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New iConji Language For the Symbol-Minded Texterbilldar writes "As texting evolves into it's own language, a Northern Colorado Business Review article covers an ambitious project to develop a new symbol-based language called iConji for mobile texting and online chatting. 'iConji is a set of user-created 32x32-pixel symbols that represent words or ideas, not dissimilar from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics or American Sign Language.' There is an instructional video for the iPhone app and it is also integrated into Facebook." Behind this project is Kai Staats, formerly CEO of Terra Soft Solutions, the original developer of Yellow Dog Linux.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 23 May 2010 | 4:00 am Heavy Load Ahead: Support Ratios Across OECD[via NYT]Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 3:40 am How Tetris conquered the worldThe Telegraph on Tetris, one of the most enduringly popular games of all time, selling millions of copies and famed for its addictive qualities. Tetris' ability to transcend cultures, decades and consoles...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 3:28 am YouTube Preview of New CBS Twitter SitcomCBS has released a preview of their new Fall show $#*! My Dad Says staring William Shatner that is based on the popular Twitter account @shitmydadsays. It's viewable here for Americans. Geo-blocked...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 2:48 am Bangladesh's bicycle riding InfoLadiesArmed with a GSM phone, a netbook, a blood pressure monitor and pregnancy kit, medical supplies and a bicycle, Bangladesh's InfoLadies are giving millions of poor people access to crucial information...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 2:38 am Goth Family Portraits - Angel Ceballos Captures One Family's Love of Goth (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Goth family portraits never really occurred to me as something that was commonplace. But seeing as the originators of the scene are now starting to pro-create, this type of portrait...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 2:20 am Cremated Ash Art - Jason Lazarus Photographs the Remains of Robert Heinecken (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Never would I have thought to capture the cremated remains of any person, but Jason Lazarus does just that. With his photogram series entitled 'Heinecken Studies,' he immortalizes a...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 2:00 am 31 Incredible LEGO Characterizations - From Hip Hop LEGO to Animated Lego (CLUSTER)(TrendHunter.com) The unbelievable LEGO characterizations that you'll find in this cluster will certainly make your jaw drop. Who would have ever thought that people could get so creative with these...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 1:40 am N. Zealand whale activist fears lengthy jail termA New Zealand anti-whaling activist who goes on trial on May 27 in Tokyo for boarding a Japanese whaling ship believes he will be found guilty and given a lengthy jail sentence. Peter...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 23 May 2010 | 1:28 am Strawless Juice Boxes - Kyung-Soo Park Designs an Eco-Conscious Drink Box (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) Considering that we're trying to move away from toxic and environmentally-unfriendly plastic creations, there are some products that we don't even think twice about because they have...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 1:10 am H.264 and VP8 ComparedTheReal_sabret00the writes with a snippet from StreamingMedia.com: "VP8 is now free, but if the quality is substandard, who cares? Well, it turns out that the quality isn't substandard, so that's not an issue, but neither is it twice the quality of H.264 at half the bandwidth. See for yourself."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 23 May 2010 | 1:06 am LEGO-Like Lights - The QisDESIGN Crystal Lights are Buildable Decor (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) This new QisDESIGN Crystal light can not only change colors, but it can also change its configuration. The light is connected through the a series of magnets which can be altered and...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 12:50 am Jay Leno Won The Tonight Show Fight, But The Resistance Movement Carries On At…Hulu
But the resistance movement carries on, and Coco supporters (as O’brien is known) have found a bunch of outlets to vent their frustration. Some trick Leno into taking pictures supporting Coco. Others hang out on a Facebook page supporting him called “I’m with Coco / Conan O’Brien.” But now there’s another way, and this one is likely to piss off NBC. Go to any Tonight Show clip on Hulu and check out the user added tags that appear in the mouseover.
There’s a variety of tags added to the show, but popular ones include: i’m with coco, creep, sellout, douchenozzle and hack. Ah, the power of the people to voice their opinion on things. Too bad these are going to be ripped down pretty darn soon. Hulu’s terms and conditions on tags arguably prohibit all of these keywords.
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 23 May 2010 | 12:50 am Sports Game Holograms - Japan Promises 3D Holographic Broadcasts for World Cup 2022 (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) The Japanese are always ahead of the game when it comes to technoglogy, so it's no surprise the country is promising 3D holographic broadcasts for the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 23 May 2010 | 12:20 am LG Fathom launching soon, shows up in Best Buy for $100 bucks a pop
Oh, LG Fathom; like the HTC HD2, you’re one of Windows Mobile 6.5’s last hurrahs — a final spirited cry as the hawks circle over head. Packing a 1Ghz processor, a full touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, it’s a solid piece of hardware prematurely plagued to obsolescence by a dying operating system. Ah well. On the upside, you’ll be able to get this thing for (relatively) cheap. One of our sources just sent over a shot of an LG Fathom shelf tag freshly printed from Best Buy’s inventory system, price and all. Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>
Source: CrunchGear | 22 May 2010 | 10:33 pm LG Fathom launching soon, shows up in Best Buy for $100 bucks a pop
Oh, LG Fathom; like the HTC HD2, you’re one of Windows Mobile 6.5’s last hurrahs — a final spirited cry as the hawks circle over head. Packing a 1Ghz processor, a full touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, it’s a solid piece of hardware prematurely plagued to obsolescence by a dying operating system. Ah well. On the upside, you’ll be able to get this thing for (relatively) cheap. One of our sources just sent over a shot of an LG Fathom shelf tag freshly printed from Best Buy’s inventory system, price and all.
