Internet News Record
Edition
North Korea requests Clinton. So off he goes.
By Deborah Charles (Front Row
Washington)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 10:44:15 AM
It turns out that it was North Korea
which had suggested that former
President Bill Clinton would be the
best person to come and negotiate the
release of two journalists who had
been sentenced to 12 years of hard
labor in the Stalinist state.
The U.S. government —
particularly Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton — had been working for
months on trying to free the two
journalists. The secretary of state
reportedly proposed sending various
people to Pyongyang, including
Clinton’s former vice president Al
Gore, to lobby for the women’s
release.
But North Korea rejected Gore and
other possible envoys like Senator
John Kerry, Governor Bill
Richardson and former ambassador
to South Korea Donald Gregg.
Pyongyang wanted President Clinton
and passed that word along through
the two detained journalists, Laura
Ling and Euna Lee, who were
making occasional phone calls to
their families.
“In mid-July during one such phone
call, Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee shared
It’s AI Mario!
By John Biggs (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:25:43 AM
Devin posted the first AI Mario run
last night and now there’s a longer -
what the North Koreans had told
them — that they would be willing to
grant them amnesty and release the
two Americans if an envoy in the
person of President Clinton would
agree to come to Pyongyang and seek
their release,” a senior administration
official said.
The families passed the request
along to Gore, who co-founded the
media group that employs the
and better - one. This one even
includes an exciting techno beat in
the background which means
someone out there dragged an MP3
into Movie Maker.
05/08/09 - 06/08/09
women. Gore then asked the Obama
administration if the former president
could make the trip.
Once the administration determined
that North Korea would indeed
release Ling and Lee if Clinton made
the trip, the former president agreed
to travel to Pyongyang on a “private,
humanitarian mission.”
Before leaving for North Korea,
Clinton was briefed by Obama
On the whole I love AI solutions.
I’m not big on finishing games - I
head to GameFAQs about half-way
in just because I’m tired of trying to
figure out where the Minotaur-
LibertyNewsprint.com U.S.
Ex-Edwards mistress at
court amid campaign
probe (AP)
national security officials and he also
spoke with Gore and the families of (Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
the two women. Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:56:05 AM
Once in Pyongyang, where he was
greeted with the fanfare of a state L.E. buzzed up: Russia's Obama:
visit as opposed to a private No, he can't, at least not now (AP)
humanitarian trip, Clinton secured 19 hours ago 2009-08-05T11:57:01
the women’s release after about three -07:00
hours and 15 minutes in meetings
and over dinner with President Kim
Jong-il.
The U.S. government says it didn’t
offer any quid pro quo. But it ADVERTISEMENT:
remains to be seen what, if anything, (BloggingStocks)
Clinton proposed in exchange for the
women’s release. Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:40:00 AM
The North Korean news
agency called the Clinton-Kim talks
“exhaustive” but maybe they were Twitter Down, No
also exhausting? Especially if the
North Korean supreme leader is as Explanation Yet
sick as reported. By Eliot Van Buskirk (Wired Top
And in the end, who has enjoyed Stories)
more coming in from the cold and
being in the global Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:09:00 AM
spotlight? Kim Jong-il or Bill
The world came to a standstill
Clinton? Friday morning, when the Twitter
For more Reuters political
short messaging service went offline
news, please click here. for at least a half an hour. Not really
Photo credits: Reuters/KCNA
— but Twitter is in fact offline this
(Clinton sits with Kim in Pyongyang) morning, and we’re working on
; Reuters/Danny Moloshok (Laura
figuring out why.
Ling (top) and Euna Lee disembark
from plane in United States)
cyborg hid the blue key or whatever. me get through a tough spot. Here’s
Apparently Nintendo actually hoping.
wants to implement this sort of thing
in their games, sort of an AI assist
that will help the gaming morons like
2 Politics/ *
Uighurs held at Guantanamo plead to McCain sees N.Korea as
Obama for release using Clinton visit for
By Jeremy Pelofsky (Front Row
Washington)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 2:29:28 PM
propaganda
A group of the 13 Chinese detainees
held at the controversial U.S. prison
at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba appealed
directly to President Barack Obama
for their immediate release, arguing
that they have been cleared by the
United States of any wrongdoing and
they questioned why it was taking so
long to go free.
The members of the Uighur ethnic
group originally sent the appeal to
Obama on March 8 but it was not
cleared by the U.S. government for
release until July 14, according to
their attorneys. Two of the
signatories have since been released
to Bermuda, the lawyers said.
“After 6 years of investigations, the
US military confirmed that we are
innocent,” the Uighurs said in their
letter. “We are innocent civilians,
however, we are currently still being
held in jail.”
In June four Uighurs were
transferred from the Guantanamo
prison to the Atlantic island of
Bermuda. The entire group, who
come from China’s largely Muslim
far-west region of Xinjiang, were
captured by the U.S. government
during fighting in Afghanistan after
the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in
Washington and New York.
There has been some talk that the
remaining 13 Uighurs held at
Guantanamo Bay could go to the
tropical Pacific island of Palau,
'The Biggest Loser''s Bob Harper on Second Chances
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:31:00 AM
When "The Biggest Loser" returns
this fall, the theme will be second
chances. ET talks to trainer Bob
Harper about the upcoming season
where the government has agreed to
take them temporarily as a
humanitarian gesture. China has
demanded that they all be returned to
Chinese soil but the United States has
said it could not return them because
they would face persecution.
“The State Department, in
coordination with the Defense
Department and other interested
agencies, is working to make
appropriate arrangements to carry out
transfers of these individuals in a
manner consistent with national
security and foreign policy interests
of the United States, as well as U.S.
policies concerning humane
treatment,” said Justice Department
spokesman Dean Boyd.
Obama has vowed to
and the new "The Biggest Loser"
personalized health and fitness
program that is being released this
fall on Wii and DS/DSi.
ET: What can you tell me about the
new season? Is there any drama?
Bob Harper: It's "The Biggest
close Guantanamo prison by January
2010 and his administration has been
trying to find places to send those
detainees who have been cleared for
transfer. But they have run into
trouble finding countries willing to
take former prisoners, particularly if
the United States does not accept
some of them as well.
“We do not believe that there is no
country out there that would give us
political asylum,” the letter said. “We
do not believe that the U.S.
government cannot find a solution
for the Uighur issue here.”
For more Reuters political news,
click here.
- Photo credit: Reuters/Brennan
Linsley
Loser." Of course, there is drama.
But the show this season is all about
second chances. When you get to see
one of our contestants from last
season get back on the show, get a
second chance at the show, it is so
great.
By Steve Holland (Front Row
Washington)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 1:39:33 PM
WASHINGTON - Republican
Senator John McCain says North
Korea was attempting to use former
President Bill Clinton’s visit for
propaganda purposes and enhance
the prestige of Pyongyang.
In an interview with Reuters,
McCain said the Obama
administration should resist any
temptation to engage in direct talks
with the North Koreans but instead
should push North Korea to rejoin
stalled six-party negotiations over its
nuclear program.
The six-party talks include the
United States and North and South
Korea, China, Russia and Japan.
McCain, the Republican candidate
in last year’s presidential election
won by Barack Obama, said he
believes all Americans appreciate
Clinton’s role in securing the release
of two American journalists and
sparing them from “the worst gulag
in the world, with conditions that
would make Stalin blush.”
“The question is, will this signal a
change in North Korean behavior?”
McCain said, recalling that a visit by
former President Jimmy Carter to
North Korean in 1994 led to hopes
for a change but did not produce
lasting progress.
In announcing the release of the
two women, the North Korean news
agency had said Clinton offered an
apology for their behavior, a claim
denied by the Obama White House.
“I think it’s very clear that the North
Koreans, in their statement when
they talked about ‘profound
apologies’ etcetera, tried to use this
to enhance their prestige and use it
Internet News Record
for propaganda purposes, but that
should surprise no one,” he said.
North Korea’s insistence that
Clinton and North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il discussed pending U.S.-
North Korean issues and reached a
consensus of views on seeking a
negotiated settlement of them was
seen by some analysts as a signal that
North Korea was seeking direct talks
with the United States.
Since taking office in January, the
Obama administration so far has
repeated the same demands long held
by the United States, that North
Korea needs to give up its nuclear
weapons and stop provocative
behavior.
McCain, long a vocal critic of
North Korea, said direct talks should
be resisted. “Let’s not change our
policy of many administrations, of
our goal of eliminating North
Korea’s nuclear weapons, engage in
six-party talks and continue our
advocacy for human rights,” he said.
Photo credits: Euna Lee reunited
with family - REUTERS/Mario
Anzuoni
Clinton speaks with film producer
Stephen Bing - REUTERS/Danny
Moloshok
Internet News Record
U.S. senator seeks details of
Geithner’s ‘colorful language,’ gets
nowhere
By Kevin Drawbaugh (Front
Row Washington)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 11:10:11 AM
U.S. Senator Jim Bunning asked a
Treasury Department official the
question other lawmakers had
avoided at a banking committee
hearing on Wednesday — so, what
about that profanity-laced tirade by
Treasury Secretary Timothy
Geithner?
Assistant Treasury Secretary
Michael Barr, on hand to testify
about credit rating agencies, played
down the drama of Geithner’s widely
reported “conversation” on Friday
with regulators who were refusing to
toe the Obama administration’s
financial reform line.
Barr said he attended the meeting
in question, where sources said
Geithner used expletives in urging
Structure of HIV genome 'decoded'
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 5:23:05 PM
Scientists say they have decoded the
entire genetic structure of HIV-1 -
the main cause of Aids in humans.
They hope this will pave the way to
a greater understanding of how the
virus operates, and potentially
accelerate the development of drug
treatments.
HIV carries its genetic information
in more complicated structures than
some other viruses.
The US research, published in
Nature, may allow scientists the
chance to look at the information
buried inside.
cooperation from Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke and others.
“The secretary made clear the
regulators are free to defend their
own agency prerogatives. They’re
independent agencies … We had a
HIV, like the viruses which cause
influenza, hepatitis C and polio,
carries its genetic information as
single-stranded RNA rather than
double-stranded DNA.
The information enclosed in DNA
is encoded in a relatively simple way,
but in RNA this is more complex.
RNA is able to fold into intricate
patterns and structures. Therefore
decoding a full genome opens up
genetic information that was not
previously accessible, and may hold
answers to why the virus acts as it
does.
The team from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill said
they planned to use the information
to see if they could make tiny
long discussion about macro-
prudential versus micro-prudential
regulation, the kind of conversation
that we have had with them on many
occasions,” Barr said.
But Bunning, a Kentucky
Republican known for his bluntness,
wasn’t buying this bland description
of a closed-door session that sources
described as tense and
uncomfortable.
Under pressure from Bunning, Barr
replied, “I won’t characterize the
exact verbiage that was used …
senator, you will not be surprised to
learn that in Treasury, as
occassionally up on the Hill, there’s
some colorful language.”
Said Bunning, “I’ve been accused
of that. I understand.”
changes to the virus.
"If it doesn't grow as well when you
disrupt the virus with mutations, then
you know you've mutated or affected
something that was important to the
virus," says Ron Swanstrom,
professor of microbiology and
immunology.
"We are also beginning to
understand tricks the genome uses to
help the virus escape detection by the
human host."
Deep inside
Dr David Robertson from the
University of Manchester welcomed
this "definitive analysis".
"What this may reveal is some of
the proteins operating at a level
below the structures, which may have
Politics/ Top News/ *
Brazil returns hazardous
UK waste
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:50:46 AM
Around 1,500 tons of hazardous
waste which arrived in Brazil from
the UK labelled as recyclable plastic
is on its way back, authorities have
said.
The Brazilian Institute of
Environment and Renewable Natural
Resources said the cargo included
used syringes, condoms and dirty
nappies.
Three British men have been
arrested over alleged illegal
shipments.
Officers from the Environment
Agency and Wiltshire Police raided
three properties in Swindon in July.
Three men, aged 24, 28 and 49,
were bailed until the end of October.
Formally complain
The Institute said 81 containers
arrived between February and May
2009 at Brazilian ports.
all sorts of functions within the virus.
"More generally, if we can unpick
the structures then we can compare
the systems of different viruses and
gain new understanding of how they
work."
Keith Alcorn of the HIV
information service NAM added:
"Encouraging the virus to mutate is
not a new idea, but it is one of a
number of options on the table.
"How important this information
will be for the development of new
drugs remains to be seen, but it is a
useful addition to what we know."
Print Sponsor
3
It added that they were labelled
recyclable plastic, but had been
packed with domestic and hospital
waste.
They were sent back towards the
UK from the port of Santos on
Wednesday.
The Environment Agency said it
would investigate their contents
before disposing of them safely.
Brazil's government said it would
formally complain to the World
Trade Organisation over the
deliveries.
Under the Basel Convention,
shipments of toxic waste from
industrialised nations are banned,
officials said.
Waste can be exported for
recycling, but it is illegal to send it
abroad for disposal.
The maximum penalty for doing so
is an unlimited fine or up to two
years in jail.
Print Sponsor
Video: Jay Leno Reveals
His Dream Guest for
New Prime Time Show
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:00:00 AM
Jay Leno's hour-long, prime time
show premieres September 14 on
NBC -- and the talk show host
reveals his dream guests for the new
show!
"You shoot for Oprah and kind of
work your way down," Jay tells ET.
"There's a lot of people I'd like to
have on. Jerry Seinfeld, there's
nobody funnier than him. Tom
Cruise of course, who you would
think would be the biggest stars."
As Jay leaves late night behind he
tells ET about which elements of his
show he'll take with him to his new
time slot.
4 Top News/ *
Vets shred uniforms to heal themselves through
art (AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 1:10:32 AM
SAVANNAH, Ga. – Tired of taking
pills prescribed to suppress his pain,
Zach Choate decided to wrestle head-
on with the trauma that followed him
home from Iraq. He began by using a
razor to shred his Army uniform to
bits.
"I'm hoping I come out of this a
little more whole, a little bit more at
peace," said Choate, who was a
gunner in the 10th Mountain
Division. "I'm not an anti-war,
antimilitary person. This is just me
fixing me."
He chopped his camouflage jacket
into inch-long strips. He diced the
American flag patch on its right
shoulder, along with a prescription
for sleeping pills he found in a
pocket. Even the Purple Heart ribbon
Choate earned after being wounded
by a roadside bomb got torn into tiny
threads.
The 25-year-old soldier from
Cartersville joined a handful of Iraq
veterans at a Savannah art studio last
week to destroy uniforms that had
become painful reminders of their
combat experience, using them to
create something new.
The young vets mixed the jigsaw
pieces with water and beat them into
pulp to make sheets of paper blank
canvasses on which they could write,
paint or screen images to tell their
personal war stories.
The Combat Paper Project, a
Vermont-based collective of combat
vets who became artists after leaving
the military, has spent the past year
holding coast-to-coast workshops
aimed at teaching ex-service
members to help themselves by
recycling fatigues into artwork.
Your Mom's Facebook Status: I'm Crunching Climate Data!
By Erica Gies (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 2:07:00 PM
A new Intel application for
Drew Cameron, who became
opposed to the Iraq war after serving
in an Army artillery unit during the
2003 invasion, started the group after
moving to Burlington, Vt., where he
learned paper making from a local
artist while also becoming active
with Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Cameron, 27, saw it as a way reach
out to other Iraq veterans haunted by
memories of friends slain in battle
and men they had killed, wounded
physically and psychologically by
bomb and mortar explosions, and
struggling to direct their own lives
after years of being told what to do
by the military.
"It's about taking the things you did
and owning them, taking
responsibility and expressing them,"
Cameron said. "The experience is not
simple. For me to translate things
that are hard to express, art is the
perfect medium."
The three-day Savannah workshop,
held at a cinderblock studio facing a
row of Victorian homes, was more
like a freewheeling reunion than a
rigid class.
Young vets, many sporting beards
and long hair, would often arrive
after lunch, two hours after the studio
doors opened, and start shredding
uniforms into piles on tabletops or on
the floor.
"I just want to cut this thing into a
million pieces," said Jason Hurd,
tearing the seams of the desert
camouflage jacket he wore in Iraq in
2004 and 2005 with the Tennessee
National Guard.
After spending 10 years in the
military, the 29-year-old from
Savannah said destroying his uniform
was a way of proving that his life is
now his own. He says he hasn't
shaved or cut his hair since leaving
Facebook allows users to donate their
spare computing power to scientific
the Guard two years ago.
"When you hold these strips in your
hand, you think about all the times
you ironed it and spit polished your
boots all that was something the
Army made you do," Hurd said.
"This is my uniform now. I'm not
Army property anymore, and neither
is it."
The vets dunked their uniform
scraps into water swirling through a
belt-driven machine that beat the
mixture into pulp before being
drained into 18-gallon tubs. The pulp
was sifted through a screen into
sheets of paper, then carefully
smoothed and stuck onto the
windows outside to dry in the
summer heat.
The finished paper is thick, almost
like cardboard, with an olive-gray
color accented by fine threads of red,
blue and purple from any awards and
decorations the ex-soldiers add.
Art can often help veterans cope
with traumatic war experiences that
can be difficult to put into words,
said Paula Howie, an art therapist
who worked for 24 years with
soldiers at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center in Washington.
"It's interesting they're using
something the person wore in combat
and changing it into something else. I
think that's key," said Howie, also a
former president of the American Art
Therapy Association. "It's the
beginning of changing these negative
memories or thoughts into something
more positive and productive."
On the final day of their workshop,
the veterans had turned their
uniforms into more than 100 sheets
of paper, many printed with
silkscreen images in red and black: a
figure of Buddha; a belt of machine-
gun bullets; an image of Jesus with a
research on climate, cancer and
malaria.
quote from Matthew 5:39,
"Whosoever shall smite thee on thy
right cheek, turn to him the other."
Nate Lewis, who deployed with an
Army unit to Iraq in 2003, embedded
his paper with Topps trading cards
with photos of bombers, cruise
missiles and aircraft carriers used
during the first Gulf War. He
remembered buying them as a boy in
the early 1990s. Now he sees them as
an example of children's toys and
games that glamorize war.
"They would appeal to me a lot
more than football cards," said
Lewis, 26, of Barker, N.Y. "I would
say a significant portion of my youth
was spent outside playing the role (of
a soldier). I had a lot of toy guns."
Threads from Choate's Purple
Heart stood out boldly in his paper,
most of which he planned to bind
together as a journal.
On one page, he screened an image
of barbed wire above the letters
"OIF?" the abbreviation for
Operation Iraqi Freedom, a phrase he
now questions.
Choate says his misgivings about
the war have left him estranged from
friends who stayed in the Army. But
making art with like-minded vets, he
said, reminds him he's not alone.
"Each one of these guys I meet
along the way, they're like family
now," he said. "It's already helping.
I'm starting to get the good feeling."
___
Russ Bynum has covered the
military based in Georgia since 2001.
___
On the Net:
Combat Paper Project,
http://www.combatpaper.org
Internet News Record
Colombian
guilty of
pyramid scam
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 3:57:32 AM
A Colombian businessman has been
found guilty of running a pyramid
scheme that collapsed last year with
thousands of people losing their life
savings.
David Murcia Guzman, 28, was
convicted by a court in Bogota of
money-laundering and illicit
enrichment.
He led the DMG Group, which
promised returns of well over 100%.
Its collapse last November led to
widespread street protests across the
country by investors. Two people
died in the unrest.
Murcia Guzman was extradited
from Panama to Colombia last
November to face accusations that
his business was a pyramid scheme
that amassed millions of dollars and
duped at least 200,000 Colombians
out of their life savings.
The demise of DMG provoked
protests both by those angry at the
loss of their money but also by
investors who insisted that the
company was legitimate and that the
government had forced its collapse.
Murcia Guzman is still to be
sentenced and faces 10 to 15 years in
jail, Colombian media report.
His lawyer said the verdict was
"political", the Associated Press
reported.
Print Sponsor
Internet News Record
Baucus aims for middle with health care overhaul
(AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 12:46:41 AM
HELENA, Mont. – In Big Sky
country, there's no limit on strong
opinions about Democratic Sen. Max
Baucus and his struggle to fulfill
President Barack Obama's goal of
health care overhaul.
He's already gotten an earful and
eyeful and should expect plenty
more this month when he travels
around his home state of Montana.
Even Obama is planning to make a
stop in the state next week, putting
even more focus on Baucus.
The chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee has spent long
hours trying to come up with
bipartisan health care legislation that
would meet Obama's twin goals of
extending coverage to nearly 50
million uninsured Americans and
containing skyrocketing costs.
But the decades-long effort to
remake the nation's system of
providing medical care is a long,
politically charged slog that elicits
strong emotions.
Liberal advocates of a government-
run system and one-time Baucus
allies wear T-shirts and carry signs
with slogans like: " Max Baucus: The
Best Senator Insurance Companies
Can Buy," as they did this past
weekend when they lined the road on
the way to the pricey "Camp Baucus"
fundraiser at the ritzy Big Sky resort.
They are by far the most outspoken
in Montana.
"People are angry," said Gene
Fenderson of Helena, who voted for
Baucus like most of the protesters.
Steven Tyler Falls Off Stage in South Dakota
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 3:31:00 AM
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler
was taken to the hospital Wednesday
night after falling from the stage
"They are frustrated. They don't want
a hodgepodge that no one can figure
out.
"I know right now they are certainly
alienated."
Four of five congressional
committees have completed work on
health care legislation. Baucus has
set a Sept. 15 deadline for his panel,
though Senate Democrats frustrated
with the pace of bipartisan
negotiations could push for a bill to
Democratic specifications only.
For now, Baucus is adamant that
only a bipartisan plan will stand up to
scrutiny down the road.
"My job is to do what I think is
right. We had to come up with a
uniquely American plan. We are not
Sweden, we are not Canada, we are
not Japan. We are America," Baucus
said in an interview.
But even the state's top Democrats
have reservations about the push for
overhaul. Gov. Brian Schweitzer said
he trusts Baucus to find a plan that
can get 60 votes in the Senate, but
he's not sure it's worth it.
The governor said he worries the
plan will shift costs to states.
Schweitzer said cost containment, in
general, should be a top priority and
thinks it would be a disaster to
require that people buy insurance out
of the current system.
"If that's it, I don't know what we
have gained. But it's not over yet, the
fat lady has not even begun to sing,"
Schweitzer said.
The Montana Democratic Party
chairman Dennis McDonald, who is
making his own run for Congress
against Republican Rep. Denny
during a concert in South Dakota.
The rocker fell off the stage in
Sturgis, South Dakota while his band
was playing the song "Love in an
Elevator," the Rapid City Journal
reports.
Rehberg just came out in favor of
single-payer at a time when the issue
is very difficult for Baucus.
Conservatives who oppose health
care overhaul and Republicans have
lined up against the effort, with the
GOP hoping it weakens the state's
most powerful Democrat.
Baucus is not backing down from
his plan to hash out a compromise
with a small, bipartisan group of
senators, no matter if it takes much
longer than Democratic leaders
would like. He has told President
Obama "it will be ready when it's
ready" even if that means waiting
until September.
That has angered liberal bloggers,
who are trashing Baucus with
expletives and criticism usually
saved for Republicans.
At the same time, Montanans
figured Baucus would shoot down
the middle and cut deals with
Republicans. They have become
accustomed to it and Baucus talked
about his "uniquely American,
bipartisan" plan all last year during
his campaign, long before the rest of
the country took note.
"Baucus has not changed at all since
the start of this debate," said liberal
blogger Jay Stevens of the locally
well-known Left in the West. "The
problem is that Baucus is not
changing with the debate."
And conservatives, while less vocal
at the moment, are drumming up
opposition against anything that
spends more money.
"I think its the worst scenario
possible for him he is catching flak
from both sides," said Jake Eaton,
The 61-year-old fell while dancing
around in an attempt to entertain the
crowd after the sound system stopped
working during the song.
Top News/ Gadgets/ *
who runs a conservative group in
Montana called Patients First.
The group has held its own public
rallies against the leading
congressional plans, but they are
usually smaller and less vocal than
ones held by Democrats and other
liberal groups.
GOP Party Chairman Will
Deschamps said those liberals could
cause some problems for the
Montana Democratic Party.
"If Sen. Baucus doesn't start taking
some of these folks seriously, he is
going to have problems with his bill,"
Deschamps said, predicting that
Baucus is aiming for a bill that could
mute traditional GOP criticism over
government-run health care.
"I am sure that is what he is trying
to do, but there will be plenty there
for us to criticize," Deschamps said.
But not all conservatives are in
opposition. Some say they will have
to see what the final Baucus plan
looks like. And many say it is
certainly preferable to more liberal
plans being cooked up in the House.
Even Baucus recognizes that not
everyone will like a bipartisan plan
capable of getting 60 votes in the
Senate, but promises it will still be a
big improvement. And he is banking
on the political middle lining up
behind it.
"I think in the end, people will
realize it's not perfect," Baucus said.
"But in the end, they will realize it's
something that had to be done."
5
Touchable Holography:
New projector lets you
“touch” 3D objects with
your hands (video)
By Serkan Toto (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:02:52 AM
Here’s some more info on a Sci-Fi
dream come true: As if looking at
floating images in free space
produced by mid-air displays isn’t
cool enough, a research team from
the University of Tokyo now makes
it possible to even touch (kind of)
those images with a newly developed
projector system.
The so-called Touch Holography is
essentially made of three parts:
Provision Interactive Technologies’
Holo display, two Wii remote
controls to track your hands in front
of the display and a tactile display
that uses ultrasound to provide tactile
sensation onto your hand.
The Holo display creates an image
(of a small ball, for example) that
floats 30cm away from the display.
As the image is essentially light,
you’ll obviously fail to touch the
ball. The Touch Holography uses the
Wiimote’s infrared camera to track
the position of your hand so that the
tactile display can radiate ultrasound
to the right spot, making you feel you
actually touch the object.
This is just awesome. The
researchers say their system could be
used for developing high-end video
games or in 3D CAD.
Watch the video for a Touch
Holography demo. Don’t miss the
chance to try the system out yourself
if you can make it to SIGGRAPH
2009 in New Orleans.
Via Pink Tentacle
6 Top News/ Gadgets/
Gunman at Pa. health club was bitter over women
(AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:38:49 AM
BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. – Friends
mourned for three women fatally
shot during their exercise class at a
Pittsburgh-area gym by a man whose
online diary revealed he felt ignored
by women and had an "exit plan" to
avenge his rage.
George Sodini went to a sprawling
L.A. Fitness Club on Tuesday night,
turned out the lights on the "Latin
impact" dance-aerobics class for
women, and opened fire with three
guns, spraying dozens of bullets
before committing suicide.
"He just had a lot of hatred in him
and (was) hell-bent on committing
this act, and no one was going to stop
him," Allegheny County Police
Superintendent Charles Moffatt said
Wednesday.
His 4,610-word Web diary
appeared to be a nine-month
chronology of his plans to end his
misery with a shocking act of
carnage at his gym. He couldn't
understand why women ignored him,
despite his best efforts to look nice.
He wrote that he hadn't had a
girlfriend since 1984, hadn't slept
with a woman in 19 years.
"Women just don't like me. There
are 30 million desirable women in
the US (my estimate) and I cannot
find one. Not one of them finds me
attractive," the 48-year-old computer
Intel still won't talk Core i5 details, but you can order one anyway
By Tim Stevens (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:29:00 AM
It's been a long, strange road for the
Core i5 series of processors, first
announced way back in March not by
Intel, but by a motherboard spec
sheet. Since then we've seen
rebranding talk, lots of grids of
various colors, and a delay purely for
programmer lamented.
It was unclear when the Web diary
was posted and whether it had been
updated online repeatedly since
November or posted in its entirety
recently.
Two undated videos, apparently
recorded by Sodini, surfaced on the
Internet and are posted on
Starcasm.net. In one, he tours his
suburban Pittsburgh home, starting
outside and moving inside the two-
bedroom, brick rancher. In the other,
Sodini recorded himself standing in a
doorway talking about hiding his
emotions and trying to "emotionally
connect" with people.
During the tour, he points out his
computers, living space and a
basement where he highlights his
handy work, hanging paneling and a
suspended ceiling. Sodini notes that a
sofa and chair in his living room
match and says, "women will really
be impressed." He also focuses on
reading material on a table that
include a books titled "Date Young
Women" and a paper with "Office
Politics" printed on the front.
