Source: Gizmodo | 30 Aug 2009 | 4:30 pm

A Look Behind The Curtain At Facebook’s Optimization Efforts

Facebook is big. Really big. So it comes as little surprise that every tweak made to the site (like the subtle change to the header a few days ago) can have a pretty substantial impact on the way people use the social network. Earlier this week Facebook’s Engineering team posted a note written by intern Zizhuang Yang, who has spent the summer researching how changes in things like load time can affect users. Yang writes about three main experiments he conducted over the last few months, including one involving overall site speed and two in the way pages load, and the results are quite interesting.

The first experiment examined how Facebook users would respond to a general slowdown. Yang found that regardless of site speed, users spend around the same amount of time on Facebook. That might sound like good news (at least they don’t get frustrated and leave immediately), but it means that if the site is running slowly users are going to be seeing fewer pages in the same amount of time, which Facebook obviously doesn’t want. So — no surprise here — Facebook is striving to make the site as fast as possible.

The second experiment involved the order in which items on the page should load. Yang writes that Facebook has been internally debating whether the page should display everything as quickly as possible, even before some necessary scripts to actually interact with the site have loaded, or to show a white page until everything is good to go and then render it all at once. Yang writes, “In all groups of users, keeping the page blank resulted in lower usage statistics. Thus the debate was resolved.” So if you’re ever on Facebook and you find that a certain button isn’t working for the first second or two after a page loads, this would explain it.

The third experiment involved loading stories in the News Feed. Regular Facebook users have likely noticed that the site will automatically fetch more News Feed stories as you scroll down the page. This feels like a nifty new feature, but it was actually designed by Facebook to cut back on load times — News Feed used to show 30 stories at once; now it loads 15 at first and only shows the next 15 if you scroll down the page. What Yang found, however, is that when people do scroll beyond the initial 15 stories they’re shown, they’re happy to wait the extra second or two for 30 new stories to load, which results in a signifiant boost in engagement. This makes perfect sense — if I’m actively reading through the News Feed (as opposed to just seeing it because it’s Facebook’s home page) it’s because I’m killing time or trying to catch up on my friends’ past posts. The more stories shown during this ‘catch-up’ time, the better.

Also interesting to note is that Facebook seems keen to put its internship program in the public eye — just last week the site’s blog included a post from an intern who build the Facebook Pages to Twitter syndicator, and now we’re seeing the fruit’s of another intern’s summer experiments. This may well be part of the company’s plan to attract new talent during its recent hiring spree.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 30 Aug 2009 | 4:21 pm

TwIP - An IP Stack In a Tweet

Adam Dunkels writes "Inspired by the Twitter-sized program that crashes Mac OS X, I just wrote a really, really rudimentary IP stack called twIP, small enough to fit in a Twitter tweet. Although twIP is very far away from a real IP stack, it can do the first task of any IP stack: respond to pings. The entire source code can be found in this 128-character-long tweet. For those who are interested in low-level network programming, a code walkthrough with instructions on how to run the code under FreeBSD is available here. The FAQ: Q: why? A: for fun."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Gizmodo | 30 Aug 2009 | 4:15 pm

Current iPod SKUs are discontinued, new iPods around the corner

FROM APPLETELL - Apple Authorized Resellers are reporting to Ars Technica that the current stock of iPods are not being replenished, and that there will indeed be a new line of iPods introduced in the very near future.
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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Aug 2009 | 3:53 pm

Random ham radio trollfight audio (explicit)

AUDIO EMBED ABOVE: Two trolls on ham radio, one identified as "G-K," the other as "Robert" or "R-J" overheard accidentally on August 29, 2009, while surfing first responder frequencies during the August 2009 Los Angeles wildfires. The two men argued with each other about various technical subjects of interest to radio ops, then discussed drugs and past jail time, then notes on an Andy Griffith show marathon, then torture they'd like to perform on each other in great detail because they hate each other so much. Stay with it.

Technical note: sorry about the audible LOLs -- a friend held the scanner in their lap, and I held my iPhone 3Gs above the scanner, using "voice memo" app to record the audio. None of us could contain ourselves.

Archive.org: Random Ham Radio Trollfight: August 29, 2009, Los Angeles CA (thanks, Chief Fulfiller of Needs + fam!)


