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Designing apps for the iPad: It's not just a big iPhone - Computerworld
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Apr 2010 | 4:07 am Pa. school district snapped 'thousands' of student images, claims lawyer - Computerworld
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Apr 2010 | 4:07 am Studying For Certification Exams On Company Time?An anonymous reader writes "Companies sometimes require employees to hold or obtain certifications — for example in order to achieve Cisco certified partner status. Some companies pay for employees' exams and encourage employees to study on company time. Others expect employees to obtain mandated certifications on their personal time and dime. Should companies be able to require employees to obtain a certification, but refuse to pay for it, under threat of losing their job to a certified individual? Should it be or is it even legal to demand this of employees, especially if such a certification was not required at the time of hire?"
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 3:21 am Apple iPhone 4G Device Revealed - Leaked Pictures? - UK Today News
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Apr 2010 | 3:18 am iPad drawing interest as device for disabled (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Apr 2010 | 2:51 am Butterfly Sunglasses - 'Jacqueline' by Justin Lopez Rocks Winged Eyewear Right (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Of all of the all-black fashions in 'Jacqueline' by Justin Lopez, I'm most fond of the butterfly sunglasses in the first three images. The black shades are covered in mesh wings that...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 1:50 am Blinged Bangle Eyewear - 'Virna' by Justin Lopez Channels Geordi La Forge's Infamous Visor (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) If you're a fan of Geordi La Forge's infamous visor from 'Star Trek,' you'll immediately love 'Virna' by Justin Lopez. This model is rocking blinged bangle eyewear that channels that...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Apr 2010 | 12:50 am Open Community vs. Open Codesnydeq writes "Recent silence regarding the future of OpenSolaris under Oracle's hand has InfoWorld blogger Savio Rodrigues questioning the relative importance of open code. 'Source code availability is a central factor in establishing trust in the open source community, as knowledge that the source is available can often allay fears about the future of a particular open source project or product. And yet, this trust can often be overstated,' Rodrigues writes. Members of the OpenSolaris community have been agitating for Oracle to clarify its plans for OpenSolaris in the wake of its acquisition of Sun, with some suggesting a fork as a way of severing ties. But, as Rodrigues points out, 'The community around an open source project or product can certainly be vibrant without having the resources to support a fork. In fact, this is true for many open source communities, which count numerous members, very few of whom would be qualified to develop the open source project further should a fork occur. Worse, even fewer would be interested in doing so.'"
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Apr 2010 | 12:24 am High-Class Hard Drives - The Porter Classic & FREECOM Leather Hard Drive Classes Up Your Computer (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Porter Classic and FREECOM have teamed up to design one badass leather hard drive. This is the most fashion-friendly hard drive I have ever seen. And I've seen them all, I'm a Trend...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 11:50 pm A new plan for space - MiamiHerald.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 17 Apr 2010 | 11:00 pm Glitter-Covered Cheekbones - 'Children of the Revolution' by Geraldine Ang Swaps Sparkles for Bronze (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) I love the retro-futuristic fashions of the Age of Aquarius aesthetic, so this modern version called 'Children of the Revolution' by Geraldine Ang is a welcome sight to see. Ang has...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 10:50 pm Volcano-Stranded Travelers Turn to Social MediaThe Icelandic volcano eruption that stranded hundreds of thousands of travellers on Friday showed no signs of letting up on the weekend. Many of those stranded took to Twitter and Facebook to share stories...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 10:29 pm Red-Hued Lingerie Shoots - 'Portrait v 1.0' by Niccolo Rossi Features Smokin' Hot Lingerie (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Niccolo Rossi wins some major photography points with me for this 'Portrait v 1.0' portfolio. It features a gorgeous tattooed lingerie-clad model with some fierce eyebrows. As I'm writing...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 9:50 pm Microsoft Quickly Revises "Sexting" Ad For Kin Phonetheodp writes "Microsoft's Kin mobile phone project came under fire as Consumer Reports and others pointed out that a promotional video looked like an inappropriate endorsement of 'sexting,' prompting a quick edit and an apologetic tweet. 'The video,' observed Consumer Reports, 'includes a downright creepy sequence [beginning around 0:33] in which a young man is shown putting a Kin under his shirt and apparently snapping a picture of one of his naked breasts. The breast is then shown on the phone's screen, just before the guy apparently sends it to someone. Next we see the face of a young woman, seemingly the recipient, with an amused expression...'"
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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2010 | 9:33 pm All things technical at Spain's Campus Party (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Apr 2010 | 9:23 pm CrunchGear PSA: Go see Kick-Ass
Source: CrunchGear | 17 Apr 2010 | 8:51 pm Laker-Lovin' Skate Shoes - Skate Your Way to the NBA Finals With the Nike SB Zoom P-Rod 2.5 (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Start the victory party for the Los Angeles Lakers early with the Nike SB Zoom P-Rod 2.5. This skate shoe is designed by L.A. native and skateboarding legend Paul Rodriguez. I wonder...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 8:50 pm It’s Time For An Open Database Of Places
With last week’s declaration by Twitter that it intends to start identifying places based on the coordinates of geo-coded Tweets, the location land rush is in full swing. A long list of companies including Twitter, Google, Foursquare, Gowalla, SimpleGeo, Loopt, and Citysearch are far along in creating separate databases of places mapped to their geo-coordinates. Mapping businesses, in particular, to the GPS locations near where people are checking in, Tweeting from or pegging a photo is the first step to be able to show them geo-targeted ads, which could help fuel local mobile online advertising in a major way. Here is the problem: These efforts at creating an underlying database of places are duplicative, and any competitive advantage any single company gets from being more comprehensive than the rest will be short-lived at best. It is time for an open database of places which all companies and developers can both contribute to and borrow from. But in order for such a database to be useful, the biggest and fastest-growing Geo companies need to contribute to it. I put this suggestion to Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley the other night at a party, and he was enthusiastic about the idea. Foursquare is building up its own comprehensive database of places, which it calls “venues,” through its users who add places they want to check into, if they don’t already exist. Foursquare matches their GPS lat/long coordinates to its database of venues (businesses, points of interest, even people’s homes). Later I followed up by email and asked Crowley, “Isn’t the quality of your places directory, built by your users, a competitive advantage?” His response:
For what it’s worth, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey also happened to be in the room that night, and his reaction was a little bit more lukewarm and cautious. (I should note that Dorsey was not speaking in any official capacity for Twitter and this was just idle cocktail chatter). But given Twitter’s recent moves to claim more parts of the Twitter eco-system for its own and the resulting controversy, it strikes me that Twitter could regain some lost developer goodwill by creating such an open database of places. I suspect Twitter does indeed want to create the “Facebook Connect of Places,” and open that up to developers through its APIs. Mixer Labs, which it acquired, was certainly going in this direction with its GeoAPI, which Twitter is still supporting. Hopefully, all the places data from geo-coded Tweets will go in there as well. A Facebook Connect for places doesn’t quite go far enough. Crowley’s analogy falls short because Facebook still controls the social graph. It exposes that social graph (the connection of its members to each other) to other Websites and developers, but other Websites cannot add to that social graph on their own. A truly open database of places should allow both give and take. It should be one that everyone can contribute to and nobody necessarily owns. Foursquare should be able to update it as easily as Twitter or Google, or any other Geo startup. The best data should prevail. The counter-argument is that somebody—Twitter, Google, Facebook—needs to be in control of the database in order to ensure its quality. If you let any random developer with a geo app update the database, it could end up being filled with inaccurate geo-data or worse, geo-spam. I got the feeling Dorsey’s hesitation was partly due to such concerns. But surely there are ways to design a places database which rewards good data over bad. Maybe a place doesn’t become official until two or three contributing databases agree it is the same place, or based on the overall trustworthiness and historical accuracy of the source. An open places database would also self-correct over time. And companies could choose to refer to it only when a specific business or place is missing from their own vetted geo-directories. In other words, let the best data prevail. And instead of a dozen companies all building the same geo-directories, thousands could be innovating on top of an open database with new Geo services, advertising, and apps. It should just be part of the basic fabric of the mobile Web. Image: Flickr/Nate Bolt      
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Apr 2010 | 8:22 pm Better Presentations, or At Least Quirkier OnesA friend asked me via email today for some offbeat ideas about doing better presentations with slides. I mulled for a moment, and then sent the following, which is more or less what I remind me each time...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 7:57 pm Giant Glitter Tattoos - Simona Smrckova Portraits Exude Drama, Whimsy and Fantasy (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) These Simona Smrckova portraits feature several different themes, styles and models, but the unifying factor behind this collection is its overarching sense of whimsy and fantasy. Simona...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 7:50 pm Volcano's Ash No Threat to Space Shuttle Landing - FOXNews
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 17 Apr 2010 | 7:47 pm SIP Attacks From Amazon EC2 Going Unaddressedmjgraves writes "Over the past week a number of IP-PBX systems have been suffering SIP attacks from hosts in the Amazon EC2 cloud. At least a dozen known attacks have been reported to Amazon, which has been surprisingly quiet about the matter. The issue has been well documented by one of the attack victims on his blog. The matter was also discussed on the April 16th issue of the VoIP Users Conference (podcast available at the link; EC2 segment begins around 3:30). Amazon appears to have gone silent on the matter even as the attacks are ongoing. This is completely irresponsible behavior from a such a hosting company, which should be acting to take down the attacker in their midst."
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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2010 | 7:39 pm Seesmic, TweetMeme Say Twitter Ecosystem Is Just Fine, Thank You
Yesterday we showed a teaser of our conversation with Loic Le Meur of Seesmic, and Nick Halstead of Tweetmeme. Here’s the full video, in two parts. This is a debate around the recent decision by Twitter to compete directly with third party developers who are making Twitter applications that Twitter has deemed to be mere “hole fillers.” A variety of third party apps are now competing directly with Twitter. Most developers we’ve spoken with are upset, and say that Twitter gave them guidance that they wouldn’t compete with them. And in the past Twitter has been consistent in saying that they want to provide the plumbing for the Twitter ecosystem. Now it’s quite clear that they want to build on top of that plumbing, too.
My chief rebuttal to Halstead is that the new API features, such as geo, are great. But developers building around those features are simply providing the research & development effort to figure out what works. Once they do, Twitter will call them hole fillers and compete directly. Loic Le Meur has been all over the place on this. He said Twitter would never compete. They he said he knew all along they’d compete. More recently he just yelled “Fuck You” at everyone. He says Seesmic will be able to continue to compete because (1) Seesmic is focused on more than just Twitter, and (2) Twitter has promised to only use the same APIs in their apps that they provide to developers. That troubles me, too, and I use a Windows/Office analogy in the debate. The Office team theoretically only uses the same tools to build on Windows that everyone else does. But they have special access, and an official stamp of approval, and countless other advantages that make it impossible for anyone to build an Office suite on top of Windows effectively. John Borthwick has been the most effective at communicating the problem from the developer standpoint. Developers need to know the rules that Twitter is playing by. Calling something a hole filler after the fact isn’t reasonable.
John also said something similar in a comment to a TechCrunch post a couple of days ago:
That, to me, is the key issue. Twitter is now making a new set of promises to developers. Will they break that promise too in a year or two? Maybe it doesn’t matter. Halstead says in the video that the opportunity is too large to ignore, damn the risks. Perhaps that’s so. But it seems like the best developers may choose to spend their time on something else, where they don’t run the risk of Twitter changing their mind again.      
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Apr 2010 | 7:02 pm Classy Card Holders - The Benny Gold Leather Card Holder Makes Me Want to Flash Some Plastic (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) I'm going to need a credit card if I ever want to sport the Benny Gold Leather Card Holder. This card holder has more class than my whole wallet. The Benny Gold Leather Card Holder...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 6:50 pm Subtitles Starting To Show Up On Netflix Instant Viewing There's always been a few annoying little issues left to be addressed on Netflix Instant viewing. I mean, you can't get 1080p, there's not 5.1 sound, and most importantly, there's no subtitles. As someone who has family members with hearing disabilities, I've been keenly aware that Netflix has been lacking in that regard. There's good news though, Netflix has been working on that particular issue, and just started rolling it out to the public.
