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Intel To Ship 48-Core Test Sytems To ResearchersMojoKid writes "Just when you thought your 6-core chip was the fastest processor on the planet, Intel announces plans to ship systems equipped with an experimental 48-core CPU to a handful of lucky researchers sometime by the end of the second quarter. The 48 cores are arranged with multiple connect points in a serial mesh network to transfer data between cores. Each core also has on-chip buffers to instantly exchange data in parallel across all cores. According to Sean Koehl, technology evangelist with Intel Labs, the chip only draws up between 25 and 125 Watts."
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Apr 2010 | 3:38 am The Triumph of the Ordinary CellphoneBecause it reaches so many people, because it is always with you, because it is cheap and shareable and easily repaired, the cellphone has opened a new frontier in global innovation. A wonderful article...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 10 Apr 2010 | 1:10 am Fast Forward: With iPad, Apple aims for sweet spot between laptops, smartphones - Washington Post
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Apr 2010 | 12:56 am No Linking To Japanese Newspaper Without Permissionstovicek writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica about the Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, or Nikkei (English language site, so far apparently unaffected): "Nikkei has taken efforts to preserve its paywall to absurd new levels: anyone wanting to link to the site must submit a formal application. [...] The New York Times, which reported on the new policy on Thursday, notes that the newspaper market in Japan is radically different from that in the US. Although some smaller outlets are experimenting with new ways of reaching readers, most papers require subscriptions to access online content, and the barriers have kept circulation of print editions quite high compared to the US. Nikkei management appears worried that links could provide secret passages to content that should be safely behind the paywall, and this fear has led to the new approval policy."
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Source: Slashdot | 10 Apr 2010 | 12:40 am Twitter Buys Tweetie for the iPhone - The Mac Observer
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 10 Apr 2010 | 12:08 am UPDATE 1-China state planner positive on Geely's Volvo buy* "Attitude is positive" if Geely can address questions (Adds background)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 10 Apr 2010 | 12:06 am China state planner positive on nod for Geely's Volvo buyBOAO, China, April 10 (Reuters) - China's state planner said on Saturday it is leaning in favour of approving a landmark $1.8 billion deal for Zhejiang Geely, China's top private carmaker, to buy Ford's...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 11:11 pm Nokia acquires location services vendor MetaCarta - BusinessWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:22 pm Why Twitter Buying Tweetie is Great NewsBefore tonight there were probably 30 to 50 teams making a serious play to build the best mobile client for Twitter. Tonight one of those teams was annointed the official selection of Twitter itself and...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:21 pm Shuttle Astronauts Take Mission's First Spacewalk - Space.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:17 pm Twitter acquires Tweetie developer Atebits (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - There was no shortage of Twitter clients for Appleâs new iPad when it debuted last week, but one absence struck us as conspicuous: where was popular iPhone appâand App Gem winnerâTweetie? That question now lays answered as Twitter CEO Evan Williams announced on Friday that the company had acquired Tweetie developer Atebits.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:55 pm Album sales decline slows in Q1; digital sales dip (Reuters)Reuters - The first quarter of 2010 brought a few surprising sales results to a battered music industry.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:32 pm Firefox Lorentz Keeps Plugin Crashes Under Controlpastababa writes "A beta of the Firefox Lorentz project is now available for download and public testing. Eming reports Firefox 'Lorentz' provides uninterrupted browsing for Windows and Linux users when there is a crash in plugins. Plugins run in a separate process from the browser. If a plugin crashes it will not crash the browser, and unresponsive plugins are automatically restarted. The process-isolation feature has been in Google's Chrome from the beginning. Chrome sandboxes individual tabs, crashes of one tab does not affect the running of the rest of Chrome browser. Firefox currently isolate only Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime and Microsoft Silverlight, but will eventually isolate all plugins running on a page. Mozilla encourages users to test Firefox 'Lorentz' on their favorite websites. Users who install Firefox 'Lorentz' will eventually be automatically updated to a future version of Firefox 3.6 in which this feature is included."
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Source: Slashdot | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:32 pm Twitter Acquires Tweetie, Offers Free as "Twitter For iPhone"In a move foreshadowed by Twitter board member Fred Wilson's blog post earlier this week, Twitter has announced that it bought third-party Twitter client Tweetie. According to the company, Twitter has...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:26 pm Google, Apple rivalry heats up (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:20 pm Twitter Buys Tweetie, Adds Fuel to Developer FiresJust two days after comments by Twitter investor Fred Wilson made third-party Twitter developers nervous about what the company might do, those fears have become reality: The company announced Friday that...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:47 pm 64GB Zune HD available nowJust a quick heads up about that 64GB Zune HD that we were all excited about the other day - looks like it's on sale, just a couple of days early. It's supposed to come out on Monday, but we've seen it...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:10 pm UPDATE 2-Mexico regulator slams Pemex Chicontepec plans* Schlumberger, Haliburton, Weatherford are contractors (Adds detail on contracts, costs)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:00 pm Twitter Goes Shopping, Comes Home With Tweetie. Next? [MediaMemo]
Twitter says that Tweetie, which sells for $2.99 in Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes store, will be renamed Twitter for iPhone and distributed for free in the coming weeks. An iPad app is in the works, the company says. The purchase is going to give Twitter Kremlinologists another reason to pore over Wednesday’s blog post from Twitter investor and board member Fred Wilson, for clues about the company’s next move. Wilson’s much-discussed post argues in part that Twitter, which has traditionally relied on third-party developers to build cool stuff for the service, should be building that stuff itself. Or buying the companies that do. Wilson specifically cited Tweetie as one of the companies that is “filling holes in the Twitter product”. Summize, another one of the companies Wilson lumped in that category, was already purchased by Twitter in 2008. Wilson also described TwitPic, a Twitter-centric photo service, as a hole-filler. So if you connect the dots you might conclude that Twitter intends to buy TwitPic, or create its own photo uploader. Another theory that isn’t mutually exclusive: Now that Twitter owns a client for the iPhone, and has officially endorsed a client for Research in Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry, it will look to establish a beachhead on other mobile platforms. The most obvious would be Google’s Android (GOOG). All that said, I’m not totally convinced that Wilson meant to use his post as a buy/build roadmap. To me, it reads a bit like someone trying to win a debate — perhaps with Twitter’s founders — about the best way to run the company going forward. And I have a feeling we’ll be coming back to this idea over the next few days. Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:57 pm Pluto's Dwarf Planet Family Could Get BiggerPluto has been suffering an identity crisis of late, but astronomers have identified dozens of small dwarf planet candidates that could make Pluto feel a little better about itself.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:39 pm Twitter Acquires Tweetie
It’s a move that manages to be both jarring and unsurprising at the same time. Unsurprising, because Twitter investor Fred Wilson recently wrote that Twitter developers needed to stop “filling holes” in Twitter’s product and instead build entirely separate businesses. And just this morning, Twitter launched an official Twitter for BlackBerry application, so another mobile application shouldn’t come as much of a shock. And yet, the iPhone is a platform where Twitter has a very strong third party presence, and Twitter has no doubt been benefiting from the contributions of these developers. Tweetie is extremely polished and is arguably the best, but there are plenty of other quality applications that are getting hung out to dry. Still, a move like this seemed inevitable. In a blog post announcing the news, Twitter CEO Evan Williams explains the logic: people are going to iTunes, searching for a Twitter application, and not finding one so they give up (this sounds like a problem with iTunes search, but perhaps people really just want to see ‘Twitter’ in the application’s title):
This all comes less than a week before Twitter’s developer conference, Chirp, where I suspect the company will try to steer developers down a path that they won’t be paving over any time soon. Of note: Twitter’s post does not mention anything about the Tweetie desktop application, which is available exclusively for the Mac. Don’t be surprised if this becomes ‘Twitter For Mac’ eventually.      
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:38 pm UPDATE 1-Halliburton agrees to buy Boots & CootsNEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - Halliburton said on Friday it agreed to buy Boots & Coots , a company that provides pressure control services for oil and gas wells, in a stock and cash deal worth about...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:28 pm UPDATE 1-Halliburton agrees to buy Boots & CootsNEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - Halliburton said on Friday it agreed to buy Boots & Coots , a company that provides pressure control services for oil and gas wells, in a stock and cash deal worth about...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:28 pm Why you can't work at workOffices are optimized for interruptions and interruptions are the enemy of work, creativity, and productivity. That's what Jason Fried, the co-founder of 37signals (makers of small business online collaboration tools), says. As a result, people who work in offices have to do their real work at home, during the nights and weekends. I agree, for the most part. The best thing about working at home is that I can shut my phone off and focus fully on a project for a couple of hours without interruption. In an office environment, I have never been able to work for more than 15 or 20 minutes without someone breaking my concentration. That said, good things happen in offices, too. The thing I miss most about working in an office are those times when good ideas and decisions are made through informal meetings. Sometimes, getting people together in realspace is the best way to get something done. With its constant commotion, unnecessary meetings, and infuriating wastes of time, the modern workplace makes us all work longer, less focused hours. Jason Fried explains how we can change all of this.UPDATE: David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried of 37signals are co-authors of a book called Rework that goes deeper into ways to get things done. Why You Can't Work at Work Why you can't work at workOffices are optimized for interruptions and interruptions are the enemy of work, creativity, and productivity. That's what Jason Fried, the co-founder of 37signals (makers of small business online collaboration...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:09 pm Adobe: We'll Be Fine Without Apple [MediaMemo]A day after Apple kicked it to the curb, Adobe has an official response, via a blog post from CTO Kevin Lynch. It’s ostensibly a promotion for the company’s Creative Suite 5 rollout, scheduled for Monday. But the part you care about is here:
Translation: If Apple won’t work with us, what can we do? There’s not a lot more that Adobe could say at this point, really. The interesting part will come next, when developers start making choices about whether they want to work Apple (AAPL) , or with platforms that support Adobe (ADBE) – or if they’ll end up building for both ecosystems. Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:06 pm Netflix now delaying Fox and Universal disc releasesIf you are a current Netflix subscriber, you'll likely recall that they decided to enter into an agreement with Warner Bros. back in January that would delay Netflix from making new films from the studio...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:05 pm Two things: the iPad is inching closer to being hacked, and people are starting to see why hacking it is a good idea
If your answer is yes, then have fun with that, you have a device you are satisfied with. But for everyone else, we’re moving towards a solution that would allow people to use the device they bought in whatever way they see fit. Sure, it’ll void the warranty, and of course the risk is all yours, but he who dares, wins, right? Thousands and thousands of people have been jailbreaking their iPhones for a long time now and swear by it. I can appreciate wanting to go along with the Apple philosophy now, but it’s akin to going along with it in the early iPhone days. Once the platform opens up a bit and the other side of the fence (that is to say the forbidden side) starts to look a little greener, you might find yourself doubting your constancy. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:53 pm Being a "Tudors" king changed Jonathan Rhys MeyersLOS ANGELES, April 9 (Reuters) - He might have been just another young Hollywood actor on the rise, but Jonathan Rhys Meyers chose to become a king -- on TV. And doing so, the actor said, changed his life...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:40 pm Apple's New iPhone App Policy: Unreasonable and Unjustifiable (PC World)PC World - Amidst all the hullabaloo surrounding the launch of Apple's iPhone OS 4.0, the contentious company from Cupertino is coming under fire for a quietly made change to its iPhone developer's agreement.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:39 pm Explaining Oracle's Sun Takeover — "For the Hardware"blackbearnh writes "Brian Aker, former Sun MySQL guy, and current proponent of the Drizzle MySQL fork, gave O'Reilly Radar an update on where MySQL is at the moment. During the interview, he was asked to speculate on Oracle's original motives for acquiring Sun. 'IBM has been moving their pSeries systems into datacenter after datacenter, replacing Sun-based hardware. I believe that Oracle saw this and asked themselves, "What is the next thing that IBM is going to do?" That's easy. IBM is going to start pushing DB2 and the rest of their software stack into those environments. Now whether or not they'll be successful, I don't know. I suspect once Oracle reflected on their own need for hardware to scale up on, they saw a need to dive into the hardware business. I'm betting that they looked at Apple's margins on hardware, and saw potential in doing the same with Sun's hardware business. I'm sure everything else Sun owned looked nice and scrumptious, but Oracle bought Sun for the hardware.'"