Moving through the home, he talks
about a newly purchased dining room
set, and shows his bedroom, which
includes a bed, computer and a
dresser.
"It looks pretty clean," he said. "I'm
sure she'll be impressed."
Speaking to the camera in the
second video, Sodini talks about
selfish reasons. Intel still isn't saying
how much they'll cost or when they'll
ship, but that's okay, because retailers
have answered the first question and
given us reason to believe the answer
to the second is "soon." Two
computer hardware sites confirm that
the Core i5 570 will have a 2.66GHz
clock speed and sport 8MB of cache,
matching expectations for this new
hiding his emotion, how he thought
he had 15 years remaining and how
his objective his to "be real and be
emotional" and to be able to
"emotionally connect with people."
He speaks about how, in a
relationship with a woman 10 to 20
years younger, "she has to feel good
about this thing."
The health club violence rocked the
town of about 5,300 people just
outside Pittsburgh.
Killed were Heidi Overmier, 46, of
Carnegie, a sales manager at an
amusement park; Jody Billingsley,
37, of Mount Lebanon, who worked
for a medical-supply company; and
Elizabeth Gannon, 49, of Pittsburgh,
an X-ray technician at Allegheny
General Hospital.
"She can't be gone," said Gannon's
next-door neighbor and close friend,
Carl Rady, who knew her for 35
years and said she loved to work out
and pamper her dog. "It can't happen
that way."
Six patients remained hospitalized,
including the aerobics instructor,
Mary Primis, 26, who was listed in
fair condition. Primis is pregnant but
said doctors told her the baby is fine.
Sodini did not have a relationship
with any of his victims, according to
police.
In his Web diary, Sodini wrote of
planning the attack since at least
November and said he tried to carry
it out when the same weekly aerobics
mass-market processor, and the
prices (as low as $233) are a fair bit
class met Jan. 6 but "chickened out,"
he wrote.
His anger stemmed from
unfulfilled desire: The women at his
gym "look so beautiful as to not be
human," he wrote. He complained
that women "don't even give me a
second look ANYWHERE" even
though he was tan and fit and
claimed to dress well and smell nice.
He listed his status as "Never
married." In a chilling addition, he
recorded the date of his death as Aug.
4, 2009.
Sodini did not have a criminal
record, and he legally bought the
guns he used, police said.
Sodini's family issued a brief
statement: "Our hearts and prayers
are with the victims and their
families and we pray for the full
recovery of the survivors."
Sodini graduated in 1992 from the
University of Pittsburgh with a
degree in computer science and had
worked as a systems analyst at a
Pittsburgh law firm since 1999.
A neighbor, Connie Fontanesi, said
Sodini was so anti-social that "we
really didn't learn anything personal
about him."
___
Associated Press writers Joe
Mandak, Ramit Plushnick-Masti,
Genaro C. Armas and Jennifer Yates
contributed to this report.
cheaper than a comparably spec'd but
higher performing Core i7. Mind
you, both of those retailers list the
chip as being out of stock, but we're
sure if you're so inclined they'd be
happy to put you down for a pre-
order.
[Via PC World]
Read- Core i5 570 at Fad Fusion
Read- Core i5 570 at Computer
Internet News Record
Newton Peripherals'
MoGo Mouse uglies up
your netbook, hates your
trackpad
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:43:00 AM
It's one thing to sacrifice style for
battery life via an extended cell, but
it's another thing entirely to do this to
your poor, innocent netbook. Newton
Peripherals is causing all sorts of
mixed emotions with its $99 MoGo
Mouse, a stick-on mouse that
measures in at five millimeters thick
(including the holster). Granted, most
netbook trackpads aren't worth the
curiously textured material they're
constructed from, but this just seems
like an awfully short-sighted
solution. After all, do you honestly
think the average eBayer will be into
buying a netbook with a mouse-
infused lid? Doubtful.
Filed under: Peripherals
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uglies up your netbook, hates your
trackpad originally appeared on
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08:43:00 EST. Please see our terms
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Connection
Filed under: Desktops
Intel still won't talk Core i5 details,
but you can order one anyway
originally appeared on Engadget on
Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:29:00 EST.
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Internet News Record
Chavez turns up heat on Colombia
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 12:14:32 AM
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
has announced trade measures
against Colombia, amid a growing
diplomatic row between the two
nations.
Mr Chavez said he would halt the
import of 10,000 cars from Colombia
and ban a Colombian energy firm
from exploring Venezuela's oil-rich
Orinoco region.
Last week, Mr Chavez recalled his
envoy from Bogota over accusations
Venezuela had provided arms to
Colombian rebels.
He is also angry at plans to allow
US troops to use Colombian military
bases.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
is currently touring South America to
try to reassure fellow leaders over the
planned accord with Washington to
allow US troops to use several bases.
A number of South American
nations - including Argentina, Brazil
and Bolivia - have expressed
concerns over Bogota's plans.
However, Peru has expressed
support for Mr Uribe, while Chile
and Paraguay have said the accord is
an internal matter for Colombia.
Washington wants use Colombia as
a regional hub for operations to
counter drug-trafficking and
terrorism.
The US has been forced to look for
a new location after the Ecuadorean
government refused to renew the
lease on its Manta base that the US
military was using.
Toshiba ships 43nm MLC NAND-based SSDs to OEMs for unknown amounts
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:56:00 AM
It started out as just disheartening,
but now it's downright frustrating.
With rare exception, each and every
SSD release we hear about these days
scuttles skillfully around the issue of
Speaking at a news conference in
Caracas, Mr Chavez said the
Venezuelan government would halt
the import of 10,000 vehicles from
neighbouring Colombia.
He also said Colombia's Ecopetrol
company would be barred from
taking part in an auction to develop
the heavy crude in Venezuela's
Orinoco region.
Mr Chavez went on to say
Venezuela would seek to buy
"several battalions of Russian tanks"
during his visit to Russia in
September.
"These bases could be the start of a
war in South America," Mr Chavez
told reporters. "We're talking about
the Yankees, the most aggressive
nation in human history."
Mr Chavez also rebuffed Bogota's
accusations that Caracas had given
weapons to the left-wing Farc rebel
group.
He said that rocket launchers and
automatic rifles found in a
Colombian rebel camp had been
stolen from a Venezuelan naval post
14 years ago.
The Venezuelan leader identified a
wide range of products that
Venezuela imported from Colombia,
including meat, dairy and cereals,
saying he would be looking for other
nations to do business with.
"We're going to replace all of these
imports.
"It's our responsibility because at
any stage Yankees could say 'send no
more meat to Chavez' or 'don't send
the Venezuelans', because it is the
Yankees who are going to rule over
there - not Uribe," Mr Chavez said.
price. Take Toshiba, for example,
who has just confessed to shipping its
43nm MLC NAND-based solid state
drives to five undisclosed OEMs. Not
only do we have no clue as to which
companies will be integrating these
into their machines, but we've no
idea what these mystery firms are
Colombia is a vital provider of
food, plastic goods and automobiles
to Venezuela, in exchange for gas
from the Opec member, says the
BBC's Will Grant in Caracas.
Bilateral trade between Venezuela
and Colombia amounts to about $7bn
(£4bn) a year, and some analysts
suggest it will not be easy for Mr
Chavez to replace it, he adds.
But our correspondent says that Mr
Chavez remains adamant that it can
be done, saying that Venezuela's
"trade with Colombia isn't
indispensible".
A close Chavez ally, Bolivian
President Evo Morales, said on
Wednesday that Washington was
using Colombia's Farc rebels as an
excuse for military operations in the
region.
"We can't have all these planes and
military equipment concentrated in
Colombia This isn't against drug-
trafficking, it's against the region.
Our duty is to reject it," said Mr
Morales, a day after his meeting with
Mr Uribe.
Are you in Venezuela or
Colombia? How serious do you think
this row between the two countries
is? What effects will it have on
current and future relations between
the two? Send us your comments
using the form below.
The BBC may edit your comments
and not all emails will be published.
Your comments may be published on
any BBC media worldwide.
Print Sponsor
paying. What we do know is this:
Top News/ Gadgets/
Waterfront writer
Schulberg dies
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 1:44:07 AM
Budd Schulberg, the man who
wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay
for Hollywood classic On the
Waterfront, has died in New York
State at the age of 95.
According to his wife Betsy,
Schulberg died on Wednesday after
being rushed to hospital from his
Long Island home.
The son of studio chief BP
Schulberg, he first made his name as
a novelist with books like What
Makes Sammy Run?
He was also a well-known as a
sports writer and was inducted into
the Boxing Hall of Fame in 2002.
His 1947 novel The Harder They
Fall, a fictionalised expose of boxing,
was filmed in 1955 with Humphrey
Bogart.
The caustic What Makes Sammy
Run?, meanwhile, is considered by
many to be the definitive insider's
guide to the Hollywood system.
But it is On the Waterfront for
which he is best known, thanks in
part to such iconic lines as "I coulda
been a contender."
Released in 1954, the film also won
Oscars for lead actor Marlon Brando
and director Elia Kazan.
Tosh's new range of 1.8- and 2.5-inch
SSDs are leaving the docks now in
capacities of 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
and 512GB -- good luck figuring out
where they'll land.
[Via HotHardware]
Filed under: Storage
Toshiba ships 43nm MLC NAND-
7
Last year, theatre director Steven
Berkoff produced a stage version of
the film that ran at the Edinburgh
Fringe and in London's West End.
In the early 1950s, Schulberg and
Kazan both "named names" before
the House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC) established to
root out communist influence in
Hollywood.
The writer admitted he had been a
communist in the 1930s, but said he
had become disillusioned after Stalin
signed a non-aggression pact with
Hitler.
On the Waterfront, in which a dock
worker exposes corruption within his
union, has often been interpreted as a
defence of informing.
Schulberg continued to write
books, teleplays and screenplays,
working with Kazan again on the
1957 film A Face in the Crowd.
Director Spike Lee, a friend and
admirer, collaborated with him on a
film about boxer Joe Louis.
In 1968, Schulberg was only yards
away from presidential hopeful
Robert Kennedy when he was
gunned down in Los Angeles.
His wife, who survives him along
with four children, said he was "very
loved and cherished".
Print Sponsor
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8 Top News/ Gadgets/ Business/
Petitions for US worker green cards
down sharply (AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:20:48 AM
DALLAS – The number of petitions
from employers trying to bring
foreigners to work permanently in
the U.S. has declined dramatically
over the last two years, an Associated
Press review of government data has
found.
With the nation facing a deep
recession and high unemployment,
the government has received about
half the number of employer-
sponsored applications for work-
based green cards in fiscal years
2008 and 2009 than it did in each of
the previous years. There were
almost 235,000 applications
submitted in fiscal 2007, almost
104,000 the following year, and
fewer than 36,000 through the first
eight months of fiscal 2009,
according to data obtained by the AP.
In addition to the weak job market,
long waits for immigrant visa
availability, deep job cuts in sectors
that have traditionally lured large
numbers of applicants and more
competition from American job
seekers have led to the sharp decline,
experts say.
"It mirrors the recession. Employers
aren't hiring as much," said Kristi
Barrows, deputy director of the
Texas Service Center.
At the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services' Texas Service
Hyatt checks-in for an IPO
By Tom Taulli (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:00:00 AM
Filed under: Goldman Sachs Group
(GS), Initial public offerings
The Pritzker family is one of the
richest in the U.S. with many
business interests. One of the most
notable is Hyatt Hotels, which Jay
Pritzker founded in 1957 when he
Center in Dallas, would-be
immigrant workers once waited a
year or longer for a decision. Now,
with the drop in applications and
addition of staff, the Texas center has
trimmed the average wait for those
petitions and the others it processes
to about five months, a marked
improvement that's still a month shy
of the agency's target timeframe.
The Texas processing center and
one in Lincoln, Neb., handle the
nation's foreign worker applications
for permanent residence, known as
green cards.
To bring in a foreign worker,
employers must prove that they
couldn't find a staffer in the U.S. who
met the minimum requirements for
the job, that they're financially
healthy and that they will pay the
prevailing wage. The potential
worker must have specialized skills,
be able to fill a job Americans aren't
or have extraordinary abilities, such
as those of musicians or pro athletes.
In fiscal year 2007, the latest year
for which the statistics were
available, most applicants came from
India, Mexico, the Philippines, China
and Korea, according to the
Department of Labor.
"We want people to come to our
country who are the best," Barrows
said.
Many economic sectors hardest hit
in the economic downturn are among
those that attracted the largest
purchased a hotel next to the Los
Angeles International Airport.
Well, this week the company filed
the necessary papers to go public.
Tthe company had gone private
during the early 1980s.
numbers of foreign workers,
including the hospitality and
financial industries. And some
businesses still hiring are getting
more applications from Americans,
making it less likely the Labor
Department will let them import
foreign workers to fill positions, said
Kathleen Campbell Walker, an El
Paso attorney who specializes in
immigration employment law and
former president of the American
Immigration Lawyers Association.
Horacio Alday, 34, said a Houston
firm where he worked as an auditor
recently told him and the rest of its
temporary foreign workers it would
not be sponsoring them for green
cards because of the economy.
"Because of the situation and ...
people out there looking for job,
they're not willing to sponsor you,"
said Alday, who is Guatemalan.
"They don't need to, I guess."
One unforeseen benefit of the drop
in applications is that Citizenship and
Immigration Services has been able
to work through a large backlog that
had led to wait times of 15 months or
more in some cases.
With a lighter work load and a
larger staff in place, the approval
process now takes less than six
months on average from start to
finish, Barrows said.
(This version CORRECTS that
Alday no longer works for the firm.)
Continue reading Hyatt checks-in
for an IPO
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2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our
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Dave Smith Instuments
introducing Tetra
By Ivan Beres (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:57:47 AM
I always liked the sound and design
of Dave Smith Instruments. The new
Tetra is no exception. This compact
polyphonic synth is basically 4
Mopho s put in one box, making it
similar to a mini Prophet. More
importantly the Tetra features USB
connectivity for programming
through the free editor that is
compatible with MAC and Windows.
“We’ve been getting the message
loud and clear from our customers
that ‘smaller is better,’” said
company founder Dave Smith. “All
our recent products pack a lot of
power and functionality into a small
package—even the Prophet ’08,
which is relatively small for a full-
sized keyboard. We’d also gotten a
lot of requests for a poly version of
Mopho, our analog mono synth,
which has been very successful. By
following Mopho’s lead and paring
the interface down to the essentials,
we can keep the price low and
provide excellent value. Everybody
wins.” Tetra is fully programmable
via the front panel or with a free
Internet News Record
downloadable editor for Mac OS and
Windows.
Tetra is basically four Mophos in a
very compact (7.9 L x 5 W)
enclosure, a sort of mini Prophet with
a couple of extra tricks up its sleeve:
specifically, a sub-octave generator
for each oscillator and feedback.
With a street price of approximately
$799, that’s like four Mophos for the
price of two. And it’s expandable.
Tetra can be poly chained with
additional Tetras or a Prophet ’08 for
up to sixteen-voice polyphony.
Other features include Combo
Mode, used to combine four
programs into unison or poly “super
patches.” Combos can also play four
16 x 4 step sequences—one per
voice/program—simultaneously. In
Multi Mode, each of Tetra’s voices
responds to a different MIDI channel,
making it ideal for complex
arrangements and sequencing analog
drum sounds. Tetra is the first DSI
product to feature USB. “USB is one
of the most requested features across
our entire product line,” said DSI’s
Tracy Wadley, “so it’s great to be
able to offer it.”
Internet News Record
Facebook ain’t cool with
the kids no more
By Nicholas Deleon
(CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:30:30 AM
Sorry, but social networks simply
aren’t cool anymore among the 15-to
-24-year-old crowd. (I’m 23, and
have all but quit Facebook (I stopped
tweeting a few months ago), but
that’s more of a function of me being
an anti-social cad than anything else.)
Why? It seems the older
crowd—people 25 and older—has
given social networks the
unmistakable stench of being not
cool. Why would an 18-year-old kid
want to mimic the lifestyle of a 30-
year-old?
Now, while I’m thrilled to read this
news, there are a few caveats. It’s not
like 15-to-24-year-olds are not using
the Internet anymore. (No, they’re
using YouTube to listen to music,
and using Rapidshare to download
TV shows.) And a lot of those older
users (25+) are responsible for the
growth of Twitter of late.
A Worthog is standing by to repel any
Covenant attack on Syndey
By Matt Burns (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:05:45 AM
Remember that awesome real-life
Warthog built for the never made
Halo movie? Yeah, it was the one
built upon a Nissan Patrol 4×4 and
looked like it could even survive a
drive up MLK Ave in Flint, MI. This
weekend that very Warthog is on
Cockatoo Island in Australia doing a
little promo work for Halo: ODST.
It’s probably worth your time to see
the only working Warthog made if
you happen to be anywhere near
Aug. 6, 1997: Apple Rescued -- by Microsoft
By John Abell (Wired Top
Stories)
Breaking down the numbers—all
these numbers come from a recent
Ofcom study, which I should have
mentioned far earlier in this
post—some 46 percent of people
aged 25-to-34 regularly check
Facebook compared to 40 percent
one year ago. Meanwhile, 50 percent
of kids aged 15-to-24 regularly check
Facebook, down from 55 percent one
year ago. Our own DBru notes kids
don’t like this stuff because it doesn’t
feel safe.
And another data set suggests that
kids under the age of 16 are still
crazy for social network sites. So
who knows what’s going on?
In any event, I look forward to the
day when the word “Twitter” is
expunged from the English language.
Sydney Harbour. Oh, and I lost my
glasses somewhere in the harbor a
few years back, so it would be great
if you could find those.
The deal doesn't sit well with Apple
devotees, but Steve Jobs knows that
it gives him the maneuvering room
Logitech outs the G500
gaming mouse and G330
gaming headset
By Matt Burns (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:08:55 AM
Logitech wants in on the new
gaming gear party started by Razer
and SteelSeries a few weeks back.
This time around, Logitech has
updated the G5 gaming mouse with
the G500 and is introducing the G330
gaming headset.
The new mouse seems like a mash-
up between the couple year-old G5
gaming mouse and the MX
Revolution line which should be a
match made in heaven. The G5000
gets all the gaming hardware found
in the G5 (and G9x) like a high-res,
5700 dpi sensor that can be adjusted
on the fly and removable weights for
further customization. But while the
texture looks a lot like the original
G5, the shape is clearly designed off
of the MX line with a larger thumb
he needs to stage the Big Comeback.
rest and more of a pinkie ledge -
that’s what they call it, serious. Plus
this guy sports the amazing hyper-
fast scrolling wheel and 10
programable buttons.
MaximumPC got their hands on a
G500 and it at least looks like it
could set the standard for gaming
mice.
The new gaming headset might be
a different story though. The new
headset is one of those lightweight
behind the ears-type that are
comfortable, but don’t always have
the best speakers. Who knows,
maybe this set has high-end sound,
but it was likely built for comfort
over quality.
The G330 headset should be
available sometime this month for
$49 while the $69 G500 mouse
doesn’t launch until next month.
Gadgets/ * 9
Creative rents tuxedo,
selects Opera for
Plaszma-based Zii EGGs
By Tim Stevens (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:47:00 AM
We're still not entirely sure what to
make of Creative's Zii EGG
handheld, as the last demo we saw of
the product looked interesting but
also somewhat devoid of features.
Now Creative has confirmed an
important one: web surfing. The
device can officially run either
Android or the company's own flavor
of Linux dubbed Plaszma, and for
that latter, poorly spelled one Opera
has been chosen as the defacto
browser. Given the open source
underpinnings users will have plenty
of other options to install if they like,
but the Opera Devices SDK also
enables the easy creation of webby
widgets to clutter that 320 x 480, 10-
point multitouch screen. The hope is
this will speed up software
development for the... thing, thus
opening the door for a flood of
useless applications the likes of
which we haven't seen since the last
App Store update.
[Via anythingbutipod]
Filed under: Handhelds, Portable
Audio, Portable Video
Creative rents tuxedo, selects
Opera for Plaszma-based Zii EGGs
originally appeared on Engadget on
Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:47:00 EST.
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10 Gadgets/
If Apple had a huge, shiny
Touchstone: WildCharge
for iPhone checked out
By Chris Ziegler (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:22:00 AM
By far the slickest, most mystical
way to charge a smartphone these
days comes courtesy of Palm's
Touchstone system -- but that doesn't
do iPhone owners much good, which
is where WildCharge steps up to the
plate with a jacket that makes all
iPhone models compatible with its
wire-free charging mat. It's not as
elegant by any stretch of the
imagination, but if you squint a little,
the jacket (or "adapter skin," as
WildCharge calls it) looks like a
totally believable case that you might
buy in your local Apple store,
especially if you can get past the
hump at the bottom. iPhone Buzz
took the$79.99 pad / jacket combo
for a spin recently, and while they've
yet to post impressions, the shots of
the system doing its thing in its
natural habitat might be enough to
turn folks on or off. Ultimately, we
still think we fall on the "just drop it
on the dock before you go to bed"
side of this argument -- especially
considering the weird hump-laden
jacket with exposed metal contacts
on back -- but if you're looking for an
easy way to charge from a second
location that doubles as a
conversation piece, WildCharge
might have your answer.
Filed under: Cellphones,
Handhelds
If Apple had a huge, shiny
Touchstone: WildCharge for iPhone
checked out originally appeared on
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Samsung and Sprint introduce the
Reclaim -- a cellphone made from corn
By Joshua Topolsky (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:53:00 AM
We love the Earth, and apparently
so do Sprint and Samsung. The two
companies have just introduced the
Reclaim, a super-eco cellphone made
from 80 percent recycled materials.
The device -- a stout, sliding,
QWERTY message-friendly model --
is constructed from "bio-plastic"
materials made from corn, is free of
PVC, and mostly free of BFR
(brominated flame retardants)...
which are apparently pretty bad. The
phone also has a 2 megapixel
camera, stereo Bluetooth, can accept
microSD cards (we assume) up to
32GB, and has Sprint Navigation
onboard. The packaging will be eco-
friendly as well, as it's constructed
from 70 percent recycled materials
and printed with soy-based ink. The
carrier will be selling the Reclaim in
"Earth Green" or "Ocean Blue" come
August 16th for $50 (after a $30
instant rebate and $50 mail-in rebate)
with a two-year contract.
Internet News Record
Additionally, $2 of that profit will be
funneled to the Nature Conservancy's
Adopt an Acre program. Finally, a
phone that goes with your Prius.
Filed under: Cellphones
Samsung and Sprint introduce the
Reclaim -- a cellphone made from
corn originally appeared on Engadget
on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:53:00 EST.
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Internet News Record
My Tether turns mild-
mannered Palm Pres into
wild and crazy hotspots
By Tim Stevens (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:26:00 AM
Official application portals like
Apple's App Store and Palm's App
Catalog are the big box retailers of
the mobile space: plenty of choices,
but to get the really good stuff you
have to go elsewhere. Case in point:
My Tether, an app that, naturally,
allows tethering through a Pre, and
does so quite comprehensively.
Palm's savior can be directly attached
through USB, but Bluetooth and
WiFi are also available, thus
delivering the connectivity trifecta.
It's a lot easier to enable than the last
option we found, and though the
fully-automatic, self-installing
version costs $10, there's a free one if
you're feeling cheap (and know your
way around a shell prompt). We're
still waiting to see whether Palm or
Sprint will put an end to these 3G
hijinks, since the pair are obviously
not in favor of them, but right now
this particular carrier needs every
selling point it can get -- even
unofficial ones like this.
[Via Palm Infocenter]
Revamped Delicious Turns to Twitter for Real-
Time Search
By Scott Gilbertson (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 2:00:00 PM
The front page of the bookmark-
Twitter Down: Twitter Doesn’t Know Why
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:56:33 AM
Twitter is currently experiencing
extended downtime: a 30 minute
outage that’s one of the longest in
Filed under: Cellphones
My Tether turns mild-mannered
Palm Pres into wild and crazy
hotspots originally appeared on
Engadget on Thu, 06 Aug 2009
09:26:00 EST. Please see our terms
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sharing site Delicious has been
redesigned to list popular links on
Twitter, a sign the older site is eager
to stay relevant among a bevvy of
real-time link-sharing services.
recent months. Back in 2007 and
2008, Twitter downtime was
relatively frequent: this year the site
has been far more stable and its early
outages have been largely forgotten.
In the last 5 minutes, Twitter has
iriver officially recognizes E200
PMP, does it proud in glorious
press shots
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:04:00 AM
It wasn't like iriver's E200 was
really hiding from anyone, but it's
still swell to see the parent company
take some initiative and create a
dedicated place on the web for its
newest OLED-infused portable
media player. Said device looks
better than ever in the company's
press shots, but we're still not
convinced that it stands a chance in
the oversaturated market without a
delightfully low MSRP. Feel free to
acknowledged the downtime on its
status blog, but adds that it’s unsure
of the cause:
Site is down. We are determining
Gadgets/ Social Net/ *
hit the read link if you're into eye
candy, but don't mind those user
interface shots if you're a fan of
revolutionary coding.
[Via PMP Today]
Filed under: Portable Audio,
Portable Video
iriver officially recognizes E200
PMP, does it proud in glorious press
shots originally appeared on
Engadget on Thu, 06 Aug 2009
09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms
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the cause and will provide an update
shortly.
We can’t help noticing, however,
the top trending topics right before
the downtime (top right).
Meanwhile, over 90 Twitter
11
The Verizon Touch
Pro 2 handled pre-
release
By Matt Burns (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:39:56 AM
What do we have here? The new
hotness? mhmm. The HTC Touch
Pro 2 is still a while away from being
launched but somehow it was placed
in front of a camera lens. Overall, it
looks great with a clever eatching of
the world on the backplate, a 3.5mm
jack on the bottom, and a sleek
design when it’s closed. Hopefully
the keyboard works as well as it
looks. According to the tipster,
Verizon will probably have the
phone sometime in early September.
5 Tips for Raising Your
Girl Geek
By Natania Barron (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:31:00 AM
Being a geek kid isn’t easy, and
being a geek girl might even be
harder. Here are some things to keep
in mind if you are raising a geek girl
that might help her — and you — get
through the school years.
refugees have joined our“Twitter is
down” thread on Facebook. Reviews:
Twitter
12 Gadgets/ Business/
Sprint announces the “eco-
friendly” Samsung Reclaim
By Peter Ha (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:14:28 AM
Let me preface this post by saying
that this whole “green movement” is
a freaking scam. No company is
making it easier for anyone to “go
green” and buying a cell phone that’s
made with recyclable materials
doesn’t do anything for the
environment. You’re still plugging it
in to charge and they’re still churning
them out in the same factory as their
other phones. Rant over. So, kudos to
Samsung and Sprint for launching
the “green” Reclaim today in NYC.
It wouldn’t be a Samsung
announcement without some nod
towards the fact that the Reclaim is
the first mobile phone in the US to be
constructed from eco-friendly bio-
plastic materials. The $50 QWERTY
phone will roll out on August 16 at
Sprint, Best Buy and Radio Shack
locations. With every Reclaim
purchase, Sprint will donate $2 from
each sale to The Nature
Conservancy’s Adopt an Acre
program.
News Corp.'s Q4
results: Cable is cool,
MySpace isn't
By Steven Mallas
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:20:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports,
General Electric (GE), Time Warner
(TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), Viacom
(VIA), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), CBS
Corp 'B' (CBS), News Corp'B'
(NWS)
News Corp.(NASDAQ: NWS), a
media company that competes with
Disney(NYSE: DIS), General
Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC
Universal, Sony(NYSE: SNE),
CBS(NYSE: CBS), Time
Warner(NYSE: TWX), and
Viacom(NYSE: VIA), reported Q4
earnings on Wednesday after the bell.
They were unimpressive. Revenues
decreased almost 11%. On a reported
basis, the company lost 8 cents per
share, compared to a profit of 43
cents per share in the year-ago
period. That is a depressing drop, but
on an adjusted basis, News Corp.
made 19 cents per share, which,
according to Bloomberg, was a single
Cisco expects sales drop of more than 15%
By Tom Johansmeyer
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:00:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports, Cisco
Systems (CSCO)
Networking equipment
manufacturer Cisco
Systems(NASDAQ: CSCO)
announced Wednesday that sales are
likely to fall this quarter, making it
four declines in a row. The company
anticipates that revenue will fall 15 to
17% for the first fiscal quarter, which
ends in October. This will put
penny ahead of expectations.
