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Nokia Kinetic concept rises to the occasion
My point is that I like fresh thinking, and new (and better) ways of doing things. Like Jeremy Innes-Hopkins’ Nokia Kinetic concept. The main idea behind the phone is a new way to receive notifications when the phone is sitting on your desk. Rather than a sound and subtle blinking light (which I usually miss when my headphones are boomin’), this phone gets your attention by standing upright. A neat little parlour trick, indeed, and one that would also come in handy when watching videos on the device. Of course — like most concept phones — the designer only offers a vague explanation on how it will achieve it (electromagnets), leaving the technical trivialities to the engineers. The point, of course, is to get people thinking about new ways of doing things, and I think this phone does that well. [via Slash Gear]
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Jul 2010 | 4:05 am Facebook hits 500 million users, but meteoric rise has come with growing pains - Washington Post
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Jul 2010 | 4:02 am Android App market surpasses 70000 applications - GeekSmack
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Jul 2010 | 3:48 am Video: Hilarious Animated Synopsis of iPhone 4 SagaThere’s really nothing I can say to make this amazing video any more entertaining. It really is the best thing a tech-nerd like you or me is going to see not today, but this week. A recreation of the entire iPhone story compressed into two hilarious minutes, the CGI-animation from Taiwanese NMA News characterizes Steve Jobs as a be-cowled Darth Vader and AT&T as a literal ball-and-chain around customers’ ankles. I really don’t want to spoil the surprises, so just watch for Steve’s solution to the antenna problem (inspired by Alexander the Great?), and the police raid on the “Jason Chen residence.” Fantastic stuff. One warning. Put your coffee, or any other liquids, down, and away from the computer. You will spill them. Reality distortion field remains strong with Steve Jobs after antenna-gate [NMA News on YouTube via ★] See Also:
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 19 Jul 2010 | 3:38 am NASA's WISE eyes skies - Register
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Jul 2010 | 3:34 am State media accuses Baidu of promoting fake drug sites: report (Reuters)Reuters - China's main state-run television station has accused the country's top internet search engine Baidu Inc of directing users to websites that sell counterfeit drugs, the People's Daily reported on Monday.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 19 Jul 2010 | 3:29 am MS confirms Windows shortcut zero-day flaw - Register
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Jul 2010 | 3:20 am Acquisition Solutions Inc. to Become ASI GovernmentARLINGTON, Va., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Acquisition Solutions Inc. (ASI), public-sector consultants specializing in performance management solutions, today announced plans to change its name to ASI Government effective September 1, 2010. The renaming of the company is the next step in affirming the company's expansion into management disciplines adjacent to acquisition. Earlier this year, ASI purchased the majority of ICOR Partners, LLC, gaining considerable IT portfolio and program management capabilities. "The name change reflects a major investment by our firm to deliver a broad array of research, consulting, training and tools to help government agencies deliver better results," said ASI President and CEO Anne Reed. "We remain the 'go-to' firm for helping government with acquisition life-cycle challenges. And we have significantly strengthened our expertise and client base in such disciplines as change management, information technology management and also program and portfolio management." "With this broader capability, we have a unique ability to integrate the management disciplines required by today's public-sector leaders to achieve their program performance objectives," said Reed. "Over the summer we will communicate with clients about our name change and affirm our continued commitment to providing the insight, strategy and results that they have come to expect from us," said Jeremy Grant, ASI chief development officer. "Many of our clients have called us 'ASI' for years - so this won't be that much of a change for them. But for our new clients, it will be easier to speak to the broader array of expertise we offer." About ASI Acquisition Solutions Inc. (ASI) is a leader in performance-based management for the public sector. ASI specializes in acquisition and management solutions, including IT portfolio management and program management. The firm's services include consulting, research, management tools... and training - in the classroom and online. ASI consultants are trained to address tough program and acquisition challenges - and have a history of delivering results. Its award-winning Virtual Acquisition Office(TM) is used daily by 7000 federal acquisition professionals as a center for knowledge, resources and tools. http://www.acquisitionsolutions.com. SOURCE Acquisition Solutions Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jul 2010 | 3:04 am Online Video Consumption, Social Networking and Other New Media Behaviors are No Passing FadSANTA MONICA, Calif., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Interpret, a leading entertainment, media and technology market research firm, today released data from its quarterly New Media Measure(TM) study that tracks media behaviors, device ownership, attitudes and product consumption. Behavior and trending data from its 2010 first-quarter report reveals the continued proliferation of social networks, further growth of streaming video and the domination of free mobile apps in the marketplace. The study found that not only have consumers been streaming more movies and TV shows than a year ago (12 percent and 5 percent more, respectively), but Netflix has greatly increased its share of the streaming video market, up 36 percent from the first quarter of 2009. Streaming continues to be the dominant method for consuming content online, as downloading TV and movies has remained flat. The quantity and quality of streaming outlets may have helped curb piracy, as the incidence of illegal downloading of movies (9 percent) and TV shows (7 percent) is well below that of music (20 percent). Consumers claim the convenience and ease of use, as well as the lack of funds to pay for entertainment, are the main reasons they are driven to file-sharing. Social networking shows no hints of waning popularity, as usage of social networks has increased 20 percent from the first quarter of 2009. Facebook remains the leader, growing 33% over the past year. Facebook has also become a boon for casual gaming, eclipsing Yahoo! as the most visited gaming site among casual gamers - 28 percent in the past month have played a game on Facebook (versus 21 percent for Yahoo!). Social networking has also penetrated the mobile landscape, as New Media Measure(TM) shows a 36 percent increase of cell phone users who have updated content or posted a status update on a social network. Many of these updates are likely through mobile apps, and Interpret finds that 80% of apps downloaded in a typical week are free. "New media behaviors such as social networking and online video consumption have true staying power," said Josh Bell, Executive Director, Interpret LLC. "No passing fad, consumers are already weaving these activities into the fabric of their daily lives, and it is all happening extremely fast. Moreover, consumers appear to be turning to legal modes of content distribution, suggesting consumers see tangible value in the experiences video content providers are offering." New Media Measure(TM) is Interpret LLC's (www.interpretllc.com) proprietary, quarterly survey of media behaviors, attitudes and product consumption. Designed to keep pace with the evolving media landscape, New Media Measure(TM) supplies the means to better measure and keep track of fast-changing consumer behaviors. New Media Measure(TM) surveys 9,000 consumers aged 12-65, representative of the U.S. population and weighted to U.S. Census. Data collected includes: demographics, psychographics, brand consumption, traditional media consumption, online and social networking, mobile phone, video gaming, and digital entertainment. Data is available via Interface, a web-accessible, interactive analysis tool, through Intrend, quarterly trend reports, and through Interpretations, monthly whitepapers from Interpret analysts. www.interpretllc.com/new-media-measure.php. SOURCE Interpret LLCSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jul 2010 | 3:00 am Only 37 Percent of Small Businesses Across Five Countries Have Heard About Cloud Computing, Says TechaisleSAN JOSE, Calif., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent Techaisle survey of small businesses (1-99 employees) within US, UK, Germany, Italy and Brazil shows that only 37 percent of SBs have heard about cloud computing. Among those who have heard about cloud computing, 13 percent said that they did not know what it meant. 44 percent of the respondents think that cloud computing means subscribing to services such as servers or storage hosted by a third party and 29 percent think that it means access to applications over the web. Even among the 29 percent of small business that use SaaS, not all of them have heard of cloud computing. Clearly a tremendous education initiative has to be undertaken by both the channel partners and IT vendors to articulate the use of cloud computing. At Techaisle we believe that the vendors are busy courting large enterprises as they are easily identifiable and have established IT departments. Small businesses do not generally have IT departments let along knowledge and focus on cloud computing. Techaisle survey finds that channel partners are most effective in approaching small businesses regarding cloud computing. To that extent if the vendors are empowering the channels then they are certainly succeeding. But it may be opposite that channel partners in order to survive are changing their business model to embrace cloud computing. 26 percent of small businesses have heard about cloud computing from their channels while only 13 percent have heard about it from an IT company. 25 percent of small businesses have also heard about cloud computing from blogs/forums and other social media websites. Of those with dedicated channel partners, 48 percent say that their channels have approached them with some cloud computing offering. While it may be said that the use of cloud computing among small businesses is on the rise there is definitely confusion and lack of knowledge about what it really means. The above findings were released today based on primary research conducted by Techaisle in the months of May-June 2010. About Techaisle Techaisle is an actionable data driven market research analyst and consulting company based in San Jose with global coverage and focus on SMBs, Emerging Markets and Consumer research. For more information on Techaisle or its global products/services, please visit www.techaisle.com or call 408-914-2989. SOURCE TECHAISLESource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jul 2010 | 3:00 am Rackspace Releases Cloud Stack As Open Sourcezerocool^ writes "Techcrunch is reporting that Rackspace is open-sourcing their cloud computing technologies, under the name OpenStack. Rackspace has chosen to release under the Apache 2.0 license. The initial release encompasses the cloud object storage and cloud virtual server management suites. Along with this release, NASA is contributing technology from its Nebula Cloud Platform. Early partners include Intel, Dell, and Citrix."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 19 Jul 2010 | 2:53 am Steve Jobs death grips iPhone 4 reality - Register
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Jul 2010 | 2:24 am Misys Partners with Triple Point to Offer Market-Leading Commodities CoverageLONDON, July 19, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Misys plc (FTSE: MSY.L), the global application software and services company, today announces that it has signed a partnership with Triple Point Technology, the leader in commodities management solutions, to extend the coverage of Misys Summit FT to include commodities. Misys Summit FT already has extensive cross-asset coverage, including OTC derivatives, fixed income, FX, equity and structured products, which enable customers to manage their trading operations and risk more effectively. Through the partnership, Misys and Triple Point have jointly developed additional functionality within Misys Summit FT to include a wide coverage of commodities, completing Misys' full cross-asset strategy. Misys Summit will leverage the underlying technology within Triple Point's products and provide advanced commodity capabilities as standard within Summit. The solution will provide extensive coverage of commodities including energy, agriculture and metals, managing all derivatives, forwards, options and underlyings. "A vast majority of our Summit customers want to expand their use of our solution so that they can rationalise systems and costs and further reduce risk with a greater cross-asset view of positions," states Dan Cohen, Solution Manager, Misys Summit. "Our partnership with the commodities experts from Triple Point significantly enhances our ability to provide full cross-asset coverage to our customers. Through this new Summit solution, middle and back-office users of Summit will get a full cross-asset view of positions and transactions including commodities. We can now enable our customers to benefit from best of breed functionality and the cost savings that are possible by moving all asset classes to Summit." Dilip Daswani, Vice President, Corporate Development from Triple Point, adds, "We are delighted to be working with such a widely recognised solution provider. The combination of our advanced solutions, commodities expertise and Misys' broad coverage will guarantee the industry a best-of-breed solution with true cross-asset functionality." About Misys plc Misys plc (FTSE: MSY.L), provides integrated, comprehensive solutions that deliver significant results to organisations in the financial services and healthcare industries. We maximise value for our customers by combining our deep knowledge of their business with our commitment to their success. In banking and treasury & capital markets, Misys is a market leader, with over 1,200 customers, including all of the world's top 50 banks. In healthcare, Misys plc owns a controlling stake in NASDAQ-listed Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc, a clear leader in the provision of healthcare technology, serving more than 150,000 physicians, 700 hospitals and nearly 7,000 post-acute and homecare organisations. Misys employs around 6,000 people who serve customers in more than 120 countries. We aspire to be the world's best application software and services company, delivering results for the most important industries in the world. Misys: experience, solutions, results Contact us today, visit: http://www.misys.com About Triple Point Technology Triple Point is the leading global provider of innovative software solutions to efficiently and profitably manage commodities and enterprise risk. Triple Point's growing, loyal customer base of over 260 companies represent all industries with exposure to energy and raw materials including oil and gas, coal, metals, agriculture, transportation, shipping, consumer products (CP), discrete manufacturers, and big box retailers. The company was named a 'Leader' in Gartner's ETRM Magic Quadrant for its completeness of vision and ability to execute. Triple Point offers the only real-time solution to manage market/price, counterparty credit, operational, and regulatory risk on a tightly integrated platform. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Westport, CT, USA, Triple Point employs over 600 people in 11 offices and support centers around the globe. http://www.tpt.com. For further information please contact Edward Taylor Global Head of Public Relations Misys Solutions for Banking and Treasury & Capital Markets +44(0)20-3320-5530 edward.taylor@misys.com Sebastian Mathews Financial Dynamics +44(0)207-269-7158 sebastian.mathews@fd.com SOURCE Misys plcSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jul 2010 | 2:20 am Darma Henwa to produce 10 mln tonnes coal this year - BumiJAKARTA, July 19 (Reuters) - PT Bumi Resources , Indonesia's biggest coal miner by output, said on Monday that it expects its unit, PT Darma Henwa , to produce about 10 million tonnes of coal this year...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 2:13 am Quicken Online Users Saw The Bait, Took The Switch To Mint.com, And Are Left With Nothing
By February that idea had been changed. The new plan was to turn Quicken Online off at a set date and then merge all those users over to Mint:
Fast forward to real life and this is what Quicken Online users are facing:
One very upset customer asked Quicken to “at least wait until the end of the year so that people can have a complete year’s worth of financial records for tax purposes? I know it’s free, and I know you don’t necessarily “owe” anyone anything, but shutting down the product before the year ends is just a really bad idea, and basically tells consumers “Our product wasn’t worth anything anyway, and you probably shouldn’t use Mint.com either, because the same thing might happen with your data.” This same user also say he’d be willing to pay a fee to keep Quicken Online going until the end of the year, to avoid reconciling two sets of data. This seems like a boneheaded move to us. A mid year move for fiscal products must have some porting feature to move accounts and data over. Otherwise you’ve just waisted all that time your users put into the product. Quicken should hold the take down of Quicken Online until end of year, or figure out how to port accounts over to Mint. Because some of these users are lawyers. And most of these users at least know a lawyer. Bad stuff happens when you annoy lawyers. They see stuff like this as a big fat class action case waiting to fall into their laps. And fall it will.      
