Internet News Record
Edition
Obama official takes shots at Bush’s words
By Jeremy Pelofsky (Front Row
Washington)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:01:30 PM
President Barack Obama’s
counterterrorism adviser on Thursday
offered a pointed critique of several
of former President George W.
Bush’s catch phrases on terrorism.
Veteran spy John Brennan, once in
line to head the Central Intelligence
Agency under Obama and apparently
no great fan of the Bush White
House, gave a lengthy speech
outlining Obama’s strategy for
fighting terrorism which attempts to
go beyond, using military might to
include economic and social policies.
Brennan criticized Bush’s moniker
“global war on terror” as playing into
the “warped narrative that al Qaeda
propagates.” He added that it “plays
into the misleading and dangerous
notion that the U.S. is somehow in
conflict with the rest of the world.”
He also had choice words for Bush
regularly describing the terrorism
battle as one against “jihadists,”
saying that the term has a legitimate
use (purifying oneself or waging a
holy struggle for a moral goal) and
Pa. gunman used same Web store as Va. Tech shooter (AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:18:25 AM
BRIDGEVILLE, Pa. -
The gunman who killed three
women and wounded nine others at a
Pittsburgh-area health club bought
accessories for a handgun from the
using it “risks giving these murderers
the religious legitimacy they
desperately seek but in no way
deserve.”
Officials from the Obama and Bush
administrations have been trading
volleys for months about each other’s
policies, though for the most part the
two presidents have stayed above the
fray.
same Wisconsin-based dealer that
sold a gun to the Virginia Tech
shooter.
Forty-eight-year-old George Sodini
bought the accessories from
TGSCOM Inc. of Green Bay, Wis.
Police investigating Tuesday's
shootings at the L.A. Fitness center
06/08/09 - 07/08/09
One other phrase that Bush used
two months after the Sept. 11, 2001
attacks in New York and Washington
was about countries being involved
in or distancing themselves from the
coalition that went into Afghanistan.
“Over time it’s going to be
important for nations to know they
will be held accountable for
inactivity, that you — either with us
in Collier Township have said Sodini
bought his weapons legally.
TGSCOM's president, Eric
Thompson, confirmed the purchases
after WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh
obtained a receipt. Thompson says
he's cooperating with investigators.
Sodini committed suicide after the
LibertyNewsprint.com U.S.
or you’re against us in the fight
against terror,” Bush said during a
news availability with then French
President Jacques Chirac.
That drew another rebuke from
Brennan, who said that the Obama
administration was reaching out
instead of issuing sweeping
warnings.
“Rather than looking at allies and
other nations through the narrow
prism of terrorism—whether they are
with us or against us—the
administration is now engaging other
countries and peoples across a
broader range of areas,” he said.
Brennan did acknowledge that it
was eight years ago this very day that
he was reading intelligence that
warned Osama bin Laden was
determined to strike inside the United
States, “but our government was
unable to prevent the worst terrorist
attack in American history that
would occur on 9/11.”
For more Reuters political news,
click here.
- Photo credit: Jonathan Ernst
(Brennan walks outside the White
House earlier this year)
shootings, as did Seung-Hui Cho
who bought a .22-caliber handgun
from TGSCOM in February 2007,
two months before he killed 32
people at Virginia Tech.
.content>
4 still hospitalized in Pa.
health club shooting (AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:26:31 AM
MichaelS buzzed up: White House
advises Dems on handling protests
(AP)
13 hours ago 2009-08-06T18:41:24
-07:00
Gaiser High End
computers start at
$7k
By Matt Burns (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:29:46 AM
Think Apple has a luxary tax? psst.
These computers from Gaiser High
End are the epitome of luxury and
are taxed as such. Prices start out at
$7,820 and can climb to $26,400.
Not only is the computer built to
your spec, the cases can be gilded
with gold, adorned with diamonds or
cubic zirconia, and probably if you
pay the company enough, can be
blessed by His Holiness. I just hope
that the company soon comes out
with a similar monitor so customers
aren’t stuck using mundane Dell
LCD. [via Born Rich]
2 Politics/ Top News/ *
Calling Dr. Strangelove!
By Deborah Zabarenko (Front
Row Washington)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:06:46 AM
Perhaps you've heard about the
Russian submarines patrolling
international waters off the U.S. East
Coast (if you haven't, take a look at a
Reuters story about it) in what feels
like an echo of the old Cold War.
The Pentagon's not worried about
this particular venture, but there are
concerns from the U.S. energy
industry about another Russian foray
-- this one in concert with Cuba. In
rhetoric that may ring a bell with
anyone who saw the 1964 satirical
nuclear-fear movie"Dr. Strangelove,"
the Washington-based Institute for
Energy Research is sounding the
alarm about a Russian-Cuban deal to
drill for offshore oil near Florida.
"Russia, Communist Cuba Advance
Offshore Energy Production Miles
Off Florida's Coast," is the title on
the institute's news release. Below
that is the prescription for action:
"Efforts Should Send Strong
Message to Interior Dept. to Open
OCS in Five-Year Plan." OCS stands
for outer continental shelf, an area
Aug. 7, 1955: Tune In Tokyo!
By Daniel Dumas (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:00:00 PM
They laughed when Japan produced
that was closed to oil drilling until
the Bush administration opened it
last year in a largely symbolic move
aimed at driving down the sky-high
gasoline prices of the Summer of
2008.
Environmentalists hate the idea. So
does Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida
Democrat who has made opposition
to offshore drilling one of his
signature issues. But as it turns out,
it's unlikely that anybody -- from
Russia, Cuba, the United States or
anywhere else -- is going to get
petroleum out of the OCS in the
immediate future.
For a start, it takes time to set up a
deep-water offshore drilling rig. And
any Cuban effort would be further
hampered by the need to use
equipment with less than 10 percent
American technology, to comply
with the long standing U.S. embargo
against Cuba. As my Reuters
colleague Russell Blinch reported in
June, there may be scope for possible
U.S.-Cuban cooperation here but no
Cuban drilling platform is likely to
be in the area this year.
Reports of a Russian-Cuban deal to
explore for oil in the Gulf of Mexico
its first electronics. No one's laughing
anymore.
prompted a quick response from the
Institute for Energy Research, self-
described as a free-market energy
think-tank.
"This agreement between Russia
and Cuba should serve as a wake-up
call to Congress and this
administration, especially (Interior)
Secretary (Ken) Salazar, who is slow
-walking a new offshore energy
blueprint for the nation," the
institute's president, Thomas Pyle,
said in a statement. "If we are to
remain competitive in the global
market, our government must take its
foot off the brake, and expand
domestic energy production of all
forms, onshore and off.”
What's your take? Should the
United States drill baby drill off
Florida's coast, reasoning that if U.S.
companies don't, Russia and Cuba
will? Keep a congressional ban in
place? Or wait and see?
Photo credit: Reuters staff
photographer (Pensacola Beach,
Florida, June 25, 2008); Reuters
stringer/Russia (Russian nuclear
submarine off Vladivostok, July 24,
2009)
Uribe and Lula discuss
US bases
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 4:28:47 AM
Colombia's plans to allow US
troops to use its military bases is a
sovereignty issue, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said.
But in talks with Colombian leader
Alvaro Uribe, President Lula
requested more transparency on the
plan, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso
Amorim said.
Peru has expressed support, while
Chile and Paraguay said the accord
was a matter for Colombia.
Ecuador, Bolivia, Uruguay and
Venezuela have expressed their
disapproval.
Argentina's President Cristina
Fernandez de Kirchner told Mr Uribe
the bases were "not helpful".
Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez - who cut ties with Colombia
last month - has said he fears the
move amounts to preparation for an
invasion of his country by US forces.
President Uribe has visited several
of his South American neighbours
over the past three days in a bid to
calm fears over his decision to open
seven military bases to US forces.
Before their meeting in Brasilia,
President Lula had made it clear that
he was not happy about the idea of
even one US base on Colombian soil.
Mr Amorim said the plan seemed
to go well beyond what was required.
Washington wants to use Colombia
as a regional hub for operations to
counter drug-trafficking and
terrorism.
The US has been forced to look for
a new base for such operations after
Ecuador refused to renew the lease
Internet News Record
on its Manta base, which the US
military was using.
"We reiterated that the agreement
with the United States, which is
limited to Colombian territory, is
something naturally for Colombia's
sovereignty," Mr Amorim said after
Thursday's talks.
But during his two-hour meeting
with Mr Uribe, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the
matter could have been handled more
transparently, according to Brazilian
media.
The Brazilian leader is also said to
have asked for guarantees that the
actions of US troops would be
restricted to Colombian territory.
Even US President Barack Obama's
National Security Adviser, James
Jones, conceded on a visit to Brazil
this week that a better job could have
been done when it came to preparing
the ground for the agreement, our
correspondent adds.
During this week's whirlwind tour
of Latin America, Mr Uribe steered
clear of Ecuador and Venezuela, both
of which have tense relations with
Bogota and Washington.
Mr Uribe has accused Ecuador and
Venezuela's leftist leaders of links
with the rebel Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (Farc), who have
been seeking to overthrow the
Colombian governments for 45
years.
Colombia's accord with the US is
expected to be raised again when
Ecuador hosts a regional summit on
10 August. Mr Uribe and his foreign
minister do not plan to attend.
Print Sponsor
Internet News Record
Comedy director John Hughes dies
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 12:35:06 AM
Please turn on JavaScript. Media
requires JavaScript to play.
Famous John Hughes film
moments
The US film director and writer,
John Hughes, who created some of
the most famous comedies of the
1980s and 1990s, has died at the age
of 59.
The director died after a heart
attack in New York, his
spokeswoman said.
Hughes was the director of such
successful films as Ferris Bueller's
Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and
Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
He was also a leading scriptwriter,
penning films such as Pretty in Pink
and Home Alone.
Over the past decade, Hughes
withdrew from Hollywood and
became a farmer in the Midwestern
state of Illinois.
Hughes had been in Manhattan on
a family visit when he died.
1980s zeitgeist
Hughes had not directed a film
since Curly Sue in 1991, but the
BBC's Vincent Dowd says it did not
matter - his early movies had become
part of the 1980s zeitgeist.
If, in 1986, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
owed something to the on-screen
energy of the young Matthew
Broderick, it also benefited from
Hughes' sharp script and direction,
our correspondent says.
He worked well with young talent,
as he demonstrated a year earlier in
1985, with cult film The Breakfast
Club, starring Emilio Estevez and
Mollie Ringwald.
In the high school tale, Hughes
portrayed the lives of teenage
Americans with dramatic, and comic,
flair - and the box office returns were
enormous.
'Quintessential filmmaker'
"Many filmmakers portray
teenagers as immoral and ignorant,
with pursuits that are pretty base,"
Hughes told the Chicago Tribune
newspaper in 1985.
"They seem to think that teenagers
aren't very bright. But I haven't found
that to be the case. I listen to kids. I
respect them. I don't discount
anything they have to say just
because they're only 16 years old," he
added.
Born in 1950 in Michigan, Hughes
started out as a journalist and
advertising copywriter before turning
to script writing.
His biggest hit of all came in 1990
with Home Alone, which he wrote
and produced, but did not direct.
The film made the central
character, the 10-year-old Macaulay
Culkin, the biggest child star for
decades and grossed almost $500m
(£300m) worldwide.
"I was a fan of both his work and a
fan of him as a person," Culkin said.
"The world has lost not only a
quintessential filmmaker, whose
influence will be felt for generations,
but a great and decent man."
In a statement, Matthew Broderick
said: "I am truly shocked and
saddened by the news about my old
friend John Hughes. He was a
wonderful, very talented guy and my
heart goes out to his family."
Please turn on JavaScript. Media
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Actors pay tribute to John Hughes
Actress Molly Ringwald said: " I
was stunned and incredibly sad to
hear about the death of John Hughes.
He was and will always be such an
important part of my life."
By the mid-1990s, Hughes had
disappeared from the public eye
almost totally, though he continued
to produce and write screenplays.
He wrote under the pseudonym of
Edmond Dantes, a character in the
Alexandre Dumas novel, The Count
of Monte Cristo.
His credits under the name include
Beethoven and Maid in Manhattan.
Dowd says Hughes will above all
be remembered for a small number of
movies which perfectly captured the
spirit of 1980s America.
BBC News asked if you'd met or
worked with Hughes and for your
memories of the most memorable
films he directed. Here is a selection
of some of the e-mails we were sent.
This is sad news for all children of
the 80s. JH films defined a
generation and I am shocked and
saddened by this news.
Peter Gaunt, Farnborough,
Hampshire
What an utter legend. At 34 I am
one of the generation that grew up
with Hughes films. Ferris Bueller's
Day Off, The Breakfast Club and
Some Kind of Wonderful are still
among my all time faves & bring
back what now seems like a
wonderfully innocent time. Very sad
to hear of his sudden passing. RIP to
a true bringer of light!
Devoskie, Hong Kong, China
John Hughes' films are a shorthand
for my childhood and teenage years.
Anytime I feel nostalgic for those
years I have to pick up Ferris Bueller,
Breakfast Club or Weird Science.
They just speak of a more innocent
Top News/ 3
time. Cheesy perhaps, but so was the
80s and I'd have it no other way. Rest
In Peace John Hughes.
Luke Lloyd, Folkestone
Uncle Buck is and always will be
my favourite film, I've watched it
near on 150 times which speaks for
itself.
As with his films - they combined
elements of perfectly written and
acted visual gags along with nicely
pitched emotional moments.
The soundtracks set the tone and
pace beautifully for many memorable
scenes. His writing and direction
captured and influenced popular
culture of the 80s and 90s and for
that and a string of cult films he will
be remembered fondly.
Brendan Mellan, Glasgow,
Scotland
John Hughes directed the movie
track of my youth. Most of his most
famous films were favourites of mine
without me even knowing he was
involved. I knew little about him
until seeing archive interview footage
of him in an extra on the Ferris
Buellar DVD, a film my kids are
already loving. A new generation is
about to discover him all over again.
Jeremy Orbell, Peterborough, UK
I am truly saddened by this news,
John Hughes was responsible for
some of my favourite ever films
including Weird Science, Breakfast
Club & Ferris Bueller.
With the current obsession of
making bigger and more expensive
blockbusters, John's considerably
lower budget films will stand the test
of time whilst most of these new
films will be long forgotten in years
to come.
Jamie Moore, Basildon, Essex
A sad loss. I saw Planes, Trains &
Automobiles over seven times at the
cinema. It got better each time I saw
it.
Ferris Bueller will always mean a
lot to people either in or approaching
their forties. Weird how he just
4 Top News/ Social Net/
Lines of clunkers await being killed at scrap yard Brazil state
(AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:12:32 AM
SOUTH HOLLAND, Ill. – They
were waiting down at Gibson
Chevrolet near Chicago for a couple
of five-gallon cans of sodium silicate
liquid glass, they call it to poison
and kill the clunkers when the latest
condemned car pulled up.
The 1999 Ford Explorer with
140,000 miles was still sturdy. It had
some body damage, including a
mangled front bumper, but nothing
that couldn't be fixed.
Gabrielle Pulce wasn't thinking
about that. She wasn't sentimental
about all the trips taken in the
Explorer or about how in a few days
the SUV will be squished until it's
about as tall as a toaster.
"I like new stuff," said Pulce, 19, of
Chicago.
She is among the thousands of
people across the nation who have
taken advantage of the government's
"cash-for-clunkers" program. One
after another, they've pulled up to
dealerships in gas guzzlers and
pulled out in gas sippers after getting
rebates up to $4,500 for a new car
like the more efficient Chevy
Equinox SUV bought for Pulce by
her mother.
The program has breathed new life
into the dealership, which sold more
vehicles since the program began
than in all of June. But for jalopies
like the Explorer, it's the end of the
line.
Out back at Gibson Chevrolet south
of Chicago there's a growing conga
Xbox Live Down Today, Too
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 11:07:39 PM
It’s really not a good week for
social services. We’ve had Twitter
down, Facebook down, LiveJournal
too…and tonight Xbox Live, the
slaps ban on
line of clunkers 17 in all this week.
All of them made it here under
their own power a requirement of
the program is that they all be
drivable. But if this were a hospital,
their conditions would range from
good to critical.
Among those in better shape is a
maroon 1987 Chevrolet Caprice
Classic, with matching maroon
velour seats. It is the kind of land
whale that once dominated the
roadways. It is also a reminder that
while $4,500 off on a new car is
enticing, it also means losing an old
friend.
"I cry before I came out here, I cry,"
said Clorinda Tomasi, who just
before her 83rd birthday traded the
Caprice for a new Malibu. "I been
thinking of this since a few years
ago, but I always got cold feet."
One vehicle in Gibson's waiting
line is beyond a clunker: a 1987 Ford
Econoline van. Road salt has left its
lower edges looking like a voracious
animal chewed on them. The driver's
door stays closed only with help from
a latch like those used to lock garden
sheds. And it's unclear what would
fall off if not for the yards of duct
tape along the windshield and
throughout the interior.
"He said his wife was celebrating
already," said Dave Gibson, one of
the dealership's owners, clearly
impressed with the efforts to keep the
van alive.
All the clunkers face the same fate.
"We'll drain the engine of oil and
pour in two quarts of the sodium
silicate and run the engine until it
multiplayer gaming platform for
Xbox users, was also down. Gaming
was once again a solitary experience.
Twitter users are have been
reporting a return to uptime within
the last hour or so, and the Xbox
Live Twitter feed is claiming things
seizes," said Gibson, whose
grandfather opened the dealership
more than 50 years ago.
Then it's off to one of two nearby
wrecking yards owned by Vito
Mistretta.
But Mistretta isn't quite ready for
the new batch of cars. The program
has triggered an avalanche of work.
Tow truck drivers have been
picking up vehicles at dealerships all
over the Chicago area and dropping
them off at his scrap yards in Gary,
Ind., and Calumet City as fast as they
can.
Once there, a forklift picks up each
vehicle and impales the gas tank on a
spike, causing the gasoline to spill
into a large bowl below.
The vehicle is then put into what
looks a like a bathtub where the
forklifts stab at the engine, plucking
out the radiator and other parts,
which are later recycled or turned
into scrap.
Finally, the car reaches its final
destination: the mouth of the crusher.
The vehicle is placed inside what
looks like a motorhome as a massive
slab of steel descends. What happens
next sounds like a slow-motion car
crash: Glass shatters. Metal bends
and snaps. Tires pop, letting out a
whoosh of air.
The crusher "flattens a car into 8
inches to a foot," Mistretta said.
After three or four cars are
flattened, the fork lift picks them up
and stacks them in another part of the
yard, where they will be loaded into
trucks and taken to a facility to be
shredded.
are back on track.
Were you caught up in the Xbox
Mistretta said workers are pulling
off a few things like headlights and
hoods to be sold later, but, "There's
so many, there's no time to really do
that."
"We're keeping everybody here
until 8, 9 at night," he said. His two
machines at each of his yards crush a
total of about 100 vehicles a day.
The clunker crushing isn't going to
let up anytime soon.
"We've got about 700, 800 cars out
there," he said of the cars still parked
at Gibson and other dealerships.
One car the yard may not get is
another Caprice Classic that Gibson's
Chevrolet took in.
This one is a 1988 model with just
37,000 miles and not so much as a
dent or a torn seat or any sign of
wear in the plush tan carpeting.
"The older employees, they lost
sleep at night thinking this car is
going to get cubed," Gibson said.
So, while they push through
documents on the other vehicles, this
one sits among the used cars, an
American flag on the antenna, the
word "Clean" on the windshield.
No cash-for-clunkers paperwork
has been submitted on it. The hope is
that somebody will pay something
close to the $4,500 the dealership
gave the owner toward a new car so
it can be sold simply as a trade-in.
As of Thursday, they had no offers.
But employees did spot people
outside taking pictures of the car.
Live downtime today? Let us know
in the comments.
Reviews: Twitter
Internet News Record
smokers
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 2:39:15 AM
A smoking ban in bars, restaurants
and offices across the Brazilian state
of Sao Paulo comes into effect on
Friday.
The ban outlaws smoking
everywhere but in the open air and in
private homes.
Sao Paulo governor Jose Serra says
most people support the ban and he
has pledged that anyone flouting the
new law will be fined.
However, some bar and restaurant
owners have complained that the law
is confusing and they say it will be
difficult to enforce.
Sao Paulo state has an estimated 40
million inhabitants with about 11
million living in Sao Paulo city.
"How can I control someone who
comes in and smokes inside?" asked
Max Abdo, owner of the Tabaqueria
Ranieri in Sao Paulo city.
"I will respect the law, but
everything is very confusing," he told
AFP news agency.
Mr Abdo's business partner, Cassio
Gabus Mendes, said that smoking a
Cuban cigar "is a ritual" in their bar.
But he added: "Smokers are going
to have to adapt."
Correspondents say that previous
attempts to ban smoking in Sao Paulo
have failed, largely due to public
apathy and legal challenges.
This time, however, officials say
they have the support of the vast
majority of the population.
In an interview with Brazil's Globo
TV, Mr Serra said the ban was to
protect non-smokers, seven of whom
die in the state every day from
passive smoking.
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Internet News Record
Gov't reassures schools on staying open with flu
(AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:39:47 AM
WASHINGTON – The government
said Friday that schools should only
close this fall if large numbers of
students have swine flu, and could
allow their sick kids to return 24
hours after a fever is gone.
The decision on closing rests with
local school officials, but they have
been looking to the federal
government for advice about the new
flu strain that has caused a global
epidemic.
The advice on sick kids returning is
a change from previous
recommendations that people with
swine flu stay home for a week.
As the virus spread to students last
spring, more than 700 schools in half
the states temporarily closed their
doors. The new flu is expected to hit
schools again this fall. But the
Obama administration is hoping to
minimize closings and disruptions
they cause for families.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano offered the advice on
school closings, while the guidance
on students returning came from Dr.
Thomas Frieden, director of the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Unlike regular seasonal flu, this
Lenovo IdeaPad U350 review roundup
By Tim Stevens (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 10:17:00 AM
If you have laptop needs but only a
netbook-sized cavity in your carry-
on, you need one of the growing
number of notebooks that slot in
between the eee-clones and pricey
ultraportables. Lenovo's IdeaPad
U350 is the latest, a svelte, 13.3-inch
machine with a funky rubberized
virus has not retreated during the hot
and humid summer months and so far
has infected more than 1 million
Americans.
"We hope no schools have to close,
but realistically, some schools will
close this fall," Education Secretary
Arne Duncan said this week during a
forum with administration officials
that was broadcast online.
"I'm dealing first and foremost as a
parent," Duncan said Friday on a
nationally broadcast news show. "I
want to keep my children safe and
keep them learning." He said officials
are asking parents to "use common
sense" and encourage their children
to vigorously wash their hands
several times a day and take other
safety precautions.
"We want to provide as much facts
as we can" to local officials, he said.
"Basically, this will be a tiered
response. If there's a handful of
children at a school who might be
sick, we want the parents to keep
them home. If the numbers escalate
dramatically, then we might have to
close the schools."
Duncan said officials anticipate the
vaccine will be available by mid-
October and that they want schools to
be principal sites for getting the
shots.
Students got an unexpected
back and sophisticated design. It's
been hitting test benches at various
places and is getting good but not
quite great reviews. Laptop
Magazine loved the design and the
$679 starting price, but found battery
life (3.5 hours) to be disappointing.
Computer Shopper was a bit more
positive, knocking its performance
but calling the system "feather-light"
and its 1,366 x 768 screen
vacation last spring, but many
parents scrambled to find child care.
School officials had been acting on
advice from the CDC, which at first
said schools should shut down for
about two weeks if there were
suspected cases of swine flu.
Then the CDC changed course,
saying schools did not need to close
because the virus was milder than
feared. Instead, parents were told to
keep sick kids home for at least a
week.
Duncan said at a swine flu summit
last month that closing school should
be "a last resort, not a first resort."
He said earlier this week that
school districts should use common
sense. "If you have one child sick,
that's one thing. If you have a whole
host of children getting sick, that's
another," Duncan said.
While this particular flu virus is
new, the matter of school closings is
not. Every winter, regular flu
outbreaks prompt a relatively small
number of schools to close for a few
days because of high absenteeism
among students or staff.
In addition to new guidance for
when to close, the CDC and
Education Department said this week
they have set up a new monitoring
system to track school closures
across the country.
"gorgeous." Finally,
StarkSilverCreek's review is the least
Top News/ Gadgets/
Still up in the air is whether schools
will be turned into vaccine clinics,
though Health and Human Services
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has said
that seems logical. "We're seeing
schools as potential partners," she
said at the forum with Duncan.
Children are on the priority list for
the first doses of swine flu vaccine,
but because of time needed for
testing and manufacturing,
inoculations can't begin until school
has been in session for more than a
month; the government is aiming for
Oct. 15. Many questions remain,
including whether people will need
one shot or two for protection. That
is in addition to the regular winter flu
vaccine that is also recommended for
children.
States and school districts should
be preparing for the possibility of
mass vaccinations, federal officials
have said.
They also should make plans to
keep kids learning when schools do
close, Duncan said.
Duncan was interviewed Friday on
CBS's " The Early Show."
___
AP Medical Writer Lauran
Neergaard contributed to this report.
flattering, including concerns about
excessive heat and a system fan that
hardly ever turned off. Overall it
seems like a decent choice if you
don't mind a warm lap and can't quite
swing a T400s, but if you're looking
for alternatives perhaps you'd be
interested in a Timeline 8000 or the
like.
Read- Laptop Magazine Read-
Computer Shopper Read-
5
CrunchDeals: Reserve
Madden NFL 10 (Xbox
360) at Micro Center
this weekend, get it for
$30 when it comes out
By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:40:49 AM
Oh boy, here’s a pretty good deal
provided you live near a Micro
Center store. Head in between today
and Sunday, plop down a $5 deposit
for Madden NFL 10, and you’ll get it
for $29.99 when it comes out next
Friday. This is for the Xbox 360
version only.
The regular price will be $59.99
but you’ll get a $25 credit and your
$5 deposit applied toward the game
when you return to the store to pick it
up. You’ll need to present the $25
coupon you get when you reserve the
game and you’ll have to pick it up
before August 30th. Other than that,
it’s not a bad deal at all.
Madden Deal[MicroCenter.com via
FatWallet]
StarkSilverCreek
Filed under: Laptops
Lenovo IdeaPad U350 review
roundup originally appeared on
Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
10:17:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Permalink| Email
this| Comments
6 Top News/ Gadgets/
Clinton tour reaches South Africa
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:48:40 AM
US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton says the US and South Africa
are "working together" to bring about
reform in Zimbabwe.
Mrs Clinton's comments came after
talks with her South African
counterpart on the second leg of a
tour of Africa.
She also met former South African
President Nelson Mandela.
She said she had come away from
the meeting "with an even greater
admiration for his public work but an
even greater affection for the man".
She paid tribute to the discipline he
had brought "to a life filled with so
many great achievements, not only
for him personally but for South
Africa and the world".
'Working together'
In the coming days Mrs Clinton
will meet President Jacob Zuma and
is likely to return to the Zimbabwe
situation, as well as discussing
business and health.
"We're working together to realise
the vision of a free, democratic and
prosperous Zimbabwe," Mrs Clinton
said in a joint news conference with
South African International Relations
Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.
"We're going to be closely
consulting as to how best to deal with
what is a very difficult situation for
South Africa and for the United
States, but mostly for the people of
Zimbabwe."
Zimbabwe's economy has
improved in recent months but the
US is concerned that many of the
Logitec makes routers fashionable again with ultraslim LAN-W300N/R
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 8:38:00 AM
It's part PS2 Slim, part AspireRevo.
And according to Logitec, the LAN-
W300N/R is the company's thinnest
802.11n router ever. Measuring just 7
political and social reforms promised
by President Robert Mugabe
following the power-sharing
agreement with Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai have not yet been
implemented.
In their meeting on Saturday, Mrs
Clinton is expected to ask Mr Zuma
to use his influence to combat what
she has called "negative effects" of
Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe. Earlier, Ms Nkoana-
Mashabane she believed the Obama
administration would work alongside
the African Union in helping to bring
peace to parts of Africa.
"We see this administration and the
millimeters thick at its thinnest and
24 millimeters thin at its thickest, this
ultra-glossy wireless router packs a
pair of inbuilt antennas, four LAN
ports, a WAN socket and an AC
input. Beyond that, the device seems
relatively unmoving, with a ¥9,100
government of the USA as a strategic
partner on the political front, as we
work with them to look at the
mechanisms to resolve areas of
conflict working together with the
African Union," she said.
Mrs Clinton is also scheduled to
meet Deputy President Kgalema
Motlanthe.
She will also attend a conference
with Health Minister Aaron
Motsoaledi before attending National
Women's Day events in the capital,
Pretoria.
