure to attract some geek attention: Steve Chamberlin will show his homebrewed 8-bit CPU and computer that took 18 months, about $1,000 and 1,253 pieces of wire to create.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 May 2009 | 4:00 am

Why a Plastic Camera Pioneer Reinvented Lo-Fi Film Shooters

In a world of precision-engineered digital cameras, the colorfully analog Blackbird fly is a strange bird—one that took almost 15 years to hatch. Back in 1995, Hideki Ohmori launched a kind of alt-Amazon .com in Japan. He cool-hunted dozens of products and exhaustively described each one—except for a light-leaking, plastic 35-mm camera he portrayed simply as "a box with a secret inside that converts every view with affection." It was his only commercial success.

Ohmori spent the next several years selling cheap cameras like the Russian Lomo, importing burgeoning lo-fi photography to Tokyo as the Eastern bloc crumbled. Enthusiasts still clamor for the film cam, whose poor construction yields mysterious optical aberrations and sometimes doesn't even bother to keep images from seeping across the film's sprocket holes. So, when supply chains shriveled, entrepreneurial Ohmori became a manufacturer.

Instead of imitating old Soviet shells, Ohmori's company, Superheadz, designs toy cameras. The $125 Blackbird fly is a new customer favorite. In addition to maintaining idiosyncratic lens quality, the camera has a framing mask that lets you shoot square photos on 35-mm film—or even bleed the image to the edge like its old comrades. Of course, in true Japanese form, the fly's exterior is far from proletarian.

Why make a toy camera? They take us back to essentials. We were trying to simplify as much as possible, to create something basic, but not a faceless design.

Are you satisfied with the Blackbird fly? If something is perfect, it responds to its creator's quest for perfection. That's not so interesting to me. The fly was born under layers of compromise, and there are some aspects I'm not happy with. Just like life. Design is as imperfect as we are, and I embrace that.

Why are you obsessed with film? We now hear the richness of vinyl records because we can compare them to CDs. In the same way, the digital camera's crisp, clean images help us recognize the complexity and warmth of film. It's exacerbated when you shoot through a plastic lens like the one on our fly. We do not always want a faithful representation of reality. Sometimes we yearn for a dream.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 May 2009 | 4:00 am

Handcrafted CPU Is a Beautiful Mess of Wires

An exhibit at DIY festival Maker Faire is sure to attract some geek attention: Steve Chamberlin will show his homebrewed 8-bit CPU and computer that took 18 months, about $1,000 and 1,253 pieces of wire to create.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 28 May 2009 | 4:00 am

New Germ Busters Outwit Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

Infectious bacteria have evolved through the loopholes in almost every drug we've created, thanks to our own misuse and overuse. But we may yet outmaneuver them. Researchers are testing new bug-killers that bypass the molecular pathways used by old-school antibiotics—and maybe won't produce the same kind of resistance. Once more unto the breach, dear friends!

Alligator Blood

Alligators heal fast, rarely get infections, and survive in murky water on diseased food. Researchers at McNeese State University in Louisiana believe that proteins in their blood inhibit bacterial growth. If so, similar proteins may help mammals.

Bacterial DNA

A team at the University of Warwick employed genome mining (analysis of controlled genetic tweaks) to isolate a previously unknown signaling chemical in Streptomyces bacteria that causes the bugs to produce natural antibiotics.

Chlorine

A derivative of N-chlorotaurine made by NovaBay Pharmaceuticals mimics an immune system chemical similar to chlorine, which messes with bacterial proteins. The drug is in trials for treating urinary tract infections.

Clay

At least three different kinds of clay, two from the US and one from France, seem to have antibacterial effects. So, you know: That's weird. Scientists at Arizona State University aim to figure out whether it can be used in medicine.

Lasers and Dye

Hit indocyanine green dye with a laser and it becomes lethal to the critters that cause staph infections, scarlet fever, and other nasty diseases. Researchers in London say the technique could be used to sterilize wounds.

Viruses

Bacteriophages are viruses that attack and eat bacteria. Boston University researchers recently engineered some to penetrate and dissolve the slimy protective walls, or biofilms, around antibiotic-resistant superbug colonies.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 May 2009 | 4:00 am

May 28, 1987: Teen Tests Soviet Air Defenses

A West German teenager risks his life ... and perhaps an accidental Armageddon ... in the name of bringing peace.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 May 2009 | 4:00 am

Tweetbucks Brings Affiliate Fees To Twitter Users. Is That A Good Thing?

Talk of how to monetize Twitter, both from its founders perspective and a third-party point of view, is dominating conversation on the web these days. Tweetbucks, a startup founded by entrepreneur Chris Sukornyk, is hoping to make money for users of Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed through leveraging affiliate fees and CPCs from ads.

Here’s how it works. Tweetbucks has a database with thousands of online merchants that offer referral fees (or money you get from merchants when your advertisements of a product result in a purchase ), including Amazon, BestBuy, Barnes & Noble and Shoes.com. All you need to do is find a product on a retail site, enter it on Tweetbuck’s site, and the startup will automatically shorten (via Bit.ly) and convert it to an affiliate enabled link, referencing the site’s data base of online merchants that pay out affiliate fees. You can then add the link to in a Tweet, Facebook status update or FriendFeed message.

Every time people click your link and your recommendation results in a purchase, the online merchant pays a commission to you. For example, referral fees for Amazon’s Associates program hover around 6%, BestBuy pays out 3-4%, and CompUSA pays around 6%. Tweetbucks will take 30% of the money you earn through each referral leaving you with 70%. So if you send out a link via a Tweet to a Kindle being sold on Amazon for $359.00 and someone purchases the Kindle from the link, you will receive $15.12 and Tweetbucks will take $6.46. On the other hand, if your affiliate fee comes from a book on Barnes & Noble (which also pays out 6%) that totals $16.76, you will receive $0.70 cents and Tweetbucks will get $0.30 cents.

Tweetbucks also lets you earn money off of any non-retail site, by allowing you to enable a “custom ad-frame,” on a site you Tweet the link to. Tweetbucks displays an ad at the top of your destination page and you earn a variable rate (CPC) on every click. You can also customize this ad frame to include a hyperlinked logo of your choice. The compensation from this doesn’t seem to have as much potential as the affiliate fees; Sukornyk says returns are around $1 to $2 per thousand clicks.

Tweetbucks give you a complimentary $5 in your account to start with and pays you via PayPal each month. You can also earn a 10% commission on all revenue earned by people you refer to Tweetbucks for 6 months after their approval date. It’s a little shady to be sending out links to friends and followers with out them knowing they you will be making a cut off of their sale. Sukornyk encourages Tweetbucks users to add the hashtag #tweetbucks at the end of any link so that people who click on your link will know whats in it for you.

This has a few similarities to Microsoft’s controversial CashBack program, which gives users monetary incentives to click through and buy products from the ads they’re shown. But Tweetbucks gives users the power to make money from others (and forbids the user to click and buy from the links themselves).

There seems to be the whole double edged sword issue with Tweetbucks. The more affiliate links you send out, the more people will probably purchase from that link and the more money you will make. But the more links you send out, whether it be via Twitter, Facebook or FriendFeed, the more you hover on that line of being a pseudo-spammer of links to retail sites. And you could come across as opportunistic if you send out a ton of links that make you money every day, regardless of whether you disclose or not. I guess it was inevitable that services would eventually leverage the power of links with Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook for monetary purposes. For some reason, it just doesn’t sit right with me.

