August 23, 2004
HAI Home Automation Control for Windows Media Center
...MoreI've not used HAI's home automation products, so I can't vouch for eHomeUpgrade's claim they are "the best," but if you've already invested in their products and a Windows Media Center PC, you might be interested to know that HAI has announced a new bit of plug-in software for Media Center 2005 that will allow you to take control of your lighting, security, temperature, and what not via the regular interface or MCE remote. It's not free, though, which is sort of a bummer, especially since it is clearly something that is only useful for HAI users, and no price has yet been announced.
Hackers Revive iTunes Music Sharing
A Stanford University programmer has released new software that allows music to be swapped via Apple Computer's popular iTunes jukebox.
Like an older piece of software called "MyTunes," student David Blackman's new "OurTunes" allows a person to browse complete iTunes libraries on other computers and download songs, either in MP3 or the AAC format preferred by Apple. Songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store and wrapped in Apple's copy protection technology cannot be traded.
OurTunes works only among computers that share a network, however. That means that students or employees can swap songs on a local network but cannot use it to browse computers on the Internet, as happens with file-trading programs such as Kazaa. Still, the software is likely to ring an alarm at Apple and among record company executives, who have waged war against file swapping since Napster's heyday.
"I'm a Linux guy. I expect my software to be extensible," Blackman said in an instant-message interview. "I really think that this will encourage people to join their local iTunes communities, and that's a good thing."
An Apple representative declined to comment for this report...More
August 19, 2004
Trying to Take Technology to the Masses
Raj Reddy was fed up debating the problem of the digital divide between the rich and the poor and decided to do something about it.
Mr. Reddy, a pioneering researcher in artificial intelligence and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, plans to unveil at the end of this year his new project, called the PCtvt, a $250 wirelessly networked personal computer intended for the four billion people around the world who live on less than $2,000 a year.
He says his device can find a market in developing countries, particularly those with large populations of people who cannot read, because it can be controlled by a simple TV remote control and can function as a television, telephone and videophone.
Mr. Reddy is hoping his project - with backing from Microsoft and TriGem, the Korean computer maker, and in partnership with the Indian Institute of Science, the Indian Institute of Information Technology and researchers at the University of California, Berkeley - can prove that it is possible to bring information technology to impoverished communities without depending on philanthropy.
Because his low-cost computer doubles as a TV and a DVD player, Mr. Reddy believes that he will be able to use it as a vehicle to take computing and communications to populations that until now have been excluded from the digital world...More
August 18, 2004
The Next Social Revolution?
...MoreCryofan writes "In a recent interview, Howard Rheingold (author of Smart Mobs) discussed the possibility of a 'new economic system' born of 'unconscious cooperation' embodied by such technologies as Google links and Amazon lists, Wikipedia, wireless devices using unlicensed spectrum, Web logs, and open-source software. Rheingold speculates that 'the technology of the Internet, reputation systems, online communities, mobile devices...may make some new economic system possible....We had markets, then we had capitalism, and socialism was a reaction to industrial-era capitalism. There's been an assumption that since communism failed, capitalism is triumphant, therefore humans have stopped evolving new systems for economic production.' However, Rheingold is worried that established companies with business models that are threatened by these new technologies could 'quash such nascent innovations as file-sharing -- and potentially put the U.S. at risk of falling behind the rest of the world.'"
The Programmer Who Could Save Tivo
...MoreDamon Darlin from Business 2.0 writes "We just posted a story on Arthur Van Hoff, the programming legend who now works at TiVo. He was one of the Java geniuses at Sun (has almost as many patents as Bill Joy) and started Strangeberry, which Tivo bought in January. the story tells how his Strangeberry software will be given away to developers of web content. The next generation Tivos will then be able to recognize web content and direct it to the appropriate home device. This could be the stuff that saves tivo because none of the set top boxes will have this ability.
August 17, 2004
Hackers Take Aim at GOP
Online protests targeting GOP websites could turn out to be more than symbolic during this month's Republican National Convention, possibly blocking a critical communications tool for the party.
In the past, activists have been able to shut down the website of, say, the World Economic Forum for a few hours. But the impact of such a takedown was nebulous at best: It's hard to argue the organization really suffered from a few-hour lag in posting its press releases online.
In this year's presidential race, however, campaign websites have moved beyond the margins. During John Kerry's acceptance speech in Boston last month, for example, his website was visited by 50,000 people an hour, according to comScore Networks, the online traffic-measuring firm. That's a droplet compared to the millions who'll watch the convention on TV. But taking down a campaign website would nevertheless remove a critical tool for reaching the public -- and likely generate a slew of stories in the mainstream media about the crash.
So it's no surprise that hardened electronic activists are planning to jam up the servers of GeorgeWBush.com, GOP.com and related websites, once the Republican National Convention gets underway Aug. 29.
"We want to bombard (the Republican sites) with so much traffic that nobody can get in," said CrimethInc, a member of the so-called Black Hat Hackers Bloc. It's one of several groups planning to distribute software tools to reload Republican sites over and over again. These FloodNet programs are similar to hackers' distributed denial-of-service attacks, which overwhelm a server with thousands and thousands of simultaneous requests for information.
But some activists are condemning the planned attacks, saying they violate the principles of free speech that protesters rely on for their demonstrations.
"If you feel that you must shut up someone through intimidation or false accusations or any other method -- you are not relying on the superiority of the truth," The Pull, co-founder of the online political action group Hacktivismo, wrote in an e-mail. "People can not condemn censorship and then embrace it."...More
VoIP Lined Up as Wave of Future
The Voice Over IP landscape has changed considerably in the last few years. The easy availability of broadband Latest News about Broadband access to the Internet, coupled with Herculean leaps in technology Relevant Products/Services from Intel Enterprise Solutions, makes VoIP service a viable alternative to traditional telephone and PBX offerings.
Today's VoIP services offer several features and options not possible a few years ago. The voice quality is also much better, largely due to the delivery speed differences in high-speed Internet access versus dial-up service. VoIP service providers now have cost-efficient plans tailored to the needs of businesses and residential users.
"The days of the traditional phone company are numbered. But local phone companies won't die out any time soon," Michael Ulicki, vice president and CTO Relevant Products/Services from IBM eServer xSeries Systems for Norlight Telecommunications, told TechNewsWorld.
"Most people still have dial-up Internet access. But the transition from Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) to VoIP is like the change from dial-up Internet access to broadband," he said.
VoIP connections started as a way for a business to trim calling costs between branch offices, Ulicki said. Now VoIP is not just a phone service. It is becoming feature rich as it merges with computer configurations...More
August 16, 2004
California Urged to Use Open Source, VoIP
The Governator may terminate California's reliance on proprietary software and traditional telephone systems, if a recently published state report is heeded.
A body of independent auditors and experts recommended last week that the state consider open-source software and voice over Internet Protocol telephony as two measures to cut costs. The suggested measures are a small part of the voluminous California Performance Review, released Aug. 2.
"If all of these recommendations are implemented, they have the potential to save more than $32 billion over the next five years," the directors of the group of appointees told California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in an letter introducing the report.
The savings from using the two technologies would make up a small fraction of that total. Moving to VoIP could reduce the state's phone bill by between $20 million and $75 million a year, the report said. While there were too many variables to estimate the savings from a switch to open-source software on California's systems, the report's authors did cite two state pilot projects that cut costs by $300,000 each by using the community-developed software.
The report said VoIP technology has competitive features that would benefit the state. Internet-based phone calling has built-in benefits such as integrated caller ID, flexibility and network management tools that provide real-time monitoring of bandwidth. Departments and agencies currently use a variety of digital and analog networks and technologies from different manufacturers. ...More
802.11n Standard Submitted for Approval
...MoreA new Wi-Fi standard that promises faster WLANS is one step closer to becoming reality:
The WWiSE (worldwide spectrum efficiency) group said it has developed technology for review by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n task group, which is overseeing a next-generation Wi-Fi standard capable of sustaining data throughput exceeding 100Mbps. The proposal is based on MIMO-OFDM (multiple input, multiple output-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) technology, which achieves higher speeds by employing two antennas at each end of the signal (one for transmitting, one for receiving) instead of one at each terminus.
August 14, 2004
dDrive: Bluetooth Tooth (Blue Optional)
...MoreAll Book of Revelation and Book of Orwell and such aside, does anybody really want to install a bit of electronics in their jaw that only has 512MB of memory, Bluetooth-enabled or otherwise? The dDrive is a concept from industrial design firm Creganna that would be designed to store medical records, security clearances, etc., and while I don't have a huge problem with that in and of itself, I don't think I'll be giving up one of my teeth just for something that's going to be obsolete in a year. At least not just for storage - get a Bluetooth-enabled cellphone headset in there and we'll talk about it.
Decluttering Your Web Home With Dinosaurs
...MoreMicrosoft's achilles heel. It was a big eye opener to us when we realized that all the visual clutter, viruses and problems associated with our computer largely had to do with the fact that we were using Internet Explorer, the browser we caved into using years ago, when we switched from an Apple with Netscape.
Hackers and advertisers LOVE Internet Explorer because everyone uses it, so they write all their code to latch on and attach themselves to it. If you don't use IE, problem solved....or most of it.
We have been using Mozilla for 6 months now and the world is a different place. Our computer is clean, we have no pop-ups, and we have no fear of unwanted spyware or other people's bad cookies. Yesterday in the NY Times was a big article about this, In Search of a Browser That Banishes Clutter, which paints a dramatic picture of IE's eroding market share. We recommend checking out Mozilla, Firefox, Opera and Safari (Apple users only)
Community Blog Project
They may not look that excited, and there were more than are seen here, but I think the group that came to our first "Boro Bloggers Meet-up" last night left with their brains buzzing and some real energy for our project. Shoot, just the fact that we got 25 interested people to show up was enough for me, but the questions they asked and the comments they made were more than enough proof that they were thinking hard about the potentials here.
Jeff's natural enthusiasm didn't hurt, of course.
There were three community bloggers in the room, and all but one or two of the rest said they at least understood the concept of blogs. There were questions about promoting businesses, about libel, about access...it was all good stuff that really showed their interest. We had representatives from Kiwanis, the Women's Club, the Computer Club, and assorted other groups. Really a nice mix.
But I also realized, once again, that there is a long road to hoe for people just coming to this technology. I want Flemington to turn in to blogwikirssfurlville and be the most information literate, Internet savvy community in the country that becomes proof positive to the potential of these technologies. But, as in my previous post, that's going to take a while...More
August 13, 2004
Howard Rheingold's Latest Connection
The tech guru sees a "new economic system" in the unconscious cooperation embodied by Google links and Amazon lists
Howard Rheingold is on the hunt again. With his last book, Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution, in 2001, the longtime observer of technology trends made a persuasive case that pervasive mobile communications, combined with always-on Internet connections, will produce new kinds of ad-hoc social groups. Now, he's starting to take the leap beyond smart mobs, trying to weave some threads out of such seemingly disparate developments as Web logs, open-source software development, and Google.
At the same time, Rheingold is worried that established companies could quash such nascent innovations as file-sharing -- and potentially put the U.S. at risk of falling behind the rest of the world. He recently spoke with Robert D. Hof, BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau chief. Here are excerpts from their conversation:
Q: Where do you see the social revolution you've been talking about going next?
A: It's too early to say. The question is: What does it point toward? Some kind of collective action...in which the individuals aren't consciously cooperating. A market is a great example as a mechanism for determining price based on demand. People aren't saying, "I'm contributing to the market," [they say they're] just selling something. But it adds up.
Q: Can you give me some specific examples of what you mean, beyond the market?
A: Google is based on the emergent choices of people who link. Nobody is really thinking, "I'm now contributing to Google's page rank." What they're thinking is, "This link is something my readers would really be interested in." They're making an individual judgment that, in the aggregate, turns out to be a pretty good indicator of what's the best source.