Source: TechCrunch | 19 Jul 2010 | 2:06 am UPDATE 2-Philips shares down despite upbeat Q2* Confident to exceed 10 pct adjusted EBITA target in 2010Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 2:03 am New Oriental Announces Results for the Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year Ended May 31, 2010BEIJING, July 19 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Quarterly Net Revenues Increased by 45.7% Year-Over-Year Quarterly Operating Income Increased by 46.3% Year-Over-Year Quarterly Net Income attributable to New Oriental Increased by 118.7% Year- Over-Year Fiscal Year Net Revenues Increased by 32.0% Year-Over-Year Fiscal Year Operating Income Increased by 26.9% Year-Over-Year Fiscal Year Net Income attributable to New Oriental Increased by 27.5% Year- Over-Year New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc. (the "Company" or "New Oriental") (NYSE: EDU), the largest provider of private educational services in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended May 31, 2010. Highlights for the Fourth Fiscal Quarter Ended May 31, 2010 -- Total net revenues increased by 45.7% year-over-year to US$86.6 million from US$59.4 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. -- Net income attributable to New Oriental increased by 118.7% year-over- year to US$5.8 million from US$2.6 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. -- Non-GAAP net income attributable to New Oriental, which excludes share- based compensation expenses, increased by 26.9% year-over-year to US$9.0 million from US$7.1 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. -- Income from operations increased by 46.3% year-over-year to US$3.7 million from US$2.5 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Non-GAAP income from operations, which excludes share-based compensation expenses, decreased 0.9% year-over-year to US$6.9 million from US$7.0 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. -- Basic and diluted net income attributable to New Oriental per ADS were US$0.15 and US$0.15, respectively. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental, which excludes share-based compensation expenses, were US$0.24 and US$0.23, respectively. Each ADS represents four common shares of the Company. -- Total student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses increased by 32.4% year-over-year to approximately 437,200 from approximately 330,200 in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Highlights for the Fiscal Year Ended May 31, 2010 -- Total net revenues increased by 32.0% year-over-year to US$386.3 million from US$292.6 million. -- Net income attributable to New Oriental increased by 27.5% year-over- year to US$77.8 million from US$61.0 million. -- Non-GAAP net income attributable to New Oriental increased by 20.8% year-over-year to US$94.0 million from US$77.8 million. -- Income from operations increased by 26.9% year-over-year to US$77.3 million from US$60.9 million. Non-GAAP income from operations increased by 20.4% year-over-year to US$93.5 million from US$77.7 million. -- Basic and diluted net income attributable to New Oriental per ADS were US$2.06 and US$2.01, respectively. Non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per ADS attributable to New Oriental were US$2.49 and US$2.43, respectively. -- Total student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses increased by 19.0% year-over-year to approximately 1,807,700 from approximately 1,519,500 in the prior fiscal year. -- The total number of schools and learning centers increased to 367 as of May 31, 2010, up from 270 as of May 31, 2009. The number of schools remained at 48, located in 40 cities as of May 31, 2010. The number of learning centers increased by 43 in the quarter to 319 as of May 31, 2010, up from 276 as of February 28, 2010. Financial and Student Enrollments Summary - Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2010 (US$ in thousands, except per ADS data, student enrollments and percentages) Q4 of Q4 of Pct. FY2010 FY2009 Change Net revenues 86,581 59,426 45.7% Net income attributable to New Oriental 5,773 2,640 118.7% Non-GAAP net income attributable to New Oriental (1) 9,037 7,122 26.9% Operating income 3,653 2,497 46.3% Non-GAAP operating income (1) 6,917 6,979 -0.9% Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - basic (2) 0.15 0.07 115.9% Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - diluted (2) 0.15 0.07 116.3% Non-GAAP net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - basic (1)(2) 0.24 0.19 25.3% Non-GAAP net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - diluted (1)(2) 0.23 0.19 25.5% Total student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses 437,200 330,200 32.4% FY2010 FY2009 Pct. Change Net revenues 386,307 292,567 32.0% Net income attributable to New Oriental 77,789 61,016 27.5% Non-GAAP net income attributable to New Oriental (1) 93,972 77,766 20.8% Operating income 77,314 60,920 26.9% Non-GAAP operating income (1) 93,497 77,670 20.4% Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - basic (2) 2.06 1.64 25.9% Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - diluted (2) 2.01 1.59 26.4% Non-GAAP net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - basic (1)(2) 2.49 2.09 19.4% Non-GAAP net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - diluted (1)(2) 2.43 2.03 19.8% Total student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses 1,807,700 1,519,500 19.0% (1) New Oriental provides net income attributable to New Oriental, operating income, and net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental on a Non-GAAP basis that excludes share-based compensation expenses to reflect meaningful supplemental information regarding its operating performance. For more information on these Non-GAAP financial measures, please see the section captioned "About Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and the tables captioned "Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures to the Most Comparable GAAP Measures" set forth at the end of this release. (2) Each ADS represents four common shares. "We are pleased to report solid fourth fiscal quarter results with continued strong revenue growth of 45.7% and even higher profit growth of over 110%," said Michael Yu, New Oriental's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "For the full fiscal year 2010, we achieved outstanding financial results despite the challenges posed by the H1N1 flu outbreak last summer and fall. We saw about 19% year-over-year growth in student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses, which resulted in net revenue growth of 32% to US$386.3 million, exceeding our target of 25-30% growth for fiscal year 2010, and profit growth of 27.5% to US$77.8 million. As we enter fiscal year 2011, we continue to see strong demand for our program offerings this summer, and we are again targeting top line growth of approximately 25-30% for this fiscal year ending May 31, 2011." "Starting in the fourth fiscal quarter, we accelerated the expansion of our network by adding a net of 43 learning centers in more than 20 cities, which brought our total number of schools and learning centers to 367 at the end of fiscal year 2010, an increase of 97 from a year ago exceeding our target of 70 learning centers for the year. As we enter fiscal year 2011, we plan to continue expanding aggressively by adding about 100 learning centers in existing cities and penetrating two to four new cities. Concurrently, we are launching two exciting, large scale initiatives in fiscal year 2011. Our first initiative is Kids' Math and Kids' Chinese writing programs under our highly successful POP Kids brand, which will target 6- to 12-year-old children and complement our POP Kids English courses. Our second initiative is New Oriental's proprietary new learning system for Middle and High School students, which focuses on English and all-subjects skills assessment, development, testing and improvement. With these new programs being rolled out to our network of schools and learning centers, New Oriental is targeting over 1 million student enrollments for our programs for 6- to 18-year-old students in fiscal year 2011, up from approximately 790,000 in fiscal year 2010. Combined with the over 1 million adult enrollments we are expecting for fiscal year 2011, we are targeting a total of over 2 million student enrollments for the upcoming 12 months, an important milestone for the company and testament to the high quality of our educational programs and service offerings," concluded Mr. Yu. Louis T. Hsieh, New Oriental's President and Chief Financial Officer, stated, "Our three key business segments continued to perform very well. First, the Middle and High School U-Can all-subjects training program has been rolled out to 39 cities throughout China. Enrollments in non-English U-Can courses in the fourth fiscal quarter were over 36,800, which brought the enrollments for the full fiscal year 2010 to approximately 120,000, and total revenues in non- English U-Can courses for the fiscal year 2010 reached US$34 million. These results are well above our original targets of 80,000 to 90,000 enrollments and revenues of US$25 million. Second, our POP Kids English program recorded year-over-year enrollment growth of more than 50% for the fourth fiscal quarter, growing to over 104,000, and enrollment growth for fiscal year 2010 exceeded 40%, rising to over 434,300, with fiscal year revenue growth of over 44% year-over-year to approximately US$50 million. Third, our Overseas Test Preparation program recorded enrollment growth of 25% and year-over-year revenue growth of over 40% in the fourth fiscal quarter, with fiscal year enrollment growth of 12% to over 256,500 and fiscal year revenue growth of about 30% to approximately US$107 million." Financial Results for the Fiscal Quarter Ended May 31, 2010 For the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010, New Oriental reported net revenues of US$86.6 million, representing a 45.7% increase year-over-year. Net revenues from educational programs and services for the fourth fiscal quarter were US$74.3 million, representing a 44.7% increase year-over-year. The growth was mainly driven by the increase in number of student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses. Total student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010 increased by 32.4% year-over-year to approximately 437,200 from approximately 330,200 in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Operating costs and expenses for the quarter were US$82.9 million, a 45.7% increase year-over-year. Non-GAAP operating costs and expenses, which exclude share-based compensation expenses, for the quarter were US$79.7 million, a 51.9% increase year-over-year. Cost of revenues for the quarter increased by 41.1% year-over-year to US$36.4 million, primarily due to the increased number of courses and the greater number of schools and learning centers in operation. Selling and marketing expenses for the quarter increased by 69.4% year- over-year to US$17.4 million, primarily due to brand promotion expenses, especially for relatively new programs such as the U-Can all-subjects training program. General and administrative expenses for the quarter increased by 39.7% year-over-year to US$29.2 million. Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses, which exclude share-based compensation expenses, were US$26.0 million, a 56.2% increase year-over-year, primarily due to increased headcount as the company expanded its network of schools and learning centers. Total share-based compensation expenses, which were allocated to related operating costs and expenses, decreased by 27.2% to US$3.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010 from US$4.5 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Income from operations for the quarter was US$3.7 million, a 46.3% increase from US$2.5 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Non- GAAP income from operations for the quarter was US$6.9 million, a 0.9% decrease from US$7.0 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Operating margin for the quarter was 4.2%, compared to 4.2% in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Non-GAAP operating margin, which excludes share-based compensation expenses, for the quarter was 8.0%, compared to 11.7% in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Net income attributable to New Oriental for the quarter was US$5.8 million, representing a 118.7% increase from the same period of the prior fiscal year. Basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental were US$0.15 and US$0.15, respectively. Non-GAAP net income attributable to New Oriental for the quarter was US$9.0 million, representing a 26.9% increase from the same period of the prior fiscal year. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental were US$0.24 and US$0.23, respectively. Capital expenditures for the quarter were US$6.4 million, primarily used to add a net of 43 new learning centers. As of May 31, 2010, New Oriental had cash and cash equivalents of US$281.1 million, as compared to US$250.8 million as of February 28, 2010. In addition, the Company had US$137.9 million in term deposits at the end of the quarter. Net operating cash flow for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010 was approximately US$48.2 million. The deferred revenue balance, which is cash collected from registered students for courses and recognized proportionally as revenue as the instructions are delivered, at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010 was US$107.1 million, an increase of 43.2% as compared to US$74.8 million at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2009. Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ended May 31, 2010 For the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010, New Oriental reported net revenues of US$386.3 million, a 32.0% increase year-over-year. Net revenues from educational programs and services for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 were US$352.9 million, representing a 32.5% increase year- over-year. The growth was mainly driven by the increase in the number of student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses. Total student enrollments in language training and test preparation courses for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 increased by 19.0% year-over-year to approximately 1,807,700 from approximately 1,519,500 in the fiscal year ended May 31, 2009. Income from operations for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 was US$77.3 million, a 26.9% increase year-over-year. Non-GAAP income from operations for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 was US$93.5 million, a 20.4% increase year- over-year. Operating margin for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 was 20.0%, compared to 20.8% for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2009. Non-GAAP operating margin for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 was 24.2%, compared to 26.5% for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2009. Net income attributable to New Oriental for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 was US$77.8 million, representing a 27.5% increase year-over-year. Basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 were US$2.06 and US$2.01, respectively. Non-GAAP net income attributable to New Oriental for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 was US$94.0 million, a 20.8% increase year-over-year. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental for the fiscal year ended May 31, 2010 were US$2.49 and US$2.43, respectively. Outlook for First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2011 New Oriental expects its total net revenues in the first quarter of fiscal year 2011 (June 1, 2010 to August 31, 2010) to be in the range of US$188.2 million to US$197.2 million, representing year-over-year growth in the range of 26% to 32%, respectively. This forecast reflects New Oriental's current and preliminary view, which is subject to change. Conference Call Information New Oriental's management will host an earnings conference call at 8 AM on July 19, 2010 U.S. Eastern Time (8 PM on July 19, 2010 Beijing/Hong Kong time). Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows: US: +1-617-213-8840 Hong Kong: +852-3002-1672 UK: +44-207-365-8426 Please dial-in 10 minutes before the call is scheduled to begin and provide the passcode to join the call. The passcode is "New Oriental earnings call." A replay of the conference call may be accessed by phone at the following number until July 26, 2010: International: +1-617-801-6888 Passcode: 88042371 Additionally, a live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available at http://investor.neworiental.org . About New Oriental New Oriental is the largest provider of private educational services in China based on the number of program offerings, total student enrollments and geographic presence. New Oriental offers a wide range of educational programs, services and products consisting primarily of English and other foreign language training, test preparation courses for major admissions and assessment tests in the United States, the PRC and Commonwealth countries, primary and secondary school education, development and distribution of educational content, software and other technology, and online education. New Oriental's ADSs, each of which represents four common shares, currently trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "EDU". For more information about New Oriental, please visit http://english.neworiental.org . Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, the outlook for the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as New Oriental's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. New Oriental may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about New Oriental's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: our ability to attract students without a significant decrease in course fees; our ability to continue to hire, train and retain qualified teachers; our ability to maintain and enhance our "New Oriental" brand; our ability to effectively and efficiently manage the expansion of our school network and successfully execute our growth strategy; the outcome of ongoing, or any future, litigation or arbitration, including those relating to copyright and other intellectual property rights; competition in the private education sector in China; changes in our revenues and certain cost or expense items as a percentage of our revenues; the expected growth of the Chinese private education market; Chinese governmental policies relating to private educational services and providers of such services; health epidemics and other outbreaks in China; and general economic conditions in China. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in our annual report on Form 20-F and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. New Oriental does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and New Oriental undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law. About Non-GAAP Financial Measures To supplement New Oriental's consolidated financial results presented in accordance with GAAP, New Oriental uses the following measures defined as non- GAAP financial measures by the SEC: net income excluding share-based compensation expenses, operating income excluding share-based compensation expenses, operating costs and expenses excluding share-based compensation expenses, general and administrative expenses excluding share-based compensation expenses, operating margin excluding share-based compensation expenses, and basic and diluted net income per ADS and per share excluding share-based compensation expenses. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the tables captioned "Reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures" set forth at the end of this release. New Oriental believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding its performance and liquidity by excluding share-based compensation expenses that may not be indicative of its operating performance from a cash perspective. New Oriental believes that both management and investors benefit from referring to these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing its performance and when planning and forecasting future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate management's internal comparisons to New Oriental's historical performance and liquidity. New Oriental computes its non-GAAP financial measures using the same consistent method from quarter to quarter. New Oriental believes these non- GAAP financial measures are useful to investors in allowing for greater transparency with respect to supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision making. A limitation of using these non-GAAP measures is that they exclude share-based compensation charge that has been and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a significant recurring expense in our business. Management compensates for these limitations by providing specific information regarding the GAAP amounts excluded from each non-GAAP measure. The accompanying tables have more details on the reconciliations between GAAP financial measures that are most directly comparable to non-GAAP financial measures. Contacts For investor and media inquiries, please contact: In China: Ms. Sisi Zhao New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc. Tel: +86-10-6260-5566 x8203 Email: zhaosisi@staff.neworiental.org Mr. Henry Fraser Beijing Brunswick Consultancy Ltd. Tel: +86-10-6566-4156 Email: hfraser@brunswickgroup.com In the U.S.: Ms. Kate Tellier Brunswick Group LLC Tel: +1-212-333-3810 Email: ktellier@brunswickgroup.com NEW ORIENTAL EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY GROUP INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (In thousands) As of May 31 As of February 28 2010 2010 (Unaudited) (Unaudited) USD USD ASSETS: Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents 281,104 250,792 Restricted cash 582 571 Term deposits 137,905 120,375 Accounts receivable, net 1,922 1,179 Inventory 17,163 13,883 Deferred tax assets-Current 2,982 2,291 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 22,156 19,298 Total current assets 463,814 408,389 Property, plant and equipment, net 118,118 115,351 Land use right, net 3,403 3,425 Amounts due from related parties 396 579 Deferred tax assets 1,567 808 Long term deposit 3,664 3,093 Long term prepaid rent 1,851 2,253 Intangible assets 787 804 Goodwill 2,818 2,713 Long term investment 2 2 Total assets 596,420 537,417 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable-trade 11,038 6,197 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities 44,838 39,139 Income tax payable 5,750 6,769 Amount due to related parties 14 14 Deferred revenue 107,065 69,787 Total current liabilities 168,705 121,906 Deferred tax liabilities 137 141 Total long-term liabilities 137 141 Total liabilities 168,842 122,047 Total New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. shareholders' equity 427,567 415,536 Noncontrolling interests 11 (166) Total equity 427,578 415,370 Total liabilities and equity 596,420 537,417 NEW ORIENTAL EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY GROUP INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (In thousands except for per share and per ADS amounts) For the Three Months Ended May 31 2010 2009 (Unaudited) (Unaudited) USD USD Net Revenues: Educational Programs and services 74,303 51,337 Books and others 12,278 8,089 Total net revenues 86,581 59,426 Operating costs and expenses (note 1): Cost of revenues 36,356 25,771 Selling and marketing 17,362 10,250 General and administrative 29,210 20,908 Total operating costs and expenses 82,928 56,929 Operating income 3,653 2,497 Other income, net 1,563 794 Provision (benefits) for income taxes 734 (413) Less: Net income attributable to the noncontrolling interests (note 2) (177) (238) Net income attributable to New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. 5,773 2,640 Net income per share attributable to New Oriental-Basic 0.04 0.02 Net income per share attributable to New Oriental-Diluted 0.04 0.02 Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental-Basic (note 3) 0.15 0.07 Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental-Diluted (note 3) 0.15 0.07 Notes: Note 1: Share-based compensation expenses (in thousands) are included in the operating costs and expenses as follows: For the Three Months Ended May 31 2010 2009 (Unaudited) (Unaudited) USD USD Cost of revenues 22 138 Selling and marketing 2 63 General and administrative 3,240 4,281 Total 3,264 4,482 Note 2: Amount in relation to noncontrolling interests, formerly named minority interest, for the three-month period ended May 31, 2009 is reclassified in accordance with authoritative guidance regarding the noncontrolling interests, which was adopted by the Company on June 1, 2009. Note 3: Each ADS represents four common shares. NEW ORIENTAL EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY GROUP INC. RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP MEASURES TO THE MOST COMPARABLE GAAP MEASURES (In thousands except share and per ADS amounts) For the Three Months Ended May 31 2010 2009 (Unaudited) (Unaudited) USD USD General and administrative expenses 29,210 20,908 Share-based compensation expense in general and administrative expenses 3,240 4,281 Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses 25,970 16,627 Total operating costs and expenses 82,928 56,929 Share-based compensation expenses 3,264 4,482 Non-GAAP operating costs and expenses 79,664 52,447 Operating income 3,653 2,497 Share-based compensation expenses 3,264 4,482 Non-GAAP operating income 6,917 6,979 Operating margin 4.2% 4.2% Non-GAAP operating margin 8.0% 11.7% Net income attributable to New Oriental 5,773 2,640 Share-based compensation expense 3,264 4,482 Non-GAAP net income 9,037 7,122 Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental- Basic (note 1) 0.15 0.07 Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental- Diluted (note 1) 0.15 0.07 Non-GAAP net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - Basic (note 1) 0.24 0.19 Non-GAAP net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - Diluted (note 1) 0.23 0.19 Weighted average shares used in calculating basic net income per ADS (note 1) 151,530,498 149,633,634 Weighted average shares used in calculating diluted net income per ADS (note 1) 155,268,339 153,578,336 Note 1: Each ADS represents four common shares. NEW ORIENTAL EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY GROUP INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (In thousands except for per share and per ADS amounts) For the Year Ended May 31 2010 2009 (Unaudited) (Unaudited) USD USD Net Revenues: Educational Programs and services 352,857 266,389 Books and others 33,450 26,178 Total net revenues 386,307 292,567 Operating costs and expenses (note 1): Cost of revenues 147,261 112,011 Selling and marketing 58,396 38,947 General and administrative 103,336 80,689 Total operating costs and expenses 308,993 231,647 Operating income 77,314 60,920 Other income, net 6,222 7,189 Provision for income taxes (5,974) (7,256) Less: Net income attributable to the noncontrolling interests (note 2) 227 163 Net income attributable to New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. 77,789 61,016 Net income per share attributable to New Oriental-Basic 0.52 0.41 Net income per share attributable to New Oriental-Diluted 0.50 0.40 Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental-Basic (note 3) 2.06 1.64 Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental-Diluted (note 3) 2.01 1.59 Notes: Note 1: Share-based compensation expenses (in thousands) are included in the operating costs and expenses as follows: For the Year Ended May 31 2010 2009 (Unaudited) (Unaudited) USD USD Cost of revenues 657 316 Selling and marketing 117 225 General and administrative 15,409 16,209 Total 16,183 16,750 Note 2: Amount in relation to noncontrolling interests, formerly named minority interest, for the year ended May 31, 2009 is reclassified in accordance with authoritative guidance regarding the noncontrolling interests, which was adopted by the Company on June 1, 2009. Note 3: Each ADS represents four common shares. NEW ORIENTAL EDUCATION & TECHNOLOGY GROUP INC. RECONCILIATION OF NON-GAAP MEASURES TO THE MOST COMPARABLE GAAP MEASURES (In thousands except share and per ADS amounts) For the Year Ended May 31 2010 2009 (Unaudited) (Unaudited) USD USD General and administrative expenses 103,336 80,689 Share-based compensation expense in general and administrative expenses 15,409 16,209 Non-GAAP general and administrative expenses 87,927 64,480 Total operating costs and expenses 308,993 231,647 Share-based compensation expenses 16,183 16,750 Non-GAAP operating costs and expenses 292,810 214,897 Operating income 77,314 60,920 Share-based compensation expenses 16,183 16,750 Non-GAAP operating income 93,497 77,670 Operating margin 20.0% 20.8% Non-GAAP operating margin 24.2% 26.5% Net income attributable to New Oriental 77,789 61,016 Share-based compensation expense 16,183 16,750 Non-GAAP net income 93,972 77,766 Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental- Basic (note 1) 2.06 1.64 Net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental- Diluted (note 1) 2.01 1.59 Non-GAAP net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - Basic (note 1) 2.49 2.09 Non-GAAP net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental - Diluted (note 1) 2.43 2.03 Weighted average shares used in calculating basic net income per ADS (note 1) 150,952,249 149,090,088 Weighted average shares used in calculating diluted net income per ADS (note 1) 154,831,633 153,528,383 Note 1: Each ADS represents four common shares. SOURCE New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jul 2010 | 2:00 am Nations to seek clean energy cooperationEnergy ministers or senior officials from 21 nations are gathering in Washington, DC Monday for a two-day meeting aimed at finding ways to work together on clean energy amid an impasse in...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 1:55 am PREVIEW-Baidu poised to beat Street; portals, games subdued* StarMine SmartEstimate show 2.9 percent above consensusSource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 1:33 am Most vulnerable nations pledge climate actionSix countries seen as most threatened by rising sea levels have vowed to cut their carbon emissions as a gesture of their commitment to fight global warming, the Maldivian government said...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 1:30 am New railroad will link Europe to Asia by way of the CaucasusMarilyn sez, "The 750-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway that will connect the oil-rich Caspian Sea region to Turkey and beyond is being built to grease a trade boom, transporting European goods east...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 1:23 am New railroad will link Europe to Asia by way of the CaucasusMarilyn sez, "The 750-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway that will connect the oil-rich Caspian Sea region to Turkey and beyond is being built to grease a trade boom, transporting European goods east and petroleum products west across the southern Caucasus. Once completed, by 2012, the railway will begin at the Azerbaijani capital of Baku and travel through the Georgian city of Tbilisi, before carrying on to Kars, a Turkish post town on the southwestern lip of the Caucasus region."Eurasian Railroad (Thanks, Marilyn!) (Image: Alex Webb/National Geo)  Source: Boing Boing | 19 Jul 2010 | 1:23 am UPDATE 1-Max Petroleum says Kazakh govt cancels subsoil licence* Says received termination letter from oil & gas ministrySource: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 1:15 am Google Nexus One Rides Into the Sunset - Techtree.com
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 19 Jul 2010 | 1:13 am VASCO to Release Q2 2010 Results On July 27 -- Dial-In InfoOAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill., and ZURICH, July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VASCO Data Security International, Inc. (Nasdaq: VDSI; www.vasco.com), a leading software security company specializing in strong authentication products, announced today that it will release its Q2 2010 results on July 27, 2010. On July 27, at 10.00 am ET/16.00 CET, VASCO will hold a conference call, which will be streamed on the VASCO website (www.vasco.com). The dial-in telephone numbers for the conference call are: Participant dial-in US: 800-747-0367 Participant dial-in International: +1 212-231-2937 Mr. T. Kendall Hunt, Chairman and CEO, Mr. Jan Valcke, President and COO and Mr. Cliff Bown, Executive Vice President and CFO of VASCO, will be available on July 27 to answer analyst, investor and media questions. About VASCO: VASCO is a leading supplier of strong authentication and e-signature solutions and services specializing in Internet Security applications and transactions. VASCO has positioned itself as global software company for Internet Security serving a customer base of over 9,500 companies in more than 100 countries, including approximately 1,450 international financial institutions. VASCO's prime markets are the financial sector, enterprise security, e-commerce and e-government. Forward Looking Statements: Statements made in this news release that relate to future plans, events or performances are forward-looking statements. Any statement containing words such as "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "intend," "mean," and similar words, is forward-looking, and these statements involve risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations. Consequently, actual results could differ materially from the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements. Reference is made to VASCO's public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for further information regarding VASCO and its operations. This document may contain trademarks of VASCO Data Security International, Inc. and its subsidiaries, including VASCO, the VASCO "V" design, DIGIPASS, VACMAN, aXsGUARD and IDENTIKEY. For more information contact: Jochem Binst, +32 2 609 97 00, jbinst@vasco.com SOURCE VASCO Data Security International, Inc.Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 19 Jul 2010 | 1:00 am UPDATE 1-Australian Sigma gets bids for two drug arms - report* Sigma declines to comment (Adds Sigma no comment, updates shares)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 12:49 am HG Wells writing competition demands handwriting, no science fiction; no one applies
A writing competition held in HG Wells's honor demanded that entries be handwritten ("to address the low standard of literacy and handwriting these days...it's an important art in itself and many of our most famous authors find that's the best way to do creative writing.") and that they treat with subjects other than science fiction ("Last year there were plenty of entries because the competition was open to writers of all ages and stories could include science fiction, depicting ghastly invasions of our everyday lives by all sorts of nameless horrors.").
