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All systems go for space shuttle launch - msnbc.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 15 Nov 2009 | 2:05 am Citi to sell Bellsystem stake to Bain for $1 blnTOKYO, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc said on Sunday it has agreed to sell its stake in Japanese telemarketer Bellsystem24 to U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital for 93.5 billion yen ($1 billion)...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 15 Nov 2009 | 1:47 am Skip The Hand Shake Now Has A WristbandNo Righteous Cause is complete without a colored wristband. That's why I'm so excited that the no-hand shake movement (yes, movement) now has an official blue wristband for people who want to show that...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 15 Nov 2009 | 1:32 am Skip The Hand Shake Now Has A Wristband
Here’s who has (sort of, not really) pledged their support for the No Handshake cause to date:
 Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 
Source: TechCrunch | 15 Nov 2009 | 1:32 am Apple outflanks Psystar in crushing legal victory - TG Daily
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 14 Nov 2009 | 11:56 pm Hackers Fail To Crack Brazilian Voting Machinesblueser writes "From Nov 10th to Nov 13th the Brazilian Government hosted a public hacking contest to test the robustness of its voting machines. 38 participants from private and public IT companies (including the Brazilian Federal Police) were divided into 9 teams, which tried several different approaches to try to tamper with the software installed on the machines, and even to physically interfere in other stages of the process. All attempts (aside from a minor one which would not compromise the overall results) failed, and observations from the participants and neutral observers will be taken into account to improve the process even further. Here is the official announcement for the contest (Google translation; Portuguese original). A summary of the results is available in the Brazilian press (original). Brazilian voting machines use Linux." US voting officials ought to be envious of their Brazilian counterparts, or ashamed, or both. Perhaps this MIT-developed cryptographic voting system offers a way forward.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Nov 2009 | 11:55 pm Internet supermarket booms in bad times (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Nov 2009 | 11:05 pm NSFW: 'Tis Pity She's A Success Belle de Jour and the Impossibility of Anonymous BloggingSo Belle de Jour was real after all. The Internet's most famous anonymous sex blogger - turned best-selling author - turned internationally successful TV series - has finally outed herself in the UK's...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Nov 2009 | 10:48 pm NSFW: ‘Tis Pity She’s A Success – Belle de Jour and the Impossibility of Anonymous Blogging
From her interview with the Times’ India Knight, we learn that Belle is in fact Dr Brooke Magnanti a specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology who ran out of money during the final stages of her PhD thesis and decided to become an escort to make ends meet. So to speak. Add in the fact that Magnanti was already a reasonably well known science blogger and ‘The Secret Diary of a London Call Girl‘ was born. Despite Belle’s growing fame, and the determined efforts of journalists around the world to out her, Belle’s anonymity remained intact – mainly thanks to a complex series of agents and shell companies that allowed her to receive payment for her work without compromising her identity. Even her agent didn’t know her real name until this week when Belle herself chose to out herself, granting an interview to Knight, one of her harshest critics. A better example of someone operating on her own terms it’s hard to imagine. Anonymous bloggers everywhere can read Belle’s story and take heart in the fact that it really is possible to be both successful and anonymous in the Internet age. There’s just one problem: it isn’t. Let’s give Belle and the Sunday Times the benefit of the doubt and assume that Magnanti really did approach them, and not the other way around. There’s no reason to doubt Magnanti’s version of events, but it’s worth remembering that the Sunday Times has a particularly grubby history when it comes to anonymous bloggers. As readers of my Emmy-award-winning book will know, back in 2006 my friend Zoe Margolis opened the door of her London home at an ungodly hour of the morning to accept a flower delivery from an anonymous admirer. What she didn’t know was that the delivery man had actually been sent by the Sunday Times who had positioned a photographer across the road ready to snap her when she came to the door. Two days later she learned the horrible truth: an email arrived from the paper’s ‘acting news editor’; a scumbag called Nicholas Hellen. In the email, Hellen announced that the paper was preparing to out Zoe as the author of the anonymous sex blog ‘Girl With A One Track Mind‘, which – like Belle de Jour’s blog – had just been turned into a book. Hellen proposed a deal: either Zoe could agree to give her story to the Times, illustrated with a photoshoot in “glamourous evening wear” taken by their resident fashion photographer – or the paper would run its own hit-job expose, written by fellow-scum-bag Anna Mikhailova and complete with the (in Hellen’s words) “not particularly flattering” paparazzi shot. Zoe told the Times to go fuck themselves, and the rest is a painful outing, a hideously uncomfortable conversation with her parents and a week of press-camped-out-on-her-doorstep hell (stories she tells in a follow-up book to be published in March 2010) But, despite the fact that the print version of Magnanti’s Times’ interview is illustrated with a photograph of her wearing glamourous evening-wear, let’s assume this was an entirely consensual encounter. Knight also mentions in the interview that Magnanti has an ‘ex-boyfriend with a big mouth’ and that she had decided to go public before the decision was forced on her. Again, let’s assume that the ex-boyfriend hadn’t already contacted the Sunday Times. Even assuming all of that, the existence of the big-mouthed boyfriend neatly illustrates the biggest problem with becoming a successful anonymous blogger. As your hidden life takes over more and more of your normal life, there comes a point where you have to share your secret with someone you trust. Batman had Alfred the butler, Deep Throat had Bob Woodward and, as any child of the 80s will tell you, three people shared He Man’s secret – his friends the Sorceress, Man-at Arms, and Orko. In Belle’s case, there came a point in forming serious relationships where she had to confess her lucrative hobby to her lover. From that point on she was just one bad breakup away from being exposed. (The break-up didn’t even have to be her own; when screenwriter Nora Ephron divorced Carl Bernstein, she took pleasure in sharing the real identity of Deep Throat – her husband’s biggest secret – with anyone who would listen. Fortunately for Deep Throat, not many people would listen.) And Belle’s secret was known to more people than just her boyfriends. Since the Times published its story a few hours ago, various friends of Magnanti have admitted to being in on the secret. Most were bloggers who knew her from her science blogging days and who pieced together various clues to stumble upon the truth, but who considered themselves part of a ‘bloggers code’ of silence. That kind of code of honour amongst bloggers sounds great in theory – not least because they make the blogosphere sound noble – but, as the financial