Source: MobileCrunch | 22 May 2010 | 10:31 pm Air Force Sets Date To Fly Mach-6 Scramjetcoondoggie writes "The US Air Force said it was looking to launch its 14-foot long X-51A Waverider on its first hypersonic flight test attempt May 25. The unmanned X-51A is expected to fly autonomously for five minutes, after being released from a B-52 Stratofortress off the southern coast of California. The Waverider is powered by a supersonic combustion scramjet engine, and will accelerate to about Mach 6 as it climbs to nearly 70,000 feet. Once flying the X-51 will transmit vast amounts of data to ground stations about the flight, then splash down into the Pacific. There are no plans to recover the flight test vehicle, one of four built, the Air Force stated."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 May 2010 | 10:04 pm Weekend Update 05.22.10- Two, Two, Two Phones in One Edition [Digital Daily]
Kara began this week just as she said she would, with another Jobs blast from the past. The video features Jobs from way back at D3 (we’re approaching D8 now), giving all kinds of Jobsian wisdom. Kara moved on to the world of Yahoo and their arms race with AOL and Demand Media. Yahoo (YHOO) bought up Associated Content for a reported $90 million. Cheap content isn’t cheap, apparently. Kara finished things out with some Friday breaking news about the FTC approved Google-AdMob deal. Now that Apple (AAPL) has iAd, maybe there is just enough competition. Digital Daily began with a piece of significant Apple ephemera. Apple watchers have spotted the “tethering” option in the most recent iPhone OS 4 beta. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally get to do what anyone with a Blackberry has been doing for years. John wrote several pieces about the announcements from the Google I/O event. Among the notables was Google TV, where a set-top box connects the TV to the Web in an ettempt to jump the content gap. John closed out the week with news that HP will likely release a tablet based on Palm’s WebOS by year’s end. We sure hope they keep the click wheel. Media Memo began the week dutifully reporting on the progress of iPad-iPhone magazine apps unfolding in the app store. GQ is doing OK with it’s offerings, though peter isn’t convinced the iPad is giving the app a significant boost. In pseudo-media news, Tweetdeck, the twitter client to the stars (or, at least Ashton uses it), raised another $3 million. If Tweetdeck is any indication, maybe Twitter’s public remarks haven’t killed off the client economy yet. Peter closed things out with an exclusive from the content factory world. Peter reported that Rafat Ali, founder of PaidContent will leave the business in early July. Personal Technology got ahold of the latest 4G phone from HTC, called the EVO, and gave it a speed test in Baltimore, home of the 4G connection. Walt said the promised speed was delivered, but the battery lagged under that enormous data load. The phone’s other features, like the front-facing camera, didn’t disappoint either, but Walt’s criticism is well taken. It doesn’t matter how many bells and whistles the thing has if there isn’t any juice left to run them. In the mailbox this week, Walt answered a pair of questions about an American iPad in Paris and much ado about laptop warrantees. Katie finished us out with a review of Togetherville.com, a social network designed for the six to ten crowd. The kid-centric network is designed to be a safe place for kids to lear the lessons of social networking without the risks associated with more adult choices. It seems “walled gardens” can be OK if they are of the “kinder” variety. Katie was hopeful that the site would flesh out its content offerings and become a real place of refuge for kids on the Web. It turns out that Google gave two phones instead of one, that the twitter ecosystem hasn’t been killed yet, and that mo’ data means mo’ battery drain int he world of 4G. If you think this was a full week, stay tuned. We are in final count down to D8, and with the speakers list reading like a who’s who of media and tech digirati, it will be one for the books, or at least the blogs. Source: All Things Digital | 22 May 2010 | 9:08 pm RIP Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner, a pioneer in modern recreational mathematics and inventor of popular math games, has died. For thirty years, he penned a math games column in Scientific American (you can buy the full collection here). He was 95 years old.
Martin Garnder, 1914-2010 [Discover] 13-year old boy becomes youngest to summit Everest
13-year old Jordan Romero became the youngest person to ever summit Mt. Everest today. Romero completed the climb with his dad, his girlfriend, a trusty team of Sherpas; since they couldn't tackle it from the Nepal side due to age restrictions, the team headed to China and ended up summiting via a much more difficult route. He's one away from completing the Seven Summit — the highest peaks on each continent — he climbed Kilamanjaro at age nine, and is planning a trip to the last summit, Vinson Massif in Antarctica, this December.
