Tim sez, "This is the pre-launch page for the Bayer 'Didget', a blood glucose meter which plugs in to the DS / DS Lite's Slot-2. Consistent glucose testing by the diabetic child (or adult, presumably)... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 10:26 am
Tim sez, "This is the pre-launch page for the Bayer 'Didget', a blood glucose meter which plugs in to the DS / DS Lite's Slot-2. Consistent glucose testing by the diabetic child (or adult, presumably)... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 10:26 am
Tim sez, "This is the pre-launch page for the Bayer 'Didget', a blood glucose meter which plugs in to the DS / DS Lite's Slot-2. Consistent glucose testing by the diabetic child (or adult, presumably) is rewarded with points in a game that can be used to buy items or unlock levels. As with the the 'iPlayer' hardware video decoder for the DS which Cory recently posted, the downside is that the new DSi doesn't have a Slot-2.
Bayer's DIDGET meter was developed in conjunction with Paul Wessel -- the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes. Paul noticed that although his son Luke was constantly losing his blood glucose meter, he could always find his Nintendo Game Boy. It was this observation that inspired Paul and Bayer to work together to develop the first and only blood glucose meter that connects to the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite gaming systems to reward children for good testing habits.
The chances of me being genuinely amazed at something I see a Belgian tech company achieve are rather slim. But occasionally, it happens. Last week I went to local entrepreneur meetup BetaGroup and saw five startups pitch their stuff to the 200-headed audience.
The last one to get its five minutes of fame was Cherry, a new mobile operator that promised to "revolutionize the telecom world". Needless to say, I was as curious as I was skeptical.
Then the company's CEO got up on stage, introduced himself, took out his Nokia smartphone, called some random guy in the audience and had him call him back on his phone afterwards. Projecting his mobile phone screen on a bigger screen for everyone to see, he demonstrated how he didn't need to launch an application and just browsed his contact list to call the other person. Standard functionality, sure, but the cool part of it was the fact that the phone was lacking the presence of a SIM card, which is supposed to identify you as a subscriber of a telephony service.
The chances of me being genuinely amazed at something I see a Belgian tech company achieve are rather slim. But occasionally, it happens. Last week I went to local entrepreneur meetup BetaGroup and saw five startups pitch their stuff to the 200-headed audience.
The last one to get its five minutes of fame was Cherry, a new mobile operator that promised to “revolutionize the telecom world”. Needless to say, I was as curious as I was skeptical.
Then the company’s CEO got up on stage, introduced himself, took out his Nokia smartphone, called some random guy in the audience and had him call him back on his phone afterwards. Projecting his mobile phone screen on a bigger screen for everyone to see, he demonstrated how he didn’t need to launch an application and just browsed his contact list to call the other person. Standard functionality, sure, but the cool part of it was the fact that the phone was lacking the presence of a SIM card, which is supposed to identify you as a subscriber of a telephony service.
I was intrigued. By now you’ll have guessed that the calling was done over Wi-Fi, which I suppose isn’t really unique even if it made me wonder how they did it without launching a third-party app like Skype. Looking to learn more, I went to their official coming-out event the evening after, when they presented the newly founded company to a host of local geeks in more detail, giving them the chance to beta-test the service for a couple of weeks to iron out bugs before launching publicly.
Here’s how it works: Cherry - which is essentially an MVNO - pre-installs software (so yes, in the demo there was actually an application running in the background) on smartphones which it will sell as a packaged product, starting with a Symbian version for Nokia E-Series phones and expanding to other platforms later. Once activated, Cherry lets you call your contacts either over Wi-Fi or the GSM network when you insert a SIM card. Take out the card, and you can only call over a wireless Internet connection.
The funky part? Cherry automatically switches you from one to the other. This process, called a handover, can seriously cut into your current calling and roaming costs when you’re a frequent traveler or on the road often, and it doesn’t even require you to change numbers. You could easily dial your office number from your home over Wi-Fi, leave the house and have the software automatically have Cherry switch you over to a carrier’s cellular network once you’re out of range. There’s no interruption of service during the handover, which means you won’t even notice - until you receive your bill, since it’s obviously cheaper to call over Wi-Fi than the GSM network. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this automatic handover is a quite unique value proposition.
I did a short interview with Cherry CEO Bernard Noël De Burlin and Telco Service Manager aka mobile guru Davy Van De Moere after the event (apologies for the abrupt ending, my Flip’s batteries ran out of juice).
And just in case you don’t have a couple of minutes to watch the video, let me save you the trouble of asking: support for iPhone and Android are on the top of their list and a Windows Mobile-compatible version should be available soon.
(Full disclosure: the company gave me a Nokia E51 and free calling minutes so I could try out the service under normal circumstances on a daily basis. I need to return or pay for the phone end of August 2009.)
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
The chances of me being genuinely amazed at something I see a Belgian tech company achieve are rather slim. But occasionally, it happens. Last week I went to local entrepreneur meetup BetaGroup and saw... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 10:07 am
An anonymous reader writes "After scoring a surprise electoral win in Sweden and getting high-profile support in Germany, The Pirate Party is coming to Canada. The party's goals are fairly simple. People should have the right to share and copy music, movies and virtually any material, as long as it is for personal use, not for profit. It opposes government and corporate monitoring of Internet activities, unless as part of a criminal investigation. It also wants to phase out patents."
A 265-pound (120-kilogram), big-eared and long-nosed bundle of joy was welcomed in Australia as an important step in helping to save the endangered Asian elephant. The male calf _ so far Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 8:57 am
AP - Think of the most popular brands in celebrity news, and you'll probably come up with a small list that includes Entertainment Tonight, US Weekly and People.
" Here's my friend and neighbour Matt Webb (part of the Schulze and Webb design consultancy) addressing Copenhagen's Reboot conference on what the role of a designer was and is in the 21st century. It's... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 7:55 am
" Here's my friend and neighbour Matt Webb (part of the Schulze and Webb design consultancy) addressing Copenhagen's Reboot conference on what the role of a designer was and is in the 21st century... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 7:55 am
Here's my friend and neighbour Matt Webb (part of the Schulze and Webb design consultancy) addressing Copenhagen's Reboot conference on what the role of a designer was and is in the 21st century. It's a great Webbrant, thought-provoking, learned, wide-ranging, weird and great.
The latest cheap trick from Can-rockers Cheap Trick is an album released on an 8-track tape. Bah! My album will be released in the form of incidental grooving on the side of a thrown pot made in the style... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 7:52 am
The latest cheap trick from Can-rockers Cheap Trick is an album released on an 8-track tape. Bah! My album will be released in the form of incidental grooving on the side of a thrown pot made in the style... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 7:52 am
The latest cheap trick from Can-rockers Cheap Trick is an album released on an 8-track tape. Bah! My album will be released in the form of incidental grooving on the side of a thrown pot made in the style of ancient Greek potters!
As you might imagine, finding a manufacturer today for the 8-track version of Cheap Trick's The Latest wasn't easy. "There was a lot of looking under rocks," admits Frey, who finally found a small plant in Dallas, Tex., for the retro-fit. "They're expensive to make, and they don't make very many at a time," he says of the cartridge which will sell to the public for something close to $30.
The new album, issued on Cheap Trick's own label, is comprised of 12 songs broken into four sets of three songs each - suites that unfortunately don't fit nicely into the four 10-minute programs of standard 8-tracks, but which may be available at some point as a three-for-the-price-of-one deal on iTunes. As Frey explains the discount, "We're kind of more worried about being ignored than being ripped off."
A reader writes, "Take one part Threadless shirt design and one part cake mix, add in some fondant and frosting and you have Threadcakes: An online cake contest based on transforming Threadless designs... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 7:49 am
A reader writes, "Take one part Threadless shirt design and one part cake mix, add in some fondant and frosting and you have Threadcakes: An online cake contest based on transforming Threadless designs... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 7:49 am
A reader writes, "Take one part Threadless shirt design and one part cake mix, add in some fondant and frosting and you have Threadcakes: An online cake contest based on transforming Threadless designs into cakes."
Behold the awesome suction power of the airplane toilet, capable of slurping up an entire roll of toilet paper in one go. Don't clog the tank, though, or chunks of shit-ice will start to fall off the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 7:46 am
Behold the awesome suction power of the airplane toilet, capable of slurping up an entire roll of toilet paper in one go. Don't clog the tank, though, or chunks of shit-ice will start to fall off the undercarriage, killing people with icy B.M.s (pun courtesy of Mr Spider Robinson).