Then there's open source [software]. Steve Weber, a political economist at UC Berkeley, sees open source as an economic means of production that turns the free-rider problem to its advantage. All the people who use the resource but don't contribute to it just build up a larger user base. And if a very tiny percentage of them do anything at all -- like report a bug -- then those free riders suddenly become an asset.
And maybe this isn't just in software production. There's [the idea of] "open spectrum," coined by [Yale law professor] Yochai Benkler. The dogma is that the two major means of organizing for economic production are the market and the firm. But Benkler uses open source as an example of peer-to-peer production, which he thinks may be pointing toward a third means of organizing for production.
Then you look at Amazon (AMZN) and its recommendation system, getting users to provide free reviews, users sharing choices with their friends, users who make lists of products. They get a lot of free advice that turns out to be very useful in the aggregate. There's also Wikipedia [the online encyclopedia written by volunteers]. It has 500,000 articles in 50 languages at virtually no cost, vs. Encyclopedia Britannica spending millions of dollars and they have 50,000 articles.
Q: What will all those trends produce ultimately?
A: All these could dramatically transform not only the way people do business, but economic production altogether. We had markets, then we had capitalism, and socialism was a reaction to industrial-era capitalism. There's been an assumption that since communism failed, capitalism is triumphant, therefore humans have stopped evolving new systems for economic production.
But I think we're seeing hints, with all of these examples, that the technology of the Internet, reputation systems, online communities, mobile devices -- these are all like those technologies...that made capitalism possible. These may make some new economic system possible.
Q: If so, it's a good bet not all companies will be happy with the changes.
A: New digital technologies are creating a crisis in the business models of the companies that depend on having a monopoly on distribution. Look at MP3 blogs: We're now seeing bands that are saying, "Please pirate my material. Here it is." They make money from that. They get bookings from that. They build an audience on that.
Q: Are there more such conflicts and opportunities to come?
A: Assigning frequencies to license holders...is an old-fashioned scheme...based on technologies of the 1920s. We now have technologies that make it possible to use the spectrum the way packets use the Internet. Instead of having a circuit-switched analog system in which you have to have an end-to-end connection, you just send your packets out with their addresses through this network and they find their way. It's much more efficient. It makes for millions more broadcasters in the Internet space. This is all pointing to a kind of voluntary sharing of your property...More
Open Source in California Government
...Morecatfoo writes "California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently posted the California Performance Review Report, a 2,500 page plan to overhaul state government and save $32 billion over the next five years. Part of the proposal: Open Source alternatives. Imagine that..."
Metal Rubber
...MoreA new material called "Metal Rubber" may find its way into gadgets of the future due to its unique ability to be stretched, heated, and generally abused while still conducting electricity - and still able to snap back into form when the bending and smacking is over. Apparently the vendor NanoSonic is being inundated with requests to use the material, which is currently being produced via a painstaking process that builds up the material one layer of molecules at a time.
August 12, 2004
In Search of a Browser That Banishes Clutter
For Katherine Sandlin, a barrage of pop-up ads was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back - in this case, her reliance on Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Even before her home page could load, thumbnail-size advertisements would crowd the monitor urging her to apply for a credit card or find love online. So she asked around for other ways to browse the Web.
One software switch later, Ms. Sandlin is reveling in a pop-up-free existence and spreading the word about Firefox, a free Web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation that has a built-in pop-up blocker. Ms. Sandlin is so devoted to her browser that she has taped a note to her monitor warning guests not to click on the desktop shortcut to Internet Explorer. "Do not touch the blue 'E!' " the note says.
"I didn't want to fool with it anymore," said Ms. Sandlin, 51, an administrative assistant at Halifax Community College in Weldon, N.C. "I spent more time clicking pop-ups than I did surfing the Web."
The popularity of Web browsers other than Internet Explorer could still be defined as cult. In the United States, the five most popular browsers after Internet Explorer - AOL's Netscape, the Mozilla Foundation's Mozilla and Firefox, Opera Software's Opera and Apple's Safari - together have about 5 percent of the market. Internet Explorer has 94 percent, according to WebSide- Story, a Web analysis firm.
But for the first time since Microsoft's browser beat out Netscape to gain dominance, its market share is eroding as users like Ms. Sandlin shift to other browsers.
No one is forecasting the demise of Internet Explorer, but the most recent data from WebSideStory show that of visits to Web sites the firm tracks, the number made using Explorer declined 1.3 percent from early June to mid-July. At the same time, use of other browsers - Firefox and Opera in particular - rose.
The Mozilla Foundation, which evolved from the team that developed Netscape and a predecessor, Mosaic, says downloads of Mozilla and Firefox have doubled recently. Opera Software, a Norwegian company, says purchases of its ad-free browser have nearly tripled from June to July. (The company also offers a free version, which has an unobtrusive ad banner.)
"I've heard some commentary saying, whoop-de-doo, who cares?" said Geoff Johnston, a WebSideStory analyst. "But if you're Mozilla, it's huge news. You're very happy because that has been almost an impenetrable sort of fortress and this is the first sign of any kind of crack."...More
Friends With Benefits
Think of them as eBay crossed with Napster, then injected with Friendster DNA. The newest social networking services merge three powerful Web functions - auctioning, file-sharing, and friend-of-a-friend socializing - to build digital barter economies. Unlike first-gen social networks, these communities are about more than getting laid and getting paid. These "social swap nets" help like-minded members pool digital resources - music, movies, games, even hardcover books.
Mediachest and SongBuddy are two early examples. They're still small (and size matters when it comes to a well-stocked "sharing pool"), but their very existence points to a new era in networked transactions, one in which online exchanges become more useful.
Here's how they work: Members browse one another's collections online using filters such as friend groups, geographic location, or other affinities. This isn't file-swapping in the old outlaw Napster sense. They can access one another's stuff, but the original copy literally traded with others, rather than downloaded and duplicated via P2P. Getting hold of the goods is mostly a low tech affair. Members often mail or hand-deliver items...More
Look Inside for Message from ET
he question of whether we are alone in the universe is one of the biggest of the Big Questions of Existence. One way to settle the matter is to find some cosmic company. A direct approach to this problem is to scan the skies with radio telescopes in the hope of stumbling across a message from an alien civilisation.
It is a long shot of literally astronomical proportions, but that hasn't deterred a dedicated band of radio astronomers from trying.
Known as SETI - the search for extraterrestrial intelligence - this project has been running for 40 years. So far the silence has been deafening. There could be all sorts of reasons for this, including the obvious one that ET simply doesn't exist. But while the radio astronomers seek to beef up their efforts, it seems worth asking whether other approaches should be tried.
Put yourself in the situation of the aliens, out there somewhere in the galaxy. They surmise that Earth looks promising for the emergence of intelligent life one day, but they have no idea when. There would be little point in beaming radio messages in this direction for eons in the vague hope that one day radio technology would be developed here and someone would decide to tune in.
A better plan would be to leave a message for us to find when we are ready. The trouble with this set-and-forget strategy is the time factor. Life takes billions of years to evolve intelligence. Even if ETs figured there was animal life on Earth, they could be faced with a wait of tens of millions of years. That is a long time for an artefact to survive.
Putting the text inside a large metal object and plonking it on the Earth's surface is expensive in transportation costs, and risky. Our restless planet leaves nothing untouched for long. The artifact could easily end up buried or drowned or eroded to scrap.
The ideal solution would be to encode the message inside a large number of self-replicating, self-repairing microscopic machines programmed to multiply and adapt to changing conditions.
Fortunately such machines already exist: they are called living cells. The cells in our bodies, for example, contain genetic messages written by Mother Nature billions of years ago.
DNA, the molecule that contains the script of life, encodes its data in a four-letter alphabet. This would be an ideal medium for storing a cosmic calling card. In many organisms, humans included, genes make up only a tiny fraction of their DNA. Much of the rest seems to be biological gobbledygook, often called "junk DNA". There is plenty of room there for ET to etch a molecular message without damaging any vital genetic functions....More
"Good morning. You have 457 voice-mail messages. Press '1' to listen to them."
Imagine showing up for work and discovering you've got 457 voice-mail messages. Almost all of them are telemarketing junk -- but somewhere in the mess, there's probably a few important voice-mails from actual co-workers. How long would it take you to listen to them? That may soon become a reality for many people, because of "voice over IP" phone numbers. Why? Well, as you probably know, VOIP routes phone calls over the Internet as packets of data, instead of using normal phone switches. That means VOIP phone companies can offer steep discounts on long distance. Indeed, that's why many corporations are turning to VOIP -- to cut costs! Even better, because the phone number is entirely, VOIP can do some cool tricks: Your number can be directed to any VOIP number in the world, so it can travel with you....More
Sombrero-Wearing Webcam
...MoreGod, I really hope this is a trend. Not the part where O'Rite Technologies' Webcam 352 looks like Kenny from South Park - I couldn't care less about that - but the fact that the defining feature of the webcam is that it comes with little outfits to dress it up. Specifically, as reviewed by I4U, a little Mexican get-up complete with sombrero.
This is it, folks. We have seen the future, and it is tiny sombreros for consumer electronics. I could not be more proud of the electronics industry than I am today. I am seriously misting a little here.
August 11, 2004
RSS Feeds of Keyword-Tagged Photos
...MoreFlickr "tags" are user-created keywords that describe their photos. If two or more users hit on (or agree upon) the same tags, all photos with a common tag are grouped together. That's pretty cool -- a kind of Wiki-style serindipitous metadata thing. What's cooler is that every tag automatically gets an RSS feed, so that you can watch all the photos tagged with "cuba" or "outdoor" or "red" in your RSS reader, getting alerts every time a new one comes along. Here's the 100 most popular tags in Flickr -- click each for a link to its RSS feeds (bigger words in the list represent more-popular tags). (Disclosure: I'm an advisor to Ludicorp, the company that makes Flickr).
Open-Media.org
...MoreSo here's today's architectual design. It's for an effort we're calling Open-Media.org which would enable folks to access the HUGE repositories of public domain and Creative Commons content - that's out there.
And to help build our own huge repository of CC content.
First we'll start off with upload sites - which will enable folks to start getting their stuff into the 'archives'. Then we'll provide Jukeboxes and Image Albums (much like what's in the gutter of my blog) that have built into them these huge repositories.
Sharp Releases 3D Flat Panel
...MoreSharp has finally released its 3D flat-panel LCD monitor, a 15-inch version creatively dubbed the "LL-151-3D." Sharp, Sony, and other display manufacturers worked to develop a standard for the 3D monitors, though, which means that investing in the $1,500 unit means it should continue to work with future products for a while. While the technology is intended primarily for gamers, Sharp hopes to also sell units to scientists and bathtub chemists who have a need to view molecular structures and the like in 3D.
August 09, 2004
Taiwanese Firms To Launch a 2 Terabyte Memory Card
...MoreKrafty Koder writes "The Register is reporting that a consortium of Taiwanese firms are to launch a 2 Terabyte memory card at the Taipei International Electronics Show (Taitronics) on the 8th of October, with mass production expected to start next year. The card will measure 3.2 x 2.4 x 0.1cm according to this DigiTimes.com report" The reports say that this is supposed to be a "new type" of card, so the details are still quite sketchy. Offical unveiling will happen in early October.
Microsoft Tests Web-based Messenger
icrosoft is testing a new version of its MSN Messenger that can be used over the Web without having to install software, the world's largest software maker said Friday.
The new service is the latest attempt by Microsoft to extend its reach in the market for messaging services, used to send instant text messages between users logged on to different computers and devices.
MSN Web Messenger, offered by Microsoft's MSN Internet division, is being tested while being prepared for a wider launch by the end of the year, a Microsoft spokeswoman said. Both the test and final version are expected to be free. ...More
July 22, 2004
Macromedia Unveils Web Publishing Suit
Macromedia Monday launched a software suite for designing, building, managing, and updating Web and intranet sites that it promises can break the Web creation bottlenecks typical in enterprises.