Relations between the US and
South Africa were warm during the
1990s under Presidents Mandela and
($95) price tag and a late August
Bill Clinton, says the BBC's Jonah
Fisher in Johannesburg.
A commission was established to
prioritise areas of co-operation but
when Mr Clinton left the White
House this was quietly forgotten.
South African officials hope that
the visit by Mrs Clinton, the former
US president's wife, will signal a new
period of co-operation to support the
already strong business links, says
our correspondent.
African potential
Please turn on JavaScript. Media
requires JavaScript to play.
Hillary Clinton spoke about
Somalia at the University of Nairobi
release over in Japan.
[Via Akihabara News]
Gallery: Logitec makes routers
fashionable again with ultraslim
LAN-W300N/R
Filed under: Networking
Logitec makes routers fashionable
Internet News Record
Mrs Clinton began her seven-
nation African tour in Kenya on
Wednesday where she held talks in
Nairobi with Kenya's president and
prime minister.
Addressing African leaders at an
economic summit, Mrs Clinton said
the continent had "enormous
potential for progress".
But she stressed that harnessing
that potential would require
democracy and good governance.
Before Mrs Clinton arrived in
Kenya, the US embassy in Nairobi
had issued a statement scolding
Kenya for its decision not to set up a
local court to seek justice for the
victims of the deadly clashes which
followed the 2007 election.
On Thursday, Mrs Clinton met the
Somali President Sheikh Sharif
Sheikh Ahmed in the Kenyan capital.
She offered to increase US support
for his unity government and to "take
action" against neighbouring Eritrea
if it does not stop supporting
militants in Somalia.
Eritrea denies supporting Somalia's
al-Shabab militants, who are trying to
overthrow Somalia's government.
The Eritrean Information Minister
Ali Abdu told the BBC Mrs Clinton's
comments were "very disappointing"
and that the White House had "failed
to learn mistakes of the previous US
administration".
Mrs Clinton's 11-day trip will take
her to Angola on Sunday before she
heads to Nigeria, Liberia, the
Democratic Republic of Congo and
Cape Verde.
Print Sponsor
again with ultraslim LAN-W300N/R
originally appeared on Engadget on
Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:38:00 EST.
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Internet News Record
US cuts fewer jobs than expected
(BBC News | Americas | World
Edition)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:56:16 AM
The US economy lost 247,000 jobs
in July, far less than analysts had
expected, official figures show.
With fewer workers being laid off,
the unemployment rate fell to 9.4%,
down from 9.5% in the previous
month, the first drop since April
2008.
The unexpected drop is likely to
fuel hopes that the economic
recovery is gaining ground.
Since the recession began in
December 2007, about 6.7 million
jobs have been lost, the Labor
Department said.
Revisions
Analysts had expected non-farm
payrolls to drop by 320,000 in July
and the unemployment rate to rise to
9.6%.
Debra Edwards says the facilities at
the library have been helpful in her
job search, but she has not yet found
the office job she wants.
Rodneyse Bichotte describes
herself as a "go-getter". She was laid
off from banking giant JP Morgan
Chase and has been out of work for a
year:
"The toughest part is competing
with everybody else. When I look
Blackstone: Trying to make a buck from
corporate misery
By Tom Taulli (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 10:30:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports,
Private equity, Blackstone Group L.P
(BX)
Despite the credit crunch and
recession, private equity powerhouse,
the Blackstone Group(NYSE: BX),
was still able to post a profit of
$180.8 million in Q2. How was this
possible? It certainly helped that the
into different industries, like media
or a non-profit, they look at my
resume and see financial services. I
have to point out how [my skills] are
be transferable."
Ms Bichotte is worried about the
summer lull when employers go on
holiday but she is confident of
finding work.
But most economists and even US
Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner,
do not expect unemployment to peak
until the second half of 2010.
Job losses were spread across all
sectors, though just 52,000 jobs were
lost in manufacturing, the first time
since September that manufacturing
losses were less than 100,000.
Jobs continued to be added in the
education and health services, with
17,000 more posts for the sector
during the month.
The construction industry saw
76,000 fewer jobs for July, though
the drop was less than predicted.
Analysts attributed the lower rate
of contraction to the government's
stimulus package, which helped
boost infrastructure schemes.
Revised data also showed fewer job
were lost in June and May than had
been thought. Employers cut 303,000
positions in May, less than the
322,000 previously estimated. And in
June 443,000 jobs were cut, revised
equities markets surged. The upshot
was that the Blackstone company
portfolio had an average mark-up of
3%.
Yet, the fact remains that the
buyout business continues to lag.
While valuations are attractive, the
problem is that banks continue to be
stringy with funding. Unfortunately,
from an earlier figure of 467,000.
"Because layoffs in auto
manufacturing already had been so
large, fewer workers than usual were
laid off for seasonal shutdowns in
July," Labor Commissioner Keith
Hall said.
The average working week rose to
33.1 hours in July from June's level
of 33 hrs. In the manufacturing
sector, the average working week
climbed to 39.8 hours from 39.5
hours in the month before.
The month saw average hourly
earnings rise to $18.56 from $18.53.
Have you lost your job due to the
recession? Does the drop in the
numbers of workers to lose their jobs
in July fuel optimism for economic
recovery? Send us your comments
and experiences using the form
below.
You can also send a recorded video
message describing your
experiencesto yourpics@bbc.co.uk or
text them to+44 7725 100 100. If you
have a large file you can upload here.
Read the terms and conditions
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
without leverage, it's pretty tough to
generate strong returns.
Continue reading Blackstone:
Trying to make a buck from
corporate misery
Blackstone: Trying to make a buck
from corporate misery originally
appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri,
07 Aug 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please
see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Top News/ Business/ *
COMEDY
continued from page 3
stopping making films a few years
back. R.I.P. Mr. Hughes, you made
me laugh a lot. An underestimated
gift.
Ren Devous, Cavan, Ireland
Oh dear, that's sad. Ferris Bueller
was a classic, I had bunked off
school one afternoon and decided to
watch it at the cinema.
Ade, London
I'd never watched Home Alone
until we bought it this year for my 6
year old son. He loves it and watches
it over again. Some aspects of the
film may be dated but the comedy of
it is timeless. There is no greater
pleasure than hearing a child
laughing out loud with genuine
delight. No other film has quite this
effect on him.
Neil, Bradford
John Hughes' films were a HUGE
part of my teenage years in the
1980s. Sixteen Candles, Breakfast
Club and Ferris Bueller were often
quoted among my friends and I - and
we wore out early VHS copies with
repeat viewings. I'm happy that the
films stand up and don't feel
particularly dated. Mr Hughes
slowed down after the mega millions
rolled in with the Home Alone films,
but I was always hoping he would
make one more great movie. He will
be missed.
Jason H, San Diego, USA
I'll always remember the feeling I
got the first time I saw Ferris
Bueller's Day Off. Just gave the
sense that there were other kids like
me who didn't know what they were
going to do with their lives, and
helped me get through a very
difficult time.
Jay Leno's First Musical Guests Revealed
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:45:00 PM
Which star musicians will be
featured on the premiere episode of
the "The Jay Leno Show”? Rihanna
is one … read on for the rest!
7
Frankie Park, Haverhill, Suffolk
England
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
was my fave film of his, a very
touching movie. I think a lot of John
shone threw in his work, he seemed
to have that human touch that got
you hooked on the characters he
directed. I'm sure many a tear has
been shed by those who witnessed
John Candy in my fave movie of his.
An untimely passing.
Neil Blinston, San Antonio, Texas
A teen movie cannot be made
today without a comparison to John
Hughes. Due to his original voice,
expert comedy timing and unique
character work his name became
more than a name, it became a genre.
In my book; in the world of great
comedy directors he is up there with
Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Billy
Wilder. When someone complains
that there are no teen movies that
speak to the kids of today my answer
is; there is ..the movies of Hughes, as
they are as timely now as they were
in his heyday of the 1980s.
This man had a hand in Ferris
Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck,
Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, Weird
Science, Pretty In Pink, Home Alone,
National Lampoon's Vacation, Some
Kind Of Wonderful, The Great
Outdoors and Animal House.
Now if that isn't evidence of a
comedic wunderkind then I don't
know what is.
Dan Palmer, Bournemouth, UK
Bueller...Bueller...Bueller...!
Ryan, Glasgow
Print Sponsor
The trio of Rihanna, Jay-Z and
Kanye West will welcome Leno back
to TV by performing Jay-Z's tune
"Run This Town" off his new album
The Blueprint 3, says Variety.
"The Jay Leno Show" debuts
September 14 at 10 p.m. on NBC.
8 Top News/ Gadgets/
13-year-old girl kept in Dallas jail for
2 weeks (AP)
(Yahoo! News: U.S. News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:59:12 PM
DALLAS – A 13-year-old girl
arrested for shoplifting was held in
the Dallas County Jail for nearly two
weeks before it was determined that
she is underage, a police sergeant
said Thursday.
An internal affairs investigation has
been launched to review the matter,
police Sgt. Warren Mitchell told The
Associated Press on Thursday night.
The girl, who had run away from
home, was arrested July 10 at a
Target department store for
shoplifting. She held no
identification and gave a false name
and age, Mitchell said.
The sergeant said the arresting
officer attempted to contact the
police youth division to confirm the
Motorola's r765IS now available at
Sprint, perfect for making Navy SEALs
swoon with envy
By Tim Stevens (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 9:28:00 AM
You can take your frilly iPhones
and pretty Pres and shove 'em,
because Motorola's latest and,
perhaps, beefiest handset is finally
available at Sprint stores. The
r765IS, announced back in April, is
Mil Spec 810F rated, so no worries
about dropping it -- even into a
bucket of salt water -- and that IS on
the end means "intrinsically safe," so
dial away even if you should happen
to be standing in a room full of
explosive gas, as we've been known
to do from time to time. It also
supports rather less exciting Nextel
Direct Connect, NextMail to send
information but found no record of
her. The arresting officer assumed
she was 17 and took her to jail,
Mitchell said, but did not say how he
made that assumption.
The girl was released from custody
July 23 after appearing before a
judge and is again listed as a
runaway. Meanwhile, an inmate, an
acquaintance of the girl's family who
had recognized her, phoned her
father, who came to police with a
birth certificate and other records
verifying her real identity and age.
Mitchell declined to discuss the
case further, pending the
investigation.
He said investigators want to find
out whether the officer who made the
arrest followed policy, and what
could be done to prevent the situation
from happening again.
voicemail as e-mail attachments,
GPS navigation, and a variety of
emergency calling modes for cutting
through the bla bla bla. It's a little
less slinky looking than some other
Internet News Record
The officer who made the arrest,
Sr. Cpl. Roberto Garcia, told The
Dallas Morning News that the
information that the girl provided
him would have made her an adult.
"It's just the frustrating battle that
we have out there in the real world,"
Garcia told the newspaper. "I just
have a heck of the time when these
juveniles won't tell you who they are
and they have no ID."
Assistant Chief Ron Waldrop, who
heads the department's investigations
bureau, told the paper that the girl
initially identified herself as being
14, which he said should have raised
concerns.
"Everybody believes that should
have required an intense level of
checking before incarceration," he
said.
Amzer issues embarrassingly
gigantic Palm Pre extended
batteries
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 8:16:00 AM
Touchstone charger. PreThinking is
currently testing 'em out, but
considering that it just might be 2015
Look at that. Just look at that. Do
you have the slightest idea what that
is? No, it's not a wired optical mouse.
before they're able to report any
results, they've hosted up a litany of
product shots for the time being.
Motorola handsets we've seen lately,
It's not a smartphone from circa
but we'd clip one to our belts before Head on down to the read link if
heading to our next waypoint/coffee 1985. It's a Palm Pre with a battery you're looking for laughs.
shop -- if only we had the requisite that just might last until you're six Filed under: Cellphones,
funding. A price of just under $2,000 feet under if you choose not to chat Peripherals
ensures this will only be found in the much. After one-upping Seidio's Amzer issues embarrassingly
mitts of the most well equipped 1,350mAh battery with a 1,400mAh gigantic Palm Pre extended batteries
mercenaries. version, the company has now hit originally appeared on Engadget on
[Thanks, Brian] back with a new duo that redefines Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:16:00 EST.
Filed under: Cellphones your vision of "bulging." Both the Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Motorola's r765IS now available at 2,800mAh and 3,800mAh cells ship Read| Permalink| Email this|
Sprint, perfect for making Navy with (and thus require) new Comments
SEALs swoon with envy originally backplates to contain the extra girth,
appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug and neither of them support Palm's
2009 09:28:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds. Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Internet News Record
Friday Discussion: Snake Eyes was a badass and
the best G.I. Joe guy, true or false AND WHY
By John Biggs (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:19:49 AM
By corollary, we also believe that
Snake Eyes having a mouth in the
new G.I. Joe movie is bull. As we
were just discussing in our chat
room, it was decided that Snake
Eyes, according to original GIJ
canon, was an American disfigured
by an explosion in a helicopter.
Quoth Wikipedia:
Snake Eyes first appeared in G.I.
Joe: A Real American Hero #1 (June
1982). In the Marvel Comics’
continuity Stalker, Storm Shadow
and Snake Eyes served together in
the Vietnam War in a LRRP (Long
Range Reconnaissance Patrol) unit.
Also serving on their LRRP team
were Ramon Escobedo, Dickie
Saperstein and Wade Collins. While
Snake Eyes served in combat, he
always carried a picture of his twin
sister with him in his hat for good
luck. While on a mission, the LRRP
team walked into a valley and
stumbled into an encampment of
NVA regulars (soldiers). A firefight
ensued, with Ramon, Dickie and
Wade all being killed. (Wade Collins
actually survives, and later joins
Cobra, becoming Fred II of the Fred
series Crimson Guardsmen). The rest
of the team was able to make it out of
the valley and to an LZ. As a
helicopter arrived to pick up the
surviving team members, the
pursuing NVA opened fire,
wounding Snake Eyes. Concerned
for his friend, Storm Shadow went
back for Snake Eyes. Running
through heavy enemy fire, Storm
Shadow was able to get Snake Eyes
Jeanine Triumphs on 'So You Think You Can Dance'
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 11:00:00 PM
Voters declared Jeanine Mason the
best dancer of all on Thursday night's
safely aboard the helicopter. Upon
returning home from the war, Snake
Eyes met with Colonel Hawk, who
informed him that his family had
been killed in a car accident (which
coincidentally involved the brother of
the man who would eventually
become G.I. Joe’s arch-foe, Cobra
Commander). After some soul-
searching, Snake Eyes went to study
the ninja arts with Storm Shadow’s
family, the Arashikage Clan.
Snake Eyes’s ability to quickly
learn skills especially impressed
Storm Shadow’s uncle, the Hard
"SYTYCD" fifth-season finale. Read
on for the details!
"I've spent my whole life looking up
to amazing dancers and amazing
people, and I've always wanted to be
Master. Over time, Snake Eyes and
Storm Shadow became sword
brothers, and unintentional rivals for
the attention and favor of the Hard
Master, who liked pitting them
against one another to test their
considerable skills. Though Snake
Eyes often attempted to throw
matches in order that his friend
should save face in front of his
family, the Hard Master was aware
of Snake Eyes’ ruse, and knew him
to be the true victor. During one of
Snake Eyes training sessions the
Hard Master expressed his desire for
a role model," 18-year-old Jeanine
gushed after winning.
She edged out Brandon Bryant,
Kayla Radomski and Evan Kasprzak
to secure the title of " America’s
Snake Eyes to take over leadership of
the Arashikage ninja clan instead of
his nephew, Storm Shadow. Snake
Eyes refused, and the Hard Master
continued with the lesson. It was at
this point that Zartan (hired by Cobra
Commander) mistakenly killed the
Hard Master instead of Snake Eyes.
Zartan used an arrow he stole from
Storm Shadow, implicating him in
the murder of his uncle. Storm
Shadow chased Zartan, who was able
to escape in a helicopter piloted by
Firefly. With Storm Shadow believed
responsible for the death of the Hard
Master, the Arashikage ninja clan
dissolved and Snake Eyes returned to
America, where he took up residence
in the High Sierra Mountains.
The movie, however, says he was
just a quiet kid. We, the editors of
CrunchGear, hereby state:
A) That Snake Eyes was badass.
B) That Snake Eyes had a badass
outfit and shouldn’t have a mouth.
C) That anyone who dressed up
like Storm Shadow (a white ninja?
WTF!) was a wuss-bag.
D) It was hard to dress up like
Snake Eyes but I tried.
E) My grandma made me a ninja
outfit.
F) The G.I. Joe movie should be
avoided by all those who agree with
the above statements.
Your input is requested below.
Please answer the following essay
question: Snake Eyes was great, true
or false, and why was he/wasn’t he
greater than the other dudes like
Zartan and Storm Shadow?
Favorite Dancer" and the $250,000
grand prize.
Gadgets/ * 9
ChefStack automatic
pancake machine -- for
all your pancake party
needs
By Laura June (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 10:41:00 AM
Remember the last time you made
pancakes? No? Well, let us remind
you: it ended in sadness and
confusion because you simply
couldn't crank out the insane volume
of pancakes you wanted / needed.
Well, the ChefStack is here to help.
It's a giant, automated machine with
internal rollers, and its entire purpose
is to do nothing but make pancakes.
Using pre-filled bags of batter, this
dude does all the work while you site
by, and apparently it's also a breeze
to clean too, though we find that a bit
hard to believe. Now -- do you need
a machine that makes nothing but
pancakes? Are the pancakes any
good? Hard to say -- but this device,
which seems to be targeted at
restaurants, will run you about
$3,500 if you really want to get your
hands on one.
[Via SlashGear]
Filed under: Household
ChefStack automatic pancake
machine -- for all your pancake party
needs originally appeared on
Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Read| Permalink|
Email this| Comments
10 Gadgets/ Business/ *
Eee PCs rumored to ship with Moblin in
October, Chrome OS on the horizon
By Joseph L. Flatley (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 11:04:00 AM
How about a minor spy story to
kick-start your weekend? According
to our man Sascha at
netbooknews.de, a "safe source" who
shall remain nameless but who most
certainly has ties to Stasi (or, at the
very least, owns a trench coat) has
divulged some choice nuggets: The
first Eee PC pre-installed with the
open source OS will hit the market in
October, and the company is
currently considering the possibility
of making this an option for all its
notebooks at some point in the near
OpenChord allows actual guitars to play Guitar Hero, sound
atrocious
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 9:53:00 AM
You've heard that saying "so close,
yet so far away," right? This, folks, is
why that very quote exists. The
obviously brilliant team over at
OpenChord has designed a system
that enables an honest-to-goodness
guitar to sync up with Nintendo's Wii
in order to play Guitar Hero. You
Video: Robots cook delicious ramen noodles for expendable humans
By Vladislav Savov (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 8:59:00 AM
So you think you've seen robot
chefs before, huh? Well, actually, yes
you probably have-- but you sure as
hell haven't seen a mechanical cook
spinning plates, right? We thought
Court Date Set in Lawsuit Against Morgan Freeman
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 11:31:00 PM
A trial date has been set in the
future. And if that weren't enough to
stoke your dreams of an Operating
System Renaissance, the company is
also reportedly working "closely
simply plug the Wiimote into the axe
and use the bona fide strings and
frets in place of those plastic buttons
you're so used to using. The only
problem? Guitar Hero wasn't
designed for use with six strings and
22 to 24 frets, and man, does it show.
Hop on past the break to have a
listen, and yes, your dreams of
actually taking advantage of this will
be shattered. Bet on it.
so. The latest culinary drone, hailing
from Nagoya, Japan, features a pair
of delightfully dextrous arms and is
capable of serving up a yummy bowl
of ramen noodles in under two
minutes. With such rapid speed, the
bots get some downtime, which they
fill by performing a little show for
lawsuit involving Morgan Freeman
after a car wreck in 2008.
Demaris L. Meyer, the female
passenger in the car, sued the actor
together" with Google to deploy the
Chrome OS on its machines at some
point in the not-too-distant future. All
rumors and innuendo, sure, but
interesting -- and, as we've seen the
company play with Moblin in the
past, certainly not a shocker. As
always, we'll keep our ears to the
ground, and we'll keep you posted.
Filed under: Laptops
Eee PCs rumored to ship with
Moblin in October, Chrome OS on
the horizon originally appeared on
Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
11:04:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Read| Permalink|
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[Via Joystiq]
Continue reading OpenChord
their clientele. Trust us, you really
last February, the Associated Press
reports.
Meyer says that Freeman was at
fault for the accident that occurred
Options Update: Technology
leaders' comparable September
option implied volatility
By Paul Foster (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 8:20:00 AM
Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL),
Cisco Systems (CSCO), International
Business Machines (IBM), Research
in Motion (RIMM), QUALCOMM
Inc (QCOM), Options
Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL)
September at the money volatility is
at 32, Cisco(NASDAQ: CSCO) is at
31, Hewlett Packard(NYSE: HPQ) is
at 32, Qualcomm(NASDAQ:
QCOM) is at 32, Research in
Motion(NASDAQ: RIMM) is at 45
allows actual guitars to play Guitar
Hero, sound atrocious
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
OpenChord allows actual guitars to
play Guitar Hero, sound atrocious
originally appeared on Engadget on
Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:53:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
don't wanna be the one person who
didn't see the surreal duel that lies
beyond the break.
[Via Switched]
Continue reading Video: Robots
cook delicious ramen noodles for
expendable humans
Filed under: Robots
last year in Mississippi in which the
car the actor was driving left the road
and flipped several times, the AP
says.
Internet News Record
and IBM(NYSE: IBM) is at 23.
NASDAQ 100- QQQQ overall
implied volatility at 26; 26-week
average is 32
Option Update is provided by
Stock Specialist Paul Foster of
theflyonthewall.com
Options Update: Technology
leaders' comparable September
option implied volatility originally
appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri,
07 Aug 2009 08:20:00 EST. Please
see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Behold! Our New
Camera Weilding
Robot Overlords
By Charlie Sorrel (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:32:00 AM
Put your Sony camera onto the
Party Shot and it will, Sony says, 'act
as your personal photographer.' The
little mount is controlled by the
camera and will tilt and zoom,
seeking out any people in the room
using the face detection in the
camera.
Video: Robots cook delicious
ramen noodles for expendable
humans originally appeared on
Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Read| Permalink|
Email this| Comments
Internet News Record
One external hard drive
connector to rule them all
By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:00:09 AM
The trouble with conventional hard
drive enclosures is that if you just
want to hook up a particular drive to
quickly grab some files off of it, you
have to go through the hassle of
unscrewing the enclosure, taking out
the old drive, making sure you’ve got
the right adapter to fit the new drive,
closing it all back up, and man, oh
man, all of a sudden it’s 4:00 in the
afternoon. This external drive whatsit
from ThinkGeek interfaces with just
about any standard hard drive, be it
IDE or SATA, laptop or desktop, and
lets you swap them out quickly.
It connects via USB and costs $25.
Drive compatibility includes: 3.5 and
2.5 IDE, 1.8 micro IDE, 3.5 and 2.5
SATA, and it’ll also handle standard
IDE and SATA optical drives too. I
would have liked something like this
Ashton and Demi's Emergency Landing
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:32:00 PM
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore
are sharing their scary afternoon with
the world.
According to tweets from their
Twitter accounts, the private plane
they were headed to New York on
iStubz iPod Cables: Short is the new long
By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 8:10:20 AM
Tangled cords are absolutely the
bane of my existence and yet I’m not
quite anal enough to wrap twist ties
Sony’s EXMOR low-light shots truly stunning
By John Biggs (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:10:56 AM
Need more light? EXMOR goes out
and gets it for you! By selectively
back in my days as an A+ certified
computer repair technician. Those
were the days. And by “those were
the days” I mean “I don’t miss those
days.”
USB to SATA/IDE Combo
Kit[ThinkGeek.com]
had an emergency landing in Las
Vegas.
Ashton tweeted of the incident,
"My plane just had to do an
emergency landing. Engine over
heated. Fire trucks everywhere. Good
times."
and rubber bands around excess
slack, so I enthusiastically applaud
the shortest version possible of any
proprietary cable (or any cable, for
that matter). Applause, then, to the
unfortunately-named iStubz iPod
“culling” ambient photons the Sony
WX1 and TX1 CyberShots will make
pictures more light-ful. Just look at
this simulated shot: by taking only
the photons coming off of that well-
Emergency iPhone charger measures
just 1cm thick
By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:20:48 AM
This thing’s slim, I tell you. Slim.
At just one centimeter thick, the
“Ultra Slim (Card Type) Emergency
Charger for iPod / iPhone” over at
USB Fever might find its way into a
few pockets when it’s released on
August 23rd.
The 1200mAh battery pack
recharges via a standard mini-USB
cable.
lit building, thereby redirecting the
cable and powers any iPod device
when you’re running low on juice.
There’s an on/off switch for some
reason, along with an LED indicator
to let you know that everything’s on
the up-and-up.
Available for pre-order now and
shipping around August 23rd.
Ultra Slim (Card Type) Emergency
Charger for iPod / iPhone[USB
Fever]
Available in 7cm or 22cm lengths,
they’ll set you back $7.95 or $8.95
respectively. Or you can get both
together for $14.95. And if you’re
not a fan of iPod White, the iStubz
come in black as well. Shipping
photons away from a far inferior
digital camera, the EXMOR system
can bend the laws of physics on a
whim.
via BBG
Gadgets/ * 11
CrunchDeals: MSI
Wind U120 with six-
cell battery for $300
By Doug Aamoth (CrunchGear)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:55:57 AM
The MSI Wind U120 with a six-cell
battery dips slightly below $300 after
a $10 mail-in rebate good until the
end of the month. Amazon currently
has a $20 price break on the machine,
bringing the price to $309.99 before
the rebate.
The U120 features standard
netbook specs: 1.6GHz Atom CPU,
1GB of RAM, 160GB SATA hard
drive, Windows XP, 10.1-inch
backlit LED screen with 1024×600
resolution, six-cell battery, webcam,
Wi-Fi, and weighs just 2.3 pounds.
All in all, a pretty good deal on a
relatively popular offering from MSI.
MSI Wind U120[Amazon]
starts at five bucks.
iStubz[CableJive.com via
OhGizmo!]
12 Business/ *
Cramer on BloggingStocks: World Wrestling
A Citi, divided against Entertainment increases
itself, can prosper profit and cash flow in Q2
By Jim Cramer (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 10:00:00 AM
Filed under: Market matters,
Citigroup Inc. (C), Target Corp.
(TGT), American Express (AXP),
Bank of America (BAC), Wells
Fargo (WFC), Stocks to Buy, MBIA
Inc (MBI) From TheStreet.com
Network
• Citigroup Scores 'Cash for
Clunkers' Contract
• Five Dumbest Things on Wall
Street: Aug 7
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says
this bank is the best call on the next
leg of the market.
Citigroup's (NYSE: C) ( Cramer's
Take) plan to split itself into two
banks -- the retail/service/investment
bank and Citi Holdings, which would
consist of (among other things) the
household lending arm and the old
special purpose vehicles -- will work
if the government gives it time. It
will work for the same reason the
"Bankers Win Big in Toxic Pay
Plan," article in The Wall Street
Journal states: Much of what was
thought to be worthless or worth
pennies in Citi Holdings is really
money good and will pay off when
due.
That's how you can get the book
value of Citigroup to go up, and
Test Your Celeb Knowledge! Guess Whose
Famous Feature: Luscious Lips!
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 3:01:00 AM
Think you know your star stats?
Take a look at the Hollywood's most
memorable mouths! Put your celeb
knowledge to the test and guess
given that Tier 1 capital has not been
an issue -- they have a ton of it -- you
are going to see book go up quarter
after quarter.
Continue reading Cramer on
BloggingStocks: A Citi, divided
against itself, can prosper
Cramer on BloggingStocks: A Citi,
divided against itself, can prosper
originally appeared on
BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Permalink| Email
this| Comments
which famous name goes with each
pair of luscious lips!
Click on each set of sweet
smackers to find out which celeb's
mesmerizing mouth you are staring
at!
By Steven Mallas
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 9:30:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports,
Media World, World Wrestling
Entertainment (WWE)
World Wrestling
Entertainment(NYSE: WWE) walked
to the ring with its second quarter
results on Thursday. WWE increased
revenues by 7%. Earnings per share
came in at 27 cents per share as
opposed to 10 cents per share in the
year-ago quarter. In the first quarter
of this year, WWE reported lower
sales and income.
Wrestlemania XXV hulked up the
quarter, it must be kept in mind. And
that's great. However, don't think
CBS tops estimates, but remains weak
By Steven Mallas
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 9:00:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports,
Television, General Electric (GE),
Walt Disney (DIS), CBS Corp 'B'
(CBS), News Corp'B' (NWS), Media
World
CBS(NYSE: CBS), the famous
broadcaster that competes with
Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, News
Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) Fox, and
General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC,
WWE is out of the woods yet when it
comes to pay-per-view performance.