TEL AVIV, July 5 (Reuters) - Israeli holding company Koor Industries said it raised its stake in Credit Suisse to 1.28 percent from 0.7 percent, one month after it had lowered its stake by a similar... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 7:24 am
pmontra writes "The City of Venice, Italy, started to offer free Wi-Fi to residents (Google translation from the Italian source) on July 3 2009. Tourists and other visitors will pay 5 Euros a day for the service starting from September. The hot spots are connected to a ten thousand kilometer (6,250 mile) fiber optic LAN the City started deploying in the '90s. The first day of free Internet access has been celebrated with a digital treasure hunt in the channels of the lagoon city."
The disease blamed for the Irish potato famine in the 1840s is infecting tomato and potato plants in the eastern United States, agricultural officials said.
A press release from Cornell University, New York state's land grant college, warned home gardeners and commercial farmers that late blight is killing the tomato and potato plants. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 5 Jul 2009 | 4:56 am
After 20 years investing in renewable energy, the small Austrian town of Guessing, a model of energy self-sufficiency, is spreading its pioneering technology far and wide. A town of... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 3:24 am
When forest officials in southeastern Bangladesh heard that two tigers had strayed out of the forest and into a remote village they knew they had to act quickly. Though villagers in the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 3:14 am
RobGoldsmith writes with this snippet from Space Fellowship: "If you've never seen a spaceship with your own eyes, now's your chance. The International Space Station (ISS) is about to make a remarkable series of flybys over the United States. Beginning this 4th of July weekend, the station will appear once, twice, and sometimes three times a day for many days in a row. No matter where you live, you should have at least a few opportunities to see the biggest spaceship ever built."
DUBAI, UAE, July 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Unlike its predecessors Beeyoot.com
(http://www.beeyoot.com/index.jsp) allows property owners to sell directly to
buyers.
This creates room for a new momentum for the distressed UAE real-estate
industry. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 5 Jul 2009 | 3:00 am
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 4 (Reuters) - An explosion damaged a natural gas pipeline in northeast British Columbia on Saturday, the sixth attack on an energy facility in that area of the Canadian... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 5 Jul 2009 | 12:43 am
One thing I hated about being a corporate lawyer at Wilson Sonsini back in the day - we got to work on really cool deals (the last deal I worked on before leaving for a startup was the AOL/Netscape merger), but we were only brought in at the very end to paper everything. We fought over the fine print in the contracts after the meat of the deal was ironed out by CEOs. Skinning and dressing whatever the hunters bring back to the cave is fine for some people. But it’s not exactly being in the middle of the action.
PR firms today aren’t much different than corporate lawyers. They are paid to perform a service. They like to think of themselves as core to the strategic action of their clients. But more often, they’re just there to spin whatever happened in the most favorable light possible. Then they smile and dial and pray for coverage. Occasionally they are called in to smother a story, which is mildly more exciting, I imagine. But when a CEO is wondering what she should do next to drive her business forward, she generally doesn’t call her PR firm for advice. Or at least I hope she doesn’t.
PR firms are apparently just as frustrated by always being in the back seat as the law firms are.
I’m fascinated by Clair Cain Miller’s article in the New York Times today about PR in general and the birth of a startup, Wordnik, specifically.
Forget the tech blogs, said investor Roger McNamee. Brew PR head Brooke Hammerling instantly acquiesced, and decided to go with a sort of guerrilla approach instead by “whispering” into the ears of prominent Twitter users like Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson and Jason Calacanis. CNET was also given the story, but it managed to eek out only a single comment.
Ms. Hammerling, while popping green apple Jolly Ranchers into her mouth, suggests a press tour that includes briefing bloggers at influential geek sites like TechCrunch, All Things Digital and GigaOM.
But Roger McNamee, a prominent tech investor who is backing Wordnik, is also in the room, and a look of exasperation passes across his face at the mere mention of the sites.
“Why shouldn’t we avoid them? They’re cynical,” he says, also noting his concern that Wordnik would probably appeal more to wordsmiths than followers of tech blogs. “That’s where I would be most uncomfortable. They don’t know the difference between ‘they’re’ and ‘there.’ ”
Without missing a beat, Ms. Hammerling changes course, instantly agreeing with Mr. McNamee’s take. “I love you for that,” she intones. “I’ll leave the tech blogs out. Let them come to me.”
Instead, she decides that she will “whisper in the ears” of Silicon Valley’s Who’s Who — the entrepreneurs behind tech’s hottest start-ups, including Jay Adelson, the chief executive of Digg; Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter; and Jason Calacanis, the founder of Mahalo.
The result? Not much. Wordnik is flatlining at an abysmal amount of traffic. Comscore and Quantcast don’t even register the site as a blip.
Compare Wordnik to Topsy, another recently launch service. Topsy launched on TechCrunch exclusively. The domain now has 577,000 results on Google, compared to 56,000 for Wordnik. And the traffic difference is stunning:
I’d say this experiment in a pure social media launch failed.
The article goes on for pages describing Hammerling’s incredible networking skills and propensity to namedrop at every opportunity.
Ms. Hammerling’s connections have been crucial for Brew in finding and serving clients, says Ms. Cook, her business partner: “Without question, that allows us to play at a different level, because we’re not just doing P.R. and media relations; we’re connecting people at the highest level, helping deals get done.”
I know Brooke well. I guess you could say I’m one of her many thousands of “very close friends.” And I don’t dispute that she is well connected, or that those connections help her get clients.
I believe Brooke’s client have been better served if she stood up to McNamee and told him that Wordnik would have had a better launch if they hadn’t ignored the blogs that are interested in covering new startups. Instead she became a “yes woman” and told McNamee exactly what he wanted to hear.
Hammerling and her peers in the industry should help guide their clients through the minefield of journalists and bloggers, rather than simply avoid it entirely out of fear or ignorance. She isn’t in the room to drop names or “help get deals done.” She’s there to make sure the client’s news gets spread appropriately. In that they failed miserably, and the client suffered.
As cool as Kevin Rose is (and he did apparently Twitter that Wordnik was “truly amazing”), this is not a launch strategy.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoardbecause it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
ranjix writes "I need a handheld device which would allow me to read ebooks and/or browse the internet while actively and intensely laying in the hammock (and Yes, I do have a hammock in my mom's basement). I'll try to sum up the basic requirements: (good) PDF reader (and ebooks of whatever sort), WiFi connectivity and Internet browser, screen minimum 4.5", readable in sunlight, etc, fairly responsive, at least 4-5 hours battery. Obviously I looked at the usual suspects: Kindle/Amazon tries to grab one into the proprietary formats and their own network (while other ebook readers don't really browse the internet), laptops/netbooks are pretty hard to hold, and the UMPC arena seems a hodge-podge of 'to be released' (Viliv S5? Aigo whatever?) with 'seriously expensive' (Sony, OQO) or plain 'we recommend you don't buy' (Samsung Q1Ex). Is there anything else I could use in the given circumstances?"
(Ed. Note: We recently gave the Boing Boing Video website a makeover that includes a new, guest-curated microblog: the "BBVBOX." Here, folks whose taste in web video we admire tweet the latest clips they find. I'll be posting periodic roundups here on the motherBoing.)
For all of you World of Warcraft fans out there, there’s a new Twitter client that is worth checking out. TweetCraft is an in-game Twitter client for WoW that lets you send and receive Tweets within a game. If you are busy in the middle of a WoW match, you can put Tweets in a queue to send when it’s more convenient.
The client also lets you upload in-game WoW screenshots using TwitPic and will automatically send out Tweets when you log in, enter an instance or get an achievement.
Tweetcraft also caught the attention of Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, who blogged about the client today.
Here’s a video with details of the client:
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
suka writes "During a keynote at the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit, Nokia's Quim Gil announced that a future release of Maemo is going to be built around Qt. Maemo Harmattan is going to switch away from GTK+ / Hildon, derStandard.at reports from the conference." Michael Pyne also writes with a post describing day one of the conference from a KDE perspective.
Hugh Pickens writes "Launched in May, BBC reports that Europe's Planck observatory has reached its operating temperature, a staggering minus 273.05C — just a tenth of a degree above what scientists term "absolute zero." and although laboratory set-ups have got closer to absolute zero than Planck, researchers say it is unlikely there is anywhere in space currently that is colder than their astronomical satellite. This frigidity should ensure the bolometers will be at their most sensitive as they look for variations in the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) that are about a million times smaller than one degree — comparable to measuring from Earth the heat produced by a rabbit sitting on the Moon. Planck has been sent to an observation position around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2, some 1.5 million km from Earth and Planck will help provide answers to one of the most important sets of questions asked in modern science — how did the Universe begin, how did it evolve to the state we observe today, and how will it continue to evolve in the future. Planck's objectives include mapping of Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies with improved sensitivity and angular resolution, determination of the Hubble constant, testing inflationary models of the early Universe, and measuring amplitude of structures in Cosmic Microwave Background. 'We will be probing regimes that have never been studied before where the physics is very, very uncertain,' says Planck investigator Professor George Efstathiou from Cambridge University. 'It's possible we could find a signature from before the Big Bang; or it's possible we could find the signature of another Universe and then we'd have experimental evidence that we are part of a multi-verse.'"