The company's problems with
MySpace always make the news
these days. Technically, the site is a
part of Fox Interactive Media, and it
is that division of NWS which took
on charges that helped to drive the
GAAP loss. Remember when
MySpace was so important to
shareholder value? Not any more.
Facebook and Twitter have now
taken all the buzz, and News Corp.
just isn't having a fun time with this
investment. This is one area that
management obviously has to work
on.
Continue reading News Corp.'s Q4
results: Cable is cool, MySpace isn't
News Corp.'s Q4 results: Cable is
cool, MySpace isn't originally
appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu,
06 Aug 2009 09:20:00 EST. Please
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revenue between $8.6 billion and
$8.8 billion -- down from $10.4
billion for the same quarter last year.
For now, Cisco is looking back on
Internet News Record
Options Update: Bank
of America and
Citigroup options active
as shares trend higher
By Paul Foster (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:30:00 AM
Filed under: Citigroup Inc. (C),
Bank of America (BAC), Options
Bank of America(NYSE: BAC)
closed at $16.66. BAC option
volume was 1.3M contracts on
August 5. September option implied
volatility is at 54, November is at 53;
below its 26-week average of 93,
according to Track Data, suggesting
decreasing movement.
Citigroup(NYSE: C) closed at
$3.58. BAC option volume was
approximately 1.7M according to
The Options Clearing Corp. C over
all option implied volatility of 72 is
below its 26-week average of 99,
according to Track Data, suggesting
decreasing price risk.
Option Update is provided by
Stock Specialist Paul Foster of
theflyonthewall.com.
Options Update: Bank of America
and Citigroup options active as
shares trend higher originally
appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu,
06 Aug 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please
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a tough fiscal fourth quarter. The
company watched net income fall
46% year-over-year from $2.01
billion to $1.08 billion for the
quarter. Revenue was off 18%, down
to $8.54 billion but ahead of analyst
expectations of $8.51 billion.
Continue reading Cisco expects
sales drop of more than 15%
Cisco expects sales drop of more
than 15% originally appeared on
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2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our
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Internet News Record
Cramer on BloggingStocks: Big Lots sees same-store sales
Freeport-McMoRan must slip slightly
come to the market
By Jim Cramer (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:00:00 AM
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and
downgrades, Market matters, Colgate
-Palmolive (CL), Costco Wholesale
(COST), Procter and Gamble (PG),
Dow Chemical (DOW), Freep't
McMoRan Copper (FCX), Unilever
ADR (UL), Cramer on
BloggingStocks, MBIA Inc (MBI)
From TheStreet.com Network
• Spec Stocks: The Good, the Bad
and the Ugly
• U.S. States Push Into Retirement
Planning
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says in
the wake of an upgrade, FCX has to
do a big equity offering.
What will Richard Adkerson do? I
can tell you what the CEO of
Freeport-McMoRan(NYSE: FCX) (
Cramer's Take) ought to do in the
wake of the Bank of America-Merrill
Lynch upgrade to buy from sell. He
ought to do the biggest darned equity
offering in history.
I like Richard. He's candid, he's a
great copper man, but he spent too
much at the high on Phelps Dodge
and wasn't prepared when copper
prices plummeted as his balance
sheet's simply not so hot. So he had
to cut his dividend at the bottom,
Juliette Lewis on Dating Brad Pitt: Lovely Time in My Life
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:07:00 AM
Actress and rock-n-roller Juliette
Lewis opens up in a new interview
about dating heartthrob Brad Pitt
literally at the exact bottom.
Continue reading Cramer on
BloggingStocks: Freeport-McMoRan
must come to the market
Cramer on BloggingStocks:
Freeport-McMoRan must come to
the market originally appeared on
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2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our
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when they both were "anonymous."
"It was such a lovely time in my life
-- well, in both of our lives -- because
we were anonymous. We were both
struggling actors and Brad blew up
after we were together, when
By Mark Fightmaster
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:30:00 AM
Filed under: Before the bell This
morning, discount retailer Big
Lots(NYSE: BIG) announced that
same-store sales dropped 2.4%
during the second quarter. The
company's sales were pulled lower
by weakness in its home and
furniture categories, but still fell in
range of its earlier forecast for a
decline of 1% to 3%.
While furniture and home acted as
an anchor on sales, the company's
consumables, hardlines, and seasonal
categories performed well. Total
retail sales for the quarter fell 2.3%
to $1.07 billion while year-to-date
same-store sales fell $2.2 billion.
Judge will not approve Bank of
America, SEC settlement
By Connie Madon
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:40:00 AM
Filed under: Law, Scandals, Bank
of America (BAC)
We have another fly in the
ointment. Judge Jed Ratkoff of
federal district court refused to
approve a $33 million settlement in
the SEC vs. Bank of America Corp
case.
In the complaint, the SEC had
alleged that Bank of America
Corp(NYSE: BAC) told investors in
the proxy documents for the Merrill
Lynch merger that Merrill agreed
'Legends of the Fall' came out,"
Lewis tells Black Book magazine.
Juliette and Brad starred in both the
1990 movie 'Too Young to Die' and
the 1993 film 'Kalifornia.' "We both
had our turning points -- there were
Business/ Social Net/ *
Continue reading Big Lots sees
same-store sales slip slightly
Big Lots sees same-store sales slip
slightly originally appeared on
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2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds. Permalink|
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NOT to award year-end performance
bonuses before the merger closed.
Continue reading Judge will not
approve Bank of America, SEC
settlement
Judge will not approve Bank of
America, SEC settlement originally
appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu,
06 Aug 2009 09:40:00 EST. Please
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six months between the release of
'Thelma & Louise' and 'Cape Fear' --
but for half of our relationship, we
were just unknown young actors in
L.A."
13
ALERT: 1000s of
Twitter Accounts
Compromised in Latest
Spam Attack
By Ben Parr (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 7:25:37 PM
Yesterday we noticed a strange
occurrence on Twitter: hundreds, if
not thousands of Twitter accounts
were sending out spam links, all at
once. Most of these accounts weren’t
your usual spam accounts, but
regular Twitter users with real
accounts, followers, and tweets.
Then, the flood suddenly stopped.
We wondered if it was just a
strange group of accounts or a one-
time attack. Now we’re fairly certain
that isn’t the case. Thousands of
compromised Twitter accounts are
sending out waves of spam
throughout the Twitterverse. The
tweets are coming hard, hundreds per
minute. Here is a sampling of what’s
going on:
We aren’t sure as to the exact
cause. It seems to come in waves,
and then it stops. It could be a
compromised 3rd party application.
It could be an old phishing scam or
even the more recent TwitViewer
scam. We have emailed Twitter
about the issue.
Regardless, if you believe your
account is compromised,
immediately change your password!
In addition, do not visit any of these
websites– they can compromise your
account further (or worse).
We will keep you updated as we
learn more about the situation.
Reviews: Twitter
Tags: phishing, spam, twitter
14 Social Net/ *
Twitter Zombies: 24% of Tweets
Created by Bots
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:51:44 AM
24% of Tweets are created by
automated bots, not humans,
according to a recent study.
Meanwhile, it was found that 5% of
Twitter accounts generate 75% of
Tweets.
The “ Inside Twitter” study,
conducted last month by Sysomos,
surprised researchers when they
discovered that such a small number
of accounts were generating so much
of Twitter’s content. Now, they’ve
published in-depth data looking more
closely at that highly-active 5% of
the userbase.
The findings of the report are
intriguing. For instance, many of
these most active users are actually
automated:
We found that 32% of all tweets
made by the most active Twitter
users were generated by machine
bots that posted more than 150
tweets/day. The actual percentage of
machine-generated tweets among the
most active users is probably higher
than 32% because there many bots
that update less than 150 times/day.
Based on its previous “Inside
Twitter” study and this most recent
report, Sysomos concludes that in
total, 24% of Tweets are created by
bots. Not All Bots are Spam
However, that’s not to say that 24%
Update: Steven Tyler Admitted to Hospital After Fall
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:00:00 AM
Steven Tyler was airlifted to a
hospital Thursday morning after
falling from the stage during an
Aerosmith concert in Sturgis, North
Dakota.
of Tweets are spam; far from it.
Sysomos is quick to point out that
many of these high volume,
automated accounts provide useful
data, like the top stories on social
news site Digg, or the most recent
popular bookmarks on Delicious.
Accounts like@CombatSI, which
provides realtime updates from the
virtual world of Second Life,
generate over 2,000 updates per day.
Another highly active automated
account,@dogbook, provides updates
on what dogs are doing via the
Dogbook Facebook app.
In other words: just because
Tweeting isn’t solely a human
pursuit, that doesn’t mean bots are all
spammers. Active Twitter Users:
More Fascinating Stats
While the data about bots and
“Twitter addicts” is perhaps the most
accessible, it’s well worth digging
into the report to absorb some of its
nuances. In the blog post about the
findings, Sysomos quotes these key
facts:
– Among the most active Twitter
users with more than 50,000
followers, we find singer Tyrese
(@tyrese4real), actress Alyssa
Mike Sanborn, spokesman for the
concert venue -- the Buffalo Chip
Campground tells the Associated
Press, that the 61-year-old rocker fell
backwards onto a couple fans while
he was dancing around in order to
entertain the crowd after the sound
system failed during the song "Love
Milano (@alyssa_milano), celebrity
Tila Tequila (@officialtila), tv host
Jonathan Ross (@wossy) and
evangelist Guy Kawasaki
(@guykawasaki).
– 60.6% of the most active Twitter
users live in the United States, while
6.9% are located in the U.K, 4.7% in
Japan, and 4.3% in Canada.
–The split between genders among
the most active Twitter users is fairly
balanced with 54% male, 46%
female.
– 88% of the most active Twitter
users have never missed a day
without making at least one update,
while another 2.1% have only been
inactive for one day.
– 48% have more than 100
followers, compared with 6.3% for
overall Twitter users.
– 33.7% of the most active Twitter
users have joined Twitter this year,
compared with 72.5% of overall
Twitter users who have signed up
this year
–The most popular keywords within
bios of active users are Internet
marketing, music lover, Web
designer, video games, and
husband/father.
The full “Inside Twitter” report is
available as a PDF[warning: PDF
link].
Reviews: Delicious, Digg, Twitter
In an Elevator.”
"He was good natured about it,"
Sanborn says. "He was in good
spirits when he got in the helicopter.
He was talking and joking with the
physician."
iPhone App Store:
65,000 Apps and
Counting
By Ben Parr (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 10:36:21 PM
Despite the fact that Apple and the
iPhone application store are under
investigation for banning Google
Voice, developers are still churning
out iPhone apps at a rapid pace. They
don’t seem to care that their app
could be subject to bizarre rejections.
Heck, if the latest numbers are any
indication, the number of iPhone
apps is only going to increase
exponentially.
According to July stats provided to
us by Flurry(a mobile analytics firm
we’ve previously reviewed), the
iPhone App store is only becoming
more crowded. While it had 25,000
apps in January, that number has
more than doubled: it now has over
65,000 applications. With another
five months to go in 2009, we should
see the app count break 100,000.
Seriously, think about how large that
number is.
On top of tracking iPhone Apps,
Flurry has also been analyzing the
Google Android platform. It seems
that the iPhone isn’t the only mobile
Internet News Record
app platform that’s gaining
momentum. According to the
analytics firm, more and more
developers are starting projects on
Android – outpacing app
development growth on even the
iPhone. The number of new app
projects started on the Android
platform has doubled since January
when compared to Apple projects:
One last interesting stat: Flurry
estimates that there are about 3
million active users of mobile eBook
applications. That strong number
begins to place the iPhone and iPod
Touch in competition with the
market leader: the Amazon Kindle.
Here’s a graph of the rapid growth:
Could the mythical Apple Tablet
heat up the eBook competition by
utilizing the iPhone 3.1 OS? These
numbers point towards that
possibility. Mobile apps are growing
faster than ever though. This
market’s not slowing down anytime
soon. Reviews: Android, app
Tags: android, apple, Google,
iphone, iphone apps
Internet News Record
TWITTER PURGE: Top Reuters Tells AP: “Stop
Twitter User Unfollows Whining”
106,000 People
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:23:59 AM
Feeling overwhelmed by Twitter?
You’re not alone…although you
probably aren’t trying to follow
messages from over 100,000 people.
Social media addict Robert Scoble
was, and decided to unfollow them
all at once.
Scoble’s situation is somewhat
unique. Until recently, he was auto-
following everyone who followed
him, a practice that was accepted in
Twitter’s early days but eventually
led to a lot more spam in the system
(users could set up spam accounts to
follow people knowing some
accounts would auto-follow them
back). For Scoble, this led to a
situation where he was following
over 100,000 people, most of whom
he didn’t know. Worse, some were
spam accounts that filled his Twitter
DM inbox with junk.
Twitter doesn’t allow you to mass
unfollow natively, so Scoble had an
automated script written to do it for
him. He writes of the experience:
On Monday I unfollowed 106,000
people on Twitter. The reaction so
far has been quite interesting. More
than 7,000 accounts have unfollowed
me back. They did that so fast that I
New Pics: 'Randy Jackson Presents America’s
Best Dance Crew'
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 3:00:00 AM
Latin masters, line dancers and the
latest and greatest in b-boys and
fierce females will battle it out for a
$100,000 cash prize and dance
assume they are just bots that are
looking to increase their follower
numbers. I knew I’d lose them, but
that’s sort of why I did it. People
who are following me just to get
another count on their follower
numbers are just plain, well, lame.
But it’s worse than that. When I
unfollowed everyone all my spam
just stopped. Dead. No more spam.
Not since Monday. Twitter is
actually quite enjoyable. Not a single
DM spam. Not a single piece of spam
has come through the home page.
Much like MySpace, it seems,
users are learning that having
100,000 “friends” you’ve never met
is much less valuable than
connecting with a select number of
people you know well. Reviews:
MySpace, Twitter
Tags: twitter
supremacy when the fourth season of
MTV's hit reality dance competition,
" Randy Jackson Presents America’s
Best Dance Crew," premieres
Sunday, August 9 at 9 p.m.
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:42:07 AM
The Associated Press has been
making controversial moves in the
online space recently, including a
plan to charge$12.50 for quoting 5
words of an AP story and enforcing
strict social media rules on its staff.
The AP has also been very critical of
Google, as it sees this new news eco-
system cutting into its business.
The moves haven’t been missed by
Chris Ahearn, President of Media at
AP rival Thomson Reuters. This
week he responded with a blog post
comparing AP to the lawsuit-happy
music industry, saying that the
incumbents “haven’t been keeping
up” and encouraging news leaders
like AP to “stop whining”:
Blaming the new leaders or
aggregators for disrupting the
business of the old leaders, or saber-
rattling and threatening to sue are not
business strategies – they are
Bing Goes The Internet: The Creepiest
Jingle Ever
By Ben Parr (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 7:51:51 PM
Do you remember two weeks ago,
when Microsoft’s Bing announced
that they were going to hold a Bing
Jingle Contest? The goal was to
record a short music video/theme
song about the search/decision
engine. The prize: a $500 American
Express gift cheque. Oh, and
Microsoft asked contestants to
upload their videos on Google-owned
YouTube.
Well, we now have a winner, Bing
Goes The Internet. And we have one
personal therapy sessions. Go ask a
music executive how well it works.
…I believe in the link economy.
Please feel free to link to our stories
— it adds value to all producers of
content. I believe you should play
fair and encourage your readers to
read-around to what others are
producing if you use it and find it
interesting…
Let’s stop whining and start having
real conversations across party lines.
Let’s get online publishers, search
engines, aggregators, ad networks,
and self-publishers (bloggers) in a
virtual room and determine how we
can all get along.
It’s a refreshing take that’s winning
plaudits from bloggers; we’ll be
interested to see if Reuters’ actions
match their words.
[via TechDirt]
word for the well-produced Jonathan
Mann video: creepy. It’s actually
polished – probably because this guy
records a song every single day on
YouTube, which alone is a weird
shtick. The winning video features
Mr. Mann dancing around with
silhouettes of himself on the Bing
homepage. And the accompanying
Social Net/ * 15
Report: Victoria
Beckham to Join
'American Idol'
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:37:00 AM
Victoria Beckham is ready to spice
up "American Idol," according to a
report.
The former Spice Girl has signed
on to make a "one-off appearance"
on the FOX talent show, her publicist
tells Britain's Sky News.
However, the "Posh" diva won't be
on the panel full-time. Sky adds that
she is very dedicated to her fashion
line and doesn't want to take too
much time away from overseeing the
brand.
music…creepy as well. Seriously,
aren’t jingles supposed to be cheery
and light?!
Because an explanation doesn’t do
it justice, here’s the video:
The entire contest was a bit weird
to us, but you know, most good viral
marketing campaigns are a bit odd.
And this barely cost Bing anything to
do.
But what do you think of the
winner? Let us know in the
comments. Reviews: Bing, Google,
YouTube
Tags: bing, microsoft
16 Social Net/ *
SOLD: Friends Reunited Sells
For £25 Million
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 12:52:54 AM
Remember Friends Reunited? The
social network, once a leader in the
UK market and acquired by ITV in
2005 for £175 million, has been sold
to Brightsolid, a subsidiary of Beano
comic book publisher DC Thomson,
for £25 million.
Surprisingly, that’s good news:
we’d previously reported that ITV
was considering an offer of £15
million, which would have meant a
91% loss on their original purchase
price.
The Guardian writes of the sale:
'Play' with Justin Timberlake
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 12:02:00 AM
Justin Timberlake has teamed up
with Givenchy to create an all-new
fragrance, and he's telling ET why
Play is the perfect complement to all-
natural pheromones – and what
girlfriend Jessica Biel thinks of it!
"I sort of feel like nothing should
take away from pheromones, because
it's been chemically proven that those
are the most attractive scents on
people," Justin tells ET. "I'm sort of a
minimalist, quintessential male. I like
pretty fresh, clean scents. I don't like
a barrage of smell, so I started talking
Brightsolid, which runs ventures
including Find My Past, has acquired
all the assets of Friends Reunited,
including a dating operation,
genealogy business and social
networking site.
For Brightsolid the most attractive
part of the business is Genes
Reunited which has millions of
members, is still growing and has a
solid revenue stream through
subscriptions.
Do you still use Friends Reunited?
Let us know in the comments.
Tags: friends reunited
[with Givenchy] about how do you
achieve that fresh, clean scent? And
they 'learned me' about citrus and
wood flavors that you kind of add in
to create that type of aroma. It's
actually really fascinating how they
do it."
Justin freely admits he wasn't much
of a cologne kind of guy before
Givenchy approached him. "The first
conversation was hilarious, because I
said, 'You know what? Actually, I
don't really wear cologne that
much,'" he explains. "I think,
honestly, they took it as a challenge
to create something that I would
really want to wear."
Internet News Record
New Chrome beta reflects bigger
Google challenge
By Stephen Shankland
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 11:09:00 AM
Features that Google brought to its
developer preview version of
Chrome-- themes, a revamped new-
tab page, a tweaked Omnibox for
searching and entering Web
addresses, and support for HTML 5
video--have now arrived on the
browser's better tested beta version
intended for broader use.
Individually, these features in
Chrome 3.0.195.4 (download) are
niceties. Collectively, they show
Google is steadily moving ahead
with its browser project, which was
ambitious even before Chrome OS
arrived on the scene. Fighting for a
piece of the browser market is tough,
but offering an operating system
solely for Web-based applications is
a lot tougher. your network connection. For beginning to come into their own, for
Chrome themes, such as this one example, when you open a new Web example. But there's a subtext to that
called Grass, are in the new Chrome page while other Web pages are still criticism that bears mentioning.
beta.(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen
Shankland/CNET)
After some on-again, off-again
loading, Google Chrome is now
smarter about prioritizing the
requests for the new page--for
Specifically, it looks to me as if
some perceptions are shifting from
"Why should I bother with Chrome?"
wavering, I've gone back to Chrome instance, fetching text, images, and to "Google isn't moving fast enough
as my default browser. I like its
video for your new page--ahead of with Chrome." That shows
interface and a handful of features, the requests from the older pages. expectations are shifting in Google's
but the main advantage is its priority
Loading pages on this beta release favor. It positions the company better
on speed. Google's Chrome ambition should also be faster than ever with to win over converts through the
is to improve the Web as a
DNS caching, more efficient DOM gradual delivery of extensions and
foundation for applications and more bindings, and using V8 for proxy other high-demand features.
generally to get people to do more
auto-config. Of course, a lot of my feedback is
online, and speed is of the essence. OK, so that gets deep in the weeds from change-embracing early
That's why the shiny new features
at the end there, but suffice it to say adopters who care, sometimes
such as Chrome themes actually are that Google is tackling browser speed passionately, about browsers. Getting
less interesting to me than some of
in a number of areas, not just its V8 Chrome to appeal to mainstream
the fine print in Google's engine for executing Web programs folks will be another, harder
announcement of the new beta:
written in JavaScript. challenge for Google.
Beyond the improvements in Google gets dinged with some Originally posted at News -
JavaScript execution in this latest
justification for moving sluggishly Business Tech
beta, there are a host of other with Chrome. The Mac OS X and
improvements that should help Linux versions are only now
Google Chrome make the most of
Internet News Record
What does Google see in On2's video tech?
By Stephen Shankland, Tom
Krazit (Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 12:44:00 PM
So what, exactly, is Google
planning to do with On2
Technologies' video software?
The search giant isn't saying. The
planned $106.5 million transaction
isn't going to make too much of a
dent in Google's coffers, but the
transaction comes during a hot
debate about which future
technologies will power Web video.
CNET News' Stephen Shankland and
Tom Krazit pondered the
implications of the deal, and here's
what they thought:
Shankland: When I heard about the
acquisition, I immediately wondered
if the move could tidy up the mess
that is that Web video or clutter it up
even more.
On2 offers video compression
technology that's used, among other
notable places, in Adobe's Flash
software and the Hulu video site. The
company licenses various "codecs"--
the software used to encode video so
it's compact enough to squeeze down
a narrow Internet pipe, then to
expand it at the other end. It's a major
technical challenge--one that's
getting more important people to
spend more time watching online
video and more companies to attempt
to profit from that.
Krazit: Well, it all depends on what
they do with it, right? Google's being
coy about this particular acquisition,
but there really are only two reasons
to do this: open-source the codec and
throw a third wrench into the HTML
5 video tag standards debate, or bake
it into existing technologies like
YouTube--in hopes of getting that
business to start making money--or
mobile software.
Infrared Telescope Warms Up to Star Forming Cloud
By Hadley Leggett (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 1:02:00 PM
At the moment, my bet is on the
YouTube-mobile option: does
Google really want to risk holding up
HTML 5 adoption any further,
regardless of the hint they dropped in
the press release that " video
compression technology should be a
part of the Web platform"?
Shankland: Those alternatives
aren't mutually exclusive. Google
might just be buying trying to lower
its costs by sidestepping YouTube's
current streaming technology, which
uses Adobe Systems' Flash software.
Dan Rayburn, executive vice
president at StreamingMedia.com,
says Google doesn't have to pay
Adobe fees to use Flash at YouTube.
But Laura Martin, an analyst with
Soleil-Media Metrics, believes that
using On2 technology could trim
YouTube's network bandwidth costs.
In the long run, though, getting
On2's technology accepted as a built-
in Web video standard could help
both YouTube and Google's grander
ambitions for the Web.
Google controls Chrome, of course,
but getting the other 97 percent of the
browser world to move will be
harder. When it comes to building
support for Web video straight into
the Web, rather than using a plug-in
such as Flash or Microsoft's
Silverlight, Apple's Safari uses H.264
while Mozilla and Opera use a
license-free alternative called Ogg
Theora. Chrome will support both,
but Internet Explorer doesn't have
any support at all.
Right now, that video variety has
been a thorny issue for the effort to
hammer out HTML 5, the next
incarnation of the Hypertext Markup
Language that's used to describe Web
pages. Even though the video tag
looks like a big part of HTML 5,
specification author (and Google
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is
back in action after running out of
coolant and warming up. The
telescope will still be able to take
employee) Ian Hickson so far isn't
naming a codec.
Krazit:"Thorny issue" seems like
an understatement. Why would
injecting a third standard (that not
everyone believes is necessarily a
superior option) make sense, at this
point? I suppose that there's a
Clintonian "third way" argument to
be applied here, in that if Apple and
Mozilla are lining up on opposite
sides of the debate over H.264 versus
Ogg Theora, a freely available
version that has clear patent
ownership collected in one place
might solve some of the sticking
points on either side. Still, we'd be
once again dependent on Google's
"Dude, you can totally trust us. We're
Google!" argument that it won't later
subvert the standard with patent
claims.
Not to mention the fact that
Microsoft and its Internet Explorer
are still unlikely to play ball, no
matter what Google proposes.
Shankland: Well, one way Google
could win over Mozilla at least is by
releasing the codec as open-source
software. That may or may not be
possible, depending on what On2 has
had to license, but Google apparently
isn't happy enough with Ogg
Theora's quality to bring it to
YouTube, according to Hickson.
But I wouldn't rule out Microsoft
quite so fast, even though I'm sure
that it would like to get as much
royalty revenue as possible through
fabulous images such as this one of a
beautiful star-forming cloud.
Silverlight video streaming and its
own video codecs. Google has an
affinity for open-source licenses such
as Apache that permit use of code in
proprietary software. That could
reduce the philosophical barriers to
Microsoft. And if Google can offer a
high-quality codec in the HTML 5
standardization effort, maybe making
On2's codec into open-source
software could help coax the Internet
Explorer team on board.
Let's not forget that HTML 5 is
under the auspices of the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and
they don't like standards encumbered
by royalty constraints.
Also, if I were writing standards,
I'd favor codecs such as On2's that
also work on mobile devices. The
iPhone doesn't support Flash, and I'm
sure that Google wants YouTube on
as many handsets as possible.
Krazit: Google's trying to pull off a
lot these days, when it comes to
making the Web the future platform
for developers. It's a huge proponent
of the HTML 5 push, devoting an
entire day of Google I/O in May to
explaining why this move is so
important, and preaching to
developers about how open standards
and browser-based development are
the wave of the future.
But you'd think that at some point,
the company would start thinking of
ways to differentiate its own products
against the rest. Chrome and the
forthcoming Chrome OS are
ostensibly being developed with the
hope that they will gain traction in
the market. How will they do that,
however, if they are just cookie-
cutter versions of the same standards-
based technologies on which
everybody else jumps?
One way would be through offering
excellent video performance that isn't
* 17
widely available to the rest of the
world, i.e., keeping VP8 and future
On2 codec derivatives either in-
house or available for a fee. Is
Google going to open-source
everything it ever develops under the
strategy that anything that gets
people on the Web ultimately comes
back to its bottom line? Surely, that
can't scale.
Shankland: No, Google won't open-
source everything--and stop calling
me Shirley. The company loves
improving the Web as a foundation
for applications, an effort that
needles companies such as Microsoft
or Apple that have their own
developer ecosystems to nuture. But
when it comes to the applications
themselves--Gmail and Google Docs,
for example--Google isn't so into
sharing.
So I guess that some of this On2
situation comes down to the extent to
which the video codec work is an end
or merely a means to an end, like
Chrome.
Krazit: Google isn't saying, at least
for now. There's little doubt that
online video is a crucial component
of the future Web (CBS' David
Poltrack is telling television critics
this week that big money is coming
to online video), and something will
need to assume a role as the future
technology enabler of Web video.
In the end, however, it must be nice
to be able to make $100 million bets
with relative ease. Nothing could
come of On2's technology, and
Google would hardly be worse off
than it was a day ago.
Updated 1:24 p.m. PDT with new
information about Flash licensing
and YouTube expenses.
Originally posted at News - Digital
Media
18 * Internet News Record
Seven alternative Flickr search engines
By Don Reisinger
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:00:00 AM
Flickr announced Tuesday that it
has improved its search tool. The
site's search results page now allows
users to see small previews of photos
and get details on those pictures
without being forced to visit the
individual photo page. It's a nice
improvement.