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Source: TechCrunch | 28 May 2009 | 3:20 am

AT&T’s Pre Envy [D7 Highlights]

AT&T (T) is very happy to be the exclusive carrier of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone in the states, but it wouldn’t mind selling the Palm (PALM) Pre too. Asked at the D7 conference today if he might like to add the forthcoming device to AT&T’s handset lineup, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said he would, but Palm’s exclusive deal with Sprint (S) prevents that. “Would I like to see the Pre on our network some day? Of course I would,” he said. “Obviously we talk to all the handset manufacturers. We want a broad selection of devices in the lineup. That’s important. Devices right now are what’s driving the customer adoption as much as anything.”

Source: All Things Digital | 28 May 2009 | 3:07 am

Revived LHC Could Run Through the Winter

Jack Spine writes "When you are powering nuclear particle beams that could drill a hole through 30 metres of copper, you don't want to be paying a premium for electricity. However, Cern scientists are determined that the delayed experiment will get some workable results, and so are preparing to run the machine throughout the winter."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 May 2009 | 2:32 am

Windows 7 and Microsoft Surface play well together

A couple weeks ago we got an early demo of the Surface SP1 update, and saw that one of the goals of which was to improve Windows-Surface cross-compatibility and encourage developers to make their apps touch-compatible. Looks like that work goes both ways, as it appears that Surface content and functionality is going to be kicking it with Windows 7.

Of course, the Surface’s hardware is mixed blessing: it makes development a lot easier when you’ve designed the hardware (just ask Apple), but makes it a pain when you’re trying to set your cool software up on similar but not identical platforms. Surface can handle a billion touches but the Dell Latitude used in this video demo (no offense, Dell) isn’t quite as capable, though of course it does everything it was designed to do.

It’s certainly not “OMG Surface on yr computar” but I’m looking forward to having lots of overlap between these two delicious Microsoft treats.

[via GottaBeMobile]

Source: CrunchGear | 28 May 2009 | 1:43 am

Sneak Peak: First Video Demo Of Siri Virtual Assistant

Earlier today, a startup called Siri that wants to bring virtual assistants to the iPhone came out of stealth. Siri brings a very advanced collection of technologies (speech recognition, natural language processing, semantic data processing, and geo-location) to create a virtual assistant that helps you perform tasks through a conversational, question-and-answer interface. You can read all about it in this lengthy guest post by Nova Spivack.

But sometimes it is easier to just see the product for yourself. Below is the first public demo video of Siri, which I got on video today from CEO Dag Kittlaus at the AllThingsD conference in San Diego. Siri won’t be available on the iPhone until later this summer.

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Source: TechCrunch | 28 May 2009 | 1:07 am

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Source: TechCrunch | 28 May 2009 | 1:05 am

Fluorescent Monkeys Cast Light On Human Disease

Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that a team of Japanese scientists has integrated a new gene for green fluorescent protein into the common marmoset, causing them to glow green under ultraviolet light, creating second-generation, glow-in-the-dark monkeys in what could be a powerful new tool in human disease research. Though primates modified to generate a glowing protein have been created before, these are the first to keep the change in their bloodlines. If a fluorescent protein gene can be introduced into the monkey genome and passed onto future generations, other genes could be too opening up a world of possibilities for medical research, such as the generation of specific monkey colonies containing genetic defects that mirror human diseases aiding efforts to cure such diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. However many people are likely to find the routine use of monkeys in medical research far less acceptable than that of rodents, drawing action from animal rights activists. "I'm worried that these steps are being taken without any overall public discussion about whether we want to go down that road. We may find ourselves gradually drifting towards the genetic engineering of human beings," says Dr David King, from the group Human Genetics Alert. "'Slippery slope' is a quite inadequate description of the process, because it doesn't happen passively. People push it forward.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 28 May 2009 | 12:56 am

Castlevania movie shelved, thank god

It looks like the movie version of Castlevania, directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (of Aliens vs. Predator infamy), has been put on hold indefinitely. With luck that means this dog will never see the light of day, but bad movies have a way of completing themselves in spite of all odds.

What this means for other pending video game adaptations is debatable, but I doubt the cancellation of one beleaguered project headed by an unsuccessful director is indicative of the state of the video game movie industry. I’m still hoping I get awarded the rights to the Twinkle Star Sprites adaptation.

[via 1up]

Source: CrunchGear | 28 May 2009 | 12:50 am

Vista Broadband to Provide Live Web-Cast of Santa Rosa High School Graduation

SANTA ROSA, Calif., May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time ever the Santa Rosa High School graduation will be available to view via live web-cast courtesy of Vista Broadband Networks and the Community Media Center of Santa Rosa.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 May 2009 | 12:38 am

Judge Rules LifeLock's Fraud Alert Service Illegal

A federal judge in California rules that LifeLock has been breaking the law for years by placing fraud alerts on its customer's credit profiles. The decision has privacy advocates and others scratching their heads.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 May 2009 | 12:30 am

DualTow by Cristophe Claret

Man alive: look at this monster. It’s the DualTow watch by Cristophe Claret. This watch has a single-pusher chronograph and striking mechanism to chime when you activate the chronograph. The coolest additions are the two belt displays showing the hours and minutes. Then you’ve got a tourbillon to round things out.

It’s a manual-wind movement with 50-hour reserve and only 68 will be made.

Technical Specifications:

Movement
Manual-wind
582 parts
73 jewels
50-hour power reserve
twin barrels placed in parallel

Tourbillon
Swiss lever escapement
Balance oscillation frequency 3Hz (21,600 vph)
Tourbillon rotation frequency: 1 revolution/minute

Functions
Hour and minute display on belts
Single-pusher planetary-gear chronograph
Mechanical striking mechanism sounding each change of function (start, stop and reset)
12-hour, 60-minute and 60-second chronograph counters
Operating mode indicator
Power-Reserve display

Case
Sapphire watch crystals specifically designed to enhance wearer comfort
Rectangular, curving, fitted with exclusive mobile lugs enabling a perfect fit on the wrist
Dimensions: 42.75 x 48.20mm (not counting the lugs)
Water resistance 30 meters

Display belts
In rubber with transferred hour and minute numerals

Flange
Flange with chronograph five second markers cut from five different stones

Dynamometric crown and pusher
Partially rubber-moulded

Dial
sapphire crystal serving as a bridge for the chronograph counters and featuring transferred chronograph hour and minute counters, chronograph operating mode

Buckle
Triple-blade folding clasp with decorative covers and an innovative system enabling comfort-enhancing 10mm wrist extensions

Source: CrunchGear | 28 May 2009 | 12:24 am

Acer Aspire Timeline spotted at an American Wal-Mart

Even though we haven’t heard a thing about the Acer Aspire Timeline since it was announced a while ago, that doesn’t mean we have forgotten about Acer’s latest ultraportable notebook. The $598, 15.4-inch model (5810TZ-4657) was spotted at a Wal-Mart of all places by one of our intrepid readers minutes ago. Didn’t know that Walley World stocked the latest and greatest, eh?

Sorry for crappy quality, took em on my phone while shopping. It’s dead sexy, I had to fight myself to keep from biting the bullet an buying it….I can confirm that grand blanc [MI] AND corruna rd [MI] walmarts both had it, and last I had read it has only shown up in Canada as far as n America goes…

Just like Doug said, the Timeline is more than a netbook, but more portable than your average notebook. The six cell battery should power this slim notebook for more than eight hours thanks to the Intel ULV SU2700 CPU and LED back-lit screen. Expect to see reviews dropping shortly comparing this anorexic-thin notebook against the Apple MacBook Air, MSI’s X-Slim notebooks, the Dell Adamo, and the Lenovo X301. At least now we know that the notebook is available for general consumption at your local Wal-Mart.