LONDON - Telecoms company BT Group PLC is offering staff a year off work in return for a 75 per cent cut in that year's pay. BT is one of Britain's biggest companies, with more than... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Jul 2009 | 9:29 pm
Flickr user scrumptiousdelight created this Sarlaac monster in pillow form for Stitch Wars, a Star Wars crafting show. Note all the little details, like the Boba Fett helmet on one of the tentacles.
Based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform, Sony-Ericsson's first phone to use Google's Android operating system is codenamed "Rachel" and will join the high-end Xperia lineup.
According to German mag Mobil, it could have a 1GHz CPU, 7.2 Mbps data, and an 8 megapixel camera. Depicted on the photos are a 3.5mm jack and a mini-USB connector.
Before everyone gets in a huff, let’s consider Amazon’s intentions with these patent applications. Surely they would never allow advertisements to be placed in books which you have purchased legitimately at full price, so let’s put that out of our heads. But what if you could take a few bucks off the cover price at the cost of a few contextual ads relating (if possible) to the book’s content? Personally, I wouldn’t mind — partially because I don’t use a Kindle or intend to any time soon, but more because it’s a no-lose situation. Amazon wouldn’t risk alienating its loyal Kindle base with dirty tricks like this, so it’s safe to assume it’ll be at least somewhat opt-in.
An abundance of free or reduced-price content would widen the appeal of the reader — I imagine many people are put off e-books by the idea that they are not getting their money’s worth. As offensive as the idea of inserting ads into a book is to me (and surely to the average reader), it’s almost certainly part of a value proposition which increases the utility of these expensive little buggers.
The wording of the patentrequests also includes the language “in response to a consumer request for content,” which could probably be massaged into referring to downloaded books that have been paid for, but more easily fits streamed or dynamically generated stuff like news or Google Books content. There’s also talk of including the ad in printed versions of said content, which bothers me a bit more than the other part. At any rate, I’m convinced that advertisements are unlikely to appear in the kinds of books and publications you’re paying full price for right now, so if this is ever implemented, you’ll probably (hopefully) be able to read your Vanity Fair unmolested.
Before everyone gets in a huff, let's consider Amazon's intentions with these patent applications. Surely they would never allow advertisements to be placed in books which you have purchased legitimately at full price, so let's put that out of our heads. But what if you could take a few bucks off the cover price at the cost of a few contextual ads relating (if possible) to the book's content? Personally, I wouldn't mind — partially because I don't use a Kindle or intend to any time soon, but more because it's a no-lose situation. Amazon wouldn't risk alienating its loyal Kindle base with dirty tricks like this, so it's safe to assume it'll be at least somewhat opt-in.
An abundance of free or reduced-price content would widen the appeal of the reader — I imagine many people are put off e-books by the idea that they are not getting their money's worth. As offensive as the idea of inserting ads into a book is to me (and surely to the average reader), it's almost certainly part of a value proposition which increases the utility of these expensive little buggers.
Harry writes "In 1968, computers tended to occupy entire rooms, and were therefore hard to take with you. But Computerworld reports on Anderson Jacobson's 75-pound Teletype-terminal-in-a-case, an early attempt to let folks compute from anywhere. (Well, anywhere they had power and access to a telephone for the Teletype's acoustic coupler.) Wheels were optional."
According to survey of 2,300 Japanese retail stores, the iPhone was #1 in customer popularity, beating out all of those crazy, wonky phones they sell in Tokyo with names like the WonderFetus 100 Softbank X200-900 and the Brad Pitt Special Edition E900 from Sanyo with built-in TV tuner, can-opener, and fishing lures.
Smartphone sales are growing in Japan and customers like the 8 and 16GB 3G models and Apple has sold 1 million iPhones through Softbank, a major Japanese carrier.
The BlackBerry Bold came in third and the rest of the list were phones by HTC.
Ahh, 4th of July. A welcome day off work in the midst of summer. Seems like everyone’s on vacation these days and that means grueling airplane rides and long road trips with the family. If you aren’t lucky enough to be on JetBlue or Virgin, you’re probably stuck without in-flight entertainment, meaning you’ve got nothing but your iPhone and a book to keep you from strangling the guy next to you. Have no fear! In this week’s edition of the App Roundup, we’ve got a host of games that will help you get through whatever your vacation travels have in store for you.
App #1: Nowadays nobody does any hard work anymore. All we do is sit on our computers all day and complain about developing carpal tunnel (I know I do). But who wants to roll up their sleeves and actually make real stuff for a living? I Dig It offers the best of both worlds: you can feel like you’re doing real work but still just sit on your iPhone playing games. In this mining game, you are a cash-strapped farmer looking to tear up the earth underneath you to mine for “diggins,” which are like virtual goods. You dive deep into the ground below and search for loot while making sure you don’t run out of gas or overheat from the pressure. Its an enjoyable game, and rivals Digital Chocolate’s California Gold Rush. In I Dig It, (made by InMotion Software) you can upgrade your mining vehicle through the money you earn from selling diggins, which provides depth to a game that would likely get old otherwise. At $3, its not a bad buy, though I’m not ranting and raving about it, either.
App #2: What better way to celebrate America’s birthday than to play America’s favorite pastime on your iPhone. And for $2.99, you can! With Com2Us’s Baseball Slugger: Home Run Edition 3D, you can swing for the fences in a classic home-run derby. I was definitely disappointed that this wasn’t a full-fledged baseball game, but still enjoyed the game nonetheless. It is simple as hell and takes advantage of the iPhone’s accelerometer brilliantly. You tilt the iPhone to control where you want to aim your bat, and tap the screen to swing. The hitting is extremely well-done and you really feel like you earn it when you knock one over the fences. Also, the graphics are impressive and the Arcade Mode is surprisingly addictive. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but wishing I could steal some bases or try my hand at pitching. UPDATE: Hot dogg! I just tried out the online play and spent the last 2 hours thumbing away on my iPhone trying to out-home-run-derby various Japanese, Canadian and American players. Definitely moves this game from a decent buy to a fantastic gaming experience.
App #3: 4th of July is a great time to hit the theme parks. But if you can’t make it to one, then download 3D Rollercoaster Rush by Digital Chocolate. Or don’t. This has been a top app on the App Store, so my expectations were high - but I was sorely disappointed. Your task is to control a cart of crazed theme park goers along a series of high-flying rollercoasters. The graphics were stunning, but the gameplay fell far short. All you do to control is tilt your iPhone right or left to speed up or slow down, respectively. If you screw up, the cart crashes and you watch as the boys and girls on the coaster fall to their doom. The game just didn’t have enough depth to be worth the $5 you have to pay for it.
App #4: Puzzle games abound on the iPhone, but few are as involved and challenging asToki Tori by Chillingo. Made by the same guys who brought you Knights Onrush, Toki Tori is a puzzle platformer that will keep your mind going full speed as you try to tackle its 80 challenging levels. Your goal is to collect all of the eggs in the level. You direct Toki Tori by tapping on his destination, and move him around the landscape to collect the eggs. It’s tricky, though, because one wrong move and you could be stuck - forced to replay the level. To help you along the way, Toki Tori has a limited number of special abilities (such as teleporting or building a bridge) that are necessary to completing each level. For just $1, you get hours and hours of gameplay. If you enjoy puzzle games, you’ll love Toki Tori.
App #5: We’ve talked about Brain traininggames before. Here’s another one to add to the list: Brain Tester 24 Pack by Digital Chocolate. All 3 are great, but if you want the most bang for your buck, the decision is between Brain Genius Deluxe (23 mini games) and Brain Tester 24 Pack. Brain Tester’s games are easier to play, and that was a big plus for me because it prevented the controls from hampering my ability to score well. At the same time, Brain Genius Deluxe provided better analysis for tracking your performance over time and it was much easier to understand what aspect of your brain each game was exercising. For $3, you can’t go wrong either way, and I’d definitely recommend either to someone looking to sharpen their mind on the go.
If you have an app worth checking out, shoot us an e-mail at gaganATcrunchgearDOTcom (with the obvious substitutions in place, of course).
Crunch Network: CrunchBoardbecause it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
With the flood of “Hello my dear” and “YOU ARE WINNER” emails in my inbox every morning, I’m actually beginning to tire of the never-ending variety presented by spam. But it’s mail like this that renews my faith in the bots and non-native speakers variating these strange messages.