For instance, both the Backlash and
Judgment Day events saw decreases
in buy rates. Any Wrestlemania event
is a given in terms of popularity, but
you really want to see every event at
least maintain a flat growth rate.
Remember: Wrestlemania comes
only once a year, not every quarter.
Continue reading World Wrestling
Entertainment increases profit and
cash flow in Q2
World Wrestling Entertainment
increases profit and cash flow in Q2
originally appeared on
BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Permalink| Email
this| Comments
reported Q2 earnings on Thursday
after the bell. If you judged the
performance solely by the profit
drop, you would have no choice but
to feel sorry for CBS. The media
company made an adjusted 8 cents
per share. Last year at this time, CBS
pulled in an adjusted 49 cents per
share.
But the market looked past the
significant income decline and
instead seemed to focus on the fact
that management beat Wall Street's
expectations by a penny, according to
Internet News Record
Jeff Conaway on
Michael Jackson: 'The
Truth is Obvious'
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 3:15:00 AM
Jeff Conaway has fought a very
public battle with pain and addiction
on "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew."
Now, the former "Taxi" star is
weighing in on the death of Michael
Jackson and the so-called "Dr. Feel
Good" physicians in Hollywood that
enable stars -- no matter what the
cost.
"You know, there's a network of
doctors that just give out pills," Jeff
tells our own Mark Steines. "They
use it as a lure, as a little fishing hook
lure. They use the celebrities for that
reason and they can brag to their
other fellow doctors."
So, what do these doctors get out of
providing excessive prescription
drugs to celebrities?
Earnings.com estimates. Shares of
CBS were up over 7% during
yesterday's after-hours session.
Continue reading CBS tops
estimates, but remains weak
CBS tops estimates, but remains
weak originally appeared on
BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Read| Permalink|
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Internet News Record
JPMorgan (JPM): A breakout
buy
By Steven Halpern
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 11:00:00 AM
Filed under: Newsletters, JPMorgan
Chase (JPM), Stocks to Buy,
Financial Crisis
Technician Leo Fasciocco, who
focuses on stocks breaking out of
resistance zones, is banking on
JPMorgan(NYSE: JPM), as a
breakout buy on its rise over $39.
Here's the latest from Ticker Tape
Digest.
"JPM is one of the dominant
financial firms. It has 30 million
consumer customers and the world's
Employment reports shows fewer
jobs than expected were lost in
July
By Connie Madon
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 9:40:00 AM
Filed under: Good news,
Employees, Economic data
247,000 US jobs were lost in July,
far less than the 320,000 that were
expected. The unemployment rate
eased slightly to 9.4% from 9.5% in
June. And there was more good news
-- 43,000 fewer jobs were lost in May
and June than previously reported.
The Labor Department reported
that this was the first time since April
2008 that the jobless rate has fallen.
Official numbers show that 6.7
million jobs were lost since the start
of the recession.
Continue reading Employment
reports shows fewer jobs than
expected were lost in July
Employment reports shows fewer
most prominent corporate,
institutional and government clients.
"Recent tape action indicates good
institutional buying interest. JPM's
long-term chart shows the stock
making a bottom around 15 in
March. It has since rallied and double
in price.
Continue reading JPMorgan (JPM):
A breakout buy
JPMorgan (JPM): A breakout buy
originally appeared on
BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Permalink| Email
this| Comments
jobs than expected were lost in July
originally appeared on
BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds. Read| Permalink|
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Crocs loses less than expected --
time to celebrate!
By Mark Fightmaster
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 8:40:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports, Crocs
Inc (CROX)
After the closing bell sounded
yesterday, footwear firm
Crocs(NASDAQ: CROX) reported
second-quarter earnings, or should
we say second-quarter loss-- yet the
Street is ready to celebrate.
The foam footwear manufacturer
reported a second-quarter loss of
$30.3 million, or 36 cents per share.
Taking a $34.8 million charge out of
the equation, CROX would have lost
a mere six cents per share. While
these results are worse than those of
PicTreat: Get Perfect Skin in One
Click
By Jennifer Van Grove
(Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:58:02 PM
As much as we’d love to look
picture perfect in every photo, most
of us, myself included, need a little
retouching from time to time. Sure
there’s those that just let it all hang
out, blemishes and all, but for the rest
of us there’s Photoshop or online
photo editing tools.
PicTreat, one such brand new
online photo editor, is catering to our
vainer side by promising fully
automated online facial retouching in
just one click. The web-based
application is primarily for enhancing
beauty shots of human faces by
removing blemishes, red-eye, and
performing color-correction.
PicTreat incorporates the social
functionality we’ve come to expect
from online photo editors, so you can
Business/ Social Net/ *
a year ago, they managed to top Wall
Street's expectations for a loss of 21
cents per share.
Continue reading Crocs loses less
than expected -- time to celebrate!
Crocs loses less than expected --
time to celebrate! originally appeared
on BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Aug
2009 08:40:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds. Permalink|
Email this| Comments
log in using Facebook Connect, and
even grab existing photos stored on
Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, or
Photobucket. Of course you can also
upload photos or use their URLs for
editing.
Once you determine the photo you
want to correct, PicTreat will provide
with a few photo treating options,
and once you click okay, it will
automatically and quickly correct the
photo. The final result is a treated
photo, with the original still
accessible for comparison. Should
you be happy with the results you
can save it to your computer, share
the image URL, grab the embed
code, crop it as a profile pic for
Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, or
13
Is a Psychopath
Attacking Twitter,
Facebook?
By Ryan Singel (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:51:00 PM
Twitter and Facebook are being
attacked by a flood of traffic. Weeks
ago, unimportant U.S. government
sites got the same treatment. One
security researcher has a troubling
conclusion: the tools of online crime
have fallen into the hands of the un-
rational.
MySpace, or post to a myriad of
different social sites.
PicTreat is a simple app that works
wonders on close ups (I didn’t know
I could look so good), and there’s
absolutely no learning curve. Now if
only they could create a way so that
we could auto-correct all of those
terrible photos that we’re tagged in
on Facebook too. More Image
Editing Tools from Mashable
- 20 Great Online Image Editors
- 7 Great Online Image Editing
Apps
- 50+ iPhone Apps to Enhance Your
Photo and Video Experience
- 90+ Online Photography Tools
and Resources Reviews: Delicious,
Facebook, Flickr, MySpace,
Photobucket, Twitter
Tags: beauty shot, blemishes,
image editor, photo editing, pictreat
14 Economy/ *
Tech.view: Steering sunbeams
(The Economist: Daily columns)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 1:30:12 AM
Tech.view
Aug 7th 2009
From Economist.com Solar power
is becoming less of a luxury
JUST below your correspondent's
hillside home in southern California,
a house is being rebuilt with all the
latest thinking in materials
technology and construction codes.
Much has changed in the eight years
since your correspondent did the
same. Most strikingly, the house
below has a gleaming white roof of
fireproof chippings embedded in a
mastic undercoating. With summer
temperatures in the nineties (32ºC
and up), these new reflective coatings
are said to reduce air-conditioning
bills by 20% or more. Not content
with that, the owner has added a five-
kilowatt bank of solar panels.
Eighteen months ago, your
correspondent ran the numbers to see
what it would cost to use
photovoltaic solar panels to replace
the 8,300 kilowatt-hours of
electricity he buys annually from the
grid. Economically, solar turned out
to be a dud. The 6.4 kilowatts of
capacity needed would have cost
$48,000 for the panels alone—and
half as much again by the time the
mounting frames, switching modules,
power controller, fault protector, DC-
to-AC inverter, service panel and
installation charges had been
included.
Admittedly, there would have been
$14,000 worth of government grants
to soften the blow. But even then,
repayment of the loan (or the
opportunity cost of paying cash)
Christina Applegate Gets Emotional During 'So You Think You Can Dance' Finale
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 12:30:00 AM
During the season finale of "So You
Think You Can Dance," Ade
Obayomi and Melissa Sandvig
would have worked out at more than
$600 a month over ten years—all to
save a paltry $75 a month in
electricity charges. With his
conscience still twinging, your
correspondent decided to buy a
couple of tons of carbon offsets for a
total of $70 a year and have done
with it.
Now he's not so sure. The price of
carbon offsets has risen slightly, to
around $50 a ton. So has the price of
juice in his part of the country, to
12.2 cents per kilowatt-hour. And the
borrowing costs of home-
improvement loans have fallen, too.
Moreover, two other factors have
tipped the balance somewhat in
solar's favour.
One is the amount of government
rebate now available. Starting this
year, homeowners who install solar
panels qualify for a 30% tax credit on
the cost after state and other
incentives have been deducted. A
second factor is the tumbling price of
the solar panels themselves. Eighteen
months ago, typical 200-watt
modules cost around $1,500 apiece
retail. Today, such panels can be
bought for $600 or less. The
recession, plus the enormous
oversupply caused by the surge of
new factories in China and elsewhere
making photovoltaic panels, have
created spectacular deals for
consumers.
As a result, a 6.4-kilowatt system
can now be installed for $45,000
before rebates. Qualifying for some
$20,000 worth of grants and tax
credits, the final cost of going solar
would cost your correspondent no
more than $25,000 today-say, $260 a
month over ten years. Cheap as that
performed an encore of a dance from
a previous episode, and their
performance not only moved the
judges, but also touched breast
cancer survivor, Christina Applegate.
Applegate was spotted in the crowd
sounds, it is still three times more
than the $85 a month he pays these
days for electricity from his utility
company.
On the plus side, at least the cost of
his solar energy (effectively, 38 cents
a kilowatt-hour) would not change
for ten years, while the cost of
electricity from fossil fuels could
rocket. Thereafter, his electricity cost
would fall near to nothing. Does he
expect the price of electricity from
the grid to triple over the coming
decade? No. Does he expect to be
living in the same house (or living
anywhere for that matter) in ten
years' time? The statistics would
suggest not. So, once again, the green
solution comes down to spending
$100 a year to buy a couple of tons
of carbon offsets.
And yet, and yet... Your
correspondent would dearly love to
have a big block of cheap, renewable
energy. But he wants it more in the
winter than the summer; and he
would prefer it as heat rather than
electricity. That's because heating a
20,000-gallon outdoor pool using
electricity—even at cheap overnight
rates-is prohibitive. It is bad enough
with natural gas which, in southern
California, is half the price of
electricity.
Yes, he has looked at solar-thermal
panels, but finds them hopelessly
inefficient and far from cheap.
Ideally, he would like a solar boiler
that could heat the pool directly. But
that would require an array of mirrors
to concentrate the sun's rays on the
boiler tubes.
The Indians have developed some
of the most ingenious solar cookers
around. The one your correspondent
along with Lance Bass during
Melissa and Ade's performance of a
choreographed piece about breast
cancer. The 37-year-old actress was
emotionally moved by the
performance, and was crying as she
especially admires uses a large
stationary bowl to concentrate the
solar rays. It tracks the sun as it
moves across the sky by steering the
receiver at the focal point rather than
the reflector itself. The receiver's
little boiler gets up to 150ºC and
produces copious quantities of steam
for cooking purposes.
He also looks longingly at the
clever boilers that sit on top of the
"power towers" that are sprouting
across California, Israel and Spain.
The first such heliostat-a circular
array of steerable mirrors focusing
the sun's rays onto a receiver at the
top of a central tower-to start selling
power to the American public was
officially switched on this past week.
While the sun is shining, the Sierra
SunTower, developed by eSolar of
Pasadena, California, generates
enough electricity to power 4,000
homes in the Antelope Valley, north
of Los Angeles. Two other
Californian firms, BrightSource
Energy of Oakland and SolarReserve
of Santa Monica, are working to get
their own power towers into
commercial operation.
But there is a snag with using
concentrators like the Sierra
SunTower to generate electricity for
the grid. They don't work when it's
cloudy or dark. That means adding
costly backup heaters that burn
natural gas to keep the boiler's steam
at the temperature needed to drive the
turbines. The obvious answer is to
use a working fluid that, unlike
water, can maintain its heat on
cloudy days and through the night.
That is what SolarReserve has done
with the molten-salt technology it has
licensed from Rocketdyne, a
stood up to applaud the dancers.
The "Samantha Who?" star
announced in August of 2008 that
she had won her battle with breast
cancer after undergoing a double-
mastectomy. Since then, the star has
Internet News Record
company based in Los Angeles that
has been building rocket engines
since the dawn of the space age. The
boiler on top of a SolarReserve
molten-salt tower is effectively a
rocket engine turned upside down
(with the gubbins at the top of the
structure, rather than the bottom) and
inside out (with the cooling tubes
running up the interior, rather than
the outside).
Apart from being able to store heat
for long periods, the advantage of
using salt (actually a fertiliser brew
of sodium nitrate and potassium
nitrate) is that it melts at 200ºC and
remains a liquid throughout its
working cycle. Unlike a water-
powered thermal generator, which
has to cope with all the intricacies of
phase changes from liquid to steam
and back to liquid again, a molten-
salt system needs no gas heaters for
backup, no heavy pipework for
containing the high-pressure steam,
can adjust its output to match the
utility company's hourly needs, and
store internally enough heat to work
around the clock, seven days a week.
That's just what your correspondent
needs for his backyard.
Unfortunately, existing molten-salt
generators cost $600m and encircle a
couple of square miles of desert.
Your correspondent cherishes the
thought that one day, may be, some
enterprising Indian engineer will
make a garden version. Hopefully,
during the next ten years.
Back to top ^^ Readers' comments
The Economist welcomes your
views.
continued to show her support by
speaking out to raise awareness, and
helping out at events to raise money
for women's cancer research.
Internet News Record
Europe.view: Summer reading
(The Economist: Daily columns)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 3:47:30 AM
Europe.view
Aug 6th 2009
From Economist.com
Investigations, analyses and a
rediscovered novel
NOTHING happens in eastern
Europe during August, save the odd
war, coup or financial collapse, so
people interested in the region have a
whole month to catch up on good
books, old and new. This summer
brings a crop that should keep even a
speed reader busy. “ Revolution
1989”, by Victor Sebestyen, offers a
digestible and colourful history of
that miraculous year. Andrew
Roberts’s “ The Storm of War”, is a
rare example of a British writer
giving the second world war's eastern
front proper prominence. “
Londongrad: From Russia with
Cash,” (pictured below) by Mark
Hollingsworth and Stewart Lansley,
is a racy and alarming investigation
of the effect of Russian money on
Britain.
At the more specialist end of the
spectrum, Tom Gallagher’s new
book about Romania and the
EU—subtitled “ How the weak
vanquished the strong”—gives a
bleak and gripping account of how
wily ex-communist bureaucrats
bamboozled the outside world and
swindled their own people. Those
who read his previous book, the
excellent “ Theft of a Nation”, will
know what to expect. Espionage
aficionados will enjoy the densely
written but convincing “ Spies” by
Everything I Know About Parenting I Learned
from Adrian Monk
By Kevin Makice (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:51:00 AM
Adrian Monk has made a reputation
John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and
Alexander Vassiliev, which tells the
(true) story of KGB activities in
North America.
Your columnist flirted with some
ambitious ideas such as rereading
Czeslaw Milosz in Polish, or
finishing the Miklos Banffy trilogy
about aristocratic life in pre-
communist Transylvania. What he
actually ended up packing was a
newly republished (by Faber &
Faber) edition of William Palmer’s
neglected 1990 classic, “ The Good
Republic”. Good contemporary
fiction about the region is rare (Tibor
Fischer’s “ Under the Frog” is an
exception). Corny spy thrillers,
littered with topographical howlers,
unlikely plots and plonking sex
scenes, are the standard fare.
Mr Palmer’s book set a standard
for an east European historical novel
that has yet to be matched—an
especially impressive feat for an
outsider. It is mainly set during the
Soviet takeover of the Baltics in 1939
-40, so this year’s anniversary of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact makes it
highly topical. Even more vivid than
the deportations and executions are
the descriptions of the swift decay of
statehood and legality: the policeman
trampled by pro-Soviet
demonstrators, civil servants
struggling to uphold the constitution,
the sinister placemen issuing
instructions, the president a prisoner
in his palace. Then comes the Soviet
retreat and the Nazi occupation—a
sinister non-liberation, bringing a
terrible fate to the Jewish population,
and a moral abyss for those who
breaking unbreakable cases in his
quest to regain his police badge.
Along the way, the Defective
Detective has inadvertently inspired
some parenting tips.
directly or indirectly abet it.
All this comes as flashbacks, seen
through the eyes of the young Jacob
Balthus. At the start of the book he is
a Baltic émigré in London, who has
spent decades running the pointless
and, by the 1980s, almost defunct
“Congress of Exiles”. He returns at
the invitation of the nascent pro-
democracy movement in his
homeland, where his father was a
senior civil servant in the days of
interwar independence.
The fractious and futile-seeming
life of east European émigré
organisations is well drawn, as is the
trembling excitement of the late
1980s when once-forbidden contacts
were first permitted and then
flourished. But even better is the
description of the (composite) pre-
war Baltic country in which the
young Balthus grows up, so solid
from his point of view, so
terrifyingly fragile for his wise, well-
informed father.
Remarkably, Mr Palmer did not
visit the Baltic states before writing
the book; his research mainly
consisted of reading transcripts of
evidence given to congressional
hearings by senior Baltic figures who
had escaped to the West. It is a
tribute to his novelist’s skills that
anyone reading the book has the
feeling of complete authenticity in
both history and geography. Readers
are left longing for a sequel.
Back to top ^^ Readers' comments
The Economist welcomes your
views.
8 Things on the Web We'd Like to Throw Down a Black Hole
By Michael Calore (Wired Top
Stories)
Economy/ Social Net/ * 15
Twitter and Facebook
DDoS Attacks Targeted
One Man
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 12:19:35 AM
Did Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal,
YouTube, Google Sites and Google’s
Blogger all get attacked yesterday to
silence one man? According to the
testimony of a Facebook executive,
they did.
conflict between Russia and Georgia.
A blogger in the Republic of The aim was to take down Cyxymu’s
Georgia with the username Cyxymu
accounts, particularly the LiveJournal
was the victim, according to blog where he posted about the crisis.
Facebook’s chief security officer
While Google’s sites held up to the
Max Kelly. The claims cement barrage, Twitter and LiveJournal
earlier reports that social networking
proved less robust.
sites have been dragged into the While DDoS attacks are
Georgia-Russia crisis, leading to the
notoriously hard to defend against,
first simultaneous attack on the it’s clear that Twitter was far less
largest social media sites. Kelly told
equipped to cope with such an attack:
CNet:: no doubt they’ll be taking a closer
“It was a simultaneous attack across
look at how such issues could be
a number of properties targeting him handled in the future. Full Coverage
to keep his voice from being heard.
of the Social Media DDoS
We’re actively investigating the – Is Cyber Warfare to Blame for
source of the attacks and we hope to
Twitter Meltdown?
be able to find out the individuals – Denial of Service Attacks Being
involved in the back end and to take
Investigated by Google, Twitter,
action against them if we can.” Facebook
Google is quoted as saying:
– Facebook Problems Also the
“We are aware that a handful of non Result of DDoS Attack
-Google sites were impacted by a
– Twitter Outage Explained: What’s
DOS attack this morning, and are in a Distributed Denial of Service
contact with some affected
Attack (DDoS)?
companies to help investigate this – Twitter Down Due to Denial of
attack. Google systems prevented
Service Attack (DDoS)
substantive impact to our services.” – Facebook Down. Twitter Down.
As part of the attack, spam was Social Media Meltdown.
sent to LiveJournal users that – Twitter Down: Twitter Doesn’t
appeared to come from cyxymu. Know Why
Political Motives Reviews: Facebook, Google,
The claims back up earlier reports Twitter, YouTube, blogger
in the New York Times that
Thursday’s attack was sparked by the
Webmonkey lists its picks for the decency on the web.
most egregious and heinous
violations of common sense and
16 Social Net/ *
IE6 MUST DIE: 70+
Sites Unite to Kill IE6
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 3:43:20 AM
On Tuesday we brought you news
of IE6 No More, the movement to
accelerate the death of Internet
Explorer 6. The campaign asks sites
to include code that detects IE6
visitors and encourages them to
upgrade to Firefox, IE8, Safari or
Google Chrome. On Tuesday the
movement composed of around a
dozen sites, today that number
exceeds 70 participants.
The sites jumping on board are by
no means insignificant: they include
established internet startups,
consulting firms and (of course)
design blogs. As the sites creator,
David Rusenko, told us on Tuesday,
the aim is to target both personal
users who are behind the times and
put pressure on corporate IT
departments:
“We think we can have a huge
impact: For those users that are just
unaware they are using an old
browser (mothers, grandmothers),
we’d like to encourage them to
Forget US Weekly; Roger Federer Shares Baby Photos on Facebook
By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 8:07:24 AM
When you check out at the
supermarket, you’ve probably
noticed celeb magazines like People
and US Weekly touting having the
first photos of a famous person’s
baby. These must sell pretty well,
because stars have been paid up to
Video: How IMAX Wizards Convert 'Harry Potter' to 3-D
By Lewis Wallace (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:33:00 PM
An exclusive behind-the-scenes clip
upgrade and have a better experience
using our sites. For those users in
corporate environments, we’d like to
start putting pressure on the IT
department to upgrade — the more
users who complain about seeing the
prompts (especially if coming from
the top), the more pressure the IT
department will have to either
upgrade IE 6 or install Firefox side-
by-side with IE 6 for compatibility
reasons.”
With 72 sites on board at last
count, that aim is closer to becoming
a reality.
For further coverage, see: IE6 Must
Die for the Web to Move On. Twitter
users can also join the movement
against IE6 by adding a ribbon to
their Twitter avatars. IE6 No More:
Who’s On Board
Reviews: Firefox, Google Chrome,
Internet Explorer, Safari, Twitter
$11 million for such photos.
Say what you want about this
practice, but it’s certainly refreshing
that at least some stars are forgoing it
and going directly to their fans.
Tennis champ Roger Federer is the
latest, sharing the first photos of his
new twin girls with his 2.5+ million
Facebook fans.
Considering his level of global
shows off the proprietary technology
used to transform Half-Blood
DDoS SUCKS: Create a
Custom Twitter Outage
Avatar
By Pete Cashmore (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:43:41 AM
Twibbon, a neat service that lets
you customize your Twitter avatar to
support movements you believe in –
from charities to IE6 No More– is
releasing a new series of Twitter
ribbons today in light of yesterday’s
Twitter outage (see Twitter Down).
The new ribbons include a Fail
Whale (my favorite), “DDoS
SUCKS”, the Fail Caterpillar and an
upside-down Twitter bird.
The Twibbon concept is both
effective and wonderfully simple: it
provides a great way to rally around
a cause and identify with a group on
Twitter. Full Coverage of the Social
Media DDoS
superstardom, Federer has become
one of the more actively engaged
Prince's striking opening sequence
from two dimensions to three.
– Twitter and Facebook DDoS
Attacks Targeted One Man
– Is Cyber Warfare to Blame for
Twitter Meltdown?
– Denial of Service Attacks Being
Investigated by Google, Twitter,
Facebook
– Facebook Problems Also the
Result of DDoS Attack
– Twitter Outage Explained: What’s
a Distributed Denial of Service
Attack (DDoS)?
– Twitter Down Due to Denial of
Service Attack (DDoS)
– Facebook Down. Twitter Down.
Social Media Meltdown.
– Twitter Down: Twitter Doesn’t
Know Why Reviews: Twitter
celebs in social media. He routinely
posts photos, videos, and updates to
his Facebook Page, and even takes
time to answer questions from young
tennis players. He also shared his
enthusiasm for the platform when
announcing he had hit 2 million
followers during an ESPN interview.
In turn, his fan engagement is off
the charts – since posting the baby
Internet News Record
'The Bachelorette''s Exec
Producer Weighs In on
the Jillian & Ed Scandal
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 12:19:00 AM
Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski
appeared on "Good Morning
America" to put the kibosh on
rumors that they weren't a real
couple, and that Ed had been
cheating on her. Now ET talks to
Mike Fleiss, the executive producer
of "The Bachelorette" and FOX's
new dating series, "More To Love,"
about his take on their relationship.
"They are a real couple," he tells
ET. "They are engaged. I am always
optimistic about these things. I think
they look like a real couple. I can see
them staying together. She is such a
level-headed person. And he seems
like a level-headed person -- maybe
they will be able to survive this
media blitz."
When asked if all the scandals on
both "The Bachelor" and "The
Bachelorette" could hurt the show,
Fleiss says, "What do you think?
Booyah!"
photo four hours ago, it’s already
received 55,000+ likes and 14,000+
comments.
Tags: baby photos, facebook, roger
federer
Internet News Record
As DDoS Attacks Cool, Yet
Another Twitter Spam
Invasion Underway
By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:36:38 PM
As we learn more about the Denial
of Service Attacks that took down
Twitter and other social media sites
earlier today, yet another wave of
spam is invading the microblogging
service. Thousands of tweets are
currently being spread around the
network pointing to a website
promoting a dubious money making
scheme: ThursdayProfit.org.
It appears that this is the exact
same scam as yesterday, where links
to the same style of site with a
different domain name flooded
Twitter. This is at least the third time
this week that this scam has surfaced,
though at the moment, it remains
unclear if it’s the result of a
That which cannot be googled
By Rafe Needleman
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 11:57:00 AM
The Web has made cheaters of us
all. It's why I don't play online
Scrabble anymore. I like to play
honestly. It's more of a challenge.
Until I find myself getting smoked by
my 11-year-old nephew with
"Zymurgy" on a triple word. Right.
Then the gloves come off and the
anagram generator comes up, you
little squirt. But where's the fun in
that?
The tendency for people to cheat
online is one of the reasons I initially
told Jeremy Toeman I wasn't going to
cover his Twitter quiz game, Trivia
On Twitter, which rewards fast
answers to Twittered trivia questions
with real prizes. What's the challenge
here? Anything you can ask can be
compromised third-party app, a
phishing scam, or perhaps related to
today’s DDoS attacks.
Speaking of today’s DDoS attacks,
the latest news is that they may have
indeed been related to the Russia-
Georgia conflict, with CNET
reporting that a single pro-Georgian
blogger and his identities across
social media sites may have been the
target of today’s attacks. Who might
be responsible for them, however,
remains a mystery for the moment.
Reviews: Twitter
Tags: ddos, twitter
googled. The best players would be
those who are able to read search
results pages the fastest. No fun.
Google knows.(Credit: Screenshot
by Rafe Needleman/CNET)
But, Toeman told me today, he's
trying to come up with trivia
challenges that rewards more than
google skills. Some of the questions
involve calculations, or multiple
steps, such as "How many U.S. states
are there with only four different
letters in their names?" He's also
looking at creating picture questions,
in which players have to identify an
image. He'll be running the pictures
through an image editor first,
modifying them so image-matching
engines like TinEye are not likely to
find them.
These methods have their flaws.
The first type of question might turn
off pure trivia buffs, and the second
Murder Plot Gone Wrong
Captured in YouTube Video
By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:59:14 PM
The video seems like something out
of a TV crime show. And, as it turns
out, that’s because it’s a serious
acting job. Dalia Dippolito of Boyton
Beach, Florida thought she had a
foolproof plot for killing her
husband. Unfortunately for her, the
hitman she hired was actually an
undercover police officer.
In turn, the Boyton Beach police
setup a fake crime scene, where they
informed Dippolito that her husband
was dead (he wasn’t). Her reaction
was captured on video and uploaded
to YouTube– video that will
ultimately serve as evidence when
penalizes players who are using the
service via mobile devices (since the
pictures are viewed on linked Web
sites).
So straight-up trivia will remain the
focus of the game. And for those
standard trivia questions, Toeman
says, the nature of the Internet means
that the trivia team has to reverse-
engineer questions (culled, often,
from their own google queries) to
reward people with actual
knowledge, compared to those who
are speedy googlers.
The team has to make clear trivia
questions into bad google queries.
Dippolito stands trial for solicitation
to commit first degree murder.
The full details of the bizarre story
are available on the Boyton Beach
PD website ( PDF link), but here’s
the video that will earn Dippolito her
15 minutes of fame, and most likely,
15+ years of jail time:
Reviews: YouTube
Tags: Dalia Dippolito, youtube
But the game rewards speedy
answers. The idea is to craft
questions for which only people with
their own knowledge are likely to be
first. "The goal," Toeman tells me,
"is not to make questions more time-
consuming, but to reward the people
who actually have the knowledge." If
you really know something, you can
still be faster than someone who has
to look it up. Toeman says that the
typical response time for the first
right answer on the game is fifteen
seconds. The slowest time-to-correct-
answer is still under one minute.
