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How to keep Windows XP SP2 safer after Microsoft stops patching - Computerworld
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Jul 2010 | 4:06 am Extractiv Launches "Semantics as a Service" PlatformExtractiv has quietly launched a service that crawls the Web for text on a specific topic, then transforms it into "structured semantic data." It's a direct competitor to Thomson Reuters'...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 3:58 am Facebook launches panic button for child safety (Reuters)Reuters - Social networking website Facebook has agreed to adopt a panic button aimed at improving the online safety of its younger users, a child protection group said on Monday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 12 Jul 2010 | 3:46 am Performance-based Online Advertising Company Adsmarket Raises $17 Million
Viola Private Equity, an Israeli buyout and growth capital technology fund, is injecting $17 million into Adsmarket, a global performance-based advertising network based in Tel Aviv.
An affiliate of Viola Group, an investment consortium with nearly $2 billion under management, the PE fund will hold 21% of Adsmarket's shares, valuing the company at $80 million pre-money.
Source: TechCrunch | 12 Jul 2010 | 3:14 am Musical Promotional Partnerships - GE Capital Taylor Guitar Ad Campaign Uses Real Executives (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) BBDO New York is heading up a GE Capital promo campaign featuring Taylor Guitars. The GE Capital Taylor Guitar promotion includes a GE website Taylor Guitar page as well as television...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 2:35 am Itty-Bitty Geek Gadgets - Ben NanoNote Open Source Hardware is for Linux Nerds (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) The open source hardware Ben NanoNote is an inexpensive -- about $100 US -- tiny, shiny and totally rad geek gadget for Linux nerds. It has a keyboard, USB port and micro-SD card slot...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 2:15 am Dual-Purpose Man-Bracelets - Iron Samurai Watch Has a Hidden LED Display (VIDEO)(TrendHunter.com) The Iron Samurai watch is a man-bracelet with a hidden LED display that lights up when called upon to show the time or date. While some think it is ugly, there are several positive...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:55 am Software enables cell phones to communicate where there is no receptionAccording to ABC News, Australian researchers have developed software that allows mobile phones to communicate with each other where there is no reception. It is a new mobile phone system that promises...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:45 am The TwitchhikerThe Daily Mail on how Paul Smith travelled the world for free using only Twitter.Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:43 am Interplanetary Vagabonds and Hayabusa's Asteroid DustAsteroid dust may have been found inside Hayabusa's sample return capsule, but how could this finding help us? For a start, it'll help us understand these potentially hazardous objects a little better.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:41 am Rocky Desert Editorials - 'A Polytheism' by Philipp Jelenska Takes You to the Promised Land (GALLERY)(TrendHunter.com) 'A Polytheism' by Philipp Jelenska is an editorial that takes us to a far-flung rocky desert locale to see a male model's introspection. By the title of this shoot, I'm inclined to...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:35 am The MP3Tunes Alternative To Paid Streaming Music: “Buy Anywhere, Listen Everywhere”
The core of the service is a music locker. It finds music on your hard drive and then backs it up online over a period of days. You can then log in and stream that music from a browser. But the service is a lot more interesting than that. It will also sync your music across devices, making sure, for example, that iTunes has the same song library on each of your computers. It will also grab those iTunes playlists and make them available elsewhere as well. They’ve recently inked a deal with Roku and are in beta. MP3Tunes users can stream music that they previously only had on their hard drive through their television on the Roku device. Logitech has also built MP3Tunes into a variety of devices, including this Wifi Internet radio. More devices are coming shortly, says MP3Tunes. But the best part of MP3Tunes are the mobile apps. The Android application in particular is extremely useful. If you buy a song on the Android via the built in Amazon store, for example, you can easily upload that song quickly to MP3Tunes, and then have it available on, say your iPhone or iPod touch (as well as your desktop and everywhere else). MP3Tunes is calling the syncing behavior behind these application “Buy Anywhere, Listen Everywhere” – see the video below:
A number of other third parties have built MP3Tunes into their software and devices as well via a robust open API. I’m a big fan of music services on my mobile devices since getting actual song files onto the device is usually cumbersome and requires at least a purchase or a tethering. I use MOG on my android device and am quite happy with it. But I also like the idea of just having access to my entire music collection – all 60 GB of it – on any device at any time. I’m a long time user of MP3Tunes, and I’ve recently upgraded from the free version to the 100 GB of storage. Soon we’ll all have a variety of music streaming services to choose from – from Apple and Google’s upcoming products to the MOGs and Spotifys of the world. But all will likely have a hefty monthly subscription fee of $10/month or so for any kind of mobile access. I already have my core music collection on my hard drive, bought and paid for (for the most part). I really don’t see a need to pay $120/year to keep paying for that music. MP3Tunes gives me a viable reason to keep just buying music outright and downloading it. All this assume, of course, that MP3Tunes wins the longstanding EMI Group lawsuit against them. In the meantime, though, I like the service. MP3Tunes is free for 2 GB of storage. They are moving to 10 GB free in the near term, and 50 GB is $40/year. 25% of active users upgrade to a paid version, says the company. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:26 am UNCW prof vows to destroy atheist student groups: "I seek power over the godless heathen dissident"A Supreme Court decision forced a California state university Christian society to accept gays as members as a condition of receiving support from the school ("Other groups may exclude or mistreat Jews, blacks, and women -- or those who do not share their contempt for Jews, blacks, and women. A free society must tolerate such groups. It need not subsidize them, give them its official imprimatur, or grant them equal access to law school facilities.").This ruling has upset Mike Adams, a prof at UNC Wilmington. He's vowed to disrupt atheist student societies by filling their rosters with Christian evangelical students, "to use my young fundamentalist Christian warriors to undermine the mission of every group that disagrees with me on the existence of God." As PZ Myers points out, if the situation were reversed, Adams and his fellow travelers would doubtless be even more apoplectic: "I can just imagine what would happen if I tried to turn freethinkers on campus into militant disruptors of other organizations: their faculty advisors would descend on me in fury." But Mike Adams isn't looking for debate. As he says, "I do not seek robust debate. I seek power over the godless heathen dissident." Christianist Professor Calls for Religious McCarthyism
 Source: Boing Boing | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:26 am UNCW prof vows to destroy atheist student groups: "I seek power over the godless heathen dissident"A Supreme Court decision forced a California state university Christian society to accept gays as members as a condition of receiving support from the school ("Other groups may exclude or mistreat Jews,...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:26 am Google App Inventor Lets Anyone Make Android Smartphone Apps - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:16 am Viral Video: John Mayer Channels LeBron James [BoomTown]
Oh, that scamp John Mayer is such a jokester. Here’s a spoof video the singer did in the wake of all the controversy around the basketball star choosing Miami to play for and leaving behind a dejected and angry Cleveland. Big surprise, given his promiscuous reputation: Mayer will play his music for everyone. Enjoy:
Source: All Things Digital | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:15 am Salt-Removing Water Filters - New Seawater Filtration System Makes Ocean Water Drinkable(TrendHunter.com) In a world pitting declining fresh water supplies against increasing fresh water needs, the UK's Amazon Filters Ltd has come up with a new seawater filtration system that uses a specially...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:15 am Google App Inventor Lets Anyone Make Android Smartphone Apps (PC World)PC World - Google on Monday revealed a new software tool that lets just about anyone make apps for mobile phones that use its Android software.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:10 am Turning the Page on the Page Turn [Voices]By Nick Bilton, Blogger, Bits, New York Times On Thursday a tidbit of news circulated around the Web that Microsoft had filed a patent application in late 2009 hoping to lay claim to the look and feel of page turns on a touchscreen device. The patent application states that when “one or more pages are displayed on a touch display” a “virtual page turn curls a lifted portion of the page to progressively reveal a back side of the page while progressively revealing a front side of a subsequent page.” Just like real pages in a paper book. Read the rest of the post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:04 am Googles Do-It-Yourself App Creation SoftwareGoogle is bringing Android software development to the masses, reports The New York Times. The company will offer a software tool - called Google App Inventor for Android - starting Monday, that is intended...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:03 am Why I Turned In My iPhone and Went Android [Voices]By Louis Gray, Managing Director of New Media at Paladin Advisors Group For such a long-time Apple believer and Mac/iPhone customer, the idea of turning my back on Steve Jobs and crew, stopping my app store and media buying preferences almost entirely and choosing a divergent path is not one taken lightly. In the two months following Google I/O, I’ve talked about my looking at Android and how I think the mobile operating system is a real challenger to the iPhone’s place on the pedestal in the world of smartphones, but I didn’t make a lot of noise about my taking the final step and switching to Android. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:03 am Guy Would Have Enjoyed This [Voices]By Dave Winer, Visiting Scholar, NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute Facebook does some really smart stuff and, in trying to be really smart, sometimes they’re really really dumb. Dumb bordering on bad taste. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:02 am Consumer Group Sniffs Congresswoman's Open Wi-Fi [Voices]By David Kravets, Blogger , Threat Level, Wired We’re not sure what’s more humorous: That California Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, maintains two unencrypted Wi-Fi networks at her residence, or that a consumer group sniffed her unsecured traffic in a bid to convince lawmakers to hold hearings about Google (GOOG). A representative for Consumer Watchdog — a group largely funded by legal fees, the Rose Foundation, Streisand Foundation, Tides Foundation and others — parked outside Harman’s and other lawmakers’ Washington-area residences to determine whether they had unsecured Wi-Fi networks that might have been sniffed by Google as part of the internet giant’s Street View and Google Maps program. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:01 am CrunchGear Week in Review: Toy Car Cruise Edition
Here are some stories from the past week on CrunchGear: Doodle doot do do doot! SMB sidewalk is SMB on the sidewalk
Source: CrunchGear | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:00 am The Agnostic Cartographer [Voices]By John Gravois, Contributor, Washington Monthly One fateful day in early August, Google (GOOG) Maps turned Arunachal Pradesh Chinese. It happened without warning. One minute, the mountainous border state adjacent to Tibet was labeled with its usual complement of Indian place-names; the next it was sprinkled with Mandarin characters, like a virtual annex of the People’s Republic. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:00 am Shortages of Phone Hindering Sprint 4G [Voices]By Niraj Sheth, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal Sprint Nextel Corp.’s big bet on its super-fast 4G network is running into stronger-than-expected head winds, Chief Executive Dan Hesse said in an interview. Sprint is still the only U.S. carrier with a 4G network, which offers users faster speeds for data and video. The carrier, the nation’s third-largest by subscribers, hopes the network will give it an advantage in attracting customers from rivals. But shortages of its maiden 4G phone are limiting potential sales, and rival carriers are getting closer to launching their own 4G networks. “We thought we would have more of a head start than we’ll end up having,” Mr. Hesse told The Wall Street Journal last week. In a sign of the network’s importance, Sprint recently moved to tie executive compensation more closely to the company’s success with 4G. The weight Sprint gives to 4G subscriptions when calculating executives’ bonuses was boosted to 20 percent from 10 percent, the company disclosed in a filing last week. Read the rest of this post on the original site Source: All Things Digital | 12 Jul 2010 | 1:00 am Nvidia Aims GeForce GTX 460 at Budget Gamers - PC Magazine
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 12 Jul 2010 | 12:01 am Is Google App Inventor A Gateway Drug Or A Doomsday Device For Android?