American boy, 13, breaks Everest Record [CNN] Inside Disrupt Hackathon [Video]
Just a quick update for those tracking the Disrupt Hackathon. Pizza has been delivered, the Red Bull girls have made their rounds, and the group seems to be in high spirits. TechCrunch developer Andy Brett and I made the rounds this afternoon, chatting with developers (who came from places as close as New York and as far as Israel) to discuss their projects and their strategy for the evening. Many expected to use a combination of potent caffeine and quick naps to power through the session. Some offered quirkier solutions: one team toyed with the idea of napping in the beginning and working during the late hours (to sleep through the noisiest part of the day) and another set a hard deadline of 2 am so that they could be the most refreshed team during the presentation round. We’ll find out who makes it and what they’ve made tomorrow at 11am— and for those who can’t be here, we plan to Livestream the event as well. Until then, enjoy our brief video of Hackathon (Andy doesn’t make frequent video appearances so this is a real treat, bonus points if you find his 2 cameos). This was all shot on a flip cam.      
Source: TechCrunch | 22 May 2010 | 7:09 pm So Hot Right Now: Top 10 Gamertell posts for the week of May 16, 2010FROM GAMERTELL - Haven’t caught all of the Gamertell 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 | 22 May 2010 | 7:00 pm Bugs and Fixes: Security Woes for Windows, McAfee, Firefox (PC World)PC World - The bugs keep marching in, with Microsoft, McAfee, and Mozilla all having to deal with serious security-related software problems in the past month.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 May 2010 | 7:00 pm Science Luminary Martin Gardner Dead at 95From James Randi's blog comes word that science writer Martin Gardner has died at the age of 95. I never met Gardner, but one of his books (Entertaining Science Experiments With Everyday Objects) has been a favorite of mine since I was 6 or 7 years old; I didn't realize until just now quite how many books he authored.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 May 2010 | 7:00 pm Google Confirms Froyo Launch: “The roll out to Nexus One devices has begun!”
Naturally, I asked the company what the deal was with the roll out, since I was as surprised as anyone to see 2.2 ready to install on my device when I picked it up last night. After all, Google itself had just tweeted out that the new OS would be available on the Nexus One in the “next few weeks.” But that looks to be a solid under-promise, over-deliver — very nice, Google. Actually, like many other Google roll-outs, this will be a staggered one. So it may be a couple of weeks before everyone gets it (Google didn’t say). And yes, it does look like a lot of members of the press are getting it first (maybe because we got the device at the Nexus One launch event prior to its launch, who knows). But again, it is starting to roll out to everyone. Those who can’t wait for the OTA update, can manually install a build. Phandroid details how to do that — sounds easy enough. Having played with it for the past day now, I can safely say that Android 2.2 is indeed a big, big improvement over 2.1. The speed alone is the killer feature — and there are a number of other nifty feature upgrades as well. Now I just feel bad for the new EVO 4G, which Google gave to all attendees at Google I/O. Because it runs a customized Sense build of Android, it’s likely going to be a bit before we see the 2.2 version of that. And it makes the device feel sluggish compared to the Nexus One with 2.2 now. [image via TFTS]      
Source: TechCrunch | 22 May 2010 | 6:54 pm Megamasers: Distant Water and Precision CosmologyMeasuring the distances to objects in space is surprisingly hard, especially when looking at galaxies. Enter the Megamaser Cosmology Project, a technique that's taking the uncertainty out of galactic distances.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 22 May 2010 | 6:38 pm If Gandalf recited the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air themeHunter Davis puts his powers of mimicry to very good use: here he is imitating Ian McKellen in full Gandalf, reciting the lyrics to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air themesong. Ian McKellen - Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (Thanks, Fipi Lele!)  Source: Boing Boing | 22 May 2010 | 6:00 pm BP wants to continue using contentious dispersantBP PLC said Saturday it wants to keep using a contentious chemical dispersant to fight the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, despite orders from federal regulators to use something less toxic. ...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 May 2010 | 5:58 pm Yu-Gi-Oh and Catholicism booth, NCFest More scenes from a book-tour. Today I had a couple hours free, so I stopped in at the NCFest at the state fair grounds near Raleigh, North Carolina (I love a fair!). Lots of great stuff: bought a cheap megalodon tooth, ate Masonic BBQ, and saw this: a booth advertising Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, and "Ask me about Catholicism." (More NC Fest photos) Click through below for some highlights. So great to see so many happy mutants today at the Cary Barnes and Noble. Hope to see more of you tomorrow at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill at 1PM. Next stop is NYC: with events at Books of Wonder (May 26, 6PM); Brooklyn's Powerhouse Books (May 27, 7:30); and McNally Jackson (May 28, 7PM). The tour wraps in Toronto on June 4 with an event at the Merril Collection at 7PM. ( Full tour schedule)
Source: Boing Boing | 22 May 2010 | 5:55 pm Sugary drinks and their equivalent in junk food