Trivia On Twitter's business model
includes running sponsored
giveaways so there's some motivation
from users to employ all means
possible to win games. To date, the
prizes have been in the Bluetooth
headset range, keeping organized
"cheating" to a minimum, but if this
Social Net/ * 17
Hacking, Lock-Picking,
Booze and Bacon:
DefCon 17 In Review
By Dave Bullock (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:28:00 PM
The hacker conference in Las Vegas
featured cracked ATMs, badges,
parking meters, locks, video cameras
and more. Take a tour of some of the
event's highlights.
business succeeds and gets bigger, it
will end up with bigger prizes,
raising the motivation to win at all
costs by gathering teams of people,
poised at their computers--some on
Wikipedia, others on IMDB, others
at search engines--ready to look up
questions in particular areas. The
game currently has fewer than 3,000
followers, so there's a lot of room left
for growth.
From a business perspective,
Toeman isn't sure if trying to foil the
googlers is the right way to go. He
says, "Maybe the right way is to
make the questions easier, so more
people play." There's less fun in that
model, I think. Although probably
more money.
Originally posted at Rafe's Radar
18 * Internet News Record
How Flickr needs to change
By Stephen Shankland
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:00:00 AM
I use and enjoy Flickr. But with
each passing month it worries me
more that when I visit a photo page
on the Yahoo photo-sharing site, it
looks essentially identical to when I
first started using it four years ago.
Flickr has typical online photo site
abilities to upload, share, and print
photos. What sets it apart, though,
are features that make Flickr a
community: discussions in comments
below photos, groups for like-minded
photographers to share their work,
and social networking attributes that
let people stay on top of their
contacts' doings.
Flickr revamped members' home
pages starting last September,
drawing more attention to recent
activity such as people who added
you as a contact or who commented
on your photos. The change was
smart: Flickr was a socially wired
site before social networking became
all the rage, and photography is a
great way for people to stay engaged
with their friends and relations.
But now it's time for the rest of the
upgrade. Here's what pains me most:
The photo page. With Flickr, you
can have large photos or you can
have comments and navigation, but
you can't have both. Photos are best
viewed larger than Flickr's default
500-pixels width. Clicking "all sizes"
to see lavishly large views sends you
down browser dead end: you'll have
to click the back button when it's
time to add comments or navigate to
the next photo.
The photostream page. Flickr
organizes your photos as one giant
filmstrip called the photostream. But
viewing somebody's most recent
shots on the photostream page again
forces you back into the small-
monitor past. The default view for
me shows 18 small photos, 10 sets,
and an ocean of white space even on
my laptop.
The profile page. I rarely look at
people's profile pages unless I'm
trying to contact them or figure out
who's behind a cryptic username. But
there should be a way to make the
profile page the anchor of a Flickr
user's online identity, the public face
presented to Flickr users. People
judge others by their photostreams,
which in my case these days is more
about family photos than works of art
or moving photojournalism, so I'd
like to show them an automatically
updated page of my top picks
instead.
Fortunately, Flickr is working on
several improvements detailed below
by product strategy chief Matthew
Rothenberg. But he kept mum about
timing: "We're planning to be
progressively rolling out
enhancements over time," he said.
Show 'em how it's done
"Innovation happens elsewhere" is a
worn-out Silicon Valley business
cliche, but there's some truth to it. It's
especially appropriate for Flickr,
because the site lets others built atop
it using Flickr's API, or application
programming interface. Tasks such
as flipping through a person's photos,
adding comments, looking up
interesting shots, and uploading
photos all can be done without
having to touch Flickr directly.
The Flickroom beta software
presents a new face on Yahoo's photo
-sharing site.(Credit: Screenshot by
Stephen Shankland/CNET)
The power of the Flickr API was
shown most clearly to me a year and
a half ago, when I tried Photophlow,
a site that makes Flickr into a photo-
centric chat room. Photophlow lets
people collectively breeze through
photos, marking photos as favorites
and leaving comments as they go
Now there's a new kid in town with
some other ideas, a beta application
called Flickroom. It's built atop
Adobe Systems' AIR foundation and
presents a fashionably dark
background for viewing pictures.
There are plenty of icons to traverse
photos
Flickroom has some bugs and
idiosyncrasies, and fundamentally it's
not shifting any Flickr paradigms
beyond the user interface. But it does
manage to illustrate what can be done
with Flickr's raw material. I
especially liked the flip through the
large sizes of a user's photos.
Another good example of what can
be done with Flickr's API is Darckr,
which shows what Flickr (not
entirely badly) believes to be your
most interesting shots set off against
a black background. I'm not going to
be showing my photostream as my
portfolio, but my interesting shots on
Darckr aren't so mundane.
There are plenty more.
Photoshop.com from Adobe, for
example, not only gives a new
interface to Flickr but lets you edit
your photos, too.
Google's Picasa Web Albums is set
up more for showing family pictures
than for spawning a community of
macro or Holga photography, but it
can teach Flickr a thing or two.
Google boasted in June of a revamp
that makes photos load much faster,
even at full-screen size, and it wasn't
idle boasting. And even if Picasa
photos are framed by more clutter
than Flickr's photos, at least the
photos can be viewed larger.
Photoshop.com offers online image
editing and sharing.(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen
Shankland/CNET)
The good news
Flickr may not be moving fast
enough for me, but happily, it's not
standing still, either.
"The core photo-sharing experience
on Flickr is the area we want to
spend most of our time on now,"
Rothenberg said. He pointed toward
"the photo page in particular, the
photostream, photos from your
contacts--all aspects of site core to
the photo-sharing mission of Flickr
but that haven't really been brought
in line."
Also, probably not just to throw me
a bone because I'm a fan of location
tags in photos, he added, "Even
geotagging, (we'd like) to bring it
more into the core experience."
He couldn't comment on my
specific gripes about wasted screen
real estate, though he did mount a bit
defense of white space. However, it's
clear Flickr understands the issue,
because he did take pains to mention
Flickr's new search tool launched
Tuesday. It can take advantage of
available screen size.
Photophlow, though its
development is dormant for now, can
make it fun for groups to browse and
comment on Flickr pictures.(Credit:
Screenshot by Stephen
Shankland/CNET)
Flickr's absolute priority is a page
on which the photo looks good, but
the site must also balance that with
social and navigational features.
"There's a large amount of
information we store and display and
allow people to interact with--sizes,
licensing, location information,
comments, favoriting," he said. "We
want to make all those options as
easy and efficient as possible."
Flickr also wants to improve
navigation and organization, two
areas that I believe the computer
industry always will face.
Rothenberg
Lowered expectations
Rothenberg lowered my hopes
regarding a handful of other areas I
could see improved.
Threaded comments: I find it hard
to traverse longer discussions, in
which people sometimes try to
address each other with the
@username convention, but
Rothenberg pointed out fairly that
most photos don't have such
complicated discussions. "For most
people it's question of whether
getting any comments on the photo,"
he said. "We want to make that social
aspect of photos matter to members
more than it does today."
Beefed-up Flickrmail: Flickr isn't
designed to replace Yahoo Mail or
Gmail, he said, but that doesn't mean
e-mail and photos don't go together
(as Yahoo's acquisition of Xoopit
indicates). Rothenberg hinted at
future integration: "For a large
percentage of people on the Internet,
the way they share photos is through
e-mail. For Flickr to be the most
useful site for our members, it needs
to work well with all the ways they
share photos."
Face recognition: A Google-like
approach to face recognition doesn't
look likely, either. Facebook's social
approach to getting people identified
in photos is more in keeping with
Flickr's style than Google's computer
-based method. "We try to optimize
toward social interactions rather than
algorithms," he said.
Longer video: Flickr is happy with
its 90-second video limit, which was
set not because of any hardware
limits at Yahoo but because of an
aesthetic liking for what Rothenberg
terms "moving photos."
Tags drawn from metadata: I'd love
to sift images by camera, lens, shutter
speed, and the like, which is
information Flickr extracts from data
cameras automatically embed in most
photos. That's a technical matter
Flickr has pondered, but "we don't
have any immediate plans,"
Rothenberg said. "In general we want
to make it easier to find the photos
most important to you on Flickr.
There are other areas we can improve
on more immediately."
None of these are really grating
issues for me, though, and I can see
Internet News Record * 19

Find new video podcasts with these directories

By Don Reisinger
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:32:32 PM

TiVo announced Wednesday that

subscribers will now be able to
manually input a video podcast's RSS
feed into their TiVo software to
watch those shows through their
DVRs. That means it's time to find
out what your favorite shows' RSS
feeds are. It also means you might
want to expand what you watch,
since another set-top box is bringing
Web videos to your television.
But finding those shows isn't
always easy. Realizing that, I thought
I'd highlight online video podcast
directories that will help you find
shows you're really interested in.
From professional content to amateur
shows for niche audiences, these sites
will help you find whatever you're
looking for.
Before we get into it, I should note
that iTunes is another fine way to
find video podcasts. Simply click the
"Video Podcasts" option in the
software and you'll be able to search
through shows.
Find some shows
Miro Guide: Miro Guide is a
repository for video podcasts. The
site is well-designed. It also has a
nice listing of both popular shows
and niche listings. I was really impressed with Odeo. you to search through listings based really liked Podanza. With so many 30,000 shows to choose from. When
When you get to Miro Guide, you The site has one of the biggest on genre. You can also search the great features, it's worth checking you find a show you like, you can opt
can immediately start searching for listings of shows in this roundup. On listings if you want to find a out. to subscribe to it or see its feed.
video podcasts. A show's listing page topics ranging from technology to particular show. Podanza is convenient and well- PodcastAlley lists thousands of
allows you to subscribe to the RSS politics, you'll find a variety of video Since Podanza features both audio designed.(Credit: Screenshot by Don video shows worth checking
feed, add its feed to Miro, so you can podcasts worth watching. When you and video podcasts, you will need to Reisinger/CNET) out.(Credit: Screenshot by Don
watch it on the site, or download it to pick a show you want to try out, you sift through audio shows you're not PodcastAlley: PodcastAlley lists Reisinger/CNET)
your computer. If you're only looking can opt to subscribe on Odeo's site, looking for. But that's just a small thousands of shows for you to check Podcast Pickle: Podcast Pickle
for the feed, it provides that too. I copy and paste the RSS feed to a annoyance after you realize that the out on a variety of topics. It's not as offers several great shows that you
was really impressed with Miro service, like the TiVo, or watch it site features one of the best designs well-designed as Odeo, but it does might want to check out.
Guide. With so many listings, it's right on the site. You can even in this roundup. Finding the show make it easy to get around the site to Podcast Pickle displays its shows
worth trying out. subscribe to the show in iTunes. you want takes just a few seconds. find a show that interests you. by genre. You can find them in a
Miro Guide has a nice design and a You'll like Odeo. It's an extremely When you do so, the site gives you PodcastAlley lists both video and variety of topics, including cinema,
great listing of shows.(Credit: useful directory. the option of visiting the show's audio podcasts. Depending on what technology, and more. If you're
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET) Odeo has some great features you page, accessing its RSS feed, or you're looking for, you should be looking to get into something new,
Odeo: Odeo is one of the best won't want to miss.(Credit: watching it right on Podanza's pages. happy with what the site provides. the site's "Random Podcast" tool is a
podcast directories in this roundup. It Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET) If you like what you're watching, you Even its smallest category, great feature. Simply click on it and
allows you to search for both audio Podanza: Podanza is a great can also post a Podanza badge to Government, lists 16 shows. Its
and video shows. podcast directory. The site allows your blog to help promote the show. I biggest category, General, has almost
20 * Internet News Record
Burning Question: How Do I Future- Social broadcasting tool
Proof My Digital Media? SplashCast to shut down
By Bryan Gardiner (Wired Top
Stories)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:00:00 PM
You've spent years hoarding digital
media, tossing aside those flimsy
tape and plastic prisons after
transmuting the information into its
purer form. No outdated vessel is
going to prevent your endless
enjoyment of its contents, right?
Think again, Highlander.
Digital media is not immune to the
winds of time. In many ways, it's
even more ephemeral than the analog
forms it's meant to usurp. Unlike,
say, books or photographs—which
can be placed on a shelf and enjoyed
decades later—the binary codes of
today's movie, photo, and music
collections may not be decipherable
on future machines.
"Most people still haven't realized
that digital files require software to
render them into forms that humans
can perceive," says Jeff Rothenberg,
a computer scientist at the Rand
Corporation and an expert in digital
preservation. Making matters worse,
that rendering software often
becomes obsolete as companies go
belly-up or stop supporting file
FIND
continued from page 19
it randomly picks a podcast for you
to check out. Like most of the other
sites in this roundup, you can also
view the most-popular podcasts and
those that have been added most
recently. But beware that if you're
looking for video, Podcast Pickle
also features audio shows, so you
will need to sift through those to find
what you're looking for.
It's not pretty, but Podcast Pickle
has several offerings.(Credit:
Screenshot by Don Reisinger/CNET)
VideoPodcasts.tv: Although its
design is suspect, VideoPodcasts.tv
will help you find a variety of niche
formats.
So how do you keep filling the bit
bucket without spilling valuable 1s
and 0s? It's rarely easy. There are
already a bazillion methods of
compressing and encrypting media,
and the number is only increasing.
The safe road sticks to open
standards and popular formats,
Rothenberg says.
For music, your choices are pretty
well defined: If you're more
concerned about space than fidelity,
go with the ubiquitous MP3. If you
need to hear every nuance and have
the gigs to back your play, WAV (the
CD's audio format) is a good bet for
lossless audio.
When dealing with images, most
archivists recommend a raw format
(if you've got terabytes to spare) or
TIFF. But both can be tricky. Raw
files are the unmolested data captured
by a camera's sensor. Each
manufacturer has its own version,
and you'll need special software to
decode it. As long as you keep the
program (there's also a Photoshop
plug-in), you should be OK, and
you'll benefit from the best possible
image quality. TIFF, on the other
hand, is a high-quality compression
video podcasts. The site lists shows
in categories ranging from
technology to education. The sheer
variety of shows it offers should
make you happy.
When you find a show you want to
watch, you can either go directly to
the show's page or watch it right on
the site. It even gives you the
opportunity to send the show to your
mobile phone. If you're only looking
for the feed so you can add it to your
TiVo, VideoPodcasts.tv lists that too.
Although I was happy with the site's
variety, VideoPodcasts.tv is ugly.
Worse, it's tough to search through.
scheme that has remained mostly
unchanged since 1992. But it's a
proprietary Adobe format. If that
makes you nervous, use common
compressed standards like JPEG or
PNG; they'll likely be readable for
years, though they can't match raw or
TIFF files for quality.
Unfortunately, movies are a bit
dicier, as digital video is relatively
new to the mix. The H.264 standard
seems poised to emerge as a
universal format, at least for HD
video. But MPEG-2—the native
language of DVDs—is the
undisputed king of standard-def
moving pictures. Either one should
buy you peace of mind for a few
years.
It's tempting to seek out a single
magic format that preserves
everything forever. You won't find it.
The only surefire way to future-proof
is to stay current. If that seems like
too much work, there's another
option: Keep your hard-copy photos,
CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays (plus your
old hardware). Have fun re-sorting
them on the fly.
Those issues ruined the experience
for me.
VideoPodcasts.tv has a poor
design.(Credit: Screenshot by Don
Reisinger/CNET)
My top three
1. Odeo: With so many listings,
Odeo is simply the best directory in
this roundup.
2. Podanza: Podanza has a great
design and some nice features.
3. Miro Guide: With a variety of
convenient features, Miro Guide isn't
too bad either.
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 11:09:00 AM
Five-year-old start-up SplashCast
Media will be shutting down in the
next few weeks. Co-founder and
CEO Michael Berkley put out a
company blog post earlier this week
detailing the various directions the
company had taken, going from an
enterprise content management tool,
all the way to a video player that was
integrated with social networks like
Facebook and MySpace--none of
which were enough to keep it afloat.
"At each turn, we moved from what
ultimately proved to be a declining
market opportunity to a larger
opportunity," Berkley said. "We have
a lot to be proud of. In addition we
have a lot of lessons learned to
humbly take with us as we move on."
Berkley noted that one of the
leading causes for the demise was
publishers not wanting to pay to use
its technology, which had previously
been offered for free. He also said
that the VC community was not
willing to "bet" on the company,
despite it picking up a $4 million
Series A funding in late March last
year.
SplashCast's Social TV player
would let users watch TV shows and
embed them on their social-
networking pages.(Credit: CNET)
Between becoming a social TV
service, and its start as a CMS for
enterprise users, one of the
company's most interesting products
HOW
continued from page 18
Rothenberg's point of view. So I'll
willingly cut Flickr slack here.
As for the other fixes, I'll console
myself that Rothenberg and I see eye
to eye when it comes to the site's
vision and priority: "Flickr needs to
was its consumer publishing
platform. This would let anyone grab
all types of media and mash them up
into a single player that could be
syndicated in various channels--
regardless of the content type. This
meant you could mix videos, photos,
audio clips, and even RSS feeds.
It was one of the few products at
the time that would actually let you
get away with such a hodgepodge in
a single package. This later
developed into a professional
publishing platform the company was
unable to charge for, which definitely
serves as a good example for other
companies who may one day expect
to charge for services that are
currently being offered free of
charge.
Previous coverage:
SplashCast: Share everything in
one place
SplashCast gets a little more social,
bird-like
SplashCast and NPR do podcast
player, Facebook app
SplashCast launching ultrasocial
video player tomorrow
SplashCast launches
MyPodcastNetwork
Originally posted at Web Crawler
be the best place to be a photo if
you're a photo."
Originally posted at Underexposed
Internet News Record
New FeedDemon only syncs with Google Reader
By Seth Rosenblatt cleanly than RC 3, but users with
(Webware.com) high unread counts will still lose
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:01:29 PM
most unread feeds.(Credit:
Screenshot by Seth
As FeedDemon closes in on Rosenblatt/CNET)
finalizing the code for version 3, Bradbury has stated in blog posts
FeedDemon 3 RC 4 abandons its and forum messages that he hopes
proprietary online synchronization at this will open FeedDemon to a wider
newsgator.com. The fourth release audience, but the road to prepare
candidate syncs only with Google FeedDemon for Google Reader has
Reader, as FeedDemon's creator Nick not been a smooth one. Many fans of
Bradbury announced it would last the program have expressed
week. frustration with the loss of features
FeedDemon 3 RC 4 syncs with such as authenticated feeds and
Google Reader faster and more synced clippings.
In FeedDemon 3 RC 4, the
synchronization scripts have been re-
written to be faster and more
accurate, and those changes show
when compared to the third release
candidate. The fourth RC only used
42 MB of RAM, as well. However,
the conversion process won't be able
to handle large numbers of unread
posts, and limits the unread count to
10 per RSS feed. This is because
Google Reader is limited to
considering only 10 feeds unread
from the past 30 days when
subscribing.
Most of the other improvements in
this release candidate are geared
towards streamlining the conversion
process to Google Reader. There's a
new startup option to convert
NewsGator subscriptions to Google
Reader, and there's a link to create a
Google Account from the Google
Account window. Tags have gained
prominence over clippings in the new
version. Clippings will exist only if
grandfathered in from a previous
version.
Originally posted at The Download
Blog
* 21
Richard
Gasquet's Drug
Alibi Blows
By Greg Couch (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:40:00 PM
by Greg Couch
Filed under: ATP To think, Richard
Gasquet was making all the
preposterous stories and excuses
believable: Your dog did eat your
homework. There really is an
alligator in the sewer. You really
could get some ugly diseases from
public toilets. (I might believe that
one.)
Gasquet was the tennis player who
had failed a cocaine test, and then
won the appeal, saying he would
never, ever use cocaine, and that he
must have ingested it by kissing a
user he met at the bar known for drug
use. He gave the woman the name
"Pamela" to protect her identity.
AND THEY LET HIM GO!
Richard Gasquet's Drug Alibi
Blows originally appeared on
Fanhouse Tennis on Thu, 06 Aug
2009 21:40:00 EST . Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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22 * Internet News Record
Prototype
OpenOffice.org gets
ribboned
By Dong Ngo (Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:43:00 PM
The new prototype UI of
OpenOffice.org.(Credit: Sun)
I am possibly the only one among
my co-workers who hasn't moved to
Office 2007. I just can't stand the
ribbon toolbar, which makes working
with documents require a lot of
mouse clicking. The traditional
menus have been working just fine
and I prefer being able to move
around with keyboard shortcuts.
It's sad that together with Windows
7, Microsoft is forcing this new user
interface on all of us. Applications
that come with the new operating
system, such as Write or Paint, are
also using the ribbon toolbar instead
of menus.
And it seems Sun is doing the same
thing with its popular
OpenOffice.org suite, which offers
free alternatives to Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint.
According to a blog from Frank
Loehman, a developer of
OpenOffice.org, Sun is working on
creating a new user interface for the
open-source office suite. And from
the screenshot, the new UI seems
very much like the ribbons found in
Office 2007.
However, fortunately, the menu bar
is still there. Hopefully this means
the suite will still offer the menu UI
in addition to the ribbon bar.
According to Loehman, the new UI
is still in the testing phase and the
content of the toolbars and the group
labeling are subject to change. Sun is
looking for user feedback on the new
UI and my feedback is this: just get
rid of the ribbon or offer people the
option to pick between the two of
them.
Digg's diggable ads
coming this week
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:59:00 PM
Digg's new advertising system, the
one that changes how much
advertisers have to pay based on how
popular their ads are, is going live in
the next few days. A new company
blog post says that the new system
will be very limited in its scale, both
in how many advertisers are a part of
the pilot program, and how many ads
are being placed around the site. So
much so that "many (users) will not
see them."
If all goes according to plan, these
new ads could one day take the place
of Digg's existing and traditional
advertising, which uses ads that are
sold at a fixed price. The newer
system relies on user interaction to
adjust the price according to how
many up or down votes an ad has.
The more people like the ad, the less
the advertiser has to pay, with the
lame ones having a limited run and a
higher cost.
When I first heard about this
Magic GM Not Shocked By Rashard Lewis
Steroid Suspension
By Tim Povtak (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:46:00 PM
by Tim Povtak
Filed under: Magic, FanHouse
Exclusive Orlando Magic general
manager Otis Smith said Thursday
that he was not shocked when a
league official notified him this week
that Rashard Lewis was being
suspended for the first 10 games of
next season for violating the NBA's
Anti-Drug program.
Lewis tested positive for the
testosterone-producing steroid
commonly referred to as DHEA
(Dehydroepiandrosterone), which
system I was skeptical, since the ads
looked and acted so much like
existing on-page Digg content. But at
the same time, it means that
advertisers are going to have to work
much, much harder to get user
attention in a way that's tailored to
the audience. For Digg users this
means they get control not only of
the stories that are hitting the front
page, but also the ads that appear on
it.
Here's what it will look like:
The new Digg ads can be dugg or
buried by users, and affect how much
the advertisers have to pay.(Credit:
Digg / CNET)
Originally posted at Web Crawler
was part of a supplement he started
taking late in the season. The
chemical is banned by most sports
leagues, including the NBA, but it is
contained in several over-the-counter
Podcast: Twitter
attacker had
Georgia in mind
By Larry Magid (Webware.com)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:51:00 PM
Elinor Mills(Credit: CNET)
CNET security and privacy
reporter Elinor Mills, who has been
reporting on the Twitter, Facebook,
and Google denial of service attacks
since early Thursday morning,
interviewed a Facebook executive
who told her that the attacks
appeared not to be aimed at Twitter
or Facebook but toward an individual
person who blogs about
independence of a breakaway region
of Georgia. But even though it was
aimed at one person, the sheer size of
the attack was enough to bring down
Twitter and impact Facebook.
The podcast runs 4 minutes and 53
seconds.
Listen now: Download today's
podcast
Originally posted at Safe and
Secure
supplements.
The positive test stemmed from a
urine sample provided by Lewis
during the playoffs before they
reached the NBA Finals. More:
Lewis Suspended 10 Games|
Supplement Legal in MLB
Magic GM Not Shocked By
Rashard Lewis Steroid Suspension
originally appeared on Fanhouse
NBA Blog on Thu, 06 Aug 2009
18:46:00 EST . Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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Internet News Record
(Super Bowl XLIV
Champion?) Patriots Deal
for Derrick Burgess
By Chris Burke (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:10:00 PM
by Chris Burke
Filed under: Patriots, Raiders, NFL
Analysis Bad news for anyone who
enjoyed watching Tom Brady-less
New England miss out on the
playoffs last year -- the Patriots are
the odds-on favorite to win the Super
Bowl XLIV. And those numbers
came out before Thursday's trade that
brought them Derrick Burgess from
Oakland.
A disgruntled Burgess, in the final
year of his current contract, had been
holding out of Raiders training camp
in search of the pay raise and
extension that he's wanted for years.
Oakland refused to budge, though,
and Burgess became much more
expendable after Greg Ellis landed
with the silver and black.
New England saw the obvious
opportunity. Burgess, 30 and owed
$2 million this season, should fit in
perfectly as the Patriots' outside
linebacker/rush end spot, currently
held by Pierre Woods. Whether New
England opts to use a 3-4 or a 4-3,
Burgess is still capable of making
Smoltz's Struggles Leave Sox in Bind
By Lisa Olson (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 2:00:00 AM
by Lisa Olson
Filed under: MLB NEW YORK --
Legendary reputation intersected
with rapid decline Thursday night in
the Bronx, and the aftermath of the
collision wasn't pretty. There stood
John Smoltz, one of the brightest
stars in baseball across the last two
decades, watching what's left of his
amazing career crumble to pieces on
the Yankee Stadium mound.
One after another Yankee batters
sure someone's gets in the
quarterback's face.
(Super Bowl XLIV Champion?)
Patriots Deal for Derrick Burgess
originally appeared on Fanhouse
NFL Blog on Thu, 06 Aug 2009
19:10:00 EST . Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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sliced apart Smoltz, until it was clear
he had nothing more to give. Was
this it? Would this be the final
wheeze in his last hurrah, Smoltz's
Packers Get Physical and
Brawl at Green Bay's Fast-
Paced Camp
By Nancy Gay (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:00:00 AM
by Nancy Gay
Filed under: Packers, NFC North,
NFL Training Camp GREEN BAY,
Wis. -- Practice pace in training
camps varies from team to team.
Most are in the throes of full contact
by now, although the "teaching"
Oakland Raiders went through eight
full practices and a day of team
meetings at the Napa Marriott before
even donning pads this week.
Green Bay, the attitude is hit
somebody, and hit 'em hard. Head
coach Mike McCarthy has instructed
his retooling Packers to go full-bore
every play, every workout. The pace
is swift as the team switches from
individual to team drills at Nitschke
Field.
And fiery new defensive assistants,
such as outside linebackers coach
Kevin Greene-- the former five-time
Pro Bowler and pro wrestler -- and
defensive line coach Mike Trgovac,
epitaph noting he'd suffered death by
lefties? He's pitched so brilliantly for
so many years, packing heart and
soul into every outing, and yet the
Red Sox have to know.
They can't win a pennant with
Smoltz in the rotation.
Smoltz's Struggles Leave Sox in
Bind originally appeared on
Fanhouse - Lisa Olson on Fri, 07
Aug 2009 02:00:00 EST . Please see
our terms for use of feeds.
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who spent the past six seasons as the
Panthers' defensive coordinator, have
the green light to push, shout and
generally stoke their players into a
near frenzy on the practice field.
Packers Get Physical and Brawl at
Green Bay's Fast-Paced Camp
originally appeared on Fanhouse
NFL Blog on Fri, 07 Aug 2009
07:00:00 EST . Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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The Creepy Anatomy
of a Lego Minifig:
Now In 3D [Lego]
By Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:45:00 PM
Remember the fascinating and
spooky anatomy of the Lego
Minifig? Well, it gets even more
fascinating and spookier when it's
animated in 3D, which is precisely
what the original designer—Jason
Freeny—did. [ Moist Production via
The Brothers Brick]
* Gizmos/ 23
MMA Chat: UFC 101,
WEC 42 and Fedor
Emelianenko to
Strikeforce
By Ariel Helwani (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 12:46:00 AM
by Ariel Helwani
Filed under: UFC, WEC,
Strikeforce There's certainly no
shortage of topics to discuss when it
comes to mixed martial arts these
days. So we thought this would be a
good time to dust off the old chat
room to make sense of it all. Join the
MMA FanHouse crew at 1 PM ET to
chat about Saturday's UFC 101 event,
WEC 42 on Sunday, Fedor
Emelianenko signing with
Strikeforce, or any other MMA-
related topics on your mind.
Friday's live chat starts below at 1
PM ET.
MMA Chat: UFC 101, WEC 42
and Fedor Emelianenko to
Strikeforce originally appeared on
Fanhouse MMA Blog on Fri, 07 Aug
2009 00:46:00 EST . Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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24 * TechTips/ Entertainment/
Yankees Get Chad Gaudin From
Padres
By Ed Price (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:28:00 PM
by Ed Price
Filed under: Yankees, MLB
Transactions How desperate are the
Yankees for starting pitching depth?