Source: Boing Boing | 30 Aug 2009 | 3:23 pm

Australian Defence Force Builds $1.7m Linux-Based Flight Simulator

scrubl writes "The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has revealed its latest flight simulator runs on SUSE Linux-based clusters of Opteron servers and uses an open source graphics platform. The Defence Science and Technology Organisation's (DSTO) Air Operations Simulation Centre in Melbourne creates virtual words that allow pilots to experience real-world combat situations without leaving the ground. The visuals software was written in OpenGL, using commercial and open source scene graph engines and making 'heavy use of OpenGL Shader Language programs.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Aug 2009 | 3:15 pm

Cato Institute Critique of Software Patents

binarybits writes "I've written an article for the free-market Cato Institute about how patents impede innovation in the software industry. It points out that people tend not to realize how vast the software industry is. It's not just Google and Microsoft; virtually every organization has an IT department producing potentially-infringing software. Organizations as diverse as J. Crew and the Green Bay Packers have been sued for patent infringement. It's crazy to expect all these organizations to worry about potential patent infringement. Hopefully the Supreme Court's Bilski decision will lead to new limits on software patents."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Aug 2009 | 2:16 pm

Free Apps roundup for August 28th, 2009

FROM APPLETELL - Recently, Apple released Snow Leopard.  I guess you can’t get everything for free, but that’s all right because I’ve found more apps to keep your iPhone’s app habit in check without touching your wallet.
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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Aug 2009 | 1:57 pm

How Science Reporting Works

Today on the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, a pithy and startlingly accurate summary of the state of science reporting (be sure to click through for the whole thing).

How Science Reporting Works (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)



Source: Boing Boing | 30 Aug 2009 | 1:57 pm

Wind Farms Can Interfere With Doppler Radar

T Murphy writes "Wind farms can appear like storms or tornadoes on Doppler radar when placed too close to the radar. Tornado alley is a good area for wind farms, and good terrain for the turbines is also ideal for Doppler radar. With many new farms being constructed, the problem is growing. A false tornado warning was issued in Kansas by a computer, although canceled by a meteorologist aware of the problem- there are fears that false positives will grow. Worse would be a tornado ignored as a wind turbine. While meteorologists are trying to work with wind farm owners to shut off the turbines during bad weather, they have no control over the placement or operation of the turbines. Efforts are being made to improve detection technology to avoid further problems."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Aug 2009 | 1:10 pm

Laughing Gas Is Major Threat To Ozone Layer

Hugh Pickens writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports that according to new research, nitrous oxide, the colorless, sweet-smelling gas with a long history as a medical and dental anesthetic is the next big threat to Earth's protective ozone layer. Its role in destroying ozone has long been recognized, as well as its role as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas but the new study puts nitrous oxide's ability to deplete ozone into numbers comparable to those used for other ozone-depleting gases covered by the 1987 Montreal Protocol. The researchers note that the health of the ozone layer has been improving since the adoption of the protocol and that nitrous oxide looms large today as an artificial destroyer of the ozone layer, in part because the emissions of other harmful chemicals have been so sharply reduced." (Continues.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Aug 2009 | 12:06 pm

TechCrunch Japan’s Tokyo Camp: 12 Startups Demo Their Wares

Following last week’s startup contest WISH 2009, Japan just got another event that gave twelve selected tech companies the chance to demo their web services, apps and tools (almost all of which are thankfully available in English). This Friday, around 130 guests attended Tokyo Camp [JP], a demo event organized by TechCrunch Japan.

The occasion: The blog, which is one of Japan’s biggest and mainly translates articles from TechCrunch into Japanese, is under new management (by DESIGN IT!, LLC., a Sociomedia (Japan’s anwer to Adaptive Path) group company).

Here are my thumbnail sketches of all of the twelve demos I saw at Tokyo Camp.

I’vRead by Akky Akimoto
Officially launched at Tokyo Camp, I’vRead keeps a record of all books you’ve read via your Twitter account and lets you find users with a similar taste in books. All you need to do is to type the title of the book (or its ISBN or Amazon URL), add “@ivread” to the tweet and (as an option) write what you thought of it. Each of these tweets will then be automatically added to your personal user page on the I’vRead site (you don’t need to register at the site itself, being a Twitter user is enough). Look here for an example.

dango
dango wants to empower online game creators worldwide to focus more on the development of content and less on the things they have to deal with after a game is finished, especially the distribution problem. The company of the same name offers a comprehensive, integrated framework called “dango-PLAY”. The system delivers online games to a number of social networks (i.e. Facebook or Japan’s Mixi) and dango’s homepage itself, using a single program and source code (dango is open source [JP]).

dango-Play aims at creating an integrated ecosystem for online games by matching users, linking to other games based on the framework, providing SMS services, managing user ID data, freeing developers from tracking user behavior etc. etc.