Acer Aspire Timeline

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Source: CrunchGear | 28 May 2009 | 12:15 am

Samsung, Duracell, Hosiden and Leggett & Platt Join Wireless Power Consortium to Set Universal Standard

Market leaders accelerate Consortium traction to revolutionize use of consumer electronics HONG KONG, May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wireless Power Consortium (The Consortium) announced four new members today: Duracell (U.S.A.), Hosiden Corporation (Japan), Leggett & Platt, Inc.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 28 May 2009 | 12:00 am

Plastic Logic’s eReader re-emerges at D with an interface and 3G

It’s been more than six months since we’ve seen hide or hair of the highly-anticipated Plastic Logic eReader, but the D conference has got it up and running, and even touchable. It’s as thin as we remember it, and the touchscreen appears to be fully functional. I was afraid from watching earlier demos that it might be limited to certain areas on the screen, but in fact it’s all over the place and you can even write with a stylus.

The screen is said to be sharp but pretty laggy right now, though e-ink displays are pretty slow as a rule.

The featureless design is infinitely more appealing to me personally than the Kindle’s button salad, although I’m guessing the onscreen keyboard is far less convenient. Crosswords would be fun as hell on this thing. They’re in talks with newspaper and magazine people right now for content, although the Kindle has a nice long head start on that front. Still, with both wifi and 3G inside, it’s got the connectivity.

Pricing is to be determined, but the guy wouldn’t commit to “under $500,” which suggests this thing will be pricey. It’ll be shipping in January of 2010, so they’ve got plenty of time to get that price down. Could this be the one that knocks the Kindle off the throne?

Source: CrunchGear | 27 May 2009 | 11:46 pm

High-Tech Start-Ups Put Down Roots In New Soil

ThousandStars writes "The Wall Street Journal says that 'High-tech start-ups are increasingly setting up shop in places previously not known for attracting high-tech firms. A number of cities, such as Kalamazoo, Mich., and Toledo, Ohio, are offering grant money and tax breaks to high-tech start-ups, just as the usual venture-capital hot spots, such as Silicon Valley and Boston, continue to see a pullback in venture lending.""

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 May 2009 | 11:41 pm

Video Interview: Biz Talks Twitter Business Models

I caught up with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone today on video at the AllThingsD conference to ask him what business models might emerge for the company. In the video above, he talks about different things Twitter can do to help marketers connect with consumers, such as selling verified accounts (something he mentioned onstage last night). But there is is a broader approach which he also hinted at last night:

There’s a way to make introductions to people, to tell them that things and people are available on Twitter, and there’s certainly money in that.

Making introductions is one way to put it. Selling followers is another.

But how could Twitter sell followers in a socially acceptable way? Here is one idea: Twitter already has a spot where it is testing what amounts to house ads for third-party Twitter apps and services.

What if it started using those spots instead to promote corporate accounts? It could get paid for every user who decides to follow a certain company’s Twitter account on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis. The action, in this case, would be following the account. Twitter would get paid for each follower it delivers. I put this suggestion to Stone towards the end of the video. Stone doesn’t dismiss it offhand. He says that it is an “interesting” idea and that the company is leaving the door open to approaches like that. The key would be to present sponsored accounts that a person has a greater chance of actually being interested in, perhaps based on an analysis of topics a person tweets about, links they retweet, or the interest of the people they follow.

In the second part of the interview (below) we talk about how to manage the endless stream of information that Twitter throws at its users. He says that real-time might be over-rated and that new ways of filtering Twitter are needed. I also ask him about the growth of microsyntax and how Twitter decides to incorporate things like @replies as features. He says that retweets and hashtags might be the next conventions to become baked into Twitter proper somehow.

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Source: TechCrunch | 27 May 2009 | 11:37 pm

Look At It This Way, Yelp. At Least You Didn’t Delete All Your User Accounts

Yelp’s having a bad day. It may not be as bad as the day iMindi is having, who managed to delete all their user accounts, but it’s still a doozy.

Yelp managed to pair a normally non-offensive headline in a newsletter article about biking (“Put the Fun Between Your Legs”) with a noble sponsor (SF Women Against Rape) to create one heck of an offensive and awkward situation. Apart, those words are fine. Put them together and people go nuts.

The title has been changed to “Corrected: A Bicycle Built For Yelp!” along with a message “Due to an editorial oversight, an earlier version of the Weekly Yelp contained a headline that was inappropriate for the context. We apologize for the mistake.” They’re also apologizing on Twitter, where the newsletter became quite the topic of conversation.

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Source: TechCrunch | 27 May 2009 | 11:35 pm

Now Cooler Master makes gaming mice too!

The latest trend in PC hardware has been previously component-only companies like Asus, MSI, and NZXT getting into markets they had nothing to do with before. The results have been mixed, of course: the early Eee PCs were kind of chintzy, MSI has struggled with price points and brand differentiation, and NZXT’s Avatar mouse was unique but flawed. But it’s exciting and it adds to hardware diversity, which I think is a good thing. And now Cooler Master, maker of excellent PC cases, is putting out a gaming mouse and some other stuff.

These first forays into the human interface world are often fraught with design flaws, though this “Storm Sentinel” looks pretty decent. The lighting effects say to me “LAN party mouse” — it’ll shoot light out the front when you click, apparently. It’s got weights, a dual-laser sensor, and independently-adjustable X and Y DPIs displayed on a little OLED screen there on the top of the mouse.

Personally I’ll be sticking with my Razer or Logitech for now (years of expertise pay off), but if these hardware companies end up really committing to their mice and keyboards, I’m sure they’ll have some serious contenders coming out soon. More info about the Storm Sentinel will be coming out at Computex.

Source: CrunchGear | 27 May 2009 | 11:30 pm

Expecting Google Chrome For Mac Tomorrow? Don’t Hold Your Breath

Nearly everyone around the TechCrunch office is a Mac user, and we’ve been waiting rather impatiently for Google to port over its Chrome browser since its debut (for Windows only) last September. Google has been pretty quiet on when a Mac version might come out, and with Google’s I/O event this week we thought that there might be a chance that the search giant would finally release Chrome for Mac during one of its two keynotes.

Today’s keynote was a swing and a miss - we learned about Google’s web elements, new application features using HTML 5, and everyone in the audience got a shiny new GTC phone. But Chrome for Mac was nowhere to be soon. Should we expect more tomorrow?

TechCrunch IT Editor Steve Gillmor caught up with Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and asked when we could expect Google Chrome for the Mac. Brin’s response? “I ask about that every other day.”

Brin says that Chrome for Mac is definitely coming along. The team measures its progress by how long it can get Chrome to run stably on their computers, and they’ve moved from a few minutes at a time up to a number of hours. But it doesn’t sound like it’s close to being finished. Brin could be playing coy, but it sounds like he wants this as badly as the rest of us.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can always try out the in-development (and buggy) versions, though these obviously aren’t ready for public release.

Be sure to watch the rest of the video for more on Google’s experimentation with HTML 5 and YouTube.

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Source: TechCrunch | 27 May 2009 | 11:25 pm

AT&T to grab the Pre after Sprint exclusivity

Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones

By now, we know that Sprint has a one year exclusive agreement with Palm, meaning they will be the only company to carry the highly anticipated smartphone for the first year.  After that, Palm plans to allow pretty much any carrier retail the Pre, but until now, no company has actually said they would be selling the Pre after the exclusive period. 