20 Worst Drinks in America (via Super Punch) Update: Thanks to Tim Howland for correct attribution.
Source: Boing Boing | 22 May 2010 | 5:44 pm Papercraft junkbots Japanese papercraft sculptor Takahashi Masakazu makes all manner of lovely things (especially robots!) out of recycled consumer packaged goods packages. Papercraft (via Super Punch) Source: Boing Boing | 22 May 2010 | 5:38 pm Installing Android 2.2 "Froyo" On the Nexus Onegjt writes "I awoke this morning to see TechCrunch's MG Siegler post what appeared to be the first news of Froyo's availability. I frantically went to my phone's settings and tried to check for an update -oe but no luck. Then I went to xda-developers.com and sure enough there was a very long thread (now over 132 pages) of fellow eager beavers waiting for release (and trying to figure out how to get it). Several hours went by waiting for a semi-technical user to get the update and check the Android logs for the download location. It turns out you can get it straight from Google. With the information scattered around in different places I decided to consolidate the How-To into a single post." Note: According to attached comments, and to the TechCrunch story, it seems this is a staggered rollout, so not every Android owner may be able to try it out yet.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 May 2010 | 5:33 pm Craig Venter: The dazzling showman of science - The Guardian
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 22 May 2010 | 5:07 pm Google’s Gift Already On Resale: Sprint’s HTC Evo 4G Pops Up On eBay, Craigslist
On eBay, ‘buy it now’ price points range from $600-$1200, with many at $650-$750 range. Prices are more reasonable on Craigslist’s San Francisco site, with many of the devices being offered at $500-ish (the range is between $450-$750). There were a few offers to purchase an Evo for $250, with one person willing to buy it for $500. Of course, if you wait until June 4, the Evo costs $199 with a two-year contract with Sprint. Usage plans start at $69.99 a month plus a $10 charge for 4G service. The plus of buying now? You get a free month of service with the Google I/O phone. Also, many of the sellers may be international recipients who cannot use the phone outside of the U.S. Google has a history of giving its phones away to attendees at events. Last year, all attendees were given special edition, I/O-themed HTC Magics. At TED this year, attendees were given Nexus Ones. Developers were also offered the choice between a Nexus One and a Droid during IO registration this year.      
Source: TechCrunch | 22 May 2010 | 4:45 pm Food Bloggers Giving Restaurant Owners Heartburncrimeandpunishment writes "Call it the invasion of the pasta paparazzi. Food bloggers are so excited about sharing their experiences, especially at trendy, popular restaurants, that they're too busy taking pictures and video to enjoy the food when it's at its best. Many signature dishes come out at the perfect temperature ... take a few minutes to capture what it looks like, and your palate won't be nearly as pleased. Some restaurants have taken the step of banning cameras, or at least have established a 'no flash' rule. Others just want to make sure enthusiastic reviewers are still enthused after eating their food."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 May 2010 | 4:25 pm Hot gaming news for the week of 5-16-2010Section:  No need to scour the interwebs for hot gaming news, Gamertell‘s already done that for you! Here’s a look at this week’s top stories…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 22 May 2010 | 4:00 pm BP to continue using dispersant on spillBP PLC says it's going to stick with the main chemical dispersant it's been using to fight the Gulf of Mexico oil spill because it's the best option for breaking up the ooze before it...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 May 2010 | 3:58 pm Quantum Teleportation Achieved Over 16 km In ChinaLaxori666 writes "Scientists in China have succeeded in teleporting information between photons farther than ever before. They transported quantum information over a free space distance of 16 km (10 miles), much farther than the few hundred meters previously achieved, which brings us closer to transmitting information over long distances without the need for a traditional signal."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 May 2010 | 3:22 pm Some Google Nexus Ones receive the Android 2.2 updateSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Google  According to MG Siegler over at TechCrunch, he received the Android 2.2 Froyo update earlier this morning on his Google Nexus One smartphone. There have only been a few other reports of being able to update the Nexus One with the 2.2 update. Having a Google phone when an Android update is being pushed around is certainly nice. Nexus One users aren’t even slated to receive the OTA update for another few weeks, but a few lucky individuals received it already. According to Engadget, only those provided with press units of the Nexus One have received the update, not customers who purchased the phone when it became available. It will be interesting to see when other Nexus One users receive the coveted Android update. Via [TechCrunch] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 22 May 2010 | 3:00 pm TC Disrupt Hackathon gallery
Source: CrunchGear | 22 May 2010 | 2:30 pm Over 300 Battle At Disrupt Hackathon
The Hackathon will have experts on hand to help participants with the APIs of Facebook, Yahoo!, SimpleGeo, Etsy, Mashery, MeetUp and Google. For those who want to get their hands dirty, there’s a scrapyard station in the back, complete with a Hungry, Hungry Hippo set, the circuit board for a crosswalk sign and a Winnie The Pooh in a wizard outfit. (A gallery of the scrapyard: here)
Early in the session, there was a constant stream of chatter and activity, as teams formed and discussed their projects. The majority of the groups held court in the main hallway while other hackers sought solitary confinement in one of the many conference rooms. The hackers have until 10 am Sunday to complete their projects, 90-second demos will commence at 11 am and by 2pm, one winner will be left standing. Every team that makes it through the Hackathon will get a free pass to Disrupt, but only the winning team will bask in the glory of presenting their creation on stage this Wednesday (alongside Startup Battlefield companies).