The best part is trying to figure out how the scam works; it’s not your usual phishing or Spanish Prisoner scheme. Anyone have any ideas or fun variants of this sort of thing?
The head of a Japanese expedition in the Antarctic says so-called Green Room growth techniques have proved invaluable to the researchers.
Expedition leader Shuki Ushio said the Japanese agricultural breakthrough that uses fluorescent lights to grow vegetables indoors has allowed expedition members to eat more than simple freeze-dried food products, Kyodo News reported Saturday.
I didn't think we could eat fresh crispy vegetables, Ushio said. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jul 2009 | 7:52 pm
Dearest CrunchGear readers: I recently had the honor and privilege of speaking to Karen Dyer, who is not only the voice of Sheva Alomar, from Resident Evil 5, but who also did said character's motion capture. I hope you enjoy it on this day, our day of freedom.
Obviously, “K” is for Karen, and “N” is for Nicholas. With that...
N: Well, first off congratulations. Resident Evil 5 was a big hit. It sold something like 4 million copies.
K: That's what I hear!
N: Excellent. But before we get into the game, I just wanted to bring up something I saw on your bio. It says here you're known for your circus skills, and I just wanted to say how that awesome that is. And I wanted to ask, where do you study that? Because I don't know if your average community college offers that type of training.
Slatterz writes "The Tesla Roadster has almost mythical status among electric car enthusiasts. It's fast, with high torque over a wide RPM range, and can beat a Ferrari in terms of acceleration. Now Tesla has released new video of its upcoming new electric car, called the Model S, which Tesla Motors claims is the world's first mass produced fully-electric vehicle. Unlike the Lotus-Elise based Roadster, the Model S is a traditional sedan of the type millions of commuters might actually drive. Tesla claims it will fit seven people (if two of them are 'children under 10'), and has mounted a rather large 17in LCD in the dash. Key to Telsa's future will be the evolution of lithium-ion battery technology. Tesla Motors claiming the new Model S can travel up to 300 miles on a single charge, but the battery will still take 45 minutes to quick-recharge." (And for those in countries where it matters, this article mentions that it should also be available in right-hand drive.)
Harry sez, "Computers weren't portable in 1968 (they tended to fill entire rooms), but even then, the yen for portable computing was there. In 1968, Computerworld reported on a carrying case that turned a Teletype machine into a 75-pound mobile terminal--wheels were optional."
The Laptop, Circa 1968
(Thanks, Harry!)
An anonymous reader writes "A new Canadian study deconstructs how copyright lobby groups manipulate public opinion by laundering proposals through seemingly independent groups. The study started after the Conference Board of Canada was shown to have plagiarized several of its IP reports and now shows the connections that all lead through the MPAA and RIAA. Michael Geist writes, 'It is not just that these reports all receive financial support from the same organizations and say largely the same thing. It is also that the reports each build on one another, creating the false impression of growing momentum and consensus on the state of Canadian law and the need for specific reforms.'"
The Weather Channel will no longer have a "smooth jazz" soundtrack behind its "Local On the 8s" segments. Instead, they will play rock. Fortunately, you can still turn down the TV volume and crank your CD of "The Weather Channel Presents Smooth Jazz," which actually hit #1 on the Billboard's Current Contemporary Jazz Album Chart. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“I think we’ve been doing an injustice to our viewers playing, for the lack of a better word, elevator music on the segments for all these years,” said Geoffrey Darby, the cable network’s new executive vice president of programming, Thursday.
“People would have it on but they wouldn’t be watching and they wouldn’t be listening,” said Darby, who pushed for the change after joining the network in February. “We wanted music that would get their attention —- and this has.”
It’s no secret that bloggers love their polls — they’re a great way to increase user engagement, and sometimes you can even get some useful data from them. But most people probably don’t realize just how popular these polls really can be. PollDaddy has just released some of its latest stats, and they don’t fail to impress: the company is now serving 430 million poll impressions per month, with a reach of over 74 million people worldwide, giving it a Quantcast rank equivialent as the 22nd most visited online service in the world.
That success is due in no small part to PollDaddy’s acquisition by WordPress’s parent company Automattic last fall. Bloggers could embed PollDaddy into the WordPress blogs (as well as other popular blogging platforms) long before the acquisition, but now PollDaddy is also being included as a feature on WordPress.com, Automattic’s premium hosted blogging platform — and home to over 8 million blogs — that appeals to users who don’t want to deal with having to set up their own blog install. In other words, PollDaddy is now accessible to a much broader audience.
The acquisition opened doors for PollDaddy, helping the site form relationships with large media portals like Fox, NBA.com, and Playboy (the TechCrunch network also uses them frequently). PollDaddy says that its traffic sources are pretty evenly distributed across its portal at PollDaddy.com, its API, and WordPress.com, each of which account for around 33% of new content.
Alongside today’s traffic news, PollDaddy is rolling out a new rating widget (seen above) that lets visitors rate blog rate images, comments, videos, and posts themselves. The feature will be available both on PollDaddy’s homepage and on WordPress.com. This is interesting not only because of PollDaddy’s wide reach, but because of what the company plans to do with it down the line: PollDaddy intends to tie aggregated ratings data into its site PollDaddy Answers, which will surface the hottest images, blog posts, and other content on the web. This could prove quite powerful, potentially turning the site into an alternative to Digg.
Crunch Network: CrunchBasethe free database of technology companies, people, and investors
Taking a page from the Baby Translator invented by Homer Simpson’s half-brother Herb Powell, the $100 “Why Cry Baby Analyzer” attempts to help parents figure out what their wailing bundle of joy is so upset about. While not as accurate as the Baby Translator from the Simpsons (”I have soiled myself… how embarrassing”) the WCBA can apparently detect the following dispositions: hungry, bored, annoyed, sleepy, and stressed.
So does it work? Who knows? One thing’s for sure, though, only the “hungry” setting really necessitates any serious action. If I were a parent, I’d be a bit put off by a “bored” reading.
Oh, you’re bored? You sit around and consume resources all day without recontributing to the family’s economic bottom line. Shall I turn on the Teletubbies for you? High definition or standard?
Oh my, you’re annoyed? I’ll try to be more quiet when getting ready in the morning. You’ve got a long day of crapping your pants and sleeping, after all. My apologies!
Dust. It is definitely not your friend when it comes to your computer. Do you actually take the time to clean it out or is your computer a cavern of dust galore, slowly killing your computer’s insides? Here is a quick guide to help you get rid of some of that icky stuff. Now, keep in mind, there are probably more ways to do this than what I’m going to tell you about. But, I’ve been doing it this way for over 12 years, and it’s always worked for me, and I’ve never damaged or destroyed a component.
Materials
So, first up, you want to gather together what you are going to need:
A screwdriver
A can of compressed air
Soft, lint-free wipes
Monitor cleaning wipes
Paper towels
Rubbing alcohol
Q-Tips
Water
Prep your machine
First, make sure you turn off your computer and unplug it. A clean computer won’t do you much good if you knock yourself on your behind. Next, take the side of the case off of the computer. If you have a newer computer, it’s probably tool-less. Just unscrew the big screws by hand. If you have an older model, you will need to actually use a screwdriver and take the screws out. Make sure you don’t lose them. Set aside the side of the case.
Inside the computer
Start from the front. If you know how to, slide your hard drive(s) out so you can get to the fan better. Take your finger and put it on one of the fan blades to keep it in place while you use the compressed air to blow the dust off the fan blades and the case itself. Remember to spray about 4 inches away. You are holding the fan so you don’t damage the bearings inside of the fan. Take your time and get it all.
Once this is done, you can use a Q-Tip dipped in rubbing alcohol to clean the fan blades to get rid of any dust and grime that the compressed air didn’t get rid off. Use the wet end first, then the dry end. Do not go in there with a cotton ball.
After the front fan is nice and dust-free, move on to the faceplate. Gently spray some compressed air onto the faceplate. I don’t recommend opening the disk drive to clean it up. Instead, use a disk cleaner. My reasoning behind this is that you don’t want to take the chance that any of the small components inside will break or become loose.
Next, spray any cables inside the computer. You are doing this since the dust that builds up around the cables can act as an insulator. And obviously, the less heat in your computer, the better. We aren’t trying to roast a chicken in there.
Then spray your motherboard with the compressed air in a right to left motion, so you aren’t just scattering the dust right back up to the front of your computer. After your motherboard is cleaned, spray any memory slots (again, gently).