The service, unveiled tonight in the New York Times, is basically a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) tool for app development on the Android platform. Instead of having to learn code (in Android’s case, Java), App Inventor is a piece of software that allows you to drag and drop certain elements common to many apps to build a mobile app from scratch. Says Google:
That sounds great — on paper. As NYT notes, it has been tested with kids as young as sixth graders who were able to easily make their own apps. It also makes it easy for “regular” people to make apps. But as many web developers will tell you, the rise of WYSIWYG editors in their field led to an explosion of shitty websites. Tools like Dreamweaver and eventually online WYSIWYG HTML editors from the likes of Geocities, made it so easy for anyone to create webpages that the web quickly filled up with garbage. Thankfully (and appropriately), Google popped up to restore of sense of order to the madness with Pagerank and its search engine. This allowed people to wade through the junk and still be able to find the quality sites. So is that what App Inventor is going to do for Android? Create a flood of crappy apps? Maybe. But there’s a flip-side to this as well.
Because this new tool makes it easy for anyone to make their own apps, it makes the idea of trying to create your own app a much less daunting one. And that’s the powerful thing here. If this tool can get some kid to start messing around with app creation, maybe they’ll get more interested and start learning actual Java. And then maybe one day they’ll create the next killer app. Yes, this tool could be a gateway drug, of sorts. A lot of software developers haven’t liked the idea of this movement towards native mobile apps because some feel they’re pushing people towards devices that aren’t as open to tinkering as PCs are. That’s especially true with Apple’s devices. But Android is a pretty open system, and it seems that a tool like this could inspire people to want to learn how to make great apps. While WYSIWYG HTML editors led to an abundance of junk web pages, those tools also opened the door for a lot of people to learn HTML who may not have done so otherwise. With App Inventor, just as with those tools, it would seem that no one is going to be able to make a truly remarkable apps without digging into the code eventually. And that may be Google’s ultimate goal with this. But still, they have to hope it doesn’t backfire and simply flood the Android Market with more junk apps than already exist. Google already has a problem with surfacing good apps in their market – interesting, given that they are the ones that surface good webpages as mentioned earlier — the problem could get worse if this tool is a success. Still, I’m going to be cautiously optimistic that this tool is a good thing. Potentially a very good thing. And it’s something Apple should be taking very seriously.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 11 Jul 2010 | 11:51 pm DI-Someone else: Wireless motorized mountainboard (with remote!)Details are sketchy (but there’s lots to learn if you read the comments), but here’s another college student DIY project. Yes, I know it’s a little old, but it’s Sunday, and this is one of those “in case you missed it” things. Anyway, a college student mounted a snowboard on wheels, added a motor, wireless remote via a PS2 controller, and made a project that pretty much rocks. Just don’t expect to see it available commercially any time soon, because from what the builder says in the comments, it’s incredibly expensive to make. So enjoy the video, and I hope you had a good weekend.
Source: CrunchGear | 11 Jul 2010 | 11:37 pm Futuristic streamlined deco trains of yesteryear Dark Roasted Blend's gallery of images of streamlined, deco trains from the 1920s and 1930s tell a story about the hopeful futurism of a bygone era, when everything seemed to be streaking toward the future (by contrast, today's trains seem to be designed to say, "The future will not arrive, but if it does, it will be more of the same."). Streamlined Train Wonders of the Art Deco Era (Thanks, Marilyn!) (Image: Louisville Art Deco) Source: Boing Boing | 11 Jul 2010 | 11:27 pm XKCD: Homeopathy v evolution
In today's XKCD: the evolutionary unsustainability of homeopathy. Be sure to click through to the original for the excellent afterjoke in the tooltip.
Source: Boing Boing | 11 Jul 2010 | 11:00 pm Brazil Forbids DRM On the Public Domainnunojsilva writes "Cory Doctorow reports that the Brazilian equivalent of DMCA explicitly forbids using DRM-like techniques on works in the public domain. 'Brazil has just created the best-ever implementation of WCT [WIPO Copyright Treaty]. In Brazil's version of the law, you can break DRM without breaking the law, provided you're not also committing a copyright violation.' This means that, unlike the US, where it is illegal to break DRM, in Brazil it is illegal to break the public domain."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:55 pm Lawsuit against Apple, AT&T can remain as class action: report (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:52 pm Extreme caving: months in the darkJason Zasky interviews James M. Tabor, author of Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth , a book about extreme caving, the kind of thing that sends you underground for months at a time in freezing conditions, buffeted by 60mph winds, rappelling using special gear (including rebreathers that let you breathe your own air over and over again), in absolute darkness:To the Supercave Blind Descent: The Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth (via JWZ) Source: Boing Boing | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:51 pm What if AT&T Loses iPhone Exclusivity? - New York Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:28 pm Market Chatter -- Corporate finance press digestBANGALORE, July 12 (Reuters) - The following corporate finance-related stories were reported by media on Monday:Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:13 pm July 12, 1960: Etch a Sketch? Let Us Draw You a PictureThe big companies weren't interested, but when Arthur Granjean finally sold his invention, it became one of the most popular children's toys ever.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm Photo Gallery: Sir, Your Liver Is Ready — Behind the Scenes of BioprintingA new bioprinter fabricates veins on demand, the first step in whole-organ printing.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm Scott Pilgrim Director, Actor Crack Wise About MovieAs they prep for Comic-Con, the duo get misty over Mario, open up about their love of Rambo and preview their film adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's cult comic series.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm Deals Galore, Competitors Abound: A Primer On Groupon-Like Startups
For those that haven’t tried them, companies like Groupon find local restaurants, spas, or other businesses that are willing to provide large discounts, provided that their name is spread to a number of new customers. Groupon advertises the business by offering the coupons online, and takes a cut of the money spent on them. However, there are plenty of variations on the model and the differences can be confusing, so we’re going to give a primer on some of them below (note that there are plenty of similar companies abroad — these are some of the big names in the US, though some of the companies below are international too). Groupon is the market leader in the online “group buying” industry, and according to Crunchbase Groupon has raised a whopping $172.8M in funding to date. Available in 140 cities world wide, Groupon offers deals in more cities than any other group buying company. For every city, every day, Groupon presents a discount for a niche market item (such as a spa, restaurant, or a paintball outing), and if enough people sign up for the deal, they get the discount. The coupons are sent to the buyers by email. Conversely, if the quota is not reached, the deal is off, and no one is charged for what they promised to buy. Of course, if the deal doesn’t work out, the company that Groupon was “advertising” through the discounts, and the people who signed up to buy them will be a little bummed. Because the success of each deal relies on getting enough people to sign up, Groupon has created some incentives for their users to spread the word about the discounts they offer. Groupon encourages its customers to share news about deals through email, Facebook, and Twitter, and promises that if one of their users sends a Groupon link to a friend, and the friend buys a Groupon (coupon) within 72 hours, the one who sent the link gets $10 worth of Groupon credits in their account. Also, if a user sends a referral to a friend, who then subscribes within 72 hours, the person who sent the referral will get $10 worth of Groupon credits in their account when their friend buys their first deal on Groupon. LivingSocial is Groupon’s main competitor, and they serve in 26 cities across the U.S. and have received about $44M in funding. LivingSocial’s model is somewhat different from Groupon’s, as there is no minimum number of people needed to make the deal valid. But like Groupon, the discount can only be activated, and then used, after the deal’s run-time has ended. LivingSocial offers each deal for exactly 24 hours on weekdays, from 5am-5pm. Additionally, LivingSocial uses a different incentive to encourage more people to sign up for their deals. If a LivingSocial user shares a deal through a link provided by LivingSocial, and then three people join the deal through the link, then the person who shared the link gets their deal for free.
Gilt City, which was recently created as a subunit of Gilt, is only available in New York City so far. Unlike many of its competitors, each of Gilt City’s deals lasts for seven days, and are updated once a week, rather than once a day. Also, rather than trying to sell as many of their deals as possible, Gilt City’s inventory for each of the discounts appears to be limited, and can become sold out, much like the rest of the sales on Gilt. Like LivingSocial, Gilt does not require a minimum number of people to sign up for the deals to make them valid.
BuyWithMe has essentially the same setup as Groupon, with a new deal on display each day, with each the time limit for each deal set for about a week. Though they bring up a new deal each day on their main page, they do run a number of deals in each city (the number of deals running varies from city to city). BuyWithMe operates in 5 cities in the U.S, and has so far received $21.5M in funding.
Tippr is another group-buying site, and offers deals in 25 major U.S. cities. Tippr is owned by Kashless, which has raised $5 M since starting up. Unlike Groupon, LivingSocial, and BuyWithMe, Tippr proudly shows off three deals each day on their main site, with at least one new deal each day. As an incentive to get more people to join the deal, the discounts that Tippr offers get larger for everyone who signs up, as more people sign up for the deal, though there is a limit to how much the discount increases. A somewhat unusual aspect of Tippr is its army of ten patents, which are kept quietly on display at the bottom of the website (though it isn’t clear that these will actually help them beat the competition).
Juice in the City is a niche group-buying site that caters to mothers. This aspect of JITC is what differentiates it from the other companies in this roundup, as each deal that is offered on the site is meant to appeal to women with young children. JITC so far only serves a single deal each day within the San Francisco Bay Area and the Seattle-Tacoma area, and has not yet received any outside funding. They promise incredible, money-saving deals like the rest, but JITC does not require a certain number of people to sign up for each deal. Each coupon is sent to the buyer via email after being purchased, though they can’t be used the day they were purchased.