One of the first games that’s been released based on the dango system is Facebook app “meromero park”, an ultra-cute mix between a social network, a virtual world and a pet-rearing game (the web version has already gained massive popularity in Japan and Taiwan). The Facebook app is available in English and French.

Jin-Magic TCP Traffic Optimization Technology by Akira Jinzaki
A veteran network technology guru and a Chief Technologist in Residence at Breakthrough Partners, Akira Jinzaki has single-handedly programmed what appears to be a powerful TCP traffic controller with the potential to change the way Internet traffic is currently being managed (99% of the Internet traffic is TCP-based). Jinzaki says his Jin-Magic software manages TCP traffic in a cost-effective way that is transparent to the network to get the most out of the exiting plumbing.

The software can sit anywhere in the network between the two end-points. WiMAX was used for the demo. Reception in the demo room was 2 to 4 bars out of 6 and TCP transfer rates were at best 1Mbps (with standard set-up). Turn on the Jin-magic on the server side configured to maximize TCP flow, the rates climbed up in the 4Mbps to 7Mbps range. The technology allows providers to maximize service for their investments. It may enable mobile data providers to serve 2 to 3 times more customers with uninterrupted video bandwidth with the existing infrastructure. Jin-Magic can be ported to smartphones, too.

PeKay’s Little Author
PeKay’s Little Author is a Facebook application that lets users create a graphic story using original characters on-screen and print it out in the form of a picture storybook. Alternatively, the virtual storybook (example) can be shared with others online or turned into a web greeting card.

PeKay’s Little Author is the brainchild of a well-known Japanese artist. The video below shows how the app works:

IxEdit by Sociomedia
Launched at Tokyo Camp, IxEdit is a JavaScript-based “interaction design” tool for web applications that can be used from within the browser. Web designers can use IxEdit to practice DOM-scripting without having to code anything. The tool allows for elements of web pages that require “interaction”, i.e. pull-down menus, to be created with basic knowledge about HTML and CSS (no JavaScript coding is required).

IxEdit can be downloaded for free. View sample elements here.

Mobile Vein Authentication Technology by Universal Robot [JP]
Universal Robot’s compact mobile vein authentication software (40KB core module) can be installed on cell phones, for example, and uses the camera to scan your wrist vein for identification. The technology seems to have many advantages: It works fast (I tried it myself), it’s completely software-based, compatible to a variety of CPUs and operating systems, usable for persons doing hard manual labor (who can’t use fingerprints), and most importantly extremely accurate (the company speaks of a false accept ratio of 0.001% and of a false reject ratio of less than 0.1%). The award-winning software works even with cameras with a 1MP sensor or lower.

Kuchikomi@Sousenkyo [JP] by Hottolink
Tokyo-based Hottolink has shown a self-developed word-of-mouth analysis tool (dubbed “Word Of Mouth@General Election Of The Lower House” in Japanese) that’s supposedly able to predict the results of the general election of Japan’s Lower House (according to CEO Koki Uchiyama) that took place just today.

The prediction tool analyzes what’s being written in Japan’s blogosphere about political topics dynamically (it updates its projected results daily). Uchiyama said internal tests with previous elections proved to be very promising. We’ll know if the prediction model really works on Monday morning Japanese time after the election results are official (I will deliver an update here later).

LogEarth
LogEarth requires a GPS logger or an iPhone GPS logger app to work. The service then records where you move around in the world (provided there’s a GPS signal) and visualizes your route with the help of Google Maps. The log data can be posted on blogs, too.

The 3 Augmented Reality Brothers [JP]
The 3 Augmented Reality Brothers aren’t really brothers, but their augmented reality project certainly had the highest show value at Tokyo Camp. Watch the Japanese video below to get an idea of what these guys are doing (their Vimeo channel is here).

AR3Bros episode-i | twitter & AR from ar3bros on Vimeo.

dodaii by Feynman
dodaii is an in-app purchase management ASP created for iPhone devs. The system handles the payment records for companies offering apps in the App Store for a fee. More information on dodaii can be found in this English PDF and here. dodaii is currently in closed beta.

Kanshin Kuukan [JP]
Kanshin Kuukan is a community site that helps its members find relevant products, restaurants, movies, songs etc. based on recommendations from users. The company of the same name showed a demo video of an iPhone app that scans the Twittersphere for relevant tweets and is scheduled for release in December (Japanese only).

Manetron
Manetron is an iPhone app that puts a Mellotron (an electro-mechanical, vintage keyboard) in your pocket. The app is available in the App Store for $2.99. Watch the video below to see and hear how Manetron works.