They traded Thursday for a guy who
was 4-10 with a 5.13 ERA despite
pitching in the National League and
at a pitchers' park.
The Padres traded right-hander
Chad Gaudin to the Yankees for a
player to be named.
With Chien-Ming Wang(shoulder)
out and Phil Hughes entrenched as
the main setup man in the bullpen,
the Yankees had been using Sergio
Mitre as the No. 5 starter -- and had
almost no other options. But Mitre
has a 7.50 ERA wth 32 hits allowed
in 18 innings over four starts.
Rainmeter 1.0 Brings the Enigma Desktop to Everyone
[Downloads]
By The How-To Geek
(Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 4:00:00 AM
Windows only: Rainmeter 1.0 not
only includes the latest version of the
very popular Enigma desktop, it has
a theme manager and configuration
tool—so you can setup a killer
desktop without a line of code.
The latest release is packed with
great features designed to take
Rainmeter to the masses—instead of
mucking around in text file
configurations, the desktop
customization beginner can start
customizing their desktop
immediately. The Enigma 2.5
desktop customization, complete
with a quick-start configuration
wizard, is included as the default
theme to make the experience as user
Yankees Get Chad Gaudin From
Padres originally appeared on
Fanhouse MLB Blog on Thu, 06 Aug
2009 22:28:00 EST . Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
Permalink| Email this| Linking
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-friendly as possible.
The full list of new features
includes:
• Theme manager that saves and
loads Rainmeter themes.
• Configuration tool for the Enigma
skin, to save all your personal
settings.
• The Enigma theme automatically
adjusts to your desktop resolution.
• Enigma reader skins now support
RSS, Atom, Gmail inbox, and
Twitter.
• Enigma music skin gets iTunes
song information automatically; CD
Art Display no longer required.
• Completely compatible with
Windows 7 or Vista, and no more
UAC issues.
• Text shadows, transformation
matrices, and improved anti-aliasing.
• Plug-in support for iTunes, WiFi,
Live Fantasy Baseball Chat, Noon
ET
By Knox Bardeen (FanHouse)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 10:14:00 AM
by Knox Bardeen
Filed under: Expert Chats We're
two-thirds of the way done with the
baseball season. That means you
don't have much time to make that
final push or to bail on the season
and plan for 2010 if you're in a
Dynasty or Keeper league.
Whatever your stretch run strategy
is, we welcome you to visit with us at
noon on Friday and discuss fantasy
baseball. Anything fantasy related is
on topic. So, bring us your trade
ideas and waiver wire questions.
We'll be chatting at 12:00 noon ET
for an hour. Stop by.
Live Fantasy Baseball Chat, Noon
and the recycle bin.
• An official forum for support, tips,
and add-ons.
Once you've installed Rainmeter,
the first dialog you'll come across is
the Enigma quick start dialog, where
ET originally appeared on Fanhouse
Fantasy Baseball on Fri, 07 Aug
2009 10:14:00 EST . Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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you can drag widgets anywhere on
your desktop you would like to place
them, access help, themes, or change
your personal settings.
The quick start dialog was
introduced in the last release, but if
Internet News Record
MSNBC's Jonathan
Capehart is not a
clown
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:31:00 PM
You don't usually get the mom of a
reporter on television defending her
son, but that's what happened earlier
today on MSNBC. Dylan Ratigan
(always a controversial guy) aired
hidden camera footage of reporter
Jonathan Capehart eating a bagel. It
was meant to be a joke, but
Capehart's mom didn't like it at all
and let Ratigan know it live on the
air.
[via Fishbowl DC]
Filed under: News, Video,
Celebrities, Reality-Free
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
you wanted to actually use the
customization you had to edit text
files to change any of the settings.
This version includes a personal
settings manager that can make all of
the changes without requiring any
code editing.
If the Enigma theme isn't your
thing, you can still use the new
Rainmeter Theme Manager to load or
save a new theme, with a couple of
other themes included.
With all of these excellent changes,
the latest Rainmeter release is well
worth a look for anybody interested
in some serious desktop
customization. Just make sure to
share your desktop creations over in
the Lifehacker Desktop Show and
T e l l F l i c k r p o o l .
Rainmeter[Rainmeter.net]
Internet News Record
Best Video Player? [Hive Five Call For
Contenders]
By Jason Fitzpatrick
(Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:00:00 PM
While some people never venture
beyond the default media player on
their operating system, the
Lifehacker crowd tends to be of a
more adventurous sort. This week we
want to hear about your favorite
video player.
Photo by Daniel Leininger.
Media playback is a central
function for many computers these
days as less and less people get their
media fix in front of their televisions.
This week we want to hear all about
your favorite tool for video playback.
What application do you use for
watching your stash of TV shows,
DVDs, and more? What makes your
tool of choice the best? Great DVD
Boost Your Map Skills for When GPS
Fails You [Driving]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 5:30:00 AM
Your TomTom, Garmin, or GPS-
powered phone may be more
convenient than a map, but it won't
always be there for you. Our road-
trip-savvy sibling blog, Jalopnik, re-
introduces us to paper pathfinders
and the best ways to read them.
Sure, it sounds like a rant your
grandfather can chime in on, but
most of us probably aren't as familiar
with how our roads are laid out and
how maps correspond to them.
Jalopnik offers little brain-expanders
like this for the non-savvy travelers:
playback? Huge codec library? Tell
us all about it in the comments.
Hive Five nominations take place
in the comments, where you post
your favorite tool for the job. We get
hundreds of comments, so to make
your nomination clear, please include
it at the top of your comment like so:
Mile markers, the little green and
white numbered signs on the side of
the freeway, start on the western or
southern edge of a state and go up
VOTE: Video Player. Please don't
include your vote in a reply to
another commenter. Instead, make
your vote and reply separate
comments. If you don't follow this
format, we may not count your vote.
To prevent tampering with the
results, votes from first-time
from there. Those mile markers
correspond to the exit ramps and can
be matched to the exits on the map.
In between intersections on a map,
there are often marked distances
telling you how far it is between
spans, freeway or not. Subtracting
your entrance and exit on freeways
and adding distances on highways
and county roads can give you the
entire distance of your trip.
Hit the link for the full map-tacular
read-through, and share your own
tips on getting up to speed with a
multi-fold antique in the comments.
How To Read A Paper Map Like An
Old-Timer[Jalopnik]
commenters may not be counted.
After you've made your nomination,
let us know what makes it stand out
from the competition.
About the Hive Five: The Hive
Five feature series asks readers to
answer the most frequently asked
question we get: "Which tool is the
best?" Once a week we'll put out a
call for contenders looking for the
best solution to a certain problem,
then YOU tell us your favorite tools
to get the job done. Every weekend,
we'll report back with the top five
recommendations and give you a
chance to vote on which is best. For
an example, check out last week's
Five Best PDF Readers.
How Do You End Your Emails?
[Reader Poll]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 3:00:00 PM
We've been told that"Best" is a
brushoff and highlighted a few
other"inappropriate" email signoffs,
but apart from what various people
say we should use, we're curious:
How exactly do you end your
emails?
We got a lot of feedback in the
comments of our recent post on the
subject, but to make things a little
more measurable, we want to put the
question to you poll-style. So:
What's Your Most Common Email
Signoff?( answers)
I realize there are a lot of different
forms of each of the valedictions
listed above, so pick the closest
TechTips/ 25
Remains of the Day:
The Bing Jingle Edition
[For What It's Worth]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:00:00 PM
Kevin talks all about lists with radio
station WNYC, coffee shops get
impatient with Wi-Fi-loving loiterers,
and Bing gets an absurd new jingle.
• The Bing Jingle Winner is… Bing
ran a contest soliciting users to
submit their own Bing jingles, and
the winner is... the insane video
above. [Bing Blog]
• Life Hacking 101 Kevin talks all
about lists with the folks at WNYC.
[WNYC]
• No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull
the Plug on Laptop Users Are your
local coffee shops cracking down on
REMAINS page 26
approximation to what you use if it's
available. (That is, if you close with
"Thank you," "Thanks so much,"
etc., choose the "Thanks" option.) If
your closing isn't listed, then hit
"Other" and enter in what you do use.
If you've got more to say on the
subject, let's hear it in the comments.
26 TechTips/
Try Out Wikipedia's New Look
in Beta [Wikipedia]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:00:00 AM
If you're a frequent surfer of the
mass-edited encyclopedia, now
would be a good time to register for a
user account. With it, you can enable
Wikipedia's new beta skin/theme,
which gives a slicker feel to reading
and editing.
Anyone visiting a Wikipedia page,
or any of Wikimedia's project sites,
will now see a "Try Beta" link at the
top of the page. You'll still need an
account to log in and enable the
REMAINS
continued from page 25
your Wi-Fi mooching habits? [WSJ]
• Opera Working On Full Android
Browser Opera Mini is all right, but a
full-on version of the browser is
eventually coming to Android.
[Phandroid]
• Who's to blame for MacBook's
poor battery life under Windows?
Windows 7 on your MacBook
doesn't look like it'll be any less of a
battery drain on your laptop battery.
"Vector" skin, but it seems worth it,
as each page's tabs and actions get a
more modern look without adding
any page heft. Editing, in particular,
becomes easier for newcomers with
an advanced toolbar, easy special
character input, and a few other
tweaks.
Try it out, and tell us what you
think of Wikipedia's slightly new
look, in the comments. Try the
usability beta![Wikimedia Technical
Blog]
[Computerworld]
• Software Pricing: Are We Doing It
Wrong? Techie Jeff Atwood suggests
that the App Store's relatively low
software prices might be pointing us
in a new, more profitable direction
for pricing our software. [Coding
Horror]
Microsoft Releases Windows 7
Upgrade Chart [Windows 7]
By Azadeh Ensha (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:30:00 PM
Today Microsoft made Windows 7
available to their MSDN and
TechNet service subscribers, and to
help prepare you for the impending
release, the company has also
produced an official upgrade chart.
(Click the image above for a closer
look.)
According to ZDNet, "the blue
boxes are for custom (clean) installs;
the green boxes mean you can do an
in-place upgrade." Granted, a chart's
better than nothing, but folks (like
ZDNet's Ed Boot) are also calling it
out for being altogether confusing; in
fact, Boot created a simplified
version (click through to ZDNet to
see it) that cuts out whole rows and
gets straight to the point. Take a look
at one or both for a closer look at
what your upgrade path will entail.
Microsoft Blunders with a Confusing
Windows 7 Upgrade Chart[ZDNet
via Gizmodo]
Internet News Record
Windows XP Mode RC
Available for Windows
7 [Downloads]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:00:00 PM
Windows 7 only: We already
showed you how to set up and use
XP Mode in Windows 7 using the
beta version of XP Mode; now XP
Mode has updated from beta to a new
release candidate for your XP
virtualization needs.
Just point your browser at the
Windows XP Mode and Virtual PC
download page, follow the
installation instructions, and you're
ready to go with the latest and
greatest. Once you've done that, hit
up our guide to using XP Mode for
more specifics on getting it up and
running with specific apps on your
Windows 7 machine.
If you've been using XP Mode
regularly on your Win7 PC, let's hear
how it's been working for you in the
comments. Windows XP Mode and
Windows Virtual PC[Microsoft]
Internet News Record
Prepare Yourselves: Augmented Reality Hype on the Rise
By Sarah Perez
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 8:08:53 AM
Augmented reality, or the concept
that you can add an additional layer
to the world before your eyes, aka the
"real world," using technology, is the
next big tech trend. Already making
its debut in everything from mobile
apps to kids toys, it's clear that soon
everyone will be talking about "AR"
they way they used to talk about
"social media," and previously "Web
2.0."
While augmented reality has its
uses - although many of them just
involve ooohing and aaahing at nifty
apps - this trend is already in danger
of being over-hyped even though it
has barely gotten off the ground.
Sponsor
AR Apps We've Seen So Far
We've been fascinated by
augmented reality for some time
now, especially after we got wind of
a new mobile application built for
Google's Android platform called
Layar. The app, an augmented reality
browser, "layers" sets of data on top
of your mobile phone's viewfinder as
you point the camera at the city
around around you.
Once our interest was piqued, we
began imagining what future apps
could be built using this platform,
thinking up everything from people
search to place data.
Only days later, another mobile AR
app made the news: TwittARound,
an app which shows you nearby
tweets. Designed for the newest
iPhone hardware - the iPhone 3GS -
Five...no, Six useful Mac apps from Thoughtful Tree
By Steven Sande (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/7/2009 9:00:00 AM
Filed under: OS, Software, Odds
and ends, Freeware, iTunes, Leopard
TUAW receives a lot of app
it taps into the phone's GPS and
compass to determine your physical
location. It then floats the avatars of
nearby Twitter users across the
screen. You can click these icons to
see those users' tweets.
Then there is AugmentedID, a
facial recognition technology using
algorithms from Polar Rose, a startup
that delivers photo tagging tools for
flickr. With this application, you can
hold your phone up to a person's face
and see their online profile, contact
info, social networking links, and any
other information they've chosen to
share.
At the moment, though, mobile
applications such as these are being
primarily designed for Google's
Android platform as its open nature
allows developers to access the
phone's hardware and the video feed.
However, we're on the verge of
seeing an explosion of AR apps
thanks to the soon-to-launch update
for the iPhone OS. The next version,
due in September, is widely expected
to provide an official means of
accessing the necessary controls to
make AR apps possible through a
new Application Programming
Interface (API). Already apps like
acrossair's " Nearest Tube," a train
finder for the London underground,
are poised to go live as soon as Apple
is ready. AR Discovered by
Marketers. Let the Hype Begin!
Don't look now, but marketers have
now discovered augmented reality
and have started to incorporate it into
their advertising campaigns. This can
only mean one thing: we're about to
be inundated with pitches and
submissions for review, both for Mac
and iPhone. But it's unusual when a
developer sends us individual press
releases for a relatively large number
of apps.
Steven Degutis is the brain behind
a company called Thoughtful Tree.
products touting AR products...not to
mention AR ads.
Perhaps we should have been clued
in to this coming deluge when we
saw how Mattel was pitching their
next-gen action figures for the comic
book inspired "Avatar" movie. (Hold
the included 3D tag up to a webcam
and the toys come to life on your
computer screen!).
Now we're seeing big box
electronics retailer Best Buy
incorporating augmented reality into
their printed ads. Their recent
augmented Sunday circular featured
a 3D image of a Toshiba notebook
computer. (Hold the ad up to a a
webcam and the laptop comes to
life!).
Only days later, we're getting
emails from Kia Motors - yes, the car
manufacturer - about the company's
new "augmented reality Facebook
application." Using the computer's
In his words, "I'm an indie Mac
developer who writes apps that make
my job easier and smoother, and then
if I think they're useful enough, I
share them with everyone via my
company Thoughtful Tree Software.
That's just how I roll."
webcam, the players of Kia's "Go
Hamster Go!" game control the
action using their facial
expressions.(Is that really augmented
reality, though, or is it just neat?)
There's also news about a company
called Metaio, creators of a mobile
AR platform that lets people leave
and view notes and 3D animations in
places using their phones. And since
Metaio is known for working on
marketing campaigns like the AR
Lego packaging, there's little doubt
that they could soon start including
ads into the new platform.
Time to Dial Down the Hype?
We think marketers need to
carefully consider whether AR will
truly benefit their clients before
blindly hopping on the AR
bandwagon. Case in point: Best Buy
said their AR ads exceeded
expectations with more than double
the number of users trying them out
than they planned. But that number
was only 6500 out of a Sunday ad
circulation of 43 million. Out of
those 6500, 12% actually clicked
through to other Best Buy websites, a
number the company touts as "fairly
decent." Although the company plans
to do more AR campaigns in the
future, they're also of the size to
engage their customers in a variety of
ways on a number of platforms.
Smaller companies may not have the
same leisure to do the same.
And it's not just us thinking that
AR is about to hit its full-on hype
potential. Gartner shows that in their
latest report, " Hype Cycle for
Emerging Technologies, 2009," AR
is steadily climbing towards the "
Continue reading Five...no, Six
useful Mac apps from Thoughtful
Tree
TUAW Five...no, Six useful Mac
apps from Thoughtful Tree originally
appeared on The Unofficial Apple
Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 07 Aug
Web/ AppleBlog/ 27
Peak of Inflated Expectations."
The problem with over-hyping this
technology prior to it really taking
off is that it could become diluted
and meaningless before we even
have a chance to explore the
potentially world-changing
applications it could help create.
(And no, we don't mean these AR
exotic dancers). But don't get us
wrong - for a while(possibly a long
while) - we're going to be completely
enamored of each and every AR-
infused application that passes us by.
However, there will come a point
where AR, like every over-hyped
buzzword that came before it, will be
overused, its meaning skewed and
stretched to encompass anything
vaguely interactive, whether it's truly
AR or not.
Let us instead heed the words of
Robert Rice, CEO of Neogence
Enterprises and Chairman of the AR
Consortium which he shared in a
recent interview with Tish Shute:
"Don't be misguided by the
gimmicky marketing applications
now. Look ahead, and pay attention
to what the visionaries are talking
about right now...AR has long term
implications for smart cities, green
tech, education, entertainment, and
global industry. This is serious
business, but it has to be done right."
Image credits: Best Buy ad,
AdAge; Hype Cycle Chart, Gartner;
AR on the mobile, flickr user
Mr.Whisper Discuss
2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
28 Web/ Gizmos/
Practice Fusion Partners With Team Apart: Real-time,
Salesforce - But Is Cloud Computing Browser-based
Suitable For Healthcare? Collaboration & Meetings
By Richard MacManus
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 11:00:00 PM
One year ago we reviewed a new
health app called Practice Fusion, a
free, web-based EMR (electronic
medical record) system for
physicians. This week Practice
Fusion announced an investment,
amount not disclosed, by
salesforce.com. They also announced
the upcoming launch of their patient
health record (PHR) application on
Force.com, salesforce.com's cloud
computing platform. With these
announcements, now seems an
appropriate time for a check-up of
Practice Fusion. How is its own
health and what are the implications
of partnering with salesforce.com?
Sponsor
One year after our initial review,
the company is still going strong.
The product was being promoted in
August 2008 as a 'Google Apps for
doctors', providing patient
management, scheduling, secure
email and more. However, as we
pointed out in our article last year,
Practice Fusion is not a competitor to
Google Health. Practice Fusion is a
physician-centered tool, whereas
Google Health and the other bigco
services are patient-centered.
Practice Fusion currently has "over
18,000 users," which would appear to
Study Says We Miss 15 Minutes of A Movie Just By Blinking [Science]
By Danny Allen (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:30:00 PM
We say: Four times that if it's Sex
and the City and you're male.
Researches at the University of
be a big increase on the 1,300
medical professionals they had one
year ago. The product originally
launched in November of 2007, so
it's nearly two years old now.
Is Cloud Computing Suitable for
Healthcare?
A post on the Practice Fusion blog
today asks the question: is "cloud
computing" right for health IT? We
reported earlier this week that cloud
computing is infiltrating virtually
every corner of technology right
now, but it still has dangers. We
noted the recent hacking of Google
Docs to steal internal Twitter
documents, as one recent high profile
example (high profile because the
stolen documents were subsequently
emailed to some news outlets, some
of whom published the 'hot' docs).
However despite these risks
Practice Fusion claims that the cost
benefits of cloud computing in
healthcare are significant,
particularly in its EMR niche:
"Cost and poor usability have been
cited as the biggest obstacles to
adoption of health IT - especially
Electronic Health Records (EHR)
systems - and has resulted in
problematically-low EHR adoption
rates. Eliminating this cost, and the
IT maintenance burdens that are
Tokyo have found that the brain
pauses for up to 450 milliseconds
with every blink, meaning we miss
up to 6 seconds of visual info for
every minute—or about 15 minutes
for a 150 minute film.
often beyond the reach of small
medical practices, clearly removes
these significant roadblocks to EHR
adoption."
Security and safety is of course the
big potentially negative issue with
cloud computing. But Practice
Fusion points to several use cases
where it says that cloud computing
has advantages over desktop apps:
disaster-recovery, hacks (because
"SaaS providers are able to devote
resources to solving security issues
that many customers cannot afford"),
and privacy. All of those points come
down to the premise that a cloud
computing / SaaS specialist, such as
Practice Fusion, has more expertise,
more resources, and is generally
better able to deliver those safety and
security requirements.
That all sounds great in theory,
however every case like the Twitter
stolen documents one serves to
undermine that argument. And there
are just too many such cases right
now.
Nevertheless, we're sure that over
time cloud computing will become
ever more secure. It's clear that
Practice Fusion is a young company
that is growing well. With
Salesforce.com on its side too now,
the future looks secure for them.
Discuss
In tracking the eye movements of
By Steven Walling
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:34:18 PM
Team Apart is an online meeting
space and collaboration tool launched
in private beta today. The software
includes a browser-based video/audio
conference, a text notepad, and a
whiteboard for drawing. All of these
options are updated in real-time for
conference attendees, and the
conference space can persist over
time.
Obvious competitors for Team
Apart are the larger Web
conferencing solutions like WebEx
and GoToMeeting. But considering
the document side of Team Apart and
the fact that its work spaces stick
around, the startup most similar is
AppJet's EtherPad.
Sponsor
Collaboration Trifecta
As best we can tell, Team Apart
looks like it has the right balance of
simplicity and features necessary to
enable real collaboration among
small teams. There might be some
cross-pollination between a
whiteboard focused on free-form
drawing and the notepad, but both
are useful tools for augmenting an
online meeting.
The real potential for snafus in
Team Apart is on the video and audio
side. Since all aspects of the software
are focused on being real-time,
delays and poor quality in that arena
could seriously curtail the platform's
volunteers, the team also found that
moviegoers can sometimes begin to
blink in unison; an external
manifestation of sharing a common
experience. Apparently, the
synchronized blinks seem to happen
Internet News Record
usefulness. How It Compares
If we were running a small
distributed team (wait, we are, aren't
we?) we'd choose something browser
-based like Team Apart over WebEx
or GoToMeeting. It's not that these
solutions don't work for business
needs, but they are often slow to load
even on fast connections. Their
reliability makes them great for
presentations and client meetings, but
for in-company collaboration, being
lightweight is also important.
If you're making a decision today
however, you're out of luck unless
you can get your hands on a beta
invite. Right now the closest thing to
what Team Apart is offering is
EtherPad. The big drawback for
EtherPad is that it doesn't have video
and audio, so it's for collaboration
rather than meetings.
Combing a simple trio of video,
text, and drawing is a solid choice for
Team Apart. For distributed teams
seeking dead simple and fairly
comprehensive meeting tools, we'd
file away Team Apart as something
to explore in future.
Update: Team Apart has kindly
offered a limited number of beta
invites for our readers, which you
can get here. Discuss
at "non-critical" points, like after an
explosion, or whenever Megan Fox is
off screen. [ University of Tokyo via
New Scientist]
Internet News Record
Maintain Focus, Health, and Passion LA Police Department
During the Grind-It-Out Phase Considers "Going
By Bernard Lunn
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:46:20 PM
Google"
This is one post/chapter in a
serialized book called Startup 101.
For the introduction and table of
contents, please click here.
When you first start out, you will
find it amazing that anyone will even
listen attentively to your idea. Then,
someone actually investing money at
all in your venture seems
extraordinary. When your first
revenue comes in, the validation is
wonderful. What happens after that?
A quick exit and off to have some
fun? Perhaps, but many
entrepreneurs go through a grind-it-
out phase. How you approach this
phase will depend on how much you
enjoy it and how effective you are at
it.
Sponsor
Grinding Out the Numbers
Re-read our chapter on how to hit
your numbers.
You should still have your magic
sauce with you: the amazing code,
the user interface that blows people
away, the big secular wave that you
are riding, the value proposition that
convinces even the deepest cynic to
give it a try. All of these are a given.
They are what got you to this stage.
But now you are at the stage of
Office.com: The Future Home of Microsoft Office 2010 Online
By Steven Walling
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 1:16:50 PM
The news of Microsoft Office 2010
confirmed what many suspected:
Microsoft will be offering a free
online version of Office to compete
with all of the SaaS suites out there.
99.9% perspiration and 0.1%
inspiration. This is the grind-it-out
phase. Everything has to be done
right. The details really, really
matter. And there are all kinds of
details, many of which you find it
hard to be interested in. Back to
Basics
At this point it might be worth
taking another look at these chapters:
• How to be an effective CEO
• How to hire an A-Team
• How to fire non-performers
• How to hit your numbers
• How to build age-appropriate
processes
Five Tips
If you have these bases covered,
the rest is all about you. Ever heard
the expression "It's lonely at the
top"? Now you'll see how true that is.
Thanks to some WHOIS sleuthing by
istartedsomething, we now also know
where it will reside. Office.com is
likely to be the home of the SaaS
Microsoft Office.
Sponsor
The Web-based beta of Office 2010
isn't out yet, but those who are
dissatisfied with Google Docs and
Here are five tips to help:
• Have a good board. You'll need
advice from people whom you trust
and who know the business.
• Take time to exercise. Schedule it
like anything else you do. Exercise
gives you more energy and helps you
deal with stress.
• Delegate (or fire yourself and find
a better CEO). This is not the phase
of entrepreneurial startup heroics,
when you have to do everything
yourself. Re-read what are the only
three things a CEO has to do, and do
only those things.
• Seek other forms of intellectual
stimulation. During the grind-it-out
phase, the three golden rules are
focus, focus, and focus. But you have
a restless intellectual energy: that is
why you became an entrepreneur.
Don't invent a diversification to
satisfy your intellectual curiosity.
Learn Sanskrit or hieroglyphics
instead. The brain exercise will do
you good.
• Re-connect with the people whose
pain you are trying to solve. There
was a reason you were passionate
about this when you got started. Re-
connect with that passion. Oh, you
were just faking that passion, were
you? Then good luck with that!
Discuss
Zoho should keep a close eye on
Office.com. The site is currently in
transition, but the WHOIS record
clearly shows that someone in
Redmond has taken the time to
By Dana Oshiro
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:31:31 PM
In a recent Los Angeles Police
Protective League blog post,
President Paul M. Weber raised some
concerns about the boys in blue
switching to Google-hosted services.
The group received their latest
computer system after donations
from the Michael Jackson memorial
service at the Staples Center crashed
the department website and took out
their old system for most of the day.
As the second-largest city in the US,
they knew they needed to modernize;
however, Weber raises legitimate
concerns over the department's
consideration of a $7.25 million
contract with Google to replace the
city's email and records retention
system.
Sponsor
Said Weber, "This is a complex
technological issue that demands
careful study and planning by the
city. Before the city introduces an
outside entity into the chain of
custody, sufficient safeguards need to
be in place to secure confidential
information. We will be closely
monitoring this issue for the security
of both our members and the
sensitive information they access on
register the domain: Registrant:
Domain Administrator
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond WA 98052
US
domains@microsoft.com
+1.4258828080 Fax: +1.4259367329
Domain Name: office.com
Web/ 29
a daily basis."
As covered by ReadWriteWeb,
Twittergate is one example of how
Google may be left open to security
breaches. The documents stolen from
Twitter were Google Docs, and
because they were not hosted behind
a firewall, Twitter's business plan
was more easily obtained. In this
case, as with most cases, human error
and insecure passwords are to blame.
In order to use Google services, the
LAPD would have to be particularly
cautious to back up their records and
follow password protocol.
Google's"Going Google" campaign
recently launched to encourage
businesses to switch to Google Apps
in the workplace. 1.75 million
businesses, schools and organizations
are currently using Google Apps in
the office, including Motorola,
University of Notre Dame and the
Mercy Corps. For many businesses
considering the service, security still
remains the biggest question.
Thanks to Eric for the tip! Discuss
The previous owners were Belgian
startup ContactOffice, and there's no
news on how much the domain was
purchased for.
Discuss
30 Web/ Gizmos/ AppleBlog/
Digg-able Ad Program
to Launch This Week
By Dana Oshiro
(ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:16:21 PM
In today's blog post by Chief
Strategy Officer Mike Maser, Digg
announced that it will be rolling out
its beta ad program later this week. In
addition to the community's existing
banner ads, the company is launching
an initial set of ads to appear in
rotation with regular content. From
here, users will interact with the ads
in the same way they interact with
articles - by digging, burying and
commenting on them. Advertising
with a high number of Diggs will
fetch lower ad revenue and buried
advertisers will be charged more.
Sponsor
ReadWriteWeb covered Kevin
Rose's suggestion for this advertising
system in April. The program will be
launched this week for testing to a
select few users before making a
public release.
Says Maser to the community,
"The success of this system depends
on your participation and feedback,
as it will help advertisers to create the
best possible experience for the Digg
community. Our goal with Digg Ads
is to encourage advertisers to create
RIP John Hughes: Thanks for Making Geeky Cool [Movies]
By Danny Allen (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 2:00:00 AM
Sadly, the writer/director of such
80's teenage angst classics as Weird
Science, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and
The BreakFast club, has died of a
heart attack aged 59.