Chief Executive Randall Stephenson, of AT&T, claimed at the D7 conference that he sees AT&T selling the Pre.  Of course, it is not an official confirmation, but since he is the Chief Executive of AT&T,  there is good reason to believe AT&T will be carrying the Pre.  This proposes an interesting problem for Sprint.  If AT&T users want to get off their iPhone contract and try out the Pre, they may wait a year until AT&T starts selling the Pre, and then ink a brand new contract.  Either way, Sprint needs to build up the hype as much as possible, and make sure the Pre lives up to the expectations, otherwise their launch will not be very successful, and AT&T’s launch of the Pre may not bode well either. 

As we get closer to the release date of June 6, things are beginning to heat up even more.  Stay tuned for all the latest Pre news. 

Via [WSJ]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 May 2009 | 11:13 pm

Plastic Logic E-Reader is Slimmer than Kindle DX

Plastic Logic’s electronic book reader is an ultra skinny, extra large device targeted at business users. And if you’re lucky enough to be at the All Things D conference, you’re getting one for free.

In a demo Wednesday at the ongoing at the Wall Street Journal’s conference in California, Plastic Logic showed a prototype device with an onscreen keyboard and an annotate feature, and said every attendee would be getting one. The company has been showing prototypes of its e-book reader for over 8 months since its debut at DemoFall last year, but has yet to announce a public ship date or pricing for its product.

The Plastic Logic e-reader, when it releases, will be a rival to Amazon’s broadsheet Kindle DX, which is expected to start shipping this summer.

Plastic Logic’s e-reader is 0.27 inches thick, significantly thinner than Amazon Kindle 2’s 0.33 inches, and has a 8.5 x 11 inch E Ink touchscreen display that makes it seem almost like a large notepad.

Because of its large screen size, the device is aimed at business users who will use it to view PDF files, Word documents, spreadsheets and even PowerPoint presentations. The device will include Wi-Fi and 3G capability and will initially be available in black and white, with more colors likely. It will also have its own online store for books and newspapers among other things. While users noticed a lag while turning pages, Plastic Logic has said it expects it to improve over time.

Laptop Mag has a hands-on with the Plastic Logic reader and says scribbling on the screen with a stylus was fairly responsive. Check out their gallery of photos.

Plastic Logic has yet to offer a release date for the device or how much it will cost.

Photo: Joanna Stern/Laptop Mag. Used by permission

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 27 May 2009 | 11:08 pm

AT&T eyes sale of Palm Pre in future (Reuters)

Reuters - AT&T Inc's Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said on Wednesday that the No. 2 U.S. mobile service would be keen to sell Palm Inc's high-profile Pre phone at some point in the future.

Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 27 May 2009 | 10:50 pm

SATA 3.0 Released Paves the Way To 6Gb/sec Devices

An anonymous reader writes "The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) has just released the new Serial ATA Revision 3.0 specification. With the new 3.0 specification, the path has been paved to enable future devices to transfer up to 6Gb/sec as well has provide enhancements to support multimedia applications. Like other SATA specifications, the 3.0 specification is backward compatible with earlier SATA products and devices. This makes it easy for motherboard manufactures to go ahead and upgrade to the new specification without having to worry about its customers legacy SATA devices. This should make adoption to the new specification fast, like previous adoptions to SATA 2.0 (or 3Gb/sec) technology."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 May 2009 | 10:39 pm

8 Questions (and answers) about the Zune HD

⌦ Why announce now, when you're not releasing the Zune HD until the fall? –"Honestly, the disclosure timeline was shook up a little bit," says Brian Seitz, Marketing Manager of Zune. "We've been weathering a round of rumors over the last couple of months. In my job particularly it's painful to not be able to talk to our customer."

Seitz says Microsoft is building the final firmware, so features are not yet set in stone. But with a full reveal of many of the Zune HD's video marketplace features and their integration with Xbox Live at E3 next week, it seemed like the time was right.

⌦ Why would someone care about HD Radio? – Besides higher quality audio, it's all about subchannels. "A country station could have a subchannel of bluegrass or new country," says Seitz. One of Seitz's local NPR affiliates switches to BBC broadcasting at 8PM—but runs the full BBC Radio stream on a subchannel 24x7.

⌦ Can you record HD Radio to the Zune HD to listen to later? – Nope, but you can "tag" songs for later purchase, similar to how it works with the current Zune's FM radio, although more consistent artist and song data from HD Radio stations make it more accurate than before.

⌦ How about that HD video output? – You can do it, but it'll take a "dock" that Microsoft is manufacturing. (Nothing that Seitz said implied there couldn't just be a simple cable, too, unless there is some sort of heavy-duty scaler in the dock itself.)

⌦ Will there be Flash support in the web browser? – Despite rumors to the contrary, Flash support is "still being worked out." The Zune HD's web browser may not ship with Flash support at all.

⌦ How much storage does the Zune HD have? And will there be more capacious hard drive variants? – The Zune HD will be flash memory-based, but Microsoft hasn't announced capacities yet. (I'd be shocked if it's under 32GB.) There aren't any plans for hard drive-based Zune HDs, nor should we expect any other touchscreen Zune devices before the end of the year. "This will definitely be our hero device for the next cycle."

⌦ Will there be games? – "We know that people like games on the go," and it sounds likely that a few casual, one-off games might be available on the Zune HD as are already available on older Zune. But there could be something more in the future: "There's definitely discussions happening. We would not be very smart if we weren't exploring those opportunities."

⌦ So what's this about Zune on the Xbox, then? – It's not games—it's video. "We're taking over the existing Xbox Live Video Marketplace. That will turn into Zune. And we're not just taking it over, but we're adding new features." What those features will be will have to wait until Microsoft's E3 keynote. Portable Netflix, perhaps?

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 10:07 pm

Sleepy's Will Pay $25 Million and Assume Certain Company Obligations to Acquire 1800mattress.com Assets

TOP BID AT AUCTION WILL BE PRESENTED TO COURT THURSDAY LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y., May 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Sleepy's, the nation's largest mattress retailer, has emerged as the highest and best bidder in the judgment of 1800mattress.com, the creditors committee and court-approved investment banker to acquire 1800mattress.com for $25 million, besting four other interested parties.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 May 2009 | 9:59 pm

The malware that wouldn’t die

Section: Computers, Security

The writer at PCWorld was asked to take a look at a computer that was running sluggishly and experiencing odd behavior.  He discovered two things-that its anti-virus program was out of date and Windows Updates had been turned off.  The result?  A severe malware infestation:

I got the machine patched and updated and ran an AV scan right after disconnecting it from the Internet. Thirty-two viruses came up in the form of Trojans, Rootkits and Spyware. After rebooting, the same pop ups and slow behavior continued. I ran the scan again, and only six incidents of malware showed up. Cleaned those and ran antispyware and picked up a few more. Even initiated a boot-time scan the next go around and picked up even more!

It seems that every time he rebooted the system new malware infestations showed up!  Apparently some malware has become so smart that when its deleted it simply reinstalls itself automatically. Scary stuff. The writer eventually had to reinstall Windows XP to get rid of the bad stuff once and for all.

What makes this story even more troublesome is that the computer in question was part of a SOHO network.  Many types of malware are network aware and eagerly spread to other computers it finds networked to the one it initially infects.  This can wreak real havoc for business and organizations.  The moral of the story?