Many thanks to all attendees and demo companies who helped making Tokyo Camp a blast. And sorry to everyone who didn’t make it on the guest list this time (just like last time, we were overwhelmed by the response), but another event like this might happen again in the near future. Arigatou gozaimasu!

More pictures from the event were made by alpha blogger Masaki Ishitani and TechCrunch Japan’s translator Umihiko Namekawa.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 30 Aug 2009 | 12:05 pm

Is the Tyranny of the Mac Fan Boy Waning?

Here at TechCrunch there’s a daily argument in the office, on Yammer and even on the blog about the supremacy of the iPhone versus the Google-Voice-goodness of Android phones. I chalked it up to the usual get-off-my-lawn-style ranting of Michael Arrington, and assumed the average techie was still like MG Siegler, a total Mac-head who will love the iPhone no matter how bad the reception, how bad the battery life and how many times it breaks and he has to get a new one.

But some reporters– long harassed by Mac fan boys when they’ve dared to criticize the company (read: do their jobs) — are saying a sea change is occurring in Apple fan boy nation. Witness Jon Fortt of Fortune’s recent blog post where he says the Valley owes Microsoft an apology and compares Apple to Napoleon the pig in Animal Farm. He writes:

“I’m sorry, Microsoft. On behalf of Silicon Valley, I’m sorry.

We cursed you, mocked you, labeled you the Evil Empire. Your crime: trying to control the technology world. Sure, we had reason to be upset. During the dawning of the PC era, the Windows operating system made you the most powerful company in tech, and it went to your head.

Your detractors say you intimidated PC makers, crushed Netscape, and tried to turn the web into an extension of the Windows platform. As it turns out, local darling Apple (AAPL) probably would have done the same thing.

Just look at how Apple is behaving today with a fraction of the power you had.”

Now, look at the comments. You have to scroll pretty far down to get the usual how-dare-you-criticize-our-iPhone-lord-and-savior comments. Most of the comments disagreeing with Fortt are pretty well-reasoned arguments that raise good points.

Of course, it’s likely that Fortune moderates its blog comments, so maybe we’re not seeing the whole debate. But on the Sunday morning tech show that both Fortt and I appear on, he argued that indeed the fan boys just weren’t out in the same way they’ve been in the past. Host Scott McGrew argued he too had witnessed a fan boy sea change. [Video below]

I remain dubious, as much as I’d love to believe that sub-human behavior like the anti-Semitic attacks and death threats that Barrons writer Eric Savitz had to endure in March 2008 would never happen again. Savitz had the gall to report Wall Street was worried that iPod and iPhone sales might sag. It was hardly controversial considering the stock was down 35% for the year at the time he wrote it.

So, fan boys: Here’s your chance to agree with me for once. Is Jobs nation still alive and well? For the record, I hope I’m wrong. My husband and I own half a dozen iPods, a Mac desktop and four Mac laptops. We’re clearly fans of Mr. Jobs work. But placing a company above scrutiny is bad for business, bad for the Valley and bad for tech.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 30 Aug 2009 | 11:41 am

Laser Physics Milestone: UC Berkeley

Image 1: Both pictures show a bright emerald green point of light from a single plasmon laser emanating from the optical setup used by UC Berkeley researchers. These semiconductor lasers -- the world's smallest -- are extremely efficient, so the small amount of scattered light is clearly visible, even in ambient room lighting. Camera saturation of the bright laser light gives the impression of a larger spot. Credit: Courtesy of Xiang Zhang Lab, UC BerkeleyImage 2: The schematic on the left illustrates light being compressed and sustained in the 5 nanometer gap -- smaller than a protein molecule -- between a nanowire and underlying silver surface. To the right is an electron microscope image of the hybrid design shown in the schematic. Credit: Courtesy of Xiang Zhang Lab, UC Berkeley
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Aug 2009 | 11:35 am

Personalized In-Game Advertising In Upcoming Titles

Scythal writes "In-game advertising provider Massive Inc., acquired by Microsoft in 2006, has signed up or renewed contracts with several publishers, notably EA, Blizzard Entertainment, THQ, and Activision. Eagerly anticipated games like Need for Speed: Shift will feature the technology that continuously collects 'anonymous' information about users, sends them to the Massive database for analysis, and downloads advertisements to be shown in the game. All that happens insidiously, without the users' explicit consent and out of their control, which raises further concerns about privacy, security and quite frankly, customer abuse. Would you feel concerned about software that collects personal information and sends it so that you get more personalized ads in a game you paid for?" (More, below.)