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Source: Slashdot | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:37 pm Activision sues two fired developers - Los Angeles Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:34 pm Weekend Reading: The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, by Mike MichalowiczWhile this week's entry in the Weekend Reading series is an established book from 2008, it is still a highly touted read for aspiring entrepreneurs with little time and resources that are looking to get...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:15 pm Pocket Legends set to conquer your iPhone and iPad (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - Imagine conquering castles from your iPhone. Or slaying demons from the comfort of your iPad. Thanks to Pocket Legends, a new massively multiplayer online game, you can draw swords with friends across a variety of platforms and connection types. So next time you want to slay the undead with your trusty battleaxe, you can do so anywhere and anytime.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:02 pm Citizen Journalism Startup Plans Global ExpansionAll Voices, a citizen media venture that is trying to create a kind of global wire service, says it is expanding into 30 countries including Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt and China and hopes to expand into 30...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:00 pm This week in search 4/9/10This is one of a regular series of posts on search experience updates. Look for the label This week in search and subscribe to the series. - Ed.Here's what's happening this week in search: Site speed in web search ranking We made an announcement today about site speed and how it effects our search ranking algorithms. Check out the Webmaster Central blog for more information, including a number of free tools that you can use to increase the speed of your website. Stars in mobile search In early March, we announced stars in search, a feature that helps you mark and rediscover great content on the web. Recently, we extended this functionality to your mobile phone, so that you're able to view that same favorite content on the go. So, if you'd previously starred sites for [cheesecake recipe] when planning a meal at home, searching for [cheesecake recipe] on your phone in the supermarket will help you rediscover the recipe search results that looked enticing — no need to make a grocery list. Stars work both ways, so if you mark a search result while on your phone, you'll be able to see it later when you get to your desktop. This feature is currently supported on Android phones, iPhones/iPods and Palm WebOS devices in the U.S., and you need to be logged into your Google account for it to work. Updates to Google Quick Scroll In December we launched Google Quick Scroll, an extension for Chrome which uses Google's search capabilities to help you jump directly to the portion of the page that's relevant to your search query. Since December, we've brought Quick Scroll to all the languages and domains where Chrome extensions are available. We've also continued to make constant improvements to the tool, and recently we debuted a new version with a few useful updates. Since Quick Scroll is all about getting you to information fast, it's important that it appear quickly. So we've reduced the time it takes for the tool to pop up so you don't have to wait as long. Also, if you've been using Quick Scroll for a while, you know that it doesn't appear for every result — just when Google detects that only a portion of the page is relevant to your query. Now, even if Quick Scroll doesn't appear after you click on a search result, an icon will show up in the address bar. Clicking on the icon will pop up the Quick Scroll box with an explanation of why it didn't trigger on that page. Here's what it looks like:  Help for those who need it A few months ago, we introduced a search feature that displays the toll-free U.S. poison control number when you search for related information. This got us thinking about other ways we can help people get clear information from Google search in times of crisis or distress. So we recently launched a feature that displays the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at the top of the results page for certain search queries in the U.S. We hope this quick access to information helps people in emotional distress who may benefit from calling a suicide prevention hotline. Stay tuned for more updates next week. Posted by Amit Singhal, Google Fellow   
 Source: The Official Google Blog | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:58 pm FCC Pursues Broadband Agenda in Spite of Legal Setback - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:49 pm Free apps roundup for April 9th, 2010FROM APPLETELL - Apple launched it last Saturday, so this week all of the free apps are specifically coded to take advantage of the iPad’s beautiful screen. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:47 pm Activision countersues 'Modern Warfare' execs (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:45 pm Video: spring cleaning time for your PC
It’s a bit long because I didn’t want to cut anything out — I wanted it to be clear that this whole process really only does take less than ten minutes and anyone can do it. All you need is a can of compressed air, which should be available at your local hardware store. If you’re interested in getting a little more grungy, you can unplug everything, take out the hard drives and PCI cards, and give them a good going-over. A little oil on the bearings of your fans will also make everything run a little quieter. But the main thing is to just get the accumulation of dust and fuzz out of there. I know, I know, it’s all pretty obvious to most of our readers, but hopefully it’ll make things a little easier for some.
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:44 pm Apple's Tightening Grip: This Could Be Android's Big ChanceThe long-closed nature of Apple's iPhone OS ecosystem is coming to a head with the addition of major new restrictions on developers. If there ever was a time when the Android world had a chance to out-innovate...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:44 pm Completely Farm-Bred Unagi, a World FirstJoshuaInNippon writes "Japanese scientists at the National Research Institute of Aquaculture, Fisheries Research Agency have reported that they successfully completed an artificial cultivation cycle for unagi, or eel — a world first. Unagi is a traditional delicacy in Japan, and can commonly be found in baked form at sushi restaurants. The fish has long been caught either matured, or still young and then fattened on farms. Sadly, as a result, natural stocks of unagi have plummeted in recent years. However, the research news indicates a future method to completely farm breed the tasty creature in mass quantity. Good news for sushi lovers, Japanese businesses, and wild eel alike."
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Source: Slashdot | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:33 pm US WCoast Products-L.A. gasoline falls on importsHOUSTON, April 9 (Reuters) - Los Angeles wholesale gasoline fell 6 cents on Friday as imports were seen coming into the well-supplied West Coast, traders said.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:31 pm Music Hack Day Is Coming To San Francisco
The main goal Music Hack Day, according to its homepage, is “to explore and build the next generation of music applications”. Aside from that, anything goes — it just has to do with music. Space is limited, so you’ll want to register here (it’s based on a first-come first-served basis, and the organizers will also be looking to ensure the people attending are planning to actually help make something). Music Hack Day is run by an interesting group of guys with experience in both music and tech: Dave Haynes (of SoundCloud), Paul Lamere (of Echonest) and Daniel Raffel (Senior Product Manager at Yahoo!, used to run some record labels). Also attending the event will be representatives from music companies like SongKick, Pandora, SonicLiving, Songbird, and Last.fm. The timing is also good for developers: Muisc Hack Day is taking place the weekend before Google I/O and the SF MusicTech summit, so developers from out of the town can hit up multiple events on the same trip. So rock on. And try not to think too hard about the pain some earlier music startups have suffered through — things are finally looking up for a few of them.      
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:30 pm UPDATE 2-Rangers' creditors take no action on MLB deadline* Buyer's aim to close deal by April 19 week in question (Adds comment from Greenberg spokesman in paragraph 7)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:26 pm New technical hitch delays Ariane rocket launchCAYENNE, French Guiana (Reuters) - A new technical problem has delayed for the second time the launch of an Ariane rocket scheduled to launch two satellites from French Guiana late on...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:20 pm Sprint Likely to Offer 3G Femtocell
Sprint is rumored to be working on a 3G-enabled femtocell, a cellular device that helps you get a better voice and data signal in your home or office. It will be a faster version of the wireless carrier’s Airave product, according to documents filed with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The new Sprint femtocell will include a radio for the 3G service and a port for a VOIP (voice-over-IP) line. Sprint’s move comes two weeks after AT&T presented its $150 3G femtocell, MicroCell, and just as a new study indicates the femtocells could proliferate in the next few years. The global femtocell market is projected to grow to $4.6 billion in 2014 from $230 million in 2009, says Marketresearch.com in a report released Thursday. Japan and Western European nations lead in femtocells today due to high rates of mobile and broadband penetration. But the U.S. is expected to have the largest femtocell market in 2010, with a high annual growth rate, says the report.  Image by Airvana A femtocell operates like your personal cellular tower. You connect the router-sized device to your existing broadband land service and it provides better indoor coverage for your phone. AT&T’s MicroCell covers about 40 feet, enough for most homes - and you can restrict who can connect to it. Sprint, who has reportedly partnered with Femtocell manufacturer Airvana to deliver the new product, is no latecomer to this party. Airave, their $100 femtocell device made by Samsung, has been available nationwide since August 2008. However, Airave doesn’t support 3G - merely Sprint’s CDMA network with speeds of about 150 kilobits per second. Verizon’s solution, the $250 Wireless Network Expander, uses the same network. Femtocells could help numerous customers with coverage issues when it comes to phone calls, especially since most don’t require an additional monthly fee. In addition, vendors such as Ubiquisys recently announced that the wholesale price of a femtocell has dropped to below $100. It’s usefulness is less obvious when it comes to data transfer, since most customers who own broadband lines already use the much-faster Wi-Fi at home. See Also:
[via PCWorld] (Photo by: Sprint, current generation of Airave) 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:18 pm Adobe Flash evangelist: 'Go screw yourself Apple' - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:15 pm IPO VIEW-Private equity must wait for frothy IPO payday* HCA IPO size could signal mkt appetite concern - analystSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:11 pm Pen and finger interface on a Surface looks extremely Courier-like
This is why I continue to be excited for the Courier despite having no indication that it’s ever going to actually come out. These things seem to work fine on the Surface as well, but when am I going to ever have one of those in my apartment? [via WMPowerUser]
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:09 pm How Do I Create a Spiritual Game Successor?An anonymous reader writes "I've recently been on a legacy video game binge, reliving the nostalgic days, when I realized that one of my favorite old games can be vastly improved with a few tweaks. This game is pretty much made for a controller, so I would love to get it done on Xbox Live, but doing it on the PC is just as viable. Unfortunately, I am pretty sure the game is not in the public domain yet. Based on previous stories covered here, some companies are all for community made successors while others choose to give them the crushing blow from the start. My question is: how far is too far when one is trying to make a spiritual successor? I do not intend to copy any materials, but it would be lovely if I could incorporate some game design ideas (very general level design, movement, and just one or two game features)."
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Source: Slashdot | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:08 pm Hands on with iPhone OS 4.0 - CNET
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:04 pm [Actually NSFW] Highlights From South Park’s Facebook/Chatroulette Episode
This week, South Park finally got around to parodying Facebook and Chatroulette, and with them the entire spectrum of creepy online oversharing. Here are a couple of highlights (ripped from the original source so our international readers don’t bitch about geographical restrictions) including the moment where Stan tries a little too hard to delete his Facebook profile; and when Cartman introduces Kyle to Chatroulette. See if you can guess which clip is which from the quotes. (Oh, yeah, these are probably not safe for work. Unless you work for Chatroulette.) “Dude jacking off, dude jacking off…” “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, Stan Marsh…” More? For US viewers, the whole episode is here, or Gawker.tv has put together a (I grudgingly accept) slightly more comprehensive collection of highlights here. Information provided by CrunchBase Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:01 pm Adobe Evangelist Tells Apple: 'Go Screw Yourself' (PC World)PC World - Responding to a change in the licensing terms for developers building applications for version 4.0 of the iPhone, a technology evangelist for Adobe Systems has told Apple to go perform an anatomically impossible act.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:00 pm Bats, Birds and Lizards Can Fight Climate ChangeBats, birds and other insect-eating animals could be good weapons for mitigating climate change. By eating insects that eat plants, these animals ensure there are more plants around to soak up carbon dioxide.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:00 pm Adobe Reacts to New iPhone App Policy (Updated)
The introduction of multitasking in iPhone OS 4 was great news for app developers and consumers, but Apple left unmentioned one policy tweak that could significantly change the App Store game. As Wired.com reported Thursday, Apple previewed its next-generation iPhone operating system and released a beta to developers, which included a new developer’s agreement stipulating that iPhone apps must be originally programmed using Apple-approved languages (such as Objective-C). The official iPhone OS 4 won’t be available until summer, so the exact implications of the policy change have yet to be seen. However, the consensus among several developers and tech observers is that the biggest and most obvious loser is Adobe, who has been touting a new tool called Packager for iPhone, which would enable Flash developers to easily port their apps into iPhone-native. This solution, which is set for an April 12 release as part of Adobe CS5, would partly address the lack of native Flash support for the iPhone and the iPad. Adobe’s reaction to the news on Thursday wasn’t substantive (”We are aware of the new SDK language and are looking into it”), but Lee Brimelow, Adobe’s Flash evangelist, had some more colorful words today. “Adobe and Apple has had a long relationship and each has helped the other get where they are today,” Brimelow wrote in his blog. “The fact that Apple would make such a hostile and despicable move like this clearly shows the difference between our two companies. All we want is to provide creative professionals an avenue to deploy their work to as many devices as possible. We are not looking to kill anything or anyone.” Brimelow ended his post with, “Go screw yourself Apple.” Meanwhile, Adobe has issued a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that “our business could be harmed” as “new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies,” as Bloomberg first reported. The clause from the iPhone developer’s agreement in question is 3.3.1, which reads:
Apple did not return a phone call requesting comment on the new developer agreement. Update 5:55 p.m. PT: Kevin Lynch, Adobe’s chief technology officer, has posted his level-headed response to the revised iPhone developer agreement: “It is up to Apple whether they choose to allow or disallow applications as their rules shift over time,” Lynch wrote. “Secondly, multiscreen is growing beyond Apple’s devices. This year we will see a wide range of excellent smartphones, tablets, smartbooks, televisions and more coming to market and we are continuing to work with partners across this whole range to enable your content and applications to be viewed, interacted with and purchased. See Also:
Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:52 pm Privacy Groups Want Feds to Investigate Targeted AdsPrivacy groups want the feds to investigate the rapidly developing industry that matches online ads against user information. They say the industry has overstepped privacy rules by combining online data sources to build dossiers on computer users.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:50 pm Evolution, Big Bang Polls Omitted From NSF Reportcremeglace writes "In an unusual last-minute edit that has drawn flak from the White House and science educators, a federal advisory committee omitted data on Americans' knowledge of evolution and the Big Bang from a key report. The data shows that Americans are far less likely than the rest of the world to accept that humans evolved from earlier species and that the universe began with a big bang."