rewards of Belle’s blogging became greater and greater, so did the financial incentives for her friends to cash in themselves. Once Belle hit a certain level of fame – or infamy – the question went from being “will she be outed?” to “when will she be outed?” The only way to absolutely guarantee that no-one can out you, then, is to tell absolutely no-one about your secret. Trust no close friends, take no lovers – and keep your signature a million miles away from a book deal. And yet that’s where we bump into the biggest irony of all: the fewer people who are in a position to out your secret identity, the more fierce the compulsion to out yourself. You see, the only thing worse than enjoying huge success with a blog and only being able to tell close friends and lovers, is enjoying huge success with a blog and not being able to tell anyone. At the risk of hopping back on an old hobby horse, blogging is is, by nature, an egotistical activity. If Belle didn’t have an ego, she would simply fuck people for money, rather than feeling the need to put herself at risk by writing about her adventures. Sure enough, in the Sunday Times interview, Magnanti admits her frustration about not being able to attend her own book launch parties or to otherwise fully enjoy the rewards that success brings. Meanwhile, a Google search for Brooke Magnanti reveals that earlier this year she invited friends on a local web forum to come and support her debut as a stand-up comedian. It doesn’t take a genius to see how someone with Magnanti’s exhibitionist tenancies would be driven mad at not being able to openly showcase her real literary talents. The truth is, once your work achieves a certain degree of adulation for doing something (especially something as egotistical as blogging), it is basic human nature to want to shout “THAT WAS ME! I DID THAT”. And as the adulation builds, so too does the desire until you simply can’t contain it any longer – and you either become deliberately sloppy in protecting your identity or you go the whole hog and pick up the phone to India Knight at the Sunday Times. It’s like the scene in Who Framed Roger Rabbit where Judge Doom taps out the rhythm ‘a shave and a haircut’ on the wall of Roger’s secret hiding place. Roger knows that he’ll be killed if he’s caught and yet his frustration at not being able to complete the couplet doubles with each repetition. A shave and a haircut… a shave and a haircut… A SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT… until, eyes bulging, body shaking, he just can’t take it anymore and bursts through the wall…. TWO BIIIITTTTTS! In Doom’s case, the lesson was “Toons can’t resist the old shave and a haircut trick”; in the case of successful anonymous writers, it’s the “I DID THAT” urge that’s utterly irresistible. Hell, even Mark Felt couldn’t resist outing himself as Deep Throat in his old age. The idea of dying before having the chance to say “I did that” was simply too much to bear and so he picked up the phone to Vanity Fair. And so, inevitably, ends the story Belle de Jour. She had a good run, and now it’s time for Dr Brooke Magnanti to take centre stage and to finally enjoy all of the fame and adulation her considerable literary talents have earned her. And like all good stories, hers ends with a wonderful lesson… That the only way to truly remain a successfully anonymous blogger is not to have any success whatsoever. Because the moment people start to pay attention to you, it’s inevitable you’re going to get screwed. And if someone else won’t screw you, you have no choice but to do it yourself. Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Source: TechCrunch | 14 Nov 2009 | 10:48 pm Tibet is exactly like America's Civil War South, says China."He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln's major significance for that movement. Thus, on [Tibet] we hope that President Obama, more than any other foreign leader, can better, more deeply grasp China's stance on protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity." ● Obama arrives in Shanghai tomorrow. China is pre-emptively detaining dissidents (via Instapundit). ● Related: Obama snubbed the Dalai Lama in DC this week (and that's a first, Bush and Clinton met with him every time). Source: Boing Boing | 14 Nov 2009 | 10:05 pm Tibet is exactly like America's Civil War South, says China."He is a black president, and he understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln's major significance for that movement. Thus, on [Tibet] we hope that President Obama, more than any other foreign...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Nov 2009 | 10:05 pm Lawmakers read script written by biotech/drug giant's lobbyistsDuring the health care debate in congress, more than a dozen US lawmakers all parrotted talking points scripted for them by lobbyists working for biotech/drug giant Genentech. So what? Said one of those...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Nov 2009 | 9:56 pm Lawmakers read script written by biotech/drug giant's lobbyistsDuring the health care debate in congress, more than a dozen US lawmakers all parrotted talking points scripted for them by lobbyists working for biotech/drug giant Genentech. So what? Said one of those lobbyists, "This happens all the time. There was nothing nefarious about it."Source: Boing Boing | 14 Nov 2009 | 9:56 pm ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 14 November 2009We've added a couple of more events to this week's events guide. You can download the entire event calendar in iCal format or import it into your Google Calendar. You can also import individual events...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Nov 2009 | 9:51 pm Colton Harris-Moore has a posse.Momma Tried: Colton Harris-Moore has a posse. And t-shirts. (previous post / thanks Jason Weisberger)Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Nov 2009 | 9:12 pm Colton Harris-Moore has a posse.Momma Tried: Colton Harris-Moore has a posse. And t-shirts. (previous post / thanks Jason Weisberger)Source: Boing Boing | 14 Nov 2009 | 9:12 pm Tibetan Tantric Masters: videoYou can find a lot of crap on YouTube, but you know what? You can find gems like this, too. I don't know much about the origin of this video, but it's one in a series of three ten-minute chunks on YouTube...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Nov 2009 | 8:40 pm Tibetan Tantric Masters: video
1) His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche, head of the Nyingma lineage in IndiaVideo: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Source: Boing Boing | 14 Nov 2009 | 8:40 pm Caffeinated Alcoholic Drinks May Be IllegalAnonymusing writes "The FDA has announced an investigation into the safety and legality of alcoholic beverages containing caffeine. As a Wall Street Journal blog reports, two major beer companies, MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch, stopped producing caffeinated alcoholic drinks last year after reports surfaced of increased negative effects compared to caffeine-free alcohol. CNN notes that, according to FDA rules, 'food additives require premarket approval based on data demonstrating safety submitted to the agency' — and caffeine is a food additive. The 26 targeted beverage makers have 30 days to respond."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Nov 2009 | 8:00 pm Koalas may go extinct in 30 years
[Image: Koala, a CC-licensed photo by Mshai]
The Australian Koala Foundation reported this week that koala populations are declining because we humans continue to invade their habitats. Wildfires and global warming aren't helping, either. They could become extinct within a few decades. More: BBC, Reuters.