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot | 30 Aug 2009 | 11:08 am

Oh, come on: Snow Leopard doesn’t have ZFS

How many of y’all got around to installing Snow Leopard yesterday? I meant to, but then I bought a new hard drive for my old iMac (hey, any discreet graphics card is better than this old MacBook’s Intel bologna), so I’ll be upgrading everything next week. As if any of you care, I know, but trust me: there’s a point. If you did install Snow Leopard, you’ll no doubt have noticed this glaring kick in the teeth: Apple has removed ZFS! This will go down as one of the greatest injustices ever brought upon mankind.

I kid, of course, but it’s still worth noting. Nowhere in Snow Leopard will you find the option to format a hard drive using the ZFS filesystem. If 2 percent of you have even heard of ZFS I’ll be surprised; if 1 percent of you will even miss it I’ll be double-surprised.

It’s a shame, too, since ZFS is fairly handy. So I hear, at least. Says ZDNet:

ZFS combines a file system and a volume manager, along with some cool architectural features, to create an easily managed and highly reliable file system. Advanced features that just work.

Italics mean business, friends.

ZDNet even highlighted two features that would absolutely be useful to the average user: checksumming every single file (so you can better spot data corruption) and easy-to-use snapshotting. That is, “Hey, everything works 100 percent perfectly today. Let me take a snapshot, then if something goes wrong later, I can just go back to that snapshot.”

ZFS isn’t even in Snow Leopard Server Edition, so consider it dead and buried. Of course, it’ll be a cold down in somewhere before Apple says why…

So, while watching Juventus v. Roma, be sure to pour one out for ZFS.

Source: CrunchGear | 30 Aug 2009 | 11:00 am

US Customs to donate seized counterfeit iPods and more to the poor

Section: Business News

Starting next month, the New Jersey and New York branches of US Customs and Border Protection are planning to launch a program that involves donating seized counterfeit iPods, TVs, DVDs, and clothing items to the poor and homeless.  The program is starting in response to a surplus of seized items as new technologies make detection at custom checkpoints easier.  Counterfeit consumer electronics seized in 2008 were valued at an estimate $23 million.
In the past, these fakes were instead sent to the shredder or incinerator.  However, New York and New Jersey have decided to start the donation program following the success at other regions, including Los Angeles, Detroit and San Francisco.  Trademark owners have been assisting in the implementation of the program by allowing the donation of the items.  They usually only require that the fake logos be removed from the items.

After examination and approval by safety inspectors, the items will be donated to organizations such as World Vision and Samaritan’s Feet.  Many of the items are then distributed to the poor in third world countries, such as India, Vietnam, and Cambodia. 

Read: [NJ.com]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Aug 2009 | 10:22 am

CrunchDeals: 19-inch 720p LCD TV for $149 at Target

Looking for an inexpensive TV for your den or rumpus room? Target’s selling a 19-inch 720p LCD TV for $149 this week — that’s just over $50 off the regular price.

It’s a Sylvania with two HDMI inputs, a 1366×768 resolution, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 280 cd/m2 brightness, built-in speakers, NTSC/ATSC tuner, and 5ms response time. I’m going to go out on a short limb and guess that this thing might be seen in many a dorm room all across the country this fall.

Sylvania 19″ 720p LCD TV (LC195SLX) [Target via FatWallet]

Source: CrunchGear | 30 Aug 2009 | 10:00 am

Free the H-1Bs, Free the Economy

This is a guest post by Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Executive in Residence at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.

I have a suggestion for our President on how to boost economic growth without spending a penny: Free the H-1B’s.

More than a million doctors, engineers, scientists, researchers, and other skilled workers and their families in the U.S. are stuck in “immigration limbo.” They entered the country legally and have contributed disproportionately to our nation’s competitiveness. They paid our high taxes and have been model citizens. All they want to do is to share the American dream and help us grow our economy.

They could be starting companies, buying houses, building community centers, and splurging like Americans. But because we don’t have enough permanent-resident visas (green cards) for them, they’re stuck in the same old jobs they had maybe a decade ago when they entered this country. They are getting really frustrated and many are returning to their home countries to become unwilling competitors. And they are taking our economic recovery with them.

Xenophobes will claim that immigrants take jobs away and blame them for everything that is wrong in their lives and in America. But as TechCrunch wrote last week, skilled immigrants create more jobs than they take away. That is a fact. My research team documented that one quarter of all technology and engineering startups nationwide from 1995 to 2005 were started by immigrants. In Boston, it was 31%, in New York, 44%, and in Silicon Valley an astonishing 52%. In 2005, these immigrant founded companies employed 450,000 workers. Add it up. That’s far more than all the tech workers we gave green cards to in that period.