Called Web Publishing System (WPS), the new content creation and management suite includes tools for non-technical business types, for advanced Web designers, and for company IT departments. It can also be scaled up to thousands of users, said Macromedia executives, and pays special attention to bringing content creators into the management mix.
WPS consists of Studio MX 2004, Macromedia's Web design and development package that includes Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks; the new Contribute Publishing, a server-based component for managing access and changes made to corporate Web sites; and Contribute 3, which also updated Monday.
The latter is the cornerstone of the new suite, said Lawson Hancock, the product manager for Contribute 3, and is a way for companies to free high-salaried Web or IT staff from the drudgery of site maintenance.
"Contribute works in a simple browse-as-publish metaphor," Hancock said. "You navigate to site you want to update, click Edit, make your changes, and when you're done, it's published. Any user who understands a browser and say, Microsoft Word can publish content to an existing Web site."...More
Open-Source Newspaper
A small California newspaper has undertaken a first-of-its-kind experiment in participatory journalism in which nearly all the content published in a regularly updated online edition and a weekly print edition is submitted by community members. It's all free.
Following in the footsteps of past community journalism projects that sought to give individuals a voice in local news, as well as the growing trend in news-like blogs, The Northwest Voice is giving residents of Bakersfield's northwest neighborhoods near-total control of content. An editor is on hand largely to ensure that articles, letters and photographs submitted through the publication's Web-based content-management system adhere to a minimal set of standards, and to choose the best submissions for inclusion in the print edition.
What's different about the Northwest Voice is that we're taking the explicit approach of asking people in the community to be the writers and photographers," said the Voice's publisher, Mary Lou Fulton. The people say what's important to them "rather than having a handful of journalists make those judgments on behalf of the community."...More
July 16, 2004
Google to Launch Audio and Vidoe Search
Google is planning to launch a new feature to allow users to scour the Internet for audio and video clips, The Post has learned.
The company has yet to announce plans for the new service, but Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page made no secret of it during talks with investors and media executives at an annual retreat hosted by investment bank Allen & Co. in Sun Valley, Idaho.
A Google spokeswoman said she couldn't confirm the plan...More
Google Acquires Picasa, Improves Blogging Tools
clandestine writes "It appears that our lovable search engine has again expanded its horizons - the internet wasn't enough; now you can search and organize your own pictures. I don't know about you, but I use Google for nearly everything; heck, I found links about their acquisition of Picasa through Google News! Any slashdotters going to benefit from this tech, or already do? And yes, the addition of Picasa to their arsenal is a couple of days old, but they just started linking them on the homepage today."...More
Inventive Wireless Providers Go Rural
Rising from the rows of grapes on Michael Spak's gently sloping vineyard hard by Route 15 is an embryonic symbol of 21st-century rural America: a glass-encased camera with a wireless high-speed link to the Internet.
Whether he's 200 yards away, in the den of his sumptuous, Southern-style home, or on a business trip halfway around the world, Spak can survey his field on a computer. With the click of a mouse, the security consultant pans the vines for deer, insects or leaves that need pruning.
Until recently, Spak did not have a good high-speed option: Cable does not reach his area, the phone company wanted too much money to bring in DSL, and satellite service was spotty.
But improved wireless technology has allowed several thousand mostly small Internet providers across the USA to cheaply deliver broadband to remote areas via antennas on hilltops, barns and homes. They typically feed off a fixed broadband line to a central antenna site or base station...More
Driving Force in Video Editing
Michael Oh wanted to show off the power and versatility of Apple Computer's hardware, so he packed a high-end, $25,000 video-editing system into the trunk of his $35,000 Lexus.
Parked on the Macworld Conference & Expo show floor, the Lexus is capable of editing movie-quality footage from the passenger seat.
"It's has the same capabilities as a satellite news van, basically," said Oh, who owns local Apple consultancy Tech Superpowers. "But it's in the back of a Lexus."
The Lexus' mobile editing deck features an Apple server with 14 hard drives and 3.5 terabytes of storage in the trunk.
It is connected to a pair of 15-inch, flat-screen monitors arranged in front of the passenger seat, which also has a keyboard, mouse and jog wheel.
The car is wired with a super-fast gigabit ethernet network wired under the dash, and an Airport Extreme Wi-Fi base station under the interior dome light.
"It can be used to find open networks on the road," said Tech Superpowers service manager Mike Baker...More
USB Host and Hard Drive Power Outlet
One of Toshiko Sakai's designs for ComCom, from a suite of 22 integrated electronic gadgets, is this wall-mount triple socket, with USB port, power (ungrounded, for shame!), and a built-in hard disk for storing home media and sharing them with other items in the product line. So an un-portable iPod, basically, albeit one with 110 volts of alternating current. The entire product line is featured in a recent Wallpaper magazine....More
Scanning a Paperless Horizon
Mythology can be hours of fun for the whole family. Remember the one about the guy who flew too close to the sun with his waxen wings? Or the one about the loving couple that Zeus changed into intertwined trees? How about the one about the lady who tried to dry off her little dog by sticking him in the microwave?
But myths don't begin life as myths; in the beginning, people actually believe them. As recently as a few decades ago, for example, you could still hear predictions that computers would one day create a paperless office. Of course, that turned out to be total bunk; the amount of paper consumed in the e-mail age has exploded.
We may never eliminate our file cabinets completely, but it's too soon to give up on that dream altogether. New scanners from Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu and Xerox/Visioneer can scan stacks of paper, unattended, with marching-band precision - both sides at once, in fact - and convert them into PDF files on your computer, ready for searching, sorting or sending.
(PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It's also known as an Adobe Acrobat format, which you may have encountered in the form of CD-based user manuals or downloadable white papers. Like a photograph, a PDF file maintains the original paper document's fonts, page layout and even pictures, yet you can search for text inside it and copy text out of it. And, of course, you can print it. Maybe Adobe ought to adopt a slogan like "PDF files: The Official Format of the Paperless-Office Myth.")...More
July 15, 2004
AOL, Yahoo And MSN To Integrate Messaging
America Online Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. are teaming up to link their separate instant messaging services for use in the workplace, the first major step by the industry leaders to enable computer users to communicate with one another no matter which of the three systems they use.
n an announcement planned for today, the triumvirate will outline a new partnership aimed at spurring greater use of instant messaging at work by tearing down the electronic walls that keep the respective networks separate. To use the new system, companies will have to license new Microsoft network software that will serve as the hub connecting messaging systems operated separately by AOL, Microsoft's MSN division and Yahoo.
"This is a very significant announcement," said Nate Root, a senior analyst with Forrester Research. "The value here is for corporations. Corporations will now have the ability to span the instant messaging landscape."...More
Is This The Next iPod?
Depending on who you want to believe, it just might be. ThinkSecret is reporting that "reliable sources" have confirmed a new full-sized iPod design that is smaller, sleeker, and colored -- not unlike the iPod mini. Although these pictures are speculative, it's expected that the new models of iPod -- the top end of which will use a 60GB hard drive -- will be offered in purple, orange, and yellow, and possibly the existing iPod mini colors as well (it would be classy if they were to offer a white model in the new form factor, as well)....MoreHigh-resolution comparison shot with the iPod mini, links, and more inside.
1.6TB Drive
When you're giving the pros and cons of a 1.6TB (terabyte) hard disk array, like the LaCie Bigger Disk Extreme, and the only con is "bulky," then you're probably doing pretty good by my estimation. As a follow up to previous Bigger Disk external storage drives, there's no question the 1.6TB version is impressive, smashing together four 400GB drives into a single array that requires no special drivers to be used in Windows XP or Mac OSX. And it looks sufficiently swanky, too, if aluminum doesn't grate on you....More
Why Mac OS X is Better
Unnsse Khan wrote me yesterday and asked the question, "Why are Macs better than PCs?" I thought about it for a while and decided that I'd write my reply as a public blog entry. After all, I've been a poster boy for Macs for a while. Almost every serious programmer I know and respect now uses one—and many of them asked me that question before they took the jump and bought a PowerBook. Boy, if I had a kick back for every Mac I've helped sell... well, I'd be living in a penthouse suite instead of an apartment. But it doesn't matter. I like working on my platform. And I don't mind telling people why.
At the risk of descending into unadulterated advocacy in written form, here goes...More
July 12, 2004
Sony Says New PlayStation to Be on Display at E3
Sony Corp. expects to show off its latest PlayStation at the E3 trade show next May, it said on Monday, increasing pressure on Microsoft Corp. to take the wraps off its Xbox successor at that time.
Sony's game-business head Ken Kutaragi said it planned to unveil a playable version of the new console at next year's E3, the annual video-game trade show scheduled to take place from May 18 to 20 in Los Angeles.
"There has been some talk that development is not going well, but we expect to have a playable version at E3. We are pushing ahead with that schedule in mind," Kutaragi told a meeting of developers, suppliers and media.
Kutaragi did not mention a launch date for the new console, dubbed "PS3" by some Web Sites, but company officials said it may follow a similar timetable to market as its predecessor, the PlayStation 2 (PS2), which went on sale in Japan almost a year after it was first displayed...More
VoIP Hackers Gut Caller ID
Hackers have discovered that implementation quirks in Voice over IP make it easy to spoof Caller ID, and to unmask blocked numbers. They can make their phone calls appear to be from any number they want, and even pierce the veil of Caller ID blocking to unmask an anonymous phoner's unlisted number.
At root, the issue is one of what happens to a nugget of authentication data when it leaves the tightly-regulated realm of traditional telephony, and passes into the unregulated domain of the Internet.
On the old-fashioned phone network, Caller ID works this way: your local phone company or cell phone carrier sends your "Calling Party Number" (CPN) with every call, like a return address on an envelope. Transmitted along with your CPN is a privacy flag that tells the telephone switch at the receiving end of the call whether or not to share your number with the recipient: if you have blocking on your line, the phone company you're dialing into knows your number, but won't share it with the person you're calling.
This arrangement relies on telephone equipment at both ends of the call being trusted: the phone switch providing you with dial tone promises not to lie about your number to other switches, and the switch on the receiving end promises not to reveal your number if you've asked that it be blocked. In the U.S. that trust is backed by FCC regulations that dictate precisely how telephone carriers handle CPNs, Caller ID and blocking. Most subscribers have come to take Caller ID for granted, and some financial institutions even use Caller ID to authenticate customers over the phone...More
July 09, 2004
Bluetooth Luggage Tag Concept
There are a variety of great gadget ideas in IDFuel's first "Bonfire" gadget contest, including the winner, the "Bluebird" Bluetooth luggage tag. Besides lighting up when the bag tag's owner presses the mated dongle, the Bluebird could also signal your cell phone when your luggage is nearby -- as in nearby on the airline conveyer belt. In addition, your contact information could be stored on the tag, so if your luggage were to be lost, airline Bluetooth readers could be used to get in touch with you. There are even more great ideas detailed for the Bluebird, as well as other runners-up in the competition....More
Open-Source Wi-Fi Links Remote Communities
European wireless and open-source specialists have embarked on an international tour to spread the benefits of the technology to developing countries from Tajikistan to Ghana.
The team, known as Informal, claims its wireless roadshow is an attempt to empower non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the developing world to own, operate and grow their own Internet infrastructure using wireless technology such as mesh networking. The aim is to allow remote communities in developing countries without traditional telecoms infrastructure to communicate more effectively.
"We support these kinds of activities because we believe that the benefits of the Internet should be available globally," said Informal lead team member Simon Crab...More
Transparent Desktop Opens Door
Collaborating with co-workers in the same office is painful enough, but it's nigh impossible over a network.
For a couple of decades, researchers have tried to blend shared workspaces -- systems that allow two or more people to work on the same document -- with Internet video-conferencing systems, with little success.
Now researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have designed a new system that cleverly blends a video-conference feed with a transparent image of a computer desktop into one full-screen window.