We Give to Get is available only in Chicago, and offers a new coupon (which they call a GO-GO) each day. What makes WGTG special, is that when you create an account on WGTG, you are also signed up automatically for the charity website; www.actofgood.org. As a result, whenever you buy a GO-GO, 10% of the money that is spent on the coupon will be donated to a charity of your choice, as long as it is listed on www.actofgood.org. It seems like an unusual idea to connect a money-saving action to a money-giving one, but as they say, “opposites attract”. Similarly to Juice in the City and LivingSocial, WGTG does not require a minimum number of people to sign up in order to make the deal valid, and the coupon is sent to the buyer by email after the purchase is made. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 11 Jul 2010 | 9:13 pm Easy guide to setting up an SNES emulator on your iPad
An SNES emulator is a good start — it should run well and of course there is a huge library of games to choose from. Once you’re done there, I’d suggest an arcade emulator like MAME — old-school arcade games are great to dip into while waiting for code to compile or a file to upload. The instructions in the video above are helpfully rendered in text over at Lifehacker.
Source: CrunchGear | 11 Jul 2010 | 9:08 pm Apple Opens Shanghai Store, the Company's Second in China - PC World
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 11 Jul 2010 | 8:47 pm Claimed Proof That UNIX Code Was Copied Into Linuxwalterbyrd writes "SCO's ex-CEO's brother, a lawyer named Kevin McBride, has finally revealed some of the UNIX code that SCO claimed was copied into Linux. Scroll down to the comments where it reads: 'SCO submitted a very material amount of literal copying from UNIX to Linux in the SCO v. IBM case. For example, see the following excerpts from SCO's evidence submission in Dec. 2005 in the SCO v. IBM case:' There are a number of links to PDF files containing UNIX code that SCO claimed was copied into Linux (until they lost the battle by losing ownership of UNIX)." Many of the snippets I looked at are pretty generic. Others, like this one (PDF), would require an extremely liberal view of the term "copy and paste."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 8:19 pm Apple Rolls Out Four More iPhone 4 Ads — Each About FaceTime
The four spots are titled, “Smile,” “Meet Her,” “Haircut,” and “Big News.” Each revolve around situations where FaceTime can dramatically improve what would normally be more traditional phone calls. They’re not quite as dramatic as the overall package of the longer original commercial (nor are they as good). But two of them still go straight for the heart strings. While the other two are more everyday conversations made better by video.
It shouldn’t be too surprising that Apple is playing up FaceTime in each of its first five commercials — it is the easiest new feature to show off on the device. Apple’s new Retina display for the iPhone 4 is arguably more impressive, but it would be hard to show that off in a commercial without explaining it (and Apple seems to prefer to show rather than tell in these types of commercials). Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if in future iPhone 4 commercials, Apple figures out a way to show off the screen (something like, “wow, it’s like looking at a picture”), as well as show off the impressive build quality of the device, and perhaps the HD video taking capabilities. Find each of the new spots below.
[thanks aaalison]      
Source: TechCrunch | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:37 pm China confirms it renewed Google operating license (AP)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:32 pm Blackstone to manage some BoA real estate assets-sourceNEW YORK, July 11 (Reuters) - Private equity firm Blackstone Group is to manage some of Bank of America's Asian real estate assets, a source familiar with the situation said, confirming an earlier report...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:31 pm Happy Appsgiving DayFROM APPLETELL - In celebration of the App Store’s 2nd birthday, the folks at Appsgiving.com have a friendly suggestion for you; gift an iPhone or iPad app to someone special. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:31 pm Borders on Android and other top Android Apps of the Week (Appolicious)Appolicious - Things are really heating up with ebook readers for Android; a release from Borders makes this the third week in a row we’ve seen a major ebook reader launch a product in the Android Market.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:30 pm Atalasoft Announces SharePoint 2010 Support for VizitEASTHAMPTON, Mass., July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Atalasoft, a provider of document viewing solutions for Microsoft SharePoint, today announced support of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2010 for Vizit Essential, a universal document viewer for SharePoint. The Vizit viewer enhances the SharePoint collaborative experience by enabling users to share documents without worrying if co-workers have the proper desktop applications or versions. The Vizit viewer provides access to over 300 different document types helping users review documents quickly without downloading files or opening desktop applications. The Vizit viewer lets SharePoint users page through and review documents quickly, providing common functions such as zoom, pan and scroll. Vizit can also be embedded in any web page, providing a SharePoint document preview pane where it is needed most. The Vizit viewer works on common browser platforms and requires no additional software or desktop maintenance. "We're seeing an aggressive adoption curve for SharePoint 2010," said Paul Yantus, President of Atalasoft. "Companies migrating from legacy ECM platforms will find Vizit essential to recreating the ECM end user experience in SharePoint 2010." Availability The Vizit Essential viewer for SharePoint 2010 is being demonstrated at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C. this week. Atalasoft plans to release and ship the Vizit Essential viewer version 3.1 in the third quarter of 2010. About Atalasoft Atalasoft (www.atalasoft.com) is a provider of viewing, annotating, and image processing technology. Our products include DotImage, the number one imaging toolkit for .NET developers, and Vizit, SharePoint document viewing and enhanced collaboration. For two years in a row, Atalasoft was listed as one of Inc. Magazine's 100 fastest-growing software companies in the US and is a member of many industry organizations including AIIM and ARMA; we are on the TWAIN working group. Contact Atalasoft sales via phone at 866-568-0129 x1 or via email at sales@atalasoft.com. Contact: Christina Gay, +1-413-522-7712, christina@atalasoft.com SOURCE AtalasoftSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:20 pm Atalasoft Announces SharePoint 2010 Support for VizitSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:20 pm Genius Scan iPhone app a smart buy for those on the fly (Appolicious)Appolicious - Need to scan an important document but aren’t near a business center? The free Genius Scan iPhone app is perfect for the business traveler who needs to scan on the fly.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:00 pm Zynga to Fuel an Epic Google-Farmville Mashup - PC Magazine
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 11 Jul 2010 | 6:43 pm Zombie at Tiffany's Threadcake Threadcakes -- a competition to re-create Threadless t-shirt designs as cakes -- reaches its apotheosis in this, Gonzuela Bastarache's recreation of the Zombie at Tiffany's tee. Zombie at Tiffany's by Gonzuela Bastarache (via Super Punch) Source: Boing Boing | 11 Jul 2010 | 6:39 pm Shortages of Phone Hindering Sprint 4G - Wall Street Journal
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 11 Jul 2010 | 6:09 pm TRX Provides Unparalleled Insight into Ancillary FeesSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 6:00 pm The Search For the Mount Everest of CavesNoMeansYes writes "An interview with James Tabor, author of the new best-selling book Blind Descent, introduces a pair of accomplished scientists — American Bill Stone and Ukranian geologist Alexander Klimchouk — who are the two most prominent figures in extreme caving. Both have figured prominently in the ongoing quest to discover the deepest cave on earth. Tabor describes what conditions are like inside supercaves like Cheve (-4,869 feet) and Krubera (-7,188 feet), before discussing Stone and his far-reaching technological innovations. These include the Posideon Discovery Rebreather and NASA's ENDURANCE. Extreme caving probably won't remain underground (so to speak) much longer, however. The article notes that James Cameron is planning to release a 3D film next year about extreme cave divers."
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 5:40 pm Gadgetell Hands On: Motorola Droid X vs. HTC Droid Eris [Size Compare]Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Reviews, Peep Shows, Features  Quite a few people (myself included) have mentioned the larger size on some of the new Android phones, namely the Droid X and also the HTC EVO 4G. That said, in this case I am referring to the Droid X and will offer a few images to show off the size comparison between that and the HTC Droid Eris. Personally, I really love the Droid X and the larger display as it makes just about everything a little nicer. Plus I use my phone more as a data device so that works well. Then again, I like to go one handed and I guess the Droid X has shown me that I have small hands because I am always concerned about dropping it. That said, to offer a little number comparison of what you are looking at;
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 11 Jul 2010 | 5:18 pm 18 Best iPad Apps For SMBs - InformationWeek
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 11 Jul 2010 | 5:18 pm Happy Sunday! The BP spill could trigger a methane explosion, mass extinction
This is a totes magotes bummer: according to theories posited by the author of this piece, Terrance Aym, and backed up by data from geo-chemists like Northwestern University’s Gregory Ryskin, the BP oil spill could release massive amounts of methane gas and, as an end result, blow out the entire seabed, leading to “massive venting” and large fissures in the sea bottom. This, in turn, would kill us all just as other mass extinctions wiped out life on earth during similar ruptures 251 million years ago and 55 million years ago. In short, here’s what’s up:
Basically the sea floor explodes and clouds of methane-infused water start floating over the land. These catch fire and explode quite suddenly, unleashing a massive fireball, killing everything in its path. Sea levels will rise and fall, entire ecosystems will collapse, and we’ll be left with the bill. All because we wanted to fill up on unleaded. Will this really happen? It seems that Ayn is positing based on previous explosions that the BP deepwater drill could create a catastrophic eruption. This does not mean that the Gulf will explode in a ball of fire, but it does give one pause. It sounds almost like the explosions that rocked the world in The Road and if we know anything about apocalyptic fiction, it almost never comes true. Anyway, sorry for harshing on your buzz. There’s a picture of a kitten up there if you need it.
Source: CrunchGear | 11 Jul 2010 | 5:07 pm Chicago’s Excelerate Labs Graduates Nine Startups
Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 11 Jul 2010 | 4:45 pm Judge OKs iPhone class action against Apple, AT&T (AP)AP - A federal judge says a monopoly abuse lawsuit against Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc.'s mobile phone unit can move forward as a class action.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 11 Jul 2010 | 4:18 pm Can FaceTime survive in the mobile video-calling world?FROM APPLETELL - Some people feel FaceTime will be a huge success for Apple, but if so, they have a lot to get right in a relatively short space of time. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 11 Jul 2010 | 4:00 pm Judge OKs iPhone class action against Apple, AT&TA federal judge says a monopoly abuse lawsuit against Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc.'s mobile phone unit can move forward as a class action. The lawsuit consolidates several filed by iPhone...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 3:45 pm Vat-grown bio-fashion
Robbo sez, "In the age of 3D printing and growing new body parts in a lab - the fashion industry steps forth and joins the fray - using bacteria to grow clothing. As described in a post on the ecouterre.com site:
'designer Suzanne Lee has crafted fashion items that look both cool and unsettling. No doubt we'll all soon be wearing clothing we can print out or grow - purchasing designs online and then heading down to the kitchen to try things on. Biodegradable? Possibly. Could also be used to thicken gravy.'