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pm You Can Go Home Again, Even If It Means Back To Yahoo While Rejecting Google (And Maybe Facebook And Twitter)This past summer, Daniel Raffel was desired. Google was pushing hard to hire the product manager, we hear from a source. And there are whispers that Twitter and Facebook were also in pursuit of his services...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 14 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm You Can Go Home Again, Even If It Means Back To Yahoo While Rejecting Google (And Maybe Facebook And Twitter)
Yahoo hasn’t exactly seemed like the ideal place to work over the past couple of years. Besides just the Microsoft acquisition offer distraction (and subsequent search deal), and the CEO shuffle, the company has lost much of its sterling polish that it once had during the dot-com era. But what’s even more odd is that Raffel has worked at Yahoo before. It’s where he made a name for himself by helping to create Yahoo Pipes, the popular content mashup tool. But a few years ago, Raffel took off to work at Pioneers of the Inevitable, where he helped make Songbird, the open source desktop music player. So why’d he come back to Yahoo at a time when others were pursuing him? It’s hard to say for sure, but one source believes Yahoo paid a significant amount of money to lure him back. Another source believes he was promised more resources and an easier time rising up the ladder than if he went to Google. Still, Yahoo over Google is not a choice that a lot of people seem to make these days. And one source is sure that Bradley Horowitz, a former Yahoo exec that is now at Google, would have obviously wanted to bring Raffel on board, and was likely pushing for it. There’s another reason he may have went with Yahoo. Since returning in late August, Raffel has been serving as a senior product manager under Cody Simms, the senior director of product management for Yahoo Open Source (Y!OS), we hear. He’s apparently working on mainly off-network projects such as making the Yahoo authentication platform more seamless. That might not sound sexy, but the bigger picture may be involve Yahoo building out its own platform product to better connect Yahoo with the rest of the web. Yes, think Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, and the like. The chance to get into this hot space and play a critical role in building a “Yahoo Connect,” may have also enticed Raffel to come back, but that’s pure speculation at this point. “He’s one of those rare product guys who is technical and can actually build stuff,” says one our sources. We’ll be watching what he’s building for Yahoo the second time around. We’ve reached out to Raffel for comment, but have yet to hear back. We’ll update if we do. [photo: flickr/sektordua] Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Source: TechCrunch | 14 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm Judge rules in Apple's favor in Psystar case (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - Apple won a key victory in its legal battle with Psystar, as a federal judge has ruled that the clone-maker violated Appleâs copyright when it sold PCs with Mac OS X pre-installed.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 14 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm Vans with R. Crumb artwork I've been wearing Vans slip-ons since I was a teenager. In recent years, Vans has made shoes featuring designs from pioneering underground artists I really dig like Robt. Williams and Rick Griffin. I was thrilled to find out that they recently added a series of shoes featuring the art of comix pioneer R. Crumb! Seen above are slip-ons emblazoned with Crumb's Fritz the Cat. They're $50. (Mr. Natural appears on a pair of high-tops.) R. Crumb Slip-On Vans (Amazon)
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Nov 2009 | 6:00 pm Two Earth-Sized Bodies With Oxygen-Rich Atmospherestugfoigel writes "Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two bodies the size of earth with oxygen-rich atmospheres — however, there is a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves. These are not planets, but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars." The objects, 220 and 400 light-years distant, are believed to be remnants of stars between 7 and 10 solar masses. Such stars, the largest that evolve to white dwarves, have been sought for years. If the stars were a little more massive they would collapse to neutron stars, or so the theory goes. Here is the paper on the arXiv.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm Happy Little Drop-and-Give-Me-50What did Bob "Happy Little Trees" Ross do before becoming PBS's resident mellow hippie artist on The Joy of Painting? Would you believe, Air Force master sergeant? Turns out, the Ross we know is really a reaction against 20 years spent being "the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work."
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm All Aboard The Micro-Message Bus
At the beginning of 2009, during a now-famous strategy meeting, Twitter’s executives asked themselves, “Are we building a new Internet?” At the crux of that question was the realization that Twitter “introduced a new form of communication to the world.” Public micro-messages are now everywhere—on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Google, Bing, Yahoo, AIM. They are infiltrating every part of the Web, particularly as the backbone of realtime search. Yes, status updates (which are a form of micro-message) existed before Twitter, but it is the growing public nature of these messages which makes them exciting. For one thing, they need to be public in order to be visible to search engines. But when Twitter and other companies talk about building a new Internet, they don’t mean that 140-character messages are going to replace web pages. Rather it is that these realtime streams are becoming the center of people’s attention on the Web, and sending them off in all different sorts of directions. These streams are the new Internet not so much because of the micro-content which they contain, but because they are a more efficient means of communication. Remember, the Internet at its core is a communications system. The battle going on now between Twitter, Facebook, Google, and others is to control this new realtime layer of communications on the Internet. Each one wants to be driving the micro-message bus. In computer terms, a message bus carries data between different parts of a computer or between different computers. Realtime streams can be thought of as a micro-message bus which carries information instantaneously between people. The power of a micro-message is its ability to carry data, usually in the form of a link. It is a vehicle for passing links and other information. The value of a Tweet or status update or a Yammer or a Wave is not only in what it conveys about the sender, but where it leads to. Other kinds of data can take a ride on this micro-message bus as well. Geolocation data, photos and videos are among the most popular. Whoever is in the driver’s seat of this micro-message bus will be in an enviable position, which is why everyone is trying to clamor aboard in hopes of taking over the wheel. Next week, at our Realtime Crunchup (tickets are still available), we’ll be examining how this new communications layer on the Internet is being built and who will be driving the bus. We hope you can join us. Photo credit: Flickr/Jan Krutisch. Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Source: TechCrunch | 14 Nov 2009 | 3:55 pm Radio Shack Black Friday ad
Oh, I get it. It’s called “Shack” Friday at Radio Shack instead of Black Friday. Because “shack” sounds like “black” and “shack” is part of Radio Shack’s name. So basically, they just switched the two words around. I get it. Know what else? The damn sale starts on Thursday! What a world! “Most stores open at 10 AM Thursday,” says the circular. And then they open at 5:30 in the morning on Friday! That’s Shack-rilege! See how I worked the name of the store into that one?