Called Facetop, the system simultaneously transmits a video feed of users along with a shared, transparent image of the desktop. It allows two colleagues to work on the same document, Web page or graphic, while communicating face to face.
The system also tracks the position of the users' fingertips, which can control a cursor. As well as operating the shared desktop -- opening and closing files or selecting text, for instance -- the collaborators can use natural pointing gestures to communicate ideas about the document.
Developed by David Stotts, an associate professor of computer science, and graduate student Jason Smith, Facetop was conceived for collaborative tasks like programming or editing text. But the researchers say it has obvious uses in other areas such as medical imaging or remote teaching...More
July 07, 2004
EFF Publishes Patent Hit List
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is spoiling for a fight, and on Wednesday it named the top 10 patents it wants killed, or at least redefined.
The EFF said all 10 patents are in some way illegitimate and are being used to limit free expression.
As part of its Patent Busting Project, the EFF in mid-June began soliciting the public for submissions of patents that were both potentially invalid and used to stifle online innovation. The organization received nearly 200 suggestions, 10 of which it will now formally ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to re-examine.
"These patent owners have been threatening people that just can't defend themselves," said Jason Schultz, staff attorney at the EFF. "They're trying to claim ownership over some fundamental part of software of the Internet that people use every day, and they're threatening small companies or individuals that can't afford lawyers."
The owners of the 10 patents include some of the biggest names in media and entertainment, as well as some smaller firms and one individual. In each case, Schultz said, the EFF believes the owner has far overstepped its rights under the patents...More
June 29, 2004
BBC Opening Up Archive to Public
The BBC has submitted its Charter Renewal documents to the UK Government, outlining its plans for the next ten years. It's a long and comprehensive document, and most excitingly, it describes a free and open Creative Archive intended to provide Britons with access to the material in the BBC's vaults for free viewing, remixing and reuse....MoreImagine being able to view and listen -- and even download and own -- extracts from the world's largest television and radio archive.
53% of internet users download content for their own compilations 55. For the first time, the BBC will open up its treasure chest of programmes to the public who own it and make its contents available to individuals and to families for learning, for creativity and for pleasure. Two-thirds of current and prospective broadband users say they are interested in the Creative Archive service.
The BBC Creative Archive will establish a pool of high-quality content which can be legally drawn on by collectors, enthusiasts, artists, musicians, students, teachers and many others, who can search and use this material non-commercially. And where exciting new works and products are made using this material, we will showcase them on BBC services.
Initially we will release factual material, beginning with extracts from natural history programmes. As demand grows, we are committed to extending the Creative Archive across all areas of our output.
Apple Previews Mac OS X Server 'Tiger'
Apple® today previewed Mac OS® X Server version 10.4 "Tiger," the next major release of Apple's award-winning, UNIX-based server operating system that makes it easy to deploy popular open source solutions for Mac®, Windows and Linux clients. The fifth major release of Mac OS X Server, Tiger Server continues Apple's blazing pace of innovation to deliver over 200 new features including native support for 64-bit applications, ideal for high performance computing; Weblog Server that makes hosting a weblog as simple as checking a box; iChat Server to deploy private, encrypted communications within an organization; and migration tools to make it easy to upgrade from legacy Windows servers to Mac OS X Server.
"With more than 200 new features, Tiger Server is the best release of Mac OS X Server ever," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Tiger Server combines over 100 of the best solutions from the open source world with Apple's legendary ease-of-use to create the easiest way to deploy powerful open source server solutions."
For the first time, Tiger Server can natively run 64-bit processes for database, engineering and scientific applications to take advantage of the increased performance unleashed when accessing massive amounts of memory while still running side-by-side with existing 32-bit applications. Combined with Apple's Xserve® G5 server hardware, Tiger Server offers an affordable, easy-to-manage solution for high performance computing...More
Microsoft Open to Open Source
Microsoft Corp. says it is looking to turn over more of its programs to open-source software developers, playing a greater role in a process that the Redmond company has criticized strongly at times in the past.
Money-makers like the company's Windows operating system and Office productivity suite aren't on the table -- or anywhere near it.
But the company has so far released two software-development tools to the open-source community, and it wants to continue the practice, a Microsoft platform manager told an industry group this week.
"There's more of that on the way," said Microsoft's Stephen Walli, who oversaw the process of releasing those tools under open-source licenses. "And it's not just about developer tools. There's other things that we can be looking at when you actually look at the breadth of source code that we have, the breadth of software that we have that isn't actually core (to Microsoft's) revenue stream."...More
Apple's 30 Inch Aluminum Displays
Apple has announced new aluminim displays to match their G5 PowerMacs. Along with the 20-inch ($1299) and the 23-inch ($1999), a new 30-inch mega-display has been announced that will be driven by a customer dual-DVI video card that will cost $600. I'll get you pictures as soon as I can....MoreThe 30-inch display will cost $3299 without the necessary $600 video card and will be available in August. Unconfirmed resolution is 2560 x 1600.
Looks like the video card is from Nvidia, which would explain that announcement earlier today about SLI, I bet.
Mac OSX Tiger (10.4) will ship in the first half of 2005 and will be native 64 bit instead of the hinky 64/32 bit system from before.
Apple is adopting the MPEG4 .h264 Hi-Definition DVD spec in the Quicktime for Tiger.
Additional support in iChat for 3 more simultaneous video chats, and up to 10 voice simultaneous voice chats.
Disney Debuts New Safer, Quieter and More Environmentally Friendly Fireworks Technology
After years of research and testing, Walt Disney Imagineering has perfected a new innovation in fireworks launch technology, marking the pyrotechnic industry's first major breakthrough in decades.
The new technology uses compressed air to lift fireworks, virtually eliminating the need for smoke-producing black powder and other materials at launch, significantly reducing ground-level smoke and noise while continuing to provide a highly entertaining show. The air launch system debuted when the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, recently unveiled its new summer fireworks show, "Disney's Imagine -- a Fantasy in the Sky."
"The development of this cutting-edge science is the result of many years of hard work, testing and a long-term initiative," said Walt Disney Imagineering Chief Scientist Dr. Ben Schwegler. "We are proud to be pioneering this innovative and beneficial technology."...More
June 28, 2004
Will RFID Spark the Next Revolution in Retailing?
Shoppers leaving Wal-Mart Stores these days are used to long check-out lines. In a few years, however, those lines well might be history. Wal-Mart is introducing radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to its products - small devices that emit radio waves containing information about product size, price, etc. Though this scenario is still far in the future, such tags could let the world's largest retailer add up the prices of purchased goods as shoppers leave the store and deduct the tab directly from their accounts. Whether such futuristic practices materialize or not, one thing is certain: RFID has begun to acquire a buzz that positions it as the next revolution in the world of retailing.
How real is this revolution? And what does it mean for retailers and customers? Experts at Wharton and elsewhere say that RFID is a potentially powerful technology that several organizations - including retailers and government organizations - are seriously looking at implementing to ramp up the efficiency of their supply chains. While companies like Wal-Mart and Target have already announced plans to roll out RFID programs, others are waiting in the wings. Still, several hurdles remain. One big question is whether the benefits will be immediate or be spread out years into the future. “There’s a bandwagon here and a lot of players say RFID is on the brink of having a big impact,” says Morris A. Cohen, co-director of Wharton’s Fishman-Davidson Center for Service and Operations Management. “But before that, there are technical challenges to overcome.”
Fans say that RFID technology promises to revolutionize the supply chain through real-time item tracking. Its goal is to keep goods on the shelves, garner more efficiency through better inventory management, enhance safety through smart recalls and cut theft, known as "shrink" among retailers. This is made possible by the fact that when RFID tags emit radio waves, that information is absorbed by a reader, which can then compile and share it with a company's enterprise software. Suppliers can benefit from real-time inventory management that keeps goods on the shelf. Consumers may not immediately see a lot of major changes, but they would certainly benefit from better in-stock levels...More
Transparent Tiny Meshing Access-Point
The Meshcube is a tiny, kit-built meshing WiFi (802.11a/b/g) access-point. It's kinda pricey (€199 and up), but it looks great and meshing networks are genuinely cool....More
June 27, 2004
Time's 50 Best Web Sites
Some really interesting sites on here, alot that I haven't heard about...More
Ethical Hacking Is No Oxymoron
Sporting long sideburns, a bushy goatee and black baseball cap, instructor Ralph Echemendia has a class of 15 buttoned-down corporate, academic and military leaders spellbound. The lesson: hacking.
The students huddled over laptops at a Los Angeles-area college have paid nearly $4,000 to attend "Hacker College," a computer boot camp designed to show how people will try to break into network systems -- and how they will succeed.
"It's an amazing thing how insecure the big corporations are," Echemendia said during a break in the weeklong seminar. "It's just amazing how easy it is."...More
June 26, 2004
Skype Project to Dial Real Phone Numbers
I just spent nearly ten minutes on the phone to Paris, at a cost of about 10 pence. Using Skype, dialling a Paris landline number, that is. Any Skype user will tell you, you can't do that. You can only dial other Skype users. Well, not any more. OK, so it wasn't that secret: Niklas Zennstrom announced his plans for SkypeOut, which makes this possible, at VON Europe a couple of weeks back. But it wasn't released with much ballyhoo: so it is a surprise to find that if you download the latest version of Skype today, you'll get an extra feature on your screen; beta SkypeOut is there, and it works.
This means that mobile users can use Skype from public hotspots to place all their business calls, not just calls to other Skype users.
By the way, don't bother using the Skype "check for updates" option; it will tell you you have the latest version. You don't if you don't see the "dial" option on the home screen. Download again!
Really, Skype is an Instant Messenger - like MSN and AIM and YM - but instead of doing typewritten chat with voice as an optional extra, it does voice as its main function. At a point in history when Yahoo! appears to be throwing the plot away by abandoning its YM for corporate customers, Skype has expanded its offering...More
WiMax in the Wings
A key electronics industry group has approved a significant standard for wireless broadband specifications known as "WiMax," giving a boost to a technology proclaimed as a breakthrough for cheap high-speed Internet access.
WiMax is essentially radio technology that promises to deliver two-way Internet access at speeds of up to 75 megabits per second at long range. Its backers claim that WiMax can transmit data up to 30 miles between broadcast towers and can blanket areas more than a mile in radius with bandwidth that exceeds current DSL and cable broadband capabilities.
As a result, some believe that it could slash the cost of bringing broadband to remote areas and potentially open the doors to new broadband competition, leading to lower prices and faster consumer adoption.
In a campaign speech Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry sang the praises of wireless broadband as a fix for the anemic state of the country's Internet fabric, which lags other developed nations such as South Korea. But the technology is still in the early test stage, and many of its claims have yet to be proven in real applications...More
Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years
President Bush wants to return to the moon and put a man on Mars. But scientist Bradley C. Edwards has an idea that's really out of this world: an elevator that climbs 62,000 miles into space.
Edwards thinks an initial version could be operating in 15 years, a year earlier than Bush's 2020 timetable for a return to the moon. He pegs the cost at $10 billion, a pittance compared with other space endeavors.
"It's not new physics — nothing new has to be discovered, nothing new has to be invented from scratch," he says. "If there are delays in budget or delays in whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a realistic estimate for when we could have one up."
Edwards is not just some guy with an idea. He's head of the space elevator project at the Institute for Scientific Research in Fairmont, W.Va. NASA already has given it more than $500,000 to study the idea, and Congress has earmarked $2.5 million more.
"A lot of people at NASA are excited about the idea," said Robert Casanova, director of the NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts in Atlanta...More
June 16, 2004
Roll Your Own Pirate Radio Station with an iPod
BoingBoing reader Philip says,
"After playing around with the new iTrip mini, the FM broadcasting accessory for the iPod our little minds got working on some ideas. We thought we might be able to make the range of Griffin's iTrip mini a little better if took it apart and exposed the antenna, turns out we could. And then we thought, hey -- we could use a couple iPods to broadcast something we wanted to get out there. Perhaps not 'should' that is, but could. Here's the How To."...More
Enter the Patent Busting Competition
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Patent Busting Project is here to protect you from dangerously bad patents. And you can help us pick which patents we're going to bust first!