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Apr 2010 | 5:50 pm NY Bill Would Require Online State RecordsNewYorkCountryLawyer writes "Micah Kellner, the New York State assemblyman who last year submitted a bill to provide a tax credit to open source developers, has now proposed the 'Open New York Act,' a law that would make it mandatory for state agencies to put almost all of their public records on the Internet. According to Kellner's office, the law would 'revolutionize the relationship between New Yorkers and their state government, requiring all state agencies to make their records available through a central website — where the data can be used by activists, entrepreneurs, and others to create a host of applications useful in everyday life.' The Open Government Foundation, Citizens Union, and New York Public Interest Research Group all support the bill."
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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2010 | 5:48 pm Privately held Dutch computer chip maker NXP to seek public listing of sharesAMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Dutch computer chip maker NXP BV says it will seek an initial public offering of its shares. In a press statement Saturday, NXP says it has registered with theSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 5:38 pm CloudMade’s OpenStreetMap Surges On Wikipedia-Like User Passion
In some parts of the world, OpenStreetMap’s data is far more detailed than the data provided by TeleAtlas to Google and Navteq to Microsoft and Yahoo, for their respective mapping applications. The number of contributors to OpenStreetMap has grown steadily over the years. A year ago 110,000 individuals had added or edited data. Today it’s up to 245,000 individual mappers. An average of 7,000 edits an hour are made to the data. The project only started in 2004, and most of the data has been added over the last couple of years. Perhaps the most stunning case study is Germany. In 2007 it was a blank canvas. Today, the level of detail goes far beyond what any other service provides. It includes all major points of interest (even trees are now being added by users), the entire road network and turn by turn navigation:
Third party developers eat this stuff up. There are few alternatives – Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will allow developers to embed maps into applications but there’s no deep dive into the data. CloudMade has allowed entire new classes of applications to be possible. In Germany 150,000 people have paid to download skobbler, which is based on data from OpenStreetMap. Countless other apps also use the data. One notably creative one – a gay cities app that shows the gay areas of cities around the world, with points of interest. CloudMade adds paid services on top of the OpenStreetMap data that developers can choose to take or leave. And they’ve recently launched a location based advertising product that actually bring revenue to developers, too. OpenStreetMaps is a triumph of properly channeled crowd passion. Most people add data for the love of the project, and together all those hundreds of thousands of people are bringing decent mapping data to places that the big guys won’t be focusing on for a long, long time. If you’re an iPhone user (and who isn’t these days, you lemmings) and want to participate in the project, start here. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Apr 2010 | 5:35 pm Israel's iPad ban sparks media circus among foreign press - Ha'aretz
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 17 Apr 2010 | 5:31 pm UPDATE 3-Ecuador threatens to take over foreign oil firms* Says he has "lost patience" with oil contract talks (Adds analyst comment, byline)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 5:17 pm Roving Slovenian Hackers Turned Away By Facebook & Google, But Welcomed At TechCrunch
The group hails from the Information Science Student Society from the Computer and Information Sciences division at the University of Ljubljana. They also have a blog, which you can read a translated version of here. As for the offer the group talks about in the video, feel free to leave your ideas in the comments, but we can’t vouch for their coding skills and can’t take any responsibility for what you cook up. The group will be in the area for the next week (and they’ll be heading to New York later on), so if you’ve got a startup and want them to stop by, reach out to dsi at fri.uni-lj.si OR ales.rosina at gmail.com      
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Apr 2010 | 4:55 pm Weekend Update 04.107.10- The Power Play Edition [Digital Daily]
Boom Town was chock full of awesomeness this week, starting with some of Kara’s signature “gets” at Chirp, the first annual Twitter conference. She talked to @ev, @biz, and a bunch of tweeps about the future of 140 characters. She moderated a panel with David Pakman, who coined a new term that Kara thought was right-on enough to warrant a post. Weekend Update is on board with this whole new “right time Web.” Kara bounded out of the Chirp as fast has her wings could carry her and caught up with Ben Horowitz, co founder of Andreessen Horowitz, the year-ish old high profile venture firm. Just for good measure, Kara rounded out the week with a quick post about Yahoo’s (YHOO) ongoing efforts to buy up Foursquare, the social-geo-hipster game guys, and then another about Palm trying to put a cork in a coming brain-drain. Digital Daily was off this week, but there was a little pinch hitting going on early for Microsoft’s (MSFT) “social” event that turned out to be the release of the KIN One and KIN Two smartphones. We liveblogged, shot pictures and even got a little video together. IPhone killers? no. Interesting move by a software giant? Definitely. Before little Kafka made his debut, Peter got a full bundle of posts up in Media Memo. He covered the Ad angle on the new Twitter revenue model, posting that certain members of the twitterati had been reaching out to Madison Avenue in time for the ad platform release. Peter reported that Harbinger Capital was in for a serious stake in Palm (PALM) after the company announced it was looking for buyers. Peter fired off his last post about True/Slant CEO Lewis DVorkin taking some time to help with a Forbes redesign, when he got the call and it was time to go cover another event- the birth of the newest Kafka. Walt and Katie never miss a beat, and this week we got their typical trifecta of greatness. Personal Technology was all about watching Web video on TV. The Kylo browser and Loop remote were up for review, each getting high marks for working to advance the cause of bringing Web content to the big screen. There were some rough spots for both, but Walt seemed overall upbeat on the concept. Mossberg’s Mailbox had a few gems in it this week, relating to readability in sunlight, the Kindle v. iPad debate, and use of iTunes to deal with syncing other data. Katie ran anchor this week and reviewed a pair of interesting devices designed to keep you attached to your more expensive toys. The ZOMM and Phone Halo both aim to keep you connected to your phone by bluetooth pairing with it and alerting you if they are ever out of range. Both devices had their pluses and minuses, but Katie brought it back to reality at the end reminding readers that there was always another way to find a lost cell phone. Borrow someone else’s phone and call it. We’ll be playing with a full team next week, as Peter and John come out of the penalty box and back on to the ice. Imagine what we can do with a full squad! Stay tuned. Source: All Things Digital | 17 Apr 2010 | 4:10 pm Fraud Fighter "Bobbear" To Close Up ShopKrebsonsecurity.com has a writeup on the decision of UK anti-fraud activist site bobbear.co.uk to retire from the fray. The 66-year-old fraud fighter said he was getting too old for the work, which takes him about 15 hours a day. "We had so many messages of thanks, and congratulations on the site, but it is so stressful and takes so much out of you, and there is always the worry of litigation hanging over your head." "The owner and curator of bobbear.co.uk, a site that specializes in exposing Internet fraud scams and phantom online companies, announced Saturday that he will be shuttering the site at the end of April. Bobbear and its companion site bobbear.com are creations of [the pseudonomous] Bob Harrison, a 66-year-old UK resident who for the last four years has tirelessly chronicled and exposed a myriad of fraud and scam Web sites. The sites, which are well-indexed by Google and other search engines and receive about 2,000 hits per day, often are among the first results returned in a search for the names of fly-by-night corporations advertised in spam and aimed at swindling the unsuspecting or duping the unwitting." Any ideas on who might want to take over the domains and carry on the work would be appreciated by the Internet community at large.