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Source: Slashdot | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:45 pm Change in iPhone developer terms puts Flash in crosshairs (Macworld.com)Macworld.com - Now that a beta version of iPhone OS 4.0 and the corresponding developer tools have been released to iPhone developers, thereâÂÂs a new developer license agreement to go along with them.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:41 pm Meet Glob, Blurp, Voop, and Zopp
I was a tiny tot when plastic monster models were all the rage but I remember my friends' big brothers having them on their dresser and desks. At the time, I thought they were the last word in tasteful bedroom decor. Today, of course, I feel the same way. See them big at The Magnetic Brain: Glob, Blurp, Voop, and Zopp (via Coop)
MapleStory DSi headed to Korea on April 15, 2010FROM GAMERTELL - Nintendo has announced that a limited edition, red DSi with MapleStory mascots on it will be released as part of a MapleStory DS bundle in Korea on April 15, 2010. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:31 pm Laser beam clock tells time with mirrors
The bad news is, as cool at it would be to have, the Reflectius (is that a spell in Harry Potter?) is just a concept. And I’m entirely sure that it will ever be made. Lasers are notoriously sensitive about heat, and having a laser on all the time just to be used a clock just isn’t practical. Of course, when was the last time you saw a product from Art Lebedev that was? [via Endgadget]
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:30 pm Graphene Defects Could Lead to Smaller Electronics
Graphene could someday replace silicon as a semiconductor material and make our chips smaller and faster, except for one tiny detail: it’s been rather hard to mess with its electronic properties. Until now. “We have experimentally realized and theoretically investigated, for the first time, perfect atomic wires in graphene,” Ivan Oleynik, one of the two University of South Florida professors behind the discovery, told Wired.com. Atomic wires are short chains of atoms that conduct electricity and so far, they have been hard to achieve in graphene. The researchers have found a way to introduce one-dimensional defects that are stable and in the center of a graphene sheet. The breakthroughs could lead to more widespread applications for graphene including the ability to ultimately create faster chips and smaller gadgets. Oleynik and his fellow researcher Matthias Batzill published a paper in Nanotechnology Journal last week, announcing their solution for controlling graphene’s electronic properties. To keep up with Moore’s law–which says that the number of transistors that can be affordably built into a processor doubles roughly every two years–chip makers have to keep shrinking silicon-based chips. Intel’s latest processors, for example, use a 32-nanometer technology to create chips. But many researchers believe it will get increasingly difficult to manufacture smaller transistors, especially in the 10-nanometers range. In the last few years, graphene, a form of carbon derived from graphite oxide, has emerged as a promising alternative to silicon. It’s one atom thick and has phenomenal electron mobility - roughly 100 times greater than silicon. Few months ago, IBM said its graphene-based transistors could reach speeds of 100 Ghz. Two years ago, British scientists unveiled the world’s smallest transistor - three times smaller than the silicon-based ones–that was made of graphene. “From the point of view of physics, graphene is a goldmine,” Kostya Novoselov, a researcher at the University of Manchester who worked on that project, told Wired.com in 2008. But for graphene to be useful in electronic applications like integrated circuits, small defects, also known as atomic-scale imperfections, have to be introduced in the material. “All previous attempts used so-called graphene nanoribbons,” says Oleynik, “and that could lead to chemical instabilities, since there are dangling bonds on the edges. ” Defects on nanoribbons - tiny strips of graphene - have often been inconsistent and hard to create since the edges are rough and chemically unstable. Instead, their solution, say the researchers, is a one-dimensional defect that creates octagonal and pentagonal rings. It acts like a metallic wire and can conduct electric current. “Our defect is embedded into the graphene, as opposed to being on the edges, which allows for more flexibility,” says Batzill. Graphene has become a real alternative for building atomic-scale, all-carbon based electronics, say the researchers. (Photo: Y. Lin, USF) 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:13 pm Microsoft's latest phone experiment (Reuters)Reuters - Microsoft Corp will show off its latest mobile phones on Monday, but don't expect a direct rival to the iPhone.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:04 pm WebKit2 API Layer Brings Split-Process Model99BottlesOfBeerInMyF writes "Anders Carlsson and Sam Weinig over at Apple just announced WebKit2, a rework of the WebKit engine that powers Chrome and Safari. This new version of WebKit incorporates the same style of split-process model that provides stability in Chrome, but built directly into the framework so all browsers based upon WebKit will be able to gain the same level of sandboxing and stability. AppleInsider has a writeup, and the team has provided 'high level documentation' as well. Both Palm and the Epiphany team are going to be happy about this."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:03 pm So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gadgetell posts for the week of April 04, 2010Section: Haven’t caught all of the Gadgetell news this week? Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles!
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:00 pm JooJoo Tablet Is a Real Piece of DooDooYep, it's got issues. The first competition for the Apple iPad isn't competition at all -- it's actually one of the worst products we've tested all year.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:00 pm JooJoo Tablet Is a Real Piece of DooDooYep, it's got issues. The first competition for the Apple iPad isn't competition at all -- it's actually one of the worst products we've tested all year.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:00 pm What a Bad Week It's Been for Apple's Adversaries - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:54 pm Is Steve Jobs Ignoring History, Or Trying To Rewrite It?
Very few people get the chance to make history. Even fewer get the chance to make it twice. Perhaps that is why it is so fascinating to watch Steve Jobs as he tries to usher in the era of mobile touch computing today, just as he ushered in the era of the personal computer three decades ago. But I wonder whether he is repeating the very same mistakes which relegated Macs to a niche market. Or did he learn from those mistakes so that Apple comes out on top this time? Jobs is once again pitting Apple’s complete product design mastery against the rest of the industry, except this time he thinks he will prevail. Whether it is his repeated moves to keep Adobe’s Flash off the iPhone or his growing rift with Google over Android, Jobs is making the iPhone and iPad a relatively closed system that Apple can control. All apps need to be approved by Apple, the ads shown on the apps will also start to go through Apple, and no matter how hard Adobe tries to open up the iPhone to its Flash developers Apple will keep blocking all its efforts. Developers and pundits can cry foul all they want about Apple’s lack of openness. But remember, companies are only open when it is convenient for them. The fight with Adobe has always been about making developers play by Apple’s rules. And right now they can make those rules because they have all the customers. In the desktop era, Windows had the most apps, which translated directly into sales. Today on mobile, the iPhone has the most apps and Jobs wants to keep it that way. Allowing Adobe or Microsoft to port apps developed for other devices to the iPhone devalues the iPhone, which is why Apple is cracking down so hard on Adobe. It is not about Flash, it is about developers. As John Gruber writes:
But how long will that license last? The iPhone faces a growing threat from Google’s Android phones, which are the PCs of the mobile world. Only Apple makes the iPhone, but many phone manufacturers make Android phones just like many PC makers produce Windows PCs. Slowly but surely, those Android phones are getting better. And already Android sales are collectively catching up to iPhone sales. Of all people, surely he sees what is coming. Is he ignoring his own history, or does he know it so well that this time he is going to try to rewrite it by changing the outcome? As long as the iPhone remains the leading smartphone, he can try to lock out Google’s ads and lock in developers with their apps (and, by extension, customers who want those apps). Still, it seems like history could repeat itself, with the rest of the industry closing the innovation gap with Apple fast. With Google subsidizing the mobile OS, other phone manufacturers have an economic advantage as well. Jobs is trying everything he can to hold back the Android advance, including suing HTC, the largest manufacturer of Android phones. He is fighting Google with everything he’s got—undercutting Google’s pending acquisition of AdMob by entering the mobile advertising market and creating fear among Android partners with his patent lawsuit. In the end, it is the victors who write history. Right now, Jobs is winning. Can he keep winning or is history against him?      
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:52 pm Tipping Point Not Likely for Arctic Sea IceThe latest research suggests that Arctic ice may be able to avoid disappearing entirely during winter, but the Antarctic ice may not be so lucky.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:45 pm The Gamebook Writers Who Nearly Invented the MMOmr_sifter writes "In the 1980s, gamebooks were all the rage, and most geeks have read through a Fighting Fantasy novel or two. You might even have heard of Fabled Lands, arguably the most ambitious gamebooks ever — it was planned as a series of 12 books, each representing a different area of the world, and players could roam freely from book to book. It was completely non-linear, and unless you died, there was no way to finish. In 1996, the authors, Dave Morris and Jamie Thompson, hooked up with game developer Eidos and started work on what would have been a ground-breaking computer game version of their books — an MMO, in other words. Unfortunately, development hell awaited. This article tells the story of the game that could have been WoW before Warcraft."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:44 pm We're Driving and Flying to Florida in Two Cool CoupesWe're heading to the Sun 'n Fun Airshow in the last two things you'd think to take on a cross-country adventure. Small is beautiful.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:30 pm Burning Man Rethinks Its Legal Ownership of Your PhotosBurning Man festival organizers are revisiting a Draconian policy in which revelers must assign rights to their photos and videos to the organization. The group says it's to protect privacy, while some have called it censorship.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:30 pm Alternate Disc-Tractions: The Lord of the Rings animated movie Blu-ray reviewFROM GAMERTELL - Bakshi’s animated LOTR includes a mix of overexposed film stock, rotoscoping, hand-drawn and live-action effects, making this a film to study for its groundbreaking interventions for the time… Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:26 pm Serious New Java Flaw Affects All BrowsersTrailrunner7 writes "There is a serious vulnerability in Java that makes all current browsers vulnerable to simple Web-based attacks that could lead to a complete compromise of the affected system. Two separate researchers released information on the vulnerability on Friday, saying that it has been present in Java for years. The problem lies in the Java Web Start framework, a technology that Sun Microsystems developed to enable the simplified deployment of Java applications. In essence, the JavaWS technology fails to validate parameters passed to it from the command line, and attackers can control those parameters using specific HTML tags on a Web page, researcher Ruben Santamarta said in an advisory posted Friday morning."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:20 pm Bebo’s Awkward Email To Media Partners
How do you handle that awkwardness? Send out a mass email to all open media partners to explain the situation: ———- Forwarded message ———- Dear Open Media Partners, First, I’d like to thank you for your support of Bebo. The end of last year brought with it many changes to our business, both difficult and exciting, including the successful spin-out of our parent company AOL and a new strategic direction. Set out in May 2009 this strategy leverages AOL’s core strengths and scale in quality content, premium advertising and consumer applications, positioning it for the next phase of growth of the Internet. We also made a commitment to keep the lines of communication open as we worked to arrive at a strategic resolution for Bebo and today I’m reaching out to let you know that in an annual filing for Bebo made this week, AOL indicated that it is currently evaluating strategic alternatives with respect to the Bebo business, which could include a sale or shutdown of Bebo in 2010. Social networking remains a space with heavy competition, where scale defines success, and unfortunately AOL is not in a position to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking. The decision to move forward at this point on Bebo was not made lightly and AOL is committed to working quickly to determine if there are any interested parties for Bebo. The company’s current expectation is to complete our strategic evaluation by the end of May 2010 and we hope that by sharing what we can, when we can, it helps to relieve any uncertainty about what’s ahead. In the interim I wanted to assure you of our continued commitment to your organization and we will come back to you as soon as we are able to move forward.      