It’s not only jobs that they’ve created. In 2006, more than 25% of U.S. global patents had authors who were born abroad — and this doesn’t even count people like me, who came here, became citizens, and then filed multiple patents. Of Qualcomm’s global patents, 72% had foreign-born authors, as did 65% of Merck’s, 64% of GE’s, and 60% of Cisco’s. I’m not talking about silly patents filed with the U.S. Patent Office here, I’m talking about WIPO PCT  applications — the patents that help our companies compete globally.

Why does Silicon Valley need a foreign-born workforce? Because these immigrants are able come to a foreign land where they face hardship and discrimination and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the world’s best technical minds and most successful entrepreneurs.  They are able motivate Silicon Valley’s top guns to work even harder and think smarter. They add a global perspective and enrich America.

The largest immigrant founding groups are Indian, British, and Chinese. Indian-born immigrants, for example, founded 6.7% of America’s tech companies and 15.5% of those in Silicon Valley — but, according to the U.S. census, constitute way less than 1% of the U.S. population. So do the Chinese, but they contribute to 16.8% of our global patents. It doesn’t take a statistician to figure that these are pretty impressive numbers.

Yes, I know that H-1B’s don’t start companies. And that is the problem. We don’t let them.

Hundreds of thousands of mostly very smart and highly educated workers who could be starting companies are not. While they wait for their green cards, they can’t even change jobs or accept a promotion, for fear of losing their turn in line. If they lose their job, they have to find another job within 30 days — or get booted out of the country. Their employers know that these workers aren’t going anywhere, so they can go easy on the salary increases and bonuses. Some unscrupulous employers do take advantage of them. And their spouses usually can’t work, and in some states can’t even get drivers licenses, because they don’t have social-security numbers. Does this sound like America?

Unlike the daunting economic problems facing the country, this problem is easy to fix. Just increase the number of green cards for skilled workers. Maybe let them cut the line if they buy a house or start a company that employs a bunch of Americans. My guess is that we’ll get tens of thousands of startups and a couple of hundred thousand houses sold. That is a bigger economic boost than the clunkers program we’ve just thrown $2 billion dollars at.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 30 Aug 2009 | 10:00 am

Cute bokeh filter for cute bokeh

The Bokeh Filter from The Bokeh Filter on Vimeo.

Awww, how sweet. You know that fuzzy effect that everyone loves where you have a figure in focus in the foreground and the background is all blurry? That’s called bokeh. Well, this lets you turn lights in the background into odd shapes using what is essentially a lens cap with a shape cut out of it (Hint: you can probably do this yourself).

The caps cost $9.99 and you can order online so if you don’t have a Dremel and a dream you can get some ready made shapes including a star, a heart, and a spiral.

via Giz

Source: CrunchGear | 30 Aug 2009 | 9:10 am

FCC Cable Regulation Defeated In Court, Again

An embarrassing legal defeat for the Federal Communications Commission came on Friday when a D.C.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 30 Aug 2009 | 8:20 am

Why Don’t Teens Tweet? We Asked Over 10,000 of Them.

This guest post is written by Geoff Cook, cofounder and CEO of social networking site myYearbook. Everything about Twitter is looking up these days, except for a few pesky uptime issues of course. But a number of recent reports also suggest teens are one demographic that just doesn’t seem to be embracing Twitter like the rest of us. So while I’m excited to see Robert Scoble proclaims that Twitter is worth a cool $10 billion, it might be a good idea to analyze a little data to try to understand why teens just don’t think Twitter is as rad as the rest of us.

Over the last few months everyone has weighed in on the question of “Why Don’t Teens Tweet” — except, it would appear, teens. We recently ran a survey of 10,000+ US teens aged 13 – 17 to see if we could add anything new to the question. As it turns out, the question itself is flawed.

To date, reasons given for the alleged aversion of teens to Twitter have ranged from the condescending “Because they have nothing to say,” to the responsible “Because it doesn’t feel safe,” to the Letterman-like “Because they can’t afford it” — at least without a mobile data plan.

Of course, all of these reasons are predicated on the widely accepted notion that “Teens Don’t Tweet” — that there is a phenomenon that needs to be explained. As recently as last week even, the New York Times cited the fact that only 11% of Twitter is teen as evidence of Twitter’s unpopularity to that group.

The implication is that 11% is a small number, but if we look deeper, it turns out that Twitter has a higher concentration of teens than Facebook. You can see in the chart below that Facebook is only 9% teen, so Twitter is actually more teen than Facebook, which rightly has never been perceived as having a “teen problem.” Facebook has so many users that teens just can’t be that large a percentage of the service, by definition.