     
Source: TechCrunch | 22 May 2010 | 2:27 pm Meet the Makers: Q&A with GOGII CEO Scott Lahman (Appolicious)Appolicious - Creator of the immensely popular textPlus text-messaging application, GOGII is one of the most accomplished and important developers for the iPhone (and more recently iPad and Android-powered devices). GOGII is a portfolio company of the iFund, the app-specific venture capital fund managed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Matrix Partners.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 May 2010 | 2:25 pm Oil Arrives In Louisiana; Defense Booms Inadequateeldavojohn writes "People in mainland Louisiana are seeing the beginnings of the oil's full effects on wildlife in the area. Sticky rust-colored oil covers the reeds like a latex paint, indicating that the efforts to lay miles of floating booms to keep it away from the fragile marshes are useless. They are experiencing what the Plaquemines (mouth of Mississippi River) saw last week, and it now appears that their defenses were inadequate. Only time will tell how much more worse it can get as BP still scrambles for a solution. NPR also ran a story critical of Obama's 'scientific approach' that he promised to use in office and how well it's being applied and holding up during this crisis."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 May 2010 | 2:20 pm Federal Court Issues Permanent Injunction For Isohuntsuraj.sun writes with this excerpt from NewTeeVee: "Judge Stephen Wilson of the US District Court of California, Southern District, issued a permanent injunction [PDF] against the popular torrent site Isohunt yesterday, forcing the site and its owner Garry Fung to immediately prevent access to virtually all Hollywood movies. The injunction theoretically leaves the door open for the site to deploy a strict filtering system, but its terms are so broad that Isohunt has little choice but to shut down or at the very least block all US visitors. ... The verdict states that they have to cease 'hosting, indexing, linking to, or otherwise providing access to any (torrent) or similar files' that can be used to download the studios' movies and TV shows. Studios have to supply Isohunt with a list of titles of works they own, and Isohunt has to start blocking those torrents within 24 hours."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 May 2010 | 1:19 pm BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 5-16-2010Section:  We may not cover Apple 24x7… but we know someone who does! Here’s a few of this week’s hottest from Appletell to get you started…
Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 22 May 2010 | 1:00 pm Copernicus's remains reburied in Polish cathedralThe remains of Nicolas Copernicus, the 16th century father of modern astronomy, were reburied in a Polish cathedral Saturday as a cleric expressed regret for Church condemnation of his...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 22 May 2010 | 12:48 pm Prime Number - New York Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 22 May 2010 | 12:30 pm Microsoft Windows 3.0 Is 20 Years Todaysiliconbits writes "Some say that the Windows 3.0 GUI (remember, it needed MS-DOS or DR-DOS to work) was the single most important version, as it allowed Microsoft to get its day. The first truly successful Windows operating system is 20 years old today; Windows 3.0 was launched on the 22 May 1990 and was the successor to Windows 2.1x."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 22 May 2010 | 12:23 pm Facebook Page Banned by Pakistan Is Back Online - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 22 May 2010 | 12:20 pm Facebook Page Banned by Pakistan Is Back Online (PC World)PC World - The Facebook page that led the Pakistan government to ban the entire site was back online Saturday, at least for some users, after it was inaccessible for about two days.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 May 2010 | 12:20 pm iPad Shortages Reported as Demand Soars (LiveScience.com)LiveScience.com - If you don't have your iPad yet, get in line. A new seat-of-the-pants survey by the research firm Piper Jaffray finds that Apple's popular tablet computer is in short supply. The analysts called 50 Apple stores and found a "very limited" supply of iPads, Fortune magazine's web site reports. Specifically: 37 stores were sold out. 13 stories had only Wi-Fi models. All 50 stores were out of the 3G model.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 May 2010 | 11:47 am Miso Tunes Into Some Seed Funding For Check-Ins Based Around Content
Previously, Miso only existed as an iPhone app. (It’s actually the second iPhone app the team behind Miso, BazaarLabs has come up with. Back at our Realtime Crunchup in November, they launched Flixup a sort of Rotten Tomatoes movie review aggregator based around what people are saying on Twitter.) But now, with a website, they should be able to broaden their reach. And the timing is good for that — there’s something launching at our TechCrunch Disrupt conference this week which should compete with it in some ways (stay tuned on that). Earlier this month, Miso also announced a partnership with the online video channel Revision3. Thanks to that partnership, you can check-in while watching Revision3 shows and earn special Miso badges — yes, just like Foursquare, but again, all based around media consumption. Miso’s seed funding comes from individual investors such as Keith Rabois, Jawed Karim, and ex-Googlers Georges Harik, Richard Chen, Thomas Korte, Kurt Abrahamson. The amount of the funding hasn’t been disclosed. Meanwhile, Rabois is also joining on as an advisor. You can find Miso’s iPhone app here.      
Source: TechCrunch | 22 May 2010 | 11:47 am Pakistan blocks 800 web pages over 'blasphemy' (AFP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 22 May 2010 | 11:44 am The four reasons Lost will go down in history as a bad TV show
This isn’t a sign of a clever mystery. It’s simply bad storytelling and so I submit to you the four reasons why Lost is actually a terrible TV show and not deserving of all the attention it got over the last six seasons. Here’s the obligatory *Spoiler Warning* tag although there is no way you’ll be able to avoid Lost news next week so you might as well get over it now.