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:04 pm Look at that, someone (Super Talent) has finally thought to release relatively inexpensive SSDs
All the cool kids in the neighborhood are building their PCs with solid state drives these days. Who wants to use a plain old hard disk drive, what with its icky moving parts, when you can cruise along on a drive with zero moving parts? I mean, it’s no contest. Problem: SSDs are usually what I like to call “mad expensive.” You’re paying a heck of a lot for a fairly small drive… until now~! Super Talent has a brand new line of “value” SSDs that are low-ish in price. It’s all the benefit of an SSD without the incredibly high price. At least that’s the idea. I think Matt may have benchmarked some SSDs a little while back—well, just one, it turns out—, and Dave did a nice little round-up, but the idea behind them is that they’re really quite fast, much faster than a traditional hard disk drive. No moving parts and all that, giving them read/write speeds in the high double digits/low 100s in MB/s. You know what I mean. So, back to the Super Talents. There’s four models, ranging in size from 8 to 64GB. Since SSDs are still sorta on the small side—you can find 2TB drives for around $150—you’re probably only going to be able to install Windows and maybe a game or two on there. You’re not going to put all of your MP3s and movies on there. And why would you want to, I wonder? You want Windows to load as quickly as possible, so you stick it on an SSD. You want World of Warcraft to load zones as quickly as possible, so you stick in on an SSD. Conversly, how long does it take to launch foobar2000 and play an MP3 or FLAC? An SSD would sorta be overkill there, no? Price. Well, the 8GB version is $65 while the 64GB version is $175. Not too bad as far as SSDs go. On a side note, I’m terribly sorry it’s been rathing boring today. I think we’re all a little hung over from the iPad and iPhone OS 4.0 news. Plus it’s chilly and cloudy outside.
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm Phil Torrone etches flying toasters into his iPadNever ones to let any aluminum surface go unsullied, PT and Ladyada just etched their first iPad and it came out marvelously. These guys etch all sorts of things but their real claim to fame is in DIY electronics, of which their website offers in surfeit. Very cool stuff if you don’t mind voiding your warranty.
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:56 pm Creature Features Rule Syfy's Slate of Escapist FareThe cable channel formerly known as Sci Fi rolls out a weird mix of mega-monsters, freakified fairy tales and B-list stars in its summertime lineup. Up first: Mega Piranha, an original flick starring '80s singer Tiffany and Brady Bunch vet Barry Williams.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:45 pm Adobe: “Go Screw Yourself Apple”
The claws are out. Adobe’s Platform Evangelist, Lee Brimelow retaliated today against Apple blocking Flash developers on the iPhone with a post on his Flash Blog. Brimelow holds little back, lambasting the company for trying to exert a “tyrannical control over developers…more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe.” He says any real developer could not support Apple’s moves in “good conscience.”
Brimelow may not be explicitly calling for a boycott (although he is requesting a change in leadership— is he looking at you Jobs?). But he is issuing a call to arms to developers. The lines are clear: you either stand with us or against us and if you’re against us (and complicit in Apple’s policies) then you’re not a real developer. And if his sentiment wasn’t clear throughout the post, he caps it all off with: “Go Screw Yourself Apple.” I don’t expect Apple to respond directly to Brimelow’s rant— it’s not Adobe’s official statement (however, Adobe has clearly seen the post and filtered it: the second paragraph notes “[Sentence regarding Apple's intentions redacted at request from Adobe]“). Nevertheless, they are fighting words. The company must be furious that Apple is potentially locking it out of its products. The problem is there’s very little that Adobe can do besides stomp its feet. At the end of the day, Apple is not obligated to support Adobe’s developers. The software developer, for its part, is coming to terms with what this all could mean for their bottom line. In a 10-Q filing (released today) Adobe says:
UPDATE: They downplayed that “harm” in Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch’s formal response. Lynch says CS5 will thrive with or without Apple’s support. Loosely translated: guess what Apple, you don’t own innovation, watch your back.
Full Text of Brimelow’s blog: Apple Slaps Developers In The Face By now you have surely heard about the new iPhone 4.0 SDK language that appears to make creating applications in any non-Apple-approved languages a violation of terms. Obviously Adobe is looking into this wording carefully so I will not comment any further until there is an official conclusion. [Sentence regarding Apple's intentions redacted at request from Adobe]. This has nothing to do whatsoever with bringing the Flash player to Apple’s devices. That is a separate discussion entirely. What they are saying is that they won’t allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them. This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe. This does not just affect Adobe but also other technologies like Unity3D. I am positive that there are a large number of Apple employees that strongly disagree with this latest move. Any real developer would not in good conscience be able to support this. The trouble is that we will never hear their discontent because Apple employees are forbidden from blogging, posting to social networks, or other things that we at companies with an open culture take for granted. Adobe and Apple has had a long relationship and each has helped the other get where they are today. The fact that Apple would make such a hostile and despicable move like this clearly shows the difference between our two companies. All we want is to provide creative professionals an avenue to deploy their work to as many devices as possible. We are not looking to kill anything or anyone. This would be like us putting something in our SDK to make it impossible for 3rd-party editors like FDT to work with our platform. I can tell you that we wouldn’t even think or consider something like that. Many of Adobe’s supporters have mentioned that we should discontinue the Creative Suite products on OS X as a form of retaliation. Again, this is something that Adobe would never consider in a million years. We are not looking to abuse our loyal users and make them pawns for the sake of trying to hurt another company. What is clear is that Apple most definitely would do that sort of thing as is evidenced by their recent behavior. Personally I will not be giving Apple another cent of my money until there is a leadership change over there. I’ve already moved most of my book, music, and video purchases to Amazon and I will continue to look elsewhere. Now, I want to be clear that I am not suggesting you do the same and I’m also not trying to organize some kind of boycott. Me deciding not to give money to Apple is not going to do anything to their bottom line. But this is equivalent to me walking into Macy’s to buy a new wallet and the salesperson spits in my face. Chances are I won’t be buying my wallets at Macy’s anymore, no matter how much I like them. Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself Apple.
Comments disabled as I’m not interested in hearing from the Cupertino Comment SPAM bots. Information provided by CrunchBase Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:42 pm Organic Big Gulp, just in time for Earth DayJournalist Amy Westervelt found certified organic Big Gulps at a 7-11 in Berkeley. It seems to be only iced tea (sorry folks, no organic Slurpee yet), but it does remind me—the Guardian has a great ongoing series dedicated to exposing greenwashing. Source: Boing Boing | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:34 pm New Netflix deals mean more streaming movies but longer wait for 'Avatar,' other DVDs (Ben Patterson)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm Magnetic communicator could help rescuers talk through solid rock
Think about it. A compass can “see” magnetic north through the entire world, there have to be other ways to use such unique properties. As it turns out, a company called Ferro Solutions is working on a set of communication devices that allows for interference-free exchange of information — though it’s not clear what kind of bandwidth we’re looking at. The system relies on two or more stations being tuned to the same resonant frequency, and by a series of transduction elements, a radio signal can be converted into a series of magnetic oscillations, which would be detected by all devices on the same frequency. Could be useful for a lot of things — not least in the case of disasters, where rescue teams must stay in constant contact with the surface (and those in need of rescue) but often have a ton of interfering objects in the way. I’m looking forward to hearing more about this tech. [image: Popular Mechanics]
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm ITC^DeltaCom Closes Offering of $325 Million Aggregate Principal Amount of Senior Secured NotesHUNTSVILLE, Ala., April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ITC^DeltaCom, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm High-Speed Video Shows How Flies Change Direction So QuicklyHow flies manage to change direction superfast is revealed in a new high-speed video.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm Netflix to delay new releases from 2 studios - Los Angeles Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:27 pm iPhone OS 4.0 supports VOIPFROM APPLETELL - As one of the seven tent poles in Steve’s keynote today, Apple announced a new VOIP API. Users will now be able to receive calls even if the application using the VOIP isn’t in the foreground. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:15 pm Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh Reassures The Troops, Announces, Hints At New Secret Project
The full email is below. Also check out the interview Sarah Lacy did with Hsieh at our conference last year. —–Original Message—– While we’ll be sad to see Alfred go, I want to lay to rest some rumors that I’ve been hearing through the grapevine about the possibility of Fred and/or me leaving Zappos. As Fred likes to say, we’re just scratching the surface as to what Zappos can become, and the next several years are going to be very exciting as continue to grow Zappos, 6pm, our clothing business, and our other product lines. My book is set to launch June 7 and we’ve got some pretty cool stuff planned to take our culture to the next level, which I’ll be talking more about in future emails. Our business is growing at about 40% year over year, and our TV campaign is just getting started. We’ve got more momentum than we’ve ever had in the history of the company. It’s a super exciting time, and Fred and I wouldn’t miss it for the world! PS: Fred and I are also working on a secret long-term project together which, if everything works out, will be really really cool and amazing for Zappos. We’re still in the exploratory stages right now but we’re getting more excited about it as each day passes.      
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:09 pm Report: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld kept detainees in Gitmo whom they knew to be innocent, for political advantageDid George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld keep prisoners in Guantánamo whom they knew were innocent, for PR reasons? "Colonel Wilkerson, who was General Powell's chief of staff when he ran the State Department [...] claimed that former Vice-President [Cheney] and Defense Secretary [Rumsfeld] knew that the majority of the initial 742 detainees sent to Guantánamo in 2002 were innocent but believed that it was 'politically impossible to release them'." (via Nicholas Kristof)Source: Boing Boing | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:03 pm Nvidia GTX 400 series trickling out a few days early
Looks like the Nvidia GTX 400 series GPUs are starting to trickle onto various sites several days before the official release. Well, at least one big site. Take that paycheck and pump it right into Direct X 11 goodness~! The only card available right now is the GTX 470, the little brother to the GTX 480. (Or, in ATI terms, it’s the Radeon 5850 to the Radeon 5870.) It’s not even that expensive at $349. Video cards can easily go for twice as much. Cards from EVGA and Gigabyte are on Newegg. They’re not available to buy right now, but rather they’re on Auto-Notify duty. And now we wait for Crysis 2 to really test out these companies’ latest.