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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2010 | 4:01 pm First Round Capital holds a ‘Volcano’ Office Hours in London The ash cloud over Europe is proving a nightmare and a boon for some startups. It's certainly a nightmare for startup teams traveling to events, like GeeknRolla on Tuesday. (And on that note, please now follow @GeeknRolla where we will sharing information on the event and helping you get to London). But if you are in London tomorrow (Sunday) you have a rare opportunity, and it's thanks to the ash from Iceland.
First Round Capital, are one of the lead/premier early-stage VC funds in the US. One of their managing partners, Chris Fralic (@chrisFRC) is stuck in London because of the volcanic ash's effect on the airlines. So he’s planning to host one of First Round's famous “Office Hours” events. This is when anyone/everyone is welcome to pop over and meet and chat with him (usually entrepreneurs wanting to pitch). This will be the Volcano Office Hours.
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Apr 2010 | 3:30 pm Electronic 'Nose' Can Predict Odor PleasantnessThese findings have implications for automated environmental toxicity monitoring and transmitting scent digitallyWeizmann Institute scientists have 'trained' an electronic system to be able to predict the pleasantness of novel odors, just like a human would perceive them – turning the popular notion that smell is completely personal and culture-specific on its head.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Apr 2010 | 3:30 pm Gmail adds new method to upload attachments and new Calendar functionSection: Communications, Email / IM, Web, Websites, Google  Google recently updated Gmail with a few new additions that definitely makes things easier for the user. First, users can now drag files into the message area and it will automatically upload. The second update allows for users to send invitations right inside an email. Whether the file you wish to send is located on the desktop or in some hidden folder that takes forever to navigate to, fear no more, users can simply open up the containing folder and drag the file into the message box. However, this feature only works with Mozilla Firefox 3.6 and Google Chrome. The second feature is a pretty nifty one, assuming your friends share their calendars with you. Basically you can send an invitation to a friend based on their available time right from Gmail. No need to switch back and forth between Calendar and Gmail. The invitation is sent right in the body of the email and it will then be displayed on your calendar and your friend’s calendar. Read [Gmail Blog] [Gmail Blog]  Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 17 Apr 2010 | 3:22 pm ‘Green’ Technologies Make Die Castings StrongerConventional die castings can be made stronger using new, more environmentally friendly technologies developed by CSIROThe two new technologies – a dynamic gating system and the ‘ATM runner system’ – produce high-integrity castings with fine-grained microstructure and low porosity by improving the feed of molten metal into the casting.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Apr 2010 | 3:08 pm The Dogs of War: Apple vs. Google vs. MicrosoftIt's hard to grasp the breathtaking scale of the epic war between Microsoft, Google and Apple. Billions upon billions of dollars. Entire industries at stake. This is the board. These are the pieces.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 17 Apr 2010 | 3:08 pm Samplify Delivers 32-Channel Ultrasound Analog Front-End in Small Outline Dual-in-line Module ConfigurationSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 3:00 pm Anatomy of Linux Kernel Shared MemoryAn anonymous reader sends in an IBM DeveloperWorks backgrounder on Kernel Shared Memory in the 2.6.32 Linux kernel. KSM allows the hypervisor to increase the number of concurrent virtual machines by consolidating identical memory pages. The article covers the ideas behind KSM (such as storage de-duplication), its implementation, and how you manage it.
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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2010 | 2:51 pm Slovenians join nationwide cleanup campaignSome 200,000 volunteers joined a nationwide campaign Saturday to clean up this country of two million, removing garbage that is an eyesore in many areas of EU member state Slovenia. "OurSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 2:30 pm Video: How good is the Nintendo Wii emulator Dolphin? Let’s see how Resident Evil 4 does!So a few days ago Dolphin 2.0 was released. Dolphin is a Nintendo Wii and GameCube emulator for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and it works quite well. How well? Here’s a video of me playing the Wii version of Resident Evil 4—which, yes, I do own, thank you very much.
Yes, the CG intro plays twice, but I’ve been fighting YouTube since noon today (it’s now 4:15pm as I write this) trying to get the video to process and I’m not about to start all over again. It runs at a full 30 frames per second, full screen @1920×1080 (even with Fraps in the background), and the only hiccup I’ve experienced is sometimes the audio is maybe half a second out of sync during cutscenes. Maybe that can be fixed in the settings, I don’t know. And yes, I’m terrible at the game. The point of the video isn’t to illustrate my amazing skills, but rather to show off what the emulator can do. I don’t have a Bluetooth dongle on my PC, so I had to map the Wiimote+Nunchuck controls to my mouse and keyboard. I just need some practice is all, and these controls will work just fine: • The Nunchuck joystick (actual movement) is mapped to WASD on the keyboard • Z on the Nunchuck (used for running) is mapped to Left Shift • C on the Nunchuck (draw knife) is mapped to E • “Shaking” the Wiimote (reloading, escaping, and quick knife attack) is mapped to R • – button on the Wiimote (brings up your inventory) is mapped to the Space Bar • 1 and 2 on the Wiimote (map and options menu) is mapped to 1 and 2 above WASD • Aiming with the Wiimote is mapped to the mouse, where Left Click is the Wiimote’s A button (shoot, attack, action) and Right Click is the Wiimote’s B button (draw weapon) I think that’s about it.