Never let your anti-virus get out of date, and never completely turn off Windows Updates.  If you don’t like them automatically downloading, set it to notify you when updates are available.  Then you can go into Windows Updates and chose the ones you want to download. (Make sure to not skip over any labeled security updates unless it’s for a program you don’t use. For example, I ignore any updates for MS Access, MS Powerpoint, and Outlook because I don’t use them.)  Most of the security updates patch critical security holes that let scammers infect you with their malware, so don’t ignore them!

Read [PCWorld]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 May 2009 | 9:58 pm

Study finds rats rarely roam from home

Johns Hopkins scientists in Baltimore say they've found inner city rats, though appearing to roam freely, form distinct neighborhoods which they rarely leave. The researchers from the university's Bloomberg School of Public Health studied nearly 300 Wild Norway rats -- also called wharf rats, sewer rats or brown rats -- that they trapped from 11 residential areas of the city.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 May 2009 | 9:40 pm

A Widescreen Laser Projector In Your Pocket

Edis Krad writes "Redmond based company Microvision is in the last stages of developing and releasing a portable, laser-based projector, code-named 'Show WV.' The projector has a resolution of 848 by 400 pixels (WVGA) and, since it uses laser-scanning rather than LCD to form the images, it does not require a lens to focus, allowing it to display images virtually in any surface. The device comes with its own user-replaceable battery, which means you could take it with you anywhere you want. Although there is no pricing information on their website, according to this local news video, it could cost at least $200."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 27 May 2009 | 9:40 pm

Congruent Neckties

The "Congruent Necktie" is a patent-pending bit of neck-tech that allows the stripes of a tie to align with those of its knot, using some foul sorcery to be sure. They're sixty bucks each.

Coming soon: Horizontal Inline Neckties and Congruent Scarves. [via Brandish]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 9:36 pm

AT&T Plans 3G Network Upgrades, 4G Rollout

AT&T on Wednesday announced plans to significantly boost its 3G network performance and begin testing its new 4G network over the next two years.

The 3G upgrade involves boosting the network to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2, which the company claims will double peak speeds of the current network, from 3.6 megabits per second to 7.2Mbps. AT&T said these improvements would begin later this year, and that it would also be releasing phones capable of handling the higher speeds.

AT&T’s release did not mention Apple’s next-generation iPhone or indicate whether the new iPhone, which is expected to be announced June 8, would include a 3G speed upgrade.

Farther down the road, AT&T will begin trials of its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in 2010 with plans to begin deployment in 2011. LTE is a new wireless technology that is expected to become a global standard. Many domestic and international carriers, including Verizon, have announced plans to adopt LTE for their next-generation networks as well.

This news appears to be a competitive move from AT&T in response to recent statements from Verizon. Verizon’s chief executive Ivan Seidenberg recently said Apple would likely consider sharing the iPhone with Verizon once the telecom company began upgrading to LTE in 2010. Thus, this announcement may be AT&T’s effort to retain its current iPhone customer base as well as its exclusive relationship with Apple.

Press Release [AT&T]

Photo: ktylerconk/Flickr

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 27 May 2009 | 9:24 pm

Google shows off Android’s “Cupcake” successor, “Donut”

Pah! Cupcake. Any true sweets connoisseur knows that the cupcake is at the bottom of the dessert totem pole, only ranking above those nasty red/white mints they chuck in alongside your bill. We’d take a delicious, engulfed-in-glaze donut over a cupcake any day - and so would Google.

At today’s Google I/O conference, Google gave folks in the audience a sneak peak at Android 2.0, which they’ve aptly named “Donut”. It’s still fairly early in development, but they’ve already nailed out a few features that look pretty damn delicious.

The new stuff on display:

• Android Search: Like the iPhone 3.0 software, Donut will be able to search across all local files. Unlike the iPhone OS, however, Android Search will be able to jump online at the touch of a button. (The Pre will be able to do local/online search as well - so we’d imagine that Apple’s already cracking away at squeezing in a websearch button)
• Text-to-speech API: Google has had text-to-speech in their own Android widgets for some time now. Donut will open up the text-to-speech APIs to all, allowing third party devs to roll it into their own apps. According to Google, it should play friendly with plenty of voices and accents

Google also plans to open up a bunch of other new APIs with Donut, though they’re remaining mum for today. We expect to hear more about those in tomorrow’s keynote.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 27 May 2009 | 9:16 pm

FDA OKs new total ankle replacement system

The U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 May 2009 | 9:14 pm

New therapy created for muscular dystrophy

U.S.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 May 2009 | 9:09 pm

Video: Panic Sale!

Panic, makers of fine Macrintorsh softwares, are having a 50% sale.

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 9:07 pm

Longtop Signs Contract to Develop a Treasury Management System for a New Enterprise Customer in China

HONG KONG, May 27 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Longtop Financial Technologies Limited ("Longtop") (NYSE: LFT), a leading software developer and solutions provider targeting the financial services industry in China, today announced that it has signed a contract with a provincial subsidiary of an enterprise customer in China's tobacco industry to implement Longtop's proprietary treasury management system. Developed with Longtop's proprietary IntelliFlow and IntelliRule platform, the system will provide centralized control and management over all bank accounts of the customer's 17 intra-provincial subsidiaries enabling the customer to monitor subsidiaries' cash flow and approve payments.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 May 2009 | 9:00 pm

Permafrost 'Time Bomb' Ticking, But Slowly

Greenhouse gases trapped in Arctic permafrost may be released gradually.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 May 2009 | 8:43 pm

Vampirism Goes Viral in del Toro's 'The Strain'

A mysterious plague turns humans into bloodsucking creatures in the upcoming novel by the director of Pan's Labyrinth and Hellboy. Wired.com brings you an exclusive first look at the trailer for the book, which Guillermo del Toro co-wrote with crime scribe Chuck Hogan.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 27 May 2009 | 8:34 pm

fracking, a word

"'Fracking,' as the industry calls it, involves injecting a million gallons or more of water and chemicals deep underground to pry out gas that's locked away in tight spaces." – NPR

Previously:

• technical, a word - Boing Boing Gadgets
• gadget, a word - Boing Boing Gadgets

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 8:16 pm

Skyfire Burns Through The Beta Tag, Coming Soon For BlackBerry

After 473 days of beta testing and many, many preliminary releases, the rich multimedia mobile browser Skyfire has just hit version 1.0. Though Skyfire’s biggest features (namely, its ability to handle formats like Flash and Silverlight) have been in since its early days, there’s enough polish and primp in this release to justify branding it with a whole number.

Before we dive too deep, check out a few numbers that Skyfire disclosed to us this morning: during the beta period, Skyfire saw over 1 million users. Of these users, 1 out of 3 uses Skyfire at least 3 times a day. People seem to turn to Skyfire primarily for browsing full-featured websites, with Facebook, Hulu, Gmail, Myspace, and Youtube all amongst the most popular.

We’ve been playing with Skyfire since the days when obtaining a beta key required you to climb a mountain, recite a secret incantation (backwards), and create a swine flu vaccine using nothing but a turkey baster and some orange peels. That said, this is the first release we’ve seen that really feels finished.