Unsurprisingly, the contest did not get a single entry. Budding young writers were invited to send their short stories creating a picture of contemporary life in Kent, to Reg Turnill, a former BBC aerospace correspondent who as a young reporter interviewed Wells. But due to what Mr Turnill now believes were over-strict rules, he has had to change the entry conditions.No entries for £1,000 HG Wells story competition (via @stevesilberman) (Image: Wikimedia Commons/Gutenberg.org) Source: Boing Boing | 19 Jul 2010 | 12:37 am HG Wells writing competition demands handwriting, no science fiction; no one appliesA writing competition held in HG Wells's honor demanded that entries be handwritten ("to address the low standard of literacy and handwriting these days...it's an important art in itself and many of our...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 12:37 am Hide the kitchen! Company's coming! This ad from the Oct, 1947 issue of Better Homes and Gardens will help you source a kitchen that doesn't have any unsightly food preparation or consumption surfaces, so it can open off the living room without alienating your guests with the sight of a kitchen. You'd Hardly Know it's a Kitchen Source: Boing Boing | 19 Jul 2010 | 12:37 am Hide the kitchen! Company's coming!This ad from the Oct, 1947 issue of Better Homes and Gardens will help you source a kitchen that doesn't have any unsightly food preparation or consumption surfaces, so it can open off the living room...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 12:37 am The iPhone 4 Antennagate story, as told through ridiculous Taiwanese animationYou know, I’m just going to let the video do the talking this time. To summarize: Steve Jobs stole Bill Gates’ sweet hat, force choked Jason Chen, lopped off some fingers, stomped on some phones, and the press went wild. Sounds about right. [Thanks, David]
Source: MobileCrunch | 19 Jul 2010 | 12:35 am FACTBOX-Gilead dominates HIV/AIDS drugs marketJuly 19 (Reuters) - About two dozen different drugs are approved to fight the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS. They are used in so-called cocktails to attack the virus from several different...Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 12:32 am The Zen of PowerPoint, Facebook, and TwitterOver at the American Express Open Forum, I recently posted an article about the application of ten Japanese concepts to PowerPoint, Facebook, and Twitter. Check it out here if you want a conceptual framework...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 12:18 am Romania - Factors to Watch on July 19BUCHAREST, July 19 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Monday.Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 19 Jul 2010 | 12:16 am Valero to clean McKee refinery unit over five-hour period-filing(For refinery outages in the new Reuters Oil Fundamentals Database see http://bond.views.session.rservices.com/CE/ or go to <OFD/INFO>)Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsTech | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:55 pm Woo-fighting scientist takes the funny high-road when libeled by millionaire "nutritionist"Dr Ben Goldacre is the woo-fighting science writer for The Guardian, and in that capacity he has dogged the heels of "Doctor" Gillian McKeith, a "nutritionist" whose explanations for the way that nutrition...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:53 pm Woo-fighting scientist takes the funny high-road when libeled by millionaire "nutritionist"
Dr Ben Goldacre is the woo-fighting science writer for The Guardian, and in that capacity he has dogged the heels of "Doctor" Gillian McKeith, a "nutritionist" whose explanations for the way that nutrition works defy science and delve into bizarre areas of Being Wrong, such as her claims about the way that chlorophyll operates in your pitch-black gut.
Goldacre devoted a chapter of his excellent Bad Science book to McKeith's claims, and paid special attention to McKeith's use of Britain's brutal libel laws to silence her critics. Now Goldacre finds himself libeled by McKeith on Twitter; McKeith, rather than apologizing or defending her libel, has backtracked from it, instead claiming that her Twitter account isn't really her; sloppily removing links to it from her official website, etc. Goldacre's response has been to record this wonderful megaphone-jazz-style ballad in tribute to McKeith's zany beliefs and practices: And then I was incompetently libelled by a litigious millionaire Source: Boing Boing | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:53 pm New Photos Show "Devastating" Ice Loss On EverestSimmeh writes "The BBC reports on new photos of the Himalayas taken from exactly the same position as ones from 1929 and compares the ice coverage. The Asia Society, which did the groundwork, are quoted as saying 'If the present rate of melting continues, many of these glaciers will be severely diminished by the middle of this century.' I guess the previous claim wasn't too unrealistic."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Source: Slashdot | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:45 pm Indian bureaucracy to VS Naipaul: Can you prove that you're really Indian?The Times of India reports on the Overseas Citizenship of India program, through which people born abroad to people of Indian origin can claim citizenship, "to woo the rich and influential Indian diaspora from across the world."It's been quite a success, though the bureaucracy can be a little thick at times: Dual citizenship a hit amongst PIOs Source: Boing Boing | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:42 pm Indian bureaucracy to VS Naipaul: Can you prove that you're really Indian?The Times of India reports on the Overseas Citizenship of India program, through which people born abroad to people of Indian origin can claim citizenship, "to woo the rich and influential Indian diaspora...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:42 pm Bad ideas from The Little MermaidJohn sez, "This video shows all the bad ideas Disney's The Little Mermaid is giving young girls about their options. The Second City is considering making it into a series." Advice for Young Girls from The Little Mermaid (Thanks, John!) Source: Boing Boing | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:36 pm Bad ideas from The Little MermaidJohn sez, "This video shows all the bad ideas Disney's The Little Mermaid is giving young girls about their options. The Second City is considering making it into a series." Advice for Young Girls...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:36 pm Bizarro fiction: stupid and intelligent at the same timeCarlton sez, "Have you discovered the genre that can be stupid and intelligent at the same time? The Guardian discusses the cult underground genre of campy weird fiction known as Bizarro Fiction. From Jeff Burk's 'Shatnerquake,' about all of the characters Wiliam Shatner has ever played are suddenly sucked into our world on a mission to hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner to Cameron Pierce's "Ass Goblins of Auschwitz" that is the literary equivalent of Schindler's List rewritten by the Marquis De Sade and filmed as a Tim Burton animated feature: 'Bizarro Fiction is by turns stupid, repulsive and crude. But at its best, it is also intelligent, compelling and well-written. Any literary genre that can be both bad and good at the same time is worth watching.'"Carlton was one of my Clarion West writing students, and is a talented, energetic and successful Bizarro author and impresario -- congrats on the recognition from the Guardian, Carlton! Bizarro fiction: it's terribly good (Thanks, Carlton!) Source: Boing Boing | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:35 pm Bizarro fiction: stupid and intelligent at the same timeCarlton sez, "Have you discovered the genre that can be stupid and intelligent at the same time? The Guardian discusses the cult underground genre of campy weird fiction known as Bizarro Fiction. From...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:35 pm Congress's groovy, formerly secret fallout shelterAtlas Obscura takes us on a tour of the US Congress's secret fallout shelter, built in the fifties so that Congresscritters and their aides (but not their families) could survive a nuclear holocaust...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:23 pm Congress's groovy, formerly secret fallout shelter Atlas Obscura takes us on a tour of the US Congress's secret fallout shelter, built in the fifties so that Congresscritters and their aides (but not their families) could survive a nuclear holocaust. Its location -- beneath Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV -- was outed by the WashPo in 1992, it has since been superseded by an even s33ktr1ter shelter with even groovier wallpaper to take into the next world. To help ensure its secrecy the bunker was operated by a dummy company known as Forsythe Associates and workers on the bunker all dressed as hotel audiovisual employees. Any calls going in and out of the bunker were routed through the hotel switchboard so it looked as if they originated from and were going to the Resort.Congressional Fallout Shelter at the Greenbrier Resort (Thanks, Marilyn!) Source: Boing Boing | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:23 pm Fiber optic knife This glass knife was hand-knapped by Mike Cook of Portland, Michigan out of fiber optic glass. Magnetometer-invisible and broadband; can't hardly ask for a better tool! "Primitive" knife knapped from fiber optic glass Source: Boing Boing | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:18 pm Fiber optic knifeThis glass knife was hand-knapped by Mike Cook of Portland, Michigan out of fiber optic glass. Magnetometer-invisible and broadband; can't hardly ask for a better tool! "Primitive" knife knapped from...Source: RSS feed - channel BNBlogTech | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:18 pm MRI scans of food
The Inside Insides blog features animated MRI scans of food. I love the graceful swaying of dragonfruit, but am absolutely taken by corn's freneticism. I've had a couple of these scans recently and I had to say that it's eerie fun to fly through your own body; I keep wanting to shout: "Stay on target! Stay on target!"
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Foods Source: Boing Boing | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:55 pm The iPhone 4 Saga Animated in Star Wars-Style [VIDEO] (Mashable)Mashable - As odd as it is, this animation seems like a perfect ending to the entire iPhone 4 saga.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:15 pm OpenStack.org: RackSpace Open Sources Their Cloud Services Platform, And Gets NASA On Board
NASA is also incorporating technology from the NASA Nebula Cloud Platform into the OpenStack project, says RackSpace. RackSpace says they want to drive interoperability in cloud services to avoid vendor lock-in, and help create industry standards. More than 25 companies have shown interest in the project, says RackSpace, or are actively working on the code. They include AMD, Citrix, Cloud.com, Cloudkick, CloudSwitch, Dell, enStratus, FathomDB, Limelight, Nicira, NTT DATA, Opscode, Peer 1, Puppet Labs, RightScale, Riptano, Scalr, Sonian, Spiceworks and Zuora. The code is being released under the extremely flexible Apache 2 license, meaning third parties can redistribute the code, build proprietary software around the code, and distribute it with few restrictions. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:01 pm Video Lab: First Look and Hands On With Windows Phone 7What it is: A not quite yet finished version of Windows 7 Mobile, Microsoft’s latest operating system for smartphones. What’s new about it: Redesigned from the ground up. Apple and Android were thrashing Microsoft in the mobile OS sector so it was decided that previous versions of Win-Mo would be scrapped and a new OS would be built from scratch. The result is an OS that’s graphically focused, easier to navigate, and lets you easily aggregate contact info from multiple sources (Facebook, Windows Live). Also integrated are icons dedicated to accessing Bing (search), Xbox Live (gaming) and the Zune marketplace (wait, what?). Our first thoughts: Major, major improvements here. Because the applications are laid out in what Microsoft calls “Tiles” (really, these are customizable icons that can be manipulated on the Start screen), navigating the OS is exponentially more simplistic than previous versions of Win-Mo. The focus on mining social networks and address books across platforms for contacts is definitely not a new idea (Palm OS hello!) but for Microsoft it’s a pretty big jump in the right direction. Still the lack of any kind of real app store is a major hindrance. Also, Microsoft just will not give up on the Zune marketplace. It’s admirable, but maybe they should re-examine their reasoning for keeping it. This was an early build of the OS. There were a few bugs, most notably voice search for Bing which worked accurately about half the time. Also the Xbox Live Icon doesn’t allow you to play games yet — just access your gamerscore and view achievements. And the woeful Zune marketplace is still painfully lacking in content. Still, it looks like a substantial improvement for Microsoft. The finalized version of Windows 7 Mobile should be available sometime in November. We’ll be pretty stoked to see what tweaks they make. 
Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:01 pm Pissing Match: Is the World Ready for the Waterless Urinal?Entrepreneur James Krug dreams his urinal can save the world. Then a plumber became his worst nightmare.
Source: Wired: Gadgets | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm July 19, 1989: Human Heroics Overcome Aircraft Failure in Sioux CityPilots land a crippled DC-10 on a short runway. Of the 296 people aboard, 184 survive.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm Pissing Match: Is the World Ready for the Waterless Urinal?Entrepreneur James Krug dreams his urinal can save the world. Then a plumber became his worst nightmare.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm Gallery: People Survived These Dire Air CrashesNobody likes to talk about airplane accidents, but it turns out most are survivable. We here at Autopia put together some examples of accidents where sometimes mistakes were made, other times amazing skills were displayed, but every time passengers survived after things went wrong during a flight.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm Survive a Plane CrashIs your flight home taking an unexpected turn for the worse? Bummer. Here's how to increase your chances of emerging from an air disaster relatively unharmed.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:00 pm Google-Funded Pixazza Raises $12 Million For Crowdsourced ‘AdSense For Images’
Pixazza allows publishers to identify, tag and match products found within online images on their sites and then link them back to the inventories of Pixazza’s network of advertisers. The service, which can be integrated in a site by adding a single line of code, allows consumers to browse the photos featured on a site and mouse over it to reveal information and pricing about similar products, and if desired, click to purchase. The startup has a vast database of products to include images and tags related to the entertainment, fashion, travel, home and sports industries. Pixazza’s tagging technology is also compelling; the startup crowdsources workers to list products and tag them with the appropriate link to a retailer. Additionally, Pixazza shares advertising and affiliate revenues with publishers. The company’s co-founder and CTO James Everingham thought of the idea for Pixazza after his wife was trying to find a pair of designer shoes that were worn in the movie “Sex In The City.” Upon realizing the astounding price of the shoes, Everingham’s wife ended up buying a similar-looking shoe in a store for half the cost. Everingham says that he felt that the experience of finding similar items you see in photos could be a valuable business. Turns out he’s right. The company has also announced that it reaches more than 25 million unique visitors per month through its 75-plus publishers, which include US Weekly and Access Hollywood. Of these visitors, more than 70% are based in the U.S. Additionally, Pixazza says that the startup delivers commerce-enabled photos at a rate of 8 billion image views per year, a 60% increase in the last three months.