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 Siliconrepublic.com | Android Challenges iPhone, Users Win PC World Analysis: Google and Apple both seem to take the competition between Android and iPhone as an existential, company-defining battle. As I sat in the audience at Google's I|O conference Thursday morning, I watched Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra ... Android 2.2 Coming To Most HTC Phones Manual Android 2.2 Froyo update for Nexus One discovered 'Most' HTC Android phones to receive 2.2 update |
Section: Web, Web 2.0 / Social Networking
A newly discovered security flaw on Facebook could allow a hacker to scrape a user’s public data, make them “like” pages and even delete their friends list. A college student in New York discovered the hole on Wednesday and despite notifying Facebook it still has not been fixed. The site is not checking code sent from users’ browsers to make sure they are the authorized account holders. It’s what’s known as a cross-site request forgery bug, and the fact they are ignoring the problem doesn’t bode well for them. Facebook has faced harsh criticism in recent weeks for its decision to force users to make some of their personal information public and their constantly changing privacy policies and tools. They need to get it together and fast! In the meantime, to protect yourself from a scammer attempting to exploit this bug, don’t click on links sent to you on Facebook by people you don’t know and if a link posted on your wall by a friend seems fishy, trust that instinct. Oh, and ignore any invite you get to try an app that promises to let you see who visits your profile. They are all fakes!
Read [PCWorld]
Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »
Our buddy Sven at BD is offering his final 15 BDI watches at a considerably discount – $149, about $70 off the regular price. We reviewed the piece, a quartz with custom styling by Sven himself, back a few years ago. Beautiful watches at a great price.
 NEWS.com.au | Securing your Facebook privacy settings Macworld One wonders if Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow Facebook executives are wishing they could declare a do-over right about now, dating back to late April. That's when Facebook held its developer summit and unveiled plans to ... Facebook Users May Quit over Privacy, Sophos Reports Facebook to simplify privacy settings Put off by prying eyes, people push for more privacy online |
Ford, like most modern manufacturing companies, is utilizing virtual reality tools at all levels of development. Gone are the days of designers and engineers hunching over drafting tables in a smoke-filled room, working on blueprints for what will next be molded out of clay.
These days development is done on 20-foot ultra-high resolution displays with real world testing done in a virtual world. Designers can experience nearly every aspect of a future vehicle before any physical piece is constructed. Ford even employs virtual tools for the manufacturing phase to maximize efficiency there as well.
I recently got a close look at a bunch of these tools and processes. I was granted access to everything from Ford's gigantic full vehicle motion simulator to the gigantic video wall. These are some impressive toys.
Ford, like most modern manufacturing companies, is utilizing virtual reality tools at all levels of development. Gone are the days of designers and engineers hunching over drafting tables in a smoke-filled room, working on blueprints for what will next be molded out of clay.
These days development is done on 20-foot ultra-high resolution displays with real world testing done in a virtual world. Designers can experience nearly every aspect of a future vehicle before any physical piece is constructed. Ford even employs virtual tools for the manufacturing phase to maximize efficiency there as well.
I recently got a close look at a bunch of these tools and processes. I was granted access to everything from Ford’s gigantic full vehicle motion simulator to the gigantic video wall. These are some impressive toys.
Imagine a large room with a single computer workstation and a 20-foot screen as its display. That basically Ford’s Powerwall. It’s a place where designers to executives to auto dealers can gather and get a high-res look at Ford’s current and future lineup.
It’s a simple concept with Sony 4k projector connected to just a single high-end workstation, but the results are spectacular. Designers are no longer tied down to their cubicles and can explore their work in larger-than-life dimensions using AutoDesk & AutoStudio CAD programs to creating spectacular animations in Maya.
The Powerwall rooms are also equipped for worldwide collaboration and any one of them can host virtual meetings with the other seven Ford Powerwall studios found across the globe.
(Sorry for the pics. It’s nearly impossible to show the sheer scale of this screen. Use your imagination and picture those images 20-feet wide and you’ll get the idea.)
Much of a vehicle’s testing is now done virtually, a processes that helps streamline development while keeping cost down. Ford utilizes numerous tools for virtual testing with the PVM at the heart of the process. It immerses the tester in a virtual world assisted by the physical presence of a configurable vehicle sled.
This testing sled is a complex platform that’s able to match the physical dimensions of nearly any vehicle. Once the physical properties are set, a tester sits in the sled wearing a head-mounted virtual reality display equipped with reflective spheres to enable 1-1 movement mapping. A pair of gloves with the same IR-visible balls helps complete the illusion.
The goal here is to allow designers and engineers the ability to test out their designs without building a full-scale working model. Nearly everything from seating position to steering wheel position to blind spots can be evaluated and worked out.
The same lab also houses the so-called CAVE — Cave Automated Virtual Environment. This 3D environment is designed not so much for the ergonomics like in the PVM, but rather for style and craftsmanship. Four rear projectors generate 3D images on three sides and above the tester. The 3D glasses are equipped with motion-tracking sensors to further complete the environment.
It really has a WOW-factor. Once you don the glasses and sit in the single elevated seat, it really gives the feeling of being in the vehicle.