What’s new this time around:

• Improved Zoom: Rather than jumping directly from zoomed out to zoomed in when a user double taps, it now smoothly transitions from one to the other. It’s purely visual, but it really improves the process.
• Improved start times: In previous builds, you had to wait until your start page was loaded before Skyfire would respond. Now you can change URLs or search via the “Superbar” as soon as they appear.
• Last state reconnection: If you minimize Skyfire, it will now load back to the page you were on, rather than your start page. If you fully exit the application, it will go to your start page upon relaunch.
• AJAX performance enhancements
• When returning to a previous page, Skyfire will place you at the exact position and zoom level you left at.
• Thumbnail Interaction: In previous builds, clicking on links required you to zoom in first. In version 1.0, you can click any links that are visible at any zoom level.
• iFrame handling improvements

This release is quite near perfect, though not without its flaws. On at least three occasions during our testing (on a Sprint HTC Touch Pro), the loading bar would reach roughly 95%, only to grind to a halt. Once this happened, we were unable to get any page to load without fully quitting and reopening the application. Additionally, one feature we’d hoped to see make it in by 1.0 is still no where to be seen: local file storage for Flash and Silverlight. A few of the heavier streaming sites (such as Netflix) rely on this to function properly, so its absence is unfortunate. Even so, Skyfire is still quite a bit ahead of the curve in terms of sites it can load.

Additionally, Skyfire also confirmed that they are working on a BlackBerry port, as leaked last month. No ETA is given, though they do say that a public beta will be made available. Finally, a BlackBerry browser worth using.

Now that Skyfire is at 1.0, we’ll be pitting it against a handful of other mobile browsers in a head-to-head battle, publishing the results sometime in the next few days. If we don’t get too distracted watching stuff on Hulu on our phones, that is.

Check out Skyfire on Windows Mobile or Symbian S60 here.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 27 May 2009 | 8:06 pm

The HomeWrecker exposes studs

It's a $35 hammer with a Cat's Paw at the end. Mostly I just wanted to write that headline. [via Toolmonger]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 7:55 pm

More Mars in Crayon

Remember "Mars in Crayon" yesterday? Curator Dan Goods has put more images from JPL online, including this comparison of the pastels sketch and the actual decoded TV image above.

Though he used a brown/red color scheme, the thought that Mars was red did not enter his mind. He really was looking for the colors that best represented a grey scale, since that was what they were going to get anway. It is uncanny how close his color scheme is to the actual colors of Mars. It's as if they came right out of current images of the planet. I've seen some of the other color schemes he tried and it could have been green or purple!

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 7:44 pm

Those fun online quizzes may be more than you bargained for

Section: Computers, Security, Software / Applications, Web, Downloads, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Websites

I am an observer.  I am intuitive and thirst for knowledge.  I’m also a genius who is the reincarnation of the ever-breathy Marilyn Monroe.  I understand men 100%, and I’m also the cartoon character Dory as well as the Disney Princess Mulan.  Hey,  this is all before lunch even.  No, I don’t have split personality disorder or any other kind of mental heath diagnosis (I think).  Just the results of a bunch of those online quizzes.  Yeah, you know what I mean. 

Those you see all over the place telling you that you can find out the color of your aura, what your name means (mine conveys both wholeness and wisdom), or pump up your ego with how utterly brilliant you are and how high your IQ is.  Because you know that one has to be spot on.

Well, besides finding out my Patronus is a Bat, I also learned that these quizzes aren’t just about killing some time and a few chuckles. 

Show me the money!  It’s so many times what it all boils down to, right?  Did you really think this was any exception?  While the web quizzes may be entertaining to take, they are much more than that to the companies developing or backing them.  “The Warrior You Most Resemble” may be revealing a lot more than you think.  These companies use the information that you give them to collect your data, and sometimes even your money.

What do you do in an online quiz?  You tell all kinds of stuff about yourself.  You are a marketing guru’s fantasy.  Because it drives in advertising.  “The big trend is about engagement,” says Debra Aho Williamson, a senior analyst with eMarketer. “These quizzes are getting people to pay attention to ads.”

Those IQ tests are one of the smarmiest for this.  And for trying to get your money.  After going through taking the whole test, and waiting with bated breath to see how brilliant you are…many users instead find themselves having to wade through tons and tons of online “offers”....to the point many simply give up and never even get their score.  “There’s a clear annoyance factor, leading people to one thing, then at the last minute bait-and-switching them,” Williamson says. “The challenge with this type of advertising is walking that line between people wanting it and people wanting it to go away.”

Or, they pull the “if you want it you have to pay for it” card.  And someone forgot to share that little tidbit ahead of time.  You will go through….complete some long test or survey that you think is free, only to be hit with “For your results, pay only blah blah blah!”  Yes, the requirement for the payment is sometimes there ahead of time…in fine print on page four on a link you have to click to in order to read it.  Or else, some, like IQ-Test-Results.com, will then slip in a sneaky little recurring fee for their faithful registered users.  And no, this is not in nice big, “please notice me” print.

Then, you have sites like RealAge.  Oh, this one is nifty.  This one is popular for telling you what your biological age is based on your answers to a detailed quiz about health habits and family history.  Are you depressed?  How often do you have sex?  Now, the answers to these rather personal questions aren’t just to figure out your “Real Age” by the way.  Ahhhh….no.  Your information is then used to market you based on your answers.  Depressed?  Having problems in that area and Viagra is starting to look good?  Well, let us (RealAge) help.  We will allow partners to sponsor messages that we will then send to you.  Aren’t we ever so helpful?  *cough, cough*

“These [types of sites] are data-mining havens where users willingly opt in from the very beginning,” says Ryan Jacobson, an attorney and co-chairman of the Entertainment Media and Privacy Law Group at the law firm SmithAmundsen in Chicago. “I’m afraid that the average user fails to recognize or take the time to understand what privacy rights he or she is actually giving up by responding.”

What it boils down to is, do you trust who you are giving all that personal information to?  Because the thing is, that data can be passed along even when you don’t directly input the data.  Think of Facebook.  When you open one of those popular applications, you are giving the developer the right to fully access your profile.  And don’t for a second think all those developers just made those quizzes just to give you a good time.  Guillaume Lovet, senior manager with security company Fortinet says “The very intimate and detailed nature of the information featured on Facebook profiles makes such a database very valuable to marketers.”

And the thing is…is it a worthwhile trade off to you?  Because believe it or not, those tests really aren’t something you can bank money on the results.  Especially the IQ Tests you find online.  “These things are simply not sophisticated,” says Martin Eaton, a licensed clinical psychologist and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California. “Calling them intelligence tests would be a misnomer.” 

I’m sure I, the reincarnated Marilyn, Mulan, highly observant, thirsting for knowledge genius is the exception to that rule.  *snort*

via: msn

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 May 2009 | 7:15 pm

Ultraslim MSI Laptop Takes on MacBook Air

MSI said Wednesday it has started shipping its ultraslim notebook computer that weighs just about 2.86 pounds and is priced nearly half of that of Apple’s MacBook Air laptop.

The X340 notebook from MSI had a public showing at the CTIA mobile conference in Las Vegas in April but MSI did not reveal the complete specs or the price tag.

Now word from the company is that it will cost $900. Apple’s MacBook Air starts at $1800.

The X340 notebook will be about 0.78 inches thick at it’s widest point, compared to MacBook’s 0.76 inches at its thickest. It will run Intel’s ULV SU3500 processor, Windows Vista,  a 13-4- inch display, a HDMI input, 320 GB storage and 2GB memory. The notebook will also come with Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi capability and a 1.3 megapixel camera.

While Apple clearly has set the benchmark for ultralight notebooks with the MacBook Air, the MSI X340 seems like it could be a potentially strong rival. Laptop Mag, which reviewed the X340 earlier this month, liked the battery life and the number of ports that the X340 offers. But they found the the lack of powerful graphics capability and the build quality–my biggest peeve with most MSI computers–to be the drawbacks.