Previously, Pixazza was working on a client basis with its service. But today, the self-service platform, which is still in private beta, helps make Pixazza even more like an ‘AdSense for Images.’ Publishers can identify, tag and match products within the body of online images and immediately link them to Pixazza advertisers’ product inventories. Pixazza’s platform will aggregate datafeeds from merchants into a catalog of more than ten million apparel, home, electronic, sports, travel and automotive products. Pixazza also provides full text search to find similar products to those in the images on publishers’ sites. There’s no doubt that interactive advertising technologies like Pixazza are catching on and even attracting the attention of search and advertising giant Google. Everingham declined to name exact numbers but says that click through rates are significantly higher than regular banner ads. Everingham says that Pixazza is only at the beginning of what could be a very successful and profitable experience. “There’s currently three trillion images on the internet,” he sad. “We want to turn every one into an interactive experience.” Pixazza faces competition from Like.com, Image Space Media, GumGum and others. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Jul 2010 | 9:55 pm DIY: Make your own glow stick fluidLike glowsticks? Wanna make your own, and put them into whatever container you prefer? The video above will show you step by step instructions on how to make your own glowstick fluid in various colors using chemicals available on the internet. As the person who made the video warns you though, it is cheaper to buy them in a store then to make your own. [via Hackaday]
Source: CrunchGear | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:56 pm LG aims to up 3D notebook shipments by 30 percent (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:49 pm GameStop holding Nintendo sale July 17-28, 2010FROM GAMERTELL - If you buy a DSi or DSi XL at GameStop between July 17-28, 2010, you can get one of five popular Nintendo DS games for free. There are also a number of DS games, DS accessories and Wii games on sale. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:37 pm Vaccine Patch Removes Needle Painwog777 writes "Researchers led by Mark Prausnitz of Georgia Institute of Technology reported their research on microneedles in Sunday's edition of Nature Medicine. A microneedle contains needles so small you don't even feel them. Attached to a patch like a Band-Aid, the little needles barely penetrate the skin before they dissolve and release their vaccine."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:36 pm US Orders BP to Report on 'Seep' at Gulf Oil WellHydrocarbons have been detected near the capped gusher, experts are investigating the source.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:29 pm Wired predicted the iPad in 1999
This is odd. Wired predicted the iPad way back in 1999. It seems the iPad was an internal meme long before anyone could even begin to build one.
Source: CrunchGear | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:00 pm Security Secrets the Bad Guys Don't Want You to Know (PC World)PC World - You already know the basics of internet security, right?Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Jul 2010 | 7:00 pm GameStop holding Nintendo sale July 18-24, 2010FROM GAMERTELL - If you buy a DSi or DSi XL at GameStop between July 18-24, 2010, you can get one of five popular Nintendo DS games for free. There are also a number of DS games, DS accessories and Wii games on sale. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Jul 2010 | 6:11 pm Scientists to make detailed map of Calif. coast (AP)AP - Scientists will be using laser beams, computer software and airplanes to piece together what they say will be the most detailed map ever assembled of the California coastline.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Jul 2010 | 5:58 pm Mark Cuban Dreams Of Minority Report. So Do I. But We’re Not There Yet
I absolutely agree. But I think we’re ten years away from that happening. And maybe more. If you’ve seen the Steven Spielberg movie Minority Report, it has a similar technology to what Cuban envisions. At a few points, main character John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is walking through a public place and a retina scanner picks up his unique eye signature and offers up customized advertisements and specials for him. “John Anderton, you could use a Guinness right about now!” American Express recognizes that Anderton has been a card member since 2037. Even more in line with Cuban’s vision is when Anderton (now with another person’s set of eyes — long story) walks into the Gap and the eye scan allows the virtual greeter to ask how the last purchase he made has been treating him. To most people, this will sound extremely creepy and invasive. To me (and I suspect Cuban), this sounds fantastic. It sounds like the future we’re inevitably headed toward. But it is still the future. Minority Report takes place in 2054. Sure, that’s just a random date picked out by the filmmakers, but Spielberg actually hired a team of consultants — so-called futurists — to come up with technology that is likely to be in place all those years from now. They’re trying to be as realistic as possible. Yes, the retina scanning in the movie is more advanced than the facial recognition stuff Cuban is talking about. But I’d argue that it’s not really a matter of technology advancement that will hinder such things. Instead, it’s society being ready for these new forms of technology. Think about the location space right now. Foursquare, the current company getting most of the buzz, is hardly the first player in the space. Not even close. But they came along at the right time with the right method. When Foursquare launched in 2009, it was actually co-founder Dennis Crowley’s second location-based service. The first was the similar Dodgeball, which was purchased by Google in 2005, but never really took off. Part of the reason is that application development on smartphones was basically non-existent before 2008 when Apple’s App Store came along. So Dodgeball was done through SMS. It was clunky. Mainstream adoption would have been very difficult to achieve.
The new wave of smartphones brought with them GPS and Wi-Fi triangulation. Location was now easily accessible — it no longer had to be manually input. And this is part of what Cuban is talking about when he takes the idea a step further by saying his facial recognition tech will replace the check-in because it will make it so “Individuals never do any of the work.” I agree that next step is coming. But before we get to facial recognition, things such as background location with geofencing will come into play first. And those are still a little bit away from happening. The fact of the matter is that one of the key reasons Foursquare took off and quickly stole the buzz from services that were earlier in the space like Loopt and Whrrl is because of the check-in. It helped ease users into location because they were in control of it (and the game elements certainly helped as well). Next, users will need an app to ease them into using background location and geofencing (which allows you to be checked-in to places automatically). It could be one of the current players, or it could be someone new. But that concept, which will have to be opt-in by virtue of installing an application, will be needed to pave the way for what Cuban is taking about farther down the line. Cuban sees the future where this facial recognition accesses Facebook’s name/profile picture database to pull information. If you thought Facebook’s current privacy issues are a nightmare, this would be Armageddon. But again, that’s just looking at it right now. Down the line, people will grow more and more accustomed to this type of stuff. And perhaps the scenario Cuban lays out will be the norm. But to say that the check-in is 2010 implies that 2011 is going to be the year this stuff starts coming into play. I say no way. We’ll be lucky if we see that kind of stuff in play in 2020. Not because the technology isn’t there — it definitely will be, and probably already is — it’s because we’re just not there yet as a society. But hopefully posts like Cuban’s which bring up the topic and dream of the future will help get us there quicker.
     
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Jul 2010 | 5:55 pm WSJ's Mossberg Calls For a Tougher Broadband PlanGovTechGuy writes "Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg thinks the FCC's national broadband plan is long overdue, but he criticized it for being vague on the details and too focused on expanding access into rural areas. Mossberg pointed out that what passes for broadband in the US wouldn't even qualify as such in many other developed countries. He also noted that Americans pay more per unit of broadband speed than our competitors. He called on the government to devote time and resources to making sure Americans have the broadband access they need to stay competitive in the 21st century global economy."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Jul 2010 | 5:21 pm Steve Jobs Continues To Answer The Questions That AT&T Won’t
What’s interesting is that neither Apple nor AT&T have brought this up before. I’ve talked to AT&T on a dozen or so occasions about the horrible service in San Francisco. When I ask why it’s so bad, most of the time I simply get vague statements about how hard AT&T is working on it, and that things will be getting better soon. Soon. This conversation has been going on for three years now. I’ve never gotten anything from AT&T nearly as specific as the answer Jobs gave in his offhanded remark on Friday. Perhaps that’s because AT&T is scared shitless to say anything even remotely specific about the iPhone, even if it’s about their own network. That’s been my read on AT&T’s responses for these past few years; they’re scared to death of Apple. Even to the point where they wouldn’t defend themselves against allegations that they were the ones behind the Google Voice app block last Summer. It could also be because it’s better to string people along, telling them that things are always just about to get better, rather than give the reality that a fix is three years out. Had I known from the get go that AT&T would not be able to fix their network for three years in San Francisco, I may not have stuck around. Of course, the three year statement is an interesting one to make right now. This year marks the three year anniversary of the first iPhone. So if AT&T started asking the city of San Francisco for new tower approvals starting back then, they should be ready to go this Summer. Perhaps that’s why Jobs said earlier this year that he expects AT&T’s service to improve by the end of this Summer. Of course, the amount of new towers AT&T thought it might need in 2007 is probably far below what they actually need now, in 2010. The iPhone has exploded in popularity since then. And cellular consumption is undoubtedly higher than it ever has been. So a true fix may not be in place until 2011 or 2012. And even then, AT&T may always be one step behind. Well, unless Verizon gets the iPhone and alleviates the strain on AT&T. Jobs also noted at the press conference that it takes “about three weeks” to add a new cell tower in Texas. Perhaps that’s why AT&T was able to fix the service in Austin, Texas for the SXSW festival this year, but still can’t do anything in San Francisco. Yes, a lot of the Austin fix involved brings in temporary “cows” (basically, mobile cell stations), but they also had temporary antennas put up in downtown. AT&T just rolled out network upgrades in New York City — a city which, in my experience, actually had worse service than San Francisco previously. But the situation in San Francisco actually seems to be getting worse. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber stopped by our office in the city last week and had this to say: “I’ve been working here at TechCrunch’s SOMA office all afternoon and evening, and I must say, they truly get the shittiest AT&T reception I’ve ever seen, even by San Francisco standards. Place is like a Faraday cage.“ We agree. Here’s hoping that any moves AT&T made three years ago come in to place this Summer. [photo: flickr/ben miller]      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Jul 2010 | 5:03 pm Inception’s Flawed Science and LogicThe hit film Inception is a interesting mind-bender, but does damage to logic and science along the waySource: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Jul 2010 | 4:55 pm Motorola nears unit sale to Nokia Siemens: source (Reuters)
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Jul 2010 | 4:21 pm Remix This Game — a Free Software ExperimentAn anonymous reader writes "REMIX THIS GAME is an experimental game design contest where participants can re-mix and re-cycle my free-software self-published PC game, XONG. XONG is available under permissive licenses allowing remixes and derivative works of the code, graphics, sound effects, and music—even for commercial use. The source code license is the GNU GPL Version 3, and the media is covered by the Creative Commons BY-SA license. No special software or programming experience are needed—XONG has been packaged up so that you can just download the game and edit the graphics/code/music/sounds in place, and re-start the game to see your changes. Plus, it is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux, so you can remix it on whichever OS you use, using whatever programs you like."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Jul 2010 | 4:08 pm Google Discontinues the Nexus One Android Phone (Mashable)Mashable - Google has pulled the plug on the Nexus One, its once highly anticipated smartphone. The last shipment has arrived at Google HQ, and once those are gone there will be no more Nexus Ones for U.S. consumers.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Jul 2010 | 3:58 pm Top 10 Gamertell posts for the week of July 11, 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! Apple App Store iPad gaming update for the week of July 5 - 11, 2010“The Apple App Store gaming update is Gamertell’s weekly look at the previous week’s Apple… MORE » Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Jul 2010 | 3:57 pm IEEE Looks At Kevin Costner's Oil Cleanup Machinesrichardkelleher writes "IEEE Spectrum takes a look at the machines developed by a company funded by Kevin Costner that are supposed to extract the oil from the Gulf waters. Is it possible that in the years since the Exxon Valdez, that Kevin Costner is the only one who has invested money into the technology of oil spill cleanup?"