Ride testing is key to any vehicle’s development. It can be expensive constructing prototypes that do not function right or are simply wrong. This is where the VIRTETEX simulator comes in.
A 24-ft dome houses a full-size vehicle — in this case a Taurus X crossover — that’s connected to a series of computers. Hydraulics, five projectors, and a bunch screens then immerses drivers in a virtual world.
The benefits are nearly endless. No more expensive and potentially dangerous test vehicles as the system can simulate most of the driving dynamics of a compact car or full-size truck. Testing and polling can be done in a controlled environment without any variables. And it’s just so cool. Imagine playing Burnout Paradise or Grand Turismo in this thing. The Ford engineers said they’ve never broke out the games but you know the six blade servers with high-end Nvidia graphic cards that powers the displays are just screaming for a bit of downtime.
Ford’s virtual tools even extends to the manufacturing arm of the company. Motion-capturing technology allows a team of developers to test-build vehicles early on. This allows the company to ensure that manufacturing line workers will not run into any issues.
Full-body motion capture suits are used to generator baseline manufacturing tolerances. The end result is that many manufacturing tasks are now designed so both a 6-foot male and a 5.2-foot female will be able to do preform the same task. If the man’s big hands can install a tiny plug deep in an engine compartment than so can the female’s smaller hands.
This drives down the high-cost of manufacturing later on. The company can plan out a line workers exact tasks before the vehicle ever hits the assembly line.
The more interesting story, at least to me, is Ford’s open access to all these tools. Our access wasn’t something I sought out. We were invited along with other outlets to view all these tools. That’s something many companies would never do and when some actually open their doors, everything but the specific subject matter is covered by a conveniently-placed white sheet.
Of course we had to sign a confidentiality agreement just in case we saw any unannounced vehicles, but that’s normal and fine by me. Ford basically opened their door and said to a bunch of curious journalists, “Come on in, take a bunch of pictures of our design tools, and ask our engineers any questions you have.” Apple could learn a thing or two from this type of access and transparency. It’s refreshing.
 Times Online | Atlantis crew relaxes after wrapping up spacewalks The Associated Press CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Atlantis' six astronauts got a little down time up in orbit Saturday on the eve of their departure from the International Space Station. The shuttle crewmen wrapped up the third and final spacewalk of their space station visit ... Astronauts Load up Shuttle for Return Atlantis undocks today Spaceships get day in the sun |
While grandma flips through photo albums on her sleek iPad, government agencies (and most corporations) process mission-critical transactions on cumbersome web-based front ends that function by tricking mainframes into thinking that they are connected to CRT terminals. These systems are written in computer languages like Assembler and COBOL, and cost a fortune to maintain. I’ve written about California’s legacy systems and the billions of dollars that are wasted on maintaining these. Given the short tenure of government officials, lobbying by entrenched government contractors, and slow pace of change in the enterprise-computing world, I’m not optimistic that much will change – even in the next decade. But there is hope on another front: the Open Government Initiative. This provides entrepreneurs with the data and with the APIs they need to solve problems themselves. They don’t need to wait for the government to modernize its legacy systems; they can simply build their own apps.
The federal government’s open data initiative, data.gov, was launched exactly one year ago with 47 datasets of government information, by Federal CIO, Vivek Kundra. This has grown to more than 250,000 datasets. Hundreds of applications have already been built to harness this information. A few states and localities have also followed the lead, the most notable of which is San Francisco City.
In June, 2009, San Francisco CIO Chris Vein launched an application that allows citizens to access the City’s 311 Call Center through Twitter. Instead of making a phone call, members of the public can send a tweet to alert the city about a pothole, or to find out about the City’s green initiatives. This led to the Open311 API, which provides access to government data by third-party applications. Entrepreneurs have already built some useful apps with this, such as CitySourced, MyCityWay, SeeClickFix and TweetMy311. Buoyed by this success, the city is going one step further – to open up all non-private data. The City’s director of innovation, Jay Nath, is building DataSF.org – what he calls “the city’s one stop web site for government data”.
This has some notable San Francisco residents such as craiglist founder, Craig Newmark really excited. Craig says that San Francisco seems very serious about providing better customer service – while saving money – by giving citizens access to the data that is rightfully theirs. He lauds the city for standing up to “elite influence peddlers”. Over breakfast, last week, he told me that he would readily spend his own money to offer prizes to entrepreneurs who create the most innovative apps that address real-life issues: like getting a pothole fixed, asking if now is a good time to visit the DMV, or maybe to finding out one’s tax situation.
Legendary publisher and guru of Web 2.0, Tim O’Reilly, is also a big fan of open government. Known for his ability to predict the future by detecting “faint signals” from alpha geeks, O’Reilly says that a few years ago, he began to notice that developers were scraping government data (such as local crime statistics) from clunky government websites and displaying these in ways that were far more useful to citizens. He noticed “signals of an emerging open government movement”. So, in 2008, he decided to focus on encouraging the Obama administration to harness these. Under the auspices of a new conference series called Gov 2.0 (one of which, the Gov 2.0 Expo, starts next week in Washington, D.C.), O’Reilly began meeting with key government officials; at first listening to their challenges and perspectives; and then framing the opportunity back to them. Social media was spreading like wildfire in D.C. at the time and initially became closely associated with the term Gov 2.0. O’Reilly’s message was that adopting social media wasn’t enough for true change; governments needed to borrow a lesson from the technology industry and start building a platform.