We're currently seeking nominations for ten patents that deserve to be revoked because they are invalid. Sadly, we don't have the resources to challenge every stupid patent out there. In order to qualify for our ten most-wanted list, a patent must be software or Internet-related and there must be a good reason to suspect that the patent claims are invalid. We're especially interested in patents that target tools of free expression, such as streaming media, blogging tools, and voice over IP (VoIP) technology. Most importantly, the patent-holder must be aggressively enforcing its patent and suing (or threatening to sue) alleged infringers. We're particularly interested in cases where the patent-holder is trying to force small businesses, individuals, nonprofits, and consumers to pay licensing fees. Deadline to enter is June 23...More
IBM Teams with Software Makers on Grid
Hoping to broaden the appeal of grid computing, IBM and a handful of software makers said Wednesday that they have retooled their business applications to be grid-ready.
Grid computing, in which the processing workload is spread across several machines to tackle tasks more efficiently, has often been used in academic and specialized commercial settings.
But rather than esoteric scientific programs, the IBM partners sell mainstream business applications. They include Citrix's MetaFrame software for running desktop applications on server computers and business reporting software from Cognos and Actuate.
The new business applications are the first fruits of an IBM effort, launched earlier this year, to get its application provider partners to "grid-enable" their products. As part of this effort, Big Blue provided technical resources and guidance on how to best take advantage of grid-based software available on the marketplace. Other application companies to have completed the grid compliance work are Engineous Software and Sefas, as well as Abaqus and Fluent which sell specialized software for completing complex calculations on a computing grid.
IBM expects other companies to make their applications grid-ready, said Steve Gordon, grid alliance executive at IBM. The company hopes that by providing the grid-enabled applications, it can demonstrate real-world uses for the technology and drive sales of its hardware, software and services...More
June 11, 2004
Any Song. In Any Room. Anywhere.
Sonos is the first and only digital music system that lets you play all your digital music, all over your house - and control it all from the palm of your hand. Best of all, you don't need a PC in every room, a music server or a wireless network. Just a Sonos ZonePlayer and speakers in the rooms of your choice and a Sonos Controller in hand to access all your digital music, no matter where it's stored....More
How To Skin a PC to Look Like a Mac
Engadget has a great step-by-step HOWTO for skinning your WinXP box until its desktop is nigh-indistinguishable from a MacOS X box....More
Stealth Ships Steam Ahead
The Swedish Navy is testing out a new ship which is believed to be the most "invisible" yet. The Royal Navy and the US Navy both have plans of their own for similarly futuristic "stealth" ships. BBC News Online investigates the shape of the future of naval warfare.
Ever since radar was invented by the British during World War II, military boffins have been trying to think of ways to beat it.
The US Air Force invented the first "stealth" aircraft, the U-2 spy plane, in 1954, and 10 years later they unveiled the Lockheed Blackbird.
Both planes were designed in such a way as to keep their radar "signatures" to an absolute minimum.
Now naval architects have come up with a similar way of beating the radar...More
Duofold Varitec T-Shirt
A friend turned me on to these fabulous shirts about five years ago; now I won't ever wear a cotton tee-shirt for any strenuous activity. These synthetic fabric shirts dry super-quickly, keeping you cool during intense activity. Conversely, in colder weather, the quick-drying feature keeps you warmer....More
Broadvoice: Cheap Unlimited Internet Phone Service
This phone over the internet works wonderfully and cheaply if you have a high speed internet connection. You go to the Broadvoice website and subscribe. You select a new phone number (out of the numbers they list as available) in almost any area code you prefer (you can get your own number transferred but that's supposed to take a month)...then you wait a few days till they send you a little box. You also need to buy a router ($40-$50)... follow the simple installation noted on their website, then plug any phone (wired or wireless) into the phone box. You get a dial tone and voila, call anywhere in the US, as long as you like, for $20 a month. Just amazing....More
Five Short-Range Wireless Standards Seen Combining
Five short-range wireless connection technologies are fighting for the industry limelight, but sector specialists said on Friday that companies would eventually combine the five to make life easier.
Automatic wireless connections between electronic devices are the Holy Grail of the computer and consumer electronics industry.
Companies hope consumers will buy new devices once they are able to listen to their music collections anywhere in the house or on the road, see DVDs and photo albums on any screen, or program their hard disk recorders from a Web site.
This brave new world, in which a car's lights, speakers and cell phone are all connected to the dashboard with wireless chips, may be here in a few years, or in some cases sooner.
"We haven't even scratched the surface," Paul Marino, manager of connectivity at Philips semiconductors unit, told Reuters at a Wireless Connectivity industry show...More
June 10, 2004
Google Mulls RSS Support
Google is considering renewing support for the popular RSS Web publishing format in some of its services, CNET News.com has learned, marking the latest twist in a burgeoning standards war over technology that could change how people read the news.
RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, lets online publishers automatically send Web content to subscribers, giving readers a powerful tool to compile news headlines on the fly from several sources at once. Next to Atom, which launched as a challenger last year, RSS has become a leading candidate to form the basis of an industry standard for an entirely new style of Web publishing.
In April, Google seemingly chose sides, bypassing RSS support for most subscribers of its Blogger publishing tool in favor of rival Atom. But now, there are signs that Google may be poised for a change of heart, as support has grown inside the company to restore equal footing to both formats.
According to an internal Google e-mail seen by CNET News.com, the company has been considering the change and last month assigned at least one staffer to write a memo summarizing technical details relating to RSS. The request came amid a broader discussion touching on extending RSS support for new Blogger subscribers and Google Groups, which supports Atom but not RSS in a test version of the service.
"I did ask (a Google product manager) to develop a summary...about RSS feeds, including the ways they are produced and consumed, which platforms/devices they run on, and information on the various formats (RSS 1.0, 2.0, Atom)," Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of product management, wrote on May 22. The message was part of a thread addressed to Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, CEO Eric Schmidt and others...More
Is the Linux Desktop Getting Heavier and Slower?
"Bob Marr wrote an interesting editorial about what many of us have have noticed lately: the three most popular Linux distros are getting "fatter" in terms of their memory footprint and CPU demands for their graphical desktops. Fedora Core 2 isn't usable below 192 MBs of RAM while Mandrake and SuSE aren't very far off similar requirements either. There was a time when Linux users would brag that their favorite OS was far less demanding that Windows, but this doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Modern distros that use the latest versions of KDE and (especially) Gnome feel considerably heavier than before or even than Windows XP/2k3. Sure, Longhorn has higher requirements than XP (256 MB RAM, 800 MHz CPU) and the final version will undoubtly be much more demanding, but that's in 2-3 years from now. For the time being, I am settled with XFce on my Gentoo but I always welcome more carefully-written code."...More
Nintendo Changing Game Plans?
Nintendo's president said Wednesday that the Japanese video-game company will debut a new console next year that will take a different tack than its competitors, hinting that the company will try to attract more-casual gamers.
The new console, code-named Revolution, will be shown as a prototype next year and in final form at the annual E3 game conference in 2006, said Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president.
Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Iwata said the current model of the video-game business -- trying to attract gamers with hardware that features ever-more-dazzling graphics -- is dying. With game sales steadily declining in Japan and growth slowing in the American market, he said it's going to take more than dazzle to sell new machines. Console makers sell their wares at a loss in hopes of making a profit from game software sales.
"We need to propose a new idea so that the game industry can overcome its current crisis," Iwata said, according to a report by the Associated Press. "What we need is not a next-generation machine but a next-generation way of playing games."
He didn't elaborate. He also wouldn't give the specifications of the new machines for fear of competition, he said.
Nintendo -- which single-handedly revitalized the home video-game business in the late 1980s -- has been losing steam in the hardware business. It lost its lead in the console business to Sony's PlayStation in the mid-1990s and is facing even more competition from Microsoft's Xbox, which is preferred by more mature video-game fans. In addition, Nintendo's best-selling Game Boy Advance handheld game machine will face a formidable challenge from Sony's PSP handheld, slated to come out in a few months...More
June 09, 2004
New Service by TiVo Will Build Bridges From Internet to the TV
The Internet, in jumping past the personal computer and into the living room television set, is starting to give viewers the possibility of bypassing traditional cable and satellite services.
TiVo, the maker of a popular digital video recorder, plans to announce a new set of Internet-based services today that will further blur the line between programming delivered over traditional cable and satellite channels and content from the Internet. It is just one of a growing group of large and small companies that are looking at high-speed Internet to deliver video content to the living room.
The new TiVo technology, which will become a standard feature in its video recorders, will allow users to download movies and music from the Internet to the hard drive on their video recorder. Although the current TiVo service allows users to watch broadcast, cable or satellite programs at any time, the new technology will make it possible for them to mix content from the Internet with those programs.
"This is the fourth electronic video service, and it is an alternative to cable, satellite and broadcast television," said Tom Wolzien, an analyst at Bernstein Investment Research and Management. Those traditional services, Mr. Wolzien said, "have been the monster gatekeepers, but this is a way for content providers to get past them."...More
Step Aside TiVo, Here Comes Freevo
Tired of TiVo's monthly fees and eager for even more control over their television programs, computer enthusiasts are building TV recording devices out of personal computers and new software packages.
The trend is perhaps a touch of bitter irony for TiVo Inc., whose personal video recorders started out as a "disruptive technology" aimed at cable and satellite companies. The devices allow users to digitally store their favorite shows and skip commercials.
Getting the power of TiVo and updated TV listings without having to pay the monthly fee has apparently made some software quite attractive. At SnapStream Media, a maker of PC-based video recording software, business is growing 20 percent a month, the company said. The company declined to disclose its number of users, however.
"Consumers are becoming aware of the fact that they can transform their PCs into entertainment centers that are very powerful and still very easy to use," said Rakesh Agrawal, SnapStream's chief executive officer...More
Check Out the Invisibility Cloak
Flying cars, transparent cloaks, technology which can read minds and games played by brain waves - the stuff of fiction, surely? Not so, these seemingly far-fetched inventions - and more - are now reality.
For a vision of what the future holds, thousands of nay-sayers and believers alike have got an up close and personal glimpse at NextFest, an expo in San Francisco organised by the technology magazine, Wired.
"This is a city that is always looking at what is next," says editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. "We have brought the most innovative minds and extraordinary technologies from around the world and here is what's next. These are the things that will change the way we live and work and play in the future."
The 110 exhibitors were chosen from 2,500 research and development projects underway at universities and corporations worldwide...More
June 08, 2004
Free VOIP
Net-phoning provider StanaPhone Communications unveiled on Monday a new offer that resurrects a doomed business model of the late 1990s: free phone calls between a computer and any home, office or mobile phone.
StanaPhone now gives customers downloading its VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) software 100 free voice minutes every 30 days. Other VoIP providers charge for connections--some by the minute, others monthly--for as low as $20 a month for unlimited dialing.
As with other VoIP software, StanaPhone's product enables users to make unlimited free phone calls between PCs or laptops--calls that sidestep traditional telephone networks.
New York City-based StanaPhone is among the first of the new generation of VoIP providers to recycle a strategy from the '90s, when Yahoo, America Online and Microsoft's MSN introduced Net phone calling through their instant-messaging applications. At first, the scheme prompted millions of minutes of calls, according to Sarah Hofstetter, vice president at Net2Phone, which was hired to provide the bridge between PCs and phones...More
Apple Unveils Wireless Station to Stream Music
Apple Computer Inc. on Monday unveiled a mobile wireless base station that lets users play digital music from their iTunes music libraries on a Macintosh or Windows computer over home stereo systems.