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Jul 2010 | 2:56 pm Chump Dump: Get Rid Of “Friends” On Twitter
The somewhat irreverent concept is both funny and serious; gain points for ceasing to follow people on twitter. The app recalls Crispin Porter’s Whopper Sacrifice campaign for unfriending people on Facebook, but has a much purer and utilitarian result in mind—clean up the list of people you follow on Twitter using game mechanics, actual metrics and crowdsourced conversation. As funny or rebellious as the app seems on the surface, when you get down to it, its goal is functionally sound and it gets people to ask the real question “why am I following this chump on Twitter?”      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Jul 2010 | 2:03 pm Top 10 Funniest Old Spice Guy Responses [VIDEOS] (Mashable)Mashable - We've collected 10 hilarious Old Spice Guy video responses right here to celebrate one of the most popular social media campaigns of all time.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Jul 2010 | 1:56 pm Microsoft Has No Plans To Patch New FlawTrailrunner7 writes "Microsoft has acknowledged the vulnerability that the new malware Stuxnet uses to launch itself with .lnk files, but said it has no plans to patch the flaw right now. The company said the flaw affects most current versions of Windows, including Vista, Server 2008 and Windows 7 32- and 64-bit. Meanwhile, the digital certificate that belonging to Realtek Semiconductor that was used to sign a pair of drivers for the new Stuxnet rootkit has been revoked by VeriSign. The certificate was revoked Friday, several days after news broke about the existence of the new malware and the troubling existence of the signed drivers."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Jul 2010 | 1:50 pm Subterranean Living May Await Moon and Mars ColonistsSubsurface lava tubes could provide much-needed shelter for lunar and Mars colonists.Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 18 Jul 2010 | 1:46 pm A look inside Apple’s Antenna Testing Lab, moreFROM APPLETELL - Apple has posted plenty of content across their website to keep you up to date on their latest findings since the launch of the iPhone 4. Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Jul 2010 | 1:37 pm Airlines Get Billions From Unbundled ServicesHugh Pickens writes "In hearings before Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that airlines reported revenue of $7.9 billion from baggage fees and reservation change and cancellation fees in calendar years 2008 and 2009 — fees on unbundled services that once were considered part of the ticket price. 'We believe that the proliferation of these fees and the manner in which they are presented to the traveling public can be confusing and in some cases misleading,' says Robert Rivkin, the Department of Transportation's general counsel. Published fares used by consumers to choose flights don't 'clearly represent the cost of travel when these services are added.' However, Spirit Airlines President and CEO Ben Baldanza defended the practice of unbundling, saying it allows his airline to charge lower fares (PDF) and allows the customers the choice to purchase the services or not."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Jul 2010 | 12:46 pm Conan O’Brien’s Love/Hate Relationship with the Internet
“Those men behind the curtain—the great and powerful Oz—are scared shitless right now,” O’Brien said, adding that the chaos is so high that anyone in the audience could just as likely be running a major network in a few years. O’Brien opened by saying he was choosing to see opportunity in the volatility in his business, but over the next few hours it was clear that it wasn’t that simple. What O’Brien went through with NBC was a more public version of hundreds of conversations I’ve had over the last ten years with people in old-media, music, independent book stores, and travel agencies—especially people who are mid-career and young enough to want to disrupt things, but old enough and have paid enough dues that it somehow feels unfair when the industry is ripped out from under their feet. To me, this three-hour out-pouring of enthusiasm for the future mixed with nostalgia of the past was like any conversation I used to have when I still worked in old media newsrooms. I wish he’d been this frank in his network interview—because this is the everyman story of the Web’s disruption. If it hasn’t happened to your industry yet—wait. It will. If I could just embed a raw bootleg video, I’d end this post here. But given the theme of the evening, it was sad but somehow not surprising that SF Sketchfest emphasized several times that no video or photos were allowed—a contrast to O’Brien’s comedy tour when he welcomed fans to record and do whatever they wanted with the footage. That means these raw, authentic confessions and advice to the younger creative generation can’t run on the platforms where audiences would most appreciate them. So here are my highlights instead. (I wasn’t taking notes, so I’m paraphrasing here.) Just How Much Has Changed: O’Brien talked about when he got the Late Night Show job in 1993. He was so unknown that no one could find a photo of him to run with the news story. Imagine: No TwitPic, no Facebook profile image, no Flickr—nothing. Newspapers ran a gritty image they snapped from the television screen instead. And it took him several days to get a photo together to send out. Today, anyone with his level of experience at the time would have thousands of clips from YouTube, from tried-and-failed cable shows, live video from standup gigs, maybe an appearance from a Funny or Die skit, not to mention thousands of images online. On the one hand, he said it had opened up opportunity for funny people everywhere, especially women, African Americans and other minorities that don’t get as many plum jobs in the entertainment world. But on the other hand, if he were up for that job today, he admits there’s so much competition he probably wouldn’t have been given a shot. Cream Rises…or Does It? O’Brien made the point repeatedly that “cream rises to the top” online and that if you consistently put out funny stuff, you’ll start getting paid to write or perform funny stuff. But he also talked about how the Web and the reality TV/ Paris Hilton generation had set a precedent that you could be famous not for any talent, but just for making a spectacle of yourself. He cut himself off talking about the latter, saying he was trying hard not to be judgmental—but this is clearly an idea with which he struggles. He talked about kids coming up to him and saying they were going to be on his show one day and when he asked what they did they said “nothing,” but they were “going to be huge.” He said a few decades ago if someone had said that to David Letterman or Johnny Carson the answer would have been that they sing, dance, act or something. Success Was Being Left Alone. When O’Brien first took over Late Night the network wanted to put him on a week-to-week contract. He fought back and got a series of 13-week contracts. He and his staff did their job with the feeling that the anvil could fall at any moment. But because no one had much hope pinned on the show, they were largely ignored and allowed to do whatever they wanted. They’d throw stuff out there, and if it worked it did, if not, they’d throw more stuff out the next day. The contrast to his practically non-existent honeymoon period on the Tonight Show is obvious. Here’s the good thing about a Web-distributed entertainment world—there’s a lot more of the former because the gate keepers are disrupted. It’s no longer an age where there are only three networks. If you want to entertain people and do good work, there a million steps in between all and nothing. Developing a Thick Skin Is Bullshit. O’Brien said the biggest thing that held him back from both writing and performing was a fear of being criticized because he’s incredibly sensitive. He punched a big hole in one of the biggest clichés in fame—that you just have to develop a thick skin. He says he’s still just as sensitive and criticism still hurts just as much. The secret is to just keep going anyway, because you will get criticized no matter how brilliant you are. This is clearly something that’s gotten more pronounced in a Web age, but there may be a silver lining to that. In a time when every video, photo, blog post and Tweet can easily be trashed by others, people learn that criticism is inevitable early on. Longevity Is the Most Overrated Thing on TV. O’Brien talked about how people on TV measure success in how many years their show runs, and that he thinks that’s the wrong metric. It’s not about how many people watch you for how long, it’s about the connection you have with those people, he said. To anyone in the room, this was clearly heartfelt. I’ve heard O’Brien in interviews before the Tonight Show debacle, and he always seemed glib and jokey—almost to the point of insincere. But last night—and I’ve heard during his comedy tour—he was raw, clearly shaken by what happened with NBC and clearly touched by the outpouring of support he got from fans, enabled largely by social media. He said several times how much people loving his work enough to support him – even if that support was a mere two-second Tweet for “Team Coco”—meant to him and how it kept him going. He clearly didn’t want to leave the stage. He threw the clock off the table when he sat down asking why there was a time limit, and towards the end sat on the edge of the stage taking questions from the audience long after they’d said they would take “just one more question.” The evening was billed as a tribute to O’Brien, but he turned it into a tribute to his fans connected around the world by social media instead.      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Jul 2010 | 12:26 pm Telefonica deal to buy Brazil's Vivo falls apart (AP)AP - Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica on Saturday pulled out of negotiations to acquire a euro7.15 billion ($9.3 billion) stake in Brazil's leading cell phone company Vivo.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Jul 2010 | 12:25 pm HTC issues its own rebuttal to Jobs’ antennagate mentionSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile
While HTC’s “statement” is not as long as RIM’s or Nokia’s, it’s pretty much saying HTC Droid Eris owners experience less antenna problems than Apple. For those of you who love to crunch numbers, Apple’s number of 0.55% is 34.4 times higher than HTC’s number of 0.016%. I’m sure we will hear from Samsung shortly regarding Jobs’ demonstration on the Omnia II. Via [Pocket-Lint Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Jul 2010 | 12:20 pm Samsung Galaxy S review: T-Mobile Vibrant and AT&T Captivate - Fortune
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:56 am Cool, Science-y Masters Programs For Software Devs?An anonymous reader writes "I'm an early-30s software engineer with 10 years of development experience, and a BA in computer science from a top university. I've been working for several years at a national lab in bioinformatics, but I'm starting to wonder what other interesting directions there are to go for people in my boat: computer science majors with software development experience. The goal would be to find a position that could leverage my development skills, but also include a strong research component, without the need for a Ph.D. (I would be happy to get a masters for the right job.) I'm actually getting some of those things in my current job, but I'm ready to move on to new or different areas of research. Possible fields that seem interesting so far: neuroscience, economics/sociology, and AI. I'm happy to work in a team in support of Ph.D.s, but would like an active part in the research end of things as well as the tool-making end."
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:40 am Hot gaming news for the week of 7-11-2010Section:  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 | 18 Jul 2010 | 11:12 am StarCraft II Cost $100 Million To DevelopUgLyPuNk writes with news of a report that Blizzard has spent over $100 million developing StarCraft II. Initial development on the game began in 2003, and it's due to be released on July 27th. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick "described StarCraft as one of the company’s seven 'pillars of opportunity' (where each pillar has the potential to deliver operating profit between $500 million and $1 billion over its life span)." The finalized system requirements for the game have been released, and players planning to buy the digitally distributed version can download it now, though it won't be playable until the 27th.
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Source: Slashdot | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:23 am Magellan releases new 510, 610 and 710 eXploris GPSSection: Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation
Although it might just sound like another medium that will flood your news feed on Facebook, it could actually prove to be a useful device for nature dwellers that detest technology. If that wasn’t enough motivation for you nature boys to pick up an eXploris, Magellan customers will also receive a 30-day free premium membership to geocaching which looks like a boatload of fun. All three eXploris models are available now. Read [PR Newswire] Via [Engadget] Full Story » | Written by Tarun Kunwar for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Jul 2010 | 10:00 am Android Poised For Dominance In China, With Global Implications
Editor’s note: this is a guest post penned by Richard Yu, who previously co-wrote an article for TechCrunch on the social networking landscape in China. Yu is a Seattle native working in Shanghai for Spil Games, where he manages online strategy & operations in Asia, including for www.game.com.cn. Android seems ready to leapfrog competitors to grab dominance in China, the world’s largest mobile market. A combination of drastic price drops on Android phones and custom Chinese mobile apps supported by the massive domestic market is bound to push Android past the entrenched leaders, setting the tone for how the mobile internet is built and interacted with around the world. Factoids: - Number of Mobile Internet Users in China (start of 2010): 233 million But what about the Chinese government’s very public and damaging beef with Google? Last January, analysts and users alike hailed the death of Google in China after its search engine ran afoul of state censors. Later, the Android Marketplace and Gmail were both mysteriously blocked for two days in June. Android’s rapidly improving UI aside, a major selling point is the native integration of Google’s popular services like the Marketplace, Search, Maps, and Gmail. Without these essential services though, Android appears limp compared to iPhone and even Nokia, the market leader, with over 30% ‘official’ market share. Yet, counter to China’s apparent ambitions to kill Android and Google, officially sanctioned versions of Android are flourishing, starting with last year’s Ophone OS from state-owned China Mobile. With the help of Lenovo, China’s tech darling, Ophone devices are moving full steam ahead with more Chinese integrated services like an app store, where China Mobile takes 50% of sales revenue. Meanwhile, Motorola is developing a line of Chinese flavors for Android with Baidu as its default search engine in cooperation with the other state-owned mobile operator, China Unicom. As Chinese developers and mobile carriers replace native Android services with their own email, app stores, search engines, and maps, they sidestep those pesky issues of information freedom while limiting Google’s revenue from advertising and app store purchases. As a result, China’s burgeoning mobile internet industry will boast new, officially sanctioned platforms with obvious preference to domestic services. Of course in China, the gray market for smuggled and pirated phones drives most sales, blurring official statistics. Legitimate iPhones and Androids are smuggled from Hong Kong and sold at a premium in street markets around the country. Bootleg phones, running low-end versions of Windows Mobile or Symbian on Mediatek Chipsets are still easily the most common phones due to their low price. According to some estimates, Mediatek supplies chips for 85% of China’s phones, and less than $60 can buy a 3.2in touchscreen phone with Wi-Fi/GPRS/Edge connectivity. More factoids: - Cost of an iPhone 4 in China: $1,285 What will crack this nut wide open is Mediatek’s new Android chipset, which is slated to hit the market later this year. As Moore’s law applies itself to mobile devices, and sub-$100 Chinese-flavored Android 2.2+ phones are released, the over-$600 gray market iPhone will only occupy a niche of the market in China. Though the iPhone also has some nominal government approval, official versions are hobbled, with Wi-Fi capabilities shut off. Additionally, Android’s compatibility with Flash provides an advantage as app developers can quickly adapt and create new ways for Chinese users to interact with the mobile internet. Dominant Nokia or pirate Windows phones will also fall by the wayside, as Android’s increasingly superior user experience and range of form factors from handsets to tablets are made available to the masses. While overbearing government regulations and poor execution might still stymie the growth of Android in China, the implications of the platform’s dominance are clear. When OEM’s and carriers use the flexible and free Android platform to make cheap internet and Flash-ready phones for China’s 739 million mobile users, lesser competitors will get crowded out. As mobile 3G prices approaches $3/mo on some carriers, Chinese users and their powerful devices will redefine how they interact with games, music, pictures and information online. As the Chinese mobile internet reaches a critical mass of users, cross-cultural influence and pressures are inevitable, forcing Apple to rethink its own great walls, along with everyone else. (Image via MobilePhones) Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Jul 2010 | 9:08 am Microsoft KIN ONE & KIN TWO now “unavailable” with Verizon WirelessSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile  Microsoft killed the KIN a short while back, and since then we have seen arguments that as little as 503 phones were sold and as much as 8,810 sold. Either way both are extremely low numbers and neither were ever fully proven. That said, it looks like the KIN sales are officially over. Or at least very close to becoming officially over. As of this morning, and after a quick check of the Verizon Wireless website—the KIN ONE and KIN TWO are “unavailable at this time.” Read [Verizon Wireless] Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:54 am WeShop Blends Q&A With Purchase Data To Socialize Shopping History
WeShop is hoping to shake up the online shopping space with its platform that allows consumers to share purchase information on a free and anonymous basis. In private beta, WeShop allows consumers to pool their purchasing information which is available to other WeShop members. WeShop then analyzes and sells this data for vendors. Here’s the catch-consumers have to give WeShop access to your e-mail account or your credit card number. That way, when you use your credit card for a purchase or if you buy something online and receive an email receipt, WeShop will flag it and insert it into your profile The benefit for the consumer is the ability to access other’s data, which WeShop makes anonymous. For example, consumers can make available information about the fare they paid for a particular seat on a particular plane and where they bought the ticket from. Members can then find out from WeShop what is the lowest fare paid for that flight and where that ticket was purchased, so the member who is looking to buy a ticket can benefit from the “wisdom of the crowd” and buy his seat from the same place. If it can scale, WeShop eventually wants to allows consumers to share with each other or search for information that isn’t necessarily published by retailers. For example, “What color dress is most popular this season?,” “What coffee maker are people like me buying?,” and “Where are most large men buying their big and tall apparel from?” On the business side, WeShop sells the anonymous data of shopping habits and history to local businesses and retailers. The whole platform is opt-in on the consumer side, so consumers know that their history will be shared. Vendors can also approach them with targeted offers to meet those needs (though vendors are not given consumers’ email info; everything is communicated through WeShop). WeShop members can also set their own terms on which they will do business with vendors (only free shipping offers, only discounts or more than 30 percent, etc.) WeShop also enables consumers with similar interests to accumulate into virtual, anonymous marketplaces (or networks) that aim to attract better offers from vendors given the number of potential buyers. In terms of monetization, WeShop takes a cut of a purchase that takes place through its leads for vendors and retailers. WeShop says it already has more than 15,000 members providing data and making more than $20 million in purchases. The startup has also raised $2.8 million in funding from an impressive roster of investors including from Jonathan Miller, Chairman and CEO, Digital Media Group of News Corporation and former America Online CEO. The idea of WeShop is similar in some ways to Blippy or Swipely, which both allow you to share your purchase data with others to gain new insight. One challenge for WeShop, besides convincing consumers to fork over their email account and credit card info, is to actually drive enough traction to WeShop’s site to make it worth it for both consumers and businesses. In exchange for essentially giving up their privacy, consumers need to see some benefit to joining the community. While the site is still in private beta, the 15K members don’t seem to be interacting on the Q&A part of the site. If WeShop can actually build a solid base of consumers who are willing to contribute and interact with the platform (similar to the interactions and conversations you see on a Q&A site like Quora), then the site could take off. Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:49 am Five Reasons Why Green Tech Has Such a Tough Time In AmericaThe U.S. has long been a leader in green technologies. It has also long been a leader in fumbling that lead. Here are five big reasons why.