But if you're looking for something
a little different, these Flickr
alternatives are worth checking out.
Flickr search services
Bubblr Aside from the fact that it
lets you search for photos by tag or
user name, the real focus of Bubblr is
to help you create a comic strip that
you can publish for the Bubblr
Archive.
When you search for pictures on
Bubblr, it displays your search results
next to the search box. From there,
you can either go to the photo's
respective Flickr page, or drag and
drop images into your comic strip.
When you create a comic strip, you
can also add dialog bubbles to tell a
story. When you're ready, Bubblr lets
you publish your comic strip to its
archive. I was pleased with how well
Bubblr worked. Search was quick,
dragging images worked beautifully,
and the finished product was great.
Bubblr lets you add dialog boxes to
your images.(Credit: Screenshot by
Don Reisinger/CNET)
Compfight Compfight allows you
to search Flickr by tag or text. So, if
you choose to find photos by the tags
associated with images, simply input
a keyword, and Compfight will do
the rest. It displays several images
matching the query.
If you're looking to search Flickr
based on the text associated with
pictures, Compfight will do that, too.
In my experience, changing how you
search will change the results quite
substantially. When you click on an
image, you'll be brought to its
respective Flickr page. Thanks to a
simple search box and little clutter,
Compfight is easy to use. I liked it.
Compfight lists several search
results for any Flickr query.(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
Findr Findr is an interesting Flickr
search engine. Once you input a
query into the small search box, it
provides several images that have
tags matching your search. You can
either click one of those images to
view the photo or drill down into the
search with more tags to find exactly
what you're looking for.
To do that, you'll need to choose
other tags under the search box to
refine your search. Unfortunately,
those tags are extremely small, so the
only way to read them is to hover
your mouse over the words. When
you click one of those tags, the app
searches Flickr for both keywords. It
goes on like that until you find the
desired picture.
Findr, as a premise, can be an
extremely helpful tool. But with such
a small search box, small tags, and
slow search, it doesn't quite stack up
to the other services in this roundup.
Findr is a nice concept, but it
doesn't deliver.(Credit: Screenshot by
Don Reisinger/CNET)
Flickr Related Tag browser The
Flickr Related Tag browser isn't as
easy to use as some of the other
services in this roundup, but it makes
up for that with a unique way to
search for Flickr photos.
After you input a query into the
search engine (it searches through
Flickr tags), the app displays the
results. You can click on a picture in
those results, which will bring it to
the front. Flanking those pictures,
you'll see a wheel of tags. When you
click on those tags, you'll have more
accurate results for what you're
looking for. So, if you're searching
for the iPhone, you might also be
given the option to pick "MacBook."
If you click that, you'll find images of
both products. It's a neat way to
display results and help you find
pictures you really want. But if
you're looking for something simple
(and a search engine that doesn't take
so long to load), go elsewhere.
Flickr Related Tag Browser is
unique, but not perfect.(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
FlickrStorm If you're looking for
Flickr photos that are made available
through a Creative Commons license,
FlickrStorm is for you.
Overall, searching on FlickrStorm
was just fine. It searches by sifting
through picture tags. I would have
liked the search to be a little quicker,
but since it gives you so many
options based on your needs, you'll
probably give it a pass. FlickrStorm
is ideal if you write a blog or you're
looking to add some pictures to a
presentation. Check it out.
FlickrStorm helps you find photos
that are under a Creative Commons
License.(Credit: Screenshot by Don
Reisinger/CNET)
Multicolr Search Lab Multicolr
Search Lab is designed for Web
designers or those looking for some
really neat pictures. Instead of
allowing you to search Flickr by
keyword or tag, Multicolr searches
for photos on Flickr based on the
color you're looking for. At any
given time, you can search for
images containing up to 10 colors.
When you get to Multicolr, you'll
see several colors displayed. Once
you click on the image, it
immediately displays Flickr pictures
matching that color. As you continue
to click colors, Multicolr changes the
results accordingly. Even better, all
the images Multicolr Search Lab
finds are offered under a Creative
Commons license, so you won't need
to worry about any legal issues if you
put the image that matches your site's
color scheme on a Web page.
Multicolr Search Lab is one of the
nicer services in this roundup. Check
it out.
Multicolr Search Lab helps you
find the color you like.(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
PiciShare PiciShare is a basic
Flickr search engine. Simply input a
query into the Picishare search box
and it will display all the results that
match it. When you click on an
image, you'll be brought to its Flickr
page. You can use PiciShare to
search Flickr by tags or the text
included in the images. You can sort
results by how "interesting" a picture
is, the image's relevance to your
query, or when it was taken. Those
options help you find what you're
looking for sooner. PiciShare is a
Internet News Record
Trim and auto-post Qik videos on
Android
By Jessica Dolcourt
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 1:24:00 PM
Article updated 8/5/09 at 3:00 pm
PT to clarify Qik's YouTube
uploading capabilties.
Qik brings simple post-production
to Android.(Credit: Qik)
It's been about a month since Qik
for Android became available on the
Android Market as an open alpha
version. Since then, Qik has been
feverishly updating its video
streaming and broadcasting app.
Starting Wednesday, Qik for Android
(version 0.1.3) lets you trim captured
videos and more speedily share them
with friends, or post them to social
networks.
Qik's editing mechanism comes in
the form of a slider tool. It's not
immediately clear how to get to this
point. You'll need to film in offline
mode for a start, then post-filming,
tap on the "review" thumbnail to pull
up the playback screen. From there,
you press the "trim" button to see the
tool. Though you can shave off each
end by tapping endpoints and
dragging them along the timeline,
editing is not advanced enough at this
point to support splitting. Once you
reinstitute online mode, Qik will
automatically shoot the edited
footage up to your online account.
In addition to basic editing comes
sharing. Qik's settings now contain a
sign-up dialog for entering Facebook
or Twitter credentials. (There's also a
YouTube set-up, but that refers to a
preference you'll need to spell out
online; Qik for Android can't
currently upload individual videos on
a select basis to YouTube.com from
the Android phone the way you can
from Qik on other mobile platforms.)
A fourth setting, shortcuts, lets you
add people from your phone's
address book to a new sharing ribbon
on the bottom of the app. Along with
the icons for your social networks,
this area serves as a kind of speed
dial for alerting friends about your
video broadcast via e-mail or SMS.
Clicking on a social network will
upload the video file to Facebook and
YouTube, and will send the Qik link
to your Twitter feed. New settings
make it possible to enter a default
tweet from the phone, and to
program the app to automatically
upload all videos to Facebook. Better
keep it clean.
Even with the sharing bar, Qik still
boasts an uncluttered interface.
There's plenty of room to grow to
give users total control about the
video capturing and creating
experience, but these two features are
significant steps forward.
Qik for Android alpha is freely
available from the Android Market,
but be aware that you may encounter
bugs and other instability issues
during your evaluation.
Related: Qik announces streaming
video for BlackBerry
Originally posted at Android Atlas
* 19
URL shortener Trim
takes a tumble
By Caroline McCarthy
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 11:22:00 AM
One of the myriad URL-shortening
services out there, found at Tr.im,
suffered an outage for some time
Wednesday, rendering many links
unable to redirect. shorteners like TinyURL, Bitly,
The service--which is owned by a Owly, Isgd, and related offerings
start-up called the Nambu Network-- from Digg and StumbleUpon, are a
believes hackers are to blame. "From huge deal when we've all grown
this end it appeared we suffered a accustomed to fitting stuff into 140-
denial of service attack, and we took character fields. Some, like Bitly
appropriate action to get the website (which Twitter uses as its automatic
back to full service," a Trim link shortener and which has been
representative said to CNET News in talked up as a possible acquisition for
an e-mail. the microblogging company) and
There's another, less likely possible
culprit: Airline JetBlue hit one
million Twitter followers on
Wednesday, and announced a one
Trim, offer some tracking data and
analytics surrounding the links
plugged into their systems.
But when one crashes, so do all the
day-only commemorative deal that
would shave 20 percent off the cost
of any flights booked through a
links associated with it. Or what
happens if a URL shortener goes out
of business altogether? There would
promotional link. It used Trim as the
be a whole lot of lost, broken links
URL shortener for the link in out there. Some very small URLs
question, and acknowledged in its
could have a very big impact on the
"JetBlue Cheeps" Twitter-deals organization of the Web.
account that heavy volume from the
This post was updated at 1:13 p.m.
sale may have unexpectedly caused PT.
the outage.
Originally posted at The Social
Whether or not it was the JetBlue
promotion that crippled Trim, there's
a bigger-picture problem here: URL
SEVEN
continued from page 18
great search engine. Check it out. Search Lab is simply too cool to pass
PiciShare is a straight Flickr search up.
engine that's worth checking 3. FlickrStorm: If you want
out.(Credit: Screenshot by Don licensed images, FlickrStorm is for
Reisinger/CNET) you.
My top 3
1. PiciShare: It's straight search, but
it's simple and convenient.
2. Multicolr Search Lab: MultiColr
20 * Internet News Record
Twitter tanks on
Thursday morning
By Caroline McCarthy
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:43:00 AM
Oh, snap! I'm not even getting a fail
whale!
Twitter was inaccessible for at least
a half hour on Thursday morning,
followed by a period of slowness and
sporadic timeouts (and more outright
downtime). It's not clear what has
caused this. My theory is that it was
the millions of people tweeting
complaints about why it can't be
Friday yet.
Judging by the timeline of my
TweetDeck client, it looks like the
problems started right around 6:00
a.m. PDT.
"We are determining the cause and
will provide an update shortly,"
Twitter's staff posted at 6:43 a.m.
PDT on the service's status blog.
Way back when, Twitter outages
were so commonplace that it was
worth reporting when it didn't crash--
as when it stayed afloat during the
entire South by Southwest Interactive
Festival in 2008. Now, a few million
dollars of venture capital later, the
service is far more stable.
This is problematic, because
Twitter wants to establish itself as a
communications standard rather than
just a social-media brand. It's been a
crucial platform for information
exchange in the face of global events
where more traditional means of
broadcasting have been inaccessible
or blocked.
Some features of Facebook were
also experiencing uptime issues on
Thursday--one reader speculated that
login servers may have been down--
which raises the issue of whether a
hosting company problem is to
blame.
Facebook is "looking into" the
outages, spokeswoman Brandee
Barker said in an e-mail.
More to come when we hear it.
Last updated at 7:38 a.m. PT.
Originally posted at The Social
Multi Links speeds up
your browsing,
bookmarking
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 10:42:00 AM
Here's a must-have Firefox add-on.
Called Multi Links, this extension
lets you simply right click and drag
your mouse across the screen to
select multiple links at once. It's just
like selecting multiple files on your
computer, and highly effective for
tearing through a page of links you
want to look at or save for later.
By default, selected links open up
in new browser tabs, although you
can go into the options to choose
whether you want them to open up in
new windows, or be bookmarked
instead. You're also able to change
the color scheme of the box, and the
outlines of the selected links--just in
case you're into that sort of thing.
Want to open up multiple URLs?
Just drag your mouse over them with
this handy extension.(Credit: CNET)
Advanced users can utilize
keyboard shortcuts to limit mouse
work. For instance, holding down the
control or shift button while creating
a box means you can hop around a
page of results--selecting the items
you want to open or save, while
skipping over others. The extension
is also coded to ignore extra links on
search pages, which keeps you from
unintentionally opening up the
cached and similar links on each
result. This worked fine on Google
and Bing, but not on Yahoo or Ask.
This extension is definitely worth
keeping around because it does not
interfere with normal, right-click
behavior. My one hope is that future
versions will forgo the options menu
in place of a small pop-up, or slide-
out menu that asks what you want to
do with links after selecting them.
See also: Snap Links(which does
the same thing, but has not been
updated since February) and
Selection Links.
Originally posted at Web Crawler
Google Maps gets
more landmarks,
points of interest
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 12:31:00 PM
(Credit: CNET)
Google Maps has added additional
local landmarks and "prominent"
businesses right on top of any map
area you're browsing. Just like any
other points of interest, you can click
on any of these to get the a summary,
which includes things like related
Web sites, phone numbers, hours of
operation, photos, and user reviews.
In Google Earth(Google's globe
software) this layer of information is
something you can turn on and off,
however for Maps, Google has
decided simply to bake it in. It's
definitely a logical next step,
considering Google recently added
nearby businesses on top of the
results of your original search. This
made it far easier to discover a local
business, even if it wasn't at the top
of Google's index.
Purists may find that all the extra
points of interest may clutter things
up. Although to combat this, the
number of on-screen items increases
with the zoom level, meaning that
most of the time, you're only seeing
landmarks.
One thing to note is that the new
mapping tiles do not yet appear on
mobile devices like the Google Maps
apps for iPhone and Android. We've
pinged Google to see if the new tiles
are headed there anytime soon.
Originally posted at Web Crawler
Internet News Record
Urban Meyer's Rich, but Are Brandon Roy Extended
Taxpayers Footing Too Through 2015
By Tom Ziller (FanHouse)
Much of the Bill?
By Clay Travis (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 6:30:00 PM
by Clay Travis
Filed under: Coaching, General
CFB Insanity Monday, Florida
announced that Urban Meyer signed
a six-year contract extension that
makes him the third-highest paid
college football coach in America.
Meyer will pocket $4 million a year
and, with the extension, pass LSU's
Les Miles and Alabama's Nick Saban
to become the highest paid coach in
the SEC.
After all, Meyer's won two national
titles in four years at Florida, gone 11
-1 against the big three rivals on his
schedule (Georgia, Tennessee, and
Florida State), and most of the
commentary has endorsed his pay.
Collectively the college football
cognoscenti seems to believe that
Meyer is "worth" the money. Why?
Because the market dictates that he
deserves that salary.
And it completely ignores that,
you, I and every taxpayer are footing
part of the bill.
Whether He's Helping Pujols or Helping Himself, Holliday
Having Huge Impact
By Ed Price (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 6:45:00 PM
by Ed Price
Filed under: Cardinals, FanHouse
Exclusive NEW YORK -- The
Cardinals are the least surprised of
anyone at what Matt Holliday has
done for them so far.
"Everything he's done for us," St.
Louis manager Tony La Russa said,
"he did against us. Check his lifetime
Urban Meyer's Rich, but Are
Taxpayers Footing Too Much of the
Bill? originally appeared on
Fanhouse NCAA Football Blog on
Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:30:00 EST .
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average against us."
OK.
In 29 career games against the
Cards, Holliday has hit .394 with
nine homers, 15 RBI, a .475 on-base
percentage and a .475 slugging
percentage.
In 12 games FOR the Cards,
Holliday has hit .447 with three
homers, 11 RBI, a .509 on-base
percentage and a .766 slugging
percentage.
Submitted at 8/5/2009 6:40:00 PM
by Tom Ziller
Filed under: Trail Blazers, NBA
Transactions There has been some
trepidation this summer as Portland
media -- namely Jason Quick of The
Oregonian-- has reported trouble
between the Blazers and star
Brandon Roy with regards to his
contract extension. Roy, as a three-
year veteran, is eligible to have his
rookie contract extended for up to
five years, taking effect next July. He
is expected to be the only maximum
salary player from the draft class of
2006, but the issue with Portland has
been contract length: Roy wanted a
player option for the fifth season of
the deal, and the Blazers weren't with
it.
Well, that's all over. Adrian
Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports
tweets that the team has reached an
agreement with Roy for a five-year
extension worth about $80 million,
Obviously, there was no adjustment
period for Holliday upon being
traded from Oakland to St. Louis on
following on Quick's Tuesday report
the sides were close to an agreement.
Brandon Roy Extended Through
2015 originally appeared on
Fanhouse NBA Blog on Wed, 05
Aug 2009 18:40:00 EST . Please see
our terms for use of feeds.
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July 24.
Whether He's Helping Pujols or
Helping Himself, Holliday Having
Huge Impact originally appeared on
Fanhouse MLB Blog on Wed, 05
Aug 2009 18:45:00 EST . Please see
our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink| Email this| Linking
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* 21
Jargon Watch: Virus
Battery, Kettling,
Caloplaca Obamae
By Jonathon Keats (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 9:00:00 PM
Virus battery n. A rechargeable
power cell that uses bacteriophages
as electrodes. The phages — viruses
that infect only bacteria — are
genetically engineered to self-
assemble and conduct electricity. The
nontoxic tech could be scaled for
applications from cell phones to cars.
Kettling v. Forcibly detaining
demonstrators in cordoned-off areas
to prevent protests from boiling over.
The practice, used by police at the G-
20 summit in London, sparked an
outcry over civil liberties.
Third-hand smoke n. Toxic residue
left on furniture, clothing, and hair by
cigarette smoke. Anti-tobacco
activists decry third-hand smoke as a
public health menace, but some
doctors say recent research is being
distorted for political purposes.
Caloplaca obamae n. A lichen
found in California's Channel
Islands, it's the first species named
for Barack Obama. Bush and Cheney
have also been commemorated
taxonomically — in the scientific
names for slime-mold beetles.
Caloplaca obamae
— Jonathon Keats (
jargon@wired.com)
22 * Tech Musings/
NFL Unjustly Blackballing
Michael Vick?
By Kevin Blackistone
(FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 8:01:00 PM
by Kevin Blackistone
Filed under: NFL To borrow from
the vernacular of this first recession
of the 21st century, Michael Vick is a
toxic asset. To be sure, a Forbes
magazine survey released last week
found him to be the most-disliked
personality in sports. ( Forbes once
rated the Kevin McHale of the
Timberwolves as the best general
manager in sports, too, so consider
the source.)
The only difference between the
toxic assets on Wall Street and Vick
is that there are some negotiations
underway to turn financial
investments gone bad into stakes that
are viable. In the football world
surrounding Vick, we haven't heard
of any such chitchat. There is
something wrong about that.
Whitley: No Winners in Vick Soap
Opera
Red Sox Reportedly Sign Paul Byrd
By Andrew Johnson (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 12:44:00 AM
by Andrew Johnson
Filed under: Red Sox, AL East,
MLB Transactions The Red Sox
must not feel very confident about
the depth in their rotation. According
to a report by FOXSports.com,
Boston has signed Paul Byrd to a
minor-league deal for the rest of the
season.
Byrd, who the Red Sox acquired
from Cleveland for the stretch run
Prison Cell Jamming Bill Close to Senate Passage
By Ryan Singel (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 4:04:00 PM
Prisons are a bit closer to installing
NFL Unjustly Blackballing
Michael Vick? originally appeared
on Fanhouse - Kevin Blackistone on
Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:01:00 EST .
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last season, has not pitched at all this
year, and according to the report will
need time to get back into game
cell phone jammers after a Senate
committee passes the legislation to
the full body Wednesday.
WEC Veteran Steve Ramirez
Discusses His Three-Second
Knockout
By Ray Hui (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 3:50:00 PM
by Ray Hui
Filed under: Fighting, FanHouse
Exclusive WEC veteran Steve
Ramirez received the referee's go-
ahead, took four steps forward and
swung an overhand right. And in all
of three seconds, he staked claim for
what could be the fastest knockout in
MMA history.
Ramirez (7-5) recorded the
knockout over Darvin Wattree at a
local PureCombat event on July 25 in
Visalia, Calif. A fan uploaded the
fight the next day, and at the time of
this publication, the video (after the
jump) has drawn over 250,000 views.
Ramirez spoke to FanHouse earlier
this week about the amazing feat and
how it feels to be the latest MMA
shape. It's unlikely he will be ready
for the major leagues before
September.
Perhaps the most interesting thing
about this signing is what it tells us
about Boston's own view of its
starting pitching.
Red Sox Reportedly Sign Paul
Byrd originally appeared on
Fanhouse MLB Blog on Thu, 06 Aug
2009 00:44:00 EST . Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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Tasted even better than it looks
(Scripting News)
viral hit.
WEC Veteran Steve Ramirez
Discusses His Three-Second
Knockout originally appeared on
Fanhouse MMA Blog on Wed, 05
Aug 2009 15:50:00 EST . Please see
our terms for use of feeds.
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Four stories
(Scripting News)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 10:42:47 AM
In 1997, the tech press knew three
stories: 1. Apple is dead. 2. Microsoft
is evil. 3. Java is the future.
In 2009, the stories are: 1. Heard a
rumor. 2. Rewrite press release. 3.
Steve Jobs. 4. Twitter has no way to
make money.
So that's some progress. They
added another story!
Internet News Record
Relaxed Anderson Silva
Says 'I Guarantee You
Someone's Going to Fall'
By Mike Chiappetta (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 6:01:00 PM
by Mike Chiappetta
Filed under: UFC
PHILADELPHIA - Anderson Silva
walked into his scheduled workout
30 minutes late, but he had a
handshake for everyone in the room
and a smile on his face. Wearing an
adidas warm-up suit in his standard
black-and-yellow colors, Silva
showed no signs of being a man
under fire.
Following two wins that UFC
President Dana White and many fans
considered to be lackluster, the
Brazilian who still holds the UFC
middleweight championship, and
who has never lost in the octagon,
was nothing short of playful during
his first media appearance of UFC
101 fight week.
Relaxed Anderson Silva Says 'I
Guarantee You Someone's Going to
Fall' originally appeared on Fanhouse
MMA Blog on Wed, 05 Aug 2009
18:01:00 EST . Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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Sampled at Sushi Ran in Sausalito.
Internet News Record
Vikings' Kevin and Pat Williams
Likely Eligible for Entire 2009
Season
By Bruce Ciskie (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 4:10:00 PM
by Bruce Ciskie
Filed under: Vikings, NFC North,
NFL Training Camp
They were jilted at the proverbial
alter by Brett Favre last week. The
starting quarterback injured his knee
in their second training camp
practice.
There is good news for the
Minnesota Vikings, though. The
Add Evernote to Windows' Send To Menu [Right-click]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:00:00 AM
If you dig Evernote's capture
powers but don't leave it constantly
running on your system, the
EveryJoe blog suggests creating a
"Send To" shortcut in Windows' right
-click menu to shuttle files over to
Williams Wall -- defensive tackles
Kevin and Pat-- should be available
for the entire 2009 season without
interruption.
Vikings' Kevin and Pat Williams
Likely Eligible for Entire 2009
Season originally appeared on
Fanhouse NFL Blog on Wed, 05 Aug
2009 16:10:00 EST . Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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where Evernote will catch them.
Even if you do leave Evernote
running and ready for note and item
catching, sending files to a folder you
tell Evernote to watch for uploads
might fit into your work flow just a
bit better. EveryJoe explains how
heading to File/Import in Evernote
allows you to leave a folder being
Vanish Gives Your Message an
Expiration Date [Download]
By Jason Fitzpatrick
(Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:30:00 AM
(Windows/Mac/Linux): Encrypting
a message is an excellent way to
protect it from prying eyes. What if
you want to protect it against prying
eyes and make it disappear? Expiring
-message service Vanish can help.
Alarmed by trends in US case law
where individuals were forced to
give up their encryption keys and by
the brutality of regimes abroad that
did the same in less tactful ways, the
creators of Vanish wanted to create a
method of encryption where your
encrypted data expired and could in
no way be retrieved.
We created "self-destructing data"
to try to address this problem. Our
prototype system, called Vanish,
shares some properties with existing
encryption systems like PGP, but
there are also some major
differences.
First, someone using Vanish to
"encrypt/encapsulate" information,
like an email, never learns the
encryption key. Second, there is a pre
-specified timeout associated with
each encrypted/encapsulated
messages.
Prior to the timeout, anyone can
read the encrypted/encapsulated
message. After the timeout, no one
can read that message, because the
encryption key is lost due to a set of
constantly monitored by Evernote for
PDFs, Word files, text items, and
both natural and programmed
processes. It is therefore impossible
for anyone to decrypt/decapsulate
that email after the timer expires.
How do they achieve this
guaranteed destruction? The key that
is generated each time you create a
unique Vanish message is shared
across Bittorrent networks—unlinked
in anyway to your identity—and
temporarily stored in a distributed
hash table. By the nature of the
Bittorrent network your key can exist
in increments of 8 hours depending
on how long you want the Vanish
servers to keep your message alive.
Once your message reaches the
expiration date the number of users
in the Bittorrent network carrying the
necessary parts of your key begins to
degrade and your message essentially
pictures. After creating a shortcut to
that folder, simply add it to your
Send To menu. Windows XP users
can follow this handy old trick to do
so, while Vista and Windows 7 users
should try the How-To Geek's guide
to get your Evernote folder into the
Send To menu.
How do you shuttle your files to
* TechTips/ 23
disintegrates. You can never decrypt
the message or be compelled to share
the key because no key even exists.
Check out the following video for an
overview.
Vanish is available as a web-based
demo, but they recommend you
download the Java-based Vanish
System for a more powerful and
customizable experience—you can
increase the size of your key and
tweak other settings with the
download. The Firefox plugin makes
it easy to quickly create Vanish-
encrypted messages for web-based
email and other online services.
Vanish is an open-source and free
project available for Windows, Mac,
and Linux. Vanish: Self-Destructing
Digital Data[via MakeUseOf]
Evernote without the official desktop
app or web clipper? Share your work
-arounds for fellow capture fiends in
the comments. Send Documents to
Evernote Quickly[EveryJoe]
24 TechTips/
Firefox Director Talks Firefox 3.6, Tasks, and Competing with
Chrome [Firefox]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 5:00:00 PM
We were eager to know what's
happening with Firefox. Mike
Beltzner, the open-source browser's
director, was glad to tell us. Here's
what he had to say about future
features, competition with Chrome,
and keeping all of Firefox
contributors in sync.
When Beltzner was graduating
from Queen's University in Kingston,
Ont., with Bachelor of Education
degrees in computers and math,
preceded by a B.S. in cognitive
science, Firefox was still three years
off, a future outgrowth of
dissatisfaction with the Mozilla
Suite's feature bloat. He quickly
discovered he "didn't have the
patience for high school students, or
unions," but a recruiter thought his
studies, along with his tenure as a
freelance web site builder and layout
director for the weekly paper Golden
Words, made him a perfect fit for
IBM's user experience design team.
Work at Big Blue involved, in part,
watching workers use business-to-
business software from behind one-
way glass, but also gave Beltzner a
taste for open source development in
the Eclipse project. After landing at
Mozilla and working as a user
experience lead for three years, he
took up the director's chair in July
2008. These days, almost all of
Beltzner's work, decisions, and inter-
team conversation is done entirely in
the open, discussed, and analyzed
endlessly in technology circles—a
kind of two-way glass, with
magnification for both sides.
Beltzner talked with us on the
phone last week about working as a
Firefox manager, how Firefox can
grow to help users get more things
done in smarter ways, and how and
where the Firefox team competes
with the increasingly crowded
browser market.
Lifehacker: What's a typical day
like as a director of Firefox? How
would you chart your time use
throughout the day?
Mike Beltzner: It depends,
although I don't want to give a
"depends" answer. I'd say that 50
percent of my day is communication.
As director of Firefox, my job
involves coordinating the activities of
a cast of thousands contributing to
the software we produce. I help
people understand the most important
thing they could be working on
today. We're working on 3.5.2 today
for instance, so problems with builds
will come up, and I'm coordinating
the release team, and engineering
team, and a lot depends on clear
communication. ... (With) Mozilla's
weekly planning calls, I'm helping at
moderating them and making sure
everyone understands where to
expend their efforts to get most
value.
Another 25 percent of my day is
spent gathering feedback about the
product, and from that, figuring out
what's important, and figuring where
to go. It's asking ourselves, what are
the most important things to be
(scheduling) out for next version, so
maybe I'd say "future planning" is
really that 25 percent of my day.
The other 25 percent could be
considered management, the
traditional kind. The Firefox
management team makes sure
developers don't have to worry about
expenses, and helping those having
troubles getting access to certain
systems. All that doesn't even count
the little extra things I do. I'm a
software designer at heart, so I still
spend some time working on designs
with the user team.
Lifehacker: What tools, software or
otherwise, do you use to get things
done and keep everything together?
Mike Beltzner: I live my life by
Zimbra calendar. I get a lot of
meeting requests, and to make sure
I'm not late to calls like this one, I
have all my appointments on my
(shared) calendar, so people know
when they can get a hold of me. I'm
using Things on OS X for tasks, in
large part because I'm using an
iPhone, and I try to convince myself
the iPhone email client is good
enough ( laughs).