The device, called AirPort Express, is slightly larger than the power adapter for a Macintosh notebook computer and works with a new version of Apple's iTunes digital jukebox software.
AirPort Express comes as PC makers like Gateway Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. and consumer electronics companies such as Sony Corp are seeking to gain a foothold in the digital living room with entertainment PCs.
Apple said AirPort Express is simple in that it allows digital music to be beamed to a home stereo, and it is a portable wireless base station that uses the 802.11g standard. It can be used in hotel rooms with broadband connections or for setting up instant wireless networks.
"This is really the product that brings these two worlds together," said Greg Joswiak, head of Apple's hardware product marketing, in a telephone interview, referring to wireless connectivity and digital music...More
June 06, 2004
TheyWorkForYou: finest advocacy web-app in the world
TheyWorkForYou.com -- a project from the FaxYourMP team -- has launched today. This is the most amazing, subversive piece of political webware I've ever seen. It scrapes the Parliamentary record and makes the entire thing commentable, searchable and permalinkable. It compiles stats of which MPs vote against their parties most often, which ones speak most often, which have made the most motions and so forth. I've been beta-testing it and the code and UI are brilliant. It's like they've poured Parliament into LiveJournal -- and in so doing, have cutg overnment down to a human-addressable scale. We need one of these in every country in the world...More
20 Lectures on Science Fiction as MP3s
The University of Minnesota has posted the audio from 20 lectures from its "Studies in Narrative: Science Fiction and Fantasy" distance-ed course. I haven't listened to them yet, but I've put 'em on my iPod for long plane-trips...More
Solar-Powered Gadgets on the Move
Gadget lovers are using solar panels to power their toys in the remotest places -- like Mt. Everest, altitude 29,029 feet.
"The sun was so bright at 18,000 feet that it wasn't a problem at all," said Sean Burch, who climbed the world's highest peak alone last year, the 50th anniversary of the first climb, and did not have the human power to bring along hundred-pound batteries like bigger crews do.
In the wilds or on the road, solar panels that fold into notebook-size cases are charging everything from notebook computers to cameras and Palm Pilots.
Bike riders attach a panel to their luggage racks and backpackers cascade a few down the back of their rucksacks, giving the sun a full day to charge up batteries while they are on the move. Burch, who climbed to the top of Everest without oxygen, except for the last day's push to the top, charged his equipment in base camp with a Powerline system from Original Power while he prepared for the big climb.
"It was nice because I had my computer, solar panels and phone and I could communicate as well as anyone," he said...More
June 04, 2004
Iraq Seeks '.IQ' Domain to Make its Mark on Net
Iraq is making its first claim for an internationally recognized presence on the Internet.
Iraq's media commission and the U.S.-led administration in Iraq want to set up Web addresses using the domain code ".IQ" as the final tag. That would mean addresses for Web pages would be distinctively identified on the Internet with Iraq's own country code.
The Iraqi chairman of the National Communications & Media Commission, Siyamend Othman, said the .IQ domain name would allow Iraqis to stake a "virtual flag" in the worldwide Internet community. It is "an important tangible and symbolic milestone for this nation, as well as the freedom and hopes of the Iraqi people," he wrote in a letter dated May 20 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
Although Internet cafes are popping up throughout Baghdad, few people own computers, and even fewer have regular access to the Internet. A recent survey cited by the U.S.-led administration in Iraq found that about 6% of Iraqis say they have access to the Internet but fewer than 2% use it regularly. About 12% of the population reports having a computer.
Iraqi officials say the rebuilding of Iraq has been hampered by poor national communications...More
40" OLED Television Revealed at SID
"Seiko Epson has unveiled a massive 40 inch OLED display prototype at this years Society for Information Display (SID) symposium in Seattle. The display was printed on to a backplane containing the drive electronics with a specialized inkjet process using Phillip's PolyLED technology. Samsung and Phillips also showed large scale OLEDs they say can also be scaled up to 'television sizes.'"<...More
More Personal Video Players from Computex
The Register's Tony Smith has even more about all the personal video players that are popping up at Computex, including this very iPodesque X-Fram II from TwinMOS (also sold as the Mobinote 7010) with a 7-inch, 754 x 480 LCD and a 20GB 1.8-inch hard drive. They are even calling its bundled app 'DVX-POD,' just so you don't mistake their intentions. It's got an AV port for on-the-fly MPEG4 encoding (although only at 352 x 288) and can play back a wealth of formats, including Divx 3/4/5 (although no word for XviD), WMV, and Quicktime 6, which is a rarity...More
June 03, 2004
Newsweek Discovers Smartphones, Confuses Them With PCs
Although it took them three writers to do it, Newsweek takes a look at the smartphone trend, trying to pose the seemingly deep question "Will Phones Replace PCs?" while blissfully ignoring the fact that the only possible answer is, you know, 'maybe.' That's some thought-provocation right there. Still, there's some good stuff in the article, like a stop-smoking program that sends encouraging messages to Japanese students, and (hypothetical?) examples of two single people hooking up in a bar using Symbian Dater...More
Cool Looking Audio Players
Two new mobile players in BenQ's Joybee line, the Joybee 102 and the Joybee 180 (pictured right). The 102 is billed as the world's smallest, a moderately-contested title that we'll let those to whom size matters sort out, and comes in 128MB and 256MB versions and three different colors. It is also interesting to note that along with Windows and MacOS, the Joybee is specifically listed as support Linux...More
ForwardTrack
Eyebeam has launched their latest project, ForwardTrack. It's a system for diseminating petitions that not only keeps track of who supports the petition, but how that support has developed. The description from the site:
ForwardTrack is a new system created by Eyebeam R&D designed to promote on-line activism. The system tracks and maps the diffusion of email forwards, political calls-to-action, and petitions. Our goal is to help people understand decentralized networks and see the power of "6 degrees of separation." ForwardTrack technology helps prove that one person can make a difference....More
May 27, 2004
Army Plans Overhaul of Infantry Gear
"Wired is running an article about a seven-year, $250 million revamping of the US Army's uniforms. One of the major obstacles is going to be how to power all the electronic devices that the soldiers will use. 'They have at least one idea, though. "Avoid the use of Microsoft Windows operating systems," a recent memo on the subject directed. FFW is going open source. Cleaner software needs less energy to run.'"...More
Skype Beyond the Hype
My transatlantic call with my little sister at Smith College in Northampton, MA, starts with her recurring complaint about the campus food. This week, it seems, there’s a shortage of fresh fruit. Normally, as the long-distance seconds tick by, I’d be tempted to ask her about more serious issues. But this time I’m happy to listen: our hour-long call, placed over the Internet from my computer in Riga, Latvia, to her computer in Northampton, is using a free program called Skype and is costing us nothing.
When I start up Skype to call my sister, the software links my PC with the computers of other Skype users who also happen to be online. In this case, one of them is my sister, 6,500 kilometers away. Our voices are broken into digital packets that hopscotch from computer to computer until they reach their destinations, where they’re reassembled into astonishingly clear audio.
The peer-to-peer strategy used by Skype is very similar to that of the Internet file-sharing systems, such as the original Napster, that have become the bane of the music industry. Indeed, the creators of Skype—Niklas Zennström of Sweden, Janus Friis of Denmark, and a set of expert programmers in Estonia and elsewhere—are largely the same team that unleashed Kazaa, the music-sharing program perhaps most loved by music swappers and most reviled by music corporations. So it’s only natural that Zennström and Friis, who have given away more than 10 million copies of their new software to users in more than 170 countries since launching Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies in August 2003, would be anointed by some as Davids aiming their high-tech slingshot at the Goliaths of the telecom world...More
May 25, 2004
Gates Backs Blogs for Businesses
Blogs are good for business, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has said.
In a speech to an audience of chief executives, Mr Gates said the regularly updated journals, or blogs, could be a good way for firms to tell customers, staff and partners what they are doing.
He said blogs had advantages over other, older ways of communicating such as e-mail and websites.
More than 700 Microsoft employees are already using blogs to keep people up to date with their projects.
Mr Gates' blessing of blogs came during his keynote speech at Microsoft's CEO Summit held on the company's campus in Redmond, Seattle.
The speech was a canter through many of the forthcoming technological developments Mr Gates and Microsoft believe business bosses should know about.
The speech covered mobile phones, new wireless technologies, RFID, digital cameras and broadband, as well as all the uses such things can be put to...More
May 21, 2004
Mac for Windows
Shortly after Microsoft releases a new version of its Office software, its designers begin to discuss what to put into the next version. Driving these meetings, no doubt, is a painful question: "How on earth will we come up with more features that we didn't think of last year, or the year before that - especially when most people consider Office too bloated already?"
Last year, Office 2003 for Windows revealed the company's latest strategy: Add very, very little, and hope that people upgrade anyway.
Yesterday, Microsoft's Macintosh software division unveiled Office 2004 for Macintosh, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage, an e-mail and calendar program. Once again, Microsoft added few big-ticket features, preferring to focus on a motley collection of nips and tucks.
A strategy isn't the only thing the Mac team borrowed from the Windows gang, either. After years of seeing its own good ideas adopted by the Office for Windows team, Microsoft's Mac designers apparently decided that two could play that game.
For example, the new Notebook view in Word, the word processor, is a delightful rip-off of OneNote for Windows, a note-taking and organizing program. In situations where fast note-taking is essential - lectures and interviews come to mind - this view presents a tabbed on-screen notebook and keystrokes that make it easy to type an outline. Best of all, if you click a Record button, your microphone records the proceedings. Later you can play back a certain audio segment just by clicking the corresponding spot in your notes...More
May 20, 2004
Google Moves Toward Clash With Microsoft
Edging closer to a direct confrontation with Microsoft, Google, the Web search engine, is preparing to introduce a powerful file and text software search tool for locating information stored on personal computers.
Google's software, which is expected to be introduced soon, according to several people with knowledge of the company's plans, is the clearest indication to date that the company, based in Mountain View, Calif., hopes to extend its search business to compete directly with Microsoft's control of desktop computing.
Improved technology for searching information stored on a PC will also be a crucial feature of Microsoft's long-delayed version of its Windows operating system called Longhorn. That version, which is not expected before 2006 at the earliest, will have a redesigned file system, making it possible to track and retrieve information in ways not currently possible with Windows software.
Google's move is in part a defensive one, because the company is concerned about Microsoft's ability to make searching on the Web as well as on a PC a central part of its operating system. By integrating more search functions into Windows, Microsoft could conceivably challenge Google the way it threatened, and destroyed, an earlier rival, Netscape, by incorporating Web browsing into the Windows 98 operating system.
A Google spokesman declined to comment about the new search tool...More
Make Your Poo Useful
No, for real (well, mmmmaybe). This advanced toilet turns human shit into clean compost.
The Solar Composting Advanced Toilet is designed to recycle human excrement and urine into a relatively [Emphasis mine - Ed.] dry and deodorized compost which can be safely and easily applied to the immediately surrounding landscape.
The S.C.A.T. is a self-contained freestanding structure using inexpensive convenient organic materials such as peat moss or sawdust to promote effective composting. Earthworms provide mixing and aeration, eliminating the need for a rotating drum. A durable watertight plastic bin in the solar chamber has enough capacity for 4-6 persons in daily use.
...More
Bio-Degradable Cardboard Speakers
Bio-degradable cardboard speakers (almost).
These “flat-pack” cardboard speakers are literally another canvas for creative designers. “Using NXT’s unique SurfaceSound Distributed Mode Loudspeaker technology, SoundpaX combines specially selected composite cardboard with the latest neodymium NXT exciter to achieve high quality sound in a nearly disposable bio-degradable form.” The speakers are fully compatible with standard amplification...More
New iTunes Tools Spur Windows Developers
Independent software programmers are using new tools provided by Apple Computer to write add-on applications for the company's iTunes music software, potentially expanding the software's appeal.