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:00 pm Patriot Scientific Corporation Releases Third Fiscal Quarter Report; Company Addresses Significant EventsCARLSBAD, Calif., April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Patriot Scientific Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: PTSC) today reported the filing of its report on Form 10-Q for its third fiscal 2010 quarter ended February 28, 2010. For the three and nine month periods ended February 28, 2010, the Company's revenues were $0.2 and $0.3 million, respectively, compared to $1.4 million and $4.6 million, respectively, for the same periods in the prior fiscal year.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:00 pm NII Holdings to Host Conference CallRESTON, Va., April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NII Holdings, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 2:00 pm Moongina The internet is weird. (thanks, Susannah Breslin)Source: Boing Boing | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:59 pm SIIA Software Division Announces New Board of DirectorsWASHINGTON, April 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal association representing the software and digital content industries, today announced the new members of its Software Division Board of Directors.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:49 pm Alfred Lin To Leave Zappos, Join Sequoia Capital
Lin isn’t leaving Zappos until the beginning of 2011. Here’s the email Lin sent to all employees at Zappos earlier today: Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:13:50 -0700 First, I’m sorry for letting you know all this information in an email. If it was doable, I would have preferred to speak to each of you personally, but that is sadly not really possible. The idea of thinking through whom I should tell first and in what order was also very agonizing. Being true to our core values, it is just a lot easier to be open and honest and let everyone know sooner rather than later. Although this still feels a little weird as I write this, we don’t shy away from weirdness at Zappos, so here it is… First, Rebecca (my wife and my true boss) and I are getting into the baby business. :) Rebecca’s now 9 weeks along and so far so good. I’ve learned more about the baby business than I would have even expected, like why, in general, you might not want to tell too many people until after the first 12 weeks. Or why, when a woman reaches a certain age, her pregnancy gets classified as a high-risk pregnancy. ;) (I am probably going to get hit over the head for that.) In any case, keep your fingers crossed and we are really delighted to share this happy news with all of you. Over the past 2 months, Rebecca and I have talked a lot more about what is important to us and what we should do as a family. It is the general stuff you talk about, but you may only talk about superficially until it hits you that you are actually going to be a parent. As agonizing as it is for us to come to this conclusion, we really believe that the right place for us as a family is to move back to the SF Bay Area and be closer to some of our extended family. To complicate the life discussions, if you had asked me 5 or 10 years ago what I am passionate about and what my higher purpose would be, I would have said that my calling is to help interpret the visions and dreams of entrepreneurs about how the world should be and help build businesses around those visions and dreams. So to that end, I wanted to be a venture capitalist and join Sequoia Capital. They’ve financed and helped built some really special and enormously successful companies, including Google, Yahoo, Paypal, YouTube, Cisco, Oracle, Apple, and also Zappos. I had explored joining them twice, but things never really worked out before. Recently, I went out to beers and then dinner with a few of their partners to catch up on life and in their inebriated state, they made the silly mistake of extending me a position on their team roster (although the envelope was actually marked “For Rebecca”). You might be shocked to read that I have decided to leave Zappos. It has been a hard decision, and I am still in a bit of a daze myself, but I am also very excited. I have learned so much from all of you along our journey and I am excited to put that knowledge to work to help finance and help build companies in the special ways we have built Zappos. So the silver lining is that hopefully Zappos will give birth to other very special and enormously successful companies. Tony, Fred and I have had a few conversations with some folks at Amazon and they are committed to helping us find the right person to fill my sample-size shoes (9D). As always with any Zappos employee, that person will, first and foremost, have to live and breathe the Zappos culture, and help continue the good work to build the Zappos brand, business, and culture, independent of Amazon. Now that the news is out, I also want to assure you that I am not going anywhere anytime soon. I’m committed to Tony, Fred, Amazon, and each and every one of you to making this a very smooth transition. To that end, I plan to stay at Zappos through January 3, 2011. Of course, this timeline may change, since our business continues to grow fast and each and every one of you do such an amazing job that I am sure the transition can and may be completed sooner. In any case, while parting is such sweet sorrow, it is not time to say our goodbyes yet. We have some work to do and always will…like taking first place in the Corporate Challenge relay tonight. Hope to see you there. Update: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh emails employees.      
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:48 pm Everything you must know about Standing Cat
Standing Cat has become quite the internet phenomenon in recent days. French internet culture journalist Aude Baron has been digging into the story behind this little guy, and writes, The cat's name is Rocky. He is 2 years old and his owners are French (Daisy and Yann). Rocky used to stand up because he couldn't see the birds through the windows, and wanted to, so he stood up. Why does he raise his leg in the middle of the video? Probably because there was a bird outside, according to Daisy, or maybe a dog wandering around. Rocky hates dogs.Video after the jump. Source: Boing Boing | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:48 pm OneRiot’s Realtime Ad Network RiotWise Goes Self-Service For Advertisers
OneRiot’s RiotWise system automatically matches an advertiser’s relevant content to trending topics on web. The platform is powered by OneRiot’s proprietary Trending Topics Forecast Algorithm (TTFA), which attempts to predict what topics will trend before they blow up on Twitter or Facebook or Google Trends. Given the “realtime relevance” of ads seen by users, OneRiot says the the click through rate is typically 3 to 4 times industry norms. To create a campaign, advertisers can now use OneRiot’s self-service portal and the advertiser does not need to bid for keywords or create marketing copy for ads to appear across OneRiot’s network. OneRiot indexes content as it is published by an advertiser, in realtime, on their website, blog or social media feed. OneRiot then extracts key words from that content and constructs relevant ads on-the-fly, matching to trending topics, linking directly to the relevant pages on the advertiser’s site. Meanwhile, OneRiot’s PulseRank algorithm constantly optimizes ad placement to ensure the most relevant ad appears to end user. Currently OneRiot’s trending ads, which are serving 400 million impressions per month, are being used on Twitter apps (ÜberTwitter), desktop clients (Digsby) search engines, and other realtime web applications.. OneRiot shares revenue with the application developer. As we’ve written in the past, OneRiot runs the risk of surfacing irrelevant or spammy content with realtime ads, especially is the ads are refreshing constantly to match trending topics. But as a realtime search engine, OneRiot has invested heavily in spam prevention and is constantly sorting through millions of pieces of content to determine what is relevant and what isn’t. For both advertiser and developers, seems like a viable tool. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:42 pm Zune HD 64GB available early
Everything else is true: the price is $349.99, the 64GB model is running firmware 4.5, and you can pick it up here, now. What wasn’t expected was that the 16GB version is now $200, and the 32GB version is now $270. Not a bad deal, eh?
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:20 pm Small, cheap, and not American: the next big thing in mobile"What if, globally speaking, the iPad is not the next big thing? What if the next big thing is small, cheap and not American?" Anand Giridharadas on the global possibilities involving cheap, accessible, simple cellphones for texting and voicing, "in an age when more humans have access to cellphones than clean toilets."Source: Boing Boing | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:09 pm More Flip Slide HD information revealed, could be priced at $279.99Section: Imaging, Camcorders  Its another day, and we have found another bit of information regarding the Flip Slide HD pocket camcorder. This latest information is coming from an image on an internal system at Best Buy and appears to reveal the model number and perhaps a little more important—the price and a release date. In short, it looks like the Flip Slide HD will be sporting a model number of S1240w and will be available as of April 18, 2010 for a price of $279.99. Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:08 pm To do in London Saturday: The Tweed RunIf you're in London this Saturday, you're in luck! You have an opportunity to witness 400 people dressed in Edwardian attire riding their bicycles about town. (via Matt Forsythe)Source: Boing Boing | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:02 pm PEMA Recognizes Emergency Dispatchers During National Public Safety Telecommunicator WeekCitizens Urged to Have Good Understanding of 9-1-1 Service HARRISBURG, Pa., April 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency is saluting the state's emergency dispatchers for their vital role in responding to emergency situations as part of National Public Safety Telecommunicator Week, April 11-17.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:02 pm iPhone OS 4TW? [Voices]By Nitrozac and Snaggy
Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:00 pm Bullet hell shooter Espgaluda II to be released for iPhone
Bullet hell shooting games (aka maniac shooters) are, according to Wikipedia, shoot ‘em ups “in which the entire screen is often almost completely filled with enemy bullets”. And one of these games is Espgaluda II, developed by Japan-based Cave, released for arcade machines back in 2005 and now one day away of seeing a release in the App Store. That’s right, the iPhone, not really suitable for such games (control-wise), gets a fast-paced 2D shooting game Japanese style. I am doubting the controls will be good, but the first videos and screenshots actually look quite cool. This appears to be much better than my favorite shooting game for the iPhone so far, Glandarius.
Espgaluda II is scheduled to appear in the App Store tomorrow (including a new “iPhone mode”) and will be initially priced at $4.99 (Cave will increase the price to $8.99 later). Too bad the game is compatible only to the 3GS and certain iPod touch models. Here’s a clip showing gameplay scenes:
Source: CrunchGear | 9 Apr 2010 | 1:00 pm Austrian Glaciers Shrunk In 2009The Austrian Alpine Association (OeAV) said Friday that about 90 percent of Austrian glaciers shrank in 2009, some by as much as 150 feet. The OeAV's report said 85 out of 96 glaciers shrunk over the past year.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:55 pm Soldier from "Collateral Murder" company speaks out"A lot of my friends are in that video. After watching the video, I would definitely say that that is, nine times out of ten, the way things ended up. Killing was following military protocol. It was going along with the rules as they are. If these videos shock and revolt you, they show the reality of what war is like. If you don't like what you see in them, it means we should be working harder towards alternatives to war."—Josh Stieber, identified by commondreams.org as a veteran soldier of the same Company depicted in the Iraq killing video released this week by Wikileaks.Source: Boing Boing | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:49 pm Twitter Fills Its First Hole With An Official BlackBerry App
Now, we’ve known that this application was coming for a long time — we gave out beta keys and reviewed it in Feburary. But looking back, all of the language around this was that it was RIM’s application — RIM was the one pitching us on the news, and there wasn’t any mention that this was endorsed by Twitter. That’s no longer the case. In its blog post, Twitter says that it has been “working closely with RIM to deliver the official Twitter app…”. This is important, because Twitter has long thrived on its developer community. Third party applications like Tweetie, Seesmic, TweetDeck, Twitterific, and many, many others have brought the service to the desktop and mobile platforms. And myriad Twitter-oriented image and link shortening services have taken off as well. If Twitter is going to start endorsing offical versions of these applications, you can expect some signficant backlash. Other BlackBerry Twitter apps included UberTwitter and Seesmic. We’ve reached out to Twitter to ask if they have plans to endorse applications on other platforms.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:39 pm Rumors of RIM buying big touchscreens spark further rumors of tablet plans
If they did buy up a few touchscreens, then what? It’d be the first indications of a large, innovative company toying around with the idea of a tablet device. Perhaps after playing with an iPad and seeing Microsoft pushing tablets hard via third parties, RIM felt they may as well see if they could whip up something internally that was of any potential utility to their users. As it stands, though, there’s no real evidence that this order actually took place, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we never hear anything more about it.
Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:24 pm Geek coasters with electronic component symbols in the Boing Boing Bazaar
This extraordinarily geeky set of six drink coasters will set you back $9.99 Alan Parekh of Winnipeg makes these sweet component-symbol coasters from 1/4" plywood, sealed with polyurethane varnish. Ten bucks gets a set of six: resistor R1, inductor L2, LED D3, capacitor C4, transistor Q5, and ground GND. Good-looking, clever, and easy on the wallet.Electronic Component Coaster Set
Previously:
Source: Boing Boing | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:19 pm Dalai Lama Becomes Target of Cyber EspionageEven the Dalai Lama isn't safe from hackers. Unknown cyber spies, most them operating from computer servers located in the People's Republic of China, used cloud computing systems, social networking platforms and free web hosting services to steal sensitive and ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:05 pm Palm stock continues to climb, all thanks to the Rumor Mill
Two days ago, something crazy happened: after spiraling downward for almost a year, Palm’s stock finally started to climb thanks to a rumor that Lenovo was considering snatching the injured company up. We expected things to level off pretty quickly — and they did, at a growth of right around 20% with a going price of about $4.60 per share. Today, even more fuel has been thrown on to the fire.