Anyhoo, here’s the good stuff. Doorbusters are marked with an asterisk. Automotive Gigaware Car Charger for iPod – $10.00 Sirius Stratus 5 Dock & Play Radio + Car Kit – $29.99 XM onyX Satellite Radio – $59.99 Blank Media 25-Pack of Gigaware 16X DVD-Rs – B1G1F 50-Pack Of Gigaware 52X CD-R – B1G1F Gigaware 25 Pack of 16X DVD-Rs – B1G1F Gigaware 50 Pack of 52X CD-Rs – B1G1F Cell Phones BlackBerry Curve 8520 (w/2-Year Agreement) – $0.00 Gigaware High Power Docking Speaker For iPod – $49.99 LG Xenon Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $0.00 Motorola CLIQ w/Motoblur (w/2-Year Agreement) – $79.99 Motorola i776 Cell Phone – $69.99 Nokia 2720 No-Contract Mobile Phone – $9.99 Palm Pixi Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $99.99 Palm Pre Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $99.99 Plantronics E210 Bluetooth Headset – $19.99 Samsung Impression Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $29.99 Samsung Instinct S30 Cell Phone (w/2-Year Agreement) – $0.00 Samsung Mantra Cell Phone – $29.99 Snap-On Covers for iPhone 3G or Blackberry Curve 8300 – $9.99 Computer Accessories Gigaware 1.3MP Webcam w/Microphone – $14.99 Gigaware 2.1 Multimedia Speaker System – $10.00 Gigaware Folding Notebook Cooling Pad – $10.00 Gigaware VoIP USB Headset – $10.00 Gigaware Wireless Optical Mouse – $12.99 Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo – $19.99 Netbook Accessory Bundle (USB Hub, Mouse, Earbuds, Cooling Pad) – $29.99 Pinnacle Ultra-Compact USB HDTV Tuner – $39.99 Computers Acer 11.6″ Netbook w/Intel Atom Processor Z520, 2GB Memory, 250GB Hard Drive – $249.99 Acer 15.6″ Notebook w/AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor, 4GB Memory, 320 Hard Drive – $399.99 Digital Cameras Buy Any $89.99 Camera In This Ad, Receive a Free Polaroid Pogo Mobile Printer – $0.00 Casio Exilim 10 Megapixel 3x Optical Zoom Digital Camera Gift Bundle – $89.99 Kodak MD81 12.0 Megapixel Digital Camera – $99.99 Nikon S220 10 Megapixel 3x Optical Zoom Digital Camera – $129.99 Olympus 12 Megapixel 7x Wide-Angle Zoom Digital Camera – $149.99 Vivitar 8.1 Megapixel 2x Optical Zoom Digital Camera – $49.99 Digital Media Cards Sandisk 2GB Memory Stick PRO Duo – $9.99 Sandisk 2GB Type-M xD-Picture Card – $9.99 Sandisk 4GB MicroSDHC Card – $9.99 Sandisk Standard SDHC Card – $9.99 DVD Players Memorex Upconverting DVD Player – $29.99 Samsung BD-1600A Blu-ray Disc Player – $149.99 Electronics Casio 32 Mini-Key Electronic Keyboard – $29.99 Discovery 54-Key Electronic Keyboard – $29.99 Discovery Kids Digital Camcorder – $39.99 Emerson Portable CD+G Karaoke Player – $29.99 Gigaware 7″ Digital Photo Frame – $29.99 Gigaware Micro Projector – $99.99 MagicJack VoIP Kit – $29.99 Motorola 4-Pack of 2-Way FRS Radios – $29.99 Panasonic DECT 6.0 Cordless Phone System w/4 Headsets – $69.99 Pandigital 10.1″ Digital Photo Frame – $79.99 Sanyo 720p High-Definition Video Camcorder – $169.99 Skullcandy Headphones – $9.99 USB Turntable – $79.99 Vivitar 720p High-Definition Video Camcorder – $69.99 GPS Systems Garmin Nuvi 255W 4.3″ Widescreen GPS – $119.99 Garmin Nuvi 265WT 4.3″ GPS w/Free Lifetime Traffic Updates – $169.99 Mio 4.3″ M400 GPS – $79.99 TomTom XL 330S GPS w/Free Dash Mount – $99.99 Hard Drives Iomega 320GB Portable Hard Drive – $49.99 Miscellaneous 5×7″ Recordable Talking Picture Frame – $10.00 Duracell Color Charger w/2 AA Rechargeable Batteries – $10.00 Enercell Holiday Bettery Tin – $9.99 ESPN GameDay Universal 4-in-1 Remote – $10.00 Gigaware 1.5″ Digital Photo Keychain – $10.00 Gigaware Crystal Skin for iPod Touch – $10.00 Gigaware Laser Etched Skin for iPod Touch – $10.00 Gigaware Retractable Rapid Home Charger for iPod/iPhone – $10.00 RadioShack 25-Piece Mini Tool Kit – $10.00 RadioShack 4.3″ GPS Soft Case – $14.99 RadioShack GPS Home AC Charger – $14.99 RadioShack Weather Cube Radio – $10.00 Rechargeable Spotlight – $10.00 Swiss+Tech Micro-Max 19-in-1 Tool Kit – $10.00 MP3 Players 8GB iPod Touchw/$20 GC – $199.99 Gigaware 2GB MP3 Player – $19.99 Gigaware 4GB MP3 Player – $39.99 Gigaware MP3 Accessory Kit – $9.99 iHome Computer Stereo Speakers w/Dock for iPid – $29.99 iLive 2.1 Home Theater Upconverting DVD System w/Dock for iPod – $99.99 iPod 8GB Nano w/$15 GC – $149.99 iPod Accessory Kit – $30.00 Sansa 2GB Clip Plus Music Player w/1000 Song Music Card – $49.99 Sound Bar w/Dock for iPod – $69.99 Networking Netgear WNR1000 Wireless-N 150 Router – $34.99 Portable USB Storage Sandisk 2GB USB Flash Drive – $4.99 Sandisk 4GB USB Flash Drive – $9.99 Televisions AOC 22″ 720P LCD HDTV – $199.99 Auvio 3.5″ Pocket Digital TV – $79.99 Auvio 7″ Portable TV – $119.99 Samsung 32″ LCD HDTV – $399.99 Video Games DualShock 3 PS3 Wireless Controler – $29.99 Gigaware Recharging Station for Nintendo Wii – $12.99 Nyko Wand for Nintendo Wii – $24.99 V.Motion Game Console – $34.99 Xbox 360 Elite System w/$60 Cash Back & 2 Games (Lego Batman and Pure) – $299.99 Radio Shack Black Friday Ad [BlackFriday.info]
Source: CrunchGear | 14 Nov 2009 | 3:33 pm URL Shorteners Get Some BackupURL shorteners are problematical, as everybody knows, but with the rise of Twitter and its ilk they seem to be a necessary part of the landscape. Some of the biggest questions around services such as bit.ly, TinyURL, and is.gd is what happens when they go out of business (as tr.im did last August). Now a group of such companies, organized under the auspices of the Internet Archive, has formed a non-profit entity to hold URL-shortening databases in escrow, with the intent of continuing to resolve a member company's links should it get out of the business. At announcement, the 301Works organization has 21 URL-shortener members, including the largest, bit.ly. Many others are not (yet) on board. The members have agreed to cede control of their domain names to 301Works.org should they exit the field, and to back up their URL mappings regularly to the organization.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Gizmodo | 14 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm U.S. judge favors Grupo Mexico bid for AsarcoCHICAGO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - A federal judge has issued a ruling supporting a nearly $2.5 billion bid by Grupo Mexico , the country's largest mining company, for Asarco LLC, paving the way for the U.S...