Source: Wired Top Stories | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:35 am Apple’s Bumper band-aid won’t heal everything (Appolicious)Appolicious - Apple’s (AAPL) offer to give ticked-off iPhone 4 owners a case sounds about as satisfying as if Ford (F) in the 1970s sent exploding Pinto owners a fire extinguisher.Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:10 am Advanced Weapon System Helps ONR Respond To Navy NeedsThe Low-Cost Imaging Terminal Seeker (LCITS), an Office of Naval Research (ONR)-sponsored technology, could soon give the U.S. Navy and coalition military ships an upper hand in swiftly defeating multiaxis attacks by small swarming boats.Managed by ONR’s Naval Air Warfare and Weapons Department as a Future Naval Capability (FNC), LCITS equips the unguided Hydra-70 rocket with a low-cost imaging infrared guidance solution to more accurately strike an intended target.Steve Smolinski, Office of Transition FNC director, explained the importance of the FNC program to fulfilling naval missions such as LCITS. “The FNC program represents the requirements-driven, delivery-oriented portion of the Navy's science and technology investment,” Smolinski said. “FNC enabling capabilities draw upon technologies that can be developed, matured and delivered to acquisition programs within a three- to five-year period.”The seeker is composed of three main subsystems: a targeting integration system aboard the helicopter, a digital smart launcher and the guided imaging rocket. The helicopter uses its targeting system to lock onto and track the target’s position and velocity, and transfers the information to the rocket launcher prior to weapon release. Once locked onto the target, the weapon follows the LCITS commands to the target.From a pilot’s perspective, the entire process can be handled in a matter of seconds, increasing the number of targets that can be engaged in a short amount of time. LCITS can also engage targets in a 120-degree cone centered off the nose of the helicopter at ranges up to 7 kilometers.Howard McCauley, LCITS principal investigator in the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center’s Emergent Weapons Division, touts the speed by which the system operates.“The key to survivability while effectively engaging and defeating the fast inshore attack craft threat is the target engagement timeline,” McCauley said. “You must be able to very rapidly engage and defeat each target. The technology we've developed will provide this increased capability.”In a demonstration earlier this year, an LCITS-equipped AH-1 Cobra helicopter targeted and fired a rocket against a maneuvering unmanned small boat at a test range off the coast of California. The pivotal test firing highlighted not only LCITS’ ability to strike high-speed mobile surface targets, but marked the successful conclusion of the program, opening the door for its transition to the fleet.The Republic of Korea teamed with the United States in this co-development between the two countries, helping to improve the aerodynamic performance of the rocket system and lower the overall design cost. Dr. Seung-Ki Ahn, project manager at the Agency for Defense Development for the Republic of Korea cites multinational collaboration for the success of the test launch."This was a great moment to exhibit how the potential of a true team effort between the Republic of Korea and the U.S. can very effectively expedite the fielding of a low-cost precision guided weapon,'' Ahn said.The seeker now moves forward to the Medusa Joint Capability Technology Demonstration phase. Started in 2009, the Medusa ensures that a military utility assessment will be completed on the LCITS, which will lead the way to a naval acquisition program.---On the Net:Office of Naval ResearchSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Jul 2010 | 8:06 am New Mission for American Aerospace Giants - New York Times
Source: Sci/Tech - Google News | 18 Jul 2010 | 7:53 am BOOM! Top Apple news for the week of 7-11-2010Section:  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 | 18 Jul 2010 | 7:46 am Why Do Tectonic Plates Move The Way They Do?Researchers at Monash University and Scripps Institution of Oceanography identify movements of plate and plate boundaries; could substantially improve models of tectonic motionA team of researchers including Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego geophysicist Dave Stegman has developed a new theory to explain the global motions of tectonic plates on the earth's surface.The new theory extends the theory of plate tectonics - a kinematic description of plate motion without reference to the forces behind it - with a dynamical theory that provides a physical explanation for both the motions of tectonic plates as well as motion of plate boundaries. The new findings have implications for how scientists understand the geological evolution of Earth, and in particular, the tectonic evolution of western North America, in the past 50 million years.The research, led by Monash University's Wouter Schellart, was published in the July 16 issue of the journal Science.These findings provide a new explanation as to why tectonic plates move along the Earth's surface at the speeds that are observed, the details of which were previously not well-understood."The earth's surface is covered with tectonic plates that move with respect to one another at centimeters per year," Schellart said. "These plates converge at deep-sea trenches, plate boundaries where one plate sinks (subducts) below the other at so-called subduction zones. The velocities of these plates and the velocities of the boundaries between these plates vary significantly on Earth."Schellart and his team, including Stegman and Rebecca Farrington, Justin Freeman and Louis Moresi from Monash University, used observational data and advanced computer models to develop a new mathematical scaling theory, which demonstrates that the velocities of the plates and the plate boundaries depend on the size of subduction zones and the presence of subduction zone edges."The scalings for how subducted plates sink in the earth's mantle are based on essentially the same fluid dynamics that describe how a penny sinks through a jar of honey," said Stegman, who developed the computer models that helped the team reenact tens of millions of years of tectonic movement. "The computer models demonstrate that the subducted portion of a tectonic plate pulls on the portion of the plate that remains on the earth's surface. This pull results in either the motion of the plate, or the motion of the plate boundary, with the size of the subduction zone determining how much of each.""In some ways, plate tectonics is the surface expression of dynamics in the earth's interior but now we understand the plates themselves are controlling the process more than the mantle underneath. It means Earth is really more of a top-down system than the predominantly held view that plate motion is being driven from the bottom-up."This discovery explains why the Australian, Nazca and Pacific plates move up to four times faster than the smaller African, Eurasian and Juan de Fuca plates."It also provides explanations for the motions of the ancient Farallon plate that sank into the mantle below North and South America. This plate slowed down during eastward motion from about 10 centimeters (four inches) per year some 50 million years ago to only 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) per year at present," Schellart said.The decrease in plate velocity resulted from the decrease in subduction zone size, which decreased from 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) to only 1,400 kilometers (870 miles)."This had a dramatic effect on the topography and the structure of the North American continent," said Schellart. "Until 50 million years ago, the west coast of North America was characterized by a massive mountain chain similar to the present day Andes in South America, and ran from Canada in the north to southern Mexico in the south."As the subduction zone decreased in size, the compressive stresses along the west coast of North America decreased, resulting in destruction of the mountain range and formation of the Basin and Range province, a 2 million-square-kilometer (772,000-square-mile) area of elongated basins and ridges that characterizes the present-day western North American landscape.---Image Caption: The sinking of the Farallon plate beneath the North American continent over 30 million years created the geologic feature known as the Basin and Range Province, an area of the western United States that encompasses much of Nevada, seen here in a topographic model. Photo: Mike Sandiford/University of Melbourne---On the Net:Scripps Institution of OceanographyMonash UniversityScienceSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Jul 2010 | 7:00 am TRA Partners With Khalifa University to Ink Agreement With 'Black Hat' Abu Dhabi 2010ABU DHABI, UAE, July 18, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- - Companies Invited to Participate as Security Experts and Regional Professionals Converge at Black Hat Abu Dhabi Between 8th and 11th November 2010 Amid growing recognition of the importance of online security, the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), represented by the UAE Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT), in cooperation with Khalifa University of Science and Technology has partnered with United Business Media (UBM) to bring to Abu Dhabi the Middle East's first edition of the Las Vegas-based security summit. Black Hat Abu Dhabi, its first time to be held in the MENA region, will take place from 8th to 11th November 2010 at the Emirates Palace, discussing many important security issues, such as protecting the IT infrastructure, malware and its harmful effects, security of cloud communications and many other topics that cover many aspects of the security for governmental entities, public and private firms. The event comes in line with the aeCERT policy to facilitate the detection, prevention and response of cyber security incidents; hence, providing implementation mechanisms for TRA's strategy in supporting a cyber safe environment for the residents of the UAE. His Excellency Mohamed Nasser Al Ghanim, Director General of the TRA said: "Holding Black Hat, the world's leading technical security conference, in Abu Dhabi supports the TRA vision to make the UAE's ICT sector a leader in the global marketplace. The TRA is proud to be the leading partner of Black Hat Abu Dhabi." With limited spaces available, UBM is inviting potential sponsors, exhibitors and delegates to take part in the mega event, which will attract only the highest-placed security professionals from government entities, academia and private companies with the power to make security buying decisions. Jeff Moss, founder and Managing Director of Black Hat, stated: "We are excited to be able to bring Black Hat to the Middle East region to deliver both a wide variety of deep, technical presentations by the leading thinkers of the information security world and to provide hands-on, high-intensity, multi-day training sessions for delegates." Black Hat Abu Dhabi will offer a full range of sessions, including ten training programmes running on 8th and 9th November, followed by three briefing tracks running simultaneously on 10th and 11th alongside the exhibition. With half of the planned delegate spots already booked, companies, government agencies, associations, academic institutions and individuals who wish to be involved should contact the organiser UBM Middle East. For more information or to register your interest please visit: http://www.blackhat.com or contact becky.crayman@ubm.com. Notes to the editor For more information please see http://www.blackhat.com Individuals, associations, government bodies, academic institutions and companies interested in finding out more about Black Hat Abu Dhabi should contact the organisers, UBM Middle East for information, on +971-2-406-4471 or email becky.crayman@ubm.com Black Hat briefings and training is the largest and most important security conference series in the world. Black Hat Abu Dhabi is organised by UBM Middle East on behalf of TechWeb, a division of United Business Media. For images, photographs and further enquiries please contact: Bryan Espie, Marketing Director, bryan.espie@ubm.com or +971(0)2-4064314 Further information on UBM Middle East can be found at http://www.ubmmiddleeast.com SOURCE United Business Media (UBMi UAE)Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Jul 2010 | 6:50 am MIT: Broadband Picture Not So Bleak As ThoughtA new study disputes the claim that Internet data rates in the U.S. are only half as high as advertised; study’s authors call for better data.In March, the Federal Communications Commission released its National Broadband Plan, in which it reported that “the actual download speed experienced on broadband connections in American households is approximately 40-50% of the advertised ‘up to’ speed to which they subscribe.” That finding, which the FCC had previously cited, caused some consternation among bloggers and op-ed writers, to say nothing of broadband subscribers.But a new study by MIT researchers calls it into question. Most of the common methods for measuring Internet data rates, the researchers conclude, underestimate the speed of the so-called access network — the part of the Internet that Internet service providers control. The number of devices accessing a home wireless network, the internal settings of a home computer, and the location of the test servers sending the computer data can all affect measurements of broadband speed.The researchers don’t cast their findings as supporting any particular policy positions. But they do argue that everyone with an interest in the quality of broadband access — governments, service providers, subscribers, and market analysts — should be more precise about what they’re measuring and how. “If you are doing measurements, and you want to look at data to support whatever your policy position is, these are the things that you need to be careful of,” says Steve Bauer, the technical lead on the MIT Internet Traffic Analysis Study (MITAS). “For me, the point of the paper is to improve the understanding of the data that’s informing those processes.”In addition to Bauer, the MITAS team includes William Lehr, an economist, and David Clark, a senior research scientist at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory who from 1981 to 1989 was the Internet’s chief protocol architect. The researchers analyzed a half-dozen different systems for measuring the speed of Internet connections, from free applications on popular websites to commercial software licensed by most major Internet service providers (ISPs). Both MITAS and MIT’s Communications Futures Program, which also supported the study, receive funding from several major telecommunications companies.In each case that the study examined, the underestimation of the access networks’ speed had a different cause. The study that the FCC relied upon, for instance, analyzed data for broadband subscribers with different “tiers of service”: Subscribers paid differing fees for differing data rates. But the analysts didn’t know which data corresponded to which tier of service, so they assumed that the subscription tier could be inferred from the maximum measured rate. The MITAS researchers show that, in fact, the subscribers in lower tiers sometimes ended up getting higher data rates than they had paid for. In the study cited by the FCC, exceptionally good service for a low tier may have been misclassified as exceptionally bad service for a higher tier.In other tests, inaccurately low measurements were the result of an idiosyncrasy of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the software that determines how Internet-connected computers exchange data. With TCP, the receiving computer indicates how much data it is willing to accept at any point in time; the sending computer won’t exceed that threshold. For some common computer operating systems, however, the default setting for that threshold is simply too low. In practice, many applications get