Your CPU fan
Regarding your CPU fan, I recommend taking this off. To do this, lay your computer down, and remove the two brackets from the CPU fan. The fan will pop right off of the CPU. Pull the fan out as far as you can, without stretching the wires. Gently remove it, and twist the fan towards the back of the computer. Before you start cleaning the fan, cover the exposed CPU so nothing gets blown in there. You can use one of the lint-free cloths (or even a sheet of paper) for this. Just make sure nothing is actually touching the CPU.
Then to clean the fan, again, put a finger or thumb on one of the fan blades, and blow the compressed air on it from the front. After that, blow out from the back too to remove any dust build-up that might be there. Then remove the cloth from the CPU and put the CPU back in place. Out of all the components you are cleaning in your computer, this is probably the one you want to take the most care with; since even a small amount of dust will fry your CPU pretty quickly.
Next up is the fan outside (on the back) of the power supply. Clean that puppy off, using the same method of holding the fan still. Except, since you won’t be able to reach your finger in there, use a dry Q-Tip, and spray compressed air on the fan. Now that you’ve done this, clean the power supply itself. There will be grills outside the power supply, usually underneath and to the front of the power supply. Blow these grills with the compressed air.
After that, work your way down to the exhaust fan or any other fans you have in the back of your computer. (Most just have one.)
You also want to clean your video card fan if your video card has one. Again, remove the brackets, gently lift the card out of its slot. Hold the fan with your finger and very gently blow the air out of the fan. Put the video card back in.
Blow out any slot covers (from the inside and outside) that are on the back of the computer.
Remove the dust that may have accumulated on the bottom of your computer from blowing it all out with a lint-free cloth. Double-check to make sure all of your components are still secure on your motherboard. Wipe down the inside of the case with a cloth lightly dipped in rubbing alcohol. Put the side of your case back on (hopefully you didn’t lose those screws.) Whew! The inside is done!
Outside the computer
To clean your keyboard, first disconnect it from your machine and then shake, shake, shake. Yep, pick it up and turn it upside down, and remove the left-overs of all the snacks you’ve eaten at your computer. Blow compressed air between the keys, and then you can also use a Q-Tip dipped in rubbing alcohol to really get in there. You can also use these to clean the rest of the keyboard or else use a a monitor cleaner to wipe it off.
For your monitor, use either spray monitor cleaner, or else water and a soft, lint-free cloth or paper towel. Monitor cleaner obviously works better to remove the goop, especially if you haven’t done it in a while, or if you are a smoker. Don’t spray the liquid right on the monitor, spray it on the cloth before you wipe.
You can clean your mouse with a cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol.
Make sure your computer is totally dry, and then plug it back in. Voila! Good to go.
This process should be done on a regular basis, I recommend every other month, especially if the computer is on the floor, or you have pets. Don’t let your computer be your dirty little secret, take the time to keep it clean. It will thank you.
A Vietnamese legal adviser said Saturday he had filed a new lawsuit against his country's prime minister for violating environmental laws with a controversial bauxite mining plan. Cu Huy Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Jul 2009 | 5:19 pm
Oracle Goddess writes "After 30 years, CompuServe is all but dead, as AOL has pulled the plug on the once-great company. The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, provided its users with addresses such as 73402,3633 and was the first major online service. CompuServe users will be able to use their existing CompuServe Classic (as the service was renamed) addresses at no charge via a new e-mail system, but the software that the service was built on has been shut down. Tellingly, the current version of the service's client software, CompuServe for Windows NT 4.0.2, dates back to 1999."
Dearest CrunchGear readers: I recently had the honor and privilege of speaking to Karen Dyer, who is not only the voice of Sheva Alomar, from Resident Evil 5, but who also did said character’s motion capture. I hope you enjoy it on this day, our day of freedom.
Obviously, “K” is for Karen, and “N” is for Nicholas. With that…
N: Well, first off congratulations. Resident Evil 5 was a big hit. It sold something like 4 million copies.
K: That’s what I hear!
N: Excellent. But before we get into the game, I just wanted to bring up something I saw on your bio. It says here you’re known for your circus skills, and I just wanted to say how that awesome that is. And I wanted to ask, where do you study that? Because I don’t know if your average community college offers that type of training.
K: You might get a juggling course, but maybe not everything that I do. I’ve actually been doing a bit of circus stuff for a while. I’ve been doing fire eating, breathing, twirling performance, stilts, juggling, walking ball, and aerial. It started off just kind of knowing the right people and hanging out with them, and then getting involved with different circus troupes and doing a little bit of circus myself. Now I’ve kind of created this alter ego, Eva La Dare, that I get to use as my sexy circus outlet, if you will. [Note: Here's a video of Eva La Dare in action. I'd say it's mildly NSFW because she's eating fire in a sort of exotic dance setting.]
N: And how’s that working out? Is the circus business booming, or… I have no idea. That’s a world…
K: It is booming! And you know why? Well it’s just so damn interesting to look at, for one. You might have noticed Christina Aguileira had some circus stuff in her latest tour. T. Pain’s whole album was about being the ring leader, and I was actually on tour with T. Pain doing fire and stilts as my alter ego for his last tour; I just got off tour in February. And of course now Brittney is on tour with her Circus album. So it’s not doing too bad.
N: Alright, well. It was just something that like, wow, that’s sorta unusual. I don’t really read about that too often.
K: Anything that’s unusual and daring I’m usually into. It didn’t take me long to want to pick up a few skills. Someone would come along and say, “Hey do you want to eat some fire?” I’d be like, sure!
N: Who doesn’t!
K: Yeah, you know, willing. As long as you’re willing you’ll learn.
N: Excellent. All right, now I guess we can get to the reason why we’re here, Resident Evil 5. You’re the voice Sheva and you also did the motion capture, right?
K: That is correct, I did both. Quite a wild ride.
N: How did you first get involved with that? Who contacted whom? How does that even go about happening?
K: Well you know it’s funny. My experience with motion capture beforehand, I had only just done a couple of small games. Through a contact that I had worked with they recommended me to Capcom because they were having this search for someone who can handle the activities and the movement and the voice and everything that they needed for Sheva. And when I met with them I went through a series of tests. We did some green screen shoots, I went and got some training with guns and rifles because it was very important that I could do all the activity with my left hand. I’m a right-handed person and Sheva is left-handed. I had to make it look convincing. They made me jump through a couple of hoops and in the end they were happy with keeping me on. So I got the part!
N: And you did a good job, I would say. I mean I beat the game probably like three of four times. So, yeah, it was very convincing. So I wanted to know how long was that whole process, from the first day at the office till lights out, go home now. How long did that whole thing take?
K: I think it was a lot longer than most games. I was brought on in September of 2007. Up until that time they were still making the designs and the look of the characters, the background and the story. They’d been working on that since earlier in 2007. When I got brought in it was September of 2007. I went through a series of training with the green screen shoots. I don’t know how much you know about the background of how they developed this game, but we went through shooting the whole cinematic script on a green screen process that took the whole month of December 2007. So between September and December it was more about the training and getting familiar with the character. In December we did the green screen shoot, and then Capcom made their changes and decisions about what we would do for the next phase, which was the motion capture, which we started in January, which we did in phases throughout the year till about April. I started working on some of the voice earlier in that part of the year in 2008 and continued coming back for more voice sessions throughout the year all the way till about September, October of 2008. Between then and the game’s release there might have been a couple of pick-ups, not a lot. But yeah, a year, over the course of a year working on the same game which I hear is kind of unheard of. I feel like I’ve been totally spoiled by this whole experience.
N: Well it was a very big production. It doesn’t really get much bigger than that.
K: It was a huge production. Doing all the motion capture here in L.A. and using a film director in the Hollywood business. There was a lot of firsts for them.
N: Do you consider yourself a gamer at all, had you played any of the previous Resident Evil games? It’s one of the biggest franchises out there.
K: I haven’t played the earlier ones. I played Resident Evil 4 and really enjoyed that one. As far as games, I can’t say that I’m a hardcore gamer yet.
N: Oh, yet!
K: I say the word yet because now this has totally opened a whole new world to me and I’m attending a lot of my first conventions. I love the arcade games. I’m a big Time Crisis fan.
N: Oh, really?
K: Oh yeah. I love Time Crisis. Anything that I can actually use the prop in my hand I’m a big fan of. I’ve gotten used to—shooting real guns? That’s fun, you know? When I play Resident Evil 5 I get used to using my thumbs; I’m getting better. Especially with things like the Wii, the more interactive it is the more interested I’ve become. It’s opened a whole new world to me.
N: That’s actually tremendous. Now they’re developing all these motion controls, it’s supposed to be more immersive, this that and the third. I imagine more and more people will be gamers as the years go by.
K: Yeah, I can see it. It’s inevitable because everyone will want to be active in that way.