What I need most is that when I jot
down a task, I don't lose track of it. I
use a lot of wikis and web-based
tools, and even pastebin an awful lot.
Wiki.mozilla.org is really perfect for
my work because I find that a lot of
time, I'll be in a meeting (where)
folks will share great ideas, but when
I get around to asking them to act on
them, they've forgotten what they've
talked about. So even if it's just
quickly jotted words, I try to bring a
scratchpad to every meeting I've ever
had, and find (those notes) more
useful on a wiki. When I decide I
can't take action on something
myself, I can just send someone to
that wiki with the notes ready for
them.
My job, more than most others, is
to be available to help make people
more able to get work done. So I've
got instant messenger and IRC up all
the time, and I keep tabs on Twitter
... I get a sense of the zeitgeist in
Internet News Record
tech, I keep a few saved searches,
and I follow everyone I work with.
More than most, Mozilla developers
tweet a lot about what's going on in
the web and software worlds, so
that's really helpful.
Lifehacker: Firefox is a kind of rare
open source success. There are more
people from outside the core
contributing code than
inside—something like 1,000 coders
contributed to Firefox 3.5, while less
than 200 work at Mozilla. Does
managing the work of all those
coders come with a lot of
responsibilities and headaches?
Every coder, I'm sure, has a
worldview of the right, the efficient
way to do something ...
Mike Beltzner: I should start by
saying, for one thing, I think
compared to a lot of other open
source software companies, we see
ourselves a little differently. Mozilla
began as 6-8 people, and there wasn't
a ton of interest in working on it at
first. People like to say how it was
spun out of Netscape, sure, but at the
point Mozilla started up, Netscape
had lost the browser wars, the people
interested in browser development
were few and far between, and there
was not a lot of money to work on it.
By necessity, then, the people who
officially worked for Mozilla chose
to consider themselves the same as
anyone else who worked on this
project, but just had the privilege to
spend all their time on it ... When we
hire a developer, for example, they
don't have check-in rights on the
code base. They go through the same
process as anybody else. Their code
gets reviewed, but it might not be
someone inside the company—it
might be someone on the outside,
who's already contributed. So when
we talk about dealing with those egos
and headaches, there's a system
Internet News Record
FIREFOX
continued from page 24
already in place ...
... In Cory Doctorow's Down and
Out In the Magic Kingdom, there's
"whuffie," basically the idea of a
social currency, like "karma" on
Slashdot. People who have a track
record of making smart and
productive decisions actually earn
social capital in the project. What's
neat is we allow anyone with good
ideas to get into the community and
have their work implemented ...
People are always working for the
greater good of the browser. It's not
problematic or very opinionated,
other than user interface design.
Lifehacker: How do interface
discussions get moderated? It's a
topic a lot of people can argue over.
Mike Beltzner: It's a lot easier for
people to feel emotional, and
passionate, about browser design. I
can feel very deeply, for instance,
about whether we have a bookmark
bar. I use mine an awful lot, so I'd
miss it ... (But) Firefox takes up more
vertical space than any other browser
right now, and it's a problem we need
to solve. I think the solution will
probably annoy a lot of people, but I
think ... Firefox has proven the web
is the most important thing to have in
a browser, it's inspired the design of
other browsers, and it's a good
discussion to be having.
The way I use my browser is very
different from the way my wife uses
my browser. I put nothing in the
bookmark menu. Everything I need
to get to later, to act on, I put in one
drop-down list called "The Pile." I've
got another folder with bookmarklets
like Readability, a small-ifier using
is.gd. My wife has nothing in her
bookmark bar, but her bookmarks are
like the Dewey Decimal System, so
rigorously organized. And there a lot
of people with bi-modal usage
patterns. We spend so much
engineering time and effort on
making Firefox customizable for that
reason—not just API customizable,
but so the end user can take it and do
everything they want with it. I don't
think you can make the perfect
browser for everybody, but you can
give people the means to make it
perfect.
Lifehacker: How do you ration
development time between fixing and
improving features your browser
already has, innovating in new
features, and looking into features
from other browsers to implement?
Mike Beltzner: We don't do direct
rationing, but at certain times, our
energies are governed completely by
the phase of development we're in.
From March through June of this
year, for example, we were basically
polishing up 3.5 for release. Bug
fixes, polish fixes, and, (for some
developers), 200 small, glitchy, one-
pixel polish issues. We'll spend a lot
more of that time to work on new
features when we're not heading up
to a big release.
... You'll hear (Mozilla developers)
talk about this metric of startup time.
We know our startup time is an issue,
and ours is not as good as other
browsers. We're working on that
problem, but we want to be sure our
problem fixes are solutions,
something innovation-based, which a
good bit of time goes into.
Lifehacker: The most common
issue/"bug" cited by Lifehacker
readers about Firefox is memory use
over browsing time. Firefox doesn't
pull much memory when starting up,
but after using it for a while, opening
and closing tabs, users find it using
big hunks of memory, sometimes
forcing a restart to reclaim RAM. Is
that something that's a known issue
among developers? Is it hard to pin
down the root causes of, user to user?
Mike Beltzner ( via email):
Feedback about memory usage is
definitely something we hear
frequently from our users, and
without wishing to blamecast, most
frequently the issue is actually related
to poorly coded plug-ins, add-ons,
and web pages. We did a great deal
of work for the Firefox 3 release to
make our memory allocation more
efficient, as well as create technology
that cleans up after some of the
common problems created by plug-
ins, add-ons, and web pages, but the
truth of the matter is that a lot of
webpages create plug-in-rendered
elements that leak memory over time.
The longer you hold that page open
in a tab, the more memory will leak
out.
We run a pretty thorough test in
which we:
- open 30 tabs, each with a different
page from the Alexa 500
- close one tab and open one tab for
300 more tabs, all from Alexa 500
pages
- close all but one tab
The resulting graph shows how
Firefox allocates and releases
memory over time. While I haven't
yet published the results in a blog
post for Firefox 3.5, they are
basically the same as they were for
Firefox 3.0, which shows that Firefox
not only holds at a steady state of
memory while opening/closing the
tabs, but releases almost all of that
memory once we close down all of
our tabs.
... So, that's a long answer, but yes,
it's known, and while we continue to
work at it, I think in many ways
we've amassed a reputation that
might at one time have been accurate,
but with the latest versions of
Firefox, isn't actually the case
anymore.
Lifehacker: In the wiki outline for
Firefox 3.6, there's an "area of
interest" set up for task-based
navigation. What does that mean at
this point? Should task management
be made to fit into a browser?
Mike Beltzner: I think it's
identifying a problem that's
becoming apparent. The "web
browser" metaphor was created when
the web was going to be a Tim
Berners-Lee HyperCard(kind of)
book. ... People aren't just reading on
the web anymore, link after link.
People are now interacting, creating
on Facebook, consuming media, and
organizing their lives over the web. I
don't think that's going away, so what
(task-based navigation) is saying is,
if I want to pay bills in Firefox, it
should be a little more organized for
the task of paying bills. I should be
able to say, "I'd like to pay bills
now," and it should help me do that.
Taskfox and Ubiquity are definitely
part of that ... Something along the
lines of keyword searches is what's
being looked at. We've seen a bunch
of really cool add-ons in this area,
actually, some coming out of
accessibility needs. Chickenfoot,
done at MIT, is heading toward
natural language scripting for the
web. Banking always requires me to
find the bank site, log in, and get to
the exact page for what I want to do.
Why can't Firefox know that my
bank is Scotiabank, then remember
the chain of events I go through to
pay a certain bill or check a balance?
Our intent is to find out what the
intent behind those patterns are, and
figure out better ways to get there.
Lifehacker: Google Chrome gets a
lot of press for every new feature, for
its speed, and just in general. How
often does Chrome and its features
factor into the discussions by
developers?
Mike Beltzner: Google is sexy. It's
the verb that ate Hollywood. The first
time I heard Google as a verb on a
show, I thought, "Wow, the world
just got a little nerdier, and that's
cool."
More people have touched Google,
and understand what it does. Far
fewer people can put a finger on
Firefox and what it is, exactly. That
said, it's extraordinarily exciting to
have people working on a browser
that are extraordinarily well-aligned
with what we're doing. We watch
their development list, and they
watch ours. It's nice to have other
people thinking about end user
features people will want. But
Chrome also benefits from the
advantage of, when you're building
something from scratch, it's easy to
throw everything away and not worry
about the consequences.
All of us try to use a bunch of
different browsers, and Chrome
25
comes up more in discussions, tools
and technology building (than other
browsers). It's good for checking our
own assumptions about what can or
can't be included in a browser. And
it's rewarding to see Firefox's
emphasis on just presenting a
standardized web, and getting out of
the way, echoed in another project.
Lifehacker: When Chrome or any
new browser release comes out,
speed ends up being a big part of the
discussion these days. We do speed
tests, other sites do them, and each
firm rolls out its own favorable tests.
How important are speed and
benchmarks in a modern browser?
Mike Beltzner: Speed is important.
It's not just from the perspective of
having to wait for a browser to load
something, it's important from an app
development perspective. The speed
of modern JavaScript engines is
entirely different than what you
could build before. My calendaring
and mail applications, using original
speed JavaScript compilers, would be
just unbearable ... We're now using
engines 10 times as fast the first Java
engines, so haggling over 100
milliseconds here and there is just a
matter of engineering excellence. The
ability to push that envelope, the way
that JavaScript gets reported back to
a testing engine, that doesn't matter.
Lifehacker: So, you're suggesting
that testing suites written and
tweaked by JavaScript engine makers
to test best on their own engines?
Mike Beltzner: I'm absolutely
positive that's the case. SunSpider
was built by Apple engineers, and
while it's great, and we use it and talk
about it, it gives our engines
systematic disadvantages. That's fine,
in some ways, and we can optimize
for that just as well as anybody else.
What's a problem is when you
prioritize that work in relation to
everything else. If it becomes a
choice of making sure we have the
best JavaScript for SunSpider, or
making sure we've got the best
26 TechTips/
The Pushbutton Web Now in Google
Reader [Google Reader]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 11:00:41 PM
Tonight, Googler Mihai Parparita
announces that Google Reader now
sends realtime updates to FriendFeed
when you share items using the
PubSubHubbub protocol.
Huh-wha? you ask. Yeah, I know.
It's no Google Wave. But that's what
makes this exciting. This kind of
small Pushbutton implementation is
how real web pages will easily use
existing technology to notify one
another of new updates. The Google
Reader/FriendFeed integration is just
the first tiny step in what will be a
broad deployment of realtime-
enabled sites. These sites and
services will let one another know
when they have new data to share
without the sucky inefficiencies of
polling. Check out how fast
FriendFeed updates when you share
an item in Google Reader in the
video above.
In short, it's almost zero latency.
FIREFOX
continued from page 25
JavaScript for users, it's an obvious
choice. ... SunSpider, and other
JavaScript tests, are somewhat like a
horsepower test. In some ways, it
shows how your engine is doing, but
it doesn't tell the whole story about
your car's performance.
One of the things giving (Firefox) a
perception of being slower than other
browsers is our cold start-up time. If
you grab Firefox from the (latest
I've been lurking on the
PubSubHubbub mailing list for a few
weeks now. I've enabled pinging to
Google's open hub on Smarterware's
feed. (XML nerds, note the rel="hub"
href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.c
om" attributes in my Atom.) This
means posts from here should show
up in realtime on both FriendFeed
and, according to this demo video,
Google Reader, though my tests
show GReader isn't working right
now. To enable PubSubHubbub
pinging on your feed, you just need
to check a box over in FeedBurner.
Here's a helpful howto on doing that.
For more, check out Google's own
post on the subject, What's all the
hubbub about PubSubHubbub? and
Dave Winer's breakdown.
This is just the beginning of what
might be done with publishers (like
you) pushing new
updates/tweets/blog posts/whatevers
to your subscribers in under a second
via a hub or cloud. We're talking
about real-time cloud computing that
build) trunk, start-up time is already
better than 3.5. That matters because
once you click to start up the
browser, if you're used to waiting on
it to load, you'll go do something else
in the meantime. However long it
takes you to come back and get back
to that browser, that's your perception
of how long it takes.
Internet News Record
doesn't depend upon centralized
servers or technology owned by one
company. Sounds good, doesn't it?
There's no doubt in my mind that
Anil Dash has a crystal ball stowed
away somewhere at his place back in
NYC. While his piece on the
Pushbutton web almost two weeks
ago was inspiring in concept, it's
exhilarating to see it come to fruition.
(Seriously, if you haven't read his
piece, GO THERE NOW: The
Pushbutton Web: Realtime Becomes
Real.) PubSubHubbub support for
Reader shared items[Google Reader
Blog via Smarterware]
Smarterware is Lifehacker editor
emeritus Gina Trapani's new home
away from 'hacker. To get all of the
latest from Smarterware, be sure to
subscribe to the Smarterware RSS
Synchronize Web Passwords
feed. For more, check out Gina's
weekly Smarterware feature here on
Lifehacker.
with Dropbox and RoboForm
[Passwords]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker) home, or any system you surf on.
We've previously highlighted
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:30:00 AM
Dropbox's use as an ultimate
Windows: RoboForm, one of our password syncer using the free, multi
readers' five favorite password -platform KeePass, and for strict
managers, does a handy job of Firefox users, XMarks does a decent
plugging passwords and form data job of securely syncing passwords
into web sites. File synchronizing over the web as well. But RoboForm
tool Dropbox makes RoboForm even fans, and users of Internet Explorer
more convenient and automatically in particular, might find this
up to date. automatic synchronization of a tool
Web Worker Daily suggests that that plugs in passwords for them
keeping your RoboForm profile more helpful in many ways. How I
inside a Dropbox folder on every Use Dropbox For Maximum
(Windows) computer you use gives Productivity[Web Worker Daily via
you instant access to all the jkOnTheRun]
passwords you've added from work,
Internet News Record
Amazon Android App Finds Products
From Photos or Barcodes [Downloads]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:10:00 AM
Android: Amazon brings the cyborg
-like product look-up powers of its
iPhone application wields to Android
handsets, allowing for one-click
purchases and "remembering"
products through snapshots—but
adds in barcodes, too. Your wallet is
right to feel endangered.
From the app's home screen, you'll
see a simple Amazon search bar, and
any items you look up can be
purchased through your One-Click
shipping and payment settings.
Personalized recommendations,
package tracking, and Gold Box
items of the day are also accessible in
quick fashion from the home page.
ThatWhichMatter Delivers Grammar Tips in Tweets [Language]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:30:00 AM
Are you one of those types who
smirked devilishly through Eats,
Shoots & Leaves? Whether you're a
strict grammarian or looking to learn
a bit more on language,
ThatWhichMatter's Twitter feed is
Mac OS X 10.5.8 Update Released [Updates]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 4:05:00 PM
Apple just rolled out OS X 10.5.8,
their final minor point release before
the big jump to Snow Leopard this
Confession: I hate my Apple TV
By Aron Trimble (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/5/2009 10:00:00 PM
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion,
Bad Apple, Apple TV
I can be silent no longer. I have
What's really worthwhile, though, are
the app's photo and barcode-scanning
powers. As demonstrated above, it
recognized a barcode off a favorite
second-hand book, but also picked up
worth subscribing to.
It's less than a week old, but the
Twitter account—which our non-
Twitter-ing readers can grab an RSS
feed from—has already made a habit
of delivering lessons on fewer versus
less, i.g. versus i.e., and on less
factual but just as relevant concerns,
such as whether "Best" or
September.
As Gizmodo points out, it's
primarily a maintenance update, most
notably improving iCal's relationship
with CalDav, adding RAW support
for more cameras, and improving
tried for nearly a year to love my
Apple TV; yet every time I try to do
anything beyond playing music with
it, I begin to unconsciously claw my
eyes out. I think that Apple TV is the
worst product I have purchased that
has come out of Cupertino -- and in
a grainy shot of a tape measure tool
and turned it around in less than five
minutes.
Better still (except for impulsive
buyers), Amazon's app notifies you
when the items you've submitted for
finding are found in the store and
delivered to your "Amazon
Remembers" account. So there's a
potentially great application for gift
shopping and list building, but also a
scary ability to always have your
indulgences ready to be snapped up
whenever you head back to the app.
Amazon's app is a free download
for Android devices, available in the
Android Market. Amazon Android
App[Amazon via AndroidGuys]
"Sincerely" makes for a better email
sign-off.
reliability for Wi-Fi and BlueTooth.
many ways, one of the worst
TechTips/ World/ AppleBlog/ Web/
Livestation
Brings Live TV
to the iPhone
By Sarah Perez
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:43:26 AM
LIVESTATION page 28
Got another feed, email list, or
other source of regular grammar tips
and reminders? Tell us about it in the
comments. ThatWhichMatter
(thatwhichmatter) on Twitter[via
Daring Fireball]
Hit up the changelog for more
specifics, or just fire up the Software
Updates preference pane and get
your update on. About the Mac OS X
v10.5.8 Update[Apple via Gizmodo]
products I have purchased at all.
Read on for the sordid details of my
hate-hate relationship with my Apple
TV.
Continue reading Confession: I
hate my Apple TV
TUAW Confession: I hate my
27
Afghan wedding
party death toll
lowered to five
(World news and comment from
the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:31:27 AM
Tractor pulling trailer hit roadside
mine in Helmand province
Afghan officials have lowered the
death toll in the bombing of a
wedding party, saying five people,
not 21, were killed when their
vehicle hit a mine.
Assadullah Sherzad, police chief of
Helmand province, said an officer in
Garmser district initially reported
that 21 people were killed and five
wounded when a tractor pulling them
in a trailer to a wedding hit a
roadside bomb yesterday morning.
He said officers now reported that
five people were killed and five
wounded.
A spokesman for the governor said
the driver of the tractor was killed
along with his wife, two children and
another woman. Two other women
were wounded.
• Afghanistan
guardian.co.uk© Guardian News &
Media Limited 2009 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms &
Conditions| More Feeds
Apple TV originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:00:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
28 Web/ Entertainment/
LIVESTATION
continued from page 27
Content delivery network Akamai
announced today that their partner
and live TV provider Livestation has
officially launched its streaming
video solution which allows any
broadcaster to deliver live TV to the
iPhone. To demonstrate the
capabilities of this technology,
Livestation has also launched two
applications which stream live TV
news over both 3G and Wi-Fi
connections. Other broadcasters who
choose to build mobile applications
with the company's new white label,
turn-key solution can be branded and
then sold in the iTunes App Store as
the broadcaster's own.
Sponsor
Livestation quietly launched their
first mobile application streaming
live content over a month ago with
the release of BBC World News
which debuted in June 2009. This
iPhone application delivers live TV
news to viewers in 16 European
countries but is sadly not available in
the U.S as of yet. The European
viewers can watch the news over two
types of streams provided by the app:
either a 96 K stream on 3G and Edge
networks or on a higher-quality 300
K stream delivered over Wi-Fi.
Akamai's CDN steps in to help
Livestation scale these streams to the
millions of iPhones worldwide.
In the U.S., Livestation also began
Metalocalypse's Dethklok hits 34-city North American
tour
By John Scott Lewinski (TV
Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:02:00 AM
Dethklok, the animated heavy metal
band heading up Adult Swim's
Metalocalypse,is going live action
and heading out on a 34-city North
American tour.
Grammy Award-winning band
Mastodon hits the road with
Dethklok. Surprisingly enough,
Mastodon is a small chamber
offering Al Jazeera English
Live(iTunes link) last month, a live
TV application built using the same
technology. As with BBC News, the
live TV channel is available over
both Wi-Fi and 3G. Around the
corner, NASA may also be launching
a live TV streaming application using
Livestation's technology. Already a
content partner, NASA's iPhone app
has a description that reads:"Update
Coming that adds Live NASA Public
TV streaming to your device."
While both these news applications
offer TV streams from stations
Livestation is already partnered with
by way of their live TV desktop
application, the company's iPhone
streaming solution represents "just
the tip of the iceberg," claims
Livestation CEO Matteo Berlucchi.
"Once other broadcasters see the
immediate business benefits of the
revenue model we are offering...we
expect usage to increase."
The revenue model he is referring
to is the one where iPhone and iPod
Touch users purchase the mobile
applications built using the
Livestation iPhone technology
platform in the iTunes App Store.
They can then also serve ads within
the app itself, if the broadcaster so
chooses. Those ads don't have to be
simple text or images links, either -
they can be video ads, too, much like
orchestra specializing in the work of
Debussy.
Actually, no. It's not. Mastodon is a
big, loud, heavy metal act ready to
what you would see on TV. In
addition, Berlucchi says that paid-for
content that goes beyond that of the
app's initial purchase price is also a
possibility in the future.
According to Livestation's website,
the iPhone solution uses the
company's own streaming protocol
for delivering the TV streams.
However, they note that they plan to
support the native Apple Streaming
protocol as soon as it becomes
available. That seems to confirm our
suspicions from earlier this year
about live streaming on the iPhone
which came about when we
uncovered Apple's IETF submission
for a live streaming protocol.
Livestation is not the company to
provide a means of watching TV on
your iPhone, but the current crop of
iPhone applications like SlingPlayer,
Live TV, or Orb require a set-top
box, a TV tuner, and/or software
installed on your computer.
Livestation's apps, on the other hand,
simply require an iPhone.
To see the technology in action,
you can watch this video on Vimeo
where the BBC News application is
demonstrated.
Discuss
rival Dethklok in the blown-out amp
count when the tour kicks off on
October 2 in Portland, Ore. You can
get tickets online here.
Continue reading Metalocalypse's
Dethklok hits 34-city North
American tour
Filed under: Animation, Music and
Variety, Adult Swim, Reality-Free
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
MobileIron Shows ROI
for Enterprise Mobile
By Steven Walling
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 4:34:38 PM
After 18 months in development,
MobileIron's virtual smartphone
platform is ready for the spotlight.
It's one of the few startups that
focuses solely on mobile technology
for the enterprise, and with almost $9
million in venture funding, it is a
serious play at giving IT a better
handle on smartphones.
MobileIron is not an app
development shop or something
specific to single devices. It's a cross-
platform tool for companies to get
hard data on the use of smartphones
by employees, creating a pipeline
between enterprise IT behind the
firewall and employees out on the
job. By providing real insight into
how mobile plays a part in business,
MobileIron could transform how the
enterprise views mobile.
Sponsor
How It Works
MobileIron has been in beta for
more than a year, but today is their
public launch. To date they've
secured nearly $9 million in funding
from the likes of Sequoia Capital,
Northwest Venture Partners, Storm
Ventures and Big Basin Partners.
Basically, it creates a bi-directional
link between employee smartphones
(most of which are owned by
employees themselves) and
enterprise activity behind the
firewall.
A small piece of software runs in
Internet News Record
the background of a mobile device,
logging information on enterprise-
related activity, all of which gets sent
back to the Virtual Smartphone
Platform at MobileIron. Privacy
policies set exactly what is sent back
to the platform and how. MobileIron
then relays the information to an
appliance behind the firewall,
presenting IT with a window onto
how smartphones are being used.
In addition to control over how
enterprise applications are used on
smartphones, MobileIron gives
companies the opportunity to make
smarter decisions about spending on
smartphones. Real-time usage
information such as dropped calls
and roaming charges can help IT
make qualitative decisions on
choosing carriers. What It Could
Achieve
Research has made clear that
businesses are spending too much on
mobile and getting back far too little
data on how best to use smartphones
to meet their business needs.
Simply put, MobileIron is one of a
new class of startups seeking to
provide the enterprise with the data
they need to make smarter decisions
and have better control over mobile
devices used for business. Discuss
Internet News Record
Postling: Etsy Founders Do Social
Media for Small Business
By Steven Walling
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 1:03:00 PM
Half of the team that founded Etsy,
along with a former Etsy and
Amazon.com product manager, have
quietly launched a new startup.
Postling is a centralized platform for
small businesses to publish to the
social Web.
The pitch is that it's a single place
to do all your social media work. If
you're thinking it sounds like a clone
of other multi-network social media
apps, you'd be only partly correct. By
signing up on the site, businesses get
a single place to blog, share photos
and post to social networks. With no
free option, it's clearly positioning
itself as a business tool and not a
place for social media addicts, like
FriendFeed or Ping.fm.
Sponsor
Social Media Labor-saving Device
Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik
are co-founders of Etsy and now
make up the engineering side of
Postling. CEO David Lifson was a
product manager at both Etsy and
Amazon.com previously.
Its value proposition is to save time
for small businesses that want to test
the social media waters. You publish
Syfy comes off as heroes for picking up Alphas
By John Scott Lewinski (TV
Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:09:00 AM
Alphas-- a science fiction/action
pilot that certainly has nothing to do
with Heroes on NBC -- just got
picked up by Syfy. The network
would also like to assure you that
their new show has nothing to do
with Heroes.
The 90-minute adventure has been
kicking around Hollywood for a
to a variety of platforms and
networks, and all your activity is also
aggregated in a central Postling blog
hosted on a subdomain. There's a free
30-day trial for the service, but after
that it'll be $9/month or $90/year.
Once you sign up and connect your
accounts, Postling offers a simple
interface for four basic activities. In
trying out all of them, we quickly
saw that although Postling has the
right idea, it is definitely still in beta.
Status Updates: You can
selectively post updates to Twitter
and Facebook. Nothing really special
here, since it's not doing anything
that TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop
can't do for either of those networks.
Blogging: Postling supports posting
to your WordPress, Blogger,
Typepad, or Squarespace blog. On
the one hand, it was extremely fast
and easy to write and send off a post.
But there were some bugs and
missing functionality, such as poor
image handling and no ability to add
categories in WordPress.
Images Uploads: You upload
couple years now. Alphas tells the
story of "a team of ordinary citizens
who possess hyperdeveloped
neurological abilities."
images to include in posts, and you
can also upload them to Flickr.
Instead of images alone, it'd be really
nice to upload videos and integrate
with YouTube, Blip.tv or Vimeo.
Online video is a medium growing in
importance for many businesses,
especially small ones which usually
can't afford big production costs.
Share a Link: This task was the
most confusing. Most social media
participants use social networks like
Twitter and Facebook for link
sharing, or they use social
bookmarking. But it appeared that
"sharing a link" as a separate
function meant composing a blog
post. Turn the Bullhorn Around
It's easy to forgive bugs in a service
less than a week old. But there's one
thing that is glaringly absent from
Postling right now: the ability to
receive updates and then publish
them.
Though it looks like the team at
Postling is working on listening
capabilities right now, until they
show up, the service will be of
limited utility. In the near future, be
sure to look for new features that will
flesh out Postling as a social media
tool for business.
Tip of the hat to Bre Pettis. Discuss
That sounds nothing like Heroes at
all -- which is fortunate because Syfy
is a member of the NBC/Universal
family of networks.
Continue reading Syfy comes off as
heroes for picking up Alphas
Filed under: Other Sci-
Fi/Supernatural Shows, Heroes,
Reality-Free
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Web/ Entertainment/
Timetric Makes Web
Data Useful with Time
Series Analysis
By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 9:40:00 PM
A winner at this year's mini-
Seedcamp in London, Timetric is an
app from Inkling Software, a three-
principal shop composed of
chemistry and physics PhDs.
The premise is fairly simple:
Timetric was created to store, share,
and analyze data over time. For
predicting trends, proving assertions,
or recommending actions, time series
analysis is a highly valuable tool. It's
Facebook's Lexicon all grown up and
actually useful, pulling data from all
over the web and querying this huge
database to serve significant results..
Sponsor
Calling to mind truly hot topics
such as Facebook's rumored
sentiment analysis engine, the
parsing of real-time data, and the
need for data over facts in modern
journalism, Timetric addresses one
facet of a growing gap between what
information is now available online
and to what extent we actually know
about what that information means.
Here, one of the principals of
Inkling, Andrew Walkingshaw, talks
about how time series analysis
works.
In our recent post on data in
journalism, we wrote: "The voracious
appetite for data... has been apparent
for months. It is less about turning
good ideas into stories and more
about seeing how data informs our
29
understanding of events happening
right now. Each new initiative is
another piece of low-hanging fruit
picked."
Timetric is one of those low-
hanging fruits, gathered with a
minimal amount of patience over a
period of time and put to great use by
any number of entities. With regard
to journalism, the Guardian's Data
Blog uses Timetric to report on
anything from long-term inflation
trends to the relative purity of
cocaine seized by police.