around this constraint by opening multiple TCP connections at once. But if an Internet speed test is designed to open only one TCP connection between two computers, the computers can’t exchange nearly as much data as they would if they opened multiple connections. Their data rates end up looking artificially low.In yet another case, Bauer was running a popular speed test on his own computer. Much of the time, he was getting rates close to those advertised by his ISP; but one afternoon, the rate fell precipitously. For days, the test had been pairing Bauer’s computer in Cambridge with a test server in New York. But on the afternoon in question, the New York server was overburdened with other requests, so it redirected Bauer to the nearest free server it could find — in Amsterdam. The long sequence of links, including a transatlantic link, between his computer and the test server probably explains the difference in data rates, Bauer says. His ISP’s access network may not have been any more congested than it had been during the previous tests.This points to the difficulty of using a single data rate to characterize a broadband network’s performance, another topic the MITAS researchers address in their paper. “What is it that people care about if they want to compare a metric of merit?” Lehr asks. “If you’re watching lots of movies, you’re concerned about how much data you can transfer in a month and that your connection goes fast enough to keep up with the movie for a couple hours. If you’re playing a game, you care about transferring small amounts of traffic very quickly. Those two kinds of users need different ways of measuring a network.”The researchers have submitted their report to both the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission and will present a version of it at the Telecommunications, Policy, and Research Conference in Arlington, Va., in October. “This report from Dave, Steve Bauer, and Bill Lehr is the first comparative study that I’ve seen,” says FCC spokesman Walter Johnson. As Johnson points out — and the MITAS researchers acknowledge in their paper — the FCC is currently in the early stages of a new study that will measure broadband speeds in 10,000 homes, using dedicated hardware that bypasses problems like TCP settings or the limited capacity of home wireless networks. “What we’re doing right now," Johnson says, “is a follow-up to the broadband plan, recognizing that we need better data.” Larry Hardesty, MIT News Office---On the Net:MITSteve BauerDavid ClarkWilliam LehrMIT Internet Traffic Analysis StudyAdvanced Network Architecture groupRead the study (pdf)Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Jul 2010 | 6:46 am Samsung Captivate now available online with AT&TSection: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile  Some of the AT&T stores began selling the Samsung Captivate a little earlier than expected. And just like clockwork—its now also available online by way of AT&T. As for the phone itself, expect to pay $199.99 on a two-year agreement. Or for those willing to pay a bit more and go contract free, you will need to shell out $499.99. Either way, the Samsung Captivate features a 4 inch Super AMOLED display, 1GHz Hummingbird processor, 5 megapixel camera, 16GB of internal storage and Android 2.1 just to name a few. Product [AT&T]
Full Story » | Written by Robert Nelson for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article » Source: Gadgetell | 18 Jul 2010 | 6:37 am Small Wires Make Big Connections For MicroelectronicsUniversity of Illinois engineers have developed a novel direct-writing method for manufacturing metal interconnects that could shrink integrated circuits and expand microelectronics. Integrated chips are made by wiring multiple transistors and electronic components together to perform complex functions. The connections between chips and circuit boards traditionally are made from pre-fabricated metal wires that connect to a designated bonding pad on a chip.“Integrated functions require many wire connections. It’s tedious and time-consuming to make and increases cost,” said Min-Feng Yu, a professor of mechanical science and engineering at Illinois.In addition, the bonding pad for traditional wire bonds takes up a substantial area of space. As technology has moved toward smaller electronics, shrinking wiring has been a substantial obstacle. Many microelectronic devices are much smaller than the required 50-by-50 micron square bonding site, prohibiting integrated functions on the very small scale.“There’s no existing cost-effective technology that would allow you to wire-bond microstructures,” said Yu, “so let’s get rid of those wires, and instead, why not directly produce them on-site between the connection points?”Yu and graduate student Jie Hu developed a direct-write technique that produces tiny pure metal wires much smaller in diameter than traditional wires and requiring two orders of magnitude less bonding area. In a paper which appeared in the July 16 edition of Science, they demonstrate as many as 20 of their new wires bonded to a single standard bonding site.“This technique means the pads can be much smaller than what’s needed for traditional wire-bonding technology,” Yu said. This reduction in area could allow manufacturers to produce more chips per wafer of semiconductor material. It could also enable more complex integrated functions in microelectronics.The pair have demonstrated their technique with both copper and platinum wires, and plan to explore the technique with other metals.Yu likens their technique to writing with a fountain pen. “People’s mindset is that you draw a line on a surface, but what we’re doing is writing to 3-D space,” he said.The duo loaded a micropipette – a device that dispenses tiny amounts of liquid – with a copper electrolyte solution. When the pipette comes into close contact with the surface, a liquid bridge forms between the pipette tip and the bonding pad. The researchers then apply an electric current, which causes the copper in the solution to deposit as solid metal. As the tip moves through space, copper continues to deposit from the solution in the pipette, like ink from a pen, creating a wire. The challenge for Yu and Hu was calculating the correct speed to move the pipette tip to maintain the liquid bridge between the nozzle and the growing wire.“It’s liquid, so it can easily be shaped,” Yu said. “As long as you maintain your speed within a certain range, you will always be able to produce uniform, high-quality wires.”They also had to figure out how to “write” the wires laterally for chip-to-chip bonding. Typical micropipette nozzles are flat at the end, but too much tilting breaks the liquid contact. The Illinois duo found that a notched nozzle, with a 90-degree cut in the side, allowed lateral movement, meaning that the wires can arc from one bonding site to another, even if the chips are stacked or tiered.The process is automated, so Yu hopes to develop arrays of micropipettes to produce wire bonds in bulk for more efficient manufacturing.“An advantage is that you can do this in parallel,” he said. “Instead of one nozzle, suppose you have 10, 20 or 100 working simultaneously. In one step, you can make tens or hundreds of bonds, and that is cost-saving.”In addition to wire bonds, the technique could produce a myriad of metal microstructures for various applications.“The ability to fabricate metallic structures in 3-D can open up many other opportunities,” Yu said. “It has lots of desirable properties aside from the electrical ones. You can imagine the structures that take advantage of the different properties of metal.” ---Image 1: Min-Feng Yu, a professor of mechanical science and engineering, and his graduate student have developed a novel approach for manufacturing metal interconnects that could shrink integrated circuits and expand microelectronics. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer Image 2: Illinois researchers can make tiny wire bonds to connect integrated chips using a direct-write technique. A micropipette nozzle is like a tiny fountain pen that writes the wire bonds in 3-D space with metal instead of ink. Image courtesy Min-Feng Yu---On the Net:University of IllinoisScienceSource: RedOrbit News - Technology | 18 Jul 2010 | 6:25 am BP Prolongs Well Test, Cap Still HoldingBP announced Saturday that it will prolong structural tests on the Gulf of Mexico well in order to ensure cracks do not show up along the seabed after a newly placed cap stopped oil from spewing from the ruptured well. The tests began Thursday after valves on the cap were sealed. Tests included multiple pressure readings on the wellbore that runs to the reservoir below the seabed. The cap cut off the leaking oil for the first time since it began in April after an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. “We’re moving forward six hours at a time. If there is a change in what we’re doing we will announce it,” said BP spokesman Mark Salt after the initial 48-hour testing period was passed on Saturday afternoon. The cap is still holding back the crude, but more analysis is required on the well’s structure, BP vice president Kent Wells said earlier on Saturday. “We’re feeling more confident that we have integrity,” he told AFP. Wells said indications from the critical tests were that the wellbore was handling the pressure created by sealing the leak from above, but readings were not as definite as engineers would have liked. The continued tests will determine if the cap can remain sealed over the leak, or if BP will have to return to a containment system. Engineers were looking for readings of 8,000 to 9,000 pounds per square inch (psi) which would mean the well is intact and there is no seepage. But the reading on Saturday was around 6,745 psi, leaving engineers scratching their heads. “We could have integrity or we could not have integrity between the 6,000 or 7,500 psi,” range, Wells said, though he seemed cautiously optimistic. “The fact that the pressure continues to rise is giving us more and more confidence as we are getting through the test,” he added. If the tests show possible damage to the wellbore, BP could return to a containment system that captures crude and siphons it to waiting vessels on the sea surface. That would mean more oil flowing freely into the sea until a permanent fix is put in place. The news of the oil flow being halted was “good news” to President Barack Obama. Although he cautioned a final solution would not come until mid-August or later, when the first of two relief wells is completed. “It is important that we don’t get ahead of ourselves,” Obama said, acknowledging there was still “an enormous amount of work to do” to restore the Gulf region after the worst oil spill in US history. The halting of the spewing oil, however temporary, provided some hope that the disastrous spill could soon be over, allowing for efforts to be geared fully toward cleaning up hundreds of miles of contaminated shoreline. The International Energy Agency has calculated there are between 2.3 million and 4.5 million barrels-worth of crude oil floating in the sea. At 42 US gallons of crude per barrel, that equals up to 189 million gallons of free flowing crude. BP has spent at least 3.5 billion dollars so far dealing with the spill, and claims for compensation could eventually cost the company ten times that amount. BP has agreed to set up a 20-billion-dollar fund to pay for damages. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Matthew Belson. ---On the Net:BPGovernment Response WebsiteSource: RedOrbit News - Science | 18 Jul 2010 | 6:15 am The Many Bottom Lines Of Businesses
Sixty-three percent of the Fortune 500, and more than half of all American businesses, are incorporated in Delaware. The state’s laws protect corporate directors and enable them to focus on the bottom line. Traditionally, that has meant maximizing profits and shareholder value. But a new trend is emerging to counter Delaware’s influence on American corporate policy, and it’s pretty thrilling for those of us in the social enterprise sector. In April, Maryland became the first state to allow entrepreneurs to form Benefit Corporations. Also known as “triple-bottom line” businesses (so named for their consideration of people, planet, and profit), B Corps now include over 300 companies representing $1.1B in revenue, including Amazon competitor Better World Books and GoodGuide, a site that rates consumer products for safety, environmental impact, and social responsibility. B Corporation, the nonprofit behind the legislation, is growing in influence — in the organization’s hometown of Philadelphia, B Corps now receive tax incentives. Benefit Corporations aren’t the only newfangled legal structures available to mission-driven entrepreneurs. Several years ago, Vermont created Low-Profit Limited Liability Corporations, or L3Cs (Vermont, bless those hippies, also approved Benefit Corporations in May). Michigan, Utah, Wyoming, Illinois, and New York followed suit. I can hear some of you scoffing. How can a business optimize across multiple types of return? How can one measure social and environmental impact consistently across the full range of businesses? Is Adam Smith turning in his grave? The notion of multiple bottom lines emerged in the 1980s, after major environmental catastrophes like Exxon Valdez and the Union Carbide gas leak in Bhopal made it clear that some firms were not counting the true environmental costs of doing business on their balance sheets. Negative environmental externalities went largely unregulated, and activists realized that business leaders were a more likely source of change than government. The first crop of these companies included Ben and Jerry’s, whose founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield famously donated 7.5% of pre-tax profit to community projects, and Dame Anita Roddick’s The Body Shop, whose “Trade Not Aid” and Greenpeace campaigns built her a reputation for business ethics. Today, there are at least 25 different approaches to measuring social and environmental impact at the firm level, ranging from Fair Trade labeling systems that focus on living and working conditions for suppliers to Jed Emerson’s popular Social Return on Investment method, and the companies that use them have access to new pools of capital. Led by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Impact Investing Network includes 30 socially conscious investors including funds like Jeff Skoll’s Capricorn Investment Group and TIAA-CREF. This activity around social business, and social capital markets more broadly, is encouraging, but highlights a central problem: in the absence of a single standard for measuring social and environmental returns, regulatory agencies can’t build effective incentives to encourage companies to adopt them. Optimizing for multiple variables is notoriously challenging; even when leaders unambiguously express their commitment to social and environmental goals by, for example, modifying their corporate mission statements, they face major tradeoffs. Prior to the advent of Benefit Corporations, people and planet took a back seat to profits. Ten years ago, Ben & Jerry’s sold to Unilever — according to Will Patten, a former executive there, Cohen and Greenfield wanted to retain control of the company but could have been sued by shareholders for not selling to an entity willing to pay well above the company’s stock price. Under Maryland’s new law, the Bens and Jerrys of the future are free to compromise profits for the pursuit of vaguely defined “public benefit,” which includes things like preserving the environment and improving human health. The directors of Benefit Corporations are required to file a “Benefit Report” to shareholders each year, and are required to consider the effects of their actions not only on shareholders, but also on employees, customers, and, notably, suppliers. In the wake of worker suicides at FoxConn and the recent discovery of $1 trillion worth of lithium, copper and iron in Afghanistan, is the tech world ready for B Corps? Information provided by CrunchBase      
Source: TechCrunch | 18 Jul 2010 | 3:10 am
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