Source: CrunchGear | 17 Apr 2010 | 2:20 pm School District Snaps Secret Webcam Photos of StudentA suburban Philadelphia school district secretly took webcam pictures of a high school student while he was at home in his bed or while partially undressed, and captured instant messages he exchanged with his friends, the student charged in a court filing this week.The Lower Merion School District admitted it was misguided in its efforts to keep tabs on missing school-issued laptops, and school officials vowed Friday to release the findings of their internal investigation, both “good and bad.” The software program installed in the laptops took screen shots and webcam photos every 15 seconds when activated.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Apr 2010 | 2:15 pm Countries Close to Forming Anti-Piracy PactDigital rights activists, who have been concerned over trade in fake and pirated goods, are close to reaching an agreement on a deal being negotiated with several countries, officials from the U.S. trade announced on Friday.A spokeswoman for the U.S.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Apr 2010 | 2:11 pm Coachella: LA Times Brand X webcast rolls today, Xeni hostingAbove: Live stream of LA Times Brand X Coachella webcast at Coachella Oasis.
Deejays will be spinning live all day today. First up is Rick Rude. Then, DJ Spider, DJ Edski, Seth Cohen, Gaslamp Killer, then Nosaj Thing. We're also expecting a number of artists on the The Coachella festival lineup to stop by. This year's roster includes Gary Numan, Jay-Z, Gorillaz, LCD Soundsystem, PiL, The Specials, Echo and the Bunnymen, Them Crooked Vultures, MGMT, Die Antwoord, Thom Yorke, Tiësto, Imogen Heap, Major Lazer, Faith No More, Benny Benassi, Hot Chip, DEVO, Sly Stone, Mike Snow, David Guetta, King Khan & the Shrines, Aterciopelados... and many others. Brand X: Live from the Coachella Oasis
Another WW-I Chemical Site In Washington, DCWrongSizeGlass writes "The AP is reporting that the US Army Corps of Engineers has uncovered what appears to be the fourth major disposal area for World War I-era munitions and chemical weapons in the nation's capital. Digging was suspended at a construction site after 'workers pulled smoking glassware from the pit — preliminary tests show the glassware was contaminated with the toxic chemical arsenic trichloride. ... Workers also discovered a jar about three-quarters full of a dark liquid that turned out to be the chemical agent mustard.' Someone needs to remind our government of the meaning of NIMBY."
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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2010 | 1:44 pm Free apps roundup for April 16th, 2010FROM APPLETELL - The first real competition to Apple’s mobile Safari, an excellent note taking application, Intellivision and The Simpsons all feature in this week’s free apps roundup, so let’s get straight into it, shall we? Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 17 Apr 2010 | 1:07 pm At Last, Flying Cars?ColdWetDog writes, "OK, we've all whined about the fact that we are now firmly entrenched in the 21st Century and no flying cars. So it is gratifying to see that our good friends at DARPA are finally going to do something about it." The project is called Transformer TX. "The Government's envisioned concept consists of a robust ground vehicle that is capable of configuring into a VTOL air vehicle with a maximum payload capability of approximately 1,000 lbs. ... Technologies of interest may include: hybrid electric drive, advanced batteries, adaptive wing structures, ducted fan propulsion systems, advanced lightweight heavy fuel engines, lightweight materials, advanced sensors, and flight controls for stable transition from vertical to horizontal flight. ... Like all DARPA projects Transformer TX is unlikely to succeed at all. Even if US Marine rifle companies one day do ride to war in handy four-man sky jeeps rather than cumbersome choppers or Humvees, that doesn't necessarily mean flying cars for all any more than Harriers or Ospreys did."
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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2010 | 12:42 pm Coachella: Xeni hosting LA Times Brand X webcast all weekend
The Coachella festival lineup is nuts. Gary Numan, Jay-Z, Gorillaz, LCD Soundsystem, PiL, The Specials, Echo and the Bunnymen, Them Crooked Vultures, MGMT, Die Antwoord, Thom Yorke, Tiësto, Imogen Heap, Major Lazer, Faith No More, Benny Benassi, Hot Chip, DEVO, Sly Stone, Mike Snow, David Guetta, King Khan & the Shrines, Aterciopelados... (¡¡¡¡!!!!) I'm try to wrangle as many of the artists as possible, tell me in the comments who you'd most like to have me interview (and what you'd like to ask them!) Brand X: Live from the Coachella Oasis, and live embed is after the jump. And a snapshot: Here's me, Metzger, and our Philip from Newtek, the company that makes the Tricaster live video system we'll be using to broadcast all the fun.
Source: Boing Boing | 17 Apr 2010 | 12:41 pm iPhone Update Clue: AT&T Hints of June (PC World)PC World - So here's the deal: a lot of folks are predicting there will be a new iPhone this year. Boy Genius Report is adding some fuel to the fire by reporting AT&T has blocked employees from taking vacations in the month of June.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Apr 2010 | 12:38 pm Ecuador threatens to take over oil operationsQUITO, April 17 (Reuters) - Ecuador will propose legislation to take over operations of oil companies in the country unless the firms sign new contracts aimed at increasing state control over the sector,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 12:03 pm Subtitles starting to show up on Netflix instant viewing
There was an announcement on the official Netflix blog recently, and it’s good news. They’ve been working on adding subtitles to their streaming product, and it’s finally ready to roll out. The bad news is that it’s currently limited to only a hundred titles at the moment, but Netflix has stated that they are working on making it available for all of the streaming titles. It’s also currently limited to PC/Mac streaming, so if you watch on any other platform you’re still out of luck, at least until this fall. Netflix specifically mentioned that Lost, seasons 1-4 have this feature enabled, with more to come.
Source: CrunchGear | 17 Apr 2010 | 12:00 pm Comedian Stephen Colbert Heading to NASA's Houston Space BaseThe Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cStephen Saves the Space Programwww.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorFox News Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert is stepping up his interest in NASA, with a day-long visit planed next month at the Johnson Space ...Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Apr 2010 | 11:43 am Web Coupons Tell Stores More Than You RealizeHugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that a new breed of coupon, printed from the Internet or sent to mobile phones, look standard, but their bar codes can be loaded with a startling amount of data, including identification about the customer, Internet address, Facebook page information, and even the search terms the customer used to find the coupon in the first place. The coupons can, in some cases, be tracked not just to an anonymous shopper but to an identifiable person: a retailer could know that Amy Smith printed a 15-percent-off coupon after searching for appliance discounts at Ebates.com on Friday at 1:30 pm and redeemed it later that afternoon at the store. Using coupons also lets the retailers get around Google hurdles. Google allows its search advertisers to see reports on which keywords are working well as a whole but not on how each person is responding to each slogan. That alarms some privacy advocates. Companies can 'offer you, perhaps, less desirable products than they offer me, or offer you the same product as they offer me but at a higher price,' said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the United States Public Interest Research Group, which has asked the Federal Trade Commission for tighter rules on online advertising. 'There really have been no rules set up for this ecosystem.'"