O’Reilly’s goal is to get regions all across the U.S. doing what San Francisco has done with Open311. But one of the challenges is to standardize APIs across localities, and to create standards. If this effort does succeed, developers will be able to write common applications that route requests to the correct department in whatever jurisdiction the citizen happens to be at the time. The application on your mobile phone shouldn’t work just within the boundaries of one city, after all.
There are other evangelists, like Jennifer Pahlka of Code for America, who is working to “help the brightest minds of the Web 2.0 generation transform city governments”. Pahlka says that cities are under greater pressure than ever, struggling with budget cuts and outdated technology. “What if, instead of cutting services or raising taxes, cities could leverage the power of the web to become more efficient, transparent, and participatory”, she asks. Code for America’s fellows program is modeled around the Teach for America program. It works with city officials and leading web-development talent to identify and then develop web solutions that can then be shared and rolled out more broadly to cities across America.
The bottom line is that there are new opportunities for entrepreneurs to do good for their communities and for the country, and to build wealth while doing this. I’ve lamented how in Silicon Valley, instead of building businesses that do good, we have the greatest minds and the deepest pool of investment capital in the world focused on building Facebook and Twitter apps. Here is an opportunity to still build these apps and yet do good.
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
Two-wheel triumph (via Beyond the Beyond)"Ask me about the pest that's infecting your crop, common skin diseases, how to seek help if your husband beats you or even how to stop having children, and I may have a solution," says a confident Akhter.
"An InfoLady's netbook is loaded with content especially compiled and translated in local Bangla language," says Mohammed Forhad Uddin of D.Net, a not-for-profit research organisation that is pioneering access to livelihood information.
"It provides answers and solutions to some of the most common problems faced by people in villages."
In Bangladesh this means nearly three-quarters of the nearly 160 million that live in rural areas. From agriculture to health, sanitation and disaster management, the content follows simple text, pictures and engaging multimedia animations to include all users, many of whom are illiterate.
"I love the cartoon that tells about brushing teeth and hygiene," says 10-year-old Shamshul.
It took a just a brief meeting with an InfoLady for 60-year-old Nahar Hossain to finally identify the pest that destroyed his rice fields year after year. "She matched the picture of my crop with the one on her TV [netbook] and recommended a certain pesticide. I haven't had problems since," says Hossain, who had spent a lot of time and money seeking government help to no avail.
 Telegraph.co.uk | Pac-Man hits 30 without losing its way Washington Post In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man, Google.com allowed visitors to play the classic video game in the shape of the Google logo. (Google.com) By Harold Goldberg The fact that Namco's Pac-Man has been around for 30 years can make you feel ... Pac-Man 30th Anniversary! Third Day With Playable Google Logo Pac-Man: A great Google Logo Game Pac-Man 30th Anniversary and the first interactive Google 'Doodle' |
Sometimes there are advantages to staying up really late at night. I had just laid down in my bed to try and get some sleep before an early flight to New York tomorrow when I remembered I hadn’t charged my Nexus One. I reached over to my bedside table to grab it, and I see an alert letting me know a system update is available. Having just read numerous reports that Android 2.2 would be coming to the device in the “next few weeks” I figured this couldn’t be the new OS codenamed “Froyo.” But it was.
Yes, apparently Google is starting to roll out the Android 2.2 Froyo update to Nexus One devices right now. I just tried the EVO 4G (the newest Android phone which Google gave out at Google I/O this week) but 2.2 isn’t available for that device yet. I guess being the “Google Phone” has its advantages. Nexus One owners, if you’re up, check for an update right now.
I can tell you right away, as promised, Android 2.2 is much faster than Android 2.1. During the Google I/O keynote, Google promised a speed increase of 2x to 5x over 2.1 (and did a humorous demo with an iPad to show the speed) – it appears they weren’t lying.
Update: A few hours later and I’m seeing very few reports of others getting the update. In fact, so far, I can find about two. I’ve emailed Google to confirm that a very slow, staggered roll-out is starting. But rest assured worrisome commenters, this is very real.
Update 2: Google has confirmed that the roll out has begun.
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The Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien 
This week the valley was abuzz (and certainly not atwitter) with preparations for the Google (GOOG) I/O event that would showcase what the search giant had been up to inside the skunk works. Would it be TV? Video? A tablet? Free phones?
Last last night (early this morning) there was some confusion about our post indicating that 
Google had another 
It’s on. The 
There was also this thing: a plastic cup, marker, and motor contraption that swirled around, drawing circles on a large white piece of paper. In almost any other context, this would be weird. At Hackathon, this endearing thingamabob was perfectly at home.
Checking-in has so far mainly been thought about in terms of location. But there’s a growing idea that it can be ported to other things as well — such as checking-in when you’re watching a movie or television show to let others know. That’s the idea behind Miso, a product we first 