We ourselves were able to pull in
data from a time series library to
create charts on incidence of men
with full beards over a number of
years:
Once uploaded, data is
downloadable and embeddable by
users in a number of formats. Users
can also designate tags and licenses,
and the team has developed a REST-
based API for other Timetric-based
apps.
Quick visualizations and analysis
of data dependent on time has never
been simpler. We hope that the
functions and forms become even
richer as Timetric grows. Discuss
30 Web/ Gizmos/
Creative Commons Launches CC
OpenID Profile
By Dana Oshiro
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 9:45:33 PM
In addition to gaining a slew of
information on your rights as a
content owner, Creative
Commons(CC) is offering new
members another great incentive. In
exchange for buying a $50 annual
membership, the organization is
offering donors the chance to use
their network log-in as their OpenID.
In other words, if you're the type of
person who shares their content for
the good of education, art and
humanity, now you can wear it like a
badge across the networks you
frequent.
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While it's often misinterpreted as
an organization looking to remove
copyright from creative works,
Creative Commons actually helps
content producers decide on the exact
uses for their products. For instance,
EFF Calls on Companies to Encrypt Location-Based Data
By Dana Oshiro
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 9:00:42 PM
The reason why Steven Seagal's
80's movies lack relevance for
modern day audiences is because if a
group of creepy, rogue mercenaries
were to abduct us now, we'd be able
to ping 10 nearby friends for backup.
If you're like us, you're using one or
more location-based services that
rely on GPS data, phone signal
strength or visibility in relation to
nearby wireless networks. In other
words, through Twitter, Loopt,
Brightkite, Foursquare or Google
Latitude, your location is sitting in a
some content owners allow
derivative works for non-commercial
and educational purposes and some
allow for remix pending attribution.
The point is that the organization
aims to make more content available
to the public for experimentation. As
works are released to "the
commons", artists, educators and
innovators learn and build upon
them. ReadWriteWeb covered the
Creative Commons database and
some of its shining case studies in
2008. It make sense that this group
would offer OpenID as membership
to their service.
OpenID is a decentralized digital
identity that allows for easy access to
a number of networks. Members
benefit from one singular identity
and networks benefit from a lowered
database. Nonetheless, according to a
recent report by the Electronic
Frontier Foundation, you shouldn't
have to forgo your locational privacy
to find nearby friends or restaurants.
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Locational privacy refers to the
expectation that as regular citizens
our whereabouts are not being
monitored. We've all heard of the
horror stories about illegal
wiretapping and citizen surveillance,
but what about the services we opt
into? According to the report"On
Locational Privacy, and How to
Avoid Losing it Forever", it's fairly
easy to use cryptographic techniques
to ensure your anonymity. Rather
barrier to membership. In this way,
more information is shared across a
variety os social landscapes and
therefore, as with Creative
Commons, there are more
opportunities for engagement and
education.
Says open source advocate Chris
Messina in a recent blog post on CC
OpenID:
"Creative Commons is
redistributing the brand equity and
social capital their members have
accrued over the last several years by
letting people show and verify their
affiliation to the organization.
With this simple example, we can
start to see the symbiosis of making
an intentional choice about identity:
Creative Commons finds a new
revenue opportunity and members of
the community have a way to express
their affiliation and promote the
brand." Discuss
than revealing a mobile device's
owner to service providers, one way
to ensure anonymity is for a mobile
device to ping services using a
Holograms Are Ready for Your
Groping [Holograms]
By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:35:59 AM
The premise of a realistic hologram
is no longer so far-fetched, but what
about actually touching the thing?
Researchers from The University of
Tokyo have found a way.
The clip explains things better than
we can, but researchers have
essentially combined motion
tracking, like you see in the Wii, with
holograms, like you see on CNN,
with ultrasonic waves, like we've
cryptographic proof-of-identity. A
University of Waterloo report
entitled,"Louis, Lester and Pierre:
Three Protocols for Location
Privacy" provides a deeper look at
identity masking techniques.
This is an important subject for
those companies looking to enter into
the geo-locational space. Groups that
encrypt their data are taking pains to
reduce the threat of identity theft,
illegal surveillance or for data to be
subpoenaed by a court. These
companies will be rewarded with
customer loyalty when the
unfortunate time comes for one or all
three of the above scenarios.
Those critical of encryption might
Internet News Record
seen before but can't really be seen.
Basically, these waves can pinpoint
locations with incredible precision,
and they're flexible enough to
simulate varying textures. So you
could interact with a virtual object
that you could actually feel, a major
hurdle in creating the fabled
Holodeck (you know we couldn't get
through this entire post without
making the comparison).
Things are finally getting
interesting, folks. [via CrunchGear]
suggest that law-abiding citizens
have nothing to hide, but that simply
isn't true. What if you're in alcoholics
anonymous? Or you've simply spent
the night at a person's house? And
honestly, do you really want your
running club to see how often you eat
at Arby's? Encryption allows us to
ping our friends while maintaining an
air of mystique, and at the end of the
day, the companies that care about
their customers, keep them. Discuss
Internet News Record
Twitter, Facebook, and LiveJournal
Down at the Same Time!
By Sarah Perez
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:32:49 AM
For those of you addicted to social
networking, Thursday morning is
starting out pretty rough. The two
biggest sites for updating your status
- Twitter and Facebook- are both
experiencing issues this morning.
Twitter's outage started around 9 AM
EST today and while Facebook is up
(somewhat), posting updates and
wall comments is currently very
flaky. And you can't even go vent
about how this makes you feel over
on your LiveJournal blog because -
guess what? - it's down too.
Sponsor
According to the Twitter status
blog, a posting around 10 AM EST
simply reads:"Site is down. We are
determining the cause and will
provide an update shortly." However,
Twitter Search appears to be
functional and is somehow pulling in
Speed in the Feed: Google Reader and
PubSubHubbub
By Dana Oshiro
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 5:07:08 PM
Google Reader is about to get much
faster for developers. You'll be
pleased to note that Reader has just
adopted the PubSubHubbub protocol
for shared items. This means that
instead of repeatedly requesting that
Reader's shared items reload from the
server, the feed automatically updates
via a distributed hub model. Rather
than waiting on the back and forth
pings of update notifications and
recent tweets, so obviously Twitter
has not completely "failwhaled" for
everyone.
To make matters worse, Facebook
is also experiencing issues this
morning as many rebuffed Twitter
users are now finding out when they
go to post their status on the social
networking site instead. The
Facebook outage appears to be
intermittent, though, and isn't
affecting everyone. If you notice
anything at all, it may be only that
posting status updates and comments
display an error message. But simply
clicking the post button again may be
polled Atom URLs, feed subscribers
can receive both the notification and
the message from a hub.
Sponsor
Subscribers get the latest content
on their favorite feeds in near real
time (sans repeated links), while
publishers let the hub handle the
subscription load. This distributed
model allows publishers and
subscribers to reduce the number of
actions required to serve up feeds and
is what Anil Dash eloquently
describes as the Pushbutton Web.
This latest Reader effort is a 20%
able to force them through (at least
that was my experience.) The site
also loads slowly at times and is
displaying occasional "transport"
errors.
Ironically, you can see several
complaints on Twitter about this
issue right now when doing a Twitter
search for keyword Facebook.
As a last resort, some users may
turn to their LiveJournal blogs and
attempt to update their mood to "sad"
to reflect their feelings about this odd
cyberoutage. Unfortunately, they'll
be foiled there as well since LJ is
down, too.
Some users are already spreading a
rumor that this is some sort of social
media attack by hackers, but it's more
likely that it's just a bizarre
coincidence. Maybe the universe just
wants us to actually get some work
done today. Discuss
Google project of Mihai Parparita,
Brett Slatkin and Brad Fitzpatrick.
Slatkin and Fitzpatrick co-created
PubSubHubbub to increase
efficiency across the cloud and
decentralize services. Fitzpatrick is
best known as the founder of
LiveJournal and co-creator of
Memcached and OpenID. Given that
Web/ Gizmos/ Entertainment/
Latest DSi Security Update Barely
Breaks a Pirate's Stride [Nintendo]
By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:28:10 AM
You thought that you had to choose
between your pirated games
homebrew and Facebook? Nope, the
DSi already appears to have been
cracked again.
While the latest DSi firmware 1.4
tempted users with social networking
on Facebook, it also blocked
infamous R4 cartridges, a popular
Memcached speeds database-driven
websites and OpenID decentralizes
the social graph, PubSubHubbub fits
nicely into the group's
accomplishments.
Friendfeed is already benefiting
from the PubSubHubbub experience.
If you're currently sharing Reader
items in your Friendfeed account,
your Friendfeed subscribers can
already see your updates in real time.
For more information on
PubSubHubbub check out a great
post by Dave Winer, the father of
RSS. Discuss
31
way to load pirated software on the
DS/DSi. But according to this clip,
Nintendo's efforts were again futile,
as pirates have already circumvented
new security measures.
The moral of the story: The DSi,
even with its aggressive PSP-style
updates, has no more chance of
preventing piracy than the DS. [
Kotaku]
What the heck is
this?
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:30:00 AM
This is the game where we show
you a picture from something TV-
related and you have to guess what
the heck it is.
This week it's this screen shot from
the opening of a 90s series. The only
clue I'll give is that it has a major
connection to a new show that's
coming up this fall. Answer later
tonight!
Filed under: Programming, Reality-
Free
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32 World/
Zimbabwe minister reveals
assassination fears
By David Smith (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:56:50 AM
• MDC secretary general received
death threat last week
• Tsvangirai could also be target of
opponents to reform
• 'There will be harsh consequences
to any act of insanity'
One of the most senior members of
Zimbabwe's unity government has
spoken of his fear that he and the
prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai,
could be the target of assassination
by forces determined to block
political reforms.
Tendai Biti, finance minister and
secretary general of the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC),
received an envelope at his home last
week containing a 9mm bullet and a
death threat telling him to prepare his
will. One of his employees was
hospitalised after being beaten and
kicked by a soldier outside Biti's
front gate.
Tsvangirai and Biti are the MDC's
principal players in the six-month-old
power-sharing agreement with
Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF, whose
supporters have been blamed for a
surge in political violence in recent
weeks.
"Tsvangirai is the face of change in
Zimbabwe and change is a threat to
those who have been benefiting from
the status quo," Biti told the
Guardian. "Yes, we are at risk [of
assassination] and I think we are
being irresponsible by having the lax
security arrangements we have,
certainly myself."
He continued: "The fact of the
matter is that we are in a struggle, a
vicious struggle. The easiest and
most opportunistic solution is to
eliminate, and when you eliminate
particularly strategic persons like
prime minister Tsvangirai, you take
the struggle backwards for many
years. So of course any opponent
would have to strategise and say,
'Look guys, this is an easy solution.'
"But killing somebody is not easy
and also the world has moved. The
information highway has helped:
Zimbabwe is not an island. There
will be harsh consequences to any act
of insanity."
The finance minister, who has been
credited with rebuilding the economy
after last year's record hyperinflation,
conceded that he should take the
threat to his safety more seriously. "If
they want to do anything to you, they
can do it. I don't move around with a
bodyguard because God is my
bodyguard. I don't think about my
personal security, which I think is
stupid, but that's the reality."
The inclusive government last
month launched a campaign of
"national healing" and reconciliation,
which prompted the rare sight of
Mugabe and Tsvangirai laughing
together on stage. Mugabe called for
an end to violence, urging
Zimbabweans to promote "the values
and practice of tolerance, respect,
non-violence and dialogue as a
means of resolving political
differences".
But last weekend Biti's gardener
was assaulted outside the politician's
home in Harare. Howard Makonza
said he was passing the residence of
the national army commander,
General Philip Valerio Sibanda,
when three armed guards told him to
stop. He continued walking and a
soldier started chasing him down the
street. Makonzi ran to Biti's house
but the soldier caught him outside the
gate and struck him to the ground.
Makonza recalled: "He started
beating me in a strong way, kicking
me in the head, in my mouth and all
over my body. He beat me for about
20 minutes. I thought he was going to
kill me. I was screaming and people
ran away, but my workmate helped
me and opened the gate so Mr Biti's
vicious dogs came out. The soldier
shook the gate and said 'Now you're
for it' but then he went away.
"I was bleeding in from the teeth
and the lips. They called a doctor for
me and I was taken to hospital. Later
we went to the police and they asked
the soldier why he beat me. The
soldier said 'I want to beat him again'
in front of the police, who said they
would come back the next day."
The 39-year-old gardener now
fears for his safety. "They want to
destroy me. I've got small children to
support and my mother is ill. I'm the
breadwinner so if they destroy me,
no one can support my family."
• Zimbabwe
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Bushfire survivor Sam
the koala dies
(World news and comment from
the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:49:38 AM
Animal rescued from February
blazes that killed 173 people is
euthanased because of terminal
disease
Sam the koala, who gained
worldwide fame and sympathy when
she was rescued during Australia's
devastating bushfires in February,
died today during an operation meant
to save her from a life-threatening
disease.
The four-year-old koala had
developed cysts associated with
urogenital chlamydiosis, which
affects up to 50% of Australia's
koalas.
During surgery the disease was
found to be so advanced that it was
inoperable and Sam was euthanased,
said Peita Elkhorne, spokeswoman
for the lawyers who represent the
shelter where the koala had lived
since the February fires.
"It was so severe that there was no
possible way to be able to manage
her pain," Elkhorne said. "All of
those who have been involved with
Sam are devastated with this loss."
John Butler, the veterinarian who
was conducting the operation, said
Sam was too scarred inside to carry
out the surgery.
"She was going to be left in pain in
the state she was in," Butler told
reporters. "We had no hope of
helping her any further."
Even the Australian prime minister,
Kevin Rudd, commented on the
animal's death, saying she had been a
symbol of hope for Australia during
the wildfires.
Internet News Record
"It's tragic that Sam the koala is no
longer with us," Rudd said.
As the fires burned in Victoria
state, Sam was gingerly making her
way on scorched paws past a fire
patrol north of Melbourne when one
of the firefighters spotted her. The
firefighter was photographed holding
a bottle of water to her lips, an image
that resonated around the world.
She suffered second- and third-
degree burns to her paws and had
been recuperating at the Southern
Ash wildlife shelter.
Record temperatures, high winds
and forests dried by years of drought
set off fires that swept a vast area of
Victoria state, killing 173 people and
destroying thousands of homes.
It was not known whether Sam had
the infection before the fire. The
disease, one of the main killers of the
koala, is brought on by stress.
Deborah Tabart, CEO of the
Australian Koala Foundation, said
she was saddened by Sam's death but
noted that thousands of other koalas
die every year of the disease and are
not lamented nor cared for by the
government.
"Sam's just the tip of the iceberg,"
Tabart said. "Sam's doing her wild
cousins a huge favour by this
international interest. Our koalas are
in serious trouble across the country."
• Australia
• Endangered species
• Animals
• Natural disasters and extreme
weather
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Internet News Record
Iraqi girl jailed for suicide bomb
attempt
By Mark Tran (World news and
comment from the Guardian |
guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:30:19 AM
15-year-old Rania Ibrahim
sentenced to seven and half years,
though it remains unclear whether
she was forced to act against her will
A teenage Iraqi girl has been
sentenced to seven and a half years in
prison for attempting to blow herself
up at a checkpoint in north-eastern
Iraq, but questions remain as to
whether she was victim or villain.
Rania Ibrahim was sentenced in a
juvenile court on Sunday for the
attempted attack in August 2008 on
Iraqi forces near the town of Baquba,
about 40 miles north of Baghdad, a
provincial judge, Zaid Khalaf, said
today.
The incident was captured in
dramatic police footage that was seen
around the world on YouTube, but
conflicting accounts surrounded her
arrest from the outset. US officials
said the 15-year-old turned herself in
after being wired up to the explosives
against her will, while Iraqi police
said she was caught by a patrol after
arousing suspicion while walking in
Baquba town centre.
After her arrest, a video of
Ibrahim's confession was released to
the media. In the first part of the
Would you pay to watch Bill O'Reilly online?
By Brad Trechak (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:25:00 AM
Rupert Murdoch thinks so. In fact,
he's betting that folks will pay to
watch all of his television properties
on their respective websites.
A friend of mine once suggested
something like this. Basically, news
would be free, but premium content
online would come at a cost. Sort of
video, Ibrahim is seen standing in a
street, handcuffed to a metal railings
attached to a wall behind her. A
police officer is heard saying she
seemed to have been drugged.
Another officer opens her robe, and
shouts out to his colleagues,
apparently to confirm he spotted a
vest that was later found to be packed
with explosives.
In the second part of the video, and
with reporters present, Ibrahim first
said she was given the vest by
women she did not know. But
moments later, she said the
explosives were strapped to her by
female relatives of her husband. She
said she was shown the vest's two
detonators and told how to use them.
Throughout her trial, Ibrahim stuck
by the story that the two women put
the vest on her. But the court
concentrated on the fact that Ibrahim
was in possession of an explosives
vest and was caught wearing it.
Last year, female suicide bombers
carried out or attempted 32 attacks,
compared with eight in 2007,
according to the US military. There
have been several female suicide
bomb attacks this year. In March, one
targeted Shia worshippers in Karbala,
killing at least 49 people.
In January, police arrested a 52-
year-old woman, Samira Ahmed
Jassim, for allegedly recruiting
like how stock quotes are delayed 20
minutes unless you pay a premium to
see the prices instantly. And those
female suicide bombers. But the
"Mother of Believers" – the accused
matriarch of al-Qaida's female
suicide bombers – told the Guardian
she was simply a shopkeeper.
"That's all I am. I don't know how
to read or write. How could I
possibly be responsible for all of
this?" she said in June, saying that
she had been tortured into making a
video confession.
US and Iraqi forces have stepped
up efforts to recruit and train female
police officers to search women at
checkpoints and entrances to public
buildings. Iraqi policemen are
reluctant to search women.
In a separate development, the Iraqi
government announced that it would
dismantle the towering concrete blast
walls that went up at the height of the
sectarian violence. Although the
walls helped to reduce violence, they
also divided the city, separating one
community from another. The walls
are to come down in the next 40
days, Iraqi officials said.
• Iraq
• Middle East
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with extreme political opinions, like
sports fans, would pay any price to
see their favorite
commentators/players do their thing.
Continue reading Would you pay to
watch Bill O'Reilly online?
Filed under: Industry,
Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
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World/ Entertainment/
Conviction in historic
Japanese jury trial
(World news and comment from
the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:57:31 AM
Panel of citizens and professional
judges sentences killer to 15 years in
first trial under new justice system
Japan's first jury trial since the
second world war concluded today
with a mixed group of citizens and
professional judges convicting a man
of murder and sentencing him to 15
years in prison.
The ruling was the first under a
new Japanese jury system, a major
overhaul of the country's legal
framework, that is expected to speed
up trials and offer greater
transparency.
The jurors expressed a sense of
achievement and relief, while
welcoming the trial as a positive step
towards giving citizens a greater role
in society.
The system pairs six citizens with
three professional judges, and the
nine together decide both guilt and
sentencing. All nine are considered
judges. Until now, all trials were
heard only by professional judges.
The trial in Tokyo district court
found 72-year-old Katsuyoshi Fujii
guilty of murder. Fuji, who stabbed
his 66-year-old neighbour after a
quarrel in May, pleaded guilty but his
lawyers sought leniency in the
sentencing.
Murder carries a maximum penalty
of death in Japan, although that is
rare in cases involving a single
victim.
The presiding judge, Yasuhiro
Akiba, said the jury sentenced the
defendant to 15 years in prison – one
33
year short of what the prosecution
had sought – because the stabbing
was not premeditated.
The citizen jurors said it was
difficult to decide the sentence but
praised the judges, prosecutors and
defence for making their arguments
easy to follow and avoiding the use
of legal jargon.
The sentencing came just four days
after the trial opened on Monday,
with the new process streamlined to
allow the citizen judges to quickly
return to their lives. Traditional
Japanese trials can take years to
reach a conclusion and rely heavily
on documents instead of trial
testimony.
Japanese juries are expected to hear
about 2,000 to 3,000 cases per year,
all involving serious crimes such as
murder and kidnapping. About
300,000 candidates are being
selected randomly from eligible
voters nationwide to serve jury duty
each year.
Some Japanese are reluctant to
serve, in part because they may have
to decide on capital punishment in a
murder case.
Japan launched a jury trial system
in 1928, but dropped it in 1943 as the
country plunged into chaos during
the second world war. The system
was never popular because legal
professionals opposed allowing
ordinary citizens to decide guilt.
• Japan
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34 World/ Entertainment/ TechNews/
50 feared dead after Tongan ferry
sinks
By Peter Walker (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 3:40:25 AM
Boat capsizes in rough seas with
'considerable loss of life' reported by
Australian prime minister
The capsize of a ferry in rough seas
between islands in Tonga has caused
"considerable loss of life", Australia's
prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said
today.
Rudd was speaking at a meeting of
South Pacific leaders in Sydney,
almost 24 hours after the Princess
Ashika turned over and sank during a
night crossing between the Tongan
capital of Nuku'alofa and outlying
islands.
About 50 people are listed as
missing, many of them women and
children. One body has been pulled
from the sea.
China investigates nuclear power chief
By Tania Branigan (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:32:31 AM
Kang Rixin, president of China
National Nuclear Corporation,
apparently accused of corruption
The head of China's nuclear power
programme is under investigation for
"grave violations of discipline",
Chinese state media reported, citing
the Communist party's top
disciplinary body.
There were no details of the
allegations against Kang Rixin, the
president and party secretary of the
China National Nuclear Corporation
A survivor said the ferry
overturned after a heavy swell
apparently shifted cargo to one side.
The Matangi Tonga news website
reported that 96 people had been
listed as travelling on the Princess
Ashika and 50 of them – 23
passengers and 27 crew – survived.
In another report, the website
quoted one survivor, Siaosi Lavaka,
as saying he had only seen male
survivors in the lifeboats. "No
women or children made it," he said,
adding that his mother was among
those missing.
He said he believed the lower deck
became flooded by rough seas and
then cargo shifted to one side,
capsizing the ferry. "We woke up to
the sound of shouting and we jumped
off," he said.
Two maritime search aeroplanes
and three boats from New Zealand
are searching for survivors amid a
(CNNC), but the phrasing usually
indicates a corruption case. It is not
clear whether the 56-year-old has
been suspended from his post.
The case comes as billions are
spent on expanding the nuclear
industry as China tries to move away
from its dependence on oil and gas.
The country has six nuclear power
plants, all located on the east coast,
and plans to build five more this
year.
According to its website, state-
owned CNNC is the main investor
and biggest owner of nuclear plants
and is heavily involved in research
and development. The state news
agency Xinhua said the corporation
trail of floating debris stretching for
10 miles. Rescuers believe anyone
who escaped from the boat could
survive for some time given the 25C
water temperature.
The 34-year-old Japanese-built
vessel went into service with Tonga's
Shipping Corporation of Polynesia
last month after the previous ferry
was deemed unsafe. Work on
building a new boat is due to begin in
2011.
The boat sank around midnight on
Wednesday Tongan time about 55
miles north-east of Nuku'alofa on
Tongapatu, the main island of the
169 in the archipelago, 36 of which
are inhabited. guardian.co.uk©
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had more than 100 subsidiary
companies and institutes and made a
profit of 4.8bn yuan (£413m) last
year.
Nuclear plants account for about
2% of China's power generation and
the government wants that to double
by 2020.
Kang was elected as a member of
the central party committee's
discipline inspection panel – the
body now investigating him – in
2002. The state council, China's
cabinet, appointed him head of
CNNC the following year.
He is among several high-ranking
officials caught up recently in
disciplinary inquiries. Xu Zongheng,
Joan Rivers wants to know
How'd You Get So Rich?
By Jason Hughes (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:31:00 AM
TV Land has a little gem on their
hands, methinks with How'd You Get
So Rich? When I was younger, I used
to get a kick out of Lifestyles of the
Rich & Famous. When your mother
comes in and asks you which utility
you want the most this month, it's
kind of nice to imagine what it would
be like to live in such opulence.
Joan Rivers was on Late Night
earlier this week, and she spoke of
the idea behind the show. When
traveling around the country, she'd
see these mansions scattered around
and wonder what the story is behind
them. These aren't celebrities, after
all. They're just ordinary people. So
the title question came to mind.
What's great about the show is that
the mayor of Shenzhen – one of
China's wealthiest cities – was fired
for corruption last week.
Chen Tonghai, a former chairman
of the Chinese oil giant Sinopec
Corp, was sentenced to death in July,
with a two-year reprieve, in what was
believed to be China's biggest bribery
case. He was convicted of illegally
receiving 196m yuan between 1999
and June 2007.
• China
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it's presented in such an uplifting
way. It's telling you that all things are
possible. You too could have these
amazing houses and cars. All it takes
is hard work and dedication, and
sometimes a great idea like tonight's
founder of Billy Bob Teeth.
Continue reading Joan Rivers
wants to know How'd You Get So
Rich?
Filed under: Other Reality Shows,
OpEd, Episode Reviews
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Reminder: Insight
Community Webinar On
Enterprise Knowledge
Management Tomorrow
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 4:24:36 PM
Just a quick reminder that we'll be
running the webinar on enterprise
knowledge management, tomorrow
morning at 9am, featuring myself as
the moderator. Joel Alleyne, a
recognized expert on the subject (and
a member of the Insight Community)
will be leading the discussion, along
with some guests from Sun and Intel
(who are sponsoring the webinar).
Whether you're deep into knowledge
management initiatives, or are even
confused as to what "knowledge
management" means, there should be
something for you. Hope you'll join
us.
Permalink| Comments| Email This
Story
Internet News Record
Mumbai bombers given Five Apps for the lawyer
death penalty
(World news and comment from
the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:49:32 AM
Indian authorities claim two men
and woman are linked to Pakistani
militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba
An Indian court today sentenced
two men and a woman to death for
their roles in a 2003 terrorist attack in
the city of Mumbai, that killed 52
people.
Two taxis carrying explosives blew
up within minutes of each other on
25 August 2003, at a popular tourist
attraction on the city's waterfront and
at a busy shopping complex. In
addition to the dead, 100 were
wounded in the attacks.
Ashrat Shafiq Mohammed Ansari,
Syed Mohammed Haneef Abdul
Rahim and his wife, Fahmeeda Syed
Mohammed Haneef, were convicted
last month of murder, conspiracy to
kill and damaging public property.
Ujjwal Nikam, the public
prosecutor, said he welcomed the
Booyah starts off slow, offers $1000 in contest
By Mike Schramm (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:30:00 AM
Filed under: Gaming, Freeware,
iPhone, App Store, App Review I've
been playing with the hyped-up
Booyah Society app for about a week
or so now, and I don't think my
reaction is too singular: it's not all
that great. The idea is certainly a
good one: take your real-life
achievements and turn them into a
game, complete with points and an
avatar, but in practice, it's not quite
there yet. Achievements are honor-
based, which means you can make as
court's decision to impose the death
penalty.
The three had pleaded not guilty
and their lawyers said they still
planned to appeal the guilty verdict
in the state high court.
Investigators had said all three
were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a
banned, Pakistan-based militant
group formed in the 1980s – with the
alleged blessing of Pakistani
intelligence – to sow trouble in the
disputed Kashmir region. The three
denied involvement with the group.
Indian investigators have also
blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba for last
year's attacks in Mumbai, in which
armed gunmen killed 166 people in a
three-day rampage.
• India
• Pakistan
• Global terrorism
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Media Limited 2009 | Use of this
content is subject to our Terms &
Conditions| More Feeds
many or as few points as you want
just by punching anything in, and
while the avatar is pretty nifty, it
doesn't seem like there's that much to
do with the little guy besides spin
him around until he gets sick. That's
not to say that the potential isn't still
there -- the app's "Booyah"
recommendations can give you some
interesting things to do if you need
them, and if they ever get the app
using some actual iPhone mechanics
(how about traveling a certain
distance according to the GPS or
playing a certain song or sound into
the microphone?), it could be really
addictive. But they're not quite there
yet, and while we don't have any info
By Lauren Hirsch (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:30:00 AM
Filed under: Features, Productivity,
App Store, App Review It's official.