Early this morning, a Chinese economics/investing site threw another name into the mix of possible suitors: HTC. Given HTC’s many recent successes, that was bound to get the investors excited – and it did. Jump forward to right this second, and Palm’s sitting at right around $5.20, or a 33% increase over what they were at before the climb began. They’re still nowhere near the $17.39 peak they were at earlier this year, but they’re inching closer and closer to the $6.14 mark they were at before they started warning people that their Q3 results weren’t going to be too hot. What do you think: did the rumor mill light a long lasting fire beneath the butts of Palm investors, or is this just a temporary spike? Palm’s Stock Ticker on Google Finance
Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:03 pm Lockheed Martin Backs Year of Nano at RiceBETHESDA, Md., April 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and Rice University are celebrating the 25th anniversary of a breakthrough that has advanced technology in fields from medicine to baseball.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:02 pm France Steps Up France Télécom Suicides Probe [Voices]By Max Cochester, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal French prosecutors have ordered a preliminary criminal investigation into allegations that management practices at France Télécom SA (FTE) led several employees of the telecommunications giant to commit suicide in recent years. An investigative magistrate will be appointed next week to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to bring France Télécom to trial for “moral harassment,” a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor said Friday. Prosecutors are acting on a complaint for “moral harassment” filed in December by Sud PTT, one of France Télécom’s main labor unions. The union lodged the complaint after the telecommunications company said that 35 of its employees had taken their own lives between 2008 and 2009. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm Global Crossing to Participate in Goldman Sachs TMT Leveraged Finance ConferenceFLORHAM PARK, N.J., April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GLBC), a leading global IP solutions provider, today announced that it will participate in the Goldman Sachs Inaugural TMT Leveraged Finance Conference to present the company's strategy and review its financial performance. Global Crossing's presentation will begin at 2:30 p.m.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm Dice Holdings, Inc. to Report First Quarter 2010 ResultsNEW YORK, April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Dice Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) today announced it will host a conference call to discuss first quarter 2010 financial results on Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Hosting the call will be Scot W.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm How will iAds change the iPhone app user experience?FROM APPLETELL - Today, Apple CEO announced “iAds,” part of iPhone OS 4. And for the first time while watching an Apple product announcement, I felt sick to my stomach. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 11:58 am Sure, the iPad Is Cool. But Have You Played With Dell's "Streak"? [MediaMemo]
I’ve heard anecdotal reports from media types who are lukewarm about the forthcoming HP (HPQ) tablet. But here’s a rave mini-review for Dell’s (DELL) Streak from Greg Clayman, who runs digital for Viacom’s (VIA) MTV Networks:
All the important caveats: Clayman’s thumbs-up isn’t an official Viacom endorsement. And even if everyone at Viacom loves the thing, it doesn’t mean the cable programmer is going to let you watch lots of its shows for free on the thing. In fact, it probably won’t. And past performance does not guarantee future results, and objects in mirror are closer than they appear, etc., etc. [Streak image via Engadget.] Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 11:57 am 'Career Opportunity' Cited as Key Reason Technology Professionals Move to South FloridaBOCA RATON, Fla., April 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Boca Raton-based Information Technology (IT) search and staffing specialist, PROTECH, just released its "2010 South Florida Tech Talent Survey" results.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 11:42 am Who’s on Crack in Tech 4.9.10Section: Features, Originals, Columns, Who's On Crack
They didn’t get the memo? Apple not changing notifications?Really? Let’s face it, the notification system on the iPhone is annoying and outdated at best. Like an only child, the notification demands your attention and response before your allowed to go back to your app. It’s weak and is beat by every other OS out there. Palm’s webOS and Google’s Android offer much elegant solutions, alerts that limit themselves to the bottom or top of the screen allowing you to deal with them as you wish, not when the OS demands it. It’s no secret, bloggers have been harping on this for years, yet still no improvement? Clearly, Apple put lots more resources into wallpapers (wha?) and iBook for iPhone. That is what users were demanding, “please Apple, give us yet another ebook reader app and wall paper.” I can’t think of more inconsequential changes. And to use them as tentpoles? These two tidbits wouldn’t hold up sheet of toilet paper, much less a tent.
Ebook readers everywhere.News came this week that ebook readers are expanding. No not in size but in distribution. Target will get the Kindle and Best Buy the Nook. Are these products big enough to make a hit at big retailers? I’ve always seen the ebook reader market as a niche - one that maxes out with folks who like to read and are tech savvy. By definition, these folks are comfortable (to an extent) to purchase devices online. So moving them to mass market retailers like Target and Best Buy while allowing more touch and feel should have little real impact for the company. Throw them an impulse buy bone now and again but those that consume content have already made the move. That doesn’t even take into consideration the iPad effect. Amazon is begining a new ad push but for many it seems like a much smaller product with a much smaller draw than something like the iPad. Shopper: “Where can I find the ebook readers?”
HP still touchy after all this timeHP has been at the touch game for some time. From their touchscreen laptop “tablets” to touch screen home computers to touch screen commercial applications, they’ve been all over the place. The company has done a keen job of putting a touch friendly UI over Windows that seemed to fight it every step of the way. Consumers just don’t seem to want to reach out and touch their desktops. Now with the Slate, HP may find success. Our Robert Nelson wrote, “in short, the HP Slate seems like it will be a device worth looking forward to seeing.” From the promo video, it looks almost Applish in elegance, but grounded in Windows-do-what-you-like (USB,SD cards, cameras, etc.). Could they have a hit, finally? I am anxious to see it. How about you?
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 11:33 am Scientists Exploring The Origins of Ocean 'Supervolcanoes'Ancient goliaths blamed for multiple mass extinctions"Supervolcanoes" have been blamed for multiple mass extinctions in Earth's history, but the cause of their massive eruptions is unknown.Despite their global impact, the eruptions' origin and triggering mechanisms have remained unexplained. New data obtained during a recent Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) expedition in the Pacific Ocean may provide clues to unlocking this mystery.To explore the origins of these seafloor giants, scientists drilled into a large, 145 million-year-old underwater volcanic mountain chain off the coast of Japan.IODP Expedition 324: Shatsky Rise Formation took place onboard the scientific ocean drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution from September 4 to November 4, 2009. Preliminary results of the voyage are emerging."'Supervolcanoes' emitted large amounts of gases and particles into the atmosphere, and re-paved the ocean floor," says Rodey Batiza, marine geosciences section head in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Ocean Sciences, which co-funded the research.The result?"Loss of species, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and changes in ocean circulation," says Batiza.In fall 2009, an international team of scientists participating in IODP Expedition 324 drilled five sites in the ocean floor. They studied the origin of the 145 million-year-old Shatsky Rise volcanic mountain chain.Located 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) east of Japan, Shatsky Rise measures roughly the size of California.This underwater mountain chain is one of the largest supervolcanoes in the world: the top of Shatsky Rise lies three and a half kilometers (about two miles) below the sea's surface, while its base plunges to nearly six kilometers (four miles) beneath the surface.Shatsky Rise is composed of layers of hardened lava, with individual lava flows that are up to 23 meters (75 feet) thick."Seafloor supervolcanoes are characterized by the eruption of enormous volumes of lava," says William Sager of Texas A&M University, who led the expedition with co-chief scientist Takashi Sano of Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo. "Studying their formation is critical to understanding the processes of volcanism, and the movement of material from Earth's interior to its surface."About a dozen supervolcanoes exist on Earth; some are on land, while others lie at the bottom of the ocean. Those found on the seafloor are often referred to as large oceanic plateaus.Current scientific thinking suggests that these supervolcanoes were caused by eruptions over a period of a few million years or less--a rapid pace in geologic time.Each of these supervolcanoes produced several million cubic kilometers of lava--about three hundred times the volume of all the Great Lakes combined--dwarfing the volume of lava produced by the largest present-day volcanoes in places like Hawaii.Since the 1960s, geologists have debated the formation and origin of these large oceanic plateaus. The mystery lies in the origin of the magma, molten rock that forms within the Earth.A magma source rising from deep within the Earth has a different chemical composition than magma that forms just below Earth's crust. Some large oceanic plateaus show signs of a deep-mantle origin. Others exhibit chemical signatures indicative of magma from a much shallower depth.The IODP Shatsky Rise expedition focused on deciphering the relationship between supervolcano formation and the boundaries of tectonic plates, crucial to understanding what triggers supervolcano formation.A widely-accepted explanation for oceanic plateaus is that they form when magma in the form of a "plume head" rises from deep within the Earth to the surface.An alternative theory suggests that large oceanic plateaus can originate at the intersection of three tectonic plates, known as a "triple junction."Shatsky Rise could play a key role in this debate, because it formed at a triple junction. However, it also displays characteristics that could be explained by the plume head model."Shatsky Rise is one of the best places in the world to study the origin of supervolcanoes," says Sager. "What makes Shatsky Rise unique is that it's the only supervolcano to have formed during a time when Earth's magnetic field reversed frequently."This process creates "magnetic stripe" patterns in the seafloor. "We can use these magnetic stripes to decipher the timing of the eruption," says Sager, "and the spatial relationship of Shatsky Rise to the surrounding tectonic plates and triple junctions."Sediments and microfossils collected during the expedition indicate that parts of the Shatsky Rise plateau were at one time at or above sea level, and formed an archipelago during the early Cretaceous period (about 145 million years ago).Shipboard lab studies show that much of the lava erupted rapidly, and that Shatsky Rise formed at or near the equator.As analyses continue, data collected during this expedition will help scientists resolve the 50 year-old debate about the origin and nature of large oceanic plateaus.The JOIDES Resolution is one of the primary research vessels of IODP, an international marine research program dedicated to advancing scientific understanding of the Earth through drilling, coring, and monitoring the subseafloor. The vessel is operated by the U.S. Implementing Organization of IODP, consisting of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Texas A&M University, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.IODP is supported by two lead agencies: the U.S. National Science Foundation and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology.Additional program support comes from the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD), the Australian-New Zealand IODP Consortium (ANZIC), India's Ministry of Earth Sciences, the People's Republic of China (Ministry of Science and Technology), and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources.---Image 1: JOIDES Resolution departing from Yokohama, Japan, on the Shatsky Rise expedition. Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMUImage 2: Chad Broyles, Jorg Geldmacher, Takashi Sano and Will Sager look at a Shatsky Rise core. Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMUImage 3: Geologist Chad Broyles studies a rock core aboard the JOIDES Resolution. Credit: John Beck, IODP/TAMUSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Apr 2010 | 11:30 am Cellulosic Ethanol: Expanding Options, Identifying ObstaclesImage Caption: ARS microbiologist Ken Bischoff has developed a shake-flask model to simulate the bacterial outbreaks that can contaminate ethanol plants and cut yields as much as 27 percent. Photo by Stephen Ausmus.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Apr 2010 | 11:08 am Let's Go to the Videotape: Before Adobe and Apple Went All Gosselin on Us! [BoomTown]
It’s quite a feat, but Apple and Adobe are actually making the fighting between Kate and Jon Gosselin look tame by comparison. To recap: In February, BoomTown paid a visit to Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch to talk about the software company, including its brewing war with Apple over its popular Flash video technology. In essence, Apple CEO Steve Jobs had called Adobe’s flagship software crap. Indeed, after Apple (AAPL) introduced the iPad tablet in January without Flash Player technology, which Apple also kept out of the iPod and iPhone, Jobs dissed Adobe (ADBE) as “lazy” at an employee meeting. Also, said Jobs, the company had let Flash become a buggy security nightmare and resource hairball.
During my interview, Lynch soft-pedaled the tech tussle and promised that Adobe was working hard with Apple to resolve the issues, as any tech couple might. Unfortunately for Lynch and Abode, the conflict got a lot worse yesterday, when Apple went all Jon Gosselin and escalated the battle by adding new rules for developers that freeze out Adobe. As MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka noted: “Apple is preventing Adobe from using a tool that will port applications created in Flash to Apple’s iPhone and iPad operating systems….Adobe has been pointing to that workaround as its answer to Apple’s anti-Flash campaign, arguing that developers could create programs that work on most of the Web as well as Apple’s platforms. Now it appears that Steve Jobs and company are forcing developers to choose: Our way or no way.” And Adobe was forced to acknowledge the potential damage in a filing yesterday: “To the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed.” You think? At times like this, it’s a good idea to look back at where it all went wrong, so here’s the video of the interview I did with Lynch about the way they were. (I’m asking him for another, natch!) [ See post to watch video ] Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 11:05 am Final Days To Enter Jackson Hewitt(R) 'Big Check' Tax Refund Tale ContestPARSIPPANY, N.J., April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Jackson Hewitt Tax Service®, reminds taxpayers to log on to Facebook to enter its 'Big Check' contest where taxpayers are submitting their plans for how they will put their income tax refund to use this year.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 9 Apr 2010 | 11:00 am Shields Up!: A look at the privacy controls at the major social networking sitesSection: Computers, Security, Features
However, along with their popularity come concerns about privacy and security and with good reason. By their very nature social networking sites encourage the sharing of personal info, and while in most cases this is beneficial and safe, scammers know the huge audiences these sites command and do everything they can to take advantage of them. Another issue with these sites has been with their invite policies. In the past sites like Classmates and Reunion.com have gotten in hot water with their shady invite system, which didn’t clearly inform members that their entire address book would be sent invites nor allow them to opt out of doing so. So how are the top social networking sites doing? Here’s a look, complete with grades: Facebook: This is currently the king of social networking sites with over 400,000 million members. At one time I would have given them an A+ for their privacy and email features but that changed earlier this year when they revamped their privacy tools, and not for the better. Previously users could chose exactly what information they wanted to share with the world, but after the revamp they discovered they were forced to show their profile photo, location, and all the pages and groups they are a member of. This didn’t go over well with many members, especially those who used photos of their children as their profile photos. They’ve also started indexing posts made to fan pages and groups on Google in real time. Facebook members who are members of 12 step groups and other types of support groups on the site aren’t happy about that. Their invite feature is solid however-it won’t automatically spam your contact list, and they’ve cracked down on the flood of app spam as well. Rouge apps are still a big problem thanks to their lax app vetting. B+ MySpace: The granddaddy of them all has seen better days, but the site is still going strong and is still popular with musicians and bands. The site has excellent privacy tools that allow you to custom tailor who you want to see your page, what on your page you want them to see, and what types of people and groups you will accept invites from. You can also opt out of every type of mailing and notification MySpace offers if you want. The site itself may be in need of an overhaul but their privacy tools are top notch. A Tagged: At one time Tagged had found itself in the midst of a PR mess and several lawsuits as a result of its shady invite process, which repeatedly spammed the address books of its users. Hi5: This site is extremely popular in Latin America and claims to be the third most popular social networking site in the world. Unfortunately it has a long ugly history of sending spam invites-in fact after you register you are presented with a nag screen asking you to “check your address book” by giving the site your email address and password. A drop down list reveals it’s prepared to check just about every popular webmail service and ISP. Users who hand over the info promptly spam everyone in their address books with invites to the service. It does offer privacy tools for profiles and email preferences but the spam invites leave a bad taste in one’s mouth. In tiny print they say they won’t contact your friends without your permission, but experience and the tons of complaints a Google search turned up say otherwise. D Bebo- This site, whose name stands for “Blog Early, Blog Often” is currently owned by AOL. I can’t say much about there privacy standards because their registration tool is broken. No matter what email address I used it returned an “Email can not be used” error. I tried Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and Roadrunner addresses before I gave up. F LinkedIn- This is by far the best site for those that are serious about the networking part of social networking. It’s a quieter, more refined version of Facebook minus the distractions of Farmville, Mafia Wars, videos, and app invites. Users have an in-depth business profile showcasing their past and present employers/positions, and a wealth of social groups to interact with others in their field. Like other sites it offers you the chance to invite friends but there is a very clear and easy to see “Skip This” link and you’re not asked again. The only emails the site sends are a weekly update of your contacts’ activity and notifications that someone has invited you to join their network, and they can be turned off if you wish. (If you join any groups you may receive messages from them as well-it’s left up to you) Unlike other social networking sites it allows you to completely block your profile from public view, or decide exactly what info to share if you do make it public. This is a top notch site all the way. A+ Social networking is exploding in popularity, and that means more and more people will be using it to share personal information and connect with others. This makes privacy an increasingly important subject and one I hope these sites will either continue to make a priority or begin to. After all, the success of these sites depends on the willingness of users to trust them with large amounts of personal info. If they misuse this trust they will find themselves sinking fast. Spam belongs in the grocery aisle, not in our inboxes. Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:44 am Identity Thieves Filed for $4 Million in Tax Refunds Using Names of Living and DeadA group of sophisticated identity thieves manage to steal millions of dollars by filing bogus tax returns using the names and Social Security numbers of other people, many of them deceased, according to a 74-count indictment unsealed in Arizona.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:30 am iChat coming to iPhone OS 4.0?