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Nov 2009 | 2:27 pm Psystar Crushed In CourtWe've been following the case of Mac cloner Psystar for some time now. Apple was just handed a summary judgement over Psystar, and as usual Groklaw has the scoop. Here is the order (PDF), though PJ supplies it in text form at the link above. "Psystar just got what's coming to them in the California case. ... It's a total massacre. Psystar's first-sale defense went down in flames. Apple's motion for summary judgment on copyright infringement and DMCA violation is granted. Apple prevailed also on its motion to seal. Psystar's motion for summary judgment on trademark infringement and trade dress is denied. So is its illusory motion for copyright misuse. ... So that means damages ahead for Psystar on the copyright issues just decided on summary judgment, at a minimum. The court asked for briefs on that subject. In short, Psystar is toast." Reader UnknowingFool adds, "There are still issues to be decided but they are only Apple's allegations: breach of contract, induced breach of contract, trademark infringement, trademark dilution; trade dress infringement, state unfair competition, and common law unfair competition. Even if Psystar wins all of them, it is unlikely to help them very much."Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 14 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pm UPDATE 1-Repsol could float Brazil unit to raise funds* Floating Brazil unit an option to raise exploration fundsSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 14 Nov 2009 | 2:24 pm Subversive anti-cancer cross-stitch kits
For survivors-to-be whose healing arsenal includes attitude. I dedicate this post, on this particular day, to Gloria Rosa Linda, who is going to beat the living shit out of breast cancer. Sewing kits range from $12 to $20, depending on what materials you'd like to include. Julie Jackson is the crafter behind them. See also these bracelets, too (those are not for sale) (subversivecrossstitch.com, via Fuzzy Gerdes)Source: Boing Boing | 14 Nov 2009 | 2:14 pm Opposition: Iran rulers more brutal than shah
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 Scientific Computing | Study: More record highs than lows in US this decade USA Today US record high temperatures this decade have occurred more than twice as often as record lows, says a new study released this week by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. Between Jan. 1, 2000, and Sept. ... Warning sign: Record highs are double the lows Record-High US Temps Outpace Record Lows: Study Temperature records: More highs than lows |
FROM GAMERTELL - Libraries are playing up the learning connection to games, declaring November 14, 2009, “National Gaming Day” with many partaking in game-related activities
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Created by the design firm STORM of London, the Circuit MK2 is an LED watch integrated into a stainless steel bracelet. While it looks like it might have a bit of a learning curve, it definitely has a unique look that should stand out from your standard analog dial or digital display.
It’s a fairly basic watch, there’s no chronograph functionality (obviously) but it does display the time and date. Sure it’s not quite as bling as a Tokyoflash watch, but this one you might actually be able to read. Retail price starts at $200.
 TopNews United States | Video Game Industry Suffers Sales Drop in October eWeek The video game industry witnesses a disappointing October after a small hike in sales last month, with industry sales falling 19 percent overall. After the video game industry received an encouraging boost last month from the release of the highly ... Video game sales fall off a ledge in October October NPD: Wii Wins, Uncharted Charts October NPD: Game Sales Stumble, PS3 Tops Xbox 360 |
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Section: Features, Gadgetell Announcements
Listen up, Gadgetell is looking for a few good bloggers, well more specifically we are looking to fill two positions.
The first being someone who can contribute often, and by often I mean on a daily, or at least an almost daily basis to include weekdays and weekends. I would say this person would average roughly 10 posts per week.
The second being someone who wants to write primarily on the weekends. Of course, anyone who fills this role will be welcomed to post during the week. But the main focus is for weekend coverage. This person would most likely average about 4-6 posts per weekend.
Assuming you are good with those roles and posting expectations—we need someone who loves tech. You know the type—the person who loves tech so much that other people get tired of hearing them talk because that is all they talk about.
If interested, here is what you need to do to apply. Send an email to robert (at) gadgetell (dot) com and include;
Also tell us a little about you, what you currently do, how much time you can realistically dedicate to Gadgetell and why you think you would be a good fit. And make sure you let us know how to get back in touch with you, just in case we like what you submit.
And, yes these are paid positions.
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Why? Just because. This looks like an amazing game. Nicholas will have a review up tomorrow.
via ConsoleNintendo
When Americans think of the Indian technology sector, they still perceive a nation of call center workers and low-level computer programmers administering databases and updating websites. But while the West was sleeping, Indian IT morphed into a giant R&D machine. Indian companies that started out doing call center and low-level IT work have climbed the value chain to become outsourced providers of critical R&D in sophisticated areas such as semiconductor design, aerospace, automotive, network equipment and medical devices.
This is happening as multi-nationals set up their own R&D operations in India and partner with local shops. Both the Palm Pre smart phone and the Amazon Kindle, two of the hottest consumer electronics devices on the market, have key components designed in India. Intel designed its six-core Xeon processor in India. IBM has over 100,000 employees in India. A large number of these are building Big Blue’s most sophisticated software products. Cisco is developing cutting edge networking technologies for futuristic “intelligent cities” in Bangalore. Adobe, Cadence, Oracle, Microsoft and most of the large software companies are developing mainstream products in India.