Hughes made it cool to be a geek.
His coming of age flicks usually had
content as compelling as organic
Digg stories, and to give you more
control over which ads you see on
Digg.
It will be interesting to see which
advertisers attempt to game the
system by digging their own ads, and
how fast these ads will be buried.
The official June announcement of
the Digg ad program received more
than 400 comments within the
community, and surprisingly many of
them are very positive. While critics
argue that the ads will simply be
buried and advertisers will stop
paying for placement, others called
this "marketing democracy." A few
commenters pointed to the fact that
they already use Adblock- a Firefox
extension that allows users to filter
out advertising content. Nevertheless,
others chastise Adblock users for not
supporting the community they
enjoy. In a community as opinionated
as Digg's, it will be interesting to see
how the first users react to this new
play for revenue. Discuss
underdog social outcasts outwitting
their bitchy rivals. 1985's Weird
Science, in particular, celebrated
technology in a fun and risqué way,
even throwing in a moral story to
boot. I still have that image of Kelly
LeBrock's first appearance etched in
my brain, along with Oingo Boingo's
annoyingly infectious theme song.
And how many of your teenage
Next Big Sound: Actionable
Intelligence About Music
Fans' Online Activities Twitter silenced
due to denial of
By Jolie O'Dell (ReadWriteWeb)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 1:45:19 PM
Musicians do battle with the
Internet in one way or another every
day.
Now that many have moved
beyond piracy concerns as a primary
issue, they are looking at how to
increase page views, prompt virality,
and stimulate interaction. The better
part of action is knowledge, and one
of the simplest, newest ways for
artists to get more knowledge about
their fans' activities online is through
the Next Big Sound, a site that tracks
a lot more than just page views,
digging a little deeper to display
listens, likes, and adds.
Sponsor
Right now, Next Big Sound tracks
plays, views, fans, comments, and
other data for almost half a million
artists across major properties,
including iTunes, Facebook, and
Twitter.
For those who need to grab data for
multiple artists (hello, young record
label social media intern!), NBS
provides daily or weekly emails
and/or RSS feeds.
The app doesn't seem to show stats
for specific tracks, so this isn't the
place to go to suss out your new
single. And page views are tracked
selves ever tried to pull a Bueller
stunt?
only for MySpace (a.k.a. the sad little
website where bands go to die).
Mentions on Twitter are not tracked,
either.
But the greatest sin the NBS team
commits is not including YouTube in
their tracking of comments, favorites,
subscriptions, and page views.
Nowadays, YouTube is the new
MTV; music fans will very often
search for and listen to new or
favorite music on that site rather than
a music-only site.
Currently, the site is free, with no
mention of premium options to be
released.
The Boulder-based NBS team is
part of the TechStars program there.
We interviewed them on video about
a month ago when they had just
decided to completely change their
site model. Discuss
As a kid, I had a few core favorite
films including Explorers, The Last
Star Fighter, and Weird Science.
While they all shared a sense that
technology can let amazing things
happen to anyone—even me—they
also showed that every geek can have
their day. [ Chicago Tribune]
Internet News Record
service attack
By David Winograd (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/6/2009 3:00:00 PM
Filed under: Internet Tools
Like many Mac users, we at
TUAW are big Twitter fans (and also
fans of some of the great iPhone and
Mac clients for the service). Early
this Thursday morning, Twitter
became unavailable due to a denial of
service attack, according to Biz
Stone, Twitter's co-founder. Such
attacks are deliberate attempts to
disrupt service for malicious
purposes.
Twitter came sporadically back
online at around 9:15am EST after
being down for roughly two and a
half hours. As of 9:46 EST Twitter
reported that they were working on
restoring full service and that the
system may be slow to respond to
some users.
In my case, at around 1:45p EST, it
took three or four minutes for Twitter
to be accessible. The company's
status blog says they are still working
on addressing the issue.
[via InformationWeek]
TUAW Twitter silenced due to
denial of service attack originally
appeared on The Unofficial Apple
Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 06 Aug
2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
Internet News Record
US air strike kills leader of Pakistan Taliban
By Declan Walsh (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 4:42:06 AM
Death of insurgent leader in South
Waziristan is confirmed by militants
and Pakistani government
The Pakistani Taliban leader
Baitullah Mehsud has been killed in a
CIA missile strike, the Pakistani
government and a senior Taliban
commander said today.
"He has been taken out," the
country's foreign minister, Shah
Mehmood Qureshi, told reporters in
Islamabad.
Kafayat Ullah, a senior Mehsud
aide, told the Associated Press by
telephone: "I confirm that Baitullah
Mehsud and his wife died in the
American missile attack in South
Waziristan."
The statements followed hours of
strong indications from officials that
the notorious militant commander
was killed on Wednesday morning
after an unmanned US aircraft fired
Hellfire missiles at the remote
farmhouse where he was sheltering.
Pakistani television channels,
quoting intelligence sources, said he
had already been buried in his home
village, Narkosai, near the strike site
along the Afghan border.
Mehsud's death represents a
quantum leap for Pakistan's war
against the violent Islamist networks
that have badly destabilised the
country. Mehsud's Tehrik I Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) controls wide swaths
of territory and draws together
Metal Detecting Sandal Lightning Review: No [Review]
By Brian Lam (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 3:00:19 AM
These sandals use a copper coil in
the right foot, connected by USB port
to a base unit strapped to your leg, to
find metal objects in the sand up to 2
Taliban, al-Qaida and home-grown
jihadi fighters.
Qureshi said full confirmation was
not possible until authorities reached
South Waziristan, the lawless area
where the missiles struck. It is
currently crawling with Taliban
fighters.
The strongest indication came from
events on the ground. Violent
recriminations erupted in Tank, a
town on the edge of South
Waziristan, where clashes between
pro- and anti-Baitullah factions of the
Mehsud tribe left 19 people dead,
according to early reports.
Local television stations reported
that Mehsud's TTP plans to hold a
leadership council today to elect a
successor. Mehsud's most senior
lieutenant, Hakeemullah Mehsud, is
the favourite candidate.
"It looks like this chapter is
probably closed," said Imtiaz Gul, an
analyst.
Mehsud's death is the culmination
of an intense assassination campaign
this year. His network has been
targeted by nine of the last 10 US
drone strikes in the tribal belt, while
the Pakistan army mobilised
thousands of troops in preparation for
a possible assault on South
Waziristan.
Early reports after Wednesday's
strike indicated that Mehsud's second
wife was killed in the house, which
belonged to his father-in-law.
Speculation about the fate of Mehsud
himself rose steadily as intelligence
officials sifted intercepts that
indicated disarray in militant circles.
feet away. In theory.
The Price:$60
Does It Work?: Yes, but not really.
Only objects placed directly to the
midsole triggered the metal detector.
You'll know if you've found
something by the tone, LED or, if it's
Thought to have been 39 years old,
Mehsud was the most notorious
militant commander in Pakistan –
much more prominent than Osama
bin Laden, who is also believed to be
hiding along the Afghan border.
The TTP has frightened and
revolted Pakistanis with suicide
bombings that have killed hundreds
of soldiers, police, intelligence
officials and civilians. The TTP has
up to 20,000 fighters, according to
some estimates, and its territory
stretches the length of the tribal belt.
Mehsud took pleasure in teasing
the authorities with their failure to
kill or capture him. Most famously
he invited dozens of journalists to a
press conference in South Waziristan
in 2008, a few days after the army
had flown journalists to the same
area.
He modelled himself on the Afghan
Taliban leader Mullah Omar, to
whom he pledged loyalty. Like
Omar, Mehsud refused to have his
photo taken.
He denied CIA accusations of
responsibility for the December 2007
assassination of the former prime
minister Benazir Bhutto. A UN panel
is investigating the killing.
There have been false reports of
Mehsud's demise before, some
connected to his diseased kidney. A
Pakistani tribal leader who met
Mehsud last year told the Guardian
he was accompanied by a doctor
tending to his illness.
Today Pakistani soldiers stepped
up security along the fringes of the
tribal belt to prevent suicide bombers
in vibrate mode, feeling the rumble.
conducting revenge attacks in
Punjab, Pakistan's most populous
province.
The turning point in the pursuit of
Mehsud was increased US-Pakistani
cooperation. In recent months the US
has targeted him with covert drone
strikes and put a $5m bounty on his
head. The Pakistani government
offered $650,000.
There have been at least 29 drone
strikes in Pakistan this year as the
Obama administration continues with
a contentious Bush-era tactic that
balances damage to al-Qaida and
Taliban networks against the death of
innocent civilians and rising anti-
American sentiment in Pakistan.
The US had been slow to target
Mehsud, who concentrated his
suicide bombing attacks on Pakistani
cities, because he was considered a
minor player in the cross-border
Taliban insurgency against western
troops in Afghanistan.
His death leaves the Taliban
movement dominated by two other
commanders: Qari Gul Bahadur in
North Waziristan and Maulvi Nazir
in South Waziristan. Both have
adopted a lower public profile by
focusing on cross-border raids.
• Taliban
• Pakistan
• Afghanistan
• Baitullah Mehsud
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Media Limited 2009 | Use of this
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Most of the time, however...
Did I Find Treasure?: Nope. I didn't
find shit. The detector would beep
when I put it against metal objects
like keys within an inch, and even
found the screws in my leg's titanium
rod, but no dice in the real world
World/ Gizmos/ 31
This Is What It Feels
Like To Fly In a U2
Spy Plane [Airplanes]
By Jesus Diaz (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:12:56 PM
I love Top Gear, but when James
May gets the opportunity to fly to the
edge of space on board a U2 spy
plane, my love turns to plain,
absolute, complete, overwhelming
hate. Bloody good video indeed.
The Lockheed U2 is an amazing
plane, developed to spy enemy
countries by the CIA and the United
States Air Force. Flying at 70,000
feet, the U2 can fly day or night, rain
or sun, photographing ground
facilities on very short notice,
something that satellites can't do. It
was created in the 50s, flying for the
first time in 1955, and despite some
being shot down over the Soviet
Union, Cuba, and China, the fleet is
still in use today. In fact, the
successful design outlasted the SR-71
and the secret A-12 CIA spy plane,
and will keep flying till 2014 or even
later. [ Wikipedia]
actually hunting for booty.
Did Anyone Make Fun Of You for
Wearing Them?: Not to my face, but
I was still ashamed of myself.
The Verdict: Forget about it.
Too weak to find treasure.
[ Hammacher, Pop Mech]
32 World/ Tech Games/
New Tamil Tigers leader arrested
(World news and comment from
the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 4:40:36 AM
Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who was
trying to revive defeated insurgent
group, said to have been arrested in
Malaysia
Sri Lankan authorities questioned
the new leader of the Tamil Tiger
rebels today after he was arrested in
south-east Asia and flown to Sri
Lanka.
Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the
insurgent group's former chief arms
smuggler, assumed the leadership of
the Tamil Tigers after government
forces routed the rebels in May in
northern Sri Lanka and killed their
leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
Pathmanathan was believed to be
based in south-east Asia in recent
years and was one of the few rebel
leaders to survive the government
offensive that destroyed the
separatists' shadow state in northern
Sri Lanka and ended the 25-year civil
war.
But as Pathmanathan, known by his
nom de guerre KP, worked to revive
the Tamil Tigers, the government
pushed for his arrest.
The rebels said in a statement that
Pathmanathan was arrested on
Wednesday near a hotel in Kuala
China executes corrupt airport chief
(World news and comment from
the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 2:29:22 AM
China's supreme court upholds
conviction for bribery and
embezzlement totalling £9.6m
The former head of Beijing
airport's management company was
executed today after his conviction
on corruption charges, state media
reported.
An intermediate court found 60-
year-old Li Peiying guilty in
Lumpur, Malaysia. A pro-rebel
website said Pathmanathan had gone
to the hotel to meet relatives of the
group's political leader, Balasingham
Nadesan, who was killed in the May
offensive. He left the room to answer
a phone call, but did not return, it
said.
Malaysian officials declined to
comment.
But Sri Lanka's Island newspaper,
quoting anonymous sources, said
Pathmanathan was captured in
Thailand.
A Thai government spokesman,
Panitan Wattanayagorn, denied he
was arrested there but said there were
"reports that he has been travelling in
and out of Thailand".
A Thai military intelligence official
said Pathmanathan had been hiding
in northern Thailand under a false
identity in recent months. The
official spoke on condition of
anonymity because the government
did not want to acknowledge his
presence in the country.
Sri Lanka's military spokesman,
Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, said
Pathmanathan – who was wanted by
Interpol – had been brought to Sri
Lanka and was being interrogated.
He refused to say where
Pathmanathan had been arrested or
whether the military or police had
February of accepting almost £2.4m
in bribes and embezzling about
£7.2m in public funds over the past
14 years, the Xinhua news agency
said.
Li was executed after the supreme
court upheld a lower court's rejection
of his appeal, Xinhua said. The report
did not say when the supreme court
ruled and it did not describe the
method of execution.
China has long struggled against
corruption among high-level
Communist party officials, especially
custody of him.
The arrest was expected to give
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his
allies a boost ahead of local
government elections tomorrow in
the northern towns of Jaffna and
Vavuniya, just outside the rebels'
former heartland.
The government said the polls
proved it was returning democracy to
the region, but it has been criticised
for banning foreign media from
travelling to the towns to cover the
elections.
The Sri Lankan authorities planned
to hold a news conference today to
discuss the arrest, a major blow to the
rebel group's efforts to regroup after
its devastating battlefield defeat.
Soon after the defeat,
Pathmanathan declared himself the
new leader of the Tamil Tigers,
renounced violence and worked to
transform a group shunned
internationally as a terror
organisation into a democratic
movement for Tamil statehood. He
cast himself as a defender of the
nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians
displaced by the fighting and held in
government detention camps in the
area.
However, some Tamil expatriates
were furious with Pathmanathan for
so swiftly acknowledging
in state-owned enterprises in energy,
transport and other key sectors that
wield vast power and influence.
In 2007, China executed the
director of its food and drug agency
for approving fake medicine in
exchange for cash. One antibiotic
was blamed for causing the deaths of
at least 10 people.
The Capital Airports Holding
Company, of which Li was chairman,
operates more than 30 airports in
nine Chinese provinces, managing
assets of more than 100bn yuan
Prabhakaran's death in battle in May
while many of the rebel chief's
followers insisted he still lived.
In a sign Pathmanathan was having
trouble uniting the Tamil community
behind him, the rebel-linked
TamilNet website did not even report
his arrest.
Pathmanathan rose to prominence
as the architect of the group's vast
international smuggling ring of arms,
drugs and possibly even people that
Jane's Intelligence Review estimated
earned the rebels up to $300m
(£180m) a year.
Sri Lankan officials have told the
Associated Press that Pathmanathan
travelled with dozens of passports,
including Indian, Egyptian and
Malaysian, and bought weapons from
countries including Thailand,
Indonesia, Bulgaria and South
Africa.
The rebels had fought a 25-year
battle to carve out an independent
state for minority Tamils. Between
80,000 and 100,000 people were
killed in the violence.
• Sri Lanka
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(£8.7bn) and 38,000 employees,
according to the company's website.
In handing down its sentence in
February, the Jinan intermediate
people's court said there was
evidence that Li had solicited the
bribes, making the crime more
serious. It said the amount of public
funds Li stole resulted in "extremely
large economic losses" for the state
and constituted an "extremely serious
crime".
China puts to death more people
every year than all other countries
Internet News Record
See League of
Legends in
action
By Justin McElroy (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:00:00 AM
Like any self-respecting nerd who
spent time with Defense of the
Ancients in their youth, we can't wait
to get our mouse finger on Riot
Games' League of Legends. If you're
still on the fence about this
action/RTS/RPG hybrid (or are just
now hearing about it) allow the
above video to educate you.
Though the gameplay looks good,
what we can't so heartily endorse is
the video's dialogue. "Now, you may
be asking yourself: 'What exactly is a
MOBA?'" Really, guys? That's the
"A" material?
[ Update: Andrew reminds us of a
very important fact we neglected to
mention: League of Legends will be
totally free to play. In fact, you'll
only be spending cash if you want to
customize the look of your
character.]
See League of Legends in action
originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri,
07 Aug 2009 06:00:00 EST. Please
see our terms for use of feeds.
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combined, with 5,000 executions
expected to take place this year,
according to the San Francisco-based
Dui Hua Foundation, a human-rights
monitoring group. The Chinese
government does not provide an
annual tally.
• China
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Internet News Record
Pregnant drug smuggler describes
Laos 'nightmare'
By Esther Addley, Sam Jones
(World news and comment from
the Guardian | guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:24:52 AM
Samantha Orobator arrives back in
UK and is taken to Holloway prison
to complete sentence
Samantha Orobator, the pregnant
British woman who was jailed for
life in Laos for smuggling heroin,
described her ordeal as an
"unimaginable nightmare" as she
returned to the UK today.
The 20-year-old from Peckham,
south London, was handed over to
British officials yesterday in the
Laotian capital, Vientiane, after an
agreement was reached between the
Foreign Office and the Laos
government. She landed at Heathrow
airport just before 7am.
In a statement released this
afternoon, she said: "I would like to
thank all those who were involved in
my return, including various British
government officials, for their efforts
on my behalf and for their support.
"Meanwhile, I would be grateful for
a little peace as this has been a very
traumatic experience both for me and
for my unborn child."
Orobator, who has been permitted
to serve the rest of her sentence in the
UK, was met by a waiting prison van
as she got off the plane. Wearing a
white hat and loose trousers, she
laughed as she stepped onto the
tarmac along with three travel
companions.
Uniformed police stood by as she
was led into the van to take her to
Holloway prison, which has a mother
and baby unit. Her return to the UK
comes in time for the birth of her
child, which is due next month.
Orobator faced a death sentence
after being caught with 680g (1.5lb)
of heroin at Vientiane airport last
August. She was spared a firing
squad after becoming pregnant in
circumstances that remain
unexplained while in the women-
only wing of Phonthong prison.
Orobator was allowed to transfer to
Britain after the Foreign Office
minister Chris Bryant travelled to
Laos last week and signed a
memorandum of understanding.
A spokesman for the charity
Reprieve said Orobator, who
travelled with a midwife and
representatives from the Ministry of
Justice, would undergo health checks
when she arrived at Holloway. She
was due to meet her lawyers at about
8am to discuss her case. Her mother
was flying in from Dublin in the
hope of seeing her.
Katherine O'Shea, of Reprieve,
said: "When she arrives at Holloway
she will have some health checks and
then hopefully her family will be able
to see her. Her mother really hopes
she will be able to see her but at the
moment she does not know if that's
going to be possible – we will have
to wait and see."
Her MP, Harriet Harman, said she
was "relieved" at Orobator's return.
Khenthong Nuanthasing, a
spokesman for the Laos foreign
ministry, said the prisoner's return
was a humanitarian gesture taking
her pregnancy into account.
A second British prisoner, John
Watson, 47, remains in custody in the
country. Reports have suggested he
smuggled his sperm to Orobator to
make her pregnant and save her life.
Bryant said he was concerned for
Watson's health.
Watson was transferred from
Phonthong prison some time ago, a
Foreign Office spokeswoman said,
but "the Lao authorities have not
given us information as to where he
is being held". Human rights
campaigners fear that he may have
been transferred to a worse prison as
punishment.
British officials have received
assurances that he will be transferred
into British custody "in the very near
future". Watson was arrested in 2003
and is serving life for trafficking
amphetamines, which carries a lesser
sentence than heroin.
• Laos
• Drugs trade
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Blogger blames Russia
for cyber attack
By Tom Parfitt (World news and
comment from the Guardian |
guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:53:26 AM
Blogger claims attack on Twitter,
Facebook and LiveJournal was part
of plot to silence his criticism of the
Kremlin
The Georgian blogger known as
Cyxymu, who was yesterday the
victim of a cyber assault that affected
hundreds of millions of web users
around the world, has blamed the
attack on the Kremlin.
Speaking to the Guardian from an
office in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi,
he said he believed the denial-of-
service strike that hit LiveJournal,
Facebook and Twitter stemmed from
an attempt to silence his criticism
over Russia's conduct in the war over
the disputed South Ossetia region,
which began a year ago today.
"Maybe it was carried out by
ordinary hackers but I'm certain the
order came from the Russian
government," said the blogger,
whose monicker is a latinised version
of the Russian spelling of Sukhumi,
the capital of Georgia's other
breakaway republic, Abkhazia.
He added: "An attack on such a
scale that affected three worldwide
services with numerous servers could
only be organised by someone with
huge resources."
The trio of social networking sites
were temporarily overwhelmed
causing disruptions of service.
Cyxymu said his real name was
Georgy and that he was a 34-year-old
economics lecturer. He is an active
critic of Moscow's politics in the
Caucasus region and was the victim
of a similar attack last year that
crashed LiveJournal.
He said he was "amazed" when he
World/ 33
realised the latest strike on his blog,
Sukhumi, war and pain, had
seemingly prompted a global online
meltdown.
"I didn't expect that it would be an
attack on me, I'm not such a famous
blogger," he said. "It started when
hundreds of thousands of spam
emails supposedly from me were sent
all over the world suggesting for
people to visit one of my blogs. So
thousands of people visited it causing
it to freeze, and they [LiveJournal]
had to block it again. Then the same
thing happened with Facebook and
Twitter."
Max Kelly, Facebook's chief
security officer, confirmedyesterday
that the attack that disrupted the
Twitter site and caused problems for
Facebook and LiveJournal was aimed
at Cyxymu. "It was a simultaneous
attack across a number of properties
targeting him to keep his voice from
being heard," he said.
Cyxymu said he had started his
blog as a way to unite ethnic
Georgians who lived in Sukhumi but
were forced to leave as refugees in
1993 when Abkhazia seceded from
Georgia. "When the war started in
South Ossetia last year I couldn't
avoid being drawn into politics," he
said.
• Georgia
• Russia
• Social networking
• Digital media
• Hacking
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Internet
• Data and computer security
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Conditions| More Feeds
34 World/ Entertainment/
Iraq blasts kills dozens of pilgrims
By Mark Tran (World news and
comment from the Guardian |
guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:26:56 AM
Worshippers targeted by extremists
hoping to stir up sectarian divisions
At least 37 people have died in a
series of bomb attacks against Shia
pilgrims and worshippers in Iraq,
amid fears that extremists are hoping
to plunge the country back into
sectarian strife.
The deadliest blast occurred in
Rasheediyah, a village north of
Mosul, when a suicide car bomb
struck a mosque, killing at least 30
people and trapping dozens more
underneath the rubble.
A police official in Nineveh said at
least 88 were injured in the blast.
Bodies were still being pulled from
the rubble, the official said. The
attack occurred shortly after 1pm as
worshippers were leaving Friday
prayers. The blast severely damaged
many other buildings near the
mosque.
In Baghdad, roadside bombs
targeted pilgrims returning from the
southern city of Karbala. The first of
Greek woman in court for setting fire to British tourist
By Steven Morris (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 5:23:21 AM
Woman claims she acted in self
defence after Swindon holidaymaker
pulled down his trousers in Crete
resort
A Greek woman is to appear in
court today accused of setting fire to
a British tourist in Crete after he
allegedly pulled down his trousers in
front of her.
The 26-year-old woman, Marina
Fanouraki, was charged with assault
after the incident in the holiday resort
of Malia in which she allegedly
three bombs exploded at 9.10am,
hitting a minibus as it entered Sadr
city, a Shia area. The blast killed four
and wounded eight others.
A short time later, two almost
simultaneous explosions near the
Shaab football stadium in eastern
Baghdad killed three pilgrims as they
were walking home to Sadr city.
Thirteen pilgrims were wounded in
the two blasts, which occurred less
than half a mile apart.
Hundreds of thousands of devout
Shias have been travelling by foot or
car to Karbala, 50 miles south of
Baghdad, to celebrate the birth of
Mohammed al-Mahdi, the 12th Shia
imam, who disappeared in the ninth
century. Shias believe the "hidden
imam" will return to restore peace
and harmony.
Iraqi forces have stepped up
security on the road to and from
Karbala as the ceremonies reached
their high point yesterday and
concluded early today.
Violence has dropped sharply in
Iraq in the past two years but US
officials describe the security gains
as fragile and warn that even an
enfeebled insurgency still has the
poured a highly flammable liquid
over the man and set fire to it with a
lighter.
Twenty-year-old Stuart Feltham
from Swindon suffered second-
degree burns and is recovering in a
private clinic. He has been reported
as having suffered burns to his
genitals, but the Foreign Office said
it understood that his chest and
abdomen were injured.
"We can confirm that in the early
hours of Tuesday a British male
national was assaulted in Crete. We
understand he suffered burns. He has
been receiving consular assistance," a
spokeswoman said.
The story has made national
capacity for lethal attacks.
Under a security agreement signed
between the US and Iraq at the
beginning of the year, the Obama
administration agreed to pull out of
Iraq by the end of 2010. The 130,000
US troops are now almost
exclusively confined to bases outside
of cities and will gradually leave.
Reduced to a supporting role, the
American military can only join
operations at Iraq's invitation.
In a visit to the White House last
month, the Iraqi prime minister,
Nouri al-Maliki, pledged to work to
ease sectarian tension. But with
bombings and attacks still a major
danger as Iraqi forces assume a larger
police role, US officials have voiced
concerns about continuing violence
unless Maliki and his Shia political
allies do more to reach out to
minority Sunnis and ease government
control over Sunni and Kurdish
regions.
• Iraq
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headlines in Greece, where some
have hailed the woman as a hero.
Fanouraki will appear in court in
Iraklion, in northern Crete. She
claims she was acting in self-defence
but Feltham's family strongly deny
that he had been sexually harassing
the woman. They have also
dismissed the claims that his genitals
had been burned.
"He swears blind that he's never met
her or seen her. He's not the kind of
lad that gets himself in trouble – he's
a kind-hearted, generous boy," his
father, Ian Feltham, said. "His head's
on straight. I truly think it was a case
of being in the wrong place at the
wrong time.
We'll be seeing more of
Leonard Nimoy on Fringe -
TCA Report
By Joel Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:44:00 PM
The panel for Fringe just ended, and
in it was some nice news for anyone
who were psyched to see Leonard
Nimoy appear last season as the
elusive William Bell. The producers
of the show told the gathered critics
that Nimoy has already shot one
episode for the second season and
that they will want to have him on
the show "as much as he wants."
EPs Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman,
along with co-creators Roberto Orici
and Alex Kurtzman, even talked
about a day of shooting in a super-
hot Vancouver soundstage, where
Nimoy acted like a pro. "He never
went back to his trailer, and shot
pages of dialogue." So it seems like
they like having him around the set.
The show will take place mostly in
the present universe, but there will be
"He said some girl just came up to
him and threw some party trick fuel
over him, then set him alight. He said
it came from behind the bar, but it
was not a drink.
"We received the phone call at 3am
from one of his mates, and it was
very worrying.
"He said, 'There's been an incident,
and his words were 'He's been
torched.' It was a terrible, horrible
attack."
Feltham said his son, a plumber,
had been to a party before returning
to the bar of his hotel.
"The hotel staff had been very good
to them, and he wanted to buy the
barman a drink and say goodbye.
Internet News Record
some events that happen in the
parallel universe introduced last year
( "over there," as the producers put
it). Events "over there" will affect
events in the present universe, as
well.
More on the panel later.
Filed under: TV Royalty, TCA
Press Tour, Casting, Reality-Free,
Fringe
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Apparently she had nothing to do
with the hotel.
"He was burned from his neck to his
bellybutton, and his hair's been
singed. He's fine now, and we've
spoken to him. The doctors say he's
progressing well, and he's in good
spirits. We just want him home – we
want to look after him."
• Greece
• Crete
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Media Limited 2009 | Use of this
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Internet News Record
Six journalists jailed in Gambia
By Chris Tryhorn (World news
and comment from the Guardian
| guardian.co.uk)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:50:06 AM
Journalists, including one who
worked for Reuters, convicted over
sedition and defamation over press
union statement
Six Gambian journalists, including
one who contributed to Reuters, have
been jailed for two years for sedition
and defamation.
The journalists were sentenced
yesterday by a court in the country's
capital city, Banjul, after backing a
press union statement that criticised
the government.
The union today said it would
appeal against their convictions,
which have been widely condemned
by press freedom groups.
Reporters Without Borders called
on the US secretary of state, Hillary
Clinton, to draw attention to the case
during her trip to Africa.
"These journalists are prisoners of
conscience, who are being punished
TUAW Review: Plants vs. Zombies
By Dave Caolo (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/6/2009 5:30:00 PM
Filed under: Gaming, Software
Earlier this week I downloaded
Plants vs. Zombies by PopCap
Games for the Mac. It's a simple
tower defense game that pits
lumbering zombies against great
varieties of aggressive plants. Your
job is to fill your yard with enough
plants to keep the zombies from
reaching your house.