Screenshots over at TUAW show that iChatAgent — a background process in OS X that’s responsible for keeping iChat happy — is running as a service on iPhone OS 4.0. Now, iChat doesn’t necessarily mean video chat, but with support for video conferencing likely on future revisions of the iPad, it isn’t too big a stretch of the imagination to have it on the next iPhone, too. A front-facing camera is an oft-requested feature for the iPhone, and with Android devices becoming more powerful and more prolific (hello, EVO 4G!), expect Apple to do all it can to show up the competition with some hot hardware this Summer.
Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:29 am Video: Hackers Jailbreak iPhone OS 4 in Less Than a DayApple released the iPhone OS 4 beta less than 24 hours ago, and already hackers have jailbroken the new operating system. In the video above, Eric McDonald, better known as “MuscleNerd” of the iPhone Dev Team, demonstrates an iPhone running OS 4 with Cydia installed. Cydia is the underground app store only accessible with jailbroken iPhones — that is, iPhones that have been hacked with software to free them of some of Apple’s restrictions. Some third-party developers have opted to distribute their software through Cydia after their apps were rejected by Apple. In light of Apple’s new iPhone developer agreement, Adobe developers might just have to turn to Cydia to get their apps onto the iPhone. Apple’s revised agreement stipulates that iPhone apps must be originally coded with Objective-C, the language used in the iPhone SDK. That implies Apple will reject any app coded in a different language and automatically converted into a native iPhone app. The new rule is especially bad news for Adobe, who is touting a tool called Packager for the iPhone, which enables Flash developers to easily port their software into iPhone apps. Apple will release iPhone OS 4 this summer for iPhone and iPod Touch customers. For iPad owners, the OS will be available fall. See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:26 am Space Skydiver Suit RevealedAustrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner wants to attempt a record-breaking free fall from 120,000 feet above the Earth. It's not the kind of jump a person can do with a conventional sky-diving suit and helmet. After all, Baumgartner will break the ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:24 am ThredUP: Making Hand-Me-Downs Go Viral [Voices]By Geoffrey A. Fowler, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal Moms have swapped hand-me-down clothes with friends and relatives for years. Now a startup called startup ThredUP is trying to use the Internet to automate the process of sharing used kids’ clothes between people who don’t know each other. ThredUP, which formally launches its free site this weekend, bills itself as a hybrid between DVD-rental service Netflix (NFLX) and second-hand tickets marketplace StubHub. Parents with extra clothes log them on the site, which coordinates and manages the exchanges and shipping. Here’s how it works: A parent with a pile of outgrown but “gently used” kids’ clothes registers for the site to get free shipping boxes in the mail. Then he or she enters a few facts about all the used clothes they place in each box, like the age of the kids that can wear them, the season, and a few brand names. That box gets logged on the site, where another mom or dad looking for some clothes might find it fits their needs. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:01 am Juniper's Kevin Johnson Talks about Network Overload, the iPad and More! [BoomTown]
When he was president of Microsoft’s Platforms and Services division, Kevin Johnson thought of all kinds of ways to load the Internet up to the gills. Now, as CEO of networking giant Juniper Networks (JNPR), Johnson spends his time trying to figure out how to stop the Web’s runaway growth–especially with the surge of video and mobile broadband use–from grinding it to a halt. At a series of recent industry conferences, such as the Mobile World Congress in Spain, Johnson has been trying to noise. One report was even titled, “The Internet Breaking Point: Why Economics Threatens Everything.” Of course, Johnson also knows this is an opportunity for Juniper. In any case, with the debut last week of the Apple (AAPL) iPad, a device that–win or lose–is heralding in an era of even heavier media consumption by consumers and businesses, BoomTown thought Johnson would be a good person to reflect on this key trend. Because if the plumbing gets clogged, the magical abilities of all these kinds of product innovations becomes moot. It’s an industry concern. Recently, Juniper rival Cisco (CSCO) unveiled a next-generation routing system to speed up Web video. At Microsoft (MSFT), you might recall, Johnson was key point man in its bid to acquire Yahoo (YHOO), and he moved to Juniper after that effort failed. Here’s the video of my interview with Kevin Johnson at his offices in Silicon Valley: [ See post to watch video ] Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 10:00 am Video: Okay, now the iPhone OS 4.0 Beta has been jailbrokenLate last night, we put up a post debunking the idea going around the Bloggerdom that the iPhone OS 4.0 Beta had already been jailbroken, because, well, it hadn’t. But now it has. MuscleNerd, a member of the notoriously wonderful iPhone DevTeam, pushed the above video out to YouTube this morning. What you’re looking at: that’s a VNC server running on iPhone OS 4.0, allowing MuscleNerd to remotely connect, view, and control it via his computer. Even with iPhone OS’ new found multitasking abilities, that’s something the iPhone just can’t do by default. There’s little reason to doubt the authenticity of this video; MuscleNerd is amongst the most established members of the iPhone hacking community, and isn’t really known for messing around. While it’s exciting to see, remember: this is Beta software. Apple’s presumably leaving whatever security holes they know about open in the Beta for the same reason the development team isn’t releasing the details of their most recently discovered exploits (including this one) until iPhone OS 4.0 is available to all: it’s a game of cat and mouse. The mouse doesn’t want to tell the cat where he’s hiding his cheese, and the cat doesn’t want the mouse to know whether or not she already knows.
Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:44 am 30 million cellphones to go silent in MexicoSection: Communications, Cellular Providers, Mobile
America Movil, the nationals largest wireless provider, expects this law to cost them $10 million per day if the 30 million lines are cut. Many who rely solely on a cell phone but have not submitted the required information may see their only lifeline cut. The government is executing a media blitz in effort to make everyone aware of the looming shutdown of service for unregistered phones. Mexico has 84 million cell phones operating within it’s borders. So far, senators have refused to push back the deadline though a last-ditch effort could still be mounted. The ploy is a new take on combating violence by the Mexican government. Though, the argument has been made that enacting a law only affects the law-abiding. Read: [Reuters]
Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 9 Apr 2010 | 9:38 am Tens of Millions of Mexicans May be Left Phoneless Come Saturday
Come Saturday, that 12 months will be up, and despite radio and television commercials urging mobile phone users to register their name and address via text message, around 30 million lines are still unregistered. There is a push from telcos to have the deadline extended by a further 12 months, but senators have thus far refused requests to do so. Naturally, this is bad news for both the users who haven’t registered and the telcos. 30 million disconnected subscribers equates to a lotta lost dollars: an estimated $10 million per day for their largest provider, America Movil. Another major player in the Mexican telco market, Telefonica, plans to maintain services despite the authority’s weekend deadline, stating that telecommunications are of public interest, protected by the constitution. Do I smell a standoff? [Via Reuters]
Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:50 am Rewiring Of Gene Regulation Across 300 Million Years Of EvolutionAs published today in Science, researchers from Cambridge, Glasgow and Greece have discovered a remarkable amount of plasticity in how transcription factors, the proteins that bind to DNA to control the activation of genes, maintain their function over large evolutionary distances.The text books tell us that transcription factors recognize the genes that they regulate by binding to short, sequence-specific lengths of DNA upstream or downstream of their target genes.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:38 am How Good Is Tiger Woods? Mathematician Provides a NumberHow much does Tiger Woods dominate golf? A mathematician provides an exact answer.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:35 am HTC Incredible gets rendered, looks incredible
We can’t say for sure whether this is an actual leak or the work of an overly talented individual with just the right amount of time on their hands. Either way, the above render is the most gloriously high resolution look at the Verizon-bound HTC Incredible Android wunderphone that we’ve been blessed with so far. I got to see this thing in person for an oh-so-fleeting moment a few weeks back, under a “Look with your eyes, not with your hands (or your camera), before I put this back in my pocket and pretend I never had it out” agreement. From what I recall, this render is more or less spot on. The only discrepancy I’m spotting: the model I saw had a ring around the optical trackpad, similar to the ones found on the HTC Desire and Nexus One. If the final Incredible ends up not having that same ring, I’d be pretty surprised.