The iPhone has come into its own in
the legal world. It took a little time,
and lawyers are notorious Luddites
(you can pry the WordPerfect out of
their cold, dead hands) but they do
like Bright Shiny Objects, and
nothing fills the lapel pocket like an
iPhone.
The iPhone finally cracked the law-
firm standards stranglehold by virtue
of its compatibility with Microsoft
Exchange, which freed lawyers from
the non-choice of "would you like a
Blackberry, or a Blackberry?"
Granted, the Blackberry still seems to
have a better handle on business
needs, but for some, the iPhone is
worth getting to know.
It should go without saying -- I will
say it, though -- many of the
productivity apps that are useful to
everybody are useful to lawyers, so
two of these apps are not strictly law-
on how many downloads they've
gotten, the App Store rating is less
than impressive at two-and-a-half
related. (See if you can spot them!
It's a brain teaser and a post!) Also,
certain obvious apps don't exist yet,
such as a standalone LexisNexis or
WestLaw legal research app. That
said, the web will suffice for now. In
fact, though I've artificially
constrained myself to only
standalone applications, the iPhone
really shines for accessing web
research sites given that Mobile
Safari is (mostly) a full-featured
browser.
So, without further ado, here are
five apps that give a glimpse into
what the iPhone can do for attorneys.
1) DataViz's DocumentsToGo.
Nobody expects to write a brief or a
memorandum from start to finish on
an iPhone (though I am waiting for a
good enough voice-recognition app
so that getting a draft started is
feasible), but any legal writing
usually goes through more revisions
than your average pre-1.0 beta
software. Often this happens right as
you were planning on leaving for the
day.
DocumentsToGo allows you to edit
stars.
And they're not giving up yet --
they just announced a giveaway of up
to $1000 over on Facebook. You'll
have to log in to see it, but if you
become a fan of their service and fill
out a quick sweepstakes form, you're
entered in to win a $500 Apple gift
card for yourself, as well as a chance
to give $500 to five more friends.
Sure, the contest is blatant
promotion (and it might even just be
a shot in the dark to try and grab a
Facebook audience). But what will
be interesting here is to watch and
see what happens with the app --
these guys have a legendary game
development background (coming
World/ AppleBlog/ 35
and change documents, as well as
email them over Exchange (requires
$9.99US Exchange version) to other
team members. Of course, iPhone OS
3.0's cut/copy/paste was a
prerequisite to making any word
processing application workable, but
now document editing has become at
least moderately feasible. Nothing
replaces your desk, covered in open
books or a large monitor with
LexisNexis or WestLaw opened to
18 different searches, but this gives
you just a bit more flexibility and just
may save you a panicky trip back to
the office at 11:30pm on Saturday
night.
Continue reading Five Apps for the
lawyer
TUAW Five Apps for the lawyer
originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:30:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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from Blizzard Entertainment), and at
least $4.5 million in VC financing
already. Whether they sink or swim,
they're making for a very interesting
case study of big-time development
on the iPhone.
TUAW Booyah starts off slow,
offers $1000 in contest originally
appeared on The Unofficial Apple
Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 06 Aug
2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
Permalink| Email this| Comments
36 AppleBlog/ Entertainment/ Gizmos/
iCam brings video from home to the
iPhone
By Mel Martin (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/5/2009 7:00:00 PM
Filed under: Accessories, Software,
Internet Tools, iPhone I was
intrigued by Lauren's post the other
day where she briefly talked about
using the iCam phone app [App
Store] to do some baby monitoring. I
wondered what else I could do with
this US$4.99 app, so I gave it a try
with great results.
One nice thing about iCam is it can
integrate up to 4 live video streams
on your iPhone, even if the cameras
are stand alone webcams or cams
attached to different computers. In
my case, I had a D-link webcam, a
desktop mac with a Logitech
webcam, and my MacBook Pro with
a built in iSight camera.
I was able to bring all 3 onto a
single screen on my iPhone and keep
Call of Duty for the iPhone will track your World
at War kills
By Mike Schramm (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:00:00 AM
Filed under: Gaming, Freeware,
iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Activision has released Call of Duty
for the iPhone... but don't get too
excited, it's not exactly what you
think. The first-person shooter hasn't
quite been ported yet. Instead,
they've released a " Call of Duty:
World at War companion," which
instead lets you track the activity on
the popular World War II shooter
game. You can track all of your
ingame stats, and even follow your
friends in the game and what they've
done with their characters as well.
an eye on my house and parrot while
I was out for dinner.
Here is the setup. You have to
download an app called iCamSource
to run on each computer that hosts a
camera. It's free. If your computer is
hosting 2 cameras, you make a
duplicate of the app and run it in a
second instance. In my case, my
desktop machine had the attached
USB webcam, and I was also linking
to the D-Link camera that has a built
in web-server and a device specific
IP address.
And the app also comes with a news
browser, to keep you up to date on
the latest map releases and updates
with the game. It's completely free,
though you of course need a Call of
Duty: World of War game for Xbox
360 or Playstation to actually get
anything out of it.
In that sense, this app isn't quite so
notable for what it is ( World at War
wasn't nearly as popular as Call of
Duty 4, and this app is specifically
about Treyarch's game), as what it
portends: with Blizzard releasing
their Armory app and a few other
game companies releasing
"companion" apps like this, we could
be in for a very interesting holiday
videogame season this year. Ports or
translations of games don't do much
With the USB webcam, it was easy
to find in the software by name. You
enter a unique user name and
password. For the second webcam,
the D-link, I had to specify an IP
address, followed by the required
code to bring that camera up. Each
webcam does it a bit differently. I
asked the iCam support people, and
after a few tries we found the right
combo for that particular camera.
Support responses were very quick,
by the way.
Continue reading iCam brings
video from home to the iPhone
TUAW iCam brings video from
home to the iPhone originally
appeared on The Unofficial Apple
Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 05 Aug
2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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to sell copies of the real games (as
they tend to be either too similar or
too different to the parent games),
but "companions" like this can
Make My Day: Series Premiere - open
thread
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:31:00 AM
This show actually isn't as bad as I
thought it was going to be. I mean,
it's fluffy and you'll forget about it
the day after you see it, and I doubt
I'll watch it again. But it's good to see
a hidden camera show that goes out
of its way to help an unsuspecting
person instead of
embarrassing/fooling/arresting them.
Did anyone else catch this, and will
you watch it again?
represent added functionality, and
thus can do a lot to help and promote
games on other platforms (imagine a
Halo ODST app that sent you a push
notification when your friend was
playing or got a higher XP score than
you did). This is far from the last
we'll see of "companion" apps like
this.
TUAW Call of Duty for the iPhone
will track your World at War kills
originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Internet News Record
Filed under: Other Reality Shows,
Watercooler Talk
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iRiver E200 Confirmed
in Capacities Up to
16GB [PMP]
By Mark Wilson (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:00:00 AM
All of the news pretty much leaked
anyway, but in case you needed
iRiver to announce their E200 to
believe it actually exists, they've
taken that leap...with no mention of
price or release date.
Featuring a 2.8-inch screen, the
iRiver E200 will come in 4GB, 8GB
and 16GB capacities (plus whatever
you add through MicroDS) while
supporting FM radio, FLAC, RMVB
and Xvid. Otherwise, there's not
much else to know that we didn't
already know. [ iRiver via PMP
Today]
Internet News Record
TUAW Tip: Smart Groups in
Address Book
By Victor Agreda, Jr. (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/5/2009 5:30:00 PM
Filed under: Software, TUAW Tips
Let's face it, contact management is a
pain. Address Book in OS X is a
good tool, but one often overlooked
feature is the "Smart Group" -- a way
of quickly organizing your contacts
together. If you're familiar with
Smart Playlists in iTunes, it's the
same but with contact info.
To start a Smart Group, go to File >
New Smart Group. A dialog will
drop down in Address Book for you
to start entering criteria for filtering.
For example, you could create a
group of everyone whose birthday
you have in your contacts by
Sony Party Shot Automatic Camera Mount Is For People Who Have
Lots of Parties, But No Friends With Cameras [Cameras]
By John Herrman (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:40:00 AM
So here's what you're supposed to
do: Nestle your Cybershot point-and-
shoot atop the Party Shot motorized
monopod, set a few parameters, and
party hard. In theory, when you wake
up, you'll have a memory card full of
semi-candid, Facebook-ready
choosing the item Birthday from the
first drop-down menu item, then
adding the menu item "is set." Note
that you can't create a list of people
with birthdays in June, which is a
bummer. But the Smart Groups have
a variety of ways to filter, some more
useful than others and several are
dependent on the data (dates vs. text,
for example).
To delete a group you'll have to
make a trip to the menus, as no
amount of right-clicking or key
pressing will do it. Delete is in the
Edit menu, under Delete Group.
One more thing: the notes field in
Address Book extends the power of
Smart Groups just a bit. After
returning from WWDC I added the
business cards of people I met and
added the note "wwdc" to each one. I
pictures.
In theory! In practice, it's hard to
see how well this would work.
Although its facial-recognition,
focus, flash control and intelligent
rotation represent distinct advantages
over a drunk dude with a camera, the
fact that it's stranded wherever you
put it seems like it would sort of kill
the possibility of truly candid shots,
then made a Smart Group where the
Note contains 'wwdc' and now I've
got an easy way to see the group of
people I met at WWDC. Think of the
Notes field as a loose tag field, if you
like.
I've also set up my Address Book
to add family members based on a
list of surnames, but that may only
work if you have an oddball last
name like mine!
TUAW TUAW Tip: Smart Groups
in Address Book originally appeared
on The Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW) on Wed, 05 Aug 2009
17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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and make your photo albums a mite
repetitive. Also, it's a little creepy, as
AppleBlog/ Gizmos/
Metaio brings more
augmented reality
promises to the iPhone
By Mike Schramm (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:30:00 AM
Filed under: Hardware, Software,
Odds and ends, Apple, iPhone, SDK
I can't get enough of this
augmented reality stuff-- we've seen
a lot of location-based text rendering
already, but a German-based
company named Metaio has released
this video showing actual 3D images
and models projected into the world
through a phone (like the iPhone, one
of the devices they say they're
planning to support). Of course, this
is still all just tests and demos -- not
only is the company likely still trying
to see partners and funding (like so
many other development companies
in this field), but until Apple actually
lets developers at a clear, unedited
stream from the videocamera, AR is
still in the theoretical phase.
But once again, the potential here is
staggering. As I said, most of the
things we've seen so far are based on
you can see in this video. I don't even
know what I'd think of that wasted.
The Party Shot will also shoot
panoramas, though sadly just regular
wide ones, not world-enveloping
mega-mosaics like the Gigapan
system produces. AA batteries keep
the Party Shot untethered from power
outlets, and are said to last around 11
hours. No word on price or
37
text: hold your phone up, and have
signs or other location-based
information displayed to you. But
when you start including 3D models
into the mix, then things get really
nuts: instead of just seeing tourist
information, you could have a virtual
guide show you around the museum.
Or have a virtual hide and seek
session with a creature that moves
around the environment as you look
for it. Other companies have been
experimenting with AR on their own
hardware, but Apple's combination of
a video camera, a GPS/compass
system, and a powerful handheld
computer takes the possibility farther
than we've seen it yet.
[via Venturebeat]
TUAW Metaio brings more
augmented reality promises to the
iPhone originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:30:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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availability yet. Ok, a few words: It'll
be release in Japan in early
September for around $160. Still no
idea about wide release, but it should
make its way stateside eventually. [
Sony]
38 AppleBlog/ Gizmos/
Bodega: App Store of
Mac OS X
By Christina Warren (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/5/2009 6:30:00 PM
Filed under: Software, Reviews
With the success of mobile
application stores (led by the
iPhone's App Store and then copied
by virtually every other mobile
platform), it makes sense that the
next step would be to try to extend
that all-in-one browse/download/buy
experience on the desktop. The Linux
distribution Ubuntu is working on
trying to release an App Store-like
AppCenter repository for its next
desktop release and many Mac users
have suggested or opined that an app
store for Mac OS X would be
beneficial.
Earlier this week, IDFusion
Software released Bodega, an
independent attempt to bring an App
Store-like experience to desktop Mac
users. The free program, offers up a
list of applications -- both free and
paid -- that users can download,
review and buy. If you purchase an
app, you deal directly with the
developer, but your receipt
information is stored within Bodega
for easy reference.
You can search for applications
(more on that later) and get
information on the app, read user
reviews and see if there are any press
reviews (the press clippings
apparently come from Bodega's built-
in source list so they aren't complete
or exhaustive).
I played with Bodega for a bit and
tested to see how it works as both a
store and an app discovery service.
Continue reading Bodega: App
Store of Mac OS X
TUAW Bodega: App Store of Mac
OS X originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:30:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Would You Pay $200 For
TomTom's iPhone Car Kit?
[GPS]
By Danny Allen (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:41:37 AM
We've been waiting for the
supposed Summer launch of
TomTom's turn-by-turn iPhone app
and car kit ever since we saw it at
WWDC. Now one UK retailer looks
to be taking pre-orders for £113.85
(about $195).
I wouldn't take Handtec's pricing as
gospel—they seem to have jumped
the gun after all—but it does give
some insight into what we might
expect.
The listed price is a little higher
than a basic stand alone device costs,
but includes the iPhone app itself,
along with the GPS-boosting car
accessory—complete with
windscreen mount, in-car charger,
speakers, and hands-free rig. And as
we've mentioned in the past, it's not
inconceivable that the kit will also
support the iPod Touch.
Of course, it still remains to be
seen if TomTom will bleed users dry
with an AT&T TeleNav-style
monthly subscription, or go the one
off charge route that CoPilot Live
took in the UK. [ Handtec via
Daniweb via Techmeme]
Internet News Record
WildCharge PowerDisc
Lets You Charge
Wirelessly With an
Extra Wire [Inductive
Charging]
By Adam Frucci (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:20:00 AM
How do you know that wireless
charging isn't quite ready for
primetime yet? When you need to
plug something into your gadget in
order to get it to charge "wirelessly."
The WildCharge PowerDisc plugs
into a gadget that doesn't have a
WildCharge "skin" available for it
and lets it charge without plugging it
into the wall. But it seems to make
charging less convenient than the
traditional method. I mean, you can
either have a cable on your desk that
you plug your Kindle into to charge,
or you can have a big flat surface and
then a dongle that you need to find
whenever you charge it.
Until this is built into gadgets, like
the Pre, I can't imagine spending the
money on it. [ WildCharge via
SlashGear]
Internet News Record
Samsung Reclaim QWERTY Ecophone Is Ostentatiously
Green, $50 On Sprint [Cellphones]
By John Herrman (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:38:44 AM
Choosing which aspect of the
Samsung Sprint Reclaim is most
important will depend heavily on
your worldview. Is it that the handset
is made from environmentally-
friendly bioplastics? That it's Sprint's
first 3G QWERTY phone to touch
$50 on contract?
Take your pick, ruthless
capitalist/unpleasant hippie! On the
green front, 80% of its building
materials are corn-fed and recyclable
(the other 20% presumably vaporize
baby pandas on contact), it doesn't
come with a paper manual, and its
recyclable packaging uses soy-based
ink. (!) It's also painted green or blue,
just in case the phone's "deal" wasn't
already clear to you and your friends,
and each purchase nets a land
conservation charity a few bucks.
On the phone front, this is a slide-
out-QWERTY-equipped dumphone,
with Sprint's in-house OS and the
One Click social-networking-
oriented user interface. A 2MP
camera, GPS and expandable storage
and Bluetooth 2.0 round the specs
out. It's nothing spectacular, but this
Pre-like phone (wannaPre?) is also
just $50 with a two-year contract on
Sprint, after a small stack of rebates.
Available from August 16th; full
press release below. [ Sprint]
Sprint Expands Environmental
Leadership with New Initiatives and
Debut of Eco-Friendly Samsung
Reclaim
Available for less than $50,
Samsung Reclaim is the most full-
featured eco-friendly phone in the
U.S.; Purchases of Samsung Reclaim
benefit The Nature Conservancy's
Adopt an Acre program
Sprint retail stores to feature green
products and services section;
Sustainable design blueprint
announced for future Sprint-owned
store builds and refurbishments
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. &
DALLAS—(BUSINESS
WIRE)—Sprint (NYSE:S) is making
it easier than ever for customers to
"go green" with new eco-friendly
products, services and programs and
expanding its commitment as a
leader in sustainability. Available on
Aug. 16, Sprint and Samsung
Telecommunications America
(Samsung Mobile), the #1 mobile
phone provider in the U.S.1, today
announced Samsung Reclaim™ as
the first phone in the U.S.
constructed from eco-friendly bio-
plastic materials. Made from 80
percent recyclable materials,
Samsung Reclaim is a feature-rich
messaging phone that offers
environmentally conscious customers
a perfect blend of responsibility
without sacrificing the latest in
network speeds and must-have
features.
Reclaim is the most full-featured
QWERTY phone launched by Sprint
at less than $50. It will be available
on August 16 in all Sprint retail
channels, including Best Buy, Radio
Shack, Web (www.sprint.com) and
telesales (1-800-SPRINT1) for just
$49.99 with a two-year service
agreement after a $30 instant rebate
and a $50 mail-in rebate (taxes and
service charges excluded). It will be
available at Wal-Mart in early
September.
When customers purchase
Samsung Reclaim from Sprint, $2 of
the proceeds will benefit The Nature
Conservancy's Adopt an Acre
program, which supports land
conservation across the United States
and protects some of the world's most
beautiful and important natural
habitats.
"This generous donation from
Sprint will help us protect and restore
some of America's most beautiful
and ecologically-important
landscapes for future generations to
enjoy," said Mark Tercek, president
and CEO of The Nature
Conservancy. "We applaud Sprint's
sustainability efforts, as innovation
and new technology are crucial to the
future of conservation."
Sprint is also launching several
new environmental initiatives in an
effort to support its aggressive long-
Gizmos/ 39
term environmental goals:
* Sprint is the first U.S. wireless
carrier to establish a set of
environmental design criteria for
future devices and accessories.
* Sprint is implementing a series of
new environmentally-responsible
retail initiatives including adding a
dedicated display area in stores that
highlights Sprint's commitment to
eco-friendly products and
accessories.
* Sprint is committing to reduce
paper usage by 30 percent during the
next five years.
"Sprint is widely recognized as a
leader among telecommunications
companies in environmentally-
responsible initiatives, and today we
are proud to announce an even
stronger commitment to
sustainability with new eco-friendly
products and programs," said Dan
Hesse, Sprint CEO. "Samsung
Reclaim enables customers to go
green while getting the latest in
wireless technology. When
customers walk into a Sprint retail
store, they will be greeted by the
information they need to make earth-
friendly wireless choices, coupled
with Ready Now to learn about the
rich functionality of this device."
DEFINING GREEN WITH
SAMSUNG RECLAIM
An eco-friendly overachiever,
Samsung Reclaim from Sprint is
designed with environmentally-
responsible components and fully
recyclable packaging, making it the
perfect wireless phone for the eco-
conscious consumer.
* Its bio-plastic material, made from
corn, makes up 40 percent of the
Reclaim's outer casing. Samsung
Reclaim is free of polyvinyl chloride
(PVC), phthalates, and nearly free of
brominated flame retardants (BFR):
three materials commonly targeted
40 Gizmos/
Logitech Frags The G5 With Higher Precision Gaming Mouse
G500 [Gaming]
By Danny Allen (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 3:00:00 AM
The G500 succeeds the popular G5
Laser Mouse with greater accuracy
(up to 5700dpi, adjustable on the fly),
and a broader thumb rest. Logitech
also has a new budget noise-
cancelling headset called the G330.
The Gaming Mouse G500 has a
"battle worn finish" and dual-mode
scroll wheel that either can click
through weapon selection, or be
made frictionless when scrolling
Web pages. Like the G5, you can
also add extra weight (up to 27
grams). The G500 will cost $70
when it ships in September.
For its part, the Gaming Headset
G330 has a behind-the-head design,
volume control on its cord, and
provides basic noise canceling for
$50. Though it can connect to your
PC via 3.5mm mini-jack, using it
over USB enables optimized EQ. [
Logitech]
Logitech Gaming Mouse G500
Refreshes Popular Logitech G5 Laser
Mouse with Latest Gaming-Grade
Laser Engine, Logitech Gaming
Headset G330 Delivers Comfort That
Won't Quit
FREMONT, Calif. - Aug. 6, 2009 -
When there's sweat on your brow,
and it's way too late to turn back, it's
time to choose wisely. To help you
make the right choice when victory is
on the line, Logitech (SIX: LOGN)
(NASDAQ: LOGI) today unveiled
extensions to its award-winning G-
series line of gaming peripherals: the
Logitech® Gaming Mouse G500 and
the Logitech® Gaming Headset
G330. The Gaming Mouse G500
refreshes the popular Logitech® G5
Laser Mouse with the latest gaming-
grade laser engine and a battle-worn
appearance, while the Gaming
Headset G330 delivers comfort that
won't quit – even after long hours of
battle.
"As more and more people make
gaming with family and friends the
new night out, Logitech continues to
push the envelope with the Logitech
G-series." said Ruben Mookerjee,
Logitech's director of product
marketing for gaming. "If you're
getting serious about gaming – or
have already seen the light – then the
best way to dive ever deeper into the
game is by putting the G500 mouse
in your good hand and the G330
headset on your head. Victory is up
to you."
For gamers, especially the more
than 11 million people playing World
of Warcraft® or the millions on a
tour of Call of Duty®, the Gaming
Mouse G500 and the Gaming
Headset G330 help ensure that every
late-night gaming session is
victorious.
Logitech Gaming Mouse G500
The successor to the classic
Logitech® G5 Laser Mouse, the
Logitech Gaming Mouse G500
delivers game-changing precision at
any hand speed. With its gaming-
grade laser engine you can rev up
your intensity – reaching a maximum
hand speed of 165 inches per second
(ips) and a maximum acceleration
force of 30 gs. An on-the-fly
adjustable-dpi gives you the right
level of precision – from pixel-
precise targeting (200 dpi) to
lightning-fast maneuvers (up to 5700
dpi) – for whatever game you're
playing. (The dpi can be adjusted,
after installing the Logitech®
Gaming Software, in increments of
100 dpi). Plus, full-speed USB helps
ensure that the G500 mouse is
smooth and responsive.
But the G500 mouse offers much
more than precision. A rugged finish
offers a battle-worn accent to your
gear. And an updated shape – with a
broader thumb rest and a smoothed-
out pinkie ledge – makes the new
Logitech gaming mouse more
comfortable when you're in the heat
of competition.
When you're ready to battle, the
onboard memory lets you save and
take the settings for your favorite title
with you – no software required. If
Internet News Record
you're sensitive to weight, the G500
mouse offers weight tuning,
including up to 27 grams of extra
weight for personalized feel and
control. The additional weights fit
into a removable chassis and, when
not in use, can be stored in the
accompanying case. A dual-mode
scroll wheel – with hyper-fast
scrolling for those times that you
have to work – provides click-to-
click scrolling that's perfect for
weapon selection. And ten
programmable buttons put valuable
macros in your hand (software
required).
Logitech Gaming Headset G330
Even when gaming casualties are
heavy, your Logitech Gaming
Headset G330 isn't. The lightweight
G330 headset combats fatigue with
its adjustable, behind-the-head design
– the first of its kind for gaming
headsets – that slides for a
personalized fit. To further relieve
common pressure points on your
head, the G330 headset features a
soft silicone-lined headband and
pivoting ear pads. And with durable
steel spring at its core, the flexible
headband is designed to withstand
the wear and tear of furious battle.
A noise-canceling microphone
reduces annoying background noise
and rotates out of the way when
you're not using it. The in-line audio
controls let you adjust the volume or
mute the microphone without
pausing the action. An included USB
adapter lets you choose to connect
digitally to any USB port for
enhanced audio or directly to your
PC sound card via 3.5 mm jacks.
Pricing and Availability
The Logitech Gaming Mouse G500
is expected to be available in the U.S.
and Europe in September for a
suggested retail price of $69.99
(U.S.). The Logitech Gaming
Internet News Record
SAMSUNG
continued from page 39
on green electronics guidelines.
* The outer packaging and the
phone tray inside the box are made
from 70 percent recycled materials.
The images and text on the box as
well as the phone warranty
information are printed with soy-
based ink.
* The typical thick paper user
manual has been replaced with a
virtual manual that users can access
at www.sprint.com/reclaimsupport.
* The charger is Energy Star
approved for meeting the highest
energy efficiency standards set by the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the U.S. Department of
Energy. It consumes 12 times less
power than the Energy Star standard
for standby power consumption and
is equipped with a visible notification
to alert the user to unplug the handset
once it's fully charged.
"Samsung Reclaim is more than just
an eco-friendly device, it's also a
powerful and stylish phone that's
easy-to-use," said Omar Khan, senior
vice president of Strategy and
Product Management for Samsung
Mobile. "When you combine the
Reclaim's impressive feature set with
its bio-plastic hardware and eco-
friendly packaging, you're using a
phone that is good for you and the
environment."
Operating on America's most
dependable 3G network2, Samsung
Reclaim boasts One Click, Sprint's
award-winning customizable user
LOGITECH
continued from page 40
Headset G330 is expected to be
available in the U.S. and Europe in
August for a suggested retail price of
$49.99 (U.S.).
interface with quick access to such
social networks as Facebook,
MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. A
new green One Click tile makes its
debut on Reclaim providing the
gateway to several green applications
including:
* Five Simple Steps from Discovery
Channel provides five simple
changes you can make to be more
eco-friendly, from how you commute
to what you eat for dinner;
* Green Guides from Discovery
Channel offers handy guides to help
you green your lives with ease, and
understand why;
* Green Glossary from Discovery
Channel provides words and
explanations about the Earth and
Climate Change; and
* All Things Green, a Sprint Web
category contains dynamic green
headline and links to downloadable
content.
Customers don't have to sacrifice
the latest in technology to be
environmentally-friendly with
Reclaim. The stylish, full-featured
phone offers:
* a slide-out full QWERTY
keyboard making it easy to access
personal or corporate email as well as
text and multimedia messaging;
* Sprint Navigation with Search,
providing easy access to directory
information and GPS-enabled
directions;
* 2 megapixel camera with 3x
digital zoom and camcorder;
So You Think You Can Dance: Top 4 Perform
By Jason Hughes (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:46:00 AM
(S05E22) The judges were so
excited about the final four that they
even critiqued the solos. I was glad to
see Adam Shankman on the panel as
he's one of the few guest judges who
truly offers quality criticism to the
dancers. Surprisingly, hip-hop was
completely absent tonight, but there
were some amazing performances.
* advanced stereo Bluetooth® 2.0;
* expandable memory storage up to
32GB;
* an integrated Web browser; and
* two color options - Earth Green
and Ocean Blue.
Sprint currently offers more eco-
friendly accessories than any other
U.S. telecommunications company.
In May, Sprint announced the
availability of new eco-friendly
accessories, including the SOLIO
Mono solar-powered charger and two
new cell phone carrying cases made
from 100 percent recycled plastic
water bottles.
Sprint's green-themed website,
www.sprint.com/green, details
Sprint's green mobile applications
and helps customers learn about
Sprint's sustainability initiatives,
including online bill pay, wireless
recycling programs and acquiring
green tips, such as using mobile GPS
to calculate the quickest route to save
gas. Customers can receive Sprint
updates on specific company-wide
environmentally-responsible
initiatives on Twitter via
@SprintGreenNews and can visit
www.sprint.com/green for additional
green tips.
GREENING SPRINT RETAIL
STORES AND PRODUCTS
Beginning in September, all Sprint-
owned retail locations will feature a
new dedicated environmentally-
responsible section that highlights
eco-friendly products and accessories
And ballroom came on strong!
GROUP
"Boys Boys Boys," Lady Gaga (Pop
-Jazz, Wade Robson)
Entertainment/ Tech Games/
such as the SOLIO Solar Charger and
carrying cases made from recycled
materials. Sprint also will implement
a new sustainable design blueprint
for all future Sprint-owned retail
store builds and refurbishments.
New and refurbished stores will
implement numerous sustainable
design elements consistent with
LEED design standards, and will
include energy-efficient lighting, low
water usage plumbing fixtures and
low VOC paint and carpet. The roll
out of these energy efficiency
upgrades is expected to reduce the
carbon footprint of each store by
about 19,000 pounds of carbon
dioxide equivalents.