Still the MSI X340 carries a recession-friendly price tag for road warriors and can be an alternative to easy-to-carry but light on features netbooks.

See also:

MSI X340 review [Laptop Mag]

Photo: MSI X340/MSI

Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 27 May 2009 | 7:09 pm

The Secret Telegraphic Codes of Henry Ford

Rebecca Bizonet:

While cataloging a portion of the vast Henry Ford Office records (some 1,600 cubic feet), I became very excited when I discovered what I thought was a secret code. I later learned (quite fortuitously from a colleague on Twitter) that these documents formed a part of something almost equally fascinating.

It turned out that what I had instead was a commercial telegraphic code. From the 19th through the mid-20th centuries, telegrams were integral to business and personal communications. Telegraph codes proliferated as a way to correspond economically and privately. Readily available code books such as the ABC Universal Commercial Electric Telegraph Code, not to mention many others, were published, with many businesses creating in-house codes.

[via Those smug bastards at MeFi]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 7:06 pm

AT&T announces major mobile network upgrade

From downloading videos and high-resolution photos, to online gaming and chatting with friends over instant-messengers, the mobile broadband networks of today are strong - but they’re starting to feel ancient. Today, AT&T clarified their plans to upgrade their network to deliver considerably faster mobile broadband speeds by way of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access). HSPA roll outs will begin later this year, firing up in full sometime in 2011.

Theoretically, AT&Ts HSPA upgrades will bring you speeds up to 7.2 megabits per second. The actual speeds will be quite a bit slower, however, varying on a number of things: solar flares, traffic, daily peak times, and acts of god, to name a few.

This all in turn leads up to AT&T’s next upgrade, from HSPA to the oh-so-fast LTE. Trials of the latter begin in 2010, also scheduled for completion sometime in 2011. In other words, mobile internet speeds will be downright ridiculous come 2011.

AT&T’s promised road map:

• Near-Doubling Radio Frequency Capacity. In 2008 and 2009 to date, high-quality 850 MHz spectrum has been deployed in more than half of AT&T’s 3G network footprint to improve overall coverage and in-building reception, with additional markets planned for later in the year.
• More Bandwidth to Cell Sites. We are adding fiber-optic connectivity and additional capacity to thousands of cell sites across the country this year, expanding the critical connections that deliver traffic from a cell site into the global IP backbone network. These upgrades will support the higher mobile broadband speeds enabled by both HSPA 7.2 and LTE.
• More Cell Sites. Deployment of about 2,100 new cell sites across the country.
• Wi-Fi Integration. Many AT&T smartphones will be able to switch seamlessly between 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity. AT&T customers with qualifying smartphone and 3G LaptopConnect plans have access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network – more than 20,000 hotspots, including locations in all 50 states – at no additional charge. AT&T’s global Wi-Fi footprint covers more than 90,000 hotspots, and AT&T also can create permanent or temporary extended Wi-Fi zones in areas with high 3G network use, like a grouping of hotels or a festival.
• MicroCells. Customer trials leading toward general availability of AT&T 3G MicroCell offerings, which utilize femtocells to enhance in-building wireless coverage.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 27 May 2009 | 6:56 pm

Video: Connecting to the internet with a modem from 1964

K.C. (a.ka. "Phreakmonkey") has a Livermore Data Systems "Model A" acoustic coupler modem, a 300 baud modem from the '60s—"one of the oldest modems of still in existence. It was given to me by the widow of an IBM engineer."

So, so awesome. If I were a fiction writer, I'd do a short story about an alternate present where broadband never came to be, but the entire world was connected through analog, low-baud modems. [via Waxy Waxy Waxy!]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 6:42 pm

Paper: Sexting really isn’t a big deal, won’t ruin teens’ lives

We’ve all heard of “sexting,” when teens send nude photos of themselves to each other via text message (well, MMS). Schools don’t like it, parents don’t like it, but, apparently, it’s all the rage among young people these days. Well, it turns out that sexting really isn’t that big of a deal; it’s merely a continuation of the age-old tradition of “exploration” and all that. A 2009 version of spin the bottle, if you will.

Better yet, it turns out that sexting may be preferable to other activities. You can’t get a disease via MMS, now can you? You can’t get pregnant via MMS, now can you?

These are the conclusions of a paper that was presented at the 78th Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Ottawa. Or, in the words of the associate professor who presented the paper:

… children and young people are sexual beings who have explored their sexuality in all times, and all cultures and all places.

Now let’s never complain about sexting ever again.

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 27 May 2009 | 6:00 pm

Monkeys Pass on Inserted Gene

Transgenic monkeys are shown to pass newly acquired genes to their offspring.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 May 2009 | 5:43 pm

Review: 'inFamous' Jolts With Antihero Action

Playing a bike messenger with electrical superpowers sounds like a blast, and it is, thanks to savvy gameplay decisions that land this new PlayStation 3 title squarely in the fun zone.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 27 May 2009 | 5:18 pm

Space Station: Boon or Boondoggle?

Now that the space station will soon become fully-staffed, can NASA deliver the science?
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 May 2009 | 5:00 pm

Finally, Zensify’s iPhone app shows key word trends across your social graph

Zensify is a new lifestreaming iPhone app which lets you update, discover and track pictures, videos and comments across multiple social networks. Other apps have tried to do similar things. But what sets Zensify apart is that it shows the user trends within your social graph in the form of a tag cloud of key words. In other words it brings a lot more intelligence to your social graph. Suddenly, you can see a big trending topic amongst people you follow. I’ve been wanting something similar for a while and I’m not alone. David Winer recently Tweeted: “Wouldn’t it be cool if “trending topics” were localized to the people who are followed by the people you follow.” Well Zensify does this.

Source: MobileCrunch | 27 May 2009 | 4:50 pm

BB Video: "Dance Dance Revolution. With Flamethrowers. Pointed At You."

(Download / YouTube)

In today's episode of Boing Boing Video, we experience the funky flaming glory that is DANCE DANCE IMMOLATION, a pyro-parody of the popular arcade game in which one jumps around on touch-sensitive pads underfoot in rhythm with music. With DDI, you do this inside a flame-retardant suit. Miss a step, you get torched with a giant flamethrower.

Dance Dance Immolation combines video games, music, and propane. You play DDR. A good performance wins you acclaim from flamethrowers. A missed step gets you a face full of fire! Yes, the fire is real. Put on a fireproof suit and give it a try!

The contraption was created by the clan of happy mutant makers known as Interpretive Arson. We shot this at "How to Destroy the Universe," a yearly Industrial culture event which this year honored Throbbing Gristle's reunion tour. Laughing Squid has a related blog post here.

We hear they're next performing at the "Smukfest" art confab in Denmark.

CREW NOTE: About this episode's host, Aaron Muszalski (aka SFSlim): He's a Burning Man builder, visual effects artist and educator, and a wandering polyglamorous anarcho-Dada Buddhist biker punk. He's on Twitter. In this episode, you'll also see our delightful recurring guest host Charis Tobias, who is all of 18 years old if memory serves. And thanks to our SF-based shooter-producer Eddie Codel who did a fine job capturing the madness on this piece, yet again.

(Photo below by Kristen Ankiewicz, courtesty Interpretive Arson)

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Sponsor shout-out: This Boing Boing Video episode is brought to you in part by WEPC.com, in partnership with Intel and Asus. WePC.com is a site where users come together to "share ideas, images and inspiration about the ideal PC." Participants' designs, feature ideas and community feedback will be evaluated by ASUS and "will influence the blueprint for an actual notebook PC built by ASUS with Intel inside."


Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 4:44 pm

Dormant Sun Spills Secrets in Its Sleep

Scientists are taking advantage of an unusually quiet period for the sun.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 May 2009 | 4:41 pm

Sony Pictures' Michael Lynton afraid of internet bootleggers who don't seem to be affecting profits

Michael Lynton, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment:

I actually welcome the Sturm und Drang I've stirred, because it gives me an opportunity to make a larger point...the major content businesses of the world and the most talented creators of that content -- music, newspapers, movies and books -- have all been seriously harmed by the Internet.

People create content, Mr. Lynton. And that content now lives on the internet. What's in danger isn't content, it's distribution businesses unwilling to work with consumers. And it's not even clear that bootlegging greatly affects the profits of major distributors.

Sony Pictures' profits are down 48.9% for the year ending in March—which means that in this worldwide recession, they made only $305 million. [via Techdirt]

Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 3:58 pm

Leaks All But Confirm 32-GB iPhone

A surprise it isn’t, but it’s nice to know that at the very least the iPhone is about to get a storage boost, doubling its internal flash memory to 32GB.

Source: Wired Top Stories | 27 May 2009 | 3:35 pm

Leaks All But Confirm 32-GB iPhone

A surprise it isn’t, but it’s nice to know that at the very least the iPhone is about to get a storage boost, doubling its internal flash memory to 32GB.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 3:35 pm

Facebook starts using virtual currency more and more in a move to make big bucks

Section: Business News, Web, Web 2.0, Websites

Facebook has always been plagued with issues when it comes to making money from their wildly popular site.  While Facebook has floundered, MySpace has built partnerships with different companies, including record and production agencies in order to make it extremely profitable.  In a move to build revenue for their site, Facebook has introduced virtual currency into its online community.

Since last November, Facebook’s virtual currency has appeared more and more on the site.  The credits can be used to buy different “gifts” on the site and send them to their friends.  Users can shop the Virtual Gift Shop and choose different online tokens to place on the homepages of their friends.  Facebook has now announced that developers will soon have the ability to charge credits for their Facebook applications.  This can include access to casino games, virtual pets and RPG games.

Credits are purchasable by providing your credit card info to Facebook and able to be used whenever you choose. With over 200 million members and counting, this latest foray could prove very profitable for the company.

Read: [CNN]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 May 2009 | 3:12 pm

Topsy: using Tweets to search the web

Section: Web, Websites

Twitter is quickly becoming the most important social network out there, if it isn’t already.  There’s always talk about how it’s a great way of finding out breaking news.  The issue is sometimes that can be a bit hard to find until something reaches the top trends list.  Before that happens you’re stuck with using Twitter’s search which isn’t exactly the greatest.

Topsy is here to help help solve that issue.  Topsy is a search engine that only searches tweets.  Unlike Twitter’s search, however, Topsy doesn’t just show you what everyone has been retweeting or just repeating about a topic.  It searches the links posted by Twitter users, and how often they were retweeted.  By counting the links and how often they’re retweeted, Topsy also grades users.  Those who get retweeted often have more influence over the search results than those who retweet more often.  For example, searching for a website such as Gadgetell or Facebook yields Gadgetell and Facebook as the most influential users, respectively.

Topsy can even break down what’s happening in the search result by the hour, day, week, month or all time.  It makes search results much easier.  That way, when you want news of President Obama for example, you can go down to the hour, and right now see that lots of people are interested in Michelle Obama’s TED talk.  It all seems like an interesting idea.  Topsy won’t be replacing Google anytime soon, but it could prove much more useful than Twitter’s search engine for finding out what’s going on in the current hot social network.

Read [TechCrunch]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 May 2009 | 3:10 pm

Skeleton Reveals Oldest Case of Leprosy

A 4,000-year-old skeleton from India shows traces of leprosy.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 May 2009 | 2:01 pm

Sperm Whale Caught Stealing Fish on Video

Video of a sperm whale stealing fish reveals how these marine giants foil fishermen.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 May 2009 | 2:01 pm

Fall iPod showdown taking shape with Zune HD official

Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Satellite / HD Radio, Video, Portable Video

I hate surprises.  This year, it looks like a showdown of portable music players is being leaked early and I, for one, am thrilled.  No more watching keynotes to see what is coming down the line.  Today we can reveal one confirmed product and one that looks to be very real. 

The Zune HD is real

Microsoft has confirmed the Zune HD we told you about here, saying it will be available this fall.  This new Zune is designed to compete head-to-head with the iPod touch; which is a bold move as many of us believe that device is the pinnacle of PMPs. 

The Zune HD will include an OLED screen, HD radio receiver, and HD output to a TV.  There hasn’t been any announcement yet about apps (the big advertised point of the iPod touch), so surely MS has something more up there sleeve, right?

Zune owners love their little portable media player and are usually very vocal about it.  Unfortunately, they are in the minority of PMP buyers.  Quite frankly, I am a little surprised Microsoft is pushing forward with the much maligned Zune brand.  Microsoft will be using the goodwill of the Xbox brand by having the Zune HD being a “premium partner in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, bringing an exciting catalog of TV and film to the platform. Zune will occupy the first slot within the Xbox user interface in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, exposing the Zune brand experience to millions of new consumers for the first time.”

Next iPod takings shape

Also revealed is what looks very likely to be the next iPod Nano.  The newest feature appears to be a camera that is also rumored to make it onto the new iPod touch (uh-oh MS, quick - put a camera on the Zune HD).  The location on the purported new Nano is very odd, unless it can only be accessed in landscape.  The supposed release time is June to September (when Apple historically releases new iPods).

What this tells us at Gadgetell is we’ve not seen the final shape of PMPs.  They continue to change and evolve.  They also tell us Microsoft believes there is a market for it’s Zune (hopefully more than that Zune tattoo guy).  It will be interesting to see how these announcement/rumors change before release time. 

Read: [CNET]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 May 2009 | 1:04 pm

How to Build Your Own Outdoor Movie Theater

With a portable projector borrowed from your office, some blackout cloth and a bunch of PVC pipe, you can build a backyard theater for showing movies to the neighborhood kids.

Source: Wired: Gadgets | 27 May 2009 | 1:00 pm

Desert Tortoises Get Real Estate Map

Predicting where displaced animals could live may become a conservation tool.
Source: Discovery News Top Stories : Discovery Channel | 27 May 2009 | 1:00 pm

The world gets its first Buddha phone (and it’s no joke)

For geeks who a) happen to believe in Buddha and b) are able of reading Chinese, this must be excellent news: Buddhists can now actually buy a Buddha cell phone in China. The device is not a joke product, but it actually works and makes kind of sense (if you are a Buddhist).

The phone, which is for some weird reason branded as “ODIN 99″ (of all names), features a Buddha activation button (OK, it’s just a lotus leaf) that you can push to bring a fully customizable altar on your screen (see the picture above). It’s also pre-loaded with Buddha-themed ring tones (chants), animations and background images.

The phone comes with a camera, two memory card slots and supports MP3 files. Buyers get two batteries (one of them is engraved with the word “gift” written in Chinese), a CD-R with various Buddhism-related content (which can then be transferred to the phone via memory card) and a protective plate for the screen.

Via CNET Japan [JP]

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

Source: MobileCrunch | 27 May 2009 | 11:57 am

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