The first few levels are quite easy.
In order to amass your green army,
you've got to collect sunlight. Some
plants, like sunflowers and certain
mushrooms, give off sunlight that
you can gather. The rest you collect
from the sky (in the daytime, at
least). As you complete each level,
for peacefully expressing their
views," said Erwin van der Borght,
Amnesty International's Africa
programme director. "They should be
released immediately and
unconditionally."
On top of their prison sentences,
the journalists were also fined
250,000 dalasi (£5,780).
The journalists are the union
officials Emil Touray, Sarata Jabbi
Dibba and Pa Modou Faal; Pap Saine
and Ebou Sawaneh, publisher and
editor of the Point newspaper; and
Sam Sarr, editor of the Foroyaa
newspaper.
Saine – who has a heart condition
and at one stage reportedly collapsed
in court – also worked for Reuters.
"Although this case is not connected
with work he did for Reuters, Pap
Saine has reported for us for three
decades and during that time he has
shown his commitment to our
journalistic standards and values,"
said Reuters' editor-in-chief, David
Schlesinger.
"We are concerned for his health
you're offered another plant.
Many little touches make this game
great. Select the help menu and you'll
find a "hand written" note that says,
"When the zombies show up, just sit
there and don't do anything. You win
the game when the zombies get in
your houze." One zombie variation
gets especially angry when you
knock his newspaper from his hand
while another, dressed in a red
leather jacket, white socks and black
shoes, summons dancing minions to
launch a well choreographed group
assault.
Zombies drop coins that you can
exchange for additional features, like
the number of plants available. Asset
management gets harder in later
levels as you can only choose a few
plants for each assault. Just
remember, you always need sun!
and hope that his need for treatment
for a heart condition is recognised by
the authorities."
The trial was prompted by a union
statement that criticised the Gambian
government's treatment of journalists,
especially after the 2004 killing of
the veteran reporter Deyda Hydara.
• To contact the MediaGuardian
n e w s d e s k e m a i l
editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or
phone 020 3353 3857. For all other
inquiries please call the main
Guardian switchboard on 020 3353
2000.
• If you are writing a comment for
publication, please mark clearly "for
publication".
• Press freedom
• News agencies
• Newspapers
• Newspapers & magazines
• Gambia
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Beyond the game itself (there are
50 levels in all) are several mini
games, puzzles, survival mode and
even a peaceful zen garden.
Additionally, you can browse the
almanac to see exactly which types
of zombies and plants you've
encountered as well as what's left.
The music and sound effects are fun.
I found that it looked jaggy in full
World/ AppleBlog/ Entertainment/ 35
Will Fox let us see the other
Gordon Ramsay?
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 10:00:00 AM
While reading Joel's account of the
Fox media panel, I was curious about
the announcement of a new special
called Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong
Live. It sounds like a variation on
Food Network's Emeril Live or
Paula's Party, but hopefully, it'll be a
lot better. And perhaps we'll get to
see the Gordon Ramsay Fox has not
revealed up to now.
Unless you've been living in a cave
the past five years or so, you know
that celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay
has emerged as one of the biggest want to be on the other side of one of
stars on TV. But if you only watch his verbal tongue-lashings.
Gordon on his Fox TV shows -- Continue reading Will Fox let us
Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen see the other Gordon Ramsay?
Nightmares-- you've only seen one Filed under: Other Reality Shows,
side of the bellicose chef. On those Food/Home/DIY, Programming,
shows, he's a screaming, cursing, OpEd, Celebrities
demanding, hard-driving taskmaster. Permalink| Email this| | Comments
He's compelling, but you wouldn't
screen mode, so keep it in a small
window.
Plants Vs. Zombies isn't Eve
Online, and it's not meant to be. As a
fun distraction during break time or
leisure time, it's a great little game.
You can play for 60 minutes for free.
After that, you'll have to pay
$19.95US. It's definitely worth it. If
you just can't get enough, check out
the extras.
Gallery: Plants Vs. Zombies
TUAW TUAW Review: Plants vs.
Zombies originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:30:00 EST.
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36 AppleBlog/ TechNews/
Distant Suns for iPhone update: Sky
no longer the limit
By Mel Martin (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:30:00 PM
Filed under: iPhone, App Store,
iPod touch, App Review In this
International Year of Astronomy
we're seeing a small explosion of
astronomy apps updated both for the
Mac and the iPhone.
One of my favorites, Distant
Suns[App Store] has updated the
build that runs on the 3GS iPhone to
include some augmented reality
features. This means that if you point
the phone up to the sky, the program
figures out the direction you are
pointing and your elevation and
slews to the proper view of the star
map, giving you a view that should
match what you are seeing in the sky.
This greatly enhances the
usefulness of this program, especially
for novices who want to get outside
under the summer stars and quickly
figure out 'what's up?'.
This new version is only for 3GS
iPhones, and an update with some
additional features for all the earlier
models is on the way. Of course
older phones won't have the compass
Are Parents Making Facebook
Uncool?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:26:54 PM
My parents recently joined
Facebook (a few months after joining
Twitter), and I actually thought that
was pretty cool -- but I'm no longer at
the age where everything my parents
do embarrasses me. For kids who are
at that point in their lives, having
parents join Facebook is quite a
conundrum. The latest study out of
the UK is suggesting that, with
parents suddenly joining Facebook
en masse, it's becoming uncool for
feature. Other changes include some
UI tweaks, and setting the sound
effects default to 'off.'
Pocket Universe[App Store], which
I reviewed last month, has a similar
feature and also works very well.
Pocket Universe sells for US$2.99
and Distant Suns is $5.99. Check
kids to be there. I have no idea how
accurate the study is, but if it's true, it
raises an interesting question: is there
a way to avoid such an "uncoolness"
factor as a site like Facebook
expands? I would think that you'd
need to build in certain features to
separate out groups easily, so that
you could quickly dunk parents into a
certain bucket, and friends into a
different one, to make sure that lives
are "kept separate."
Permalink| Comments| Email This
Story
reader reactions to both and go into
details on the features to decide
which one is right for you.
Distant Suns has a long pedigree in
the star mapping world. It first ran on
the Commodore Amiga in 1987, then
was ported to the PC, the Mac, and
now your favorite cell phone.
When you look up at the moon this
summer to celebrate the Apollo 11
landing 40 years ago, be sure to
investigate the thousands of other
points of light with a software app
that will literally point you in the
right direction.
Note: Distant Suns runs on the iPod
touch as well, but the software will
n o t h a v e
augmentation/orientation feature
t h e
because the magnetometer isn't
present in the iPod touch hardware.
TUAW Distant Suns for iPhone
update: Sky no longer the limit
originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:30:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Apple on your thigh
By Sang Tang (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/7/2009 10:00:00 AM
Filed under: Accessories, Odds and
ends, iPhone, iPod touch
Every market has its share of
"interesting" products in their
respective ecosystems. For instance,
the hair loss treatment market
spawned "hair in a can." In the
apparel market, there's the Snuggie
fleece. And for those who like to dust
with their feet, there's the Dust Mop
Slippers.
In the iPhone ecosystem of
accessories, behold ThiPhone. You
read it right. That's not a misspelling
of "The iPhone." Rather, the "Thi" in
ThiPhone is actually pronounced like
"thigh," as in your leg's thigh. As
implied in its name, the device straps
your iPhone to your thigh for your
viewing pleasure. According to
ThiPhone's inventor, the product is
intended for several audiences,
including: commuters, frequent
flyers, truckers, physically disabled,
kids in the back seat, and students.
Let's not stop there. I'd like to
throw in some other possible usage
scenarios:
Internet News Record
• You and your significant other are
cuddling in bed, and want to watch
that latest movie on your iPhone.
ThiPhone to the rescue. It's
multitouch on a whole new level.
• You're on a canoeing trip with dad
that, well, you didn't really want to
go on. ThiPhone to the rescue again.
While dad is rowing away, you'll be
in the back watching your favorite
episodes of entourage. And rowing,
of course.
• Who said waiting in line at
Disneyland had to be boring? You
could strap ThiPhone around your
neck so that you could entertain those
behind you.
All kidding aside, coming up ideas
and going to market with products
takes a lot of hard work, so props to
the folk at ThiPhone. Let's help them
out even more by brainstorming and
coming up with even more ways that
they could market the product!
TUAW The Apple on your thigh
originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:00:00 EST.
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Internet News Record
Mac 101: Change your desktop picture
By Dave Caolo (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/6/2009 1:00:00 PM
Filed under: OS, Mac 101
Welcome back to Mac 101, our
series of posts aimed at novice Mac
users and veterans who like the
occasional refresher.
Many new Mac owners want to
customize their Mac's look and feel.
A simple place to begin is the
desktop picture. It's easy to change
and there are several options, from
the images that come with the OS to
freebies from the Internet and your
own photos. Here's what to do (this
post assumes you're using Mac OS X
10.5.x).
Open System Preferences from
either the Apple Menu or the Dock
and click Desktop & Screen Saver
and then the Desktop tab. If you're in
a hurry, you can also get there by
right-clicking on an unoccupied area
of the desktop, and choosing
"Change Desktop Background." On
the left you'll see several options.
Click Apple Images to browse some
of the images that shipped with your
Mac. To set any as your Desktop
picture, simply click it. The Nature,
Plants, Black & White and Abstract
folders also hold options from Apple.
Personally, I like some of the black
& whites.
If you've got iPhoto installed, you
can browse your albums just as
easily. Select the album on the left
and click any image on the right to
select it. Some of you may maintain
your own folder of images. To access
it from the Preference Pane, click the
"+" and navigate to the photo that
contains your images. Finally, you
can simply drop an image into the
well at the top of the Preference Pane
window.
There are additional options at the
bottom of the window, like changing
the picture at regular intervals and
AppleBlog/ Gizmos/
disable the translucent menu bar (my
personal favorite). Finally, if your
image is too small, you can opt to tile
or stretch it.
Now that you know how, go and
grab some images. The Iconfactory,
Pixlegirl Presents and Mac Desktops
are good places to start looking.
TUAW Mac 101: Change your
desktop picture originally appeared
on The Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW) on Thu, 06 Aug 2009
13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms
for use of feeds.
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37
Think Apple's Secretive?
Wait Until You Learn
About Netflix [NetFlix]
By Dan Nosowitz (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:00:00 PM
In the tech world, we usually see
Apple as the most secretive company
around. But it turns out Netflix might
be just as paranoid, and just as
fascinating. This expose will make
you see DVD-rental-by-mail in a
totally new light.
I love Netflix, and I understand
why they need to keep their secrets
locked up tight: They're one of the
few true innovators in the tech world
and they've had to contend with some
nasty copycatting. But they go a little
over-the-top with their secrecy:
Every warehouse is totally
anonymous, hidden, and unbranded;
the Tribune reporter who filed this
story isn't allowed to divulge even
the slightest hint as to where the
warehouse he visited is.
Some more interesting tidbits: It
doesn't matter when you mail out
your DVDs, since they're filed all at
once, in the wee hours of the
morning (think 3:00 AM to 7:00
AM). Netflix employees (officially
called "associates") have forced
calisthenics every 65 minutes. And
coolest of all, they have a machine
that scans 30,000 DVD envelope bar
codes per hour, sending out an email
to Netflix subscribers immediately
saying Netflix has received their
DVD back. It's a really fascinating
read, go check it out. [ Chicago
Tribune]
38 AppleBlog/ Gizmos/ Entertainment/
Patch for Microsoft
Office 2008 XML issues
iSimulate brings iPhone now available
apps to the big screen
By Mike Schramm (The
Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW))
Submitted at 8/7/2009 3:00:00 AM
Filed under: Gaming, Software,
Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK
Apple's iPhone simulator built into
Xcode is nice, but it doesn't
completely replicate the actual feel of
playing with an iPhone (not to
mention that things like multitouch
and accelerometer info can't be tested
on screen). Enter iSimulate, a new
app from a company called vimov. In
conjunction with a program on your
Mac, it allows you to take the input
(including multitouch and
accelerometer) of an iPhone, and
wirelessly connect it to an app
running on your monitor. The effect,
as you can see above, is basically an
iPhone controlling a big-screen app.
Which has all sorts of possibilities.
Developers can use it to both test and
show off their apps, which is nice.
But perhaps more importantly,
(assuming it works smoothly -- we
haven't tested it yet) it will let people
use apps on their big screen
Aquos DX2 Blu-ray TVs Improve Image Quality, Record Times in Japan [TVs]
By Danny Allen (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 12:30:00 AM
Sharp claims the new 7x mode in its
2nd-gen DX Series LCD TVs further
extends built-in Blu-ray recording
times, and that it has boosted the
monitors. Playing on the iPhone's
screen is fun and all, but wouldn't it
be nicer to play on two big screens at
the same time?
The app might not quite be ready
for that use quite yet -- not only is the
app for your Mac called an "SDK"
(which definitely means it's meant
for developers, not gamers), but the
price might be prohibitive as well.
They launched it at $2, and the price
is going up exponentially (it's now
$8) until it arrives at its final price of
$32. But this is definitely a great
idea. And it if happens to be popular
even at that price (for consumers and
developers), we wouldn't be
surprised to see Apple finally "get it"
in terms of bringing some of the App
Store's offerings to their own big
screen.
TUAW iSimulate brings iPhone
apps to the big screen originally
appeared on The Unofficial Apple
Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 07 Aug
2009 03:00:00 EST. Please see our
terms for use of feeds.
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image quality for its 40-inch+
models.
The larger 40V-, 46V-, 52V-inch
models are the ones equipped with an
improved "High-Picture-Quality
Master Engine." These are full-HD
(1080p) models, while new 26-inch
By Sang Tang (The Unofficial
Apple Weblog (TUAW))
Submitted at 8/7/2009 8:00:00 AM
Filed under: Enterprise,
Productivity, Software Update
As promised, Microsoft has
released a patch (dubbed version
12.2.1) to address issues that some
Microsoft Office 2008 users have
had with opening XML-based
documents. When attempting to open
a document in Microsoft Office
2008, some users have been
presented with an error message that
resembles the following:
"Microsoft Excel cannot open the
file. You may have to download the
latest updates for Office for Mac. Do
you want to visit the Microsoft Web
site for more information?"
For those who held off on the
Service Pack 2 update, guess what?
Surprise! Service Pack 2 is required
to install the patch. Unlike many Mac
apps, where update checks are found
in an app's namesake menu, in
Microsoft Office 2008 it's in the
"help" menu. So, click on "help," and
"check for updates" and you're all
set. Well, you're all set if you already
had Service Pack 2 installed. You're
only halfway there if you didn't have
it installed. If this is the case, simply
and 32-inch DX2 TVs have a
do this again. And there you go.
Opening XML on Microsoft Office
2008 is no longer XM-hell. (You can
also download the patch from the
Mactopia web site.)
TUAW Patch for Microsoft Office
2008 XML issues now available
originally appeared on The
Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:00:00 EST.
Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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resolution of 1366 by 768.
The DX2 range also has an "Image
Select" mode that automatically
adjusts the picture and sound to
match your room's brightness, and
the content you're watching.
Just a quick one really, as—apart
Internet News Record
Burn Notice:
Long Way Back
(summer finale)
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 1:43:00 AM
(S03E09) Wow! Talk about a
powerful finale. There were a lot of
plot points and emotional issues
addressed, and if you had any
question about Michael's true loyalty,
this show answered it. Burn Notice
goes on hiatus -- is that what they
call it? -- till the winter, and it's going
to be a long rest of the summer and
fall waiting for the story to resume.
There was change in the air, what
with Michael inching closer to a
return to the CIA -- or so it seemed.
More on all that and the blistering
finale after the jump.
Continue reading Burn Notice:
Long Way Back (summer finale)
Filed under: Episode Reviews,
Reality-Free, Burn Notice
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
from a September ship date for Japan
-no pricing was announced, let alone
U.S. availability. Sharp, Sony and
Haier do have Blu-ray TVs on this
side of the Pacific, though. [ Sharp
via Akihabara News]
Internet News Record
Build Your Own Battlestar Galactica
Viper Rocket! [Rockets]
By Danny Allen (Gizmodo)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 11:30:00 PM
Estes may have discontinued its
wicked Battlestar and Star Trek
replica rockets almost 20 years ago,
but some clever hobbyists have info
on how you can still build one today.
Verna Rockets has a full debrief on
its own builds, complete with links to
several sites with parts and
instructions. You'll find everything
you need to build a flying model
rocket that looks like a Recon Viper,
the U.S.S. Enterprise, even The
Black Hole Space Probe from "The
Black Hole"
Confession: I always get psyched
by rocket kits. Have any pics of your
own launches that you'd like to
share? [ Verna Rockets via Hobby
Media]
rssCloud news
(Scripting News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:42:48 AM
The cloud keeps right on rollin
along!
I love this piece by Rex Hammock
on rebooting his Twitter follow list.
It's great for a bunch of reasons. 1.
Rex is a smart user. 2. He was
inspired in part by Jay Rosen, who
said in our July 27 podcast that he
treats his subscription list as a
resource for others who want to find
people to follow in his field of
expertise. 3. Rex relied on the
rssCloud tool released earlier this
week.
Developers -- it's our job is to listen
to smart users like Jay and Rex, and
then give them the tools to create the
revolution. We are at best enablers. I
do mean best. When we see
ourselves as the show, we miss the
point. The users are what's
happening.
Another brick in the cloud
(Scripting News)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 2:12:53 PM
Got a couple of interesting calls this
morning on the development of
rssCloud. The idea is picking up
steam. I'm liking it. For a lot of these
things this is the second or third time
I'm implementing them. That gives a
certain confidence that you know
how to do it, and know what the
pitfalls are, and what challenges are
coming down the pike.
One question comes up a lot -- how
do you manage the global namespace
in a loosely-coupled 140-character
message network.
Twitter handles it simply, they
have a server at twitter.com and
when you give it a username it
knows what data it applies to. It
Gizmos/ Tech Musings/
I started a mail list for developers
working on rssCloud. Moderated at
first to keep out the trolling and the
spamming.
Now, that's not to say that
developers can't be users too. The
best ones are, and man that is
powerful because there can be really
good communication betw the user
and the developer if they're in the
same body. A good example -- Matt
Mullenweg had the idea to import his
Twitter subscription list into Google
Reader and it worked. However, all
the subscriptions were imported at
the top level, meaning he had a clean
-up to do.
So I added a feature to the app, if
you add "&folder=1" to the end of
the URL it creates an extra level in
the OPML, designed for import into
Google Reader (and probably other
RSS aggregators as well). Example:
http://tw.opml.org/get?user=jkottke&
doesn't expose the internals. That's
different from the Internet's domain
name system, that turns a name like
google.com, yahoo.com or us.gov
into numbered addresses like
74.125.67.100, 209.131.36.159 and
209.251.180.18.
So in a loosely-coupled world how
will this work?
1. We want to map names like
jason, guy and carol to URLs like
random.com/guy.xml etc, etc.
2. Probably the way it'll work is
there will be a central server run by a
foundation that does exactly this
mapping and nothing more. It's an
identity server. You sign up for a
username and password and store
one bit of data, the URL of your feed
of 140-character messages.
3. Another possibility is to borrow
39
folder=1
1. Save the list to your desktop.
2. In Google Reader, click on
Settings (in the upper-right corner of
the window), then Import/Export.
3. Click the Browse button and
choose the file you saved above.
4. Click the Upload button.
5. When you return to the Google
Reader main page, you'll see a new
top-level section for your Twitter
subscriptions.
Now you can follow Twitter folk in
Google Reader. Heh.
Re Twitter's problems today.
Centralized networks are especially
vulnerable to DOS attacks. Loosely-
coupled networks can do better. I
wanted to post that to Twitter, but it's
under attack. Not a joke, but
something to continue to think about,
planning for the future.
the architecture of DNS, and make it
a registrar problem. Sign up with
Godaddy or Network Solutions or
Gandi and create a domain. Now the
challenge is to have that name point
to a URL instead of a dotted ID. I'll
leave that up to the DNS gurus to
decide if it's possible or too egregious
a hack.
4. Yet another possibility is to let
twitter.com handle the bootstrap.
Conveniently they have space for a
URL in each user's profile. If you've
got an aggregator and the user says
they want to subscribe to someone
named pearl, look on Twitter for
such a user, get the URL from their
profile, read it, and if it's an RSS file
with a cloud element, you're home. If
not, it's an error.
40 Entertainment/
Will Lex Luthor rise from the
grave for Smallville's season
nine?
By Mike Moody (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 9:10:00 PM
Michael Rosenbaum's departure
from Smallville in season seven
should have been a heavy blow to a
series already suffering from flagging
ratings and a bad batch of still-born
stories. But the following season
turned out to be one of Smallville's
best, introducing a fine female
successor to Rosenbaum's Lex
Luthor and edging us closer into
Superman territory.
With season nine on the horizon,
and the show getting its best reviews
and ratings in years, the big question
is coming up again: Will Rosenbaum
return to Smallville?
Last season we watched a
disfigured Lex, played by a different
actor whose face was hidden,
apparently die in an explosion. Of
course, fans knew instantly that
Superman's nemesis was still kicking
somewhere (as confirmed by exec
Good news, bad news for CBS soaps
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 9:02:00 AM
There's good news and bad news on
the CBS soap opera front. The good
news is that The Young & the
Restless has been renewed for two
years. The bad news is that As the
World Turns could be axed just like
Guiding Light.
producer Brian Peterson at Comic-
Con).
Continue reading Will Lex Luthor
rise from the grave for Smallville's
season nine?
Filed under: Industry, Smallville,
Reality-Free
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The Young & the Restless is CBS
daytime's top rated soap. It's been
number one in the Nielsens for nearly
20 years running. So the renewal
wasn't a big surprise. However, the
pick-up came with a warning to cut
costs, tighten the budget and,
basically, don't expect the stars to get
big raises anytime soon. In the past
year alone, two of the veterans --
So You Think You Can
Dance: America's Favorite
Dancer (season finale)
By Jason Hughes (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 1:18:00 AM
(S05E23) I think Cat Deeley looked
fabulous tonight. The panel was
chock-full of choreographers: Lil' C,
Mia Michaels, Tyce Diorio, Debbie
Allen, Adam Shankman, Mary
Murphy and Nigel Lythgoe. They
brought them all up on the dais so
they could each choose their favorite
dances from throughout the season.
That means encore performances of
the best of Season 5. That's not a bad
way to fill two hours.
In the end, though, it comes down
to Kayla, Brandon, Jeanine and Evan.
Melody Thomas Scott and Jess
Walton -- opted to take less money
Who did America love the most last
night and throughout the summer?
The recap actually gave me tingles.
Despite a distinct lack of
personalities, there were some
stunning moments of dance. And I'm
ever so thrilled that the new season is
less than a month away. It's a long
show, so hang in there.
Continue reading So You Think
You Can Dance: America's Favorite
Dancer (season finale)
Filed under: OpEd, Episode
Reviews, So You Think You Can
Dance
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when the show threatened to write
them out or recast. Welcome to the
brave new world of daytime!
Continue reading Good news, bad
news for CBS soaps
Filed under: Programming, OpEd,
Daytime, Cancellations, Pickups and
Renewals, Ratings, Reality-Free
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Internet News Record
Big Brother 11:
Live Eviction #4,
HoH #5
By Jackie Schnoop (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 12:52:00 AM
(S11E13) After watching a man in a
banana suit get evicted last week on
Big Brother 11, it was a welcome
sight to see Russell neatly dressed in
a sport coat. But then there's Lydia.
No, she wore neither a banana suit
nor a sport coat. It wasn't what she
was wearing at all. It was her face.
For reasons known only to herself,
she painted a black make-up stripe
across her eyes. It was sort of
raccoonish, quasi-Lone Ranger. It
was just a tad odd, but Lydia isn't
your normal gal next door anyway.
Continue reading Big Brother 11:
Live Eviction #4, HoH #5
Filed under: OpEd, Big Brother
(US), Episode Reviews
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Internet News Record
Activision to receive 'little to
Capcom doesn't completely no compensation' in Brutal
dismiss Darkstalkers Remix Legend settlement
possibility
By Richard Mitchell (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 2:00:00 AM
We're going to be honest with you
here, the real reason this post exists is
because we really hope Capcom is
considering an HD remix of of the
Darkstalkers series (hell, even an SD
re- release would be fine). That said,
the company didn't actually do
anything to suggest that one is in the
cards. What did happen was this:
Someone over at the Capcom Unity
forums posted a thread asking about
the likelihood of a Darkstalkers
remix.
It looks like Capcom actually took
notice, with business and strategy VP
Christian Svensson joining the
conversation and asking, "Is this
something people would want to
see?" After a rousing chorus "Hell
yes," Svennson added, "Thanks for
the feedback guys. Appreciate it."
Frankly, we don't find it likely that
Capcom would go to the trouble of
actually remaking a Darkstalkers
game. After all, it took serious effort
to produce Street Fighter II HD
Remix, and Darkstalkers has
considerably more frames of
animation that would have to be
redrawn. However, Capcom has
proven that it's not averse to listening
to fans and re-releasing ports of older
games, as evidenced by Marvel vs
Capcom 2.
So, how about it, Capcom, can we
have a Darkstalkers re-release? An
entirely new entry in the series would
also be acceptable.
[Thanks, Bruce! Image: UDON]
Capcom doesn't completely dismiss
Darkstalkers Remix possibility
originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri,
07 Aug 2009 02:00:00 EST. Please
see our terms for use of feeds.
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By JC Fletcher (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 10:36:00 AM
Here's a little addendum to the
Brutal Legend settlement story that,
should you be sympathetic to Double
Fine in this situation (and, um, how
could you not?), should bring a little
smile to your face. The LA Times
spoke to an unnamed person
"familiar with the settlement," who
offered some extra information about
the deal.
Overall, it looks like Activision
was the "loser" in this agreement,
though, of course, the whole point of
settling was to avoid having a loser.
First off, the source claims that the
game will be released as planned in
October. Second, the LA Times says,
"it appears very likely that Activision
received little to no compensation
from Double Fine and agreed to a
settlement to avoid losing its case in
open court."
Now that all that's dealt with,
hopefully we can get back to talking
about important things, like GWAR.
Gallery: Brutal Legend
Activision to receive 'little to no
compensation' in Brutal Legend
settlement originally appeared on
Joystiq on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:36:00
EST. Please see our terms for use of
feeds.
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Tech Games/ 41
Tales of Monkey
Island continues
on August 20
By JC Fletcher (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 9:10:00 AM
Telltale has announced that the next
chapter of Tales of Monkey Island,
Siege of Spinner Cay, will be out on
PC on August 20. The developer
wasn't as precise with the details of
the WiiWare release, but, according
to the announcement, it will be
"timed close to the PC release."
This is, perhaps, what we like best
about Telltale's episodic approach --
it gives us the satisfaction of buying
a new adventure game every month
or so, even though we're actually
only buying another part of the same
adventure game. After an eight-year
wait for a new Monkey Island, we're
enjoying the novelty of purchasing
new games in the series almost as
much as we're enjoying playing
them.
Should you be stuck in the first
game, and in need of some help to
get you ready for the second, Telltale
posted a walkthrough for Launch of
the Screaming Narwhal.
Gallery: Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island continues
on August 20 originally appeared on
Joystiq on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:10:00
EST. Please see our terms for use of
feeds.
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42 Tech Games/ TechNews/
Valve wants to see a 'compelling MotionPlus in over 600,000
game' from Natal (so do we!)
By David Hinkle (Joystiq) pretty fun on Late Night with Jimmy
Submitted at 8/7/2009 4:00:00 AM
Project Natal has been the talk of
the virtual town since its unveiling
back at E3. A few developers have
dished on the possibilities, but
theoretical physicist-employing
Valve has kept silent. The reason
behind that silence, Destructoid
reports, is because Valve is waiting
to see something "compelling" before
diving right it.
Okay, we'll admit that Block
Breaker and Burnout Paradise looked
Rock Band Weekly: Gorillaz, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Who
By Alexander Sliwinski (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 11:00:00 AM
Oh my, too many good tracks in
next week's Rock Band Weekly to
play off of for the basis of this post.
Do we ask about breaking off a piece
of our heart because of the Janis
Joplin track, or do we go ask Alice
Wii Sports Resort puts
European homes
Fallon and at E3, but Valve certainly
has a point. Talking with a virtual kid
is kinda cool, but we can see the
novelty wearing off quickly. And
how much Block Breaker can one
honestly play before having a heart
attack?
Valve wants to see a 'compelling
game' from Natal (so do we!)
originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri,
07 Aug 2009 04:00:00 EST. Please
see our terms for use of feeds.
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when she's 10 feet tall? Ask her
what? Exactly! A perfect psychedelic
question. Now, feed your head by
checking out the full list of tracks for
all of the various Rock Band games
after the break -- oh yeah, there's also
the Gorillaz next week.