Early in the month, the company quietly released a Windows-based software development kit for its media player. The tools provide instructions on how to let other programs talk to iTunes. A similar set of instructions for Macintosh computers had long been available.
The tools do not go so far as to allow other media players to play songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store, but they do allow a variety of applications to extend iTunes use. For instance, using the tools, a developer could write new software that launches and controls iTunes remotely.
"It looks like it's exactly what I was hoping for," said Andrew Carson, a Chicago-based developer who is using the tools to create a continuously updated list of recently played songs on his Web log. "Until this release, we haven't had a Windows equivalent to what iTunes users could do with AppleScript on a Mac."...More
May 19, 2004
Google Tests Waters With Terabyte e-mail Limit
Google just escalated the e-mail storage arms race by a factor of 1,000.
Several users of the search engine's Gmail Web-based e-mail service noticed Tuesday that their storage limits had quietly been raised to 1 million megabytes, or 1 terabyte. That's four times the typical capacity of a new high-end PC's hard drive.
The Gmail service still is in testing, and it wasn't immediately clear how widely Google will offer the higher storage limit, under what conditions, or to which users.
Google didn't respond for requests for comment late Tuesday.
Detroit resident Rajiv Vyas, who has been using Gmail for about a month, was wowed by the change. "It's great. Although I am not sure what I will do will all this memory," he said. "In the long run, it would help me store not only photos but every file on my desktop. This is 10 times more (storage space) than what I have on my office or home PC."...More
Apartment Complex -- Unwired
Summary: My landlord was looking for a way to get an edge on the competition for our small apartment complex. I suggested wireless broadband. Various wacky hijinks ensue, and in the end, no one goes to jail. Or they wouldn't have, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids and that darned dog! (Well, ok, OK, maybe it's less exciting than the average Scooby Doo episode, but it's interesting nonetheless).
This is a bit long, so I'll dump it off to another page. Enjoy!
An Idea
"You have any ideas to help me fill these apartments up?"
That's how it started. My landlord is an entrepreneur and I'd already done one website for one of his companies and we'd just agreed to do one for my apartment complex as well. After brainstorming about content for the website, he said that one of his primary reasons for wanting a redesign was that he had 5 empty units out of only 48 available in the 4 building complex, and competition is tight. He wanted to fill them up and keep them filled. He was soliciting more ideas.
Now, one of the main reasons I moved into this place was that it had cable internet available when all you could get at any of the other places in town was dialup or a share of a single T1 split between 250+ units for more than the cost of cable. So I offered what would, given that the population of the complex is primarily retired people not quite ready for the nursing home, seem an odd suggestion. Give everyone free broadband and email on the apartments domain (free advertising!).
Of course, with comcast running $60+ a month after taxes, giving everyone their own comcast account wasn't an option, and with 4 very solid brick buildings, running ethernet would have been an expensive option. So why not WiFi?...More
May 18, 2004
Wearable Movie Trailers Shirts
In The Hollywood Reporter today, an item about t-shirts that display movie trailers -- as seen at both E3 and NextFest last week.
Coming soon to a T-shirt near you: trailers for "I, Robot," starring Will Smith. In the never-ending search to capture the attention of consumers bombarded by commercials, billboards and a massive array of other advertisements, 20th Century Fox debuted an innovative new guerilla marketing tactic at E3 last week -- T-shirts embedded with video screens that played "I, Robot" trailers...More
PC + Fridge + Wood == Tubby
It only took four power supplies, nineteen 80mm, six 120mm, and one 90mm fans (not to mention the better part of a year) to create 'Tubby,' a homebrew custom wooden computer that happens to also squeeze in an integrated refrigerator...More
GMail Swap
Have a GMail account you want to swap or do you want an account? Go to this place. Cool stuff...More
May 14, 2004
WiFi Antennae Made from Cheap Chinese Cookware
These Kiwi WiFi hackers are building cheap, incredibly powerful WiFi antennae out of Chinese cookware (like this $2 parabolic "dumpling scoop") and USB WiFi dongles. They've got extensive build and testing notes: I wonder where I can get a dumpling scoop of my own?...More
Best Scam-Artist Internet Revenge Ever!
This is a lovely tale of revenge on a scam-artist: a Powerbook seller on eBay realized that he was being ripped off by an overseas buyer, who had even set up a fake escrow service to handle his phony payment. Instead of blowing it off, the seller sent the crook on a wild goose chase that culminated with him taking delivery of a "P-P-P-Powerbook" made out of keyboard bits glued to an old binder, after paying £350 in customs fees and friends of the seller who'd staked out his mail-drop photographed the whole thing for posterity....More
May 12, 2004
Moblogging from the Front and the New Reformation
James Hong of HotorNot fame launched YAFRO as a Friendster clone (the acronym is for Yet Another Friendster Rip-off.) Since then, they’ve turned it into a moblog, and Hong has recently posted a list of US soldiers posting pictures to YAFRO from Iraq. Images straight from the front, with Dan Rather nowhere in sight…
Jaques Barzun, author of the marvelous history of modernity From Dawn to Decadence (1500 - present), makes the point that the Catholic Church as a pan-European political force was done in by the Protestant Reformation, itself fueled by the printing press. Once the Church lost the ability to control the direct perception of scripture, thanks to the printing of (relatively) cheap bibles in languages other than Latin, their loss of political hegemony followed.
This is what we are seeing now relative to the military’s control of information. A year or so ago, someone in the DoD told me that the thing that would most affect the prosecution of the war in Iraq would be images of DAB’s — Dead American Bodies. The unplanned spread of photos of coffins, and now of torture victims, means that control of this part of the war is outside the military’s hands.
The spread of images from Iraq, both relatively plain ones like most of what’s on the YAFRO blogs to the horrifying images of torture and abuse from the Abu Ghraib prison are all part of the removal of bottlenecks that will change the political structure in ways we can’t predict.
And it isn’t just military affairs, its politics and business and everything else, from attempts to coordinate evidence of Apple’s manufacturing errors (previously handled case-by-case, but now becoming a kind of grass-rooots class action protest, to Apple’s horror) to the distributed amicus brief on the SCO case conducted by the Linux community to the recent right of Americans to get their medical records on request and within 30 days to the publication of spoilers for popular TV shows. (Read this last link now — its from the Times and goes away in 5 days, and although on the surface its about TV, its really a musing on life in a fully disclosed culture.)...More
May 11, 2004
Blogs Colliding With Traditional Media
Among the media credential applications for this summer's Democratic National Convention -- from the TV networks, newspapers, and radio stations -- is the one from 21-year-old Jesse Taylor, a pundit of the self-declared variety.
He may not be a traditional journalist, but the recent college graduate does have a blog, a website called pandagon.net, where his opinions on current events and the press draw 12,000 readers per day. And from the standpoint of Democratic National Convention organizers, that could be good enough. This summer, they'll grant some of their 15,000 coveted credentials to blogs, the online diaries that link to news reports, post comments from readers, and critique the political process with unrestrained abandon.
In the subculture known as the blogosphere, the news has spread quickly: Blogs, short for "Web logs," are getting recognition from the insiders at last. Credentials are "a way to promote the blogosphere as a new and genuine and legitimate media outlet," said Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, 32, who runs the popular liberal blog dailykos.com -- daily readership, 150,000.
But this new form of media is colliding with old-hand political structures, such as the House of Representatives Press Gallery, the initial gatekeeper for credential requests. Officials there decided that independent blogs do not fit their standards of "media," and passed their applications down the ladder a rung, to the convention staffs that handle credentials for student and weekly papers.
It's a matter of definitions, said gallery supervisor Jerry Gallegos, who says that, these days, it's not always easy to distinguish real journalism from widely broadcast rants....More
Pixel-Counting Can Un-Redact Government Docs
A Luxembourgian/Irish security research team have presented a paper on a technique for identifying words that have been blacked out of documents, as when government docs are published with big strikethroughs over the bits that are sensitive to national security. The technique doesn't work on monospace fonts like Courier, but the State Department's recent font guidelines require that all docs be published in Times New Roman, which decodes like a charm...More
Nintendo Unveiling a New Portable
Video game giant Nintendo, facing increased competition in the market for handheld entertainment, will have a new portable out this fall with twin color screens, sharper graphics and the feel of a PDA. The Nintendo DS — short for dual-screen — will be unveiled Tuesday morning at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo game industry gathering.
The Nintendo DS — short for dual-screen — will be unveiled Tuesday morning at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo game industry gathering. The DS will sell alongside today's Game Boy Advance, not replace it, according to the company. Nintendo has not announced a release date or price, though analysts predict it may sell in the $150 range.
One of the two 3-inch screens is touch-sensitive and works with a stylus — like Palms and Pocket PCs — to control the action in some games. In one demo, players guide a toddler-age Mario as he falls from the sky by drawing clouds. Other games give multiple views of the action.
The DS also has Bluetooth wireless communication to connect with other units within range for cordless competition. DS has separate slots for current Game Boy Advance cartridges and new, smaller DS game cards...More
May 10, 2004
The Google Supercomputer
How many computers does Google have? The answer may interest you if you're considering a bid in the upcoming Dutch auction for shares in the firm's recently announced IPO. One way to view to the processing power of the search giant is to count the powerful servers that store, scan and analyze all the information it scrapes from the World Wide Web. Since Google's own estimate is not really helpful (for years now it's been saying the number is "more than 10,000"), obsessed observers have filled the backs of many envelopes to make their own estimates. A consensus now believes that Google has about 100,000 servers, an awesome number. Meanwhile, other Google watchers take a different approach to the question and have confidently produced a more precise answer: one....More
New Blogger Site
Google plans to introduce on Monday a redesigned Web site for its personal publishing tool, Blogger. The new features are aimed at making it easier for average people to run their Web site. Still a free product, the Blogger revamp will enable people to publish to the Web via e-mail, a personal digital assistant or a cell phone; to create simple "About me" pages that can be linked to multiple Web logs; and to enable readers to post comments to their sites. It also provides more than 30 templates for "blog" layout, according to Google.
"As blogging has taken off, it's started to reach more mainstream users," said Evan Williams, founder of Blogger parent company Pyra Labs, which was bought by Google last year. "Our focus has been to bring it to a wider audience."...More
One Step Closer To Wearable Displays
People have been talking about display technology embedded in a pair of glasses for years, and it's looking like they may not be that far away. Microdisplay companies are doing good business building mini-screens for digital cameras and mobile phones, but the idea of wearable heads-up displays is where they expect the big money to come from. They're already being used in military and medical environments, but they're moving one step down the latter to industrial uses as well. From there, it's not that much farther to go for more general purposes. Right now, most of the heads-up displays are still bulky and ugly (though, not nearly as bulky as they were a few years ago), but the companies clearly realize where this is headed, and are working hard to make glasses with embedded displays that are both functional and "cool" looking. Combined with a phone or a personal mobile gateway device, and you could have full internet access all the time. As someone in the article points out, at that point, what we use internet access for may change in completely unexpected ways...More
Digital Photos Change Iraq War Perception
The explosive photos of abuse in an Iraqi prison drive home a defining fact of 21st century life that the pervasiveness of digital photography and the speed of the Internet make it easier to see into dark corners previously out of reach for the mass media.
Some of the most shocking or memorable photos from the Iraq war were almost certainly taken by soldiers or government contractors and zipped around the world with an ease that never existed in the days of film.
"With the technology now, the amateur photographer is as capable as a professional journalist and is operating with the same tools: Digital camera, laptop and an Internet connection," said Keith W. Jenkins, photo editor of the Washington Post Magazine.
"The embedded process was supposed to give government a better handle on what journalists were doing, but now you have this whole rogue operation of civilians with digital cameras who have access to things the media don't," he said.
Photos from Abu Ghraib prison of hooded, naked Iraqi men piled in a pyramid near a grinning American captor and a hooded man standing with wires running from his outstretched arms have caused an international uproar since they first appeared on CBS last week.