Nielsen also suggested that “Teens Don’t Tweet” in a report that was destined to become a trending topic on Twitter itself. Almost as quickly as it came out, a number of bloggers, including Danah Boyd, debunked the study for charting the age group 2 – 24 and yet drawing conclusions about teens, noting there are not too many 2-year-olds on Twitter.

To be sure, the truthiness of the headline “Teens Don’t Tweet” is persuasive. It really does feel true, and on one level it is: the vast majority of teens don’t tweet. Of course, the vast majority of the adult population doesn’t tweet either.

As it turns out, teens actually tweet more than the general population, prompting Silicon Valley Insider to say yesterday, “Kids Don’t Hate Twitter Anymore.” According to comScore, Twitter’s unique visitor composition index in the 12 – 17 age group is 118 (a value over 100 represents a higher concentration of unique visitors from that age group as compared to the age group’s concentration across the entire web). More interestingly, Twitter’s 12 – 17 composition index of 118 is higher than its composition index in the 25 – 34 and 35 – 44 age groups. The bottom line: Twitter actually skews more teen than the average site, and much more teen than Facebook.

Similarly, the teens who visit Twitter do so 5.2 times per month, more often than users aged 25 – 44, who visit fewer than 5 times per month.

But, there is a lot more to the story than widespread misinterpretation of data. After all, why don’t the majority of teens tweet? The issue of teens and Twitter first got legs when Morgan Stanley published an influential report written by Matthew Robson, a 15-year-old intern from the UK, which became an instant hit. Here is the reason the report suggested that teens don’t tweet:

Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realize that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit).

To validate this explanation, we ran a survey asking thousands of US teens whether text messaging charges have anything to do with whether or not they use Twitter, and over 90% said: “No — I wouldn’t use Twitter anyway.” (Note: unlimited texting plans are common in the US, whereas the Morgan Stanley report was written from the perspective of a UK teen.)

Robson also observed his friends and classmates in the UK signing up for the service and then never using it again, a pattern that proves very similar in the US. In fact, in our survey, we found that 45% of teens aged 13 – 17 who have a Twitter account don’t tweet. Most send a few and stop altogether, and 17% never sent a single one.

Similarly, we looked into the idea that maybe teens are turned off by Twitter’s openness and consider it unsafe. We found no support for this hypothesis either, with almost no one citing “It’s too open” or “It’s not safe” as reasons they don’t use Twitter, as the chart below shows.

So why? Why doesn’t Twitter engender passion in even most of the teens who take the plunge and sign up for an account? The answer lies in the reasons teens do use Twitter. Of teens with a Twitter account, the top 4 reasons cited for using the service are, in order:

• Update My Status
• Keep Up With My Favorite Musicians, Bands, or Celebrities
• Stay Current with What’s Going On in the World
• Keep Up with Friends I Know

If we break down those top reasons one by one, a clearer picture emerges of why Twitter is not more popular among teens.

• Teens already update their status religiously on other sites like Facebook, MySpace, and myYearbook.
• Teens use MySpace to keep up with musicians and celebrities, which MySpace differentiates on.
• As a group, teens are not major consumers of news from any outlet, making “staying current” a poor driver of mainstream adoption — though of course there are exceptions.
• Teens use both MySpace and Facebook to keep up with friends they know.

Given the above, it is no surprise that teen penetration is not higher. The value proposition of Twitter to the majority of teens is the issue.

No doubt, this is why most teens describe Twitter as “not for me”, and also why most teens who are not on Twitter cite the generic reason why as “Because it’s lame.” Twitter doesn’t help most of them do anything new, so to them, it is lame. Of course, for those teens who are celebrity hounds or compulsive news followers, or those looking for an audience for their status updates, Twitter is invaluable.

But now we have come full circle. Most teens don’t use Twitter because it doesn’t enable them to do anything they can’t already do elsewhere, which is the same reason most adults don’t use Twitter. It has nothing to do with any teen-specific concerns like texting plans or safety. It comes down to something more simple: delivering value beyond Facebook and MySpace — a competitive moat that Facebook is bridging one move at a time, from the Everyone button to the acquisition of FriendFeed to the centrality of the stream itself.

The question of “Why Don’t Teens Use Twitter?” is the question of “Why Doesn’t Everyone Use Twitter?” The answer, it would seem, is both obvious and heretical … maybe Twitter isn’t for everyone.