N: Yeah. Can you take us through the average day of production? Because you watch a documentary or whatever and you see Hollywood stars waking up at 4am to put on make-up and they’re working 17-hour days. Was it that arduous for you?
K: For me, I did have a pretty hectic schedule because I was in every scene. For me, and of course Ruben playing Chris Redfield, we probably had the bulk of the schedule to do. In the green screen shoot, we had the make-up call because we went through full make-up and full costumes for the green screen shoot. And the days were long. I would say at least 12-14 hours at the bulk of it, with the motion capture. My background, physically, has been mostly in dance and circus. I did sports in my school days and stuff; I’m pretty active. But I still had to get a lot of stunt training because I did my own stunts in the game.
N: That was going to be my next question. What type of training was involved? I imagine you’d have to be pretty physically fit to be jumping around all day doing motion capture.
K: Yeah, but I love the jumping around! I’m a pretty tough girl. At first, they were going to have a stunt double for me, but as we went through the process and they realized that I didn’t mind throwing myself around, I seemed to do it ok, they didn’t end up getting a double for me. All the training was basically on the set as we were going though it. When we would have the fight sequences come up, of course there would be a coordinator who was telling me how to do this, how to do that, how to make it look convincing. Within those long days they were very physical at the same time. As you can imagine, with all the gunplay—there was a lot of running away from zombies.
N: You’re not just sitting behind a desk all day…
K: No, it’s not a behind-the-desk job at all. So there is some truth to that, having the long days. The setups, too, especially in the motion capture process. They have to be so precise with the props and the set as far as spacing because it has to match when they put it in post-production, so there’s a lot of waiting between setups. You know, hurry up and wait.
N: I was literally just going to say that, hurry up and wait, but I didn’t want to sound…
K: Yeah, hurry up and wait. And when you’re not waiting you’re going full blast, no pun intended. But it was so much fun, because it really was like playtime. We had such a great cast and crew. The attitude was always fun, and everyone was focused on getting the game done and making it the best it could be, so it really was like playtime most of the time. It didn’t feel like work.
N: Are you now a licensed gun owner now, or did you get specific training?
K: I’m certified to use rifles and pistols. There’s another program that you go through that allows you to buy weapons. At the moment I’m not really interested in owning my own weapons. I have enough friends who have weapons that I can go the range. So I’m not owning any weapons at the moment, but I am certified to use them.
N: That’s awesome. I’m not a gun owner, but I’m not Mr. Anti-Gun, so it’s all sort of fascinating to me, the whole culture I guess. Now when I was playing the game, I just sort of classified Sheva’s accent as a sort of British accent. What did you base her voice on, is it just a generic British accent?
K: It went though a couple of changes. Her parents are from Africa, she was born there. She doesn’t grow up there, her parents die when she’s really young and she gets shipped to Europe where she spends most of her childhood. Capcom was trying to find this middle ground of what she would sound like. There was a lot more African in the beginning but she wasn’t there for most of her life so they decided to go with a more British accent. It’s funny because there’s still a hint of African in there, which you know makes sense if that’s the culture she’s from. So that’s how we came up with it.
N: Do you do other accents? Is voice talent another one of your skills, can you break into a French accent if you wanted to, or…
K: Probably not a French accent, no. My parents are Jamaican, so definitely there’s a Jamaican accent in me. I grew up in Miami so I can pull out a Spanish accent. As far as voice, this credit has been really great in getting more work and opening that door for me more. I really love doing voice-over and sometimes I’m just using my regular voice in doing narration in commercial and stuff like that. Yeah this game has opened so much opportunity for me in that area.
N: Is voice acting something where you need to know someone who knows someone, or can you literally just show up to auditions and suddenly you’re some big guy.
K: I’ve been an actress all my life, and I’ve always had an agent for theatrical and commercial work. I know other voice actors who got into the game really early but I’m finding out now that it is a clique to get into. There are specific voice agencies that handle most of the submissions for voice-over work. If you’re not with them you’re probably not hearing about the work going on. It’s very difficult to just show up at a voice-over audition because most of the time they’re just sent in by tape through the agency or online. It’s not like showing up at an audition, just showing up at a certain place. It takes a while to get into as far as getting representation. Some people have done it by credits with people they know. A lot of it is word of mouth, that definitely helps.
N: Ok, well now I know.
K: Why, are you starting a voice-over career?
N: No, no. My brother, he’s studying dramatic writing at college so now I’m being exposed to the Hollywood scene, maybe, the production side of it. It’s just sort of interesting. Now, I just wanted to touch on the supposed controversy. When you guys were working on the game, did you feel that Capcom was being racially insensitive by setting the game in Africa, and all that the entails. Was that ever a concern, or is this all just a bunch of bologna?
K: I’ve addressed this question from day one, as you can imagine. Yeah, it is a bunch of bologna. I find it funny because if the game was never set in Africa then you’d have people complaining about that. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. There was a huge uproar a E3 2007, where it was just the Chris Redfield character in the trailer. At that time the development of Sheva was not even done, and they had started developing that character, and I have all the notes to prove it, from early 2007, but you know Chris Redfield is an established character; they already know what he’s about. So by the time I came in September 2007 they still weren’t done with how she was going to look, she was still being created so there was no way of being done by that E3. Unfortunately when people didn’t see anything but Chris in Africa I guess it had a reaction that was not totally all the way positive. She wasn’t an afterthought. This is a co-op game, it takes a lot more time to just whip that together. It seems a little bit ridiculous to just do that as a type of reaction and say all of a sudden yeah let’s make it co-op.
N: Yeah, I just wanted to get a sort of behind-the-scenes perceptive on that. I just read those things and it’s like, why am I reading this? It’s just absurd.
K: The whole time I was on set there was nothing racial, you know? I did not feel—I cannot imagine that if I was being offended that I would have stayed for a whole year, you know? That I was being totally abused racially, why would I have stayed?
N: Ok, I have an answer now, thank you. Now you’ve worked on a number of different mediums like TV, film and stage. Do you have a favorite? If you could only do one for the rest of your live would you pick or do you like them all equally?
K: I love being diverse. I love having the variety. With all my little extra skills I never get a moment to be bored. It seems like every week I’m working on a different project. I love being challenged, I love having different things to do. Gosh, if I had to pick one I wouldn’t really want to. I would say at the top it would definitely be film because I also make my own films, I love to write and produce. It was my first love, getting into the business. Motion capture, especially with games and film and animation, has become a very close second because I’m finding that my skills come in handy on a lot of projects in that genre that would not totally play out on television and film. I have much more freedom in casting character wise to play different roles than I’d be able to play in television and film if you had to see my face or be a cetain body type. So I love the freedom in that. So those two would be my top.
N: Now, we are a tech site at CrunchGear, so I’m gonna ask you a few tech-related questions. Nothing too crazy.
K: I hope I can answer them!
N: No, it’s not like how to fix your printer or anything like that. It’s nothing that boring, I swear. What type of phone do you use?
K: I don’t yet, but I’m gonna get it. I’m really excited by it. I’m sick of looking at my phone now when that one’s out there.
N: Well, if you have an iPhone what’s your favorite app?
K: I’m so embarrassed to say this. It’s my Scrabble game.
N: Oh, there’s no shame in that.
K: I’m so addicted to this Scrabble game that I got an app for it. It’s that and my translator because I’m interested in different languages.
N: Well if you have an iPhone you must be a Mac fan right? Or do you not even care?
K: I’m a Mac girl! And I’m really happy to be one because I’m a new one, sorry Windows. I finally made the switch early this year and I have not looked back.
N: I’ve been using Mac for a few years now so I understand.
K: They’re awesome.
N: And I wanted to ask, do you know who John Biggs is?
K: John Biggs? Not by the name alone, should I?
N: No, you shouldn’t. I guess I have one more question. What’s next for you? What are you doing now and what are you looking forward to?
K: Well, you know in the video game world you really can’t talk too much, so I can’t talk about that.
N: Can you say what company it’s for?
K: I probably shouldn’t.
N: Meh, then don’t, no big deal. But it’s a game we now know!
K: Yeah I probably shouldn’t. You think you’re saying little and then all of a sudden [gasp!] you get that reaction somewhere. But I do work on that Robert Zemeckis film called Christmas Carol coming out this voice-over with Jim Carrey and I actually get to use my circus skills.
N: Tremendous. Ok well I don’t want to take up all you’re time so I’ll let you go now. Thanks for the chat.
K: Well I’m glad everyone enjoy the game, thank you!