Biocouture
(Thanks, Robbo)
Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3Teppy writes "How's this for a disruptive technology? Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer, network-based digital currency with no central bank, and no transaction fees. Using a proof-of-work concept, nodes burn CPU cycles searching for bundles of coins, broadcasting their findings to the network. Analysis of energy usage indicates that the market value of Bitcoins is already above the value of the energy needed to generate them, indicating healthy demand. The community is hopeful the currency will remain outside the reach of any government." Here are the FAQ a paper describing Bitcoin in more technical detail (PDF), and the Wikipedia article. Note: a commercial service called BitCoin Ltd., in pre-alpha at bitcoin.com, bears no relation to the open source digital currency.
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 3:09 pm Zombies in car crash confuse onlookersA group of cosplayers dressed as zombies got into a car crash near Portland, OR; their gory makeup led witnesses to believe that they were gravely injured:"Zombies" crash on I-84 near Lloyd exit (Thanks, Dan!) (Image: Zombies ! Run !, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from darkpatator's photostream) Source: Boing Boing | 11 Jul 2010 | 3:01 pm Wikihood, Osmos and other great iPad Apps of the Week (Appolicious)Appolicious - Plenty of great apps for the iPad were released this past week, including a couple iPhone favorites reworked for the iPad. Here are five of our favorite new releases for the iPad.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 11 Jul 2010 | 2:56 pm Gadgetell Hands On: Motorola Droid X on Verizon WirelessSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Reviews, Peep Shows, Features  Verizon was kind enough to ship me a Droid X to check out and report back on. And without getting into a full review just yet, I will say that this phone seems pretty impressive. I have been carrying it around for about a week now and for the most part I really like it. That said, I am not sure its going to be the perfect phone for me. Lets just say this, the power is good, the display is good, the battery life is good and the phone as a whole feels great in hand. But that is where my issue comes in—I like to use my phone one handed and I am afraid of dropping the Droid X. I guess my hands are smaller than the average. But that does disappoint me a little, because as a whole I really like the Droid X. Anyway, while a full review is being put together, enjoy some images.
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 11 Jul 2010 | 2:51 pm Rosetta spacecraft probes Lutetia asteroid - TG Daily
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 11 Jul 2010 | 2:21 pm This Mobile Payments Company May Self Destruct In 15 Minutes
The latest announcement was picked up by a few news outlets, including the WSJ’s Venture Capital Dispatch which touted cMoney as “a start-up with a funky name [that] has an ambitious plan for replacing consumers’ debit and credit cards with a mobile-payment system.” Sounds like another promising company in the red-hot mobile payments sector—a market that Nokia, PayPal, and a host of startups like Zong are trying to crack. Except, I don’t buy it. There is too much hype, and too little actual product coming from cmoney. That highly-touted $100 million funding, for instance, turns out not be a venture round at all, but rather an equity line of credit (a lot more on that later). And the company is being sued by a CEO it recruited. Read on for a tale of a bizarre reverse merger, promises of million-dollar fees, and a young, 28-year old founder who lists among her accomplishments and qualifications her childhood sports activities, including “dance, gymnastics, soccer, softball and tennis.” What is cMoney? The company, which launched in March 2009, is developing a mobile application that will let users send or receive money via temporary connections. According to reports, the application will be linked to a users’ credit cards and accounts. When s/he wants to make a purchase, the user logs-in to the app, submits information on the transaction, punches in a password and retrieves a code. The user will be able to give that code to a cashier for payment and after 15 minutes the code will expire. Like many startups, the company’s product is not ready for market, it’s in the “demonstration” phase. However, cMoney has struggled to meet its own deadlines. According to an April press release the launch was scheduled for this summer, then a May SEC filing predicted a fall release, and now, in its latest press release, the company is predicting a 2011 launch. Beyond the delays, the structure of the startup itself, is odd: cMoney acquired a company called Bonfire in May 2010 in a reverse merger transaction. According to an S-1 filing, Bonfire had no active operations and was previously a business based on “producing, marketing and selling audio recordings of folk tales, fairy tales and other children’s stories under the brand name ‘Bonfire Tales.’” Bonfire also disclosed in late March, just before the merger, that it had “no cash and a working capital deficit of $28,845.” In fact, there was only one employee, the director, Tim DeHerrera, who was scheduled to resign after the deal. Unless cMoney wanted to tap Bonfire’s rich trove of children’s fairytales, why would a mobile payments company purchase a seemingly defunct company with only debt, no synergies and virtually no employees? The only real interest here, seems to be Bonfire’s status as a publicly traded company, trading over the counter as a penny stock (under ticker symbol PINK:BNFR). Reverse mergers are typically done by companies who cannot go public in a more straightforward fashion. The Case Of The Missing CEO On May 6, 2010, cMoney named Lawrence Krasner to the position of CEO, Krasner is a fairly seasoned veteran of Wall Street, as a former Senior Vice President of Lehman Brothers, a Senior Manager of Ernst & Young, and a VP of JPMorgan. Sounds like a solid coup for a fledgling startup, except Krasner never spent a single day as cMoney’s CEO, according to the company’s SEC filing. Instead, Krasner is building a legal case against the company, suing them for damages in excess of $700,000 and 1,950,000 in fully vested shares of the company’s common stock, according to a filing. I reached out to Krasner on Friday, but he said he could not comment at the time. The company says the claims “are without merit.” The founder of the company, Jennifer Pharris, has assumed the role of CEO and Chairman of cMoney. With the exception of a thin LinkedIn profile and her official bio on cMoney’s website, there’s very little information available on Pharris online. However, that official bio is worth a read— if you can make it through the syntactical quagmire:
Highlights include the random capitalization of words like “College Girl,” “Mom” and “Corporate World,” and my favorite (for its casual, mid-sentence transition from the third to the first person):
In fact there are typos and run-on sentences all over the website, with words like “trough” and “prividing” popping up on the investor relations and FAQ pages. While it is a bit unfair to judge them in this manner, this is supposed to be a startup valued north of $115 million. It’s hard to comprehend how any investor would look at this website and agree to plunk down $100 million— or even a million dollars. Which brings us to that $100 million question. Why did AGS and Kodiak Capital Group invest in cMoney? At the time of this post, the firms had not responded to my requests for comment. With no ready-for-market product, six employees, a poorly managed website, a lawsuit from an almost-CEO, and apparently more than $2.5 million in accumulated losses on the books and just $47,831 cash on hand (according to an S-1 May 27th filing), cMoney doesn’t seem like a prime candidate for a $100 million cash infusion. Then again, cMoney may not see a lot of that cash after all. AGS’s funding committment is contingent on several conditions and the structure of the deal itself is bizarre. Under the agreement, cMoney has the right to compel AGS to purchase its common stock shares, to “put” shares to AGS. Depending on the price of the share at the time, AGS will get a discount— for example, cMoney is currently trading at 3 cents a share, AGS would be eligible for a 50% discount to 1.5 cents a share. However, the key part in this agreement, is that cMoney “can not put shares to AGS if such put would cause AGS to own in excess of 4.99% of our outstanding shares of common stock.” In other words, once AGS hits that 4.99% bar, cMoney can no longer compel them to purchase the common stock and with the company currently trading at a market cap of $1.36 million — AGS is only on the hook for maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars. Of course, AGS could elect to buy more shares, but I’m going to make a bold prediction here that the final investment will be laughable compared to the promise of $100 million. Here’s the pertinent excerpt from cMoney’s July 7th filing:
And why does a young startup, with such a small staff, need a huge cash infusion? It’s unclear how the money will be used to build the actual mobile application, but at the very least, we know they are spending a large chunk of change on salaries for the executive team. The chief operating officer, chief marketing officer and chief financial officer have a base salary of $250K per year, the chief technology officer is promised $215K. Meanwhile, cMoney directly pays Pharris $500 a week, but (and here is where it gets interesting) her other company Global 1— which is not mentioned in her profile—receives $41,543 per year for 5 years of management services. As explained in a recent filing, these “management services are expect to be provided by Ms. Harris.” More significantly, in April of this year, cMoney entered into a “technology license agreement with Global 1 Enterprises, Inc. Under the agreement, C$ cMoney will pay Global 1 $1,500,000 per year for an exclusive and non-transferable license to certain intellectual property included trademarks and patents. Global 1 is owned by Jennifer Pharris.” Thus, to spell it out slowly, Pharris is charging cMoney hefty fees for the rights to license the technology from her other company. It’s hard to estimate what her cut is from this deal, but I imagine it’s a substantial amount (there was no reference online of any other executives at Global 1). For a company that is still bleeding cash, it’s strange for Pharris to charge such a high premium to access technology. Who knows, cMoney could have a brillant project underneath the jumble, but at the very least, this strange constellation of facts and questions paints a dubious picture. I have asked several people in the mobile payments space, including those who cover the sector for investment firms, whether they have heard ever of cMoney or AGS— no one said yes. As always, buyer beware.      
Source: TechCrunch | 11 Jul 2010 | 2:05 pm The Verizon Wireless HTC Eris 'Silent Call Bug'Hall writes "In the last few months some users of Verizon Wireless HTC Eris phone models have encountered what's being called the 'silent call bug' with their phones. What has happened since the update to Android 2.1 is that some phones get dead silence (can't hear the person they call nor can the other end hear you). The only solution is to reboot the phone, though the problem will re-appear after some time. VZW tech support for a while was simply swapping out Eris phones in hopes that the replacement didn't have the same issue. Too many were, though, and now some users have been told they're not swapping anymore. A couple of days ago, a user witnessed a car accident and was unable to call 911. Well, at least not until after rebooting the phone."
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 1:50 pm Top 10 Gamertell posts for the week of July 04, 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 | 11 Jul 2010 | 1:44 pm The Demographics of Web Searchadaviel sends a link to work out of Yahoo Research indicating that demographics can help Web searches; e.g. a women searching for "wagner" probably wants the 18th-century German composer, while for men in the US "wagner" is a paint sprayer. The Yahoo researchers claim that by taking user demographics into account, "they managed to get the chosen link to appear as the top-ranked result 7 per cent more often than in the standard Yahoo search." New Scientist mentions this research and two other innovative adjuncts to current search practice: following the mouse cursor as a proxy for eye tracking, and taking back bearings on online criminals by studying the searches they make. (The latter raises disburbing privacy questions: would you want Google trolling through your search data? How about governments?)