The New Yorker magazine published similar photos. While CBS did not return calls, The New Yorker confirmed the photos were shot with a digital camera, though it did not disclose the source.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that it had obtained 1,000 digital images from Iraq, some of them showing prisoners being abused and humiliated.
"The iconic images coming out of this war may be the amateur photographs of Iraqi prisoners," said Peter Howe, the former director of photography for Life magazine and curator of an exhibit on the Iraq war now running at the International Center of Photography in New York...More
Wi-Fi Phones Could Be Next Trend in Thrift
Now that some Wi-Fi "hot spots" have grown into broader neighborhood "hot zones," the next wave is waiting: Phones and gear that send conversations over wireless Internet networks — for free or at a fraction of the cost of traditional calls.
Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc. plans to introduce a device that would seamlessly switch calls from cellular networks to cheaper Wi-Fi networks wherever they're available. Discount carrier IDT Corp. is testing consumer Wi-Fi phone service in Newark, N.J.
If successful, Wi-Fi calling would be one more factor decreasing calling costs and shrinking revenue at traditional carriers.
"The potential is enormous as an alternative to conventional telephony," said John Jackson, a wireless-technology analyst at The Yankee Group.
Until recently, Wi-Fi phones were limited to businesses and colleges that could set up Wi-Fi in a building or a campus. Now, Wi-Fi "hot zones" range from a 100-block section of Spokane, Wash., to the Gare du Nord train station in Paris, broadening the market for Wi-Fi phone service.
"Hot zones are proliferating," said Robert Schwartz, IDT's executive vice president. "We think in some segments of the market, this could replace home phones." ...More
May 08, 2004
In Search of Truly Anonymous File-Sharing
While media companies step up their legal crackdown on Internet song-swappers, separate teams of software developers — from the Middle East to Madrid — toil away on a foiling technology: an anonymous file-sharing network.
"Our users are requesting more and more privacy. They are more than disgusted with the threat of lawsuits," said Pablo Soto, chief programmer and co-founder of Madrid-based Optisoft.
Optisoft runs Blubster and Piolet, music-only file-sharing networks. They run on Optisoft's proprietary MP2P peer-to-peer platform.
Music trade group the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued 11 of MP2P's 10 million users for putting their music collection online for others to download. The new upgrade, which goes into effect shortly, should shield MP2P users from future lawsuits, Soto said.
"I do not think it will stop the RIAA from suing our users. But if any of our users has the balls to go to court, I don't see any way on the planet for the RIAA to win," Soto said.
The RIAA, however, recommends taking any claims of anonymity with a grain of salt. "More often than not, these are marketing ploys rather than a genuine technological capability," an RIAA spokesman said...More
May 06, 2004
Surround Sound for the Eyes
Unless you are burdened with a bad case of tunnel vision, life unfolds not just in front of you, but above and to the sides as well. That is one reason 3-D movies never quite look real: while that bullet might appear to be heading straight for you, it is easy to look away from the screen and be reassured that the end of your time on earth has not yet come.
Viewers of a new short "Star Trek'' film that opened in the Las Vegas Hilton last month might find that sort of critical distance a bit more difficult to summon. A digital effects company in Santa Monica, Calif., has created a 3-D movie that not only gives the illusion of a world in front of you, but all around.
The visual technique created by the company, Threshold Digital Research Labs, surrounds the viewer with images in the same way that Dolby Digital 5.1-channel audio gives listeners a sense that they are enveloped by voices and effects: it's surround sound for the eyes.
May 05, 2004
BBC Introduces Flexible TV with Online Trial
The future of television is almost upon us: the day when we spend our train or bus journey to work catching up on the shows we missed the night, or even several days, before.
Later this month, the BBC will launch a pilot project that could lead to all television programmes being made available on the internet. Viewers will be able to scan an online guide and download any show. Programmes would be viewed on a computer screen or could be burned to a DVD and watched on a television set. Alternatively, programmes could be downloaded to a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a hand-held computer that is becoming increasingly popular in Britain and sells from about £70.
The revolutionary plan has been drawn up by Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of new media and technology. He revealed details of the project to The Independent last week. He said: "If we don't enter this market, then exactly what happened to the music industry could happen to us, where we ignore it, keep our heads in the sand and everybody starts posting the content up there and ripping us off."...More
India's Secret Army of Online Ad 'Clickers'
With her baby on her lap, Maya Sharma (name changed) gets down to work every evening from her eighth-floor flat at Vasant Vihar. Maya's job is to click on online advertisements. She doesn't care about the ads, but diligently keeps count — it's $0.18 to $0.25 per click.
A growing number of housewives, college graduates, and even working professionals across metropolitan cities are rushing to click paid Internet ads to make $100 to $200 (up to Rs 9,000) per month.
"It's boring, but it is extra money for a couple of hours of clicking weblinks every day," says a resident of Delhi's Patparganj, who has kept a $300-target for the summer.
Traffic to click overseas Internet ads — from home loans to insurance — is spreading fast in India. "I have no interest in what appears when clicking an ad. I care only whether to pause 60 seconds or 90 seconds, as money is credited if you stay online for a fixed time," says another user.
Here's how it works: online advertisers in developed markets agree to pay hosting website each time an ad is clicked. With performance-based deals becoming dominant on the Internet, intermediaries have sprung up to "do the needful”.' Why, type in 'earn rupees clicking ads' in Google — you get 25,000 results...More
April 29, 2004
First Arrests Made Under 'Can Spam' Act
Federal authorities are filing the first criminal charges under the government's new anti-spam legislation.
Federal officials have announced the arrest of two men in a landmark case from the Detroit area.
Four people in Detroit have been charged with e-mailing fraudulent sales pitches for weight-loss products. Two of the suspects have not been found
The cases are the first criminal prosecutions under the government's new "Can Spam" legislation....More
NetAttack - First Steps towards Pervasive Gaming
While console and desktop-based computer games are becoming ubiquitous in our everyday lives, computer games that sense their physical environment are still quite rare. Most current computer games tie their players to a single room, preventing them from the outdoor experience offered, for example, by many children's games. A sensible way of integrating computer games into our physical environment is to use Augmented Reality (AR) technology. Augmented Reality enhances our physical world with synthetic objects, transforming our physical world into a pervasive game experience.
The first graphical computer game - a simulation of noughts and crosses called Tic-Tac-Toe - was written by A.S. Douglas in 1952. Based on the limited capabilities of early computers, the user interface of Tic-Tac-Toe was quite simple: the CRT display had a resolution of 35x16 pixels and the player placed his nought or cross using a mechanical telephone dialer.
Since then, desktop- and console-based games have developed into sophisticated 3D environments, and can respond to user input in real time. The have become a huge market and a driving force of the computer industry, and the development of new computer games often goes hand in hand with the development of computer technology. As a logical consequence, computer games will also follow the latest trend of pervasive computing.
There are already numerous games that run on mobile devices such as cellular phones or handhelds, but only a few of these can sense their physical environment. NetAttack is a new type of indoor/outdoor Augmented Reality game that makes the actual physical environment an inherent part of the game itself.
The game experience depends on whether you choose to be an indoor or an outdoor player. The indoor player sits in front of a desktop computer and supports the outdoor player with valuable information, such as where to find hidden items, how to delay or disadvantage competing teams and what to do next to win the game (Figure 2). The outdoor player, equipped with a backpack full of technology, rushes around a predefined game field trying to collect items. The game time is limited and ensures the game is fast-paced...More
April 28, 2004
The Paper Killer
I never before believed the claims of companies that sell optical character recognition (OCR) software—those programs that turn scans of printed pages into editable text. That’s because I know how to multiply. When the companies claimed “99 percent accuracy,” I translated that to roughly one error on every line. And that, in my opinion, was unacceptable.
Then last fall, I had a revelatory experience. I was trying to sell an old book of dolls on eBay, so I scanned a page and told Microsoft Office Document Scanning to save it as an image. When the program prompted me for a file name, the name it suggested corresponded to the scanned page’s headline.
Funny, I didn’t remember typing in that headline.
On a whim, I saved the page as a Microsoft Word document. Then I opened the file and compared it to the original. There was not a single error in five paragraphs of text. Optical character recognition software has done a lot of growing up in the past ten years. A lot of people don’t realize just how good the technology has become because they base their impressions on the free software that comes with scanners rather than on professional-grade software, which costs hundreds of dollars. But after I wrote last year about how I was scanning all of my old documents into PDF files (see “Slaying the Paper Dragon,” TR October 2003), a publicist at Abbyy USA sent me the company’s FineReader 7.0 corporate edition...More
Microchip Detects Traces of 33 Different Species of Animals in Food
"The presence of unwanted or unknown animal species in food, can have a range of effects from benign to deathly serious and is of great concern for public health, economic, religious and legal reasons. Manufacturers and consumers alike have been unable to examine the composition of food at a molecular level. However, for the first time, the bioMerieux FoodExpert-ID Array is being used to detect DNA sequences specific to an animal, allowing species composition to be determined, safeguarding the purity and authenticity of food products."...More
Mismatch Boosts Solar Efficiency
One way to make solar cells more efficient is to find a material that will capture energy from a large portion of the spectrum of sunlight—from infrared to visible light to ultraviolet.
Energy transfers from photons to a photovoltaic material when the material absorbs lightwaves that contain the same amount of energy as its bandgap. A bandgap is the energy required to push an electron from a material's valence band to the conduction band where electrons are free to flow.
Most photovoltaic materials absorb a relatively narrow range of light energy, however. The most efficient silicon solar cells capture only about 25 percent. Multijunction solar cells made from several different materials boost efficiency as high as 36 percent, but are relatively difficult to make and therefore expensive.
Researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of California, and MIT have engineered a single material that contains three bandgaps and is capable of capturing more than 50 percent of the sun's energy. The researchers made the material by forcing oxygen into a zinc-manganese-tellurium crystal. The oxygen split the crystal's band gap and formed a third one of its own...More
April 27, 2004
April 26, 2004
Canadian Greens Building Election Platform via Open Wiki
Forget Presidential blogs. The Green Party of Canada is thinking way outside the blog: it's assembling its party platform for the next fedeal election via a public wiki...More
I Have a GMail Account!
Maybe I am a little too excited about this but from what I understand they are a little difficult to get during the beta testing. GMail is the new Google e-mail service for those of you that are wondering.
It looks kind of interesting and there are a few new ideas applied to the way we do e-mail but I am a little unsure of switching over my old Hotmail accounts to the new GMail. None the less I am excited to be able to test it out....More
Cool Music Recommender
This thing works better than anyone I have ever used in the past. Check it out....More
Freecycle Not Recycle
Cool concept in getting rid of your stuff. If you don't have the time to eBay it and want to make sure it goes to someplace useful besides the Goodwill, you can Freecycle your junk as well as get stuff from other folks. Check it out...More
April 24, 2004
Skype Review for the PDA
This is a test I did Friday using a Dell Axim X3i, and the Wi-Fi hotspot at Bryant Park, NYC.
I had downloaded the free Skype software for handhelds. You are limited to contacting other people on the Skype network. It worked very well, except that the built-in microphone could have been better. It's probably preferable to use a handheld that also you to use a headset. Otherwise, it was easy to connect and make calls overseas. I made calls to Germany and Italy. I was also trying to make a contact to Antarctica, but I guess it was too early in the morning, 6 am, to get a response.
I will be writing a full review of the Axim X3i later...More
WiFi Seeker Best So Far
Glenn Fleishman got a hold of the Chrysalis WiFi Seeker, a keychain-sized sniffer to detect 802.11b/g networks and says it's the best yet:
Push the button on the WiFi Seeker and it scans briefly, often under a second, before displaying a signal strength in zero to four LEDs. Keep the button held down and it’s a Wi-Fi dowser, allowing you to move around and see immediate response to different signal strengths....More