Drew Friedman continues his new series of portraits depicting legendary circus and carnie sideshow freaks. The paintings are for a private collector, who I wish was me. Fortunately, Drew says they'll eventually be collected in a book. Seen here is Julia Pastrana Percilla Lauther aka "Percilla The Monkey Girl." Her story is strange, tragic, and also quite touching. From J. Tithonus Pednaud's fantastic site, The Human Marvels:
In the late 1930’s, while performing with the Johnny J. Jones Exposition, Percilla met fellow marvel Emmitt Bejano, the Alligator-Skinned Man. Despite her heavy beard and his ichthyosis a sweet romance blossomed between the unique couple. The pair saw past their physical differences. Emmitt was a man with calloused skin who spent performance intermissions submerged in vats of ice water because he could not sweat. Emmitt was quite literally ‘thick skinned’ and he had a ‘hard shell to crack’ but beneath he was a compassionate, gentle, charming and passionate man. Percilla, despite looking more beast than beauty, was elegant, eloquent and possessed and enchanting singing voice. Before long Percilla realized that the gentle Emmitt was the love of her life and the two eloped in 1938.
BAGHDAD, July 4 (Reuters) - The Iraqi government is hoping that a second major auction of oil and gas fields later this year will help revive a struggling oil industry where a first auction this week fell... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Jul 2009 | 4:19 pm
Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!
Solar powered mobile from Sharp launches in Japan ” Sharp has released the new Solar Phone SH002 in Japan this month as a way to get a jump on the solar powered cell phone market. The company claims that ten minutes of sun exposure allows for one minute of…” MORE »
Rumored Sprint, Verizon launch dates for the BlackBerry Tour 9630 ” The last we heard about the upcoming release of the BlackBerry Tour 9630 we were still missing quite a few details, basically all we had was that the Tour was headed to Sprint and Verizon and that it was going to be priced at $199 with…” MORE »
Sony PSP phone in the works? ” In order to stay competitive with Apple, Sony is considering adding cell phone functionality to its portable gaming console, the PSP. The phone and game hybrid may not be marketed under the PSP name, but the device will likely have…” MORE »
iJector projects 50 inch video from your iPod ” The iPod and iPhone are great devices for watching video on the go, that’s never really been much of a secret. But, what about when you want to watch that episode of “30 Rock” on a large screen rather than the max…” MORE »
Windows Mobile doesn’t want your silly apps ” We at Gadgetell talk a lot about third party applications for mobile phone operating systems and how they might make or break a platform. The news comes today that Microsoft Product Manager for France let slip…” MORE »
Palm Pre to get battery with 2x life? Sweet. “Here’s one more thing that separates the Palm Pre from Apple’s iPhone: the removable battery. A new battery from Innocell promises longer standby and talk time than the original. The additional battery life is crammed into the exact same specifications as the original battery and costs just…” MORE »
The Video Bay to be setting sail soon ” Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Ye makers of The Pirate Bay are apparently not planning to go sailing into waters unknown even amidst all the current legal fiascos they are facing. They are launching a new site called MORE »
Couple slaps Apple with lawsuit over $0.30 price increase “The latest entry in the book of frivolous lawsuits is one filed against Apple by an Illinois couple. They are accusing the company of gift card fraud and they are seeking monetary damages for what they call Apple’s “wrongful, illegal and fraudulent acts.” The…” MORE »
Fennec alpha 2 released to all Windows Mobile 6 devices ” Being stuck on Windows Mobile right now isn’t exactly the most exciting part about owning a cell phone. The OS is clunky, old, and just not as good as some of the others out there, for most people at least. …” MORE »
In a fervent attempt to resolve differences on issues of the world’s carbon emissions, officials from a 17-member, majority comprised body are coming together on the eve of a July 8-10 summit of the G8 to hold critical discussions, Reuters accounted.The meeting of the Major Economies Forum (MEF) was called to reduce the gap between wealthy nations and developing countries like India over long-term goals on global warming and emissions, a collection of eight diplomats and climate change officials told the press.The central Italian city of L’Aquila will host an additional meeting for leaders of the MEF nations, scheduled on July 9. MEF nations account for 80 percent of global emissions, warranting a much needed coalition to combat these issues.Rumors linger that they could take a decisive advancement in dealings for a U.N. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jul 2009 | 3:45 pm
The manufacturers included software at the the Chinese government's behest, but the software in question was plagiarized. And now the pain begins, as the swiped software's creator, Solid Oak, now files suit here in the U.S. The clone software even tries to access Solid Oak's server for updates.
Big Mike has been pretty quiet about the CrunchPad since it was first leaked the other month and for good reason. We’ve heard from reliable sources that Apple is still on track with an oversized iPod Touch in the coming months. We more or less know everything there is to know about the CrunchPad, but a few more specs have popped up thanks to the NYT and SF Biz Times. The CP, made by Fusion Garage, is 16mm thick with a 12-inch screen encased in aluminum.
Arrington will supposedly schedule an event for the end of this month or early August. It will retail for less than $300 and be available “as soon as possible.” I wonder if we’ll get some company issued CrunchPads for CrunchGear.
According to multiple sources close to Microsoft, the gold build of Windows 7 is set to be available on July 10, while the RTM, or release to manufacturing, is set to be available on July 13. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not made any official statements, so this is just a rumor that many perceive to be true.
Basically, the RTM is significant because it is the version of a specific software that is most similar to the official version. It is important to remember RTM is simply for manufacturers to make sure all their hardware/peripherals are compatible with the new OS. The day when the general public can purchase machines running Windows 7 is still October 22. Another reason the RTM date is important is because that should be the version that contains all the major fixes to bugs. If all goes well, the October 22 release of Windows 7 will be pretty much the same as the RTM.
Coinciding on the same day is the Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans. Again, July 13 may not be the date for the RTM, but many sources have confirmed it as such. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft comes out with any official statements.
Think of the most popular brands in celebrity news, and you'll probably come up with a small list that includes Entertainment Tonight, US Weekly and People. Consider the most successful... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 4 Jul 2009 | 2:56 pm
AP - Telecoms company BT Group PLC is offering staff a year off work in return for a 75 percent cut in that year's pay. Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 4 Jul 2009 | 2:42 pm
A broadband industry group said on Thursday that U.S. government guidelines to spend $4 billion to expand broadband services to underserved areas across the United Sates might be exceeding current laws. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jul 2009 | 2:15 pm
The Wall Street Journal reports that AOL is secretly "upgrading" old customers, then sending the "debt" to collection agencies.
About a month ago, we started getting bizarre phone calls from a collections agency ... "concerning unpaid charges of $103.60."
When I asked what I was being charged for, I was told it was four months' worth of something called "upgraded service" for AOL in late 2008.
I pointed out that we had never requested or agreed to any upgrade, nor used any AOL service other than email. Please send a printed bill to my home address so I can formally dispute it, I requested.
"I am sorry, sir, but we cannot do that."
The victim is the Journal's own Jason Zweig, whose account was originally given tor him free of charge as a Time-Warner employee. He describes it as blackmail: "How can you charge me for something I didn't order and certainly didn't want, about which I was never informed, and for which I have received no bill of any kind?"
It's in the EULA, of course! Anyone who has ever had an AOL account -- even if you just used email or AIM -- needs to keep an eye on its decline into apparent shiftiness. Does it have your credit card information? Your bank details?
The newest revolution in microbiology testing walks on four legs and says "baa."It's the hair sheep, a less-hirsute version of the familiar woolly barnyard resident. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jul 2009 | 2:00 pm
The manager of a virtual bank used to store credits for a popular online video game has admitting to stealing digital points from players and selling them for hard cash on the black market.Every month, more than 300,000 gamers around the world dish out the $15 subscription fee to enter the digital world of EVE Online, an elaborate online role-playing game where players strategize, build alliances and battle for intergalactic dominance.The cyber-scandal revolves around EBank, the largest player-operated digital bank, where thousands of gamers deposit their accumulated funds for safe keeping. EBank’s CEO, a 27-year-old Australian gamer named Richard, recently confessed to embezzling billions of “insterstellar kredits,” the universal currency used in the world of EVE Online.“Basically this character [Richard] was one of the people that had been running EBank for a while. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jul 2009 | 1:55 pm
In the now infamous MySpace suicide trial, a federal judge has said that he will likely dismiss the conviction of Missouri woman, Lori Drew, who was accused of using the social networking sight to emotionally harass a lovesick 13-year-old girl who subsequently committed suicide in October 2006.Prosecuting attorneys had attempted to use a federal anti-hacking law to convict Drew, but in a statement on Thursday, U.S. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 4 Jul 2009 | 1:35 pm
A new company is claiming it can offer background support on all the top social networking sites like Twitter and Digg - for a price.
uSocial says that if you are willing to fork over some cold hard cash they can boost your Twitter followers or Diggs by about a thousand in 7 days and 100,000 in a year. Their guarantee says that if they fail to do so they will give you an additional 20% for free.