Equally important are the arrival of Indian multi-nationals who are tackling global markets, such as Tata with its dirt cheap Nano car that the company is now positioning for a European market entry and Reva, which recently announced it was planning to build an electric car factory in New York state to address the U.S. market for electric vehicles.
What has been missing to date in India, however, is early stage venture activity and the type of grass-roots entrepreneurism that is the hallmark of American capitalism and Silicon Valley. In that respect China is way ahead of India with many startups taking advantage of huge government incentives and reeling in talented native Chinese returnees to serve as CEOs and CTOs. Note that Kaifu Lee, formerly Google’s top guy in China, was able to launch a $100 million startup incubator focusing entirely on the mobile sector — and he was flooded with business plans within days of opening his doors in the Middle Kingdom.
On my recent trip to India I started to see new signs of life in tech entrepreneurship. Many of the startups that Sarah Lacy and I met were really smart and hungry. Some were even doing things better than their Silicon Valley counterparts. Not all of these startups are developing breakthrough technologies but many of them are solving problems that U.S. companies have thus far failed to solve and doing it with fewer resources.
One of the most interesting companies I met is in the mundane business of developing offset printer ink. Their ink is made from vegetable oil and is entirely bio-degradable. The offset printing industry consumes 1 million tons of petroleum products and emits 500,000 tons of volatile organic compounds every year. An IIT-Delhi incubated startup called EnNatura developed a printing ink which emits no volatile compounds and is washable. And the overall cost of their solution will be significantly less than all present compounds when produced at scale. I can see a company like this growing into a billion dollar global business.
Another interesting company was LiveMedia. This is an out-of-home advertising company that has 4,500 screens in 2,200 destinations with a total reach of 50 million people. Of course, you can find exactly these sorts of TV screens in thousands of places across the U.S. Unfortunately, it has been very hard to make real money selling advertising on these networks. LiveMedia appears to have cracked that by creating specialized content that is more engaging and interactive than a box droning CNN or the Disney Channel. LiveMedia content includes games, quizzes, horoscopes, a few short animations, and other content that is both cheap to produce and easy to play along with or understand. LiveMedia has also perfected context-relevant advertising spots keyed to the crowds at the screen location.
LiveMedia is in the process of building out a partnership with Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs India that would give the network even more interactive capabilities. Bell Labs has developed a content management and routing system, dubbed Mango, that makes it much easier and efficient to deliver high-bandwidth, high-quality video and interactive content over existing networks. In the developing world, everyone wants a TiVO-like capability to share, store and manage content. But existing GPRS or EDGE-based cell networks are not up to snuff. And the broadband infrastructure still lags behind that of the most developed telecom networks in places like Japan, Korea and Scandanavia. A product like Mango is tailor-made for VC investment to get it out of the lab and into a spin-off company.
This is partly why so many U.S. venture capital shops have opened up branches in India. In fact, the two lead investors in LiveMedia are both U.S. venture capitalists including the respected Valley firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson. But India lags in home-grown venture capital activity. As I have previously discussed, VCs follow the innovation. So the lack of native VC in India is notable in that it implies a critical mass of activity remains lacking, as well.
For example, in the first nine months of 2008, total early stage VC investments in India totaled $678 million, according to the Global India Venture Capital Association. In the U.S. over that same period early stage investments tallied $5.2 billion according to the U.S. National Venture Capital Association – and that number is not entirely reflective of the real situation. The economic downturn hit the U.S. much harder than the Subcontinent and VC activity in the U.S. fell faster and harder. Regardless, a 10-fold difference between early stage venture activity clearly illustrates the capital is not there yet.
So when will there be enough innovative startups to support an explosion in venture capital? I’d argue, sooner than you realize. During my week in India I spoke to close to 100 startups. A few of them had products or prototypes that would easily compete in Silicon Valley. Some of the leading lights of the legacy Indian IT giants are also moving quickly into VC. Infosys founder Narayan Murthy recently sold millions of dollars of shares in the company in order to launch a venture capital fund targeting investments in India.
The dynamics of entrepreneurship are the same in India as in America. Company founders usually come from the ranks of experienced business executives and are middle-aged. They get tired of working for others and want to make an impact and build wealth before they get too old. Given that there are now hundreds of thousands of R&D workers in India who are gaining valuable experience and are getting old, it is simply a matter of time before they begin to hatch their entrepreneurial plans. After all, their colleagues who migrated to the U.S. now start nearly one in six of Silicon Valley’s tech firms.
I’ll bet that in 5 years, if you stacked up a TechCrunch 50 of Indian start ups versus a comparable number of U.S. startups, it would be a pretty even match. That’s pretty amazing considering the relatively short length of time that the Indian startup scene has existed. And it’s a good lesson for America that the barriers to starting a company are lower than ever before—and some ambitious engineer in India will eat your lunch if you don’t get your prototype built and perfected ASAP.
Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.
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When the Motorola Droid launched this month everyone was amazed that a company so down on its luck was able to put together a well-designed phone running a powerful, "brand new" OS. The whole package - hardware, software, and marketing - seemed flawless. In fact, phones running Android 1.5 now look hopelessly outdated and with 2.0's gesture, CDMA, and search support you'd wonder why handset manufacturers like HTC, LG, Kyocera, and Samsung are using 1.5 at all.
The reasons have more to do with Google than any decision on the carriers' part. In fact, according to a source close to the handset business, Google's Android team directly assisted Motorola and Verizon in building the Droid's software from the ground up and is currently assisting another, unknown, handset maker in Korea to create a finely-tuned hardware and software combination. Most important, however, is that this is sort of assistance most manufacturers do not receive and, in the end, they are dinged for running an "older" version of Android.
When the Motorola Droid launched this month everyone was amazed that a company so down on its luck was able to put together a well-designed phone running a powerful, "brand new" OS. The whole package - hardware, software, and marketing - seemed flawless. In fact, phones running Android 1.5 now look hopelessly outdated and with 2.0's gesture, CDMA, and search support you'd wonder why handset manufacturers like HTC, LG, Kyocera, and Samsung are using 1.5 at all.