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 12:37 pm Hot gaming news for the week of 7-04-2010Section:  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 | 11 Jul 2010 | 12:32 pm Wired City: Josh Harris’ Plan To Make Us All Live In Public (Video)Josh Harris lived through a version of the future—a future where TV is replaced by constant, live video chat/surveillance over the Internet—and it almost made him go insane. His experiments from a decade ago with filming people day and night in a New York City bunker, and then himself and his girlfriend in his own wired loft, were documented in the movie We Live In Public. Now, after many fits and starts, he wants to take another stab at making that future a reality through a new Internet TV project he is pitching called Wired City, which he explains to me in the video interview above. You can also go through the exclusive pitch documents which I’ve embedded at the bottom of this post. Harris made his first millions by founding market research firm Jupiter Communications. He then ventured into Internet TV way before broadband with Psuedo, one of of the more spectacular flameouts of the 1990s dotcom era. At one point, Harris had a net worth of $80 million. That all disappeared, much of it during the time he was broadcasting his life 24 hours a day over the Web in 2001. He later created a live video chat community called operator11, which also quickly went out of business. Harris decided to unplug and went to to live in Ethiopia for a few years. But now he’s back, pitching his new project which is a continuation of his decade-long quest to turn reality into TV. He says he only needs $50 million to do it right this time. With everything from Chatroulette to the iPhone’s new video-chat FaceTime feature, the time seems ripe for video chat TV to finally find its audience. When I first met Harris, I asked him what he thought of Chatroulette, the random live video chat service started by Russian teenager Andrey Ternovskiy. He shrugged and said, “It is child’s play.” And Facebook, to him, is nothing more than “an advanced message board.” Wired City is Chatroulette on steroids. It starts with video chat rooms where the audience comes and watches each other. Since anyone can set up a home studio with a webcam, anyon can become a “ChatStar.” These chat rooms are organized in what Harris calls “Net bandstands,” which are divided into different categories such as music, gaming, fashion, news, lifestyle. The Chat rooms are organized in a hierarchy and linked together. A video DJ or director controls what is seen in each chat room, and when something interesting is happening in his chat room, he can signal up the chain to get his live video into more popular chat rooms. Some combination of eyeballs and money will determine which videos get promoted.
At the very top of the stack is a Hollywood production studio filled with the most popular ChatStars. Harris proposes to “build a sound stage and the sound stage is cast from people at home.” If you do something special that attracts a lot of attention or advertising or both, your live video gets promoted in realtime up the stack, and as you gain points you get a chance to go to the big stage which is promoted on the homepage. “As you go up higher in the stages, just like in a massive multiplayer online game, you get more powers,” says Harris. “Or to put it more industrially, you get better administrative controls.” In this way, thinks he can create a mass audience attractive to advertisers. Everything on that set can be sponsored, from Gillette shaving mirrors to the Swanson’s Hungry Man dining table. He wants to sell micro-day parts of people’s lives, and over the long term he thinks that these mundane videos will have value to people who want to go back and reconstruct parts of their lives. Harris believes that everything he has done so far is leading up to Wired City. The technology behind it is an advanced version of Operator11, combined with creating their own home studios like he did with his loft. It is a real-life massive multiplayer game where the goal is to get onto the physical set and become Internet famous. What happens on the physical Hollywood set is “scarce and a highly coveted place to see and be seen,” says Harris, “sort of like the bunker in We Live in Public. Rather than approach VCs, Harris is trying to go straight to ad agencies this time, and maybe start with one sponsored ‘Net bandstand” to prove out his concept. He is also talking to reality TV studios in Hollywood. But his past and his history of startups that run through cash isn’t making it easy. He knows what he is up against: “The tech guys don’t seem to appreciate the Hollywood style production elements and the television people can’t see beyond the next reality show. And then of course there is the “Josh Harris factor” which I can’t (or don’t want to) shake.” Whether you think Wired City is an abhorrent example of Internet over-sharing taken to the extreme or you too cannot wait to begin lifecasting 24/7, it is instructive to look at how Harris thinks it can work. He has been obsessed with this idea longer than most people. Below are some slides taken from his pitch document and the entire document as well.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 11 Jul 2010 | 12:17 pm Motorola working on a low-end device in the WX445?Section: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones  According to images leaked to Engadget, it seems Motorola has a low-end device up its sleeve in the form of the WX445. I say low-end because the specs aren’t very impressive nor is the design, but it would be interesting to see Verizon offer a cheap Android smartphone. The tipster claims it features a 2.5 - 3 inch touch screen, a flash-less camera (which is disappointing because flash is a standard commodity nowadays), runs Android 2.1, and a 1170mAh battery. Apparently it runs a form of MOTOBLUR, which makes it a likely candidate to be a cheaper or at least alternative to the Motorola Devour. In addition, the tipster says it’s overall “not a very impressive phone” and is cheaper looking than the Palm Pre Plus. Motorola has some solid phones on Verizon in the form of the Devour, Droid, and Droid X. It would be a shame for Motorola to drop a crappy phone on Verizon even if it is affordable. I would like to see an inexpensive phone but with mid-range specs and sleek design. Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 11 Jul 2010 | 11:25 am Climategate and the Need For Greater Scientific OpennessThe Guardian follows up on the recent news that CRU climate scientists were cleared of scientific misconduct with an article that focuses on how the controversy could have been avoided, and public trust retained, had the scientists made more of an effort to be open about their research. You may recall our discussion of a report from Pennsylvania State University; that was followed by another review with similar conclusions. Quoting: "The review, led by Sir Muir Russell, does not mention the media. Instead, it examines the reaction of the scientists at the UEA's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) to the pressure exerted by bloggers: 'An important feature of the blogosphere is the extent to which it demands openness and access to data. A failure to recognize this and to act appropriately can lead to immense reputational damage by feeding allegations of cover-up.' The review adds: 'We found a lack of recognition of the extent to which earlier action to release information might have minimized the problems.' Pressure on the scientists, whose once esoteric work creating records of past temperatures had gained global significance, was intense. In 2005, CRU head Phil Jones replied to a request: 'We have 25 or so years invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?' But, the review implies, the more they blocked, the more the Freedom of Information requests flooded in."
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Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 11:22 am Elon Musk: “Why Owen Thomas Is Silicon Valley’s Jayson Blair”
Valleywag’s Owen Thomas, now writing for VentureBeat, has for some reason become fascinated with Musk’s personal life and continues to write about the man’s marital woes. He’s called Musk a liar on multiple occasions and seems delighted to get into the sordid details of Musk’s divorce. Musk wrote his side of things on the Huffington Post. Thomas hit him again. Musk is now responding yet again, below. What bothers me about this exchange is that Silicon Valley press, VentureBeat in particular, is so focused on an entrepreneur’s personal life. A divorce isn’t anything that our readers want to know about. This isn’t Hollywood and these individuals aren’t out there trying to get lots of press about their personal lives. If they were, they’d hire agents and publicists and make the best of it. Instead they are focused on imagining and building the future. There’s no place in our community for these kinds of attacks. VentureBeat should apologize and move on, and let Tesla continue to disrupt the car industry. Below is Musk’s response: Why Owen Thomas is Silicon Valley’s Jayson BlairThe latest article by Owen Thomas, “Tesla CEO can’t handle the truth”, continues his damaging and fraudulent crusade against Tesla and me personally. Tesla has received a great deal of press, both positive and negative, but it is amazing how much of the truly negative press can be traced directly back to one man. Despite numerous successes at both Tesla and SpaceX, Thomas has never once written a positive article about either company. Every one of the dozens of stories he has written – without a single exception – has been a nasty hit piece. Even if all those stories were factually correct, and they certainly were not, he has still fundamentally misled the public about my companies by failing to provide even a token number of positive articles. Lying by omission is still lying. Responding below under similar headings Thomas uses in his article, I address the inaccuracies in his latest article, where he again lies with great conviction. It is impossible to stop Owen from continuing to write such erroneous garbage, but, as I do not have the time or inclination to refute all bad reporting on his part, I would like it known that nothing he writes is remotely objective. Any future articles written by Owen Thomas should be viewed with this in mind. Tesla IPO FilingsThomas says “Tesla updated its IPO filings to acknowledge substantially all of the concerns we [ie Owen Thomas] raised as potential risk factors investors should consider”. We updated our IPO filings simply to state that what Thomas had written had no basis in fact. Since Tesla was in the IPO quiet period, we could not respond directly with a press release. Instead, we had to update the IPO documents to assure investors that what Thomas had stated about Tesla being reliant on me for funding or there being a DOE loan default risk related to my divorce were both false. Even without the IPO proceeds, Tesla has enough funding from its many venture investors, Daimler and the DOE to complete the Model S with no financial help from me. The reason for the IPO was to provide cash for additional new developments and a small percentage of liquidity for long time shareholders, including me (I sold 5% of my holdings). If this had been a real issue, it would have been placed in the IPO prospectus by the bankers and lawyers long before Owen Thomas raised it. This is one of many situations where he created a real problem for Tesla out of thin air by writing a misleading article. My Personal SpendingIn his section entitled “Musk’s personal spending”, Thomas does some creative math to claim that one of my “whoppers” is that I suggest I’m spending $30k per month, excluding legal fees. This is completely made up. I never state that anywhere in my piece, nor can it be computed from a collection of my other statements. Thomas intentionally conflates a statement I make about the average of what I’ve been forced to spend on divorce lawyers over the past two years and my household expenses last year, ignoring the fact that a huge portion of the legal expenses occurred this year in the run up to trial. Founding of Tesla MotorsHere Thomas relates an anecdote about a serious issue Tesla had with Martin Eberhard, one of the cofounders of the company. Eberhard filed a lawsuit against Tesla (and me) that was filled with inaccuracies. Tesla was going to file a counter suit, but before we filed, Eberhard and I settled our differences with a few hours of mediation. I’m glad that we made peace. The result obviously satisfied both Eberhard and me or it wouldn’t have been settled. However, Thomas quotes Eberhard’s lawyer as though this was a one sided victory. He could just as easily have quoted my lawyer who would have made the same statement. What Thomas forgets to mention is that Eberhard was forced to withdraw his lawsuit weeks before the mediation even began. If Eberhard’s position had been strong, he would not have had to withdraw his claims unilaterally well before mediation started. The Safety of Customer DepositsThomas states that I both told customers that I would personally back their vehicle deposits and that I said their deposits