So how much cash are they asking for? Anywhere from $87 for 1000 new followers to a nearly $3500 for 100,000. How do they find said followers? They search user interests to find ones that match yours then ask those people to follow or friend you. Hmm. Seems that’s easy enough to do yourself for free. It also sounds a little like spam.
I don’t have a huge social following - about 250 friends on Facebook and about 340 followers on Twitter. That’s probably a drop in the bucket to many folks, but really, is the point of such networks to have as many people as possible follow/friend you or is it to build deep and valuable connections? In other words, isn’t quality a lot more important than quantity? My follower/friend numbers aren’t large but I have a personal connection with every one of them. Can those with hundreds of thousands say the same?
A new study has shed light on the extent and causes behind the oceans’ quickly vanishing seagrass meadows, a vital resource for thousands of species of marine life.In the study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers reported that 58 percent of the world’s seagrass meadows have been shrinking at a rate of about 7 percent a year since 1990. Scientists based their conclusions on data from over 200 surveys and some 1,800 observations dating as far back as 1879, which show seagrass meadows disappearing at a pace similar to that of rainforests and coral reefs.“Seagrasses are disappearing because they live in the same kind of environments that attract people,” explained co-author of the report James Fourqurean of Florida International University.“They live in shallow areas protected from large storm waves, and they are especially prevalent in bays and around river mouths.”Marine biologists say that seagrass plays a vital role in marine ecosystems. Breaking-down and processing waste, stabilizing sediment on the seabed, and providing food and shelter to countless species of marine life are just a few of the functions of seagrass, which fills a niche in the aquatic world comparable to that occupied by plants and fungus in terrestrial biomes.Scientists are blaming global climate change as one of the critical factors contributing to the decline of seagrass, which they say is sensitive to the rising ocean levels and warming water temperature caused by greenhouse gases. But researchers are also pointing to another man-made problem that may be having a more immediate effect on seagrass’ ability to thrive. Ocean water made cloudy by pollution from coastal industry is able to transmit less sunlight to the photosynthetic plants, ultimately restricting the depth at which they are able to grow. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 4 Jul 2009 | 1:30 pm
Recently, I’ve noticed something. If you send me an email, the likelihood that I’m going to respond is pretty small. But if you send me a message on Twitter, the likelihood that I’ll respond is much higher. Certainly, part of it is that I get fewer messages on Twitter. But you might be surprised at how close it’s getting in volume when you add @replies to direct messages. The bigger factor for me, is the length of the messages.
If I open up an email and see it filled with paragraphs of information, guaranteed my eyes are going to glaze over. Certainly sometimes it’s an important message that I do need to read, but most of the time it’s just a core message filled with paragraphs of bloat. I don’t want or need the bloat, I need the core message. And that’s why I love Twitter. You simply cannot go over 140 characters. And more often than you may imagine, that’s enough.
Now, on the face of it, plenty of people will disagree with me on that point. But think about it. In an age where we’re bombarded by tons of information, from multiple angles, all day long, there is something beautiful about brevity.
I used to read screenplays for a living. Trust me when I say that there is no shortage of people who can blather on about something to seemingly no end. But the skill in writing a screenplay often came down to if you could convey what you needed to convey in just a few lines. It’s not an easy thing to do — at all. And while it’s not quite the same because it’s even more compact, Twitter forces you do to a similar thing in its own way. And Twitter is hardly the only form of communication that has done this.
Most users know by now that the 140 character limit of Twitter is actually tied to the limits of text messaging. Text messages can only be 160 characters long (Twitter needed to reserve the extra 20 characters for usernames). But do you know where the 160 character limit comes from?
The LA Times ran an excellent piece a few months ago about Friedhelm Hillebrand, the father of the modern text message. He dreamed up the 160 character limit while working at a typewriter in the mid-1980s, trying to see how long sentences needed to be to convey something. He found 160 characters was the magic number he kept arriving at. But the deciding committee for SMS still wasn’t sure until they looked at postcards and found that most of those had messages of 150 characters or less.
And so you see, while you may think Twitter’s character limit is silly or frustrating, it’s actually born out of two other forms of communication that are widely accepted and used the world over. You may not think of Twitter being just like a postcard, but in some ways it is — one that you can instantaneously send to many friends or acquaintances at the same time. And minus the cost of a stamp.
Even with the rise of technology, the lure of the short message remains. And that was the key reason why I found Twitter compelling when I first started using it over two years ago. I never thought of the limitation in a negative sense, but rather as something that could inspire creativity in messages. And could even spur communication.
It’s liberating to know that you only have 140 characters or less to respond to something. For a lot of messages, that removes a huge burden of trying to say enough to the person you’re talking to so that they don’t think you’re being rude. With a 140 character limit, a correlation between briefness and rudeness doesn’t exist.
And that’s why more and more I’m finding myself telling people, “Just message me on Twitter.” It’s a two-way street. I don’t want to have to read you go on and on about something that could be said in one line, and you won’t have to listen to me go on and on about something in response. Again, it won’t work for all messages, which is why Twitter or something like it will never kill email, but for a lot of messages, it works just fine.
Characters and time are saved. It’s a limitation that is liberating.
Bayer's DIDGET meter was developed in conjunction with Paul Wessel -- the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes. Paul noticed that although his son Luke was constantly losing his blood glucose meter, he could always find his Nintendo Game Boy. It was this observation that inspired Paul and Bayer to work together to develop the first and only blood glucose meter that connects to the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite gaming systems to reward children for good testing habits.
The chances of me being genuinely amazed at something I see a Belgian tech company achieve are rather slim. But occasionally, it happens. Last week I went to local entrepreneur meetup 
The chances of me being genuinely amazed at something I see a Belgian tech company achieve are rather slim. But occasionally, it happens. Last week I went to local entrepreneur meetup 
As you might imagine, finding a manufacturer today for the 8-track version of Cheap Trick's The Latest wasn't easy. "There was a lot of looking under rocks," admits Frey, who finally found a small plant in Dallas, Tex., for the retro-fit. "They're expensive to make, and they don't make very many at a time," he says of the cartridge which will sell to the public for something close to $30.
One thing I hated about being a corporate lawyer at Wilson Sonsini back in the day - we got to work on really cool deals (the last deal I worked on before leaving for a startup was the AOL/Netscape merger), but we were only brought in at the very end to paper everything. We fought over the fine print in the contracts after the meat of the deal was ironed out by CEOs. Skinning and dressing whatever the hunters bring back to the cave is fine for some people. But it’s not exactly being in the middle of the action.
Before everyone gets in a huff, let's consider 
Ahh, 4th of July. A welcome day off work in the midst of summer. Seems like everyone’s on vacation these days and that means grueling airplane rides and long road trips with the family. If you aren’t lucky enough to be on JetBlue or Virgin, you’re probably stuck without in-flight entertainment, meaning you’ve got nothing but your iPhone and a book to keep you from strangling the guy next to you. Have no fear! In this week’s edition of the 
App #1: Nowadays nobody does any hard work anymore. All we do is sit on our computers all day and complain about developing 
App #2: What better way to celebrate America’s birthday than to play America’s favorite pastime on your iPhone. And for $2.99, you can! With 
App #3: 4th of July is a great time to hit the theme parks. But if you can’t make it to one, then download 
App #4: Puzzle games abound on the iPhone, but few are as involved and challenging as
App #5: We’ve talked about 
Dearest CrunchGear readers: I recently had the honor and privilege of speaking to Karen Dyer, who is not only the voice of Sheva Alomar, from Resident Evil 5, but who also did said character's motion capture. I hope you enjoy it on this day, our day of freedom.
Obviously, “K” is for Karen, and “N” is for Nicholas. With that...
N: Well, first off congratulations. Resident Evil 5 was a big hit. It sold something like 4 million copies.
K: That's what I hear!
N: Excellent. But before we get into the game, I just wanted to bring up something I saw on your bio. It says here you're known for your circus skills, and I just wanted to say how that awesome that is. And I wanted to ask, where do you study that? Because I don't know if your average community college offers that type of training.
According to multiple sources close to Microsoft, the gold build of Windows 7 is set to be available on July 10, while the RTM, or release to manufacturing, is set to be available on July 13. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not made any official statements, so this is just a rumor that many perceive to be true. 
Recently, I’ve noticed something. If you send me an email, the likelihood that I’m going to respond is pretty small. But if you send me a message on Twitter, the likelihood that I’ll respond is much higher. Certainly, part of it is that I get fewer messages on Twitter. But you might be surprised at how close it’s getting in volume when you add @replies to direct messages. The bigger factor for me, is the length of the messages.
The 