Sprint's Environmental Product
Design Criteria Vision Statement
applies to all products sold in Sprint
channels. Sprint will work with its
device and accessory suppliers to
design and provide products that:
* Reduce the use of potentially
hazardous materials,
* Are energy efficient,
* Include standardized audio and
charging interfaces,
* Are more recyclable, and
* Have more sustainable packaging
including standardized sizes, reduced
weight, increased recyclability rate,
and increased recycled content.
Sprint also will work with its
suppliers to measure and report on
the environmental impact of their
manufacturing processes.
That was cute. It was a little more
mellow than I expected, but I do
believe that every man out there with
a cheerleader thing just passed out. It
41
News flash:
Wolfenstein has
a castle
By Richard Mitchell (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:00:00 AM
You'd better be sitting down,
gaming enthusiasts. Activision has
released a new video of Wolfenstein
that will blow your mind and, this
time, it won't be done by filling your
eyeballs with cheese. Above, you
will find a brief video look at
Wolfenstein's "Castle" environment.
That's right. A castle ... in a
Wolfenstein game.
All kidding aside, the video
basically encapsulates everything that
typifies the series: Castles, Nazis, the
occult and blowin' stuff up. Give it a
watch.
News flash: Wolfenstein has a
castle originally appeared on Joystiq
on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:00:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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was a hot and fun little high school
number, and nobody stood out in a
negative way so I'll give them that. A
feel good opening for sure.
Continue reading So You Think
You Can Dance: Top 4 Perform
Filed under: OpEd, Episode
Reviews, So You Think You Can
Dance
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
42 Tech Musings/ Entertainment/ Tech Games/
OPML for Twitter, Day
2
(Scripting News)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 8:01:25 AM
Great reception for yesterday's
rollout of OPML for Twitter
Subscription Lists.
Some thoughts from various
people.
Kevin Tofel at jkOnTheRun asks if
it makes sense to output not just the
people you follow but the people
who follow you. At first I was going
to say no -- but then I remembered a
very important thread that came up at
the NYC meetup. What about when
Ashton Kutcher wants to move his
base from twitter.com to
kutcher.com. He's going to need a
way to export his follower list. So
yes, it matters. Now I'm not sure I
want to deal with an OPML file with
over 3 million entries. So we need to
think about this before writing the
code.
Shea Bennett at Twittercism, a very
smart guy when it comes to Twitter,
has a twist on Kevin's idea. He says
Online gaming between Earth and Mars will be laggy as hell
By Griffin McElroy (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:00:00 AM
We know that not everyone was
blessed with knowledge of
aeronautical physics and
interplanetary telecommunications,
so we'll try and keep this simple. A
recent Edge Online article examined
the possibility of online multiplayer
OPML can be used to move
subscribers between Twitter
accounts. Hadn't thought of it, but
yes -- it certainly can.
Phil Torrone says MAKE is the
only OPML magazine. He's into what
I call reading lists. Same idea Jay
Rosen came up with for his Twitter
followers. I think this time around it's
going to happen. I make a list of
great people you should follow, and
maintain it. When I add one to the
list, you automatically follow. When
I remove one, you automatically
unfollow. My guess is the Twitter
folks already have something here
too.
As I said in NY, I'm wanting to
build something alongside Twitter,
not instead of Twitter. I don't believe
in killing in tech, I believe in
respectful and peaceful co-existence.
It's what really happens. Not the
drama the reporters want, but the
continuity users want.
matches between human Earthlings
and human Martians -- as one might
expect, the future of galactic Left 4
Dead bouts looks pretty grim.
First off, NASA's two Martian
orbiters, through which information
is relayed to Earth, can only transfer
a single megabit of data per second.
Worse still, these orbiters only work
in 15 minute increments before they
Charles Nelson Reilly kicked the
holy living s*$& out of me
By Danny Gallagher (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:02:00 AM
He once saved a crowded school
bus from falling off of a cliff ... using
only a scarf.
Firefighters blamed him for the
Laguna Wildfire when his Aviator
sunglasses came in contact with the
sun.
People stop and stare at every word
he writes, particularly when he writes
"boobs."
He is the most interesting man in
must be repositioned -- a process that
the world. And his name is Charles
Nelson Reilly. The actor, comedian,
director and Match Game fixture has
been posthumously immortalized by
comedy musician "Weird Al"
Yankovic in a new hilarious online
single called "CNR".
Continue reading Charles Nelson
Reilly kicked the holy living s*$&
out of me
Filed under: Music and Variety,
Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
takes hours. Furthermore, bandwidth
is unsurprisingly limited on the Red
Planet -- messages between Earth
and Mars usually suffer 4 - 20
minutes of lag, depending on the
positions of the conversing planets.
Check out the full article for even
more interesting tidbits about
extraterrestrial multiplayer. It's all a
bit pointless, though. From what
Internet News Record
Rumor: PSP Go to
include voucher for
Rock Band Unplugged
By JC Fletcher (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:59:00 AM
Do you like Rock Band Unplugged?
Do you like ... buying a new PSP? If
so, you'll be pleased to hear this.
According to Destructoid, Best Buy's
PSP Go listing mentioned a free
voucher for a download of Rock
Band Unplugged. If it was in the
listing, it has since been removed.
We've contacted Sony to determine
the truth of this rumor.
If this turns out to be true, then the
PSP Go won't cost $80 more than a
PSP -- it'll just cost $50 more than a
PSP Rock Band Unplugged
Entertainment Pack, which sounds
better. The existence of a current
PSP/ Rock Band bundle makes this
more plausible, as well.
Gallery: Rock Band Unplugged
Rumor: PSP Go to include voucher
for Rock Band Unplugged originally
appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Aug
2009 09:59:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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we've recently learned, folks on Mars
are far too busy causing property
damage to play any video games.
Online gaming between Earth and
Mars will be laggy as hell originally
appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Aug
2009 06:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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Internet News Record
Scratch: The Ultimate
DJ's development turned
to new studio
By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:03:00 AM
With most of its legal issues over,
Scratch: The Ultimate DJ is ready for
a comeback next year under
developer Commotion Interactive.
The game was previously being
created by Activision's 7 Studios, but
after a very messy legal
entanglement, Scratch DJ Game,
LLC -- a joint venture between
Numark Industries and Genius
Products -- was given the Scratch
source code and tools under court
order to proceed with development.
Commotion's job now is to get the
game out for Xbox 360 and PS3 by
"early 2010." A representative for
Numark informed us that the Scratch
Deck peripheral will remain the
same, but couldn't confirm whether it
would be compatible with DJ Hero.
We've also been told the game has
taken a slightly different (visual)
artistic direction and that new
screenshots should be available in the
coming weeks.
We were also curious about the
music selection and licensing in
Scratch. MTV Games is the licensing
muscle for Harmonix's Rock Band,
while Activision has gotten good at
licensing with Guitar Hero. Who is
Scratch adding to its roster? "Our
team is doing a great job of handling
the music licensing," the
representative said. "We already have
agreements with; Kanye West, Run
DMC, Outkast and others, with more
announcements to come."
With DJ Hero set for this year
under the mighty marketing banner
of Activision, Scratch will definitely
need that special magic to make a
commotion upon release.
Scratch: The Ultimate DJ's
development turned to new studio
originally appeared on Joystiq on
Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:03:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We're having a baby to justify
this Link costume
By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:01:00 AM
You want to watch the paternal
instincts of a bunch of guys instantly
kick in like their desire for s'mores
over an open fire? Then show them
this adorable knit baby-sized Link
costume. Oh my gawd, who doesn't
want a little baby now?! Not only
that, but the quiver holds the baby
bottle. It's all toooooo cute. We want
an office baby now. Craftster.org
user UpKnitCreek created this as a
baby shower gift ... and we're totally
jealous of the recipient.
We're currently trying to get in
contact with UpKnitCreek to see if
we can get the pattern. Not that we'd
know what to do with it, but we're
sure somebody else does -- and then
we want one! We haven't been this
impressed with a knitting project
since the Guitar Hero scarf.
We're having a baby to justify this
Link costume originally appeared on
Joystiq on Thu, 06 Aug 2009
07:01:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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Tech Games/ 43
Finally, Mario
Sunshine's FLUDD
jet pack a reality
By Justin McElroy (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:28:00 AM
Just because Super Mario Sunshine
is the most underwhelming game in
the main Mario series (fact, not
opinion), doesn't mean we don't want
a water-based jet pack for our own.
In fact, we'd be happy with a
something-based jet pack of any sort
... unless it's a murder-based jet pack,
of course.
Jet Levitation is out there using
good old American ingenuity
(curious, for a Canadian company) to
make our dreams come true with the
JetLev, a pack limited by a 30-foot
range and powered by a jet ski motor.
If you'd like to see for yourself,
we've got a video after the break.
[Thanks, Benjamin]
Continue reading Finally, Mario
Sunshine's FLUDD jet pack a reality
Finally, Mario Sunshine's FLUDD
jet pack a reality originally appeared
on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Aug 2009
10:28:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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44 Tech Games/ TechNews/
Xbox 360 Pro listing pulled from
new Arcade packaging
By Justin McElroy (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:35:00 AM
We don't have any official word on
this yet, but the above image (sent by
GameStop employees to Kotaku)
seems pretty convincing: The Xbox
360 Pro is no longer listed among the
360 offerings on the Arcade box on
the right, leading many to believe the
middle-of-the-road offering is being
phased out.
You may remember that the Pro's
death was heralded by Ars Technica's
reliable mole back in June, leading us
Are Legal Briefs Filed With A Court Covered By Copyright?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:44:00 AM
Federal court rulings, since they're
produced by the federal government
are public domain materials, but a
few months ago, when I was writing
about a court filing, I wondered if the
same applied to briefs filed by
private parties with the court. As
with so many things, I sent a quick
email to Eric Goldman to get his take
on it. He pointed out that,
to hope that the second part of that
prediction (irresistibly attractive Pro
bundles) may not be too far off.
We'll keep trying throughout the
day to get official word from
Microsoft.
Xbox 360 Pro listing pulled from
new Arcade packaging originally
appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 06 Aug
2009 09:35:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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technically, the brief probably was
covered by copyright, but there could
be a strong public interest/fair use
claim in being able to post it online.
However, it was not entirely clear. I
guess it should come as no surprise
that this is now becoming a specific
legal issue itself. Michael Scott
points us to a story about a lawyer
claiming that legal publishing
services LexisNexis and Westlaw,
which both publish legal filings and
rulings, were violating his copyright
Guys, let's cool it with these
graphics cards
By David Hinkle (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:00:00 AM
We don't usually cover graphics
cards here on Joystiq, but every now
and then, something so crazy hits our
radar, we're forced to talk about it.
Enter the GeForce GTX 285 H2O+
and GeForce GTX 295 H2OC, a pair
of liquid-cooled graphics cards from
BFG (you're right, Engadget; best
company name ever) that run 30°C
cooler than traditional air-cooled
cards.
on a brief he had filed, in
redistributing it (for profit).
As you know, unique content is
automatically covered by copyright
as soon as it's expressed in some
permanent form. And considering
that most filings are unique works
(not boilerplate stuff), there's a pretty
strong argument that they should be
covered by copyright (and, in theory,
a lawyer could register the works,
though I would doubt that's
common). This isn't necessarily a
There's no word on price at the
moment, though it's best to keep in
mind that this is computer hardware
we're talking about and likely more
expensive than you wish.
[Via Engadget]
Guys, let's cool it with these
graphics cards originally appeared on
Joystiq on Thu, 06 Aug 2009
04:00:00 EST. Please see our terms
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good thing and doesn't make much
real sense -- but it's the sort of bizarre
situation you end up in when you
automatically put copyright on any
form of expression. While some are
arguing that since the document has
been filed publicly in court, it's now
public material and can be reposted,
it's not at all clear the law supports
that position. Of course, the law
probably should make this clear.
Allowing copyright on legal filings
would create quite a mess. It would
Internet News Record
Iraq The Latest To
Push For Internet
Censorship
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 7:46:37 PM
Looks like Iraq is the latest country
to have politicians look to put in
place widespread internet censorship
rules, and it's upsetting a lot of
people there, who see it as an assault
on their (only recently granted) right
to free expression. Politicians are
looking at banning books, as well,
claiming they need to stop the
dangerous influence some of these
books and websites present. It would
be interesting to see if there were
actually any studies on how effective
such things are. I think the folks most
likely to be influenced by such things
are pretty likely to get around the
blocks -- and actually interpret the
blocks themselves as more evidence
that the blocked content is valid. I
doubt bans on such material actually
slows its influence. However, it
would be interesting if there were
actually any research on this topic.
Know of any?
Permalink| Comments| Email This
Story
seem like there's a very strong public
interest/fair use claim on why it
should be fair for anyone to
redistribute such documents (whether
for profit or not), but we may soon
find out what a court has to say about
that.
Permalink| Comments| Email This
Story
Internet News Record
Rupert Murdoch vs. Rupert Murdoch
On Free vs. Paid News Websites
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:18:00 AM
Rupert Murdoch continues to shift
his position on the value of "free
content" but he seems to be going in
the wrong direction, and not giving
anyone much confidence that he
knows what he's doing. You may
recall that right before he completed
buying the Wall Street Journal, he
claimed that the WSJ would be better
off going entirely free:"We are
studying it and we expect to make
that free, and instead of having 1
million [subscribers], having at least
10 million to 15 million in every
corner of the earth.... Will you lose
$50 million to $100 million in
revenue? I don't think so. If the site is
good, you'll get much more." That
was just under two years ago, and his
reasoning is actually quite sensible.
However, after he took it over, there
was apparently some back-and-forth
and the Journal convinced Rupert to
keep it behind a (somewhat porous)
paywall. Of course, as many note, the
WSJ is able to charge because of the
reputation of its content (far above
most other publications) and the fact
that it's reporting financial info,
where the direct value can be quite
high to many readers.
Still, it was a bit of a surprise
earlier this year when he started
complaining about free content,
saying:"People reading news for free
on the web, that's got to change."
And then he complained about
Yahoo/Google "stealing" (he later
changed it to "taking") content. Of
course, that's not true. Both Yahoo
and Google either link to content or
have license deals. There is no
"taking" of anything.
Either way, given those statements,
perhaps it's no surprise at all that
Murdoch is now planning to put
paywalls across all his online news
properties in the relatively near
future. Apparently the plan will be
based on the WSJ model, meaning
that some stories were be available
for free, but there will be severe
limits. Given how many old school
newspaper guys have talked about
putting up a paywall, this isn't much
of a surprise (though, it is still odd
given his comments from two years
ago).
That said, if newspapers are going
to charge for online content, then let's
see them go and charge. I think it
will fail (miserably), but let's see him
try to prove us wrong. Here's why I
think it will fail:
• Those other sites don't have the
qualities that make some people
willing to pay for the WSJ. The
quality isn't as good and the direct
monetary benefit is not nearly as
clear.
• Most of those other sites have
much clearer (free) competition.
• Nowhere at all does Murdoch talk
about actually giving people a reason
to buy. All he's saying is that if they
put up a paywall, people will pay.
Sure, a few might, but it's a small
number, and doing so will stagnate
any sort of growth, piss off
advertisers, and allow competitors to
take a giant leap forward -- all in one
shot.
But... if he wants to charge and
thinks that these points are incorrect,
we're eager to see how Murdoch gets
around these issues. In the meantime,
if you work for a publication that
competes with a Murdoch news site,
start revving up
marketing/promotional campaign
about how you don't charge, and see
how much market share you can
build. Unless, of course, Rafat Ali is
correct in his thinking, suggesting
that this is all a big bluff to get others
to put up a paywall. I don't believe it
though... because if I'm a competitor
the fact that Murdoch is going
paywall, gives me even more reasons
not to do so.
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Amie Street Also Takes Away Features...
But At Least Is Honest And Upfront
About How They Hate Having To
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 5:49:09 PM
We've covered how eMusic (which
had a fantastic reputation for a while)
totally failed in communicating
changes to its service, which
involved increasing prices and taking
away many valued features. The
company tried to bury that news
along with the fact that Sony Music
would now be included, not
recognizing that many of its users
didn't care, and were pissed off at the
way eMusic presented this as a good
thing. At least some others may be
learning. Ragaboo alerts us that
online music site Amie Street is also
removing some features (such as the
ability to redownload tracks -- just
like eMusic has done), but did so by
admitting that it sucked and
apologizing, but basically saying its
hands were tied. They also gave
advance warning of the changes.
While Ragaboo isn't thrilled about
he, notes that he appreciated the
honesty from the company. Here's
the email that he received:"In several
a weeks we're going to be making a
change to how Amie Street handles
downloads, and we want to be certain
you are fully informed in advance
about this change. In brief, starting
on August 5th we'll only be able to
offer a single download of your
purchased music unless you've
encountered a technical problem.
Although most people only
download their music one time,
we've noticed that you have done so
more than once on occasion. We
TechNews/ 45
realize that the ability to re-download
files has been important to you, so it's
understandable that you might be
disappointed to see this no longer
available. Unfortunately a number of
factors beyond our control, including
legal and royalty concerns, have
made this impossible going forward.
We're very happy to say, however,
that you can continue to stream all of
the music you've purchased on Amie
Street. That means wherever you
have access to the internet, you also
have immediate and unrestricted
access to stream the entirety of your
Amie Street music collection from
your Library.
To make sure that downloading
music continues to be as easy as
possible, we'll be keeping a close eye
on the user experience and making
updates to the site as needed. The
primary voice that directs any such
changes will be yours, so if you have
suggestions based on your
experiences using the site, we'd love
to hear from you. Tell us exactly
what you like and don't like, and we
can make Amie Street even better!
Peace,
The Amie Street Team"" Of course,
the fact that both Amie Street and
eMusic have removed the ability to
redownload tracks over royalty issues
makes you wonder what exactly is
the issue here. Are record labels
really demanding a royalty payment
every time people redownload a
song?
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46 TechNews/ Sports/
Entertainment Industry Decides
FileSoup Doesn't Have Enough
Publicity; Has Owner Arrested This Is America... Why Are
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt) evidence of direct infringement by
him as well, but the questioning We Banning Books?
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:21:55 AM
seemed to cover the operation of
A bunch of people have been
submitting variations on the story
that a guy who runs a site called
FileSoup has been arrested. FileSoup
apparently was a tracker site for a
while, but for the past few years has
actually just been a forum where
people post links -- many of which,
one assumes, were for unauthorized
content. It's a little unclear what he
was arrested for. At times they
quizzed him about FileSoup (and
didn't seem to fully understand the
technology). But on the form they
gave him, it said he was arrested for
downloading movies (to which he
wonders why that's not a civil
offense). It'll be worth watching as
more details come out, but it's a bit
troubling when someone is arrested
for running a forum, when the real
concern is the actions of the people
in the forum, rather than the forum
host (admittedly, they may have
Taxi Driver Does Pay What You
Want... And It Works
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 9:50:00 PM
We recently wrote about successful
taxi cab operators offering free
service in Tampa, Florida (pissing off
existing cab companies), and it
appears that the idea is spreading
somewhat. Matt Cruse alerts us to a
story in Essex, Vermont, involving a
guy offering"pay what you want" taxi
rides, and finding that people are
always willing to pay a reasonable
FileSoup itself).
Either way, you do have to wonder
what good this does the
entertainment industry or anti-piracy
organization FACT (who many
believe is closely involved in the
investigation -- though that has not
been confirmed). Frankly, I'd never
heard of FileSoup, and having the
name in headlines all over is likely to
only give it that much more attention.
The same thing has happened in the
past multiple times, including with
sites like The Pirate Bay, which most
people had never heard of prior to it
being raided by the government. So,
as long as the site remains up, more
people find out about it. If the site
goes down, the users quickly scatter
to alternative sites. What has the
entertainment industry
accomplished? Not much useful.
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rate. Now, I'll admit that I'm not a
huge fan of "pay what you want"
models, which seem more like give it
away and pray, rather than having a
real business model worked out
(which makes me wonder if it's
sustainable long term). But, in the
meantime, it's certainly yet another
example that "free," can be a useful
tool as a part of a business model.
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By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 3:14:00 PM
Last month we wrote about how a
district court banned the publication
of a so-called "sequel" (written by
another author) to JD Salinger's
Catcher in the Rye. I had a lot of
trouble with this ruling, which
seemed to be a complete assault on
the basics of free speech and a total
misreading of copyright law. The
book itself is not a copy, but
something entirely new. Whether or
not it's any good (and some of the
reviews say it's not), it is a new
creative work -- the exact type of
Start Up the Mets Autopsies Already
(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)
Submitted at 8/5/2009 8:38:56 AM
It’s standard for baseball teams to
play out the string this time of year.
For some, like Washington,
Pittsburgh and Kansas City, it’s an
annual rite. But fans of the New York
Mets and Toronto Blue Jays expected
more. Reuters You know it’s a bad
year when an extra-inning grand
slam may not qualify a game as one
of the five worst losses of the season.
The Mets are stumbling toward
another ignominious end to a season.
Tuesday’s 12-7 loss to St. Louis was
particularly brutal. New York blew a
late lead and gave up a grand slam in
the 10th inning to the Cardinals’
Albert Pujols after allowing the go-
ahead run to score by hitting a batter
with the bases loaded.
Pitcher Johan Santana, who gave
up five earned runs, is only 12-8 for
the Mets this season. The Minnesota
Twins, his former team, are only 2.5
thing that copyright was supposed to
encourage. It's good to see a lot of
other folks are quite concerned about
this ruling as well, and the Fair Use
Project at Stanford has teamed up
with some other universities to file an
amicus brief on behalf of the
American Library Association and
some other library associations, who
are reasonably concerned about the
free speech implications of banning
the publication of a book such as this
one.
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games out in the AL Central. “You
can’t help but wonder how much
better they would be this year if they
still had Santana on their staff,”
Newsday’s Wallace Matthews writes.
“More importantly, you wonder if
Santana ever wonders about it.
Because the truth of it is, in two
seasons, Santana hasn’t been able to
make all that much of a difference
for the Mets.”
The New York Post’s Mike
Vaccaro pronounces this season over
for the Mets. “Everything from here
is filler,” he writes. “It didn’t seem
possible that a season could feel
Internet News Record
START
continued from page 46
night he was good enough to win, but
ultimately was worn down by the
requirements of pitching with
constant heat on. It’s tough to be
great every night. Particularly with
this team.”
The Globe and Mail’s Jeff Blair
has a suggestion. “[H]ere we are in
the middle of another ratty baseball
season (as in who gives a … you get
the picture) and unless something
happens soon, this is going to start to
wear on everyone,” Blair writes.
“Call up Travis Snider. Ship out
Kevin Millar. Do something.”
Other baseball towns are feeling
more joy. While NBC’s Mike Celizic
is excited about this weekend’s four-
game smackdown between the
Yankees and Red Sox, the Los
Angeles Times’s Bill Dwyre foresees
a Dodgers-Angeles World Series.
Regardless of whether your team’s
START page 47
worse than either of the last two, but
those were just getting started on
Aug. 4. This one ended there, circled
in black ink.”
Toronto’s failure to reach the
playoffs since its 1993 World Series
win has become a sore spot for its
fans, especially with the mighty
Yankees in town. The Yanks beat
Roy Halladay and Co. 5-3 Tuesday.
While Halladay is an elite pitcher and
was the most in-demand player not to
move during the recent trading
deadline, his record of late hardly
sparkles.
“Fans anxious to see him go will
point to his recent record — one win
in his past eight starts — and figure
they should have pulled the trigger
last week and started the rebuilding
process with the return,” Dave
Perkins writes in the Toronto Star.
“Those of us happy to see him still
around figure this was just one more
Internet News Record
START
continued from page 46
out of the pennant race, you might be
one of those stats lovers spellbound
by FanGraphs. Yahoo Sports’s Jeff
Passan is one of them.* * *
As Major League Baseball heads
into the home stretch, 32 sets of fans
are already thinking football. In
Pittsburgh, quarterback Charlie Batch
is preparing for another season of
playing backup to Ben
Roethlisberger, the Post-Gazette’s Ed
Bouchette writes.
Meanwhile, former NFL great and
Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow is
enjoying his new job as athletic
director at Central State University,
the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Nick
Canepa writes.
In the Miami Herald, Greg Cote
writes about another Hall of Famer,
Don Shula, the former coach who has
just returned from spending time
with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
for the USO.* * *
It’s the middle of summer, which
means if you don’t have pigskin on
the brain, it’s time to start thinking
about the upcoming Winter Olympics
in Vancouver. At least that’s what
the Los Angeles Daily News’s Tom
Hoffarth was doing recently as he
tried his shot at curling, the quirky
sport that’s developed a nice
following in the U.S. since getting
TV exposure at Turin, Italy, in 2006.
For Hoffarth, the game took some
getting used to.* * *
Fixers past and present have their
favorite sports columnists. Among
this Fixer’s must-reads are George
Vecsey of the New York Times,
Michael Wilbon of the Washington
Post and Helene Elliott of the Los
Angeles Times. But at the top of the
list is Joe Posnanski. Time and again
Posnanski has bailed out this space
on mornings when great reads were
hard to find. After 13 years at the
Kansas City Star, Posnanski is
headed to Sports Illustrated as a
senior writer. In his goodbye column
— he’ll still write occasionally for
the Star, and he’ll live in Kansas City
— Posnanski writes about landing “
Sports/ 47
the best job in American sports
writing.”* * *
Elizabeth DiNunzio was killed in
April in Maryland while preparing
for the Pittsburgh Marathon. Friends
and fellow runners are trying to make
some good out of a senseless tragedy.
They’re working to establish trails
for biking and running on the campus
of Mount St. Mary’s University to
make training safer, the Baltimore
Sun’s Candus Thomson writes.* * *
College wrestling has been in a
slump for years, with many programs
folding. To combat its decline,
officials are embracing beach
wrestling, Paul Glader writes in the
Journal.
Found a good column from the
world of sports? Don’t keep it to
yourself — write to us at
dailyfix@wsj.com and we’ll consider
your find for inclusion in the Daily
Fix. You can email Garey at
ris84rap@gmail.com.

The Count: Defensive Stats Still Error-Prone

(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:33:37 AM
Mark Teixeira represents a
defensive upgrade to Jason Giambi at
first base — but there’s no evidence
it’s because of Teixeira’s ability to
scoop up throws in the dirt to get
force outs at first. Associated Press
Jason Giambi can make plays at
first base, but Mark Teixeira has
boosted the Yankees’ defense.
John Dewan, owner of Baseball
Info Solutions, looked into scooping
stats in response to a comment from
ESPN commentator and former
pitcher Rick Sutcliffe, who said
Teixeira is more adept than Giambi
— now with the A’s — at handling
errant throws from fellow infielders.
On ACTA Sports, Dewan posted
some stats from his company’s
database of fielding plays. Per game,
Giambi made 0.26 scoops per game
last year at first for the Yankees,
compared to 0.23 for Teixeira this
year, apparently contradicting
Sutcliffe.
These stats didn’t impress Mitchel
Lichtman, co-author of The Book
blog, who pointed out that this stat
would be most useful not per game,
but per opportunity to scoop a low
throw. (In response, a commenter
claiming to be a colleague of
Dewan’s suggested that making such
an adjustment wouldn’t have
changed the results much.)
In any case, Teixeira is more
valuable than Giambi at first because
he’s better at fielding ground balls,
according to Dewan’s numbers.
FanGraphs, which has its own
fielding metric based on both
Dewan’s and Lichtman’s work,
agrees that Teixeira has been better
than Giambi was last year for the
Yankees and is this year for the A’s.
All of these fielding stats are better
than the traditional ones, and often
disagree with them. Fielding
percentage and the slightly newer
range factor seem to not even
correlate with the stat used by
FanGraphs, UZR — the better the
fielding percentage the worse the
UZR.
Such fielding disputes will persist
at least until newfangled systems use
video cameras to track the motion of
players and batted balls. And such
systems can’t do much to evaluate
catchers, who do most of their
fielding without budging much from
behind home plate. Bloggers Chuck
Brownson and Sean Smith offered
their attempts to measure catcher
defense in the past week, prompting
Lichtman colleague Tom Tango to
link to his own attempt.