were at risk. He is again intentionally conflating facts to make it sound as though I had contradicted myself. Here is how Owen Thomas once again misleads the reader: the statements are actually referring to different vehicles at very different stages of maturity, but he pulls each quote out of context and pretends they refer to the same thing. When I said that I would back customer deposits personally, which I did directly to customers on several occasions as well as in a Car & Driver article, that was clearly and explicitly regarding the Roadster. I knew that my resources, combined with Tesla’s, would be enough to pay them back personally if need be. Moreover, Tesla had not been sufficiently clear with customers in the early days that the Roadster deposits were at risk. It would not be right for customers to have those funds at risk without their explicit consent. On the other hand, the statement I made to Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times at the Model S launch specifically and clearly referred to the Model S reservations. I knew that my and Tesla’s resources could not also cover the Model S deposits in a worst case situation. However, unlike with Roadster, we were very explicit that Model S reservation dollars were at risk and that the funds would be put to use doing advance development of the vehicle. In this section, Thomas also says that I announced that a Tesla financing round had closed in November 2008, when it actually closed in March 2009. Whether intentionally or not, he is getting the dates confused between when the financing round documents were signed (representing firm commitments), which was actually December 2008, and when the last of the cash was wired in, which was March 2009. This is common in complex financial rounds with a large number of participants. My History as an EntrepreneurIn this section, Thomas casts aspersions on both Zip2 and PayPal, my first two companies, talking about management changes that occurred at both and not acknowledging one positive thing about either company. The reality is that Zip2 (which I started at age 23) sold for over $300M to Compaq and PayPal sold to eBay for over $1.5B after going public. Anyone reading Thomas’s twisted account of their history without knowing better would think that both were failures. It is worth noting that of the five companies that I’ve been a key part of creating (Zip2, PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla and SolarCity) over the past fifteen years, every round at every company has been an up round, even in the worst of all market conditions. In other words, no matter whether you were a series A, B, C, D, etc investor, you always made money. With a public company, there are of course significant short term fluctuations in share price, but those investors that believe in a long term hold strategy should be comforted by this track record. Thomas also falsely states that I’m alienated from the rest of the management team at PayPal and have a completely different version of history to them. In reality, Peter Thiel, who replaced me as CEO of PayPal, later became one of the biggest investors in SpaceX. Max Levchin (PayPal CTO), Peter Thiel, David Sacks (PayPal COO) and I produced a movie together soon after we worked together at PayPal. There are half a dozen other ventures involving me and several other members of the PayPal management team. Tesla’s InvestorsThomas references another NY Times Miller article about an email I wrote to customers and claims I said Tesla would start getting DOE funds in four to five months. What I actually said was that the DOE had told me to expect funds disbursement in four to five months. This was absolutely true. In the end, it took the DOE six months longer than they themselves expected, since the ATVM loan program was brand new. In any event, Thomas bizarrely manages to create a fake negative story out of what was actually a huge victory for Tesla. We were selected as the first winners of the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program, along with Ford and Nissan. One of the requirements of this program was that you had to demonstrate that you were a viable ongoing business and that you had a compelling technology and business model for the funds sought. This is completely different from the auto bailout program for GM and Chrysler, although many in the media confused the programs. In fact, the reason that GM and Chrysler were excluded from the ATVM program, is that they were going through bankruptcy and therefore obviously failed the requirement to have a viable ongoing business. Thomas falsely states that Tesla wasn’t profitable last year, even though I said it would be. In fact, Tesla was profitable in 2009, albeit only for the month of July. That’s the best we could do, given the ramp up in Model S expenses, but nonetheless it was an important symbolic victory. If all Tesla did was focus on being a small sports car company and sell powertrain technology, it would still be profitable today, as both businesses generate a good margin. However, my goal from the beginning has been to make electric cars that anyone can afford (Model S is step two in that process, not the end game), which requires a huge expansion in production. We are trying to go from about 500 Roadsters per year to 20,000 Model S vehicles. In other words, production is intended to be 4,000% of what it is today in only a few years time. There is just no way to remain profitable with that level of growth and capital expenditure. Regarding Car & Driver quoting me as saying that GE would be an investor, that was an error on my part that was corrected as soon as C&D published. The C&D interview occurred a few months earlier when GE had confirmed via email that they would be investing. Then GE had some sort of internal crisis and pulled out at the thirteenth hour (they had asked us to extend the closing deadline to allow them to participate), which was unfortunate for them. Their investment would have done incredibly well. Thomas pointedly ignores actual Tesla investors. In addition to the excellent venture investors of Valor Equity, DFJ, Technology Partners and others, there is Daimler and Toyota. Daimler invested $50M in Tesla after working with us for a year on the electric Smart car and doing extremely detailed technical and financial due diligence. When we did another investment round late last year with ADWEA and Fjord Capital, they invested again. When we did the IPO, they didn’t sell a single share, despite having a roughly threefold return on investment. The Toyota DealThomas states that although Toyota and Tesla announced that they would be developing a vehicle together, the SEC filings done right after the press conference say that we have no written agreement and there is no guarantee that we will get one done. Therefore, he concludes that I (and presumably Akio Toyoda), were misleading the public at the press conference! Thomas actually knows better, but, for those who aren’t familiar with the requirements of an IPO prospectus (aka S-1), you always have to state the worst case scenario. This is done for liability protection, but is definitely not what is actually expected to occur. Anyone who thinks that Akio Toyoda, the president of Toyota, would give a major public speech in front of the governor of California about doing a joint electric vehicle project with Tesla and not follow through is a complete fool. As was announced last week in Japan by Toyota, we have now signed the agreement and will be delivering the first prototypes this month. The vehicle and details of the program will be unveiled at another event later this year. Despite Toyota’s recent troubles, they are still the largest car company in the world and by far the leader in hybrid electric vehicles. For them to have invested in Tesla, (moreover at the IPO price) and want to partner with us to produce a vehicle is a great honor and a powerful endorsement. Purchasing the NUMMI plant for $42M, which has the ability to manufacture half a million vehicles per year or almost 1% of global automotive production, and making that our Tesla factory is another valuable element of the relationship. I should mention that NUMMI was owned half by Toyota and half by the General Motors spinoff (Motors Liquidation Corp), so we owe them a debt of appreciation too. The main reason I love this factory is that it accelerates our ability to produce an affordable mass market car. The Model S platform will at most consume 50k to 100k of the NUMMI capacity. The remainder of the plant will be sectioned off until we can bring our high volume affordable electric car to market, which has always been my dream for Tesla.      
Source: TechCrunch | 11 Jul 2010 | 11:16 am Madison firm makes video games for civics projectA Madison-based company has worked with retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to create video games that promote knowledge about government. Filament Games says it has...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:51 am Rentrak Announces Official Box Office Totals for Weekend of July 9, 2010Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:39 am Colton Harris-Moore, "Barefoot Bandit," arrested in the Bahamas after 2 years on the lam
In the photo at left (courtesy of the Sounder newspaper of Orcas Island, WA) chalk drawings of bare feet are shown on the floor of a store he'd just hit. "Colt" became an internet folk hero. He was an outdoor survivalist, a pilot and crasher of planes, a hot-wirer of cars, a pirate of boats, a stealer of other people's stuff, and a prolific amasser of Facebook fans (log in today and hear their lamentations, mostly "Busted, Bro!"). His momma has a book deal, and has retained a lawyer to handle their "entertainment interests." The long arm of the law caught up with Colt this morning, just before dawn, as he tried to dock a boat he'd recently stolen at a tourist spot in the Bahamas: Burglary victims in Eleuthera told The Associated Press on Saturday they had little doubt the lanky (...) fugitive was on the island. Ferry boat captain Freddie Grant said he was returning from Harbour Island in northern Eleuthera on Wednesday evening when he saw a tall, white teenager bathing or swimming in an inlet near the ferry landing. Ferry service employee Stan Pennerman also said he saw Harris-Moore lurking in the woods the same day. Neither man thought much of it until they noticed the next morning that somebody had damaged the ignition system on three of their boats.Bahamas police catch 'Barefoot Bandit' (King 5 via Glenn Fleishmann) 'Barefoot bandit' apprehended in Bahamas (CNN)
Source: Boing Boing | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:28 am Gadgetell Unboxing: LG SentioSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Reviews, Features, Originals  One of the latest phones on T-Mobile is the LG Sentio. While it probably won’t blow you away with its amazing hardware or OS, it is a pretty nice featurephone that does everything you would expect in a basic phone. It is a 3 inch touch screen phone with only three physical buttons on the bottom. It comes with a web2go browser and 3G access, T-Mobile’s Social buzz app, 3MP camera, microSD memory expansion, and only weighs 3.26 ounces. The LG Sentio comes in a navy blue finish and feels great in my hand. So far, the phone does everything I expect it to, albeit it is a little slow from time to time. If you like texting on a touch screen and don’t need the latest and greatest smartphone, the $69.99 might be a good fit. Stay tuned for the complete review of the LG Sentio on T-Mobile.
Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:11 am Teaching With Robotstheodp writes "If you're a math, CS, or engineering grad, odds are you've seen your share of robot-like teaching — but never an actual robot teacher. Now, that's starting to change. Computer scientists are developing robots with social components that can engage people and teach them simple skills, including household tasks, vocabulary, elementary imitation and taking turns. Several countries have been testing teaching machines in classrooms. At USC, researchers have had their robot, Bandit, interact with autistic children. South Korea is 'hiring' hundreds of robots as teacher aides and classroom playmates and is experimenting with robots that would teach English."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 10:05 am Zodiac said to reject Safran merger proposalPARIS, July 11 (Reuters) - French aerospace group Zodiac said on Sunday it had rejected a proposal for a tie-up from state-controlled Safran , according to a PR firm.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 9:57 am BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 7-04-2010Section:  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 | 11 Jul 2010 | 9:00 am Grad theses from MIT's Comparative Media Studies programNick sez,Graduate Student Theses Titles 2010 Source: Boing Boing | 11 Jul 2010 | 8:52 am MP was too drunk to vote on the budget
Mark Reckless, a new Tory MP from Kent got so drunk at the House of Commons that he decided he wasn't able to vote on the budget. He's "really sorry" about it. The debate over the budget had gone on to 230AM, and he refreshed himself mightily over the course of the day.