The reasons have more to do with Google than any decision on the carriers' part. In fact, according to a source close to the handset business, Google's Android team directly assisted Motorola and Verizon in building the Droid's software from the ground up and is currently assisting another, unknown, handset maker in Korea to create a finely-tuned hardware and software combination. Most important, however, is that this is sort of assistance most manufacturers do not receive and, in the end, they are dinged for running an "older" version of Android.
When the Motorola Droid launched this month everyone was amazed that a company so down on its luck was able to put together a well-designed phone running a powerful, “brand new” OS. The whole package – hardware, software, and marketing – seemed flawless. In fact, phones running Android 1.5 now look hopelessly outdated and with 2.0’s gesture, CDMA, and search support you’d wonder why handset manufacturers like HTC, LG, Kyocera, and Samsung are using 1.5 at all.
The reasons have more to do with Google than any decision on the carriers’ part. In fact, according to a source close to the handset business, Google’s Android team directly assisted Motorola and Verizon in building the Droid’s software from the ground up and is currently assisting another, unknown, handset maker in Korea to create a finely-tuned hardware and software combination. Most important, however, is that this is sort of assistance most manufacturers do not receive and, in the end, they are dinged for running an “older” version of Android.
These two bits of information – that Google assists certain companies in making specialized hardware and software and that Google is now helping another manufacturer to the detriment of others – sounds like sour grapes. However, the original vision for Android (as it was understood by lay users like myself) was an open, free OS available to multiple manufacturers and carriers. This preferential treatment is an anathema to that thought. This is akin to Linus Torvalds building a special version of Linux just for a commercial partner and refusing to release it until that partner has milked its value.
While it is clear that some manufacturers like HTC are keeping a stiff upper lip and running their special special UIs over 1.5, reviewers consistently ding manufacturers for running 1.5 while the Droid is given a pass.
And 2.0 matters. We asked Ross Rubin from the NPD Group about his thoughts on 2.0 and got back a half a book:
Android 2.0 brings refinement and more integration to the operating system, Examples include support for Microsoft Exchange and Facebook, which are the digital contact centers of many people’s professional and social lives. It also brings a revamped and much faster browser, albeit one that Google isn’t yet deriving from Chrome. The other big application improvement is Google Navigation, which it has introduced as a free service on top of Maps. Many carriers, including Verizon, charge for such functionality in other devices. Google is aggressively driving a major update while Microsoft is between major revisions of Windows Mobile.
We asked him why he thought Motorola got 2.0 early. He wrote:
As to why it debuted on a Motorola device, there could be several reasons. Verizon’s subscriber strength and more direct competition with AT&T and the iPhone may have led it to push for Android 2.0 to be more competitive. Or it could be simple product development timetables. Moving forward, HTC will want to put its Sense user experience on top of Android 2.0, which requires development time. Google wants a healthy Android ecosystem and a competitive Motorola contributes to that.
While this desire is absolutely understandable on Google’s part, there is a method to this madness. Google releases major updates on one handset and one handset alone. These updates are then pushed out to other android partners. Case in point:
In short, they offer exclusivity to a certain partner in exchange to unfettered access to the design process which, in Motorola’s case, was gravely needed.
Why is there no outcry? Handset manufacturers are deathly afraid of Google. They worry that they will be cut out of the upgrade process and lose access to Google’s Android team.
What needs to be done? In the interest of fairness, all updates should roll out to the general ecosystem before heading to any one carrier. Sadly, this hippie attitude is no good for Google’s business and by creating flagship devices featuring their latest and greatest they ensure forward momentum for the platform. Fairness, it seems, stops at the grade school sandbox.
Again, you can take this as a complaint or a call to action. Android is an excellent platform but Google’s tendency towards “flagship” phones is detrimental to the general ecosystem, especially once the OS falls in along with RIM and Apple as a preeminent smartphone platform.
 Globe and Mail | Water On The Moon: LCROSS Kicks Ice! Wired News Is there water on the Moon? The NASA LCROSS mission has determined the answer to be a resounding YES! GeekDad has covered the LCROSS mission with an article prior to the LCROSS launch by Lonnie Morgan, a pair of articles on viewing ... NASA spacecraft confirms water ice deposits on moon Splash! NASA moon crash struck lots of water Water discovery fuels hope to colonize moon |
Section: Gadgets / Other
Staples’ Black Friday ad has been released and there are doorbusters and deals aplenty! As predicted the bad economy and shaky consumer confidence has lead retailers to slash prices and offer deals-many long before Black Friday itself! Let’s take a look:
Staples’ Doorbuster items include a 100 pack of CD-R’s for $4.98, a free Canon Photo Printer with the purchase of any digital camera, an HP 15.6’ laptop with a Celeron processor, 3GB of RAM, 160GB HD and Windows 7 for $298, and one with an Intel Core Duo 2 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 250GB HD for $398. Other Doorbuster deals available to those willing to get up early (or stay up all night!) and wait in line include a Kodak EasyShare 10.2 MP camera for $109, a SanDisk 8GM memory card for $14.99, a Garmin Nuvi GPS system for $119.99, a Seagate 1TB External Desktop HDD for $69.99, and a 21’ eMachines Widscreen LCD monitor for $89.98
There are plenty of non-Doorbuster deals to be had as well, including a Netgear Wireless Router for $34.99, a Samsung 23’ Monitor/TV combo for $249, a free after rebate Sharp Handheld Calculator, a Colby 7’ portable digital TV for $99 and 7’ portable DVD player for $49. Computer deals include a Dell desktop with an AMD processor, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD and a 20’ LCD monitor for $499.
Remember, the quantities will be limited and rainchecks likely unavailable, so get out their early if you want to scoop up these great deals!
Read [BlackFriday.info]
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 PC World | AT&T: Ignore Verizon's Ads and Fix Your Own Woes PC World Yesterday the No. 1 cellular company issued a statement on its Web site to "set the record straight on Verizon ads." Among the rebuttals: 75 percent of the US population has access to AT&T's 3G net, and 300 million can log onto its slower EDGE and GPRS ... AT&T letter criticizes Verizon ad campaign In Escalating War Against Verizon, AT&T Is Getting Tone Deaf The iPhone wars: AT&T vs. Verizon |
High-school dropout and Tumblr founder David Karp is doing a presentation today at the Eventoblog conference in sunny Sevilla, Spain. In one of his first slides, Karp shared some statistics about Tumblr, which appears to be growing pretty well, pretty quickly.