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Source: Slashdot | 17 Apr 2010 | 11:40 am New Genetic Sub-code DiscoveredIn a multidisciplinary approach, Professor Yves Barral, from the Biology Department at ETH Zurich and the computer scientists Dr.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Apr 2010 | 11:28 am Study: Who is Injured Determines Who Gets the BlameMU study finds that consumers blame organizations for crises more when the injured party is a consumer, rather than a member of the organizationCOLUMBIA, Mo.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Apr 2010 | 11:21 am Traffic Mining Firewall Logs Could Improve Network SecurityA firewall is the safety barrier between a computer network and the outside world. Individuals, companies and large organizations alike rely on a firewall being robust enough to fend off hackers attempting to break into a computer system.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Apr 2010 | 11:19 am Dell 7 and 10-inch tablet photos leakSection: Computers, Mobile Computers, Gadgets / Other, Household, Miscellaneous  Well, we knew it was coming eventually. Photo-leaks of Dell’s 7 and 10-inch tablets surface on Engadget’s home page today and they don’t look half bad. The very sleek now Streak tablets take a different approach to its design than the iPad did in one aspect. Instead of putting their logo (or home-button in Apple’s case) on the short side, Dell put it on the long side. This design aspect makes sense to me seeing as most monitors are wide-screen monitors these days. This brings the lineup of “Streak” tablets to three. The 5-inch version(or Mini 5 as it has been referred as previously) has been public for quite some time now and plans to be released later this summer. The 7-inch version is rumored to be out late this year and the 10-inch early 2011. So if you’re holding out for something non-Apple related, here it comes. I’m glad Dell’s finally bringing something to the table that is competitive with the iPad. With the combination of Dell and HP, hopefully Apple won’t take over the whole market which means good things for us, the consumers. With these tablets from Dell combined with the iPad, the HP slate, and a possible Google tablet there is a fair share of competition brewing. Who knows, maybe this healthy competition will spur Apple to finally let us replace the batteries on our own? Read [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Greg Billetdeaux for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 17 Apr 2010 | 10:45 am Sometimes, "lady funk" is caused by spermIn 1978, a team of scientists succeeded in proving that "vaginal malodor" among women using the contraceptive sponge is caused by sperm—specifically, the components sperm breaks down into after having been killed by spermicide. That's the interesting part. The funny part, as pointed out by blogger Scicurious, is imagining the awkward lives of the grad students involved in this study. Money quote: "Hey, go put this is in, get it on, and come back immediately, please, we'll need that spunk." Source: Boing Boing | 17 Apr 2010 | 10:36 am So far, Icelandic volcano isn't likely to cause a cooler summer
It may have succeeded at stranding Cory in the U.S., stranding Lisa in London and producing some beautiful sunsets (not to mention forcing John Cleese to pay for the world's most expensive taxi ride), but Mt. Eyjafjallajokull (say it 10x fast) isn't shaping up to drastically alter temperatures this year. At least, not so far, according to Alan Robock, professor of environmental sciences at Rutgers. Robock told Climate Central's Andrew Freedman on Thursday that the output of Mt. Eyjafjallajokull hasn't put enough sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere to create the sort of "Two-thousand-and-froze-to-death" conditions some have feared. Sulfur dioxide particles from volcanoes can temporarily cool the planet by reflecting solar radiation back out into space, effectively limiting the amount of warmth that reaches Earth's surface. Big eruptions—including some in Iceland—have led to short-term cooler temperatures in the past, and it's possible that, if the eruption lasts long enough, Mt. Eyjafjallajokull could as well. But there's another factor working in favor of a comfy summer, Robock said.
Beautiful Eyjafjallajokull sunset shot courtesy Flick user Danny Mekic, via CC Source: Boing Boing | 17 Apr 2010 | 10:26 am Treehugger wants you to "Save the Beers!"
Treehugger's Chris Tackett brings this sad story of corporate waste and legal sillyness to our attention.
Beers, they're like kind of like whales if you think about it real hard. Extra: Included in this story is possibly the greatest understatement ever written in an American newspaper.
Treehugger: Save the Beers!, includes helpful list of 8 ways to use beer instead of throwing it out
Source: Boing Boing | 17 Apr 2010 | 10:02 am Iceland Eruption Too Small To Cool The PlanetIn the past, volcanic eruptions have had a cooling effect on the Earth’s climate, but the recent Icelandic eruption is too small to provide any relief from manmade global warming, scientists said on Friday.The biggest cooling event of the last 30 years was the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which cooled the Earth’s surface by nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit over the following year.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Apr 2010 | 10:00 am Ash May Contaminate Iceland's Livestock and Drinking WaterVolcanic ash fall could contaminate Iceland’s drinking water in certain areas due to the ongoing Eyjafjallajokull eruption.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Apr 2010 | 9:50 am Soviet statues as comedy fountains
I'm not clear on whether this Cracked.com image is a photoshop job or an actual fountain somewhere in the world (the former USSR?) or just a clever idea for repurposing all that Stalin-era monumentary, but it's sure a fine idea. I once got to visit the Soviet theme-park outside of Budapest, which is basically a giant field filled with Soviet-era statues, and it was a kind of Stalinist Easter Island experience, all these nigh-identical socialist realist piles looking bravely into the future. But this is even better.
Craptions
Feb 25th, 2010
(via Making Light)
Source: Boing Boing | 17 Apr 2010 | 9:05 am Infected Windows Owners Left in the DarkA rootlet virus is causing some of the updates for Windows XP to not be installed on infected machines.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Apr 2010 | 9:05 am KitchenAid Expands Cooktop Collection With New Downdraft ModelsCHICAGO, April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- With its new electric and gas downdraft cooktops, KitchenAid is offering those who love to cook even more versatile options to choose from in the brand's cooktop collection.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Apr 2010 | 9:00 am KitchenAid Expands Cooktop Collection With New Downdraft ModelsSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 9:00 am Weekend Giveaway: Waterproof, Fireproof, and Bombproof ioSafe Hard Drives Do you live at the heart of the sun? Maybe under an active volcano? Or under water? Then you need an ioSafe 500GB super duper drive. These monsters, if you recall, can take quite a beating, surviving backhoes, fire, and water.