Additional Teens & Twitter Survey Results:

Disclaimer: Here is some more info on the panel of teens we surveyed. We don’t claim the 10,000+ survey results represent the definitive survey of teens in the US. We do, however, claim that our users look very much like the users of other social networks and that our audience overlaps significantly with MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter, and that the insights of myYearbook teens may be useful to this analysis.

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

Source: TechCrunch | 30 Aug 2009 | 8:12 am

Nearly 100 Pangolins Saved From Slaughter

In its biggest seizures of pangolins this year, Malaysia’s Wildlife and National Parks Department confiscated 98 animals from a house in Alor Setar in the northern state of Kedah.After about three weeks of surveillance and investigations, the department’s Wildlife Crime Unit raided the house early Wednesday morning and found the smuggled pangolins along with 6.5 pounds of pangolin scales.."We believe the animals were destined to be sold to Asian countries for their meat, as well as their scales to be used as traditional medicine," the department's enforcement chief Saharudin Anan told AFP."The man, in his 40s and self-employed, will be charged in court for five different charges of illegal possession of the totally protected species and he faces up to 23 years in jail and (a) fine if convicted," he added.Pangolins originally come from the jungles of Indonesia, parts of Malaysia and areas of southern Thailand, and their meat is considered a delicacy in China.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 30 Aug 2009 | 8:10 am

Put yourself in the movies with Yoostar, a DIY green-screen system

Section: Video, Accessories, Content, Gadgets / Other, Household

Ever wanted to sidle up alongside Rambo in ‘Nam?  Maybe you wanted to be part of the Goonie gang and add your own truffle shuffle?  Perhaps your gaming skills could help fight the Kodan Armada?  Whatever your cause, the Yoostar can make it happen.

Yoostar is a “studio grade” webcam (their description, not mine - I didn’t even know studios use webcams), portable green screen with a stand, and a remote control.  It works like this: Step 1: search for and purchase scenes from the Yoostar website.  Scenes cost $2.99 each and users can choose from movies and television shows as well as just backgrounds and commercials.  The selection isn’t huge but there are some pretty interesting choices from Eddie Murphy’s “Coming to America” to Charlie Sheen’s “Major League” to Stalone’s “Rocky III.”  The company says there are hundreds of choices and does take suggested movies you’d like to see added.

Here’s a scene uploaded to the site:

Yoostar users need to choose a role in the scene they’ve purchased and then it is time to shoot.  Once users are finished, they can upload to the Yoostar site where links can be sent via Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

According to the FAQs, you can’t do a lot with your recorded performance besides upload it to their site.  Those hoping to add special effects via other video editing programs are out of luck.  People hoping to download the video to other computers or portable video players will be disappointed, because Yoostar does not let you do that either.

Yoostar is $169.99 and is available now and comes stock with 12 scenes.

Product website: [Yoostar]

 

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Aug 2009 | 7:16 am

CrunchDeals: Kodak Zi6 HD Pocket Video Camera

Pocket video cameras might eventually be killed off by the iPod horde, but that doesn’t mean that the current crop aren’t worth your time. The Kodak Zi6 HD is a nice little camera and Woot has a nice deal one ‘em today.

Amazon sells the pocket cam for $122, but if you can deal with a refurb, Woot has one for only $69.99. You even get your choice of black, pink, or red. The little camera can capture 720p video at 60 fps with 16:9 aspect ratio. All that media gets stored on a SD/SDHC card and you can get about 40 minutes to fit on a 2GB card. Don’t expect production quality video out of it, but we use these cameras all the time and they get the job done.

Source: CrunchGear | 30 Aug 2009 | 6:54 am

A High Cost to Deal With Climate Shift - New York Times

Telegraph.co.uk

A High Cost to Deal With Climate Shift New York Times NEW YORK — The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has described the notion of “adaptation” as those initiatives designed “to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems against actual or expected climate change ... British Ministers Arrive Monday To Uphold Climate Change Issues In ...AHN World Climate Conference to Focus on Adaptation to Climate ChangeVoice of America UN meeting: help nations adapt to global warmingThe Associated Press Tehran Times -Daily Nation -The Daily Star all 329 news articles »

Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 30 Aug 2009 | 5:55 am

BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 8-23-2009

Section:

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

• Apples and Tablets and Clouds
• Steve Jobs rumored to be extremely focused on tablet
• Switching from Blackberry to iPhone: the pros and cons [updated]
• Back to school apps for iPhone, iPod touch
• Appletell giveaway: Two copies of Storyist 2 novel/screenwriting software [updated]

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

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Source: Gadgetell | 30 Aug 2009 | 5:45 am