Source: MobileCrunch | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:33 am Too Hot to Handle: Hip-Mounted Coffee-HolderI Now, it’s not all bad. If the idea of a flimsy paper cup shaking on your hip terrifies you (and it should) then consider some alternative uses. Carrying a bottle of mineral water on a hike through the city would be a practical if dorky idea. And keeping a can of your favorite beer at your waist whilst speeding through downtown traffic on a brakeless fixed-gear bike is clearly a fantastic idea. To this end, the Beltclip comes with a koozie included in the price. For those who don’t know what a koozie is (including me, up until Wikipedia told me a moment ago), it is an insulating cover for canned-drinks, usually fashioned from neoprene. Australians will know it as a “stubby-holder”, a much better name. It will keep the PBR cool and also stop it slipping from your belt and being crushed under an onrushing automobile. So, if you can’t go anywhere without having a weak and watery bucket of Starbucks at your side, or if suicide-by-drunken-cycling is your game, head over to Drinkclip and grab one of the multi-colored holders. Beltclip [Drinkclip via Book of Joe] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:06 am "Up" Movie Dinosaur Mystery SolvedA mystery surrounding drawings of dinosaurs spotted in a B-roll still for the Pixar movie "Up" has just been solved.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:04 am Readers Give Google Bike Maps 'A' for Effort, 'B-' for ExecutionThe beta will show you how to get around town, but if you aren't careful you could end up as a hood ornament or in Secret Service custody.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 8:00 am Music's Digital Sales Boom Comes to an End [MediaMemo]
Nielsen SoundScan says the drop was either one percent or .09 percent, depending on how you count, so this isn’t the bottom falling out. But it does look like a peak, and it has been in the works for some time. Earlier this year, Warner Music Group (WMG) pointed out that it was seeing its digital sales slow and argued that one reason was because the industry had raised prices on most of its songs at Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes store in 2009. That thinking is now pervasive across the industry, Billboard notes: “While consumers will still buy hit songs for $1.29, it seems that catalog tracks priced at that level are not selling as well as they were at 99 cents.” But you could also make the case that digital tracks were going to decline anyway and that the industry is better off squeezing every penny it can. And if you want to try to find a silver lining here, you could argue that since song sales are slipping, there’s no reason for the industry not to support rental/subscription models like Spotify, Rhapsody and MOG by cutting their licensing fees. But I wouldn’t bet on that happening soon. Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:54 am Honest Deer Every YearThe vocalizations or ‘groans’ of male fallow deer provide rivals and potential mates with an honest account of the emitting animal’s competitive abilities.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:50 am Researchers Decode Fungal Genome With New TechniqueFungi: major ecological and economic importanceWith an estimated 1.5 to 6 million species which form their own kingdom alongside plants and animals, the importance of fungi can hardly be overestimated: some grow on dead organic matter, help in the decomposition of plant and animal waste products and thus contribute to the global carbon cycle. Others are important as pathogens, and many fungi are used in biotechnology, to produce antibiotics, enzymes or foodstuffs. In addition, fungi have for decades played a major role in fundamental research when it comes to identifying genetic factors that are also important in other organisms such as humans. “This is due, among other things, to the fact that although fungal genomes are about 100 times smaller than the human genome – 40 million base pairs in the genome of Sordaria macrospora, 3,000 million in the human genome - they still encode a similarly large number of genes: approximately 11,000 genes in Sordaria macrospora, about 25,000 in humans”, explained Prof. Kück. The first genome of a eukaryote, which was fully sequenced in1996, was that of the unicellular fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae, known as baker's or brewer's yeast. This took ~600 researchers six years.New sequencing techniques: assembling many tiny building blocksBecause of its complexity, until recently, genome sequencing was extremely expensive and usually the reserve of specialized sequencing and bioinformatics institutes. Some years ago, however, “next generation” techniques were developed that significantly reduce costs by using high-throughput methods. All techniques, including the previously used standard techniques (Sanger sequencing), deliver sequence reads with a maximum of 1,000 base pairs. For this reason, genome sequences always have to be assembled from many individual sequences. The new techniques deliver considerably more sequences than Sanger sequencing in the same time, however the individual reads are considerably shorter (36 to 450 base pairs). In order to be able to piece together these short reads to form a genome, newly developed programs on powerful computers are required. Bochum’s researchers have used the servers of the RUB data centre to assemble the Sordaria macrospora genome out of nearly 100 million individual sequences. “The methods thus developed will be of great significance in future training programs for master and Ph.D. students and thus provide up to date practical courses with a focus on bioinformatics” explained Prof. Kück.Surprises in the genome of Sordaria macrosporaThe genome sequence of Sordaria macrospora had a number of surprises in store for the researchers: the genome contains multiple copies of genes which serve in other fungi to distinguish between “self” and “non-self”, analogous to the rejection of foreign tissue in medical transplants. Unlike Sordaria macrospora, other fungi only have one copy of these genes in their genomes. The presence of multiple copies inevitably leads to incompatibility reactions, which in serious cases result in the death of the affected cells. How Sordaria macrospora copes with several of these gene copies in one genome is still unclear. Furthermore, the genome of Sordaria macrospora contains several genes that were probably taken over by means of “horizontal gene transfer” from another, only very distantly related fungus, and which expand the biochemical repertoire of Sordaria macrospora.International cooperation and various sponsorsA collaboration of researchers from eight universities in four countries, led by Dr. Minou Nowrousian and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kück (Department of General and Molecular Botany) made the implementation of this project possible. Thus, the DNA for the sequencing was isolated in Bochum, and DNA sequencing in the USA and Germany led to the sequence data, from which the corresponding genome sequence was assembled. Researchers from Bochum (Dr. Minou Nowrousian, Dr. Ines Engh, Dr. Jens Kamerewerd and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Kück) and research groups from the USA, England and France were involved in the bioinformatic analysis. The project was made possible by funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the framework of the SFB480 (chair Ulrich Kück), by individual project funding from the DFG, as well as funding from the Protein Research Department (PRD, chair Klaus Gerwert).Reference: Nowrousian M, Stajich JE, Chu M, Engh I, Espagne E, Halliday K, Kamerewerd J, Kempken F, Knab B, Kuo HC, Osiewacz HD, Pöggeler S, Read ND, Seiler S, Smith KM, Zickler D, Kück U, Freitag M (2010). De novo assembly of a 40 Mb eukaryotic genome from short sequence reads: Sordaria macrospora, a model organism for fungal morphogenesis. PLoS Genetics 6 (4): e1000891. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000891---Image Caption: Young fruiting bodies and vegetative hyphae of the fungus Sordaria macrospora. © illustration: Kathryn M. Lord, Sandra Bloemendal, Chris E. Jeffree, Ulrich Kück, Nick D. ReadSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:45 am IPhone OS 4.0 Hints at Front-Facing Camera
Barely a day after Apple introduced iPhone OS 4 and made a beta available to developers, details have begun to trickle out about the new multi-tasking operating system. One enterprising reader of The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) ran system monitoring tool iStat on an iPhone running v4 and came up with the screenshot above. Most of it looks fairly unassuming, but iChat is new, and the folks at TUAW make a huge leap form here, assuming that iChat equals front-facing camera “It seems unlikely that Apple would merely introduce an instant messaging app without support for video conferencing,” they write. I remain unconvinced. First, why run a chat daemon at all if there is no camera present. Second, iChat is not just a video-conferencing app. And third, who wants it anyway? The iPad could do with a webcam for making Skype calls (although an actual rear-facing camera on the iPad seems plain stupid on such a big device), but the iPhone? Who really wants to video-conference on a tiny screen? It would be a novelty at best. I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that a front-facing camera is the FM-radio of its day. Every iPod competitor put one in, and everyone thought Apple would eventually include one in the iPod. It took almost ten years to arrive (and you can bet that nobody uses the radio in the Nano). IChat? Sure. iSight? Nah. iChatAgent process shows up in iPhone OS 4.0 — video conferencing coming? [TUAW] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:25 am E-Books Too Expensive? Behold: The $20 DIY Book ScannerLet Amazon and the publishing elite fight over the $10 e-book. Who needs'em? With $20, a lot of time on your hands, and perhaps excruciatingly low expectations you can rip your entire collection of soon-to-be-obsolete books.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 9 Apr 2010 | 7:04 am Swiss-Made, Portable Salt-and-Pepper Pots
Coming on like a kind of Siamese Tictac box, the humid-proof container has a tight-sealing, hermetic closure which can’t work its way open in your bag (unlike the Muji pots). It can be had with or without salt and pepper inside, and if you choose to order the full version you get some “Alpine herbs” mixed in with the salty rocks. Why would you carry your own salt and pepper around? For picnics, impromptu sandwiches made on the beach and, perhaps most importantly, as a quick-fix for poorly seasoned patatas bravas delivered to your terrace-table by a fast-disappearing waiter. Available now, for around $12. Classic Shaker [Swiss Spice via Cool Tools] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:35 am Warm and Cold Patches Power Underwater ProbeA new thermal engine produces more energy than it consumes by tapping water temperature differences.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:35 am Toe-Mouse for Foot-Controlled Computing
As the world goes crazy for touch-screen tablets and cellphones, the little mouse is getting left behind. But what of those who can’t even use Doug Engelbart’s most famous invention? What of those who can’t use their hands at all? They could try out the iPad at leg’s length, we guess, but that might necessitate an additional pair of binoculars to read the screen. Better is this foot-mouse, a computer controller designed to be operated with the toes. The Toe-Mouse concept comes from designer Liu Yi, and is shaped like the stalk of the strap on a pair of flip-flops. The user inserts this sculpted stalk between the big toe and the second toe, and moves the Toe Mouse around on the floor to control a cursor. Right and left-clicking are done by pressing switches with those same toes. And if you think controlling a pixel-perfect cursor with your feet will be, well, like having two left feet, then you’d be wrong. The tootsies are surprisingly agile, especially with some practice. As I think I may have mentioned (too many times) before, I used to thrash an old student housemate of mine at Streetfighter II on the Super Nintendo, playing with my feet. Merciless humiliation aside, if I can pull of a Dragon Punch with my toes, surfing the web should be easy. Flip Flop Mouse [Yanko] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:11 am Yahoo Search Market Share Stabilizes in March, ComScore Says [Voices]By Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron’s, Tech Trader Daily Has Yahoo (YHOO) finally stopped losing share in the U.S. search market? New data from ComScore (SCOR) shows that Yahoo had 16.9 percent of the core U.S. search market in March, up from 16.8 percent in February, but down from 20.5 percent a year ago. Yahoo’s share had dropped for the previous 13 months in a row. Meanwhile, Google (GOOG) continued to dominate the market with 65.1 percent share, down from 65.5 percent in February, but up from 63.7 percent a year ago. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 9 Apr 2010 | 6:00 am The $20 DIY Book Scanner
Man, if only books were like CDs, and we could just slide them into our computers and have them perfectly ripped into e-books within minutes. Not since the CD was launched have we been faced with buying all our content over again, just to use it on a new device. For those willing to put in a little effort, though, a book-ripper can be made for pennies. At Instructables you can learn how to make a “portable, paperless, digital copy machine” from a few metal strips and rods and an old digital camera. The principle is simple: To scan properly, you need to have a clear picture, and the pages need to be flat. This method uses a rectangular frame to press the open book flat without putting glossy, reflective glass over the top. The corners are connected by rods to the camera, keeping it parallel to the paper-plane, and making sure you get sharp, shake-free images. You don’t need a dedicated camera: The project details a wooden platform onto which any camera can be screwed. If you have a spare old digicam, though, you can make a permanent scanning station, which means you’re more likely to use it. After that, you can either keep the JPEGs or run them through some OCR (optical character recognition) software to turn the images into proper, searchable, resizable text. Mac users might try out an application called Prizmo ($40), which cleans, straightens and OCRs images all in one package. PC users have a far better selection, some of which are detailed on the Instructables page. Get to it! Clear some shelf space, and give yourself a fun weekend project, too. New & Improved Portable, Paperless, Digital Copy Machine [Instructables] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:14 am China, Nepal Settle Mount Everest Height DisputeA meeting between officials from China and Nepal has settled a longstanding dispute regarding the official height of Mount Everest, according to various media reports published Thursday.In 1954, the Survey of India measured Everest as being 29,028 feet tall.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:00 am Handling Money Could Bring Pain ReliefWho needs aspirin when cold, hard cash could ease your aches and pains?Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 5:00 am AppSnap: Install iPhone Apps by Snapping a Picture
One of the first things iPhone owners do when they meet is to check out each other’s apps for anything cool and new. You’ve all done it: you scan the pages for unknown icons, pop an app open and then try to remember its name. That is usually where things end, and you’re left searching through the Mirkwood that is the app store’s navigation process. If you have AppSnap, though, you don’t have to remember anything. Snap a photo of the other iPhone’s home screen, placing the little highlighted square over the app icon in question. AppSnap will then scan the icon and magically present you with a list of options from the App Store itself. It looks to be using some kind of image-recognition algorithm: If you look at the returned results, they all look spookily alike.
Is it worth $2? I have wasted $2 over and over on far more whimsical apps, so probably. As I only have a camera-less iPod Touch, though, I shall be forced to actually use my memory instead. AppSnap [Get AppSnap via Mashable] 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 9 Apr 2010 | 4:47 am Pre-Stonehenge Megaliths Linked to Death RitualsNine recently discovered stone monuments in England predate Stonehenge but share similar construction and alignment with the famous megaliths.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 9 Apr 2010 | 3:13 am
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Social Networking is red hot these days. MySpace may have reached a plateau and be headed for decline, but Facebook, LinkedIn, Tagged, and Hi5 are steadily rising in popularity and here to stay.
Tomorrow, it is expected that 30 million cellphones in Mexico will no longer be allowed to connect to the network thanks to a law passed last year requiring all users to register their phones. The law is aimed at stemming drug and gang violence that plagues many cities in the nation. Users were required to send a text message with their personal information as the majority of the cellphones are prepaid and anonymous.