So what can you guys get? How about one of two 500GB ioSafe hard drives. How do you win? Glad you asked!
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Apr 2010 | 8:57 am Study Shows Diet Foods Lessen TasteA small study suggests that the more people eat "diet" versions of richer foods, the less they may like what they taste.Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 17 Apr 2010 | 8:35 am Google Makes Spelling Error EnhancementsGoogle announced on Friday that it has enhanced its search engine to make it easier for people to find the things they are searching for, despite spelling errors.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Apr 2010 | 8:29 am HTC Droid Incredible to be available April 29Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
After a $100 MIR, the HTC Droid Incredible will be available for $199 (assuming a two year contract) from Verizon on April 29. Pre-orders will take place starting on April 19 for those of you who want the phone as soon as it is available. Best Buy will also be offering pre-orders starting on April 18. Through Best Buy, you do not have to worry about the MIR as they take care of the paperwork themselves. In terms of specs, the latest Android phone runs the 2.1 version equipped with HTC Sense. In addition, it sports a 3.7 AMOLED touch display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, WiFi, 8MP camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, and dedicated Home, Menu, Back and Search keys. Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 17 Apr 2010 | 8:21 am Uganda environment body worried by Tullow's safeguardsKAMPALA, April 17 (Reuters) - Uganda's state-run environment authority has accused UK petroleum explorer, Tullow Oil , of taking inadequate steps to safeguard the environment around their drilling sites,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 8:19 am Russia to start Shtokman gas field development 2011-PutinMURMANSK, Russia, April 17 (Reuters) - Russia plans to start development of the giant Arctic Shtokman gas field in spring 2011, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Saturday.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 8:05 am Extreme Octopus Close-UpEvery now and then, curious human divers push Octopi a little too far...and get their cameras stolen.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Apr 2010 | 7:51 am Weekend Giveaway: Waterproof, fireproof, and bombproof ioSafe hard drives
So what can you guys get? How about one of two 500GB ioSafe hard drives. How do you win? Glad you asked! Pop over to ioSafe, check out the specs, and then come back and email contest@crunchgear.com filling in the blanks in the statements below The drive is… Good luck. I’ll pick two winners randomly on Monday.
Source: CrunchGear | 17 Apr 2010 | 7:48 am Should Tech Startups Outsource Product Development?
When I wrote that BusinessWeek piece, Peter Harrison, CEO of outsourcing services provider GlobalLogic—who happens to be a good friend and someone I have mentored over the years—tore into me. He insisted that I was wrong and offered to prove it by introducing me to his customers. I ignored him (as I often do). But Peter is persistent. Last week, he roped me into his customer conference to have dinner with Mike Moritz of Sequoia Capital, who is a GlobalLogic investor. Peter also had me meet some of his customers.
Despite this, I remain unconvinced that outsourcing core development is a good strategy for startups. During my tech days, I outsourced R&D to St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk, Russia. But as you can read in this FastCompany article, my technology was conceived there, and that’s where my entire development team was located (and I was able to hire brilliant ex-KGB mathematicians who had skills I couldn’t find anywhere else). Having development teams working on a single product but being in different locations makes innovation much harder to achieve (yes, I know this is how open source works, but that’s different). I’m going to detail my reasons and let GlobalLogic CTO, Jim Walsh, tell us all why he thinks I’m wrong. Here are the reasons I’ve cited for outsourcing not making sense:
2) Components must fit together. Complex software is more like a Swiss Army knife than a meat cleaver. The blade, bottle opener, and screwdriver have to work in an elegant manner and can’t be developed independently. In a similar way, members of a software-development team need to work closely together. 3) Management bandwidth. It is a lot more challenging to manage diverse teams at multiple locations and in different time zones than to manage them together. Additional layers of management are often required. 4) Fewer developers can often produce more. In the tech world, scaling up development teams doesn’t always lead to greater productivity. Small teams are often the most innovative and productive. 5) Skills scarcity. The specialized skill and mindset that tech companies look for are hard to find. For example, India doesn’t have programmers who have grown up to understand the intricacies of computer-game development, because few can afford the high-speed Internet connections needed. In India, the best developers gravitate to prestigious companies like Infosys and Wipro, not to small startups. 6) Intellectual-property protection. This is a particularly strong concern in China, where it is almost impossible to protect trade secrets and where piracy is rampant. Employees often leave to start ventures that compete directly with their foreign employers, and the laws provide little protection, because they aren’t enforced. Here is Jim Walsh’s response. I must warn you that this may read like an ad for his company, but I need to be fair, because I’ve just trashed GlobalLogic’s entire business model. So take this for what it’s worth:
1) Communication: I completely agree that building great products calls for a deep understanding of customer needs and great communication. We believe in creating small agile teams where the product owner is an integral member. If this team is distributed, then it’s essential that you either (a) separate the scrums and have product owners in each location or (b) have the product owner overlap with the engineering team for several hours every day to review deliverables and provide constant feedback. Although in the old days this was hard to do, modern communication and development platforms have made collaborating across distance easier. In some cases, they can improve the quality of communication over co-located teams. 2) Integration: While building tightly integrated products with distributed team members might have been hard in the past, modern development tools and architectures have made it increasingly straightforward for even the most complex products to be built by distributed teams. Most open-source projects are living proof of this progression. 3) Management: Managers who have distributed teams do need to learn new skills; however, once proficient, a manager with a distributed team can often outperform a centralized one. Take for example the opportunity to follow the sun by developing during the day and testing the same code line at night (i.e., daytime in a second location). Or consider the opportunity to leverage specialized skills that you simply don’t have in one place or to have a larger or more skilled team than one could assemble otherwise. If you’re struggling to overlap enough hours a day, one can always leverage teams in Latin America that work in US time zones. 4) Talent: I’m well aware that one great developer can often outperform many mediocre ones. That’s why I’d never compromise on the quality of team members – particularly for new product development. However, it’s possible today to get developers in Argentina, China, Eastern Europe and India (i.e., locations where we have innovation hubs) who are just as talented—and in some cases just as experienced and innovative—as those in Silicon Valley. The key is to set your bar high and hand-pick your team in the same way that you would if you were doing the development right here at home. 5) Skills: While there was a time when specialized skills were hard to find abroad, this is simply no longer the case. When I started in this industry 25 years ago, the skills in the U.K. were about 10 years behind those of the U.S. Today, there is no longer any skill lag. Indeed, it’s possible to get skills in cities like Bangalore and Kiev that are in advance of what you can find in many U.S. cities. 6) Intellectual Property: For all but a handful of products, IP risk is a red herring thrown out by firms to defend the status quo. In our history of building more than 1000 products for more than 200 product companies, we’ve never had an incident of IP theft. There is simply too much at stake for our firm and our employees for this to be a meaningful risk. Finally, many firms have concluded that the only true defense for their IP is moving faster than the competition, and we can certainly help them do that. Lastly, we would argue that the day has come when even a startup needs to think globally (i.e., become a micro-multinational) and seize the opportunity to create products that can be used around the world. Therefore, it’s not enough to focus only on what American consumers want. Having a global team is a great way to ensure that you’re creating a product that can address global needs. The last part, on globalization, is exactly what Mike Moritz said in his talk. I agree with this. But Jim hasn’t convinced me about the other issues. It could be, though, that things have changed from the time when I was a CTO and CEO, and that my information is dated. So I look forward to reading your comments on what has and what hasn’t worked for you, and what you think about this topic. Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.      