Select a platform below to view
complete DLC listing:
By JC Fletcher (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 9:40:00 AM
We knew that Wii Sports Resort
was selling well in Europe. Today,
Nintendo told GamesIndustry.biz just
how well: over 600,000 copies in its
two weeks of release, even more than
have sold in North America. That's
not only good news for the game, but
also for the prospects for future
MotionPlus use -- the more the game
sells, the more of the Wii audience
has the device, and the more likely
developers are to support it.
Continue reading Rock Band
Weekly: Gorillaz, Janis Joplin,
Jefferson Airplane, The Who
Who knew that a sequel to a
ridiculously popular game could also
be popular? Somebody should tell all
the struggling publishers like EA and
Activision about this.
Gallery: Wii Sports Resort in
Times Square
Wii Sports Resort puts MotionPlus
in over 600,000 European homes
originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri,
07 Aug 2009 09:40:00 EST. Please
see our terms for use of feeds.
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Rock Band Weekly: Gorillaz, Janis
Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Who
originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri,
Internet News Record
Network Solutions
Decides To Obscure
Common Words, Just
To Get Some
Trademarks?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 1:45:26 AM
johnjac points us to a nice little rant
from John Graham-Comming about
how Network Solutions has
obfuscated the common (and easily
understood) names of a bunch of its
basic services. So, "Domains" has
become "nsWebAddress," "web site"
has become "nsSpace" and "SSL
Certificates" becomes "nsProtect."
Why? Well, the speculation in the
comments is that this is all for
trademarking purposes -- as each of
those new terms is accompanied by
the old (TM) mark. But, of course, it
just makes things that much more
confusing for users. Once again, this
i d e a t h a t " m o r e
patents/copyrights/trademarks must
be a good thing" is put to the test...
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07 Aug 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please
see our terms for use of feeds.
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Internet News Record
Batman: Arkham Asylum movie-
splosion!
By Christopher Grant (Joystiq)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 12:01:00 AM
The Batman: Arkham Asylum hype
train is really picking up steam now.
Today, we've got three different
videos dropping at three different
outlets. GameDaily has a behind-the-
scenes look, including comments
from Batman scribe Paul Dini, and
some mo-cap footage; MTV has the
first 10 minutes of the title (split into
two videos); while IGN has some
Why Should You Need A Special
License To Run An Arcade?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 8:26:14 PM
Adam Thierer notes that Amherst
NY has rejected an attempt by a
Chuck-E-Cheese get a "game
license," which makes him ask why
anyone should need a special license
to run a video arcade? He points out
that this is basically a money grab by
the town, which makes a lot of
plain ol' gameplay footage, wrapped
in their trademark, industry-worst
video player. The fun starts just after
the break!
Continue reading Batman: Arkham
Asylum movie-splosion!
Batman: Arkham Asylum movie-
splosion! originally appeared on
Joystiq on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:01:00
EST. Please see our terms for use of
feeds.
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money off such licensing fees --
while also pointing out that if the
city's concerns are legit (they claim
worries about little kids playing
violent video games) there are
numerous ways to deal with that,
from content rating systems to
(gasp!) parental responsibility.
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The 'Creative' Technology Behind
The AP's News Registry
By Blaise Alleyne (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 4:25:04 PM
The Associated Press' attempt to
DRM the news is a bad idea for a
variety of reasons, but its claims for
the news registry's capabilities seem
pretty misguided, once you examine
the technology behind it (the "magic
DRM beans"). Ed Felten dug into the
details of the registry's microformat,
hNews, which the AP announced a
few weeks earlier, and here's where it
gets really interesting: the hNews
rights field is based on the Creative
Commons Rights Expression
Language( ccREL).
If the AP thinks it'll be able to build
its "digital permissions framework"
with Creative Commons technology,
it's in for a letdown.
I'm not sure if I'm "allowed" to
quote the press release, but this is
how it describes the news
registry:[It] will tag and track all AP
content online to assure compliance
with terms of use. The system will
register key identifying information
about each piece of content that AP
distributes as well as the terms of use
of that content, and employ a built-in
beacon to notify AP about how the
content is used[...]
The registry will employ a
microformat... [that] will essentially
encapsulate AP and member content
in an informational "wrapper" that
includes a digital permissions
framework that lets publishers
specify how their content is to be
used online and which also supplies
the critical information needed to
track and monitor its usage.
The registry also will enable
content owners and publishers to
more effectively manage and control
Tech Games/ TechNews/
digital use of their content, by
providing detailed metrics on content
consumption, payment services and
enforcement support. It will support a
variety of payment models, including
pay walls. Microformats provide a
syntax for expressing machine-
readable licensing metadata in the
HTML of a web page. ccREL was
intentionally developed so that others
could innovate freely on top of it, but
the AP is trying to use it for
something it's simply not designed to
do -- "protect" and control. The
Creative Commons has responded,
explaining that ccREL is a tool for
rights expression, not rights
enforcement. (That doesn't mean the
AP isn't allowed to try this, but it's
not going to work very well... it's like
trying to lock a door with posters.)
Felten described the AP's claims for
the microformat as much ado about
nothing, saying "the hNews spec
bears little resemblance to AP's
claims about it," and the Creative
Commons clarification echoed the
point: Microformats and other web-
based structured data, including
ccREL, cannot track, monitor, or
generally enforce anything. They're
labels, i.e. Post-It notes attached to a
document, not locked boxes blocking
access to the content. There's no
"encapsulating" or "wrappers" -- it's
just annotation.
This ecosystem of technology is
about rights expression, not
enforcement, and it's more about
telling people what you can do than
what you can't. There are tools built
on top of Creative Commons
technology, like FairShare, that
"track and monitor" usage of content
across the web, but these are search
engine tools (similar to Google
43
Alerts) rather than any sort of "built-
in beacon." Other tools, like Tynt's
Tracer (which Creative Commons
blog uses), use javascript to append
attribution and licensing information
when you copy/paste, but that's
hardly a "wrapper." These tools are
based on the idea of granting
permission, not requesting it.
Participation is not enforced; anyone
can remove or adjust metadata before
reposting HTML, Tracer's attribution
is just plain text that can be changed
(as I did when quoting the blog here),
and FairShare can't actually stop
anyone from posting your content.
These tools are based on a
decentralized, permissive view of the
web; they aren't designed to create
centralized registries and exert
control.
If you re-read the AP's description
of the technology, it sounds a lot less
scary, but a lot more hopeless. The
tools are designed to convey further
rights to users beyond what copyright
allows, not further restrictions that
limit user rights already granted by
copyright law (e.g. fair use). This is a
great way of tagging news articles,
but it's next to useless as a digital
lock. They would be smart to employ
this technology to make their content
more usable and more valuable, but
hoping it's going to help them lock it
down will only lead to
disappointment.
Blaise Alleyne is an expert at the
Insight Community. To get insight
and analysis from Blaise Alleyne and
other experts on challenges your
company faces, click here.
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44 TechNews/ Sports/
More Examples Of Newspapers
'Parasiting' Blogs
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 3:54:59 AM
I think this particular angle has been
played out with a few previous
examples, but I did want to post one
final example of how common it
appears for newspapers to copy
stories from blogs without giving any
credit at all. If Ian Shapira was upset
that Gawker "only" gave him three
links, I wonder what he feels about a
long list of newspapers taking a story
from a blog and giving no credit at
all (found via Mathew Ingram). The
story involves the news that the
military is banning the use of certain
social networks -- a story researched
and broken on a blog by Noah
Shachtman, but in newspaper after
newspaper after newspaper after
Remind Me: Why Do We Let Patent
Lawsuits Go On Even As USPTO
Has Doubts About The Patents?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 6:28:48 PM
While plenty of people are familiar
with the fact that NTP got $612.5
million from RIM in a patent dispute
a few years back (which drew
tremendous scrutiny into the realm of
patents), one of the most interesting
details that many people didn't follow
was that at the same time as the
lawsuit was going on, the US Patent
Office was re-examining those same
patents, and issuing rejections of the
very same patents. Despite the
USPTO even rushing to announce its
problems with the patents way ahead
of schedule, the judge chose not to
wait for the final rejections and
pressured RIM into paying up.
This sort of thing happens all the
time.
newspaper, no such credit is given.
As the original link above points out,
this is part of an outdated view of
"journalism": This isn't the fault of
any individual reporter. It's the fault
of an outdated newspaper convention
that equates proper referencing with
an admission of professional failure.
Before the internet, it was pretty easy
to get away with slighting your
colleagues. But now that everyone
has GoogleNews at their fingertips, it
looks like exactly what it is: churlish
and archaic vanity. Everyone can see
who got the story first. Not a single
reader, I'll bet, will ever say, "Aha!
Because Noah Shachtman got the
story first, clearly Julian Barnes is an
inferior reporter!" I don't even think
it's that big of a deal. But it's just how
stories spread. No one "owns" the
For example, just weeks after TiVo
was practically dancing in the streets
over its latest wins over EchoStar in
a patent dispute over basic DVR
functionality, the USPTO has given
an initial rejection on some of the
claims at issue in the case. While
TiVo is quick to downplay this as
just the first step in a long process
(which it gets to respond to), it's
being a bit misleading in suggesting
that this sort of thing happens all the
time. Sure -- it happens a lot, but to
questionable patents. It seems that, if
the USPTO has agreed to review a
patent and clearly the examiners have
serous questions about the
patentability of certain claims,
shouldn't any lawsuits that hinge on
those patents be put on hold?
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news. Giving credit where credit is
due is a nice and neighborly (online)
thing to do (which is why we always
try to credit where we found a story
or who alerted us to it), but in the
grand scheme of things, it's pretty
meaningless overall. It's pretty silly
to suddenly be making a big deal of it
-- and the only reason to do so
appears to be some newspaper folks
who can't figure out how to fix
things, and instead are lashing out at
anyone else who seems to be getting
attention. First it was Craigslist. Then
Google. Now blogs. But none of that
actually solves the newspapers'
problem of building business models
for the twenty-first century.
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Murdoch Now Demanding Names
Of Kindle Subscribers
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 6:59:00 AM
Fresh off vague and undefined plans
to put up a paywall on various news
sites, it seems that Murdoch's latest
misguided target for digital angst is
Amazon. ikonoclasm alerts us to the
news that Murdoch is angry and
threatening to remove all News Corp.
material from the kindle unless
Amazon is willing to hand over
Radiohead's Thom Yorke
Explains How Recording
Industry Milked CD Business
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 5:26:07 AM
JJ sends in a short quote from
Radiohead's Thom Yorke about the
music business:"There's a process of
natural selection going on right now.
The music business was waiting to
die in its current form about twenty
years ago. But then, hallelujah, the
CD turned up and kept it going for a
bit. But basically, it was dead."
Bingo. The "recording industry" has
basically been a "sell plastic discs"
industry for way too long, and used
the monopoly rents it received from
the government to significantly
overprice its products, and then lived
fat and happy for many years. So, of
subscriber names and info to News
Corp., despite having just negotiated
a larger share of revenue. Of course,
the subscribers themselves might
actually like the fact that Amazon
isn't handing out their user info.
Either way, it seems like Murdoch is
suddenly hellbent on making it more
difficult to read any of his content
digitally.
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Internet News Record
course, when better, more efficient
formats for distribution, recording,
promotion and listening came along,
it wanted absolutely nothing to do
with them, because they didn't
present the same sort of monopoly
rents.
And, that, of course has been the
point we've been trying to make here
for quite some time. This has always
been a business model issue. The
record labels lived off the CD
business for so long that it refused to
recognize that a better, more efficient
system was showing up, because it
meant giving up some easy profits.
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Story
Mixed Martial
Arts: Perfectly
Packaged Violence
(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 7:54:06 AM
Boxing and mixed martial arts
would be a lot more jarring and a lot
less cool if people just started hitting
Internet News Record
MIXED
continued from page 44
each other, so both sports depend on
promoters and title-dispensing
organizations to add some order to
what would otherwise be plain old
violence. But MMA’s Ultimate
Fighting Championship has a
uniquely top-down, quasi-feudal
format that has drawn criticism from
some corners. Associated Press
Anderson Silva: a better brand of
pummeler.
It’s hard to miss the whiff of
exploitation in the way that UFC’s
league-owned fighters are paid. But
the UFC’s broader success is hard to
deny: Last month’s UFC 100
outperformed the landmark Floyd
Mayweather-Oscar De La Hoya fight
by 75% in terms of pay-per-view
orders, and Saturday’s UFC 101 is
expected to sell out Philadelphia’s
Wachovia Center and pull in a $3.4
million gate.
Those disinclined to give the
benefit of the doubt to UFC
commissioner/owner/czar Dana
White — who styles himself as a
swaggering, ultra-profane billboard
for his various brands — see him as a
not-so-benevolent dictator. But
Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel argues that
White’s engineering of Saturday’s
show-stealing, non-title undercard
between Anderson Silva and Forrest
Griffin is an example of the most
hands-on show-runner in sports at his
very best. “This is like when the old
movie studios owned the actors and
paired them up with scripts and co-
stars as management saw fit,” Wetzel
writes. “It may or may not be good
for the fighters’ immediate finances
(they earn a fraction of top boxers). It
is, however, an undoubted boon to
fans. There is no Floyd Mayweather-
Juan Manuel Marquez to sit through
when all anyone wants to see is
Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao.”
In the Philadelphia Inquirer, Don
Steinberg marvels at the efficiency of
the UFC machine. “It’s still bloody
and violent, but controlled and
packaged — in a way boxing
promoters can only envy,” Steinberg
writes. “The UFC fills roles that, in
boxing, multiple entities perform. It
signs fighters to contracts, decides
who fights whom in its trademark
octagonal cage, promotes events, and
awards its own championship belts
UFC events are high-energy
spectacles with a pro wrestling vibe
but authentic, well-matched fights.”
The UFC’s trademarked parity
means that the top four fighters on
Saturday’s card — Silva (24-4),
Griffin (16-5) and heavyweight
lightweight headliners B.J. Penn (13-
5-1) and Kenny Florian (11-3) — all
have records that would make them
quasi-journeymen in boxing. In the
Philadelphia Daily News, Bernard
Fernandez argues that all those losses
have a lot to do with the UFC’s
appeal. “The deep thinkers behind
the explosion in popularity of mixed
martial arts cite the rise and
inevitable fall of boxing’s
unblemished fakes as one of the
reasons their enterprise has avoided
some of the problems that continue to
plague the older, more traditional
combat sport,” Fernandez writes.
“It’s all right to lose, the theory goes,
so long as a defeat comes against a
competitive opponent, in an
entertaining match. Put it this way:
Buster Douglas might have pulled off
boxing’s biggest upset when, as a 42-
1 underdog, he shocked the
seemingly invincible Mike Tyson —
but in the UFC, there are no 42-1
underdogs. Or even 10-1 underdogs.”
For a long, literary look behind
UFC’s scenes — and a complicated
portrait of MMA fighter Quinton
“Rampage” Jackson — check out
David Samuels’s terrific feature from
the December 2008 Atlantic.* * *
After Manny Ramirez was nicked
by a pitch from Brewers reliever
Chris Smith in the seventh inning of
a 17-4 Dodgers win Tuesday, it was
hardly that surprising when Prince
Fielder took a Guillermo Mota pitch
on the hip two innings later. The
surprising part came after the game,
when an aggrieved Fielder made an
unsuccessful charge towards the
Dodgers’ locker room, presumably to
hash/thrash things out with Mota.
At CBS Sports, Ray Ratto isn’t
quite buying Fielder’s outrage. “If
you need 15 minutes to decide you
want to pound a pitcher flat, you’re
not really mad about being hit any
more. You’re mad about the
perception of being hit,” Ratto
writes. “You’re mad that maybe your
teammates think you should have
charged the mound. You’re mad that
you missed an opportunity to get on
the 11 o’clock news, or the 1 a.m.
highlights, or Real Housewives Of
Milwaukee. When you were stopped
on the field and calmed down, the
statute of limitations on your pain
expired.”* * *
Training camp has started in the
NFL, but one of the most intriguing
free agents in this sport and most
others remains unsigned. That
Michael Vick is one of the more
unpopular humans in the sports scene
doesn’t totally explain why he is as
yet unemployed, but it surely has a
lot to do with it.
Bloomberg’s Scott Soshnick argues
that while just about any NFL coach
would be glad to have Vick on his
roster, marketing considerations have
come to take pride of place for cash-
strapped teams. “It used to be that a
pro sports franchise could sign a
sullied star without input from
sponsors,” Soshnick writes. “If a
company objected and pulled its
support, the team could always find a
replacement. Sometimes one willing
to pay a higher price. That was back
when owners still thought of sports
as recession-proof entertainment.
They don’t anymore.”* * *
When ESPN delayed covering a
Nevada woman’s charge in a lawsuit
last month that Steelers quarterback
Ben Roethlisberger sexually
assaulted her, many journalists
screamed“conflict of interest” given
Roethlisberger’s exceedingly cozy
relationship with the network.
(Roethlisberger called the accusation
“reckless and false” and the police
have filed no charges against him.)
Of course, Big Ben is hardly the only
pro athlete to have enjoyed a de facto
partnership with the Worldwide
Leader, which doesn’t help ESPN’s
case as an objective news source
much.
While he doesn’t exactly scream
anything, Frank Deford calmly
decries ESPN’s bestriding-colossus
position in the world of sports.
“Imagine if The Wall Street Journal
was not just the nation’s only
powerful business outlet, but it also
owned the rights to the listings on the
New York Stock Exchange. Well,
essentially, so it is with ESPN and
sports,” Deford writes in an essay for
National Public Radio. “What it
covers is so often what it owns the
rights to — in almost every major
sport. To be sure, other networks
share some rights to the various
leagues, but only ESPN is a critical
mass.”* * *
Last Saturday brought the premiere
of “Assault in the Ring,” an HBO
documentary about an infamous
boxing match between Luis Resto
and Billy Collins Jr. that ended with
Collins suffering brain damage and
Resto and trainer Panama Lewis
receiving lengthy bans from boxing
for the illegal gloves that caused that
damage. On his blog, Jeff Pearlman
delivered a pretty resounding anti-
rave, writing that, “Rarely will one
45
see a more manipulative, dishonest
piece of work.” Pearlman isn’t some
uninformed crank — he wrote the
definitive piece on the Resto/Collins
fight while at Sports Illustrated, back
in 1998. That wrenching feature is
worth a read, whether you’ve seen
the documentary or not.* * *
It would be true even if our
previous president hadn’t said it—
we all need to put food on our
families. For writers trying to find
work in a contracting media
marketplace, this means taking any
job that’s out there, no matter how
weird. For Sam Eifling, that job was
covering the Bass Anglers Sportsman
Society’s Elite Series for ESPN
Outdoors. It’s even stranger than it
sounds, for reasons that are tough to
synopsize.
“Let’s say you tried to cover a
baseball game the way I reported on
a BASS tournament,” Eifling
explains. “You’d start by watching
the ceremonial first pitch. Next, leave
the stadium, only to return three
hours later to read the line score.
Then have a go at interviewing the
players, knowing they’ll keep mum
on how all the runs scored for fear
the opposing team will glean some
useful information about how to
swing the bat.” It’s a very enjoyable
read, and Eifling is a noble addition
to the stable of great (if shameless)
American literary talents who have
written about strange sports-related
jobs at Slate.
— Tip of the Fix cap to readers
Gerard Cosloy and John Falck and
fellow Fixer Garey Ris.
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 David at
droth11@gmail.com.
46 Sports/
Very Old Pitcher Ruins Yanks-Sox Game
(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)
Submitted at 8/7/2009 7:35:46 AM
It’s inevitably the one regular-
season series in baseball whose hype
dwarfs all others. To have any hope
of living up to that hype, the actual
games between the New York
Yankees and Boston would do well
to exclude pitchers with ERAs that
could be confused with men’s shoe
sizes. Reuters Maybe the Red Sox
should consider a rotation featuring
just one pitcher born in the ’60s.
John Smoltz had one such ERA
even before the Yankees’ 13-6
pounding of the Red Sox. The right-
hander opted to leave Atlanta, his
home for 20 seasons, for a better one-
year deal with Boston. The Braves
look smarter now as Smoltz, who had
shoulder surgery in June 2008, has
gone 2-5 with an 8.33 ERA. It was
already above 7 before he was
hammered Thursday for eight runs in
3 1/3 innings in the Bronx. Boston
stands 3.5 games behind New York
in the AL East but only 2.5 games up
on surging Tampa Bay.
New York came into the game
winless in eight games against
Boston, but not the Boston team that
has lost itself lately and entered on a
three-game losing streak.
“Everybody loves Smoltz the way
Everybody loves Raymond,” Dan
Shaughnessy writes in the Boston
Globe. “He’s a Hall of Famer. But it
looks like it’s over. He can’t get
lefties out.”
At Yahoo Sports, Gordon Edes has
a suggestion. “The Boston Red Sox
may want to reconsider their strategy
of recycling broken-down Cy Young
Award winners,” Edes writes. “It
didn’t work out last season with
Bartolo Colon, who ended his
unproductive tenure with the club
last September by going AWOL back
to the Dominican Republic, and it
has been calamitous with Smoltz,
who Thursday night became the first
Red Sox pitcher in nine games to
lose to the Yankees in 2009.”
Edes isn’t the only columnist
thinking it might be over for Smoltz.
“On the night the Yankees finally
beat the Red Sox for the first time
this season, on the night more Boston
weaknesses were exposed, the
thought that sticks is that this might
well have been the last time we’ll
ever see John Smoltz pitch,” CBS
Sports’s Danny Knobler writes“And
that’s too bad. Too bad because he
was so often worth watching. Too
bad because on this night he wasn’t.”
Sticking with baseball, the Chicago
Tribune’s Rick Morrissey isn’t too
positive about the Cubs’ postseason
chances.* * *
Nothing should surprise sports fans
anymore. Rashard Lewis, who had an
outstanding postseason in leading the
Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals,
was suspended Thursday for 10
games to start next season for using
performance-enhancing drugs. He
had elevated levels of testosterone,
the NBA said in announcing his
suspension.
Lewis has his supporters, though.
“The effects of steroids — running
faster, jumping higher and recovering
from injuries quicker — would
certainly benefit basketball players,”
the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi
writes. “That said, I actually buy
Lewis’ story that his positive drug
test resulted from an over-the-counter
supplement he purchased from a
nutritional store. He’s been in the
league for 11 years. He’s never been
in any trouble. He’s always been a
consummate professional and a stand
-up guy. Doesn’t he deserve the
benefit of the doubt?”
TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott agrees
with Lewis’s reasoning, but with
reservations. “Memo to all athletes:
If you go down to the place where all
the muscle heads buy supplements,
and you buy anything, and you take
it, you’re putting yourself in a high-
risk category to fail one of these
tests,” Abbott writes. “At some point,
not knowing is not good enough.”* *
* this week, some residents pushed
Athletes already figured out that
they could eliminate the media
middle man by breaking news on
their own Web sites. Could we be far
away from the first Twitter
negotiation? Fans got the impression
Glen “Big Baby” Davis wasn’t
pleased with his contract talks with
the Boston Celtics and supposedly
tweeted his frustration to his
followers. Davis has since said an
imposter made those comments.
English soccer player Darren Bent
recently groused about his time with
Tottenham and his delayed transfer
to Sunderland with some very
colorful language via Twitter. The
Guardian’s Marina Hyde loves the
candor. “If some players have now
decided they wish to circumvent the
Fleet Street messengers — and you
can quite understand that position —
then we should be grateful we have
at least some way of knowing a bit of
what they’re thinking,” she writes.* *
* Found a good column from the
Hype is never easy to live up to.
Some players — think LeBron
James, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane
Wade — do it anyway. But for
Slam’s Sandy Dover, former NBA
player Antoine Walker didn’t. “The
problem with Antoine is generally
the same problem that plagued
Derrick Coleman and Rasheed
Wallace — he just didn’t care
enough,” Dover writes. “He didn’t
care that he could’ve been the
greatest power forward to play.”
***
Jeremy Roenick retired Thursday
after 20 seasons in the NHL, eight of
them with the Chicago Blackhawks.
In the Tribune, Steve Rosenbloom
blogs about the outspoken J.R. and
his marvelous NHL career.* * *
It’s a feather in a city’s cap when it
can attract a big sporting event. In the
U.S., that usually means the NCAA
Final Four or the Super Bowl. Earlier
Tulsa, Okla., to bid for the 2020
Summer Olympics. The Daily
Oklahoman’s Jenni Carlson thinks
it’s a crazy idea.* * *
We can always expect plenty of
debate about the nation’s No. 1
college-football team — but nearly
everyone would agree that team
comes from a major conference (for
the time being, apologies to Notre
Dame fans). But 25 years ago this
fall, Brigham Young University was
the last school outside the big
conferences to take the top spot. Few
people believe a mid-major will ever
finish No. 1 again, Sports
Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel writes.*
**
Running, cycling and playing
hoops are three ways to get in shape.
The Orange County Register’s Jeff
Miller passed up these options to
participate in a pole-dancing class.
– Tip of the Fix cap to fellow Fixer
David Roth.
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.
Internet News Record
The Count: The
Yankees’ Singular
Struggle Against Boston
(WSJ.com: The Daily Fix)
Submitted at 8/6/2009 10:57:16 AM
The Yankees have blown leads to
the Red Sox this year, and they’ve
seen comebacks fall short. They’ve
lost one-run games and been blown
out. But one thing the Yankees
haven’t done, in eight tries, is beat
Boston. Getty Images
The Yankees have struggled
against the Red Sox but rolled
against just about everyone else.
New York isn’t the first team to
lose its first eight games of the
season to an opponent; it’s happened
94 other times since 1957, according
to data compiled by sports-stats
analyst Phil Birnbaum, including to
four other Red Sox opponents in the
last eight years (the Rays twice, the
Orioles and the Rangers). It’s even
happened to two other teams this
year: Two Florida teams, the Rays
and Marlins, won their first eight
games against the major leagues’ two
worst teams, the Royals and
Nationals, respectively. (Good news
for the Yankees: Kansas City and
Washington each have since gone on
to beat their tormentors.)
What distinguishes the Yankees is
that they appear to be the best team
since 1957 to have started out 0-8
against an opponent. Two-thirds of
the way through the season, New
York has won 61% of its games.
Against every team but their personal
bete noire, the Yankees have won
66% of its games. The runner-ups in
Internet News Record
COUNT:
continued from page 46
those two categories, incidentally, are
teams dominated by the Yankees in
the past: the 1964 White Sox and the
1994 Indians. Just two other teams
besides those even finished with a
record above .550 after losing their
first eight games to an opponent.
A team that starts a season series as
poorly as the Yankees have typically
isn’t much good, winning 45% of its
games against other opponents.
Predictably, the winner of those first
eight games typically does well,
winning 53% of its games against
everyone else. And the average team
that starts out 8-0 against an
opponent wins 60% of its remaining
games against that team.
The Red Sox fit the statistical
profile of the typical team on the plus
side of this equation. Yet they trail
the Yankees in the standings by 2.5
games. Just four teams since 1957
have started 0-8 against an opponent
and finished with a better record. The
Yankees are a half-game behind the
Dodgers in overall record, and, since
the play in the majors’ toughest
division, are probably better than
L.A..
The Yankees have compensated for
their Red Sox jinx by pounding
everyone else. They’re 22-10 against
the other three AL East teams, are 5-
1 against the crosstown Mets and
don’t have any head-to-head records
more than two games under .500.
Except the one against the Red Sox,
of course. And the Yanks have
demonstrated that the bullied can
often be bullies themselves by
winning all seven of their games
against the Twins.
Other tidbits about teams that start
out 8-0 against opponents:
The 1993 Braves exhibited
particular dominance against the
Rockies, going 13-0 en route to a 104
-win season. The 1962 Phillies won
17 of 18 games against the Astros,
including their first 17, but finished
just 81-80 overall. The Phillies may
have learned from their experience a
year earlier against the Reds, who
took the first 17 meetings between
the teams (but then lost three of the
last five).
The biggest discrepancy between
Sports/ 47
two sides of an 0-8 start to a season
series since 1957 came in 1962,
when the 98-64 Reds won their first
eight games against the 40-120 Mets.
The expansion Mets managed to win
five of their last 10 games against
Cincinnati, meaning that despite that
0-8 start the Mets were better overall
against Cincy than against the rest of
the NL. Conversely, three years later
the Pirates managed to finish 90-72
despite losing their first nine, and 14
out of 18, to the 80-81 Cardinals.
The Yankees should seek to
emulate the six revenge-minded
teams since 1957 that started the
season 0-8 against an opponent and
then swept all remaining meetings.
Most notably, the 1979 White Sox
won their last five against Minnesota,
and the 1974 Mets won their last four
against the Braves. If the Yankees
lose tonight, their role model will be
the 1988 Orioles, who lost their first
nine games against the Indians, then
won their last four.

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.