Last August, the Tumblr team shared some growth statistics and claimed 50 million visitors and a healthy 255 million impressions in July 2009. This month (which I reckon is not actually this month but rather October), Tumblr self-reports 20 million unique vistors and 420 million impressions.
This means either Tumblr lost about 30 million unique monthly visitors in the past few months, or there’s some mix-up about what’s being measured exactly and shared publicly (visits vs. visitors, perhaps?). But third-party measuring services like Compete acknowledge that traffic numbers are definitely heading in the right direction.
According to Karp, Tumblr is currently seeing 2 million Tumblr bloggers publish about 40 million new posts per month. About 10,000 new people sign up for Tumblr every day on average, and the retention rate is very high: close to 85% remains active after registering for the micro-blogging service (note that Tumblr, besides drop-dead simple, is free of charge).
And as you can tell from the picture I took of one of his slides, 35% use Tumblr on Facebook, while only 15% connects the service to Twitter. The bookmarklet is relatively popular too, with about one third of Tumblr’s users installing it. About 15% downloads the company’s iPhone application (which is admittedly really good).
I had a brief chat with Karp last night about the company, which counts only 10 full-time employees today. Karp told me Tumblr is still not all too worried about its ability to generate revenue with the service, keeping its options open and trying to come up with innovative ways of making money rather than merely adding standard premium features or advertising.
What they are experimenting with, however, are imminent paid features that would basically give Tumblr users a way to promote their content in ‘new ways’. Sounds rather vague, so we’ll just have to wait and see what they come up with.
Also on the roadmap: localization. The Tumblr team is currently considering translating the service and offering customer support in more languages besides English.
Karp said Tumblr, which raised about $5.25 million in venture capital to date, has about two years of runway left before running out of cash.
So the main question for Tumblr is: can they continue on their growth path and find a way to turn all those eyeballs and all that activity into cold hard cash, or is it destined to fade out as more and more publishing platforms add micro-blogging features to their applications?
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
FROM GAMERTELL - Downloads will be offered on conjunction with the leading console manufacturers including Microsoft and Sony…
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 Novinite.com | Switzerland sues Google over Street View privacy concerns Gerson Lehrman Group Google has been seriously challenged by several EU countries ( such as Germany,Greece and now Switzerland ) as to its claims that it is within its legal rights re privacy infrigements via Street View and other related services . ... Swiss privacy czar sues Google Swiss court case revolves around Google photos Google Maps' Street View under Swiss scrutiny |
Davesbit made his own globe using maps from the Generic Mapping Tools project; he used a beachball for a mold and cast the sphere with fiberglass and foam.
here is the plastic beach ball covered in paint for the inside of the sphere-half mold...the stand was made from scraps of red oak from a computer table i built...
(via Make)
FROM GAMERTELL - Lois, Clark, Lex and Jimmy Olsen like you probably never saw them. Another DC Comics Classic Collection but is it worht collecting? Click through to find out…
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AP - Internet search leader Google will ease its control over millions of copyright-protected books earmarked for its digital library if a court approves a revised lawsuit settlement that addresses objections of antitrust regulators.
While Android 2.0 has been floating around on Motorola DROIDs for over a week now, one important chunk of it has been under lock-and-key: the source. Even amongst manufacturing partners, we’re told, Google hasn’t been completely open; outside of Motorola (and more recently, HTC), most of the other handset manufacturers have been left out in the cold with nothing to keep them warm but Android v1.6. Until tonight, that is.
As the sun set over the Silicon Valley last night, Google pushed the source code for Android 2.0 to the Android Open Source Project. Within two hours, the endlessly able Android community had it up and running on the eldest Android of them all, the T-Mobile G1.
Read the rest of this post at MobileCrunch >>
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While Android 2.0 has been floating around on Motorola DROIDs for over a week now, one important chunk of it has been under lock-and-key: the source. Even amongst manufacturing partners, we’re told, Google hasn’t been completely open; outside of Motorola (and more recently, HTC), most of the other handset manufacturers have been left out in the cold with nothing to keep them warm but Android v1.6. Until tonight, that is.
As the sun set over the Silicon Valley last night, Google pushed the source code for Android 2.0 to the Android Open Source Project. Within two hours, the endlessly able Android community had it up and running on the eldest Android of them all, the T-Mobile G1.
See that lock screen to the right? It doesn’t look like anything too special, but that’s the world’s first screen shot of Android 2.0 running on the G1.
According to leading Android hacker Cyanogen, everything is running “really well, fast and smooth”. The only thing not working properly at the moment is audio/video playback. Considering that they’ve gotten this far with just a few hours of porting work, it doesn’t seem too likely that will be an issue for long.
I’d assume it’ll be at least few days before they work out all the kinks and make the download/tutorial available to anyone willing to root (read: hack) their phone – but it’ll still probably be faster than waiting for an official patch from T-Mobile.
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No 
So Belle de Jour was real after all. The Internet’s most famous anonymous sex blogger – turned best-selling author – turned internationally successful TV series – has finally outed herself in the UK’s Sunday Times. And it turns out she’s a character straight from the pages of 
You can find a lot of crap on YouTube, but you know what? You can find gems like this, too. I don't know much about the origin of this video, but it's one in a series of three ten-minute chunks on YouTube -- rare color footage of Tibetan tantric masters meditating, in retreat. Looks a few decades old. Start at 0:39 and just zone out. According to the notes from the uploader, the last 3 faces you'll see in the video are:
This past summer, 
The Gillmor Gang debated the virtues and otherwise of the smartphone’s latest pretender to the iPhone crown: Droid. Michael Arrington led the Droid’s faction, with a QVC-like enthusiasm for the power of Any Phone That Runs Google Voice. Of course, he keeps his iPhone and iTouch a handy arm-grab away, but with Droid he may finally have some rationale for excommunicating himself from the Apple bosom.
Palm let loose their latest release of webOS, their mobile phone operating system. The release improves a series of features but seems to have left iTunes syncing and an expected speed boost behind. The Pixi, Palm’s webOS replacement, goes on sale tomorrow.