Source: TechCrunch | 17 Apr 2010 | 7:00 am iPad apps that are great for kids (Appolicious)Appolicious - Though I successfully smuggled my iPad into the house on launch day and had all the fun to myself, it wasn’t long before I was forced to share with my children and my nieces and nephews, and before I knew it, I’d discovered a whole new world of uses.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 17 Apr 2010 | 7:00 am Discovery leaves space station; next stop is EarthSpace shuttle Discovery is on its way home. Discovery undocked from the International Space Station on Saturday morning. The shuttle and its seven astronauts spent one-and-a-half weeks...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 6:54 am Staying on script: MacJournal for iPhone and iPod touchFROM APPLETELL - I don’t always have my computer with me for documenting ideas when a good one hits. With MacJournal for iPhone and iPod touch, that’s no longer an issue. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 17 Apr 2010 | 6:06 am Russia mulls Ukraine gas price cut for role in energy sectorMURMANSK, Russia, April 17 (Reuters) - Russia is considering a price discount in gas sales to Ukraine in exchange for participation in the country's energy sector, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin told...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 17 Apr 2010 | 6:04 am deVere Group Acquires Online Guide SiteBIRKIRKARA, Malta, April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- This new addition to deVere's service offering reinforces the company's web presence, a strategy which is part of the company's ongoing expansion plans. Nigel Green, CEO of the deVere Group, said: "The development of this website acquisition enables us to provide a platform to those who are interested in learning about the fundamentals of investing.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 17 Apr 2010 | 4:18 am Piece of Midwestern Meteor FoundA peanut-sized, encrusted rock may be a fragment of a meteor that lit up Midwestern skies on Wednesday night.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 17 Apr 2010 | 4:14 am Meteor Fragment From Wisconsin Fireball Discovered by Farmer - Space.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 17 Apr 2010 | 3:32 am Wajeha Al Huwaider, a woman, driving in Saudi ArabiaThis incredible video from 2008 shows Saudi activist Wajeha Al Huwaider driving a car in Saudi Arabia on International Women's Day. Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive; by shooting footage of herself driving and then posting it on YouTube, she was able to send a message out to the world while also protecting herself from punishment through international exposure.
This video was part of a presentation on how Muslim women are using the web for human rights by Mona Eltahawy at the Skoll World Forum. More than half of bloggers in Saudi Arabia are women, and many are using the medium as a way to speak out.
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Halstead seems unworried by the changes. He says that new features in Twitter’s API will allow new types of apps to be built by third parties, and the existing stuff isn’t as relevant (tell that to the guys who’ve just been hit). And his Tweetmeme app isn’t in much danger because he has actual code on tens of thousands of websites. Even if Twitter competed directly, it would be hard to get publishers to replace that code.
Many people describe 
Yesterday afternoon, we received a tip via Twitter that a ragtag bunch of Slovenian hackers were on their way to TechCrunch headquarters for an unscheduled meet-and-greet. We really didn’t know what to expect, but I grabbed a Flip camera to document this monumental event in Slovenian/Silicon Valley diplomatic relations. In the video below, you’ll hear about the arduous journey of these Slovenian hackers, which included a stint in Compton and, later, being escorted by security out of both Facebook and Google. 
I'm at the Coachella Oasis (a giant, sprawling, endless rave taking place at the lavish desert manse formerly inhabited by Merv Griffin) setting up a weekend-long webcast with 
Yesterday, some information regarding Verizon’s latest Android smartphone, the 
When startups ask me whether they should outsource product development, I usually advise against it. If they’re desperate to save money, they should outsource some testing or ancillary-product development, not core products. That’s because the developers of innovative technologies need to interact with each other and be close to customers and markets. In my book, outsourcing is for corporate I.T. departments and for large companies with global operations, not for small tech companies. I said this in my 
1) Communications and customer needs. Developing a product requires a deep understanding of customer needs, and extensive user interaction. Locating R&D personnel away from customers limits the ability to develop innovative products that meet market needs.
If by “outsource” you mean throwing stuff over the wall to a third party, then I’d never advocate this for core development. If, on the other hand, you mean collaborating with a firm that possess specialized skills that you lack, are hard to find or very expensive and aligning your goals around a common outcome, then clearly I’m a fan. Firms that fail at globalizing R&D do so because they either because they pick the wrong partner (i.e., one that lacks the R&D DNA and does not specialize in the firm’s domain) or because they throw stuff over the wall and don’t invest in the intimate collaboration and goal alignment that true R&D requires. Most IT services firms make poor product development partners because they focus on compliance and optimization, which suppresses innovation. By contrast, GlobalLogic has created a network of global innovation hubs that are made up of some of the brightest and most innovative software minds. Our software professionals are connected by a platform that supports Agile collaboration and that is designed exclusively for the purpose of accelerating breakthrough products to market. We are doing this successfully for a “who’s who” of the technology sector, from the very tiny to the very large. That said, let me respond to each of your points in turn.