Mark Reckless MP sorry for being 'too drunk to vote' (Image: MarkReckless.com) Source: Boing Boing | 11 Jul 2010 | 8:50 am Zynga Investment May Herald Google GamesA post at TechCrunch claims knowledge of large investments from Google into social game company Zynga, makers of FarmVille and Mafia Wars. The amount of money involved is not small — somewhere in the $100-200 million range — and could facilitate Google's expansion into the games market. Quoting: "The investment was made by Google itself, not Google Ventures, say our sources, and it's a highly strategic deal. Zynga will be the cornerstone of a new Google Games to launch later this year, say multiple sources. Not only will Zynga's games give Google Games a solid base of social games to build on, but it will also give Google the beginning of a true social graph as users log into Google to play the games. And I wouldn't be surprised to see PayPal being replaced with Google Checkout as the primary payment option. Zynga is supposedly PayPal's biggest single customer, and Google is always looking for ways to make Google Checkout relevant."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 8:47 am ESA Releases Lutetia Flyby ImagesThe European Space Agency has released images from yesterday's close approach of asteroid 21 Lutetia by the Rosetta probe. At its closest, the probe was a mere 3,162 km from the asteroid, passing at 15 km/s and snapping photos sharp enough to make out features as small as 60 meters. "Rosetta operated a full suite of sensors at the encounter, including remote sensing and in-situ measurements. Some of the payload of its Philae lander were also switched on. Together they looked for evidence of a highly tenuous atmosphere, magnetic effects, and studied the surface composition as well as the asteroid’s density. ... The flyby marks the attainment of one of Rosetta's main scientific objectives. The spacecraft will now continue to a 2014 rendezvous with its primary target, comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will then accompany the comet for months, from near the orbit of Jupiter down to its closest approach to the Sun. In November 2014, Rosetta will release Philae to land on the comet nucleus." There is also a replay of the media event webcast on the ESA's website.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 11 Jul 2010 | 8:02 am Estonia's 'Johnny Appleseed' of Free Wi-FiVeljo Haamer dreams of one day making the entire country of Estonia one giant hotspot.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:39 am What Secrets Are Stored In The Roots Of Corn Plants?With corn being a critical U.S. crop expected to help feed livestock and people around the world and also be a source for the production of clean energy, plant breeders are continually seeking ways to make the plants more productive. To better understand the role corn roots play in this regard, an agricultural engineer and a crop scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have teamed up to examine corn root complexity and how it impacts corn development."Corn root structure is very complex, and it is critical to the growth of the plant," said Martin Bohn, U of I associate professor of crop sciences. "Only with an efficient and well-developed root system can the crop produce the high yields producers are looking for and meet world demand."Tony Grift, U of I associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering, is partnering with Bohn to examine corn root systems and to evaluate differences among corn genotypes. The team has developed innovative technology that uses high-resolution images of corn roots and statistical software to evaluate root complexity. The 'softbox' imaging tool they designed assures proper light penetration into the corn roots and automatically acquires six images per root at the click of a mouse button. These images are then analyzed using a statistical software program to generate a value for root complexity. The highly automated procedure stores the data in a library containing tens of thousands of images. This allows revisiting the imagery when new measurements or methods are developed."We define root complexity as the number of root branching points," Bohn said. "For the human eye, it's virtually impossible to meaningfully evaluate these differences in root systems. Very importantly, we are looking at the root structure of plants grown in actual soil in the field. Previous methods have examined the root complexity of plants grown in artificial environments, such as through hydroponics. The root systems we look at better represent what actually happens in the field."According to the researchers, a complex root structure could lead to a more productive plant. "Root systems with a greater number of branching points allow the plants to be more efficient at taking up water and nutrients from the soil," Bohn said.The software analysis employed to evaluate the root systems uses fractal dimensions – a statistical evaluation of geometrical shapes – to provide an indirect estimate of the number of branching points. Not only does the analysis of the roots provide an estimate of root complexity, it also allows the researchers to correlate differences in the complexity of the root systems with the plants' genetic makeup."We have found significant variation in the complexity of the root systems among various corn genotypes," Bohn said. "We also discovered regions in the maize genome that are responsible for the inheritance of root complexity."These findings have allowed the researchers to identify variations in root systems due to the plant's genetics, beyond the variations resulting from environmental factors such as weather, soil type, and available nutrients."With this new technology, we have found that more than half of the variation we observe for root complexity can be explained by genetic differences among plants," Bohn said. "This is allowing us to separate corn genotypes and identify the genes responsible for the plant's root structure."An important question is: how does root complexity transfer into productivity or how much complexity is really needed?To unlock information regarding the importance of root complexity on plant performance, the researchers are looking at 10 to 15 above-ground traits of corn plants with varying root complexities. Traits being examined include plant architectural traits like leaf length and width, leaf angle, and yield components like number of ears, number of kernels per ear, and kernel weight. Efforts are also under way to expand the research initiative to determine if root complexity provides the plant with the ability to grow better under low nitrogen or drought conditions."We now have the technology, which includes both hardware and software, to study corn root complexity in a high-throughput manner and link this complexity to the genetics of the plant," Bohn said. "We hope to uncover a wealth of important and useful information being stored in the corn plant's roots."Funding for this research has been provided by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Dow AgriSciences, and the U of I College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES).---Image Caption: University of Illinois researchers have developed technology to examine corn root complexity and how it impacts corn development. Credit: University of Illinois---On the Net:University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental SciencesSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:30 am Q+A - What can creditors expect from Dubai World meetingDUBAI, July 11 (Reuters) - State conglomerate Dubai World [DBWLD.UL] will meet creditors for an all-bank meeting on July 22 to present the final details of a $23.5 billion restructuring plan, sources said...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:29 am Ferns And Fog On The Forest FloorRedwood forest ecosystem of northern California depends on fog to stay hydrated during rainless summersAs the mercury rises outdoors, it's a fitting time to consider the effects of summertime droughts and global warming on ecosystems. Complex interactions among temperature, water cycling, and plant communities create a tangled web of questions that need to be answered as we face a rapidly changing climate.Drs. Emily Limm and Todd Dawson (University of California, Berkeley) recently tackled one aspect of the challenging question of how climate change can impact plant communities that obtain water from fog. Their results are published in the July issue of the American Journal of Botany.Fog is an important source of water to ecosystems around the world, because fog allows plants to stay hydrated even during times without rain. Fog may condense and drip to the soil, where it can be taken up by roots. Alternatively, some plants are able to absorb the water from fog through their leaves, allowing these plants to immediately benefit from the atmospheric moisture that may never reach the forest floor. The fern Polystichum munitum covers the forest floors of the redwood forests in northern California. Limm and Dawson examined variation in the ability of the leaves of P. munitum to absorb the water from fog.The researchers found that the quantity of water the plants absorbed varied in the different regions of the redwood forest. "Today, summertime drought conditions are greater in the southern end of the redwood forest ecosystem of Northern California, and this reduces P. munitum abundance and plant size. These smaller ferns in the south are less able to capture fog water that drips to the forest floor during the summer, and they may therefore suffer more drought stress than ferns in the northern end of the redwood forest ecosystem," Limm stated.This has important implications for the structure of plant communities. Limm explained, "If climate change causes further shrinkage of these ferns, this will change how fog water is distributed on the forest floor and may lead to dramatic changes in how the redwood understory functions."Limm and Dawson are hoping that native ferns may be able to acclimate to increasing drought conditions, and this acclimation would allow the plants to mitigate the effects of drought on the ecosystem and reduce the potential for local population extinctions. "If these ferns can make morphological and physiological adjustments to survive when drought intensifies, then they will be less impacted by climate change in the near future," Limm commented.Limm and Dawson have involved the public in their research through a Citizen Scientist program. The public helps to collect data on the abundance of P. munitum in a redwood forest near Oakland, California. This not only has contributed to the research on the effect of climate change on P. munitum, but also has resulted in a change in people's impressions of the forest."I've often heard people exclaim that they never realized that there were even plants on the forest floor in the redwood forest because they are always looking up at the giant coast redwoods…After they learn about P. munitum's amazing ability to absorb fog water through their leaves in much higher rates than the coast redwood, they often tell me that they will never look at a fern the same way again," Limm said. Limm and Dawson's findings appear in the July issue of the American Journal of Botany.CITATION: Limm, Emily B. and Todd E. Dawson (2010). Polystichum munitum (Dryopteridaceae) varies geographically in its capacity to absorb fog water by foliar uptake within the redwood forest ecosystem. American Journal of Botany 97(7): 1121-1128. DOI: 10.3732/ajb.1000081---Image Caption: A newly emergent frond of Polystichum munitum is covered with fog drip in the redwood forest ecosystem of Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in Humboldt County, California. Credit: Photo by Emily B. Limm---On the Net:American Journal of BotanySource: RedOrbit News - Science | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:20 am Hosiden and Hisco Sign Distribution Partnership Agreement to Meet Growing Demand in the North American Photovoltaic MarketSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:00 am Hosiden and Hisco Sign Distribution Partnership Agreement to Meet Growing Demand in the North American Photovoltaic MarketHOUSTON, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Hisco has signed a distribution agreement with Hosiden to support the North American solar market. This expands Hisco's solar product offering for photovoltaic (PV) panel assembly and installation with the addition of Hosiden's connectors and junction boxes for crystalline silicon and thin film modules. With a team of 23 certified solar specialists and 31 stocking locations in the US and Mexico, Hisco is ideally suited to support PV customers by providing technical support and local inventory. "The partnership with Hosiden strengthens Hisco's commitment to excellence in high quality products and local customer support for the PV industry," says Andy Behr, Solar Business Development Manager for Hisco. Hosiden's portfolio of products have received UL and TUV approval and can be customized to meet the design requirements of individual customers. The combination of Hosiden's strengths in design and manufacturing with Hisco's leadership in supply chain management offers customers a competitive advantage. For more information about Hisco's solar solutions, visit www.hiscoinc.com/solar or call 877-447-2650. Hisco, Inc. will be exhibiting at Intersolar North America 2010 in San Francisco's Moscone Center West Hall from July 13-15, booth number 9020. About Hosiden Hosiden Corporation, an electronic component manufacturer headquartered in Osaka, Japan, specializes in acoustic components (microphones, speakers/receivers, headphones, headsets), connecting components (connectors and switches), LCDs, and applied components (Bluetooth products). Hosiden provides solutions for a variety of markets including IT & communication, AV, automotive, home automation and green energy. Hosiden operates more than 18 manufacturing locations in five countries. With 19 sales locations in 11 countries, it has around 11,000 employees. For further information, visit www.hosiden.com. About Hisco, Inc. For 40 years, Hisco has delivered value to customers through quality products, process solutions and local inventory. Today, the international branch network includes 30 stocking locations -- 22 in the United States (including Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic) and eight operated by the HiscoMex subsidiary in Mexico. Four Precision Converting facilities provide value-added fabrication and custom repackaging. Hisco also offers vendor-managed inventory programs and specialized warehousing for chemical management, cold storage and logistic services. SOURCE Hisco, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 11 Jul 2010 | 7:00 am NOAA: Gulf Seafood Still Safe To EatSeveral types of seafood taken from the oil-soaked waters of the Gulf of Mexico are still safe to eat, according to a federal agency that is inspecting catches. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that nearly 400 samples of commonly consumed species -- including shrimp, tuna and grouper -- that have been caught in open waters and some closed areas have been chemically tested for contamination. NOAA officials say none of the sea creatures tested so far have shown concerning levels of contaminants. Each sample represented multiple fish of the same species. Both the NOAA and the Food and Drug Administration began catching seafood species in the Gulf just days after the April 20 oil rig disaster off the coast of Louisiana that generated a massive oil spill. The agency is mostly looking for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). These are the most common carcinogenic components of crude oil. About one-third of federal Gulf waters have been closed to commercial fishing -- roughly 80,000 square miles -- in an attempt to keep possibly tainted seafood from the market. Seafood inspectors have also been trained to smell oily product. One fish sample failed the sniffing test, but still did not show concerning levels of contaminants, Kevin Griffis of the Commerce Department said Friday. Don Kraemer, leader of the FDA’s Gulf seafood safety efforts, said the government is not relying on testing alone. “We couldn’t possibly have enough samples to make assurances that fish is safe. The reason we have confidence in the seafood is not because of the testing, it's because of the preventive measures that are in place,” he said, referring to fishing closures. Government officials plan surprise inspections at docks along the Gulf Coast to check for contaminated seafood, but they cannot be everywhere, said Dr. Steve Murawski, NOAA’s chief scientists. “It’s like enforcing anything. You can’t be everywhere all the time and handle every fish. We’re going to try to be real visible,” Murawski told The Associated Press. ---Image Caption: An inspector from NOAA's Seafood Inspection Program conducts sensory analysis - a smell test - of a sample of fish. Credit: NOAA---On the Net:NOAAFDASource: RedOrbit News - Science | 11 Jul 2010 | 6:50 am Tiger Population At An All-time LowSince about 1900, when tiger records were first kept, their numbers are the lowest they have ever been, with conservationists warning that the world has limited time to save the species. The World Wildlife Fund announced Saturday that the wild tiger population has now fallen to about 3,200, down from an estimated 100,000 more than a century ago. The big cat species could soon become extinct unless urgent action is taken to prevent further hunting and loss of habitat, experts are warning. The WWF is calling for governments in countries where tigers are still found -- which include China, India and Bangladesh -- to satisfy their commitments to double tiger numbers by 2022. It has also urged Great Britain to apply pressure on “tiger nations” by signing a new online petition saying they do not want to live in a world without the animals. “Without joined-up, global action right now, we are in serious danger of losing the species forever in many parts of Asia,” said Diane Walkington, head of species at WWF-UK. “If we lose the tiger, not only do we lose one of the world’s top predators, we will lose so much more,” she added. The campaign to protect the species has been launched to coincide with Year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar, which falls in both 2010 and 2022. Delegates from 13 countries which are home to wild tigers are scheduled to meet in Bali this coming week to discuss plans to boost tiger numbers. Countries participating in the meeting include Nepal, Russia, China and Thailand. A global summit on tigers will be held in St Petersburg in September. “There has never before been this level of momentum for action on tigers and governments must take advantage of it,” Walkington said. Dr. Bivash Pandav, who works with tigers for the WWF in Nepal said that once protection and enough undisturbed habitat is provided for tigers, “they breed immediately and within three or four years their numbers bounce back.” Tigers were once widespread across much of Asia, with populations as far west as Turkey and Iran. But huge interest in their thick fur, bones, and meat made them prime targets for poachers looking to make money, leading to the near extinction of the species. Habitat destruction has also lead to the rapid decline in their numbers. Earlier this year a study showed that there were fewer than 50 wild tigers left in China. ---On the Net:World Wildlife FundSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 11 Jul 2010 | 6:35 am Judge Cuts Student's Music Download PenaltyA Boston Ph.D. student, who was found guilty in 2009 of illegally downloading and sharing songs published by the world’s top record companies, has had his penalty reduced by a US judge on Friday. Judge Nancy Gertner of the US District Court in Boston said the penalty a jury handed Joel Tenenbaum would violate his constitutional rights. The verdict was for Tenenbaum to pay $675,000 in penalties to five record companies that sued him. Judge Gertner said the sum was excessive. Instead, the judge ordered Tenenbaum to pay $67,500 in damages to Sony BMG, Warner Bros., Atlantic Recording, Arista and UMG Recordings -- the five companies that filed the suit. “This award is far greater than necessary to serve the government’s legitimate interests in compensating copyright owners and deterring infringement,” Judge Gertner said in a 62-page decision. Tenenbaum admitted that he illegally downloaded and shared hundreds of songs since 1999.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 11 Jul 2010 | 6:15 am BP Begins Cap SwitchBP engineers used several underwater robots Saturday to remove a loosely fitting cap over the gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico, allowing oil to flow freely into the ocean waters for at least two days while the company works to place a tighter containment dome over the ruptured well. BP is hoping that the new cap, which should be installed within the next two to seven days, will contain all of the leaking oil and its vessels will be able to gather it easily. A fleet of roughly 400 skimmers crowded around the site to increase shoreline defense during the tense 48-hour period, BP said, as the company struggles to put an end to the worst environmental disaster in US history. A spokeswoman for BP said the old cap was removed at 12:37 pm (1737 GMT). BP senior vice president Kent Wells told AFP that “depending on how things go, we should get that sealing cap on” in the next four to seven days. “That’s our plan,” he said. The spill could be contained as early as Monday, said BP’s managing director, Bob Dudley. He said the company, however, has detailed backup plans that could push the cap work back several more days. BP says the new cap will be their best effort to provide a temporary fix for the devastating oil disaster that was triggered after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank back on April 20. An estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels (1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons) of oil have been gushing out of the ruptured well each day. BP says the new cap and containment ship will raise containment capacity to between 60,000 and 80,000 (2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons) barrels of oil per day, which it says should halt the leak that has endangered wildlife and disrupted people’s livelihoods across the Gulf Coast. In a statement, BP warned that there is “no assurance that the sealing cap will be successfully installed or installed within the anticipated timeframe.” The new cap is only a temporary fix until the first of two relief wells is completed later this summer in order to inject drilling fluids into the gushing well and then seal it for good with cement. BP engineers were taking advantage of about a week of expected favorable weather conditions in the region to work with the undersea robots and get the new cap ready for placement. The engineers were working to remove a bolted flange, a rib-like assembly that must be removed in order to install another piece of equipment over the drill pipe and then connect it to the new containment dome. Wells said other options remained at the ready, just in case this new attempt fails. “We always have backups for our backups,” he said, noting that workers were also ramping up skimming activity to collect more oil at the spill site during the recapping project. The existing cap, which was sucking up about 40 percent of the gushing oil, was installed over a month ago. BP expects the new cap, when and if they can fit it over the pipe, will collect all the gushing oil. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said he approved the new plan Friday because it will provide for “far greater” containment capacity than current systems. Oil has now washed ashore all five Gulf states -- Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida -- forcing beach closures, shutdowns of fishing grounds and threatening coastal communities with financial ruin. Cleanup crews in Pass Christian, Mississippi have fanned out across the white sand beaches, scooping up tar balls from the water’s edge with shovels and rakes. Michael Howson, 48, left his home in Chicago six weeks ago to work as a safety supervisor with the crew. He has seen scores of dead marine life wash ashore along with huge patches of oil as big as cars. “It’s terrible they haven't been able to cap it yet,” Howson told AFP, referring to the broken oil pipe in the Gulf. “It’s destroying the beaches, it’s destroying the wildlife and it’s destroying the people,” he lamented. Experts warn that it will be years, if not decades, before the oil stops washing up on shore.---Image Caption: Coast Guard Seaman Michael Paluh scans the site of the Deepwater Horizon Response at dawn as the Coast Guard Cutter Resolute patrols nearby July 8, 2010. The Resolute, home-ported in St.Petersburg, Fla., is serving as a search and rescue guard to help support and protect people and ships involved in Deepwater Horizon response efforts to stop the leak and recover oil on the water. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Belson. ---On the Net:BPGovernment Response WebsiteSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 11 Jul 2010 | 5:55 am
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We’ve been following 
When you first look at 
Cavers not only have to contend with the climbs and the extreme verticality, they have to deal with constant absolute darkness. Unless they are moving or performing a task they turn off their lights to save battery power, so most of the time they are in the dark. They are always wet and cold and there is always a high level of anxiety. They typically lose a pound or a pound-and-a-half a day, in part because of the kind of physical work that is required--descending or rappelling with very heavy loads, and ascending the same way. In Krubera, cavers are underground for up to a month.
Lately, group-buying sites and other companies that use discount-deals as the core of their business have become a red-hot trend, with Groupon spreading through cities around the world at a frantic pace and countless competitors and clones trying to catch some of the spotlight. Perhaps the reason for the sites’ traction is that the group-buying model is easy to understand.
Yesterday, I broke down Apple’s minute-long FaceTime commercial for iPhone 4, noting how 
We recently wrote about the 
Police said that in their investigation they learned that the people inside the car were dressed as zombie costumes and they were headed to a party at the time of the crash.
19-year-old serial criminal 